Shiina's Past Part 2

The sky was the color of royal blue velvet. A single star shined in the dark haze of midnight. A man stepped out of the shadows, facing the girl who had her hand pinned to the tree with a throwing needle.

“I asked you something,” he said calmly. “So you need to answer me.”

Shiina was silent, but wincing at the needle that pierced through the center of her hand. Her father stepped forward, and clenched his hand around her throat tightly. “You must obey your parents, Shiina,” he said tauntingly. After about two minutes, he let go. The blue haired girl fell to the ground, coughing, her right hand still bound to the tree by the needle. She put her left hand up to her mouth. Red liquid seeped through her fingers and spattered onto the forest floor. The man’s blue eyes glared at his daughter, then disappeared into the dark along with the rest of him.

*Six years ago*

Snow fell around the small temple in the woods, heaping in blankets around it. Inside the temple was not much warmer, probably by just a few degrees. A young girl sat  opposite from her parents on the floor. Her mother, a young woman, with silver-streaked black hair was getting her other child to stop crying. Her father just sat there, blue eyes staring at nothing. The girl, dark blue hair cascading onto the floor, tried not to look at her kin, but could not resist. She looked up and…

Images flashed through the young girl’s mind. She saw deaths, the red of blood, and heard the striking of weapon against weapon over and over again. There was the acrid smell of blood everywhere, and screams pierced the visions of death and battles. The girl had an outline of black around her, and her eyes had turned from red to the darkest black, like blood drying around an untreated wound. When it was over, she kneeled over and coughed, her lifeblood pouring out of her mouth and onto the floor.

Her mother stood up and pierced her daughter’s arm with a small dagger. “Don’t get the floor dirty!” she said, voice full of disdain. “Controls your powers already! Weakling.” The mother spat on her daughter and turned into a different room, the young baby having calmed down. Her father also left, leaving the girl scrunched up, laying on the floor in agony. When her coughing stopped, she sat up and narrowed her eyes, ripping part of her kimono off and wrapping it around her arm. Each day of her life had been like that for several years.