Dreams…

“When will you stop bringing us misfortune Hajime?”
My brother shouts at me from the top of his lungs… I had just came home with a wound on my side after Kondou-san kept me a few days in the Shieikan.
“You good for nothing fool! Killing a retainer of the Shogun in broad daylight! What will we do now?”
“Hontoni… Gomenasai Onii-san.”
*SLAP*
“Can we use that as an excuse? Being sorry for what you’ve done?”
I see him pacing around… My sisters are all in their rooms… Not coming out… And eventhough my mother is sick in bed, I hoped that one of them would come out… Someone to forgive me and tell me it will be alright, just like Otou-san..
He strikes my face again and follows it with a kick to my side. I fall over clutching my ribs. He seems blind to the fact that blood had started oozing again from the wound. Does he not care?
“Get out of here… Do not come back! That’s the least you can do to save this family.”
Bowing down to him, I plead to stay. I have nowhere to go… In my nineteen years I have only my mediocre skills as a swordsman to rely on. Surely he knows… They are the most important thing to me and I need them. I need them to believe in me. But the next thing I knew, he had dragged me by the collar out towards the gate and shut it for good.
As I dragged myself further away, I look back for the last time at what I thought was once my home.