Jennifer Zhang

201

False Facades

He swung the door open, ready to pulverize whoever rang his doorbell at 3am. The moment he saw her, his eyes widened from surprise, softened with longing and narrowed with tortured agony. Seeing her again rekindled all his years of hurting, a feeling that he thought would never leave. The years of throbbing ache in his heart never really went away, it simply subsided.

"Sakura? What are you doing here?" he questioned, voice filled with hate, fire and rage.

"Syaoran, its time…" She replied calmly though it was clear she was out of breath. As she caught her breath she tried to give him a reassuring smile but her heaving lips wouldn't allow them to mend together.

"What? Sakura? It's time for what? How did you find me? When did you come back? Where have you been?" He asked the millions of questions that flooded his head, all the while amazed at how her facial features didn't seem to have changed through the years.

"It's finally the time for…" her sentence was cut short when her eyes rolled back and she collapsed into Syoran's arms. Her unconscious mind drifted into a world apart…a world of yesterday…

"It's the stupid green-eyed girl" a fat kid barked as he kicked a small figure on the floor while munching on a chicken thigh.

"Yea, what kind of stupid color is green" a bony boy chimed in.

"And look she has these dumb scars on her back!" a short girl added, as she pulled back the collar of the girl's shirt.

"Stop that!" another boy shouted from across the playground.

"Why should we?" spat the fat boy. He walked over to the boy and threw his drumstick in his face. "Oops now you're all dirty!" His pals all laughed.

The boy said nothing and just glared back at the fat kid with his fiery amber eyes. When the fat kid proceeded to wipe his hands on his messy chestnut hair he snapped and tackled him to the ground.

"Hey Syaoran, are you really sure you want to walk with me to school? The other kids might laugh at me and then they'll laugh at you too!" she spoke uneasily.

"Why? Because of your shiny green eyes?" Hearing the compliment Sakura blushed.

"Don't worry about it, they'll probably laugh at me for my messy hair anyhow." he replied as he tried to mat down his hair with his hands, making the first grader giggle with delight. Seeing her smile made him glad she was with him because deep down he was a bit nervous, not that he'd ever tell her that.

"Sakura? What's wrong?" Syaoran asked with a look of worry on his face. She raised her head to reveal her tear stained face and her orbs of green threatening to spill more of her anguish.

"The, the, the, teacher said…that…it doesn't exist!" she replied through sobs.

"Well then the teacher is a silly head, but you and I know that it does and that's all that matters." He coaxed soothingly with his voice, while wiping her tears on his sleeve. This brought a smile to her face and raised courage in her eyes.

"Hidden like a dragon the green-eyed panther stalks her pray, moving stealthy through the vicious jungle of predators and prey alike." a voice mumbled under her breath, as she squirmed through the crowded hallways filled with prepubescent rebels in the making. "She sees an opening!" She pounced up aiming for a brown haired boy who had bent down to sip from the water fountain. The prey gets up unexpectedly and catches the "panther" before it could strike.

"Aw, Syaoran how'd you know I was going to do that?"

"Well as we clearly see from exhibit A the fountain is white, and the light up there exhibit B is bright and thus a large shadow will be left upon these walls here, which anyone who was pretend drinking from the water fountain could not miss." He said with a bad German accent. In truth he really see the shadow, but he had felt her coming, as strange as it sounds he brushed it away from his mind.

"Sometimes its scary how well you know me…" she said absent mindedly not understanding how she led to that conclusion.

"Hey, Syaoran wanna help me with Chemistry?"

"No."

"Come on! I made cake at home, you know you want some cake…some…cho-co-late cake" she tempted him while comically batted her eyelashes.

"We'll now that you said the magic words, sure why not? But help me out with English I'm not that great with poetry…as you full well know"

"Ha! Only too well! Let me think…Roses are red, violets are blue, I'm feelin' you, don't cha know its true?"

"Yea, yea, yea whatever, at least I didn't walk into a fire hydrant the other day…" Syaoran rebutted with a smirk on his face, which earned him a painful jab in his stomach.

"Hey Syaoran, um you know my parent's strict code with dating and stuff…and so they got all paranoid when I told them about prom…but they really trust you…so…would you go with me…I mean I don't know if you wanted to ask someone else but if you don't then…yea…." She stuttered and stumbled over her words, trying desperately not to make her seem foolish.

"Sakura, I'd love nothing more than to take you to the prom if it means that much to you." He replied gently almost lovingly, and she looked him in the eyes upon hearing his tone of voice. They leaned in and he said "but that's going to be my gift to you for your birthday…" he said mockingly with a partial smile on.

"HEY! That's not fair! It's not my fault my birthday is on the last day of school!"

"Guys this is the last dance of the night! So please enjoy and drive safe afterwards!" the deejay joked.

"So, this is it, senior prom after this week we're all out of the cozy little fish bowl and into the real world." Sakura spoke sadly next to Syaoran's ear while holding him close to her body.

"Yea, which is why I've been thinking a lot and this, is kind of sudden but Sakura I love you with all my heart and soul. Even though I'm about to propose I know that you want to get the most out of life before you settle down so all I'm asking is that…one day…hopefully soon, you can be Mrs. Sakura Li?" he asked, voice full of uncertainty.

"Syaoran, I…yes, one day, I will marry you!" she was unable to tell him that the day he looked forward to may never come…

A small crowd formed around them and their fellow classmates cheered them on as the couple was lost happily in their own world…

"Sakura! Wake up!" screamed Syaoran.

"I…Syaoran, yes, I was about to say…we can finally be together…" she said in a dreamy tone with a lost smile on her face. How he had dreamt for her to say those words to him one day, but now it was a different story.

"Sakura I always will and always have loved you…but…you left me" he paused trying to grasp the right words to say. "After you disappeared the next day I searched far and wide for you, I've been through the seven continents eight times damn it! Then last year my family had a marriage arranged for me …and thus" he held up his left hand that held the golden wedding band. His heart stopped seeing the tears on her face, the hurt in her eyes, and her mouth with no words to describe how she's feeling. "I said no and postponed it as much as I could but they broke me in the end. I waited, Sakura, I tried so hard and fought it with every fiber of my being but its 10 years later and you decide to show up on my door step now?" he questioned with a sharp edge on his words.

"This is their fault…" she whispered.

"What? Who?"

"Syaoran…there is something you need to know…remember when we were younger we use to play 'magic school'? Did you ever once consider that magic just may be real?"

"Sakura, you must be kidding me…please don't mess with me like this…"

"Syaoran, just listen, magic is real the only reason we stopped playing was because we got older, and you lost the innocence and naivety of being a child. I didn't lose it because it runs in my blood, my parents were sorcerers and on my 18th birthday I was inducted into witchood, I wanted to come over and tell you as soon as possible but six agents came out of a black van to drug and kidnap me…" her story was cut short by Syaoran's words.

"Sakura stop fucking with me…" Syaoran wasn't losing his patience; he was lost and confused by the words coming from his beloved.

"Syaoran, you'll understand when you see this…" She sat up and slowly lifted up the blood stained hospital gown exposing her small fragile body. This was a moment that Syaoran had so often dreamt of in histeenage years her porcelain skin, the shape of her breasts and her tiny navel was all exposed.

"SAKURA put on some clothes!" he ordered as he forced himself to look away. He felt her little hands on his cheek pulling his face towards her.

"Please just look" she begged. Upon hearing her sweet voice he slowly opened his eyes and on her back were two large slits that looked like a beautifully carved sheath. He reached out and gently stroked her back…afraid to hurt her. As his finger trailed down her back a gentle blue glow came from within the scars, and out sprouted two wings on each side, two large ones above the two smaller ones. Syaoran was speechless as he watched the wings cover up her most private parts and the blue feathers fall all around her, disappearing as they touched the floor.

"You weren't lying…" he managed to utter as a single tear dropped from the corner of his eye.