𝐃𝐀𝐑𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐆, 𝘏𝘪𝘨𝘩 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘓𝘰𝘸

𝟬𝟬𝟲 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘥

Just a child. She was barely two years old when they moved to the new city, she didn't remember much of the move but the events after that, they would forever be etched in her memory.

It had begun with small arguments at first. Their father would come home, drunk out of his mind and start picking a fight with their mother. The loud yelling had scared a three year old child like her, so she started showing up at the neighbour's house, crying and seeking refuge for sometime.

The Murayama family were sweethearts, always letting her stay with them and feed her like their own. She spent her time playing around with Yoshiki while the situation at home worsened.

She had just turned four when she had seen her father hit her mother for the first time. It had been one of the usual nights where he had been yelling and arguing, her mother had said something and next thing they knew her father was mercilessly beating her.

And so the cycle begun, every night was the same. Her father would beat his mother and older sister to the point they couldn't even walk. Rocky always pulled Sakura away and locked the door to their room, not wanting his father to get ahold of the small child and try his hand on her.

One day Sakura woke up to her mother and sister cleaning the house, it was the usual, them cleaning the remnants of the torture from last night as Rocky left for school and Sakura ate her breakfast.

By noon the house was tich clean, everything was back in it's place looking like puzzle pieces fit back together. At 1 pm her older sister left for the market, her mother combed her hair and tied it into ponytails before letting her wear a beautiful white dress.

"Sakura, always remember this day. Never turn into a monster like your father, remember there is beauty in being soft."

She didn't understand what those words meant then, quickly dismissing it to go and get back to her routine.

Sakura played with the dolls in the living room when her sister returned with a black bag. The house was unusually silent.

At 2:45 her sister came and sat beside her, she didn't speak just held her close in her arms while playing with her, half an hour later Sakura's mother came out of her room and prepared lunch.

The food was placed in the table and Sakura watched silently as her mother and sister gathered in the living room with the black shopping bag. She watched them silently pull out a rope and work on it to form a loop, she watched them tie it to the cieling fan, she watched as her mother came and gave her a kiss before standing on the table.

Her eyes shifted to the clock, 3:30 pm half an hour until Rocky came back, then she gazed back to her family and watched silently.

There was a little to no struggle and in under two minutes her mother and sister had hung herself to death.

Sakura didn't understand what had happened, she gazed at their figures waiting for them to move, she waited for what seemed forever but they didn't. When waiting didn't help she went near the feet of her mother, shaking it again and again to get some reply.

The doors to the house opened then, Rocky frozen on the doorstep as he watched the scene, his eyes fell to little Sakura trying to shake their mother awake, not knowing that the woman was dead.

He walked forward, passively holding his baby sister in his arms who immediately calmed down at his familiar face. The child snuggled into his arms as he carried her to the kitchen, the food laid on the table with cash and a single note reading: Take this and escape.

He pocketed the money before slowly picking up the chopsticks and eating, halfway through the meal he disregarded the utensils and used his bare hand to feed himself and his sister, tears silently streamed down his face as he mourned over the loss of his family, Sakura wiped the tears of her brother's face, she would always be there to wipe his tears.