Kenji Takahashi : Year One

The Letter

(Imagenotmine)

TW: Abuse

I hold my breath as I feel the cigarette being put out on my arm. My mum had just finished a long conversation with her friend. She normally smokes while talking over the phone and I'm basically her ashtray. She shoos me away so I hurry back inside through the front door. I run upstairs into my bedroom, throwing myself onto my bed. I have three brothers; Johnathan, Asher and Benjamin. Well, adoptive brothers. I don't think I have any biological siblings. I was adopted from an orphanage in Japan by Carol and Mark when I was two. Carol and Mark are my new parents, if you can even call them that. They don't appreciate me that much. Sometimes I wonder why they even adopted me in the first place if they're not going to care. My mum seems to give my brothers tons of attention and care so why not me? As for my father, well, he's almost never around. He spends most of his time in Germany building houses. He does visit for two months during November and December. I honestly don't know why mum hasn't dumped him yet. I don't know him that well, he's pretty nice though. And he seems to change a bit every year, becoming more and more nice to me each time he visits. I'd probably be closer to my brothers if they were nice. John pretends like I don't exist for some reason and he's 3 years younger than me. What kind of 8 year old ignores their older brother? Asher hates me for some reason, always insulting me and blaming me for stuff I didn't do. One time, he chased me all over the yard until I somehow jumped up onto the roof. It happened when I was about 6 so I don't remember it that well but we live in a two story house, I don't quite remember how I got up there. I do remember that Ash told mum I was the one chasing him and that I somehow jumped onto the roof to scare him. As for Benjamin, we talk sometimes but mostly keep to ourselves. Ben and I share a room, we have a line of duck tape in the center showing our different sides of the room. We mostly leave each other be. John and Asher share the room next to ours. I'm knocked out of my thoughts when I hear the room door open. I look over to see Ben holding a letter.

"It's addressed quite specifically to you, I figured I'd get it to you before mum could tear it up, I know she doesn't like you getting mail." He walks over and hands it to me, waiting patiently for me to read it.

I turn it over and see that yes, it is specifically addressed to me. I open it and take two papers out, one looks like some kind of list and the other is a letter.

"Is this some kind of sick joke?" I sneer at Ben, his eyes widen and he snatches the letter from me.

"Shit, you weren't meant to see this. Mom warned me, how could I be so stupid." He whispers the last bit but I can still hear him.

"Warned you about what? What are you talking about?" Before I can keep asking him questions he grabs the list and envelope and heads towards the bedroom door.

"Not a word about this letter to anyone you understand?" He says as he slams my room door behind him. I quickly stand up, that's not how you end a joke, that's how you end a mistake. Was the letter real? No way. It said it was a school for Witchcraft and Wizardry, magic isn't real... is it? I swing my door open and run downstairs. I see mum and Ben in the living room near the fireplace. Ben's tearing up the letter, before I make it to them mum's already taken the pieces and thrown them in the fire.

"What are you doing!? That letter was addressed to me!" I stare at the burning pieces of parchment in the fireplace. Mum slaps me across the face, I fall down and place my hand against my cheek, shocked.

"You dare raise your voice to me?" She stares down at me intensely. Even Ben looks shocked, mum's never hit any of us before. I look up at her with a wide eyed expression.

"I-I'm sorry mum, I-I don't know what I was thinking." I respond quietly. She ignores my apology and turns to face Ben.

"Would you mind explaining how he knows that letter was addressed to him?" She smiles fakely.

"Uh, I was getting the mail and he snatched it away from me. I got it back from him before he was able to read the letter itself though." Dirty liar!

"Hey, that's not true! You gave it to me and I read the whole thing!" I blurted out, jumping up fast, "It said something about a magic school!" Ben stepped back, being caught in his lie.

"It said what?" Mum whispered, her question barely audible as she turned to face me.

"It said something about a school for magic, and how I was accepted into it." I regret mentioning it again because mum's face goes completely blank. Her fake smile disappears and leaves her expressionless. She grabs my arm and drags me to her room. She lets go of me after slamming the door. I see her grabbing something from her nightstand, it looks like a matchbox. She takes a match out and walks back over to me. I step back a bit as she lights the match. She puts the box in her pocket and grabs my wrist, holding my palm upwards. The match gets closer to my skin and I flinch as the fire disappears on my palm. She presses the match down hard and closes my hand around the match.

"Why don't you throw this away in the kitchen for me Kenji?" She lets go of my wrist and waves me away. I stare at her wide eyed for a second before leaving the room. I hear the door shut behind me as I leave. As I'm walking downstairs I open my palm to see the put out match. The center of my hand is reddened where the match was put out. It stings a lot but I ignore the pain. I'm still in disbelief at what mum just did to me. I walk into the kitchen and throw away the matchstick. Then I wash my palm under cold water, hoping that will make it feel better. Ben walks into the kitchen and glances at my hand under the water.

"You should take a shower, you look like shit. Not to mention you smell like cigarette ash," he starts walking away but pauses, "oh, and don't think I'll forget about the letter and how you told mum what happened." After he leaves the room I sigh and turn off the water faucet. I sniff my arm, he's right, I do smell bad. I walk over to the bathroom and turn on the shower. After undressing I close the curtain and let the water run down my back. It's hot and makes my skin sting but it feels good. The water makes me feel clean already.