Moonlight

Chapter 32

[Akane's POV]

I was riding Dad's car on the way to fetch Mom from her work. We were jamming to Disney that he had burned to a CD. Next thing I knew, I was covered in blood and rain poured so hard I was having a hard time hearing around me.

I saw the red and blue lights that I only see in the television. I was dragged out of the wreck I once know as our car. The people around me were talking to me but my eyes stayed glued to the familiar face inside the car. He was not moving so I tried to tell him that he need to move so he can get bandaged like me.

I escaped the arms of my rescuers and slipped under the yellow tape. The setting sun had made the gloomy sky even gloomier and darker than usual. But when lightning flashed, I saw and I could never forget. It was like a picture taken and imprinted right to my brain.

Thunder rolled gravely and another lightning flashed as I saw my father bleeding badly from his head down to his chest. His eyes were open, arms at one side awkwardly limp, and he was unresponsive.

I was engulfed in a hug and my face was shoved to a chest with the smell of home. It was my mother. She reached the area as fast as she could when she heard the sirens. She kept telling me she was sorry for having us come to fetch her. She kept apologizing and all I could reply to her were my sobs.

We mourned among ourselves. It was always like this. My family, no matter how small, always kept our problems to ourselves. We cry in misery and jump in joy all within the small bubble we have created. The outside world could only get a glimpse of it, nothing more.

Half a year after Dad's passing, Mom had been keeping herself busy to keep me in school and in my extracurricular classes. When it became difficult, we moved out and temporarily stayed in Gramps' place. I stopped my extracurricular classes and focused on my academic studies.

But on one night, Mom was very late for dinner. I stayed out to wait for her but the skies had darkened and slow drops of rain started to grace the Earth. My heart felt like it was about to burst from feeling the liquid drops from the heavens. 

When an hour had passed, I escaped from Gramps and walked down Mom's route. I kept calling for her but every time, I get no response. I ignored the whistles of bystanders hiding in the shadows and focused on looking for my mother.

Then, I saw the painfully familiar sight of red and blue lights. I did not want to believe what my mind had been conjuring but my feet brought me to the crowd, nevertheless. My tears dropped as soon as I saw the hair color bearing similarity with mine. 

There were two bodies and they were being closed in bags, preparing for transport. And once again, I slipped under the yellow tape. Ignoring the policemen's haphazard attempts to catch me, I shrugged their hands away and made a straight run to the female victim's body.

My hands shook so hard and my chest thundered. Nothing else slipped out of my trembling lips but 'Mom'. I successfully grasped the zipper of the bag and I slid it open.

Thunder and lightning rang in my ears at the sight of my mother, eyes closed and lips pale. Rain poured heavily and I was carried away by a policeman. I let myself be limp against his arms and just cried to myself.

Sometimes I think to myself if I had stopped escaping from my rescuers and slipping past the yellow tapes, maybe Mom and Dad would have been alive.

The next time I started to regain conscious awareness of my surroundings, I was in the police station. A blanket was draped over me and I saw Gramps running from afar. I was numb all over as I cannot believe I just saw my mother in a body bag.

The police officers explained the whole situation to us when Gramps was seated with a cup of water by his side. My mom had been working as someone who sells houses and lots. This entails her to dress and look nicely to please clients and initiate an even more productive negotiation.

The second victim found beside Mom was her client. An old man, dying from cancer, and had been trying to sell his lots. The officers found in Mom's planner that they were due to meet today since the client had no children and so far, there was no progress with his lots sales. He intended to gift Mom one of his lots. Mom had been with him to his chemotherapy many times when she was free and basically had felt loved with her actions. 

In the client's suit, a will was found and it stated that Mom was to inherit a lot from under his name and the rest is to be donated instead. It crushed my heart when he addressed her as 'The daughter  I was not destined to have'. It seemed they did have a familial love.

But rumors will always outweigh the truth. 

Maiko and Leyd had been spreading the rumors of my Mom sleeping with his client to get some extra money. I grew up, day by day, listening to their mocking and taunts that I would grow to be beautiful like my Mom but I will suffer the same fate.

True enough, I grew like my Mom. My other uncle tried to have custody over me but I refused to stay in his house after seeing all the schoolgirls he brings in it. 

I'm sorry.

I lied.

I refused to stay in his house because he tried to get me to play with his dink. 

Maiko and Leyd had been assaulting me a few more times. From those perverted looks and winks across the road that I had to choose a different route to avoid crossing with them, down to cornering me under a shed and groping me. 

When Gramps got admitted to the hospital, I stopped telling him about my predators. I did not want to worry him and exacerbate his situation more.

Until I was successfully turned over to Uncle Keishin, I was kept in the chain of a prey while my predators enjoyed playing with me. Though sometimes when Maiko and Leyd are careless, Uncle Keishin would catch their acts. But just like my family had always done, I kept my misery in my own little bubble.

Just me against the world, with a flimsy wall.