"Futsume! Where are you going?!" Grandmother called, attempting to stop me from fleeing the manor.
I paid her no attention and slipped through the bars of the iron gate, feeling the sharp sting of metal scratch my leg. It didn't matter, I hated this place and if escaping meant bleeding then I'd endure it.
It was cold, I could hear the soft pattering of raindrops hitting the brick pathway leading away from the house. I made a sharp turn into the trees, veering off the path and plunging into the dark woods surrounding the property.
Memories of the past week flooded my head, playing back like a film tape.
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"Futsume, this will be your new home. You will live with us from now on, I hope we can get along." Grandpa said, kneeling down beside me and holding out his hand. I turned away, refusing to shake his hand.
"It's not like I want to be here, I don't have a choice either way." I muttered, taking my suitcase from the butler's hands and walking. towards the mahogany staircase. "I'd like to see my room now."
"Right this way, young master." The butler said, leading me up the stairs to my room on the second floor.
It was a large room with 3 tall arching windows opposite to the door and white curtains at either side. To my right was an overwhelmingly large white bed delicately decorated with embroidery and overflowing with pillows. Next to it lay a small nightstand with an oil lamp and a vase of white roses. Above the headrest of the oversized bed hung a large painting of a willow tree amidst a field of fireflies.
To my left was a medium sized desk stocked with books and art supplies such as oil paints, colored alcohol inks, canvas, paper, and brushes. At either side stood a towering bookshelf backed against the wall with more books than I had ever seen before. Reds, greens, blues, and browns, all patterned with gold writing and swirls around the edges.
I marveled at the sight, lightly tracing my fingertips across the colored leather spines that stocked the shelves. Never in my life had I seen such a beautiful collection of books.
Back before I came here to live with my grandparents, I lived with my parents in a small house in New York. But for some reason, they went away on a trip and left me with my relatives further north-west where it was greener and the forest was more dense. It struck me as odd, they weren't the type to just up and leave without telling me anything like where they were going and why.
I just assumed they were going back to visit my mother's homeland in Japan since they never gave me a proper explanation. After my mother immigrated to the states, she met my father and fell in love, leading them to buying a house in the city, starting a small furniture shop, and giving birth to me.
My father was the heir to a wealthy logging company that had been in business for years, but refused to take it over and moved to New York for work. And that's where my grandparents come in, with their large mansion and acres of property by the west coast.
But I knew they were keeping something from me, my father had never liked my grandparents. So unless he was backed into a corner somewhere, I don't understand why he'd leave me here instead of taking me with them.
A knock on the door silenced my thoughts.
"Enter." I said, watching the door creak open and revealing the butler's slender figure.
"Young master, dinner is ready. Your grandparents are waiting for you downstairs." He said, bowing in politeness with one hand neatly tucked behind his back.
"Alright." I replied, leaving the bookshelf and following the butler downstairs.
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Dinner was good, a little too good if you ask me. I wasn't accustomed to good cooking since my parents didn't have much money. I wasn't fond of the dry conversation at the table though, my grandparents had invited my uncle and his daughter over for dinner as well and she was glaring at me the entire evening.
I asked to be excused and left the table, wandering around the manor to see all the different rooms. And that was when I overheard some of the maids talking by the kitchens.
"Poor boy, why'd his parents abandon him like that? Don't they care for their son?" One if them said, making me stop in my tracks. I hid by the doorway to listen into their conversation.
"Didn't you hear? They didn't abandon him, they were on the run from the government for tax fraud and left him here because they had no choice. I overheard the master talking to the mistress this morning, he recieved a letter confirming the death of Jackson Kanoe and Natsu Kanoe yesterday evening."
I couldn't believe what I had heard, my parents were murdered because they couldn't pay the bills. My head hurt, tears formed in the corners of my eyes, and I ran from the manor in the middle of the night.
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I didn't know how long I had ran for, but it had been long enough for the rain to make mud and cause me to slip. I fell face first into a puddle of dirty water and soiled my clothes.
I got off the ground and sat on my knees in the mud, choking on my tears. I wiped the mud from my face and spit out the dirt in my mouth.
Finally, I got back up and started walking again. It was now pouring and I felt terribly uncomfortable and cold. Before I was aware of where I was, my foot had slipped on a muddy ledge and I tumbled down to my imminent death.
Bones had been broken, I was bloody from cuts and scrapes all over my body, and after a few minutes I had lost consciousness at the bottom of the muddy ledge. When morning came around, no signs of wounds, broken bones, or bruises were found on my body.
I had woken in the same place as my death, and when I finally found the brick path hours later, my uncle discovered me and carried me back to the house with mud and sticks entangled in my hair and caked into my expensive clothes.
That was the first time I had ever died, and I never spoke of it to anyone in fear that they'd send me to a nut-house. To this very day, I still haven't told a single soul.