Second Story Window

With war reaching our country, we were thrust into time of madness and disarray, especially since the tragic death of my husband, after the birth of my third child, Nui. Life wasn't all too perfect but we made the best of it, however, something in my oldest child, Satsuki, had slowly changed and I had grown alarmed, yet I was powerless to much of anything since the experts were doing nothing to help us, stating she would grow out of it or something that effect, when it was clear it wasn't, and I felt it would be too cruel to place her in an asylum. It wasn't all that long ago since the war and I still have yet to find out what had happened to Nui, who had disappeared soon after her birth. However, in trying to care for my older two children, I still question Nui's disappearance and do hope to someday be reunited with her.

While the country was war-torn, we lived free, however, I had a feeling we were living like birds in gilded cages, especially when we moved to an old house. It was a big old house with two stories and had some disrepair. It used to be a shade of greyish-lilac in terms of paint. It was often infested with mice, rats, and spiders, along with latter's feces and ensuing cobwebs. It was surrounded by dead grass and few flowers, along with the remains of trees. It was the kind of place that people would claim to be haunted and it may as well be, since not too many made the house a permanent home and Satsuki's pained screams could be heard echoing in the wind.

As time had gone on and while we had begun our lives in that old house, Satsuki's illness had worsened. Her deliriums were often frequent and came with increasing severity. After some time, reality became all but nonexistent, although, we couldn't really tell if that were the case. Like myself, Ryuuko was also affected, being too young to comprehend what was going on. However, I was to find us thrust into even more madness in light of Rei's suicide. Tragedy had struck us yet again when we had discovered her hanging from the rafters in the room we were in was the last in the hall, at the very end. She never gave any reasons or hints and neither did she leave a note. She seemed to be as content from what I could see but looks can be deceiving. In Satsuki's madness, she blamed me for her death and said that I will have killed her and Ryuuko, too. I never could understand what she's meant, although a lingering feeling seemed to spell trouble. I was wrong to ignore that feeling.

In ignoring that feeling, tragedy had almost struck us yet again. I was just walking through the house, when I had heard a noise coming from the room at the end. To investigate, I opened the door and, to my horror, I found Satsuki holding the Ryuuko, while the window was open. "Fly away." I heard her whisper and, before I could stop her, she had dropped Ryuuko out of the window. Before she jumped and as I called her name, she looked at me, smiled, and said, "See? I told you, Mommy, you killed Rei and now you've killed me and Ryuu, too."

She leaped out of that window, hitting the ground below. I was shocked, horrified, and overcome with grief. Without hesitance, I hurried down the stairs and ran outside, to where they were. To my slight relief, they were both alive, although injured, however, I felt I was to blame for what happened to us, with all these tragedies and the attempted murder suicide by oldest child. No one should have to live this way, especially them.

When my daughters had recovered and after I had seen Nui again, I left them in the care of the Mankanshokus. From what I heard, they are living well and Sats seemed to have regained her sanity. Of course, I could never be for sure and we would never see each other again. It's better that way