Chapter One

A tiny girl was running up on a knoll, her blue skirt flapping in the wind as she and her sister walk up the grassy plains and soon the girl became restless and started running.

"Slow down kiddo, don't want you to fall and skin your knees." A voice filled with laughter and happiness at her sister's wild burst of energy.

Oh to run after her and grab and hold her in the air would be a fun too but she had lagged behind and had to do something first before catching up with her sister. They had drove for many hours far from the city to come to this secluded spot where there was going to be a big surprise coming from the other side of the field.

The little girl stopped then plopped to the ground on what she thought was the perfect spot, spreading her skirt all around and waited but not for too long as she was giddy with excitement as to what her big sister had a very big surprise stored just for her.

Her sister was very secretive and she felt she could not wait any longer for what it was.

"Com'n, com'n Anzu, c'mere sit with me." She patted next to her and then finally her sister, who she though was being too slow at the time, finally came. Anzu sat down, lying on her back and spreading her arms behind her head.

Tea looked at her. "You walk like a sloth."

Anzu picked up a blade of grass and began nibbling at the end, turning to stare at Tea. "Well you talk and act like a boy and yet you're in a skirt missy. Kinda surprised how a boy would be wearing a dress on 'his' birthday."

Anzu teased before cracking a smile at the little girl's pout. "Uh-uh I'm no guy, you're the man since you like to talk big words and fight remember?"

Anzu giggled. "Well I guess your right on that squirt. I'm the guy who wears the pants in this family." She ruffled her sister's hair before Tea pushed it away and stared at her with a questioning stare.

"So what's the surprise, huh huh, what is it please tell me?"

She then made her face look sweet and innocent, along with puppy eyes gaze just to make her sister spill.

Anybody would have fallen for that old trick because she was a kid and what else could a kid do but give the 'cute' stare and beg.

Yeah right like Anzu would fall for the same trick twice. She smiled at her then smirked as she teak Tea's small nose.

"In time, Tea in time. Just give it a couple more minutes. Just wait till you'll see it, it's gonna be the best thing you've ever gotten." She knew she did the timing right and it should be about ready soon, all they had to do was wait.

Tea gave a small sigh to Anzu, her brown hair falling into her crystal blue eyes, exactly her own sister's except in the clothes they wore.
Tea wearing a white dress shirt and blue skirt while Anzu wore dark jean rolled at the ankles, a black shirt with a black rose dripping blood from it's petals and a blood-red trenchcoat with symbols of black rose with twisting vines along the sleeves.

Anzu smiled back but inside she felt only empty with sadness and dread inside as time ticked inside her eternal clock slowly and knew that it would be only minutes away from what was to happen and turn to look up at the sky above.

Hold on to me love

You know I can't stay long

All I wanted to say was I love you

And I'm not afraid can you hear me?

Can you feel me in your arms?

'I wish there was another way', the eighteen-year-old thought, looking over at her little sister through the corner of her eyes who was now lying down beside her. Tea was staring up to the sky, counting the stars and trying to find Orion's belt and all the other astrological stars.

Sometimes she wished it didn't have to happen, of all days too.

Today, her sister turned ten just tonight and then later she would…

She looked sadly towards the side, not wanting to look once more at Tea.

Tea only young and still growing...Anzu only hoped that Tea would grow up to live and achieve her dream of whatever she wanted.

But not for Anzu, not anymore, that she was certain.

'There is no other way and I can't let Tea suffer as well. It wasn't even a choice to me in the first place. But one of us has to and I'm the only one that can. I won't let Tea take the fall as well.'

Holding my last breath

Safe inside myself

Are all my thoughts of you

Sweet raptured light it ends here tonight

"Sissy, you okay? What's wrong?" Anzu turned around once again to face Tea who was looking at her.

She sat up slowly and brushed the bangs away from the girl's face and then pointed over to the horizon. "Nothing's wrong, I'm just thinking of too many grown-up things."

'Liar…you know better what it is and yet this is the last time you could even be together and yet you lie through.'

It's better than letting her know the real truth. "Look here they come now…" And Tea looked up and her eyes widen and they shined brightly like the ones above rising.

In all of Tea's young years, nothing was as spectral or as amazing as this her big sister had for her coming up in the sky. And just as she stared over to where her sister pointed, a group of fireworks went up and burst into the sky, showering in red, blue, green colors.

Tea smiled in joy and Anzu brought the girl to her lap to watch more of the beautiful lights hitting the sky.

While Tea watched the sparkles hit the sky, Anzu watched Tea's happiness wash in the glow of it all, drinking in the sight as it would be her last time to ever see her sister smile like this.


Later after the two sisters headed back home to the apartment they shared, Anzu decided it was time to do the last thing she might ever need to do.

Something that might have to be told for Tea to understand once and for all what was to come and hope that Tea wouldn't have to suffer all the way through her life. Anzu wanted to not say anything but in her heart, she had to tell Tea everything before she left.

'I don't want her to think I left because of her…I don't want her to hate me…' Anzu came over to her sister bedroom and saw Tea engrossed in one of her storybooks that she seem to never grow tired of.

A story of two princesses and an evil spell that breaks them apart but in the end everyone lived happily ever after.

'But not all fairytales have happy ending', Anzu thought sadly. She watched for a few minutes before knocking on Tea's open doorframe, catching her attention.

"Tea..." Tea looked up and saw Anzu looking down at her. "Can I come in?"

Tea nodded. "Yeah of course sis." Anzu took a seat on the bed and then looked down at her hands. "Tea there's something I want to tell you."

"What is it Sis?" Anzu looked over at Tea's questioning blue eyes, "Do you remember what I told you…of where mom and dad are…right now…since they…passed away?"

Tea nodded. "Hai. You told me that they're in heaven." She pointed outside the window, into the dark sky.

"You said they are always watching us 24/7, never turning their backs, showering good fortune on you and me, smiling with the sun and crying with the rain."

Anzu nodded, "Hai yeah, like that…" She could feel those unclosed wounds opening again inside her and on her back where scars crisscross and ugly tissue marks remained over the years had been left due to the accident in which they lost their parents when they had been young.

She closed her eyes and could still hear the screeching tires...the breaking of glass...the screams she heard coming from Tea's side of the car.

She had been afraid her sister would get killed or worse and had unbuckled her seatbelt and stood in front of her sister.

Covering her with her back turn, taking the full impact of the shards of glass and twisting of metal hitting her body.

Anzu passed out due to the huge amount of blood she lost and woke up two days later with her sister by her side, crying and grabbing her hand, begging her to wake up. The doctors, when they saw her awake and given her enough time to recover, told her what had happened.

Only two out of the four in the accident survived and it was herself and Tea, their parents dead.

Anzu had been only twelve and Tea four, not understanding the certainty of death until later the next morning whenshe woke up in the hospital, no sign of mommy or daddy anywhere and she thought Anzu was leaving her too lying in the bed next to her, pale and barely moving.

'Don't go,' Anzu remember hearing those words being said to her through her endless dreaming, 'don't leave me sissy. Don't leave me like mommy and daddy! Please Anzu!'

When Anzu awoke and found out that it was just her and Tea, she made a vow from there on then, that they, the Masaki sisters would be together always against the world.

They would always stick to each other, through thick and thin, they swore on one winter night.

But now as she was seeing what was to happen all too soon, she was breaking her promise and only one would be standing alone.

I'll miss the winter

A world of fragile things

Look for me in the white forest

Hiding in a hollow tree (come find me)

I know you hear me

I can taste it in your tears

Anzu shook her head and tried hard not to think too much of the pain of the past. She mustn't think of it, she would have plenty of time to think of it later, possibly forever...

"Yeah, they're watching us everyday, trying to make sure we get by well…you're happy…"

Tea blinked twice then looked at her confused, "Me happy, what about you? Aren't you happy? Did mommy and Daddy forgot to give you something?"

"No, no I'm already happy, I have you."

'But I can't keep you. I can't be with you forever…'

"Tea listen…" She gently brought the girl closer to her, resting her sister's head against her chest.

"Do you hear that? That's how much my love is for you. It's always beating just for you." She hugged Tea tightly, making certain the girl knew how much she loved her as her sister.

"I love you so much…" She whispered crying tears silently into Tea's hair.

Holding my last breath

Safe inside myself

Are all my thoughts of you

Sweet raptured light it ends here tonight

Tea wrapped her arms around her, "Does my heart do that for you too?"

"Do you love me Tea?" Tea looked up and nodded, "Then you will have a part of my love inside you as I do too from you."

"Time for bed then. Goodnight." She kissed Tea's forehead and laid her back on her bed, tucking her under the sheets and laying the book back on the shelf.

Tea looked at her one more time, the very last time and she could have sworn to see a fade glowing light around her older sister. She blinked and saw that the light was gone.

"Thanks you for the fireworks Anzu, it was the best birthday ever."

Anzu smiled at her and then said, "You're welcome." And turned off the light as Tea closed her eyes.

Just as she did, Anzu pulled something from out of her pocket.

A deck of dueling cards was what she had and her favorite, Shining friendship was on top. She laid the card down on the bed stand to make certain her sister will see it and hoped it would be there for her always.

'Hope it gave her better luck than for me.'

As she was leaving the room, she heard Tea said, "Sis, I'll always love you no matter what. Don't forget it." She said in her sleep as Anzu felt tears bending on falling down. 'I won't. In fact I'll always be watching you from above in Heaven with the family.'

Or at least she hoped that's where she would end up after tonight.

Closing your eyes to disappear

You pray your dreams will leave you here

But still you wake and know the truth

No one's there

Anzu smiled sadly heading to her own room and unlocking a drawer and drawing from within a gun. She opened it and checked to see the ammo in and then placed the gun inside her inner coat pocket. She walked out of the room and then headed once more to her sister's close door.

She looked at it once again, hearing her sister's soft snores and probably dreaming of many wonderful things.

"I'm sorry it had to be this way." She said to the door, touching the gun in her jacket. "But I'm doing this all for you. Please understand. I'm sorry that you won't but it wouldn't matter, I'll give up everything for you. Every sacred thing I own for you. Even my life for you to live. Just don't hate what I'm about to do."

Say goodnight

Don't be afraid

Calling me calling me as you fade to black

And she walked out of the apartment room, locking it and placing the key under the mattress for the neighbors to find and then started heading out towards the street.

Where it would all end for the her, Anzu Mazaki, for Tea Mazaki to live. A life for a life as one would say.

Anzu's tears hitting the pavement ground as she ran out the street in which the direction she recall told her to head and left everything she once loved behind her.

She whispered one last part before closing the door, the door to her life forever as she headed off to finish it all.

"I will love you…until my dying days."

Holding my last breath

Safe inside myself

Are all my thoughts of you

Sweet raptured light it ends here tonight