Never in my life have I suffered more until today.
Sunday morning.
I had just woken up and my hunger led me downstairs to the kitchen where my father sat while my sisters slept in their rooms. He must have been expecting me because opposite of him was a plate of my favorite breakfast foods. He told me to have a seat and I did, but I could not touch my food.
"I'll tell you once you've eaten." The man always had the ability to sense my worries. He developed the sixth sense after my mother died in a car accident. I ate in an uncomfortable silence; feeling more suffocated with every bite I took. I forced every lump of food down my throat as quickly as possible, never allowing a single flavor to settle on my tongue.
"Son, I did a stupid thing." "When haven't you?" I laughed at my comment but silenced myself when he did not find the humor in it. "I need you to pack anything you think you might need. Make sure your sisters don't see you and please be ready in two hours."
I wanted to say something, to yell at his retreating form but my sisters were asleep and the least I could do was obey my father. I packed my clothes, old photos of my mother and my family, anything that stood out from my few belongings. My father burst through my door and hugged me while crying. I did not know if I should return the embrace. "I'm sorry Ichigo, but please don't hold it against me. I lost you to some big shot in a bet."
I pushed my father away, "What do you mean a bet?" I knew my father gambled, but I didn't think he would go as far as to wager his own children. I accepted his vice as a form of forgetting the pain of my mother's loss. He had money problems, but I could not sympathize after what he said.
"The man promised to get us out of debt whether I won or loss. I figured it was a good idea; there was no way I could lose. When I did lose he casually told me he wanted my oldest child. I tried to protest saying, 'He's my only son' but he wouldn't hear it."
"Dad, do you honestly think I'm going to believe that? I am not an idiot."
"Ichigo…please, I don't want you to forget us. I don't want things to be like this between us, son." My old man was serious for once, I hugged him and allowed him to weep before a knock downstairs brought us apart.
I finished packing in my dad's absence and a man in a suit took my belongings downstairs. "Hurry before your sisters see you," were the last words spoken by my dad while I clung to him as hot tears cascaded down my face. The man forced us apart, and the last thing I remember was being led into a car.
I wish it had all been a dream.