InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Pink Destiny ❯ Midnight ( Chapter 2 )

Pink Destiny
By Robbih-Moore

Disclaimer: I don't own C.C.S and if I did I wouldn't be wishing I did. Oh well.... BUT I DO OWN THIS PLOT AND SOME OF THE CHARACTERS IN THIS STORY...

Chapter 2: Midnight


It was late when Sakura jerked out of her dreams, head whirling as if she had been spinning uselessly for hours. Her senses weak and unused, trying pinpoint where the danger was, from whence the powerful aura was projecting, and it was this confusion made her kick out blindly, wanting to scream.
Trying to let her voice call help to her, she squirmed and moaned.

"Touya, Touya..." She would have cried, but it came out muffled and decrepit, like she was, blocked by the perspiring and fleshy barrier covering her mouth tightly. She couldn't breath, her nose wasn't giving her enough oxygen, she knew she would be strangled. Someone was trying to kill her...?
LET ME GO, PLEASE. She wanted to breath to the person, just wanted to breath.

Would she be raped? Was she gonna die? Yes, she was going to die. DEATH!?! I AM GOING TO DIE!!!??
She felt her heart pummel this into her muddled mind. This was worse than ghosts, though she hadn't seen one since, well, years ago. Not that she was going to reminisce about that, what with her about to be killed and all.


This person would shoot her. Or worse yet, he was a copycat and would copy that creepy Jack Ripper guy. Yes, she would be slashed again and again and....


She kicked out blindly until she felt her flaying legs connect with something that grunted, pained. The something said something let out a what she took to be a curse due to the tone of said voice, but in a language she didn't know, though her mind was laboring to understand, comprehend so she could understand what she was up against.


But as the words hit her she stilled for a millisecond. She felt like she was having deja vu for some reason. What was so familiar about that voice?


Who are you? She wanted to ask, but the hand was making it impossible to do just that. She bit down on it. Earning her another groan of pain from the voice and though the hand stayed. She shivered and waited to gather her strength to herself. She would kick out in another moment, when he thought she was subdued, try to determine who it was out there in the darkness.


Yes, that was a plan. A good one. Yes, yes, yes... NO NO NO NO NO... SOMEONE SAVE ME... SOMEONE ANYONE... WHAT THE HELL... A knife flashed in her mind, coming to her neck and then.... GOD HELP ME... OR BUDDHA... OR ALLAH... OR SOMEONE... ANYTHING IN THAT SKY OR BELOW GROUND... he would rape her... take her and she wouldn't be able to... STOP THIS GOD STOP THIS... Her mind raced and she knew nothing, and for a moment or two she was stuck in the cycle of fear. Then it subsided. Only to rise again...


It was after a moment that she heard deep, emotionless words in her ear, but she had no face to go with it. There was no moon tonight, so the darkness was deeper.


"Iht ihz Ehlih. Shuhdduhp wihll yooh?" Came the words. She recognized only a few of the meanings. But it sounded familiar, too dang familiar. The person was speaking English. She knew that much from the soft sounds and harsh vowels that the person thought she would understand. But maybe they were trying to threaten her. But for some reason the voice made her still.


It was distantly comforting. like a scent that you had forgotten, and then you heard smelled it briefly and it would bring back memories you had half remembered in day dreaming and brief lapses of mental evanescence .


She knew the voice all to well, but what was IT doing here? New thoughts filled her, replacing the "GOD HE IS GOING TO KILL ME" ones and only adding more questions to her startled mind, though washing the thoughts of panic away for a moment or two.


"Eriol" She mumbled, hissing, after removing the hand from its resting place on her mouth, and sat up, leaning against her feather pillows and headboard.


Eriol felt her heart beat slowing down and the fear was now only a flutter in her stomach, the after effects of adrenaline charged panic, but he didn't feel the unusually strong aura of pink sparks that had once surrounded her, the one that he loved to mix his with when they had played that game of Cat-And-Mouse when he was a child, trying to see how strong she was, what she could do.


It was a special aura. Something not everyone had. It made you think of cherry, lemon, or raspberry popsicles on a sunny day, chlorine drenched water fights, and swirling fantasy stories where everything is okay in the end, and determination. But it was gone. Her aura was now weak, growing and fading with her heartbeats.


He embraced the fragile thing and he wanted to jump away. It was something that would have made anyone less experienced jump away.

It was vegetables when the last piece of cake waited for you to finish, and then when you ate the last bite having someone eat it in front of you; like drowning and swallowing frigid, muddy water.

It was weakness.

It was defeat. temptations taken, guilt progressing.

It was sickness, hurt, betrayal, grudges.

It was wilting blossoms in spring and dead roses that smelled of pesticide.

He wanted to throw-up.

He wanted to run away; realizing the hopelessness as he drew away from her aura. Her aura that had once been a beautiful pink, like the blossom of her name was now a flickering pink that was suppressed under what Aura Specialists called a Red Overlay, a protection subconsciously placed over the aura that slowly killed the bravery that might have existed.

But he didn't see that as a way for people to pity her, but as proof she was hiding something from him, that she was purposefully doing this to him, to the fate of the world, to Syoaran. The bitch, yes bitch, hadn't even written Syoaran, he had written her many times.

He wanted to scream and kick something. For now he saw only the weakness of hurt and hardened determination to be what she wanted, no matter the price.

His eyes had adjusted to the darkness with the help of a small spell, what he had been able to accomplish without too much pain and the creatures knowing. But he now felt betrayal and hate for the Belle rising up again.

Why was she able to do magic and yet she had forsaken it, and here he was, CLOW REED Incarnated, reincarnated, and he could only do simple spells. It was UNFAIR... So inequitable to him.

She should have been able to throw him against a wall with just a flick of her mind and hand when he had come in through the window to see her.

She should have been able to accomplish Clow Magic without the cards in her possession, thus making her jump to fight him, not attempt to call out for her magic-less brother.


The same brother who'd given away his magic to save a friend, his lover, the one person who made Yukito/Yue happy. And for that he had Eriol's respect.

But his sister...

His sister, the weakling, stubborn witch, was now losing the respect she had once had. Losing it so fast it was a new record.

It would be ironic and unfair, the one without the magic wished for his back, not at the risk of Yue, but because he wanted to see his mother. What was Sakura thinking? What made her want to be like she was now? To be... painfully NORMAL.


Eriol was afraid now, something he had never felt this strongly before. She should have been able to create strong magic, she was stronger than him, or once had been.

Now he saw the truth. She should have caste an instant spell. But she hadn't.

Couldn't.

Nope.

Instead she had only screamed hot breath against his hand and this made him want to slap her. She seemed to have lost her ability to do magic or from what Syoaran had seen her do at the talent show thingie, she had suppressed it, only letting it loose when she was too worried about something else to keep it in check, or when her energy built up to a dangerous level and had to be let loose in random ways.

So Kero had been right.

Sadly and terribly right.

She was a danger and a threat. Worse, maybe, than the creatures coming. But they needed her. It was kinda sad though... sad for Kero that is. He didn't care if she suffered.

She deserved it... deserved more in his opinion.

DESERVED... DESERVED... something bad... and yeah...

"Yes it is me." Eriol said tersely, without the teasing voice he had once had around the changed Sorceress.



It seemed as if they had all changed... but it was a shame really, she had been so free and well happy, now it seemed as if the only time she was happy was when she was singing and he wished she would lose her voice, then she would suffer.

But he didn't want to hurt anyone, he was angry, he was hurt, she would help them and then they could try to get back to normal, she could go sing again and he could get his friend back. He missed his friend so much.


Sakura sat up, relieved to see it was him and not some Jack Ripper rapist, her hand reached out with familiarity and flicked on the light.


She felt the rigid plastic on her fingertips and focused on that for a moment. Then as god had once said, "let there be light." And there was.


Causing Eriol to blink and rub his eyes, his spell flaring off, gone as the light came and it hurt.
Sakura leaned forward with concern. Eriol stiffly slid across pink sheets away from her, a little. She just shrugged. She wondered what Eriol wanted. But his tone and body language made her feel uneasy.

They just weren't, well, the ERIOL she had known. They lacked his proper and witty ways and she knew then something was definitely wrong. He was doing it on purpose and she knew it, acting this cold to show her something, teach her a lesson. Or maybe he didn't like her anymore.

But that couldn't be it anymore. Everyone liked her. Her brother saw to it. He couldn't not like her. No, she didn't have to believe it.

Nope... she was just seeing things, today had been peculiar. Very peculiar indeed. But Eriol's was also acting odd, she mused, he should have said something like, "No I am just a dream, a hallucination brought on by drugs. You are high, missy." Or at least called her, "Saku-chan."

But he had just giver her the same tone he used on people who had made him a fool. Like when Yamizika had told a lie about him in front of the whole school in fourth grade, he had given him a look and told him "You lie as much as you smell. I don't think that you could tell the truth to save anyone's life. Isn't that sad?"
And he had walked off. She felt her face heat up and wondered... No he was just tired. She was sure. She was sure... yeah... she was sure.


What was the matter with him then? She let the tone, the body language. The look in his eyes all slide away, or tried... but failed terribly. I didn't do anything she wanted to say, don't look at me like I killed something, like I hurt you.


But she was truly excited to see her friend, wondering if she dared ask about Kero. But his tone made her think that she wasn't gonna get a nice answer since Kero was loved so much more by the Mage than she was. She was only his spiritual half-daughter.

Nothing big there. Opposed to his own creation, like God or something when he loved man and looks after them.
But she wanted to know.

Had been too stubborn to call Kero, to say "HI. I miss you come back." To send him a whole pudding truck to make up for it all. She hadn't seen him since a year after Syoaran left, had it been that long... WOW... I miss you Kero, Sakura suddenly and silently thought, looking back at Eriol.

Poor Kero, I should call him and apologize... maybe? Did she dare ask? How she wanted too...


(... "Kero what do you mean I shouldn't put the book to sleep? I HAVE to... it is bringing me only pain... I can't go on like this"

"What is wrong with you Sakura? You seem like you're... sick or something. Did something happen? Is it about Syoaran? he left so long ago... almost a year... hey don't look at me like that... I am sorry... I understand... I..."


"DON'T SAY THAT BASTARD'S NAME AROUND ME AGAIN. WHAT DO YOU KNOW ANY WAYS? YOU HAVE NEVER LOST ANYTHING IMPORTANT IN YOUR LIFE. HE WAS... HE WAS MY SOUL MATE AND HE IS GONE... AND... AND HE IS NEVER COMING BACK... SO DON'T SAY YOU HAVE UNDERSTANDING OF MY PROBLEMS CAUSE YOU DON'T... DON'T WAKE UP IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT AND HEAR VOICES OF THE CLOW CARDS WANTING OUT... NEVER HAD TO HEAR HIS VOICE PROMISING HE WOULD ALWAYS BE HERE.... YOU KNOW NOTHING."

"I HAVE NEVER LOST ANYTHING? WHAT ABOUT CLOW REED?"


"HE CAME BACK. HE CAME BACK TWICE... DAD AND ERIOL... SO... YOU DON'T KNOW..."


"WHAT ABOUT YOU. YOUR MY BEST FRIEND AND YOUR ACTING LIKE THAT BAKA. YOU THINK YOU ARE SO SMART, LIKE HE WASN'T... YOU ACT LIKE A PRISSY PANTS EVER SINCE YOU
GOT EXCEPTED INTO CHOIR AND ALL... YOU NEVER HAVE TIME FOR ME... YOU...!"

"I THOUGHT YOU WERE HERE TO PROTECT ME NOT ARGUE AND ALL... SHUT YOUR FURRY LITTLE TRAP ABOUT SYOARAN... I LOVE... LOVED HIM AND HE IS GONE... EVEN SO SHUT UP ABOUT HIM..."


"YOU ARE BLIND. DON'T YOU SEE HE USED YOU... HE NEVER
LOVED YOU... HE WANTED TO HAVE SOMEONE ADORE HIM SO HE CHOOSE THE DENSEST PERSON AROUND. HE IS SMART FOR FIGURING OUT HOW TO TRAP YOU"


"HOW DARE YOU... I THINK HE WAS REALLY SMART. HE KNEW YOU WERE A POINTLESS, LOUD MOUTHED, STUFFED ANIMAL.
YOU THINK YOU ARE SO COOL. GO AWAY AND DROWN IN PUDDING. YOU KNOW NOTHING AND... YOU ARE..." Sakura
burst into tears and sat on the bed. "I WISH THAT YOU HAD NEVER BEEN CREATED..."
"SAKURA? What is going on up there?"


"Nothing Touya... Kero and I were having a..." Sakura turned to see the windows open and Kero flying out of it, head down, tail flicking in anger and despondency. She opened her mouth and screamed after him...


"KERO COME BACK HERE."


"Why so you can insult me some more. I don't know you anymore. At least the Sakura you are now. The one I knew would never want me dead. The old Sakura loved me... The old Sakura..."


"Well the OLD Sakura is DEAD. I don't like being Mistress anymore. I hate the voices and pleas of the cards to be used. I want them out of my head. I am the same Sakura, Kero. YOU HAVE CHANGED... YOU'RE WHINEY AND... I AM THE SAME."


"NO YOUR NOT... YOU HAVE FORSAKEN THE CARDS... YOU
HAVE BECOME JUST LIKE... LIKE... TEIS." Kero turned long enough to say that, hoping in his heart he would effect her.
He didn't mean to say those things. Well he did, but didn't mean to be so mean.

She would soon realize her snootiness and go back to being the happy person he loved, she once was. Then he wouldn't have to go away. This is the idea he had hoped would work. To bad his hypothesis was way, way off.


"HOW DARE YOU KERO... Teis IS the biggest bitch there ever was. She HATES everyone and treated the world like IS was her plaything."

Sakura sat rigid, still, and gazed at the hovering shape, wishing that he had never spoken. He just looked at her hoping, or what she took for pity. She kicked a small stuffed rabbit, showing him what she wanted to do with him.


"Sakura... wait... I am..." Kero stuttered, feeling like he was going to unravel, maybe he was... he reached out a paw to her, like he did when he wanted Pudding and yet she didn't care.

She had a stubborn look that made him fade out just a little and he wanted to say he was sorry.

But he to have pride. Pride that would go with him till he died. He was like her, willing to let his pride rule him. And rule them it did.


That was the worst thing that anyone had ever said to Sakura. She couldn't let him get the last word, she wouldn't. Her mind was shocked, why had he said that? Was he tricking her? But she saw his stony look and she just shook away all affection for the little bugger.

She had pride, she had dignity, she had a big, mean, mouth. She opened said mouth and let spill all her anger over the past year.

"YOU ARE A POINTLESS STUFFED ANIMAL THAT SHOULD NEVER HAVE BEEN CREATED IN THE FIRST PLACE. YOU ONLY EAT AND OPEN YOUR BIG MOUTH... YOU NEVER UNDERSTOOD ME AND..."

Kero was gone, she heard him flying away, '... and Never COME BACK!!!" she screamed; then a moment later she felt tears streaking down her face.

"No... Kero I am... Sorry... COME BACK" she yelled out the window and he was gone. REALLY GONE... "I was a fool. I am sorry. Please forgive me"... )

No, not right now... she decided, It was to soon to see the little ball of fluff and... she missed him. So she turned her mind to the other things she would ask when the silence became friendly.

She wanted to hug him, to dance around and sing bad American music with the WHOLE gang like they used to.
She wanted to be woken up with PUDDING requests in the morning earlier than she should have ever woken. But she had other matters at hand before she got the little guy back (in a none threatening way of coarse).

So she turned her gaze from the past to the NOW and smiled softly. Eriol didn't return it.



"What are you doing here?" Sakura asked, pulling her comforter up to her chest and held it to her, loving the softness, and Eriol looked at her with something almost hateful. He smirked at her and seemed to consider her in the harshest way.


"What...?" She asked, shivering and he shook his head. Dismissing the question as well as her. Then the look on his face was gone, that look of loathing. He grinned weakly and shrugged, taking all his strength not to scream at her.


Almost tempted to dare her to read his mind. Knowing she would blush with anger and embarrassment at the mention of magic and her failure and he wanted to see that, but later after she agreed to help and succeeded.

He knew she could feel the Creature, even with her weak senses, showing that she wasn't all the way lost to them. But he hoped they had enough time.

Hoped.


Sakura saw the look in his eye, the cocky I-won't-tell-so-read-my-mind- Sorceress and she knew deep down she wouldn't be able to, she was too weak now.

She watched him till he was the only clear thing in the room, the rest blurry background, and stared at how he had changed. Shocked really.


He seemed almost to be someone different, someone who had changed so much he was no longer the same. He was like an identity thee, a doppelganger or something equally bad, something equally unfamiliar and new, changed as she had changed.

But he was too real to not be Eriol. And since she could still see through illusions, even if her powers had left her to some degree, she wouldn't have to worry about him tricking her.

At least it wasn't Syoaran who had come to visit, she would have killed him with her bare hands. But Eriol had come and she was glad, but becoming less so
every moment that ticked by on the clock.


Eriol was sitting on the edge of her Queen bed, out of place with the perfect cleanliness of the white walls and furniture that accented the pink quilt on her bed, the pink curtains billowing from the wind of the open window that had given Eriol access to her sanctum.


Oh, how he had changed.

His blue hair now down to his shoulders, wavy, almost like a mullet, and it was far from his youthful bowl cut, but greasy and knotted, nappy in some spots. Not smooth and soft like it once had been.

Long ago it had been so shiny and calm, laying down willingly in its place, like Eriol's personality, slick and well kept, buy stylish and sly, now it still shone, but in a dirty way. Grease making it slick, not the obsessive brushing it got in youth. Eriol even kinda smelled like smoke and B.O. and dusty roads.


His glasses were the same, only broken in some places, taped together rims, cracked glass, like he hadn't bothered with magic to fix them, and his eyes were an uncanny mix of fear and intelligence, worry and wondering, questioning, never telling.


Sakura shivered as she saw something new emerge in his altered eyes as he saw her pity and questions. He didn't like it.

That look she had. It was different than the one she had once possessed, it was like she was actually only wondering the question so she could go back to bed and not because she liked him and was his friend. He didn't think they could ever be friends again.


Eriol was looking at Sakura with a mix of pity, sadness, betrayal. As if she had failed him somehow. Like she had swindled him, beguiled him, hurt him, slapped him, destroyed him all at the same time. And Sakura didn't understand it at all.
But she knew that she would, there was that promise on his wiry lips and in his eyes.


A promise she knew he would keep before the night had ended. She needed to stop looking at him, it was pathetically weak, she would never fall like that again.

" What is the matter. Where is Suppi and...?" She stopped when the boy gave a gruff, glacial laugh.

"Sooooo NOW the great Card Mistress cares?!?!" His voice was bitter, wintery, sarcastic. Sakura was scared now, only because she wanted him to leave and since he seemed crazy she might need help.


The boy's clothes were dusty and she wondered why he wasn't wearing the finery that he always did -or once had at least- why he looked like he had been homeless for months, why he lacked the magic he seemed to throw around so much when he was a child.


She knew it was beyond maturity; it was like he couldn't. But that was stupid. Yup, it was stupid. The cleanliness that he had had about him was now gone too, as if he had seen things that made it seem stupid to care about wearing the latest fashions. Now he seemed to be unraveling before her eyes, someone new, and she didn't think she liked that.


He wasn't cool and well kept anymore. He was someone new and well... he wasn't the same steady Eriol, she didn't like this at all. Because she knew he brought the downfall of her world... her well kept and perfect world.


"What happened Eriol? What happened?" She knew something was dreadfully horrible- she had thought it a million times since he had come into her presence- was about to come out of his mouth. He stood and paced the room like he was trying to hold something back.

Then, when he had gather himself enough, anger filling his lungs with its heaving breath, he opened his mouth. This was what he had hoped to do since he had heard Kero's dying words,

("Leave me alone. She wants me... to leave alone her.. yes... cards asleep... sleepy? Me am sure... yes... pudding... Sakura slept cards.. hates me... sorry Mistress... love you.")

That he would be able to make the mighty Sakura see what her perfection had cost her. Angry that she had been in his creation's and friend's last words. That her being a jerk had made Kero die with guilt.

He had hoped that it had been only a spat and that she would have continued using the magic and grown stronger, making sure that the guardian's life force was renewed. But it hadn't been like that.


Everything was wrong.

He was too weak and she was to stubborn.

They would fail if... He glared at her, eyes darkening with the hate he felt. She had done this to them, she had taken many things from him and his cute little descendent and it was just nefarious.


"They are fine. Well most of them are. I mean Kero was fine until you betrayed him. Why Sakura? Why? He loved you beyond what he held for me. He said... he said that you were the bestest friend he never had -Some friend- How could you? He was sorry... but..."

He was ranting... he seemed like... like he... would fall apart and cry. Sakura hated his tears, and wanted to hug Eriol. But he seemed like he would kill her if she made any sudden movements.

She wanted to know what he was talking about.

Questions with no answers, answers with no question, and neither were what made her sink lower into the bed and glare at the stuffed teddy bear that randomly fell off the bed, flying again the wall. She sighed, not caring that her magic was out of control again.

She knew that she would later.

It was these new additions to the Clow Magic that made her angry. They were what made her happiness well... unhappy, imperfect.

They were what made Eriol give her an interested look, but continued piling blame on her, dancing tangibly around the POINT.


She was tired, the talent show having taken to much from her, school work making her tired. She just wanted to live normally; she just wanted to live away from this.

So she felt the rush of impatience, followed by the flickering of the lamplight. She ignored this and glared from where she had lain her head.


"Stop, stop your rant Eriol. What did I do?" Sakura asked, angrily, sad, depressed, and wishing that he would just get on with it. "Just spit it out. I don't haveto take this. You are... Just spit it out Eriol."

She waited with her face a red that mirrored his own. But soon she realized her mistake(s) and then, only then, she realized she wanted to take it back. Take it all back.

Eriol stopped his shuffling, angry pacing and turned to her, misery evident in his eyes. His anger oozing from his lips as he said with a certain fatalism, a foreshadowing of the hurt to come...

"You killed Kero..."

FIN CHAPPIE

TBC.... HEE HEE

PLEASE READ AND REVIEW... FOR THE SAKE OF MY SUICIDAL COMPY, WHO ONLY WANTED TO BE LOVED... HE NEEDS TO SEE THAT YOU CARE FOR HIM AND ALL... PLEASE HELP HIM... PLEASE...