I used to say I wanna die before Im old (but because of you I might think twice)

Chapter 2: Suki

Eleven-year-old Satsuki (Suki) Akiko sat bolt upright as they awoke with a start from one of their usual night terrors. Gasping for breath Suki allowed their eyes to scan the room, confirming that they weren't still dreaming. After wiping the tiredness from their eyes, Suki glanced towards their bedside table, the small digital alarm clock reading three am. From what Suki could hear, the other orphans were, thankfully, still fast asleep. Not bothering to attempt returning to sleep, Suki lifts their fatigued body up and out of bed. They knew going back to sleep on one of these nights was nothing more than wishful thinking, with their insomnia, sleep was basically impossible. Suki trudged tiredly past their roommates and into the bathroom, legs heavy with exhaustion.

Peering into the mirror, Suki pries open their sleep-ridden eyes only to see the same dark bags beneath them and the all too familiar done-with-life look on their face. Their cheeks were hollower than the last time they had a good look at themself, their complexion was paler too. Suki turned away from the mirror after washing their tear-streaked face and wandered out onto the balcony. The all too familiar dark thoughts crept back into their mind, memories from before they had developed their quirk two years ago. All the kids that had told them to jump, told them that they were defective, an animal, unlovable. 'And they don't even know how mentally broken I am yet,' Suki thinks, miserably. 'Why can't I just be normal?. A boy or girl like everyone else?' Tears filled their eyes once again but Suki didn't dare let them spill down their cheeks, The other kids would never let Suki live that down and they didn't need the bullying to get any worse.

Suki let their body slide down against the balcony railing, curling themself into a tight ball, making themself as small as they could manage. Suki wanted nothing more than to disappear. At last, Suki freely let the tears cascade down their small freckled face as they tugged at their too-long dark hair, hoping for the turmoil to stop. A while later, Suki was completely exhausted from letting out the emotions they tried so hard to bottle up.

When Suki finally stopped sobbing, they stood up, drying the tear stains from their cheeks and briskly walked back to their shared bedroom, trying their hardest to stay quiet so as not to wake anyone up. Suki glanced at the clock once again. Being almost four am, Suki's eyes widened as they heard footsteps echoing down the corridor towards their bedroom at the end of the hallway. 'Shoot,' they thought as they remembered the timetable of the caretaker's nightshift. It was routine for one of them to check that everyone was asleep and Suki didn't want to get in trouble again. They hastily clambered back into bed and slipped under the covers, desperately hoping that the caretaker hadn't heard their desperate dash into bed. Suki's worries ceased as they heard the footsteps slowly retreat down the hallway.

Suki peeled open their eyes again, forgoing another futile attempt to sleep. Instead, they proceeded to stare at the blank white ceiling until sunrise.

Although Suki was still exhausted, they lay in their bed straining their ears to hear the birds sing their morning melody of little tweets and the wind susurrating the leaves of the large oak trees outside. It was a surprisingly peaceful morning, all things considered. Suki could have laid there for hours just listening to the soothing sounds of nature. Unfortunately, the ear-splitting morning alarm bell rang, snapping Suki out of their peaceful trance. They begrudgingly lifted themself out of bed to begin getting ready for school.

Suki walked through the gates of Aldera Elementary school, clad in the icky girl's uniform they were forced to wear, shouldering a heavy, torn-up, denim backpack. Just like their clothes, the school itself was run down and broken. Safe to say it had more than one broken window and its fair share of graffitied walls. Thankfully for Suki, this would be their last day attending this shitty school. Of course, after the break, they'd have to deal with a whole new middle school and a whole new set of bullies but they'd rather not think about that for now. The bell rang, irritating as always, signifying first period. Suki had English first. They groaned and sluggishly made their way to the run-down classroom, dreading the bullies that they knew awaited their arrival.

As soon as Suki walked into the classroom they tripped over someone's leg and face planted into the dirt-covered floorboards. They slowly stood up rubbing their nose tenderly as the other students laughed at them. Suki sat down and found the usual rude notes and red spider lilies on their graffitied desk. They disregarded them and without looking, threw them in the bin. Soon Suki would be at a new school with (hopefully) fewer death-threats. They couldn't wait to get out of this shit hole. The other classes went pretty much the same way and when the final bell rang that afternoon, Suki said a relieved goodbye, once and for all, to the place they called hell on earth.