Disclaimer: No own Naruto.
LotusEmpress: I made some changes from the original draft. This is, to those who don't know, a Neji/OC story, but before some of you run away screaming, I request that you read my first five chapters because they're gonna give the reader a good idea of my character's personality at the beginning of the story. So…
Onwards! (P.S. To those who have read this story before. I recommend that you at least re-read chapters 2 and 3. *Thumbs up!*)
One Wish: Dream Fortune
Drip.
"Where am I?"
Drip.
"Do you know?"
Drip.
Nothing else surrounds me but the walls of perpetual blackness compressing me, trapping me in. A refuge meant for imprisonment. Oxymoron it may be, but it's the truth.
Drip.
I haven't always been like this, a bird caged in the realm of perpetual blackness. I was once wild and free…
Drip.
"What's that sound? Do you know what it is?"
Drip.
I have become totally dependent on the darkness. I was never like this back then…
Drip.
…back then I depended on everyone ELSE around me, not something as abstract as the dark.
Drip.
I had hated the dark, loathed it. I was just another one of the millions of spoiled little princesses in the world who was afraid of the dark and couldn't sleep without her mommy or daddy by her side.
I think I still am.
Drip.
Pathetic, disgusting – I know, I know, but that was then.
This is now…
Drip.
…and now forever shall be.
"Ow!"
Drip.
Golden warmth shines through the darkness. It's alien to me, though it feels so familiar…yet another oxymoron.
Drip.
"What is it? What is it?"
Something rumbles through the inky blackness, an echo that sends shockwaves throughout my entire body, terrifying me to no end. A monster's animalistic growl resounds…
Drip.
…and, on cue, everything around me dissolved, seemed to disappear as if it had never existed. In place of the walls of nothing were walls of stone. These walls didn't surround me on all sides though, just two that continued on either side of me like the walls of a corridor. I remember back then this kind of place had a name. What did they call it? Oh yeah! A "cave."
Drip.
The golden warmth shined brightly here, or rather, the "light"shined brightly here. Yeah, I still remember its name. I learned it listening to the whispers of the dark. They had said it resonated from a star of life that gave off the thing in warm, golden rays, yet the whispers had been harsh, speaking of the light like it was a horrible, cruel thing. I found it sounded so sweet, like paradise.
The myth breathes…
Drip.
Light caressed the moon's skin – skin like ivory, like snow, like death. Dulled gray-blue eyes tiredly took in their surroundings. Rose lips, bloody lips curve into a frown.
Drip.
Pools of liquid – excuse me – "water" dotted the floor of the cave. Stalagmites decorated the ground, mirroring the numerous stalactites decorating the ceiling. One particular stalactite, this one made of crystal instead of stone, stood above a particularpool.
This particular pool was coincidently the center of all the other pools just as coincidently as the light seemed to hit that particular pool in a way that made it look as if the golden light was dancing upon the water's surface.
Drip.
And it so happened that the ceiling had a few small cracks that were near the one particular stalactite. Water consistently dribbled from the cracks to then slide down the one particular stalactite in mockery of our tears. Soon the droplets would reach the end of the one particular stalactite and hang there for a split second before plunging to the pool below, resulting in small ripples at contact. Each time it would make a sound like…
Drip.
…yeah, like that.
Drip.
Rose lips curve into a smile; tired eyes droop in relief – finally a place to rest.
Drip.
Mesmerized by the beauty of my new sanctuary, I walk closer to the pool. The ray of light shone only on it, dazzling the other pools with merely a glance of its golden gaze.
I started to wonder, "How long have I been trapped in the darkness?"
Drip.
I did not have the faintest clue. My best guess though would be about…forever.
Drip.
Amongst the chaos of the swirling thoughts of my mind, a new question surfaced, or maybe it was more of a hunch.
Drip.
"Is there some sort of deeper meaning to all this? Is there a reason that I was brought here?"
A strange thought, I know. Not many people would think of such things and even I did not know where I had drummed up such an idea, but hey…
Drip.
…I'm different from other people.
Drip.
Way different.
Drip.
Dulled gray-blue eyes stare hard at the pool in front of me, watching each drop of water fall, watching the consequential ripples shimmer in the divined luminescence, watchingeverything that occurred to the body in front of me.
And after a few minutes of dulled gray-blue eyes staring hard at the pool in front of me, it hit me…
Drip.
The pools symbolized lives of people; the center pool symbolized alife. The light shining upon the center pool embodied recognition while the water droplets that fell into the pool in front of me were the very essence of change.
So much change…
Drip.
I don't know how I had come up with those answers, but they made the inside of my stomach churn. They made my chest tighten. They made the dulled gray-blue eyes cry the previously mocked tears. They made rose lips, bloody lips frown, pearl teeth clench tightly.
Drip.
Envy, anger, despair, pain, loneliness, hopelessness, loss, the all-around sense of injustice – it all hurt so badly.
Drip.
"What life is so important," a deep breath to calm me down, "that they have such freedom and privilege as this?"
Drip.
"Oh no, it's not me."
Drip.
"I'm nothing. No one cares about me. I'm trash."
Drip.
"I'm all…alone."
Everything around me shattered like a mirror thrown upon the ground and all fell into that depthless chasm which gorged itself on an omniscient darkness.
Everything.
Indeed. All was swallowed by the abyss, even the light disappeared for good, I'm sure of it. The only remanence of that world was the sound of the water drops falling into the pool, and that was already fading away. Fast.
"Perhaps it never disappeared."
Drip.
"These walls of nothing are the walls of normalcy isolating me from a world of wonder and light. A peaceful, warm world of rest and, dare I say it, love"'
Really, I'm not alone. How many teens feel as if they are pulled down, that they're nothing, just another face in the crowd? And just how many lovesick girls are waiting for their movie star superhero to come and sweep them off their feet or for their fantasy prince to come and take them upon their white steed so as to whisk his "princess" off into the sunset?
Drip.
I'll tell you all of them. One hundred percent, and that hundred includes me. I know that.
Drip.
I'm not truly alone and I know that, but that's just it. That's what makes me different. Do you get what I'm saying? It's quite simple, really, if you think about it…
Drip.
It's because I know I'm not alone that makes me alone. It's because I know there are people out there who can understand my problems that make people unable to understand what I'm going through. It is the knowledge that makes me different from all the people around me.
It is an understanding of my circumstances that landed me her, that makes me hated, worthless, weak, and broken.
Drip.
"I'll never be free…"
"How right you are my dear."
0000000000000000000
"Rachel! Wake up!"
"Ugh…"
"It's seven o'clock, Rachel," my mother yelled from the kitchen, "If you don't hurry you'll be late for school again."
"Aw crud."
School.
0000000000000000000
No worries. I'm doing my bestest to make sure Rachel does not become a Mary Sue.