• I stop to catch my breathe for a moment before I return to running...I've been running like this for a while now, and questions are finally starting to pop into place.

    What am I running from? That's Ryuuzaki-sama, isn't it? I shake my head. No...that's not Ryuuzaki-sama...that's....

    A 'Monster'.

    I keep running, another question popping into mind...since when...?

    I've known that man for years, I never once realized it. Maybe there's something different about him then all the other 'monsters' but he's still a 'monster'.

    Why did I let myself be taken in by him? I would have been better off alone all this time. I was fine being alone before, but I was taken in by the promise of a caring place to go.

    A Home.

    But all I got was a 'monster'

    'Monster'......


    "RYUUZAKI-SAMA!!!" I scream out of fear, it used to be that name I called when I was scared, now I call it to get him to stop being a 'Monster'. Before I know it, I'm face to face with the beast again.

    "Hikari-chan....don't run..." he begged, his voice shrill, the hair covering his body. He pressed me down to the cold ground of the forest, his size has near doubled since before he was a 'monster'

    I struggled again, wishing to hear his normal voice again, not the 'monsters', "Ryuuzaki-sama!! I beg of you, change back!" I screamed as he dug his claws into my arms. He shook his head.

    "I tried....I tried so hard....I'm hungry, Hikari-chan." he muttered with a smirk before leaning into my neck....he was going to do me the favor of killing me quick, I suppose, ripping out my throat with that large Canine Mouth. I close my eyes, pained.

    Anyone but Ryuuzaki-sama, if it was anyone else at all, even someone I didn't know...it wouldn't hurt so much. I loved Ryuuzaki-sama! I guess he was just fattening me up...some father...I squeezed by eyes, embracing death.

    A Gun shot rang out, a see a trace of silver hit my Father turned monster into the back. I screamed, filled with terror as his full body weight fell on me, near death himself. I tried to push it off but he was too heavy....I felt myself becoming unable to breathe.

    A Man dressed in yellow yanked the now dead Ryuuzaki-sama off of me and pulled me to my feet, "Are you harmed, Hikari-chan?"

    I knew this man...it was a friend of my fathers....I felt tears begin to form in my eyes! I didn't want to cry but it was too damn hard not too, I threw myself at him, only coming up to his knees, "Mayate..." I muttered, not bothering to put an honorific on it. I grabbed his pants leg and began sobbing.

    I felt myself be lifted off the ground to look him in the eyes, "It's okay, Hikari-chan, Ryuuzaki-sama would have wanted it to end like this...instead of him hurting you..." he told me. I didn't believe him. Ryuuzaki-sama wasn't Ryuuzaki-sama then, just a 'monster'! Mayate pulled me into a hug and began carrying me back home.

    Would Mayate become a 'monster' too...? I pushed him away from me, but he was holding to tight, I could escape him! I just wanted to run away again! That's all I wanted! But he wouldn't let me. I didn't want to go back there...it was too small a place, it'd be all I ever heard about it...and I just wanted it to go away.

    I wanted the day I ever came home with Ryuuzaki-sama to go away.

    But it wouldn't. Years later I would see scars from the day Ryuuzaki started to dig his claws in me would remain. The memory of the cold ground under me, the feel of his furry nose on my neck just before he posed to eat me. It all refused to go away.

    But Mayate told me, "You can't leave this place until you turn 18, that's the rules." And I always obeyed instead of trying to away...because I respected Mayate I guess...and because-

    I was scared of seeing that monster again. The only way out of this village is the path through the forest. And I knew the moment I went to that pathway, I'd even be able to see Ryuuzaki-san.

    Even when I turned 18...the moment the scars promised to stay, I learned I could leave or run like I wanted.

    I was Trapped in this place, as long as I held on to that man in my memories.

    Trapped....