A great while ago, when the world was full of wonders...

OBELISK:
Kingdom of Monsters
The Tea Lion Express

"No trauma has discrete edges. Trauma bleeds. Out of wounds and across boundaries."
— Leslie Jamison, The Empathy Exams: Essays

There was no snow when they found her, but the early morning air was cold enough to freeze the blood in her veins and root her to the end of the driveway where the blackberry bushes with their thorns and brambles caught her naked toes till they bled.

Someone, she couldn't remember who, was crying about how blue her fingers looked and how stiff her toes were, like they might never move again. Maybe it was Ami. Ami was the one who lived with her, and she had been the first to notice her absence. Karin had been sleeping over as well, but Karin slept so much deeper than Ami and didn't wake up till the younger girl started screaming from outside.

Together, the pair helped Sakura back indoors and lowered her into a steaming bath that bit at her skin, bringing it back to life. Ami was still crying while Karin called the front desk at Urgent Care.

"Do I need to bring her in? Huh…yeah… she's still unresponsive."

What had she been doing outside in her pajamas? Why hadn't she bothered to wear shoes? Her driveway was all sharp edges and loose rock gravel. Even without the thorns, her toes bled. Was that what kept them from freezing? All the hot life blood was seeping out of her, trying to get away from her.

"Sakura?" Ami was calling for her. Numbly, Sakura turned her head, feeling the tickle of her hair ends swish over her shoulders. When had her hair ever been this short? She took good care of her hair and was growing it out. Last she remembered, it was more than halfway down her back with a slight wave. What was left was lighter and choppy and…so much shorter. How had that happened?

"Sakura?" This time it was Karin.

Sakura looked up and saw two faces. "What was I doing?" she asked numbly.

Transient global amnesia.

Sakura was diagnosed in a small clinic who no characteristics to be recognized by while she sat between Karin and her mother. Ami was pacing back and forth outside on her phone, talking to a family friend who was a doctor about what the hell was going on and how the hell she could make it so Sakura never walked out on her own again and forgot where she was.

Inside their tiny room, the female doctor explained to Sakura how rare transient global amnesia was, and that it was unlikely to happen again…until she looked at Sakura's family medical history. Then the female doctor made a face and Sakura recognized it right away. Deep pity with a side of 'I don't want to have to tell you this' thrown in for good measure.

"I see your mother has schizophrenia and was diagnosed with bi-polar disorder earlier on. She's currently at Aurora, I see. I know some of the doctors there, it's well recommended. Do you know of anyone else in your family who has an undiagnosed history of…?" Sakura shook her head, even though she knew she was lying. There were tones of crazy people in her extended family, but most all of them hid it too well. The ones that didn't, the ones like her mother's oldest brother, didn't live long enough to find out what was left for them in a world afraid of the most fearful.

The doctor made another face, and Sakura didn't want to watch it because she recognized this one too. Karin's mother reached over and squeezed Sakura's hand. "For now," the older woman began, turning back to the doctor. "I think we would like to know what we could do about this condition."

"No, as I was saying, transient global amnesia is rare and not classified as a condition, but is an indicator of stress. As you already know, it is a sudden, temporary episode of memory loss. During an episode a person's recall of recent events simply vanishes, so you can't remember where you are or how you got there."

"Yeah," Karin said, nodding along. "That sounds about right."

Sakura didn't look up, but she could feel the way Karin shook with the memory. Ami wasn't taking it well, and that much was evident, but Sakura hadn't thought about Karin. How was Karin holding up?

The doctor droned on in the background. "…you may not remember anything about what's happening in the here and now, as your memory services are still unavailable to cement you in a time or place. Were you asking a lot of the same questions, over and over, even after they were answered?"

"Her hair," Karin cut in, answering for Sakura. "She kept asking what happened to her hair, and why it was gone and like, she kept asking what she was doing and where she was." Karin looked sideways at Sakura. "You kept apologizing a lot, too."

"Sounds about right," Karin's mother hummed, rubbing a circle into Sakura's shoulders. It felt warm and made Sakura want to sleep again.

"That's very typical. Now, I'd like a minute alone with Sakura to discuss the onset of theses events in privet, unless you would like them here." The doctor waited till she had Sakura's eye. "If you do not want to discuss that with me you have patient refusal rights, but because this was triggered by stress, and because you have a family history of mental illness, I would strongly suggest you seek out a professional therapist."

Sakura found the ends of her shirt and her fingers curled around the fabric. It was coming back to her, one memory right after the other, like the box cars on a train. Each painful memory was followed by another and then another and then another. She remembered Sai, her sweet friend and companion for so long. She remembered killing him. She remembered Kimimaro's screams. She remembered killing Naruto-no, that wasn't Naruto. That was Menma.

She wasn't sick, not in the way this doctor thought she was. She wasn't having mental breakdowns because of some messed of family history, but because of what happened to her in the dream world. She wouldn't ever tell anyone that though, since it would only make them more convinced of a condition she didn't have. She wasn't psychotic. They weren't vivd hallucinations. It was just a curse.

By the time Sakura and the doctor were done, they got back out to the car where Ami was waiting, her cheeks tinted with pink from the cold. Even though it was spring already, overcast days still managed to get cold. She didn't say much, but squeezed into the back seat bench with Sakura and Karin instead of riding up front with Karin's mother.

"There's somewhere I want you to drop us off, you know the salon we passed on the way here. I made a reservation and the girl's waiting for us." Ami turned back to look at Sakura and the frustration still lingered in her eyes. "I can't do much, but this at least is something. Don't tell me you owe me or anything either, it's a gift, just accept it."

Sakura remembered seeing herself in the rearview mirror and hated how choppy her hair looked. Something she had taken such good care of, now gone. She doubted it could be salvaged, but decided to humor her friend. If for no other reason, to appreciate Ami's efforts. The though of her friends caring for her so much made her warm.

She forced the smile in her heart to her lips and nodded. "Okay."

And just like before, between one Kingdom and one Gate, Sakura had a month of rest before her menstrual cycle came and went, triggering the start of the next world of nightmares. Because even though they were often times beautiful, they all proved deadly to her spirit in the end.

The night before she entered the dream world she woke up in what Sai once called the Bridge. It was the world in dreams between gate and kingdom. Last time she had traveled between the Kingdom of Man and the Monarch Woods it had been a black beach with waves like flames for Sai to meet her on. Knowing she would be alone and without Sai, Sakura lacked the motivation to open her eyes when she felt herself fully emerge into the new world.

It was a dark world. Where the skies hung an ocean rolled, foaming in the places where clouds should have hung. phosphorescent fish blinked in and out of the waves like stars high above her head.

Sakura stood and looked around her. Mist was heavy around her knees, but not high enough to obscure her immediate vision. There were trees, a forest thick with them, and pale white stones that rose like megaliths out of the earth. The few she saw were smooth to the touch, weathered with age.

A twig snapped and Sakura turned. There was a deer in between the trees; it was a doe. She stared at Sakura with bright eyes wide with questions. Then a second deer joined her, and a third, soon a fourth and a fifth peeked out from between the trees. Sakura took a step back, nearly tripping on the long velvet train of her medieval frock, richly embellished with golden ivy on green. Looking down, she felt like something out of a King Arthur's legend. Even her hair, as short as it was, had been pulled back and tucked into a pearl studded net that rested lightly against the back of her neck. Down the back of her shoulders she felt the heavy fabric of a hood and tugged on that, hoping to hide from some of the eyes.

"Who's there?" Sakura called out, hoping to reach out and communicate with someone.

The deer staring at her unnerved her. There were more showing up from between the trees, surrounding her on all sides. The more that emerged the more Sakura felt the need to stumble backwards into the deeper mists. The ground went uneven and she tripped enough to fall back on her butt. A pair of white columns rose up on either side of her , and with shock Sakura realized she had stumbled backwards into the outer ring of a stonehenge. Only these white stones were carved with runes and markings that seemed pulsing and alive.

"They're not made of stolen magic, like the Obelisk."

Sakura nearly screamed, rounding to come face to face with a figure in the mist. He stood between two deer, both impressively large with extended racks that twisted skyward like a royal crown. And as stunning as the two wild creatures were, the man between them was even more enchanting.

"Who are you?" Sakura asked, taking a half step back. Her words sounded weary even in her own ears. "Are you the next…guide?"

"We are the Nara, we travel in these woods. You will not encounter us again, for we are neither Actor nor Subject of the curse." The boy raised his hand and the sigil glowed brighter. "Our own powers keep us here, free from the devouring, but lack the might to overcome the darkness. We are trapped, but not consumed."

Sakura observed the boy again. Hardly dressed, it was his face, sleek and deer like that captivated her the most. Poking out from his flesh at the edge of his crown of hair were petite, velvet antlers that were already starting to twist outwards. In years as he became a man they would become greater things. He reminded her of Cernunnos, the Horned God of the Celtic people.

"Why am I here?" Sakura asked, glancing down at the simple things he wore: a belt of what looked like leather with softer chaps and nothing else. His toes were dirt stained and bare in the grass and mist, but at least he had toes. "And why are you here with me?"

"The world between worlds is the only place we may dwell, and rarely do we encounter the dreamer. Others are trapped in like manner, but you will never see them. We wanted to meet you so our Great Heart King might bless you. It is in the dreamer that all our hopes, tested for another thousand years, must live and die."

"You wanna bless me?" Sakura asked, sounding confused.

It didn't seem like they were enemies, but it was still an odd encounter. If Sai was still around, would Sakura have ever met the Nara? Were the Nara truly what they claimed to be? Sakura looked the boy over once again, her eyes catching on the details like the freckles on his collarbone or the dirt that stuck under his nails. He seemed like something pulled from the mud and formed in the shade and dried in the sun.

Behind her the stones hummed and Sakura jumped, stepping further backwards into the circle. It tasted like magic when she opened her mouth to gasp. She locked eyes with the forest boy. "Why would you want to bless me?"

The Nara boy followed her into the circle, but the deer at his sides remained where they stood. He touched her at the shoulder, trancing his fingers down to her elbows to tug on and hold out. He took her hands and held them in his. He was watching her. "The knower of the hidden ways told us thus, that you were worth our blessing, that you would end our damnation."

Sakura wanted to shake him off, but couldn't find the strength to move. "I don't…it's not a game anymore. This world is killing me in the real world. I'm sick and I can't live like this. You're wrong, I don't know if I'll make it. I can't be who you put you bets on." Her voice caught and she felt the tears on her face. She was choking on her own voice.

The boy tugged on her hands and brought her closer. He dragged her so close she could swear she could count his eyelashes if she wanted to. "You will hold out hope. Modest of girls, most humble of dreamers, you will carry us into the stars, each one of us."

Sakura felt like holding her head, falling into a ball, and crying again. She felt like running away. She felt like turning the shower on and never stepping out. She felt like wrapping herself up and falling away. "No." She whispered, feeling afraid.

The Nara boy tugged on her hands, pulling her into him. The smooth part of his forehead touched hers and his breath ghosted across her face. Bending down he kissed her full on the mouth and suddenly Sakura was swallowing searing letters and a hundred druid chants knotted in her throat. Like birds they flew through her body, and like dragons they seared through her insides.

Sakura fell to her knees and knotted her fingers into the grass, pulling as the silent scream tore up her insides. She could feel it, out of the peak of her hairline, twin points of velvet emerged, twisting and turning and growing into a magnificent crown heavy enough to carry all her magic.

Where the Nara boy once stood now paced an albino father deer with antlers higher than any others'. He was tall and strong and inside of her now. His voice echoed like a living thing inside her head.

'All that is in us now lives in you. Underneath your heel, woman of the earth, crush the Snake."

"So… you're watching a person play the game on a youtube video streamed through your television?"

"Yup."

"It's not a movie?"

"Nope."

"And you're not playing the game?"

"Nope."

Ami stared down at Sakura and Karin with mild slack jawed awe. The two girls were sitting on the couch with a bowl of extra butter popcorn between them, slouched and listless after a long day at work. Neither Sakura nor Karin looked like they were prepared to give any fucks what-so-ever. Whether it was the wrinkled pajamas or unwashed faces devoid of makeup, it was hard to miss how 'done' the two girls actually were. No one was going out tonight.

Shrugging, Ami set her shopping bags down and sat down next to Sakura, tugging a blanket over her exposed knees. "So what are you watching him play?"

Karin popped in an extra large kernel of popped popcorn before replying. "Five Nights at Freedy's. Turn out the lights."

When she woke up inside the dream she was sitting down in front of a table and in her hand was a cup, the matching saucer left behind on the table. Lifting the tea cup up Sakura inhaled the warm lemon Balm scent. She filled her lungs with lemon scents before taking a sip, glancing up over the rim of the teacup to observe her new surroundings. She was inside the dining car on an older train car. High end, she was in the car likely reserved for the best payers.

Sakura set the tea cup down and licked her lips clean. The car was spacious enough with tables and cars sparsely spaced on the ends leaving room for a wide isle. As far as she could tell, Sakura was the only one in the car. Large as it was, it was completely devoid of passengers not including herself.

She held her breath, daring and cowering at the same time, before calling out. "Sai?" She sounded weaker than she thought she would, but the answering silence as just as she imagined it. She felt humbled and small.

"I'm truly alone this time, then."

Absently she took a sip from her tea and then set it down. The lemon tasted so real on her tongue, it was hard to believe it was a dream. Everything inside the curse always felt too real.

"Enough of that. I need to get out of here. This is the gate, where is the Obelisk?"

Sakura stood up and looked down at the dress she was wearing. It was glittering with gold, glass beads all the way to her ankles. It looked like something someone of money would wear in the early 1900's. And while it was easy enough to move around in, Sakura doubted it was what she wanted to be wearing if and when she got into a fight with something sinister.

Ignoring her dress, Sakura walked over to the opposite side of the car and pulled back the heavy green curtains to see outside. There were humble hills dotted with lush foliage and petite copses of trees scattered like fragments of an old world superimposed upon a newer land. Sakura let the curtain drop and crossed back over to the side she had woken up on. Reaching over the table with her tea, she pulled back the curtain and looked outside. Instead of the same scene, there was a nightcap with a low sky thick with stars and too close galaxies. Underneath those skies were mirror smooth lakes and marsh lands in between the waters.

"Yes, that's my dream alright." Sakura dropped the curtain and stepped back underneath the lamplight that ran like a vein down the spiked spine of the car roof.

The car was large, but it wasn't so large that she couldn't see the end of it. There was two ends, one leading to the caboose and the other leading to another car on the train. She felt a tilt underneath her heels and ran to the sunny side windows to look out. The train was curving around a hill so much she could see the engine ten or twelve cars up. It was an old world steam engine with a boiler over crusted with obelisk shards. The train peaked out around the hill and disappeared like a snake, taking each subsequent car with it out of sight.

There had been something written down the side of the engine, faint and far away, Sakura was still able to make it out.

"The Tea Lion Express. Fine, that's my third gate."

Sweeping her short curls over her ears and out of her face, Sakura turned towards the end of the car and reached for the door. It groaned when she tried to push down the handle, but didn't budge an inch. Locked, it wasn't about to let anyone though.

"Fine," Sakura growled, holding out her hand and envisioning a short gold handled blade.

Simple and streamline while still being ascetically appealing, Sakura took the sword into both her hands and raised it up above her head before swinging it down. The door screamed, throwing her back onto her ass. Her sword landed next to her in pieces. Angry, Sakura formed a ivory handled revolver and fired it off before the cuts on her face could sting. Just like with the sword, the door screamed and shot back her bullets, nearly striking her.

Dropping her sword into mist, Sakura approached the door again and looked it over. Still locked, there were three different keyholes lined up above the curve handle. Sakura thought up a skeleton key and tried jamming it into the holes, but the keyholes rejected anything that wasn't meant for it like a positive magnet with another positive magnet.

"Kay, I got it, I have to find three keys in order to get to the next world or level or whatever. I've seen this play before." It was common enough in video games for Sakura to feel fine with the task and not too confused.

Backtracking, Sakura sat down in front of her tea and sipped at the Lemon Balm. Lemon Balm tea was supposed to be good for you if you were stressed and it was hard to imagine any other emotion being appropriate for her current situation in life. She tipped her teacup back and felt something brush her lips. Pulling back, something white and curled floated on what was left of the tea in her cup. Sakura reached in with her two fingers and pulled out the roll. It was a piece of paper that was thick with something like wax, likely to preserve it while inside the tea.

Unrolled Sakura scanned the elegant cursive handwriting.

'A force of Might you may be, but how do you do with Puzzles of the Mind?'

Sakura rolled her eyes, tossing the paper back into her empty teacup, pretending whoever wrote the message could hear her. "That didn't even rhyme. What were you, lazy? That's cryptic enough but you loose points for wording."

Sakura stood again, and this time she noticed something different about the car. While it was true she was the only one on board, there were no other places set at any of the tables save for one. Closer to the door and on the opposite side of the room there was a table set and a short box on the empty china plate.

Not bothering to sit down, Sakura picked up the box and turned it over, recognizing it after a few turns. It was a puzzle box. She used to have one like it as a child, being a gift from her father. They were pretty big in Japan, and that's where this one looked like it was from. The Puzzle Box in her had was made was a recognizable Yosegi pattern. The pattern would help her match up the correct panels.

Sakura was good with puzzles. It was something her mind was wired for. Puzzle solving always seemed to calm her down and make everything else around her seem simple. If only life were like a puzzle with an easily manipulated pattern and sequence that could be exploited faithfully time after time.

She heard a click and a panel popped open, showing off a key. Sakura picked at it with her two fingers before pulling it free. It was tiny and she doubted it would fit in any of the keyholes, but once she matched it up, the key slid perfectly into the first available key slot.

When Sakura turned back there was one more table with a setting in place. Like the first table, this table also had a puzzle box waiting for Sakura, but it was a tad larger. Sakura had to sit down to play through the puzzle, but just like the first one, this one proved no match for her. After a while she had the second key.

Following through with the motions, Sakura fit the key into the second lock and when she turned back, there was one last puzzle box waiting for her on the table closest to the door. It felt a bit too easy, but for the first night of a new gate, it was probably the only mercy she would encounter. If Sai were around she would be able to ask him but since he wasn't…

Sakura picked up the puzzle box and slid out the large panels, rearranging, twisting, and turning them so that they fit into a pattern. It took longer than the other two, and she could feel the strain of the end of the dream start to tug on the corners of her reality, but Sakura finally managed to get the key out in time, rushing to place it inside the door and undo the last of the locks. She felt something give behind the door, and this time when she twisted the handle the wood gave way and she was hit with heat and light.

Sakura sat up in bed, rubbing the back of her head, making her already wild bed head messier than before. She stood and crossed over to her bathroom, stopping to find her reflection in the mirror marred with tear stains. The scratches were nothing, and not even noticeable unless she looked for them.

"Just another night in the nightmare," Sakura told herself before stepping into the shower. When she stepped out again she heard Ami poking about in her room. Knotting a towel around her bust Sakura opened the door to the bedroom a peak to look out.

"Sakura," Ami exclaimed, jumping a bit. "I was going to take you if you weren't up already. Do you have an interview today."

Sakura forced an easy smile and situated her hands confidently atop her hips. "Interview was last Monday. Today's my first day, but its still a big deal. I worked a bit for Mrs. Adams while in high school, doing data entry for her company. Now that she has a baby on the way, she needs someone to run to all the remote site and do the accounting work on site." Sakura turned back to the mirror and wiped away the fog left behind. "You want to help me pick out something to wear while I do my hair?"

"Ah, you're so reliable, Sakura. Another job so soon after just starting to look. I don't even know what I want to do with my life."

"You're going to dress me and be my professional roommate and chauffeur. That is why you exist in this world," Sakura called back, her voice low and ominous before being followed by a sinister laugh.

"You're a dork!" Ami sighed in over exaggerated exasperation.

When Sakura eventually stepped out, her hair was straightened and dried, parted and clipped off to the side to keep from getting in her face. She still had to wear a towel, but her pale green bra straps peaked out from underneath. Ami had left to make breakfast downstairs and laid out across the bed was a mint colored pencil skirt and a black and white stripped three quarter sleeve shirt. When Sakura came down in her nude wedges Ami sighed at the sight.

"With your new haircut you look so grown up and mature. You're like an office lady….a hot office lady that can get plenty of action if she wants it. I feel left behind."

Sakura laughed. "Don't' stress yourself Ami. If I want to stop feeling like a screw up for failing most of my classes and taking a break from school I have to come to that on my own." Sakura reached for a gray peacoat and paused. Something on Sakura's face softened and she turned back to Ami with a less sarcastic expression. "But thank you for trying and sticking with me. I really appreciate it. When I get back I'll do dinner and we can talk about our days. Don't make plans, okay?"

Ami rolled her eyes. "As if I could."

Sakura grabbed a shake in a can from the fridge and made a beeline for the car port outside where her station wagon waited. It didn't take her long to drive to Mrs. Adams, (Or Julia's), and by the time she pulled into the curved driveway her shake was an empty can on the car floor for her to leave behind.

She was greeted at the door by the shorter blond with too red cheeks and a half dozen freckles across her nose. Julia was perfectly friendly and all smiles as she led Sakura into the home office and started going over what they needed to start working on before they left. The main purpose of Sakura's visit was to go with Julia to visit the sites she would go to for her days of data entry.

There was a bar, a construction company, an auto repair shop, a Vegan cafe, two pubs, and a bakery.

"Been to any of them before?" the pregnant woman asked, leaning over Sakura as the younger girl looked through the Tax statements for each. She stopped when she got to the bar.

"This one, I've been there often enough," Sakura answered before pulling out the file for the Orchard.

Mrs. Adams nodded approvingly. "Good, that's one of the places you'll be at weekly, since I do the drawer for both the Orchard and Root. It's a lot of hours, so I break it up and would go two days a week, maybe two four hour shifts. The guys there are super friendly though, you'll enjoy it."

Sakura tucked the bank statement back into the file and slipped it away between the other vanilla envelopes. "Is that one of the locations we'll be visiting today?"

Julia smiled knowingly. "Why do you sound apprehensive, pet? No, that and Duke's Construction are for tomorrow. You have a lot to learn today, so I want your mind ready a focussed. Those boys can be distracting."

Sakura rolled her eyes, mentally questioning the possibility of her new boss consorting with Ami in regards to getting a date out of an Orchard employee. "Mrs. A, when have you known me to ever be distracted by the rougher sex? I was always good for having my mind on my work."

"Which is why I hired you back, right away. Enough of that, let's get going. If we time it right, we might get free lunch!"

Sakura nodded wordlessly, picking up her purse and following her boss out. A part of her mind stayed stuck on the idea of working at the Orchard. It almost seemed too convenient, how it had all played out. Aside from that, she was almost apprehensive about going back to the bar, since she hadn't visited it since things in the dream world got bad. Ami went regularly enough, but Sakura hadn't been out to enjoy herself in such a open way since…

"Sakura?"

The green eyed girl looked up and smiled. "Don't worry, I can tolerate car oil smells. Working in their shop wont be a problem."

Julia eyed Sakura with a sly smile. "You're a crafty one, Sakura pet. A part of you always looks far off. I think you're gone, but you're always right here."

Sakura forced another smile. "Where else would I be?"

Sakura was back on the Tea Lion Express, sitting down in another shapely gown. Her hair was pulled back and pinned in place with pearls that matched the rows wrapped around her neck. While sleeveless, a thick fur shawl draped itself across her shoulders, keeping her warm. In front of her was a pale blue teacup with still warm tea. Reaching for it, Sakura inhaled and smelled peppermint before tasting it.

A whistle blew in the distance and Sakura looked up to see a white winter landscape outside the windows closest to her. On the opposite side of the train were misty mountains at twilight. Both set of windows had curtains partially drawn, but the rest of the car was not at all like the previous one. Instead of dinning tables, there were lounging couches and petite oak trays built into the walls for socialites to relax and sip at.

Remembering the clue left in her drink, Sakura lifted her tea and tasted the flavor till there was nothing left of it. At the bottom of her tea cup remained a single rolled parchment.

'I can rhyme when I want to!'

Sakura turned it over looking for the clue, but there was nothing else written. "What?" she exclaimed, feeling cheated. "Is that it? No clue, no hint? What a rip off. Slacker whiney baby. Fine, I can do this one my own."

Sakura brushed the curled that swept over her brow away from her eyelashes, taking the opportunity to look around the cabin. This car was similar to the first, but when Sakura looked, she noticed it was significantly longer, larger too. The door at the end had a single keyhole, but was locked in much the same way. Also, there were people scattered about. Only a handful, and no two sitting together, but there were people on this car.

Walking up and down Sakura counted five figures in total. There was a man reading a newspaper, another man reading a book, two ladies sitting together, one writing and letter while the other stared out the window, and one male towards the back drinking tea. No one seemed to stand out on their own. The man drinking tea coughed every so often, and the ladies sitting together would often murmur words to one another, but Sakura couldn't find anything else that begged for her attention.

She returned to her teacup to look the message over again. 'I can rhyme when I want to!' She had trouble seeing that as meaning anything at all. All she had to go on was a gut feeling. Sakura traced the rim of her teacup and looked back out at the passengers. Only one of them was drinking tea.

Sakura stood and crossed the room to sit down across from the dark haired man with shadows under his eyes. He looked up at her before pulling out a white handkerchief to hide his pale, thin lips when he coughed.

"Do you have a key for me?" Sakura asked sweetly, interlacing her fingers and resting her chin atop them as she leaned forward on the table.

The may eyed her wearily. "Why would you think I had anything for you?"

"Gut feeling, also, you're the only other one here drinking tea and…" Sakura reached for his teacup, dragging it closer to her face to inhale the aroma. "It's the same as mine. You left the note in my teacup didn't you? That's why there was no clue this time. Who are you?"

The man said nothing, still regarding her with apprehension until another cough forced him to brake off his gaze. "Intuition, was it?" he finally asked.

Sakura shrugged, unlacing her fingers and folding her hands across her lap, out of sight. "I just had a feeling, and now that I'm sitting down next to you, I can tell you're different from the others. Are you an actor, or something else?"

Underneath the table her fingers curled around the handle of a revolver, poised and ready to trigger a hailstorm of lead if the man said anything about being the dream killer.

He heard the click from the hammer being pulled back and looked up quickly. "I am not the dream killer, nor could I ever be. There are no such characters in the gate worlds!"

"Then a name?"

"Hayate, and I am the Throat of Loss, the third of your escorts; he who is plague born, blade of ire, and bridegroom to the dead."

"So you're like Sai?" She pretended she didn't feel a pinch in her chest when she said his name out loud.

"I am a guide like the Sigh of Dejection was, yes, but I am infinitely less biased in my practices. The Breath of Discontent was always partial to the words of the white snake, and the Sigh of Dejection was…uncharacteristically helpful. Do not expect such behavior from me. I am a neutral agent in the dreams."

"So are you going to give me that key or am I going to have to do something for you?"

Hayate took another sip from his tea before answering. "Do you think it would be fair of me to just give you something for nothing?"

Sakura's smile was sickeningly sweet. "Oh, I'm sorry," She cooed in over-exaggeration. "I didn't realize we were making efforts to be fair in this crap shit dream world where my life is put in jeopardy every time I fall asleep. But now that you've brought it up let's have that conversation." By the time she had finished speaking her revolver was a winchester rife poking Hayate's sensitive regions underneath the table. He stiffened, but didn't cower.

"That is unnecessary. I am not your enemy. I am neutral."

"You're keeping me from progressing. Key. Now."

Hayate coughed and tried shifting away from the barrel between his legs. "I'll trade it to you, and consider my offer because I have more than just a key to give to you. I have information you will want."

Sakura nudged the gun further. Her smile was sweet but her words were murder. "Convince me."

"What do you think is beyond this car? What about the one after that, and the one after that? How many of them are there? Don't you want some of this information, or are you one of the rare few that prefers to go in blind?" When Sakura relaxed her hold on the gun Hayate breathed out a sigh of relief that quickly turned into a cough. Once he was finished hacking, he looked up and tried finishing his thoughts. "I may be unbiased, but you may earn favors from me if you are worthy of them. Trials and puzzles are my forte, but this is still the land of monsters, so not every night will be as peaceful as the last."

Sakura resisted the urge to roll her eyes. "No, of course they won't be. This world is out to kill me, isn't it?" Pausing, Sakura regarded the sickly man before her and finally withdrew her winchester rifle, returning it back to the pearl handled revolver from before. She pulled it up and set it down on the table, keeping her hand lightly curled around the trigger. Making a show of it, Sakura relaxed her hold until her fingers were outside the trigger.

Hayate seemed to calm down. Coughing again, the man reached inside his breast pocket and pulled out a metal key with a ribbon tied to the end. It looked broken in parts and seemed to be missing it's other half. "I will trade this to you…for the work of poetry by Charles Baudelaire." Hayate nodded to the man reading by the window on the opposite end of the car.

"That's it? Nothing else?" Sakura asked, mentally wondering how difficult it would be to acquire the book of poetry. It might be a simple time waster sort of task, or it could be a long drawn out errand where she ended up having to trade a penny for a house.

"I just want the book. The man himself might have ideas otherwise."

Sakura wanted to roll her eyes, but didn't. Instead, she stood and crossed the car over to where the man sat reading. He didn't look up or seem to notice her until she tapped the table in front of him and leaned over. He was taking off his spectacles when Sakura started speaking.

"You're book, I need it, how can I earn it from you?"

Not minding or caring how rude she sounded, the blank face man blinked at her then shut the book. "Ah yes, I am in need of something new to read. I'll give you this book if you can find me something new to read, maybe a newspaper."

Sakura glanced backwards over her shoulder at the man reading a thought about just summoning a newspaper of her own invention out of thin air, of dreaming a new newspaper into existence, but when she tried nothing came. No surprise there, Sakura picked herself up, crossed the room and sat down in front of the expressionless man reading the newspaper.

Instead of tapping the table she poked at his paper, turning the middle of it down to catch his attention. "I need to borrow your newspaper. When you're done can I have it?"

"Oh, I wanted to finish, but this word puzzle has be stumped. You don't think you could help me solve it, do you. I would give it to you then."

"What kind of word search?" Sakura asked, sitting down next to the man as he laid his newspaper flat and showed off the small cross word search box in the corner. There were a few words filled in already, but the bulk of it was left blank.

Taking the clues, one by one, Sakura answered the puzzle, helping the man get through all of it without ripping the pen out of his hands and answering them all on her own. There were a few she had to get up and look around the room for clues to, but nothing she couldn't solve.

Once they were done the man seemed genuinely pleased and handed the paper over to Sakura who then took it over to the man readying poetry. He was just as happy to trade his book for her paper.

By the time Sakura sat down again, she felt the bulk of the dream world had already passed. She was nearing the end of her sleep. Handing the book over to Hayate, he poked a finger in between the pages and opened the book to a page where a hole had been cut out to make room for a key. Only half of a key remained inside. Hayate took out his key and combined it with the broken half he pulled out from the book. They fit into each other perfectly.

"I'm sure of it now," he murmured to himself before looking up at Sakura. "You solved the puzzle too quickly. This will be the last car where you advance based on your puzzle solving skills. The other cars will be dangerous. Make sure you are armed before you finish your tea."

"What's in the next car?"

"Monsters."

It was a single word, but it was enough of an answer. Beasts to kill, things that would devour her. There was little more she needed to know. "Then what about actors I'll meet, and how many cars will I have to go through in order to get to the next kingdom. It won't be huge like the last gate was, right?"

"While the Monarch Woods were extended beyond their intended perimeters, the size of a gate is directly related to the size of the kingdom. The TeaLion Express, as it is now, will consist of no less then twelve cars, or twelve trials."

Sakura narrowed her eyes at his language. "You said 'no less,' meaning there could be more than twelve stupid cars for me to go through."

Hayate inclined his head. "Possibly."

"That's messed up. Why can't you just give me a straight answer? I got you your key and I was fast about it. Didn't I earn your answers? Isn't that fair?" Sakura didn't care if her tone was disrespectful or snappy. He still held on to the key to the next car and the fact that he hadn't passed it over to her hadn't gone unnoticed.

"The curse is a living magic that evolves. Everything you encounter in the dream world or see was taken from your memories, from your mind. The only reason these foreign actors know English is because you know English. Slaves and foot soldiers who died before the birth of Christ can dress in buttons and drive automobiles because of your knowledge. Even these trials and tests are made out of what you know or think you know." He paused to cough into his handkerchief before continuing. "With that being said, the living curse is constantly evolving. What was once a wild lion hunt for one dreamer is now a train ride. Not even I know everything that will transpire."

"So what you just said was that you don't know. Great." Sakura growled in frustration. "None of this sounds fair to me."

"That is why it is called a curse."

The feeling of her nails in her palms, digging little half moon circles into her flesh kept her from reaching across the table and smacking Hayate upside the head. "What can you tell me, Throat of Loss guy? What are you good for?"

"There will not be a high number of actors in this gate. However, in the Kingdom of Monsters you should expect more than any kingdom previously. Also, this is information you would have no knowledge of, but the Sigh of Dejection has been dispositioned from his post as guide."

Whatever that mean it was about Sai, and Sakura felt strangled. "He's not dead? What do you mean he's been…he's not a guide anymore? What does that have to do with anything?"

"He was terribly disobedient and abused his powers. When Kimimaro sinned in the past it was always pardoned because it was for the white snake. Sai sided against that same snake. He was meant to be erased from the curse and his soul damned." Sakura gasped, feeling the half moons in her hands break flesh. Hayate noticed, but didn't comment on the new blood seeping under her fingernails. "However, he is also the 'knower of hidden ways' and is no longer under the gaze of the all seeing eye, as fate would allow it." Another coughing spell interrupted his words. "Still, he is no longer a guide and without the body of one. This is gossip and of no value to me, but he was close to you. Take this information as payment for your success."

Sakura pulled her hands back onto her lap and uncurled her fingers. The blood was there, shallow and pretty as roses. Sai. Somehow he still existed. What became of him? What had she done to him, really? She sliced through his body, or the body that had once been his, but what did that actually do? Was that a true death, would she see him again, would he ever truly die while in the curse.

"Don't dwell on it. The next night you dream you will encounter enemies. I may not see you again until the Kingdom of Monsters. Until then…" He handed over the key and she took it eagerly. "Do your best to survive."

"No one has imagined us. We want to live like trees, sycamores blazing through the sulfuric air, dappled with scars, still exuberantly budding, our animal passion rooted in the city."
— Adrienne Rich

Ami was loud coming up the stairs and Sakura knew she was at her door before the knocking started. "Come in," Sakura called, painting the ends of her eyes with liner. When she turned around Ami had already made a bee line for her closet and was pulling out things.

"You're going to the Orchard today, right?"

Sakura wanted to groan, but she didn't. "Contrary to popular belief I can dress myself, Ami. And I'll be working, I'm not playing or hanging around with the other employes. I do work in the back."

When she turned around Ami had large watery eyes. "Please let me help. Karin and I have a bet going on who's going to ask you out first and I'm loosing."

"Of all the-" Sakura wanted to crawl back into bed and hide under the covers. "I'm in no state to be emotionally attaching myself to someone. And hell, even if I wasn't on the verge of going insane again, I wouldn't want a boyfriend out of either of them. It's fine the way it is, I don't want things to change."

"But when was the last time you went out with someone or had a boyfriend? Or a girlfriend, no judging. You're just really alone and…" Ami's words were cut off when Sakura reach out to pull the smaller girl into a hug.

"Thank you for trying to take care of me in the ways you know how, but trust me, I got this. I'll talk to Karin later because this bet is stupid and makes me feel uncomfortable."

Sakura let Ami go and turned back to her closet to pull out the dress shirt and black skinny jeans that fit nicely into her slouch, camel boots. It was still chilly enough for a light cardigan so Sakura pulled out a thin navy colored one with camel colored elbow patches to match her boots. Soon enough it would be too warm for even long sleeves, but the cold season lingered.

"What about you, Ami?" Sakura asked, painting her lips and double checking to make sure everything she needed was in her purse. "Where's your boyfriend."

The younger girl shrugged meekly. "I've gone out on dates. No one's to my tastes."

"Then I think I should try harder to set you up with someone." With a playful wink, Sakura left the bedroom for the garage and made it to her car without further comment on the subject. The last thing she wanted to talk about was dating someone when her heart was in as many pieces as it was.

Sasori had set her one fire with feeling and then trampled all over her. It wasn't fair how he managed to make her feel so special and cherished only to go on and ignore and ridicule her like an entirely new person. Even at the end, when he called her name, and wanted her back, there was something broken between them. A part of her would alway cherish Sasori, but she couldn't believe that for as long as he existed in the dreamworld he could be someone worth her commitment.

'They're not real people, Sakura,' the voice inside her chastised her.

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean my feelings weren't real."

Sakura turned her blinker on and pulled off the road onto a side street that ended up in Julia's house. Much like yesterday, Sakura went in to meet her boss and soon after they both left to the first of the two locations they would be visiting.

The construction office was simple and streamline, making it easy to find the little nook where she would work. The secretary there was pleasant enough, but Sakura liked the idea of being there only once a month.

When they reached the Orchard Julia led Sakura in through the back and they emerged in the employee only section. Off to the right Sakura saw the loading area for their bulk deliveries, and off to the left were some back rooms. Straight ahead was the hallway to the public areas. Sakura and Julia passed the door that led downstairs to Root, but if Julia knew about it she didn't mention it.

"You're early?" a voice called out from one of the rooms to the left. Sakura and Julia both turned to see one of the older employees with shoulder length brown hair pulled back with a bandana coming out of the office. He smiled at the pregnant woman. "I thought I'd have enough time to tidy up before you came, but I guess not."

Sakura recognized him from before but it was Julia who spoke his name. "I'm right on time, Genma, don't give me any sass for it."

"Ah, but you're always late, so it seems like you're early. Ah don't look at me like that, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!"

Julia sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. "I'm sorry Sakura, this is Genma, he works at the bar here and has been an employe for as long as I can remember. I'm pissed to admit it, but he's decent at showing newbies around so you'll be working closely with him in the first few weeks."

Genma grinned and took a step towards the pair, holding out his hand for Sakura to take. Sakura met him halfway and shook before he could get too close, keeping the space between them. If he noticed the intentional distance she protected he didn't mention it.

"So, you're going to be Julia's little helper while she's out with the baby. You seem young for such boring work. Have you worked in accounting before?"

Sakura forced and easy smile. "I have, but it's been a while so you'll have to be patient with me."

"Back off, Genma, Sakura's a good girl. You're not allowed to touch her," Julia warned, crossing her arms over her ample chest. Leaning in towards the younger girl she added in a whisper, "You don't want to touch this one, he's a man whore in the worst possible way."

"Hey!" Genma whined, sounding upset. "Don't say mean things about me, I'm not such a bad guy. And just for the record, I've been in a relationship for three weeks now."

"Oh, is that a record?" Julia dryly asked.

Genma rolled his eyes. "Hardly."

"Either way," Sakura smoothly interjected, speaking before they could get off on another tangent. "How about we start looking at those register reports? Julia said there was plenty of work for me here, so lets get started."

"I'm fine with that," Genma chirped happily, turning and waving over his shoulder. "Follow me and I'll get you set up before going back out to the front. Ah, speaking of which, either one of you want anything to drink, eat, snack? We got raspberry scones."

"Do they have cheese on them?" Julia asked, not caring that Genma was looking at her in horror.

"No, they're raspberry."

Julia reached down to trace the shape of her swollen stomach. "Fine, I'll have one, but it would taste better with cheese on it."

Genma looked to Sakura and she smiled. "I would love one, thank you."

While Genma walked off to see to his orders, Julia led Sakura to one of the rooms with a computer in it. There was a printer set up next to it with a stack of unsorted papers on a metal shelf rack above it. Julia went through the unsorted papers, pulling them out and showing Sakura how to go about reading and entering them. There was a bit of back work that would keep Sakura busy, so the pair started working on that and were halfway done with the sale sheets for the previous month when Genma came back with their scones and some green tea.

Julia made a comment about the less then speedy service and Sakura simply thanked Genma, ignoring how comfortable her boss seemed to be with the male employee.

"You're just a stand up comedian, Julia," Genma dryly commented soaking his words with sarcasm. Shaking his head, he leaned over to watch what Sakura was doing in quickbooks. "Are you going to do the stuff for Root next, or are you going to do that one remotely?"

"Nothing can be done remotely. Once we're done here, I'll show Sakura how to do the same with Root, but it's straightforward." Jula looked down at Sakura, looking a little taken aback. "Did I tell you about Root? I don't think I did. I'm so sorry, pet."

"I assumed as much," Sakura replied easily, still entering data. "I've been to Root before and it feels like a whole other world, so it would make sense for it to be reconciled as a separate entity."

"That it!" Genma exclaimed all of a sudden. Both females turned to stare at him and the sudden attention made him stutter and blush. "No, ah, ignore me. I just remembered something or made a connection or…a…I have to go, but I'll be back, or someone will be back. That's another thing, Julia. Before you guys leave Sakura needs to meet everyone here. It's important in case you need to ask for help with something, right?"

"That was next on our to do list. Who's working today?"

"The only other person from the night shifts is Yamato, but Becky and Tyra are in as well. Don't leave without introducing yourself."

Sakura felt unsettled. Something about Genma's reaction reminded her too much of how Ami had behaved earlier when the pair were talking about boys and potential partners. Unintentionally, Sakura let out a muffled groan once Genma stepped out. Julia noticed it right away though.

"What's the matter?"

Sakura shook her head, short hair hitting her neck and tickling the underside of her jaw. "Nothing I just feel weird all of a sudden, because I've been a customer here before. It's stupid, don't mind me."

Julia didn't say anything more, but guided Sakura through the rest of the steps, listing in a notepad all the different things Sakura would need to remember to do once she came in on her own without someone to guide her. Once they finished, Sakura took the notebook and folded it into her purse for safe keeping. The pair were packing up when Gennma popped back in to harass them one last time about meeting everyone.

Julia looked back at Sakura, narrowing her eyes a fraction. "We can say hello while walking out the front door. I have an appointment tonight, so we can't stay too long. Is that alright with you, Sakura?"

The green eyed girl nodded. "Peachy."

Becky was biting with a quick, acidic with and long blond hair that cleverly deceived onlookers into assuming she might be angelic. Tyra was pierced and tatted up and down, but soft spoken and polite to Sakura. Sakura looked for the boy Gennma mentioned, but couldn't find Yamato, or any other worker, out by the counter.

"We're all that's on duty right now. Dead eyes took off for a break somewhere. He'll be back later, but don't hold your breath. It's not busy, so he'll take his time." Becky laughed, watching Sakura with pale gray eyes that saw too sharply.

For some reason Sakura felt better, but kept the breath of relief from slipping free. She faked a smile and said something about how disappointing it would be to miss out on meeting 'the other employe.' Julia nodded and Sakura followed her out the front door. Her foot was on the threshold when the shout came.

"Wait."

She turned and he was there, too close, and coming closer. Julia moved in front of Sakura and stood out to greet the young man first. Yamato was wearing distressed jeans and a half apron that shrugged down more on one side than the other. A notepad stuck out and Sakura smelled sharpie ink.

"The girls told me you would be working here, Sakura," Yamato said, smiling as he came to a stop in front of them. He then turned to Julia and held out his hand. "I don't think we've ever been properly introduced. I normally work the night shifts."

Julia repeated her name and shook his hand firmly before explaining a bit of what Sakura would be doing.

"So you'll be working here, two days a week?" Yamato asked, looking to Sakura who held onto her elbow while trying to not look meek.

"Seems so, but only in the back and on the computer. You probably won't see much of me. I promise not to make too much trouble for you guys when I'm here."

"I doubt you could," Yamato chuckle. His eyes then flickered up to the curls tucked back behind her bobby pins. "You cut your hair. When did that happen?"

Sakura reached up and brushed back the hair he was watching too closely. "A little over a month ago. It was just one of those things I wanted to try before I changed my mind again." The lie came too easily, maybe that was because this wasn't the first time she told it.

"You wear it nicely. I like it. When will you be coming back in?"

Sakura looked to Julia and then shrugged. "It all depends on when I finish the other work I have to do." Sakura felt a jolt of panic when she saw the question come into his eyes, and just knew he was getting ready to ask her for her number, so she laughed nervously. "We'll see, but ah, I have to take off now. I'll see you around."

"We might be late like this if we stay any longer," Julia added, making it sound believable. The older woman helped Sakura out and the pair waved over their shoulders while making it out to the front street and taking the path around back to where they had parked. Climbing into the car Julia looked over at Sakura frowning.

"Has that boy ever made you feel unsafe?" Sakura blinked so Julia asked again. "Has he said or done anything in the past?"

"N-No! Oh, no, it's not that at all. I…I don't distrust him or anything like that, and I think he's an okay guy, but one of my friends is trying to push me into…'seeing him' and it makes me feel weird. It doesn't help that I think he's not opposed to the idea either. It's stupid, really. Don't even think about it." Sakura tried to laugh it off but Julia still looked worried and hadn't started the car yet.

"Don't ever think it's stupid. It may be nothing, but I'm glad I asked. I don't want you ever feeling unsafe or uncomfortable around the men you work with, Sakura. Tell me if something happens or you feel differently. I'll listen.

The engine turned over and the rest of the car shook to life. Sakura didn't have to fake the grin this time. "Thank you."

When she awoke in the dream world she was sitting down in front of a table and this time the tee in front of her came in a cup with no handles. She reached for it and felt warmth seep through her fingertips. What she tasted was suckled Jasmine. There was a tea set on her table and a few scattered plumb tree blossoms. She could smell the plumb trees when her tea wasn't right under her nose to overpower the scent.

This time she was dressed in peasant garbs. Dull pants tucked into boots, and a faded brown long sleeve shirt with a ripped collar.

Out the windows to her immediate right were vast rice fields, wet and green. When she looked left though, the green hills were scattered with the dead bodies of ancient Chinese Warriors who lay impaled upon enemy swords and stung up against pole beams. Some were shredded clean through, the product of a quick death, while others lay in bloodied pieces among smeared red pools. Their death had not been so swift or painless, Sakura imagined. Upset by the sight, she let the curtain drop.

The box car she was in currently looked the least like any of the cars seen previously that Sakura almost doubted the fact she was still stuck on a train. This car was long, long enough to rival a football field, and filled with red pillars that disappeared into dogwood and plumb blossom branches. Curtains of Emperor Jade fluttered in between the podiums.

While similar to the Kingdom of Beasts, Sakura recognized the ornate Chinese details hidden in the molding and tucked away into the baseboards. The colors alone, emperor jade, crimson, and yellow were-.

Sakura summoned her bone sword and readied herself, remembering the words of Genma. She was armed and she was ready to shed limbs if the need presented itself. There was a yellow figure in the middle of the hall, veiled and soft with silk. A blossom of red began to bloom across the body and the woman pitched forward, her veil slipping.

Sakura was faster, and was there before Hinata could hit the floor. "Shit!" Sakura exclaimed, panicking at the sight of blood. The first true actor she met on the TeaLion Express and she's dying. "Hinata!"

Chakra wouldn't flow through her hands, but Sakura applied pressure to the wound and strained her hands as the red continued to flow through her fingers. The wounds were not all deep, but all were long and the middle most one was the worst of them all. It looked like something wild tore through her.

The blood flowed slower and Sakura felt something stir between her hands and Hinata's wounds. It wasn't enough, but her prayers were unceasing and before long it became when Hinata needed to live.

The pale girl turned towards Sakura, the jade and red ornaments in her hair clinking together at the movement. "Thank you, but I am not long for this world, as they so wished. Your efforts are…"

"Shut up, I'm not watching you die," Sakura snapped, not caring if she sounded mean or ready to cry or both at the same time.

Hinata didn't seem taken aback, but closed her eyes and nodded. "I'm sorry, the sight…distasteful. I am the unwanted concubine of the Emperor Xio Wu. To touch me is to invite his wrath. I am not worth it."

"Wow, you talk a lot, shut up if you're not going to grow a spine," Sakura snapped.

The green eyed girl imagined bandages woven through with healing herbs and sunlight and when she opened her eyes they were next to her knee. It was enough to bind the wounds. When she looked up again there were tear stains on the pale girl's face, even though Hinata was trying her hardest not to cry.

"Whoever he is, he's not worth your tears. Pleas don't think you're anything less than perfect or…or unworthy of being saved or anything like that. You're worse than Karin."

"You've been very kind to me," Hinata whispered, keeping her moon colored eyes shut, refusing to see a person watch her cry. "Thank you. Please be safe. Do not go forward."

Forward was where the door was. "I kind of have to. What's up ahead? Was it the thing that did this to you?"

Hinata nodded, her head heavy with the movement. "Two mouths, those of heaven and hell." Swallowing, Hinata reached up into her hair, and with stiff fingers, pulled free a comb with curved teeth perfect for catching hair. "This will bring you luck, or it should if you have not already angered heaven."

Sakura took the dragon pin and felt its sharp edges before trying to secure it into her already short hair. It was a pain, but with a little imagined bobby pins, the heavy jade dragon caught the knots in her hair and stayed secure. It would have looked nicer if her hair were longer and pulled back, and Sakura was tempted to tear the dragon pin out, but resisted at the last moment. It was fine. She was just being vain.

"You won't suffer forever," Sakura said, standing up and reaching out into the air for her sword again.

Once upon a time it had been her hands she felt best with in a fight, and then it was knives. Before she even thought of it, the sword was there like an extension of her self. She wasn't Zabuza in terms of skill, but she still felt the potential for growth blooming in her chest.

Turning on her heel, Sakura stepped towards the far end of the car and began to walk. The car's floor felt inclined under her feet, and soon Sakura found herself at the base of a staircase, guarded by two stone Fuu dogs. The heavy iron door at the top of the stairs had two key hols, each outlined by a dragon swallowing the base of the key hole.

Two keys, two mouthes, one for heaven and one for hell. Simple enough, just where were those stupid mouths for her to slice open?

She took a step, raised her sword, and then another. She kept her elbows up and close to her chest but not too close. Another step, and she made her body into a drawn bowstring. Sakura stepped up the stairs, feeling moisture in the air that was dank and rancid. Mouth moisture, the kind that exists right outside of a dog's mouth. She was nearly between the two dogs when Sakura thought to look down. The left one's paw was stained red.

She cursed and rolled out of the way, keeping her sword close to her body and ready to thrust outward when she came out of her roll. He was bigger than her, but stiffer and slower and that made Sakura more than deadly in a fight. With her opponent still stiff from his stone life she was death personified. His head went flying and his body fell limp. Sliding off his rolling tongue was a thin metal key in the shape of a man.

Sakura turned to the next Imperial Guard Dog but stopped short when she saw it already moving, crouching, baring it's clean teeth. This one would not be slow, but it would be dead soon enough, either way. It charged and Sakura evaded. Turning and twisting it reached for her and she was fast enough to dance out of its reach.

Like a ghost, she saw Kisame's image in a thrust that came out of a sharp turn. Perfectly executed, it would bring her right under the dog and put her in position to cut through it's neck.

'Always with me,' she thought.

Her body moved like it wasn't made up of parts. Bone, sinus, muscles; she was a single force, sliding into position and tearing through the dog's exterior. The ghost memory of Kisame guiding her every step of the way, she called down a rain of blood.

The limp body landed with a wet thud at her feet and Sakura breathed out a sigh of relief. On its tongue was the second man shaped key she needed to unlock the door. She had made it just in time. She could feel the dream stretching and knew that she only had a few more minutes before she would have to wake up, if she could manage to fight against the pull that long.

Two keys, one shaped like a man, the other like a woman. Sakura inserted both into their proper holes and shook free the blood and spit that still clung to her fingers. The keys caught onto something and began to turn themselves, opening the door inch by inch just as the dream world wrapped up. Like a scroll being rolled up, the world faded away and the images were no more.

She didn't know why she woke up expecting her hands to be wet with slobber and blood, but they weren't. Maybe a little bit of sweat from a too real nightmare, but it was nothing a quick shower wouldn't fix, and it was early enough that she could afford to take a long, hot one.

It was a short day for her, since it was one of the days she worked her old job as a visiting angel. She still had two patients she needed to visit and afterwards the rest of the day was hers to waste. There were no more assignments, no more tests, no more deadlines, just work. No direction, just work.

There was a calendar hanging on the back of her closet door, but she hadn't bothered to turn it to April, since she still felt stuck in the past. (Soon she's be behind by two months, but that wasn't something worth caring about.) Sakura couldn't believe so much time had passed, that she had bombed out of all her classes, and wasted so much of her own money on something she would likely never be able to reach for again.

She turned to water from warm to icy cold, hissing as it hit her pale flesh and stung like teeth. It was just the sort of motivation she needed to help get her out of the shower and into her clothes.

She was still getting dressed when Ami answered the front door and let Karin in. Pulling a graphic tee over her head Sakura heard shouting from downstairs and then a dull roar as feet clambered up the steps. Both girls were on her threshold moments later, not caring that Sakura was still hopping into her skinny jeans.

"He kissed me!" Karin screamed.

Sakrua fell over and landed on her hip, cursing wildly. Forgetting her pants, Sakura scrambled up and reached out to Karin, shaking her. "What the hell does that mean? Who kissed you?"

"It was less a kiss and more like a hot make out session complete with hair pulling and biting and-ah, okay, I got it. I told you I'd tell you first if someone ever made a move and Suigetsu made the move."

"I always figured you for a kinky one," Ami commented, trying not to sound too giddy. "Who initiated it? Suietsu, right?"

Sakura felt a familiar pull in her gut and shook her head. Karin grinned wickedly in response. "No, it was me, but I didn't plan it or anything. It was just…" Karin let the words trail off as a far away look came into her eyes. She giggled and Sakura felt a little bit better. This was a good thing to see. Karin smiling, blushing, giggling over a boy that hadn't already broken her heart. Karin was healing.

"I had a feeling it would be you to make the first move, that's so like you," Sakura laughed.

"Details?" Ami asked

"I…it was towards the end and we were both on shift and we went into the back fridge looking for the cheese and he made a joke about girls or something like that, something stupid and I got angry at him and he got angry at me-all butthurt about his feelings-so he said something and I said something back and we're glaring at each other and he was all, 'oh just bite me already Karin,' so I did."

"You bit him?" Ami's eyes were wide.

"Among other things. I shoved him first and then…I just really wanted to kiss him and his hands went right into my hair and it was like something out of a movie. It was amazing. The rest of the night is a blur until he went home. Dad being there was awkward, but not that big of a deal.

Sakura nodded, watching her friend. She and Ami had an inkling to Suigetsu's true feelings for a long while now. The poor kid made it obvious to the world whenever he talked to Karin or hung out with them. He had eyes for her. His words were tentative in the beginning until she set him off and then he was a fire that burned only for her, arguing back and forth with her over all little things. Sakura thought they fit well.

"So you're a couple now. How did he take it?"

"What?"

Sakura feared as much. "You didn't just kiss the tar out of that poor boy and leave him there, did you?"

Karin frowned and adverted her eyes. "I…forgot to…talk to him before…or I mean after I was done with my shift, but dad was there and I forgot and…" Karin looked up with a rare sheer of fear in her eyes. "What if he hates me now?"

"I'm pretty sure that's not even possible," Ami remarked, her tone dry.

Sakura chuckled, reaching fro her phone on the bed. She scrolled for the said boy's name and began tying off a message to look at later once he could answer his phone. She kept it vague, but made sure he would know who she was talking about.

Suigetsu:You're all she can talk about right now. Treat her right or I'll kill you.

Before she could turn her phone off the bubbles popped up, meaning he was typing back. Sakura glanced up at Karin before reading the new message.

Sakura:is she there

Sakura:what did she say

Sakura:was it bad

Sakura:will she talk to me

The messages came in quick succession, one right after the other. Poor kid was obviously freaked out so Sakura sent off another message.

Suigetsu: She likes you, but she is still learning the right way to go forward. Don't freak out on me like that. She will talk with you tonight, I'll make sure of it

She hit the gray SEND button and waited a few more seconds before the bubbles popped up again. A second later the letters popped up, looking neater and better punctuated than before.

Sakura: Thank you.

When she looked up again Karin was laughing at Ami, saying something about how Sakura was a lost cause so they had to work on getting Ami a boyfriend now, even though that would be more difficult considering the number of date mates Ami played with. Finding a boy to stick would be harder than it sounded.

Sakura grabbed her skinny jeans and struggled into them, not missing how they were only a little bit loose on her legs. She must have lost weight again. Before she could stop it, another thing in her life had changed.

"What the hell is this?" Sakura seethed. Her heart was in her throat and with every breath she broke a little bit of it. It hurt to breath, it hurt to stand, it hurt to see.

How had this happened. She screwed her eyes shut and forced her lungs to fill with the oxygen she needed for clear thought. Exhaling slowly, her mind ran back to the beginning, desperate for answers.

Waking up in the dream world she was in an old English looking garden with a ornate teacup of berry green tea. She was dressed in long peach colored skirts and a matching blouse that chocked her neck with mother of pearl buttons. An extravagant hat sat tilted slightly to on side upon her crown, weighed down with rose, white, and silver feathers. She sipped her tea, found a note at the bottom and read it out loud.

Why would you ever want to leave? On the back there was a second message that sounded mocking. Feeling Lonely?

She hadn't thought much of it then, and even less of it once she stood to leave the garden. In this car the end was easy to find and Sakura doubted it would take much effort to reach the door to the next box car that was disguised as the green glass door to an old, victorian greenhouse.

There were flowering trees everywhere, the car was thick with them. Most of the blossoms shed in shades of pink, white and red. It was very lovely, especially the rose bushes, but she wasn't ready to believe this box car was all that it appeared to be. Nothing in the nightmare was ever what it first seemed to be, and never was it easy. She was cursed, after all. The cursed and never so fortunate.

She paused to stop and smell one of the roses. It was open wide and dyed blood red by nature. The petite thorns that decorated it's stem pulled at the pads of Sakura's fingers when she tried to stoke it. Her hand came away with one finger split open in a shallow wound that would heal in seconds.

Pain was always a funny thing in the nightmare. Normal dream never hurt, never made her feel anything physical, but the nightmares born out of the Obelisk were no such dreams. She could feel pain, maybe not in the same way, but she felt pain well and true when she pricked her fingers or bruised her knuckles. She felt it when swords slashed shallow across her stomach and when daggers dug deeper. She felt the bruises and the blood loss.

Sakura sucked her finger. Even this pain she could feel.

'Enough of that, the door is near enough. I have to figure out what kind of challenge he has in store for me.'

The flowers and trees did little to obstruct her way as she made a beeline for the back of the car where the door was sure to be. Each turn or twist brought a little more beauty to boxcar. There were birds and dragon fly and gentle bumble bees that made the car feel alive with life. It was very pleasant, but not pleasant enough to tempt her into staying.

Sakura coughed a little, the pollen in the air tickling her lungs. She felt another tickle and stopped to sneeze into her hand, and when she did, she noticed something out of the corner of her eye. She righted herself and turned to the side in order to see more clearly. Yes, there were indeed a pair of legs in dress slacks sticking out from behind a rose bush.

Sakura picked up her skirts and stopped off the path into the grass to round the bush and see what sort of actor was laying in the roses when her heart decided to give out. She felt assaulted all at once, gasping and dropping her skirts. Knees did her little good as they began to buckle.

"What the hell is this?" Sakura seethed. Her heart was in her throat and with every breath she broke a little bit of it. It hurt to breath, it hurt to stand, it hurt to see. It just hurt.

He turned in his sleep, angling his face deeper into the roses and that must have woken him, since his eyelashes fluttered and a deep groan melted between his lips before his arms stretched out above him. He wore a black waistcoat, a pale white shirt, and matching dress pans that seemed dated from the early victorian era. His eye lids were heavy over his eyes as he awakened and looked around. He found her soon enough and when he did he smiled wide. That was when she felt herself melt a little on the inside.

"Sakura," he breathed, sounding so relieved to see her. He reached for her, and before she could think to stop him he had her in his arms, pulling her down into the grass where he could pin her to his side. His kiss was tender as his lips ghosted over the skin of her temple, haunting her.

"Sasori," Sakura choked, feeling lost. He knew her name, he remembered her! And the way he treated her, kissed her, it was like he was the same Sasori from when she first met him. All sweet, demure, and adorably in love with her.

"I've waited so long for you my doll, my angel, my queen," he breathed above her skin. "Why did you have me wait so long? You know I have the patience of a child." He kissed her forehead again. "God, how I've missed you."

His kisses made her heart soar and plummet all at once.

This was what she wanted. This was what she longed for back in the Kingdom of Beasts when they met for the second time. The hurt was still fresh from all the days and weeks she tried to reach him only to be shut out and ridiculed. She didn't dwell on it, but when she remembered those days, she remembered the hurt.

"Sasori," was all she could manage to get past her lips. "How…?"

"You sound even more excused than I, and I was the one asleep in your rose garden." He pulled away a little bit to look her face over before kissing her eye lids. "You do look tired. Have you been having nightmares again?"

"What do you mean?" she asked, feeling numb.

Somehow she managed to find the flow of the conversation and fall in to it, despite her emotional state. She didn't understand what was going on, but that didn't mean she wasn't going to play along and try to find out. So what if her emotional insides resembled the smoothy mess left behind after a blender has it's way with a handful of fruit? This was just another way the curse chose to hurt her and she needed to fight it.

"You always have rot dreams when you sleep outside. You know you're not supposed to do so without me."

"I didn't fall asleep, I just…dozed off a bit." She blinked, grasping at ideas and coming up short. "I was having tea just now."

"With who?" She felt his hands on her waist tense. Each individual finger made an indent she could feel and distinguish as his body tightened with a subtle rigidity.

"No one," Sakura answered carefully. "Who would you think-"

"Shhh!"

Sasori pulled her closer to his body till she was practically on top of him, bracing herself with a hand against his chest. Behind him on the other side of the bushes there was the sound of shoes on gravel. Though pinned down, Sakura lifted her eyes enough that she could see through the hedge as a figure passed by. Whoever he was, he was also dressed in a waistcoat suit, same as Sasori, though this suite was a lighter, making it navy. Maybe there were other differences two, but Sakura didn't notice them as she was struggling to see the face of the person as they passed her by. Sakura had to lean back and to the side to see out of the gap left between branches, but it was enough for her to catch a shock of titian and know who it was Sasori was hiding from.

"That was Pein," she breathed, a second after the said man had left her range of visibility.

She felt the grow vibrate in Sasori's chest underneath her hand. When she looked down he was scowling. "Did you want him to see you?" Before she could say something he turned his face away with a jerk and dragged her closer. "He's always trying to get in my way. I won't have him interrupting my monopoly. I waited too long for you, today. He shall not ruin my good mood."

"Why would he do that?" Sakura asked, suspecting it had something to do with the rivalry they shared back in the first kingdom. Pein and Sasori hadn't appreciated each other when they were greaser gang members. Maybe the same was true in this world.

Sasori kissed her jaw and she wanted to close her eyes and leave her head there. "Because he'll try and take you away from me, same as always. He's a devil for it too. I don't want you leaving me to go to him. I don't care if he's your family's honored guest. I'm the one you're going to marry."

"Oh, really?" Sakura asked. "When was that decided."

Another kiss on her jaw. "The moment I laid eyes on you, my doll."

Sakura felt warm. She felt safe, and she felt cherished above all else. This was the same Sasori who would eat waffles and pretend to enjoy them when Konan made breakfast for dinner at the diner. This was the same Sasori who always insisted on Sakura riding with him and leaving with him, and sitting next to him at the counter. This wasn't the ghost of a dead Sasori Sakura feared above all other memories save one. No, Sakura didn't have to fear the memories anymore. That chapter of her nightmare was over. Sasori was reborn in a new world and he would be fine alongside her. He wouldn't die under her lips anymore, he wouldn't grow cold under her hands anymore.

Sakura kissed Sasori full on the mouth before the ghost memory could come back. Sasori wasn't dead this time, he was alive, and she wasn't mourning him anymore.

Sasori stiffened at first, taken aback by her forward action, but just as quickly he recovered and melted into the kiss, responding and angling into her, pulling her tighter and closer. He was very much alive. When they separated his eyes were dancing and his cheeks were flushed.

"My goddess," he breathed. "What has gotten into you? Oh I like it, don't get me wrong. You can kiss me whenever you feel like it and even if you don't feel like it you can kiss me anyway."

"I just wanted to know what that felt like," Sakura confessed, reaching out to trace his lips with the pads of her fingers. He kissed her digits reverently.

"I'm yours to tease and try on whenever you choose to do so."

Sakura smiled, moving away to cough a bit before sitting up. Sasori followed and eventually helped her by pulling her to her feet and latching her onto his arm. His hair was mused and a mess around his face, but it was a lovely mess Sakura wanted to run her fingers through. He wasn't too much taller than her, and he was more than willing to lean into her touch, signing contently when her fingers played along his scalp. She pulled away to cough again.

"My allergies," she confessed, holding the back of her hand over her mouth in case she needed to cough again.

Sasori frowned. "As much as it pains me to say this, no more kissing for you. Let me find you a seat and fetch you some water. Your poor female lungs are frail for this time of year."

She let him lead her to another alcove with a bench in the shade. He departed from her side for a few minutes and returned with a crystal glass of spring water she sipped gingerly at her leisure. While she drank he whispered poetry into her ears and talked of how much he adored her and how lovely the garden was and the weather and he people who annoyed him and anything that came into his mind. They spent what felt like hours together. He was perfect, perfectly charming.

Sasori was making remarks about Pein that were less than flattering when he had to stop because of the tears he saw on her face. "Sakura, what is the matter? Are you ill?" His hands were there in an instant, cradling her face. She felt warm against his cool fingers.

"No," she whispered, closing her eyes. She loved the feel of his hands and the tears didn't subside. "No I'm not alright. I'm dying and I need to leave because you're not real."

He was stiff before her. "Sakura…I don't understand."

Sakura tried to breath deeply once more, and just as she suspected, it was labored. "This world. This box car on the Tea Lion Express, it's tempting me to stay, to keep me from advancing because the things I've wanted so badly are in here, with you."

She breathed deeply. Her lungs were only half filled, but it would be enough.

"'The water that stays stagnant grows rank and sick. We as human beings can't fall into contentment if we ever want to improve and succeed.' I said that once, and I need to say it to myself one more time, because if I don't I won't get another chance to." She held a hand in front of her mouth and coughed. "It's poison…in the flowers from the trees. I thought it was allergies, I wanted to pretend it was nothing, but I know poison when its in me. I close my eyes and I can see it, choking my blood. If I don't leave soon I will die.

Sasori didn't move, but that was probably because of the slender blade running through his chest. Sakura tried to breath deeper and coughed again before pulling her sword free. The shapeshifter that had been impersonating Sasori hissed, dissolving into a wrinkled thing that could bother her no longer. Sakura wiped her nose and pretended to not care that she had run Sasori through with her sword-even if he was an imposter.

Sakura had figured it out a while back. It had been obvious enough for her to pick up and suspect before her kiss with Sasori confirmed it. Maybe he was just like her redhead, talked like him, acted like him, sounded like him, but that wasn't Sasori the actor.

The words from the tea came back to her. Why would you ever want to leave? And, Feeling Lonely?

Had this world been designed because of what happened with Karin and the jealousy Sakura felt? She knew, and said as much, that she wasn't ready for a relationship, but that didn't mean she wasn't lonely. She wanted someone, and seeing Karin find someone made that feeling of loneliness grow inside of Sakura. She loved Karin to death and was truly happy for her, but Sakura was human and felt envy before she could control it. This world was her penance.

"Damn," she said out loud, grabbing onto a thorn branch to pull herself up and hang off of.

One foot in front of the other, she made it across the car to the back where the greenhouse stood. The door to the end of the level wasn't locked. There were no more clues, and she knew all she had to do was push and she would be in the next car on the train.

"Sakura." She turned and saw Pein jogging towards her. He looked near frantic and the desperation for her wasn't unnoticed. She didn't doubt he was another shapeshifter tasked with seducing her long enough to stay int he car.

"I'm sorry," she breathed, pushing against the glass and stepping into the light, tears still staining her scrunched up face.

"Something is eating away at me with splendid teeth."
— Gwendolyn MacEwen, from "Memoirs of a Mad Cook," The Armies of the Moon
(Macmillan, 1972)

AN:/
The first chapter is done. I added the last part (3000ish words) yesterday when I had free time. I have another chapter nearly ready that might be published by the end of the month or next month. I wanted to release a chapter every month after January, but I'm a little behind on that. Sorry. More will come. There are two train cars that are set in Colonial India and post Boxer Rebellion China that will have their own chunk chapters before Sakura moves on to the Kingdom. This gate is taking longer than I anticipated, but I'm enjoying it.

I'm going to release smaller chapter like this, do you like? I want to hear more feedback about different parts and I think this is also easier to read for some people. Let me know how you like the length/pace of this chapter.

I have another half week of break so I plan on finishing another chapter to release. I want to quickly get to the Kingdom and start planning what the next gat and the next world will look like. I think I can do it. I'm able to write a lot more when I have Spring Break. God, I love breaks. I need them so badly. More crap going on in my life you don't want to know about. I'm not good at taking initiative and going after things I want. I would rather sit on the couch and watch them go by. I know... I'm lazy. I get it. It's late and I need to get to bed.

I hope you liked it. Sakura's a mess, just like a lot of us, but she's a tough cookie. Let me know what you thought with a review, please. I love hearing from you guys. It's seriously what makes my day, when I see a review. I look forward to hearing from you!

Vesper Chan