EFFLORESCING EDELWEISS ( s. todoroki )

10; honeysuckle

HANAKO IS DYING OF EXCITEMENT.

The envelope is a standard one, but the contents, the contents were the ones that mattered. Hanako's hands cannot stop trembling, her face is matted with sweat from running all the way to her apartment. She even earned a comment from Eli-san (tall and colorful, Eli-san whose mouth is tinted with purple from past chain smoking) saying that she should purchase a bicycle since her daily trips from the convenience store to her house was pretty far. But that didn't matter. It didn't. It doesn't now. Because Hanako is focusing on the sole purpose of her life now. On why she rose even after Papa's demise.

Why she started washing dishes on random taverns during daytime 'til her hands are raw and red, selling garlands of flowers she picked from parks (ignored the don't pick the flowers signboard, hey, she's eight and cannot read) on the streets where sports cars, family vans busted black smoke unto her face and fingers got hit by closing windshields, cheating on grown men, dine n' dash, stealing (she's a good pickpocket, watch that golden watch you have on your wrist), and killing (she grew an entire garden, would you like to be a part of it?). She broke her halo and carved horns, rose like a true angel fallen from grace.

This was it.

Hanako's slender fingers still trembles and the wind outside whooshes through the windows, sending a shiver across her spine. She closes the windows shut, sending dust toward her face, but she wipes it all away with sweaty hands.

The black rubber that sealed the envelope shut is easy to remove and Hanako takes out a wad of yellowish paper, the scent permeating through the air. There were pictures atop pictures pasted on paper, names and dates and scribbled chicken scratches (i.e. handwriting) on various surfaces. It wasn't an organized bunch, but the name at the very top with Sans Serif Bold was enough to tell her who it was, who she had to destroy.

The smile on her lips falter for a second (there is a lone daisy gifted to her that's placed inside a can filled with tap water— a petal falls), and such a shame, but a pleasant opportunity. This it Papa. She raises the cover page into eye level, her thumb caressing the photograph and flower petals are flowing out of her mouth in excitement, spraying tints of red unto the bedsheets but Hanako pays it no heed.

Todoroki Shouto.

So this is what they called a blessing in disguise.

The door is closed and someone is on the other side, listening.

° ° °
h o n e y s u c k l e ;
the colour of my fate