Ichimatsu's gaze was fixed on the moon's wavy reflection in a small pond.
His messy, yet thin, black hair was nearly covering his eyes, having not been brushed in weeks.
The man found it amusing that his "loving brothers" would send him to a mental hospital the moment they caught him trembling in the corner of a closet, pulling clumps of his hair out in the middle of the night. It just didn't make any sense to him.
Ichimatsu kicked off the sheets to his "hospital" bed and slipped his small, purple slippers on. They weren't nearly as comfortable as his slippers had been back at home.
Pressing his ear up against the wall, he listened out for his insane neighbor, who would commonly have fits in the night. His neighbor would start breathing heavily in a panicked manner, and within seconds, his heavy breathing would escalate into vicious cries for help.
Ichimatsu had never asked what was wrong with his neighbor though. He had no interest in other worthless human beings like him. The of course, the workers at the mental hospital treated every question as if it came from a mere toddler.
"Go back to bed, Ichimatsu. You're just imagining things," the nurse would tell the man. "I'll bring you your medication in the morning, don't worry."
Ichimatsu huffed.
"I don't belong in this building..." he thought to himself, reaching for the window he had been looking out of. "I don't belong anywhere, though...."
Tugging on the window, Ichimatsu tried to open it. Then, he realized his stupid mistake after only a few seconds of attempting to do such.
"You idiot!" Ichimatsu scolded himself, realizing that the windows had been sealed shut. "They wouldn't let windows open! Suicidal patients would just jump right out the windows if they could! That's...what I wanted to do..."
Ichimatsu kicked his slippers back off and climbed into his hospital bed in hopes of being able to sleep.
"I wish I could just disappear," Ichimatsu thought to himself, turning from side to side in his bed, trying to get comfortable. "If I didn't exist...the world would be a better place. Nobody wants negativity. Nobody wants to hire an uneducated man. Nobody wants...garbage like me...."
Eventually, Ichimatsu managed to drift off to sleep, falling deep into a world of nightmares.
With each and every turn in his dream, his brothers were trying to kill him. Even people Ichimatsu didn't know were trying to kill him.
Jerking awake, Ichimatsu grabbed his chest, feeling his heart pounding. Panting, he tried to catch his breath. Beads of sweat dripped down his forehead and tears rolled down his cheeks.
A sharp pain began to crawl up and down his legs, then it spread to his stomach and arms.
Shivering, Ichimatsu forced himself to lay back down. He had a feeling he was going to be all alone, yet again today.
But his feelings were proven wrong when there was a gentle knock on the door to his room.
"I'm coming in," a familiar voice spoke softly as the doorknob turned.
Behold, there stood Karamatsu with a bouquet of pink and red carnations to cheer his brother up.
Flowers didn't cheer Ichimatsu up at all.
Anger flooded Ichimatsu's entire body and he clenched his fists under the covers.
"Why are you here?" Ichimatsu spoke in a low voice, trying to not show his enragement with Karamatsu. For, you see, this was the brother who sent him here in the first place.
"I've come to visit you- is that wrong?" Karamatsu asked, his back turned on his brother as he arranged the flowers in an empty, glass vase on a table on the wall, directly in front of Ichimatsu's bed.
"N-No..." Ichimatsu mumbled. "You're just a jerk, that's all."
"What was that?" Karamatsu asked, having not heard the last part.
"Nothing..." Ichimatsu sighed. "It's just lonely here..."
"But you're not alone," Karamatsu reminded his brother. "You have us."
"You sure don't make it seem like that," Ichimatsu snapped back at the second son. "All you ever do is shame me for being a loner. Well, have you ever even considered how it might feel to have no idea how to even interact with people?!"
"We're all alone when it comes to other people," Karamatsu replied. "But as a family, we have each other."
"You've always said that..." Ichimatsu growled. "and yet there's never a speck of kindness inside our home. It's just hate hate hate hate hate!"
Ichimatsu jumped out of his bed, snarling like a wild animal.
"Go away! Go away! GO AWAY!" Ichimatsu spat angrily, wrapping his hands around Karamatsu's neck. He closed his eyes while doing such, not wanting to even see his disgusting brother. Slowly, he began to squeeze Karamatsu's flesh, tightening his already firm grip.
Karamatsu wheezed, struggling to breathe.
"S-Stop!" Karamatsu gasped ever so softly. "I-I-I-Ichimatsu!"
Ichimatsu tightened his grip even more, soon feeling Karamatsu go limp in his arms. But when he opened his eyes again, Karamatsu wasn't there. Not meaning that he had died due to being suffocated, but just that Karamatsu literally disappeared. In fact, Ichimatsu's room was gone as well.
Stranded in an open field of wild flowers, Ichimatsu felt emotions he had thought he had lost entirely.
In this field, the grass was tall, though it contained no weeds. There were only different variations of random wild flowers, which were colored from pastels to the boldest of bold colors.
The wind silently ruffled Ichimatsu's hair. And even though the man was all alone, the feeling of loneliness ceased to exist.
One would think, Ichimatsu's first thoughts would be those of a normal person: "Where am I...?" Though, they were not. It was as if his mind had been broken.
Inhaling deeply, Ichimatsu took in the mixture of strange, sweet scents surrounding him. He didn't remember ever liking flowers, yet this was rather satisfying.
"All is well here..." Ichimatsu smiled to himself, then proceeded to laugh a little. He had never felt such relief and happiness. Even if he had felt this way at some point in his life, Ichimatsu failed to recall such a memory. "I want to stay here..."
Then in the distance, the world began to crumble into blackness. The beautiful wildflowers and the serene scenery vanished.
Then, as the last bit of the world fell from beneath Ichimatsu, his heart stopped beating, and his breath was stolen from his present body.
