Part One: The Past
"Innocence is the best form of ignorance."
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"We did it!"
Kinomoto Sakura screamed in joy as she performed a little leap into the air, golden-brownish hair rippling like disturbed water. "Graduated!"
Daidouji Tomoyo gazed at her, feeling inexplicable happiness grow in her heart. Perhaps it was just the fact that Sakura - such an innocent soul - had finally gotten what she wanted after so many nights of slogging, so many years of hard work to her Master's Degree. Tomoyo smacked her lightly on the arm as they continued to saunter around the mall.
"Sakura, we graduated yesterday." Tomoyo emphasized, ducking strange looks from shoppers at the mall.
The young woman turned and grabbed Tomoyo's hands. "I know. I still can't believe it! Me! An adult! Free to do what I want!"
A child, trapped in an adult's body. Tomoyo laughed and shook her head ruefully, feeling her cloud of black hair settle upon her shoulders gracefully. Maybe she'll never grow up.
"But that's her charm," Li Syaoran said softly to her, reading her thoughts as if she had written it down in black ink on crisp white paper. Tomoyo turned to face him, lilac eyes serious. "Then I hope she doesn't lose it," Tomoyo replied, watching Sakura reach down to pet an ink-black little puppy.
"These memories are playing like a film without sound."
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Syaoran could still remember clearly how it had happened. Every moment, every second was neatly etched into his mind, an indelible mark.
The scream came first of all, a long, drawn-out wail, instantly gripping his heart. It came from the kitchen, and the terrible, haunting sound scratched upon the tiles of the kitchen, refusing to stop its incessant echo. The musical, harsh crash of glass made its impomptou entrance immediately after. Syaoran dropped the remote control, and it landed with an alarming thud on the carpeted floor. Syaoran couldn't care less as he dashed towards the kitchen, with only one thought on his mind: Sakura.
He was greeted with the sight of her limp body, slouched onto the floor, blood smeared over the corner of the polished wooden table and over the squeaky-clean floor-tiles. Her hair spilled across her face, masking the horrible cut that had formed. Her hair was stained such a crimson red that Syaoran was terrified to even touch her, as if she would break at the slightest feel of his fingers.
His eyes roved over her, and he felt suddenly calm, as if nothing had happened. The old, intense expression returned to his eyes, and he sat there for some time, as if thinking the best way to approach the situation. He even reached down and dabbed his fingers through the sticky, hot red blood. He examined her pale face, the large cut, the closed emerald eyes.
That was how Tomoyo found them.
"Hello? Anyone home?" she had called out at the door. Hearing no response, she'd barged in, and saw the remains of the broken remote control.
"Someone's been rough," she had muttered under her breath, making her way to the kitchen. There, she had reacted the same way Syaoran had at first - she dropped her bag onto the floor and stood as if rooted to the spot.
A gasp escaped her lips. Syaoran sat calmly next to Sakura, rocking back and forth gently and rhythmically, his fingers tainted with her blood. Tomoyo gripped onto the doorframe for support, as she flicked her eyes from Sakura to Syaoran then back to Sakura again.
Then in a flash, she dialled for an ambulance. A gap unmeasurable by time ensued as the ambulance made its way to the Kinomoto residence.
"Life has dealt me some bloody unlucky cards."
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"Doctor?"
The doctor looked down at the distraught young man and shook his head. Quietly, silently, he took off his frameless glasses and began to wipe them gently on his white lab coat. The doctor looked about fifty, and the gray hairs were beginning to tickle his temples. His brown eyes however still remained bright and alert behind those glasses. So young. He shouldn't know a loss, like this.
"Doctor?" he pressed on, looking frazzled and exhausted. His female companion, the petite girl with purple eyes, was sitting on one of the hard, nausteating pink plastic chairs, and her hair hung over her face like a curtain masking her feelings.
"Mr. ... " The doctor paused, then tried again. "Miss ... "
"I'm Li Syaoran," said the boy impatiently. "And she's Daidouji Tomoyo."
"Mr. Li, I'm afraid that I have some bad news for you."
"What?" his hands curled into knuckles.
"Please sit down. It is unfortunate for us to meet under such circumstances. I'm Dr. Veltor."
Syaoran sat down with a hard thump beside Tomoyo, never taking his eyes off the doctor. "Miss Daidouji," Dr. Veltor said patiently. "Please listen to me."
The girl looked up, her eyes puffy and red.
"Did you all just graduate?" the doctor was elusive. Dr. Veltor hadn't been in this line for twenty years for nothing - he knew how to break bad news gently.
"Yes, last week." Tomoyo looked up briefly at Dr. Veltor.
Syaoran rashly slammed his palm onto the plastic chair, inducing Dr. Veltor and Tomoyo to jump. "If she died, just tell us and don't ask stupid, pointless questions!"
Dr. Veltor blinked in surprise, then his brown eyes softened. Graduates. What a sad world this is. "Heavens, no, certainly not. She isn't that. But ... "
"But what, God damn it!"
"She has a concussion. She may not know her own self."
Sudden ending, sudden fic, sudden everything. _ I think I read too much of angsty stories, really. Couldn't resist this one when the idea popped into my head.
Don't worry. More soon. Chapters will be getting longer as well. ^-^ Ja!