It was dark. Crowded with people. People who had no face. The walls were black and red. Not with paint but with ash and blood. The air was hot, humid, Keith thought he may have an asthma attack. Then he looked closer. The people didn't have faces because... because they were burned off.
He was in the church. The church was on fire, and so was he. He felt the burning. The terrible pain, welding into his skin. Then he saw her. His sister. Mei.
Mei was standing in the center of the room, untouched by the flame. Her long black hair was a wave along her back, bangs in her face. Her yellow dress beautifully lit by the flames.
Keith heard a crunch as he stepped. He looked down and saw a stick had broken under him. Then string was tied to a rope, hilding up a flaming beem. With the twig holding it gone, the string released, and the fiery beem fell. Falling on Mei. She cried. She was set on fire. Her screams were the only ones he could hear.
"You failed me." Was his sisters last words. As her screams faded so did she. She disapeared into the smoke. When she reapeared, she wasn't who Keith was expecting. It was his mother.
Keith ran to hug her, but instead of a warm embrace, he was pushed to the floor. "Don't hug me. You... You disgusting faggot... Look what you did... Look at what you did to my daughter! You broke your promise! You broke our family! Go kill yourself!"
Keith stumbled back at his mothers words. Her once honey like voice, was now raspy, like she was just dug from a grave.
She stood, tall, and strong. Her blade in her hand. Ready to fight. Then she swung at Keith. She barely missed too. Only when Keith fell to the ground dodging her attack did she speak. "Hmph. Weak!" She placed her blade in its holster on her waist. She turned, with a quick scowel, and walked away.
"No... Mom... Please, don't leave... No! Please don't leave me. Please! Please Mom please... please... Don't leave me..."
"Keith!"
Keith turned only to face his father, bottle in hand, lunging toward him with it. But the voice was coming from somewhere else.
"Keith! Keith! KOGANE!"
When Keith opened his eyes, he was met with Lance's ocean blue eyes. They were slightly darker than usual. He looked panicked, and scared.
"What?"
Lance took a step back, carefully backing off the bed. "What to you meab what? You just had a panick attack... You said you had to grab your bag, and I found you shaking."
Keith looked at Lance confused.
"You don't remember?"
Keith shook his head.
"You were saying something in korean. I couldn't quite understand... But I remeber one thing."
At this point Keith was sitting strait up. Making sure he didn't miss what he apearently was just talking about, while violently shaking.
"Eommaneun jebal tteonaji maseyo. You said it over and over like 10 times."
It all came back to him. The burning, the cries. His mother's cruel words...
"What does it mean?"
"Nothing. I think you said it wrong. I don't know."
Keith felt bad for lying, but this happened all the time. He didn't need people to bother him about it.
So Lance let it go. And they hadn't brought it up since.
Keith had officially been there for one week. School had been fine so far. He understood most english words. And most of the english writing. His teachers didn't seem to mind him, or give him any unwanted attention. Things were going fine. But as fate would have it, of course something always had to go wrong in Keith's life.
