Sometimes, terrible things are just under your nose, right under your feet, or all in your head. When Sakura and her absentee roommate move into a new apartment, she is slowly introduced to strange smells, sounds with no origin, and an unwelcome tenant.
I've been working on this on and off since midsummer, saving it for Halloween time! I want to finish this by October 31st. It will be told in 6 Parts; an intro, the months leading up to Halloween, and Halloween night.
Before anyone gets invested in this story I want to mention some things that could turn people off;
-This story will involve: Haunting/supernatural, murder, torture, blood/bodily fluids.
-Sakura is a social worker closely tied to a hospital. There will be references and discussion of domestic violence, but I will not talk about sexual assault. All references to abuse will be reminiscent of things I have experienced in my professional life, so as not to be exaggerated or unrealistic.
-This story will also involve pairings, but the pairings are not the main focus of the story. (Pairings include Saku/Ino and Sasu/Naru.)
Thursday, November 1st
5:56 AM
"Start from the beginning. I want you to think hard and remember…."
Sakura didn't open her eyes. It felt easier this way, with the words seeming to find their way towards her through the darkness. Gentle, and unobtrusive. She breathed slowly and concentrated on keeping the cup in her hands from shaking.
Relax.
"Do you remember? Can you remember the first time something felt wrong?"
Another slow breath and a small nod. Two sea foam green eyes opened, framed by dark bags, and fixed on the man on the couch across from her.
It wasn't that she didn't trust Kakashi. Far from it: sitting in the office of chief of police was the safest place she had been in a long time. He was an honest man (which was rare in law enforcement); he was a friend. Ostensibly, she suspected the worst of what had happened was over. The story should be over, complete with closure. However, after so many months of trauma her body was reflexively braced for the moment when the calm and the stillness in the room would be ripped away from her, bleeding into the next chapter of uncertainty and paranoia.
"Yeah..I can. The smell was always there but I think what I noticed.. it must have been..the hair."
She put the cup down to rub her fingers, rub away the invisible strands that itched them still. The light of the early morning sun was spilling into the office, illuminating the warm browns and olives but she could not find peace there.
Just...not yet.
"They were so long." She continued, "And the color...I knew it couldn't have belonged to any of my friends. I..I mostly lived alone."
"Where did you see it?" The questions came slowly from his deep, soothing voice. "Where was the first hair?"
She closed her eyes again against a mix of shame and disgust. With two words, Sakura began the story of how her life had come to unfold.
"The laundry."
It had began so innocuously, she never really noticed.
If it hadn't been for Naruto, maybe she never would have. If Naruto hadn't plucked that strand off the folded pillow case with his big, tan hands and a leer, maybe the horror would have started differently.
"Oooooh, what's this?" Naruto had teased. "You finally get laid?"
Sakura had looked at the hair for just a moment before rolling her eyes. Shrugging it off.
"Probably from someone at work. Don't be gross."
And so Naruto had let it fall to the floor, forgotten.
Sakura had finished folding the laundry, they had eaten together and he left for the station.
But after that…
"Where did you find the next hair, Sakura?"
Sakura picked up the cup once more. "Every where. I started finding them...everywhere."
As she was leaving work the next day, her supervisor Tsunade picked one off the sleeve of her coat.
And throughout the week she kept finding them on her clothes, in her bed, around the office.
When the bathroom drain became clogged, it was clump of red hair.
And Sakura had been aware of these occurrences, every single one, but a convenient reasoning was never far behind one of those long, thin strands of a stranger's hair.
"Sakura?"
She looked back up at him, forgetting how much time had passed.
"Yes?"
"What happened then?"
