Chapter II:
You run needles through
My skin;
Intricate messages dubbed
"abuse".
And the morning ain't
So silent when
I'm sinking into screams
You hold me down in.
I don't miss coming
Home to warmth,
Now that my body
Hangs off this wall
And
I'm starting to think
We're not so different
After all.
(oOo)
The curtains that framed Sakura's large windows fluttered like butterfly wings as wind blew softly against it. They had been opened (the windows) by Nurse Watanabe earlier so the girl wouldn't be too hot under the pile of covers she had dug herself into.
It wasn't her fault, really, that she was so scared. He was out there. Just waiting to show up in her dreams and make her bleed. Bleed endlessly. She almost shuddered in her sleep, already quite cold from the breeze that caressed her. Dreams were a very distant and unwelcome place for Sakura.
They had always been, since the death of her mother, filled with ghouls and people she saw everyday on the street becoming abusive and homicidal. Her childhood had been very different. With teachers constantly having to assist and console her and assure her there were no maniacs hiding in the closets, waiting to jump out and attack her. But at home her brother had always said he'd protect her from the "ghosts" that seemed to haunt every crevice of her world.
And her brother had gone off to college by the time she reached the sixth grade. That was when everything had slowly gone down the drain. Alas she met Tomoyo at the hospital, her best friend throughout life and things had been better. There was no longer just solitude.
Just fear and horror.
The piercing of that red eye, that black eye was still fresh in Sakura's mind, eating away at the small comforts she kept there. For a while sleep made her drift from those thoughts, the insane and unreasonable thoughts that made up her present life. She could swear there were more than one of her in the mirror, of goblins dangling off her shoe laces, bearing sharp, white teeth and eyes murderous as anything.
Sleep didn't stay a comfort for a while, though. A loud, banging on her door jolted Sakura from visions of her beautiful mother and father, glancing down at her sleeping baby form and whispering to each other. Her eyes burst open, emerald and swarming with dear, like always.
She grasped the covers with one hand, bringing them to her face as the banging came again. Then, in sudden realization, she pulled them off to the side and slid out of bed. It was most likely Tomoyo come to see how she was. Because of what had happened.
Sakura had been expecting Tomoyo anyway.
A wave of relief washed over the honey-haired girl as she tip-toed toward the door, almost like a small ballerina. Her pale fingers curled over the steel doorknob, uncomfortable but used to the coldness of it. The door opened to divulge her more mature cousin.
Tomoyo stood looking distressed and extremely concerned. For a moment all that Miss Kinomoto could do was stare, blinking before she swallowed and parted her lips. "Tomoyo.." Her fingertips grazed her cousin's cheek. "What happened? Why do you look so scared?"
The dark-haired girl almost let out a sob at her best friend's words. She was so innocent and caring, so full of love, why did these things have to haunt her? Why did it have to be Sakura? Tomoyo glanced back at the boy hiding in the shadows and wondered if maybe it was all a figment of her imagination.
Turning back to Sakura she decided it wasn't. If she was going to think like that it would go against everything her cousin had ever been. It would be directly criticizing her.
How, oh, how could she have brought this monster to her best friend's doorstep without a second thought? She was so selfish, scared and thinking of herself as she stalked down the hallway in search of room 909.
"Oh, Sakura. I'm so sorry."
The naive young woman looked bemused, almost about to ask what Tomoyo meant before her eyes turned to him. She immediately flipped out, waving her arms like mad and opening her mouth to let screams out. But Tomoyo slapped a hand over her mouth and held her shaking figure close.
"Ssshhh…He won't hurt you. He wants help, Sakura. He needs help, Sakura." These words were spoken as if to herself. "Please, don't." Tears brimmed her eyes, but she held them back for Sakura's sake. So not to scare the poor girl.
Said boy finally pushed himself from his position against the wall and took long, languid strides toward them. He stood beside Tomoyo with a demented smile across his face. "Yes, Sakura," Came a soft whisper from within him. "I need you more than you know. So make no sound, tell not a soul and I won't have to tear your body to shreds, blood seeping from your lifeless body."
A gleam lit his eyes, which seemed to twitch with happiness at the thought. But he regained himself and smoothed the torn shirt he wore with his hands. Tomoyo thought he looked a silver color in the bland, dark corridor. His skin was pale enough to give that sort of glow.
And they were dealing with something inhuman, here, weren't they?
Sakura pushed at Tomoyo's arms, freeing herself of the tight grip. She took a determined step in his direction and put on a soft frown. "But you tortured me, already. So, so many times it is hard for me to count. I remember all of it. The n-needles and the nails and, oh…" Her palms were spread about her face, fingers curved like spider's legs.
The one in question's lips formed an oval shape, eyelids seeming to get heavy. He gripped the bottom of his shirt in support as something invisible shot against his back. Whatever was wrong with his side was still there. With something like a sigh, the mysterious boy spoke, "That wasn't really me."
Both of the girls looked surprised. Tomoyo came up behind Sakura, very confused. "So…she has been haunted. Just not by you?"
He nodded in an exhausted way. "Yes. She is always haunted. Always haunted. The webs of everything tragic seem to like taking my form when they hurt her. And it's real. All of it is real. They like to visit you in your sleep, you know. Because they like getting you confused. It amuses them when humans don't believe you and find the scars and think you've mutilated yourself. Oh, they find it very amusing.
"And it's usually with the oddest of things, isn't it Miss Kinomoto? Pianos, pins, tattoo needles and the like. I suppose they've gotten sick of everything else and decided a new victim deserves new ways of abuse. The blood, crimson and rust is the best part to them, though. I doubt that will ever change. But still I have to wonder why they use my form?"
And he looked as if it had just dawned on him.
"Of course, they knew, they thought-they knew I would come to you. Knew you were the vulnerable one. After all, otherwise they never would have haunted you in the first place. Oh the evils that they are. Such horrible, beautiful creatures."
Sakura took another step toward him, reaching out with one hand and grabbing his hand. He looked up at her surprised at this action but did not pull his hand from under hers. His oily hair seemed to fall into his eyes in pieces that she brushed away. "I need to see your face. So I know you aren't lying to me when you tell me what is going on. I need to know. And Tomoyo, too."
"You are a smart one, aren't you, lovely?" He said in his creaky, melodic tone. A sweeping motion and she was back with her cousin, pushed away from the creature with mismatched eye color. The boy took a deep breath, facing the hallway once more and he began to speak.
"I come from the epitome of every dream. A place where there are some people who are given the job of brightening dreams, foretelling dreams, fortunate dreams, serious dreams, reminiscent dreams and, of course, nightmares. My job is to regulate the dreams every person receives, to see that the right people get the right kind of each dream. This occupation is probably the most important in the world I come from.
"There has been a group of Nightmare makers who formed a sort of unity to induce pleasure. Being the people they are this pleasure is acting through dreams. Abusing and beating people to such a terrible point that is becomes real. Whatever they do really happens in the world of mortals. So if they are to slice you across the stomach so your organs spill out, you wake up without these organs.
"Of course they've never done anything this impacting to you because you, Sakura Kinomoto, are very important to our world. But that is also why they do it. Because seeing you in pain without any idea of why or how to stop it is highly amusing. I must admit it is quite spectacular."
He took in the even more confused looks he received and let out a breath. "Everyone woman in your family, from your grandmother to your mother, Miss Kinomoto, has been the creator of dream-people. This is why you've been so afraid and so haunted since you're mother died.
"You've inherited the family business."
(oOo)
Chapter two! xD Like it? Hate it? Review please!