Where Wisteria Blooms

"What if I just end it all right now and save both of us from this tragedy of a life?" Rain pattering down on their rundown shed that they had considered home ever since that day, Una lay awake. In the bed she shares with her younger sister, she could not help but ask this question quietly in her mind. As if those words can give the two of them salvation, Una stares at her sleeping sister. She watches every breath this little girl beside her takes and with every heave comes the unstoppable feeling of being drowned. As if on cue, the voice inside her head awakened corrupted thoughts that justified her epiphany. It would be a quick and merciful death, something better than what they have right now.  She had a plan. Two, to be exact. With a slice of a knife on her sister's neck, she would stab herself in the heart as soon as she had done the deed, or, she would buy rat poison at an underground market just outside of town. It would be mixed with the tea she makes whenever the little one requests a tea party. Una puts a hand on her chest to check if she was breathing properly, visibly shaken by her thoughts. After all, how can she bring herself to harm this delicate creature beside her?   With a face so soft, so inexplicably innocent of this world. She was still trying to wrap her head around the fact that witnessing what happened seemed not to have any effect on her sister. But it made sense. Una reminded herself that Kaya was only four years old. Still ignorant of how cruel this world actually is. It was rather her longing to have someone understand and help her process what she had been through that blinded her and made her question Kaya's sanity. "I should also be able to relish my youth", she thought to herself. But instead, she was forced to grow up and make hard decisions for both of them to survive.  She found it funny how, just moments ago, she was plotting how to kill Kaya and herself, but right now, she is thinking of how to survive this day with the limited amount of money she was able to steal from their parents' stash of gold the day they ran away for dear life.