I really shouldn't be starting anything new. And yet, here I am.

It was not planned. It wasn't quite accidental, either. It was an act of desperation, an act of fear, and an act of vengeance in the face of the man who wanted nothing more than for her stop existing.

"Oh, Sabella," his voice was soft, sweet, and it called to her heart, a siren so a sailor.

The girl pushed her back against the wall, still as stone, not daring to breath. He whispered over the ground, a mask of golden innocence hiding the cruelty underneath. She couldn't hide for long. Not like this. He would see her as soon as he turned the corner. She didn't even dare try and look for him. The gold light that he glowed with, unearthly, would give him away if he got closer. It had gotten blindingly bright since he'd eaten her family.

"Sabella, Sabella, silly Sabella, you can't hide," he called. She could hear him move through the hall that lead from the living room. The living room where her sister's life was fading away. Her parents were already gone to Micheal's sadistic appetite. Gone, gone, all gone-

Sabelle forced those thoughts down. Later. She could think about that later. Now she had to survive.

She counted inside her head. One, two, three, four-

She bolted. She flew across the hardwood, not even touching the floor. Through the dining room, the floor slick with the blood of Pancake, to the back of the house and the cement deck outside. She passed her bedroom, the Naruto opening blared out of the open door. Hiding any sound she might have made.

The door was in sight. Her heart lifted and she drew a breath into hollow lungs. Freedom was ahead of her, beaconing. Her fingers brushed metal.

Something slammed into her back.

She smashed through the door, tumbling onto the rock outside. She tried to lift herself off of the ground, tried to scramble to her feet, but his weight was on her back. A hand circled her throat.

"Did you really think it would be that easy?" he hissed in her ear. "Silly Sabella."

She lashed out, but her arm was caught by his gold fist. The light hurt her eyes to look at. Black spots blurred across his golden face. She could feel her strength leaving her. And as her power drained, his grew. Sabella choked on desperation. She thrashed, pulling against him with everything she had.

There was a sudden, horrible pop, and for an instant all she knew was running. Running, faster, faster, but she didn't feel the running. She didn't feel the ache of legs or the cold of lungs, or the sharp tingling of fear down her spine.

And all of a sudden, she wasn't running anymore. She wasn't running because she had smacked headlong into someone else.

Sun that wasn't there before shone in her eyes, glaring down from behind light hair. It took a second for the shadow of a face to fall over her. Blue eyes were wide, set above cheeks with three marks on each.

He was shouting at her, but her ears were being overrun by sound. His voice, the birds, the wind, the grass. Feet on dirt, people talking, dogs barking. Bugs chirping, grass rubbing against cats legs and trees bending to the air. Even the sun was loud.

Sabella turned in his arms, and promptly puked on his shoes.

It wasn't her idea of a good time, but it was better than where she had come from.

"Are you okay?" the poor, panicking boy awkwardly patted her back. She spat on the ground, trying not to look at the mess she'd made of the ground.

"Fine," she grunted. "Sorry for running into you. And throwing up on your shoes," she added, finally making eye contact. Red dusted across his face and he scratched one of the three lines that marked his cheeks.

"I-it's okay, Sakura," he smiled at her shyly.

Sakura.

"Uh. What?" she stared at him blankly. He had just said Sakura right? "What did you just call me?"

"Sakura," he repeated, brows furrowing, "Are you feeling okay?"

"No," she said honestly. Her eyes started to sting. This wasn't possible. Surely. Surely she hadn't run from the man who cannibalized her family and into a world of child soldiers.

"Did you really think it would be that easy?" his golden mask, one that wore no expression, grew black spots across it as his hand tightened around her throat. "Silly -"

"Can you, take me home?" she asked quietly, putting her hand over her eyes to try and stop the tears that sprung up. No, he couldn't take her home, but anywhere away from the sun would do. She wanted to sink into darkness and cry.

"Yes!" he agreed quickly. He waved his hands, like he didn't know what to do with them. With nothing else to do, she took one. Somehow, she mustered a weak smile.

His face got redder and he wasn't making any eye contact. But still he walked, and she moved beside him. She was vaguely aware that they were being stared at, but all she could focus on was the warm hand in her own, and the pink hair that brushed her cheeks.

The door wasn't even locked when they got there. She was glad that the boy knew where the house was, because sure as shit did not. Nothing in it was familiar. It didn't smell like home, it didn't have her mother's Persimmon tree in the corner or the glass bottle lining the wall like a hoarder witch lived there. Pancake didn't run up and try to lick her face the second she walked in the threshold.

There was a note on the table, something about the couple who lived there being out of town.

She didn't care. She couldn't care.

"Thanks," she said to the boy, and shut the door in his worried face.

It wasn't hard to tell which room was hers. It was small, a bed, a desk, and a stack of drawers like a square filing cabinet. The curtains and the covers were pink. There was a basket thing and a mirror.

She stared blankly in the reflection of a girl she didn't know. A girl she did know, but one that wasn't her.

This was bad.

This was beyond bad.

This was probably the worst day of her life.

'Sakura' laid down in the bed and cried.