Paper Stars (Self-Published)

Kabanata 47

KABANATA 47

It was the night before the Alpha's son's funeral. The little girl was alone in her bed, mindlessly staring at a foreign ceiling. She tried to sleep, but the picture of her father being engulfed in flames right before the structure collapsed over him was still vivid in her head. She could still hear the loud sirens and the screaming of people as they try to retrieve his body. She could smell the burning flesh whenever she close her eyes.

After a while, she tried sleeping again. For a moment, her mind was in total darkness. Then cold air crawled in her system, binding her body to the bed as that night started to recurr. She would see her father pinned to the ground, his blue eyes smiling upon her. She tried to scream; tried to move her limbs to save him. But then, everything would collapse before her as thick smoke invaded her being.

The little girl got up, panting and sweating so hard. It was the fourth time it happened that night and her nerves would shake so hard everytime. When she finally calmed down, she grabbed her robe and got off her bed as she decided to go to the old woman's chamber.

Carefully, she opened the doors. When she was sure there was no one around, she went out. Quietly, she sauntered the tatami-ladened floors towards the direction of the old woman's chamber. She had memorized the way the first time they got there.

This was a narrower hallway compared to the ones they had back home. But there was something grand and majestic in the simplicity this one held. She had heard that the mansion was built by their ancestors who once held power all over Japan more than a hundred years ago. The walls that was made out of translucent papers and bamboos, and tatami mats on her feet surprisingly brought a sense of peace to her. Even though this was the first time she's ever been there, she felt she's been there before.

When the little girl took a turn to the familiar corridors, she walked a bit slower so she could gaze upon the large frames mounted on the right side of the hall. They held the images of the past headmasters of the clan. Everytime she passed through here, she couldn't help but be awed by their radiance.

When she reached the last of the frames, she took a pause so she could look at the image longer. Cladded in a dark red kimono, with groomed jet-black hair, emphasized jawline and ocean blue eyes that were trained to be hard and ruthless, was her father. He was poised with irrefutable regality and power as the previous leaders before him.

Slowly, she reached out her little hands in an attempt to touch his image when a pained sob echoed across the place.

The little girl looked around to find where the sobs were coming from. She followed them and after a little while, found herself in front of a room. She knew that this was the first time she'd been in that part of the mansion. She contemplated going back and finding Louise's chamber as she originally planned; but the wailing continued, she was curious to find out who it was from.

Cautiously, she slid one side of the door. She peeked inside and saw a boy in his fiery red kimono sitting on the floor. There were a lot of broken things scattered around him. There were also tiny, colorful dots among them she couldn't quite recognize. When she stepped a bit forward to have a better look, the lattice creaked. The boy straightened his back and quickly rubbed his face with the hem of his clothing before turning around to see his intruder.

"Donata desu ka?" He asked with a trained, hard tone.

The little girl's heart hammered inside her chest at the suddenness. She thought of running away that instant, but the sadness in the boy's dark orbs, even when they were glaring at her, was so familiar that she decided to stay.