The little girl, unaware of that depth, never gave up. She learned how to do chores to ease her mother’s burden, learned how to cook so she wouldn’t have to worry after long days at work. She welcod her ho with warm hugs, clinging to her as if that alone could make things better. Sotis, when her mother had already fallen asleep, she would quietly lean in and press a soft kiss against her cheek, hoping without knowing why that it might reach her.
Kei could only watch. Tears stread down her face as the truth settled in once more. She saw how utterly lost and empty the woman was... and how painfully clueless the girl remained, loving with all her heart, never realizing how little she could actually save.
And then ca the day that shattered everything. On the girl’s fourteenth birthday, her mother gave her a present, one that would scar her for the rest of her life. Crushed beneath debts with no escape in sight, her mother remarried. She brought ho a man wearing a smile that didn’t reach his eyes, a presence that made the air itself feel wrong. A monster, hiding behind the title of husband.
By then, the girl had grown gloomy and withdrawn. Years of bullying at school had chipped away at her will, leaving her with only a handful of distant friends and fragile confidence. Yet even so, that day she stood there with hope still clinging to her heart, a small smile on her face, waiting...waiting to give her mother a warm hug, to celebrate together, to feel like a family again.
But before she could move, soone else did. The man stepped forward and pulled her into his arms. Too tight...Too close. She froze as his hands pressed against her, her protests ignored, her body stiff with fear. She tried to pull away, her voice trembling, but he only held her firr, as if her resistance amused him.
Kei felt rage boil inside her. She scread, tried to rush forward, tried to strike him, to tear him away from the girl but it was useless. She was nothing more than a spectator, trapped behind glass. The nightmare had begun.
"No...get away from her...!"
"You fucking asshole...!"
"Mom...just do sothing! Please...don’t just stand there!"
Kei’s voice cracked as she scread, desperation spilling from every word. Her eyes searched her mother’s face, begging for help, for protection, for anything. But the woman didn’t move. She just stood there.
Frozen...Silent...Broken...
Kei could only watch, helpless, as her pleas echoed unanswered, as the woman she trusted most remained rooted in place too weak, too afraid, or too empty to act. And in that mont, Kei could see sothing inside the girl fractured beyond repair not loudly, not all at once. But enough to ensure that nothing in her life would ever feel safe again.
Kei suddenly woke up. Her eyes stared into a hazy blur, unfocused, as tears stread silently down the sides of her face. She didn’t move at first just lay there, breathing shallowly, her mind struggling to separate mory from reality. The weight of what she had just witnessed pressed heavily against her chest. After a while, she lifted a trembling hand and covered her eyes, drawing in deep, uneven breaths as if trying to ground herself.
"It’s only been two years since then...." she muttered weakly.
"...Feels like far too much ti has passed... huh..."
Her hand slid from her face to her hair, fingers brushing against her temple as she tried to wipe away the tears. Yet they kept coming, warm and unrelenting, flowing as if her body hadn’t realized the pain was supposed to be buried by now. She exhaled slowly, staring blankly ahead awake once more, but with wounds that clearly hadn’t healed.
"Forget it... I’m strong enough now," Kei said quietly, a strange, steel-hard determination settling into her voice.
"No one is ever going to take advantage of again. Never."
She clenched her fist, knuckles whitening. After lingering on those mories for a mont longer, she straightened and looked around, confusion quickly replacing resolve.
"...Where am I?" she asked aloud "My shoulder hurts...but how" putting one hand over her arm.
"What the hell...where did I end up...This is literally the middle of fucking nowhere."
She pressed a hand to her head as a dull headache throbbed behind her eyes, forcing herself to think, to rember. Then, suddenly, her expression froze.
"Oh... right," she muttered. "I died."
Her lips curved into a dark, crooked smile.
"So this is the afterlife? Doesn’t really look like heaven to ... hahahaha."
She laughed softly at her own joke, the sound hollow, echoing strangely in the empty space around her.
"Anyway... looks like I survived the fall," Kei muttered to herself.
"But how? I was pretty sure I was a goner back there... and..."
Her thoughts cut off abruptly. She started looking around herself.
"...Where’s that arrogant fool?"
The mont Kelly crossed her mind, Kei started looking around in a panic, scanning her surroundings for any sign of him. Then her gaze landed on a figure nearby and she froze. For a full minute, she just stood there, unable to process what she was seeing. Her brain refused to accept it, desperately trying to rationalize the scene in front of her. After forcing herself to breathe and blink a few tis, she finally whispered, utterly stunned,
"What in the living hell is this...and who is that white hot dude"
Getting over her shock and after so hesitation Kei took her first step towards the man who was laying on the dirt floor, for Kei the scenery was nothing sort of poetic in the empty and barren corridor Kelly stood out like a porcelain doll.
’Is that...no way...just what happened...and isn’t it his summon’
As Kei kept on getting closer to Kelly she was having more questions play in her mind, as she saw an empty husk of so beast with terror still placed on its face at the sa ti she also a white raven with fresh blood still flowing from its body recognizing it as one who helped her in the fight before she moved in its direction and crouched down, touching its beautiful mane and said.
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