Faded Memories

“I have to go to school?”
Shigure smiles, “Yes, you do. You will go take the entrance exam with Kyo today.”
I hear some bangs and turn to see Kyo lying at the bottom of the staircase. “Wait, what!?!?! I have to start school too!?!?!”
“Yes, Kyo, you must attend school as well,” Shigure says.

Kyo and I stand in the school office, waiting for our turn to take the entrance exam. I sit down in a chair and watch Kyo pace back and forth.
“Ruki Sohma, come take the exam.” I stand up and enter the small room. After about an hour I walk out into the waiting area and see Kyo still pacing back and forth.
“Kyo Sohma, come take the exam.” Kyo walks through the door leading to the small room I just left.
It seems to take Kyo longer than me to finish because I fall asleep. Kyo pokes me until I open my eyes and then he yells in my ear. I jump out of the chair and fall on my face on the floor a few feet away. “You didn’t have to yell!”
“Well you were out of it. I have some bad news though.”
I look at him. “What’s the bad news?”
He looks at me for a moment and then says, “We both passed.”
I laugh at Kyo. “If you really didn’t want to go to school, why didn’t you fail on purpose?”
He just stares at me and shouts, “Why didn’t I think of that!?”
I stand up and grab his arm and pull him towards the door. “Yep, just like old times. You haven’t changed much. Let’s go buy some uniforms; be happy that tomorrow is Saturday.”

When Kyo and I walk back inside Yuki and Shigure are in a deep discussion. “What are you two talking about?”
Shigure looks up at me and rubs the back of his neck. “Well…there was a…incident in the woods around the house…”
I immediately blurt out, “It involved that girl, didn’t it.”
Yuki stares at me for a moment. “How do you know about her?”
“Well, I was kind of here at the house since midnight the day before I shown myself…”
“You were hiding in the bushes weren’t you?” Kyo smirks while he speaks.
I blush and elbow him in the gut. “Shut up Kyo. So, what were you saying about and incident?”
“Well,” Shigure rubs his neck again, “there was a landslide.”
I stare at Shigure. “Sh-she’s d-de-dead?” But, before he can answer I turn and run up the stairs.
I don’t answer when I hear Kyo knocking on my bedroom door and yelling for me to unlock it. He finally stops and everything is quiet for a minute. I hear someone knock on the door and I unlock it. “Come in.”
Yuki walks in the room quietly, but he doesn’t walk any farther than the threshold. “I know you don’t take death well.”
I don’t turn around to look at him. Death is an open wound to me.

I was seven when it happened. I had a brother who was nine and a little sister who was five. That year was when my curse made its appearance. My family knew I changed into a white cat, but no one else knew until that year. I went to the zodiac festival that year. At the festival a boy had bumped into me and I changed. I was waiting for everyone to insult me, for I was cursed with the zodiac cat. What surprised me was that everyone seemed impressed. Akito saw and explained my curse to my family. He called it a blessing. The white cat and the cat are like yin and yang. The white cat is a blessing and the cat is a curse. I didn’t trust Akito’s word though. Even after my parents told me that I did not have to wear my bracelet, I did.
About a month after the festival, my parents died. The day of their funeral Akito told me that he poisoned them. He was not happy that I would take his place.
After my parent’s death, Akito began beating my brother and sister, forcing me to watch. I begged Hatori to erase my memory, but he said Akito ordered him not to. After months of beatings, my younger sister died and my older brother committed suicide.
At my brother’s funeral, I was sent to live with Shigure. Later, I met Yuki and Kyo. They became my new family and if I ever heard anything having to do with death I would hide in my room.

“Yuki, I’m fine. I never met her, so I am only dealing with my memories.” I hear footsteps and feel Yuki put his hand on my shoulder.
“You don’t have to hold back tears around me Ruki.” I turn and lay my head against his chest and let the tears come out.

I stare at the ceiling of my room, feeling fatigue avoid me. I sit up and look at my clock. “Its midnight,” I whisper. I stand up and begin walking towards the ladder leading up to the roof.
I peek over the top of the roof and see a figure laying there. “Hey,” I shout and watch Kyo nearly fall off the roof.
“Are you trying to kill me?!”
I walk over and sit beside Kyo. “No, but I can’t sleep. Every time I close my eyes I see my brother and sister being beaten. I am afraid that I might dream of something even worse.” I hold my head in my hands and let out a deep sigh.
“I am so sorry but I wasn’t allowed to talk to you earlier. I don’t know why but the door was locked until Yuki knocked on it,” Kyo mumbles, clearly hurt.
I lean forward and try to look at Kyo’s face but he turns away, “Kyo, just look at me.” He doesn’t move. “Please…”
He sighs and looks at me. “Why is eye contact so important to you?”
“Well, I don’t remember what my parents’ faces looked like or their names. Or my siblings, all I remember are that my sister’s name was Lani and my brother’s name was Koln. I guess that’s why I care so much. I don’t want to forget anyone ever again.”
I can tell Kyo understands what I mean; he lost his parents when he was little. “You know,” Kyo says, “we have a lot of things in common.”
“Such as having a horrible childhood, hating Akito, beings cats, losing our parents at a young age. Am I leaving anything out?”
Kyo thinks for a minute and says, “Both of us hate school, and we both run away to the mountains. I think that covers it.”
I laugh. “Oh yeah, I forgot about those points.”