Forget Me Not (Discontinued)

Chapter Thirty Four: Unbound

"This is how you sign a quick 'I love you' to someone. This will be how we say goodbye and goodnight to each other." My mother explains to me in the cool shade of our shelter.

I struggle to sign, When we can go home?

She looks away from me mournfully, "I...I don't know. I'm sorry." I walk over and hug her tightly, wanting to comfort my mother. "My sweet girl...I want you to know that no matter where we are, our home is where ever our family is. And you've got to protect that with your life."

She smiles and signs ILY, and I return both her smile and ILY.

🌲Present🌲

A raspy, gurgled scream escapes my lips as I stare at my dead mother moving on two legs. My throat immediately protests to the sudden strain on my vocal cords after lengthy disuse. Megumi grabs me and pulls me back to them as I go into a hysterical coughing fit.

"Takara...isn't that your mother?" Megumi asks.

Tears stream down my face as I nod my head. Nobara clenches her fist as she looks on with disgust, "That is so fucked up! What kind of psycho would do that?!"

A roar tears through the air; bears surround us as they lumber through the woods. Megumi lowers his voice, "Do you want us to take care of your mother?"

I snap out of my panic and shake my head before signing, I have to be the one to put her back to rest. You kids take care of the bears.

"Ok...I understand. Remember not to falter." He replies before joining up with Nobara against the bears while I stare on ahead at my mother.

Her eyes are cold with death and her jaw is left slack. I summon multiple snakes around me and have them all attack the corpse. But the corpse simply shakes off the barrage of attacks and my cursed energy. Will I have to...destroy her? Can I do it? No, I can't question myself, I have to do it. Then I will find and kill the bastard who desecrated my mother's grave. I channel my cursed energy and start to transform into a snake. As I feel myself grow and elongate I remember a lesson my mother taught me when she used to spar with me; "If you meet the Buddha, kill him. If you meet your father, kill him. Be free of everything and bound by nothing, that is what true strength is."

I stare ahead and have made my decision; I will burn her to ash. Free her from a form that can be used against those she loved. Yes, I will free both of us and become unbound. I curl my body around my mother; using my serpentine body to shield everything else from my torrent of flames. I look at my mother one last time, her face is cold and grey; nothing like how she was in life. I open my mouth and exhale flames from deep within me. Her body burns into a pile of ash, but I don't have time for that. Not when I sense a distinct presence nearby. I slither deep within the forest and find a hooded figure. My mouth is wide and ready to devour the enemy before me. I will leave nothing left of this disgusting creature, they will die painfully in my stomach acid never to be seen again. I feel a sort of crazed thrill as I chase after them. Almost as though something animal and archaic has awakened within me. The figure jumps and dodges my jaws as I continue to attack, completely free of care or thought. The hooded figure jumps from a cliff down to a tree; I dive after them as the forest violently shakes beneath me. Just as I'm about to continue my dogged chase, a white flash appears before me.

It's Satoru, he holds onto my giant serpent face, "Takara! Snap out of it! What happened?" He gingerly pets my scaly cheek, "Takara...please change back. I need to know if you're ok." Slowly my giant body drifts away and turns back into my human form. His arms wrap around me and holds me flush against him. Tears fall once more as I clutch onto his back. His back...solid and real, it helps to ground me back in reality. "What happened? Why did you transform?"

He takes us down to the ground and the moment my feet touch I fall to my knees. I sob and cradle myself with my arms; Satoru crouches next to me and scoops me up into his arms, "Takara...talk to me."

I pull back and sign to him, The curse user, they used my mother's corpse. I shake and violently sob again.

"Holy shit...I'm so sorry." His arms take me to a place far away from my despair. The scent of the forest clings to both of us as hot tears wet his shirt. "We're going to find her and make her pay."

I pull away noting the pronoun usage, You found out who it was?

"Yeah and I'll tell you later. For now, let's gather everyone else up so we can form a proper plan with our current info." He takes out his phone and calls Megumi, "Megumi how are things on your end?...Good, just as I expected of you too...Yes, Takara is safe...I'll tell her, for now just go to the entrance and wait for us...Yeah you can go ahead and call the others." He puts away his phone and looks at me, "Megumi told me that he picked up as much of your mother's ashes as he could. They're in his shoe inside of his shadow...he said he was sorry he couldn't put it in a better container."

It's fine, I just want to get out of here.

Satoru scoops me up in his arms, "No problem love." He takes me away from the loneliness of the forest and out into the open expanse of the sky.