No Warmth

Prologue

A man sat by the window as he swept his brush along a white canvas.

Red, orange, yellow, and brown leaves covered the trees that surrounded his house. However, the cherry blossom tree and flowers in his backyard were in full bloom.

Once in a while, he gazed out the window as he recreated the cherry blossom tree in the backyard. After the tree was finished, he started to paint the pair seated beneath the tree.

A white-haired woman held a book in her lap and the little girl beside her leaned in to pick cherry blossom petals from her mother's hair. The woman smiled and flipped the page.

Whenever the man observed the pair from the window, he felt as if his painting had come to life. There was something ethereal about the woman and child; they looked like they belonged to a world he could never be a part of.

His thoughts were interrupted when the woman closed the book and stood up. She knelt down and whispered something to the child; the girl took the book from her mother and ran towards the house.

The woman then looked at the window. Their eyes met, and the woman smiled at him.

He looked away. I will have to finish my painting another time, he thought as he put his brush and paint away.

Suddenly, the white-haired child raced into the room, but stopped to look at her father's canvas. "Oh, it's the tree in our backyard!"

"It is not finished yet. I will show you the painting when it is done," he smiled.

"I am sure it will look beautiful. I like all of your paintings, but this one is my favorite," the little girl pointed at a family painting that was hung on the wall.

The brown-haired man pouted. "I did not paint that one though."

"I love this painting the most because you're in it, Dad." The girl smiled.

The man smiled and knelt down in front of her. "I understand how you feel since my favorite paintings are the ones you appear in as well."

"Oh right!" The girl placed a picture book in her father's hands. She grinned as he glanced down at the book. "Will you read me a story?"

"This story...didn't you just read it with your mother?" The man flipped through the pages of the book.

"Yes, but I also want to read it with you. Mom likes to spend a lot of time reading in the garden, and you like to spend most of the time painting in your room. It's hard to get the two of you in the same place so we can read together," the child pouted and crossed her arms.

The man chuckled. "Do you want us to read together that badly?"

"Of course! I feel like it's always you and me or Mom and me; the three of us are rarely together at the same time. We can read inside the house one day and then read outside in the garden the next." The girl looked at her feet. "If you don't want to read with us, then can you at least paint outside once in a while?"

The man ruffled the girl's hair. "Alright. I will try to have us spend more time as a family. I know you wanted to read the same story again, but how about I tell you a different story? I'm always reminded of it during this time of year."

The child nodded before she sat in front of him.

The man smiled. "There once was a vampire princess locked in a castle..."

"Was she pretty?" The little girl tilted her head.

"She had hair as white as snow and eyes the color of cherry blossoms; she was beautiful. As I was saying, she was told that she couldn't leave because it was dangerous outside the castle walls..."