Here is the next chapter, this story is getting addictive and seeing as I have the whole day to write it... have fun!
In the glare of the neon sign she choked down a bottle of something strong. It had been a month since she'd arrived here, and she'd seen more than her fair share of pain and suffering. The Bi-coloured glare shone through the cracked glass, illuminating a variety of bottles clustered around her feet, she was almost naked, clothed only in a borrowed vest and threadbare shorts and slumped on a plain chair. Hinata watched the girl from the shadows. Her bones showed under her thin skin and she had dark bags under her eyes, this girl was her only friend, her roommate and it seemed like she was already dead.
Now she knew why she'd gotten this room so cheap.
Music blared in the distance, and a siren started wailing as if in accompaniment. The steady rain dripped through a hole in the ceiling, rotting the wood beneath her feet. Somewhere in the unstable wooden building a cat fight was raging. Squeals of enraged girls floated up through the stairwells keeping the Hyuuga girl awake every night. It was a squat full of dropouts and drug addicts, most of the girls around her had tiny red dots on their inner arms – marks of injection. Across the road from them, men with black sunglasses met in shady offices. Hinata found that staring too long brought trouble. She still had the bruises.
"S-sakura?" she whispered meekly as the other woman fell off her chair with a crash and lay on the floor, eyes closed. In her left hand she clung tightly to her mask, in her right the bottle leaked sticky liquid over the stained wooden floor. Guiltily, Hinata shuffled closer, her long hair even lanker than it had been a week ago at the station. She felt thin and worn, the effects of eating little other than soup in Styrofoam cups for the past seven days. She hadn't the money for anything more. Pale dirty fingers reached for the neck of the bottle, tilting it up of the floor and halting the flow of the cheap alcohol. The strong smell hit her in the face and made her grimace yet hesitantly she raised it to her red lips. It tasted...horrible, yet she took another swig. Maybe if she drank enough everything wouldn't seem so bad.
She'd tried looking for work but nowhere would take her, dirty as she was. She couldn't return home, and the money was running out. Soon she wouldn't be able to afford a room in this dive and then she'd be out on her arse. How then, did Sakura survive? All this booze, the room, and that cute little fashion mask...
Quietly as the pick pockets out on the streets, she slipped the mask out of her friends hand and into her grubby jacket. Taking both pairs of keys and a spare bottle of wine she slipped out of the door and down the unsafe stairs. Time to find out what the city really held for her.
A cold and bitter wind bit into her as she swung the decrepit door shut behind her. The air smelled of crap Chinese and fast food rubbish. Bin bags and dumpsters littered the thin alleys she hurried through, though she had no idea where she was heading. Odd noises reached her from the darker alleys, people...fighting? She fingered the mask in her pocket, she could quickly put it on – no one would recognise her then.
Bright lights lured her out of the warren of alleys and so with her mask fully in place she slipped into the pool of colour. Club music throbbed in the buildings around her, and scantily clad women tripped and stumbled in heels much too big for them. Hinata felt almost overdressed in her three quarter length jeans and bulky jacket, she gripped the mask even tighter to her face as she loitered
in the shadows, anxious to get her bearings yet not wishing to be seen. The cold metal scraped against her sore skin and chapped lips making it almost unbearable, the eyeholes restricted her vision – why would Sakura wear this? It wasn't even attractive to –
"Hey baby" a gruff voice came from behind her an she spun around, scared
"Wearing a bit much, aren't you?" he jeered and she stepped back, confused. Why would this old, drunk man care what she was wearing? Yet as she stared in fear at his bloodshot eyes and menacing sneer, she noticed behind him another girl with a mask identical to hers.
'How much for an hour' a young man's voice barked at her as he slid a hand between her thighs
'I'm not available for anything less than three' the slim girl simpered back, fearing his fists
'You slag's shouldn't come round here' the man continued, tightening his grip on her arms, 'this place is for upper classes!' his whining tone became demanding and he shoved her down the alley. A few minutes later her slutty moans and groans could be heard as he paid her for sex.
Hinata paled beneath the cold metal. So the mask was...a symbol of...
"I'm not-" she began, trying to remove the mask but the man shoved it back on her face.
"Do not take off the mask!" he growled, before forcing himself on her, pushing his rough hands up her top, feeling for her soft flesh, she struggled and he slapped her. "If you resist I pay you less..." he sneered and a tear leaked out of the Hyuuga's eye. It dropped into the metal and a trickle of coppery liquid fell back onto her nose. It was then she realized the roughness of the mask that had scratched her face was in fact rusted metal. Poor Sakura, how many tears would it take to corrode this whole mask?
She saw the light disappear as the man dragged her down a gap between two clubs. Metal masks decorated the ground between eloping couples – Hinata was one of them now. Under a smoking ventilation grate she laid her body down, hands shaking as she undid the zip of her jacket and revealed the fishnet top beneath. How slutty that thing looked now. The man, fought with his jeans, tearing them off and hurling them away. She quaked with fear – she did not even know his name.
"Suck me" he spat, dangling himself in front of her face and holding her hair in his fists. Unwillingly she opened her mouth, surrendering to his will and suffering every second. Her eyes were squeezed shut, her hair tearing as he fucked her mouth,
The torture seemed never ending, yet as she choked and gagged she realized that she had finally found money in this city. Greif welled up in her stomach, she could not face her family after this, she could never return from such failure. As darkness ate away at her hope she heard sharp footsteps ring out across the cobbles as someone approached.
"My mask back, bitch" Sakura sneered from high in the shadows, hand outstretched. With a grunt the man came and rolled off her and sluggishly the Hyuuga girl wiped her mouth. Gripping the wad of banknotes in her sweaty hand, Hinata stood.
"It's my mask now." She replied heavily, "go find yourself a new one"
"Fuck that you sket!" Sakura screamed, lurching drunkenly across the dripping alleyway, "I'll stab your clart! Get off it!"
Hinata stared, baffled, this street talk was like a whole new language. Except even she recognised the universal signs of confrontation, teeth bared, fists curled. She narrowed her eyes and took the fighting stance Neji had taught her when they were kids.
"Bring it, whore!" she snarled back and leapt with her fingernails poised for action. Once-bright hair caught around her hands as she tugged on it and Sakura's nails bit into her sore face. A terrible wailing sound filled the air, she realized it was coming from her own mouth. Fighting for the right to become a prostitute, this was her place in the city.
"I'll get my crew on you, fat slag!" Sakura gasped, "They'll trouble you some, you'll get a clobberin' for muckin it wit me!"
Sakura came at her again and she took a couple of blows to her empty stomach but managed to flip the other girl over. Her back cracked horribly as she fell to the floor yet still Hinata was not done. Placing harsh kicks over the other girl's body she continued to punch her curled form. Sakura was screaming and crying, begging for her to stop but Hinata could not.
Out of her deep pocket she withdrew the wine bottle. The cheap potent liquid still swirled inside both deadly and heavenly. Taking a large swig to toast her victory, Hinata smashed the rest of the bottle over the wall creating a weapon and by now Sakura had staggered to her feet. The filthy girls rushed at each other and Sakura's arms became wrapped around Hinata's neck, bringing them into a deadly embrace. She choked, once, and blood tricked out over her lower lip. Gallons of the stuff poured over Hinata's hand as he held the bottle still inside the other girls body. With a sigh, Sakura was gone and Hinata stood too shocked to speak, the bloody glass in one hand and the rusty mask in the other.
Like a ghost she walked home, unseeing and shivering. She'd taken a life. The money weighed heavily in her pocket, reminding her of her future and her decision. People turned to stare at her as she walked in covered in blood but never asked. Nobody asked anything round here. The room was oddly silent without Sakura around...
A wail escaped her lips as she lay in the clammy dark room. Hinata wrapped her arms around herself so tight trying to keep the pain in. She wanted a normal life, but that was so far out of reach for her now. She kicked off her ruined shoes and scanned the room for Sakura's old kit. There was no point hanging onto the past was there? She imagined her mother and step father sitting at home now, keeping face with the esteemed head of the family. Were they crying, had they noticed her absence? Their faces flicked by her tired eyes as she rifled through Sakura's stuff. Stacks of miniskirts and tiny tops tumbled into her hands when she pulled rotten cupboards open. Now she knew how they were bought the sight of them brought a sour taste to her mouth.
"Dirty slut" she muttered, fingering a black leather dress made of less fabric than Neji's hat. A strangled sob escaped her throat at both the thought of her half-cousin from the lower houses of her clan. He was so talented, he should have been born in her place, heir to her fathers fortune. She
was nothing more than a young whore. With an aching heart she slipped into the dress and did her hair up in a high ponytail. God forbid anyone should see her like this. A tiny morsel of self esteem glimmered in her heart when she caught a reflection of her figure in the mirror. She looked much nicer than Sakura-chan. The cracked mirror hung darkly on the wall and swung as she banged the door,
There were always cracks. A crack in the glass letting cold air chill her while she slept. A crack in those shoes letting the dirty water in as she walked back downtown. And biggest and most painful of all, a crack through her family, separating one side from the other. Maybe if that break was healed, none of this would ever have happened...
With a broken heart, Hinata Hyuuga plunged headfirst into her new life, knowing full well it would shatter her.
The yuri will be along soon, promise!
