Chapter 9

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"Syaoran!" Sakura screamed. She couldn't give a damn about who heard her and what happened. Syaoran was bleeding from his mouth, and that was a good enough reason to get herself all worked up.

Why must this happen NOW? What if someone sees us and tries to injure him even more? What if he dies?

"I don't suppose he would die," a smooth voice came from behind.

"You." Sakura turned to glare at him. "Leave! You're hurting us every day. Emotionally and physically. Can't you leave me alone? Leave US alone? What do you want me to do?" Sakura broke down. Bastard. GO AWAY!

Fye laughed softly. "Now, now, Sakura. Why would I want to hurt you and Syaoran? You know how dear you two are to me," he grinned, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

"I said go away. You never knew what powers I've been hiding all this while."

"Is that so?" Fye sneered. "My dear princess, it's more vice versa now. My powers are far greater than you have ever imagined."

"I DO have powers!"

"Maybe a bit," Fye raised his eyebrows. "Just not enough for me to sense. Which is, of course, far too little to defeat me."

"So what do you want? Me?"

"Well… I didn't consider that. You offered, you know."

"I didn't offer myself! Never to you!" Sakura screamed and tried to get some power from herself out. A tiny light flickered. Then disappeared.

"Pathetic," Fye whispered. "This," he glared at Sakura, "is what power is." Ropes appeared from nowhere and started winding themselves around Syaoran.

Sakura screamed wildly and tried yanking the ropes off Syaoran. They simply wound around more tightly him.

"Please, if you want to kill him, kill me too!" Sakura gasped desperately.

"Which means that if I save him, I save you too."

Sakura nodded quickly.

"And if I leave him half dead, you'll be half dead too. If he's ill, you'll be ill too. If he' s dying, which he is now… I don't quite see you dying. Unless you're already dead and the person speaking to me now's a ghost. I hope not," he chuckled. "Dear, dear Sakura. I have plans for you and me. Our future. And if you're lucky," he paused, "no, if we're unlucky, Syaoran would still be alive and kicking. The Sakura I know would love us to be unlucky, I presume?"

"First smart thing you've said in a long while," Sakura bit her lip. "let Syaoran go!"

Fye murmured something softly and the ropes on Syaoran hung loose. "Don't touch him. The ropes would just get tighter. I'd like things to go my way, and unfortunately, Syaoran has to be well for things to go right, eh."

Sakura felt like reaching out and strangling him.

"So. Basically Syaoran now has been poisoned with a poison so unique that only I have an antidote. And if I'm careless, I might simply… lose that antidote.

Sakura, you know I want you. Everything's this simple- we get married. I give Syaoran the antidote, I send him to wherever you came from, and life goes back to normal. Don't worry though, the poison won't kill him. At least, not yet. If we don't get married by the next moon, he'll die."

Life goes back to normal? You can call our future, 'normal'? Something's wrong with you. VERY wrong. Please tell me this is a nightmare. Sakura glared at Fye.

"Sakura, nothing's wrong with me."

He can read my mind?

"I can read everyone's minds. Which is why I found out about your fun little escapade today."

"Why can't you give him the antidote now?"

Fye laughed. "Daft."

"Give it to him!"

"And you two can run off and live in a kingdom happily ever after."

Sakura stared at him, the tiny glimmer of hope in her heart lost. It was stupid to think that she could even come close to tricking him, much less pull it off. She would just have to wait.

She had no choice.

She had to marry Fye.

… …

Please review, thanks. This is a STUPID chapter, cos I've lost all inspiration for this story. But I'll update maybe once a month --"