Disclaimer: I own nobody, k? (does anybody realize how much it hurts me to say that? sniff)
Warning: May have yaoi content… Violence… Disturbing themes…
Title: Kindred
Author: Hana Rui
Genre: Drama / Angst
PROLOGUE
The cruel crack of a whip echoed through the whole household in the middle of the night. The trembling raven-haired girl snuggled in a dark corner of that room watched in silent terror as blood began to ooze out from her brother's lips.
The whip found its way to the bruised, pale skin once again.
The abused young boy was clearly fighting off the urge to cry out in agony. He bit on his tongue harder and couldn't help but shiver at the coppery taste in his throat. He felt the warm liquid snake down from one corner of his lips to his chin, down to his neck. It hurt, but he wasn't going to manifest it in any way. He would never let this old man see him fall into a chasm of defeat. Of the abysmal fright which was struggling to engulf his little heart. Even at six years, he was as brave as any guy thrice his age could ever be.
There was no room for surrender or fear in his soul. In his heart. He had much too much pride for such things. And besides, this wasn't the worst that could happen to him. He had experienced a crueler fate in the hands of the same man, and yet he was able to survive through.
What could possibly make him give up now?
Another slash sent an almost unbearable pain pulsating through his veins. He felt the skin on his shoulder break and had to close his eyes tight to spare them that gory sight. It was taking up much of his strength to fight off the numbing pain from completely overwhelming him.
Then again, wouldn't it be better if he just died right then and there? That would at last give him peace… and calm… No pain… No--
"Yamete," he heard the faintest plea coming from the other entity in that room. The very same being that was the cause of this strife. He gritted his teeth hard and clutched his hands into trembling fists as a scorching rage went surging through his body. He couldn't take it any longer. Why did she have to come in the first place and steal everything he had always wanted to have? Why was this old man treating him like a dog while he gave all his love to that girl?
All the love that a child could ever ask for from his father…
The fuming little lad grunted in protest at his own bitter thought. Who needed love anyway? From the moment he opened his eyes to the world, he had never been given the kind of love that was due an innocent little bundle of joy. And he had been living for years without actually feeling that kind of affection. So who's saying he needed love to survive? He shouldn't be thinking of such craps at this moment.
But how could he not when the cardinal source of all his agony was staring right at him with those puffy green eyes of hers as he got beaten up to a pulp. How could his ego survive such a humiliation? And she was even crying, for god's sake as though it mattered a lot to her!
As though HE mattered to her… A lot…
GO AWAY! His mind was crying out, his eyes piercing that worm with the sharpness of his anger manifested in his blazing blue eyes. And as he felt another rattling blow hit his body, he closed his eyes once again and let himself fall into the gaping, endless pit of absolute anger. The anger that fueled his vengeful spirit to an insatiable edge and filled his heart with sheer, irreversible hatred. The hatred that brought him to a determined, lifetime vow…
He swore to make her pay for all the sht she had brought to his life. He was gonna make her regret her mere existence.
He swore on that by his life…
He got so full of and blinded by his wrath that he was rather startled when a pair of damp, sweaty arms suddenly wrapped tightly around his neck. He opened his eyes just in time to see the whip tear the thin cloth covering the frail back of that cursed kid.
The cursed kid who had draped herself on him to take the rest of that demented old man's frenzic attacks.
The little girl was utterly shocked at how painful that single blow had felt. She could not begin to imagine how much agony her brother had been suffering--tonight and on the past nights that their father had come home drunk and delirious. Blinded by the bitterness and wrath he had been carrying in his heart, in his spirit for years.
The wrath he had for her older brother.
"Yamete!" she pleaded again, this time louder, as she buried her tear-streaked face on his brother's neck. "Onegai!" She heard him wheeze as another welt was delivered on her already bleeding back. She felt stalwart hands pushing him roughly away, but she only held on to his neck all the more tightly.
"KUSO!" came an angry snarl echoing from the young guy's throat as he kept on pushing on that worm. That... that bitch! He would pull through this alone without any kind of help from anybody. Much less from a frail little girl.
Much less from this certain little girl.
Both kids were utterly shocked when the old man himself pried the sobbing girl off a little too harshly by her shirt that she nearly choked and broke a bone in her arms. The grunting drunkard then dragged her along the floor, hauled her out to the hallway and banged the door close with a force that nearly shook it off the hinges.
Then he faced the frowning lad on the floor, a wide baneful smile stretching his lips.
And nothing on the face of this cruel world could've prepared the proud, young lad to what happened next. It was beyond all reasons. Beyond all hell…
It was completely beyond his innocent, virginal understanding.
Just a little while later, all the cries that the young guy had been holding back tore from his lips and filled the house with the resounding din of the agony he was currently suffering.
The agony he knew he could never live through...
The stricken little girl wailed just as loudly outside as she incessantly banged her feeble, pygmy hands on the door.
"ONII-SAN!"
tbc
Ja! That's all for now! Thanks to my cousin maiden for encouraging me to post this fic.