AN: You'll be happy to know that I'll continue this regardless of reviews,
because I've really gotten into writing this. A little background that
might be helpful, take what you want from it:
Just before the start of WWII Japan was looking for a way to expand their empire and decided China was their best bet. The Japanese army invaded China, taking over with so much brutality that some historians know it as the second holocaust with hundreds of thousands, possibly millions of civilian deaths that were absolutely horrifying. To this day, nothing has been done to patch up this incident and the two countries are still on dangerous terms with each other.
Thanks to…
*-*:hopefully this will help with your question.
Confused_Magenta: and you thought the last one was sad…
Philomea: Here's the next chpt!
Twos: Thanks, here's the next one!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
They say that what you mock, will surely overtake you.
And you become a monster, so the monster will not break you.
Skys Fall Down
By: Trulie Hope
1
2 Chapter Two
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Last chapter….
Seconds later they were both born upwards into the murky sky. Away from the destruction and death, to a place where they could take refuge and hopefully figure out what was happening.
***Now****
Syaoran's hope was dashed as the card holding them up took a violent dip then stooped into a very steep dive, heading for the blur of trees below them that was the park. Glancing up, he noticed the spirit's image began to flicker violently. It couldn't sustain it's self without Sakura's help…
Ten feet from the ground, the spirit had no choice but to release the two card captors and return to it's card form. He felt the pull of gravity and readied himself for impact, clutching Sakura protectively to his chest. With a thump and moan he hit the ground and tumbled to reduce the impact.
He rolled, carefully controlling his motions so he would squish the girl he still held. Then a large concrete something stopped him completely and he gently laid Sakura down before getting to his feet.
Every muscle in him ached from the fall, but nothing seemed to be broken. He looked to his companion next. She was still unconscious, but seemed to be stirring a little from the pain of her injuries. Sakura needed medical attention, but that was impossible. Shells still exploded overhead and the faint screams could still be heard. Where they safe here? He would have to trust fate in this matter, for now.
They had landed in a tree dense area in the middle of the park, so dense in fact that nothing could be seen around them but trees. That was a good thing, if they couldn't see out chances were people couldn't see in.
His attention was pulled back to the debilitated figure when she let out a small moan. Something would have to be done about her burns and those horrible looking gashes. If only…
Glancing around the clearing, he almost laughed at his stupidity. The thing that his stopped his rolling had been a drinking fountain. Sighing, he ripped off a piece of shirt and dunked it in the cold stream of water that emerged from the fountain, sat next to her, and moved her head carefully onto his lap. Then he dabbed the wet cloth gently around her face, removing the caked on dirt and blood.
Sakura suddenly yelped in pain and her green eyes shot open, meeting with Syaoran's brown. She blinked, her eyes curiously as she examined her surroundings and a hand instinctively went to her face. At the exact moment her hand came in contact with her raw, burnt face a huge explosion was heard overhead and her face contorted with pain and grief.
A small cry escaped her throat and she lurched to her feet, eyes darting every which way. Without a word or even a glance at Syaoran, she ran off somewhere into the trees.
She ran for a few more feet, then collapsed beside a large evergreen. She felt numb inside; that was the only way to describe the way she was feeling now. Everything was ice.
No, Touya wasn't dead, her house wasn't a hole in the ground, her face wasn't covered with painful burns. The distant screaming that drifted in on the breeze? Not real. The explosions of light and sounds were just imaginary. This was all just a bad dream. Any second now she would wake- up in tears to find her brother beside her bed calling her a monster. Any second…
But that second lasted a lifetime.
Sakura starred into the trees in front of her, willing it all away, willing herself into unfeeling bliss. She heard hesitant steps behind her, but that didn't pull her from her reserve. Maybe it was a solider who would shoot and kill her, then she could wake-up…
"Kin… Sakura?" Syaoran's voice wondered quietly, but even that failed to catch her attention.
His steps were coming closer and he knelt down in front of her, looking straight into her eyes with genuine concern. "Sakura, are… you alright?"
His face, it was covered in bruises and gashes and dirt and blood. Tattered clothes, dirty everywhere, everything about him was proof that this wasn't a dream and it was real. But that wasn't right.
"No!" Her reply was so sudden, so forceful that it made him jump back in surprise. Sakura kept looking at him, waiting for the image to waver into something normal, anything but this. When it didn't happen, she shook her head violently to aid the process. "It's just a dream, just a dream." Over and over she repeated that line to herself, trying with all her might to make it true. "Just a dream… just a dream…"
There were arms around her suddenly, something she hadn't expected, and she was being rocked gently back and forth. The feeling was so foreign that she pushed back, only to look up into Syaoran's eyes.
"Li-kun, tell me." She begged, noting distantly that his hands were still on her shoulders. "Please, tell me, this isn't real… everything's going to be alright… please."
His eyes held an emotion she'd never seen before. And it was one she couldn't place, somewhere between pity and guilt, a very strange combination- especially for him.
Syaoran licked his lips and said slowly, "I'm sorry Sakura, it is real."
That wasn't what she had wanted to hear. Her hands flew to her ears as she subconsciously tried to block out that sentence. "No. No, no, no, no, no…"
"Sakura, listen." His hold on her shoulders tightened.
"Touya?"
"Is dead."
She shook her head again, trying to pull away from him. "No, he's not."
"Yes. Your brother is dead."
"No, it can't be…"
His brows narrowed, anger and frustration starting to seep into his expression. "Yes. Your house was bombed. You saw it. He is dead. Touya is dead, Sakura. Accept the fact and get on with things!!!"
She blinked. Once, twice, then tears started to gather in her eyes. "I don't believe you." She whispered, glaring at him then raising her voice to repeat the sentence. "I don't…!"
Syaoran clamped his hand over her mouth and listened carefully. Footsteps, many footsteps, were coming towards them and there was a dry scraping as if something was being drug along. It could be more survivors, or it could be soldiers. One thing was for sure, he wasn't going to be here when they arrived.
He got up and pulled Sakura to her feet, his hand still clamped over her mouth. "People are coming this way." He whispered, "We need to hide." There really was no where to hide- the trees were tall but evenly spaced and if they ran those people would ultimately catch up with them. It looked as though the only way to go was up.
With much difficulty, the two Card Captors managed to scramble onto a high tree branch where they would not be seen. They sat side by side, Syaoran at the base of the branch and Sakura a little farther out on the limb, listened cautiously to the approaching footsteps. Voices soon joined the steps, haughty male voices speaking in… Chinese?
Syaoran noticed his native language and blinked. What was going on?
The men entered the area below the tree. It was group of around ten and they were all dressed in military attire, carrying large guns at their side.
"All's clear." Announced the man at the front, "Bring them through."
Them?
Two of the men retreated back into the forest, returning only seconds later pulling something heavy behind them. Syaoran saw the men first, then the edges of the tarp they were pulling, then…
A sick feeling rose in his stomach and he swallowed the bile that was climbing up his throat. The tarp was burdened down with at least twenty badly mangled bodies, all lying on top of one and other.
His gaze immediately flew to Sakura. She looked sick, her face contorted with horror. Her eyes were still fixed on the tarp below, she couldn't look away,
Syaoran grabbed her around the waist and pulled her to him in one quick motion, hoping the men below wouldn't notice. She buried her head in his chest, grabbing fist-fulls of fabric. With one hand around her back and the other resting on her head, he watched the scene below with growing appallment.
"Why did you stop? These were supposed to go in the lake." One of the men towards the front of the group called.
The one pulling the tarp shrugged, "I don't see a lake, do you? This is a lot more work than needs to be done. We'll just leave them here, no one will know or care for that matter."
The others agreed and the burden was dropped. They were about to head back the way they came when a call of, "Well what do we have here?" was heard.
One of the men, who appeared to be the leader of the group, had bent to pick something up from the ground and straightened, holding something pinks from it's straps.
Sakura's backpack!!
"I wonder where this came from?" The man wondered, opening it up and going through it. He found nothing of much interest, except for a stack of strange looking papers…
Syaoran all but swore when he realized what they were. The man had found the Cards!
"What are these? Interesting, might be worth some money." He pocketed them and tossed the backpack onto the pile of bodies. "Let's be going." Just as quickly as they came, the men left.
For minutes after their footsteps had disappeared, Syaoran listen carefully for any sign that they might be coming back. He heard none an proceed to shake Sakura, who was still frozen in the same position.
"Sakura?"
She looked up, still holding onto the front of his shirt, "Li-kun, the bodies…" Her voice was shaking and her eyes filled with fear.
"I know, we need to get away from here." He told her gently, helping her drop from the tree and following shortly after.
"Li-kun…" Sakura's voice wavered dangerously as she pointed a shaking finger at the pile. "L…look…"
"What?" The last thing he wanted to do was look at the heap of badly mutilated bodies, but as he forced his eyes in the direction, he saw her point. To his horror, a face became familiar to him, than another, than another. At least seven people he had known from school were now lying dead in this pile.
Sakura sobbed and knelt beside the pile, her gaze fixed on a certain corpse. "Rika-chan…" Then she looked to another and started to cry harder, naming the friends. Suddenly, she lurched to her feet and stumbled a few steps, her hands covering her mouth, before falling to her knees and vomiting.
Syaoran followed and hesitantly put a hand on her shoulder. She was now engulfed in tears, her body shaking from her sobs. He pulled her to her feet and let her cry into his shoulder until she was able to control herself a bit.
"Come on, let's go."
She nodded before glancing back again at the pile and then following him off into the trees.
It was getting dark out, and not just because of the obscured sky. Night was coming and the fatigue of the day was beginning to wear down on them. Syaoran didn't feel comfortable on the ground, in plain sight, so he suggested they climb into a tree where it would be harder to spot them. Sakura nodded, although she could have cared less. Her eyes were red from crying and her voice cracked, all she wanted was to go to sleep and, with any luck, never wake up again.
They climbed up to a safe height and Sakura was asleep within minutes. She unconsciously leaned back onto Syaoran's chest in sleep and soon shifted her weight so she was resting directly on him.
The Chinese boy didn't sleep that night. Thoughts of the horrors of that day filled his head and wouldn't leave him at peace, so he turned his attention to the girl sleeping onto of him. Sighing, he brushed a strand of dirty hair from her face and wrapped his arms around her so she would fall off the branch she was barley perched on. It wasn't fair, what did she do to deserve this? Everything she knew was dead or destroyed, what was left? Well, one thing was for sure. Syaoran wouldn't be letting anyone hurt her, not now, not ever.
-TBC-
pikogio@yahoo.com
Just before the start of WWII Japan was looking for a way to expand their empire and decided China was their best bet. The Japanese army invaded China, taking over with so much brutality that some historians know it as the second holocaust with hundreds of thousands, possibly millions of civilian deaths that were absolutely horrifying. To this day, nothing has been done to patch up this incident and the two countries are still on dangerous terms with each other.
Thanks to…
*-*:hopefully this will help with your question.
Confused_Magenta: and you thought the last one was sad…
Philomea: Here's the next chpt!
Twos: Thanks, here's the next one!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
They say that what you mock, will surely overtake you.
And you become a monster, so the monster will not break you.
Skys Fall Down
By: Trulie Hope
1
2 Chapter Two
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Last chapter….
Seconds later they were both born upwards into the murky sky. Away from the destruction and death, to a place where they could take refuge and hopefully figure out what was happening.
***Now****
Syaoran's hope was dashed as the card holding them up took a violent dip then stooped into a very steep dive, heading for the blur of trees below them that was the park. Glancing up, he noticed the spirit's image began to flicker violently. It couldn't sustain it's self without Sakura's help…
Ten feet from the ground, the spirit had no choice but to release the two card captors and return to it's card form. He felt the pull of gravity and readied himself for impact, clutching Sakura protectively to his chest. With a thump and moan he hit the ground and tumbled to reduce the impact.
He rolled, carefully controlling his motions so he would squish the girl he still held. Then a large concrete something stopped him completely and he gently laid Sakura down before getting to his feet.
Every muscle in him ached from the fall, but nothing seemed to be broken. He looked to his companion next. She was still unconscious, but seemed to be stirring a little from the pain of her injuries. Sakura needed medical attention, but that was impossible. Shells still exploded overhead and the faint screams could still be heard. Where they safe here? He would have to trust fate in this matter, for now.
They had landed in a tree dense area in the middle of the park, so dense in fact that nothing could be seen around them but trees. That was a good thing, if they couldn't see out chances were people couldn't see in.
His attention was pulled back to the debilitated figure when she let out a small moan. Something would have to be done about her burns and those horrible looking gashes. If only…
Glancing around the clearing, he almost laughed at his stupidity. The thing that his stopped his rolling had been a drinking fountain. Sighing, he ripped off a piece of shirt and dunked it in the cold stream of water that emerged from the fountain, sat next to her, and moved her head carefully onto his lap. Then he dabbed the wet cloth gently around her face, removing the caked on dirt and blood.
Sakura suddenly yelped in pain and her green eyes shot open, meeting with Syaoran's brown. She blinked, her eyes curiously as she examined her surroundings and a hand instinctively went to her face. At the exact moment her hand came in contact with her raw, burnt face a huge explosion was heard overhead and her face contorted with pain and grief.
A small cry escaped her throat and she lurched to her feet, eyes darting every which way. Without a word or even a glance at Syaoran, she ran off somewhere into the trees.
She ran for a few more feet, then collapsed beside a large evergreen. She felt numb inside; that was the only way to describe the way she was feeling now. Everything was ice.
No, Touya wasn't dead, her house wasn't a hole in the ground, her face wasn't covered with painful burns. The distant screaming that drifted in on the breeze? Not real. The explosions of light and sounds were just imaginary. This was all just a bad dream. Any second now she would wake- up in tears to find her brother beside her bed calling her a monster. Any second…
But that second lasted a lifetime.
Sakura starred into the trees in front of her, willing it all away, willing herself into unfeeling bliss. She heard hesitant steps behind her, but that didn't pull her from her reserve. Maybe it was a solider who would shoot and kill her, then she could wake-up…
"Kin… Sakura?" Syaoran's voice wondered quietly, but even that failed to catch her attention.
His steps were coming closer and he knelt down in front of her, looking straight into her eyes with genuine concern. "Sakura, are… you alright?"
His face, it was covered in bruises and gashes and dirt and blood. Tattered clothes, dirty everywhere, everything about him was proof that this wasn't a dream and it was real. But that wasn't right.
"No!" Her reply was so sudden, so forceful that it made him jump back in surprise. Sakura kept looking at him, waiting for the image to waver into something normal, anything but this. When it didn't happen, she shook her head violently to aid the process. "It's just a dream, just a dream." Over and over she repeated that line to herself, trying with all her might to make it true. "Just a dream… just a dream…"
There were arms around her suddenly, something she hadn't expected, and she was being rocked gently back and forth. The feeling was so foreign that she pushed back, only to look up into Syaoran's eyes.
"Li-kun, tell me." She begged, noting distantly that his hands were still on her shoulders. "Please, tell me, this isn't real… everything's going to be alright… please."
His eyes held an emotion she'd never seen before. And it was one she couldn't place, somewhere between pity and guilt, a very strange combination- especially for him.
Syaoran licked his lips and said slowly, "I'm sorry Sakura, it is real."
That wasn't what she had wanted to hear. Her hands flew to her ears as she subconsciously tried to block out that sentence. "No. No, no, no, no, no…"
"Sakura, listen." His hold on her shoulders tightened.
"Touya?"
"Is dead."
She shook her head again, trying to pull away from him. "No, he's not."
"Yes. Your brother is dead."
"No, it can't be…"
His brows narrowed, anger and frustration starting to seep into his expression. "Yes. Your house was bombed. You saw it. He is dead. Touya is dead, Sakura. Accept the fact and get on with things!!!"
She blinked. Once, twice, then tears started to gather in her eyes. "I don't believe you." She whispered, glaring at him then raising her voice to repeat the sentence. "I don't…!"
Syaoran clamped his hand over her mouth and listened carefully. Footsteps, many footsteps, were coming towards them and there was a dry scraping as if something was being drug along. It could be more survivors, or it could be soldiers. One thing was for sure, he wasn't going to be here when they arrived.
He got up and pulled Sakura to her feet, his hand still clamped over her mouth. "People are coming this way." He whispered, "We need to hide." There really was no where to hide- the trees were tall but evenly spaced and if they ran those people would ultimately catch up with them. It looked as though the only way to go was up.
With much difficulty, the two Card Captors managed to scramble onto a high tree branch where they would not be seen. They sat side by side, Syaoran at the base of the branch and Sakura a little farther out on the limb, listened cautiously to the approaching footsteps. Voices soon joined the steps, haughty male voices speaking in… Chinese?
Syaoran noticed his native language and blinked. What was going on?
The men entered the area below the tree. It was group of around ten and they were all dressed in military attire, carrying large guns at their side.
"All's clear." Announced the man at the front, "Bring them through."
Them?
Two of the men retreated back into the forest, returning only seconds later pulling something heavy behind them. Syaoran saw the men first, then the edges of the tarp they were pulling, then…
A sick feeling rose in his stomach and he swallowed the bile that was climbing up his throat. The tarp was burdened down with at least twenty badly mangled bodies, all lying on top of one and other.
His gaze immediately flew to Sakura. She looked sick, her face contorted with horror. Her eyes were still fixed on the tarp below, she couldn't look away,
Syaoran grabbed her around the waist and pulled her to him in one quick motion, hoping the men below wouldn't notice. She buried her head in his chest, grabbing fist-fulls of fabric. With one hand around her back and the other resting on her head, he watched the scene below with growing appallment.
"Why did you stop? These were supposed to go in the lake." One of the men towards the front of the group called.
The one pulling the tarp shrugged, "I don't see a lake, do you? This is a lot more work than needs to be done. We'll just leave them here, no one will know or care for that matter."
The others agreed and the burden was dropped. They were about to head back the way they came when a call of, "Well what do we have here?" was heard.
One of the men, who appeared to be the leader of the group, had bent to pick something up from the ground and straightened, holding something pinks from it's straps.
Sakura's backpack!!
"I wonder where this came from?" The man wondered, opening it up and going through it. He found nothing of much interest, except for a stack of strange looking papers…
Syaoran all but swore when he realized what they were. The man had found the Cards!
"What are these? Interesting, might be worth some money." He pocketed them and tossed the backpack onto the pile of bodies. "Let's be going." Just as quickly as they came, the men left.
For minutes after their footsteps had disappeared, Syaoran listen carefully for any sign that they might be coming back. He heard none an proceed to shake Sakura, who was still frozen in the same position.
"Sakura?"
She looked up, still holding onto the front of his shirt, "Li-kun, the bodies…" Her voice was shaking and her eyes filled with fear.
"I know, we need to get away from here." He told her gently, helping her drop from the tree and following shortly after.
"Li-kun…" Sakura's voice wavered dangerously as she pointed a shaking finger at the pile. "L…look…"
"What?" The last thing he wanted to do was look at the heap of badly mutilated bodies, but as he forced his eyes in the direction, he saw her point. To his horror, a face became familiar to him, than another, than another. At least seven people he had known from school were now lying dead in this pile.
Sakura sobbed and knelt beside the pile, her gaze fixed on a certain corpse. "Rika-chan…" Then she looked to another and started to cry harder, naming the friends. Suddenly, she lurched to her feet and stumbled a few steps, her hands covering her mouth, before falling to her knees and vomiting.
Syaoran followed and hesitantly put a hand on her shoulder. She was now engulfed in tears, her body shaking from her sobs. He pulled her to her feet and let her cry into his shoulder until she was able to control herself a bit.
"Come on, let's go."
She nodded before glancing back again at the pile and then following him off into the trees.
It was getting dark out, and not just because of the obscured sky. Night was coming and the fatigue of the day was beginning to wear down on them. Syaoran didn't feel comfortable on the ground, in plain sight, so he suggested they climb into a tree where it would be harder to spot them. Sakura nodded, although she could have cared less. Her eyes were red from crying and her voice cracked, all she wanted was to go to sleep and, with any luck, never wake up again.
They climbed up to a safe height and Sakura was asleep within minutes. She unconsciously leaned back onto Syaoran's chest in sleep and soon shifted her weight so she was resting directly on him.
The Chinese boy didn't sleep that night. Thoughts of the horrors of that day filled his head and wouldn't leave him at peace, so he turned his attention to the girl sleeping onto of him. Sighing, he brushed a strand of dirty hair from her face and wrapped his arms around her so she would fall off the branch she was barley perched on. It wasn't fair, what did she do to deserve this? Everything she knew was dead or destroyed, what was left? Well, one thing was for sure. Syaoran wouldn't be letting anyone hurt her, not now, not ever.
-TBC-
pikogio@yahoo.com
