Sakura's Journey Chapter 17 Impulse
I wandered into my home after working, tossing my shoes off carelessly. The world was dead to me. Lucifer padded over to me and sniffed my hand. I reached to him with my aura, attempting to seek out comfort in the contact with such a warm and innocent creature. It failed. I reached out to my neck, colder than a normal human's, feeling the flesh that was once covered by my precious scarf. It reminded me constantly that my even more precious only child was somewhere out there, wandering about by her lonesome. Well, she did have Daemon, but he was younger, shorter, weaker, dumber... And Squible as well, but the same rules applied. She was, not only lost, but also placed in a position where she was responsible for others. Anxiety ate away at my insides, torturing the depths of my already dark mind. I stepped soundlessly over to the living room couch and dropped down. Sarah joined me shortly, her long flowing brown hair still looking beautiful despite being unkept. She was the only source of comfort I could turn to in these dark times. Our united minds served as some kind of final sanctuary where we could sense some form of peace. It could make us forget about the rest of the world, to simply lose ourselves in each other's mind.
Her frail hand reached me and I took it in mine, willing one of my tendrills to curl around it. Ever since Sakura had been taken, we most often spoke through our minds rather than out loud. Our thoughts were clearer that way and we could find comfort in each other's auras. She sat, leaning against me, and I laid my head onto her hair, inhaling deeply, capturing her scent. God I love her so much... "So, nothing new at work?" Her voice rose clearly in my mind, bringing a slight shiver of comfort to me. "Not much, you? How's Angie doing?" I felt her shrug. "Nothing new here...and Angie's still not back." Angie had left for her first ultrasound scan. That would mean we'd most likely know the gender of her unborn child. She could only tell her partner when he returned though... I thought of Johnny. He was a good friend. I was well aware that he was disturbed by my nature as a slender, but I was indiferent to this. I was even able to draw amusement from it at times. Silly little human... But he was very kind.
Angie returned shortly after, giving a courageous smile despite her obvious sorrow and lonelyness. She sat by us, resting a hand on her slightly protruding stomach. "It's a girl." Me and Sarah both smiled faintly. We did our best to try to keep each other strong in such difficult times. A tear slid down Angie's cheek and Sarah reached out her free hand and set it on her friend's shoulder. "Daemon's gonna have a little sister... I just wish he'd be back so I could tell him..." I also tried to smile faintly to her. I even attempted to comfort her through static, but she raised a hand and shook her head slightly. "No, I'm fine. But thank you Tom." I nodded and resumed gazing off into the distance. I somehow felt, deep within me, that the despair would end soon.
(Sakura's P.O.V.)
It had been so long that we had been walking. So long that we were looking for a way out... We were all beginning to shiver. Our coats were clearly not made for a Canadian winter, especially one that consists of spending so many nights out. I was trying my best to set up a shelter. Laurianne walked up to me, stumbling a little bit as she did so. It didn't take long for me to notice that her tendrills were no longer wavering behind her. I smiled and bent down to her level. "Elles sont parties! Tu grandis vite!" (They're gone! You're growing up fast!) She smiled at me with sparkling eyes, but they shone with fear. The same fear I had a little over a week ago... The fear of changing for the first time. Wait, not even two weeks ago? My God it felt like forever. After getting most of it set up, I walked over to a nearby stream, gazing down at my reflexion in the slightly frozen water. The hues from the setting sun colored the whole landscape orange and gold. The falling brown and red leaves around me added such an incredible effect to it all. I breath in the icy air and closed my eyes, enjoying a moment of calm. I heard footsteps behind me. "Hey Daemon. Isn't this place beautiful?" I turned to him to see him smiling lightly.
We just sat there for a few minutes, enjoying the peace and serenity of the scene. That's when he brought up something I wished he hadn't..."Kura, what happened back in the dump on the day we escaped?" I felt my heart clench and I paled. I didn't want to speak, but I suppose I had to. "I...I saw..." A tear slid down my cheek. Now he was worried. "I saw a skull." I said it, almost like a whisper. His eyes widened and he backed away a bit. "A...skull?" I looked up to him, anger boiling in me. I could finally let out my rage. "A skull. A child's skull. A slender's..." I punched at the rock I was sitting on, letting my tendrills loose and wrapping myself tightly in them. I was shaken by sobs and Daemon sat down on the same boulder as me. He hugged me. I don't know how long we just sat there. He whispered to me gently. "Kura, Kura, please calm down. We're free, ok? It's behind us." I pulled away from his arms, leaving the admitedly comforting warmth and looked at his eyes. They were really a nice color, so full of life. It seemed as though the whole forest had gone silent.
Maybe it was being lost out here in the woods so long that had altered my perception on things. Maybe it was because he had saved me from that bear earlier today... Maybe I was just realizing what had been going on this whole time. Without a signal, without any indication, it was an impulse we both had shared. We leaned in closer until our lips touched. It was light and quick, not even lasting a second before we both looked away. But it meant so much... I reached my fingers up to my lips, smiling lightly. He chuckled next to me. "Heh...first kiss at age 12. That's gotta be an achievment, right?" I laughed a bit, feeling my cheeks go red. What am I doing? I punched his shoulder playfully and we both got up after most of the colors had fadded. We returned to the little camp where Laurianne and Juan had already huddled up in the shelter and were shivering. Squible was curled tightly in between them, but he got up and jumped up towards me, clinging to my scarf and climbing up to my face. His little snout twitched as he sniffed my lips a little. I turned to Daemon, seeing him blush a bit. I started rubbing my arm nervously. "Squible...you can tell, can't you?" He kept looking at me with those little black eyes and then climbed to my shoulder. Me and Daemon both ducked into the shelter, snuggling close with the others, taking advantage of each other's warmth. It had always been a simple survival technique, but now it felt like so much more.
(Johnny's P.O.V.)
It was nightfall. We had to stop again. Something neither of us were too happy about. The slender who sat by my side, roasting some pigeon, or whatever he killed, was mumbling under his breath in French. "Ma pauvre Laurianne... Tu es si proche... Si longtemps que tu es perdue..." (My poor Laurianne... You are so close... So long that you've been lost...) I didn't get any of that, but I knew he was talking about his daughter. His precious daughter. He talked about her all the time. From what I could tell, she had some weird freaky gift that made her grow two extra tentacles...and I thought four was freaky enough... She was kidnapped later that same day. He had been searching for her for three days already when he found me. He told me he was gifted himself. He told me he could see into people's dreams, the same gift that freak Jessie had. Some psychotic girl from my childhood... He saw me dreaming about children being stolen. Which kind of freaked me out... Ok, you want the big picture, everything slender related freaked me out... But that's not the point. My point is, the thing he talked about the most was his daughter. He was desperate to get to her... and I was desperate to get to the kids. It was stressfull to spend an other night out here, but we needed the rest. Who knows, we might even find them tomorrow!
AN: OK, SO...How many people saw this coming? XD I'm talking about Daemon and Sakura kissing :/ If you payed attention, which I doubt you did that much, you'd have noticed that, a while back, I changed the genre of this story from "friendship" to "romance" Yeah...that was more than just a clever trick to get more readers...I was foreshadowing ;) Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed this...THANK YOU FOR A REVIEW FROM A NEW PERSON XD And, as a final note, two people at school know about my seriously massive crush towards this one guy ;-; I'm scared they'll hate me because it's really a very uncommon opinion, but whatever... IF YOU FIND THESE FANFICS, NEVER USE THEM AS A SOURCE OF CONVERSATION WITH ME XD Thank you!