Summary: Sakura didn't usually listen to the warnings people offered - or anything they said. She didn't hear much of what he said until she was sunk in a world she did not know - which, by the way, she barely saw.
Chapter: 0/8
Status: In progress
Disclaimer: Naruto, anime and manga, does not belong to me.
Alert: Alternative Universe. Characters with different characteristics (seriously, Sakura is completely out of character). Nothing scary, disturbing or terrifying.
Pretium Mortem
By 40Gyga
Prologue
The artificial, fresh taste of the chewing gum had probably been lost a long time ago, though she continued to chew it, eventually forming tiny balls that would burst against her cheek. She shifted the weight of her backpack to her left thigh, thinking what song would be perfect to be hummed as she waited for what would be the thirty-seventh minute for the principal.
Moving to a new school in the middle of the semester was never simple. It involved many papers, many faults and a lot of waiting.
The secretary gave her another embarrassed smile, trying to calm the student's growing uneasiness. And the thirty-eighth minute passed.
She considered for a few seconds to glue the chewing gum under her chair, only for revenge.
Hm. Stretches, stretches, fill it with air, pull it into the mouth and ploc.
No, it was too disgusting.
She should ask for a larger allowance for her father, for making her go through these minor constraints. I mean, he had been promoted, but that did not change the fact that she - the adorable little daughter - was being dragged along with the change like all the other boxes.
"Miss Haruno?", came the scratched voice from the desk, almost relieved to finally push her toward the principal's office. "The principal will receive you", she confirmed, indicating the white door with one hand.
She made one last big ball and slipped the backpack over her right shoulder before following the pointed direction.
"Excuse me?", she crooned, one foot already inside the room.
Sitting behind the reddish wooden table was the cookie-faced headmaster, his fingers moving over the surface drumming some melody. She offered him an embarrassed smile, taking a step toward the chairs for the visitors and closing the door behind herself, her backpack settling on her back.
"Oh, yes, yes, sit down, Miss ... Ha ... hahuno."
She watched him for almost a full minute, pondering whether it was convenient for both of them to correct him. He would talk to the secretary eventually, right? He would learn to pronounce her name. It wasn't her job to worry.
She sat up, putting her pack on her already throbbed thighs, and mumbling a "thank you" that was definitely not heard.
"It's a very abrupt change of school, is not it?", he began conversationally.
Miss Haruno - HaRuno - nodded, refusing to respond, a ball of chewing gum bursting into a loud "ploc!". The principal seemed not to be disturbed, accustomed to the students' antics.
"Hm," he began, his eyes focused on a sheet of paper. "Here it is," he said, holding out the same sheet he had observed for a full two minutes. "This is your schedule, at the end are attached the teachers who minister each subject.
She nodded, the paper on the table as she studied it carefully. The director doubled over the furniture, watching the sheet upside down.
"You're already late for your first class," he murmured, making a face that made her smile inside. "Let's do this, I'll give you a waiver for the first class, so you can take a look around here, how about that? You're sure to show up in this room", he pointed to the sheet, "in half an hour, okay?"
She nodded, a smile widening on her face. She suspected that this was a small subterfuge for keeping her waiting so long that she was late for class.
"Well, you may go, Miss Hahuno," he dismissed her, and the girl stood up, pulling her backpack, the paper in her hands, to move on to… well… somewhere in the school.
Still in the doorway, the young woman smiled openly and murmured a thankfulness, audible this time; the little sadness the man had acquired in the few minutes of conversation seemed to fade as she closed the door behind her.
The director relaxed against the high-backed chair, running his hands over the hair on the sides of his head. It was good to start with them happy, so they took longer to rebel.
The girl walked through the empty corridors, the steps rhythmic to the sound of some song. Tunti-turum-pah, tuntunti, tunti-turum-pah. She'd already found her classroom, the gym, the infirmary, and the restrooms, and she was checking her watch so she would not be late. Tunti-turum-pah, tic-tac-tic, tunti-turum-pah, tic-tac-tic. She glanced over the courtyard for a bin to discard her chewing gum, a discreet smile when she found it, next to a cluster of trees. Tunti-turum-pah, tic-tac-tic, tunti-turum-pah, tic-tac-tic, ploc-ah, ploc-ah. She happily discarded the tasteless dough. The rhythm still ringing in her head as she strolled through the thick trunks, a quick glance at the clock.
In the middle of the small square was a fountain with little angels - she laughed internally - and a pair of white benches, some kind of stone she could not identify, the paths outlined by some yellow flowers.
A school for rich little kids, she should have known.
She made her way to one of the seats, occupied by a boy. I mean, it would not hurt to start at a new school by meeting people, right? She settled on his right side, staring at the way the water reflected the rays of the sun.
"Hm, do you want chewing gum?", she offered, a smile on her face as she reached up, a little pack between her fingers.
He did not answer. In fact, in the next few seconds he got up and walked to a bench on the far side, settling there. This irritated her. She did the same thing, sitting down next to him again.
"So," she hummed. "Are you new here? Because I do not think it advisable to kill time on school grounds in the middle of class,", she continued, leaning over herself to get a glance at him.
This time he walked promptly toward the exit of the small square. She sniffed her hands and shoulders, searching for some strange smell before following him, determined.
"Hey! Is it too much to ask for a little good manners?", she shouted after him, her legs having to do twice the work to keep up with him.
The boy continued walking, without even looking back, towards the building.
"You cannot even wait until the introduction to tell me "it's not nice to meet you "?
They passed the threshold of the double white doors and went through the corridors of dark brown floor and cream walls.
"I do not even smell bad! Am I ugly, is that it?"
She had been trying, honestly, but the insistence had given way to irritation, and then to the undeniable need to make fun of situation. Making jokes at dramatic moments was a gift.
- No! You already fell in love with me, and since you know this is an impossible love, you decided that it would be best if we separated!
He climbed the wooden steps, avoiding the occupied classrooms and any place where there was a teacher - not that she could know. Then she was already beside him, a smile spread across her face. It was so easy to laugh at him!
"That's it, right? Oh, I knew! When happened? When I offered you the chewing gum, was that it? My chewing gum has left a lot of broken hearts, I'll admit."
They had gone through the entire length of the school and were descending a staircase at the other end of the building toward the nearest exit of the four that they had in hand.
"No, no, chewing gum is very simple. Were my bright green eyes? I inherited them from my mother; she would be so proud to know that I made good use of them!"
Just before they reached the door he made a sharp turn, locking her outside an uninhabited classroom.
"Was it my hair? It took me a long time to get the color right! There are blonde and red lights! Doesn't it look almost pink?", she shouted into the doorway before she started to laugh alone, her eyes resting on her watch.
She had seven minutes left. She turned on his heels, murmuring little jokes about the boy, steps leading her toward her classroom.
"I understand now the comment about the professor. Ten minutes with him are enough to put anyone to sleep", she ventured, her hands running toward her pocket for the pack of chewing gum.
"That was nothing! About three years ago we had lessons in a row with him!"
She grimaced at the idea.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry", she replied, complacent with the pain of her new friends, "but it's a good thing I did not have to go through the same trauma", she concluded, a smile emblazoned.
The dark-haired girl gave a smile that seemed to be the closest to a laugh she could fabricate, the blonde actually laughed, a hand tapping her back.
She really needed to memorize people's names.
They were just a few steps away from the exit when she spotted a familiar hair: the black and disorderly strands of her colleague.
She murmured an "see ya" to the two who accompanied her and rushed her pace towards him, a smile of anticipation that she could not hide shining brightly in the middle of her face.
"Hi," she crooned. "You're going to walk me home, is that it?", she asked.
The boy kept up the same pace, not running from her, but without making any mention of the girl's presence at his side.
"No need to worry!", she replied to herself. "I can go home alone!", she continued, pretending not to notice. "Well," she stretched the vowel, "if you insist," and began to walk beside him, as if this was a common occurrence.
She kept her eyes on the names of the streets and the direction they took her, her confidence in knowing how to return on the path not as sharp as she had wished.
"It's always like that? I mean, when you fall in love with a girl, are you always so dedicated?"
He did not even blink, he went straight ahead, without tripping. He did not even stop at traffic lights, and she was surprised to notice that he did not miss the moment of crossing the streets.
"I bet you win the girls by wearing them down, right?", she said wryly, laughing internally.
He stopped when he realized that he had gone too far out of her way. She patted him on the shoulder and said good-bye with a smile.
"I'll stay here, dear, thank you for accompanying me," and she went on her way, still laughing.
The next day, she admitted, she had felt abandoned when she had not found him in any corner of the school. She considered that he had found a room good enough that she could not locate him. Then - and after having searched in ninety percent of the high school rooms -, she considered that he was purposely missing class just to avoid her. On the third day, she was sure that he was only doing this to avoid her. In the fourth day, she was irritated because he was avoiding her. In the fifth, she wondered if he was not just a delinquent who had entered the college grounds. She dismissed this possibility as he remembered seeing him hanging out with the other students. On the sixth day, he appeared and she headed towards him, the courtyard filled with students relaxed by the hour of break, with a smile plastered on her face.
"Good morning," she crooned, "are you all right? Yes, yes, thank you for caring", she said, and replied, as if they were having a conversation. "I was worried about you! I have not seen you for days! There's nothing wrong?"
He stood for the next few seconds before rising from the wall on which he leaned and walked toward the building. The same path they had done for the first time.
"Do not tell me your girlfriend found out about your passion for me! Oh God, did she try anything against you? She kept you trapped in a dark room while she forced you to say you love her, but you can't, because your heart belongs to me, oh! That's just a soap opera story,", she continued blabbering as he fled from her, people watching, curious.
"Sak! ", came a voice among the people, but she chose to ignore it in favor of the joke.
They did the same path: central entrance door, hallway, stairs, hallway, hallway, stairs, approach the exit door, strategic turn to the left and tcham! She laughed inwardly as her foot between the doorway and the door prevented him from locking himself in the room.
"Was it your mother?", she crooned. "I bet you're one of the overprotected kids! She must have hated the fact that she's about to lose her baby! Tsc! I bet that was it! You were grounded, weren't you?"
He was trapped. The cream walls, the dark wooden frieze similar to the floor, the brown-toned wallets, the blackboard in the background, all closing to confirm his end.
"Oh, you've programmed something amusing for our-", she paused to glance toward her wristwatch, it's gold hands ticking an annoying tic-tac that echoed in the empty room, fourteen minutes and fifty-seven, six, five seconds, together?"
He turned abruptly, his eyes going straight through her, resting on the back door. The girl laughed at his nervousness. It was so fun to scare a shy little boy! Or, let's agree and in words of the generation, scare a nerd, geek, whatever.
Her laughter was cut off in half when the door behind her closed with a "Tum!" sound. She cast a surprised look at the inanimate object. She had not realized the wind was so strong.
As she turned back, she saw him striding toward her, passing right on her side and giving her his back, his hands forcing the knob trying to open the door. She knew she should be laughing at his fear of being alone in an enclosed room with her, but her breathing was beginning to accelerate and discomfort lay on her chest.
She shot a look to him that was meant to be indifferent, but it had come out more like a plea for an explanation.
"Shit!", he said breathlessly as the door did not give way to handling.
It took her unprepared and definitely did not serve as an explanation. In a matter of seconds his pale hand had curled around her arm, pulling her roughly in an unknown direction. The girl followed awkwardly, her legs weakening as her feet tried to steady themselves to follow him – almost the footsteps of newborn giraffe. His dark orbs rested on her before releasing her.
She was soon thrown against the cream surface, her knees collapsing under her dead weight - and things ceased to make sense. He threw himself over her muttering a "this is not good". The young lady froze, eyes wide shut, folded over herself. The boy let out a "ugh!" while his body was pumped toward her, once, twice, three times. Her green eyes partially opened, looking over one of the arms that shielded the feminine face of whatever was happening.
In the center of the room, chairs dragged themselves in their direction, floating slowly. Up and up, until it started to free-fall and landed on top of them. Of him. The "zii" in the background made her look at the ceiling, the lamps flashing an on-off dance that was enviable to a nightclub.
Then the last chair fell and the lights went back to normal. He dropped to the floor, his hands probing the hard-hit areas as if to be sure of the pain.
The young woman, curled up against the corner, watched him with a frozen face in the purest expression of fear. She swallowed and her pale, dry lips slowly opened.
"We're late for class.", with that said, she stood up leaning against the walls, oblivious to the possibility that the door was still locked. She left him inside with a resounding "Tum!".
To be continued
Author's Note:
English is not my mother tongue and this story is my attempt to practice. So, if you can help me to correct my writing, I thank you :D
Yes, there will be no terror because it is not my cup of tea. But I found the idea of writing about the unknown ... hm ... fun. It does not fit my beliefs and I do not know how to write about something I can not study. Well, it's a personal challenge.
Ah, the title is Latin for Death's Price. Huh. Nothing obscure.