Chapter 15
(-sob- That was so SAD! I'm still feeling bad for them... Heh, aren't I pathetic?)
So she ran. She ran and didn't look back. Which was too bad, for if she had taken one last look, seen the unmistakable distress in his eyes, she may have hesitated to run. She may have seen how much he truly cared, and stopped long enough to speak to him once more. Yet she didn't look back, couldn't look back. For if she did, she knew that the pain she was trying to escape would come crashing down upon her, sending her to her knees right there. And that couldn't happen. No, she needed out of that city, away from everything to do with Zelos and the time they'd shared.
She didn't know how far she ran… All she knew was that she couldn't stop. In a sense, she was running from her problems… But it was far more than that. Far deeper. An hour or so passed before her gasping lungs and searing calves forced her to halt. She started to slow, but stumbled and fell to her knees in exhaustion. For the moment, the only thought in her mind was the extreme fatigue that engulfed her. But she was a ninja, and in top physical shape, so it was a matter of minutes before she was breathing normal once more. Immediately, a sharp pain stabbed at her chest. Yet it was no open wound… No, these wounds were the sort that would never be seen, and would never truly close. The events of the day seemed an eternity ago, yet they replayed in her mind like it had been mere moments past. 'I trusted him! I put my life in his hands, I danced with him, I hugged him, I loved him! Stupid, stupid Sheena! How could I have let my guard down?' These thoughts raced through her head as the tears flowed steadily down her cheeks.
A cold wind rushed through the grasses, and it sent a shiver down the summoner's spine. It was then that she remembered that her ninja outfit, as well as all her supplies save for Conicere, were still at the Chosen's house. 'There's no force in Tethe'alla that would get me back there. None.' She thought with resolve, far stronger than she felt. Sheena felt the polar opposite of 'strong' right then… She felt that she could barely stay upright on her hands and knees, that she was just short of a complete and total breakdown, that she'd never felt so awful in her life. 'Love is giving someone the ability to shatter you completely, and trusting them not to.' So many times had that saying haunted her in the past few days… Now she knew what it meant.
For many years she'd refused to trust another even close to that degree, yet he'd marched into her life, pestered her a bit, and in two weeks she'd trusted him more than anyone else in the world. 'How could I have been so stupid?' She cried, though the words never left her mouth. She'd trusted him, and he'd shattered her. The ninja knew she'd never trust again. 'Screw trust, I'll be happy if I never breathe again…I just want to curl up and die, escape this misery…Y'know what? I hate myself for it, but… as much as I hate him, I miss him so much…' With this, she could hold it in no longer. Her limbs collapsed from under her, and she lay on the grass, sobs racking her frame. No longer did she hold the silent strength that many times she'd been praised for. Even when her entire village had been massacred, she'd never felt so completely and totally miserable. No, miserable didn't even begin to describe how she felt. Miserable sounded like a tea party, compared to how she felt. And as the wind picked up, it didn't seem to her like it was going to get any better.
So she lay and cried. For how long, not even Sheena knew. A light rain had picked up, the droplets streaking down through the night sky and bouncing off her bare arms and her cheek. She made no response, however… By now, she was beyond caring. Even as her tears were unnoticeable among the many droplets on her cheek and face, she made no response. Even if lightning struck her fallen frame, it was unlikely that she'd react. She just laid there, attempting to asphyxiate in her grief, and wishing she could feel his warm embrace once more.
So unresponsive was she that, even when five pairs of footsteps were heard, drawing nearer and nearer, the ninja didn't even open her hazel eyes. If she was lucky, they'd leave her be. Or if she was luckier, they'd kill her then and there. Yet when the footsteps halted behind her, she felt no pain. No knife or magic stabbing into her back or neck. But when a familiar voice spoke, she knew what was going to come was worse than either.
"Well, well, well. Look what the cat dragged out. Out away from her lover boy in the city of pricks and floozies." Mocked a voice that could belong to no one other than Kage. At his last sentence, however, Sheena moved for the first time in hours. Though it was little more than a flinch away from his cruel-but-true words, it was something that connected her to the land of the living. Obviously the rain had shielded her movement from the muscular man towering over her, however, for his voice rang out once more a moment later. "Is it even alive?"
"Prod 'er with your foot, boss, then we'll find out." Another oh-so-familiar voice rung out. Tor, from Sybak.
"Don't tell me what to do, you pathetic fool!" Snapped Kage, though he proceeded to jab her harshly in the back once or twice as Tor had suggested. At her gasp of pain, he smirked. "So we finally capture the infamous Sheena Fujibayashi. If I'd have known what a pest she'd be to obtain, I wouldn't have spared her, promise or no. But alas, what's done is done."
If the ninja had been paying any semblance of attention, or if she'd been more than a shell of her former self, she'd have caught the 'promise or no' and realized what they'd done to the Chosen to force his betrayal. But after that unexpected stab at her emotions previously, she'd succeeded in blocking out what was said around her, unwilling to hear whatever they had to say. Besides, even if she had caught it, in the state of inner-chaos that she was in, what were the odds she'd have understood?
The summoner soon felt herself being lifted into the air and slung roughly over a massive shoulder. Yet she no longer had it in her to fight against him. The easier she went, the sooner would come her long-awaited release… And she could join the rest of Mizuho once more.
( I dunno. I'm kinda on writers block. I know what I want to write, but I just can't force it out. Sorry for that uber shitteh chapter.)