Wow, my head hurts like hell…that's the last time I drink for a while. Back to Kai, no one wants to read about me moaning about a hangover. And if they do, they're just sadists and not worthy of my attention. Ho hum…where was I? Oh yes…
It was two days later, and I had just finished a nine-hour shift. Kai was oddly talkative, almost hyperactive. I checked his stats and frowned. Nothing there. Abruptly, he calmed down. I say calmed down, he just stopped talking.
"Salima, do you want to know how this happened?" He gestured vaguely towards his leg. I looked at him, mystified.
"I thought you already told me. Russian Roulette." He sighed impatiently.
"No, I mean how it really happened."
"You mean how the bullet ended up in your leg instead of your head?" I said dryly. That had occurred to me a little while after he'd said it, and had been puzzling me ever since. He nodded. I shrugged and smiled at him. "Whatever you want to do." He shifted restlessly.
"Do you know about the Blitzkrieg Boys?" I opened my mouth to reply in the negative, then paused and nodded slowly. I remembered a bit about them, mainly their captain Tala, and of course, the fact that Kai had been on the team. Just as Max had been on the PPB Allstars, and Ray had been on White Tiger X.
"I think so," I replied. He nodded again and started talking.
"We all have similar pasts, and a few weeks back, we decided that we wanted to take a little gamble." He smiled crookedly.
"You mean…kill yourselves?" I asked softly. Ha, I've always been good at simplifying…
"Yeah. It was Tala's idea, and he persuaded me and the others to do it. I would rather have just shot myself without any fuss, Bryan fancied poisoning - that or lying on a railway track - and Spencer had a particularly sharp knife tucked away. But no, Tala always was rather…persuasive. So, there we were, all sitting in a circle in the middle of this massive warehouse, with the revolver in Tala's hands. He loaded it with the one bullet and spun it, pointed it at his head and pulled the trigger. No bullet. Then, he stared at us, and there was a look in his eyes that made even Bryan shiver.
"Let's play Russian Poker," he whispered. I froze. Basically, that meant that Tala would now be pointed the gun at everyone's head, not just his own. We agreed, or at least, we didn't protest. That was Tala for you. He always got his own way, in everything. Heck, I even let him screw me once, and I'm never on the bottom." He spat the word out as if it was poisonous. "He pointed it at Bryan's head and pulled the trigger. Once again; nothing.
"It was passed round without incident and eventually, it was my go again. The sixth go. Tala aimed it at me, at my head, his eyes glittering with something that anyone else would probably call madness. I stared back at him coolly. This was what I wanted, after all, wasn't it? To die. Leave all the mess in my life for someone else to scrape through. The thoughts sounded right, normal, but I felt a tiny flicker of doubt force its way into my unwilling mind. There was no gamble about it, not on the sixth go. Once Tala pulled that trigger, I was dead. Gone forever."
He had rehearsed this in his head, I could tell, trying to tell me everything that had happened. Every feeling that had flashed through his head.
"Tala looked at me, and all there was in that stare was bloodlust.
"Bye bye, Kai…" he murmured, caressing the gun almost tenderly. And then, it hit me. Tala didn't want to die; he wanted to see me die. A split second before his finger closed in the trigger, I flung myself to my feet and turned to run. The bullet entered here," He ran his fingers lightly over his still-stitched hip. "I nearly fell, nearly passed out. Instead, I ran out the door, trying to put as much distance between my psychopathic team mate and me as I possible could. A gunshot rang out behind me. I never looked to see who it was. I hope it was him." He stared blankly at the white bed sheet, his horrific tale finished.
I had never felt so sick. I had to sit on his bed in a hurry, my stomach churning, the world spinning. I heard him move towards me, alarm in his voice as he told me to lean forwards with my head in between my knees and take deep breaths. I knew that, but you just don't think when you're trying to stop yourself from fainting.
"Are you okay, Salima? I'm sorry, I should never have told you that." His face, although a little blurred, was paler than normal and tight with guilt. I smiled weakly up at him.
"Hey, I asked." A smile flickered briefly across his face for a second, but he shook it away.
"And I shouldn't have told you. Are you feeling any better?" I nodded and sat up slowly. "Good. I'm so sorry."
"It's okay!" I told him firmly. He shot me a highly dubious look and moved back to his original position, raising a hand to rub absentmindedly at his temple. "Have you got a headache?" Instantly, he dropped his hand.
"It's nothing," he muttered. Of course it wasn't, he just looked like hell by complete coincidence…
"Kai, talk to me!" Slowly, he looked at me.
"I had physiotherapy today. I can barely walk." Disgust twisted his handsome features. "Why didn't I just let Tala get his sick thrill and finish me off there and then?"
"Don't think like that!" I ordered, slapping him as hard as I could on the arm. He didn't flinch.
"Why not? It's not like anyone cares."
"I do!" He carried on as if I hadn't spoken. Damn idiot, he always was so single-minded.
"My life might as well be over. Once I'm out of here, I have two choices. Get a wheelchair and live the rest of my pathetic life being classed as disabled, or get another gun and sort out what I chickened out of before."
"You do that and I'll make sure you live to regret it, mister." He finally seemed to remember I was in the room with him and gave me a faintly amused look.
"You sound like Hilary."
"Glad to know that there was somebody in your life who didn't treat you like a god. And you're avoiding the subject."
"Screw you."
"No, you're gay, remember?" He laughed shortly, and then went quiet, putting a hand on his forehead and rubbing it distractedly.
"When am I going to get out of here?" he asked eventually, refusing to make eye contact with me. I shrugged.
"I'm not a doctor. Too thick for that. Ask whoever's in charge of you." He scowled.
"She's a b-"
"Hey, no badmouthing the consultant!" I chided, laughing despite myself. "That's a staff privilege!" He smiled thinly and lay back down, lightly running his fingers over his ruined hip. Recognising a dismissal when I saw one, I stood up. Suddenly, a thought flew into my head. "Where's Dranzer?" Kai looked at me, startled that I had remembered the name of his bit-beast correctly, and patted his pocket wordlessly. "Okay. Just wondering."
"You still beyblade?" he asked, a faint light of interest appearing in his previously dull eyes. I shrugged.
"Not much. A bit, I suppose. You?" He nodded and rolled away to face the wall. I shook my head at his bluntness and left obediently.
Even back then, I could tell I was getting closer to him than most people had ever dreamed of. I don't know why, or how, I just know that he was almost normal around me.
If somewhat depressed. And suicidal. But apart from that, perfectly normal.
Surprisingly enough, I wasn't sexually attracted to him. The whole homosexual thing might have had something to do with it, but even then, under normal circumstances, with a different guy, I'd have expected to look at him and think, "wow". But no, not with Kai. It wasn't that he wasn't attractive, heck, he was drop-dead gorgeous. Muscles, nice bum, long eyelashes, tall, not to mention the "strong and silent" attitude that was every girl's fantasy. So why did I never think about him like that?
Oh well, it's not like it matters now. Nothing matters now.
Ooh, depressing ending... I'm about a quarter of the way through the next chapter, so it should be up relatively soon! Got to go now, I'm being sent to bed early because I have SATS tomorrow! Wish me luck! (hides from exams)
(pops out again) Oh yeah, please review!