I HAVE FINALLY UPDATED!! This would've totally gone up yesterday, but I got kicked out of the house so...yeah...they don't have computers at the park. What also held me back was that I had already finished the chapter but I was NOT happy with it and I mean NOT HAPPY. I rewrote the whole thing and I am...satisfied. Somewhat satisfied. I cannot bring things close to perfection especially these days when I have not finished my summer homework, getting ready for registration, and am still in the process of getting my wires on my braces. No yay. None at all. And I'm getting two teeth yanked out tomorrow. Ehh...
Okay so this takes place two years later and Deidara is eight years old. Kawaii.
Anyway, enjoy Part II of Sweet Childhood Memories.
December had finally arrived, and so had the first heavy snowfall of the year. Deidara was probably the only student walking home, which was proving to be a very difficult task: every time he took a step, he would sink into the ankle-deep snow. Kashi Shop was still a bit far away and Deidara was starting to wonder if he would be able to get there before nightfall.
"Hey, you!"
Startled, Deidara tripped over a little mound of snow, lost his balance, and fell face-first into the snow. He struggled to sit up and wiped the snow off his face, looking around for the owner of the voice.
A tall, long-haired man was leaning against a black truck that he had apparently just gotten out of.
"Me?" Deidara asked, pointing at himself and getting to his feet.
The man laughed. "Is there anyone else?" he said.
Deidara did not answer, he was unable to tell whether the man was joking or not.
"D'ya need a ride?" the man asked. "I can take ya, it's too cold to walk."
Any other eight-year-old with sensible parents would've declined such an invitation. But Nagato was nowhere near sensible and had never taught Deidara about the dangers of talking to strangers or getting in their cars. To Deidara it seemed like a good and faster alternative to walking and he nodded eagerly.
He got into the truck between two other men. The passenger seat was also occupied by a man, this one thin and balding. The long-haired man finally stepped into the car and, when he had been driving for a good five minutes (during which, it never occured to Deidara how odd it was that the man had not asked his address yet) he finally spoke, "Go ahead."
Deidara barely had time to protest when a hand came over his mouth and his backpack was wrenched off. Someone grabbed his arms, forced them behind him, and then bound them together with rope. Two pieces of thick, gray tape were placed directly over Deidara's mouth so that he could not scream.
He could suddenly feel someone's hot breath on his ear. "Don't try anything..." said a gruff voice.
Deidara trembled from head to foot as two men grabbed him and threw him onto the floor of the truck. Now unable to look through the windows, he had no idea where they were headed. How quickly his life had changed! One minute, he was walking down the street and the next he was tied up in a truck, heading who-knows-where. Deidara could hear whispers, but he did not know what they were saying. What was it...English? Deidara had already begun taking English classes, as was mandatory at his school, but his knowledge of the language was still nowhere near good enough to catch on to a single conversation.
After what seemed like hours, the truck finally stopped. Someone grabbed a terrified Deidara and led him out of the truck and outside. They were standing in front of what looked like some sort of bank. Deidara wasn't liking this. He wasn't liking this at all.
The hand that was holding Deidara by the hair was keeping such a tight grip on him that he could not turn his head to look at any of the men that had attacked him. Not that he wanted to, anyway.
They burst into the building and it was not immediate to the people inside what was going on. Most of them stared at the doorway, checkbooks and pens in hand; the employees with their pens hovering over papers. And then there was a loud boom that shook the whole room: a woman in the far corner screamed and it was both the gunshot and scream that dragged people out of their shock. Small bits of ceiling fell to the floor from the place where the bullet had exited.
"SHUT UP AND DON'T MOVE!" the man holding Deidara yelled. All heads turned, not towards the speaker, but to the frightened and tied-up little eight-year-old boy who looked on the verge of tears.
A woman near the door was holding the hand of a little girl who looked a few years younger than Deidara. She eyed Deidara with a sort of motherly affection, tears sparkling in her eyes. She blinked and pushed her daughter behind her and out of sight. Deidara looked back at hear pleadingly and she eyed him fearfully.
Out of the corner of his eye, Deidara could see one of the employees slowly lowering one of their hands.
"DON'T YOU FUCKING TOUCH THAT BUTTON!" A raspy, slightly high-pitched voice on Deidara's left screamed.
The man who had been attempting to lower his hand quickly retracted it and cast fearful glances all around the room.
"Well," said a voice, and Deidara knew it was the long-haired man that had lured him into the truck. "You know what we want...so get to it."
He approached one of the employees, who immediately paled and began to tremble. Meanwhile, all eyes were focused on Deidara, who had begun to cry silently. His feet were beginning to ache from standing still for so long and he looked at the crowd pleadingly.
A couple of minutes, hours, days, or maybe even years passed before the long-haired man came back to stand behind Deidara. Soft whispers broke out in the frightened crowd and then suddenly, just as it seemed that everything had gone smoothly and no one would be hurt, something went wrong.
Very badly wrong.
"Cowards!"
The cry echoed inside the building, ripping apart the fragile and until-now-untouched silence. Everyone, even Deidara, turned at the sound of the feeble yell. A crippled old man leaning on a cane pushed his way through the crowd, his face red with rage. For a moment he seemed too upset to be able to speak and then he took a deep breath and spoke:
"You're cowards! Look at that little boy, he's scared half-to death and you're using him just to carry out your-"
Deidara knew it was going to happen before it did. He shut his eyes just in time: there was a boom, a thud, and some screams. He opened his eyes and was suddenly staring at the man's body on the ground, blood trailing from a hole in his head. Deidara's muffled scream was unnaturally loud in the thick silence that had just settled back into the room, affecting everyone like some kind of poisonous gas that had been seeping under the doors the whole time.
And now Deidara knew that this was probably the worst day of his life.
Once they were back inside the truck, the long-haired man turned to Deidara, who instantly tried to back away, and said. "There now, that wasn't all bad, was it?" with that said, he inserted his key into the ignition and Deidara gave a muffled cry as the engine roared.
Deidara lay on his back on the back seat, crying in a forced silence. Tears cascaded down the sides of his face and he heaved great unheard sobs that racked his whole body. He wished he was at Kashi Shop, enjoying a delicious, homemade dinner courtesy of Aoi. He wished he was laughing with Akane at the table, poking fun at her new haircut and getting playfully slapped in return. He wished he wasn't cold or scared.
Hell, he even wished he could see Nagato.
And that...is where I end the chapter. Why? Because...well...because I can. I promise the next one will be longer but...writer's block is slowly creeping up on me though I'm hoping I can beat it. Also, my new charcoal pencils are calling my name. Oh no, I'm going crazy!! Or maybe I just need sleep. Eh, doesn't matter. What does matter, however, is that you R&R. Muchas gracias :)
