Mother Loves You - Year 1 - Hana's Backstory

“You were born in a quiet hospital on the south side of town. Outside of the hospital was littered with cherry blossoms and ponds. Your mother thought this would be the perfect place for her daughter to be born. At 7pm on a Thursday you were born to a woman with beautiful long white hair and a glistening smile. She would look down at you and pet your short pink hair. Traveling her fingers around the sharp objects protruding from your small head. Her eyebrows shifted in confusion, but she leaning in kissing your forehead smiling into your chest. You were her child. The child that she had been waiting for. You were all hers and no one could take you away.
The nurse that had been helping your mother came back in with a tray of warm milk and crackers. Once she entered the room and saw you tucked snuggly inside of your mothers arms. She dropped the tray and ran off. Your mother pulled you in closer.  Minutes later several men with black suits came in followed by an army of gunned men. Behind them walked a man with black hair and glasses and the nurse who whispered under her breath.
‘You sadist.’ “
“What does that mean?”
“A bad person.”
“Was the nurse lady called mummy a sadkiss?”
“No no. The nurse thought your mother caused you to be like that on purpose.”
“Did she really?”
“Of course not your mother loved you very much, and I bet she still does”
“Good.”
Miu, my caretaker at the facility, smiled down at me as she continued to comb my hair. I smiled closing my eyes trying to imagine my mothers face. I imagined Miu’s face with long white hair smiling back down at me.  I opened my eyes abruptly as I had realized that Miu never finished the story she was telling me. I turned my head around and asked, “What happened after the men with the guns came?”
“Well, they took you from your mother. Your mother was crying and trying to rip out of the gunned man’s arms and run and hold you more.”
“What a sadkiss.”
Miu laughed and patted my head.
“Yeah, what a sadist.”
She closed her eyes and hummed a song. I turned my head back forward and wondered, “What song is that, Miu?”
“It’s a song that my own mother used to sing to me.”
“Please keep humming then.”
Miu smiled and continued humming. I kicked my feet to the beat of the sweet melody. Time seemed to pass instantaneously, and before I knew it Miu said, “I’m done!” I reached up and touched the braid extending from the back of my head to the nape of my neck.
“I love it!”
“I’m very glad”
I leaned back on Miu, resting my head in her chest. She wrapped her arms around my chest. I raised my arms and draped them over hers. I smiled looking out on the dark metal room with one fluorescent light in the center, a window with people working behind it taking notes on me, a door that I wished never opened because that would mean that Miu would be leaving me and I didn’t want that.
“Could you tell me more about my mommy? Or even better! My daddy?” I looked up at Miu’s face gazing off into the wall, she looked down at me and responded, “I’m sorry, I don’t know anything about your father. All I know is that he was on a business trip when you were born”
“A business trip?” I repeated with a confused look on my face, “Then tell me about my mommy!”
Miu smiled, “Of course.”
She breathed in very slowly and started, “She was a kind woman, who took care of dogs at the local animal shelter. Your father had a dog who ran away and got injured. An elderly couple found the hurt dog on the side of the road when they were on their morning walk. They picked up the small dog and carried it to the shelter that was just down the street. They would’ve taken it to the owner, but the dog wasn’t wearing a collar. Your mother was working the front desk when the elderly couple brought the dog in. She put a temporary collar on the dog and brought to the back. She thanked the couple and went into the back to bandage up the dog. “
“After about an hour the dog was all bandaged up and all better. Your mother brought the dog to the front and sat down at her chair. She noticed that the dog was very well behaved. Shortly after your mother started to work, a man ran in sweating and panting. Your mother asked if he was okay, he responded by asking if they had his dog. Your mother picked up the dog and displayed it over the counter. The man introduced himself and explained the situation and how happy he was to have his little dog back home. He grabbed the dog and went home. “
“That didn’t tell me much about my mommy though…”
“What do you mean? If your mother wasn’t so kind she would have never been helping out at the animal shelter and she would have never met your father.”
She smiled and picked up and set me closer up on her leg.
“How do you know all of this”
“I was your mother’s best friend”
I was shocked, and rightfully so. I had found someone who was with my mother all the time. I was so excited I couldn’t sit still.
“What was my mommy’s name?”
“It was-” Miu started but was interrupted by the loud speaker requesting Miu.
She picked me up and set me to the side of her, she stood up and smiled, “Tomorrow okay?”
“Of course!”
She started to walk to the door and I hopped of the large metal slab that was fastened to the wall with two chains. The light bed sheet stuck to my hand and came with when I stood up. I ran to Miu’s side and grabbed her hand. She looked down and let go of my hand. “You know you can’t come with me.” She reminded me. I looked down and said, “I know…”  
I stopped walking and watched her walk the rest of the way. She pressed the green button on the side of the door and a voice came through the little keypad. “Name.” “Miu.” “Access granted.” The door opened and she slid through. The large metal door slammed behind her. A series of locks sounding behind her.
I sat down on the metal floor and looked at the window, the figures walking around. I looked down at where the wall met with the floor, and imagined my mother sitting there with outstretched arms calling my name. “Amaya, come here darling.” I stood up and stepped forward. Walking to my mother that was so close to me.
My fantasy was short lived by an announcement over the intercom. A dark figure loomed over me through the window. The door opened, I turned to see who was entering the door. “Miu!” I shouted it was not Miu. It was a man wearing a dark suit. I walked back scared of the man who was entering my room.
“Number 56. Good Afternoon.”
I grabbed my hands behind my back and stared at him cowardly.
“Please do not be afraid. I am only here to ask some questions.”
I studied his body. His clip board. The short brown hair. The glasses. The long jacket.
“My name is Connie.” He knelt down. “I want to know what you are.”
I awkwardly walked over and sat in front of him.
“I am a girl. My name is Amaya. I am a diclonius.” I said stumbling over the word diclonius.”
Before I could go on to explain that Miu was my best friend and my favourite person in the whole world was my mother, he stopped me.
“No you are not. You are a human. A very special human.”
I looked at him with curious eyes.
“You are just like me. And I am just like you. The only difference is that you are much more beautiful than I am.”
I smiled. Temporarily forgetting about the horns on my head and the pink hair that was tightly braided. For a moment I felt fantastic.
The door flew open and the man sitting in front of me was tasered. The collapsed to the floor and a man with a black suit came in and took him away. I stood up and ran to the corner of the room underneath my bed that was chained to the wall.
“God damnit Connie. You should have just fucking asked the questions.”
‘What questions?’  I thought.
The door slammed shut with the familiar sound of locks quickly following. I sat in the corner slightly rocking back and forth.
A strange feeling tickled the back of my head and my lower back. I had never felt that feeling before, but it made me feel angry. Like I wanted to stand up and do something about the man that hurt Connie.
I tried to shake it off, but the feeling never went away. It lingered. The longer it stayed the angrier I got. My horns started to ache.  
But then it just went away. I opened my eyes that were previously tightly sealed in pain. I looked around only to see that all the lights were turned out in my room and all that remained was a dark figure in the window staring at me under the bed shuttering in pain. The room behind the glass was illuminated by a small desk lamp resting besides the figure.
I crawled out from under the metal slab that was my bed and stood up. I picked up the bedsheet that was thrown haphazardly on the floor.  I stumbled to the bed I climbed in and wrapped myself in the sheet.  I closed my eyes and fell asleep. I dreamed of pictures of my mother. And how I wished she was here holding me and making the pain that was here moments ago disappear.