Hello again, all. I am sooooooooooooooo sorry for the wait, but I just kept stalling. (I blame my writers block vampire) But anyway, I think I'll introduce the OC character in this chapter.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, all I own in merchandise.

CHAPTER 2: HELP

Temari's cries soon stopped and a new kind of silence fell over me and my siblings. It was the silence that we had grown accustomed to in our journey here….

It was worse.

The utter darkness, the desolation, it weighed on every nerve.

Knowing that death was coming for any of us didn't help matters either.

Suddenly, the weight of the silence was lifted by my sister's voice.

"Gaara…." Her voice sounded weak and tired.

"I probably won't get another chance to say this, so…I'm sorry, little brother."

A shocked expression was probably on my face, but no one could see me, so they couldn't tell.

"For how I've treated you…Everything…"

"I'm sorry too."

Kankuro's voice broke in as well.

"There's nothing for you to be sorry about."

I manage to get the words out before the blinding light of the door opening disturbed us and blindfolds were placed over our faces.

"It's been nice knowing you, boy."

Shukaku almost laughed within me.

-Spend all your time waiting for that second chance.-

We were both right to suspect that the room would be my punishment. I could tell where I was by the cold feeling of concrete under my feet.

I was handcuffed to a wall, and then my blindfold was removed.

I took the time to look around at the people that came to watch me die.

The village elders, no surprise, looked smug as they watched me with judging eyes.

"Your punishment for failure,"

A man reading a scroll said in a monotonous voice.

"Is 100 whips by a cat o' nine tailed whip."

I flinched "How suiting." I thought. "Dying by something with nine tails…"

A man now stood a few feet away from me, the whip in his hand.

The man counted every time he hit me with the whip.

"One…two…three……ten………twenty."

Every few moments, I'd scream out in pain. Earlier on in the day, I'd decided that I wouldn't grant the Elders the pleasure of hearing my pain, but it was too much to bear. The whips tore into the skin of the belly, arms, and sometimes my neck. I could smell my own blood by the time the man reached 50.

"Ninety-eight…ninety-nine…one-hundred."

The count stopped and I was unshackled. I instantly collapsed to the floor, writhing in pain, my own blood surrounding me.

I don't know how long I lay there, but eventually I heard someone cry my name.

"Gaara!"

I couldn't place the voice, it sounded so familiar. Someone picked me up, but my vision was blurry from loss of blood, so I couldn't tell who it was.

"We need to get him help, quick!"

The world went black then, no sound, no sight, no pain.

I was happy with the numbness of that time.

-For the break that would make it okay-

The first thing that I felt was something touching my face. It was wet, cold, and very annoying. I opened my eyes to see what had bothered my peaceful numbness.

A girl stood over me. I had never seen her before. She had long black hair, which she held back with a few bobby pins. Her eyes were a strange pale blue, like the sky just before the storm clouds move in. She was dressed in a usual nurse uniform, a white dress.

"Well, look who's awake."

The girl said a smile in her voice.

"What are you doing?" I asked, annoyed.

"Oh, I'm sorry if I disturbed you." She said. "I'm just cleaning out the smaller cuts on your face."

The girl finished and sat down in a chair on the far side of the room, waiting to see if anything else needed to be done. She must've noticed the odd look I was giving her.

"Oh, I should've introduced myself." She said, laughing at her own forgetfulness. "My name's Rae Lyn." She said.

I acted as if I didn't acknowledge her, and fell back into the black peacefulness again.

That's all I can think of for now. Again, sorry for the wait. Well, Happy Holidays, everyone. Please review! -Hums Sweeney Todd songs until you review-