The evening had come upon the day as clouds rolled along the autumn sky.
Tamari had arrived at his home; a small genkan surrounded by a grove of maple trees at the end of the village.
"I'm home!" He called inside.
"Eh? Is that you kid?" Replied a voice. "Come on in, dinner's almost done."
Tamari walked through the doorway to find a man of his late thirties.
His hair was a deep black, long and strung out down to his shoulders.
His body was large, boasting muscular arms and the hands of a working man. He was scruff and brutish, his beard freshly shaved; the only part of him that looked to be properly taken care of.
One would not expect much of this man, but his expression was one of love and compassion; something Tamari felt odd about coming from him.
"Ah, there's my boy!" The man said excitedly. "Where have you been all day eh? Had me worried sick!"
"I was just out with Senshi, father-" Tamari replied, his voice meek and obedient.
"Who?" His father replied questioningly. As if he had forgotten Senshi entirely.
"My "friends"." Tamari repeated, looking to the floor. "I came back for my ball so I could go play with them."
He set down the glass of sake he so lovingly held onto.
"Friends, eh?" he snickered as if the idea of Tamari having friends was laughable. "Don't remember you ever havin' any- What were their names again?" He asked.
Tamari racked his brain for their names, but nothing seemed to come up. He opened his mouth hoping for something-
"Ah that's right," his father said abruptly. "Toko, Misu, and Koju." As if he had already known the answer.
"Those" friends..." he hissed, his smile sly and cynical.
Tamari stepped back purely out of instinct. "I-I'm just going to go..." He said, picking up his ball in the corner.
His father sat back, taking another drink of sake. "Why don't you say hello to your mother before you leave... " he said. "She "rarely" gets to spend time with you these days..."
Tamari stopped in the doorway. "Mother..." he muttered.
A voice could be heard from the back of the genkan; it was soft and gentle, "Fly away upon golden skies..." it sang a melody much like a lullaby. "I shall stay, behind..."
He opened the door to the back room; it was dark, as there seemed to be a haze hanging in the air. A futon lay upon the floor, its cover folded back, a woman staring at him from across the room. Her body was slender and frail, but her features were obscured by the darkness.
"Waiting here, for you tonight~" She noticed Tamari in the doorway, turning to him.
"Come here..." She beckoned.
He stepped closer as he reached his hand out; she opened her arms in a warm display of acceptance and affection.
A tear slid from his eye; "Mother..." he cried, falling into her arms.
A feeling of love and happiness engulfed Tamari as she embraced him; he held her with all his might as an endless stream of tears fell from his eyes. "Mother..."
She stroked his hair, "Shhhh, it's okay..." Her arms tightened around him as if sucking him in. "Rest your head and sleep..."
The room began to grow darker as shadows crept in through the walls, encompassing the two of them. The floor began to degrade as webs slipped their way through the cracks in the ceiling; the room grew cold as a smell of rotting decay swept through the genkan like the wind.
Yet, Tamari never took notice, his mind lost in the comfort of his own affection.
"Wake up..." he heard as a voice brushed the back of his mind. "You're in danger, wake up..."
The voice was soft and welcoming, yet it spoke words of warning and peril. "Open your eyes, and see..."
Tamari slowly lifted his lids, his mind adrift upon a sea of calm and worry. He lay upon the lap of his mother, but there was no room, only a black void. Her rope was adorned in black dahlia and pink lotus.
She wore the mask of a red kitsune; its sneering smile staring down at him.
"Mo-mother?" Tamari reached for her cheek; she slowly grasped his hand placing it upon his heart.
"You poor thing… trapped in a false paradise, a world of your own hopeless love…"
She brushed aside Tamari's hair, "She has your heart snared by her threads of deception, erasing memories and playing at your heart's desires…"
"…mother…?" Whispered Tamari.
She pulled him in, pulling aside her mask, her deep pink eyes staring into him.
She whispered in his ear-
"Remember… what has been done cannot be fixed, and you can't fix "who" you are…"
Tamari immediately opened his eyes; "Gaah!" He shouted, ripping away from a coating of sticky webs covering his mother. "You- you're not my mother!"
Her head cocked to the side as if her neck lay on a pike. "Come back to me, my child." her thin bony arms stretched out in a disgustingly ominous manner.
He backed away towards the door, his "father" standing behind him. "Where ya goin' kid? Your friends are all here-"
The children from before stood in the doorway, their clothes tattered, crooked smiles lay upon their pale lifeless faces.
"No- this isn't real! None of you are real!" Tamari shouted.
"How can you say that about us?" His mother replied, "We've always been here for you…"
Tamari turned to her, his face grim and full of sorrow. "No, you haven't,"
He yelled, "M-my mother's dead…"
"Tamari, such words wound me-"
He wiped away his tears,
"Because I killed her."