Commencement
Gasping she came back to sudden consciousness. Her eyes flew open but she could see nothing, only darkness. She tried to blink and could feel her lashes brushing against abrasive fabric.
Panic started to set in, and her breaths grew shorter and more labored.
'Get a hold of yourself Sakura.' She thought to herself. 'Panicking isn't going to help, calm down.'
Survival instinct kicking in, she calmed her breath and tried to get a feel of where she was. Wherever "it" was definitely wasn't home. Her hands met a cold linoleum floor and the smell of disinfectant hung heavy in the air. Feeling around behind her, her fingertips met with a smooth wall. She could feel the indents of where one cinderblock met another and could feel the coolness of the paint that coated them. She leaned back trying to listen for anything out of the ordinary.
Which, she suddenly thought, was truly ironic because she happened to be in a very out of the ordinary situation. Then she heard something like a door unlocking followed by footsteps and the sound of said door solidly closing.
'Just stay calm.' She chanted to herself several times. She measured her breath so it seemed as though she was still unconscious. The footsteps came to s stop right before her. She knew this because she could feel them on the tips of her toes. Whoever it was, they were hovering her. She could feel their presence and it was beginning to suffocate her.
She hoped that feigning sleep would just prompt them to become uninterested in her and they would quickly go away.
"I know you're awake." A voice like sin sent chills running down her spine bringing up goose bumps on her legs. She realized she was barely covered up then. "I'm going to take off your blindfold. Misbehave and it goes back on. Understood." He was commanding, she could hear it in his tone and feel it in his presence.
She nodded desperately; afraid of what her own voice would sound like. A second later she felt the knot of fabric behind her head being undone. He wasn't being gentle; he was pulling at strands of her hair that had been tied in with the fabric. The sensation was making tears prick her eyes.
When he pulled the fabric away Sakura hesitated in opening her eyes immediately. When she did she had to blink against the harsh fluorescent lights. When she was finally accustomed she stared straight into black orbs.
There was no hint of care or worry. Why would he be worried anyway? Tonight everything was legal, including murder and abduction. She scanned his face and couldn't really think of words to describe him. Of course this psychopath had to be outrageously fucking handsome. There was nothing soft about him, especially not his eyes.
'If looks could kill…'
She took a deep breath. "Where am I?"
"Hn. No clue." This truly confused her. He had been the one to bring her here. Hadn't he?
"What do you mean you have no idea? You're the one who brought me here. So tell me where I am." She would've been much more convincing if she hadn't asked in a hushed tone.
He glared at her and turned to leave. "Wait! If you didn't bring me here then who did?"
"Look," He turned to her with annoyance written all over his face, "I don't know who he is. I'm just doing my job until he gets here. So sit there and shut up."
"He? Is he going to hurt me?" Panic started to rise again. This time though, she couldn't keep herself calm. She wanted out.
"Just let me go. I'm sure this is all a misunderstanding. We can both go home in the morning safe and sound and forget this ever happened."
"Are you Sakura or not?"
"I am…" She looked up at him too scared to look anywhere else.
"Then there's no misunderstanding. I couldn't really care less if he hurts you or not." Then he finally walked out.
Tears burned at her eyes. She looked around hoping she would find an exit or something in the room she could make a run for before the man she just spoke to could get to her.
But making it out didn't mean she was safe. Not tonight. There were people all over the city on rampages, vandalizing and murdering anyone and anything that gets in their way. Just the thought made her stomach knot and her heart skip a beat. She didn't want to admit that being here was safe. But it was, safer than outside at least.
What she didn't know was how she got here. She remembers her shift at the hospital finishing and changing out of her scrubs and into her normal clothes. She made it to her small apartment just fine there was nothing out of the ordinary, door was locked and windows were too. Not that it mattered she lived on the eighth floor. She got home in time to shower, have dinner and lock up before the commencement had even started. She turned on her TV and changed it to the news. Of course there was only talk of 'cleansing this' and 'cleansing that'. She rolled her eyes and decided to put a movie on, switching to the DVD player and deciding she would hear the announcement from the loud speakers outside. Not that it really mattered to her. She guessed she had fallen asleep shortly after because she didn't remember hearing the announcement.
Turning her head to the left Sakura felt the blood freeze in her veins. There was a hospital bed and equipment. Tears started falling down her face, she knew exactly who had brought her here.
She thought there was no way it could've been him she had moved thousands of miles away. She told no one about where she was, not even her parents. They knew she couldn't; that she had to protect herself from him. Had he found her anyway? Had he known from the beginning where she was?
"Help! Help me! He's going to kill me!" She screamed and screamed at the top of her lungs, hoping the man from earlier would hear her. The door opened and she ran toward it full speed crashing into the man from earlier. He held her still as if her fighting wasn't really doing anything. He sat her down on a cold metal chair and held her shoulders to keep her there.
"What the hell is your problem?" he glared at her. She kept fighting to get up.
"Let me go please! Please I'm begging you." She started sobbing. "Don't let him do this to me." She whispered.
"It's no ne of my business. I'm just trying to stay alive and make some extra cash. I'm not risking myself for some girl I don't know."
"Please…" The tears wouldn't stop. She was beginning to shiver against the cold in the room. The fact that she was in a hospital gown didn't help much either.
"I can't do anything for you. It's not my pla-" A buzzer sounded around them. The man rolled his eyes and Sakura jumped.
"I guess he's here." She started hyperventilating.
"Don't let him in! He obviously doesn't have keys. We can just wait him out until the morning. He can't touch us if he can't get through that door."
"I'm not worried about us. I'm taking care of myself. Whatever you did isn't my problem."
"I didn't do anything!" she screamed.
"That's not my problem either Sakura." For the second time tonight, he walked out.
Sakura looked around again. She spotted a window and ran to it. She unlocked it and tried to open it. She looked at the frame and noticed that it was nailed shut. She tried to pull at the nails and cut her fingers.
Hearing the door unlock she went back to trying to pull at the nails on the window. Making the small cuts on her fingers worse. She heard footsteps behind her and jumped when she felt fingers hold her shoulder. She held her hands to the gown and turned to meet the same dark eyes from before. He was holding a syringe.
He saw her eyeing it. "It's just going to sedate you for a few minutes."
"She tried to run around him but he grabbed her wrist and shoved the needle into the first place his hand landed on, her thigh. It took her a few minutes to stop thrashing around and a couple seconds for her to slump against him.
Freezing cold water hit her like a ton of bricks. She screamed, her eyes snapping open. She tried to sit up but couldn't she felt tightness around her wrists and ankles, and looked to find shackles around them. She heard a chuckle; it made her stomach churn. There was nothing humorous happening, she was soaked and freezing and still under the last effects of the sedative.
"Ah, my little Flower. Thought you could run did you?" Sakura kept her eyes shut tightly, refusing to look at anything at all. She knew she would lose it if she saw him.
"Not going to say hello? Aren't you being a little rude?" She felt something sharp at her side causing her eyes to fly open. She threw her head to the right looking away from the man that was speaking to her. She wouldn't give him the satisfaction of her acknowledging him. Even through her shivering and the ice cold water still dripping off of her she began to sweat.
"Alright, how about I bring my helper back in here? You seem to be very vocal with him eh?" At this he called out for the other man, calling him Sasuke. She closed her eyes again.
"What is it? I thought I was done here."
"Hm. Not quite. I need you to hold her down. Go get on her other side. " She heard footsteps and they stopped when they reached her right side. "I'll be right back." The other man said and walked out, Sakura opened her eyes to look at Sasuke.
"You have to help me. Please, he's insane. I've never done anything to him. Sasuke help me please." She begged quietly, like she was praying to a God she wasn't sure was there.
"What's his name?"
"What?"
"That guy, what's his name?" She furrowed her eyebrows.
"What does it matter? He's trying to fucking kill me." Another harsh whisper. He just gave her a blank look. She sighed and rolled her eyes. "It's Kabuto. He's an ex of mine. It ended very badly, obviously. So can you please help me get the hell out of here, please?" She felt her heart racing as he stared at her.
"Fuck." Sasuke looked around. "Look, I'm just minding my business."
"Please."
"Let me finish." She nodded.
"I'll help you. But it's going to have to be later, closer to dawn." He saw her eyes widen and heard Kabuto approaching. He spoke quietly and quickly. "Don't panic, don't let him know that I'm helping you at all. Do you understand?" She nodded again.
"Well then Sasuke, shall we get started?" The dark haired male raised an eyebrow and nodded, he heard Sakura's breath hitch.
Kabuto threw him a length of rope, "So she really doesn't move." He then turned Sakura's chin roughly towards him.
"Hello beautiful." His smile alone make Sakura want to get up and run. "Now, I'm going to cover your eyes again, okay. I'm going to leave that pretty little mouth of yours alone though. I want to hear you scream." He leaned down and her tears flowed again. Kabuto kissed her forehead and wrapped her head in a blindfold; her heart sank as her world became dark.
What felt like hours later, Sakura's voice was hoarse from screaming and sweat poured into her wounds. Breathing ragged, she tried to pull her wrists out of their restraints. She could feel them cutting into her and every move she made brought another wave of pain that left her dizzy and breathless.
She tired of fighting against the restraints and threw herself back down onto the mattress. She began to kick her legs, trying to release her ankles ignoring the pain and desperate for a way out. She heard footsteps again, approaching quickly.
"Shh. It's just me. He went to get something; we have about three minutes to get out of this room and into the stairwell and onto another floor. I'm gonna get you out but you have to be quiet." He started taking off the restraints and fumbled around with the rope tied around the bed. He took off her blindfold last.
"Don't look around, let's just go." He helped Sakura sit up and put her arm around his shoulders so she could stand. As soon as she set her feet on the ground they were off.
Running out of the room Sakura looked back and was nauseated by the amount of blood that covered the bed and medical tools Kabuto used on her. She faltered in her steps tripping over her own foot; Sasuke pulled her up.
"I said don't look." She watched as he looked up and down the hall and chose to go left. She tried to keep up, thankful that he had a grip on her. Her legs were weak and black spots invaded her vision. She took a deep breath as he threw the door to the stairwell open and started up the stairs.
"I can't run Sasuke." Sakura tripped on every step and only slowed them down. He stopped on a landing and turned his back to her.
"Get on, and don't let go. I'm going to need my hands so I can hold you." She got on his back and wrapped her legs around his torso as tightly as she could, holding most of her weight with her arms. He began to run up the stairs again.
When he got to the third landing he opened the door and took a hard right trying to open the doors.
"Fuck. I need to put you down. Can you stand?"
"I think so." She let go and he guided her to the ground. She stumbled a bit and got her bearings. She went along on the other side of the hall trying those doors. They were all locked.
"Shit, we need to go up to the ground floor." He walked up to her putting her arm around his shoulders again.
"Up?"
"Yeah, were on the third floor of the basement level. Let's go." They went for the stairwell again, this time Sakura found she could climb a little faster.
They ran up the stairs as fast as they could, reaching the ground level Sakura found herself opening the door and getting pulled onto the ground. She screamed when her body hit the hard floor. Kabuto sat roughly on her hips only to be pulled off by Sasuke who pulled Sakura up off the floor and tried to run again. Kabuto caught his foot and both Sasuke and Sakura fell in a heap. Sasuke turned and saw Kabuto approaching.
"Get up and run, I'll hold him off."
"But-."
"Fucking move Sakura. I got it. Go!" She scrambled to get up and started running blindly, not knowing where she was going. She found a door to another stairwell, she heard a crash and looked back to find Sasuke running her way.
"Not there, keep running." He grabbed her hand and pulled her to the elevators. They tried to call all the elevators when they heard a laugh behind them.
"There's no way out, up, or down now," Kabuto had a gun in his hand and he pointed it toward Sasuke and cocked it.
Frantic, Sakura looked between the two men and started running further into the building, trying to remember the turns she made.
Left.
Left.
Right.
She heard running behind her and saw that Sasuke was close behind her.
"I don't know where I'm going." She yelled to him.
"Just keep fucking moving." She tripped and Sasuke caught up to her, pulling her off the ground. They passed by a window and saw the tower with the night's countdown on it.
45 minutes. That was all they had to keep running for. That's how long they had to keep moving.
They found an open door and Sasuke pushed her into the small closet. He closed the door quietly and leaned back on it, sliding down to the ground breathing hard. Sakura dropped to the ground and began to finally look over herself; she had a lot of deep cuts, a lot of small, but bad burns. The hospital gown she was in was torn and covered in blood. She noticed that the only thing really covering her was her underwear; luckily she still had that. Looking over at Sasuke who she found staring at her, still out of breath.
"We need to stay here for a while. So we can catch our breaths and run outside. I don't know where he is." All she did was nod.
"You okay?" she shook her head. "Figures."
"I'm sorry for asking you to help me. But thank you."
"Yeah, sure." He looked up toward the ceiling and reached up to lock the door from the inside.
"Are you okay?" He looked back at her.
"Fine, I just need a cigarette really fucking bad." He ran his hands through his messy hair and closed his eyes.
"Smoking isn't good for you."
"Yeah, I know. I passed the D.A.R.E. program in grade school." He smirked at her.
"Funny, but that's why you're having such a hard time catching your breath." His face changed into a glare.
"No, I'm having a hard time because I'm running on adrenaline. I just had to fight a fucking gun out of someone's hand." She looked down.
"I'm sorry. I'll pay you double what he was going to give you."
"I don't want your money. I said it was fine. One good thing might add to my list, get me into heaven or some shit." Sakura smiled at him.
"So where are we?"
"I told you that I didn't know."
"You weren't lying?"
"Hn." She sighed.
"How long do you think we should wait in here?" he shrugged.
"In a few, I'm going to run back out there and check the countdown." She shook her head.
"Are you crazy?! You cant do that! What do you have a death-" He slapped a hand over her mouth.
"Shut the fuck up. I hear him walking up the hall." She nodded and he pulled his hand away.
"What do we do?" She whispered, crawling close enough to him so she could whisper in his ear.
"Once I can't hear him anymore, I'm going to run and check the time." He whispered back, "I might have to check twice, I don't think we've been in here longer than ten minutes." He sighed, raising goose bumps on Sakura's arms. She leaned back onto her ankles. Thankfully her legs were bloody or hurt she would've given them away.
"I can't hear him anymore." Sasuke stood up and unlocked the door peeking out and closing it again. "I'm gonna go. Listen out for me. If I say run, run and don't stop." He opened the door and Sakura subconsciously held her breath trying to be as quiet as possible. Less than a minute later the door opened and she jumped. Sasuke came back unscathed and she let herself breathe again.
"How long?"
"20 minutes."
"It doesn't feel like we've been in here for that long."
"I know. But we need to start moving now. Were going to go out the back way. That guy's still in here somewhere. We need to hurry." She got up and stood next to Sasuke.
"Then let's go." He nodded and opened the door again. Pulling her out with him and walking quickly to the end of the hall. They stole another glance at the countdown.
17 minutes.
"Alright let's run." Just as they were about to take off Kabuto appeared before them. He cocked his head to the side and let a cynical smile spread across his face. He lifted the gun again, this time at Sakura. He pulled the trigger and she screwed her eyes shut, waiting for the pain. She felt a body knock into her and grab her arm and start running. She followed blindly running for the sake of just surviving. The body pulling her moved even faster, taking hard turns and whipping her around corners. By the time she saw where she was she was staring at a doorway. She looked at Sasuke and her eyes widened. His shoulder was bleeding and dripping down his arm and off his fingers. She looked at her hand and realized it was covered in his blood.
"I think we can go outside now. It might-" the sound of sirens cut him off, signaling the end of the night.
"Where is Kabuto?" She looked around.
He pulled her to the door and opened it. "Don't know, don't care." They walked out into the early morning. Again Sasuke leaned against the closed door and slid to the ground. Sakura kneeled beside him, ripping a piece off her already torn hospital gown.
"What are you doing?" he looked at her.
"Wrapping you up. I need to stop the bleeding, it's just for now until we get to the hospital."
"I'm fine."
"No, you aren't 'fine'. Trust me I know."
"What are you a doctor all of a sudden?"
She looked at him and smiled wrapping his shoulder in the fabric. "Actually I am a doctor." When she was done she sat cross-legged on the ground next to Sasuke. He stared at her.
"When you're ready, we can go." He nodded and got up.
"I'm ready to get the fuck away from this building." He helped her up and they started for the hospital, walking through the aftermath of another year's cleansing.
She grabbed his hand as they walked. "Thank you. I wouldn't have made it without you Sasuke." He looked at their hands and nodded avoiding the dead bodies and weapons left in the street. Tomorrow, it would be as if nothing happened. He looked at the girl holding his hand again and stopped.
"Are you okay?" she looked back at him.
"Yeah." He kept walking.
About half an hour later they stared up at the hospital. Sakura shuffled he bare feet and pulled at the gown with her free hand.
"Come on." Sasuke guided her inside and they sat in the waiting room. There were people everywhere, some hurt, some completely okay.
When a nurse noticed Sakura she immediately put her and Sasuke in the next available room.
"You really are a doctor."
"Yep." He watched as she filled out both their files. He hated hospitals and was antsy to get out. She looked at him over the file and smiled. "We'll be out of here in no time. I just need to get that bullet out of you and give you stitches."
"What about you?"
"I can take care of myself at home." She got up and looked through some cupboards pulling out the things she needed to work on Sasuke's shoulder.
"Ready?" he just stared at her. She began her work.
It's not that the process was long, but Sasuke never imagined getting a bullet pulled out of a gunshot wound would hurt more than the initial gunshot. He grit his teeth and let Sakura do her job, relieved when she finally finished stitching him up. She wrote in his file some more and put it on the counter.
"Okay, were done here."
"Here?"
"Yeah, you need to get cleaned up or that wound is going to get infected. I'll take you over to my place so you can shower. I think I have some men's clothes in my closet somewhere." Sasuke raised and eyebrow but said nothing.
She said her goodbyes to the nurses and told them she could take care of herself at home; it was more gore than anything. They reluctantly let her go after giving her some scrubs to walk home in.
When they got to her apartment she realized nothing was destroyed or missing, she looked at Sasuke who looked back at her.
"Did you?"
"No, I don't know who picked you up from here. I was told to wait in the building for you to be dropped off." She nodded and led him to the bathroom.
"There's towels in the cabinet and ill get you some clothes." She turned to walk into her room when he called her name.
"Sakura. Come here." She stepped toward him and he closed the distance between them, looking down at her. He pulled his shirt off with his good arm and put dirty hands on her blood stained face. Beryl eyes stared at him and she covered his hands with her own. He leaned down and kissed her.
It was slow and desperate, desperate to forget what they had seen, gone through, and felt. He pulled her top off and sat her down on the toilet seat, turning on the water then, in turn, the showerhead. He stood her back up and untied the pants the nurses had given her, they slid down her hips and he pushed them off of her. Sakura stepped out of her underwear and into the shower washing off the night of pain and horror she had just gone through. She turned to face the shower and heard Sasuke step in behind her and wrap his arms around her body, forehead resting on her shoulder and hair getting wet.
Sakura turned around and put her fingers into his hair, holding his head on her shoulder. She knew showering with a total stranger was not really okay; it wasn't like her. But she didn't care, this man saved her life and he wasn't trying anything. She felt him kiss her collarbone.
"Sasuke." She whispered his name.
"I can get out of you want me to." He answered her but didn't move at all, he felt her shake her head.
"I don't want you to go."
"Then I wont."