Shizuko's POV
I made my way out of that dreaded house and breathed in the sweet village air, savouring the moment before making my way to school. It was a normal day, I am dragged out of bed and beaten by a drunken sad excuse for a dad, get dressed, go to school, but something seemed off. I don't know what , I just had this feeling in my gut telling me that something was going to happen today. But what? Was it going to be bad? I doubt anything could be worse than how my life was now, so it had to be something good right? I soon realised I was wrong when I made my way into class…
"Hey! Did you hear about the new student that's supposed to be transferring in today?"
"What about her?"
"I heard its Mikan-chan!" Immediately most of the class surrounded the girl who just made that statement, while I just stared out the window.
"No way! Mikan's coming back? Really? Are you sure? Who told you?" A random girl responded, why did she sound so excited?
"It's true! I overheard the headmaster talking to Mikan's Jii-chan! He said that Mikan is coming back here!"
"I can't wait to see her again, it's been so long. I still can't believe she ran away just to find Hotaru," They all burst into fits of giggles as they reminisced over their previous memories over this Mikan.
Listening to my classmates talk about her I came to the conclusion that I didn't like her. She sounded to smiley and happy go lucky for my liking.
Just when I had nearly lost all of my patience and was about to tell them all to shut up, the door opened, revealing a girl with light brown hair, and brown eyes.
"Morning everyone!" She giggled, a huge grin on her face.
"Mikan, it's good to see you again! Did you find Hotaru?"
Her smile disappeared at this question and she seemed very confused.
"Huh? Hotaru?" Her head tilted to the side as she pondered the over the name.
Murmurs filled the room followed by an awkward silence which was soon broken by the teacher, "Well, I am sure you all remember Sakura Mikan so I'll just assign her seat and skip the introductions," She then looked around the room searching for an empty seat.
Shit. The only empty seat in the room is behind me…
"Ok, Sakura-san you can sit over there behind Fujioka-san," She indicated over to me and then continued, "I have some business to take care of, I trust everyone in the class to make you feel welcome and help you if need be," With that she left the room.
The girl made her way to the seat behind me and sat down, she tapped me on the shoulder.
"Hey, I don't think I've met you before, I'm Mikan Sakura, I used to go here. I hope we can become friends!" I could just feel her grinning at me from behind, I decided to ignore her.
"Hey, are you ok? Do you feel ill or something?" She continued to tap me on the shoulder, much to my annoyance.
Eventually I gave in and turned to face her, "Will you stop that already? Just leave me alone, I don't want anything to do with you,"
She looked slightly disappointed at this but smiled anyway, "Ok, but if you change your mind you know where to find me, ha ha!" She grinned.
"That's just Fujioka Shizuko, ignore her Mikan-chan she's not worth it, she just a loner, she has no friends" Why can't people just keep their noses out of other people's business?
"But everyone needs friends… ok, from now on I'm gonna be your friend Shizuko-chan!" Oh no. I can tell this is gonna be one hell of a day…
On the way home from school:
After school finally ended I made my escape, trying to avoid that annoying new girl.
I'm safe now, as long as I walk fast I should be long gone by the time she leaves the school building, "Hey Shizuko-chan! Wait for me!" Great, seems like I didn't get away fast enough.
I reluctantly turned to face the hyper girl and scowled, "What the hell do you want? I told you I want nothing to do with you now leave me alone,"
She pouted slightly, "But I thought that since were friends now we could walk home together and strengthen our new found friendship!" She smiled proudly.
"What friendship? I don't want anything to do with you so get out of my way," I pushed her to the ground and stalked past her.
Great, because of her I have less time to spend in the forest…
In the forest:
I breathed a sigh of relief as I stood on the soft soil in my bare feet, taking in the scent of nature.
"This is more like it. Away from school, away from home, away from everyone. I'm free here."
What about the girl? The trees speak to me as I lay against the trunk.
"What about her? She's not important,"
She said that she's your friend…
"Well she aint, she's just an annoying new girl at school,"
But she can help you
"I don't need help, I'm fine on my own. And besides, I have you, and all of nature with me, so I'm never truly alone,"
You need friends of your kind too. I can see her soul, she has helped many people achieve happiness, but she has also gone through many hardships in her life.
"I don't care about the hardships she's gone through, or how happy she made other people!"
We just want you to be happy, trust us, have we ever let you down?
"Just shut up! Leave me alone!" I quickly stood up and ran as fast as I could away from the forest and into the village, heading home.
At Home:
I opened the door to be greeted with the strong stench of alcohol along with the sound of drunken laughter.
Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to come home just yet.
"Oi, Shizuko! Where the hell have you been? We have guests see?" My father stumbled out of the living room and grabbed my wrist, he then pulled me into the room and slammed the door behind me.
Empty bottles lay on the floor and ,sitting on the sofa, were two large men with drunken grins on their faces. I suddenly felt terrified and wanted so much to be out of this room.
"U-um S-sorry D-dad but I Have a L-lot o-of homework to do, excuse me," I hurriedly made my way to the door but before I could reach it my hands were pressed up against the wall above my head.
"What are you doing?! L-let me go!" I felt like I would faint from the smell of alcohol coming from his breath.
"Why don't you stay here and have some fun with us?" Fun? What kind of fun? I don't like the sound of this…
"Akumu, Yami, Come over here and help me," What are they going to do? I'm scared; I need to get out of here now.
The two men stood up and made their way towards me as dad held tighter onto my wrists.
"Akumu, you hold her still ok?" The one I supposed was Akumu wrapped his arms around my waist tightly from behind, I could feel is breathing on my neck.
"Yami, you keep her hands steady," Yami took my hands and kept them held above my head.
"D-dad? S-stop! Your scaring me!" Ignoring my pleas he took a pocket knife and tore my skirt in half.
Akumu then reached up my shirt and quickly undid my bra, he proceeded to grope my breasts roughly.
"Stop! Please! I don't want this! Please stop!" Yami forcefully kissed me and gripped my hands even tighter. I don't want this… please stop… please…
As if responding to my silent plea for help, the two men and my father were torn away from me by thorns. They wrapped around their necks and wrists tightly.
"S-Shizuko, S-stop, you're going to kill us…" Blood started to ooze form their necks.
"I don't care! You didn't stop so why should I?! I hate you! I hate you! I hate you! Just die already! All of you just die!" I screamed at the top of my lungs, urging the thorns to grip tighter.
"Shi…zuko…" My father's head fell to one side as he drew his last breath, the blood still spilling onto the floor, his friends soon followed.
It's over… I don't have to deal with him anymore…
The word spoken by my deceased mother rang repeatedly in my head, "Monster! Monster! Monster!"
I collapsed onto the floor and clamped my hands over my head, "No…no…you're wrong…I'm not a monster…" I silently cried as the blood spread to my feet.
I need to get out of here… I need to get away… to the forest… with my friends…
I ran as fast as my legs could take me, away from that horrid house, not really paying attention to where I was running.
I ran past the school, the park, I kept running until I suddenly ran straight into someone. I didn't bother apologising, I just stood straight back up and started to run again, but before I could get away I was pulled back by a firm hand.
"Hey, are you ok? What happened? Your skirts all torn," I turned to be faced by a Woman, she had long black hair and blue eyes and she wore jeans with a red shirt. Her eyes bore into mine and I saw nothing but pure concern and kindness, before I could stop myself I wrapped my arms around her waist and cried into her chest.
"H-hey, you don't need to cry." She wrapped her arms around me and stroked my hair.
"Why don't I take you to my place? You can tell me what happened and I can give you a new skirt," I nodded into her chest and she led me towards her home.
She gave me a non-ripped skirt and a cup of hot chocolate to help me relax. She sat me down on the sofa in her living room and began asking questions.
"What happened to you?" …
"What happened to your skirt?"…
"Where do you live?" I ignored her questioning and stared into the chocolate, willing myself not to cry again.
"Can you at least tell me who your parents are? Or what your name is?" Tears started to fall again, i can't tell her, she'll probably think I'm a monster too.
"M-y N-name is Fujioka Shizuko. I-I'm an orphan," Well it's not untrue.
"From what I know of there is only one orphanage in this village and I work there, I don't think I've ever seen you before."
"W-well I only became an orphan recently,"
"So you have nowhere to go?" I shook my head.
"Well why don't you go to the orphanage I work at? I'm sure there's room."
"Thank you, I would really appreciate that, but… umm,"
"Yes?"
"Who are you?"
"Oh! I'm so sorry, how rude of me!" She laughed and flashed me a smile, "I'm Tama, Tama Keiko."
Authors note:
ok i know it took forever but my laptop has been really fucked up lately -_- like when i'm typing the screen goes up and its so annoying so i just gave up for a while... but it seems to be behaving now so... enjoy! please leave a review!
BTW: should i change the rating because of attempted rape?