LITMIR.BIZ

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had been invaded by a man. “This is Mr. Sennin, a lawyer who has been in charge of your family’s estate since you were placed here at our school. He has brought to my attention that his job is now finished and all rights of the estate revert back to you as of midnight tonight.”

      Kyoko blinked several times in confusion. Her family’s what? She’d always been told that she was a ward of the school and assumed that meant she was an orphan. Her birthday was tomorrow but… Kyoko flinched from her thoughts when Mrs. Crap suddenly stood and headed for the door of the office.

      The old woman’s back was stiff as a board and her heels clicked loudly on the hardwood floors of the office. She looked down her nose past the annoying glasses that hung from the end of it. “I will leave Mr. Sennin to explain the rest.” The door closed with a resounding boom, leaving Kyoko and the man alone within the office.

      â€œMay I call you Kyoko?” Mr. Sennin asked politely. Personally, he was glad the old heifer had left them alone.

      His voice was aged and rough but soft and sweet at the same time, making Kyoko finally raise her emerald eyes to meet his. He was dressed in a business suit like a lawyer, but his smile belonged to someone’s grandpa because that smile reached all the way to his twinkling gray eyes. She nodded, needing a moment to find her voice.

      â€œYou know my family?” Kyoko asked the one question she thought she’d never get an answer to.

      â€œI knew them very well. Your grandfather was my best friend.” He sighed as he took Mrs. Crap’s chair and pulled it around the desk next to Kyoko’s. “Your grandfather brought you to me when you were only three years old with very explicit instructions and a will. He was killed in a freak accident only a couple hours after leaving my law firm.”

      The old man took a deep breath as if the memory still hurt him deeply, then he started to explain. “Your grandpa came to me in confidence. He told me that everyone in your family was in danger. Your parents had just died under strange circumstances and he feared for your life… afraid you would be next I suppose.”

      He fidgeted as if struggling to explain. “You see… your mother and father were found in your family’s living room, seemingly mauled to death by some kind of animal.” His eyes darkened at the memory. “But there was never any evidence found of animals having been within the house.”

      Mr. Sennin frowned, “When the police arrived, they searched for your younger brother Tama, but he’d disappeared without a trace. You were with your grandfather at the county fair during the time of your parent’s death. But when the investigators had searched the house; it was your room that had the most damage done to it. That’s when your grandfather brought you to my office.”

      â€œThey’re all gone?” Kyoko felt like she was caught in the headlights… finding out she did have a family and knowing she’d lost them all within the same breath. “No one has ever told me any of this. They just always said that I was a ward of the school. I’ve never even been allowed off campus.” She blinked wondering if she might’ve been better off not knowing.

      Mr. Sennin nodded, “My instructions were to send you to a secluded boarding school as far away as I could find from your family’s home, then not to have any form of contact with you until your seventeenth birthday. I’ve always sent the school fees by way of an off shore account so they could not be traced.”

      He looked around the room feeling regret for her isolation. “The only reason I picked this place was because the ground here is sacred… blessed by the monks who live in the monastery right up the mountain. Their ancestry and traditions are the oldest in the world… and the most powerful. I also asked that you never be allowed off school grounds. You see, your grandfather, he was convinced that if you weren’t hidden away somewhere… that the demons would find you.”

      Kyoko flinched in surprise. “Demons?” That was her secret and she’d never told anyone. Her roommates always asked her about her nightmares when she would wake up screaming, but she would simply tell them she didn’t remember the dreams. She cast her eyes down not wanting him to see the fear within them.

      He cleared his throat wondering if he’d said too much and quickly turned to his paperwork as if he could stack it even neater then it already was. “Put it this way, I trusted your grandfather just as much as he trusted me.”

      Kyoko tried to block out the visions that were trying to form in her mind. The mental family portrait that she had secretly harbored in her heart was now covered in blood. Blinking the vision away until all she could see was the kind man that had spoken to bluntly she asked, “What happens at midnight tonight? Mrs. Crap said…”

      â€œMrs. Crap,” Mr. Sennin laughed then cleared his throat. “You have to admit that the name fits her.” He shared a grin with her then placed his folder of paperwork on the desk in front of Kyoko. “There’s a rather large house and an even larger sum of money that reverts back to you tonight at midnight. You may stay here as long as you like, or you can return home to the place you were born and finish out your senior year of high school.”

      Kyoko’s lips parted and her emerald eyes had grown bigger as he spoke. “I have a house?”

      He looked a little sheepish as he answered, “Yes. It’s on the edge of town and the land behind it is yours as far as the eye can see. It even has a heated in ground swimming pool within the flower gardens behind the house that you can’t see from the road. You’ll have all the privacy you could ever want.”

      Seeing her bite her lower lip, he tried to ease her fears. “The house is not in the middle of nowhere like this place is. There is a huge house directly across the road and there’s always lots of cars coming and going. I’ve noticed because my wife and I have gone to your house once a month to clean it for the last fifteen years. We even recently stocked it in case you decide to come home.”

      A slow smile spread across Kyoko’s lips as she reached for the one thing she’d always wanted. Inside the folder was a picture of a big house with a well-manicured flower garden and a long driveway. Home… she had a home, a place where her family had once lived and been happy.

      Looking back up at Mr. Sennin, she smiled once more and gave him her answer. “When can we leave?”

      *****

      Kyoko stood on the front lawn looking up at the house where Mr. Sennin said she once lived with her family. The house was two stories, solid white, with huge columns holding up the roof of the front porch that went all the way across the front of the house. She had been standing there for almost ten minutes just taking it all in, but the sun was quickly setting and she focused her attention on the front door.

      She’d been so nervous leaving the girls' school and taking a plane across the ocean, but now that she was home, a quiet serenity had settled over her. Mr. Sennin had been a lot of help sending her luggage ahead of her and having his wife deliver it to the house. He’d even had her school records sent to the high school in town so that tomorrow all she would have to do was show up for class.

      Seeing headlights move across the front of the house, Kyoko looked over her shoulder at the residence across the small two-lane road. The house was about the same size as hers, but different. Every light in the other house was on and with so many cars in the driveway… it looked full of life. Both were set close to the road with nothing but land around them as far as the eye could see. It was like they were the only ones out here on the edge of the forest and mountains.

      The headlights in question were actually a jeep that came to a screeching halt almost in the front doorway of the other house. She heard grinding gears before seeing the door of the jeep open. Swinging back around, she realized how lonely this house really was.

      Hearing the jeep door slam, she took off up the steps with the key and had the door shut protectively

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