I don't own the characters from FF8, please don't sue. I don't own the locations either. Comments welcome, but please try to be constructive. (It is a work in progress, after all.)
A Witch Alone
Two weeks before her 11th birthday, Fujin sat at the kitchen table, watching her parents rant – at her, at each other, at the ceiling – over her attitude and "imagination".
"A witch!" her mother yelled to the ceiling. "They think my daughter is a witch! And why do they think this?" She turned to the man sitting next to her with his face in his hands. "Because she TOLD them so!"
Her father raised his head and looked at Fujin steadily. "Why do you do this? The kids think you're a witch because that's what you told them. The adults think you're a menace. Doesn't this bother you at all?"
Fujin stood slowly, looking at her parents. The just didn't get it … She tried to keep the tears back as she forced out the words "ALONE … FREAK!" before she ran out of the room. If only Raijin hadn't left her alone here! Nobody had bothered her with him around. And the spirits were no help – she could hear them and see them when no one else could, so she looked crazy staring at "nothing" all the time. At least she had figured out she didn't have to talk out loud to them, since most of the spirits ignored her anyway.
She sat in her room, trying not to think of what her parents must be discussing. Yanking off her eye patch, Fujin rubbed her hands over her face and then got up and walked over to her dresser. Looking at her reflection in the mirror, she couldn't understand how her parents could stand to look at her.
The fall from the tree two years ago had taken her eye and her voice and left her with scars across not only her fact but also her entire body. Her hair had gone gray shortly after that due to the trauma on her system. Put all that with the red eyes she'd had since birth, she was a freak. There was no other word.
A soft knock on her door caused Fujin to turn. Wanting to be alone, she still heard her voice croak out, "COME."
Her father came in. "Can I sit?" She nodded towards her bed, but remained standing. He sat down, clearly uncomfortable. "Hon, you're clearly not happy here. But the only other choice is for you to go away to school somewhere else. Your mother doesn't think you can handle it, because no one else would be there to support you." He paused for a moment and ran his hands through his hair.
Fujin turned away, unable to breathe. They wanted to send her away? Oh, Hyne, she really HAD gone too far this time! She really WAS a freak! Then she felt her father's hand on her shoulder. She looked up and saw tears in his eyes.
"Fu, it's your choice, baby. We don't want you to go, but we can't stand by and watch you suffer and alienate yourself." He took a deep breath. "It's your call, hon. It's up to you. If you want to go, we'll find someplace you like. If you want to stay, tell us how we can help?"
Starting to cry, Fujin hugged her father tightly. She couldn't stay here – these people had been afraid of her since she told the first person about the spirits she saw, they would never accept her in any way. Between sobs, she told her father "LEAVE … MUST … SOON"