Classified Ad

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Saki was outside, playing with her younger brother named Hajime. Saki giggled softly as she watched a horse drawn cab ride past them, a little boy and his father in it. She heard other cabs, both horse drawn and not elsewhere. As she played with a small hand sewn rag doll made by her mother with oriental fabrics, she saw a few women walk into the Bridgeport Market.

As the two played, a higher class wealthy man had begun to hit Hajime with a rolled up newspaper, yelling out, "Get out of here you yellow demon!" The man then walked away, throwing the newspaper back at the two and scoffed, Saki hugging her little brother as they looked at the printed text, seeing one of the ads that read, 'I has two childs, boy and girl, age ten and twelve, I would like to leave with a good family for a year: want good neighborhood and proper care.'

Saki knew that it had been her haha, or mother, that had written it, especially from the broken english. She then ran back to where her family lived, dragging her whimpering younger brother along behind her until they reached their crowded apartment, currently having to share it with another small family, the halls of the fourth floor crowded despite only having four separate rooms on each floor.

The other family had a young son, a toddler that Saki and Hajime usually watched as payment for the other family helping partially care for them. The mother, Winnifred, a short, pale skinned woman while the father, John, with brownish greyed hair, similar to her mother.

Their father, or chichi as they called him, had left when Saki was five and her brother three. She barely remembered what he looked like, really only remembering his deep, gruff, yet kind voice, asking about her day whenever he got home from work, him having done a lot of shoe shining for wealthy men.

Her mother soon got home, coming into the apartment, she wasn't too old to have greying hair, but was overworked and stressed. She then smiled at Saki, the young girl smiling and happily hugging her mother before asking, "How was work mama?" The woman then gave a tired and sad smile before softly saying, "I was fired dear.. I'm not sure how I can care for you and Hajime." Never once was the newspaper article mentioned.

After almost a week, there had been a response to the ad Saki's mother wrote, and over the course of a month she had talked back and forth with the potential family. Then one day, while Saki's mother was home, a knock came from the front door, yet the other family wasn't home at the moment. The mother then went to answer the door, seeing a young woman with a slightly older man, both looking to be in their thirties.

The new woman had fair skin with a pear shaped build, different to her mother while the man had dull greyish blue eyes, eyes that she remembered from somewhere but couldn't think of where at first.

The woman then greeted Saki's mother, the two children peeking out from around the corner of a wall as Saki frowned softly, a look of disdain on her face as she watched the new people talk to her mother before hearing, "Saki, Hajime! Come here please!" Her mother had been the one to speak, her and her brother running over to their mother, the man introducing himself as a 'Mr.Humphrey' and the woman as his wife or 'Scarlet'.

Saki then remembered the man as having been the one to hit them with a newspaper earlier that month as she glared at him, only to get scolded by her mother. She knew that Hajime didn't realize, her wanting to protect him on her own, especially from this man who would now have to be her guardian for a reason that she didn't know yet.

Saki then shook her head before saying, "But mama, this man hit Hajime!" Yet her mother didn't believe her as she said, "Nonsense dear. Mr.Humphrey is a good man. They will take care of you there." Saki just shook her head again, grabbing Hajime and pulling him away from their mother before shoving past the new couple and running out of the apartment.

The two children ran through the streets, Saki pulling Hajime along behind her as they ran. Hajime then tried pulling out of her grip, falling backwards as his older sister fell forwards onto her knee, scraping it as it popped, her crying out in pain as Hajime winced before hearing his sister. He then got up, helping her before asking, "Neechan, why are we running?" Saki whimpered before shaking her head as she mumbled out, That man was the one who had hit you last time, Hajime."

She then began trying to drag Hajime again, limping as she ran almost tripping multiple times. The two soon stopped, going into an alleyway and hiding, sleeping in a corner of it for the night without eating. The next day they began having to steal food, never once running into their mother again, nor the couple. They never knew why their father left either, it just being them two against the world for many years.

Or at least that's how the story goes, but it's been rumored that there are two people still around that resemble Hajime and Saki Kazumi, who come out only at night. These beings are said to be deathly angels, with toxic green eyes and crimson hair. It's also been said that their hair changed colors to crimson after they had 'died' but it's just a story. Now then, the last sighting was twenty years ago, and the original story came from one hundred and twenty-one years ago, so it's probably just a way to scare children into behaving, but that's for you to decide.

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