Bffimagine: Heya everybody!
Kai: Why do you even PUT author's notes up here? It wastes our valuable reading time!
Bffimagine: Inny told you about the 'characters of fics cannot review' rule didn't he?
Kai: Yeah. Humph.
'Without food for more than five days, Kai would've died. Without water for more than two, Kai would've died. Losing that much blood, Kai would've died.' Rei was thinking about the logic to Tala's tales. Then he remembered what Tala said to him as he was leaving the day before.
'Voltaire kept Kai on a drug that kept him going. It liquefied body tissues and fats, so Kai was basically eating himself and drinking the water in his blood. And that drug also gave him an abnormal amount of blood, about two litres more than the average human. I suppose that's why Kai sometimes refuses to eat. That drug made him sick quite a lot.'
Grimacing at the thought, Rei took a deep breath before opening the door.
Rei stealthily slipped through the door of Kai's room, yet he was still noticed by Tala. Kai was asleep, tossing and turning, moaning through his nightmares.
"Why do you even bother? You can't break my pride. I won't scream for you Grandfather. And I never will." Kai was covered in blood and cold sweat, dripping in the diluted crimson liquid.
"THAT tale is a sad one," Tala whispered, wiping Kai's face with a white cloth. When he removed the cloth from Kai's skin, it was no longer white, but a deep garnet burgundy crimson, some areas so dark one may think it was ebony.
(Flashback)
"You want to take the punishment for Tala's misbehavior Kai? Well then you're in for a lot of pain." Voltaire's lips curled into a sick smile.
"No Kai! Let me take the punishment. He thinks I stole the food, not you. Let me take the pain. You don't deserve it," Tala was trying to change twelve-year-old Kai's mind. "I can probably take more pain than you. I'm four years older than you are."
"Like you have to remind me Tala," Kai laughed slightly, "But neither of us stole the food. You don't need to suffer."
"But you don't either!" Tala shouted back.
"I can't stand to see you suffer big brother," Kai responded calmly and patiently.
"And you think I can stand to watch you suffer? Kai! Every time you get beaten, it's as if someone's tearing at my heart. I can't take that pain anymore," Tala was almost crying.
"You've taken it well for now. Please, just take it for a while longer. If I had to watch you suffer, I'd try to kill myself. You wouldn't want that happening would you?" Kai shot toward Tala, who was biting his lip.
"ARE YOU DONE YET?" Voltaire yelled impatiently, rolling his eyes in annoyance.
"Yes," Kai stood triumphantly at Tala's look of defeat, "I'll go."
"Kai, Kai, Kai. I wanted to get the redhead, but you seem to have volunteered. Alright then." Voltaire waved his hand at Tala dismissively, turning his body to face Kai. Drawing a horsewhip, he brought it down o Kai's flesh with a sickening 'crack'.
"Scream," Voltaire panted with every stroke of the whip.
"Why do you even bother?" Kai laughed bitterly, "You can't break my pride. I won't scream for you Grandfather. And I never will."
Voltaire kept whipping Kai, his strokes more powerful with every hit to Kai's back. "Why won't you just scream? I'll stop if you do." Voltaire was fuming mad when Kai refused to scream, and brought the whip down even harder than ever before.
Kai bit his lip to prevent himself from screaming, tasting metallic, coppery blood when he bit too hard. Finally, Voltaire gave up, turning on his heel to leave.
"That was both your usual beatings and your punishment. Go to bed." Voltaire strode out of the room.
Kai tried to smile a smile of triumph, but failed as he collapsed to the cold stone floor.
(End of Flashback)
"That's awful," Rei said softly, looking at Kai with sympathy.
"And I remember lying in bed, hearing Voltaire yell at Kai and every crack of that horrid whip. I suppose that's why he never talks much now, building a wall of ice around himself to block out everyone else, and his pain. Pain that he cannot rid himself of. If he did talk more though, most people would pity him about his past. Kai does not live for the past, he lives for now, and he doesn't want people's sympathy. He just wants their acceptance."
Bffimagine: If I sucked any more at writing, would have to kick me off the author's list.
Kai: I don't think you suck at writing.
Bffimagine: I do. And I suck a lot. Oh, and by the way: A reviewer has pointed out very kindly that I have quiet a few plot holes… I sorta left them to make you guys die of suspense and most of it was exaggeration, but since it was a review I modified this chapter to make things make sense. If any other holes are found, please let me know and I'll kill all these plot termites.
