Nakoruru: Hello everyone!
Kai: Where's your sister?
Nakoruru: Sick. She hasn't felt up to anything since Sunday morning.
Kenny: I hope she gets better.
Nakoruru: Well, she will be fine. She be up and moving maybe tomorrow or so. So, on her behalf, I write the chapter that we managed to get down on paper before she got that nasty stomach virus or whatever it is. We would like to thank everyone for enjoying the last chapter. Enjoy this one too.
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Tyson woke with a start, not sure when he in fact dozed off from watching Kenny from any signs of waking. Turning his eyes to the window, the sky was turning a purple and golden color, signaling night approaching soon. As he was about to turn his eyes to Kenny, Tyson realized that he wasn't alone in the room. Someone was standing by Kenny's bed, watching the brunette. For a second he thought it was maybe Kai or Rei, until he noticed the red hair.
Blinking his tired eyes a few times, he realized that the person that was standing by Kenny's bed was none other than the Demolition Boys team captain Tala. Quietly observing the team captain of his rival team, Tyson was shocked to see the sympathy within Tala's azure eyes. Did he come to pay his respects to the team? How did he find out...maybe it had something to do with the fact Kai was the team captain of the Bladebreakers and his grandfather ran the Russian beyblade group.
"Tala...what are you doing here?" Tyson finally spoke up, making his presence known. The red head turned his eyes on Tyson, studying the young blue haired teen for a long second.
"I didn't mean to wake you up," Tala remarked.
"You didn't." It was sort of strange speaking to Tala like this. After all, with the whole Biovolt thing passing and all...it was kind of odd speaking to your rival as if the fate of the world was not battled for days before. Tyson turned his eyes on Kenny; the ever constant beeping of the monitor the only reminder the brunette was still alive. "How did you hear?"
Tala turned his eyes on Kenny, listening for a long minute, at the sound of the beeping. "My team said they overheard Boris talking with Kai's grandfather over the subject. So I came to pay my respects to him and your team. Do you have any idea why he would do this?"
"No...we tried finding out what we could but it just led us down another one way street into a dead end." Tyson's voice cracked, threatening to break with another bout of tears. Tala made no move to look at Tyson, continuing to stare at Kenny, whose chest rose momentarily with a shallow breath before lowering.
"So, he didn't tell you anything about the pain that ate at him. You know, the night after your team won the Championship, I was out walking in the park I saw him. He was sitting on a bench, his head tilted back, staring up at the sky thinking. There was a knife in his hand. He was plotting to slit his wrists that night, bleeding to death out in the cold before you were all able to find him."
"He..."
"I stopped him before he could do it. He told me that I didn't understand what he went through and what he survived through. Whatever he went through has closed his heart to the world. I don't think he's ever told anyone how he's felt or the pain that pounded at his chest so hard to be let out that...he wanted to give up everything. I told him that he no one can help him if all he did was smile. That you and the other Bladebreakers would notice if he gave just the tiniest indication of suffering, I think he doubted it."
"But..." Tyson's eyes widened. "How could he...?"
"Like I said, whatever it was that he thought...he felt it was too late for you to make a difference," Tala remarked. "He's going to need you all though. When he wakes up, he's going to withdraw from the world. I've seen it happen. You have to let him know that you're going to be there for him."
"I don't know how well the others will handle the pressure. We're at the end of our ropes, if he does wake up soon...what are we suppose to do about finding out why he tried to kill himself?"
Tala glanced over at the Dragoon wielder, seeing the distraught concern within those dark eyes. "You'll have to figure out that by yourself."
-----------------
(Flashback)
Kenny looked up from studying the problem in the trigonometry book his teacher let him borrow to challenge himself with more advanced work. All the teacher's told him how smart he was, and how fast he picked up work, that if he kept this up, he could go to college before the rest of his peers. Kenny found it amusing, by what the teachers said. He was no smarter than any other kid he just had to find things to occupy his mind from the pain of living.
Realizing that he still felt uncomfortable, Kenny went to find the cause of it. From where he sat in the living room, he turned his head to find his father glaring at him from the kitchen doorway. The boy of ten felt uneasy under the scrutinizing stare of his father. He had no way of knowing if the man would fly off the handle, especially with his eyes never straying from him. Kenny carefully put down the book, shifting his full attention to his father.
"Papa," Kenny's voice was hesitant, careful in what he said. Anything made his father go off. "Is there something wrong?"
"Come here, Kenny," his father said in an even tone. As Kenny was getting up, he noticed the extension cord in his father's clenched hand. The boy's eyes widened, knowing what was going to happen.
"Papa..." Kenny begged.
"Come here boy," his father ordered, taking a menacing step into the room.
"Papa, please," Kenny cried as his father lunged at him, pulling the ten- year-old up from off the couch. "Please don't hit me! I'm sorry for whatever it is I did this time! I'm sorry, please papa don't!"
"Shut up and be a man about it!" his father shouted, raising the cord in the air.
"Please, tell me what have I done?" Kenny pleaded, his eyes filling with tears.
"What you did? What you did?" his father roared. "It's your fault for me losing my job. If I didn't have to take care of you, I wouldn't need that piece of shit of a job. I have to keep you fed, remember, or that damn school will come down and bust my ass. If I didn't have you, I could do whatever I wanted without anyone's concern."
"You can always get another job. A better one, I'll help you!" Kenny tried to reason with his father. "I'm sure there are—"
He didn't get to finish his sentence as the extension cord came whistling down, striking his back. Kenny cried out, trying to pull free from his father as another lash struck him across the legs. "Shut up, dammit! You worthless bastard!"
The extension cord caught Kenny across the mouth, shutting him up as he held his face. Another lash sliced into his legs, turning the skin bright red. For a long minute, the blows rained down steadily on him. Until his father finally released the boy, Kenny falling to the ground painfully. Whelp marks covered the exposed areas of his body, as he curled up on the floor crying quietly gingerly holding himself. His father walked out the room and back into the kitchen.
"You can forget about dinner tonight boy, go to your room," his father called from the kitchen."
Kenny made the attempt to move, but he just didn't have the determination. After a feeble attempt to rise, Kenny gave up all together. His sobs didn't cease as he huddled there. Seconds later, heavy footsteps came back in the room. He could feel his father's scorching eyes.
"Boy, didn't I tell you to go to your room," his father demanded. "Don't make me have to tell you again."
"I can't papa. I can't," Kenny whimpered.
"You can, you're just being lazy. Get up boy, or I promise I will give you another lashing you'll wish you had obeyed me." The man took off his belt, wrapping most of it around his knuckles, leaving only an inch of leather and the buckle.
"I can't papa."
Kenny heard his father growl, the first blow brought out a choked scream from the boy who tried to crawl away from the male, only to be pulled back and beat with the buckle. Protecting his face from the buckle's bite, all the little boy could do was lay there, his body numbing with pain.
Eventually his father was out of breath from wielding the belt. Looking down, he watched his son stare up at him, tears rolling down his face. "Get up, Kenny. I'm not going to play with you anymore."
"I'm sorry papa," Kenny whispered. Ignoring the screaming pain in his body, Kenny pushed himself up. Stumbling from the ache that circulated through him relentlessly. His father, satisfied with his son's obedience left the room to continue to do whatever it was he first went about doing in the kitchen. The ten year old only made it to the stairs before his body moaned too much and Kenny collapsed on the stairs, sobbing hysterically.
The noise brought his father into the hall. "Kenny, I thought I told you to go to your room." That dangerous note within his father's voice registered in Kenny's mind to look at his father. Lifting his head from the step, he glanced at his father, only to pale with fright. In his father's hand was a butcher knife.
"I was going!" Kenny shrieked as he tried to crawl up the stairs. "Please...I'm sorry papa!" Kenny already knew his father would use the knife. After all, he had so many tiny scars on his back and shoulders made by objects his father got his hands on, for times he exceeded being disobedient. Well that was the excuse his father used in explaining to Kenny why another scar would form.
"How many times will I have to tell you Kenny? I'm the one who raised you when your damn mother left. I let you live this long, I could have let you die a long time ago. But I decided to love you, yet you always disobey me, why? Why are you always disobeying your father?" The male walked towards Kenny, pulling him to the ground and pinning him there.
"Please papa don't," Kenny choked with terror. His father climbed on top of him, glaring down at the boy with murderous eyes.
"You don't listen to me. You constantly disobey me, why? Why Kenny? You're mine! You will always be mine! Until I decide when to let you go." The man poised the knife over Kenny's chest, his eyes locked with Kenny's.
"I promise to be good! I promise, papa!" Kenny begged. "I'll do everything you want. Just please don't hurt me anymore."
"You always say that, but it's lies. You always do the same thing over and over again. I guess I will have to teach you a lesson once and for all that I'm the only one that will ever take you in and discipline you right," his father whispered with a sadistic grin.
Without saying a word, he plunged the knife right under the boy's left nipple. Kenny screamed for his life, struggling wildly as his father dragged the knife down to his navel. Blindly, full of pain, Kenny pushed at his father. The man pulled the bloody knife from the boy, watching the crimson liquid bubble up from the jagged wound. Kenny nearly went into shock immediately as he tried to talk, only to have blood bubble up from his mouth, slipping down his chin.
"Now, you will remember forever, won't you, my son," his father whispered into his ear as he kissed his son on the cheek before getting up from the body. Kenny had to get his bearings as he moved. His breaths became ragged and short, watching his father go in the living room, cutting the TV on, and turning up the volume so he wouldn't hear the noise of his son's cries.
Slowly crawling towards the phone, his body weakened with the blood pooling under him. Reaching the table the phone was on, he tugged at the cord, pulling it off the table, onto the floor with a soft thud, he looked towards the hallway door, to make sure that his father didn't come out. Seconds ticked away, realizing his father wasn't paying him any more attention. Gripping the phone in his bloody hands, Kenny had to focus hard on the numbers, his vision becoming blurry.
Each breath he took was a gurgled wheeze, aching incessantly more each time. Steadying his hand, he dialed the only number he could think of at the moment: his mother's sister, Dawn Shinoda. Even though she lived in the next town over, he needed to let her know. Maybe she could stop his father from doing this to anyone else. It was too late for him now. He was already slipping into darkness, a welcomed relief from the life that no one knew.
Placing the bloody phone to his ear, he waited, listening to the rings. The more seconds that passed was harder for him to concentrate on breathing, the world growing darker. Finally, when he figured that no one was home, the ringing stopped, replaced by a chipper voice.
"Hello, Shinoda residence."
"Aunt...Dawn," Kenny choked, the blood rattling his wheezing.
"Kenny! Kenny is this you?" his aunt's voice changed. "Kenny, what's the matter? Where's your father?"
"Call...the...the...police."
"Why? Kenny, what's going on?"
"Stabbed...call...please...police..." Kenny said, another painful aching squeezing out of him. "Dying...please..."
"What? Who stabbed you? Hold on! I'm going to get help!" Her voice grew faint as the phone slipped from his bloody hands. His eyes grew too heavy to stay awake, his breathing slowing down until it felt like his lungs were walling up. He wasn't afraid of the darkness he eagerly welcomed it as he slipped into it.
(Flashback ends)
-----------------------
"Momma..."
Both Tyson and Tala were surprised when the brunette in the bed spoke. Both peered at the male who was shifting in his sleep. The peaceful nature of his sleep broke as Kenny's face contorted with panic. He reached out for something, the panic in his face becoming desperate.
"Momma, please don't leave me again, wait for me. Please momma, don't leave me. Don't leave me, please!" Tears welled from his closed eyes, running down his face. "Momma, please don't leave me, wait! Momma!" When it was clear that he couldn't get to her, his hand dropped, a sob quaking his body.
"Kenny," Tyson said, his eyes searching for a sign his friend was awake. "What do you mean Kenny? Wake up, please tell me what you mean."
"She died," Tala said.
"What?" Tyson stared over at the red head whose eyes became glassy as he stared down at Kenny. "What do you mean she died? That's impossible, I met her and his father."
"Those might be his adopted parents. His real mother died when he was younger."
"How do you know?"
"My mother died when I was three. I remember waking up like that too. Always out of my reached, I'm always running to her, asking her to wait for me. She always smiling, but continuing on without me. Knowing I can't reach her, hurting unbearably by it. That's one of his many pains," the red head muttered. "It's painful, not ever being able to get to her, needing her so much."
"Do you think that's why he tried to...?"
"There's more than just that, more that haunts him," Tala stated.
"I...I...I should tell the others," Tyson said. "It's a start at least. Maybe we can rack our brains together and put together the pieces so when he does wake up...we can give him all our support. Could you...?"
"Sure," Tala nodded.
"Thanks a lot...Tala..." Tyson turned and left the room. Once the blue haired boy was gone, Tala turned his attention to the brunette who was whimpering now. Moving a hand, he pushed away the hair that was in Kenny's eyes. Not the least bit surprise blue eyes shifted to him.
"I had a feeling you woke up. You know, they've been worried sick about you," Tala said, moving his hand away.
"Why?" Kenny mumbled, his voice cracking from dryness. Tala reached over by the bed, pouring water into a glass and helping Kenny sit up. Placing the glass to his lips, he watched the brunette empty the contents greedily. Once done, he placed the cup down, taking a seat in the chair Tyson previously occupied for the past few days.
"You should know by now. They care about you," Tala spoke.
"No...why am I still alive? Why did they bother, I'm only going to do it again." He lowered his head, tearing running the course down his face. Tala lowered his lashed over his eyes reclining back in the chair.
"So much pain, so many scars on your heart and soul? So much so that you could never tell them the truth, Nagase-kun?" Tala inquired.
"What?" Kenny lifted his head immediately with fear.
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Nakoruru: And we shall end it there.
Rei: Evil cliffhangers! That's wrong of you and Rim!
Sephiroth: Evil would have been if he had a seizure with Tala mentioning that name, and we ended the chapter. (thinks) Sounds fun.
Nakoruru: Um...okay...yeah. Well, now I have to go, because there's nothing more for you guys to read currently. Give my sister and I maybe three or four days and we'll see what we can give you, so until then. Later!
Kai: Where's your sister?
Nakoruru: Sick. She hasn't felt up to anything since Sunday morning.
Kenny: I hope she gets better.
Nakoruru: Well, she will be fine. She be up and moving maybe tomorrow or so. So, on her behalf, I write the chapter that we managed to get down on paper before she got that nasty stomach virus or whatever it is. We would like to thank everyone for enjoying the last chapter. Enjoy this one too.
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Tyson woke with a start, not sure when he in fact dozed off from watching Kenny from any signs of waking. Turning his eyes to the window, the sky was turning a purple and golden color, signaling night approaching soon. As he was about to turn his eyes to Kenny, Tyson realized that he wasn't alone in the room. Someone was standing by Kenny's bed, watching the brunette. For a second he thought it was maybe Kai or Rei, until he noticed the red hair.
Blinking his tired eyes a few times, he realized that the person that was standing by Kenny's bed was none other than the Demolition Boys team captain Tala. Quietly observing the team captain of his rival team, Tyson was shocked to see the sympathy within Tala's azure eyes. Did he come to pay his respects to the team? How did he find out...maybe it had something to do with the fact Kai was the team captain of the Bladebreakers and his grandfather ran the Russian beyblade group.
"Tala...what are you doing here?" Tyson finally spoke up, making his presence known. The red head turned his eyes on Tyson, studying the young blue haired teen for a long second.
"I didn't mean to wake you up," Tala remarked.
"You didn't." It was sort of strange speaking to Tala like this. After all, with the whole Biovolt thing passing and all...it was kind of odd speaking to your rival as if the fate of the world was not battled for days before. Tyson turned his eyes on Kenny; the ever constant beeping of the monitor the only reminder the brunette was still alive. "How did you hear?"
Tala turned his eyes on Kenny, listening for a long minute, at the sound of the beeping. "My team said they overheard Boris talking with Kai's grandfather over the subject. So I came to pay my respects to him and your team. Do you have any idea why he would do this?"
"No...we tried finding out what we could but it just led us down another one way street into a dead end." Tyson's voice cracked, threatening to break with another bout of tears. Tala made no move to look at Tyson, continuing to stare at Kenny, whose chest rose momentarily with a shallow breath before lowering.
"So, he didn't tell you anything about the pain that ate at him. You know, the night after your team won the Championship, I was out walking in the park I saw him. He was sitting on a bench, his head tilted back, staring up at the sky thinking. There was a knife in his hand. He was plotting to slit his wrists that night, bleeding to death out in the cold before you were all able to find him."
"He..."
"I stopped him before he could do it. He told me that I didn't understand what he went through and what he survived through. Whatever he went through has closed his heart to the world. I don't think he's ever told anyone how he's felt or the pain that pounded at his chest so hard to be let out that...he wanted to give up everything. I told him that he no one can help him if all he did was smile. That you and the other Bladebreakers would notice if he gave just the tiniest indication of suffering, I think he doubted it."
"But..." Tyson's eyes widened. "How could he...?"
"Like I said, whatever it was that he thought...he felt it was too late for you to make a difference," Tala remarked. "He's going to need you all though. When he wakes up, he's going to withdraw from the world. I've seen it happen. You have to let him know that you're going to be there for him."
"I don't know how well the others will handle the pressure. We're at the end of our ropes, if he does wake up soon...what are we suppose to do about finding out why he tried to kill himself?"
Tala glanced over at the Dragoon wielder, seeing the distraught concern within those dark eyes. "You'll have to figure out that by yourself."
-----------------
(Flashback)
Kenny looked up from studying the problem in the trigonometry book his teacher let him borrow to challenge himself with more advanced work. All the teacher's told him how smart he was, and how fast he picked up work, that if he kept this up, he could go to college before the rest of his peers. Kenny found it amusing, by what the teachers said. He was no smarter than any other kid he just had to find things to occupy his mind from the pain of living.
Realizing that he still felt uncomfortable, Kenny went to find the cause of it. From where he sat in the living room, he turned his head to find his father glaring at him from the kitchen doorway. The boy of ten felt uneasy under the scrutinizing stare of his father. He had no way of knowing if the man would fly off the handle, especially with his eyes never straying from him. Kenny carefully put down the book, shifting his full attention to his father.
"Papa," Kenny's voice was hesitant, careful in what he said. Anything made his father go off. "Is there something wrong?"
"Come here, Kenny," his father said in an even tone. As Kenny was getting up, he noticed the extension cord in his father's clenched hand. The boy's eyes widened, knowing what was going to happen.
"Papa..." Kenny begged.
"Come here boy," his father ordered, taking a menacing step into the room.
"Papa, please," Kenny cried as his father lunged at him, pulling the ten- year-old up from off the couch. "Please don't hit me! I'm sorry for whatever it is I did this time! I'm sorry, please papa don't!"
"Shut up and be a man about it!" his father shouted, raising the cord in the air.
"Please, tell me what have I done?" Kenny pleaded, his eyes filling with tears.
"What you did? What you did?" his father roared. "It's your fault for me losing my job. If I didn't have to take care of you, I wouldn't need that piece of shit of a job. I have to keep you fed, remember, or that damn school will come down and bust my ass. If I didn't have you, I could do whatever I wanted without anyone's concern."
"You can always get another job. A better one, I'll help you!" Kenny tried to reason with his father. "I'm sure there are—"
He didn't get to finish his sentence as the extension cord came whistling down, striking his back. Kenny cried out, trying to pull free from his father as another lash struck him across the legs. "Shut up, dammit! You worthless bastard!"
The extension cord caught Kenny across the mouth, shutting him up as he held his face. Another lash sliced into his legs, turning the skin bright red. For a long minute, the blows rained down steadily on him. Until his father finally released the boy, Kenny falling to the ground painfully. Whelp marks covered the exposed areas of his body, as he curled up on the floor crying quietly gingerly holding himself. His father walked out the room and back into the kitchen.
"You can forget about dinner tonight boy, go to your room," his father called from the kitchen."
Kenny made the attempt to move, but he just didn't have the determination. After a feeble attempt to rise, Kenny gave up all together. His sobs didn't cease as he huddled there. Seconds later, heavy footsteps came back in the room. He could feel his father's scorching eyes.
"Boy, didn't I tell you to go to your room," his father demanded. "Don't make me have to tell you again."
"I can't papa. I can't," Kenny whimpered.
"You can, you're just being lazy. Get up boy, or I promise I will give you another lashing you'll wish you had obeyed me." The man took off his belt, wrapping most of it around his knuckles, leaving only an inch of leather and the buckle.
"I can't papa."
Kenny heard his father growl, the first blow brought out a choked scream from the boy who tried to crawl away from the male, only to be pulled back and beat with the buckle. Protecting his face from the buckle's bite, all the little boy could do was lay there, his body numbing with pain.
Eventually his father was out of breath from wielding the belt. Looking down, he watched his son stare up at him, tears rolling down his face. "Get up, Kenny. I'm not going to play with you anymore."
"I'm sorry papa," Kenny whispered. Ignoring the screaming pain in his body, Kenny pushed himself up. Stumbling from the ache that circulated through him relentlessly. His father, satisfied with his son's obedience left the room to continue to do whatever it was he first went about doing in the kitchen. The ten year old only made it to the stairs before his body moaned too much and Kenny collapsed on the stairs, sobbing hysterically.
The noise brought his father into the hall. "Kenny, I thought I told you to go to your room." That dangerous note within his father's voice registered in Kenny's mind to look at his father. Lifting his head from the step, he glanced at his father, only to pale with fright. In his father's hand was a butcher knife.
"I was going!" Kenny shrieked as he tried to crawl up the stairs. "Please...I'm sorry papa!" Kenny already knew his father would use the knife. After all, he had so many tiny scars on his back and shoulders made by objects his father got his hands on, for times he exceeded being disobedient. Well that was the excuse his father used in explaining to Kenny why another scar would form.
"How many times will I have to tell you Kenny? I'm the one who raised you when your damn mother left. I let you live this long, I could have let you die a long time ago. But I decided to love you, yet you always disobey me, why? Why are you always disobeying your father?" The male walked towards Kenny, pulling him to the ground and pinning him there.
"Please papa don't," Kenny choked with terror. His father climbed on top of him, glaring down at the boy with murderous eyes.
"You don't listen to me. You constantly disobey me, why? Why Kenny? You're mine! You will always be mine! Until I decide when to let you go." The man poised the knife over Kenny's chest, his eyes locked with Kenny's.
"I promise to be good! I promise, papa!" Kenny begged. "I'll do everything you want. Just please don't hurt me anymore."
"You always say that, but it's lies. You always do the same thing over and over again. I guess I will have to teach you a lesson once and for all that I'm the only one that will ever take you in and discipline you right," his father whispered with a sadistic grin.
Without saying a word, he plunged the knife right under the boy's left nipple. Kenny screamed for his life, struggling wildly as his father dragged the knife down to his navel. Blindly, full of pain, Kenny pushed at his father. The man pulled the bloody knife from the boy, watching the crimson liquid bubble up from the jagged wound. Kenny nearly went into shock immediately as he tried to talk, only to have blood bubble up from his mouth, slipping down his chin.
"Now, you will remember forever, won't you, my son," his father whispered into his ear as he kissed his son on the cheek before getting up from the body. Kenny had to get his bearings as he moved. His breaths became ragged and short, watching his father go in the living room, cutting the TV on, and turning up the volume so he wouldn't hear the noise of his son's cries.
Slowly crawling towards the phone, his body weakened with the blood pooling under him. Reaching the table the phone was on, he tugged at the cord, pulling it off the table, onto the floor with a soft thud, he looked towards the hallway door, to make sure that his father didn't come out. Seconds ticked away, realizing his father wasn't paying him any more attention. Gripping the phone in his bloody hands, Kenny had to focus hard on the numbers, his vision becoming blurry.
Each breath he took was a gurgled wheeze, aching incessantly more each time. Steadying his hand, he dialed the only number he could think of at the moment: his mother's sister, Dawn Shinoda. Even though she lived in the next town over, he needed to let her know. Maybe she could stop his father from doing this to anyone else. It was too late for him now. He was already slipping into darkness, a welcomed relief from the life that no one knew.
Placing the bloody phone to his ear, he waited, listening to the rings. The more seconds that passed was harder for him to concentrate on breathing, the world growing darker. Finally, when he figured that no one was home, the ringing stopped, replaced by a chipper voice.
"Hello, Shinoda residence."
"Aunt...Dawn," Kenny choked, the blood rattling his wheezing.
"Kenny! Kenny is this you?" his aunt's voice changed. "Kenny, what's the matter? Where's your father?"
"Call...the...the...police."
"Why? Kenny, what's going on?"
"Stabbed...call...please...police..." Kenny said, another painful aching squeezing out of him. "Dying...please..."
"What? Who stabbed you? Hold on! I'm going to get help!" Her voice grew faint as the phone slipped from his bloody hands. His eyes grew too heavy to stay awake, his breathing slowing down until it felt like his lungs were walling up. He wasn't afraid of the darkness he eagerly welcomed it as he slipped into it.
(Flashback ends)
-----------------------
"Momma..."
Both Tyson and Tala were surprised when the brunette in the bed spoke. Both peered at the male who was shifting in his sleep. The peaceful nature of his sleep broke as Kenny's face contorted with panic. He reached out for something, the panic in his face becoming desperate.
"Momma, please don't leave me again, wait for me. Please momma, don't leave me. Don't leave me, please!" Tears welled from his closed eyes, running down his face. "Momma, please don't leave me, wait! Momma!" When it was clear that he couldn't get to her, his hand dropped, a sob quaking his body.
"Kenny," Tyson said, his eyes searching for a sign his friend was awake. "What do you mean Kenny? Wake up, please tell me what you mean."
"She died," Tala said.
"What?" Tyson stared over at the red head whose eyes became glassy as he stared down at Kenny. "What do you mean she died? That's impossible, I met her and his father."
"Those might be his adopted parents. His real mother died when he was younger."
"How do you know?"
"My mother died when I was three. I remember waking up like that too. Always out of my reached, I'm always running to her, asking her to wait for me. She always smiling, but continuing on without me. Knowing I can't reach her, hurting unbearably by it. That's one of his many pains," the red head muttered. "It's painful, not ever being able to get to her, needing her so much."
"Do you think that's why he tried to...?"
"There's more than just that, more that haunts him," Tala stated.
"I...I...I should tell the others," Tyson said. "It's a start at least. Maybe we can rack our brains together and put together the pieces so when he does wake up...we can give him all our support. Could you...?"
"Sure," Tala nodded.
"Thanks a lot...Tala..." Tyson turned and left the room. Once the blue haired boy was gone, Tala turned his attention to the brunette who was whimpering now. Moving a hand, he pushed away the hair that was in Kenny's eyes. Not the least bit surprise blue eyes shifted to him.
"I had a feeling you woke up. You know, they've been worried sick about you," Tala said, moving his hand away.
"Why?" Kenny mumbled, his voice cracking from dryness. Tala reached over by the bed, pouring water into a glass and helping Kenny sit up. Placing the glass to his lips, he watched the brunette empty the contents greedily. Once done, he placed the cup down, taking a seat in the chair Tyson previously occupied for the past few days.
"You should know by now. They care about you," Tala spoke.
"No...why am I still alive? Why did they bother, I'm only going to do it again." He lowered his head, tearing running the course down his face. Tala lowered his lashed over his eyes reclining back in the chair.
"So much pain, so many scars on your heart and soul? So much so that you could never tell them the truth, Nagase-kun?" Tala inquired.
"What?" Kenny lifted his head immediately with fear.
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Nakoruru: And we shall end it there.
Rei: Evil cliffhangers! That's wrong of you and Rim!
Sephiroth: Evil would have been if he had a seizure with Tala mentioning that name, and we ended the chapter. (thinks) Sounds fun.
Nakoruru: Um...okay...yeah. Well, now I have to go, because there's nothing more for you guys to read currently. Give my sister and I maybe three or four days and we'll see what we can give you, so until then. Later!