Escape

Around midnight, Claire noticed someone knocking on her door. It was Evelyn. Claire quickly invited her in and sat her down in the living room.

"You can't be serious, Evelyn. Why are you doing this?" Claire exclaimed in horror. "What about Hikari? Are you leaving her to run away with that... that man?" Claire continued.

"I'm sorry. I really can't do this anymore. I can't live like this," Evelyn cried.

"But how can you do this to your daughter? Did you even consider her feelings?"

"I'm sorry. I know I'm being selfish. I love Hikari very much-"

"Then why are you doing this? I'm not angry that you found yourself a new man. I'm not mad at you because I know how much you have suffered living with that mad husband of yours, but what I'm mad about is that you're leaving your daughter behind."

"No!" Evelyn denied, violently shaking her head. Harshly wiping away her tears, she continued, "I'm not leaving her behind. I'll come back for her, but not now. My husband will kill me if I returned. He would kill my daughter too. I can't go back. As much as I want my daughter to go with me, I can't."

"Then you should have taken her with you before your husband found out."

"It's my fault. It's all my fault. I was so emotional I didn't know what I was thinking. When I went to get Hikari, it was already too late. And I didn't want to provoke my husband. He would murder my daughter." Evelyn broke down and sobbed.

"How long has it been going on with that man- no that's not important. What's important is Hikari," Claire said.

Evelyn immediately looked up and crawled to Claire's side. "Please. I have a request. Take care of my Hikari. That's all I can say. You can blame me for being a bad mother, a whore, anything. Just please, please look after my daughter until I come back," Evelyn begged, gripping Claire's hands tightly.

"Evelyn, are you drunk? What do you expect an old woman like me to do?"

"Please... please... please."

Behind the corner of the stairs in the house, Leyon silently watched them. The more he kept listening to their conversation, the more he felt sorry for Hikari. He clenched his fists helplessly.

"You're leaving now." After a few minutes of silence, Leyon heard his grandmother say to Evelyn.

"I have to go now. He's waiting for me," Evelyn said, and rushed out the door.

Leyon heard his grandmother running out the door to stop Evelyn. "Evelyn, wait! You can't leave like this." He heard his grandmother shouting.

"Granny," Leyon called out, running outside. He found his grandmother there, crouched on the ground, her hand clutching her chest as she struggled to breathe in the darkness. Evelyn was nowhere in sight. "Granny, are you okay?" he asked, extremely concerned. He could feel that she was in deep pain.

"I'm okay, honey. I'll be fine. Just some old disease acting up. That Evelyn has extremely fast legs. Granny wasn't able to catch up to her," Claire replied, taking in deep breaths to calm herself down and then giving Leyon a fake smile.

Leyon could easily see through the fake facade but chose not to say anything.

"I'm fine now," Claire kept repeating over and over again, staring deep into the blackness of the night that stretched ahead.