SUPPRESSED MEMORIES

PROLOGUE

PROLOGUE

"Shinoa..." I look over at the brunette woman who stands in the doorway, her arms wrapped around a small bundle in her arms. That bundle... holds that man. Her eyes watch me, and for the first time tonight she isn't looking down at the small boy she hasn't let go of since I handed him over to her. 

A small smile meets my lips and I continue to pull on a black coat that is admittedly a little, well a lot, to big for me. It's heavy, drags on the floor behind me and it smells heavily of him...

"I'll be alright, I promise" I pause, my eyes turning towards the full moon that lights up the snowy landscape only inches away from me. "I'll visit him. I know he's in good hands and-"

"I know you'll visit him... but... you know what I really mean, Shinoa" she cuts me off and my eyes turn from the moon to her and a bigger smile presents itself against my lips. I'm sure it wont actually succeed in convincing Juri... but she'll see that I'm trying, that I'm being strong. Like mama and papa would.

"Like I said before, I'll be alright. I'm going home, but I'll be alright" I say softly. I'm going home... to a place where my life was spent with them and suddenly, almost like magic, they wont be there anymore. They're gone. I don't know how I will be ok... but I have to be. For myself and for that man. I need to be strong.

"Stay safe" Haruka smiles as he comes up behind Juri, resting a hand on her waist and if it wasn't for my heightened eyesight I'd probably never have even noticed how Juri's head tilts back in the slightest of ways and rests itself on Haruka's chest.

I don't speak, I only give a curt nod and spin around on the heels of the shoes Juri had so kindly given me. Stepping out into the cold, white snow for the second time tonight I don't look back, I only look forward. I will be back in due time, I won't leave him... I can't. There's something that won't allow me to do that. The snow crunches under foot and I pull the large coat closer to my body, wrapping myself up as best I can.

The words carry across the wind and meet my ear, and I keep walking, the faintest of smiles on my lips

                    "Thank you, Shinoa"