My name is Tokinari Saimaru, I am a sixteen year old boy that lives on the mountainside with my parents.
My parents, Akira and Nao Saimaru, have four children, I am the oldest.
My youngest sibling is the only other boy among our siblings, his name is Riku Saimaru, then there are the twins, Yui and Rina Saimaru.
My mother is a small woman, but she is kind. My father on the other hand, is a large man with an equally large heart. Riku is still just a baby so I don't know much about him, but he looks very cute. And then, the twins, they are a little sheltered, like they only really talk to eachother, but that's okay.
My father is a very hard working man, he is both a Lumberjack AND a Stonemason, so it's only right he's very strong.
I wanna be just like my dad, so I usually work with him, mainly to help out since he's just one man and that's a lot of work.
But hey, working with him is fun anyways since I get to spend time with him, maybe one day Riku will be able to work with us too.
Our family is pretty unique in the way we look, from what I've seen in the town, most people have black hair and black eyes, while my father has rusty red hair and blue eyes and my mother is tanned and has Black hair and Beige eyes, so yeah, we're pretty unique.
Me personally? I am super duper handsome of course, that's what mother tells me, anyway. Though, most people from the town don't seem to think so, they point at me… more accurately, my eyes, I guess.
I have the same rusty red hair as my father, tanned skin and beige eyes of my mother. I'd say I'm of average height, nearly as tall as my doorframe. Though, father is way taller.
The thing is, my eyes are weird. Different than normal people's eyes. One of my pupils is bigger while the other is smaller, no one knows why, or what it means, but it doesn't seem to change anything about the way I see.
Another thing that's weird about the way I look, my face has lots of dark brown dots, my mother calls them freckles and says they make me special, and I think so too, it makes me look pretty cool. I think.
My teeth are also different, they're sharp! Real sharp, like a wolf or something. But that does make me look a little strange when I smile, but that's okay. I don't care what people think of me if it's negative.
Well anyways, I caught onto wood and stone working pretty fast, which shocked my father a bit. But, I don't think that means anything necessarily.
But yeah, that's everything about me, well, this version of me.
…
"Hey, Toki, whatcha doing?" Akira Saimaru peeked over Tokinari's shoulder.
Tokinari flinched a little, having not noticed his father sneak up behind him.
"O—oh! Nothing, father. I was just writing down something in this empty notebook I found." Tokinari chuckled and rubbed the back of his head.
His father picked up some logs, hoisted them onto his shoulder and patted Tokinari's back, "Hey, take some of those logs there and bring em' back to the cabin."
"Yes, sir." He nodded, shoved the notebook into his back pocket and stood up.
His father started to walk away, two bundles of logs on each of his shoulders.
Tokinari walked to the pile of logs, picked one bundle up and hoisted it onto his shoulder. He would've liked to carry two, but he wasn't that strong yet.
"Wait up!" He told his father as he ran after him.
Akira Saimaru tilted his head at Tokinari, "What's up with you today, kid?"
Tokinari looked a little confused, "What do you mean?"
His father chuckled, "What do you mean 'What do you mean' you cut down twice as many trees as usual today and since when did you like to write?"
"Hmm…" Tokinari hummed to himself thoughtfully, "I guess I wanted to work a little harder today? And for writing, I'm not sure, it just looked a little fun. Maybe a new hobby."
His father let out a hearty laugh, "Okay, I'll see if I can get you some more of those books next time we head down to town."
Tokinari grinned, flashing his sharp teeth. "Sounds great, what's for dinner tonight?"
His father didn't look back at him, he didn't even say anything.
Tokinari looked up at him, the silence was loud, the only noise was the bristling of leaves and the creaking of the trees.
Suddenly, his father started running, sprinting even.
Tokinari's eyes widened slightly, confused.
Akira looked back, grinning. "Come on, I'm hungry, let's get going!" Before sprinting off into the distance.
"What?!" Tokinari stammered before he started running too, the weight of the logs was a little too much but it was okay, he wanted to get stronger anyways.
After a few minutes of sprinting, then jogging, then walking… and maybe a little bit of crawling too, he finally reached his cabin.
"Mother, Toki's home." The twins said at the exact same time, sounding kinda scary.
Nao Saimaru peeked out from inside, wearing an apron. "Oh, Toki! Your father got here half an hour ago, where have you been?"
Tokinari struggled to his feet as his eye twitched, "My bad, I must've gotten lost…"
"Oh come on, it's going to get dark soon." His mother urged him inside.
When Tokinari entered, the familiar warmth of his home welcomed him in with open arms. It wasn't a huge house, just a cozy little cabin that his father had built a few decades ago.
He took off his coat and boots and walked in through the doorway, the scent of herbs and spices filling his nose.
"That smells great, do you need any help?" Tokinari walked over to the kitchen with curious eyes, looking at what his mother was cooking, it was his favourite, Miso Ramen with slightly undercooked eggs were his go-to.
Nao just ruffled his rusty red hair and looked at him with kind eyes, "Oh come on, Toki, you know I never need help!"
Tokinari chuckled and stood next to her, rolling up his sleeves and cutting up some green onions, "Of course, mother, but I'll help out of the kindess of my heart." He grinned, once again flashing his sharp teeth.
His mother smiled back at him, "Thank you, Toki dear."
After about fifteen minutes, the miso ramen was finally ready and the whole family gathered around a table in the middle of the room.
Yui and Rina both ate in sync, everything they did was a little strange, but they'd been this way since they were babies, so Tokinari was used to it.
They all ate in silence, Tokinari's ramen was a little charred and the egg was perfectly undercooked, just how he liked it.
He was the first to break the silence, "Mother, this tastes amazing! Thank you so much for working hard."
Nao looked a little surprised at Tokinari's sudden outburst but she laughed it off and gave him a grin, "It's only because you helped me, Toki."
"Speaking of helping, Toki worked way harder than ever before today, great job, kid." Akira laughed and patted Tokinari's back a little too hard.
Tokinari winced, the place his father had hit was where he was holding the bundle of logs, so it was a little sore.
Yui and Rina both spoke at the same time, "Is that why you took so long? Because you were all tired out?"
Tokinari was a little startled, the twins never usually spoke during their meals, but they actually engaged now. "Hm? Yeah, I think so anyway… or it might've been because father wanted us to run."
Akira suddenly coughed so hard a noodle came out of his nose.
Nao turned and faced him, an evil glint in her eye, "You did what?"
"N-nothing, honey." Akira defended himself.
The one year old Riku let out an adorable little laugh, his plate was significantly smaller with only a little bit of food on it, because he was a baby.
Tokinari looked over at Riku with a proud expression, the kid was definitely cute, and he shared all of Tokinari's features from the red hair, beige eyes and even the freckles!
His sisters, however, they both had Black hair and Blue eyes, very different to him and Riku.
Nonetheless, they wrapped up eating and went to bed for the night.
Tokinari, however, stayed up just a little later to help his mother with cleaning the dishes.
"You really done have to help out so much, Toki dear." She said, sounding a little solemn.
Tokinari didn't look up at her, he just smiled faintly as he scrubbed the plate clean. "It's okay. You're the reason I'm safe and sound, I should at least help this much."
Nao Saimaru felt very proud to have such a caring young man as her son, she ruffled his hair and went off to bed herself.
Tokinari stayed behind just a little longer, looking down at his hands, they were rough and calloused thanks to years of working with his father as a Lumberjack and Stonemason.
He sighed, then checked the old wooden clock on the wall, it was slightly rusted and worn from decades, maybe even centuries of use.
It was 9 PM sharp, and with that Tokinari walked over to the children's room, where everyone except his mother and father slept.
And with that, Tokinari drifted off to sleep.
…
I'm not sure how long had passed, but I'm suddenly wide awake, I don't think it has been long, but hey.
I got out of bed, quietly, as to not wake up my siblings and walked over to the main room.
In the main room, I looked around and my eyes landed on that old clock. It read midnight.
"Oh cool, so I've been asleep for three hours, great."
Lovely, so I was wide awake at midnight. I hate when this happens because I often struggle to sleep, let alone going back to sleep after waking up.
But anyways, I felt something was strange, I could feel a cool breeze on the back of my neck.
So I turned around.
And I was face to face with an unfamiliar man, or well it kinda looked like a man, I'm using "kinda" VERY loosely.
Who the fuck is this?
He was really ugly, pardon my rudeness but the guy had three eyes, he was very tall, he was extremely fat, smelled horrible, had wonky teeth and had about… six arms, how strange.
I tried to be polite, "Excuse me, sir, are you lost?"
The 'man' didn't look at me, he just looked around the room and then his eyes landed on the old clock and then all three of his beady green eyes narrowed.
He walked toward the clock and examined it, "What is this strange energy? It almost feels like masters…" he said, his voice was just as creepy as he looked.
My patience was starting to wane, so I walked over and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Sir, you can't just enter people's houses."
The man flinched and one of his arms moved so fast I could barely notice.
I looked down.
And his arm was wedged right in the middle of my chest, his hand poking out my back.
"W-what…" I muttered, the blood flowing out of my mouth.
Before I could do anything, I realised that I couldn't let someone like this anywhere near my family.
I threw a punch, it was weak. Or was he just strong? He didn't budge.
I threw another punch, this one connecting with it's nose.
"Ugly… bastard!" I growled, my vision starting to blur from the blood loss.
The man giggled and looked me dead in the eye, "Your family is here right? I'll just have to eat them too."
I couldn't do anything but scream. "EVERYONE, RUN! THERES A MONSTER!" My voice was hoarse and cracked.
The creature growled and slammed me into the old clock.
I felt something stab my back, or well, it felt hot, like something was being burnt into my back. The old clock maybe? But why was it hot.
Either way, I hit the floor hard, blood pooling beneath me from the gaping hole in my chest, I couldn't breathe anymore, my vision was blurry and I couldn't think properly.
All I saw was that monster, ripping my family to shreds one by one and then eating them.
A single tear fell from my eye as my consciousness faded…
And then,
I died.