Forever in My Heart
How does it feel to lose your best friend, your entire world? Tomoyo never knew 'til one fateful day.........
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Tomoyo smiled as she dialed the familiar number and heard the ever-so-cheerful ring tone of her best friend's cell phone.
"Moshi, moshi, Sakura speaking?" answered a sweet, yet tired voice. Tomoyo frowned a bit and spoke into the phone.
"Guess who?" She decided to say. Sakura's melodic giggle was heard and Tomoyo willed herself to smile.
"Konnichiwa Tomoyo-chan!" Sakura said.
"Konnichiwa Sakura-chan. Hey, do you want to go to the mall today? I need to pick up a few things for my sewing kit."
"Oh, gomen Tomoyo-chan, but I don't feel good right now." She coughed as if to prove it, then let out a louder, more hacking-like cough, which proved to Tomoyo she really wasn't feeling well. Tomoyo smiled a little.
"Do you want me to come over? I'll bring you and Kero-chan some cake if you want?"
Tomoyo couldn't help but giggled as the familiar voice of the guardian beast was heard over the phone. The word 'cake' was only barely coherent because Sakura let out another cough. She heard Sakura's voice once again over the phone.
"Shhh, Kero-chan, settle down. I'll ask Touya-chan to get me cake for you later. Gomen, Tomoyo-chan, but you might get sick, too. I'll see you on Monday."
"Ok, bye Sakura-chan. Hope you feel better."
"Thanks. Bye Tomoyo-chan." Tomoyo hung up the phone and gave a small smile, truthfully hoping Sakura would feel better.
~~~~~~~~~
Sakura smiled as she hung up, giving another cough. Tomoyo's voice was melody to her ears, and she really needed anything possible to get better before Monday. She gave a small sigh, another loud cough and lay down to a peaceful and dreamless sleep.
~~~~~~~~~
Tomoyo woke up to the frantic calling of her mother's usually calm voice. Her mother ran into her room, pale as a ghost, and swooped down to Tomoyo's side.
"Oh, my dear Tomoyo-chan, may what happened tonight not happen to you." Her mother was crying so hysterically, you would think that someone had just died. Unbeknownst to Tomoyo right then, someone had.
"What is wrong, mother?" She asked timidly. Her mother kept sobbing into Tomoyo's white sheets. Suddenly, she got up, rubbed her tear-streaked face and took Tomoyo's hand.
"Come with me, Tomoyo." She handed Tomoyo her jacket and a pair of sneakers. Tomoyo's mother then drove them to the hospital, only a few minutes away. They passed a car in the emergency lot, and immediately Tomoyo recognized it.
That's Sakura's car!
~~~~~~~~~~~
As soon as they parked, they ran into the hospital and were met by two crying and distraught people. Tomoyo, although she hardly recognized them, knew they were Sakura's father and brother. They turned to Tomoyo and her mother when they walked in.
"Sonomi, thank goodness you're here, and......" his voice trailed off as he looked at Tomoyo, more tears threatening to spill over. Touya put a reassuring hand on his father's shoulder, his face red from crying. At first, Tomoyo was surprised, since she had never dreamed she'd see Sakura's brother crying. Then she was shook out of it when she heard three words escape her mother's mouth.
"...........Sakura is dying....." Tomoyo didn't want to believe it was true. So instead, she smiled, much to everyone's surprise.
"It's a very funny joke, you guys, but you shouldn't be joking about this. You know, you're really good at acting. Now, onegai, show me where Sakura is." Sonomi shook her head and rested a hand on her daughter's shoulder.
"I'm sorry Tomoyo, I wished it to be a joke too, a mere figment of my imagination, but it is true. Sakura is.............dying." She sobbed into her daughter's shoulder.
"But.........but how?" Tomoyo managed to choke out, to distraught to even cry. Sakura's father stepped forward, tears trailing down his cheeks.
"She was sick. We thought it was only a small cold, and of course we tried to treat her with medicine and everything. But she.........." he choked a sob down. ".........she has some kind of rare disease, and she's dying. Oh God, Tomoyo, my only daughter is dying!" He sobbed even more.
"Take me to see her." She managed to whisper. A nearby nurse, who had been listening to the whole thing, came over and gently took Tomoyo's hand in hers. The nurse led Tomoyo to a white room, and Tomoyo could hardly realize her best friend and her closest cousin was the figure lying on the bed. Machines crowded the room, all attached to Sakura. She had no hair and her face was red, either from blood or from tears. She looked like she was hanging onto life by a mere thread, standing at death's door. Tomoyo choked back a sob and sat on the edge of Sakura's bed, resting her friend's hand in her own, stroking it motherly.
"Sakura?" she said quietly. Sakura turned her head and tried to smile but couldn't.
"T-Tomoyo?" she whispered in a hoarse voice.
"Yes Sakura, it's me." Sakura struggled to put a coherent sentence together. Tomoyo gasped as she put together the sentence. Her violet eyes welled up in tears.
"You love me?" She pointed to herself as Sakura nodded. Tomoyo smiled tearfully and kissed her best friend's hand.
"I love you, too." Sakura finally managed to smile as her hand grew colder in Tomoyo's and finally, the night of torment was over as a new angel entered the gates of heaven.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A few months later came the funeral. Tomoyo stood in the pouring rain as she watched Sakura's light pink, wooden casket being unloaded into the dark, cold, ground. Others tried to hold an umbrella over her head, pleading that she'd get sick, but she refused. Her salty tears mixed with the rain as it pounded heavily onto her head. Syaoran, crying, threw a small Cherry Blossom, Sakura's favorite flower, into the ground as Tomoyo couldn't help but think bitterly
'She'll never see it...what's the point?'
~~*~~
A few weeks later, while she lay in her room, wide awake, terrified of going to sleep, she could hear her mother's hushed whispers about her with Sakura's father and brother.
"She won't sleep. She's terrified that she won't wake up. She clings to me whenever I leave for work begging me to stay, begging not to leave her. Her grades are dropping but she just doesn't care. I'm scared she'll do something stupid."
Sakura's father and brother seemed just as afraid, sharing the same concerns about his little sister's best friend.
Tomoyo heard their whispers and began to cry.
They don't know what I'm going through......
Kero, having to take refuge in Tomoyo's home, awoke to her tears and he quickly flew over and began to stroke her hair.
"What's wrong, Tomoyo?"
She sniffed and looked at the little golden bear's concerned face. She thought dryly
'It's a shock he can pull that face'
as she sighed and said"Oh Kero...it's.."
She paused for a minute thinking of a way to best explain her answer to this seemingly innocent question.
"...everything, every little thing seems to gnaw away at my sanity. When Sakura died, I swear to Kami-sama, I felt a little piece of me of me die to."
Kero nodded as he kept stroking her hair. Tomoyo continued speaking, grief and sadness entering her voice once again.
"Kero, Sakura died in my arms. Nobody knows that, but it cut, it cut so deeply and it still hurts. Kami-sama, Kero, it hurts so badly." Tomoyo began to cry.
Kero flew down to her eye level and began speaking words he desperately wanted her to listen to.
"Tomoyo, she's not gone."
Tomoyo laughed bitterly. "Yes she is Kero. she died in my arms"
Kero held up a paw to silence her and continued.
"She may be gone in body but her spirit remains forever within you. She's you're angel, you're extra special angel who looks out for you."
Tomoyo looked at the bear and tearfully said, right from inside her:
"She's forever in my heart."
A star twinkled brightly as she said this. It twinkled with a light that made the other stars seem so dull and lifeless. A new star and a new angel was born the night that Tomoyo said those words.
~~*~~
Sakura stands, watching over her best friend from heaven. She sings a silent song to Tomoyo, hoping to ease her sadness and pain.
Keep my memory with you,
For memories never die;
I will be there with you;
When you look across the sky.
I will be there in the clouds
In the birds that fill the air,
In the beauty of a fragrant rose,
You will find my memory there.
You will feel me in the tenderness,
Of a baby's gentle touch,
You will hear me if you listen,
In the twilight's gentle hush.
When your hearts are heavy,
And you feel that you are all alone,
Just reach down deep inside of you,
For your heart is now my home.
I will always be with you,
I will never go away,
For I will live on in your hearts,
Forever and a day.