Sakura in Paris 2
Part Fourteen: The Past Comes Alive

(Everyone but Max is still around the campfire, talking of ways to get through the fence.)
Raye: We could use Ameoba Boy's head as a battering ram.
Ameoba Boy: Hey!
(Everyone ignores him.)
Psycho: I don't think that'd work. We'd probably just succeed in bashing his head in.
Raye: All the more reason to do it.
(Everyong gives her The Look. She sighs.)
Raye: We could tie springs to Ameoba Boy's feet and bounce him over the fence. He could take a rope with him so we could get over. Or we could . . .
Li and Chistopher: Is it another plan involving Ameoba Boy putting himself as risk?
Raye (irrately): Those are the best ones!
(A sudden scream of panic and fear cut through the silence. Max comes into the clearing, hopping in her sleeping bag, toothpicks sticking in her hair.)
Max: THOSE HORRID MONSTERS NEARLY POKED MY EYES OUT!!!
(She collapses before the fire.)
Raye: What in the hell?
Max: THE BEANIE BABIES!!! THEY'RE AFTER ME!!! THEY ATTACKED ME WITH TOOTHPICKS!!
Ms. Sinic: You've been drinking the ditchwater again, haven't you?


{Disclaimer}
Dear Reader,
As your beloved author of SIP 2, I'd like to inform you, my beloved fans, that I don't own Cardcaptors. Heck, I own practically nothing. Sure, I own Sakura's extended french family, the shadow, and even sweet and shy Shawn, but I don't own anyone else. So don't sue me. I don't even have that much money.
Raye Firearrows


"Wood Card! Release and Dispell!"
Madison and Shawn were thrown back, landing in a sprawled clump atop of each other, as branches of wood split through the ground, encircling the now screeching shadow in a cage of living wood.
Shawn sat up, pulling a shivering Madison closer and trying to ignore the high-pitched screams coming from the shadow.
Sakura rushed up to the two, worry clear on her face. "Are you both okay?"
"Sakura! I'm so glad you came!" Madison cried, hugging Sakura tightly. "That thing-"
Sakura nodded. "I knew something with evil intentions was close by. Thank God I found you two in time."
The shadow suddenly stopped its hideous squealing, snapping the three teenagers' attention back to it.
"You may have found Kanthel, Nicolus! But you'll never be together!" the shadow hissed, narrowing its eyes.
"You shouldn't be making threats right now, shadow!" Shawn retorted angrily. "You're the one stuck in that cage!"
The shadow laughed in a squealing way, long black teeth glistening in the moonlight. "You think you've got me trapped, Nicolus?!? Far from it!! I am as free as the wind, no matter what you do or think!!"
With a whistling cry, the shadow raised its crooked arms to the sky, melting into a black ribbon of darkness. With a screech, the shadow was gone, leaving the Wood cage completely empty.

"What in the hell is going on?" Li asked later that night. It was nearly one in the morning, and he, Sakura, Shawn, and Madison were all sitting in Sakura and Madison's room, discussing the disturbing reality of the evil shadow. "What is this thing?"
Shawn shook his head in despair. "I don't know! It's been following me my entire life."
"Tonight it called you Nicolus, Shawn." Sakura pointed out as Kero floated over to her, deep asleep. This night certainly was one for discoveries; Shawn had finally found out everything about Sakura, Li, and even Kero. And the shadow's arrival was starting to worry them.
"I don't know why! I've always been called Shawn." Shawn said hopelessly.
"And it keeps calling me Kanthel." Madison mused. "I want to know what this is all about."
"Shawn, didn't you say it seems to be interested with you giving Kanthel "the locket"?" Li asked.
Shawn nodded.
"Do you know what this locket might be?"
Shawn sat for a moment, lost in thought. After a few minutes, he looked up. "Well, the only locket I can think of is the gold one I've always had."
The others leaned closer eagerly. "A gold locket? Could we see it?"
"It's in my room. I can go get it."
"I'm coming with you." Li said, standing as Shawn did. "That shadow might still be lurking around."
The two left, leaving the girls to wait and worry until they returned five minutes later with the locket.
Shawn handed the golden necklace to Sakura for a close inspection.
"When did you get this?"
"I've always had it. It must have been in my family for years."
Sakura looked to Shawn for permission, then opened the emerald and ruby adorned heart locket. She gasped, dropping the necklace and edging away from it in shock.
"What is it, Sakura?" Madison and Shawn chorused in panic at the look on Sakura's face.
"The couple in the picture! They look just like the both of you!" Sakura gasped out. "And when I opened the locket, I felt something powerful coming from it!"
"Something powerful?" Li asked as he sat beside Sakura and took one of her hands in his.
"Very powerful. And strange."
"Evil?"
"No, not at all. But . . . Very powerful." Sakura was at a loss for words. She turned to Shawn. "Who is the couple in the picture?"
Shawn shrugged. "I've no idea."
Sakura hesitantly picked up the locket again. "Can I look at this closer?"
"Sure."
Sakura managed to slip a fingernail under the picture and carefully pulled it free from the locket. Taking a deep breath, she turned the black and white photo over.
Written on the back, in faint, spidery writing, were the names Nicolus Otion and Kanthel Otion, Married 1873.
The others gasped as Sakura read the names aloud. "Kanthel and Nicolus! Do you think that that shadow thing has me and Shawn mistaken for them?"
Sakura shook her head. "I don't think so, Madison. Something strange is going on here, something that started over a hundred years ago."
"So what are you suggesting? That Madison and I are somehow connected to those two? How can you be so sure?"
"I'm not. Not really. But I know a way I can find out the truth." Sakura pulled out a Card.
"What Card is that?" Shawn asked eagerly, curious to find out more about the mystical Clow Cards.
"The Return Card. It'll let me see a glimpse into the past concerning this picture." Sakura took a deep breath. "With everyone's permission, I'm going to try to let the Card's magic include all of us. This way, I won't have to explain everything I see."
"Are you sure you want to do that, Sakura? That might drain your energy too much." Li asked, concern clouding his amber eyes.
Sakura smiled reassuringly. "Don't worry, Li. I'll be fine. Is it a go?"
Madison and Shawn nodded resolutely, Sakura took a deep breath, and the Card began to glow as she called out, "Return Card! Show us the past surrounding this picture!"
The room around the four melted into blackness before being replaced with a cloudy picture wavering in the darkness. The image showed the couple from the picture, Kanthel and Nicolus, laughing beneath a cherry tree. With a flash, the memory of her dream came to Madison. Sakura gasped as she remembered her own dream.
The couple seemed to be speaking, but none of the onlookers could hear what they were saying. Suddenly, a storm descended upon the two, overcasting the sky and raining sheets of water down on the two. Kanthel cried out, clutching Nicolus's arms as something separated from the storm.
A large black shadow, already familiar with three of the four silent watchers, advanced on the two, soul-less red eyes glaring happily upon their terror-stricken faces.
"You've found your soulmate, have you, Nicolus? How happy for you."
"Garlin! What are you doing here?"
"I'm here to be with you again, Nicolus. You found me so many years ago; you can't just throw me aside and expect me to sit back and happily watch you go on with your life. You found me to be your friend, Nicolus, but when you got others you just forgot about me! You forgot about me!" the shadow screamed, tears in its fearsome eyes.
Nicolus shook his head resolutely. "I didn't forget you, Garlin! I tried to send you back to the Otherworld, to Frainria, but you refused. I tried to help you, to send you back home, but you refused! You aren't the same anymore. You were always so nice, but now you scare people and hurt others. I had to get away from you, Garlin. You were getting too dangerous to be friends with!"
The shadow screamed in pain, anger, and sorrow. "You were my friend! My one true friend! And you turned your back on me! For your other friends, for her!" The shadow pointed a trembling, accusing claw at Kanthel, who sat beside Nicolus, frozen in shock and fear.
"I had to!"
"You didn't! You chose to! You chose to leave me alone! You chose to turn your back on me!" the shadow screamed. With a loud roar of thunder echoing in the air, the shadow, Garlin, raised its clawed hands towards the sky.
"I curse you, Nicolus! Now and forever! No matter what you look like, or how you act, I curse you! For this lifetime and any other! You shall be doomed to be lonely, friendless and forgotten, as I am!"
Kanthel screamed as the ground began to shake wildly, cracks appearing everywhere with each new shake.
"I will return to Frainria for now! But I shall return! And when I do, you'll rue the day you ever left me!"
With a sudden clap of thunder, Sakura and the others were back in their own time, the Return Card lying on the bedspread.


I know that that part was longer than most, but I think it was worth it. Hopefully. Is anyone interested on what in the heck's going on with Shawn and everything? Hopefully.
Max: I'm telling you the truth! I woke up and Raye's beanie babies attacked me with toothpicks!
Ms. Sinic: You're sure that you haven't been drinking ditchwater?
Max: YES!!!
(Psycho suddenly begins screaming from her own shack.)
Christopher: What now?
Psycho: The cactuces are coming!! The cactuces are coming!! They're coming!!