Save Your Tears – Prologue.
"Blank, we gotta go."
Sapphire stood on tenterhooks, shifting from one foot to the other. This place was incredibly creepy, and something didn't seem right.
"Hold on a sec, Saph, I've almost got it."
Sapphire supressed a groan, she didn't want to interrupt Blank whilst he was concentrating, but she couldn't shake this awful feeling.
"Got it! Let's-"
All of a sudden, there was a hissing noise that got so loud Sapphire had to clamp her hands over her ears. The room began to darken. It was a blinding smoke trap, and they had walked straight into it.
"Oh shit, shit, shit!" Sapphire began to panic. She wasn't particularly fond of the dark at the best of times, but being trapped in a dingy, disused mansion in Treno with only Baku knowing where the two of them were, was not her idea of a good time.
There was only one solution. They would have to try and outrun this smoke.
Sapphire turned on her heels, and started to run as fast as she could. Blank was now at her side, and with his free hand, he grabbed a hold of her right arm, pulling her along. Not many people, aside from Zidane could outrun Blank once he got going, so Sapphire was glad of his assistance.
"The door, where is it?"
The air surrounding them was turning an inky black, hard to see in front or behind of them, they wildy searched around for any sign of a door, or a window they could break out of.
"I can't see it Blank, I can't- "
"There, I've got it. Come on."
Sapphire assumed he was pointing in a direction, but she just couldn't see anything now. All she could do was run at the behest of Blank, and trust that he would get them out of this horrible situation unscathed. She felt so helpless.
Blank was the first one out of the door, jumping at the frame as hard as he could and thankfully, he found purchase. The door burst from its hinges, and he tumbled forward onto the cool, cobbled stones of the street.
"That was close eh Saph? I really thought we were goners there!"
No answer. Blank looked around. Had she escaped before him? No, she couldn't have. He had broken the door down, and no offense to Sapphire but she was hardly built like she could break anything down, let alone a heavy, wooden door.
"Sapphire?" he called, frantically.
From inside the ramshackle mansion, there came a whimper.
"Blank? Blank?! Ah can't see anything! Ah think Ah accidentally let go of your hand…"
Blank cursed at himself. He had dropped her hand in his attempts to break down the door, and now everything inside was pitch black. No wonder she couldn't see anything. He thought for a second, and a breeze ran through his hair.
That was it. The breeze!
"Saph, can you feel a breeze?" He called, into the darkness.
There was silence for a moment before a rather mousy sounding "Yes, a-ah think so"
"Run towards it as fast as you can!"
Blank could hear the scrabble of boots on stone, and the pounding of footsteps.
"Whatever you do, look out for the –"
BANG!
Too late.
Sapphire let out a loud wail.
She had run into the doorframe, instead of running out of the open door. Blank's blood ran cold. Sapphire wasn't the fastest runner on Gaia, but she could give Blank a run for his money when she had the chance to. Blank only hoped she hadn't run into it headfirst, but there was no guarantee of that. He would have to try and pull her out somehow, even if he couldn't see anything.
Panicking, he scrabbled around at the doorframe, waving his arms this way and that, trying to find purchase on anything of Sapphire he could grab. Thankfully, his arms found her legs and he pulled her out as fast as he could, undignified as it was.
"Ooooh. My head…"
Sapphire tried to stand up, but Blank soothed her and told her to stay where she was. It wasn't very cold out and he had no coat or anything of that nature to offer her, but he had to get her back to the Theatre ship as soon as possible. Glancing at her, Blank could see a lump growing on her forehead and that was not a good sign.
"Can you see okay, Saph?" He asked her. "How many fingers am I holding up?"
He held up three fingers, and Sapphire narrowed her eyes.
"Three, ah think" she answered.
"Good, that's really good Saph." Blank gave her a weak smile.
"I'm going to pick you up now," he said, softly. "It might hurt for a second but I think you'll be okay."
"What about the treasure?" Sapphire asked him. "Do you still have it?"
Blank glanced around. The treasure in question had been a small, golden statue that he didn't recognise or particularly care about. He must have dropped it whilst attempting to escape.
He shrugged at Sapphire.
"It's not worth that injury you have, besides, do you want to go back into that place and see if you can find it?"
"Naw, I'm good. But Baku's gonna kick our asses when we get back."
Blank grinned at her.
"For once, Saph, I don't particularly care what Baku does. You're a little more important to me than some shitty statue"
A/N hey everyone. I hope you're all good, and thanks for giving this short prologue a read! It's not my best work but honestly I haven't written anything much for a number of years and I'm trying to get back into practise. Hopefully it's entertaining enough for you to want to read more! There will definitely be longer chapters coming up, but I will say that I'm currently dealing with a really debilitating chronic illness, so uploads might be a bit sporadic. Thanks again, see you in the next chapter