My Childhood with You
Chapter 4
Hotaru sat by her window, gazing down at the large garden beneath her, sparkling a brilliant white. She also stared down at her twin brothers, Kamui and Subaru, brimming with jealousy. It was so unfair. The mischievous twins were much naughtier than her, and they weren't the ones locked up in their bedrooms. And even more unfair, he mother, Akemi had foolishly decided that playing the grand piano at seven in the morning is near the top of her black list. It wasn't even harmful to her health! And what's more, her torturous punishment did not involve anything violent, rather, mental torment.
While Kamui and Subaru ran around in the beautiful snow, she was locked up in her room that had a hundred different bolts on the door. Naturally, one would get VERY irritated and jealous as they stared out the window. Hotaru also knew for a fact that Akemi was probably out, running some kind of errand that lasted at least six hours. And so, the golden-eyed girl had decided to set herself a goal: bust yourself out of here and lock yourself back in before Mother comes home. True, it sounded so easy, but what about the hundred different locks and bolts attached to your door outside?
Hotaru took a deep breath as she faced the door, her golden gaze digging into the annoying slab of wood. She let her claws grow on her left hand as she set to work.
Subaru stopped chasing his brother in a game of tag and looked up, wondering why Hotaru wasn't staring out the window anymore. Kamui and Subaru had previously agreed to the idea of tag as it would definitely irritate her. But now, she wasn't there and he didn't enjoy the idea of being outside the cold when they didn't really need to. "Kamui, I think Hotaru isn't watching us anymore."
Kamui emerged from behind a wall and looked up at her window. "I think she's trying something…bad."
As if they had rehearsed it, the twins bolted inside and jumped over the ridiculous barricade Akemi had set up at the base of the stairs. Kamui reached her door first and stopped at the strange sight. Hotaru had ingeniously attached string to every single lock and bolt and was about to release them all.
They all tightened and the door swung open. The swinging motion itself was pretty incredible as the metal locks and bolts should have weighed down the wooden door so that it couldn't slide easily. Hotaru stepped out from behind it and grinned. "It's good to be free." She launched herself off the top of the stairs and rushed outside, laughing. She ran through the snow, carefree and joyful, acting like a five-year-old on Christmas morning. Of course, that day would come too.
As the hours wore on, Hotaru ignored the magnificent grand piano that stood inside and gloried in the sunlight and brilliant snow around her. Hotaru's troubled dreams of the mysterious trespasser evaporated and the only ominous warning hanging over her was the hour hand on the clock moving towards the dreaded number. Kamui and Subaru did nothing and acknowledged the fact that they could no nothing to calm Hotaru's hyperactive joy. What they could do though, was shout to her when the clock struck seven and she would bolt back indoors and proceed to locking herself in.