The Ripple Affect

By: Xiao

` Wow. I haven't been writing a lot, huh? Sorry much. I'm still trying for a very angst climax to this story. Everyone ready? I was hoping I could make this serious, and maybe trigger something in everyone's minds or give them something that makes them get a different view on life. -Shrug.- I tried, but I'm not exactly sure if it worked. Heh. Oh well. Enjoy the rest of the chapter anyway, all right? `

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Chapter VIII

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She made her way up the stairs as Rae-Lynn came out of the bathroom, the already finished off for Tomoyo. She gave a slight smile to her, and went into the room before the girl could say anything. She then turned her lock and looked at the window, which had the fire exit near the edge of the bathtub. The window was smeared and the blinds always down. She walked over to it, avoiding the bathtub and all it's contents and opened the blinds and then the window. She then opened the fire exit ladder and stared at it, then out the window. She didn't want them to go outside and know she was gone, and so she just stepped out onto the roof of the house.

The wind was blowing heavily, the clouds a grayish color. As she made her way to the very edge she was contemplating how to get down with out letting anyone hear her, and then she noticed the vine rack against the wall. She smiled maniacally as she pulled the straps of her backup back to the top of her shoulders and then began to her climb down to the ground. After she was safely on the ground, she ran to the fence and climbed over. And ran, far and fast.

As she lost her breath she looked around, noticing to her surprise, it was where she ended up last time; the park with the slide where she hid last time. She hurried to it and crawled under, pulling her backpack out in front of her and rummaging through the contents for her pencil bag. As she rummaged, she came across her red sharpie and pulled it out. She then uncapped the top and changed her position to on her knees, while pressed the tip to the walls surface. She began to write in big letters.

'Death is the answer, Hiiragizawa.' She wrote first. Each letter seemed to be about the same size and in capital letters. 'Someone has to be with her.' Was the second thing that was written, still in big letters. 'That someone is me.' She then capped the marker again and put it back in her pencil bag.

She then pulled out her binder and unzipped it, revealing the contents inside. Everything was neatly organized, papers, folders, pencils, pens, an agenda, homework papers, protractor, calculator, a ruler, a pencil sharpener, and a pair of scissors. She pulled them out and then shoved the backpack and binder to the corner of her small space.

Tears were streaming heavily down her cheeks again as she used her right hand to pressed one of the ends to her wrist, slashing deeply and repeating at least three times, each as deep and long as the other.

Shaking violently as she watched the crimson spill over, she pressed her finger into it and began to write on the wall again. Her hand writing sloppy from her hand shaking, but it was still legible. It took a short time for her to write her name in her own blood and then she stood, swaying lightly as she got out of the place.

Then she ran, gasping from the previous run and stopped as her head began to spin after only a few seconds. She was shaking heavily before as she began to get dizzy. She kept gulping as if trying to contain herself and with one long stream marquee of red letters that engulfed her mind, the last thing she could do was read it over and over, "So, this is what death is like." Tomoyo then collapsed.

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He stopped, placing his hands on her knees as he gasped for breath. He had lost her and had been searching and still hadn't found her. The only place that he knew of was her house, but he knew she wasn't going to be there. Why would she want to be near her family during this?

Though he didn't really understand why she didn't like her family. Hers must be heaven compared to his, so how could she hate being there so much? Yet, he knew that she hated it anyway. Tomoyo had made that pretty obvious to him so many times. But it still made him wonder.

He shook his head, remembering the situation at hand and looked around at his surroundings, which sent a spark to his remembrance. He stood where he found her in the last situation, where she was crying because of the people at school. He shook his head once again, trying to think of a reason why she would be in the same place as before. He figured that she didn't want him to find her, so why would she be in such an obvious spot? Yet, he couldn't help but want to check anyway. Maybe he had it backwards; maybe she wanted him to find her.

And with that he took in one more deep breath and walked over to that little hiding place of hers, kneeling and poking his head inside, instantly finding the writing and backpack against the wall. He wanted to scream until his lungs gave way and exploded at the sight, yet his lungs and throat would not allow it. No sound could emerge.

Was she dead?

His head began to pound, and he couldn't help but picture her lying dead somewhere, and then the story being posted in newspapers world wide, next to a column about Sakura Kinomoto. The next thing that flashed in his mind was her grave sitting at the top of a hill, the suns gleam blacked out with the rain falling forever from a blackened death cloud. Around the tombstone, no one stood except for a small bouquet of black roses lying on the mound of dirt over her body.

He couldn't help but began to shake with anger for himself, as he placed his palms on the ground and his face staring down at the ground, as if looking into the depths of hell. He had let her die, hadn't he? If he had enough sense to watch what he was saying in her time of need, then maybe she wouldn't of killed her self. And maybe if he had searched faster, she would have still been here writing her message. It was his entire fault, and because of his mistakes, she was lying dead somewhere. He was so sure of it. And because of this, he began to let tears stream, causing his glasses to slowly fall from his face and then smack against the ground.

"Tomoyo," he whispered. He had killed her. He shook his head as he crawled out of the place after getting his glasses and stood, placing them back on. The worst part was he had actually loved her, and now he wouldn't be able to tell her ever. Now, he even had to deliver the message to her family. He looked around, wondering which way it was to her house and then began to walk, staring down at the ground. Every once and awhile he would glance up and look around as if expecting her to come running up to him with a smile on her face and then embrace him.

It was then when he saw her body on the ground only so far ahead of him. He ran as fast as he could, so fast that he tripped and tore his jeans only a few feet away from her. Ignoring the blood from his now skinned knee, he crawled over to her, tears still stinging his eyes.

He breathed in her name as he kneeled over her and looked at her before picking up her hand that held her damaged wrist, which had some dried blood and then some still slowly flowing. Everything was so deep; he knew that she was aiming for her death. Eriol then set that hand down and picked up the other, her fingers red with dried blood. He pressed his index finger and middle finger against the inside of her arm, where her artery was and felt around looking for that familiar pulse. He felt it, but faintly and breathed in a sigh of relief for only a second.

She was lacking of blood.

He paused, looking around desperately for something that would stop the bleeding and found nothing. The only resource he had was his shirt, and with that he tore off a long piece from the bottom and began to wrap it around her left wrist, so it was soaking up the blood. He then tied it and put his hands under her as he pulled her up and held her.

He then began to run to where his house was, since it was the closest. It was also a relief that his brother was out with another girl that night and his dad was staying late at work to get some extra things done, so he could get inside and help her out without being hassled about the bleeding girl.

Though, maybe if he was thinking for a second, he could of realized Tomoyo had a cell phone in her backpack and he could call 911, but his brain wasn't exactly functioning correctly at the time after all the events.

As he ran, Tomoyo, still slightly dazed could feel the rhythm of his running, and his heart beating heavily through his chest. She didn't know who was holding her, or where she was because of the lack of blood and her dazed state of mind. The only thing she could she could manage to come up with in her mind was she was going heaven now, and an angel was carrying her there. It took only another moment for that overwhelming feeling to take over her body and she was out of it once again.

No one was outside at the moment as he made his way through the streets. If they were, they probably would of blamed him for the accident, as if he was the one who caused her pulse to drop so low. For that, he was grateful because that was the last thing he needed at the moment.

As he came to the front door, he opened the door after a long struggle of keeping Tomoyo in his arms, and entered, where the lights were off and no one was alive in the house. He then set her down on the couch and ran down to the hallway, where he grabbed a blanket and came back to her, setting it over her and tucking her in to warm her up slightly and maybe to get her pulse rate up. He then took her wrist and felt for the pulse, feeling it again, still alive.

For the next hour or so he devoted his time to making sure he could do whatever he could, still in his state of panic for her life (and that was the reason he never got the idea of calling 911 for help), constantly checking her pulse and replacing her bandage around her wrist, cleaning it every so open to keep from infection. Eventually the bleeding had slowed and he was completely exhausted from running around. It was then when he had fallen asleep, sitting up, next to her, his head on her shoulder.

An hour later, Tomoyo was conscious again, yet still dazed. She blinked, trying to get the headache to leave her, and looked around the place. It was so unfamiliar yet she knew it was somewhere in the back of her memory.

"Oh God." She whispered as her head began to pound. She looked around, her eyes straining for something familiar when she realized the weight on her shoulder.