August 10, 1969

Chapter 2: Helter Skelter

This chapter is based on true events.

"By the prickling of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes." –Shakespeare

Sakura tugged at the bottom of her dress uncomfortably. She hated wearing dresses but she hadn't seen her parents in half a year so she tried her hardest to look presentable. She glanced over uncomfortably at the black gentleman driving the taxi back to her home in Los Feliz. She had always been an advocate for the civil rights but now that it was night and she was alone with a black man in a taxi she thought maybe she wasn't as ok with equality as she had previously thought. The brash are the first to get shot in the head. Sakura took a deep breath and decided to give him the benefit of the doubt.

"So… what's been new around here? I haven't been home in a while."

The taxi drive raised one eyebrow curiously at Sakura. "Well not much. Seems like the revolution is winding down… I have to say ma'am I didn't expect someone like you to let me drive them home so late. Usually I just drive black folk around at night."

Sakura smiled. He seemed kind. "I'm not like most people."

The taxi driver grinned and chuckled a little bit. "Maybe things really are changing around here." An awkward silence fell between the two as The Beatles continued to play on the radio. "Do you like these boys?" The man gestured to the radio.

"The Beatles?" Sakura leaned up against the window and pulled her legs in to her chest. "Kind of… I didn't like them at first. I thought their music wasn't anything special but this particular song is ok."

"You can turn it up if you would like ma'am."

"You don't need to call me ma'am…"

"Well then may I ask your name?"

"I'm Mary LaBianca." Sakura lied. Or at least it felt like lying. That was the name they had given her on her arrival in the states. She hated it.

"Well ok then. You can just call me Amos if you like." Sakura noticed the laugh lines around his eyes and the way his hands were knotted from years of arthritis. He had to be around seventy.

Just like Sasuke…

Sakura shook her head in a physical attempt to rid her mind of the past.

"Say," said Amos, "there is something that's been going on around here I forgot all about it!" The old taxi slowly crept its way up into Sakura's neighborhood.

"What would that be?" Sakura normally could have cared less about the pointless celebrity knowledge that society insisted on shoving down her throat. But the way Marvin looked uncomfortable…. It churned something in her: curiosity.

"Well, there's been a murder up in Belaire. A real prestigious family." Amos' eyes darted to the enormous homes that towered above them; built on the basis of gluttony and ladder climbing.

Normally, news like this would excite Sakura. She would never admit it but she was also pretty certain that this is how everyone reacted to truly horrorshow news. Why else would there always be stories of mayhem littering the tabloids and news? It created a certain excitement that most people lacked in their everyday lives. One man's despair is another mans treasure.

But no, this time was different. As the car pulled up to the front of her overly large house, Sakura handed Amos a wad of folded bills. She was certain it was way too much but she seemed to have fallen under the strangest of trances.

Amos' eyes filled with concern as he stared from the waded up money to Sakura's blank, wide-eyed face with dread. He didn't want her to go inside. He had felt it too; there was something terribly, terribly wrong. "Ma'am… are you sure-"

"I'm fine." Seeing as he wasn't going to take the money Sakura dropped it in his cup holder and threw her leather bag over her shoulder. She slammed the door closed and walked slowly with each foot strategically placed in front of the other. She needed to go inside. Someone, something, was waiting for her. She couldn't help but feel like a fish being reeled into a world that was much more complicated than she had every know; one where she couldn't survive.

Amos rubbed his hands together nervously. He was being ludicrous. There was nothing wrong. Absolutely nothing. He took a shaky breath before deciding the least he could do was to make sure she would get safely inside her house. He watched as Sakura approached her door and reached timidly for the doorknob. The door was unlocked and she slipped away behind it with ease. He let out a sigh of relief before chuckling to himself for being so ridiculous. "You superstitious old fool!" He scolded himself as he put his car back into drive.

Amos let out a small yelp and slammed on his breaks as his radio went haywire and started switching channels all by itself while on full volume. "Damn old machine!" Amos cried as he banged on his radio and continued driving once more.

The radio settled for a station where The Beatles were playing once more.

Well do you, don't you want me to love you

I'm coming down fast but don't let me break you

Amos turned every knob and pressed every button but no matter what he could do the radio wouldn't respond. He had no idea his music could even go that loud!

Look out!

Helter Skelter, Helter Skelter

Helter Skelter.

At first everything seemed normal. Her raggedy brown boots made hardly any noise as she walked across her enormous kitchen room. She stopped immediately in front of her refrigerator. Dripping in blood, were the words HEALTER SKELTER. "Oh my god." She whimpered as she covered her mouth with two shaky hands. It was happening

Then she could her the voices.

"You idiot you spelled it wrong!" Not her mother.

"Shut up Leslie I spelled it right!" Not her father.

"You two this is not the time. We stick together as a family remember?" Yet another man, who was still not her father.

It felt like a syringe had been jammed into her heart continuously pumping adrenaline into her tiny body. The first thing she saw as she entered her living room was "death to pigs" written on one of the walls and "rise" on another with the same blood that Healter Skelter was written in. She very calmly walked into the room and the people standing around her fathers dead body immediately stopped their bickering.

She felt wired, as if battery acid was the very blood that surged through her body. It was the only thing keeping her going at this point. Her father was sat upright, slumped slightly, with his shirt unbuttoned and pushed back.

"Do you like what we've done with the place?" Leslie asked in a dreamy voice. She was a pretty girl with long brown hair and dilated pupils that looked like black marbles rolling about in her eye sockets. She was high as a kite. "Just a few renovations really…" She gestured with her blood soaked hands to the word WAR carved crudely across 's chest. "Artwork."

"What should we do with her Charlie?" Asked the second man who had supposedly spelled something wrong. He was dirty, and fidgety. He was one of the hippies that her parents despised so much. He also looked like someone Sakura would hang out with on very different basis.

"H-e-l-t-e-r s-k-e-l-t-e-r." Sakura was surprised at how steady her voice sounded. It must have been the adrenaline. "You did spell it wrong. She was right." Sakura lifted her arm and pointed to Leslie in a zombie like manner. She never took her eyes off of her dad. "That carving fork in his stomach…" She said as her hand dropped to her side, "I gave it to him for Fathers Day last year."

"Charlie?" Asked a third girl, not nearly as pretty as the first but much more blood soaked. Everyone's gaze had fixed on a single man who was squatted down on the floor playing with one of Sakura's dogs.

He stared at Sakura with fascination. "You don't seem very scared?" He stood up slowly and gave her a warm smile. "I'm Charles, Charles Manson, but you can just call me Charlie!" As he took steps closer to Sakura, Sakura took steps farther from him. "No, no, no don't be afraid! I want to invite you to join our family!" The rest of the people in the room seemed shocked at his sudden proposition.

The syringe in Sakura's heart pushed another shot of adrenaline into her blood. Battery acid pumping, heart thumping, she had to get out of there.

She turned and ran. She could hear the screech of the female family members as they demanded the men hurry and catch her. Sakura flew around the corner slipping only slightly as she headed through her dining room to her back door. As she flung the screen door open she could feel someone's fingers just brush the back of her hair in an attempt to yank her back inside the house. She jumped the three steps down onto her cement walkway that lead straight to her pool. Her pool!

"Sakuraaaa.." She could hear Charlie cackle. He must have been the one to touch her hair because he was barely more than a few feet behind her.

How does he know my name? Sakura took a leap of faith, literally, as she landed ungracefully in her pool. I need you, I need you, I need you" She could hear a splash behind her as Charlie jumped in after her. SASUKE PLEASE, I NEED YOU!

Helter Skelter: watch?v=QWuXmfgXVxY