Aim ➹ Prequel to "Don't Miss"

1.

"What is wrong with you?!" Osiris spats in my crying face.

My shaking hands hold a knife over an equally shaking person. I don't even know them.

Their name... where they're from.

I don't even know if they speak English.

I don't even know what they did to deserve death! Why me? Why can't he just kill him?

"I-I..." I struggle to say something, but my voice just cuts itself off.

He grabs my face and tugs it so I'm staring up at his daring glare, "You what?!"

I just tremble more under him and he rolls his eyes before dragging me away from the scene. All I hear is a gunshot behind us before he throws me back down.

"H-He didn't- didn't do anything..." I argue meekly, trying not to anger him further.

He shoves me forward, into a table, "You are pathetic. Give me the knife."

"N-no." I stutter, trying to get away, but two guards come around and grab me. I pull desperately against them and more have to come out to subdue me.

They slam me down against the table and hold my arms and legs, all while I scream out for help and for them to stop.

My vision starts to blur because of the tears filling my eyes, but I can make out the figure of Osiris coming around.

He tears the knife out of my grip and says with a not very regretful sigh, "You never make this easy, Akiko. You never make any of this easy."

Ten Months Before 'It' Happened

"Aio! Quickly! Mom and Dad are coming home!" Alec calls out to me from the great room.

I grab Charlotte and run into the next room, "Coming!"

Char giggles in delight because this is the best time of day, mum and dad leave for weeks on business trips, but when they come home it's amazing! We blow up balloons and throw streamers on the walls to celebrate their return.

But for some reason, this time it was different.

Eric, our oldest brother, wouldn't let Nao and I decorate the house. And Michio and Alec agreed with him!

Just because I'm fifteen and a girl doesn't mean I can't make decisions as well. They are being very prejudice and unfair towards Charlotte and I.

"Okaasan would want us to celebrate their return..." I pout slightly.

"Cry me a river, Akiko." Michio says bitterly.

I set Charlotte down to punch his shoulder, "Go drown in it."

"Unlike you, I made it onto the swim team." He shoves me back.

I purse my lips before swinging my leg back and kicking him as hard as I can in the shin, "Gehen Sie ficken sich!" (Go fuck yourself!)

"Akiko!" All my brother's shout at once.

"Oh shut up!" I whine, "You get to say whatever the hell you guys want while I have to just listen to whatever you guys say! This isn't fair."

The door swings open and our father walks in, "Life isn't fair, the sooner that you learn that, the better."

"Osiris!" Our mother scolds him. She walks through the door, her cheeks and ears blushed red because of the cold, and her long black hair pulled back into a ponytail to fit neatly under her winter hat. She looks beautiful, how are we her children? The only one who looks anything like her is Charlotte, she has her eyes, nose, mouth, hair, face shape- God, they are both so beautiful.

They say I look like her, but truth is that they are more beautiful then I could ever be.

"Don't talk to the children like that.." She says sternly to him, and his eyes immediately soften at the sight of her face.

"My apologizes, 親愛な.." (Dear) He says while kissing the top of her head.

Charlotte giggles a soft, "Eww" while the rest of us stare at them in awe, they were fighting before leaving on the trip, so we only assumed they would be fighting when they got home.

"Nao, Akiko, please get the bags from the car." Our father says while discarding his over coat and scarf.

He doesn't look any different since he left, the apparent frown is still placed across his lips and his eyes are full of what appears to be scorn and disappointment.

We both mumble something along the lines of 'fine' and 'great'.

We grab our jackets and run out into the below freezing temperature of Chicago in January. We watch our breaths in slight awe as it freezes immediately in the air.

"Does папа seem any different to you?" Nao asks me while walking towards the car.

"Not at all." I answer while following behind him.

"Michio said that he would be angry when he got home." He says with a shrug, "But he doesn't look angry."

"Michio doesn't know anything." I mumble slightly while going to grab a bag.

"Michio does know things and so do you. You two are just jealous of each other so you can't focus on your own knowledge." Nao says, almost incoherently.

"Yeah? Well what it feels like is that I'm always picked on and tortured by you four." I pull the bag out but it is heavier then I expected and it falls over and the contents spill out at Nao's and myself's feet.

"What the hell...?" Nao mutters under his breath. We both crouch down to inspect the objects that are screw across our half snowy driveway.

It's weird and miscellaneous. Just random objects everywhere that have no business being in this case. Almost twenty fountain pens, a couple of belts, a bunch of rings with big gems on them, a few rolled up newspapers, a weird metal comb, and a red silk scarf.

The scarf immediately catches my eye and I swipe it from the ground to further examine it.

"Akiko!" Nao hisses at me while reaching out to grab it.

I knock his hand away, "No."

He stares at me shocked, "'No'? This isn't a yes or no question! Put it back!"

It's soft, loose, but the material is strong. Maybe silk? But the color is beautiful. I can just imagine how jealous all the other stuck up girls would be at the sight of this.

I fold it up and tuck it into my jacket's pocket.

"It's a scarf, Nao, calm down." I mutter while helping him put the other stuff into the suitcase.

But at the time... I didn't realize how important and symbolic any of the stuff in that heavily guarded case was.

Especially that scarf... and the key.