An ethereal song rang in Sekito's ears as she watched Devina perform one of the hardest music scores in the world. Sekito and her parents were sitting amongst the audience, listening to Devina's sonata. As the sounds and notes stopped echoing in the orchestra, every musician who witnessed the masterfully executed performance stood up and applauded out of respect.
"WHY IS IT THAT YOU KEEP CAUSING TROUBLE FOR US?"
In the kitchen, as Devina was planning to grab some food, her mom called her out with her dad watching. Devina held the plate near her chest as her mom continued to berate her.
"All I did was show what I could do," Devina calmly replied.
Her mom told her that it was exactly that which was the problem. She is drawing way too much attention to her family. Devina stared at her mom with a look of resentment before putting the plate down and storming out of the kitchen.
"What am I gonna do with this child?"
"Truly a cursed child we got."
Sekito had been standing in the hallway listening to the whole confrontation, and as Devina left, she saw the look of sadness in Devina's eyes.
Sekito clutched her fist and stormed into the kitchen, confronting both of her parents.
"You call yourselves parents? Telling your daughter that she is a curse bestowed upon you by the heavens?"
Her mom and dad stood silent, staring at each other.
"Why is it that you selfishly decided to have children just to call them a curse? What is wrong with both of you? She doesn't know anything, and you already blame her for what she does?"
Sekito's mom told her to sit down and have a talk. Her mom told her the story of how they had gotten into a lot of controversy because of Devina. News articles had been published about their family, and people were starting to know who they were. The reason they were so against Devina getting so much attention was that they had unpaid debts from several dangerous individuals they had been evading for years.
All the public attention could lead the loansharks to them, and they could might as well be killed because of what they did.
Sekito calmly listened to the situation with both of her eyes closed and arms crossed.
"We can't help but just be scared that Devina might be the reason we die one day," both of them said in front of Sekito.
Sekito stood up from the table and held up her hand, about to strike her mom, but before she could, she heard a noise behind her.
As both of her parents locked eyes with Devina, who stood there. She had been listening to everything they had been saying about her.
"Me? The reason you die?"
Their mom tried to break eye contact with Devina. Small footsteps approached them, and the person who was standing in front of them was barely a teenager.
Grasping her chest, Devina told them how much it hurt in there. That the ones who had created her loathed her this much. But now that she had understood everything, that they hated her simply because they were scared of the consequences their daughter would bring for being successful.
"I didn't ask to be born, yet you blame me for being born. Some days I actually wish I were dead so I could please you, but now that I have learned that no matter what I do, you can't be pleased."
With no orders being able to be formulated in her mouth, Sekito took a step back and looked at Devina. She hated her parents for what they had done to Devina, she hated how selfish they were, and how much they sacrificed to be at peace.
With a resolute expression, Sekito told her parents that they were alone and that she wouldn't be associated with them anymore. As she passed by Devina to leave, she patted her sister's back twice to reassure her that big sis was always on her side.
Her parents finally stood up and started to accuse Devina of being a horrible daughter and a daughter who can't love. Devina stood there, soaking up all their insults.
And then they finally said it in front of her that both of them were disowned and they wouldn't be welcome back into the family anymore.
"What family? This is just you are her, this was never about us."
"We raised you both this big, and now you are being this ungrateful brat who can't help us with a single thing."
"We don't owe you guys anything, you aren't our parents anymore."
Devina left the house after hearing enough from her parents, and out by the front gate stood Sekito with both her arms crossed, leaning against the stone gate, waiting for her.
The next day, loan sharks that had heard about Devina's performance and read the reports about her family tracked down their house. But what they found inside made them lose interest in even taking back the money. When they opened the front door and stormed into their house to find them the only thing they found was a dissected corpse of a woman. One of the loan sharks immediately dropped their weapon and started to vomit at the sight of a woman cut up cleanly. Part of her skull was missing, and her brain was showing. It was as if someone had taken a knife and cut her like a piece of cake. Her corpse was hanging and her organs and been taken out of her body and lined up perfectly like an anatomy study.
"What the fuck…"
All the men had to step out of the room for a moment. There wasn't a drop of blood on the floor, for every drop of blood had been funnelled into a giant jar.
"Boss… I need to go out and take a breather…"
"Yeah, me too."
All of them rushed out of the house except for the boss, who continued to analyse the crime scene. He looked at the organs that were lined up on the table and realised that both of their bodies were missing a heart. Every organ was there except for the heart.
The whole thing became a huge scandal. People suspected gangs were targeting them or a serial killer. Words reached Sekito, who was sitting with Devina in their apartment. Sekito felt a little saddened by the fact that their parents had been murdered so brutally. They were horrible people, but still, she couldn't help but feel a sense of dread. Once Sekito told Devina about it, she turned around and had a somber look on her face.
She started to fiddle with Sekito's hair before wrapping her arms around her.