Fruits Basket Fan Fiction ❯ Good Mistakes ❯ A Good Mistake ( Chapter 1 )

Chapter 1: A Good Mistake

 

The daunting forest was far from peaceful that night. Those few with sensitive ears could feel the very grueling battle that sounded like Death itself. Never had anything so murderous reached his ears that night. As he lay in his bed with his eyes closed, but trembling, he could see without seeing what was taking place.

 

It wasn't a familiar face to the residents of the forest. It was bigger than them; stronger than them; and eviler than them. It was walking alone down a well-frayed path: the first mistake that it wasn't aware of. From what they could see, hidden deeply in the brush, quiet and barely breathing, was a coal-black beast that was massive beyond belief in its size. Its large, golden orbs stuck out the most among all of its traits. They magnified the reflection of the light the quarter moon was emitting. They appeared to the naked eye like real pieces of gold that were so perfectly rounded as smooth as silk and fitted ever so flawlessly inside the body of a flawful creature. They mirrored the emotion of hatred of itself and misery of everything else. Its massive head hung low near the ground and its substantial tail accompanied it. Its paws could have been a bears with such coarse pads and razor-sharp talons. They drug the ground expressing the weariness of the very young living thing. It was there, right for the taking as the mouths of the pack drooled with pleasure and the perceptive of the soon-to-be fresh meat that was soon-to-be breathing no more.

 

One faulty step on a feeble twig sent the wolf's senses on fire. It stopped abruptly and gazed this way and that. It sniffed the air and found that it was not unaccompanied. With its tail high in the air, and its chest protruding far more than it should, it waited for the pack to come out.

 

From all sides did the horde of coyotes emerge, with a quantity of about fifteen. They were the rulers of this forest. They protected it from any outsider that gave off the scent of DOG. Though, this creature was far from a dog, it still wasn't welcome. If it had any brains it would have brought along its pack, but apparently, this poor she-wolf had been banished from its family; all the more easier to feast upon.

 

The leader of the coyotes was a burly male with a silvery coat that appeared to have been dulled greatly. Its battle scars weren't difficult to pick out either. It barked out commands to its humble servants and they all sprang in at once. There was no time to negotiate with them when the biting and ripping of flesh began.

 

The wolf tried her best to dodge any teeth or claws that were coming her way. It was more than difficult when one planted its canines into her leg and began to tug furiously. The wolf cried out in pain and tried to reach around and beat it off. She took her large paw and slammed it down on top of the creatures head and it released its hold. She soon came to notice that another one bit its way to her neck and refused to release his hold. It wasn't the most vulnerable part of her neck but it still was life-threatening. She cranked her head around and bit at it repeatedly until she bit into its face near its eye and it reared back in pain. More bites and more cuts accompanied the battle as it neared its end. The wolf has successfully taken out three of the fifteen fighters: one killed from a neck wound, one blinded by being bitten in the eye, and one killed from having its hind leg torn completely off. That still left twelve more to keep pounding her to her death.

 

Though these coyotes were half the size the she-wolf was, things didn't appear to be working out for her. She was scrapped in her side, deadly close to exposing her ribs. Her ears were bitten and her mussel was caked with both her blood and the coyotes. Almost all of her limbs were bitten more than three times and her neck came close to being torn off by a second death grip. After being able to take out only two more coyotes, she tried to flee.

 

She found an opening in the brawl and dashed for it. Though her limbs were on fire from the burning pain, and her body was loosing more and more blood, she dashed along as fast as her feet could carry her. With the hunters not far behind, the she-wolf tried to maneuver through the trees in different directions so she could get them off her trail. Ten minutes into the chase, she found a creek and plunged in and darted down stream and then jumped on land again going the opposite direction. That seemed to buy her enough time to find a decent place to recuperate until morning.

 

She was able to find a very small vacated cave and nestled there. In the blink of an eye, her body had changed from beast to woman. Her once golden eyes were now silver; her once black fur was now short auburn hair. She tended to herself as best she could in the sinister darkness of the cave. Her chance of survival was slim to none, but something seemed to want to cling on to life though the only thing she really wanted was to die. She leaned her head on the wall of the cave and tried to catch her breath.

 

“Why am I still alive…? Why can't I seem to die? All of the torture I've been put through should have killed me long ago. That curse has done more damage to me than those coyotes. Even at birth my very existence was hated. So…why was I born? Why was I brought here? I seem to want to seek redemption; I want to be accepted into the family. But they don't want me. They hate me. So why am I going to their home? I know they'll just spit in my face and try to kill me themselves. I guess…that's why I'm going. I'm going to die. I'm going to see them so I can die and be happy. That's why I'm going. Besides…there's not enough room in the family for a mistake…”

 

She pondered deeply and trekked far inside her mind to find a reason. She wanted to find a reason for her existence, but nothing came to mind. She couldn't even figure out how she came to be. She was never a part of the family in the first place. Her subsistence was a flaw. She was alone in a world that believed she was devil's spawn and was good for nothing except the death of others. But she had never killed a living person before in her life. It wasn't her fault. She didn't kill them. They blame her to this day for all the blood that was shed so many years ago. She didn't understand why they blamed her when she clearly could not have killed anyone when she wasn't even alive at that point in time. They blamed her anyways. They thought she cursed her family. They hated her. Her sisters, her brothers, even her birth mother and father spit in her direction. They booted her out to die cold and alone believing that she had murdered numerous people and deserved everything torturous and inhuman that happened to her. She was to die in a bed of roses with thorns piercing her every sin and be banished to the pits of Hell. Nothing suited her better in their eyes. So why wouldn't she want to die? Was it because she wanted to fix everything that happened by asking for forgiveness now? Did she seek redemption for someone else's mistakes? Would she succeed if she tried?

 

She couldn't think of anything else but what she could say to them when that time came her way. She was scared that they would kill her on the spot. She trembled in the darkness just thinking about it. Her eyes quivered at the thought of rejection. Even though rejection was all she ever lived with, she feared it now more than ever.

 

There was a place here where there lived three of them. That was a start. She wouldn't dare face all twelve of them at the same time. Maybe if the first three didn't reject her, she would have better luck with the rest—or—just get killed by them to spare the rest of the family the trouble of doing it.

 

There was only twelve animals in the Chinese Zodiac, not thirteen or fourteen or fifteen; just twelve. There was clearly…no room…for a mistake.

 

 

The night lingered on and appeared to never end. The moon wouldn't move as if it were frozen in its place. It was like time itself had stopped. There wasn't any noise, the wind didn't blow, all living creatures didn't breathe, and birds hung in the air like ornaments in the sky. She was at her home; her birth place. Her family was there and they were happy. However, she was looking through the window, from the outside. It was her family; only, she wasn't a part of it. They were laughing and talking and having a wonderful supper at the table. It was their life without her. They had a peaceful life, a pure life. Nothing was wrong.

 

So she walked in and smiled at them. She smiled at her family which didn't appear to notice her. She said hello to get their attention and her brother turned around. “What are YOU doing here?” he asked in a disgusted tone. “You're supposed to be dead.”

 

She froze in her tracks at her brothers words. It finally came to her, after they all glared at her, that they had killed her long ago. They killed her the instant she was born. Her younger sister looked up from her seat, “Mamma said she never had a third child. She said it was just a mistake.”

 

The words pierced her like a thousand needles. Her younger sister, the one who never thought she was an accident, said she was a mistake? She always refused to believe that her older sister was some sort of monster, but every time she did so, they punished her and never let them be together again.

 

“Oh wait,” she said, “My bad, you weren't a mistake. I love you. I'll always love you, my big sister.”

 

Standing at the door, she started to cry at her sisters words. She never expected what would happen next. They took her by her hair; she screamed. They took a knife and stabbed it through her heart, blood splattered on the floor.

 

A wave of fear and anger swept over her as she watched them kill her sister, right there, for no real reason. “You monsters!”

 

The father gazed at her, evil in his eyes, “She was getting to be a problem. She couldn't learn when she was younger to hate you so now she pays the price.”

 

“Yes, we can't have a believer among this family. It's bad enough that we have you. Now get out of this house. You are not welcome here, nor will you ever be.”

 

The mother's words seemed to knock her daughter out of the doorway and into the murderous world outside. The door closed and the lights went out. It was pitch black with zero light. One could have closed their eyes and saw nothing different. And they all appeared before her, one by one the members of her family in a beam of light.

 

The brother was first.

 

“You, my younger sister, you were never worth my mother's trouble. You caused her pain from your birth that was unnecessary. You kill even when there is no blood on your hands.”

 

The younger sister appeared next; blood covered her chest.

 

“I don't know why I liked you. I guess because you were the only other girl I could look up to. I didn't want to believe those things they said about you. But I'm older now and have finally realized all of the terrible things you've done to my family. Look what you did: you killed me.”

 

Then the father.

 

“I will never claim you, a cursed being, as my daughter. When you were born, we didn't know the truth, but as you aged, we learned what was causing those strange mishaps with the rest of the family. You were cursed. Not only were you cursed, but you were a faulty curse. It gets no lower than that.”

 

Then her mother appeared as her father disappeared.

 

“I was happy when you were born at first. I hadn't realized that you weren't really a part of the family. I didn't know that you were nothing but a mistake that stained our family with your very existence. I don't ever want to see you again. I want you to die.”

 

The black abyss returned as all of them finished speaking their minds and ordered her to die. So she screamed.

 

When she jerked herself awake, it was already morning. The sunlight shone inside the cave and she looked herself over, remembering her brawl with the locals. Then she remembered her dream. They all claimed she was an accident, a mistake, a stain on their family. It was time to prove to them that she wasn't just an accident. She had to prove to them that she can make things right and be accepted back into the family, not as a flaw, but as the last piece of the puzzle that made them whole.

 

She grinded her teeth, “So, you think I was an accident, you think I stained your perfect family? I'll show you that I am NOT a mistake and that I CAN make things right. I'll prove to you all that I am worth more than death. Even if I have to die getting there, I'll make sure you regret saying those things to me. You'll greet me with open arms when I get back. You just wait. Just because I was a mistake doesn't mean I can't be a good mistake.”