"Scarlet is a bright-red, somewhat-orange color. It signifies passion, courage, lust, strength, violence and sin. It is the color of rubies, blood and fire."

Scarlet Obsessions

Prologue

Sakura's body smoldered in a ghastly, red-hot blaze. The fire was damaging her throat the most – but maybe it was just because of her ear-piercing screams, which were mercilessly tearing at her vocal chords. She would be voiceless later, but she doubted she would even be alive after this.

The unearthly flames pinned her body down against the ground with their firm iron arms. She tried to struggle out of their hold, but they were too strong, and she was being weakened by the overwhelming heat slowly eating away her skin, muscles and bones. She would never be able to stand up and escape this inferno. She would never be able to save Sasuke, wherever he was.

As if on cue, she heard his distant, frantic voice again. "Sakura! Sakura! Stop! You're dreaming! Wake up!"

It took her a moment to realize what he was saying. Dreaming? Wake up? Stunned, the girl forced herself to stop screaming and moving under the flames' grasp. She tried to listen to him again, more attentively this time. "Sakura, it's okay!" he said. "You're okay! Open your eyes!"

She did. Sasuke's face hovered above her, pale and handsome, over a pitch-black background. Her sight focused and she saw clearly the hopeless fear in his expression. Petrified, she only managed to whisper his name. "Sasuke…?"

The fear in his face melted into a feeble relief. "God," he said shakily, "you scared me to death."

The hands that had been clutching her arms let go stiffly. She realized they hadn't been the flames', but actually Sasuke's; he had been holding her down to keep her from hurting herself as she trashed around in her sleep. Now, he plopped down beside her, running his hands through his messy black hair.

Breathing heavily, Sakura stayed motionless and tried to make sense of what had happened. Obviously, and not very surprisingly, she had had a horrifying nightmare. But why was Sasuke here? And where was here, exactly? Rigidly, she craned her neck and took in her surroundings. They were in dark, unfamiliar room with two beds, and the one on which they lay was hard and small. What was this place? Why was she here with Sasuke?

The terrifying uncertainty didn't last long, for the memories finally poured into her mind, all at once and without a warning. Sakura remembered everything: that her mother had been a vampire and her father a vampire hunter, that she was not supposed to exist, that her aunt was in a magic-induced coma, that her best friend since high school was actually her vampire cousin, that the family she had worked for were also vampires and had helped her escape, that said family's youngest son had thrown his life away to escape with her, and that there was a psycho out there eager to kill her.

Her green eyes pooled with tears as a painful thought popped into her mind: A few months ago, I was just a normal eighteen-year-old girl. How the hell did I end up like this?

Sasuke heard her quiet sobs. Alarmed, he propped up with one elbow, reached out to stroke her cheek. "Hey," he said softly, "it's okay. It was just a nightmare. It wasn't real."

She wanted to tell him that she wasn't crying because of that, but what would be the point? So instead, she turned her body towards his and let him hold her as she cried. As the tears flowed, she desperately tried to ease her troubled thoughts by focusing on the perks of the situation: Sasuke was here, they were together in this, and he was as hers as she was his. This wasn't as bad as it could be. She needed to stop crying so often and easily.

After a few minutes of weeping against his chest, Sakura finally calmed down. For a long moment, they lay in the darkness without speaking, their legs tangled and their arms around each other. She kept her eyes fixed on the moonlight that spilled through the small window in the corner of the room. She noticed the night outside was beautiful; the sky was full of stars and the moon hung low and huge. The nice view and Sasuke's already-familiar warmth and smell were so soothing she would have fallen asleep if Sasuke hadn't suddenly spoken.

"Do you want to talk about the nightmare?"

She knew what he meant with that. He was actually asking for the meaning of the dream, because he knew her dreams were prophetic; that was the gift she had because of her vampire half. He wanted to know what awaited them in the future.

Burying her face in the crook of his neck, she spoke lowly against his smooth skin and told him what the nightmare had been about, with as many details as possible. When she finished, Sasuke was silent for a few moments, thinking. At last, he whispered, "If I remember well, dreaming of threatening fire only means you are frustrated and you feel your life is out of control, which I suppose is natural and nothing to really worry about."

Sakura smiled a little. Being an avid reader, Sasuke had practically devoured her ancestor's book – the one about the meaning of dreams that Kakashi had given her before she left – as soon as she had showed it to him. He hadn't done it because he found the subject especially interesting, but because he wanted to know as much as possible to be able to help her through this. She doubted she deserved the great luck of having him.

"What about the words Sai said to me?" she asked. "What do they mean? Did my subconscious just made them up? My dreams' meanings are usually metaphoric, but they can be literal, too. What if he will actually utter those words in the future or something?"

He sighed deeply. "I don't know. I guess we'll have to wait and see."

Sakura closed her eyes. "I'm scared," she whispered, barely audibly.

His arms tightened around her. "Don't be. I'm here with you. I'll always be," he said, and for that moment, this argument was valid enough for her.

Notes: Hi again! This is the sequel of Scarlet Dreams. I will be updating it as often as possible. Hopefully, it won't take me more than a year to finish a story this time! Hahaha.

P.S.: Whether you've read Scarlet Dreams before or not, please keep an open mind as you read this story. It's merely fanfiction. Vampires, werewolves and all that have a different, unusual explanation, and the characters may be a little OOC because it's an alternative universe and they're supposed to have had different lives, which affected their personalities. Also, there might be many chapters.

Leave a review, please. Love you. xx

~tragedyneverends