Branches - Two Fates. One Tale

Peaks and Falls

Red. The color invaded her sight, drained her thoughts and left her numb.

Obscure was the scene in front of her and her eyes were glued to the red stains on the bare chest of her best friend, from which droplets of blood sipped. The shirt hung around in tatters, tainted with dark blood stains.

Red. Mayura's gaze rushed from his chest, over his scrunched face, to the girl with flaming red hair standing next to the chair he was tied to. A child not much older than ten or eleven years old based on the chubby cheeks and big eyes which many of the children of the orphanage this age shared. The little girl giggled gruesomely before she licked blood from the dagger she held in one of her hands.

Mayura shivered at this monstrosity. Her mouth went dry and her feet were planted to her spot as she stared at the moved picture, mouth agape. Her muscles quivered in shock.

This child was no child at all.

The girl's tongue slid over the dagger. Humming, she smacked her lips before her eyes skipped over to Shimon and her. Eyes clear and blue. Almost as icy as Shimon's.

Mayura choked on a breath. Her mind tripped over words faraway from understanding.

"I really like this one, my dear brother. I think I want to make him one of us so we can be together forever," the girl suddenly said with a grin drowning out the crackling noise of the flames in the fireplace, which Mayura had not noticed until now.

But wait... Brother?

She gasped.

She didn't underst –

"Mayura!"

Startled, she jumped at the yell. Her eyes jerked to Rokuro.

Gnashing his teeth, he looked fiercely into their direction. Wild stands of brown hair fell around his face. Hate glowed in his eyes while leaning forward, squeezing fresh blood out of his cuts. Why?

He snarled, "Mayura, stand back from him. He is the monster!"

What?

Sucking in a trembling breath, Mayura's eyes swept, once again, from the cuts to the ropes holding Rokuro to the young girl, grinning into their direction. Pointed teeth glinted in the light of the fire.

Pointed teeth like a bloodgorger.

The girl spoke up again. Words which Mayura dully noted. "Have you brought another playmate?"

The monster was...

Her nostrils quivered inhaling sharply while tearing off her eyes from Rokuro and the horrifying girl, positioned not far from a large bed.

Turning her head, she released a sound caught between a sob and a gasp as her eyes found Shimon. Half of his face was darkened by the long shadows cast by the fireplace. He still stood next to her, looking all – irritated? Frustrated? Sorrowful? She could not place it.

"She's not a playmate, Sayo," he said in a low voice.

She could not place it and she did not understand what was happening. Rokuro had called him the monster. The girl resembling a gorger had addressed him as brother. Yet, Mayura saw Shimon, a man she had danced with, a man who displayed emotions right now based on his faltered eyebrows and clouded eyes. Far from the monster he was accused to be and closer to the brother he was claimed to be.

"What is she then?" The girl asked.

Mayura swallowed harshly. Her formerly dry throat burned in pain. Slow as a snail realization dawned in on her.