Author's Note- I'm sad (and happy ) to say this is the last chapter! I'm going to try and make it long, but we'll see. Since this is my last chapter I think some thank-yous are in order!
babybluestarangel – Oh, I LOVE your reviews!! it's only every so often that a reader like u puts so much effort into their reviews! I wasn't sure if I already thanked you for Syaoran's sister's names, but I'll say it again: Thank you! I couldn't have started my fic 'Knock Into Me' without you! Thank-you very much for the 3 reviews
KCix (anonymous) - I hope ur still reading this fic and thanks for the review!
Kuroi Kitty – Thanks for your 2 reviews! I updated just for you LOL.
kiamiawia – I hope it's like nothing u ever read before. That's a good thing, right? XD neways, thanks for ur nice review!
Nightglider (anonymous) – Thanks for ur 3 reviews! I didn't think it seemed that professional, I think it's bad . hehe. I'm glad u caught my mistake in chapter 5, I fixed it right away. blushes a certain...someone...was on my mind when I wrote his name. it probably seems familiar because I got the idea from a book. Whelps thanks!
zucool – Thanks for the review! I'm glad u like the personality of Sakura. I thought it would suit her. Imagine how ur personality would change if u found out u were going to die? shudders I hope I updated before u became a ghost. XD r u a ghost? LOL.
One-Mean-Rabbit – thanks for saying it was good! do u still like it? I hate spelling too! What a pain...
janyta (anonymous) – thanks for syao's sisters! It's always good to have two ppl say the same info just to make sure I'm also really glad u love my story! Thanks for the review!
loveangelli – Syaoran is cute isn't he?! huggles Syao while he grumbles LOL. I'm SO glad u love my story so much! Thanks for ur super nice review!
Kikakai – I know I could've combined chapters, but...oh well, what's done is done! And I'm sorry bout the short chapters, sometimes I can't write a lot. All well. Thanks for ur 2 reviews!
sally (anonymous) – Thanks for ur 2 reviews! They mean a lot to me!
soccergurl23 – thanks for paying me back for my review, that was sweet! U really didn't have to, but I'm glad u did!
DarkJadedEyes – I'm super grateful for ur review! And I'm glad u like my story! It's nothing like you've ever read before? I would hope not cause then that would be stealing another penname's work. LOL I hope this chapter is longer for u! Thanks!
earthy867 – ur partially right, I'm doing something suprising but is it suprising enough? We'll see! Thanks so much for ur review!
dreamschemer – Thanks for ur review! I'm glad u think it's cool. I just wanna say, I think ur penname is cool! I love how it rhymes!
Whelps, that's a big thank you to all my reviewers and I hope I didn't miss anyone! So, let's get this party started and the final song played! And everyone knows that DJ's almost always end with a love song, let's see if I live up to it!
October Chill
By: Cobalt-eyedAngel
Somebody had taken care of both the hearth and the cleaning, Sakura noted guiltily. Had to have been Rika. Poor, overworked, underappreciated Rika. Well, she appreciated her, but the board of trustees didn't.
Sakura hid her winter coat behind the bar, with the jacket she had left there yesterday.
"Syaoran," she called.
"Sakura." He appeared out of nowhere.
"Are you alright?" she asked, which had to be to be the world's dumbest question. He was, after all, two hundred years dead. "What happened yesterday?" she asked.
He shook his head, rubbing his arms as though for warmth. It was freezing in here today. Takashi hadn't been in yet, and this morning there had been a sprinkling of frost on the ground of the common. Sakura gritted her teeth to keep from chattering.
Syaoran leaned against the bar. He had gone from rubbing his arms to resting his hand at his open-necked shirt – to the place where a man's live heart would be. He saw her watching and seemed to suddenly become aware of what he was doing. He lowered his hand. Slowly.
Even clenching her teeth couldn't stop them from chattering now.
He me her eyes. "I remembered how I died."
Did she want to hear this?
"How?" she asked, so softly he might not have even heard but only guessed from the movement of her lips.
He looked down at his hand again. "I was shot." He closed his eyes and shivered. In a moment he regained control and shrugged as though apologizing for his weakness. His hand twitched once he let it drop to his side.
Sakura licked her lips. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." She wanted so much to take him into her arms. Her eyes filled with tears.
"Don't cry," he said. "It was a long time ago." He forced a smile. "Even if I'm only now finding out about it."
"Stupid war," she said. She'd never before thought of the American Revolution (A/N- like I said before, srry about the Tomoeda in America thing. I don't know much about the history of Japan, since as I live in America.) as being stupid, but that's just what it was.
Syaoran's eyes grew wide. "There was a war?"
"I thought..." But then she remembered what a loose confederation the colonies had been in 1775, and how slowly news would travel, especially to smaller towns and villages.
Syaoran gave a low whistle. Unconsciously his hand went back to his chest as he paced the room. He glanced up sharply. "With the king?" he asked. "That's what you mean: a war of independence?"
Sakura nodded.
"There was talk...I never thought...Who won?"
"Uh, we did. The colonies."
He nodded, biting his lip. "I don't think this had anything to do with that," he said.
"You weren't a solider?"
"Lord, no!"
"Not involved in politics?"
He shook his head.
"What about that man Tsukumara you mentioned yesterday?"
"I don't think he was the one."
She waited for him to say something else.
"I remember...Xiefia and I came here after delivering the horse." He paused, looking at the door. "I...opened the door..." he shuddered. Turned away. "There was a man. Sitting..." – he indicated a specific spot – "here. I remember a gun..." He was clutching his heart; his breathing loud and ragged. "The door opened. I...The door opened – "
Someone kicked in the door.
Sakura took in a breath halfway between a gasp and a scream.
"Sorry," Rika said. Rika was lugging in her supplies for the day's snickerdoodles and cider. "Didn't mean to scare you."
Now Sakura had HER hand to HER heart. There was no sign of Syaoran. "Sorry about yesterday," she managed to say. "I forgot."
"That's okay," Rika said, too polite to ask how anybody could possibly forget something like putting out the fire. "Except..."
"What?" Sakura pulled her shawl tighter, but that didn't stop the shivering. "Rika?"
"Kohako(remember? Her boss) was making the rounds with me."
Sakura winced. "Is he mad?"
From Rika's expression, MAD didn't begin to cover it. "He wants you to work at the log cabin with Chiharu. Tomoyo will be there."
"The log cabin!" Sakura cried. She hated that. Spinning, she kept getting flax up her nose, she wasn't good enough at weaving to keep from smacking the back of her hand on the loom. Besides, it was a two-person demonstration and she wouldn't have a minute to herself. "Rika!"
"Sorry." Not that it was her fault. "Kohako said..."
"Kohako said WHAT?" she demanded when Rika hesitated.
Rika has obviously reconsidered, and he shrugged. "Well, you know Kohako. Nothing important."
"Kohako said what?"
Rika shrugged again and wouldn't meet Sakura's eyes. "Tomoyo's more reliable. And Chiharu will keep you on your toes at the log cabin. Sorry."
Sakura stomped out of the tavern, never pausing for her jacket or coat.
Tomoyo, just coming up the path, smiled apologetically, then said, "My gosh, Sakura! Don't you have a coat? It's supposed to snow today."
Sakura ignored her, though it was hardly Tomoyo's fault. Damn Kohako. Today was the last day before break. Damn it. For once she wanted to scream out her news: 'I'm dying, Dammit! Humor me!'
The morning dragged on forever. She planned to go someplace where she could be alone during her lunch break – one of the unattended displays – to talk to Syaoran on last time. And that was all that kept her going. She wouldn't let herself consider the possibility that he might be able to come to her only in the tavern.
Her loom thumped noisily, counterpoint to the whirring of Chiharu's spinning wheel. If she could have ripped her throbbing head off her body, she would have. Her hands shook as she poured three pills into her hand – only one more than she was supposed to take – and swallowed them without water.
When she couldn't get that damn childproof cap on, she flung it across the room. Chiharu watched her anxiously, but Sakura pretended not to notice. Neither spoke, except to the tourists.
Four hours till lunch.
Three and a half hours.
Three hours and twenty minutes.
Three hours.
Kohako came in at two hours and forty-five minutes while she was trying to demonstrate, for a family who didn't speak Japanese, how to card wool. He gave her one of his baleful looks, but he wasn't going to say anything in front of visitors.
After about two minutes of that, Sakura threw the shuttle across the room, called Kohako a flatulent asshole, and strode out of the log cabin.
She left him to explain THAT to the family and went to the Tiluke meetinghouse, the closest building that didn't have a regular attendant.
"Syaoran!" she called. She was shaking, afraid he couldn't hear her call, except in the tavern.
But, "Yes," he said. He was sitting on the back of one of the benches in the men's half of the room, his feet up on the pew behind.
She started to run up the aisle from him, then remembered at the last moment. She stopped, helpless, and sank to her knees and began to cry.
"Sakura." He scrambled down and rushed to her, and caught himself just in time, a hand upraised just short of brushing the tear-dampened hair from her face.
"This is the last day," she said between sobs. "The museum closes in a few hours, and it won't open again until spring, and I won't be able to come here, and you won't be able to come out." Miserable, she finished, "I'll never last through the winter."
He crouched before her. "Oh, Sakura," he sighed. "You will."
She realized he thought she was speaking figuratively. "I'm dying," she said. Did they know about cancer in the 1700's? They might well have called it something else. "I have a disease of the brain. That's probably" – she wasn't even sure how she meant this – "why I can see you."
He reached for her, unable to hold her but sending icicles through her shoulder where his hand had passed through. "Sakura," he said. "I'm so sorry."
"I need to know," she said, because other wise – ha! – the curiosity would kill her. No, it was more than curiosity; it was wanting the world to be an orderly place. She asked, "Who shot you?"
Syaoran sighed. "A jealous husband."
Well, that was orderly, even if not quite the order she had envisioned. Everything fell into place. The world made sense after all. It was her turn to say, "Oh, Syaoran, I'm sorry."
He had his arms wrapped tightly around himself. "You don't understand," he said. "I was mistaken for someone else. I was killed by mistake."
Very slowly, very carefully, Sakura put her arms around him. It was like being in a lake, like trying to hold on to a cold current. For a few seconds, they managed it. Then her hand slipped through his neck, and his through her back, and they were left sitting on their heels, both of them shivering.
Behind her, her father's voice said, "Jeez, 'Kura."
"See why I called you?" she heard Kohako say. "She's been like this all weekend – talking to herself, leaving fires unattended, popping pills."
"Don't you see him?" Sakura asked them, looking directly at Syaoran.
"Sakura, it's all right," her father said. He took her by the shoulders and turned her around. "It's probably just the medicine. We'll get your medications balanced properly –"
Sakura craned around and saw that Syaoran was gone. "Syaoran!" she called. "Come back!"
Her father was struggling out of his coat, and he got it around her shoulders. "It's her medication." He explained to Kohako. "She's under a doctor's care, but there must be something wrong with the mix she's taking..." He was trying to rub warmth into Sakura's hands. "Here" – he got her to her feet – "all right now?"
"Yes," she said. Then pushed her father into Kohako, and she fled, her father's coat falling to the floor behind her.
"Sakura!" she heard her father yell.
She ran across the commons, past the Tiluke Spa Tavern, into the woods behind – the woods slated for great things by the board of trustees, things she knew she would never see.
The trees into the woods were thick enough to hide her, even with most of the leaves already on the ground. Sakura fought through the underbrush, slid down a slope of rocks and tree stumps, and followed a frozen stream ever deeper into the woods.
'I'll cross the stream,' she thought, but of course the ice was just a thin crust in October, and she went right through, so that she slipped and landed sitting in the icy water. She picked herself up and fled farther into the woods until she lost all sense of time and direction. Her wet skirt stiffened frostily, chafing against her legs.
"Sakura!" She heard off and on. Her father. Tomoyo. Strangers on bullhorns. But they were faint, distant.
Still, she kept running, to put more distance between them. Her plan was to wait until night, then return to the tavern, hoping they'd give up before she would.
Once she got warm, once she rested, she'd be able to think what to do next. She tripped and fell to her knees and stayed there, her teeth chattering. She'd get up as soon as she got enough energy.
But she was too tired, and she put her head down on a pile of dry leaves. She hadn't smelled leaves – since she'd been seven or eight. She'd forgotten how wonderful they smelled. She closed her eyes, just for a minute, just to get her strength back.
Even though her eye lids were closed, she could still see the bright cinnamon and amber colored leaves. She loved that color, it was like something else. An image of a pair of intense amber eyes looked at her lovingly.
"Sakura," she heard, gentle but insistent whisper near her ear, and she groaned. "Sakura, you have to go back, before it's too late."
"It's too late already," she whispered back. "I can't move. I'm frozen to the ground."
Hands grasped her shoulders, strong, solid hands that forced her to sit up, that held her close and shot electricity over her body and running endlessly through her heart.
She knew who it was, the man she had been dreaming about. The man's arms she had been longing and yearning to hold her. The arms that rocked her until finally, finally, she was warm again.
They didn't find her body till spring.
She was smiling.
Author's Note- I'm finished. Hope it was good, and u all got the meaning at the end. PLEASE R&R!!! I luv u sooooooo much if you do!! I hope it was good, and a little sad. So review, I except anything but flames for no reason. If they're flames for a good cause it's alright. LOL
LOOKIE HERE (lol)
... Ok, the hands? Syaoran's of course! :] The reason he was able to go to the after world with Sakura? Because he found out how he died. So they were able to live happily together! :D
Cobalt-eyedAngel
babybluestarangel – Oh, I LOVE your reviews!! it's only every so often that a reader like u puts so much effort into their reviews! I wasn't sure if I already thanked you for Syaoran's sister's names, but I'll say it again: Thank you! I couldn't have started my fic 'Knock Into Me' without you! Thank-you very much for the 3 reviews
KCix (anonymous) - I hope ur still reading this fic and thanks for the review!
Kuroi Kitty – Thanks for your 2 reviews! I updated just for you LOL.
kiamiawia – I hope it's like nothing u ever read before. That's a good thing, right? XD neways, thanks for ur nice review!
Nightglider (anonymous) – Thanks for ur 3 reviews! I didn't think it seemed that professional, I think it's bad . hehe. I'm glad u caught my mistake in chapter 5, I fixed it right away. blushes a certain...someone...was on my mind when I wrote his name. it probably seems familiar because I got the idea from a book. Whelps thanks!
zucool – Thanks for the review! I'm glad u like the personality of Sakura. I thought it would suit her. Imagine how ur personality would change if u found out u were going to die? shudders I hope I updated before u became a ghost. XD r u a ghost? LOL.
One-Mean-Rabbit – thanks for saying it was good! do u still like it? I hate spelling too! What a pain...
janyta (anonymous) – thanks for syao's sisters! It's always good to have two ppl say the same info just to make sure I'm also really glad u love my story! Thanks for the review!
loveangelli – Syaoran is cute isn't he?! huggles Syao while he grumbles LOL. I'm SO glad u love my story so much! Thanks for ur super nice review!
Kikakai – I know I could've combined chapters, but...oh well, what's done is done! And I'm sorry bout the short chapters, sometimes I can't write a lot. All well. Thanks for ur 2 reviews!
sally (anonymous) – Thanks for ur 2 reviews! They mean a lot to me!
soccergurl23 – thanks for paying me back for my review, that was sweet! U really didn't have to, but I'm glad u did!
DarkJadedEyes – I'm super grateful for ur review! And I'm glad u like my story! It's nothing like you've ever read before? I would hope not cause then that would be stealing another penname's work. LOL I hope this chapter is longer for u! Thanks!
earthy867 – ur partially right, I'm doing something suprising but is it suprising enough? We'll see! Thanks so much for ur review!
dreamschemer – Thanks for ur review! I'm glad u think it's cool. I just wanna say, I think ur penname is cool! I love how it rhymes!
Whelps, that's a big thank you to all my reviewers and I hope I didn't miss anyone! So, let's get this party started and the final song played! And everyone knows that DJ's almost always end with a love song, let's see if I live up to it!
October Chill
By: Cobalt-eyedAngel
Somebody had taken care of both the hearth and the cleaning, Sakura noted guiltily. Had to have been Rika. Poor, overworked, underappreciated Rika. Well, she appreciated her, but the board of trustees didn't.
Sakura hid her winter coat behind the bar, with the jacket she had left there yesterday.
"Syaoran," she called.
"Sakura." He appeared out of nowhere.
"Are you alright?" she asked, which had to be to be the world's dumbest question. He was, after all, two hundred years dead. "What happened yesterday?" she asked.
He shook his head, rubbing his arms as though for warmth. It was freezing in here today. Takashi hadn't been in yet, and this morning there had been a sprinkling of frost on the ground of the common. Sakura gritted her teeth to keep from chattering.
Syaoran leaned against the bar. He had gone from rubbing his arms to resting his hand at his open-necked shirt – to the place where a man's live heart would be. He saw her watching and seemed to suddenly become aware of what he was doing. He lowered his hand. Slowly.
Even clenching her teeth couldn't stop them from chattering now.
He me her eyes. "I remembered how I died."
Did she want to hear this?
"How?" she asked, so softly he might not have even heard but only guessed from the movement of her lips.
He looked down at his hand again. "I was shot." He closed his eyes and shivered. In a moment he regained control and shrugged as though apologizing for his weakness. His hand twitched once he let it drop to his side.
Sakura licked her lips. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." She wanted so much to take him into her arms. Her eyes filled with tears.
"Don't cry," he said. "It was a long time ago." He forced a smile. "Even if I'm only now finding out about it."
"Stupid war," she said. She'd never before thought of the American Revolution (A/N- like I said before, srry about the Tomoeda in America thing. I don't know much about the history of Japan, since as I live in America.) as being stupid, but that's just what it was.
Syaoran's eyes grew wide. "There was a war?"
"I thought..." But then she remembered what a loose confederation the colonies had been in 1775, and how slowly news would travel, especially to smaller towns and villages.
Syaoran gave a low whistle. Unconsciously his hand went back to his chest as he paced the room. He glanced up sharply. "With the king?" he asked. "That's what you mean: a war of independence?"
Sakura nodded.
"There was talk...I never thought...Who won?"
"Uh, we did. The colonies."
He nodded, biting his lip. "I don't think this had anything to do with that," he said.
"You weren't a solider?"
"Lord, no!"
"Not involved in politics?"
He shook his head.
"What about that man Tsukumara you mentioned yesterday?"
"I don't think he was the one."
She waited for him to say something else.
"I remember...Xiefia and I came here after delivering the horse." He paused, looking at the door. "I...opened the door..." he shuddered. Turned away. "There was a man. Sitting..." – he indicated a specific spot – "here. I remember a gun..." He was clutching his heart; his breathing loud and ragged. "The door opened. I...The door opened – "
Someone kicked in the door.
Sakura took in a breath halfway between a gasp and a scream.
"Sorry," Rika said. Rika was lugging in her supplies for the day's snickerdoodles and cider. "Didn't mean to scare you."
Now Sakura had HER hand to HER heart. There was no sign of Syaoran. "Sorry about yesterday," she managed to say. "I forgot."
"That's okay," Rika said, too polite to ask how anybody could possibly forget something like putting out the fire. "Except..."
"What?" Sakura pulled her shawl tighter, but that didn't stop the shivering. "Rika?"
"Kohako(remember? Her boss) was making the rounds with me."
Sakura winced. "Is he mad?"
From Rika's expression, MAD didn't begin to cover it. "He wants you to work at the log cabin with Chiharu. Tomoyo will be there."
"The log cabin!" Sakura cried. She hated that. Spinning, she kept getting flax up her nose, she wasn't good enough at weaving to keep from smacking the back of her hand on the loom. Besides, it was a two-person demonstration and she wouldn't have a minute to herself. "Rika!"
"Sorry." Not that it was her fault. "Kohako said..."
"Kohako said WHAT?" she demanded when Rika hesitated.
Rika has obviously reconsidered, and he shrugged. "Well, you know Kohako. Nothing important."
"Kohako said what?"
Rika shrugged again and wouldn't meet Sakura's eyes. "Tomoyo's more reliable. And Chiharu will keep you on your toes at the log cabin. Sorry."
Sakura stomped out of the tavern, never pausing for her jacket or coat.
Tomoyo, just coming up the path, smiled apologetically, then said, "My gosh, Sakura! Don't you have a coat? It's supposed to snow today."
Sakura ignored her, though it was hardly Tomoyo's fault. Damn Kohako. Today was the last day before break. Damn it. For once she wanted to scream out her news: 'I'm dying, Dammit! Humor me!'
The morning dragged on forever. She planned to go someplace where she could be alone during her lunch break – one of the unattended displays – to talk to Syaoran on last time. And that was all that kept her going. She wouldn't let herself consider the possibility that he might be able to come to her only in the tavern.
Her loom thumped noisily, counterpoint to the whirring of Chiharu's spinning wheel. If she could have ripped her throbbing head off her body, she would have. Her hands shook as she poured three pills into her hand – only one more than she was supposed to take – and swallowed them without water.
When she couldn't get that damn childproof cap on, she flung it across the room. Chiharu watched her anxiously, but Sakura pretended not to notice. Neither spoke, except to the tourists.
Four hours till lunch.
Three and a half hours.
Three hours and twenty minutes.
Three hours.
Kohako came in at two hours and forty-five minutes while she was trying to demonstrate, for a family who didn't speak Japanese, how to card wool. He gave her one of his baleful looks, but he wasn't going to say anything in front of visitors.
After about two minutes of that, Sakura threw the shuttle across the room, called Kohako a flatulent asshole, and strode out of the log cabin.
She left him to explain THAT to the family and went to the Tiluke meetinghouse, the closest building that didn't have a regular attendant.
"Syaoran!" she called. She was shaking, afraid he couldn't hear her call, except in the tavern.
But, "Yes," he said. He was sitting on the back of one of the benches in the men's half of the room, his feet up on the pew behind.
She started to run up the aisle from him, then remembered at the last moment. She stopped, helpless, and sank to her knees and began to cry.
"Sakura." He scrambled down and rushed to her, and caught himself just in time, a hand upraised just short of brushing the tear-dampened hair from her face.
"This is the last day," she said between sobs. "The museum closes in a few hours, and it won't open again until spring, and I won't be able to come here, and you won't be able to come out." Miserable, she finished, "I'll never last through the winter."
He crouched before her. "Oh, Sakura," he sighed. "You will."
She realized he thought she was speaking figuratively. "I'm dying," she said. Did they know about cancer in the 1700's? They might well have called it something else. "I have a disease of the brain. That's probably" – she wasn't even sure how she meant this – "why I can see you."
He reached for her, unable to hold her but sending icicles through her shoulder where his hand had passed through. "Sakura," he said. "I'm so sorry."
"I need to know," she said, because other wise – ha! – the curiosity would kill her. No, it was more than curiosity; it was wanting the world to be an orderly place. She asked, "Who shot you?"
Syaoran sighed. "A jealous husband."
Well, that was orderly, even if not quite the order she had envisioned. Everything fell into place. The world made sense after all. It was her turn to say, "Oh, Syaoran, I'm sorry."
He had his arms wrapped tightly around himself. "You don't understand," he said. "I was mistaken for someone else. I was killed by mistake."
Very slowly, very carefully, Sakura put her arms around him. It was like being in a lake, like trying to hold on to a cold current. For a few seconds, they managed it. Then her hand slipped through his neck, and his through her back, and they were left sitting on their heels, both of them shivering.
Behind her, her father's voice said, "Jeez, 'Kura."
"See why I called you?" she heard Kohako say. "She's been like this all weekend – talking to herself, leaving fires unattended, popping pills."
"Don't you see him?" Sakura asked them, looking directly at Syaoran.
"Sakura, it's all right," her father said. He took her by the shoulders and turned her around. "It's probably just the medicine. We'll get your medications balanced properly –"
Sakura craned around and saw that Syaoran was gone. "Syaoran!" she called. "Come back!"
Her father was struggling out of his coat, and he got it around her shoulders. "It's her medication." He explained to Kohako. "She's under a doctor's care, but there must be something wrong with the mix she's taking..." He was trying to rub warmth into Sakura's hands. "Here" – he got her to her feet – "all right now?"
"Yes," she said. Then pushed her father into Kohako, and she fled, her father's coat falling to the floor behind her.
"Sakura!" she heard her father yell.
She ran across the commons, past the Tiluke Spa Tavern, into the woods behind – the woods slated for great things by the board of trustees, things she knew she would never see.
The trees into the woods were thick enough to hide her, even with most of the leaves already on the ground. Sakura fought through the underbrush, slid down a slope of rocks and tree stumps, and followed a frozen stream ever deeper into the woods.
'I'll cross the stream,' she thought, but of course the ice was just a thin crust in October, and she went right through, so that she slipped and landed sitting in the icy water. She picked herself up and fled farther into the woods until she lost all sense of time and direction. Her wet skirt stiffened frostily, chafing against her legs.
"Sakura!" She heard off and on. Her father. Tomoyo. Strangers on bullhorns. But they were faint, distant.
Still, she kept running, to put more distance between them. Her plan was to wait until night, then return to the tavern, hoping they'd give up before she would.
Once she got warm, once she rested, she'd be able to think what to do next. She tripped and fell to her knees and stayed there, her teeth chattering. She'd get up as soon as she got enough energy.
But she was too tired, and she put her head down on a pile of dry leaves. She hadn't smelled leaves – since she'd been seven or eight. She'd forgotten how wonderful they smelled. She closed her eyes, just for a minute, just to get her strength back.
Even though her eye lids were closed, she could still see the bright cinnamon and amber colored leaves. She loved that color, it was like something else. An image of a pair of intense amber eyes looked at her lovingly.
"Sakura," she heard, gentle but insistent whisper near her ear, and she groaned. "Sakura, you have to go back, before it's too late."
"It's too late already," she whispered back. "I can't move. I'm frozen to the ground."
Hands grasped her shoulders, strong, solid hands that forced her to sit up, that held her close and shot electricity over her body and running endlessly through her heart.
She knew who it was, the man she had been dreaming about. The man's arms she had been longing and yearning to hold her. The arms that rocked her until finally, finally, she was warm again.
They didn't find her body till spring.
She was smiling.
Author's Note- I'm finished. Hope it was good, and u all got the meaning at the end. PLEASE R&R!!! I luv u sooooooo much if you do!! I hope it was good, and a little sad. So review, I except anything but flames for no reason. If they're flames for a good cause it's alright. LOL
LOOKIE HERE (lol)
... Ok, the hands? Syaoran's of course! :] The reason he was able to go to the after world with Sakura? Because he found out how he died. So they were able to live happily together! :D
Cobalt-eyedAngel