The Black Hearts

36[Kinta Fujiyama]

November gradually comes to an end and the autumn season slowly begins to leave for winter to take place. Cold wind blows over my neck and it reminds me of all the load that I am currently carrying on my shoulder. I cannot be an aimless high school kid with no responsibilities anymore, I am a man with things and people to take care of.

I go back inside the house and have my breakfast. It is one of the Fridays I randomly pick to cut school and stay home. On my halfway through eating the sandwich, I hear a knock on the door. Dad has not been home since monday and Mom is drunk as usual, asleep on the couch. I glare at her and reluctantly get the door.

"Where is she! Bring her out!" Luna's dad puts a knife on my neck and forcibly walks in through the door. About four other men in African wears follow him.

"Hey! Leave my son alone" Mom tries to get up but falls right back on the couch. She is way too intoxicated to stand on her own. She falls onto the floor and crawls to the counter to get the bottle of beer. As soon as her hand reaches the bottle, she begins drinking as though she doesn't recognize a 6 feet tall man with a knife on my neck in her house.

"Look at your miserable mother. Drunkard and a whore like you", says one of the men standing behind Luna's father. I give him a glare and yell, "don't talk about my mother!" I try moving but Luna's father pushes me backward still having the knife on my throat.

"I'm asking you for the last time. Where is Luna?" His eyes look red making him look like the demons and witches that show up in cartoons and horror movies. "She's not here", I sigh.

"Hey, look everywhere in the house!" As soon as Luna's father commands, the men split up running back and forth all around the house. I stay steady not uttering a word until Luna's father does. "Kinta Fujiyama, do you have an idea of how kids like you get handles in our culture? The fact that you have completely destroyed my daughter's reputation and our family's name... the kind of punishments that you would have received, you just don't know. But, if you tell me where she is... I'll spare you".

"You think I'm stupid? You think I'll let you get to Luna? Even if I die in your hands, I'll never let that happen, sir". "Shut up!" he shouts and in that instant, I feel a sharp burn like sensation with an unexplainable pain in my stomach, takes a few seconds to notice the oozing blood. I have been stabbed by him. I speechlessly stare at him and get on my knees. I have so much to tell the bastard who stabbed me but I have no strength left in me to open my mouth at this moment. My vision gets extremely blurry but I can see that Luna's father is running out of the house with all the other men. I can barely control my body but I pick my self up and creep to mom.

"Mom.. mom ." I cry out her name but my breathing begins getting irregular while mom still lays on the floor drunk with the beer bottle in her hand. I immediately remove the knife out of my stomach causing me to bleed more. I cover the wound with my hands and walk out of the house with my last strength. I can't see well but I still walk weakly on the road outside my house believing that someone will help me. It looks like God answered my prayers, a policeman riding a bicycle stops to help me. "Are you okay? What happened ? Let me help you". His voice echoes but relief instantly fills my entire body that I breakdown having my back on the ground. All that I see now is blue, I guess it is the color of the sky. Soon, I see and feel nothing.

I open my eyes and almost get panicked facing an unfamiliar ceiling. I look around and recognize the place, a hospital. I am on a bed with all these medical wires connected to my body. An attempt to sit fails since I feel unbearable pains in my stomach. Instantaneously, a nurse walks in the room spotting me forcing the wires off my body. "Hey, calm down. I didn't know you were awake", the nurse says to me softly. "Do you remember what happened to you?"