Hello! New story here! *grins*
This is a pretty long chapter compared to the usual amount of what I write. Two thousand and five hundred words? *pats self on back*
And it is a little different from the usual stories you get to read here... Why? Well - read it and find out! And if you're too impatient to do that - skip over to the note at the bottom, sort of a spoiler for you *winks*
Summary: "Why did you shoot me?"
"Because you were about to run. And if I didn't then the others would have and killed you." He whispered, focusing on the bleeding hole the bullet had made.
"How bad does it hurt?"
"As bad as your nuts will when I do this." She smiled sweetly at him and kicked.
Part 1:
"Move!" She heard the voice before anything else. A couple of people down at the other end of the corridor ran down the staircase at top speed. She heard a volley of sharp, enclosed bangs- like gunshots. The security guard from the upper floor came running down the same staircase, hoisting up his gun and crumpled on the second last step, blood gushing out of his chest like a fountain. She stood right at her place, transfixed, with one hand on the door knob and the other hanging loosely by her side. She turned her body fully towards that side and saw a few other people lying on the steps too. There was no indication as to whether they were alive and hurt or plain dead but before she could see anymore- her view was blocked by a man running up the steps, a couple of similarly dressed and kitted men running after him. They all had bulletproof vests and some had helmets or visors. The ones at the back carried machine guns and the one leading them had a simple pistol and nothing to cover his face or dark haired head.
Her eyes widened and their eyes met for a brief second before she turned on her heel and darted the other way to the emergency exit. Before she could take her third stride, a gunshot rang through the corridor and her upper arm throbbed. She'd been shot in her bicep. "Stop." The man said, not too loud, just in a completely normal pitch and tone. She dared to look at him for a split second and continued running the last three steps to the door. He had had his left arm out, gun pointing at her, a few tendrils of gunpowder wafting off it in apparent hyperrealism, the colours, brightness, contrast and shapes too became more defined- like an alternate reality; his other hand was up, bent at the elbow, signalling his men not to shoot her.
She ran with abandon, her eyes never leaving the door just four steps in front, then just three... She never made it. In barely a second the man was on her - holding her shoulders and neck in a tight grip. "Don't. Move." He growled, dangerously close to her ear. She stiffened completely and didn't fight back. He breathed against her ear for a few seconds; oddly he wasn't panting or gulping air. If anything- his breathing were even more controlled than hers. "Good girl." He purred now, so close to her ear that she felt his cool breath ghosting her cheek. She twisted around to try and look at him. He didn't exactly stop her from turning, but his arm around her shoulder and neck stayed right there.
Their eyes met again for a brief few seconds till he smirked at her. She scrunched up her nose and turned away from him and saw the rest of his team- all the men looked utterly identical- dressed in black, bulletproof vests, visors, they were poised, bent low and had their guns at the ready to shoot at the first instant.
He tightened his hand around her shoulders and pulled her even closer, "Now. Don't fidget." He laid his gun at her temple and moved even closer, his lips almost touching the shell of her ear now, he whispered so low- the words were more like air than sound, "Don't worry. I won't hurt you. Promise."
She rolled her eyes and opened her mouth to say something. He felt, more than saw, her jaw move and tightened his grip across her collar bone, whispering again, "Please. Don't do anything. Just listen to what I say." He didn't even use his voice, the words were just breath and exhalations no one but she could hear. She turned her head half way around again and fixed him with a demanding look. He tilted his head back to look at her face and smirked again. Then pushing forward and almost into her neck he whispered, "Don't worry. Don't get scared." She froze at his words. Her eyes seeing his unruly dark hair and the panelled ceiling. Almost reluctantly- he pulled away from her and spoke, louder this time- "Don't. Try. Anything. Little bitch." She saw him smirk then wink and immediately frowned but kept silent.
He nodded to the men following him and they rushed up the next flight of stairs- this time through the emergency door on their right. As the last few ran up, he let go of her and she stumbled away, never once breaking their eye contact. She crouched in front of him, in a position ready to do absolutely anything; he watched her with an amused smirk and she frowned at him. The smirk momentarily vanished – replaced by a careless of his right eyebrow. Then his smirk returned confidently and he nodded in a semblance of greeting. "Syaoran." He introduced.
Her lips pursed and jaw clenched tight, "Sakura." She bit out. He nodded again and said- "So, giving you a choice- although I had originally planned on shooting everyone on this floor..." She fixed him with a glare and her lower lip pushed out, "Why didn't you?" He shrugged and avoided any sort of answer, "So, your choice. Do you wish to come with me? Or go down to the hostages, probably now on the stairwell, two floors down?" She fixed him with a scrutinising gaze, "Are there more of your men there?"
His smirk turned into a surprised smile, "Yes." He paused and looked her up and down with an appraising albeit lopsided smile. "Come with me." Then his eyes fell on her right arm and his smile shrank just a small bit, "Let's take care of that first." And pulled one of his arm bands and tightened it over the bullet wound. She let herself be tended to then dryly dropped her hand back to her side and continued gazing at him with a minute furrowing of her brows and an otherwise unreadable expression. "Come." He grabbed hold of her hand and dragged her across the long corridor, in the opposite direction from what the rest of his men had gone in. He pulled her at a fast pace, yet she easily managed to keep up. After a few hurried strides, gingerly she laid her free hand on his, the one that was holding her wrist. He turned to her and she flicked her eyes towards her arm, "Take the other one. But I'm not going to run, don't worry." He opened his mouth, didn't say a word but nodded and simply left her right arm, she slowly placed it back down at her side. After a few steps, and as they crossed the last few offices and rooms on the floor, he took her left hand. Her head whipped around to face him and he shrugged, and then said roguishly "I like holding your hand." She smirked and squeezed his in response.
Right then they arrived at the main stair case; the guard slumped on the other side in a pool of his own drying blood, lifeless eyes staring at infinity. The other few bodies she had seen earlier littered their way, holes in their chests and heads. Absolutely mangled, and gory; their faces distorted with blood and the last vestiges of pain.
He simply walked past them, carefully, but swiftly, stepping over an outstretched limb or oddly placed body. He also made it a point not to step into any splatter or even any thin trickle of blood, sometimes jumping down two-three steps at a time. He led her through, keeping a strong but tender grip on her hand, almost as though pinpointing a path she was to adhere to, and she did.
Her eyes flitted from one body to another emotionlessly, then after one floor she fixed her eyes on Syaoran's back. The bodies were fewer now and after a while there were none on the main staircase at all. Yet, she could see a few on the floor in the corridors around their path and in rooms, slumped over their desks and chairs, blood and dirt all around. One of them slowly lifted his hand but then let it drop when he saw who was leading. Syaoran saw him too but paid him no mind and easily continued to direct her downwards, past the floor.
They stopped on the second floor, the main transaction and work area of the bank. Twenty to thirty people were huddled up together in the waiting area, a small room-like area cordonned off by a bunch of sofas placed in a rectangle and now the men with guns and black uniforms. He led her past them and towards the teller's counter, pulling up a chair for her and pushing it against the far wall, "Sit." She looked at him, then at the men surrounding her, placed around the room evenly and sat, leaning her head against the wall and turned to her right- towards the rest of the hostages. A few of them were looking towards her and her captor curiously and more than a few - suspiciously. She turned back to him and made a pitiful face, "Can I get some water?"
He shook his head with half a smile and motioned to one of the men, his eyes never leaving hers, "Get two or three bottles for all of them." She smirked at that and settled more comfortably on her perch, wincing slightly at her wound.
He bent down and squatted in front of her, pulling her hand out to him, "Does it hurt?"
"Why did you shoot me?"
"Because you were about to run. And if I didn't then the others would definitely have and killed you." He whispered, focussing on her bleeding hole.
"How bad does it hurt?"
"As bad as your nuts will when I do this." She smiled sweetly at him and lifted her leg very fast, almost kicking him in the groin with her shin but stopping at the last second- her shin barely touching his crotch. He smirked and let her hand drop, simultaneously moving forward, pressing down on her leg with considerable pressure and holding it in place with his hand, she looked down at his crotch and her leg then raised her eyes to his tentatively. He smirked the amused smirk again, "You might want to be careful, Princess. I hurt a lot when I'm in pain."
He saw her eyes flash in shocked understanding and she nodded and smiled at the same time, "Of course, unfortunately I don't." And retracted her leg from his grip and placed it back down, rubbing the part where he had pressed against the front of her leg. He stood up, all smiles again. "Wait for me right here, Princess. I'll be back soon."
She rolled her eyes, "Sakura."
He suddenly bent close to her, in one fluid motion - leaning his hands on either side of her head, on the wall, effectively caging her in. At an inch's distance from her face, he whispered, "Okay then. Sakura." They maintained eye contact for a few more seconds- both their expressions unreadable and emotionless, till a voice interrupted their stare, "Well, well, well. What do we have here?"
Syaoran didn't move, but she did and tore her eyes from his maddening stare to the source of the interruption, a man with large, dark blue eyes and such dark hair that they looked almost blue in the CFL lighting stood at the entrance, "Little Syaoran got himself a playmate?" He quirked an eyebrow at them and she heard Syaoran growl before she turned to him. He closed his eyes, breathing out on her face in annoyance and resignedly moving from his position and turned to the newcomer, "Yes? Eriol."
Eriol shook his head and chuckled, "Come on. We still need to finish the job... playthings later." He turned towards her by cocking is head as he uttered the last part of his sentence and gave her a cursory but curious look. His eyes lingered on her gunshot, quickly switching to her eyes, then he turned to Syaoran and quirked an eyebrow. Syaoran growled imperceptively again and stalked out of the room, Eriol stayed and looked at her a while longer but soon followed after fixing one of his men with a benign smile and saying- "Make sure no one else gets hurts." The man nodded and his gaze too flicked to Sakura's disfigured upper arm skin.
She sat there quietly, resting her head against the wall, looking around and observing everything on the floor. The teller's counter and every other desk was empty, papers were strewn around but no one manned their posts. Oddly there were no dead bodies around and no blood either and the hostages were all quietly sitting in the waiting area- hunched up or sprawled across the floor, tables and four sofas. The room looked as clean and sterile as it had always looked, no signs of a siege or hostage play at all – apart from the strewn papers, but that could also be from the extra strong central air conditioning system. She swept her eyes around the place over and over again. Eventually she closed her eyes and let her head rest against the wall again, she slipped lower in the chair, moving around to make herself comfortable and soon stopped moving.
She heard the black-clothed men murmuring things, moving around, talking to each other, a few spoke on their wirelesses and a few came in and went out, repeatedly she felt and heard their rhythmic steps on the hard vitrified tiled floor.
All of a sudden after a good twenty minutes of her staying in that position, she felt a sharp hard tug on her hair. Snapping her eyes open- she looked into the face of a man. He was glaring at her unkindly and chewing on something slowly. The other men eyed them warily but did not move from their posts. The hostages, on the other hand, cowered on the other side, farther away from where she was- and where the menacing man was- his hands fisted cruelly in her hair, getting crueler by the second.
TL;DR? Didn't read all of it? Or read all of it and sort of confused? Wondering What The Holy Fuck?
Well, yeah, kinda thought it would come down to that - So I'll just come out and say it? Sakura is an innocent (okay not as much as you probably think - she has tricks up her sleeve too but you get that in the next chapter :P) and Li and Eriol? Not so innocent that bunch... But they aren't terrorists. Neither are they small time (or even big Ocean's Eleven or Italian Job kind) of thieves or burglars. They have a very different purpose here - they are definitely here to "finish a job" but what the job is and what it entails - again - a mystery! And you'll only get clues to it next chapter. It's basically up to you to figure most things out! *grins happily* *fails terribly* *reverts to grinning evilly*
Sakura and Li do not and have not ever known each other from their past. This, you could say, is their first meeting with each other and if you didn't see it - sparks flew. Sparks flew big time!
And the location is a big bank. Like a main office of the bank - not a branch. And the big building has a whole lot of floors, and even a bank branch (the kinda bank in your neighbourhood) on their second floor, and offices and cubicles for workers and rooms and vaults (*wink wink nudge nudge* - get it?) and customers and officials and every goddamn thing you can imagine. Sakura doesn't even work there. So what is she doing there? Li isn't a thief - neither is their entire gang of bulletproof men and Eriol and chewing-gum guy who pulls her hair. What are they doing there? More questions - tune in next chapter!
So, now - if you were one of them who skipped the story - ran down here to check what it was - I've probably left you with even more questions and confused the what-the-fucks out of you, haven't I? Worry not! Read the story, put it on your subscription lists, or even leave a review if you can't be arsed even after reading and have no idea with what's happening! Leave your email id and I'll get back to you on this and provide some more assistance because I know - What the Hell, this is too crazy to understand!
And those who read through the story and then reached the bottom - first things first - A BIG Thank You! For even bothering to read that! And the same applies to you - Put this on your alerts' list and drop me a review if it's too crazy to handle. As for why the two of them are having a thing right now when he is the captor and she is the victim or another one of the hostages... Well - I can't really explain. But try watching a movie like Don or Don2... You just might get the entire sex appeal and the captor-predator and victim-prey crazy role playing and fun and all .. I'm rambling aren't I?
Yeah I should better shut up - But if you need any answers or just want to say something or even want to shout at me for making you read through that awesome piece of writing up there - just send me a review ^w^
Oh and just so you know - I'm planning to make this a three-shot if possible. Got something else? Want something else? Absolutely do not want anything else? Will kill me if I try anything else? Will kill me if I don't try anything else? Want more? Don't want more? Love it? Hate it? Wanna puke on it? Wanna marry it (or me :P)? Just review this again!
Have fun! And thanks for reading again!