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(*.*==========The Maid==========*.*)
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In the most dire situation of his life, Yuta was greeted by a beautiful maid that appeared before him and called him master.

The maid went beside him and kneel down. "Are you able to stand?" She asked. Yuta was unable to respond, so she proceeded in helping him to get up and brought him back to his bed. He sat on the side of the bed while the maid stood in front of him. "You should rest for a while, young master. Is there anything that you need?" She asked.

The boy is still confused as to what is happening. He looked again outside and the 3 men are in a frozen state. The maid also looked at them and back to his master.

"Do not worry. They will not hurt you anymore as long as I am here. And I promise to by your side. Always." The maid told him.

Feeling a bit relaxed after hearing the words from the young maid, Yuta asked her, "Who are you?"

The maid simply smiled before answering, "I am... A friend."

"A friend? B-but... What is your name?"

This got a surprised look from the maid followed by a soft giggle. "I believe, you have called me by my name earlier. And quite loud too." She answered.

Yuta looked confused as to what the maid have told him. "I... Called your name?" He asked.

The maid stood up straight, held both sides of her skirt and promptly bowed before him. "My name is Sakuya. Sakuya Izayoi.

"Sakuya? Are... Are you the watch?" The boy asked.

"Certainly not. As you can see, the watch that you are talking about is right there." Sakuya gestured behind her showing the man still holding the said watch. "If you allow me to explain, I had my name engraved on it as a sign of greeting."

This only confused Yuta even more. Understanding the situation of the boy, the maid did not pushed the matter further. "Let's leave it at that, young master. Don't you think we should be focusing on something more important?" She said, gesturing again on the three men outside.

Setting back his attention to the problem, the boy started to tremble in fear. "What should we do? My mom! Can you help my mother?" He asked which the maid replied by shaking her head solemnly.

"It is already too late for her and I am very sorry." She told him. Tears uncontrollably flowed out from the boy's eyes. His teeth clenched and grinds together because of over flowing fear, sadness and anger. He can't stop shaking that he wrapped his arms around him by instinct.

The maid quickly sat beside him and wrapped her arms around him. "Please young master, l know it is hard to take it all in but you must keep yourself calm."

The child's body kept shaking. Sobs and whimpers escapes his trembling lips but Sakuya held him tightly and kept comforting him. "It's alright. I am here. Take as much time as you need and let it all out." Hearing those words, Yuta let his emotions flow as he bawled and screamed at the maids embrace. Sakuya didn't let him go and kept her arms around him while trying to cheer him up with a few comforting words.

After a few minutes, his body got so weak that he fell asleep. Sakuya didn't left him alone. She sat beside the bed, softly brushing his hair and humming a lullaby for him.

When he woke up, his eyes still felt sore and heavy and his head is aching so bad. His sight is still blurry that he cannot recognize if someone is actually in front of him or not.

"Did you get a good rest, young master?" The maid asked.

Yuta quickly sat up as his eyes are slowly regaining focus. He stared at the maid in front of him until he could see her clearly.

"It is... not a dream, is it?" He asked. Sakuya kept quiet but the boy already know the answer just by looking outside his door. The bitter pain lit up in his heart once more as he remembers well what happened that time.

"What should we do? Um?" He asked but the name slipped from his memory.

"Sakuya." The maid reminded him. For some reason, Yuta felt at ease just by hearing her name.

"Please help me. I don't know what to do. Maybe we should run and call for help." The boy suggested.

Sakuya stood up from the bed and pulled out a pair of black leather gloves from her pocket. "If you may permit me, I will take care of them for you and you must follow every instruction that I will give you, young master." Sakuya said as she wore her gloves pulling it tightly to fit her fingers properly.

Again, the boy cannot understand what's happening that he ended up staring at the maid.

"Young master, I need your permission. Please give me your answer." Sakuya requested.

"Huh?" Was the boy's only response.

"May I take care of them for you or not?" Sakuya asked once more.

"Oh... Uh... Yes. You may." He answered.

The maid seem to be delighted as she pulled out a silver watch from her pocket. "This won't take long, I promise." She said as she push the button on top of her watch and the next thing he knew was the maid disappeared in front of him only to be seen walking towards him from the door. One more thing that can be noticed is that the men outside have all disappeared.

"Now I need you to listen to me and follow my every instructions." She said and started telling her plans.

Later, Yuta was seen running outside of their house screaming for help from his neighbors. Crying and saying that there are robbers inside their house hurting his mother. Most of them are very reluctant but are already calling the police. A few of them went to help wearing protective gear like motorcycle helmets and carrying anything they could use to fight like a baseball bat, a hammer, a piece of pipe and anything else of the same sort. They secured Yuta and let him in one of their neighbor's house while they searched the house. They swept through every room but did not see anyone else except for the mess inside the house and a pool of blood on the floor.

It took a while before the police arrived at the scene and quickly secured the whole place. They went around to investigate the crime scene and asked questions to witnesses, especially Yuta.

Though being asked of what he could remember on the criminals, all he could answer was, "I couldn't recognize their faces. They are covered with masks."

"Could you tell us more of what happened here?" The officer asked. He remembered Sakuya's instructions for him if the police asks him what happened.

"Listen, young master, if they asks you of what had happened here, you are to tell them you don't remember anything. Except that your mother helped you escape and you ran outside asking for help. Other than that, you have no idea of what happened. Now run outside and scream for help. Scream as loud as you can." And that is exactly what he did, though the sight of his mother's last moments almost made him confess of what really had happened.

Later that day, a lot of people came to their house claiming to be Yuta's relatives. They asked the police of what had happened, the results of their investigations and if they found Yuta's mother. They told them that the investigation is still on going and they are still waiting for the results. The only thing troubling them was the lack of sign of escaping. As if all of them vanished without a trace.

Yuta's relatives gathered together on the living room, stressing on the tragedy that happened and shared insights and discussed what to do next moving forward.

The first thing they are planning was taking care of Yuta.

"Someone has to take care of him. He's still very young."

"I know that, but who's to take care of him?"

"Why not let us take him? I am sure we could take proper care of him."

"You have a lot of children with you. Are you sure you could take care of him while having your hands full. We don't have any children yet. We could properly take care of him"

"You have no idea of how to take care of a child properly! You can't have the poor child."

"Excuse me?"

The debate went on and Yuta got tired of all of it. He asked if he could go to the toilet and they permitted him. Inside, he locked the door and sat on the bowl feeling very stressed and tired.

"Sakuya" he mentioned and within that moment, the whole atmosphere changed again and the beautiful maid appeared before him.

"I am here." She answered.

"I don't know what to do. They want to take me with them but I'm scared. What should I do?" He asked.

"I am not fit to decide for you as well, young master. But I promise to follow you where ever you may-"

"Let's run away!" Yuta decided. This surprised the maid and kept her silent for a few moment. Then she smiled and said, "I will follow you whatever your decision may be." Yuta felt relieved in her answer.

"Though I would like to remind you one thing, young master. Please restrain yourself from calling me within a closed room. It took me time to get in, especially if it is a bolt lock. I need to break in and repair the door. Honestly it is very tiresome."

Yuta was silent for a moment, slowly taking in the information. Then he let out a small laugh.

"I will remember that. I'm really sorry for what happened." He said.

Satisfied with the response, Sakuya opened the door for him and invited him to go. "Shall we go, young master?"

Yuta quickly leapt off from where he sat and grabbed Sakuya's hand, running around while everything else is in still frozen state. "Where should we go Sakuya?"

"I am not sure. But isn't this exciting?" The maid asked.

"Oh! What should we bring?" He asked.

"I believe we won't be needing any of that." The maid answered.

"Really? But what about food or clothes?" He asked again.

"You can leave everything to me." She answered. "And by the way, young master." She took something from within her apron revealing the golden watch. She handed it over to the boy's hands and made sure he holds unto it tightly. "I believe this is yours." She told him.

Yuta took his time staring at the watch and hanged it around his neck and hid it within his shirt. "Let's go." He told the maid and they walked outside of the house. After they had quite a few distance away from the house, Sakuya pressed the button on her pocket watch once more. Time has started to flow once again.