Warning: More subtle shounen ai, death, and torture
UNCEASED SEARCHING
After a few days, though he was not well enough, Kai managed to take care of himself. Without Zeo's approval, he left the bed and carried on through the days as he normally did. Every now a then, though, he stopped to rest and allow his wounds to heal fully. During this time, he explored every inch of the house just to pass the time, room-by-room. He had already made it through the entire upper levels, notwithstanding Zeo's room as well as the dining room, the library, the parlor and the hall.
Resting in front of the fireplace in the parlor, out of the corner of his eye, he watched Zeo dust and tidy the place up. Grey clouds of powder flew up into his face and the boy sneezed. His long hair appeared to sneeze with him and Kai smirked as the boy cleared his throat. Stupid kid.
Though nothing had been said between them within those few days, Zeo apparently was no longer embarrassed and wanted to break the cycle of silence that Kai had been enjoying so much. The boy moseyed on over to him, adjusted the small apron he wore, and asked in a high-pitched voice, "Would Sir like anything?"
"To be left alone."
Zeo frowned and then smiled. "Oh look, it seems I missed a piece of furniture. How could I since no one is sitting in it? Oh well, time to clean it." He tickled Kai's nose with the end of his feather duster and Kai forced it away. Zeo tittered and Kai glowered at him.
"Not funny."
Zeo zipped up and sped to the other side of the room, suddenly becoming thoroughly engrossed in a dust bunny that was hopping about on the billiard table, trying to push the Eight Ball into the corner pocket.
Kai left Zeo's oddness and decided it was time to continue his exploration. Standing at the front door, he examined the pictures that were strewn about the walls, having never taken the time before to consider them. The first was a portrait of a young woman with long white hair and a beautiful smile. Her eyes glittered with life, and Kai could've sworn she was real, though stuck upon a canvas. The next was of the young woman and her consort, a strikingly handsome man with a thick mustache. Another was of a beautiful field of daisies. Kai stopped. The field was the exact same one that he laid upon in the last dream he had! Another was a world of sunshine, like in the mural on the ceiling. Quickly, he advanced to the last remaining pictures: one of the young woman, old and wrinkled, all of the life in her eyes sucked dry, another of her consorts grave-one amongst a sea of tombstones, and the last was nothing but a black canvas. He wondered if the artist had made some mistake, but then saw in a certain light, eyes the color of scarlet.
Kai covered his mouth and collapsed in an armchair in the library. Zeo must have sensed his discomfort for he rushed into the room and kneeled before him.
"What's the matter? What happened?"
"Nothing. It's none of your concern."
With those words spoken, Zeo looked as if he had been slapped. He grabbed Kai's arms and exclaimed, "That's not true! Everything that happens to you concerns me, in one way or another. Don't you ever say that again! You're very important to me. And no matter how many times you rebuke me, no matter how many times you're mean to me or conceited, I will always be there, caring about you until the day I die. Do you understand that? Don't you ever say that your welfare is none of my concern again! Do you hear me? Never! Never." Zeo lowered his head onto Kai's knees and penetrated his pant fabric with his tears.
Kai forced Zeo off him and asked, "What do you mean everything that happens to me concerns you in one way or another? What is that supposed to mean? What's come over you? You're acting stranger than usual."
Zeo's emotions were too overwhelming he couldn't reply. Though he whispered, "I've said too much. Oh, I'm going to get punished for this." His moaning grew louder and his sobs harder as he gripped the rug at Kai's feet.
Confused, he left Zeo and felt a calling from the pictures. Going back to them, he stood in front of the first one, the young woman, and stared. Her eyes still glittered and her smile was still beautiful. Some instinct made him look down at her hands. One was resting perfectly in her lap, while the other held a glass ball. Interesting, thought Kai.
Upon closer inspection, he discovered that inside the glass ball was a sun and tall grass waving in the wind. He stepped over and viewed the portrait of her old age. She still held the ball in her hand, but the image inside it was different. This time it held a glowing moon, white like the one from his world.
Returning to the library, he called, "Hey, do you know what that glass ball is in those pictures?" To his surprise, Zeo was no longer in the room. A cry drifted down the stairs and Kai ran up and banged on Zeo's bedroom door. "What's happening in there?"
Whimpers he received as a reply followed by fanatical cries of distress. He remembered Zeo saying that he was going to be punished for what he had said and his cries were much more terror-stricken. "Zeo? Can you hear me?"
"Kai? Oh, you must go. Stay away from here...or else...uh!" The cries continued and Kai, disturbed by the sounds, decided to break down to door to find out what was wrong.
With a couple of hard rams, the door broke off its hinges and Kai stumbled into a horrible place that could not even be called a room. Small and cramped, chains hung from the ceilings above a bed of nails, where traps laid strewn across the floor. Across from him, Zeo was handcuffed to the wall, screaming at the top of his lungs. In the darkness overcastting the boy's room, he could not see the cause of Zeo's suffering. Avoiding the traps on the floor, he made his way over and as he approached the boy, the darkness lifted and Zeo's hollering ceased. The handcuffs holding the boy shot open and he fell into Kai's arms.
"I told you not to come in here." He sobbed.
"I'm not about to listen to you. Why were you been punished? What's hurting you?"
Zeo tried to respond but the pain he was in caused him to utter a final scream, before he collapsed unconscious. A few moments later, Kai joined him.
*******************************
Someone shook his shoulders, rousing him from a rare peaceful slumber. Slowly, he opened his eyes and to his disbelief, beheld Rei kneeling at his side. Kai gawped, unable to belief that Rei was actually there. Momentarily, he brushed a hand against the Chinese boy's cheek. Upon feeling soft warm flesh, he quickly retracted.
Rei smiled gently. "You've been sleeping all day. Come on. The guys have already started practicing and we need you to critique some of our newest moves."
Kai rose, his crimson brown eyes following Rei, who stood lingering in the doorway.
The Chinese boy stared at him expectantly. "Are you coming, Kai? Or do I have to get Tyson in here to drag you out with that mouth of his?" He laughed, his bright eyes glimmering in contrast with his midnight hair. Reentering the room, Rei grabbed Kai's wrist and dragged him outside himself.
Blinded by the morning light, Kai squinted and made out three figures against the thinning streets. One sat on the curb, while the other two ripped out their Beyblades. When he stood before them, three smiles greeted him warmly.
"Glad to see you're up, Kai. I was sure we'd have to get some royalty to come in and wake you from your slumber, Sleeping Beauty." Tyson jeered, launching Dragoon, and watching it spin.
"Ignore him. Tyson's just a little cranky because he stayed up late with the rest of us and had to get up early this morning. We knew you weren't feeling too well, so we let you sleep. Now that's it is late afternoon, I believe you have slept long enough." Kenny stated, adjusting his thick glasses.
"Watch this, Kai!" Max let his Draciel blade rip, and it spun in a tight spiral, slamming Tyson's blade and knocking Dragoon out.
"Hey! Watch what you're doing, Max. You little show off."
As Kai perceived the scene around him, with all the Blade Breakers, he felt a smile rise upon his lips. All traces of anger vanished and he felt...happy. He was glad he was back with his team and that that strange world had been all a dream. It had been all a dream, hadn't it?
Worried, Kai asked, "How long was I out? I didn't go anywhere, did I?"
"Not unless you slept-walked right under our noses, which is highly unlikely since you've never had a record or any problems that might cause you the anxiety or distraction to sleepwalk."
"That's a relief." Kai sighed. With joy, he watched his teammates blades, correcting them where they erred, making his team stronger and more united than before. As night drifted down upon the city, the Blade Breakers were having so much fun; they did not wish to stop practicing. So on they went deep into the night.
Kai was proud at how good they were getting in such short time. So distracted he was by their excellent performances, he never even noticed the dark shadows gathering around them. He was coaching Rei on how to make his blade zigzag to confuse his opponent right after the launch when a thick fog surrounded them, leaving them in total darkness. Kai felt around, trying to locate the Blade Breakers though unable to see. He called their names, but no reply was given him. After what seemed like hours, the fog lifted slightly, allowing Kai to see, though it still loomed overhead. He gasped in horror as he viewed his team members lying face down on the asphalt. Not one of them had a pulse.
He could not believe what had happened. His friends had been killed. By whom? And why? Why did they spare him? Why? Pain like he had never felt before shot through him, he felt as if his heart had been sliced in half. His legs buckled out from beneath him and he fell. The rain slowly began to fall, and hidden within their cleansing drops mixed his salty tears. For the first time in his life, he allowed himself to cry.
Leisurely and seemingly with pleasure, the dark fog engulfed him, sending him back down the well into the strange world he had come so to loathe. As he sat amongst the darkness, shrill cries rang out and immediately by the tone he knew to whom they belonged. In a room filled with all sorts of injurious contraptions – guillotines, pits of spouting fire, and swinging maces, he stumbled over to Zeo who was literally being torn in two by a medieval torture device called The Rack. Invisible hands cranked the wheel, making the straps attached to Zeo pull harder on each end of his small body with each passing second. Kai tried to stop it, but it would not deviate from its present turning course. Zeo gasped in pain, his eyes bugging out of his head. With a final blood-curdling scream, Zeo froze and all his joyous life departed from him, as his bones were detached from his body.
The wheel stopped turning.
Kai would not allow himself to believe what happened. "No." His hands tightened into fists. "No!" No matter how hard he tried, the scent of death still lingered in the air.
Suddenly, a whispered voice carried into his ears. "What's the matter? You should be rejoicing over his demise. Was it not you who thought on more than one occasion how you'd be better off without him?"
Kai whirled around, trying to locate the origin of the voice. "Did you do this to him? Did you also kill my friends as well?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"So they would no longer interfere. Your little 'friends' were making you wish you were anywhere but here. In addition, that bad little boy had tainted your heart. I couldn't just let them live for erring such." The voice stated as if it were common practice. "Besides, you will be a lot happier without them. You can live freely with me without them pricking your conscience. I can make you forget all about them. They'd be nothing more than a dream."
"You're nothing more than a dream!"
"I'm hurt that you'd say that, my dear. I can be as real as you want me to be." Something caressed his cheek and he snapped at it. It relinquished. "Just you wait. Soon you shall see and once you do, you'll never want to leave me. I'll wait patiently for you, my dear. Don't take too long though. I've been wanting you for a long time, so it'd be very rude to make me wait much longer." The room then disappeared around him and he found himself back in Zeo's room, as if nothing had happened, as if it had all been just a dream. Thankfully that was all that it was.
UNCEASED SEARCHING
After a few days, though he was not well enough, Kai managed to take care of himself. Without Zeo's approval, he left the bed and carried on through the days as he normally did. Every now a then, though, he stopped to rest and allow his wounds to heal fully. During this time, he explored every inch of the house just to pass the time, room-by-room. He had already made it through the entire upper levels, notwithstanding Zeo's room as well as the dining room, the library, the parlor and the hall.
Resting in front of the fireplace in the parlor, out of the corner of his eye, he watched Zeo dust and tidy the place up. Grey clouds of powder flew up into his face and the boy sneezed. His long hair appeared to sneeze with him and Kai smirked as the boy cleared his throat. Stupid kid.
Though nothing had been said between them within those few days, Zeo apparently was no longer embarrassed and wanted to break the cycle of silence that Kai had been enjoying so much. The boy moseyed on over to him, adjusted the small apron he wore, and asked in a high-pitched voice, "Would Sir like anything?"
"To be left alone."
Zeo frowned and then smiled. "Oh look, it seems I missed a piece of furniture. How could I since no one is sitting in it? Oh well, time to clean it." He tickled Kai's nose with the end of his feather duster and Kai forced it away. Zeo tittered and Kai glowered at him.
"Not funny."
Zeo zipped up and sped to the other side of the room, suddenly becoming thoroughly engrossed in a dust bunny that was hopping about on the billiard table, trying to push the Eight Ball into the corner pocket.
Kai left Zeo's oddness and decided it was time to continue his exploration. Standing at the front door, he examined the pictures that were strewn about the walls, having never taken the time before to consider them. The first was a portrait of a young woman with long white hair and a beautiful smile. Her eyes glittered with life, and Kai could've sworn she was real, though stuck upon a canvas. The next was of the young woman and her consort, a strikingly handsome man with a thick mustache. Another was of a beautiful field of daisies. Kai stopped. The field was the exact same one that he laid upon in the last dream he had! Another was a world of sunshine, like in the mural on the ceiling. Quickly, he advanced to the last remaining pictures: one of the young woman, old and wrinkled, all of the life in her eyes sucked dry, another of her consorts grave-one amongst a sea of tombstones, and the last was nothing but a black canvas. He wondered if the artist had made some mistake, but then saw in a certain light, eyes the color of scarlet.
Kai covered his mouth and collapsed in an armchair in the library. Zeo must have sensed his discomfort for he rushed into the room and kneeled before him.
"What's the matter? What happened?"
"Nothing. It's none of your concern."
With those words spoken, Zeo looked as if he had been slapped. He grabbed Kai's arms and exclaimed, "That's not true! Everything that happens to you concerns me, in one way or another. Don't you ever say that again! You're very important to me. And no matter how many times you rebuke me, no matter how many times you're mean to me or conceited, I will always be there, caring about you until the day I die. Do you understand that? Don't you ever say that your welfare is none of my concern again! Do you hear me? Never! Never." Zeo lowered his head onto Kai's knees and penetrated his pant fabric with his tears.
Kai forced Zeo off him and asked, "What do you mean everything that happens to me concerns you in one way or another? What is that supposed to mean? What's come over you? You're acting stranger than usual."
Zeo's emotions were too overwhelming he couldn't reply. Though he whispered, "I've said too much. Oh, I'm going to get punished for this." His moaning grew louder and his sobs harder as he gripped the rug at Kai's feet.
Confused, he left Zeo and felt a calling from the pictures. Going back to them, he stood in front of the first one, the young woman, and stared. Her eyes still glittered and her smile was still beautiful. Some instinct made him look down at her hands. One was resting perfectly in her lap, while the other held a glass ball. Interesting, thought Kai.
Upon closer inspection, he discovered that inside the glass ball was a sun and tall grass waving in the wind. He stepped over and viewed the portrait of her old age. She still held the ball in her hand, but the image inside it was different. This time it held a glowing moon, white like the one from his world.
Returning to the library, he called, "Hey, do you know what that glass ball is in those pictures?" To his surprise, Zeo was no longer in the room. A cry drifted down the stairs and Kai ran up and banged on Zeo's bedroom door. "What's happening in there?"
Whimpers he received as a reply followed by fanatical cries of distress. He remembered Zeo saying that he was going to be punished for what he had said and his cries were much more terror-stricken. "Zeo? Can you hear me?"
"Kai? Oh, you must go. Stay away from here...or else...uh!" The cries continued and Kai, disturbed by the sounds, decided to break down to door to find out what was wrong.
With a couple of hard rams, the door broke off its hinges and Kai stumbled into a horrible place that could not even be called a room. Small and cramped, chains hung from the ceilings above a bed of nails, where traps laid strewn across the floor. Across from him, Zeo was handcuffed to the wall, screaming at the top of his lungs. In the darkness overcastting the boy's room, he could not see the cause of Zeo's suffering. Avoiding the traps on the floor, he made his way over and as he approached the boy, the darkness lifted and Zeo's hollering ceased. The handcuffs holding the boy shot open and he fell into Kai's arms.
"I told you not to come in here." He sobbed.
"I'm not about to listen to you. Why were you been punished? What's hurting you?"
Zeo tried to respond but the pain he was in caused him to utter a final scream, before he collapsed unconscious. A few moments later, Kai joined him.
*******************************
Someone shook his shoulders, rousing him from a rare peaceful slumber. Slowly, he opened his eyes and to his disbelief, beheld Rei kneeling at his side. Kai gawped, unable to belief that Rei was actually there. Momentarily, he brushed a hand against the Chinese boy's cheek. Upon feeling soft warm flesh, he quickly retracted.
Rei smiled gently. "You've been sleeping all day. Come on. The guys have already started practicing and we need you to critique some of our newest moves."
Kai rose, his crimson brown eyes following Rei, who stood lingering in the doorway.
The Chinese boy stared at him expectantly. "Are you coming, Kai? Or do I have to get Tyson in here to drag you out with that mouth of his?" He laughed, his bright eyes glimmering in contrast with his midnight hair. Reentering the room, Rei grabbed Kai's wrist and dragged him outside himself.
Blinded by the morning light, Kai squinted and made out three figures against the thinning streets. One sat on the curb, while the other two ripped out their Beyblades. When he stood before them, three smiles greeted him warmly.
"Glad to see you're up, Kai. I was sure we'd have to get some royalty to come in and wake you from your slumber, Sleeping Beauty." Tyson jeered, launching Dragoon, and watching it spin.
"Ignore him. Tyson's just a little cranky because he stayed up late with the rest of us and had to get up early this morning. We knew you weren't feeling too well, so we let you sleep. Now that's it is late afternoon, I believe you have slept long enough." Kenny stated, adjusting his thick glasses.
"Watch this, Kai!" Max let his Draciel blade rip, and it spun in a tight spiral, slamming Tyson's blade and knocking Dragoon out.
"Hey! Watch what you're doing, Max. You little show off."
As Kai perceived the scene around him, with all the Blade Breakers, he felt a smile rise upon his lips. All traces of anger vanished and he felt...happy. He was glad he was back with his team and that that strange world had been all a dream. It had been all a dream, hadn't it?
Worried, Kai asked, "How long was I out? I didn't go anywhere, did I?"
"Not unless you slept-walked right under our noses, which is highly unlikely since you've never had a record or any problems that might cause you the anxiety or distraction to sleepwalk."
"That's a relief." Kai sighed. With joy, he watched his teammates blades, correcting them where they erred, making his team stronger and more united than before. As night drifted down upon the city, the Blade Breakers were having so much fun; they did not wish to stop practicing. So on they went deep into the night.
Kai was proud at how good they were getting in such short time. So distracted he was by their excellent performances, he never even noticed the dark shadows gathering around them. He was coaching Rei on how to make his blade zigzag to confuse his opponent right after the launch when a thick fog surrounded them, leaving them in total darkness. Kai felt around, trying to locate the Blade Breakers though unable to see. He called their names, but no reply was given him. After what seemed like hours, the fog lifted slightly, allowing Kai to see, though it still loomed overhead. He gasped in horror as he viewed his team members lying face down on the asphalt. Not one of them had a pulse.
He could not believe what had happened. His friends had been killed. By whom? And why? Why did they spare him? Why? Pain like he had never felt before shot through him, he felt as if his heart had been sliced in half. His legs buckled out from beneath him and he fell. The rain slowly began to fall, and hidden within their cleansing drops mixed his salty tears. For the first time in his life, he allowed himself to cry.
Leisurely and seemingly with pleasure, the dark fog engulfed him, sending him back down the well into the strange world he had come so to loathe. As he sat amongst the darkness, shrill cries rang out and immediately by the tone he knew to whom they belonged. In a room filled with all sorts of injurious contraptions – guillotines, pits of spouting fire, and swinging maces, he stumbled over to Zeo who was literally being torn in two by a medieval torture device called The Rack. Invisible hands cranked the wheel, making the straps attached to Zeo pull harder on each end of his small body with each passing second. Kai tried to stop it, but it would not deviate from its present turning course. Zeo gasped in pain, his eyes bugging out of his head. With a final blood-curdling scream, Zeo froze and all his joyous life departed from him, as his bones were detached from his body.
The wheel stopped turning.
Kai would not allow himself to believe what happened. "No." His hands tightened into fists. "No!" No matter how hard he tried, the scent of death still lingered in the air.
Suddenly, a whispered voice carried into his ears. "What's the matter? You should be rejoicing over his demise. Was it not you who thought on more than one occasion how you'd be better off without him?"
Kai whirled around, trying to locate the origin of the voice. "Did you do this to him? Did you also kill my friends as well?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"So they would no longer interfere. Your little 'friends' were making you wish you were anywhere but here. In addition, that bad little boy had tainted your heart. I couldn't just let them live for erring such." The voice stated as if it were common practice. "Besides, you will be a lot happier without them. You can live freely with me without them pricking your conscience. I can make you forget all about them. They'd be nothing more than a dream."
"You're nothing more than a dream!"
"I'm hurt that you'd say that, my dear. I can be as real as you want me to be." Something caressed his cheek and he snapped at it. It relinquished. "Just you wait. Soon you shall see and once you do, you'll never want to leave me. I'll wait patiently for you, my dear. Don't take too long though. I've been wanting you for a long time, so it'd be very rude to make me wait much longer." The room then disappeared around him and he found himself back in Zeo's room, as if nothing had happened, as if it had all been just a dream. Thankfully that was all that it was.