babyviper

She couldn't remember the last time she'd allowed herself to sleep in the presence of another living, breathing person. It had been hard to fall asleep, imagining she could hear a pulse in the room that wasn't her own. That there was an open patch in her new home's room helped; she could see the stars.

O-Ren closed her eyes and let a day of labor catch up to her. She fell asleep, her swords within arm's reach.

She dreamed, and everything was burning. Her face was wet and sticky with her mother's coagulating blood. Sirens in the night, and O-Ren crawled under a neighbor's car. They couldn't find her. She couldn't let herself be sent away. Matsumoto might find her and finish the job.

She had work to do, too, that these people could never understand.

The dream-world spun and she was underneath Matsumoto, clenching her jaw as he groped with hard, experienced fingers. He turned her over, onto her stomach and she didn't train for this, how could she have been ready for this moment? When she turned her head, the Man in White sat watching, drinking. Even as the pain coursed through her veins, he watched, and laughed.

He drew his sword, stepped across the floor in time to the pig's grunts. He lifted the blade and the tip raced towards her eye--

--and she screamed, one of the very things she'd sworn never to do, and she couldn't stop screaming, gulping for fresh air.