Author's Note: This is another story I hope to complete soon. It was a short story to begin with so might as well end it…

Chapter Five: Nightmares

Li found his breath escape his lungs as he raced down the maze of houses. His lungs were beginning to burn from the lack of proper oxygen but he certainly couldn't stop. Stopping lead to definite death by his shadowed follower. His brain was only centered on one thought, one memory. It felt like such a long time since he had seen her. Would she care enough to take him in with all the weight of what he was about to hand her.'


Sakura squirmed lightly in her uneasy sleep. Something was thickening the air causing her mind to drift into wake, despite her efforts.

Squinting open her bright emerald eyes, she found herself facing the miniature form of Li who was peacefully sleeping on her bedside table where she had made a blanket with her father's old glasses' rag. Kero, not needing such comforts, had found a nice current above her to waft on till the morning sun woke him.

Sakura couldn't help but note the look of concern on Li's tiny face as he slept. A small smile slipped across her lips as she imagined what dreams he could be having. She hoped they were good ones but the look on his face proved this was not so.


He had to reach her but with his legs starting to swagger, Li resulted to focusing on prayer. He wished for a second chance to see the sweet girl's face that he had missed for so long. It was doubtful now, Li figured as his breath had become extremely labored, that he would be given the gift of her beautiful smile before he left this world.

Li skidded into a sharp turn as his boots kicked up the thick mud from the dirty alley. Stumbling over his own clumsy feet, Li tripped finding himself sharply onto his side as he slid against the hard pavement. His arm was badly banged up but he was sure he could still continue with only some scratches. Li pressed his palms against the hard pavement as the rain water slipped over his slightly bleeding fingers. A voice as delicate as the wilting rose tingled tauntingly with his ears hissing dark words of discouragement and death.

"So this is where it all ends? In the middle of a sleeping street with thousands of people to save you…"

The soft drawl would possibly be soothing to a naïve ear but Li was suddenly breathless and trembling like a frighten cub at that voice. He drew up his overcoat of silk pressed it close to his shivering body as the demon rose from the shadows of the ally way.

"HELP! PLEASE SOMEONE!" Li cried out finding his voice echoing through the emptiness of frozen time, "Someone… please."

Li drooped his head down to his knees as his bangs brushed the dark stone walk. Fear was something he was taught to deal with as a child but now he felt a mixture of fear and humility . Beaten so easy that no one would ever know what happened to him. And a frozen spear of reality had struck in the perfect part of his heart that signaled the thought of Sakura still waiting for the day he would return. A promise that he had made that fate filled day had now fallen into the gutters with the pouring tears from the sky. He would never be there if she needed him now. The only person left to trust him would feel alone and abandoned by him.

"Time card," The demon woman smirked as her regal wings of death flapped slightly while she talked. "I never realized the true splendor of complete silence, did you? Surely after first using the card you had to pause and admire the true perfection of frozen time."

"You're sick," Li hissed staring at the gorgeous woman in spite.

She wove her fingers through her damp abyss hair feeling their soft texture calmly. Her dark hair flowed down to her hips without any band or fastener to stop its wild ways. 'Snake', as she referred herself, had a slender yet seraph like body that was covered by a dark dress. It was woven neatly about her body with a cut that ducked down the center of her breast line to her belly button. Rubies were sunk into the chest of the woman just below her throat giving her a royal look. The sleeves had curved down her arms to end on the tops of her palms like many dresses of olden times did.

Although her attire and her wings made her appear like an angel on earth, Li knew this was far from fact. She had come to finish him, the keeper of the Clow Cards as she supposed.

Li attempted in vain to scramble to his feet but a flash of sparking light ignited from the staff the witch was carrying. The long staff sharpened to that of a jagged sword. She took one clean swipe at him that brought him back down to the ground. His knees collided with the surface followed by the rest of his body. Li slipped his knees out from underneath him so not to damage to wound that had been placed onto his chest. He cried out in immense pain as he flipped himself onto his side ripping his wound that was spilling with blood. He began to feel the memories of Sakura and all the adventures of the Clow Cards seep from his veins just as his own blood was. As the blood soaked the streets, Li found his vision darken with the stained pavement. It was deep, Li figured, and with such a pain burning through him at this moment, Li knew he could not go on. A sharp tap of a boot's toe sent him on his back. The boot applied pressure on his wound until Li was sure that there was a full body weight on his dying body. Li screamed out in agony as the tears of pain rolled down his blood soaked cheeks.

"Great. I'm getting wet," She hissed. "I hate to get wet."

Li stared up at her with his blank gaze of half consciousness and confusion. His dark brown eyes were glassed over with his coming death and the pounding rain drops on his weakened body.

"I'll just leave you here," She smiled lining her finger hard down his cheek.

She pressed so hard that her fingernails drew blood from his skin. She smiled and sucked on the tip of her finger with slight satisfaction.

"I'll be back in an hour… To burn you whether you are dead or alive."


Sakura shed her covers as a certain foreboding entered her mind. Snatching Kero out of the air, she quickly raced out of her bed room. Sakura practically leapt down the staircase as her staff enlarged into her waiting hands. Swinging the staff slightly she pulled out the time card and flung it before her. It spun in suspended motion as she struck it hard with the star tipped end of her pole. The whole room frosted over just before Kero's frantic yells about being woken at such a hour.

"I sense something, Kero," Sakura snapped darkly. "Something evil… but I can't quite place a finger on it."


Deep in the darkness of Sakura's time paused room, Li lay. There was a deep hiss as a dark smoke bellowed from the window taking a shape of a small wolf. It reared its head in the direction that which was Li and faded back into the flooding smoke encircling about the frozen child. Li was instantly brought into full wake of the time frost choking on the smoke that had ensnared his body. His coughing and struggling faded just as his eyes opened flashing a deep crimson of blood.

To Be Continued…
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Euuuu! Scary, huh?