Lita lay upstairs in her room on her bed, staring at the wall, a blank expression on her face. The realization of what had happened the night before, not only to her but to her parents, had finally sunken in and she was in shock. Not only by her parents' death, but by the fact that the one person in the world who she had trusted the most, had so deeply betrayed her. He had taken advantage of her when she had needed him the most.
With a sigh, Lita closed her eyes and tried to block out the memories of the night before.
Ken was still sitting in the rec room when he suddenly heard footsteps coming towards him. He froze, knowing that the footsteps were not coming from the stairway but from the hallway that led to the front door. "Hello?" Ken asked as he slowly got to his feet, all the while wondering who the hell was coming towards him.
"Ken, I believe?" a man asked.
As the man entered the rec room, Ken could see that he stood, easily, 6'8, and he had dark black hair and the same eyes as Lita. "Mr. Kino?" Ken asked, already knowing that that was who he must be.
The man nodded. "Where's Lita?" he asked.
"Upstairs in her room," Ken replied, "Why?"
"Reporters are already starting to gather out by the gate," Mr. Kino sighed. "I think it's a better idea if we get her out of the house now, while they're only starting to gather instead of when they've already been there for a while. More are going to show up. Right now we only have the Japanese reporters here. Others will come but it takes time for them to arrive here from around the world."
"Oh," Ken said, surprised by this news. He had known that reporters were going to come to Lita's to cover this story, but for some reason, he had not expected them to come this soon. Vultures, he thought, That's what they are.
Mr. Kino nodded. "Yeah," he sighed, "So, let's go and get Lita, shall we?"
Ken nodded, agreeing with Lita's uncle. Quickly the two of them headed up the stairs, Mr. Kino following Ken.
Rap! Rap!
Lita lay on her bed and sighed, hoping that whoever was at the door would just go away and leave her alone.
"Lita?" came the familiar voice of her uncle.
Lita ignored him.
"Lita? Will you open the door please?" came the voice of her best friend.
Lita continued to ignore the two people outside her bedroom.
"We don't have a choice," Lita heard her uncle tell Ken. "If she won't come out voluntarily, we'll have to carry her out ourselves."
"I'm coming," Lita sighed and slowly she got off her bed and opened her bedroom.
"Lita," her uncle said sadly as he saw his only neice.
"Hello, Uncle Akiro," Lita greeted her uncle.
"Come on, Lita," he said. "Get dressed. You must leave here before the reporters get settled."
"Give me ten minutes." Lita sighed and shut the door, fighting the urge to just lock the door and fall against it. If anything, leaving her house was the last thing she wanted to do. She only wanted to curl up in her room and forget that anyone else existed or that they had ever existed. Quickly, Lita went to a drawer and pulled out a pair of blue jeans and threw on a sweatshirt. Giving her hair a quick brush through she tied it up in a ponytail and opened the door. Waiting outside it were her uncle and Ken.
"Come, Lita," her uncle told her. "The limo is waiting for us downstairs. If it's okay with you, you'll be staying at my place for a while."
Lita nodded, and quickly the two of them walked downstairs, Ken following close behind.
"If there's anything you need," Ken said as they entered the hall that led to the front doors.
Akiro Kino nodded. "Don't worry. We'll take care of Lita. If she needs you, we'll call you."
Ken nodded.
"Do you have a way to school?" Akiro asked.
Ken shook his head. "Don't concern yourself with me, Mr. Kino. I can take care of myself. Just make sure that Lita's okay."
"I'll do that," he said, then, "Good-bye, Ken."
"Good-bye," Ken said, and opened the door to the Kino's mansion for them so that they could leave.
"Bye, Ken," Lita whispered, as she entered the limo that was waiting only a few feet away from them.
Ken only nodded his good-bye, not sure if he could say it without repeating his earlier question. He knew that something else had happened to Lita but he had no idea what. Whatever it was, she still wasn't ready to talk about it.
Silently, Ken watched as the limo that held within it, Lita and her uncle, ride away from the Kino's mansion.
What happened to you, Lita? he wondered as he quickly pulled out his cell phone.
Lita sat quietly on the train across from her uncle. It had been a week since the incident with Freddy and her parents' deaths. The funeral had happened only two days before hand. Staring out the window, she watched as houses and fields passed by.
"Lita, you know that this is going to be the best for you?" her uncle asked her.
Lita said nothing but continued to stare out the window.
"It helped me when I was younger and going through some. . . uh, issues."
Lita only nodded, not taking her gaze off the passing farmland. The day after her father's funeral her uncle had asked Lita how she would feel about being sent away to a retreat. Her uncle explained to her that there she could continue with her schooling while concentrating on dealing with the problems that had happened to her. Lita had kept quiet while her uncle explained to her about the retreat area, thinking about everything that had happened over the past week. She knew that her family had been worried about her because since her uncle had gone to get her at her house she had not spoken a word to anyone. The only answers she had given anyone were shrugs, nods and shakes of her head. With the exception of what had happened with Freddy.
Not even waiting for a day to pass, Freddy had called Lita up the afternoon after her parents had died and asked to see her. Still in shock and wondering what he wanted, Lita had agreed to meet him in a little gazebo in a park. Through the pattering of the rain, Lita stood in the gazebo as Freddy broke up with her. He left her in the gazebo, leaving a silent and shocked Lita in tears. As soon as he had gone a few feet from the gazebo, Lita had begun to run after him, wanting answers, but she did not take too long to give up the chase. She froze and stood in the pouring rain, staring at Freddy's disappearing back. Not too long afterwards, Lita had suddenly noticed that the rain had stopped falling on her shoulders and head and she had turned to see that Ken was standing by her side, getting soaked to the bone as he held an umbrella over her.
Afterwards, he had walked Lita back to her uncle's, neither one of them saying a word to the other. Worried and concerned for their only neice, her uncle had suggested that Lita take as much time as she needed at a retreat that he had gone to as a teen. Lita knew that special circumstances were being made for her so that she could go to this retreat and that her uncle had probably used some of his influence. She was only twelve years old and the people in charge only accepted kids fourteen years of age and older.
The train quickly pulled to a stop and Lita stared out the window at the stairs that she suspected led up to the main entrance.
"Well, we're here. Come on, Lita."
Without a word, Lita followed her uncle, wondering what this experience would be like.
