hannyakoma | wisteria blossoms [cowt11 | week 01

Prompt: Speranza

Word count: 732
Rating: sfw
Fandom: Originale
Note: //

A gentle breeze was blowing among the wisteria flowers as a young woman walked leisurely on the road.

Lavender blue hair reaching down below her waist, hazel brown eyes holding a distant look. Her form wrapped in a simple kimono with a flower pattern drawn in a light color, a white obi around her waist that contrasted with the dark purple haori she had on her shoulders.

Step after step, she walked under the fragrant blossoms slowly, with dignity. Holding a little bundle in her arms, she marched through the pathway towards the top of the hill.

The woman knew the place, obviously. She’d been there countless times already, even more in her youth than now, thus she knew that a little farther, hidden in the shades, she would find the old, familiar shed where she would hide during the harsher nights when her father was home (to escape momentarily from that reality and return in the morning to it -- even if she hoped that it wouldn’t be necessary).

Such a distant memory filled her with nostalgia and hatred at the same time.

A little more, a little more. A fleeting thought, a voice whispering in her mind. A little more and then you can rest, I promise.

Rest sounded good, well deserved. Gods know how tired she was after all those years, decades of fighting and running and hurting, unable to give up on life but also to live fully. Hope always wavered in the depths of her soul, that that time would be the last time -- another one of the fleeting thoughts the woman would never relinquish.

The place of her memories looked a little shabbier than she remembered upon her entrance. The worn futon was still in the corner of the room, ruined by time and usage, near the fireplace. It seemed nobody visited it recently. The rusted pot that hung in the center of the room, where wood and charcoal were used to start the fire, was nowhere to be seen. Someone must have taken it upon their last visit, apparently…

A cough closed up her throat just as the woman looked around the interior, forcing her to use a hand to cover her mouth. Red bloomed on her palm when that same hand drew back and she noticed her breathing had become shallow, irregular. A crooked smile graced her features, as she walked hurriedly inside and closed the rattling door behind herself.

The sudden movements made the bundle in her arms shift a bit, a part of the cloth sliding off and dangling down. A soft gurgle, whiny and soft, reached her ears. The woman looked down, meeting barely open ruby eyes and chubby, pale cheeks. The sight broke her heart -- not because she didn’t love her, but because what she was about to do.

She quickly covered her little treasure back again with her bloodied hand, softly enough that the baby could breathe, and let her down on the dusty futon. Another fit of coughs, more violent than the one before, immobilized the woman for a few seconds.

T-That’s it… I’m done for…

Tears began rolling down her pale cheeks as uncomfortable wails started to feel the silence. The woman fell onto her knees, crawling down beside the upset baby and trying to calm her with her touch. Weaken as she was becoming, it didn’t work. It was agonizing -- feeling herself wither away rapidly while listening to her baby's cries, unable to do anything.

And yet, such was the curse.

They’ll… they’ll come soon to get you… Don't worry, my treasure…

The woman hoped, prayed that her words would reach her daughter as a familiar numbness began spreading to her limbs. Aah, she hoped she could have some more time at least once. It was really cruel, being unable to see your daughter grow up, move their first steps, find her place in the world.

A hiccup escaped her pursed lips -- she tried to hold back her choking noises to not upset the baby -- as that same baby managed to grab her finger with a small, delicate, powerless hand. The woman smiled, despite not feeling the sensation at all.

Everything else… will be in your hands… my dear, dearest daughter...

Darkness overwhelmed her, devouring every single shred of consciousness and the hope she cast on her.