by Alexia Praks
* * *
Darcy opened his eyes. His head hurt. In fact, his whole body was in pain. What happened? Why couldn’t he remember anything? Slowly, he brought his fingers to his lips and stroked the pale flesh. He closed his eyes again, trying to remember what had happened. All that he remembered was him trying to save Sakura in the sea. Is she safe? Where is she?
He continued to stroke his dry lips as his mind searched far and wide for that elusive memory. Why did he have the feeling that someone had kissed him last night? The warm lips. The gentle touches.
Oh, God, he couldn’t remember.
Then he saw the card sitting on the bedside table. He reached out for it and noted it was very pretty. It was a watercolor painting of a cherry tree, the very same tree that he and Sakura had sat under and where he’d kissed her. Suddenly, his heart ached within his chest and his body tensed as though he knew.
Slowly, he opened the card.
I will always be your Snow.
I love you.
Sakura
A sound escaped his lips and Darcy felt dizzy. His heart began to beat fast.
“Snow,” he whispered, closing his eyes, trying to calm his beating heart. Then when he fully comprehended the meaning of those few words, he flashed his eyes open, jolted up, and screamed, “Sakura!”
His heart was pounding so hard and so irregularly within his chest that the machine started beeping loudly in the room, indicating abnormal heart rate. Darcy was lost in his rage and despair as tears flowed down his cheeks from his eyes and the world spun around him.
“Sakura, don’t leave me!” he cried, his eyes dark, his voice shaking. “Don’t. I love you. You can’t leave me. Please, Sakura.”
He scrambled off the bed, mindlessly tearing away IV lines from his arms. “I have to find you. Where are you, Sakura? Please, come back.”
The door burst open and two nurses rushed into the room. They took one look at him and immediately took him by the arms and tried to make him return to bed.
Darcy wouldn’t listen to them, however, and shook his head as he fought them off, thrusting a nurse against the wall as he headed for the door. It was then that the brothers, who had just arrived, rushed into the room. Sebastian caught Darcy in his arms and managed to calm him down.
“She’s gone,” Darcy whispered, tears in his eyes. “She left.”
Sebastian nodded.
“We can’t just leave it and do nothing,” Darcy said. “We have to find her.” He looked up at his brothers, begging them with his eyes to agree with him, to help him find the woman he loved. Before him stood Nicolas, Tristan, Logan, Hayden, and Conrad, and one by one, they nodded, a determined look in their eyes.
“We’ll look for her, Darcy,” Sebastian said, his hand tight on Darcy’s shoulder. “We’ll find her.”
“Together,” Darcy said. “We’ll find her together.”
Sebastian nodded and said, “Yes, together.”
The brothers nodded again, and Darcy smiled, tears in his eyes.