Everchanging

Prologue

!!TW!! Heavy child abuse, child death, murder, injury/gore, knives

Genya didn't announce his arrival back home. He didn't make a sound as he crept into the dark and quiet space. The same heavy air plagued the home but now it was accessorized with a metallic and strange smell.

The boy tried his hardest to stay silent as he slid his socked feet across the wooden floorboards, not wanting to alert his father of the other body that took up his space. Genya could hear the harsh and rough banging of his father in the kitchen, he was mumbling words but none of them correlated, and each sentence was abandoned to instead speak gibberish.

The wounds that Genya had been kicked out with still ached his body as he turned down the hallway, heading straight for the kids' bedroom. He technically wasn't supposed to be home, having been shoved out almost four hours ago, but something in Genya's stomach urged him to go back.

He was worried about what his father would do to his little siblings. He never really did much of anything to them, seeing them as nothing more than a mild nuisance, but Kyogo had been acting differently lately. More unhinged. More dangerous. Genya suspected that maybe his father's latest girlfriend finally wised up and broke things off. She was too nice and pretty for Kyogo anyway, Genya wished she found a better man. But the bad mood could also be Genya's fault, they had been fighting more lately.

But the issue was that Genya was worried that his father might lash out with his punching-bag gone. Really it was his father's fault since he had thrown said punching-bag out with his own brutish hands but that didn't change the fact that Genya didn't want his baby siblings to take his place.

Nemi was gone, leaving Genya to hold down the fort. And Genya hoped that he had been doing a good job. During the four years that Sanemi had moved away, Genya had volunteered himself for every punishment and every shouting match. It was what Sanemi used to do, so with him gone, it was now Genya's job.

The boy hoped that his brother was happy, that he had gotten the career he had always wanted. Sanemi had always been good at math, always talked about how it made him feel good about himself when he solved the hardest of equations. So, Genya really wished that his brother had pursued the adrenaline that math brought him.

For his part, Genya had stepped back from competitive shooting, wanting to focus on his siblings' education. With their mother gone and Kyogo refusing to put them back in school, it was Genya's job to teach the little ones. He didn't want them to be too far behind when he finally figured a way for them to go back to school. Hopefully, out of this house.

The teen still maintained the gun, making sure to clean it and use it every so often so it wouldn't be too rusty when he eventually picked it back up. Genya wouldn't admit that he dreamed of the day that he finally got to pick the gun back up. It was the only thing that made him understand the grin on his older brother's face when he solved a calculus problem.

The metallic smell had seemed to get stronger the closer Genya got to the kids' room but he chalked it up to it being close to the bathroom. Ever since finding their mother bleeding out on the tiled floor, Genya could never quite shake the smell of copper that lingered in that closed off room. The banging sounds in the kitchen silenced, urging Genya to hurry.

He didn't want his father to find him before he got to check on the kids. He just wanted to see that they were okay and then he would sneak out and sleep on the curb across the street, in case anything did happen.

The room was quiet but the kids were probably asleep, since it was close to two in the morning. Genya ignored the smell of metal and the screaming of his wounds as he silently turned the knob. The sounds of feet in the entrance had the boy rushing quietly until he was in the room with the door shut behind him.