Hiya! Alrighty, time to get this story crackin' so we can get to the good stuff! CardCaptor Sakura: The Movie came out this month! woo hoo! I'm gonna go buy it today! Yikes, I haven't written in a-while huh? But here it is, and I hope you enjoy it! ( I started this story, like, months ago, but I kept erasin' and re-writin' until I got fed up. Sorry to make all you nice people wait so long!)
Okay, just about everyone in this story belongs to CLAMP. And CLAMP can have the ones that aren't theirs cause most of them are jerks. Like Casaki and the evil bald guy and Mr. Shrin...
I've Found You
By: DreaDreamer
Chapter 7-The Past Revealed
Sakura watched as Kero lay with his head tucked under his tail as he lay asleep on her bed. He had come back to her room a few days after the imposter Kero, a few months ago. She didn't know where he had gone or why he had left for so long, and she didn't ask. She greeted him with her brightest smile because he had looked as tired and beaten as she had felt inside. And since he had come back, he had hardly left her except when she went to school or out to the store. She kissed him on the head and fell asleep with the full moon shining brightly across her and Kero, both dreaming sweetly.
(Useless paragraph, I know, but doesn't it make ya feel good?...)
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Sakura got up in the morning to see the sun shining through her window. They were nearing the end of spring and the beginning of what looked to be a beautiful summer. But everything was beautiful here. Syaoran popped up in her mind as he usually did and she smiled. Everything...
She swung her legs over the side of her bed and opened the window so Kero could fly out when
he woke up. The cool morning air washed over her and made her feel great. She felt so indescribably happy that she didn't want to do anything but just stare out the window. However, though Sakura was nearly bursting with happiness, she couldn't help but feel a tiny shadow at the edge of her mind. She heard something in the living room and she smiled, putting the shadow out of her mind.
After throwing on some jeans and a t-shirt, she bounded out of the room and walked into the living room. Only, when she looked around, she couldn't see anyone. A slight shiver ran up her back, and she took a step backward.
"Syaoran?", Sakura said with a slight tremble in her voice. "Syaoran, are you in here?" She took another step backward and felt something cold that made her arms rise with goosebumps. She spun around and felt a cold, sharp pain strike her across her face. Everything went blank around her for a few moments, and then she felt a jarring pain in her shoulder as she hit the floor and skidded across it only stopping when the couch stopped her with a hard thump.
Sakura felt disorientated for a few seconds when she became aware that her vision was blurry. Her eyes were tearing, but she didn't know why until she felt a cold/hot (oxymoron, but I suppose it'd be like a whole bunch of dry ice on yer face) pain race across her face making her curl her body into a ball and cry out. She heard someone laugh and the shadow that had now made it's way back into the front of her mind formed into a cruel, pale face with dim, watery eyes. She forced herself to open her eyes wider which sent even more painful spasms down the side of her already pain-filled cheek.
Sakura opened her eyes as wide as she could manage without getting nauseated with pain, and she looked away from the ugly man standing laughing at her near the hallway, emanating icy coldness. Her eyes darted around the room, looking for something, anything, that could help her. She looked back toward him, and he was now just chuckling softly and moving toward her. She backed up as far as she could, but the couch was right there, and she couldn't seem to make her legs work the way she wanted to.
He stopped in front of her, and stood looking down at her with a cruel smile fixed on his smug, evil face. Sakura stared up at him with wide, frightened eyes. She bit her lip to keep it from trembling.
"You're all alone and no one can help you", said the heartless, vicious creature in front of her. Then she felt a jolt of pain run through her body, and then she was in darkness...
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"Mmm...", I mumbled as I tried to open my eyes. My body ached as if I had fallen down several flights of stairs. Although I couldn't say what falling down flights of stairs would feel like, I imagined this is how it would be.
I sat up as best I could, not surprised to see I was in my hometown park, in my strange Tomoyo-made costume. I was in the same place I always found myself whenever I woke up in this strange--world? Dream? Whatever, all I know is that it's getting very annoying...I thought to myself as I shook with fear...
It was silent all around me and I didn't know what to do, as always. I looked everywhere around me and scanned the trees that seemed dark and dense across the street. The slide and play equipment that had been so homely and comfortable were now dark and ominous. My eyes caught sight of the lump that was a boy and an icy terror seemed to grab my heart...I had forgotten, or I mean I had pushed it out of my mind, what I had seen in my dreams those few months ago.
I crawled as fast as I could (my legs being useless), my fingers digging hard into the dirt, my young, untrained(D/N: Sakura's in a 5th graders body, remember? 'Course ya do...)muscles straining to pull myself as fast as I could...before that man came again and stopped me before I could help Syaoran. My legs ached and I bit my lip to keep from whimpering. I wanted to show as little weakness as I could to the evil man. I felt like I was racing him to Syaoran...and I _had_ to win this time.
I fell next to Syaoran's body, my arms shaky and exhausted, my breaths coming out in short gasps. But there was no time to rest, oh no, I had won the race but only because the man had let me and I did not dare forget this. I was on his terms now, in a world that may have looked familiar but was different and evil from anything I had ever known.
My hands were dirty and there was grime and grit under my fingernails as I shook Syaoran's body and tried to pull him over. I managed to and when I saw his pale face with blood leaking from the corner of his lip, I pulled back from him with a cry and a hand to my mouth. I don't know what I had been expecting to see, but I certainly wasn't ready for what I saw....something so real...
...and that's when he struck. While I was in my most vulnerable condition, he came upon me like a lion upon a fallen animal. I saw his shadow because the moon was bright in a ghostly, unreal way, and he sent me sailing through the air. I landed in a jumble after a few bounces. The pain seemed to be intensified here in his world, but it was partly numbed after the shock of seeing Syaoran...so powerless...so weak...
I looked up at the wicked man with my eyes tearing, more from seeing Syaoran than pain, and I noticed that he was disheveled and tousled. His little bit of greasy hair was in disarray on his forehead, and it almost made me laugh at how much it looked like a bad comb-over. His eyes were so wide that his yellow retina seemed like little dots in the middle of them.
His face was glistening from sweat and as he came toward me with a look of pure hatred, kicking Syaoran slightly in his unmoving legs which made me wince, I saw that he was so pale that his face seemed to be glowing...or maybe it was the moon...
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Syaoran got up in the morning to see the sun shining through his window. They were nearing the end of spring and the beginning of what looked to be a beautiful summer. But everything was beautiful here. Sakura popped up in his mind as she usually did and he smiled. Everything...
He swung his legs over the side of his bed and sat there thinking what he should make Sakura for breakfast once she woke up. The cool morning air that was invisibly circling his room,
washed over him and made him feel great. He felt so indescribably happy that he didn't want to do anything but just sit and revel in his happiness. He had moved away to experience the world and get away from his overbearing mother...and it turned out to be even better than he had expected. However, though Syaoran was nearly bursting with happiness, he couldn't help but feel a tiny shadow at the edge of his mind. He heard a noise come from Sakura's room and the thought was pushed out of his mind.
After throwing on some jeans and a shirt, he walked out of his room with a bounce in his step and knocked on Sakura's door. He didn't hear anything at first, and then he heard a slight, muffled sound that made Syaoran feel cold.
"Sakura?", asked Syaoran, slightly urgently. Now he heard absolutely nothing and he opened the door, hoping to see Sakura getting groggily out of bed with a smile on her face for him...
...but she was laying in her bed, her face ashy and a shiver ran through Syaoran's body as the dark shadow came back to the front of his mind.
He ran over to her shouting, "Sakura! Sakura!", but she did not stir even slightly. The little yellow stuffed animal that made him feel as though it were always staring at him, was laying against her arm, and when he went to move it, it's face looked slightly...worried... But Syaoran had no time to think about it and he moved it out of the way to a chair that had clothes sprawled upon it.
"Sakura!", shouted Syaoran again even though he expected nothing to change in her. He touched her face and it was so cold that Syaoran felt like he was touching ice. He couldn't visibly see her breathing, so he put his ear to her mouth, but he felt nothing. Grabbing for her wrist to take her pulse, Syaoran stared at Sakura's face...there was something odd, besides the fact that she wasn't moving, her face was pale, and...there was no pulse.
"Oh no, Sakura...you can't do this!", Syaoran cried out, putting his hands right-over-left over on her chest. He began to perform CPR on Sakura and between every rest, he gave her mouth-to-mouth(and I don't mean kissin'! eh heh heh...err...).
After a few times, Syaoran felt a slight vibration, and then an irregular rhythm, and then a steady, but weak, heartbeat. Syaoran collapsed on his knees next to Sakura's bed, giving a shaky laugh. He quickly recovered himself though, knowing that something was very wrong. Sakura was so vibrant, and healthy. Or at least that's how she had seemed these past few months. A memory of a list of pills on the refrigerator, Sakura's slightly crazed look that first night as she had searched through her bag until he had walked in...she hadn't found them, had she?
"Sakura, is that what you need? Pills? But how could you have gotten along all these months? You were fine yesterday...", and then the Syaoran felt that feeling again, as though the dark shadow across his mind had an ever darker, more evil lining in it. Syaoran tried to grasp it, but he couldn't. "Oh, Sakura...what should I do?" He put his head down, his hand holding her cold hand tightly, as if he could pass some of his warmth into her.
"Well...I might have an idea, er, I mean-"
Syaoran shot his head up so fast that his neck cracked(in a good way). His eyes darted madly around the room: at the door, the closet, the window-but there was nothing.
"Who's there? Come out, now!" Syaoran rose to his feet and pressed himself close to the bed as if to protect the precious contents it held.
"Um, I'm right here...right down here..." Syaoran looked down at the chair next to him and saw two black dot-eyes staring up at him from a yellow face. "Now, don't hurt me...I'm Sakura's friend! My names Kero, and I want to help her just as much as you do...sir."
Syaoran's face had gone through a sequence of different emotions: angry and protective to shocked and surprised to scared and bewildered(another good word) to angry and protective again. All while Kero gave his short introduction.
Syaoran picked Kero up with one hand around his neck. "Aaaahhh! Don't hurt me, don't hurt me!", shouted Kero, waving his arms and legs around wildly.
"What in the hell are you?! What are you doing in here? I _knew_ there was something weird about you! The way you flew around that first night, heh, old batteries my(Hey! There could be kids reading this! Watch your language! Syaoran: Shaddup! Hey! Don't speak to me that way! Why I oughta *&$%@!...oops...)"
"Aaahhh! Stop it stop it stop it! Okay, okay, ya see? You're right! I am weird, but now we gotta help Sakura, and afterwards you can hurt me all you want, 'kay?!"
Syaoran stared at Kero an arms length away, still struggling wildly. It was quite comical, and Syaoran felt inside that this creature could have done no harm to Sakura.
"Alright", said Syaoran slightly calmer, placing Kero back on the chair, "So explain."
And Kero did.
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Kero started from the part of Sakura's childhood when she had lost a dear friend in an accident that she had felt was her fault, and about her spiral downwards in the next eight years. He didn't say who this friend was, or how he had been killed, and thankfully Syaoran didn't ask. Kero explained about Sakura's deep depression, the nightmares that haunted her every time she slept, the many bottles of pills that seemed to take away from her special shine every day.
And then he spoke of her decision to move to Hong Kong for college, her family taking the pills out of her suit cases, and her climb up the ladder, finally, to recovery and a beginning to a new life. Kero had given Syaoran the condensed version of Sakura's past and had conveniently left out Syaoran as a part of it, and her role as a Cardcaptor.
After Kero had finished, they sat in silence for a few minutes. "Oh...", Syaoran finally managed to say. "Mm hmm...", Kero responded, nodding his head. A few more minutes of silence, and then Syaoran said, "Sakura's a Cardcaptor isn't she?"
Kero looked up at Syaoran surprised, thinking of a way to deny it, and then Syaoran began to speak again, seeming to read Kero's thoughts. "Don't try to act like she's not...I knew...I _think_ I knew from the beginning...somewhere deep in me, I knew. But I couldn't believe it, so I didn't try. But one night, we had dinner and I got burned, and she...I knew then, but I still pushed the thought away." Syaoran looked up at Kero's still surprised face and back at his hands that still held Sakura's. "Don't look so surprised. As a Creature of the Seal, you should know about the Li family. We're Clow Reeds descendants after all. Mother reminded me everyday...and of how I had failed." This last part was said with some bitterness Kero noted. Then Kero spoke up.
"Oh...you mean when you didn't get the clow cards, or when you, um...", Kero trailed off at the last part not wanting to say it.
Syaoran was quite confused now and said, "What? I never collected the clow cards. What are you talking about? The cards were in Japan with Sakura weren't they? I mean, she has them and they obviously listen to her. And you. Why would you be with her if she wasn't a Cardcaptor?"
Kero was shaking his head. "No, no, no, that's not what I'm saying at all. Of course Sakura's a Cardcaptor..." Syaoran was starting to get impatient now.
"Then what are you saying?"
"I'm saying, how could your mother be mad at you for failing when you're dead?!"
Syaoran was about to open his mouth to say something, but after hearing Kero's blurted outburst, his mouth just kind of hung open as the words he was going to say seemed to disappear. Kero looked slightly sorry to have said it, and his little paws covered his mouth. He looked over at Sakura and was almost glad she was unconscious because she would have killed him for saying such a thing.
Syaoran had closed his mouth and was just staring at an invisible spot on the wall. "What did you say?" Syaoran said this quietly, but there was so much hurt in it that for a moment Kero was too shocked to speak. Then he said somewhat squeakily, "I-I-I s-said..." But Kero didn't want to repeat it. So Syaoran said it for him.
"You said, I died. Why would you say that?"
So Kero explained again. This time, not leaving anything out.
"The lights had been flickering on and off all day. Sometimes just for a second so you wondered if it had really happened, and sometimes for as long as an hour. The power companies were going ballistic trying to figure out what had happened. I said it must've been a clow card, but Sakura shook her head and got this look in her eyes and she said: 'No, I don't think so...there's something not nice about this feeling.'" Kero smiled after saying this and Syaoran would've too but he had seemed to lost all feeling in his body except his hand which was still holding Sakura's. Kero went on. "And besides, we had all the clow cards, there was no way it could've been one. But if it wasn't a clow card, what could we do about it? So we just went along with the flow of our everyday, happy lives." Kero stopped seeming to think about this. After a few moments he continued again.
"That night the lights went out all over Tomeoda. Only Tomeoda, so it had to be a problem with the power companies, right?" Kero was no longer telling the story, but re-living it. He wasn't merely talking, he was making a window into the past. "Toya had Yuki over, but they went to see if they could find out what was happening from anyone outside. I knew Yue felt something too, the way it showed through Yuki. He was pale and his eyes were worried. Sakura's father was at the college helping his assistants to regain lost data on the computers. Tomoyo was over visiting and keeping Sakura company because she was terribly frightened." Kero was smiling again. "I told her I could protect her no sweat, but she said, 'Oh, but Kero your so tiny! A ghost could come in and just sit on you!'" Kero laughed at this and Syaoran couldn't help but see that the little guardians face looked faded and old for a few moments.
"Anyway, she called the brat-", Kero looked up at Syaoran, as if he just realized he was there, "you- because she said that even if you didn't show it, you must be scared to be all by yourself with the lights off." And now Syaoran smiled, getting caught up in Kero's picture perfect memory. "Instead you told her you were going to the park because this power outage wasn't normal and that your derivator(is this the right word? I hope soooo.....) was pointing straight towards King Penguin park. As soon as Sakura hung up with you, she said, 'We're going to King Penguin park.'" Syaoran had started feeling weird towards the first part of Kero's story, and as the story progressed he kept feeling as though his thoughts were being muffled by a blanket. Everything in the room except Kero's voice and Sakura's slightly warm hand, seemed fuzzy and unreal. Everything Kero said sounded vaguely familiar, like when you have a dream and feel as though you've had the same one before and can't quite remember if you did or didn't. Deja vu. Kero continued.
"Tomoyo treated it just like we were going to capture a card. She knew we didn't have time to go back home for a new costume (she still had tons of outfits just waiting for Sakura to try on), so she picked one from Sakura's closet that Sakura had kept. And there was a rip on one side of the dress, but it just blended in with all of the other ruffles on the dress. We split up with Tomoyo at the corner of the sidewalk and Sakura and I went to the park by ourselves. Now that Tomoyo was gone, Sakura's worry was on her face and I realized she had called you for more than just to give you company. Sakura always surprises me, she knew even before I did that the lights going out were more than coincidence. You arrived at the park right when we did, and you looked just as worried as Sakura." Kero took a pause and looked up at Syaoran to see if he was still paying attention. He was, of course. "The strange thing was, there was nothing there. I still felt the same I had as before-a slight feeling of some magical power-but you and Sakura looked like two puppies who had heard a dog whistle. Your eyes were narrowed(of course _yours_ were, but so were Sakura's), and they were darting all around everywhere. I didn't understand what was happening at all with you two so I asked what was wrong with you guys. You two just told me to be quiet, so I did. I was angry and mumbling to myself though, and the next thing I knew I was being pummeled into the trees, head first into a tree, and it went black. When I came around, there was police sirens everywhere and an ambulance, and Sakura was clinging to your body, her legs all scratched up and bleeding a lot, and some people were trying to pull her off. And the strange thing was, you weren't moving, you were just sort of...limp. They say you were dead even before they got you in the ambulance." Syaoran felt a shiver run up his back as Kero said this and looked up at him. "And that's all I know."
Syaoran just kept staring at Kero expecting more. "What? That's it? What happened out there?! What did Sakura say happened?"
Kero was shaking his head. "She never said anything about that night. Oh, believe me, her family tried. It came to a point where everyone was angry at everyone. Toya kept pushing her to tell, her father kept telling him not to, Sakura would just sit there watching them argue till she'd run up the stairs and watch from the top. Finally, Toya would leave slamming the door, but he'd always come back in a couple days. That's how it was for the five years I was there. Then even _I_ left, but not because I wanted to. Sakura told me it was because she didn't have the time to feed me or watch out for me anymore and that Tomoyo would be able to take better care of me." Kero looked very upset as he said, "But I knew it was because she couldn't bear to have a reminder of the clow cards around anymore. She had packed up all the cards and old costumes she'd had and put them in the back of the closet. Even her necklace was put at the very bottom of one of her drawers and she locked it in there and hid the key."
Syaoran was still in disbelief. He couldn't believe that no one knew what had happened. "What about that girl Tomoyo? Wasn't she supposed to meet you guys at the park? What did she say happened?"
"She said she got there and Sakura was just hanging onto you and sobbing and you weren't moving. She called the ambulance on her cell phone."
"What about the police? What did they say happened?"
"They just said that your body went through a terrible amount of trauma and stress, and the cuts that were on you were said to be unable to cause death. They said your body just kind of stopped working. There was some talk that maybe you and Sakura had been involved in some weird sort of cult(D/N: Yeah right! Their only in 5th grade!), being the way you were dressed and everything, and that maybe you had poisoned yourself, or Sakura had." Kero said this with a sort of edge, angry at the thought of Sakura being accused. "But the tests they did all came out clean. You were a kind of mystery. Everyone thought Sakura had done it, but there was no proof, so they left it unsolved. I think Tomoyo's mom had a part in making the police leave it alone."
Syaoran couldn't believe what he was hearing. He didn't like this story at all. That couldn't have been him! He had spent his whole life _training_ to go to Japan. But his cousin had gone instead because he, Syaoran, had failed. He hadn't been strong enough to go. That's what his mother had always told him. His thoughts froze for a moment and rewound back to the last one.
"That's what mother always told me...", Syaoran mumbled.
"What?" Kero was staring at Syaoran. He had just been sitting there staring down at the ground until his head flicked up and he started to mumble to himself. Kero thought that maybe all this news was too much for the poor kid.
"Hey, kid. Don't go nuts on me now, I need you to help me with Sakura. Remember?"
Syaoran had a slightly crazed look in his eye as he looked up at Kero. He looked like he was pulsing with anger, his eyes almost narrowed down to slits.
"I know someone who can help."
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Hey everybody! Well, now that this is out, see ya in a few months. Just kidding! Ha ha! I'm sorry this is kind of wordy, and the paragraphs kind of turned into double-double paragraphs. I've got the ball rolling so I don't think writing the rest will be so hard anymore. I can't thank you enough for having so much patience with me and my story! You're all very cool! I watched the Cardcaptor Sakura movie today! Oh man, it was pretty kewl yeah. I'm glad I finally know Li's moms name. Oh yeah, I got the Jimmy Eat World CD...it rocks! ah hahaha! go buy it! ahahaa! See you soon!(real soon I promise) okay bye bye!(I have to do a stupid Hobbit essay. blech! If only the words for that came as easy as this, huh? ) Love you lots!
*DreaDreamer
Okay, just about everyone in this story belongs to CLAMP. And CLAMP can have the ones that aren't theirs cause most of them are jerks. Like Casaki and the evil bald guy and Mr. Shrin...
I've Found You
By: DreaDreamer
Chapter 7-The Past Revealed
Sakura watched as Kero lay with his head tucked under his tail as he lay asleep on her bed. He had come back to her room a few days after the imposter Kero, a few months ago. She didn't know where he had gone or why he had left for so long, and she didn't ask. She greeted him with her brightest smile because he had looked as tired and beaten as she had felt inside. And since he had come back, he had hardly left her except when she went to school or out to the store. She kissed him on the head and fell asleep with the full moon shining brightly across her and Kero, both dreaming sweetly.
(Useless paragraph, I know, but doesn't it make ya feel good?...)
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Sakura got up in the morning to see the sun shining through her window. They were nearing the end of spring and the beginning of what looked to be a beautiful summer. But everything was beautiful here. Syaoran popped up in her mind as he usually did and she smiled. Everything...
She swung her legs over the side of her bed and opened the window so Kero could fly out when
he woke up. The cool morning air washed over her and made her feel great. She felt so indescribably happy that she didn't want to do anything but just stare out the window. However, though Sakura was nearly bursting with happiness, she couldn't help but feel a tiny shadow at the edge of her mind. She heard something in the living room and she smiled, putting the shadow out of her mind.
After throwing on some jeans and a t-shirt, she bounded out of the room and walked into the living room. Only, when she looked around, she couldn't see anyone. A slight shiver ran up her back, and she took a step backward.
"Syaoran?", Sakura said with a slight tremble in her voice. "Syaoran, are you in here?" She took another step backward and felt something cold that made her arms rise with goosebumps. She spun around and felt a cold, sharp pain strike her across her face. Everything went blank around her for a few moments, and then she felt a jarring pain in her shoulder as she hit the floor and skidded across it only stopping when the couch stopped her with a hard thump.
Sakura felt disorientated for a few seconds when she became aware that her vision was blurry. Her eyes were tearing, but she didn't know why until she felt a cold/hot (oxymoron, but I suppose it'd be like a whole bunch of dry ice on yer face) pain race across her face making her curl her body into a ball and cry out. She heard someone laugh and the shadow that had now made it's way back into the front of her mind formed into a cruel, pale face with dim, watery eyes. She forced herself to open her eyes wider which sent even more painful spasms down the side of her already pain-filled cheek.
Sakura opened her eyes as wide as she could manage without getting nauseated with pain, and she looked away from the ugly man standing laughing at her near the hallway, emanating icy coldness. Her eyes darted around the room, looking for something, anything, that could help her. She looked back toward him, and he was now just chuckling softly and moving toward her. She backed up as far as she could, but the couch was right there, and she couldn't seem to make her legs work the way she wanted to.
He stopped in front of her, and stood looking down at her with a cruel smile fixed on his smug, evil face. Sakura stared up at him with wide, frightened eyes. She bit her lip to keep it from trembling.
"You're all alone and no one can help you", said the heartless, vicious creature in front of her. Then she felt a jolt of pain run through her body, and then she was in darkness...
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"Mmm...", I mumbled as I tried to open my eyes. My body ached as if I had fallen down several flights of stairs. Although I couldn't say what falling down flights of stairs would feel like, I imagined this is how it would be.
I sat up as best I could, not surprised to see I was in my hometown park, in my strange Tomoyo-made costume. I was in the same place I always found myself whenever I woke up in this strange--world? Dream? Whatever, all I know is that it's getting very annoying...I thought to myself as I shook with fear...
It was silent all around me and I didn't know what to do, as always. I looked everywhere around me and scanned the trees that seemed dark and dense across the street. The slide and play equipment that had been so homely and comfortable were now dark and ominous. My eyes caught sight of the lump that was a boy and an icy terror seemed to grab my heart...I had forgotten, or I mean I had pushed it out of my mind, what I had seen in my dreams those few months ago.
I crawled as fast as I could (my legs being useless), my fingers digging hard into the dirt, my young, untrained(D/N: Sakura's in a 5th graders body, remember? 'Course ya do...)muscles straining to pull myself as fast as I could...before that man came again and stopped me before I could help Syaoran. My legs ached and I bit my lip to keep from whimpering. I wanted to show as little weakness as I could to the evil man. I felt like I was racing him to Syaoran...and I _had_ to win this time.
I fell next to Syaoran's body, my arms shaky and exhausted, my breaths coming out in short gasps. But there was no time to rest, oh no, I had won the race but only because the man had let me and I did not dare forget this. I was on his terms now, in a world that may have looked familiar but was different and evil from anything I had ever known.
My hands were dirty and there was grime and grit under my fingernails as I shook Syaoran's body and tried to pull him over. I managed to and when I saw his pale face with blood leaking from the corner of his lip, I pulled back from him with a cry and a hand to my mouth. I don't know what I had been expecting to see, but I certainly wasn't ready for what I saw....something so real...
...and that's when he struck. While I was in my most vulnerable condition, he came upon me like a lion upon a fallen animal. I saw his shadow because the moon was bright in a ghostly, unreal way, and he sent me sailing through the air. I landed in a jumble after a few bounces. The pain seemed to be intensified here in his world, but it was partly numbed after the shock of seeing Syaoran...so powerless...so weak...
I looked up at the wicked man with my eyes tearing, more from seeing Syaoran than pain, and I noticed that he was disheveled and tousled. His little bit of greasy hair was in disarray on his forehead, and it almost made me laugh at how much it looked like a bad comb-over. His eyes were so wide that his yellow retina seemed like little dots in the middle of them.
His face was glistening from sweat and as he came toward me with a look of pure hatred, kicking Syaoran slightly in his unmoving legs which made me wince, I saw that he was so pale that his face seemed to be glowing...or maybe it was the moon...
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Syaoran got up in the morning to see the sun shining through his window. They were nearing the end of spring and the beginning of what looked to be a beautiful summer. But everything was beautiful here. Sakura popped up in his mind as she usually did and he smiled. Everything...
He swung his legs over the side of his bed and sat there thinking what he should make Sakura for breakfast once she woke up. The cool morning air that was invisibly circling his room,
washed over him and made him feel great. He felt so indescribably happy that he didn't want to do anything but just sit and revel in his happiness. He had moved away to experience the world and get away from his overbearing mother...and it turned out to be even better than he had expected. However, though Syaoran was nearly bursting with happiness, he couldn't help but feel a tiny shadow at the edge of his mind. He heard a noise come from Sakura's room and the thought was pushed out of his mind.
After throwing on some jeans and a shirt, he walked out of his room with a bounce in his step and knocked on Sakura's door. He didn't hear anything at first, and then he heard a slight, muffled sound that made Syaoran feel cold.
"Sakura?", asked Syaoran, slightly urgently. Now he heard absolutely nothing and he opened the door, hoping to see Sakura getting groggily out of bed with a smile on her face for him...
...but she was laying in her bed, her face ashy and a shiver ran through Syaoran's body as the dark shadow came back to the front of his mind.
He ran over to her shouting, "Sakura! Sakura!", but she did not stir even slightly. The little yellow stuffed animal that made him feel as though it were always staring at him, was laying against her arm, and when he went to move it, it's face looked slightly...worried... But Syaoran had no time to think about it and he moved it out of the way to a chair that had clothes sprawled upon it.
"Sakura!", shouted Syaoran again even though he expected nothing to change in her. He touched her face and it was so cold that Syaoran felt like he was touching ice. He couldn't visibly see her breathing, so he put his ear to her mouth, but he felt nothing. Grabbing for her wrist to take her pulse, Syaoran stared at Sakura's face...there was something odd, besides the fact that she wasn't moving, her face was pale, and...there was no pulse.
"Oh no, Sakura...you can't do this!", Syaoran cried out, putting his hands right-over-left over on her chest. He began to perform CPR on Sakura and between every rest, he gave her mouth-to-mouth(and I don't mean kissin'! eh heh heh...err...).
After a few times, Syaoran felt a slight vibration, and then an irregular rhythm, and then a steady, but weak, heartbeat. Syaoran collapsed on his knees next to Sakura's bed, giving a shaky laugh. He quickly recovered himself though, knowing that something was very wrong. Sakura was so vibrant, and healthy. Or at least that's how she had seemed these past few months. A memory of a list of pills on the refrigerator, Sakura's slightly crazed look that first night as she had searched through her bag until he had walked in...she hadn't found them, had she?
"Sakura, is that what you need? Pills? But how could you have gotten along all these months? You were fine yesterday...", and then the Syaoran felt that feeling again, as though the dark shadow across his mind had an ever darker, more evil lining in it. Syaoran tried to grasp it, but he couldn't. "Oh, Sakura...what should I do?" He put his head down, his hand holding her cold hand tightly, as if he could pass some of his warmth into her.
"Well...I might have an idea, er, I mean-"
Syaoran shot his head up so fast that his neck cracked(in a good way). His eyes darted madly around the room: at the door, the closet, the window-but there was nothing.
"Who's there? Come out, now!" Syaoran rose to his feet and pressed himself close to the bed as if to protect the precious contents it held.
"Um, I'm right here...right down here..." Syaoran looked down at the chair next to him and saw two black dot-eyes staring up at him from a yellow face. "Now, don't hurt me...I'm Sakura's friend! My names Kero, and I want to help her just as much as you do...sir."
Syaoran's face had gone through a sequence of different emotions: angry and protective to shocked and surprised to scared and bewildered(another good word) to angry and protective again. All while Kero gave his short introduction.
Syaoran picked Kero up with one hand around his neck. "Aaaahhh! Don't hurt me, don't hurt me!", shouted Kero, waving his arms and legs around wildly.
"What in the hell are you?! What are you doing in here? I _knew_ there was something weird about you! The way you flew around that first night, heh, old batteries my(Hey! There could be kids reading this! Watch your language! Syaoran: Shaddup! Hey! Don't speak to me that way! Why I oughta *&$%@!...oops...)"
"Aaahhh! Stop it stop it stop it! Okay, okay, ya see? You're right! I am weird, but now we gotta help Sakura, and afterwards you can hurt me all you want, 'kay?!"
Syaoran stared at Kero an arms length away, still struggling wildly. It was quite comical, and Syaoran felt inside that this creature could have done no harm to Sakura.
"Alright", said Syaoran slightly calmer, placing Kero back on the chair, "So explain."
And Kero did.
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Kero started from the part of Sakura's childhood when she had lost a dear friend in an accident that she had felt was her fault, and about her spiral downwards in the next eight years. He didn't say who this friend was, or how he had been killed, and thankfully Syaoran didn't ask. Kero explained about Sakura's deep depression, the nightmares that haunted her every time she slept, the many bottles of pills that seemed to take away from her special shine every day.
And then he spoke of her decision to move to Hong Kong for college, her family taking the pills out of her suit cases, and her climb up the ladder, finally, to recovery and a beginning to a new life. Kero had given Syaoran the condensed version of Sakura's past and had conveniently left out Syaoran as a part of it, and her role as a Cardcaptor.
After Kero had finished, they sat in silence for a few minutes. "Oh...", Syaoran finally managed to say. "Mm hmm...", Kero responded, nodding his head. A few more minutes of silence, and then Syaoran said, "Sakura's a Cardcaptor isn't she?"
Kero looked up at Syaoran surprised, thinking of a way to deny it, and then Syaoran began to speak again, seeming to read Kero's thoughts. "Don't try to act like she's not...I knew...I _think_ I knew from the beginning...somewhere deep in me, I knew. But I couldn't believe it, so I didn't try. But one night, we had dinner and I got burned, and she...I knew then, but I still pushed the thought away." Syaoran looked up at Kero's still surprised face and back at his hands that still held Sakura's. "Don't look so surprised. As a Creature of the Seal, you should know about the Li family. We're Clow Reeds descendants after all. Mother reminded me everyday...and of how I had failed." This last part was said with some bitterness Kero noted. Then Kero spoke up.
"Oh...you mean when you didn't get the clow cards, or when you, um...", Kero trailed off at the last part not wanting to say it.
Syaoran was quite confused now and said, "What? I never collected the clow cards. What are you talking about? The cards were in Japan with Sakura weren't they? I mean, she has them and they obviously listen to her. And you. Why would you be with her if she wasn't a Cardcaptor?"
Kero was shaking his head. "No, no, no, that's not what I'm saying at all. Of course Sakura's a Cardcaptor..." Syaoran was starting to get impatient now.
"Then what are you saying?"
"I'm saying, how could your mother be mad at you for failing when you're dead?!"
Syaoran was about to open his mouth to say something, but after hearing Kero's blurted outburst, his mouth just kind of hung open as the words he was going to say seemed to disappear. Kero looked slightly sorry to have said it, and his little paws covered his mouth. He looked over at Sakura and was almost glad she was unconscious because she would have killed him for saying such a thing.
Syaoran had closed his mouth and was just staring at an invisible spot on the wall. "What did you say?" Syaoran said this quietly, but there was so much hurt in it that for a moment Kero was too shocked to speak. Then he said somewhat squeakily, "I-I-I s-said..." But Kero didn't want to repeat it. So Syaoran said it for him.
"You said, I died. Why would you say that?"
So Kero explained again. This time, not leaving anything out.
"The lights had been flickering on and off all day. Sometimes just for a second so you wondered if it had really happened, and sometimes for as long as an hour. The power companies were going ballistic trying to figure out what had happened. I said it must've been a clow card, but Sakura shook her head and got this look in her eyes and she said: 'No, I don't think so...there's something not nice about this feeling.'" Kero smiled after saying this and Syaoran would've too but he had seemed to lost all feeling in his body except his hand which was still holding Sakura's. Kero went on. "And besides, we had all the clow cards, there was no way it could've been one. But if it wasn't a clow card, what could we do about it? So we just went along with the flow of our everyday, happy lives." Kero stopped seeming to think about this. After a few moments he continued again.
"That night the lights went out all over Tomeoda. Only Tomeoda, so it had to be a problem with the power companies, right?" Kero was no longer telling the story, but re-living it. He wasn't merely talking, he was making a window into the past. "Toya had Yuki over, but they went to see if they could find out what was happening from anyone outside. I knew Yue felt something too, the way it showed through Yuki. He was pale and his eyes were worried. Sakura's father was at the college helping his assistants to regain lost data on the computers. Tomoyo was over visiting and keeping Sakura company because she was terribly frightened." Kero was smiling again. "I told her I could protect her no sweat, but she said, 'Oh, but Kero your so tiny! A ghost could come in and just sit on you!'" Kero laughed at this and Syaoran couldn't help but see that the little guardians face looked faded and old for a few moments.
"Anyway, she called the brat-", Kero looked up at Syaoran, as if he just realized he was there, "you- because she said that even if you didn't show it, you must be scared to be all by yourself with the lights off." And now Syaoran smiled, getting caught up in Kero's picture perfect memory. "Instead you told her you were going to the park because this power outage wasn't normal and that your derivator(is this the right word? I hope soooo.....) was pointing straight towards King Penguin park. As soon as Sakura hung up with you, she said, 'We're going to King Penguin park.'" Syaoran had started feeling weird towards the first part of Kero's story, and as the story progressed he kept feeling as though his thoughts were being muffled by a blanket. Everything in the room except Kero's voice and Sakura's slightly warm hand, seemed fuzzy and unreal. Everything Kero said sounded vaguely familiar, like when you have a dream and feel as though you've had the same one before and can't quite remember if you did or didn't. Deja vu. Kero continued.
"Tomoyo treated it just like we were going to capture a card. She knew we didn't have time to go back home for a new costume (she still had tons of outfits just waiting for Sakura to try on), so she picked one from Sakura's closet that Sakura had kept. And there was a rip on one side of the dress, but it just blended in with all of the other ruffles on the dress. We split up with Tomoyo at the corner of the sidewalk and Sakura and I went to the park by ourselves. Now that Tomoyo was gone, Sakura's worry was on her face and I realized she had called you for more than just to give you company. Sakura always surprises me, she knew even before I did that the lights going out were more than coincidence. You arrived at the park right when we did, and you looked just as worried as Sakura." Kero took a pause and looked up at Syaoran to see if he was still paying attention. He was, of course. "The strange thing was, there was nothing there. I still felt the same I had as before-a slight feeling of some magical power-but you and Sakura looked like two puppies who had heard a dog whistle. Your eyes were narrowed(of course _yours_ were, but so were Sakura's), and they were darting all around everywhere. I didn't understand what was happening at all with you two so I asked what was wrong with you guys. You two just told me to be quiet, so I did. I was angry and mumbling to myself though, and the next thing I knew I was being pummeled into the trees, head first into a tree, and it went black. When I came around, there was police sirens everywhere and an ambulance, and Sakura was clinging to your body, her legs all scratched up and bleeding a lot, and some people were trying to pull her off. And the strange thing was, you weren't moving, you were just sort of...limp. They say you were dead even before they got you in the ambulance." Syaoran felt a shiver run up his back as Kero said this and looked up at him. "And that's all I know."
Syaoran just kept staring at Kero expecting more. "What? That's it? What happened out there?! What did Sakura say happened?"
Kero was shaking his head. "She never said anything about that night. Oh, believe me, her family tried. It came to a point where everyone was angry at everyone. Toya kept pushing her to tell, her father kept telling him not to, Sakura would just sit there watching them argue till she'd run up the stairs and watch from the top. Finally, Toya would leave slamming the door, but he'd always come back in a couple days. That's how it was for the five years I was there. Then even _I_ left, but not because I wanted to. Sakura told me it was because she didn't have the time to feed me or watch out for me anymore and that Tomoyo would be able to take better care of me." Kero looked very upset as he said, "But I knew it was because she couldn't bear to have a reminder of the clow cards around anymore. She had packed up all the cards and old costumes she'd had and put them in the back of the closet. Even her necklace was put at the very bottom of one of her drawers and she locked it in there and hid the key."
Syaoran was still in disbelief. He couldn't believe that no one knew what had happened. "What about that girl Tomoyo? Wasn't she supposed to meet you guys at the park? What did she say happened?"
"She said she got there and Sakura was just hanging onto you and sobbing and you weren't moving. She called the ambulance on her cell phone."
"What about the police? What did they say happened?"
"They just said that your body went through a terrible amount of trauma and stress, and the cuts that were on you were said to be unable to cause death. They said your body just kind of stopped working. There was some talk that maybe you and Sakura had been involved in some weird sort of cult(D/N: Yeah right! Their only in 5th grade!), being the way you were dressed and everything, and that maybe you had poisoned yourself, or Sakura had." Kero said this with a sort of edge, angry at the thought of Sakura being accused. "But the tests they did all came out clean. You were a kind of mystery. Everyone thought Sakura had done it, but there was no proof, so they left it unsolved. I think Tomoyo's mom had a part in making the police leave it alone."
Syaoran couldn't believe what he was hearing. He didn't like this story at all. That couldn't have been him! He had spent his whole life _training_ to go to Japan. But his cousin had gone instead because he, Syaoran, had failed. He hadn't been strong enough to go. That's what his mother had always told him. His thoughts froze for a moment and rewound back to the last one.
"That's what mother always told me...", Syaoran mumbled.
"What?" Kero was staring at Syaoran. He had just been sitting there staring down at the ground until his head flicked up and he started to mumble to himself. Kero thought that maybe all this news was too much for the poor kid.
"Hey, kid. Don't go nuts on me now, I need you to help me with Sakura. Remember?"
Syaoran had a slightly crazed look in his eye as he looked up at Kero. He looked like he was pulsing with anger, his eyes almost narrowed down to slits.
"I know someone who can help."
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Hey everybody! Well, now that this is out, see ya in a few months. Just kidding! Ha ha! I'm sorry this is kind of wordy, and the paragraphs kind of turned into double-double paragraphs. I've got the ball rolling so I don't think writing the rest will be so hard anymore. I can't thank you enough for having so much patience with me and my story! You're all very cool! I watched the Cardcaptor Sakura movie today! Oh man, it was pretty kewl yeah. I'm glad I finally know Li's moms name. Oh yeah, I got the Jimmy Eat World CD...it rocks! ah hahaha! go buy it! ahahaa! See you soon!(real soon I promise) okay bye bye!(I have to do a stupid Hobbit essay. blech! If only the words for that came as easy as this, huh? ) Love you lots!
*DreaDreamer