Disclaimer: The characters of CCS belong to CLAMP. The idea of this plot and this kind of future world belongs to me, Waltz Alone.
Short Summary: Syaoran gazes at me with shame and struggle. I close my eyes and pull him towards me, whispering, "It's alright…" Nothing more is said as his sharp teeth plunge into my throat, filling the air with the scent of blood…
Full Summary: Sakura is a Vampire Hunter in a future world where scientists have tampered with human DNAs to create half-humans. Five years ago, every experimental half-human broke free from the labs and cells, blending into the human population. Therefore, it is now up to the Hunters to track them down and kill them. Sakura believes it is right to hunt down vampires… until a horrifying incident awakens her from the pretence of it all – she slowly uncovers the truth behind how and why half-humans were created, and why they escaped. With fellow Hunters and half-humans hot on her tail, she sets out with her partner, Syaoran, with a goal to discover the truth and define what's right and wrong.
Genre: Romance / Drama / Action / Adventure
Author's Note: Wow wow! Thanks for all those reviews:D I'm glad you guys like this new story of mine… I'll try to update as often as possible within the summer vacation… since I will be busy once school starts. I realized I've kept a steady pace of updating every four days… that's pretty good :)
Please read and review Reviews encourage me to write on:D
And faves/alerts… lighten up my day :)
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Chapter 3 - Runaway
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"A wound, a red badge of courage."
- Stephen Crane
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Chicago.
The Forsaken City.
It used to be known as the "Second City," because of its rebirth after the Great Fire (which was ages ago). But ever since the economy collapsed a few years back, it hasn't been able to rise back up. Over eighty-percent of the population have fled from the city. Most buildings are in ruins, and the city overall looks like it's just been through a third World War. It doesn't help that Chicago is a city built with technology from the twentieth century. In this ever-changing world, it's hard for things from the past to survive.
Most of the city is deserted and infested with rats and spiders. I nearly passed out when I was attacked by those disgusting rodents, even screaming when Syaoran began to throw rocks at them. He's never going to stop making fun of me for that.
The reason Syaoran and I decided to come here is because it is so empty. There's hardly anyone here. The only ones left now are the older generation dedicated to keeping their properties and stores. Not only that, we don't have to worry about eye scanners or ID-identifying cameras. Until we can find some way to deceive those, we can't go into the modern cities... Whatever the method is, it's going to be illegal. We also need to find a decent method of transportation. We ditched the aircraft we took from the Barastelle outside of Illinois and traveled by subway all the way to Chicago. The subway. Such ancient technology, not to mention slow and uncomfortable.
I take a swig from the glass of martini and sigh. Syaoran just quietly smokes a cigarette, glancing at the bartender from time to time, as if he's afraid he'll pull out a gun and start shooting at us. Oblivious to Syaoran's fears, the old bartender just smiles kindly and asks us where we're from.
"We live in Oklahoma," I lie without hesitation, "We just decided to stop by here to rest on the way to Ohio." Ohio better not be right beside Oklahoma…
He nods, sighing. "How old are you, miss?"
I blink. "I'm nineteen," I reply cautiously.
"Nineteen," he echoes, "I have a granddaughter who's exactly your age now. I haven't heard from her for five years, ever since she followed her mother out of the city…" He looks out the window, as if recalling the image of his then-fifteen year old granddaughter. I resist the urge to tell the man to leave this place and go find her.
"I'm sure she'll come visit soon," I assure him before paying for our drinks. "Have a good day."
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"Five years ago, huh," Syaoran exhales his smoke. "The Crimson Night…"
I shrug tiredly. "We have other things to worry about than other people's family problems." I take the cigarette from his hand and bring it to my lips, much to Syaoran's amusement. I haven't smoked since I was a teenager. I inhale and exhale once before giving it back to him.
The Crimson Night… I don't even want to think about that incident. It's too painful to recall.
"Have you ever wondered why all those half-humans were created?" he asks, his expression blank as he inhales his smoke again, "Or how they even managed to escape from those cells?"
"That information was never disclosed, so I wouldn't know," I frown, "Though I am sort of curious." I open the door to our worn out hotel room and sit on the couch. I remember examining the broken cells while I was still a student at the Academy. It didn't look as if any of them had broken out – nothing was out of order.
It didn't make sense – only a scientist could have de-activated the cells, but no scientist had entered the cell area around the time of the break out. And all the cameras and records were useless, since they had all been formatted and destroyed. Oh God, this is giving me a headache. Better not think about it for now – I'll get back to it when I'm sober.
I pick up the updated San Francisco newspaper from the coffee table. Thank God I paid for a year's worth of monthly updates, or we would have been tracked down from the billing. I examine the cover and give a short laugh. "Look," I muse, "We made the front page."
Syaoran smirks bitterly and begins to read, ""The Barastelle's top Vampire Hunter pair has fled from the city of San Francisco. It has been revealed that Syaoran Li, 21, has been contaminated by a vampire, and that Sakura Kinomoto, his 19-year old partner, is protecting him." Wow, I sound like some pathetic, helpless idiot," he rolls his eyes, ""General Churchill has issued a million-dollar reward for the capture of these two convicts."" He whistles. "Do you think he'll give us that much if we turn ourselves in?"
I ignore him and angrily scrunch up the paper. "Shit," I wince as my finger starts to bleed. I glance at Syaoran, who tenses as I raise it towards him. "Merry Christmas."
"Fuck you," he scowls before bringing the bleeding finger to his lips. I shudder as he licks it delicately before sucking on the wound. I feel that rush of danger and adrenaline again, and I have an urge to just rip my heart open for him to drink. But I have to control it; this is how every vampire manages to feed off of humans – by mesmerizing them. At the same time, I have to stop comparing Syaoran to other vampires. To me, he's the same old Syaoran, just with a peculiar taste for blood.
I'm glad that he's acting normal towards me now… even if that means that he's going to treat me like his younger brother. He never hesitates to smack my head, swear harshly at me or make fun of me. Although he never, never acts like that towards other girls, which pisses me off a bit. He's such a playboy that sometimes, I just want to grab him by the hair and throw him off a balcony. Once, he was going so overboard with his flirting that I smacked him in the head. When the girl was gone, he hit me back twice as hard.
By the time he finishes, I'm left breathless and he has a disgusted look on his face. "At least you're not suicidal anymore," I raise my eyebrows.
"Very funny," he grimaces and scrunches up his nose. "I can still smell the blood in the air. Open the window, will you?"
"Yes sir," I mutter before getting up.
At that moment, the door is knocked open. We both wheel around in alarm.
It's a girl.
I tense a bit as the she enters the room, looking around frantically. "Are you looking for something?" I ask, taking a step back. Syaoran eyes her with a frown, slowly reaching into his pocket.
"Grandpa?" she calls out desperately.
"Grandpa?" I echo, confused. Then I remember. "Wait, are you the granddaughter of that bartender?"
"Where are you, grandpa?" she starts to scream. She stops abruptly. I flinch. When she looks up at me, her eyes are unfocused. I see her staring at my finger, where there's still some blood.
Syaoran pauses then grimaces. "Oh, hell no."
We both realize that she's been contaminated by a vampire, and therefore left with the craving for blood. She's probably on the verge of going insane, too. This isn't good.
I hastily activate my gun and Syaoran does the same. "There's no more left for you," I say, aiming at her heart. "Syaoran, hold your breath," I say before squeezing on my papercut. He scowls and does so, averting his eyes to the girl, who charges towards me as the blood drips from my finger. I quickly open and jump out the window and start to run. I really shouldn't have drank that martini… I curse myself as I sway a little on my run. I lead the girl towards the area with lots of collapsed buildings and holes in the ground, and glance backwards.
I see Syaoran running not far from me, and I turn around and start to shoot at the vampire. Then I realize that she used to be an important person to that old bartender. Although she's not human anymore, her existence is still treasured by someone. Do I have the right to slay her?
I angrily shake my head. She's going berserk – she's going to become a bloodsucking monster. She's not human anymore. She can't be saved anymore.
I can't save her like I saved Syaoran.
From the corner of my eyes, I see Syaoran running very fast towards me. He's even faster than he was before. Is it a vampire thing? That's when my foot slips into a hole on the ground. I let out a yell as I fall into it, crashing down into the dirt. I hear Syaoran shout my name loudly, and the girl jumps into the air, ready to jump and consume on me…
There's a loud gunshot, and the sound of a body hitting the ground.
Syaoran's standing in front of me, fear and horror flashing in his amber eyes. He looks stunned at the sight of a vampire being killed, something he never even cared much about before. I remember how he used to have an almost cocky look after a hunt. Now there's not a single trace of that on his face. He shakily deactivates his gun and comes to me. "You alright?"
"Yeah," I take his hand and pull myself up. My eyes linger on the corpse in front of us. "The bartender won't have his reunion anymore."
He nods, exhaling sharply. There's a pause. "If I ever go permanently insane like she did, will you pull the trigger on me?"
I freeze.
"If I attack you, will you kill me?"
"You won't attack me," I force a smile.
"But if I do," his eyes gaze straight into mine, "I want you to kill me."
To my surprise, I manage to laugh. "That's if you ever attack me."
He waits for my reply.
I take a deep breath. "Only if there's absolutely no hope…" I can't bring myself to say the word "kill." I try to remain calm. "You better not count on it, since I'm giving you my blood and all. Be a little more grateful towards me, will you?" I fail to smile.
Syaoran sighs. "I am grateful, Sakura." He takes my hand and cleans my bleeding finger with his lips. His words sink into me as I close my eyes at his touch. I fight back a fit of shudders waiting to overtake my body, trying not to imagine myself standing before Syaoran's dead body. Honestly though, why did they make vampires so unnecessarily seductive? Oh God, I did not just think that. He's not a vampire… and he already was a playboy to start with. But I have to admit; him drinking my blood has become a daily routine for me, and I actually kind of enjoy it... Dammit.
Syaoran suddenly looks up, dropping my hand. "Do you hear that?"
I frown. There's a distant grumbling of engines. "Air hovers?"
"They're here; let's grab our stuff and get the hell out of this city," he starts to run very fast, and then stops. "On second thought, you wait here, and I'll be back in a minute."
I watch as he disappears quickly from view. His new agility proved to be useful on numerous occasions since we left the Barastelle… My eyes fall upon the dead vampire, and I can't help but wonder. Will there be a time when I really have to kill Syaoran to save myself?
I shake my head angrily. As long as he stuffs his damn pride and keeps drinking from me, he can't go crazy like this one. He's just very depressed and pessimistic right now. My fingers trail up my neck, tracing the bite mark hidden by my hair. Syaoran's been careful to only drink from one spot, as to not leave me with a dozen scars around my throat. This is a good sign, since it shows that he thinks while he drinks my blood.
I sigh, staring at the cut on my finger. There's a very small blood stain along the line of the cut. I slowly bring it to my lips and lick it as Syaoran would. A metallic, salty taste. Nothing I would get addicted to.
I remember when I first experienced a wound as a Hunter. I was sixteen and new to the job. I remember the nineteen-year old Syaoran scolding me, telling me that I was too weak. I remember throwing a punch at him, only to be sent to the ground with a bloody lip. Even then Syaoran didn't hesitate to hit me. But I didn't mind it. It reminded me to become stronger and become equal level with Syaoran. Maybe once I'm stronger, I'll be able to beat Syaoran up and not get hurt from it. I smile at the thought.
The engines become louder as tiny dots approach us with speed. I have no time to grow anxious, because Syaoran suddenly appears, grabbing my wrist and beginning to run. He hands me one of our bags to hold and glances behind us. "They're going to go talk to the bartender, so we need to hurry. We should take the subway to the next city and disguise ourselves."
"You're getting good at being a runaway," I comment with a grin.
He responds with his signature smirk and says nothing more.
And from there we run as fast as we can, away from our hunters.
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Chapter 3 – Runaway – End –
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A bit of a break from all that hard-core action, although this chapter contains some action as well. This chapter was MEANT to be sort of a bridge between two big-action chapters… but it turned out to be more action-istic than I planned. Next chapter will be written from Syaoran's point of view, as requested. This will show you guys how he's actually feeling, and not what Sakura thinks he's feeling.
Well, you've also been introduced to a bit more mystery, and they will be answered slowly in the upcoming chappies… ;) And you've also been introduced to the un-futuristic kind of city.
And READ THIS. Let me make Sakura and Syaoran's relationship clear… and all the things I'm going to mention have been told in the current chapters, so this isn't new.
They are very close friends, yet they still carry a mentor/student relationship. They've known each other for more than three years, and Sakura has mentioned that Syaoran "taught her to live." You'll learn more of that in the upcoming chapters. Sakura also mentioned in this chapter that Syaoran treats her like a younger brother, hitting her and swearing at her unlike he handles other women. All of this CAN be looked upon as love, but it's not. I was trying to express the special, non-romantic relationship they hold RIGHT NOW… but I think some of you took it the wrong way… :S Anyways, as of now, each of them regard each other as a special existence in their lives, because of what they've been through together and what they know about each other. Whew.
Did I make sense? I tend to go overboard when trying to express my thoughts…
Anyways, did you guys enjoy the chapter:)
Please review!