FicWad

It was so...dark. Momiji whimpered, pulling his knees close to his chest and closing his eyes. It made no difference; he still saw the blackness that he had seen even with his eyes open.


He pressed his back against the wooden wall, and felt the tears grazing down his cheeks. He was so scared. His mother had forgotten him; he felt a great hole in his heart where his mother should have been.


Momiji had just awoken when his father slid open the screen door to his room.


"Hatori-san is here to see you, Momiji-chan." Momiji sat up and rubbed his eyes. His older relative, the silent and respectable Hatori Soma, looked down at him with a grim stare.
"Get dressed, Momiji. We are going to see Akito-sama." Hatori said, turning abruptly and exiting from hence he came.


Momiji looked at his father questioningly, who did the same as Hatori and left the room.

Momiji stared at the large house that was the Soma estate. He could see his breath as he sighed heavily, holding Hatori's hand. He had only been here yesterday, when he had secretly seen Hatori erase his mother's memory.


The trees shook with the wind, and Momiji shivered.


"Hatori-san?" Hatori looked down at him with a wry smile.


"What is it, Momiji-chan?" Momiji swallowed his words. He would not ask Hatori why he erased his mother's memory. It was not his fault, after all. All Momiji wanted to know was...why his mother didn't love him.

After they had gotten inside the house, Momiji was greeted by Kagura, whose usually cheerful smile had disappeared from her face. She looked down at her slippers even as she shuffled up to Momiji and Hatori.
"Akito-sama...would like to see you in the main room, Momiji-kun." Momiji nodded. Hatori kneeled down next to him.


"It will be alright, Momiji," he whispered, "Akito-sama will be gentle."
Momiji reluctantly let go of Hatori's hand and walked through the maze of halls to the small room full of his worst memories. He slid open the screen and stepped in.

This is where Momiji sat, in the darkness, sobbing. He had waited in the room for so long, and was convinced that he would not be let out. He wiped his tears away, and placed his hands on the floor. The door opened, revealing a glimpse of light around a shadowy figure. The door slid shut, and Momiji could hear the crack of a whip.


"Momiji, you have been a bad boy," The figure told, Momiji recognizing it as the feared head of the family: Akito. Momiji once again began whimpering, and absentmindedly clawed at the walls for help. Akito came closer and closer, his footsteps the only sound aside from Momiji's heartbeat.


The footsteps stopped, and the crack of the whip grew louder.
"You have been a bad boy, and your mother does not want you anymore."


"Please, Akito-samai! I have been a good boy! I swear that I have!" Momiji screamed, placing his hand in front of his face.
"Do you know what happens to bad boys who do not have a mother?" Akito asked.


"No! Please!" Momiji continued to cry, until the crack of the whip stopped sounding.
Momiji removed his hand from in front of his face, thinking that he was not going to be hurt. He sighed...and felt the whip scratch his ankles and wrists.


"No! Akito-sama, please!" Momiji cried, as his entire body ached with pain.
"You are nothing! No one wants you!" Akito laughed, and raised the whip once again.

Momiji awoke, sweating. That was the sixth time this week that he had had that dream; the memories of when he was whipped after his mother had forgotten him. He got out of bed and slid open the screen.

He could hear himself gasping for breath, and felt the
beads of sweat on his forehead. He walked down the hall to the dining room, where his father was already having a morning bowl of miso soup.


"Ohio, Momiji-chan! How did you sleep?" His father asked, smiling. Momiji rubbed the sleep from his eyes and smiled in reply.


"I slept fine. Thank you for asking. May I have a bowl of soup, otosan?" Momiji replied, gesturing to his father's.


"Of course." Momiji's father filled his bowl kindly. Momiji simply stared into his reflection of the soup.


"Is something wrong, Momiji-chan? Did you...have your dream again?" Momiji merely raised the bowl to his lips and took a silent sip.


"Momiji-chan? Momiji-chan!" Momiji placed the bowl back on the table and smiled at his father.


"No, otosan! I just...did not sleep well."
Momiji hated lying to his father, but he knew that the same thought of unrequited love that he missed also tormented his father. In the back of his mind, however, his thoughts cried out for a reason why his mother left him, and how it was his fault.