Approximately Two years ago

(10/11)

254 Days after Kiku's Kidnapture

Francis had no idea for how long they had been travelling. All he knew was that he had been gone from his home for a very long time. He carefully shifted position so that he could try and make himself more comfortable. He leaned into the van as he felt it continue on its journey to who knows where. He ended up shifting again because his bound hands had begun to hurt due to his weight being forced on them.

He gave a sigh and looked towards his traveling companions. They were all silent, with the majority of them asleep. Those that were awake were just blankly looking at the sleeping people or at the wall. He hadn't been travelling with all of these people from the beginning. Ever since he was kidnapped in France the group he was with was always changing.

At first he found himself in a group of five, of which only him and a 17 year old girl remained, before they found themselves in a much bigger group of at least twenty before they traveled by ship to America. From there the group was reduced to twelve, before they found themselves travelling by car. Then three more people were added as five were taken away, thus reducing the group to eleven. From there they were transferred and they began travelling inside a van that barely had any ventilation.

At the beginning of that trip they weren't tied up, but it changed when a good amount of them decided that they had had enough and they tried to either escape or somehow kill the traffickers. The rest of them ended up joining in, and in the end they failed and two were killed and one was severely injured and the person was left to die on the side of the lonely road. The rest were tied, those who initiated the ruckus were more severely tied than the others. Thus the incident reduced their number to eight, and that was how it remained for the rest of the trip.

Francis was beginning to fall asleep when he felt the van slow down and come to a standstill. That appeared to have revived those that were still awake because they moved and began looking around as if trying to figure out what had made the van stop. Then the back doors of the van opened and the blinding light of the sun made it difficult to see outside the van.

"All of you out!" came the voice of the leader of the group that had been transporting them. Those that were asleep were woken up by those that were awake. Francis and a bunch of the others struggled to move after being in the same position for so long. Those that were able to get off were assisted so that they wouldn't land face first on the ground. Following his 17 year old companion he was helped off and was told not to move from where he was. Those that couldn't get off, they also had their feet bound, were unceremoniously dumped on the hard ground.

Francis looked around at his surroundings. They were at an isolated area, that much he could tell because there was a forest surrounding the beautiful expensive two-story house. He could tell it helped keep unwanted visitors at bay. Plus no one was going to come to rescue them, because no one would see anything that they didn't already know was happening. Looking down he realized that he was standing on a stone path that led to the house.

Then they were told to start walking towards the house while the others were either picked off the path or dragged against it. Francis could easily tell that there was no way any of them were going to be able to escape. There were too many armed people around, they were in an isolated area where civilization could be hundreds of miles away, and they had no idea where they were. They climbed the steps onto the porch before one of them opened the door and ushered them in.

If he thought the outside of the house was beautiful and expensive on the outside the inside was even more grandeurs. Whoever owned the place had a very fine expensive taste in decor. Then they were forced to walk further inside towards an open door that was being held open by one of the armed guards.

"In," the guard said as he pointed his gun to the inside of the room. "And don't attempt anything funny because you won't succeed in escaping from this room." Francis followed those that were ahead of him as they walked in. The room had absolutely no furniture, its only contents consisted of blankets and pillows and a heavy thick black curtain that was possibly blocking the room's only window. The others were dragged or carried in before they were unceremoniously re-dumped on the ground. Then they closed the door and you could hear them leave.

Francis ended up walking to one of the corners away from the door and he tried to make himself comfortable as he sat down on one of the large pillows. Those that could also found comfortable places to sit while the others were forced to remain where they were. Either the house grew strangely quite or the room was sound-proof for you couldn't hear any noise other than the people that were moving in the room.

Then after a while you could hear the sound of footsteps stop outside the door. Then the door opened and someone came in. The person looked to be around his height, and he had messy blond hair and emerald green eyes. They carried no visible weapon as he looked around at the eight people that were in the room. Francis pressed himself against the wall, as if hoping that he'll mysteriously go through the wall and escape. He was startled a bit as the person started inspecting them, and sometimes even commenting on his findings.

Then one of them, his 17 year old companion, bit one of his fingers as best as she could before he broke free and delivered a harsh blow to her head.

"It appears we have a tough one. So little one, I wonder if you are going to be the first to be sold or the last one to leave this room."

"Go to hell!" she snapped back at him, he just smiled and roughly grabbed her. At the same time he stood up so he pulled her upward with him, but he was holding her in such a way that she was barely touching the floor. "Let me go you bastard! You won't get away with this! You hear!"

"Trying to act like the tough one I see," the person said as their eyes shone dangerously for a moment. "But it's not going to work dear, and I want to thank you for volunteering in order to demonstrate to the others what happens when you get on my bad side." As he finished speaking he pulled out a switchblade and placed it on her cheek as she struggled not to falter on her resistance.

"Leave her alone!" Francis cried out as the switchblade had traveled downwards and he had been about to begin hacking her clothes with it. The person stopped and looked at him and the girl glanced at him out of the corner of her eyes.

"Well, well. Looks like we have another challenger." The person said as they let go of her so that she unceremoniously landed on the floor. Then the person walked over and knelt down in front of him. "So tell me, love, are you a boy or a girl?" Francis got slightly irritated, because he could tell the person knew what his gender was. By now he had learned to differentiate between those who made an honest mistake and those who were trying to pull his leg.

"So now the cat has your tongue?" The person asked as they put the blade on Francis's lip. Francis glared at him and he tried not to wince as the person gave him a cut on the cheek. "Maybe I should check to see whether you have a tongue…" with those words the person moved the blade back to Francis's mouth, but before he could do anything else a hand landed on their shoulder making the person turn around and at the same time Francis looked to see who had saved him.

The hand belonged to an Asian boy who was wearing a black sweat suit. Francis could immediately tell that he was shorter than both of them, but he couldn't tell on whose side the person was.

"Kiku, what are you doing here?" the person asked as they removed the blade and stood up in order to pull the other person into a hug.

"I noticed that you got another delivery," was the monotonic reply the person got as Kiku glanced at Francis. "I was curious, so I came over."

"What do you think of this batch?" the person asked as he let go of Kiku.

"Looks better than your past one. Where did they come from, and how come this group is smaller than the last?"

"They come from Europe, and the original number was eleven but they put up a fight and three were killed."

"Soudesunee…" Kiku murmured before turning to look at the person. "Arthur… can I keep one?"

"Why?" Arthur asked as he looked around at the group. "They are all a bunch of ruffians."

"Because I am going to be alone when you go on that trip of yours in two days from now. I need someone to keep me company that is actually going to engage in conversation with me and not think that every move I do is to run away."

"Guards can be boring at times, no?" Arthur said as he smiled at Kiku. "Fine, but you better make sure that whoever you choose doesn't decide to run away."

"Okay! Thanks Asa!" Kiku said as he quickly kissed Arthur and scanned the room with his chocolate brown eyes. "I choose him." Kiku said at last as his eyes landed on Francis.

"You sure?"

"Yes I am sure."

"Are you really sure? This one is one of the wildest ones."

"I'm sure Asa."

"Alright, here use this to untie him." Arthur said as he handed the switchblade to Kiku, who in turn used it to cut the ropes of Francis's wrists.

"What's your name?"

"Francis."

"Konnichiwa Francis, my name is Kiku Honda, and you are going to be my companion from now on."

Author's Note:

Sorry that I have been absent for so long! I have been unusually busy for the past couple of moths that I haven't been able to update. But I am back! And I have brought to you the rewritten 10th chapter of Because I Love Him! It's rewritten because I had this chapter written way differently than this version that I present to you. But this version came out better ( and longer) than the original! Hope you don't mind this long chapter! Reviews are always welcomed!