_________________________________________________________________________________________

Thank you for reading my story. I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing this !

- Lorime

_________________________________________________________________________________________

TW: [Abuse/attempted SA/Murder]

----------------------------------------

This story is one that disappoints... Just like what my life had been up until the day I turned 20. The day I was saved from the monstrosity of this world.

You see, before that I'd known 175320 hours, 10519200 minutes and 63115200 seconds aka 20 years of pure despair. My mother easily held the title of worse human on earth. She had this uncontrollable lust for money that made her do anything, including putting my life in jeopardy. She raised me until I was 14, in one of the worst areas in the country. Of course her mommy-shifts were rare, prioritizing being in the streets getting drunk and seeking out men to support her for the next year. I honestly don't how I made it out of infancy.

Mother beat me, slept around and exposed me to weird men but I had one caring and protective neighbor who would listen. Since the first time I reported to old neighbor Hana that this man mommy had brought home had tried touching my leg when she was asleep, she'd taken me in every time mommy brought a man around. I didn't know why. She'd just told me to listen to her so I did. It had become a routine even. I would be isolating in the apartment watching shows while mommy would be somewhere else and old lady Hana would stare at her direct view of the gates like an hawk every time the sound of mommy's cheap laugh came around. She'd give me a signal from her window if I needed to come to her or not. Most times I didn't, but these other times were just as often and for long periods.

I didn't know then what it was for but I knew to trust her. I'd learned early that I hated mom. So I liked anyone like old lady Hana that stood in the doorway and told her everything I wanted to tell her out loud and in the most embarrassing way possible. I loved it even. The whole building hated her. And that was why it remained my favorite place in the world. From the eyes of our very wealthy neighbors this rotting and cheap building was a sore but to us lower beings aka to me it was luxury at the time. Especially after I met him.

I still remember the day I first saw him. 5 years now of doing the same routine with old lady Hana. Mother had beat me so bad earlier in the day that my eye had swelled up. Usually after her angry beatings I hid away from everyone but old lady Hana had insisted that I come see her if it ever happened again so I did. From the face she had made that day I could tell this time was special. She'd took me in with tears in her eyes and old lady Hana never cried. She never smiled either. Others in the building called her a grumpy old lady. She was harsh with her words with anyone else. Most people actually disliked her. The sentiment was shared with me when I'd attempted to play with the other children from our compound. They'd told me their parents heeded them to stay away from both me and her. So it was very foreshadowing seeing these rare tears rolling down her wrinkly face that day. She cared... A lot.

And as she told me to wait for her while she got her nursing equipment from her room, I noticed him in a corner. I'd spent a lot of time in her presence and I'd never seen her get visitors. She actually didn't receive anyone at all. All deliveries were told to leave the package at her door. Yet here he was. He looked older than me. I was 14 at the time and he looked legal. He didn't come closer nor try to say a word. He simply stared in my direction with a look still hard to translate to this day. I know one thing now though... It wasn't pity.

Old lady Hana finished dealing with my wounds in pure silence. Her eyes now dry, she simply stared ahead at me. By then it had been 5 whole years that we'd installed this routine of me running away from my problems and straight to her. She never asked me questions though. Actually, old lady Hana never spoke until I spoke to her. We communicated mostly with head and hand signals for some reason. But when we were alone I'd chat her ear off because I finally could. And she listened.

That day she spoke first though, her choice of words never to forget.

"Your mother is a fool Izumi..."

I remained silent. Not at all because I was shocked by her choice of words but more stunned by the anger I could read on her face. That was hate if it ever had a face. And her next words would confirm it.

"You're a bright child and she just isn't equipped with the ability to either nurture it nor appreciate it."

She paused and then her face turned in the direction of her corridor where the young man had been standing earlier. Her movements stopped for a long minute. The silence persisted even more as she remained lost in thought. And finally, as her hands touched one another suddenly in a rubbing motion she finally turned to me. Her eyes unrecognizable. Dark, unfamiliar and intimidating. They left me wondering again just who was this?

"What do you want to be when you're older, child?"

As my mouth opened to answer her she cut me off.

"Think about this really well. I'll give you 10 minutes."

She suddenly stood up and walked away, just to come back a few seconds later with a large mirror.

My face drew to her in confusion, but she didn't look at me. Putting a cup behind the mirror to keep it still so that my face remains right in the frame, she finally crossed gazes with me and she knew I had questions. So an answer followed shortly after.

"Face this mirror and picture your life in its entirety. What it's been this whole time and then I want you to picture your future. What you want it to look like as well. Think about three things. Were you pained? Just how much? And what or who caused it. Ponder on that to get your answer. I'll be back in 10 minutes."

And as these 10 long minutes went by I pictured it all. How the first time I lost a teeth wasn't thanks to the tooth fairy but to my mother's beatings. How other children mocked me in school because I always showed up with shabby clothes and neglected meals. How sometimes I stared at mother with so much hate that I scared myself when I considered doing something about it. The many times I thought about running away from here but not having anywhere to go. The several times old lady Hana was a step away from lunging at my mother who complained about her protecting me. I thought about it all. About the utter poverty I'd always known and how now that I was old enough I was always getting small jobs to pay the bills mother neglected. Yet of course she noticed and her abuse became even worse. It turned financial. She stole the money I made from my own sweat and tears and never felt apologetic about it. She rather threw it in my face that that was the least I could do for not throwing me out her house. This was the source of our argument today again and I'd had enough. Sooo, enough.

I didn't know what exactly I wanted in life though. But I knew one thing. I wanted to be free. And if that cost anything... I wanted exactly that.

When old lady Hana came back, her unfamiliar look was still on. I wondered if this was really her but it was. I knew this was probably her. And even though she had never told me nothing about herself. Even though I knew there were a lot of bad people living within the walls of this building none had cared for me like she had and for that she won my trust. She never took or asked anything of me and that in of itself spoke volume. Whoever this was behind these intimidating and murder appetite filled eyes was my destiny.

"Freedom."

I'd uttered a single word but suddenly a wild evil smile was plastered on her face like I'd recited her favorite melody. She nodded and the next second he was there.

He was indeed older. And he looked as intimidating as she did.

"His name is Itachi." She introduced.

Eyes black as night. The man didn't speak though. He continued staring at me with a very judgmental look. Almost like he didn't approve of my presence. But I didn't let that disturb me. That was not a new feeling to me.

"This is her." She said again. And my eyes immediately went to her in confusion. Who was he and what had she told him about me?

"She is too young."

"And ready to be trained."

"She's an outsider."

"Who has the level of intelligence and level headedness needed."

They both continued looking at me as my eyes went back and forth in between their banters.

"I already told you I didn't want this."

"I already told you that you have a responsibility."

"Which is not to be respected now."

"A responsible leader prepares adequately to confront his future tasks."

He suddenly sighed and walked around the table to get a drink of water. While facing his back I stared and analyzed everything about him.

He was tall, his hair very long and and his skin sickly pale. The part I'd noticed first though was his eyes. He had very soul grabbing eyes. He was attractive. Not the type of attractive the other 14 year old girls liked though. He was too broody and his energy too dark and intimidating for them. But for some reason in my head it was everything. It made me relate. I wanted to know everything about him then. And if I understood something then It was that whatever old lady Hana was discussing involved me and him. In which way I didn't know but it couldn't be worse than mother.

I hadn't noticed though that the whole time my eyes had been on him, old lady Hana had been staring right at my face. And it definitely seemed like she could read my mind because she was nodding like she'd made her decision.

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

She suddenly stood and walked away. Confused, I watched her disappear out the front door and heard the lock.

The next second he was right in my face. A sword in hand. The room suddenly dark and crows flying from all over the place. His eyes the most terrifying thing I'd ever seen. And as I almost released and gut wrenching cry I noticed I suddenly couldn't speak. His hand grabbing my face tightly and his eyes suddenly scarlet red.

What was happening?

I was scared, terrified even. I wanted to cry but a voice in my head told me to trust old lady Hana. I remembered the many times she'd sat there and listened to my pains. I remembered earlier today when I saw her release tears in my stead. I trusted her. Whatever this was was to be trusted.

So easily I calmed down and slowly opened my eyes. Even though all the hairs on my skin were raised at the menacing energy facing me I stared back at the boy with all my might. His eyes told many stories. Behind the shield the threatening energy these bloody moons released was someone who was just like me. Who knew what being part of the one percent really was. I could feel it. I trusted him all of the sudden. It was actually ridiculous but in all my lack of understanding and awareness of my current situation, my gut told me this was my destiny. So I greeted it with everything strength I had.

This lasted minutes. Bloody eyes staring right through me with a scary aura. And once he released my face I suddenly felt weak. I knew something had just taken place but I didn't know. All I knew was that I was on the floor, slowly losing consciousness.

The last thing I remember seeing was him disappearing behind the front door and old lady Hana kissing me goodbye on the forehead. That was the last thing I remembered.

_________________________________________________________________________________________

After this, my life changed drastically. Coincidently, someone reported the abuse to authorities and my mother lost my custody. I didn't care that I was going in the system at all. What I cared more about was that after that day I never saw old lady Hana or him again. It was as if she'd never lived there.

The feeling was painful, this realization that the one person that I thought cared about me had also abandoned me like everyone else. She'd done it in the most hurtful way possible as well. After giving me the hope that I'd never allowed myself to entertain ever. The hope that I could wish for a better reality than what I'd been living this entire time. The hope that I'd finally found my village and that I could finally rely on someone.

This made me bitter. And as the years went on and I moved from houses to houses because of the flawed child service system I turned oh so bitter. She should've taken me with her. She knew I didn't care where and how. She knew I only had her. Was that why she had left me there by myself? Why would she abandon me like that after raising my expectations for freedom so much?

The bitterness made me defensive. Which ended up being bad for my social life but perfect for my own protection because of course the foster men in these houses that I was assigned to couldn't keep their hands to themselves. They lusted on the fact that I never spoke, they fantasized about the possibility of abusing me and me not being able to do anything about it. But boy were they in for a huge surprise.

I wasn't 9 anymore running to old lady Hana for help. I was now 19 and very much aware of what it meant when your foster father tried entering your room late at night while everyone else was out of town for a birthday weekend. And he'd found just the right girl to attack because I was ready. I'd nurtured all this bitterness and turned it into a hard armor. It had happened before and I had not done anything about it but report it and they swiftly removed me from his custody. But this particular one was an bastard.

56, newly unemployed because of his hot temper. The man loathed women and I had no clue how his wife ever married him. The woman was also a bitch but I could understand why. He beat her every single day. I had no doubt this vacation was their attempt at running away. It was easy to tell even. She wasn't the smartest women, the luggages were too packed and the items they took were too precious for a simple weekend trip. But she was discreet enough for a stupid man like him not to notice though. Or at least care to notice more than his sickly lust for me.

I knew she was aware her husband had an appetite for me. She knew it very well since she only locked her two daughters' room at night and didn't give me any key for my room. It was very much conscious the many times she exposed me to him to distract him from them. And their plan had worked. They could all go fuck themselves though. None of them knew this since I lied on my resume about my birth date, but tonight I had turned 20.

And I'd mentally promised myself to be free then. It was signed somewhere in my mind that this day was special. That it would be the start of something. I couldn't explain it but it just was. And that meant bad news for this man that suddenly had his hand on my leg.

It was 2:35AM, I stared at the clock quietly as his heavy breathing came to my left ear. It was his 7th attempt and I'd counted. I always found a way to lock my door with furniture so he stopped trying for a long time but tonight I knew he would try again. And there was my birthday gift.

A dark voice kept repeating in my head to let go of the light, let myself go and finally embrace what I always knew I wanted. The darkness. I knew this hate I'd nurtured for years was meant to come out one day and I had chosen today to be the day. I would let the world finally hear my name for the first time in the most horrific and traumatizing way imaginable. Murder had been on my mind for years. Weird because I initially couldn't stand blood but since that unforgettable day at old lady Hana's house, I had grown a taste and obsession for red.

In one second I was on top of him under my sheets. The darkness was covering the whole room but I could see the level of surprise on his face. I could feel his disgusting hardness on my leg and how it jumped up even more once I faced him with a smile. Poor man... He thought he was getting the special treatment.

"I want you..."

He planted his face in my neck and smelled me with his horrendous beard scratching at my skin and I simply stared ahead. Considering which way to slice him first. I had considered where would be the most painful place to stab first but I still wasn't sure.

He started sucking at my neck and grabbing my breasts as I considered. The cooking knife sitting pretty unbeknownst to him under the pillow he was currently laying his head on.

Cutting him in pieces would take days and I knew visitors were due tomorrow. As much as I knew I would take his life tonight I cared enough not to traumatize the two boys his younger sister had. They were very cute and sweet. They were probably the only ones that deserved to get as less trauma from my rampage than any other person involved here in mine.

My mind suddenly was pulled back to the present as I felt his hand in my underwear and suddenly... I lost it. There was no time to think with this pig.

The next second my two hands were on his neck. The man was bigger sized so I'd conveniently attached a rope to the two edges of my bed that I wrapped around his neck in multiple rounds of tightness. After 5 rounds he was red and choking, scratching at the rope in despair. I drew my face close to him and loosened the rope to let him speak.

Of course he begged, promised to leave and leave me alone. But he just didn't get it. This was not me anymore... I couldn't understand anything other than the need for feeding my lust for blood.

But suddenly he said something that caught my attention.

"Your eyes!... Wha-...who are you!"

And as I looked up at my reflection in the small decorative mirror right above my bed I noticed it.

In the darkness still but they were clear as day.

These were the same eyes this guy had that one time.

What was this?

Moving away from the bed, I rushed to the bathroom in my underwear with my foster father begging me to release him. However, the room was mute to me. My focus zoomed on these scarlet eyes.

What was this? What did it mean?

I scratched my face and slapped myself as I continued staring in the bathroom light. Just what did this mean ? And as I got closer to the mirror I noticed a small sign in it. But I didn't have time to think... The next second my face was pushed in the mirror.

What a rookie mistake to leave your prey unattended. I'd underestimated his ability to free himself for some reason but who could've predicted anything that had just happened tonight really?

"You bitch!" He shouted as he punched me again on the head then grabbed my hair to drag me back into the room. I let him. He didn't know that he was probably safer in the bathroom than here with my collection of knives secretly placed in every corner. He placed my head in the bed, no care for me to breathe, no care for anything. His focus was lunging himself inside of me as he'd plastered my legs wide open.

There was no time to consider where to stab anymore. It was now or never. So as disappointing of a quick death he didn't deserve it was, I chose the throat. He continued to struggle to accomplish his sexual goal with me moving as much as I could, and when he finally released me for one second to turn me around, probably to slap or threaten me, of course, he wouldn't get that far. As soon as he gave me the opening I removed my hand from his grip and collected the knife from the pillow. A smile of victory on my face once I felt it, but something I never would've predicted happened.

The next second I felt warm wetness splash all over me in my underwear. The darkness slowed my ability to process what had just happened.

Then slowly, I turned my face to where his face should've been but there was none of it.

A loud thumb echoed in my ear and his shadow disappeared from above me. I looked around trying to adjust to the darkness again but it was suddenly impossible. I couldn't see anything. Suddenly panicked I got up to run in the direction of the light switch when my eyes finally adjusted and I noticed not one but multiple shadows all present in the room.

Confused to the highest level, I suddenly heard a familiar laugh. But that was impossible or was I in some kind of trance? The light switch was suddenly triggered and there she was.

Old lady Hana.

She was smiling at me in a way that seemed satisfied and proud. Her eyes slid up and down at me and that's when I noticed that I was drenched in blood. Turning my gaze back in the direction of where my foster dad should've been, suddenly the world stopped.

The room was full of men in black, all looking menacing and sophisticated. But the one that grabbed my attention with a familiar violence I'd witnessed years ago was him.

In all black. Hair the same length, that familiar sword in his hand, decorated with the filthy blood of this scum.

He stared back quietly but his eyes also roamed up and down on my body covered of his work. It was probably a sight. I was now 20. Nothing like that 14 year old and I'd grown well and just right.

His eyes came back to mine and I knew exactly what this all meant. That day years ago, he'd marked me. Unbeknownst to me this had been my destiny all along and he was finally here to collect.

The voice of old lady Hana echoed behind me and I graced her with my attention as quickly as she spoke.

"Welcome to freedom."

With this she covered my body with a dark clothe and I lost it. Falling to my knees I sobbed, loud and hard. Not because that bastard was dead at all, he could die a million more times a more painful death. I could give two shits. No. Right now, I was realizing that old lady Hana had never left me. She'd never abandoned me like I thought. It was good to see her. This feeling that was grabbing me by the throat was happiness. It left me stunned and in awe. The realization that I deserved something like this was incredible. And just as I continued sobbing, her warm hand fell onto my cheek.

Looking up I stared back and it's like she understood. She pulled me back up and that's when Itachi spoke.

"Are we ready?"

Her eyes still on me, she simply nodded.

Turning to him again, I watched how all the men in the black disappeared away from the room swiftly until it was just us left. He walked up to me with his sword dragging on the floor behind him, stopping merely a feet away from me.

"If you own anything precious to you here that you'd like to take with you to the underworld, do so now. Once we leave there's no returning here."

He looked the same. Just more matured and older. And as I considered his words I realized there was really nothing to consider. I would throw this life to the fire if that meant finally understanding and living the true meaning of freedom.

"Nothing."

He nodded and quietly disappeared as well.

As I noticed the spot he was just standing seconds ago empty I turned to old lady Hana confused but she simply smiled again.

"Ready?"

I nodded.

She then grabbed my hand and there it was. Freedom. Or so I thought...

_________________________________________________________________________________________

To be continued...

_________________________________________________________________________________________

I post the following chapters after at least 10 comments. It's already written so participate to the quota if you want it. Thanks!

- Lorime

___________________________________________________________________________________