Play Things

Chapter One

Russian Winters

"Spaseeba, Thank you"

"Pazhalooysta" the elder woman responded.

Not knowing what the woman had said, the foreign girl smiled gently and left the small sales stand. Russian flea markets were rather interesting, almost everything was either food or some form of jewelry, and the green beaded necklace she had just purchased was something she just had to have. Holidays were meant for spending money and her father hadn't been totally against giving Storm his credit card. The only down fall of her perfect spending spree was the lack of knowledge on how to use a tele-machine, thank Christ for English speaking bankers.

The Australian girl mentally cringed at her parent's holiday destination; she could be in Hawaii right now getting a nice tan and drinking iced tea. Instead Storm was in Russia freezing her ass off. She hurried back to the hotel; the walk was long and cold. Storm had always wanted to see Moscow, but not when it was below freezing, Christmas was near which is why it was probably so cold. The holiday inn Suschevsky wasn't the most luxuries hotel her parents had ever booked, but it was beautiful none the less. Storm sighed as I got into the lift, Artem; the bus boy smiled casually at her and asked which floor.

"Sixth, spaseeba" spaseeba, thank you, was about the only Russian word Storm knew that she didn't pronounce like a total idiot. Artem nodded, his strawberry blond hair bouncing into his eyes in the process and worked the old fashion elevator. The second she heard the 'bing' of the door's opening, the brunette quickly took her leave without so much as a goodbye to the young man. He was nice, but a little to forward and she didn't want to risk having to make another excuse if he chose to try and make more small talk. She tried to explain she didn't know much Russian language, but he obviously didn't understand.

Storm messed around in her purse for her key card in order to get into her room, she eventually found the slim object and swiped it through the scanner beside the door. She heard the click of the white framed door opening and grinned, she had finally gotten the damn thing on the first go. Looking into the room, she could hear no sounds of her mother shuffling through her makeup, or the sound of the television, not even her father's voice could be heard as he talked on his satellite phone. Storm sighed and made her way over to the small kitchen, chucking her purse onto the tiled surface and removing her black woolen jacket, the heater was on which meant her parents hadn't been gone long.

'May as well catch something on T.V' she thought idly.

'You don't even know what they're saying on T.V'

'I can always switch to English dubbed'

Storm had this tendency to hear voices in her head and sometimes even talked to herself. It was mainly little things, having arguments and disagreements. Storm wasn't one to have many friends, no matter how nice she could be, she never seemed to click with anyone, which is probably why she would talk more to herself then actual people.

Storm lunged herself into the leather couch interior and reached onto the coffee table for the small grey remote. There was pretty much nothing on television, the odd soap opera would either be ending or already finished and coming up onto the local news cast. Letting out an annoyed groan, Storm clicked the English dub on the news cast and tossed the remote back onto the table, it missed and landed on the floor, she rolled her eyes and lay back watching the new reporter cough soundly from the cold and start with her broadcast.

"Today the four very popular Russian BeyBlader's at last return home. Team Neo Borg, Tala Valkov, Kai Hiwatari, Bryan Kuznetsov and Spencer Petrov are returning to the training facility sponsored by Voltaire Hiwatari. Training coach, Boris Balkov, and Voltaire Hiwatari are re-opening the boy's home and are even making the system co-ed.

The boy's are rebellious to return and are even angrier that police detectives have failed to find any claim's that Voltaire Hiwatari was physically abusing children in the system. Voltaire claim's he has done nothing but give them a home to live in and food for them to eat, we will keep you posted for other updates on the boy's and Biovolt Abby."

Stormed turned off the television set, sitting up so she could fix the pillow that her head kept slipping off. What sort of a place was Biovolt Abby anyway, some sort of Beyblade training facility? Storm rolled her blue eyes; some people took Beyblade's way to seriously. She lay her head back down, ready for a couple of hours sleep before her parents came back, smothered in the smell of alcohol and regaled her with tales of their dining. All hopes of sleep were lost when a loud bang at her door made her cover her head with the leather pillow.

"Use your card!" she yelled, some people were just so incompetent. Another bang made her jump off the couch in a very annoyed manner, she didn't know if her parents had either lost their card, or were just to drunk to find the scanner, but she would do a great deal of yelling once she pried the door open and then slammed it back in their faces.

As soon as she opened the door --- which took a little bit of time to work the pin number for the inside lock --- the culprit had already left. Storm blinked and looked around the empty corridor, stepping outside and peeking around the corner to see if anyone was waiting. No one was on the stair case or even further up where the elevator was located. She moved further out and rolled her eyes at the obvious stupidity that was some teenagers.

"Real funny!" she yelled, it was really directed at whoever might have been or was going to stick around, and went to walk back to her room. There was an eerie silence that seemed to take over the sixth floor of the hotel, Storm really didn't like it and wasn't apposed to running back to her room and dead locking the door. Instead, the dark haired girl walked back calmly and casually to the foot of her room.

The steel door that was located at the end of the corridor opened, startling Storm as it was thrusted backwards. A woman in uniform emerged and walked haughtily Storm's way, giving a curt smile as she did so. Storm mad a face behind her and went to grab the handle of her door, pressing in the six digits where the scanner was located, mentally kicking herself for forgetting to grab her key card before exiting. Still looking at the rude woman, Storm turned the handle of her door and let out a small squeal as a gloved hand reach over her mouth and the other around my waist, Storm kicked and struggled before the stranger placed a rag near her mouth and her eyes widened in realization.

She could feel herself slipping into darkness. The stranger behind chuckled at her feeble attempts to escape and Storm could feel him dragging her towards the bolted door the woman had just emerged from. Letting out last gasp of a scream, Storm looked on as her vision blurred and her room became tangled with the other thirteen doors on the sixth floor.

Blue eyes started to stir; she could feel her hands were tied and so were her legs, bruising could also be felt as the girl tried in vain to move around. Storm let out a sluggish moan as the after effects of overly sleeping took over her small and fragile body. What had happened? Was this some kind of sick joke, knock on her door to lure her out and take her hostage for some sick mind game? Trying desperately to sit up, Storm managed to lean herself against the stone wall behind her and let out another moan, one that indicated she was in pain, from where, even she hadn't a clue.

The dead bolted steel door on the other side of the room made multiple loud nagging noises, telling her someone was trying to get in and that the door had been safely secured. It couldn't have been to keep her inside; she tied up, so maybe it was to keep someone out.

'Who would want to get in so badly that they had to keep it locked up so tightly?'

'The real question, who would want to get in to get to you? Why do you think your parents always leave, Storm?'

Storm shook her head and squeezed her eyes shut, trying to block out the mocking voice in the back of her mind. They weren't even her real parents, so why should she care so much about what they did and didn't do? As long as she had her money and phone, everything was always a ride through life for her. Storm didn't have her phone and money this time and she doubted they could get her out of trouble. Jumping slightly as the door opened, Storm looked over and had to squint her eyes to get a clearer view of the intruder.

The man advanced on Storm, she closed her eye's shut tight and waited for whatever he was going to do to come. Her heart almost pounded out of her chest, her blood flow eased as surprise rushed through her mind. Storm felt the ropes loosen around her ankles and wrists; she rubbed up and down her arms trying to comfort the sting from the rope burn and stared hard at the man. He seemed unfazed at her pointed look and only smirked. It made Storm sick to her stomach. He chuckled, not from humor, but from the amusement she obviously attained for him.

She shakily stood up and glared at him, he still found it amusing and mock glared back while laughing a little harder, Storm failed to see the humor of her predicament. The steel door to the far end of the room is what really caught the teenager's attention, the strange man had left it open and it looked totally unguarded. He smiled, which cracked his cheeks and raised his brow "you want to leave that badly my dear?" was that a rhetorical question?

"I don't know" she rasped "will I make it out before you come after me?"

He chuckled; it was different from the last couple of times he laughed "Answering a question with a question, my, aren't we rude. With all the money dad must bring in, I expected a little more respect then that, etiquette classes must cost a bundle these days"

"I wouldn't know" she responded. Storm didn't want to listen to him anymore.

"Okay" he stepped away and to the side of the room, leaving the door wide open and with no other person in sight "if you wish to leave so badly, you can. We'll even play a game, if you can outrun me, by some miracle, and escape, I'll let you leave with no more hassles. I'll even give you a head start. You can even tell the police Boris Balkov is the man who kidnapped you. Here" he threw her a small license of identification "proof"

Storm's eyes widened in remembrance of the news broadcast she had watched earlier. The smile that seemed to never leave his face was unnerving and something she would never trust. Taking the small bit of plastic she looked it over and shoved it into her jean pocket, side stepping past Boris and towards the door that lead to freedom. She looked outside and around to see if he was telling the truth, the last thing she needed was to get outside and be ambushed by a bunch of armed men.

"You don't talk much do you? Good, just one more code of conduct you won't have to learn-"

Storm didn't stick around to hear him out, if he thought she would be here that long he was sadly mistaken. She had been on track three years straight and could basically outrun anyone when she was pumped up enough; the adrenalin for freedom only intensified when masked with confusion. Shock ran through her body as she heard heavy foot falls dead on her trail, they were unusually fast and it dawned on Storm that that bastard Boris had tricked her.

Making a rather hasty decision, she turned a sharp corner in hopes of losing the people trailing behind her; they must have seen her because the sense of something behind Storm was still there. Storm stopped abruptly and slid into a wide crack in the cold stone walls, scraping up the side of her stomach as she did so. Holding her breath, her eyes widened as about three young men ran past, all armed with nothing but Beyblades. As soon as they were out of sight, Storm carefully squeezed back out of the wall and winced, touching her side she could almost cry, it was scraped up pretty badly.

Not even thinking about where she was going, Storm started to walk down the hallway very slowly, making sure to not make to much noise with her sneakers. She couldn't go back in the other direction; Boris Balkov would most probably have more people out playing his game, leaving her with the last dice roll. Storm started to notice rooms that looked like jail cell's, rusted bars lined the empty spaces and were quite scary. She covered her mouth and nose from the horrible smell and kept walking. Storm noticed boys, young boys, were chained up in the cells like animals. She wanted to cry out and hug them, get them somewhere safe, their expression's looked cold and lonely, like they knew they were going to die.

"You, girl"

Storm stopped in her tracks "What?" she asked meekly.

"Over here"

The voice could have come from any one of the boys chained up; she walked towards the end cell and stared into it, trying to make out the figure "Are… you here?"

Storm stared at the boy in the cell, she couldn't tell his hair color from there being no light, but it was obviously a dark shade. His eyes were hidden by his bangs so she couldn't tell his facial features properly. She did know, however, that he was very muscular and broad. His clothing looked torn and he had scratches and bruises all over his arms. He was in a slumped position on the ground and chained to the stone wall by both his wrists. Storm gave him a sad smile, even though she knew he couldn't see, maybe it was better that way.

"Yeah, here" he mummered. His voice seemed broken, cold, as if he couldn't be fucked with life for much longer.

The young man lifted his head to look up at Storm and she could finally see his eye's, they were a beautiful crimson color, but they held a cold feeling to them that Storm didn't very much like. Even if she couldn't tell his hair color or some of his facial features, Storm could already tell he was a very handsome young man, and yet, he looked so familiar. It was almost as if she had seen him some place before.

"You know, staring is rude" he said with slight amusement.

Storm frowned "Why did you call me over here?" she asked, her curious nature taking over.

He coughed, rather fiercely and laid his head back against the stone wall. For a second she felt sorry for him. He couldn't have been more than a year older than herself and here he was, suffering so much, no one deserved to go through this.

"I know you pity me. Hell, I seen you looking over all these baka's when you walked through here, like king shit almighty" he growled.

Storm was shocked at his aggression; then again she would be mad to if this was happening to her, in a strange way it probably was. He had a Russian accent when he spoke, but he used the Japanese term baka, did that mean he was from Japan?

"I don't pity you, I feel sorry for you. It's a whole different concept. Why should I pity someone I don't even know?"

He laughed bitterly and raised his arms "Look at me... does this answer your question"

Storm was about to make a crude reply when she heard more foot falls coming from down the darkened hall, with a panicked gasp she turned to the strange boy with a pleading look. The boy seemed to notice how scared she looked and gave an annoyed groan. "Go up that hallway to your left, it'll take you to the main gates"

Smiling appreciatively, Storm made her way in the direction he had explained and stopped at the entrance.

"What the fuck are you waiting for?" he chocked out before coughing again, this time spitting out a mouth full of blood.

"I'm Storm Glenn. What's your name?"

The boy turned his head to the side with a slight smirk edging its way onto his already stoic features "The name's Kai"

Storm turned and ran up the hallway, listening carefully for anymore men. She knew she had seen that boy somewhere before and was now aware that everything was true, the abuse, the accusations. She now knew she was in the midst of Biovolt Abby.