Children of the Night

"Katsumi? Katsumi what are you doing?" Akihiro called through the thick wooden door.

"Coming brother!" Katsumi called back, quietly shutting her laptop and slipping it under her bed. She jumped up off her bed and answered the door, Akihiro stood there impatiently, tapping his foot, making a dull thudding noise. Katsumi rolled her eyes and looked expectantly at her brother.

"Come, little sister, you have chores." Her brother was big on the "keeping in touch with our japanese heritage" so, he insisted on calling his sister, little sister or Katsumi when all of her friends called her Kat.

Kat groaned and shuffled out the door, keeping her head down and scuffing her shoes against the rough unpolished wood. The house was old and tiny. Her parents who she barely remembered had bought the house after her father had finished school and her mother had finally gotten her reluctant father's permission to leave Japan. Kat's dad was a grad student with a japanese background but, was clearly american. However, her mom was born and raised in Tokyo. That's why Kat and her brother had japanese names, Katsumi meaning, Victorious beauty, and Akihiro meaning, bright scholar, shining abroad. Anyway, her parents had not had much money considering her mother's father had disowned his own daughter for marrying Kat's father.

Katsumi did not know what happened to her parents, she was about two years old when the incident happened. She had blocked all memories of that night locked in a secret vault in her mind, which even she, did not know how to open.

Kat continued her pouty routine all the way to the small galley kitchen. She rolled up her sleeves and got to work, she picked up a chipped white plate and scrubbed in rythym to her brother's earnest, truncated whistling. This was a weekend tradition, dishes and boredom. Kat gazed out the window above the sink, watching the wind gently sway the walnut trees in the distance. She looked down again and placed the wet dish on the counter and picked up another. When she got into the scrubbing swing she looked up and out the window again. Instead of the quiet scene of the trees, there was a man standing staring at Katsumi, with a certain dangerous vehemance she didn't understand. She let out a startled gasp and dropped the plate into the sink, splashing water on herself.

Kat looked up again, he was gone. She glanced around, the whistling had stopped. "Akihiro?" she whispered. She slowly made her way out of the kitchen and into the small living room. Her brother lay on the floor twitching and braying like a donkey, the man Kat had seen was crouching over him. Kat suddenly noticed sucking sounds, soft at first then louder and vicious. She let out a small cry, the man looked up, his eyes were as red as the blood dribbling down his chin. She recognized him, somewhere...

Kat lay over her mother crying, her little figure shuttering with sob. Her father had told her to hide, she hadn't listened, her mother was in trouble. "Mommy..." she cooed softly and wrapped her tiny arms around her mother's bloody neck.

"Katsumi!" her father thundered.

She looked up innocently with wide eyes. The man appeared behind her daddy. Kat shreiked.

"Run." Her father told her, as the man bit into her dad's neck, warm blood spurted incessantly out onto the floor and on Kat's face. She was crying even harder now. She shakily tried to do as her father said. The man looked up and glared at her with blood red eyes, bloodlust was clear in them. "I'll find you girl." He spat and finished her father in one large bite. This was motivation enough for her, she ran until she could'nt anymore. She prayed to find her brother who had already fleed the mess. "Please..." she whispered over and over again.

Kat stood once more in her living room, facing the man who had killed her family twelve years before. "Please..." she murmered like she had done before. The man grinned, "I said I would find you..." He cackled harshly and lunged for Kat. She couldn't seem to move, it all happened so fast. A sharp pain coursed through her, infested itself in her veins, she fought the urge to scream. Her vision turned red and the inky black embrace of unconsiousness washed over her.

Katsumi lifted her head, disoriented. "Where... am I...?" She mumbled aloud.