Disclaimer: Don't own CCS.

I know it's a very very short chapter, but I'm writing with writer's block here, very much a big lack of inspiration. Some of this was written earlier, and it's pretty obvious to tell those parts, but some of it was just written, and I'm low on inspiration and ideas people. Gomen nasai. Rakiura, I have the ideas, but not the words to put on paper, or in this case, computer... the future's not looking so great writing wise. This is not going to be a good year... at least one of them is finished and I still have another *thinks* four stories to finish, and most of them are just beginning... I think I'll reserve the Run, Suppi, Run! one for when I have writer's block, like this time...

On with the fic!

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~Running From More Than Fate ~ Chapter One~

~~Dream Sequence~~

Small sounds of rushing water alerted the girl to new awarenesses. "What...?" she trailed off as she tossed the covers off her bed and jumped off it. She ran downstairs to see her mother and father sitting at the table. They smiled at her.

"Hello, Sakura," they greeted her.

"Morning," she said back, looking at them quizzically. What was going on?

"What's with the look?" Nadeshiko asked.

Sakura shook her head. No, she wasn't seeing things. She sat down at the table, staring at the breakfast that was on it.

"Mama? Papa?" she started. "What...?" but she didn't say anything more after that. When she looked up, they were gone. "Mama? Papa? Where are you...?" she called. She stood up abruptly and ran through the house, but they weren't there. In their place were faces that she remembered from when she was very young. She didn't know who they were though. Sakura thought hard. Who were these strange people?

And then realisation hit home. They were the people that were hunting her family. The ones that had forced them to make so many moves. The ones that had hunted them down everywhere that they had gone, even as they tried to make their family safe. She would curse the day when they would rush in and kill off her family. She would make them pay. Oh yes she would.

She the flashed to another place. As Sakura looked around, she recognised the room. It was her room, her room in this house.

Then one face arose and she saw who it was. Arinori Hiraki. The head. He had a dagger in his hand and he was standing over her bed, over her sleeping form. Sakura yelled at her sleeping self to wake up, but it was useless. She wouldn't. Her sleeping self couldn't hear her.

And it was then that the dagger swung towards Sakura's sleeping form...

~~End of Dream Sequence~~

She woke up, confused. In the morning, there were usually sounds of water rushing as her mother used the shower. Or sounds of her father cooking breakfast, or her brother listening to the radio. But this time, she couldn't hear anything. There was deathly silence all throughout the house and it freaked her somewhat.

Something was definitely wrong. She tossed the covers that lay over her aside and jumped out of bed. She stopped by the mirror for a second to see if anything had changed. No, she still looked the same. Shortish auburn hair, green eyes. No changes there. Then what was it? She frowned slightly as she walked through the house to the kitchen. There, where she had expected to see her father and mother, there was someone else. Someone familiar, but someone who she had not seen in a very long time.

"Granny, where's Mum and Dad?" she asked warily.

The old woman just looked at her sadly. "I'm afraid that they're gone, Sakura, they left."

Sakura's eyes widened in surprise and then tears welled up. "What?" she said, barely audibly. "They're gone?" and she looked at her brother who was standing near.

He just nodded.

"No..." Sakura whispered, looking from her granny to Touya and back again. "They just can't be." And it was then that Sakura remembered the dream that she had been having, the endless feeling of helplessness, loss and longing. The one that had been confusing her for weeks on end. "It can't be!" she yelled and ran back up to her room. She slammed the door shut behind her and threw herself down on the bed. "Why did you leave?!" she yelled. "Why!?"

She buried her face in her pillow, huge wracking sobs shivering her small body as she wept. "Mum... Dad... why did you leave...?"

She cried time and time again, until there were no more tears left to shed.

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

Fujitaka looked at his wife. "Are you sure we did the right thing?" he asked her for the tenth time.

"Yes, I'm sure we did. If we had stayed, they would have got them. You know we were only protecting them. This is the only way."

"I know, I know. I just wish that there was some other way..."

"We all do, Fujitaka, we all do," Nadeshiko said lowly to her husband as Tadashi drove them further and further away from Tomoeda. "Okaa-san should be there by now," Nadeshiko checked her watch, "and Sakura would just be waking up."

"I hope our leave hasn't affected her too much."

"As do I, Fujitaka. As do I."

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

Mama... Papa... Sakura thought. Where are you now?

A knock at the door sounded softly. "It's ok, Sakura... they'll be back."

"How can you be sure?"

"I just know," and then Granny got up and left the room.

It was then that Sakura was rocked with another vision.

TO BE CONTINUED...

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One word. Short. This was definitely short and I'm very sorry about that. Gomen. I blame writer's block. That's all. I won't keep you any longer.

Hikari Kamiya