The Falling

Separation

I'm making the first chapters pretty short. I don't know what length you like them as, please comment about that hehhe. I hope everyone is doing well and that you enjoy this shortie. Don't forget to rate and comment if you enjoyed the chapter, I wish you all a good read^^

It was tough. He loved both of his parents but they kept fighting, day after day- they would never stop. So finally, one day in middle school they split up. Dad had bought this small apartment and mom had moved out of Tokyo to the countryside. They moved in with mom. Nana had to say goodbye to the soccer team, his teachers, his friends and his best friend- Serinuma. The girl always lightened up his days, she was the only comfort he had when his home felt like a war zone. Nana was never one to talk about his feelings, at least not the real ones. The ones that wouldn't leave your chest, the ones that you tried to not be reminded of...those. And just suddenly she was gone but the war was still there. Who would have thought, some people just can't stop fighting no matter how much they claim to hate it. They looked for it, sought things that were wrong, living miles apart wouldn't stop them. The thing with breaking up as a parent is that you can never really walk away from the other person. The children- the only thing that keeps you in touch, the thing you've created. Nana hated it. Mom had to work extra hours but as soon as she came home the yelling would begin. Dad wasn't even in the house anymore, Nana couldn't understand. He was once again the one taking care of Kirari, the house and always putting on that fake smile when he went to school. He didn't like life. He didn't want to die but sometimes just stop existing, that probably didn't make any sense tho. Ones a while Kirari and he would be forced to visit their dad in Tokyo. Not like he had anything to do there at this point. Mom would send them over at Christmas and summer break so she could take a break herself as she liked to put it. A Christmas weekend, how pathetic. It would be too awkward to tell Serinuma he was there, he didn't want to meet her. It was easier to lie over text.

Kirari!He ran out of his room. What the fuck had happened while he was asleep? He opened the door to her room only to find it empty. The curtains were ripped apart, the bed broke in half, the bookshelf was down- books covering the entire floor. Someone had trashed it, and they had done a very good job. It looked like a scene from some bizarre horror film.

"Kirari?" he uttered. No answer. He looked around, ran into the few rooms that were left. She was nowhere to be found. He started panicking. His little sister, where was she? His heart ached. He felt bad, responsible. Nana tried calling the police, his dad, anyone in his contacts but no one answered. The signal still seemed to get through so why, why did no one answer his calls? He had no clue what was going on all he knew was that he had to find his sister no matter what. He checked the rooms ones again. Suddenly he noticed. Blood. Right before the door out to the stairwell, there was a puddle of blood. It was such a subtle detail in the pandemonium that he had just walked past it in his search. Was she hurt? Nana was shaking, he was scared. He opened the door out, peeked to see if there was anyone there. Had they been robbed? Had someone taken Kirari? He had to find help, a neighbor, someone! Everything was quiet, the air filled with silence. He closed the door, something was off. He couldn't trust it, the situation was too weird. Experiencing something like this was too surreal like he was in some fucked up game show, a video game, a weird experiment. Nana looked around trying to find something to use as protection. He didn't know what kind of threat could be waiting on him, he could easily be overpowered and taken down by someone larger if he wasn't equipped. He decided to break off a piece of wood from the broken bed. It was easy, the planks that used to make up the bed were already loose. Kirari, he prayed she was alright, safe somewhere.

Nana snuck down the stairs. Carefully choosing where to put his feet to not make any loud noises. Any normal day he would've run down them, jumped down loudly at the last steps but he couldn't bring himself to do it. He couldn't act carelessly, he was too worried. All the apartments were dark, he had looked in every slot. Nothing- just silence and darkness, not even a dog growling. He was truly alone in the apartment building. How come? Where had everyone gone? Had they just left him alone, forgotten about him? Had they been forced to move away, to seek shelter? Could Japan be in the middle of a war right now? An epidemic of some sort? Nana was left wondering still knowing he wouldn't get any answers from it. Maybe he was thinking too much about it, he could get quite creative with his thoughts at times. Sure buildings were burning outside but maybe they've just been bad constructions? People running on the streets, well sure you would panic if a building was burning, maybe they ran out of them? Maybe it was some kind of terrorist attack and just a coincidence that a robbery had happened in his dads flat at the same time, that sounded reasonable. Thinking logically helped to calm down his nerves. Priorities 1.find Kirari, 2. Find someone who can explain what was going on, 3. Call their parents if possible, 4.find a safe place if necessary. Right, he got it. He was down on the ground floor, he could either walk out to the streets or go to the basement. He didn't want to but before he could leave the building he had to check, he couldn't risk leaving Kirari there alone. Maybe she was hiding? Nana took a deep breath, he was going down there.