Woooo Hooo! Thank you purpleleemer, Skarlet-Raven, and AwesomeAutumn for your reviews of my previous chapter. :) I'm so sorry it took me so long to update... I cannot sleep lately, and every time I try to write this my mind just goes blank... I think I can handle it though.
I hadn't planned for this to be the last chapter, but it is going to be. I don't think there's anything left to say. :) I hope you like it:
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Julius had been searching the dark, cold, wet town for Toki, and had heard Toki's pleas for help. He followed the sound of Toki's cries, but when he finally spotted Toki, he had arrived just in time to see the wretched man from the pub hit Toki, hard, knocking him to the ground.
Julius gasped in disbelief. How could anyone be so cruel?
"Hey!" he yelled, angrily, running toward the man who stood over Toki's limp form.
The man turned toward Julius, looked back down at Toki, as though he was contemplating something, and then ran off, fortunately leaving Toki laying on the damp ground.
Julius wanted to chase after the man, and give him what he deserved, a painful few punches to the face, but he wanted more to make sure that Toki was alright. He reached Toki and knelt down beside him. Julius looked Toki over. He was very still, but the tiny puffs of visible condensation in the freezing air, arising from his mouth and nose indicated that he was indeed breathing.
"Toki?" Julius said, worriedly, gently shaking Toki's shoulders.
Julius tried to wake Toki. "Toki?" he said louder, still gently shaking Toki's shoulders.
Julius was just about to panic and run Toki to the hospital when Toki stirred; Toki opened his eyes while struggling out of Julius's grasp, "Gets aways!" Toki pleaded, before he knew who was with him.
"Hey," Julius gentley reassured him, "it's okay. You're alright. It's me. It's Julius."
Toki breathed out a sigh of relief. Tears welled up in his eyes, "I's sorries. I shouldsn'ts have runs aways. I just needs to goes homes. Cans you drives me homes now? Please?"
"Toki, I think you need to have a doctor look at you. That man hit you pretty hard," Julius suggested, moving a wet bit of hair, which was partially frozen, away from Toki's forehead, revealing a cut just above his right eyebrow, "are you hurt anywhere else?" he then asked.
Toki shook his head, "No. I's fine. I's not hurts. I just needs to goes homes."
Julius sighed. He had only met Toki just a few hours ago, but everything about the frightened young boy made his heart ache. Why was he really running away from home every night? Did every normal child these days run off in the middle of the night, and even sacrifice sleep for days on end in order to do so?
"Will you at least let me buy you some dry clothing? It's too icy to drive still, and you are going to get sick if you keep wearing what you've got on now," Julius offered.
"No. It's okays," Toki said, though he was shivering, "It's nots too colds... I gots to go homes now."
"Toki, I can see ice stuck on your clothing," Julius persisted.
Toki suddenly became very serious... much more serious than Julius knew a six year old could be, "I needs. To gets. Homes." he said, "I needs to know, ares you goings to drives me dere? Or do I needs to walks. Just tells me, okays? I's sorries, but I cannots stay heres. I's already runnings late."
"Toki," Julius began, "if I drive you home, will you agree to see a doctor first?"
Toki frowned, and shook his head, "I just walks den," he said, sounding as though he was ready to cry.
Julius sighed, "No. I've give you a ride," he gave in, "but I think when you get home you should tell your parents what happened, and they can take you to the hospital, okay?"
"Whatevers," Toki said, "we gots to hurries though. I needs to gets back rights away."
Julius nodded and took Toki's hand. He frowned as Toki gasped and pulled his hand away. Julius looked down at Toki, who looked back up at him with much worry evident in his features.
"I's sorries!" Toki cried out. He looked almost as though he was afraid of Julius.
"What's wrong, Toki?" Julius asked, "I'm not going to hurt you. Why are you so worried?"
"I's sorries. Is just dat my arms hurts. By my hands," Toki informed him, as he wrapped his small fingers around his own wrist.
"Your wirsts?" Julius asked, "May I see?"
Toki was silent for a moment and then agreed, pulling the sleeve of his coat up to his elbow, revealing red marks on his wrist. The marks were beginning to turn into bruises. Toki looked almost as shocked as Julius at the sight of his own wrist.
Julius closed his eyes and sighed. He was so angry that anyone could be so cruel. Toki was a small child, and the man from the pub, tall and strong felt that he had the right to do this to him: bruise his wrists... hit him so hard that he lost consciousness? "It looks like it's just going to be bruised," Julius told Toki, "I don't think it's broken."
"Dat's good," Toki said, "I follows you. We needs to gets goings."
"Alright," Julius said, leading the way back to his car, while keeping his eye on Toki.
The sun was rising, but they had made it to Julius's car, and it would only be 5 or so minutes to get back to Toki's house.
"I assume you just live further down the road from my house, right?" Julius asked as he drove, "shall I just keep going straight?"
Toki nodded, "I tells you whens to stops," he said, "De roads ends and den is my house."
Julius looked over at Toki who was watching the sun rise out the window of the car. The boy looked very concerned.
"Hey," Julius got his attention, "if your parents have already woken up, I can talk with them and help you explain why you ran away, okay? I'm sure they'll be more concerned about you than angry with you."
"Dey won't talks to you," Toki said, looking up at Julius, "I just goes in dere quietsly; hopes dat dey ares stills asleeps."
It wasn't long before Julius saw what Toki had meant about the road ending. About thirty feet from where the road stopped was a small house, with a light shining from one of the few windows. Julius turned toward Toki, who sunk down as far as he could in the seat.
"Day already knows I'm was has runs aways again. Dey knows dat I was gone," Toki said, his voice shaking, "you cans takes me to da hospitals now if you wants. Dey already knows. I cans stays gones for longers now."
"Come on, Toki," Julius urged, "they are probably really worried about you. Come on. I'll walk up there with you," he said, opening the door and stepping out of the car.
Toki shook his head, "No," he said quietly, "just takes me backs to your house. I stays dere fors a whiles."
"I cannot do that, Toki," Julius said, "I could probably get in trouble for that. I think you need to let your parents know you are okay, and stay with them. They probably wouldn't want you going with me. They don't even know me."
"But I knows you!" Toki urged, "you cans goes in dere and tells dem whatevers you wants, but I's staying in de car. Dey won'ts listens to yous anyways."
Julius looked at Toki, "I'll go talk to them," he said, closing the car door and walking up to the house. Toki watched as Julius knocked on the door, waited a minute and then disappeared into the house.
He tried to see anything he could through the windows of the house, but his attention was soon taken by the sound of another car. There were never cars driving near his house... Toki turned around in the seat to see the car that had driven up behind Julius's car. He watched the door open, and the man from the pub stepped out.
Toki gasped and ducked down in the seat. He crawled over to the driver's side. If he had to, he would try to drive the car, even though he didn't really know how. Had Toki been aware of the lock feature, he would have locked both doors. Unfortunately, he hadn't spent much time in cars, and knew little about them, other than how to steer(sort of), that turning the key starts a car, the movable shifting stick made the car go forward or backwards, and that pressing the pedals, though he wasn't sure which was which, would make the car go or stop.
Toki screamed as the passenger side door was pulled open. He fumbled with the key and turned it in the ignition of the car. As the man reached for Toki, he clinged to the steering wheel, and stretched toward the pedals of the car. He had forgotten to shift the car into drive, and he realized this when the car didn't go.
Toki pulled on the shift, putting the car into reverse. As the man grabbed his arm, Toki slammed the gas pedal. Since the car was in reverse, the ground was very icy, and Toki was clinging to the steering wheel as the man tried to pull him away from it, the car was rapidly moving backwards, in a very unsafe, swerving motion.
Aparently the horrible man had noticed that they were about to go over a cliff. He then focused his attention on getting his foot to the break pedal rather than trying to get Toki away from the steering wheel. He pushed his leg over Toki's, slamming the break pedal, and stepping on Toki's foot in the process.
"Owwie!" Toki cried out in pain, reaching toward the car's door handle. He pulled the handle and the door opened. The car was still moving, sliding on the icy ground, but was slowing as the man quickly applied the breaks. Toki jumped out of the door, falling to his hands and knees as he hit the ground. He turned toward the car just in time to see it go over the cliff.
Julius had heard all of the commotion, and had run back out of the house before he had even had time to talk to Toki's parents. He ran up behind Toki as the car rolled over the cliff.
"Toki!" Julius yelled, "what did you do?"
"I didn'ts means it, to do its! I tries to drives cause dat guy followeds us. I sorries dat I brokes your cars," Toki said, as he pointed to the car that the man from the pub had arrived in, "Yous can probablies has his cars. I thinks he's probablies dead. Dat's a big cliffs, over dere... I almosts falls offs it once. Bigs bigs cliff. He's deads for sures."
Toki and Julius each turned back toward Toki's house, where his parents stood, looking at Toki, with no sort of emotional expression on their faces.
Toki sighed, "I guess I gots to go den," he said, "maybe I comes visits you some times, a differents nights. Nots fors a whiles."
"Do you want me to stay and help you explain all of this to your parents?" Julius offered.
"No. It's will be fines," he lied, "I will visits you again sometimes."
"Alright," Julius said, "take care, Toki. And get some rest."
Toki nodded and walked up to his parents. The didn't say anything, but turned and walked into the house, as Toki quietly followed.
Julius took the abandoned car which had belonged to the man from the pub, and drove home. Toki, of course, recieved his usual punishment, and in his mind became a little bit closer to running away for good. When he finally did decide to run away, he imagined that it would be to live with a boy he had met in Sweeden the year before.
Maybe he would meet Julius again someday, or maybe not...
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Was it too awful?? I know that Julius would have, in the real world, probably not just taken the dead guy's car, but he did in this story... Maybe I'll make up another of Toki's adventures and write it up some time...
Anyway, at the end the boy in Sweeden, of course, is Skwisgaar... If you've read "Their Story," which I wrote, it tells the tale of how Toki and Skwisgaar met. :) So, I was kind of referencing it in this story. I like to try to write all of my stories as though everything within them as well as the show has really happened, (in the metalocalypse world that is...) I mean to say, I write all of my stories assuming that each story has already taken place, or will take place for the characters, though the other stories' events rarely come up within any other story...
If you haven't read it, you should... It was one of my very first stories, even though I wrote several while I was in the process of writing it... I started it first anyway. :) Anyway, I'm sort of proud of "Their Story," not too sound too narcisistic... but if you liked this one, you probably would like it.
Please feel free to leave me a review. :) Good day.
