It was a bloody war. Ashes flying everywhere, and everyone lives in constant fear that their town would be pillaged- the people sold onto slavery.
Misaki was doing her best. She was in her early teens and despite only studying medicine for a year now, she was quite busy. She would work days and nights treating people, mostly wonders from other towns, who stumble in with arrows in their shoulders or cuts deep in their stomach, crawling into town- screaming for help.
Every day got harder, less and less food came in, crops were raided and destroyed, causing starvation to the town. Misaki wasn't sleeping and was starving, doing everything she could to make sure her family was healthy. The war was endless and she didn't even know how it started. Because the kingdoms were at odds? What did that have to do with her? How was she supposed to deal with that?
But that's when it happened.
When Misaki's health office went up in flames and sounds of men with weapons echoed the village.
"Hide!" Misaki's dear loving mother hushed to her with tears in her eyes, holding Misaki's little brother, stepping on a stool to lift him high into the back of the cupboards.
Her father, weak from illness helped her mother into into the closet, where he bolted it shut, closing her in with a loaf of bread, and the family's axe. His face was stern and didn't reflect too much emotions. He was keeping them together, as if his face could reflect his assurance.
Misaki was blubbering to her brother to keep quiet, helping her mother get bolted up and clutching to her father in tears. She was daddy's little girl, but she was a mess.
Whispering "I love you I love you I love you." Over and over and over again, until her father hid her in the fireplace, locking it up, as cinder and ash covered her outfit and face. Misaki curled into a ball in the corner of the fire place, every thing itchy. She held the key in her own hand, shaking.
She tried to stop breathing, stop making noise. And she stayed like that for what seemed like days. Once slip up could cause her own to be raided. They knew the will of the way at this point. The soldiers heard you itch your own sleeves.
Misaki's world went black, thinking of nothing, being nothing until the loud screams of her mother broke loose.
Misaki's eyes peeked into the living room with horror as her mother was being dragged by the hair into the living room. How they had gotten into the closet, how they got into the house without her hearing, those questions didn't even cross her mind as she watched in horror.
She covered her mouth to keep from she watches her mother get harassed, cut and tortured. Her mother's screams pierced her ears as her blood stained the carpet, until every piece of clothes were gone, and her teeth smashed into the ground, one of the soldiers stepping on her neck until she died.
Misaki would have fainted if she didn't allow herself to stay awake, in fear of getting caught. They ate lunch on her corpse, eating the loaf she had, until finding Misaki's brother.
They used the family axe to tear him limb from limb, cutting off every finger one by one, even going as far to cut off his tongue and pull out each toenail, making fun of how he cried.
"MISAKI! MISAKI!" Her little brother shouted, no pleaded.
But she couldn't do anything. She couldn't move, or she would die with him. Her dad has told her not to move, no matter what happened. She should have moved. She regretted it the rest of her life.
Misaki didn't leave that spot for two weeks, even after the men left. She sat in the fireplace until her bone thinned without food or water. She sat there, no thoughts, no feelings: just pain. She was locked up for eternity, and wishing that solider would come in and just kill her. She wanted to die with them, why she didn't she didn't know. It was that human instinct in her, the will to live. She hated it, grew to despise it. Oh God to be tortured with her family. She wished to die so much it killed the inside of her. But she couldn't. She couldn't kill herself, for it would wither her dead family with hate. All she could do is wait Wait for someone to kill her.
Her dream almost came to life when a strange man walked into her house.
By this point the smell of her dead family made a poisonous fumes that chocked anyone who came in.
But he looked fine.
He walked up to her mother's head, sitting in the pool of her blood, dipping his finger it it and drawing a smile across her cheeks, while he himself had a giddy grin.
Misaki didn't move, not for lack of trying, but soon enough, the man had snapped the lock off of the fireplace and pulled her skinny lean body out.
The cinders kept her identity a secret, while tear stains showed her pale skin. T
he man looks over her and a smile.
"Awe, I found Cinderella." He mumbles.
Misaki looks up at him, her eyes dead. "Are you a solider?" She asks, her throat dry and without emotion.
The man shook his head as she looked down at her. "I'm a solider of our kingdom, I guess I came a little too late." He opens his hand to a slip of paper to hand to her, and Misaki took it with her grungy fingers.
