Disclaimer: I see no point in this - we all know I do not own Naruto or anything related to it expect for this actual story, the OCs in it, and whatever else I decided to create.
Note to readers: for those who had read this the first time (before I deleated it) I am sorry but I hope you enjoy this as well. The beginning is a bit...sad? For those who just clicked on this, this is the second installment to Midnight Summer - but you probally don't have to read the first or anything like that. Read and enjoy.
Rating: T
When the Sun Starts to Set
One
Things never go as she plans. They never have. She should have realized that. She should have known but her momentary happiness blinded her. Her actions, she should have known, would have a reaction. A rather nasty one…
How was she to know that one night of fun, a night of celebration, was going to end so horridly for her? How was she to know that her sweet grandmother, sweet Berta, would pass away? How was she supposed to know that her mother would return early to find her, her only daughter, lying in bed drunk off of wine.
How was she supposed to know that her dear father, as much as she detests the man, would have come along with her mother and brother?
How was she supposed to know that 'respect' in the Akatsuki could be sweet one moment and bitter the next? How was she supposed to know that, on the first day of school, a large fight would break out? How was she supposed to know these things?
How was she supposed to understand that the Akatsuki – that they are what everyone says they are?
She wouldn't have believed it unless she was right there.
The blood, the shrill cry of a bullet being launched from its metal chamber, the sickening sound of flesh being pierced…
How was she supposed to know that Pein's eyes could go so cold? How was she supposed to know that Tobi, red-eyed and very dangerous, could break a man's neck with a flick of his wrist?
She had never thought that she would see so much chaos.
She had never thought that they could actually be bad people.
Now she sees how little she knew these people – how well she knew this Akatsuki.
Now, sitting in her room with an arm slung over her shoulder, she cannot ignore the steady pain in her chest. A pain of loneliness.
Nor can she ignore the weight on her breast, a crystal tear, which is the first birthday present she has received in years. The warm weight of it reminds her of the warmth given out by that man. The one who she stands with, the one in that picture, with his arm slung over her should and a breathtaking smile on his face.
Just remembering that smile causes her heart to break.
Just because of her mom.
Her dad…
Her brother…
Mark.
Her mother gave her the news a few hours ago. That Mark was coming to stay with them, that things in the city are getting really bad, but her father is the one who told her. He was the one who told her that she is engaged to him.
And she doesn't even love him.
Not in that way.
A friend, yes, but never as a lover. He is more like a brother. A cherished friend who stopped her from committing suicide after her twin brother, Ari, died.
She knows that she can never repay him for all the things he has done for her. That she cannot repay him for the countless times she broke down on his shoulder, been the one to listen to her stories of the 'better' days with her two brothers – both whom are dead.
And now she is going to see him again.
And she cannot bother herself with the details of how long it has been since she has seen him. Seen his smile, heard his laugh, been in his embrace.
Now, with Max curled into her side and rubbing her side, she lies there motionless. They say nothing for there is nothing to say. The only sound in the house is the sound of her mother and father's voice that comes from downstairs. Two voices that are almost muted but, with their keen hearing, they can catch parts of the conversation.
Tomorrow, she notes silently, is the day that marks three months since the murder at school.
Three months without seeing Pein or Konan.
Three months without Deidara and Sasori's arguments about art, three months without Itachi's brotherly advice and warmth, three months without Kisame's laughter and jokes…
Another pain on an older pain and that pain is built on one that is even older than it. Every pain, fresh and old, builds and stacks up till she feels like she can drown from it. That it will suck out everything that she is.
That it will tear her apart from the core to surface.
At school, she sees Naruto's worried face, Sakura's gentle questions, Ino's sad eyes, and Hinata's quite comfort. She has felt Sasuke's hand on her shoulder, Shikamaru's silence gives comfort in its own ways, and even a few people she does not know have talked with her.
Some ask if there is anything that she needs.
She always tells them no.
But today, she knows as she sits up, there will be a fresh group of students in the school. She is curious about who they will be.
New to this odd school and its now silent halls.
She wonders if they will feel as she did – uneasy and uncertain.
She slowly lifts herself out of the bed and her brother casts a worried glance at her.
"Gwyn," he pauses, at loss for words, before asking, "Are you going to be okay?"
"Yeah."
Finally, as the questions roll around in her head, one last one clicks in place.
The one that is the scariest. The one that she cannot tell anyone about. The one that causes her stomach to knot up and for any food in her to be expelled.
And, above all else, how was she supposed to react after receiving that letter in the mail? A letter that reads;
The Reaper comes and the Reaper goes,
The final destination no one knows,
A path twisted,
A shadow hung,
A song long since forgotten by everyone,
A memento that the nightingale once sung,
A death of deaths to end all lives.
The unwary should remember that they to die.
You're next.
X
Well, this is chapter one! It is so different from the first chapter of the other one...I still cannot get my head around it. Anyway, I hope you all liked it. I would like to hear some of your thoughts on this chapter. Do you like it, not like it? WHY? You know, all that good stuff.
Review.
CideadForever
