The memories of that awful night kept replaying in her mind every night in her dreams. She had tried so hard to repress the images that were still haunting her after so many years, but they did not want to be forgotten. The screams of her beloved aunt and uncle, her fathers voice… She could never make out what he was saying.

She was running fast, her long, black, curly hair falling over her eyes, clouding her sight. The hallway seemed endless. Then finally, she was there by the door to the master bedroom in her uncle’s mansion. The door was open and she saw her dead uncle lying on the floor, covered in his own blood. Her aunt lay motionless on the bed, staring up at the ceiling, and her father was on top of her. What was left of him.

She looked up at her younger cousin who was standing next to the bed in her blood-soaked pajamas, holding the ancient samurai-sword in her small hands, blood dripping from the blade. Her father’s blood.

»No…»

Her gaze dropped to look at what was on the floor; her father’s head, his dead eyes staring blankly back up at her.

»They’re all dead…»

“What… how… You killed them! Why?! Why would you do something like this?!” She stared at her cousin who was just standing there as if she had frozen. “They were my family, you freak!” She tried to wipe away the tears that were flowing down her cheeks with the back of her hand. “They were your family…”

She looked around the room, nausea rising in her. It definitely wasn’t the first time she’d seen dead bodies, but seeing her family in pools of blood was somewhat different. “Get out!” she shouted. “Go! I never want to see you again! And if I do, I swear, I’m gonna kill you, just give me a chance, and I’ll kill you!”

Her cousin’s eyes were clouded with tears as she dropped the sword on the floor. A part of her just wanted to embrace the eight-year-old and tell her everything was going to be okay. It was the curse of their family, she knew deep inside that all of this was destined to happen; still she couldn’t forgive her.

“Out!” she cried. “Get out now, run far away, they’ll never know you did it. No-one but me…”

»No-one but me…»

And she woke up to an even harsher reality.