Black Sky

Three years later the baby learned how to walk, her mother glistened with joy and hugged her tightly.

The baby was smiling, a bright smile, they both giggled as they pranced around the room, filled with laughter and joy, but too soon a problem arose.

Where to send her off to school? It couldn't be too expensive, but the mother didn't want it to be bad either, "You're going to go to school tomorrow, then we can celebrate your birthday!" Her mother smiled, but her smile felt strange, it felt... cold, she had bags under her eyes.

But there was no time for concern as school was fast approaching, so she put on her uniform early in the morning, her mother gave a Tupperware full of food to her, she recognized the Tupperware but couldn't remember where so she just shrugged it off, she placed it in her bag.

Off they went across the street to a somewhat far away school, there weren't many kids there but it was still more silent than she had expected it to be, there wasn't a single person speaking, and the teachers were the same too, though there weren't many either, only around three or four.

"This is quite nostalgic." The mother sighed, a child walking past them looked at the girl strangely, she soon became uncomfortable when she sat down in class.

It was silent, it was cold, and the air was murky, the windows were closed so how could the inside be like this? in reality it was only her imagination as the front door swung open and the class stood up to greet the teacher lazily walking into the classroom, "Let's get the class started already.." The teacher's voice sounded tired.

Everything was fine, nothing unusual happened, only the occasional sneeze or cough, the atmosphere had lightened but it was cold, very cold, the children in the classroom didn't seem to be affected by the cold much however as they sat still the entire day, "I should try talking to one of them, they could just be shy." The girl thought.

She quickly stood up when school ended uneventfully and she proceeded to talk to one of the other students, but they quickly dismissed her as loud and annoying, the girl was shocked at their response as she hadn't spoken a word to her but decided not to give up on trying to talk to them.

"How was your first day of school?" Her mother asked as they walked home, the girl kept silent as she pouted and looked away, her mother tried to cheer her up, "Were going to be celebrating your birthday today." Hearing this, her daughter looked back at her and smiled, "Yay!"

When they arrived home, the table within the room had a small box placed on it, "It's your present, don't open it yet." Her mother pointed at the table while looking down at her.

The daughter went to change her clothes as the mother opened a small cabinet and took out candles as well as a lighter, she carefully lifted a small slice of cake onto the table and placed a candle on top of it and lit it.

Her daughter finished and came out to see her mother smiling at her and telling her to have a seat, "Tada! How do you like it?" The daughter was overjoyed, she'd never tried cake before as she had only heard of her mother describing what it tasted like the year before, "I promised I would let you eat cake last year so here it is, I even got you a small present!" Her mother slowly pushed the little box towards her.

But she was too excited and could only think of the cake, as she was about to start eating the cake, she looked up at her mother who was staring at her, "Do you want some?" Her small voice was barely heard by her mother but she still responded, "It's your birthday, you can have it." Her mother smiled and only watched her in silence, she ate the cake slowly using a fork, "Tish ish delicoush."

"You shouldn't talk with your mouth full." Her mother scolded her, she quickly swallowed her food and apologized, "Happy 5th birthday, Miyako." For some reason her mother's words felt special, she wanted to hear more of it.

"Can you say that again?" She asked.

"Why?"

"Just do it."

"Happy 5th birthday, Miyako." This time her words didn't feel the same.

That night, Miyako laid in her bed, she continued staring out the window as she'd always done everyday until she fell asleep, there were no forms of entertainment anywhere, it was only her and her mother everyday, "It isn't as lively at all, but the silence is nice as well, quite a bright night today."

The next day Miyako tried to talk to the other children at the school again but to no avail, "Is this worth it?" She thought to herself, maybe it would be better to just leave them alone, but Miyako was determined to talk to them, she thought that maybe trying enough times would work.

But after a whole year of trying and failing, she nearly gave up before a new student arrived in the school, it was a girl one year older than her, but she was the only person that would speak to anyone other than her parents like Miyako, they soon started talking to each other daily and formed a close friendship soon after until the next year where she had to leave.

Miyako's friend had to leave because of her parents moving to a new place closer to the city, "Will we see each other again?" Miyako asked, "We will!" She quickly replied, they both said goodbye to each other before going home and Miyako cried when she arrived back home, her only friend was gone, what was going to happen now? she thought to herself.

She thought that everything would go back to the way it was when she first started in the school, quiet and cold, but she was very wrong, too wrong.

The next day, her mother looked sick, she had bags under her eyes, pale skin and a dry throat, "Mom have you been sleeping late? you told me sleeping late is bad." Her mother looked at her the whole day with a sickening stare, Miyako felt like she couldn't say anything the whole time, even when walking home with her after school, and even when they were at home she couldn't say a word to her mother.

One night Miyako woke up after hearing the door open, she was startled thinking it was a burglar, but it was her mother leaving the room, she closed the door behind her and footsteps soon followed which slowly faded away.

Miyako looked outside the window and saw her mother walking outside with a jacket on, "Is this what mom is waking up and doing?" Before she knew it, Miyako was calling her mom, the woman she spent years living with.

The next morning, Miyako woke up and saw that her mother wasn't in her bed, "Is she still outside?" It was a holiday so Miyako didn't think much of it at first, but soon heard footsteps approaching the door and walked up to the door to listen, she heard keys being shifted around in a pocket and back away from the door as it slowly opened.

Her mother was behind the door, but her face looked even worse than usual, "What are you doing up so late mom?" She slowly walked into the room and pushed Miyako to the side, to her shock, her mother's face looked like she was holding back anger and frustration so she decided to ask her about it for the last time.

"What were you doing up so late mom?" She walked up behind her mother to look her in the eye, her mother slowly turned around with a blank expression, but it soon became a face that struck fear into Miyako as she took a step back before her mother punched her in the face making a loud grunt.

She fell to the floor and covered the spot where she was hit, she squirmed all over the ground, but her mother stepped on her several times as if not caring whether she was there or not, "It's your fault." She whispered before closing the bathroom door.

Miyako still laid on the floor, she tried to stand up but couldn't as she felt her leg hurting.

She crawled over to her mother's bed and sat down on it trying to think of a reason why her mother would do that, but she couldn't think as her emotions were scrambled and she wasn't able to string together a single line of words before she started sobbing.

Her mother listened to Miyako while in the bathroom but covered her ears pretending not to hear anything.

She left the bathroom door open as she walked towards her bed, Miyako was lying on her own bed and pretended to be asleep, "Tomorrow is my birthday, everything should be ok tomorrow." After convincing herself of this she fell asleep.

The next morning she did her usual routine and went to school, but this time her mother didn't follow her and went off halfway, Miyako ignored it as she was excited for her birthday and wanted school to end as quickly as possible.

Her mother went to a dark building and entered it, a group of men were inside waiting for her, "Do you have the money yet?" They grabbed her bag and took it from her, she didn't resist at all "This is all I have for now please give me more time.." She clenched her fists but couldn't lift her head up.

"This won't do, we need the money by this week.. you got it you little useless woman?" One of them put their hand on her head before they hit her across the face, she tried to defend herself but was kicked down onto the floor and told to go.

Later that night, Miyako was happily preparing for her birthday, she thought that her mother would surprise her but she was wrong, when she entered the room her mother was nowhere to be seen, she was still in her school uniform as she shortly looked around the room for anything hidden, perhaps a present or a cake.

But neither were found, she remembered a present that her mother had given to her that she had forgotten to open, it was the gift she received when she was five, a small box was on the table that day, but the cake had made her forget about it entirely.

She quickly found the box which was covered in dust and nearly made her sneeze when she held it in her hand, but before she could open it, she heard something falling followed by a loud thud outside the building, their room was on the third floor so what could make such a noise?

Miyako looked out the window to see someone lying in the snow, they were wearing thin clothing so perhaps they collapsed due to the cold, Miyako became concerned as she felt something bad was happening and quickly rushed downstairs with the box in her hand.

It was late so nearly all of the residents in the building were asleep, they wouldn't notice something happening outside, "Wha.... is this..." Miyako saw blood in the snow, it was red, the snow was red, the image was imprinted into Miyako's mind, she slowly walked towards the person and tried to turn them over but couldn't even touch them.

"Is this.. Real?" Miyako saw her mother's face, it was her mother, she was dead in the snow.

Everything around Miyako started fading away as she stared at the body of her mother, "It was supposed to be my birthday today.... yet... why.." She covered her mouth before she could scream and started crying, she fell to her knees in agony but couldn't do anything, not even move.

She looked up to the sky, "Why..." Multiple tears kept flowing from her eyes, "Why is the sky so black when it was so dark."