A Dark Theatre
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KanbiAme: Wow. This is probably the saddest chapter I've ever written. I don't have much to say. I'm too sad from writing this. Quick update ne? lol. That's what you get when I'm house bound from my asthma. Well..Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own CCS. Nor do I own the song at the end of this chapter.
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-From the last chapter-
From the door, a silent silhouette watched as the girl before him was lost in thought. One hand to her lips. This was his opportunity. He pushed open the door and walked into the room.
"Reese...
-
"Reese. What are you doing here?" Brooke asked as she got up from the kitchen table.
"I was just wondering what you were up to." he replied, and then sat down at the kitchen table.
Brooke sat down again. "Oh." she laughed, "I'm not up to anything. Just thinking."
"About what?"
She looked up at him across the table, and smiled. "Nothing."
"Are you sure it's nothing? Cuz you were awfully deep in thought there for a few minutes."
She sighed. "I'm just kinda worried about the play. There have been these really creepy guys hanging around at rehearsals lately. I used to know one of them."
"Used to know?"
"Yeah. I nearly dated him for a while. But he proved to be..well..not the greatest type."
"Really?"
"Yeah, he like, joined this gang. And for some reason they came back here after being away for a while. Anyway, this guy showed up here two nights ago, and said he wanted to kiss me goodbye. But I've seen him everyday since then. I just don't get it. No matter how much I think about it. I see no logical reason to any of it."
Reese kept looking straight into Brooke's ice blue eyes. He suddenly leaned across the table, and gently kissed her on her lips. He took her hand as he stood up from the table, and led her down the hall, and out onto the front porch. A light snow continued to fall from earlier. He turned back to her, and kissed her again, this time, with more passion.
-
Syaoran wandered around the house. he thought. He walked out into the living room only to finally find someone. Sakura was sitting on the couch watching TV. He walked into the room, and plopped down onto the couch next to Sakura.
"Hey Syaoran." she greeted somewhat nervously.
"Hey Sakura." he replied in the same manner. "Whatcha watching?"
"No idea."
"Typical. Never know what's on TV these days."
Sakura giggled, as Brooke and Reese came into the room. "Hey guys. It's time to head down to the theatre." Reese said, as Brooke tried to hide an obvious blush.
"Ok. Lets go Syaoran."
-Elsewhere-
"Chiharu! What's wrong chick?" Tomoyo called to her friend.
"Something just doesn't feel right." Chiharu replied, as they reached the bottom of the hill, and waited for the guys.
"What doesn't feel right?"
"I just get the feeling that something's going to happen to someone."
"But we're all good skiers, as we've all proved over the past 6 hours. No one's gonna crash."
"Yeah, but what about the others?"
They both looked down the hill to where the house that belonged to Chiharu's family looked like an ant's house. They watched as the red SUV pulled out of the garage, and began down the road towards the town.
"What was that?" Tomoyo suddenly asked, pointing towards a line of trees, where there was a snow-dust cloud left from a snowmobile. "Are they being followed?"
"But by who?"
"I hope they are ok." Chiharu nodded to her friend in response.
-Later-
"Lets run through that scene once again." the director motioned to his cast. Reese, Sakura and Syaoran watched from the middle of the empty audience as Brooke ran through her scenes. "Brooke, work on your emotions. Your secret lover has just died in your place. You feel pride, yet guilt. The only person you could ever connect with died for you. Give us some tears girl! I know you have it in you. You're just like your cousin Chiharu!" he paused looking around for another person, "Yes! And Adam! You are the man who used to love her, you're angry. I know you can send that blood to your face, you need to be really angry. Make-up will help you look sweaty on the night of the performance. But for now you just gotta get it out of you. Start from the top!"
The director sat back down in his seat in the front row, the lights went back down as Brooke and Adam ran their scene another time.
-
Another silhouette watched from the balcony. He sadly looked at the blue haired girl who he would cry for in private that night. He turned to his left, and nodded to the other man in the balcony with him, who quickly whipped out his cell phone.
-
Sakura watched intently as Brooke played her part with all the emotion she could muster. A soft humming noise caught her attention, but she ignored it, believing it to be Syaoran's cell phone. Suddenly there were 4 gunshots. The three spot lights that were on Brooke and Adam suddenly were blown out, and the one light from the cat-walk. Sakura felt a rush of air to her right as Reese stood up, and quickly left her side as Syaoran grabbed her by the shoulders and pushed her down between the seats, so she was underneath him. They crouched quietly until there was another round of 3 shots mere seconds later. This time, nothing blew out, but the sound of something hard hitting the stage was heard. Then the rustling of feet, and the slamming of the doors.
Everything happened so fast, yet it seemed like an eternity until the house lights came back up. The director came up from the floor, as did several techies from behind the curtain, and from up in the light booth. Sakura and Syaoran were next. The scene on the stage though, was too realistic to have been in any play.
Brooke stood there, her white turtleneck sweater dotted with red blood. Her eyes directed to the heap right in front of her feet. Laying there motionless, was Reese. Blood slowly seeping out from under where he lay. His orange eyes losing some of their luminosity as they looked up at Brooke. She quickly dropped to her knees, her eyes spilling over with tears.
The director quickly jumped onto the stage. "Quickly!" he screamed at everyone who was watching. "Call an ambulance!"
Syaoran was the quickest in reaction, his cell was out and dialed before the director could even finish what he was saying. Sakura screamed as she ran forward to her friends.
-
Everything passed in a blink of the eye. Every person's movements blended together in the blinking red and blue lights of the police, the firemen, and the ambulance outside the theatre. Chiharu wouldn't let go of Brooke for the life of her. And Brooke wouldn't let go of Reese for anything either. Sakura sat with Tomoyo and watched in tears as the ambulance pulled out with Reese, Chiharu, and a hysterical Brooke. The police were talking to Syaoran, Eriol was in search of 5 strong cups of coffee, and Takashi was calling every number he could to find Reese's parents.
In a whirlwind of events, they some how ended up at the hospital within an hour or two of the shooting. They all waited in silence, nothing had been said since their arrival, and no one had seen hair nor hide of Chiharu or Brooke.
-
A little while later, Chiharu came out from the Trauma area. Everyone looked up at her, waiting for her to say something. Anything. She simply looked out the clear sliding doors, to the falling snow. She then took a seat next to Tomoyo, and promptly fell fast asleep from exhaustion. Sakura and Tomoyo falling close in suit not too long after.
-Syaoran-
Someone shook me awake sometime after I had fallen asleep. Funny though. I don't remember falling asleep. I opened my eyes to see Reese. I closed my eyes again tightly. It was a nightmare. I opened them again to see Eriol. A sad smile on his normal Cheshire Cat face.
-Normal POV-
Syaoran was the last to be woken up, and taken into a private room with all his friends. Brooke sat in a chair in the corner. Her body shaken in sobs.
"Lemme guess. It's not good news." Syaoran said, looking around at his friends.
The doctor nodded 'no' then motioned for them all to sit down. "This case wouldn't have been so tedious, if had been any normal GSW. But the bullets pulled out of your friend belonged to alleged gang member, Jonathon Roberto." Everyone in the room looked clueless except Sakura and Brooke. "He's a known associate to Green. Yet, I don't understand why they would kill this young man. There were no ties to him. They usually only target women who turned them down."
"It was me." Brooke said softly. "Jonathon was an acquaintance of mine years ago. He wanted me to be his lover, but I was still too young for that kind of relationship. If Reese hadn't have been running to save me, well....I'd be dead right now, not him."
Silence hung in the room as all their worst fears were confirmed, one of their best friends, would not be returning to school with them.
Brooke just sat there. She had been with Reese at that moment.
-Flashback-Brooke's POV-
I sat quietly. Tears streaming down my face as I looked to the man before me. The bandages around his torso slowly turning red as he bled out. The doctor had been in mere moments ago to prepare me for the worst.
His family would be arriving any minute. I must have been sitting here for hours. His family lived in California, and they were already almost here.
The beeping of machines had been my only comfort since Chiharu had left to be with everyone else. My eyes were trained to the slow rise and fall of his chest.
The only moment I looked away from him, to look down at my blurry watch, he began to stir in his bed with a groan. I was instantaneously at his side. His hand in mine.
With a hoarse voice, he greeted me, "Hey Brooke."
"Reese." I said quietly, as I reached up to push some of his red hair out of his orange eyes, that were slowly losing their luminosity.
"Things aren't looking too good, are they?"
I smiled sadly at him. "No Reese, you're gonna be fine."
"Liar." he whispered. I expected him to be angry, and yet, he smiled at me. "I love you Brooke. Even if our time was short."
I was taken back a bit by his words. A warm tear found it's way out of my eye. "I love you too Reese." We sat in silence for a moment. "Why did you do that?"
"I would rather neither of us gotten hurt. But it's better this way. You deserve more time. I was destined to die for you." He smiled at me again. "Look Brooke, don't stop living because of me. Move on. Just please, don't forget me."
"How could I Reese?"
He coughed then, blood slowly coming from the corner of his lips. I started to cry again as he reached up and brushed the tears from my eyes. He slowly began to sing in his low, hoarse, pain-filled voice.
'There's another world inside of me that you may never see.
There's secrets in this life that I can't hide.
Somewhere in this darkness there's a life that I can't find.
Maybe it's too far away or maybe I'm just blind, maybe I'm just blind.
So hold me when I'm here, right me when I'm wrong.
Hold me when I'm scared, and love me when I'm gone.
Everything I am and everything in me
Wants to be the one you wanted me to be.
I'll never let you down even if I could.
I'd give up everything if only for your good. So hold me when I'm here right me when I'm wrong. You can hold me when I'm scared but you won't always be there,
So love me when I'm gone, love me when I'm gone'
He'd barely finished with the first chorus when his words slowed down, along with the beeping of the machines. He closed his eyes. A slow tear leaking down from his left lid.
"I'm sorry I cant be the one to love you Brooke. I'll be watching over you. So please, love me when I'm gone?" he whispered so softly that I could barely hear him, as the machine began to flat line.
Suddenly the room was filled with doctors. One took me by my shoulders and lead me out of the room. There in the hall, I stood with four other people. I didn't know any of them from what I could make of the phantoms through my tears.
I turned back towards the door to the room as they covered Reese in a white sheet. "I will." I whispered.
-End Flashback-
Now here they all were. The girls wiping the tears from their cheeks, as Chiharu headed over to sit by her cousin, and began rubbing her back comfortingly.
-Syaoran's POV-
I looked around the room at all of my friends. To my left, Eriol embraced Tomoyo as she cried hysterically. To my right, Takashi watched as his girlfriend comforted her cousin. But wait, where is Sakura? I looked around for her, only to find her behind me, on her knees on the floor, tears falling unceremoniously from her eyes and a look of shock on her face. I knelt down in front of her, and forced her emerald eyes to look into mine.
"Look Sakura, it's not your fault. Brooke knew this man. It's not because of.."
"This isn't the place to talk." she interrupted me, before wiping the tears from here cheeks, then looked back up at me. I nodded, then grabbed her arms near her elbows and helped her to stand back up.
"You're right." I whispered back.
Just then, there was a knock at the door. We all looked to it as it opened, and revealed 6 strangers, and in the back..
"Reese?" Came Takashi's voice from behind me.
We all stood in wonder as the 7 people entered the room. "Not another fucking nightmare." I said as I sat down.
3 of the 7 strangers headed over to Brooke. It must have been her family because she hugged them all tightly. The other 4, just stood still, as though confused. My eyes however, never left the one in the back. It couldn't be Reese. It just couldn't. Could it?
_-_-_-_
KanbiAme: Not only one of the saddest. But one of the longest. Well R+R if you want me to update faster! HURRY!
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KanbiAme: Wow. This is probably the saddest chapter I've ever written. I don't have much to say. I'm too sad from writing this. Quick update ne? lol. That's what you get when I'm house bound from my asthma. Well..Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own CCS. Nor do I own the song at the end of this chapter.
_-_-_-_
-From the last chapter-
From the door, a silent silhouette watched as the girl before him was lost in thought. One hand to her lips. This was his opportunity. He pushed open the door and walked into the room.
"Reese...
-
"Reese. What are you doing here?" Brooke asked as she got up from the kitchen table.
"I was just wondering what you were up to." he replied, and then sat down at the kitchen table.
Brooke sat down again. "Oh." she laughed, "I'm not up to anything. Just thinking."
"About what?"
She looked up at him across the table, and smiled. "Nothing."
"Are you sure it's nothing? Cuz you were awfully deep in thought there for a few minutes."
She sighed. "I'm just kinda worried about the play. There have been these really creepy guys hanging around at rehearsals lately. I used to know one of them."
"Used to know?"
"Yeah. I nearly dated him for a while. But he proved to be..well..not the greatest type."
"Really?"
"Yeah, he like, joined this gang. And for some reason they came back here after being away for a while. Anyway, this guy showed up here two nights ago, and said he wanted to kiss me goodbye. But I've seen him everyday since then. I just don't get it. No matter how much I think about it. I see no logical reason to any of it."
Reese kept looking straight into Brooke's ice blue eyes. He suddenly leaned across the table, and gently kissed her on her lips. He took her hand as he stood up from the table, and led her down the hall, and out onto the front porch. A light snow continued to fall from earlier. He turned back to her, and kissed her again, this time, with more passion.
-
Syaoran wandered around the house. he thought. He walked out into the living room only to finally find someone. Sakura was sitting on the couch watching TV. He walked into the room, and plopped down onto the couch next to Sakura.
"Hey Syaoran." she greeted somewhat nervously.
"Hey Sakura." he replied in the same manner. "Whatcha watching?"
"No idea."
"Typical. Never know what's on TV these days."
Sakura giggled, as Brooke and Reese came into the room. "Hey guys. It's time to head down to the theatre." Reese said, as Brooke tried to hide an obvious blush.
"Ok. Lets go Syaoran."
-Elsewhere-
"Chiharu! What's wrong chick?" Tomoyo called to her friend.
"Something just doesn't feel right." Chiharu replied, as they reached the bottom of the hill, and waited for the guys.
"What doesn't feel right?"
"I just get the feeling that something's going to happen to someone."
"But we're all good skiers, as we've all proved over the past 6 hours. No one's gonna crash."
"Yeah, but what about the others?"
They both looked down the hill to where the house that belonged to Chiharu's family looked like an ant's house. They watched as the red SUV pulled out of the garage, and began down the road towards the town.
"What was that?" Tomoyo suddenly asked, pointing towards a line of trees, where there was a snow-dust cloud left from a snowmobile. "Are they being followed?"
"But by who?"
"I hope they are ok." Chiharu nodded to her friend in response.
-Later-
"Lets run through that scene once again." the director motioned to his cast. Reese, Sakura and Syaoran watched from the middle of the empty audience as Brooke ran through her scenes. "Brooke, work on your emotions. Your secret lover has just died in your place. You feel pride, yet guilt. The only person you could ever connect with died for you. Give us some tears girl! I know you have it in you. You're just like your cousin Chiharu!" he paused looking around for another person, "Yes! And Adam! You are the man who used to love her, you're angry. I know you can send that blood to your face, you need to be really angry. Make-up will help you look sweaty on the night of the performance. But for now you just gotta get it out of you. Start from the top!"
The director sat back down in his seat in the front row, the lights went back down as Brooke and Adam ran their scene another time.
-
Another silhouette watched from the balcony. He sadly looked at the blue haired girl who he would cry for in private that night. He turned to his left, and nodded to the other man in the balcony with him, who quickly whipped out his cell phone.
-
Sakura watched intently as Brooke played her part with all the emotion she could muster. A soft humming noise caught her attention, but she ignored it, believing it to be Syaoran's cell phone. Suddenly there were 4 gunshots. The three spot lights that were on Brooke and Adam suddenly were blown out, and the one light from the cat-walk. Sakura felt a rush of air to her right as Reese stood up, and quickly left her side as Syaoran grabbed her by the shoulders and pushed her down between the seats, so she was underneath him. They crouched quietly until there was another round of 3 shots mere seconds later. This time, nothing blew out, but the sound of something hard hitting the stage was heard. Then the rustling of feet, and the slamming of the doors.
Everything happened so fast, yet it seemed like an eternity until the house lights came back up. The director came up from the floor, as did several techies from behind the curtain, and from up in the light booth. Sakura and Syaoran were next. The scene on the stage though, was too realistic to have been in any play.
Brooke stood there, her white turtleneck sweater dotted with red blood. Her eyes directed to the heap right in front of her feet. Laying there motionless, was Reese. Blood slowly seeping out from under where he lay. His orange eyes losing some of their luminosity as they looked up at Brooke. She quickly dropped to her knees, her eyes spilling over with tears.
The director quickly jumped onto the stage. "Quickly!" he screamed at everyone who was watching. "Call an ambulance!"
Syaoran was the quickest in reaction, his cell was out and dialed before the director could even finish what he was saying. Sakura screamed as she ran forward to her friends.
-
Everything passed in a blink of the eye. Every person's movements blended together in the blinking red and blue lights of the police, the firemen, and the ambulance outside the theatre. Chiharu wouldn't let go of Brooke for the life of her. And Brooke wouldn't let go of Reese for anything either. Sakura sat with Tomoyo and watched in tears as the ambulance pulled out with Reese, Chiharu, and a hysterical Brooke. The police were talking to Syaoran, Eriol was in search of 5 strong cups of coffee, and Takashi was calling every number he could to find Reese's parents.
In a whirlwind of events, they some how ended up at the hospital within an hour or two of the shooting. They all waited in silence, nothing had been said since their arrival, and no one had seen hair nor hide of Chiharu or Brooke.
-
A little while later, Chiharu came out from the Trauma area. Everyone looked up at her, waiting for her to say something. Anything. She simply looked out the clear sliding doors, to the falling snow. She then took a seat next to Tomoyo, and promptly fell fast asleep from exhaustion. Sakura and Tomoyo falling close in suit not too long after.
-Syaoran-
Someone shook me awake sometime after I had fallen asleep. Funny though. I don't remember falling asleep. I opened my eyes to see Reese. I closed my eyes again tightly. It was a nightmare. I opened them again to see Eriol. A sad smile on his normal Cheshire Cat face.
-Normal POV-
Syaoran was the last to be woken up, and taken into a private room with all his friends. Brooke sat in a chair in the corner. Her body shaken in sobs.
"Lemme guess. It's not good news." Syaoran said, looking around at his friends.
The doctor nodded 'no' then motioned for them all to sit down. "This case wouldn't have been so tedious, if had been any normal GSW. But the bullets pulled out of your friend belonged to alleged gang member, Jonathon Roberto." Everyone in the room looked clueless except Sakura and Brooke. "He's a known associate to Green. Yet, I don't understand why they would kill this young man. There were no ties to him. They usually only target women who turned them down."
"It was me." Brooke said softly. "Jonathon was an acquaintance of mine years ago. He wanted me to be his lover, but I was still too young for that kind of relationship. If Reese hadn't have been running to save me, well....I'd be dead right now, not him."
Silence hung in the room as all their worst fears were confirmed, one of their best friends, would not be returning to school with them.
Brooke just sat there. She had been with Reese at that moment.
-Flashback-Brooke's POV-
I sat quietly. Tears streaming down my face as I looked to the man before me. The bandages around his torso slowly turning red as he bled out. The doctor had been in mere moments ago to prepare me for the worst.
His family would be arriving any minute. I must have been sitting here for hours. His family lived in California, and they were already almost here.
The beeping of machines had been my only comfort since Chiharu had left to be with everyone else. My eyes were trained to the slow rise and fall of his chest.
The only moment I looked away from him, to look down at my blurry watch, he began to stir in his bed with a groan. I was instantaneously at his side. His hand in mine.
With a hoarse voice, he greeted me, "Hey Brooke."
"Reese." I said quietly, as I reached up to push some of his red hair out of his orange eyes, that were slowly losing their luminosity.
"Things aren't looking too good, are they?"
I smiled sadly at him. "No Reese, you're gonna be fine."
"Liar." he whispered. I expected him to be angry, and yet, he smiled at me. "I love you Brooke. Even if our time was short."
I was taken back a bit by his words. A warm tear found it's way out of my eye. "I love you too Reese." We sat in silence for a moment. "Why did you do that?"
"I would rather neither of us gotten hurt. But it's better this way. You deserve more time. I was destined to die for you." He smiled at me again. "Look Brooke, don't stop living because of me. Move on. Just please, don't forget me."
"How could I Reese?"
He coughed then, blood slowly coming from the corner of his lips. I started to cry again as he reached up and brushed the tears from my eyes. He slowly began to sing in his low, hoarse, pain-filled voice.
'There's another world inside of me that you may never see.
There's secrets in this life that I can't hide.
Somewhere in this darkness there's a life that I can't find.
Maybe it's too far away or maybe I'm just blind, maybe I'm just blind.
So hold me when I'm here, right me when I'm wrong.
Hold me when I'm scared, and love me when I'm gone.
Everything I am and everything in me
Wants to be the one you wanted me to be.
I'll never let you down even if I could.
I'd give up everything if only for your good. So hold me when I'm here right me when I'm wrong. You can hold me when I'm scared but you won't always be there,
So love me when I'm gone, love me when I'm gone'
He'd barely finished with the first chorus when his words slowed down, along with the beeping of the machines. He closed his eyes. A slow tear leaking down from his left lid.
"I'm sorry I cant be the one to love you Brooke. I'll be watching over you. So please, love me when I'm gone?" he whispered so softly that I could barely hear him, as the machine began to flat line.
Suddenly the room was filled with doctors. One took me by my shoulders and lead me out of the room. There in the hall, I stood with four other people. I didn't know any of them from what I could make of the phantoms through my tears.
I turned back towards the door to the room as they covered Reese in a white sheet. "I will." I whispered.
-End Flashback-
Now here they all were. The girls wiping the tears from their cheeks, as Chiharu headed over to sit by her cousin, and began rubbing her back comfortingly.
-Syaoran's POV-
I looked around the room at all of my friends. To my left, Eriol embraced Tomoyo as she cried hysterically. To my right, Takashi watched as his girlfriend comforted her cousin. But wait, where is Sakura? I looked around for her, only to find her behind me, on her knees on the floor, tears falling unceremoniously from her eyes and a look of shock on her face. I knelt down in front of her, and forced her emerald eyes to look into mine.
"Look Sakura, it's not your fault. Brooke knew this man. It's not because of.."
"This isn't the place to talk." she interrupted me, before wiping the tears from here cheeks, then looked back up at me. I nodded, then grabbed her arms near her elbows and helped her to stand back up.
"You're right." I whispered back.
Just then, there was a knock at the door. We all looked to it as it opened, and revealed 6 strangers, and in the back..
"Reese?" Came Takashi's voice from behind me.
We all stood in wonder as the 7 people entered the room. "Not another fucking nightmare." I said as I sat down.
3 of the 7 strangers headed over to Brooke. It must have been her family because she hugged them all tightly. The other 4, just stood still, as though confused. My eyes however, never left the one in the back. It couldn't be Reese. It just couldn't. Could it?
_-_-_-_
KanbiAme: Not only one of the saddest. But one of the longest. Well R+R if you want me to update faster! HURRY!
_-_-_-_