rewind ➽ eri's sister

PROLOGUE

i've always been scared of the dark.

you know, that feeling when your parents would turn the lights off before bed and you lose your vision, throwing you into the pitch black void that your room becomes.

looking back now though, i realize i have many more fears which make that darkness seem rather small in comparison. 

maybe it was the emptiness that woke me up, the silly feelings of lost purpose, comparably worse than hopelessness.

there has only ever been one thing that keeps me from accepting both of these terrors; one small person. the reason i look for hope and why i hold on to the painful slow burn of life. but despite everything, a voice sometimes tells me all these efforts might just be for nothing at all. after all, my reason could be dead.

i didn't always think that life was such an unbearable thing of course. in contrast, my past had almost been too good to me, where i'd never known anything worse than momentary sadness or petty inconveniences. i'd been living happily, surrounded by what i'd known as a perfect family and perfect life. 

though i suppose perfect really is an untrustworthy adjective. the word fools you into believing that such a description can really be realistically used, only to leave you with a bucket of regrets once reality reaches out its broken hands to take off your rose-coloured glasses. i'd been living a dream for 13 years, and yet i woke up one day to find the entire universe had turned its back on me.

it had been a quiet weekend, and i'd sat in my room as my younger self finalized a sketch of her then family.

the world could've let that weekend finish how it was supposed to, with a comforting family dinner and board games afterward. with a continuation of my happy life in a safe neighbourhood, and a silly smile left on my face.

instead, that fateful weekend signalled the moment where i'd be thrown head first into the crushing reality of what my life would become.

i'd risen from my chair, looking over my creation. at that moment, an ear piercing scream and a large flash of light erupted through the house, wiping my accomplished grin off my face.

i'd cautiously opened my door, looking around while calling for my mother, curiously asking what had happened. though i didn't get an answer, i could hear her yelling downstairs. jogging down to the first floor, my eyes caught on my 4-year-old sister crying in the living room. instinctively running towards her, i was greeted by the state of my mother, who'd also been in the room. she was standing with her eyes wide in shock, lips quivering. looking back, my eyes widened at what i'd only just managed to register. my sister, still bawling her eyes out on the floor, was glowing, a horn on the side of her head emitting the most light.

"eri, what's wrong?" i'd reached out to dry my sister's tears without understanding of the situation. but before i could touch her, my mother grabbed my arm, yelling.

"don't touch her."

the next thing i knew, my mother was calling a man i'd later know as my grandfather in a panic. i'd been left in a daze, trying to register what had just happened. i'd never seen my mother look more fearful in my life.

eventually, i'd tuned back into reality, only to hear my mother's conversation with my grandfather. at this point, eri had stopped glowing, and her horn had shrunk, though she was still crying. despite what my mom had said previously, i grabbed my sister, hugging her tightly and comforting the distressed toddler. we had always been close, so i knew all the right words to say, gradually reducing her sobs to sniffles.

all the while, i'd been piecing together snippets of my mother's phone call. she'd said a bunch of incomprehensible words, but ones that will probably be forever imprinted in my mind.

"she's cursed"

"a monster"

"i'm sending her away"

"you can decide what to do with her"

"she killed him!"

i didn't understand what she was saying. she'd been talking about eri, and my mind was a mess.

i looked back at my sister, only to be distracted by a couple pieces of fabric behind her. a shock coursed through my body.

they were my father's clothes.

my mind raced as i recalled what my mother had said earlier. but i didn't understand. i wouldn't understand. 

i had been in denial then, but whether it was for the fact that my dad was supposedly dead or that my sister had supposedly killed him, i wouldn't know. maybe it was both. i don't think that i'd even figured out what was really going on.

either way, i had to make a choice in that moment, in spite of my confusion. it was a choice that would forever change my life, though i didn't know it at the time. it was a subconscious decision, yet i'd made up my mind in a split second.

"i'm not going to watch my best friend be taken away from me." was what i'd so brazenly thought with my clouded mind. 

i finally opened my mouth to speak.

"mom- what are you saying?"

she turned back to look at me with a look of craze on her face. my mind blurred again.

"you're not sending eri away. you can't."

as soon as i pleaded those incoherent words, my mother, still on the phone, shot back at me.

"yes i can."

i was confused, afraid and understood none of my words, but i spoke regardless.

"she's my sister. wherever she goes, i go."

before that day i never would have thought a parent could have ever thrown their children away so mindlessly.

i sigh at the faraway memory, and the ones before it too. i truly had been happy, but after that day two years ago, that feeling became foreign.

especially after that monster of a human being took her away. i haven't seen eri in what i'd assume to be a year and a half, much to my dread.

she could be out there half dead and in pain.

that thought often progresses in my unsteady mind, leaving me with so many doubts and fears to the point where i feel like i'm going insane.

i bury my head in my arms, knowing i wouldn't be able to do anything either way, not with him in the way.

i can't even help the only piece of family i have left. 

here i am, imprisoned in this black room for another day, where the constant darkness drains away my energy, and where i'm beginning to lose myself.

eri, i hope you're alright.

i didn't know it at the time, but my little sister was going through her own form of hell, only a few hallways away.

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a/n: prologue done! (๑>◡<๑) kinda hyped to see how this does despite the fact my writing isn't that great LOL pls lmk if u guys have any writing tips or general advice i should know <3