T R A P P E D

Chapter Twelve - Jeimi

Ahh. We're stuck here now?

Great.

No, really. I'm not trying to be sarcastic. This place is the most amazing thing that's ever happened to me. Other than meeting Siyuki.

She and I were chatting animatedly to each other when I saw two people walk over. One had caramel hair and the other had a black hood veiling her face. They looked like goddesses. Those that could protect me, care for me and be really good friends.

I should stay away from them.

Two years ago, I lost everything.

I was just like an average kid, with black hair and a dreamer just like any other girl. I wanted to spend my childhood just like everyone else. But fate clearly didn't want that.

My mother was the most precious thing on earth to me. We were poor and had to live on the streets. When the three of us, my father, my mother and me finally could afford an apartment, we were all overjoyed. But two weeks later, I watched painstakingly as a man with a scar down his face took out a gun from his pant pocket and loaded it with ammunition from his belt.

Get away from my father, I scream.

Keep quiet or I'll shoot you too.

Fine then! Shoot me. Shoot me, I dare you!

Hah, stupid child.

I see my father lunging in front of me whenever I close my eyes, and I hear the bullet embedding itself in his heart where mine should be instead, and his last wail when no earpieces are inside my ears. His expression was a mixture of determination and pride, believing that I would be strong and make him proud even at his last moments.

Six days after we let my father's ashes into the wind, my mother died from depression. I had to find a job working for a family by myself to get money to support my education and living. The financial support by the government did help though.

I was on the brink of depression when Siyuki came. She took me out of my shell; at least to her. Of course, I'm still hardened inside. There's no one else I could open my gates to other than her. Because she understood me. Because if anyone else got too close, they would be destroyed too, and it would be because of me. Just like my father, because I refused to keep my mouth shut.

But enough of that. The past is past. I want to leave it there. Here, in SAO, I can start on a clean slate and nobody will ever have to dig up my bloody past. Up till now, only Siyuki knows about this. If I lose her-

I can't.

I can't lose her.

When the two girls ran up to me, their faces form a huge smile. I don't expect that. In fact, I'm surprised they acknowledged my presence.

My hair was in a ponytail at the lower half of my head. I have shaved a line on the right side of my head. I travel light, with an iron rapier. It is sharp and black. Just what I need. I was really lucky to get it after my first hand to hand combat fight with one of a guild's members. Amateurs. I heard that my father's murderer was in SAO. I will kill him, the same way he did to my father. In my alone time, I'd spend it by firing shots to a target board, or I'd shoot walls. The sound of bullets hitting something other than my father's flesh calms me.

Yep, I'm a sadist.