Disclaimer- I don't own Saint Tail or the song "One Last Breath" By Creed.
The only thing I own is the plot and Aunt Sally! I may call Asuka Jr. just
Asuka for short but it's the same person. ^_^ So please enjoy.
One Last Breath
~By: Lauren~
E S C A P E
Her red hair fluttered in the breeze as her heels clicked with each energy- draining step. The wind caressed her skin as she took in a deep, ragged breath and sprinted to the left.
"Cheap balloons!!" Saint Tail cursed. She was just escaping Asuka Jr. when the huge pink balloon she was floating on decided to pop. She had narrowly escaped by landing on the ground and doing the only thing she could think of at the time: Running. Behind her she could hear the detective's own shoes tapping in the darkness. It was late, around 7 P.M., Saint Tail thought. Her parents would be coming home soon from their dinner out. It was their 25th anniversary and so they had went out for a romantic evening to themselves and then the three of them planned to stay up late watching movies. But Meimi had other plans than to sit around and do her homework. She had a job to do as the famous heroine Saint Tail! A few beads of sweat dripped down her neck and soaked into her stark white collar. Buried in her hair, Ruby squeaked softly. "I've got to run him off my tail!!" Saint Tail muttered to the hedgehog.
"Slow down Saint Tail! I'll capture you and you know it!!" Asuka Jr.'s voice yelled, the sound echoing off the walls as she took a sharp left.
"Oops." Saint Tail frowned as she entered the only escape route she could find. It was between two houses and two fences that left her about two feet to run through. One fence was metal bars painted black that ran up high into the air and on her other side was a tall brick wall. She had only one choice and that was to run forward. Her skin paled and she winced as she scrapped her skin against the brick, leaving a crimson mark on her arm. This wasn't how she planned her wondrous escape. Meimi wanted to steal the painting, replace it with the real one and then disappear as easy as it was in the past. But no, the fates were obviously against her today. They had to go and weaken her balloon so it exploded!! Up ahead she saw an opening. It was too dark for her to tell what it led to but she didn't care. She couldn't let Asuka Jr. catch her. She never could.
"Stop RUNNING!!!" Asuka Jr. gasped. He decided after this he was defiantly going to hit up the treadmill his father had bought.
Saint Tail smirked at his frustration. Lifting her right had into the air, she quietly muttered. "One.two.THREE!!" Five snowy white doves burst from her hands in a frenzy of feathers. As quick as they appeared, they spun around and commenced peaking at Asuka Jr. "Get em' off!!" Asuka Jr. screeched as the birds peaked at his hair and clothing. He wildly threw his arms in all different directions as he attempted to keep them away. The only problem was the area was so skinny that his hands and arms often collided with either bricks or metal. And it didn't feel too pretty when that happened.
Saint Tail chuckled to herself then turned around. She was only three feet from the opening. With a smile and a leap, she dove out of her lucky haven that she had been running through. But as she thought before, fate was not on her side this time. She jumped at the wrong time. Meimi turned forward to see two blinding headlights coming right at her. Then suddenly, something grabbed her, bringing her roughly through the air then crashing into the sidewalk. All she could remember was a loud screech, ear-piercing screams and the sound of metal smashing and crunching into asphalt.
At first everything was blurry. She wasn't quite sure where she was and what had happened or how long she had been out of it. Her red hair flew in her eyes as she shook her head and looked at her surroundings. It was still pitch black but now one broken headlight lit up some of the road. Then she realized she was sitting on top of something. Meimi jumped up quickly then turned around. Her head spun with dizziness and nausea. She had only been out of it for a few seconds but it seemed as if it had been forever. Looking down she squinted her eyes to find Asuka Jr. lying under her with his eyes closed. At first fear and panic gripped her as she knelt down, feeling for a pulse. She found one. Meimi let out a sigh of relief. He had pulled her out of the way of a moving car and had taken the fall for her. He was just unconscious.
Then a thought zoomed through her mind. "The car!!" Spinning around, Meimi came face to face with something she never wanted to see ever again. When she had burst onto the road the car had swerved, causing it to spin sideways where the speed of the car had caused it to flip then slide sideways into a tree. Glass and metal was everywhere, littering the road leaving nothing untouched. The roof was smashed upward as the car was still upside down and the right side of it was embedded into the tree. One headlight was out but the other light was faithfully running, lighting up the road ahead of the car. Above her, the sky opened up, letting a faint drizzle fall down to the earth. Squinted her eyes Meimi could barely make out two people in the front seats. Both were bent in ways she found impossible to be in but she could barely make out the color of the car so Meimi wasn't quite sure of her ability to see.
"Oh.my.God." Meimi managed to utter the three words as she felt her knees weaken and her body begin to tremble. She had caused that wreck. She had caused that accident. At first her knees refused to move and she was worried that they would fail her and cause her to collapse but after a few moments of coaxing, they stepped over to Asuka Jr. Reaching into his coat, she wriggled around until she found his cell phone.
"Hello- 911? There was a horrible accident and I don't know if the people are ok." Now it was Meimi who began to choke back sobs of fear and unbelief. "Yes.it's at 17452 Oak Tree Lane." She paused. "Get here as fast as you can!!!" And then she hung up. Turning back to Asuka Jr., she froze. His head was ever so slowly turning from side to side as be began to come to. Her grip on the phone loosened until the phone dropped out of her grip and crashed onto the ground, sending a black piece of plastic flying.
Saint Tail spun around, took a deep breath as she blinked out the hot tears from her eyes and then ran forward as fast as she could. She could feel part of her world crumbling down around her.
~*~
"One.two.three!!" A flurry of confetti and colors exploded quickly and then disappeared. Meimi stood there, her arms fallen limply at her side. She had to get home and soon so she picked up her pace on the sidewalk. Ruby poked her neck, squeaking softly for some kind of response from her mistress. "No Ruby, I don't have any treats." Meimi whispered, still shaking and she knew that wasn't what Ruby wanted to know. How long had she been walking? Meimi really didn't know. Minutes? Hours? Did it really matter? She didn't care if she was late. She didn't care if her parents worried about where she was. She would just say she was studying at Seira's. It wasn't much of a lie for she had been there before the case. What would she do after this? One thing Meimi knew for sure was that she going to do everything to make sure those people were ok.
She couldn't think. As confusing as it seemed it was simple to Meimi. She just couldn't think or deal with the fact that she could have just killed someone. Someone's mother, someone's father, someone's brother or someone's sister. Maybe someone's grandparent. But it was a life, a fragile life.
"I was careless! I got relaxed and wasn't thinking.and Asuka Jr. saved my life.but I caused that accident Ruby.What if he saw me? Wait.that doesn't even matter! Saint Tail was the cause of a car accident!" She spoke out loud. Surely people would talk, such as the media but that wasn't her top concern. All Meimi cared about was that those people were ok.
Ruby nudged her as if to say 'It'll be ok.'
"Thanks Ruby.b-but.I.I just can't even think about it all right now. My head is pounding from the fall and all that happened.I j-just can't concentrate!!" Meimi slammed her foot down in frustration. It had all happened just too fast for her, it was all just a blur in her mind. "It was an accident.I didn't mean t-to cause.that." She let her voice speak again. Just too many thoughts were swimming around in her mind and it was just causing the throbbing in her head to worsen. So she decided to just turn it all off. It was like turning the light off when you leave a room. You know you have to turn it back on sometime. Picking up her pace, Meimi turned a corner and began to walk down her street. Two blocks down she saw flashing lights of three colors. Red, blue and white. One siren was spinning a constant "Neerow Neerow"
Curiosity and fear shot through her body faster and faster as she walked quicker down the sidewalk. Two police cars were in her neighborhood.
"Maybe someone tried to break into someone's house." She shrugged it off. "Or maybe someone had a party and was too loud." Meimi made up as many excuses as she could to attempt to calm the pounding fear within her heart. "Maybe.there was a fire or something! Yeah.they wouldn't know I was Saint Tail.they wouldn't know I caused that accident.they wouldn't be after me.Would they.?" The question lingered in her mind but she tried to push it off that she was assuming things too fast. There was no way they could figure out her identity and link her with the accident THAT fast.unless Asuka Jr. had seen her face. "They might not even be at my house! It may be the neighbors!" Meimi nodded her head, letting a faint smile pass over her lips but it quickly faded as she neared the scene.
The two cars were directly in front of her house.
One policeman was leaning against her garage while a policewoman was pacing back and forth. The man had short brown hair that was shaved close to his head while the woman had long, bobby blonde hair the curled up around her shoulders
Suddenly it seemed that her heart was stuck in her throat and butterflies were flying around in her stomach. She felt sick and her stomach switched from the butterflies to churning around in circles. Meimi was almost to her house. She was only seven big steps from her driveway.
"Um.Officers...c-can.I h-help you?" The words came out as a squeak practically.
"What did you say?" The man took two steps to her and then peered closely at her face.
"C-can I help y-you?" Meimi spoke up louder, gaining a bit of her courage. All she wanted to do was crawl into bed and disappear from the world. At least for a little bit until the guilt and pain stopped eating away at her insides.
"Do you live here?" The woman was suddenly next to the man, both of them staring down at Meimi as if she was some kind of criminal.
Meimi was sure she was going to faint or collapse right in front of them and bawl out all the events of the night. It was literally draining her. "Y- yes."
"Are you the daughter of Mr. And Mrs. Haneoka?" The man questioned, his words softening at the end.
"Yes.I'm Meimi Haneoka.why?" Meimi nervously bit her lip. "Did s-something happen?"
The woman's face looked down at her. What was that she saw in her eyes? Sympathy?
"Honey.I'm sorry to be the one to tell you this but.your parents were involved in a tragic car accident." The woman knelt down next to Meimi, holding her shoulder incase she fainted as her face had paled swiftly.
"A-are they ok.?" Meimi whispered the words that were barely audible.
"They didn't make it. I'm terribly sorry." The man gravely replied.
Now.now Meimi felt the rest of her world crashing down all around her.
~*~ Please come now I think I'm falling
I'm holding on to all I think is safe
It seems I found the road to nowhere
And I'm trying to escape
One Last Breath
~By: Lauren~
E S C A P E
Her red hair fluttered in the breeze as her heels clicked with each energy- draining step. The wind caressed her skin as she took in a deep, ragged breath and sprinted to the left.
"Cheap balloons!!" Saint Tail cursed. She was just escaping Asuka Jr. when the huge pink balloon she was floating on decided to pop. She had narrowly escaped by landing on the ground and doing the only thing she could think of at the time: Running. Behind her she could hear the detective's own shoes tapping in the darkness. It was late, around 7 P.M., Saint Tail thought. Her parents would be coming home soon from their dinner out. It was their 25th anniversary and so they had went out for a romantic evening to themselves and then the three of them planned to stay up late watching movies. But Meimi had other plans than to sit around and do her homework. She had a job to do as the famous heroine Saint Tail! A few beads of sweat dripped down her neck and soaked into her stark white collar. Buried in her hair, Ruby squeaked softly. "I've got to run him off my tail!!" Saint Tail muttered to the hedgehog.
"Slow down Saint Tail! I'll capture you and you know it!!" Asuka Jr.'s voice yelled, the sound echoing off the walls as she took a sharp left.
"Oops." Saint Tail frowned as she entered the only escape route she could find. It was between two houses and two fences that left her about two feet to run through. One fence was metal bars painted black that ran up high into the air and on her other side was a tall brick wall. She had only one choice and that was to run forward. Her skin paled and she winced as she scrapped her skin against the brick, leaving a crimson mark on her arm. This wasn't how she planned her wondrous escape. Meimi wanted to steal the painting, replace it with the real one and then disappear as easy as it was in the past. But no, the fates were obviously against her today. They had to go and weaken her balloon so it exploded!! Up ahead she saw an opening. It was too dark for her to tell what it led to but she didn't care. She couldn't let Asuka Jr. catch her. She never could.
"Stop RUNNING!!!" Asuka Jr. gasped. He decided after this he was defiantly going to hit up the treadmill his father had bought.
Saint Tail smirked at his frustration. Lifting her right had into the air, she quietly muttered. "One.two.THREE!!" Five snowy white doves burst from her hands in a frenzy of feathers. As quick as they appeared, they spun around and commenced peaking at Asuka Jr. "Get em' off!!" Asuka Jr. screeched as the birds peaked at his hair and clothing. He wildly threw his arms in all different directions as he attempted to keep them away. The only problem was the area was so skinny that his hands and arms often collided with either bricks or metal. And it didn't feel too pretty when that happened.
Saint Tail chuckled to herself then turned around. She was only three feet from the opening. With a smile and a leap, she dove out of her lucky haven that she had been running through. But as she thought before, fate was not on her side this time. She jumped at the wrong time. Meimi turned forward to see two blinding headlights coming right at her. Then suddenly, something grabbed her, bringing her roughly through the air then crashing into the sidewalk. All she could remember was a loud screech, ear-piercing screams and the sound of metal smashing and crunching into asphalt.
At first everything was blurry. She wasn't quite sure where she was and what had happened or how long she had been out of it. Her red hair flew in her eyes as she shook her head and looked at her surroundings. It was still pitch black but now one broken headlight lit up some of the road. Then she realized she was sitting on top of something. Meimi jumped up quickly then turned around. Her head spun with dizziness and nausea. She had only been out of it for a few seconds but it seemed as if it had been forever. Looking down she squinted her eyes to find Asuka Jr. lying under her with his eyes closed. At first fear and panic gripped her as she knelt down, feeling for a pulse. She found one. Meimi let out a sigh of relief. He had pulled her out of the way of a moving car and had taken the fall for her. He was just unconscious.
Then a thought zoomed through her mind. "The car!!" Spinning around, Meimi came face to face with something she never wanted to see ever again. When she had burst onto the road the car had swerved, causing it to spin sideways where the speed of the car had caused it to flip then slide sideways into a tree. Glass and metal was everywhere, littering the road leaving nothing untouched. The roof was smashed upward as the car was still upside down and the right side of it was embedded into the tree. One headlight was out but the other light was faithfully running, lighting up the road ahead of the car. Above her, the sky opened up, letting a faint drizzle fall down to the earth. Squinted her eyes Meimi could barely make out two people in the front seats. Both were bent in ways she found impossible to be in but she could barely make out the color of the car so Meimi wasn't quite sure of her ability to see.
"Oh.my.God." Meimi managed to utter the three words as she felt her knees weaken and her body begin to tremble. She had caused that wreck. She had caused that accident. At first her knees refused to move and she was worried that they would fail her and cause her to collapse but after a few moments of coaxing, they stepped over to Asuka Jr. Reaching into his coat, she wriggled around until she found his cell phone.
"Hello- 911? There was a horrible accident and I don't know if the people are ok." Now it was Meimi who began to choke back sobs of fear and unbelief. "Yes.it's at 17452 Oak Tree Lane." She paused. "Get here as fast as you can!!!" And then she hung up. Turning back to Asuka Jr., she froze. His head was ever so slowly turning from side to side as be began to come to. Her grip on the phone loosened until the phone dropped out of her grip and crashed onto the ground, sending a black piece of plastic flying.
Saint Tail spun around, took a deep breath as she blinked out the hot tears from her eyes and then ran forward as fast as she could. She could feel part of her world crumbling down around her.
~*~
"One.two.three!!" A flurry of confetti and colors exploded quickly and then disappeared. Meimi stood there, her arms fallen limply at her side. She had to get home and soon so she picked up her pace on the sidewalk. Ruby poked her neck, squeaking softly for some kind of response from her mistress. "No Ruby, I don't have any treats." Meimi whispered, still shaking and she knew that wasn't what Ruby wanted to know. How long had she been walking? Meimi really didn't know. Minutes? Hours? Did it really matter? She didn't care if she was late. She didn't care if her parents worried about where she was. She would just say she was studying at Seira's. It wasn't much of a lie for she had been there before the case. What would she do after this? One thing Meimi knew for sure was that she going to do everything to make sure those people were ok.
She couldn't think. As confusing as it seemed it was simple to Meimi. She just couldn't think or deal with the fact that she could have just killed someone. Someone's mother, someone's father, someone's brother or someone's sister. Maybe someone's grandparent. But it was a life, a fragile life.
"I was careless! I got relaxed and wasn't thinking.and Asuka Jr. saved my life.but I caused that accident Ruby.What if he saw me? Wait.that doesn't even matter! Saint Tail was the cause of a car accident!" She spoke out loud. Surely people would talk, such as the media but that wasn't her top concern. All Meimi cared about was that those people were ok.
Ruby nudged her as if to say 'It'll be ok.'
"Thanks Ruby.b-but.I.I just can't even think about it all right now. My head is pounding from the fall and all that happened.I j-just can't concentrate!!" Meimi slammed her foot down in frustration. It had all happened just too fast for her, it was all just a blur in her mind. "It was an accident.I didn't mean t-to cause.that." She let her voice speak again. Just too many thoughts were swimming around in her mind and it was just causing the throbbing in her head to worsen. So she decided to just turn it all off. It was like turning the light off when you leave a room. You know you have to turn it back on sometime. Picking up her pace, Meimi turned a corner and began to walk down her street. Two blocks down she saw flashing lights of three colors. Red, blue and white. One siren was spinning a constant "Neerow Neerow"
Curiosity and fear shot through her body faster and faster as she walked quicker down the sidewalk. Two police cars were in her neighborhood.
"Maybe someone tried to break into someone's house." She shrugged it off. "Or maybe someone had a party and was too loud." Meimi made up as many excuses as she could to attempt to calm the pounding fear within her heart. "Maybe.there was a fire or something! Yeah.they wouldn't know I was Saint Tail.they wouldn't know I caused that accident.they wouldn't be after me.Would they.?" The question lingered in her mind but she tried to push it off that she was assuming things too fast. There was no way they could figure out her identity and link her with the accident THAT fast.unless Asuka Jr. had seen her face. "They might not even be at my house! It may be the neighbors!" Meimi nodded her head, letting a faint smile pass over her lips but it quickly faded as she neared the scene.
The two cars were directly in front of her house.
One policeman was leaning against her garage while a policewoman was pacing back and forth. The man had short brown hair that was shaved close to his head while the woman had long, bobby blonde hair the curled up around her shoulders
Suddenly it seemed that her heart was stuck in her throat and butterflies were flying around in her stomach. She felt sick and her stomach switched from the butterflies to churning around in circles. Meimi was almost to her house. She was only seven big steps from her driveway.
"Um.Officers...c-can.I h-help you?" The words came out as a squeak practically.
"What did you say?" The man took two steps to her and then peered closely at her face.
"C-can I help y-you?" Meimi spoke up louder, gaining a bit of her courage. All she wanted to do was crawl into bed and disappear from the world. At least for a little bit until the guilt and pain stopped eating away at her insides.
"Do you live here?" The woman was suddenly next to the man, both of them staring down at Meimi as if she was some kind of criminal.
Meimi was sure she was going to faint or collapse right in front of them and bawl out all the events of the night. It was literally draining her. "Y- yes."
"Are you the daughter of Mr. And Mrs. Haneoka?" The man questioned, his words softening at the end.
"Yes.I'm Meimi Haneoka.why?" Meimi nervously bit her lip. "Did s-something happen?"
The woman's face looked down at her. What was that she saw in her eyes? Sympathy?
"Honey.I'm sorry to be the one to tell you this but.your parents were involved in a tragic car accident." The woman knelt down next to Meimi, holding her shoulder incase she fainted as her face had paled swiftly.
"A-are they ok.?" Meimi whispered the words that were barely audible.
"They didn't make it. I'm terribly sorry." The man gravely replied.
Now.now Meimi felt the rest of her world crashing down all around her.
~*~ Please come now I think I'm falling
I'm holding on to all I think is safe
It seems I found the road to nowhere
And I'm trying to escape