Bonjour guys! Oh yes, I was alive, but my laptop wasn't, nor my PC was, and nor Sasuke was. So that delayed writing. Doesn't matter, I've done a lot of hard work – not Fanfiction work, but my schoolwork –, and today I've written this chapter. Gimme an ovation - But wait, I'm disappearing again.

Anyway, on with the story! :D

Chapter 5

Molten Gold

Her eyes were alive with the topaz concern.

"SASUKE!"

I screamed, standing up from the bed, and staring at the new comer. No doubt, his hair had grown girlish long, and his eyes were diluted now, but this was my love, Sasuke! Hadn't I seen him rolling down the hillock's slope and splash into the river? Hadn't I seen the man take his corpse out of the water and lay him on the coast? Hadn't I seen the funeral happening, and his friends and family crying?

Then what the heck was this? He was alive! I stared at him, with no courage to go up and embrace him, because I had missed his lap, his arms around me, and his lips for a whole year but I had talked to him just a few days ago. Or was it my imagination?

No, it wasn't. It couldn't be. I had been talking to Sasuke for some precious moments in the year while I suffered in this cell. People said he wasn't alive, but the proof was here. He was alive. I looked at Miss Dara speechlessly, who, to my utter surprise, since she had led the visitor in, was looking bewildered, confused and terrified

I watched as her features composed into a consoling face, even though I could still see tension in her blue eyes. She looked at Sasuke, who instead of coming and embracing me, took a step behind, confused.

Miss Dara walked towards me, and put a powder-light hand on my shoulder.

"Sakura," she said sadly, "That isn't Sasuke! Sasuke is dead, you know."

I looked at her furiously. Real anger seethed through me; so much I wanted to destroy everything that was in my reach. I screamed at the top of my lungs.

"You liar! You blind woman! Don't you see that's him? –"

But I broke my sentence midsentence as the visitor faltered and stammered, "I'm not – Sasuke – he has died already…"

I was confused, by the voice. It was girlish, and high, almost a trill.

Now the person came forward and there was just a foot between us, with the nurse standing beside me, looking very hurt and sad.

I took in the details, and it was like my heart stopped beating.

Was I blind, too, now? Had I lost my sight as well as my senses and my memory, my timeline? They were not lying, then.

The person standing before me was slender and medium heighted, almost five foot, it seemed. Her hair were just the same shade of raven as Sasuke's, with a few highlights which gleamed blue in the light, but they were long, and fell a little below her shoulders. The skin was just as pale and creamy, and her eyes were the most overwhelming ones: a piercing topaz shade, as if the irises were actually made of molten gold. But they looked a bit crimson, and she was very beautiful with those eyes.

Was she a twin, then? Then it meant that I had been hallucinating.

I had thought she was Sasuke; I had neither used my sight, nor my brain. I was crazy, and I knew that the people believed Sasuke dead. He only met me when no one was around, for a few moments only.

He wouldn't make a grand entrance. The asylum people thought he was dead.

I crumpled to the bed in a sitting position as I understood that I was imagining him, and tears blazed in my eyes, so that the woman's figure was a blur.

I cried, not caring that they were watching. I had to make myself clear. I was tired of imagining things. Why couldn't they let me out? Maybe then I would feel and sense better. But my parents had so cruelly left me in an asylum, even though my mother did not want me to leave her home.

It seemed like hours that I had been crying, but they were only minutes. Miss Dara had backed away, and now she stood watching me beside the window.

I felt a small, warm hand on my heaving shoulder, which was so like Sasuke's touch, though much lighter and gentle.

"Hey, look up, Sakura Haruno."

I looked up, because she had spoken very casually and simply to me. Other people always talked to me in a very slow and sad manner, as if I was on my deathbed, and as if I didn't need any fun.

She was different! I was starting to like her already.

Miss Dara smiled encouragingly at the girl, and with a pang, I saw that she had tears in her eyes. I must have offended her, calling her 'liar' and 'blind'.

But whatever, I would apologize later. She walked out of the room, leaving the door open. I heard her steps and her voice as she called out genteel orders to people outside.

I turned my gaze to the woman, who looked around for a seat, and bringing one closer to me, she plopped down.

"I'm Sasuke's sister. Not a twin, but still I guess we look alike?"

I smiled automatically, feeling a bit better. "Too much. I reckon that's why I confused you with your – er, brother. Sorry."

"I have already forgiven a lot of people who've confused me and Sasuke," she said, pushing back her hair. Then she frowned. "Do I look that manly to people? I have long hair and different eyes, and I'm prettier than him. I dunno why everyone confuses us."

I leaned back on the bed. "No, you both look the same. No one notices the main differences."

She rolled her eyes. "Right. I will attach a tag with my name on my back. Even though everyone knows that he's up in the skies."

The way she talked so casually about her brother being dead made me think that she didn't care about him much. But she had made the sentence into a joke, and I felt lesser pain in my heart about Sasuke not here. I just laughed.

Suddenly, I realized that this was the first time I had laughed since I entered this asylum. I stared down at the girl's sandals, and the manicured nails.

"What are you thinking – hey, how foolish of me , I haven't even told you my name!" She began. "Well, I'm Uchiha Sakae."

"Nice to meet you," I smiled.

"Nice to meet you too," she smiled back most naturally, and I fell for that amazing smile; she looked fantastic.

"So how come you're not going back home?" She asked me, leaning in to speculate me. "I asked the officer and he was like the people in the asylum are released after one year."

"They are released?" I shot up in surprise.

"Yeah, if the results aren't that bad. But some people can't be handled. They are like dangerous to themselves as well as others. So they are kept here. I wondered why you shouldn't be home with Sakuno and Asuka Haruno."

"You know my parents?"

She smiled apologetically. "Can't tell you about it."

"I'm afraid that I haven't been released because I'm not worth it."

"You mean what?"

"I don't want to open this to you…" I looked around for something entertaining, but found nothing. I wasn't going to scare her with the details of my craziness but I didn't want her to go away either. I had made a friend, so I had to keep.

I scanned the cell, and saw some copies of Wuthering Heights, Dracula Wuthering Heights, Dracula, and Emma novels on the table. Right and great. The only source of entertainment. Couldn't they let me a laptop? Maybe Sakae liked music.

"Tell me about that," she said quietly.

"About…?" I asked absently.

"Why you think you aren't worth getting some fresh air and fun with the people who are free."

"…I – I dunno…maybe, if you take no offence. It's a long story."

"I got time," Sakae clenched her teeth.

She was gonna get me out of this wrecked place for anything.

Poor cliffhanger. But I didn't pay much heed, 'cause I was writing this chapter, publishing Paranormal and writing the final draft of another new story which I'll take ahead after I finish with Kiss of Death. So forgive me if there's any error. I was in a hurry and there might be some.

Meet you next week, or if I didn't update, then I'll come back early in September, 'cause I love autumn! xD

Bye.