Family

I began to panic as the train carts got faster. There was no way for me to leave all thanks to what Lilac did. Now I was going to have to wait with Izusaki onboard as well.

My heart was racing as I didn’t know how to feel about being far away from home like this. Sure it was summer break but I wasn’t planning on probably having to explain where I had been for who knows how long.

Would I even find a way back?

“Hey, I know we haven’t talked like this before but, I haven’t really been able to open up to you like this Ryutane-kun.”

I felt a bit angsty. Knowing Lilac was safely huddled in the corner made me feel a bit better but I didn’t like how everything was playing out. Regardless, I did feel curious about something at the same time.

“Okay, I really want to know the real reason you were stalking me. I get me being quiet and it reminds you about how you feel about yourself. The question I have is, why did you have band-aids in your pocket and one on your arm?”

Asking that led to an interesting response that I did not at all expect. Izusaki seemed to look depressed as she rubbed the spot where the band-aid covered her wound.

“I had gotten this stitch from a place I am not so fond of. Have you ever heard of Lila’s Food Market?”

I did not recognize exactly what she was talking about but it certainly had me hooked as I nodded no to what she asked.

“It’s this cafe of sorts that my parents used to own. We lived a floor above it, but there was always a part of home in what it was if I’m being honest. Small, yet special.”

“What were your parents like?”

“They were kind people. Or at least, that’s what I used to think. I didn’t see the signs until… It happened…”

As the day went on, the conversation we had lasted for quite awhile. What she told me on the other hand made me stay up almost all night while staring at the drizzling rain clouds.

I didn’t realize that Izusaki’s parents were from different households that had this abusive relationship going on in the background. She mentioned that her adopted older brother, who they had named Sire Tanase, had no one to look up to in their family as they only saw him as a means to an end. In other words, they never really respected him as a child. Instead, he was treated as a placeholder until Izusaki was born.

From there, she would be their first-born daughter. Sire became jealous, even masking his kindness no matter how much she showed compassion towards him for years. However, his hidden emotions wouldn’t stay in the shadows for long.

When Sire turned eight, Izusaki eavesdropped on his room a lot more often after noticing he was studying the history of violent wars with an unusual interest. Seeing Sire smirk while he started reading these kinds of books made Izusaki do her own research on what he was exactly thinking. This revealed her brother’s fascination with the mythologies of a missing gemstone named Cacariphem that chiefs among soldiers would use as a necklace charm during battle. She could see why it drew him closer to considering the possibility that he could one day find where it was hiding.

Sire started his search around where he lived, but upon entering his parents’ basement, he discovered and unlocked a red suitcase’s combination after multiple attempts.

It revealed that both his mother and father were secretly rich.

She assumed that this was what furthered his desire to steal from them.

That next morning though, things escalated quickly when she woke up late one weekend to a scratch on her forearm and a strange doll staring at her from the corner of her room.

On that same day though, she walked to the kitchen only to find herself in a gruesome scenario.

Her parents were laid out dead on the floor.