"Did I wish for this...?"

Takasato Kaname sat on his room, the room that had been empty for a year, listening to the murmurs of the people clad in black outside. The blood from the wound in his face had been cleaned but he could still perceive its peculiar aroma in his nostrils. He hated blood. Just the thought of it made him feel weak.

Kaname ran his fingers through the long hair that fell just over his shoulders. Since when he had let his hair grow long? Nothing seemed to make sense anymore. One minute before he had been walking under the snowfall in his pajamas and the next thing he knows, he's wounded, naked and the strong scent of incense that came from his house spoke of death even before he realized his grandmother was gone.

He carefully slid his paper door open just enough to watch his mother. Her eyes had dark circles and looked swollen. Was she hurting? Why was it that he couldn't feel anything, that he couldn't perceive his mother's pain? Had the snow that numbed his feet when he had been forced to stand outside in the cold by his grandmother had frozen him emotionally? Had he wished for her death for the abuse he had silently endured by her?

Kaname closed the door, wishing with all his might for the snow to fall over him again and to swept him away where he would never be forced to stand out in the cold anymore.