Chapter Text
Sanemi chest heaves. He dashes down the street, a beast high on his heels.
“Mother late right?” Genya whispered.
The moon was high in the sky and while Sanemi couldn’t rest until she walked through the door, it seemed he wasn’t the only one waiting.
“I’ll go look for her.” the oldest replied. He rose out of bed determined to do whatever it took to bring their dear mother home. She worked dawn to dusk to keep them afloat. Her struggles were never ending. He wasn’t sure if she slept anymore.
“I’ll go too!” Genya said. As he began to rustle out of the cover Sanemi told him off.
“No, you stay here.” He said to his brother’s displeasure. “Someone needs to keep the rest of them safe.”
We promised to protect our family now that that bastard man is dead.
Genya nods, “Okay Nemi.”
Sanemi smiles at his brother, “I’m counting on you Gen.”
The monster lunged at him upon reaching the street.
In an effort to keep it away from his siblings still inside their home, Sanemi grabbed a rake in the yard. He smashed over its head as hard as he could.
The beast recoiled from the blow. The sound it made was a strange cry. Not quite human but not an animal either. The broken streetlights made seeing what kind of creature it was impossible.
Upon shaking off the pain it jolted its head towards him. Sanemi couldn’t see its face but piercing white eyes met his own.
His feet were off the ground while the monster chased him on all fours.
Quickly slipping into an alley, he analyzed the environment around him. An old knife sits on the floor next to a garbage can full of trash. Sanemi wasted no time picking it up and knocking the can over. He heard the beast crash into it yet it kept chasing.
The boy dodges and weaves through the narrow street, each turn hoping the monster would get lost. It never did.
Hanging off a wall he spotted an old net. It seemed to be slightly damaged but still useful. However, it was too high for him to reach without the monster pulling him down with it.
Sanemi’s mind froze when he felt sharp claws slash his right arm.
The air in his lungs violently exhaled as he spun around, face to face with the monster.
Unable to react, it swung at him again. This time landing three slashes across his chest.
His body was tossed back and slammed into a nearby wall. His head bounced against the stone foundation. His lungs gasped for air as his visions spun. Blood seeps into his shirt as the beast licks a few drops off its claws.
Sanemi wearily sees it sway side to side from the taste. Yet whatever effect it had on them is short lived as lunges at him again.
It lands a blow across his face, slicing a trail from his nose to his check.
However, Sanemi gains enough composure to return the attack, swiping the knife at its eyes. The sickening sound resonates through the air. The blade splatters blood on the wall to his left.
It stumbles backward and Sanemi slashes its arm in retaliation. The blade lodges itself in the monster's shoulder. It screeches in pain, giving him a chance to stumble past it.
The boy scrambles to grab the net, tossing it at the monster as it meets him in the rising daylight. He quickly grabs the knife, having fallen off when it leaped for him again, and uses it to pin the net down.
Catching his breath, Sanemi looks down at the monster. All the color in his vision dulls at the sight of the being writhing and burning in the sunlight.
It was his Mother.
His kind, sweet Mother who worked hard to keep her children fed and safe. The woman who suffered day after day from her husband's abuse.
She starved herself for them. Took beatings for them.
And now … she tried to kill them?
As his mother burned in the sun Sanemi tried to understand why she would do this.
No … NO she wouldn’t do this!
She wasn’t a monster, something made her a monster!
What could he do, what was he gonna say to the others?
Genya
Before Sanemi knew it he was running back home.
They were all home alone, they were all in danger!
Please be okay, he whispers. Please don’t take them too.
Please don’t hurt Genya.
The wind pushed his every step.
The first thing he saw was the front door wide open.
Sanemi slipped on a step from running up the front porch stair. His hand clutched the doorknob at the horror scene inside.
Shuya, Hiroshi, Sumi,and Teiko were all dead by the door. Based on their positioning he assumed they were killed as the intruder entered. A deep gash on their chests seeped blood into their old wooden floor.
They probably thought it was Mom and I.
Koto was lying with a red stained blanket over his body. Despite Sanemi’s distance, he knew he wasn’t breathing. The youngest brother was too small to survive whatever wound he endured
His eyes pricked with tears. They were dead. They were all dead!
1 2 3 4 5 … 5?
Where’s Genya?
Where was his last brother, his Baby Brother!
The boy he held in place of his stupid father. The one he swore to protect till the earth stopped turning. The one who could make him believe in this cruel world.
Where is he?
Sanemi stumbled past his sibling and frantically searched the house.
“GENYA!”
“Genya, where are you?”
God don’t let him be gone too. Give me something, ANYTHING!
Just … Please
Please don’t take him too.
A whining sound hit his ears.
Hiding deep with a dark corner, was a small pair of golden eyes.
“Genya?” He questioned before it lunged at him.
Unlike his Mother, Sanemi is quick to overpower Genya. He flips himself onto the smaller boy, getting a gold look at his face.
Genya’s black Mohawk sported gold tips. His baby teeth were now sharp fangs and currently snapping at his face. Saliva pooled out of his mouth with each bite. He also had a large scar across his face, strangely matching the one their mother gave Sanemi.
His eyes were the most changed.
Once light lavender irises, a carbon copy of his own, now was gold ones drowning in a black abyss. Genya’s eyes, while not human, still had a sense of humanity in them.
The way they glinted at him showed something, someone was still in there.
Sanemi struggled to keep his hold over Genya as the boy wriggled underneath him.
“Genya calm down, it's me! It’s Nemi!”
Please, he prayed. Please don’t turn into a monster
Please don’t make me kill him too.
Genya slows his movements. His mouth stops salivating yet small growls and whimpers slip out instead.
“That’s it Gen. Your big brother is here and he’s gonna make everything okay.”
The monster boy’s gold pupils expand from his elder brother’s words. They blinked a few times before he seems to calm down.
Sanemi lets out a sigh of relief.
Upon gaining back some sense of control, Genya starts to cry.
“It’s okay Genya,” he musters out. Sanemi pulls Genya up and into his arms.
The smaller boy buries himself in his brother's chest, crying louder. It takes all of Sanemi's dwindling strength not to cry too.
“Nemi’s gonna fix this … I promise.”