Affinity
Prompt: Haunting
Rating: M
Title: Someone Screaming
Summary: She knew from the beginning that breaking into the abandoned hospital was a bad idea, but nobody could have predicted this.
"Come on, Sakura," a light-hearted voice tells the stubborn girl. "We're teenagers, we're suppose to do stupid things like this."
"Naruto, breaking into a condemned hospital is flat out insane!" Determined green eyes glare at the bright blue ones.
"You're just scared because you believe all the stupid ghost stories," Kiba says as he takes a swig from his beer can.
"Well, it is Halloween," Hinata sputters out, obviously not thrilled about the idea of breaking into the former Konoha General.
"Don't worry, Sakura," Sai says with a small smile. "If we see any ghosts, you can just frighten them away with your ugly."
Sakura clenches her fist, ready to wipe the insincere smirk off his face when Ino calls out.
"Hey, scaredy cats," the blonde yells as she begins pulling on the heavy chains wrapped around the door handles, "I'm sure your crushes would just love to protect you from all the spooks inside."
She shoots them a cheeky wink and both girls' faces burn bright red in embarrassment. Luckily, Naruto and Sasuke are off to the side, inspecting the barred off windows of the rundown building.
"You two are blushing!" Ino squeals with delight, prompting Sakura to run up to her.
"Shut up, Pig!" the pinkette cries as Ino, somehow, manages to break off the chain and pulls one of the heavy, double doors open.
All seven high school students become silent as they look into the dark, rundown building.
"Whoa," Naruto states as he steps closer to the door.
"Well are we just gonna stare at it, or are we actually going to go inside," Kiba says before tossing his empty can to the side.
"Fine, if you're so brave," Ino begins while nudging him towards the threshold, "you can go first."
"Why don't we go in together, Blondie," he says before tugging her arm into the building with him.
Ino lets out a halfhearted squeal before walking down the corridor with Kiba in tow. "Come on, losers!" she yells at the remaining five.
Sakura watches as the two stumble farther down the hallway before disappearing around a corner. A creeping feeling crawls up her spine once the couple is out of view.
Subconsciously, she turns away from the doorway and right into Sasuke Uchiha.
"What's wrong, Haruno?" he asks her, a cocky smirk on his face, his dark eyes glinting with wicked excitement. "You scared?"
Before she can think of a witty retort to respond with, a shrill and feminine scream resounds from within the building.
"That was Ino," Hinata gasps out, her pearl-like eyes wide in fear.
"Hinata, stay here," Naruto orders before running into the building, "Come on, guys!" he shouts once inside. Sasuke and Sai move past Sakura and run down the same path that Ino and Kiba had taken.
Hesitantly, Sakura looks back at Hinata then into the looming building. As much as she does not want to go in creepy building, she knows that Ino is in there and needs her help.
Ino, the girl that skipped out on the biggest party of the year to console Sakura after a bad breakup.
Ino, the girl with whom she has spent an endless amount of nights talking about everything and nothing.
Ino, her best friend since elementary school.
With a deep breath, Sakura makes up her mind.
"I'm going too," she tells Hinata. "If we're not out in twenty minutes, call the cops."
"Sakura, no," Hinata objects in a surprisingly firm tone, a dainty hand grabbing hold of Sakura's hoodie. "Let the guys handle it."
"Hinata, this is Ino we're talking about," she argues, "I won't be able to face her again knowing that I wasn't willing to go in after her."
The Hyuuga girl doesn't say anything else, letting a small nod suffice. She releases Sakura's hoodie and gives the girl a mournful look.
Accepting this as a blessing, Sakura takes a deep breath and darts into the hospital.
Inside it feels as though the temperature has dropped by ten degrees. The paint on the walls is peeling and noxious colored graffiti covers what remains, the majority of it consisting of swear words and gang names. However, when she turns the corner everybody else had, one particular piece causes her to stop and stare.
The words "Death Awaits" are painted over a set of double door in bright red. The color bleeds down the wall from the uppercased lettering and causes a feeling of unease to wash over Sakura. The time it was painted it had probably just been a joke among some teenagers, but for some reason she is compelled to lean forward and touch the crimson streaks.
She reaches a hand out, but before she can touch one of the beaded drops, something grabs her shoulder.
Twisting around she comes face to face with the blonde hair and blue eyes of Naruto.
Before she can say anything, he grabs her arm and runs towards the entrance of the hospital.
"Come on, Sakura-chan," he calls over his shoulder. "There's something wrong with Kiba, it's like he's possessed or something."
Possesed? What's that supposed to mean? Where's everybody else?
These thoughts race through Sakura's mind as Naruto continues to race down the hallway with her in tow. Looking ahead, she can see Hinata watching them from outside, a worried expression on her face.
They are only meters away from the outside when the large double doors swing shut as if a strong wind pushed them.
In disbelief, Sakura begins pulling on the doors with Naruto, yelling for help. She doesn't know what her hyperactive, blonde friend had seen, but whatever it was, she does not wish to witness it herself.
Something about this place is off.
She could tell from the moment Ino broke those chains. The moment she had sensed the sinister demeanor and practically pulsating aura from within the building she should have high-tailed and ran. Now, she and five of her closest friends are trapped in Konoha's own embodiment of hell.
"Hinata!" she yells, hoping the girl can hear her through the thick metal doors. "Call the cops!"
"Run away, Hinata!" Naruto calls at the same time, "Get out of here!"
When yet another pull on the seemingly cemented-shut doors proves futile, Sakura turns to the sound of gentle footsteps coming from the end of the corridor.
In the dim moonlight from the dusty window, she is able to make out the dark silhouette of a teenager with dark spikey hair.
Slowly, he moves closer to them, his face becoming illuminated.
It's Kiba and from what she can tell, his facial expression is blank and his eyes appear distanced, as if all consciousness has left him. He continues to walk down the hallway, moving his feet as if they weigh a ton. His blue shirt has dark streaks running across it, streaks that look an awful lot like handprints.
"Kiba?" she asks tentatively. At this, Naruto turns away from the door to see the other teen. Without hesitation, he grabs Sakura's arm once again and drags her into one of the nearby rooms.
"Naruto, what are you doing?" she exclaims once she sees him lock the door and begin pacing around.
The room's dark and she can barely make out its contents. On the right cabinets hang off the wall by the corners and other than the few pieces of trash, the rest of the room appears empty.
"That's not Kiba," Naruto tells her.
"What do you mean?"
"It's like I said before, he's possessed or something," Naruto runs over towards the window and pulls back the thick curtains. She hears a slew of curses as Naruto discovers the thick metal bars over the glass.
"What do you mean possessed? Where's Ino?" Sakura says, panic beginning to overtake her.
Mournful blue eyes look at her.
"No," she gasps, "no, no, no, no." She repeats the word like a mantra, sliding down the door and bringing her arms up around herself. "This is the type of shit from horror movies," she says angrily, "this is not fucking happening." Her best friend is not dead, Kiba is not possessed, and she sure as hell is not trapped in an abandoned hospital.
This is all some stupid nightmare. She'll wake up, she'll go to school on Monday, and she'll go back to secretly pining after Sasuke as Ino pokes fun at her for not "sucking it up and kissing him already".
"Sakura-chan," Naruto begins as he moves over to sit with her. "We need to get out of here."
"Wh-what about the others?" she asks, tears streaking down her face.
"I-I don't know," Naruto replies, seemingly ashamed. "After seeing I-Ino like that, we all just sort of freaked, ya know? Her face was all bloodied, like he kept banging it against the ground."
Sakura buries her face in her arms as choked sobs escape her mouth.
"I'm sorry. Don't think about that right now," he swings an arm over her shoulder in attempt to console her. "Here's what we're gonna do-"
He's cut off when the door behind them starts rattling violently. A startled scream escapes Sakura's voice and the two rush across the room.
With a crash, the door flies off its hinges and into the cabinets, knocking a few of the haphazardly situated pieces to the floor.
Kiba stands in the doorway, the same dead look on his face as he begins moving towards Sakura. Anxiously, she searches the floor for some sort of weapon, and ends up arming herself with a glass bottle.
"Kiba, please," she begs him, "I don't want to hurt you."
As he moves closer to her, she gets a better view of his blood-covered attire. It's then that she realizes what Naruto was saying, this isn't her friend, this isn't Kiba.
With all her might, she smashes the bottle over his head earning a few small cuts on her hands. His forehead begins bleeding, but he doesn't react to the hit. Sakura backs into the wall and prepares herself for whatever may happen, but a blur of blonde and orange darts past her vision.
"Run, Sakura-chan!" Naruto calls as he tackles not-Kiba to the ground. "Find the others!"
Not turning down the opportunity of escape, she runs back to the hallway and around the corner where everybody else had gone upon first entering. Bypassing the creepy writing. Sakura runs down a flight of stairs only to find another looming hallway.
This one has an emergency light flashing at the end. The swirling red casts eerie shadows all along the walls and illuminates a slick, dark trail. She almost screams at the sight and has to prevent herself from wondering whose bleeding so heavily and why.
Next to the trail, she notices the familiar cross-like pattern of converse shoe prints following the path. The only person in the group that wears All-stars is Sasuke.
She weighs her options. She could follow the trail and hopefully find Sasuke, or she could go back up the stairs and wander aimlessly while trying not to run into not-Kiba.
If it is Sasuke's blood, he'll need help. If it's not, then hopefully they'll be able to find a way out of this hellhole together. With new determination in her eyes, Sakura carries on down the hallway, taking care to avoid stepping in the blood puddles.
She follows the gruesome trail to yet another stairwell and cringes at the thought of somebody's bleeding body being dragged down the metal steps.
Hesitantly, she exits the flashing red hallway and into the darkness. Eventually, the ground levels out as she enters, what she supposes is yet another corridor. However, it is too hard to tell since it is as if she has a blindfold on.
Wishing she had the sense to grab a flashlight, she begins feeling her way around. Running her hands along the wall, she eventually finds a door handle and tries to ignore the sticky liquid covering it.
With a quick prayer for better illumination in the room, she pulls the door open, the metal groaning in protest.
She steps into the room to find it much larger than she anticipated. A flashlight that somebody must have dropped rests on the floor, shining it's white light at the opposite end.
Sakura sighs in relief as she sees the familiar lanky figure.
"Sai!" she calls to him. She doesn't care how much of a twat he is, she wants to throw her arms around him and never let him go.
He turns slowly and even in such a dimly lit room, Sakura recognizes the dead look in his eyes.
Quickly, she ducks out of the beam of light and hides behind a flipped over table. Easing back in the darkest corner she puts a hand over her mouth to quiet the sound of her heavy breathing. It's then that she feels a warm wetness seep through the bottom on her jeans.
She feels around the floor and realizes that she had sat right in the middle of a pool of blood. Cautiously, she turns her head to see her best friend staring right at her.
Sakura can't hold in the scream that rips from her throat. Ino's blue eyes, dimmed and lifeless, are the only things on the girl's beautiful body not covered in blood.
At the sound of not-Sai creeping towards her, the terrified girl realizes her mistake. She scrambles to her feet and lets out another strangled cry when a door that she had yet to pass through flies open.
"Sasuke!" she cries out at the sight of his tousled, black spikes, and panicked dark eyes, eyes full of emotion and life.
Eagerly, she scrambles over the upturned table, but trips and hits her elbow on the tiled floor.
Thinking quickly, she grabs the flashlight from in front of her and sprints to where Sasuke is.
He gestures for her to enter the room before slamming the door shut and pulling a large table in front of it.
"Sasuke," she pants, "what the hell is happening?"
He turns on her, his onyx eyes burning with fury. "Why the fuck did you come in here?"
"I needed to make sure for myself... to see if Ino really... if she really," Sakura begins to yell back, but just ends up quietly choking on her own words.
"Why didn't you just stay outside?" he asks, his tone biting.
"You can't possibly expect me to wait around while my friends are in trouble."
Sasuke pinches the bridge of his nose as if trying to regain his composure. Exhaling dramatically, he turns to peer through the window on the door.
The adrenaline that Sakura had been running on leaves her system causing her knees to shake and give out. As she sinks to the ground, she covers her face with her hands, trying to hide the rapidly pouring down tears from Sasuke.
"We need to get out of here," he tells her as the sound of banging comes from the other side of the door.
"The front door's sealed shut," she informs him, eliciting a sling of curses.
After an angry punch to the wall, Sasuke comes to sit next to her on the ground.
"Once we went down the first set of stairs and saw Ino's blood," Sakura winces at the words, "Everything just went to shit."
They sit on the ground not speaking as the repetitive rumble of fists hitting the door continues. Their thoughts race through the possible explanations of what has occurred so far, none of the conclusions very pleasant or plausible for that matter.
Then suddenly, it's silent.
Both Sakura and Sasuke move towards the door to peer through the narrow window. Sakura shines the light through the opening and Sasuke has to wrap a hand around her mouth to prevent her from screaming.
Outside the door stands Sai, Kiba, and Naruto, their dead eyes peering through the thick glass, blood running down their faces.
Sasuke wraps his arms around Sakura more securely and pulls her over to a corner of the room. They ease slowly to the ground, Sakura's back pressed against his chest, her body resting between his long legs.
Looking around, Sakura finally sees the far wall of the room. Small, rectangular, metal doors cover it.
"Oh my god," she says under her breath. "Are we in the morgue?"
Sasuke doesn't reply, but spins her body so that she faces him. "Don't look," he tells her bringing a hand up to her face. "Just look in my eyes."
His face looks so intense. It is calm with conflicting stress showing in the set of his eyebrows. "We're going to die, aren't we?"
Then, in an act so gentle and so unlike Sasuke, he wipes away her tears with his thumb.
"You are not going to die," he tells her calmly, "not here."
"I guess now's a bad time," Sakura says with a humorless chuckle, "but I've had a crush on you since kindergarten."
Sasuke looks down at her, endless eyes wide with shock. "Then I guess it's a bad time for me to tell you that I've been in love with you since middle school."
"Wha-what?" she stutters out.
And there in the dank morgue of an abandoned hospital with their possessed friends trying to kill them, Sasuke Uchiha and Sakura Haruno shared their first kiss.
"We are going to get out of here," Sasuke says against her lips, "and I'm going to take you out on a proper date."
All she can do is look up at him with bewildered eyes as a loud crash resounds through the building.