10th of October
(4 years, 10 October)
Nariko was running, running as fast as she could, faster than she thought she could, but the body was able to do amazing things when the need is there. And indeed, the need to run and escape was the only thing she could focus on. She felt like a rabbit trapped in a corner about to be fox food. Her breathing was ragged, and broken sobs escaped the strangulation in her throat. This was it. This year they really were going to kill her.
She never really understood the village’s hatred towards her, but she knew they hated her. Hated her for every day that she has been alive. But it was always on this day that they sought revenge. The 10th of October was supposed to be a special day for her, her birthday, and it sort of was, only in the run for your life kind of way.
Usually, the ANBU that was patrolling the area would protect her from the worst of it, yet today she could not see them at all. What was worse is that the villagers could not see them either and suddenly this year’s beating took a deadly turn. When she realised that this year they were not going stop, some long-forgotten instinct kicked in and she ran for it. Adrenalin pumping through her body making her go faster, making her run harder, helping her ignore the pain she was in. Left, right another left the fireworks were going off in the sky as the villagers celebrated the Kyubi no yoko defeat by the Yondiame Hokage. Left, left, right another left, was she going in circles? She could hear the festival, the loud booms of the fireworks, the excited laughter of the children as their parents kept watch as they played. But above else she could hear the heavy footsteps of the drunken crowd chasing after her. Another left-… she had run into an alley, an alley that had a dead end. Shakely, she ran towards the end pushing against the wall, trying to scale to the top, but her fingers kept sliding down refusing to grip the wall and give her a chance to escape. She felt like throwing up, her mind was a tornado of thought so fast and disordered that she felt dizzy. Footsteps, she can still hear the footsteps. Swallowing her breath, she took a few steps back, they were in the alley! Her thoughts were disjointed by the sheer panic she felt and in a last desperate bid for safety, she jumped onto a trashcan and jumped as hard as she can, putting all that she could into that leap. She could feel the fingers closing in on her ankle, but she bit her lip and willed herself faster. She made it.
She could hear them cursing, could even hear some of them jumping on the bins to follow her, but she did not stay to see them too. As fast as she could she ran forward. It did not matter that she did not know where she was, that she has never been this far from the orphanage. What mattered was that the houses were thinning, and more and more trees appeared, and the further away she got from the village the less she could hear the footsteps behind her.
She ran until she started tripping on her feet, and even then, she got up to keep running. She could not even see clearly anymore, the tears leaking from her eyes blinding her, making the whole world a blur of green. She was not sure how far she had been running but when she fell again, she could not get up, her body didn’t co-operate, and she was left lying under the stars. Ragged breaths and choked sobs were all she could hear. She did not know how long she was lying there before her breathing evened, all she knew was that there were no more fireworks in the sky and the village was dark. She could hear crickets and the insects buzzing at the night, hear soft noises signaling some nocturnal animals about. She could hear no footsteps, no one searching for her. Only her heartbeat and the sounds of the nightlife.
Slowly her eyes opened, she can’t remember closing them… She can’t stay here like this. Even if nobody found her there were still predators in the woods. She thinks she can remember the orphanage matron telling the other kids not to go into the forest, Nariko thought that was for during the day but since they were not allowed out at night, she thinks it counts for at night too.
Willing her body to get up, she stumbled like a drunkard to her feet before falling and throwing up. She has never been this dizzy before and the world kept being blurry in and out of focus even after she had stopped crying. Nariko breathed. It’s all she felt she could do. In, out, in and out. She had a choice to make, she could stay here in the open and give the villagers the satisfaction of knowing they caused her death, or she could get up, find shelter, and survive. Maybe it was not the healthiest reasoning, surviving just to spite someone. But for Nariko at that moment, it was enough. It felt like something shifted inside. It made her heart burn, but it didn’t hurt. It was warm and fiery and fierce, and it was enough to get her to her feet and to stumble around until she found an abandoned, half caved in fox hole between the roots of an old tree. She crawled inside and even though it was musty, full of insects and tiny animal bones she felt safer inside than she had even in the orphanage. She was bloody and half her body was swollen and bruised, her ribs were tender and her sight still going in and out of focus. But she made it. For tonight after all that happened, that was enough to bring a small smile to her lips, and Nariko slept peacefully.
The next morning when she arrived at the orphanage the matron stared at her with a look she could not quite decipher. Chasing her inside to the attic where she slept, in the tiny room far away from everyone else. Nariko wasn’t quite sure what she was expecting to happen when she got back, but she expected a worried frown like when the other children move away from the matrons’ sight or at least a scolding for not coming back last night after the festival ended. Nariko was prepared to explain what happened, how she could not get the door open and how when she tried to find her, the Matron, a mob had formed. But her thought process halted. The Matron had not flinched at the sight of her. Nariko was still full of dry blood and had bruises that were only starting to fade, she was still in her dirty and torn clothing. She should of… at least she should have been surprised to see her. ‘But she was surprised’ thought Nariko with a sinking in her stomach. That look that was puzzling her suddenly made terrible sense. The Matron was surprised to see her alive. She was surprised and disappointed that I survived. The door wasn’t locked because of unruly villagers; it was locked so Nariko could not get in!
As a part of her went cold, Nariko, age 4, swore to never cry again.