Sakura Eyes

Chapter 41

"Hey, come here. I need you to help me fold these clothes."

I turned around and sighed in resignation as a stack of walking clothes approached me. Sticking out my arms, I let Mom rest the stack of clothes against me. 

"Where's May?"I groaned. "I need that brat to help me with this—"

"Don't call your sister a brat," Mom snipped. "Go to the main room and ask your sister politely to help you."

"Alright, alright," I muttered. 

"Did you just talk back to me?"

"What? I was just responding—" I sighed. "Oh, never mind..."

Setting the clothes down in the main room, I called for May who immediately popped up and sat down happily with me to fold the clothes. Moments later, Mom entered the room to help us.

"So," I said, keeping my eyes on the pair of pants in front of me. "How were the patients today?"

"All of them were doing well," Mom smiled, patting her stack. "Thank goodness for that really. One of my patients who came in today had a knife wound in her side. Someone stabbed her for some reason she wouldn't tell me. But I still cannot believe that person had the nerve to hurt her."

Bump. Bump. Bump.

"Listen to me, Sakura. People who kill or hurt anyone for any reason are scum. They are worse than scum. Grow up with a kind heart. Learn to heal and love. Like me, we doctors help the world become a better place. I won't complain if you take after me. I'll teach you."

Bump. Bump. Bump.

"It's strange, you know. How both people who takes lives and people who save lives can hold the same knife in their hands but do completely different things with it."

Bump. Bump. Bump.

"Sakura? You hear me, yes?"

Bump. Bump. Bump.

"Yes, Mom."

"Are you sure about that?"

My hands froze. That voice.

BumpBumpBump.

Slowly, I looked up. A scream escaped from my throat before I could catch it as I stared at the horrifying scene unfurling before me.

Mom's eyes had turn hollow, and her skin was slowly wasting away to a grayish-pastel color. Besides her, May's body was going through the same change. Both of their bones began to protrude more and more against their thinning skin as their hair began to fall off. 

Then out of nowhere, slowly, like he had grown out from the ground, a pale large, scarred man appeared from behind Mom with his hands on her shoulders. A different man arose from the ground, and this time, he was dressed as a Royal soldier. He placed his hands on May's shoulders and stared at me listlessly.

I was rooted in place with fear as I stared at them, my breath lost. Their hollow eyes suddenly glowed red; it was like staring at a lighting red ball. Then, out of nowhere, they smiled so widely that the ends of their mouths almost touch their eyes.

I screamed. I screamed and screamed, but I couldn't hear myself at all.

Mom moved forward and opened her palm up at me, offering me something in her hand. I gasped and glanced down. In her palm, a clean dagger flashed up towards me. In its reflection, I could see myself shaking from fear.