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1987
“One more?”
Your voice is hardly more than a whisper at this point. Despite the unfamiliar surroundings of the room you and your brother share in this new house, the blanket tucked up under your neck is the same one it’s always been. You had asked earlier why Mom didn’t come with you, but Keicho explained that you had to leave her in that field with all the rocks sticking out of the ground.
Dad read you stories the first few nights after you had to leave her, but you haven’t actually seen him all day. Or for the past few days. You hear noises coming from his new room sometimes, but not often. Instead, you’ve spent the last few days helping Keicho put stuff away from the big boxes that sit lined up against the walls. You can’t watch the TV yet and there isn’t really a yard to play in anymore, so it’s the only thing left to do- even if you don’t like it.
Besides, at least your brother is here during the day. He got up to go to school the first day you moved here, but he didn’t know where the school was now. But Dad didn’t yell at him for not going and he didn’t take him there himself, so now you just unpack with him.
Keicho sighs, and your stomach twists. Your stomach is part of what’s keeping you up, despite how heavy your eyelids are. Hunger gnaws at it, though Keicho finds what he can to give you. You didn’t even ask about dinner tonight, knowing the answer would probably be the same as the last few days.
Your brother cried last time you asked, so now you don’t. Keicho calls you a crybaby sometimes when you get upset, but he cries just as much.
Finally, Keicho just moves up into your bed with you, making you scoot over so that he can get the story book set up between you.
“Just one more, alright?”
1989
There are ghosts in the apartment. Keicho doesn’t believe you, and Dad doesn’t listen. Something you can’t see will hit you, smack you into a wall. Dad smacks you sometimes, that’s nothing new, but this is different. This isn’t human.
It only ever happens when Dad’s mad. When he’s yelling and you’re hiding away. It can find you no matter where you are, not like dad can. You’ll be sitting in the empty cupboard in the kitchen and something will slam your head into the wood.
But ghosts aren’t real. That’s what Keicho says. You’re imagining things. You don’t know a lot of what’s real and what’s not, anymore. Dad says he doesn’t hit you and Keicho says ghosts don’t exist. You’re told that you’re slow, that you don’t pick up on things. Maybe they’re right, but this is something new.
There’s a monster in the house. You’re sure it’s real this time, you’re absolutely positive. You didn’t get close enough to try and poke it or anything, but you don’t think you need it. It’s obviously some kind of monster. It doesn’t come after you, though, and you wait in the front hall for Keicho to come home. He’ll know what to do.
Eventually, the door does crack open and he’s quick to be by your side. Normally, you appreciate him being there- he’s better at deciding things than you are, because he knows what’s real. You shake your head at his questions, only half-hearing them anyways.
You point to the kitchen. He gets up to go investigate, and you’re slow to follow. It’s still there, the thing. Right where you left it. Keicho grabs your arm so hard it hurts, but it distracts you enough from what’s in the kitchen to relax just a little.
You think your brother is going to scream, but he doesn’t. It’s weird- sometimes he screams and cries just like you do, but more and more lately he just gets really quiet when something happens.
Like this. Like your dad becoming … whatever he is now, writhing on the floor.
The ghosts are gone, but you’re not sure this is the price you wanted to pay for it.
1997
“Come on, aren’t you ready yet? We have to be outta here now, Okuyasu.”
Keicho’s words come with a swat to the back of your head, but you know better than to do anything but grumble to yourself. Not that Keicho would really hit you again or harder- those days are past at least. But he’d leave you here, and you’ve gotten more than one notice that you two have to scramble and get lost or you’re going to get picked up by the police.
Bail money is one thing you know that your family can’t come up with. Dad had some money saved up before he became whatever it is he is now, but that didn’t really last long. And with no clue how to contact the person that Dad was getting the money from in the first place, you and your brother were kind of out of luck.
Honestly, though, it really isn’t that hard for you and your brother to pick up what you need. You’re not exactly sure what it is your brother does to come across money, but you pick up odd jobs wherever you land. You aren’t the best at school, often skipping it entirely when you know you aren’t going to be in a place longer than a little while. But you’re strong, and you can follow directions well enough to get some lawn work done, or help fix up a house.
You’re a pro at fixing up houses. You’ve patched more roofs than are on an average street, with the number of shady places you end up squatting at. Not that you really go to many places that anyone else can find. Always in some small town, always at the edge of things. A place no one would really ever be caught dead in.
You know, seeing as you’d be the ones dead if anyone saw your Dad.
You finish shoving the last of your clothes in the duffle bag that’s served you well for years now, really shoving to get them all to fit. The size of your clothes has grown, but the duffle bad hasn’t. Thankfully, the thing isn’t ripping at the seams or anything yet.
You pause as you go to grab more shit out of the makeshift room you’ve been in, looking at a spot on the wall. You’ve noticed it more and more lately- a pattern. Little indents, almost like a grid. You figured it was some kind of weird bug that’d eaten through some of the wood at the first house you were in when you saw it.
But now? You aren’t sure. The pattern’s been showing up absolutely everywhere you stay. You asked your brother about it, but he told you not to worry about it. So, well. You’re not. Keicho knows the real things to worry about- the things that will get you in trouble and end up with one of you dead or in jail.
“Hey! Okuyasu, are you going to help me with this chest or not?”
1999
He was gone. It was just that quick, without any warning. You didn’t have a chance to move, to grab him, to say anything. He was electricity and then he wasn’t. Up on the roof, you can just barely smell the burnt flesh from where you are, looking at his dead body on the wires.
That’s it. Keicho’s dead. His last act was for you- to save you. You think you stumble through something like that while talking to Josuke- he deserved to die. Keicho did a lot of bad shit. He had really ramped up the use of that arrow he had in the last few months. He was desperate, almost crazy to finally leave all this behind. You and your dad-
Dad. Right, Dad. He’s your responsibility now. You were the one that went out and did the odd jobs and met people and just- existed, in whatever little town you ended up in. Keicho was the one that managed to make the real money, all without really leaving the house or letting anyone find Dad.
Now you had to do that. Now you have to watch out for Dad and figure out how to get the money and-
“Yeah, I definitely saw it.”
2000
“Five!”
You’re warm, bundled up in a sweater that was as tacky as it was cozy. You’re pretty sure Tomoko nearly didn’t let you in when she saw what you were wearing, but she just gave you a hug before ushering you inside. She was real nice like that- letting things like that slide when you’re pretty sure she’d make Josuke change outta something this ugly. It was yours though- you bought this with your money and everything.
“Four!”
It’s almost too warm inside the house. That might have to do with the fact that Josuke has his arm slung around your shoulders, right next to you on the couch. Both of your faces are red, both with the excitement of the night and the alcohol you’ve consumed. To be fair, the whole small living room is packed, all around the TV to watch the countdown. All your friends, and some people you still aren’t quite familiar with that know the family well.
“Three!”
Josuke is yelling the numbers down, and so are you. You’re both excited, have been planning this. It turns out that neither of you are the best at party planning, but you were assured that your enthusiasm was appreciated.
“Two!”
The most important part of the plan was to get to kiss your (relatively new) boyfriend right at midnight, of course. Why else have a New Years Eve party than to be around friends and lay one on your boyfriend without embarrassment? This is going to be a new year, a new decade, a new century, a new millennium! And you’re going to start it off right.
“ONE!”