Chapter Fifteen: Found

"I... I..."

Sakura's mind raced as she desperately tried to come up with an explanation. How had she been so careless as to get herself caught? Now she would be causing Syaoran trouble which wasn't what she wanted after he had been looking after he all this time. Already the feelings of guilt started to well up in her eyes and her only way to help Syaoran was to come up with a plausible excuse for the whole incident.

"I'm the new maid" Sakura blurted out. Her lips has said the words before the thought of it had even entered her mind, but she couldn't turn back on it now.

Luckily, she didn't have to continue, as the door flew open to reveal a breathless Syaoran frantic at the door. Slamming the door shut behind him, his eyes were panicky, jerking about in all directions, and then suddenly widened as they settled on Eriol. He didn't have time to stop though he had been rushing for a reason. Taking both of the other two people by their arms, he dragged them quickly towards the bathroom.

"Look, I'm so sorry about this, but please, you have to hide. My mother is on her way here to discuss me engagement. I'll try to get rid of her as quickly as possible, just lay low okay."

Leaving the two with that quick and quite vague explanation, he shut the bathroom door. Eriol was totally bewildered. First he had come to see if his cousin was in his room, and now he was locked in the bathroom with a former geisha. Why did he have to hide anyway? He actually lived in this house, and it wasn't unusual for him to be in this part of the mansion. His thoughts were interrupted though at the sound of a soft and barely audible voice.

"Engagement? ... But... How? ..."

Sakura looked up at her temporary room mate just as the corners of his lips curved into a grin. This expression was lost on her however. It didn't even register to her mind that he was looking at let, let alone in a room with her. Instead her mind had taken her away into her own imagination. To Sakura, she was alone, completely alone. Her thoughts were a reflection of how she was feeling.

As Eriol observed her current state, there was only one word that came to his mind to describe her – vacant. Of course he didn't mean that she was unintelligent, or empty-minded. He was referring more specifically to the look of her eyes. It was now that he started to believe in that saying which he had heard many times in his life, mostly from Tomoyo.

"Your eyes are the doorway to your soul."

His instinct was spot on. Sakura felt empty. Empty and alone. Her imagination had taking her to a clearing where she stood in the fading light. There was a chill in the air as evening was settling in around her. The prospect of being alone here terrified her but every which way she turned to leave she was greeted by thick dense forest. She was trapped and her only hope was someone to save her. But who was that person and why wasn't he coming? She had been abandoned and forced to face the solitude that was her future.

Physically, her body juddered at the fear of isolation and this managed to shake her senses back into gear. How had hearing the word engagement flow through the air in Syaoran's voice managed to fill her with such an immense fear of being deserted?