"B r o t h e r"

[• 4 •]

|Constellation 4:|
| Cetus; the whale |

* Survive *

"Although the rain may pour
A thunder starts to roar
The lightning wakes the waves
But through it we are brave."

- Unity, by Alan walker

[ ~ ]

Akari stood there, still dumbfounded and pretty much traumatized because of what happened. She was alone, her cheek was still bleeding, and she had no idea where to go. She was all alone. What was she meant to do?

The poor girl looked around, scared, and she ran back inside her house. She did her best not to look at the corpses of her siblings, and to ignore the strong stench of blood entering her nostrils. It was hard and she was so close to breaking down, but she had to hold herself together, at least until she got somewhere safe. Her brothers weren't here. Not anymore, she wouldn't be able to depend on them, so she ran into her room, grabbed some sort of makeshift bag and packed a few things.

Her hands grabbed a few cloths, a bottle of water, and some food. She wrapped the food neatly in a handkerchief. Akari looked around, analyzing and thinking about whether or not there was something else she needed. Then, she jogged to her room, her legs ached but it didn't matter at the moment. She threw her blanket off of the futon and made the pillows go flying around.

But it all calmed down once she finally found what she was looking for. It was the pin that Sanemi and Genya gave her, practically the last thing she had that reminded her of them. So, she brought it with her, being the sentimental person she is.

Once Akari had grabbed all that she needed, she ran out of the house that now felt like it was haunted, which at this point it might be.

She ran and ran, deep into the forest, not minding the branches that scratched her on the way. Once she felt she was far enough, far enough from the blood, far enough from the torn flesh she once called siblings, Akari stopped and catched her breath.

Her lungs ached, as did her legs, but the physical pain she felt was nothing compared to the betrayal that slightly broke her heart. She already had so little, just a little, yet it was all taken away from her.

For what seemed like the millionth time that day, she broke down. Akari knew that she had to be stronger, she knew she needed to stop breaking down and crying every other hour, but that day, she thought, just for that one day, she wanted be weak for one last time.

She cried for what seemed to be hours, it hurt her on both an emotional and physical level. Her throat was dry, her eyes were burning and it felt like her whole body was throbbing, but she didn't mind it at all, she shivered as her sobs slowly quieted down. Akari leaned her head onto a tree, as she collected her breath, clutching onto the pin her brothers gave her like a lifeline.

Her body slowly sat upright, finally calm, finally able to let out the storm inside her. She truly was thankful for the forest at that moment. Akari had always loved Nature, it had something enchanting that drew Akari to it. The forest was once her safe place, the one thing that, weirdly enough, felt like home. Sanemi and Genya would let her play there and they would make sure she got home before their father realized where she actually was.