What We've Missed Without You

chapter 12

*sorry for mistakes*

Kumiko carried a small stack of scribbled-on office paper from the printer in the employee break room, her hands and fingers burned from using her crayons harshly. She looked around the small apartment until she turned to Adam, who was on the couch, almost halfway finished with his latest novel he borrowed from the local library.

"Nii-san?"

"Hm?" The eleven-year-old hummed as he flipped another page in his dark red book.

"Where's Momma?"

"She's resting right now."

"Did she get sick again?"

"I don't know, Aniki wouldn't tell me much when he helped Mother to her room. He told to not worry, so I don't think it's serious."

"Oh...I was gonna show Momma something..." Kumiko pouted lightly, her golden eyes staring down at her scribbles. The older boy's blue-grey eyes traveled through the paragraph as he spoke. "You can show her later, she's tired now."

"But...It's kinda important." Kumiko muttered as she hugged her drawings.

"So much that you'd disturb Mother from her rest?" Adam questioned monotonously, making the strawberry blonde girl look down with a guilty expression. The ash haired boy looked up from his book and sighed, placing a bookmark on his current page before closing the dark red book. "I guess for the meantime, you can show me."

"Really, Nii-san?!" The nine-year-old's eyes grew stars in them, making the eleven-year-old sigh once more in response to her excited nature. "Yes..."

Kumiko immediately made her way to the dark brown couch, climbing on top of the cushions and settling herself next to Adam with her drawings. Adam watched his younger sister 'straighten' all of her papers before angling them so that he could see all of her scribbles before speaking.

"I keep having 'daydreams' according to Momma when I showed her my first 'dream'. I had another one recently when I was playing with Fumuki and Kaoru! This is out it started: I was in a forest, like last time but you didn't see it, but I could see this time...And it was raining a lot! I was walking through the forest when all of the sudden a wolf appeared in front of me! I thought it was gonna eat me." The picture was of a poorly-drawn Kumiko in an equally poorly-drawn rainy forest with a large grey wolf in front of her. She turned the page to see her riding on the wolf, "But the wolf was really kind! He told me 'In dark times, I will be the one to guide you and the snake to the tree'. So I asked him, 'What tree?'. He told me, 'The tree where Eve slept for most of her life'. I didn't really understand, but I guess it was something from bible study in church. He let me ride his back through the forest and we ran super duper fast! It was kind of scary, but I liked it a lot in the end!"

Adam didn't really understand what was going on, but nevertheless he continued to listen to Kumiko's little 'story'. She turned to the next page, showing what appeared to be an apple tree and a large green snake wrapped around Momoi.

"He took me to the same tree in my last dream! But this time, Nee-san was there! A friendly snake was guarding her until I arrived, he was really nice to do that. The snake told me, 'both of the founders' children are here, please proceed with the awakening ceremony.'. I didn't know what a ceremony was "

"It's...A party of some sorts for a certain occasion." Adam interrupted, making Kumiko smile at him. "Thank you, Nii-san!"

"You're welcome."

"But before the party could start, these two guys just suddenly appeared in front of me!" Kumiko turned to the next page, revealing two poorly-drawn men with shadowed features. "The guy with the eye patch appeared in my first dream! And now there was a guy who looked like Nee-san! They didn't really say anything, only the wolf and the snake bowed to them, calling them 'the founders'. I didn't know what they found and I never got a chance to because I woke up!"

Adam rose a brow at this, 'The Founders'? He recalled an early chapter in his book describing such people, how they were the ancestor race of all demon-kind in the demon realm. What else could he recall? They had the ability to shift into different animals, they could use magic, summon familiars, and could only be killed by decapitation. Adam couldn't remember much, he'll probably look back through his book to refresh his memory because Kumiko's little 'daydream' was so oddly specific. The faded strawberry blonde looked up at the eleven-year-old and smiled with a wolfish grin.

"That's the end of my daydream!"

"It's very nice...Can you recall anything else from it?"

"Well..." Kumiko scratched her head as she furrowed her eyebrows, trying to remember something she didn't scribble onto the office supply paper. "The snake was talking about something called...Endzeit? I think it's German or something."

"Is that all?"

"...The wolf said something about my blood, but I didn't understand the rest of it. I thought he was telling me I was bleeding, but I wasn't. That's all I remember, sorry Nii-san."

"No, it's fine. You've done enough for now. Go off and play, don't worry about it too much." Adam gave Kumiko a small smile as he petted her head, making the nine-year-old pull him into a surprise hug. She squeezed him as tightly as she could before letting him go, grabbing her drawings and hopping off the couch to run back downstairs to go play with the quadruplets or something. Now that he was alone, Adam turned the book in his hands to the cover, staring at the gold cursive on the dark red surface. A little girl's daydream shouldn't bother him so much, but because of how many things he recognized in her story he needed to satisfy his growing curiosity. Adam sighed as he continued to gaze at the cover with his blue-grey eyes.

Sensei, please guide me to satisfy my curiosity. I'm worried for Kumiko...

Just below the title 'The Curse of Eve', the author's name was imprinted in the same gold cursive font:

Mukami Ruki

Word count: 1-0-7-8