Paradise | Kimetsu No Yaiba ( Demon Slayer )

◆ Chapter One - Cruelty ◆

◽◤◦First Person, ???'s Pov ◦◢◽

 "Father, please! Stop! It hurts!" A needle invades my flesh as my protests contort into a sharp scream. It booms off the dank walls after leaving my mouth and bounces back to echo into my ears as if to mock me. The man that towers over me, my father, his breath is ragged and hot as his grip on my arm tightens.

 "Stop resisting!" He shouts. Although, I'm more focused on my arm that's slowly numbing over from the lack of circulation. I yell at him, pleading for him to let me go but he doesn't listen and instead grabs his scalpel. The steel gleams ominously in the light but I barely have the time to process the sight before it digs into the flesh of my arm and tears my skin open.

White, searing pain radiates through my arm as crimson drips onto the floor. Tears blur my vision and flows down my cheeks like a waterfall, snot drips from my nose and mixes with the blood on the floor. A brief, high-pitched scream leaves my lips followed by a choked sob. My father doesn't take much mind to my reaction.

 "Still not the right color.." I hear him mumble. There's some commotion from him as he uses his free hand to search for something on the shelf closest to him. After a few moments, I feel smooth glass touch my lip and before I even realize it, I violently flinch away.

 "Drink it!" He yanks me forward and in the process, accidentally spills a small chunk of the substance on my lips. I gag at the smell but in the process I subconsciously dart my tongue out and run the wet muscle over my lips. I nearly vomit at the taste. My father doesn't seem to care.

 "Open your mouth!" He shouts, "Just drink it and get it over with!"

 "No!" I yell back, "It taste digusting!"

 "The taste doesn't matter! Just swallow this as fast as you can and--!"

 "No!" I swing my arms and twist my body, trying my hardest to escape his grasp, "No, I won't! You can't make me no matter what-!" My words get cut off by my own gags as my father wraps his calloused hands around my throat and gives it a threatening squeeze.

 "Drink it damnit!" He brings his thumb up to force my mouth open, "If you'd just get it over with you wouldn't be suffering so much right now!"

My hand comes up to grab his wrist as my head moves away as best it can while it's still in his almost suffocating grip, "Why are you doing this to us? We didn't do anything wrong!"

 "I never said you did!" He clenches his teeth, "Just drink it already!"

 "No! I told you already, I'm not drinking that!"

Suddenly a tired, almost sorrowful sigh leaves his lips as he pulls away from me completely. I look at him with wide eyes but he looks back with one that's indescribable to me.

 "You leave me with no choice then.." He reaches for something just out of my eyesight as my trembling figure backs away from him, "Remember that you brought this upon yourself."

 "Dad.. What are you.. No. No! Get away from me with that-! Stop! Please!"

"Stop!" My body jolts up and my hands shoot outwards, pushing the person in front of me with an unnecessary amount of force. There's a tumble that I just barely hear over my erractic breathing.

A few moments pass. The tightness in my chest becomes less constricting, allowing me to breathe a little better and amidst this, the warmth of someone's touch envelopes my shoulder.

 "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scare you.." A gentle voices reaches my ears and as if a drug was injected in my veins, my muscles instantly relaxes. That suffocating feeling in my chest ceases to exist and I'm able to breathe comfortably again.