Chapter Twenty Eight

Living The Nightmare

I couldn't feel my legs. This wasn't particularly unusual waking up – I was lazy as hell and my limbs liked to turn into lead in the mornings, all the better for gravity to hold me down. Something hard and slightly pointy was digging into my side. I shifted slightly to get rid of it but it was really big. I couldn't figure out what it was. The oddest thing was the pounding in my head as light seared through my eyelids. It felt a little like a hangover I'd once had when I was fourteen but I didn't remember drinking anything. I'd have been really stupid to drink anything before trying to infiltrate Jai's hideout.

Oh. Right. That.

Kaoru.

I rolled to my feet in an instant, almost tripping over the broken chair leg and staggering back into the wall, my head spinning. Whatever I'd inhaled had worked too fast to be chloroform but I didn't know enough about goddamn knockout drugs to identify it. Whatever it was, it was really not agreeing with me and all my limbs felt a little vague.

"Oh, you're awake. Good. I was starting to get bored." I squinted against the light of the desk lamp, holding onto the wall behind me.

"Oh, gee, we wouldn't want that," I drawled with as much venom as I could muster. My eyes were adjusting, despite the blinding pain in my skull. Jai tutted at me and my skin crawled, replaying the Wall of Ultimate Horror over and over in my mind.

"Now, now, English. Haven't you learnt your lesson?" He looked to the side and my pained eyes followed. The big Russian, Vaska, glared back at me. Big foreign dude, I thought suddenly and though I urged to beat his face in for beating Yuri's, two things stopped me.

Thing One, he was huge. As in, he had to be approaching seven feet tall and almost as broad, with muscles upon other muscles, so big that those muscles had to have their own team of mini-muscles to work them. This guy was the very definition of murder tank and everything I'd imagine a Russian mafia hitman to look like. His jaw line was stereotypically square and his expression unsurprisingly grim and serious. Mr Kill-You-With-My-Pinky was definitely an excellent Thing One, in a very un-Seuss kind of way.

Thing Two, the enormous hands that belonged to our personal Russian mobster friend were holding Kaoru firmly in his chair.

I turned icy eyes to Jai, fury boiling within me.

"Let him go," I spat. The crazy person seemed to think about it for a second but I knew what he was doing. He was trying to bait me.

"No, I don't think I will." I took a threatening step towards him and almost fell on my face. I glanced down at the rope attaching my ankle to the radiator behind me. While rudimentary, I didn't think I had the dexterity in my slightly fuzzy fingers to pick my way out of the knot. I yanked my foot forwards but all that happened was the rope got uncomfortably tight and I admonished myself for such a stupid move.

"You see, I'm still using him," Jai continued, oblivious to my idiocy. My head snapped up. Using him?

"He played bait perfectly, don't you think?" He said, smiling at me as he wandered over to Kaoru. I suddenly couldn't take my eyes off the blade in his hand. My heart got faster for every inch it got closer to him and I wanted to drag him away. He shouldn't be here. How did I ever let it go this far? Kaoru jerked his head away, glaring furiously and spat. I felt a surge of… something like pride for a brief moment. Jai, however, obviously didn't and backhanded him across the face.

"Stop it!" I shouted.

"I'm okay," I heard Kaoru muttered thickly, trying to right himself with his bound hands, but he really didn't get a say in how okay he was, not here. Jai looked at me and heaved a great sigh. As if on cue, Vaska grabbed Kaoru by the hair and yanked his head back with a cry of pain. I almost yelled but the blade danced perilously close to his neck. I froze, my eyes flitting between the two of them as cold seeped into my chest.

"You know, I thought I was being the perfect gentleman to you, English," Jai said, holding the knife lazily.

"Just as a head's up, gentleman don't normally try and kill women as a courting method," I murmured, not looking away from Kaoru. Jai laughed.

"I don't think there's anything normal about us, do you?" I couldn't really argue with that. We were weird as fuck, that was for sure. "I had to know, English. You were just so…" He gestured before looking at Vaska. "What did I say before? It was really poetic."

"Alight with fiery anger," the Russian said gruffly and with obvious disdain. Jai clicked.

"That was it!"

"I'm flattered," I muttered unconvincingly.

"And I was right!" He continued, as if he hadn't heard. I wasn't sure he had. The delusion he had going on was pretty damn impressive, I realised, which made him about a million times more dangerous. "You survived and not only that, you came back and beat the shit out of Ayumu! I mean, I was expected pay-back but you blew my mind with that move!" He laughed. "When that came out, I could barely sleep from excitement. You were the whole package," he said with a grin, waving his knife at me. Then he paused and the knife suddenly swung back towards Kaoru, who stiffened as I let out a yell, pulling at my rope. Jai sighed.

"And then this guy shows up." I stared at him uncomprehendingly as he ran a hand through his dark hair, looking at me with almost pained eyes.

He had to be kidding.

"You don't know how mad I was at you when I heard you were dating someone." Oh, yeah I do, I thought, picturing the destroyed apartment. "I thought I was going to go insane. But finding out that I'd been looking at the wrong school, that you were at Ouran? I mean, that just put a whole different perspective on things," he said with a horrible, horrible smile. A red line was forming on Kaoru's throat where the blade was pressed. He closed his eyes tightly as Jai sneered at the tricle of red that ran down his white skin. I leaned against the rope, hoping I could pull the old radiator right off the wall.

"Stop it," I hissed. Jai raised an eyebrow.

"I don't think you're in a position to demand, English. If I were you, I'd stop yourself." The angle of the blade grew threatening and I let the rope go slack and held up my hands in defeat. I could barely breathe.

"Okay. Okay, fine," I said quietly. "I'm here. Your plan worked. Congrats. Now let him go and you can have another go at slicing me to pieces." Jai smirked.

"That's not going to happen, now, is it?" He said, looking down at Kaoru. "He's the perfect way to control you. You're much too volatile by yourself." My hands started to shake. I did not like this. I did not like this one bit.

"What's the plan, then, Jai?" I said, folding my arms to hide the trembling. "You know I'm not stupid to come here without a back-up plan. You can't keep him here forever." The dark-haired guy nodded, acknowledging my point. Kaoru rolled his eyes to look at me questioningly. I saw the pain but also anger. Anger was good.

"That's why that's not the plan," he told me. A shiver ran down my spine.

"Care to share?" I said. I had to get him monologue-ing. It was a classic bad guy slip-up. If he started telling me his entire plan, his reasoning, his life's story, then maybe Kyoya and his miniature army would show up in time. I couldn't take my eyes off the bright red oozing into Kaoru's shirt.

Jai grinned.

"I only need to keep him for as long as it takes to break you." I wanted to laugh. So I did. Hollowly.

"Break me? Please. You've already almost killed me and that didn't work, did it?" He really hadn't thought this through. "Exactly what's your idea this time?" Jai didn't seemed phased. I probably should have twigged earlier but I was too focused on Kaoru. All my brain power was trying to figure out how to get him out of there. That's why, when Jai pulled a chair up next to Kaoru and said those four words, it took a minute to compute.

"I beg your pardon?" I said stupidly. He sighed, leaning forwards in the chair and pressing the blade to Kaoru's throat. Hard.

"I said, take off your clothes."

"Fuck you," Kaoru spat, more blood running down his neck. "Katya, don't-" Jai sharply told him to shut up, not looking away from me. I tried to take a deep breath but my lungs were suddenly very, very small and my head was suddenly empty of anything. I looked at Kaoru. He begged me silently with his gorgeous amber eyes but all I could see was the knife against his carotid artery and the image of the ceiling plastered with his blood wouldn't leave my head. I squeezed my eyes shut and shrugged off my blazer, letting it fall to the ground. I wanted to throw up.

"No, English, eyes open," Jai chuckled. I forced myself to obey but I looked at Kaoru. Only at Kaoru. Slowly, half out of fear, half out of obedience, I slipped my sweater vest over my head, biting my lip to stop from screaming in frustration. Jai was smiling. Of course he was fucking smiling. Break me, he'd said. I was fucking humiliated. It was like everyone in this damn country knew every way to get to me and to make it hurt. I had thought he couldn't, that I was immune to it, but he'd figured out how. And we both knew it.

My trembling fingers fumbled at the top button of my shirt, brushing the bandages beneath. The healing wound gave a small throb, as if it knew its creator was nearby. I was very aware of them, all over my body, as I popped the third button. Everything was shaking now. I was going to cry, I realised suddenly, blinking furiously, and Kaoru shut his eyes, shaking with rage. I saw him grit his teeth and I wanted to tell him to stop worrying about me and start worrying about the damn blood he was losing.

Which was good advice for me as well. I focused on not painting the walls red and let the shirt fall to the floor. Jai gave a small whistle and I rolled my eyes.

"Very nice," he murmured, his knife straying away from Kaoru as he became understandably distracted by the twins. They were impressive but now was really not the time. I didn't make a move to carry on, watching him carefully. After a moment of frozen anxiety, he pushed to his feet and walked towards me.

I couldn't help stepping back and my back hit the wall.

"Very nice indeed." He touched the knife to the bare flesh between the bandages and every part of me shrieked with sudden, paralysing fear. I couldn't breathe. My entire body shuddered with remembered pain. Jai might not have realised it but I was almost broken already.

"Don't touch her!" Kaoru yelled.

"Shut him up," Jai snapped without looking.

"Don't-" The Russian put one huge hand across Kaoru's mouth. He struggled but the mountain of a man seemed as immovable as his namesake. My skin crawled as the blade became fingertips.

"I'm going to destroy you," I whispered, fighting the bile that rose in my throat. I had never been this afraid. Jai gave an amused smile.

"I'd be disappointed if you didn't try," he breathed, starting to slice through the thin bandages. I pressed my lips together, glancing over at Kaoru. He tried to kick his chair back into Vaska but the man didn't seem at all bothered by it. It was like a fly trying to attack a wolf. It wasn't happening.

"You're sick," I told Jai as the bandages unravelled to the floor. "You're completely fucking insane and I highly recommend you get help immediately." He chuckled, ignoring me until all his handiwork was uncovered. He ran his hands over the vivid pink lines that marred my skin, dotted with young scar tissue, and an almost blissful smile played over his face that I longed to scratch into oblivion.

"You're so beautiful."

"Please tell me you're talking to the scars," I muttered, my body cringing away from his touch. Jai smiled triumphantly and looked over his shoulder at Kaoru, who was staring at me desperately.

"Enjoying the show, Hitachiin?" Jai mocked. I saw fire burn in the other's eyes and I wished I was stronger. Jai laughed again. He was really fucking enjoying doing this, to him, to both of us.

"Shall we make it more interesting?" I wanted to say no but he caught me by the throat and pressed his lips against mine to Kaoru's muffled yells.


Author's Note: Sorry that this has taken a while - *ahem* WolfDemonNekko, you impatient little so-and-so! :P As I said, I've got a fuck-ton to do at university this semester and I've had what I suspect is a chest infection or something similar for the last two weeks. Ugh, it has sucked. But anyway, here it is. If you want to discuss stuff, I don't mind you PM-ing me but goddamn, please don't PM just to bug me to write the next chapter or I shall send a plague of demonic purple locusts (I totally have that power) :D