I remembered staring into Illumi's face… Feeling his arms lift me up and against his chest…

"Okaa-san? Otou-san?" I called into the dark house as I slipped off my muddy jacket and boots. It had been raining all day, and I hadn't come straight home from school as I had been told. I had played in all the puddles along the way, so I was soaked. Mama would not be happy.

But where was mama? And wasn't papa supposed to be home early tonight to help celebrate? Karin-nee-chan was coming home tonight with her new… um what was the word? Mama had told me it was something people called each other before they were married.

I shook my head; I didn't really want to think about it. It was a hard word to say anyways. I liked calling him Keitaro-nii-chan.

"Mama!? Papa?!" I tried shouting louder. Maybe they hadn't heard me over the rain? It sounded like it was getting worse.

"Eep!" A loud crash of thunder made me scurry to the kitchen. Was mama in there making hot chocolate? I hoped so. I didn't like thunderstorms. They were scary. But mama's hot chocolate was the best!

And papa always made me laugh when he made silly faces on the big marshmallows with chocolate syrup.

"Mama!" The kitchen was dark. She wasn't there. I checked the living room. Was papa reading the paper before dinner like he always did when he could come home early?

A large flash of lightning lighted the room in blue-white light for a second. No one was there…

Another flash. My hands flew to my mouth. No! I wanted to scream. To cry. To do anything to stop the lightning from showing me what I didn't want to see.

A third flash confirmed that what I was seeing was real. I rushed forward towards the two bodies.

"Nee-chan!" I shrieked as I clutched her shoulders. Her head rolled from side to side sickeningly easily. "Nee-chan are you okay!?" Her eyes were opened, but she didn't move. That wasn't right. Nee-chan never ignored me. I buried my face into her chest, begging her to wrap her arms around me like she always did.

I pulled my tear streaked face away and looked to the person next to her. It was Keitaro-nii-chan. I screamed and scuttled away from him. He didn't look like nii-chan. His nose was all crooked… He looked to be smiling with gaps in his teeth… And… and… HIS HEAD WAS ON BACKWARDS!

I scrambled across the wooden floor on my hands and knees. I just wanted to get away. That couldn't have been nii-chan. Keitaro-nii-chan never looked like that! Karin-nee-chan never ignored me! They couldn't be them!

They couldn't!

It wasn't them!

I choked on my sobs as I huddled against the wall in the corridor, next to the socket which always held the nightlight. If I just stayed out of the dark, nothing bad could happen. If I closed my eyes and wished the storm away Karin-nee-chan would find me in the morning and give me a big hug and kiss on the cheek. Mama would be making pancakes for breakfast. Papa would be running late for work again, only having enough time to kiss everyone's cheek and grab the travel coffee mug mama always made for him.

What I had just seen was just the thunder monsters being mean and playing a trick on good little girls. It wasn't a funny trick.

"Haru… ka?" Something whispered from the dark. I huddled myself closer to the wall, whimpering. Had the thunder monsters come back for me? "Haruka-chan it's mama."

Mama's sky blue hair and pale face appeared from the shadows.

"Mama!" I jumped into her arms, wrapping my arms and legs around her as she held me. I had been so scared that mama wasn't here.

"It's okay Haruka-chan. Mama is here now." I felt mama shake as she walked to the back door. Something that felt like my winter coat was dropped onto my head and I looked up to see mama looking straight ahead. Something was wrong. I had never seen her so serious.

"What about onee-chan, onii-chan, and papa?" I asked in a squeaky voice. She kissed my forehead and gently brushed back my hair, sparing a small sad smile.

"It's just you and me."

The back door opened and a cold wind spared no time in getting under my jacket. I shivered as the first wave of drops hit my covered back. Mama rushed out, still holding onto me, without anything more than our jackets.

I tried to ask her what was wrong. Why we were leaving behind the other half of our family. But she pressed my head into the crook of her neck and the rocking motion lulled into sleep.

I woke up the next morning in a bed I didn't know and my mama was gone. There was a handwritten note on the bedside table. Written so I could understand without needing to ask strangers for help. Why had I been left without my mama? Had I done something wrong?

Did my mama hate me?

But she had left me that note…

I started humming a tune as I slowly rocked myself back to sleep. Tears running down my cheeks as I tried to remember what had happened the day before that put me in this mess…