Three
To all that sent me hugs: I luv you! And for you guys I post this update! And to Pain, Death, Torture concerning what you said in your review…how did you ever guess my dastardly plan? Mariah fans turn back now! Violence kicks off here! XD Hallo to siliana : blue who is German! I take German at school so keep in touch! PS! Decided there is to be no pairing! It'll be easier for me instead of having to make up my mind! I though I was indecisive, but now I'm not so sure!
"Twenty-four hours! Twenty-four hours…twenty-four hours!" Tyson continued to repeat the words out-loud as he paced about his room. Although the Bladebreakers had decided to take action against this new threat, they didn't know where to start. They weren't an Anti-Terrorist force or trained police officers: they were Beybladers.
"Tyson calm down," Ray looked up to his pacing comrade from his seated position on the floor. "We're all thinking about this, but we have to think carefully. One wrong move and that could spell disaster."
"That's exactly it!" Tyson almost exploded, the pent-up emotion he'd been keeping to himself bursting free. "Someone is going to die! I can't bear the thought of anyone being killed by that…that…" Tyson couldn't think of the appropriate word to call the kind of person Lewis was. A murderer? A psychopath? Whatever word Tyson though of, it all stemmed back to the satanic nature of Lewis' plan. How would death solve anything?
"Tyson you're gonna tread a huge hole in the floor," Hilary said plainly, trying her best to conceal her own worry, but failing spectacularly.
"I don't care Hilary…I just want Kai to be alright…I don't want him to die…not after all we did just to secure his trust!" Tyson bit down on his lower lip hard, fear creasing on his forehead.
"Then again this isn't just about Kai," Ray noted, standing up. "The White Tigers, the All Stars, the Demolition Boys, Mr Dickenson; they're all involved now too. We have a lot of lives resting on our shoulders, we can't mess up."
Kai ran a pale finger lightly over the incision across his neck. It stung like mad, but he chose not to complain about it. After all, he wasn't the type to complain about something that insignificant. The tension in the cell had mounted after Lewis' private broadcast to the Bladebreakers and Kai had returned to them bearing a cut neck.
"I'm scared…" Mariah mumbled, curled up with her knees underneath her chin and her arms hugging her legs. "Lee…are we…"
"Don't you even dare to think like that Mariah!" Lee snapped. "You're not going to die!"
"I hope I get to see Ray again…" Mariah continued to mumble on, looking over to the small barred window when she heard a little bird outside.
"Kai, they let you out, do you have any idea where the other teams are?" Lee asked, looking over to the Bladebreakers captain.
"They're not on this cell block, of that I'm certain," Kai replied, still tentatively touching the wound around his throat. "I didn't see them. They must be in another cell block in another part of this compound. It's huge, I'm surprised this guy hasn't been found yet."
"I'm sure the others are alive," Mr Dickenson said, wiping his forehead with his handkerchief. A sudden loud clanking noise echoed through the cell block, and the prison mates all froze upon the sound of approaching footsteps. They looked over to the barred door to see Lewis leering in at them.
"And how are my favourite little pets today?" he sneered, glaring over at Kai in particular, who shot him back one of his patented death glares.
"Let us out of here you freak!" Lee hissed, clenching his fists and turning to face Lewis.
"Now, now, calm down Lee. Threatening me will get you nowhere," Lewis looked over to Lee disapprovingly, then his poisonous gaze fell onto the trembling figure of Mariah. He could see the fear in her cat-like eyes, and a spark seemed to be set off inside of him. Kai noticed this before anyone else did.
"No!" Kai moved over to where Lewis was now standing, inside of the cell, and grabbed him by his jacket. "No Lewis! I'm the one you want! Stop looking at Mariah like that!" Kai's remarks were greeted with the sudden rush of cold steel through his leg, and a loud bang echoed through the cell block. A rush of pain shot to Kai's head, telling him he'd been shot.
"Now Kai, I'm not going to be leaving you out," Lewis fixed his gaze on the pale teen, grabbing his arm viciously. "You are, after all, one of my favourite little pets. But I must show the Bladebreakers that I mean business, and to do that I have to fulfil my end of the deal…"
"Mariah…" Lee suddenly realised what this all meant for Mariah. He looked down at her in desperation, but she was unmoving. Lewis pushed Kai back to the wall, hitting Kai's head off of the concrete quite hard, but not hard enough to knock him out. Lewis called in his guards to restrain the White Tigers and Mr Dickenson while he pulled Mariah to her feet.
"Kai…" she said finally, her voice raspy and laced through with an edge of fright. Kai looked up at her, his leg in a vast amount of pain making moving difficult, let alone getting up to protest Mariah being taken. "I want you to…do something for me…"
"What's that?" Kai asked, aware that Mariah knew what was coming her way, and was for some reason willingly letting it all happen.
"Tell Ray…when you see him…that I love him…" she smiled faintly as Kai tried to pull himself to his feet using the wall, but he started to feel dizzy due to the knock on his head from the same wall earlier.
"No…Mariah! Don't just let him kill you!"
"If I do…maybe it'll buy the Bladebreakers some time to save all of you…" her voice grew weaker with every word that passed her lips, and Lewis just smiled darkly.
"My dear girl…if all goes according to plan, even if the world falls to me, your friends will all die," and with this, Lewis dragged her away, never to be seen by her team-mates ever again.
"This is…a trap…a total…set-up…" Kai said, his voice becoming slurred as he started to feel the knock to his head taking a greater effect over him.
"Kai? Kai are you alright? KAI!" Lee called out to him, running to his side as he slowly lost consciousness.
Mariah was brought into a sterile room, where only Lewis and two others were present save herself. Everything about this room felt cold and unwelcoming, so clean that the smell of the disinfectant stung Mariah's nose.
"Now…my dear Mariah…" Lewis' tone took on a slightly more sinister quality as he placed a large heavy hand on Mariah's petite shoulder. "Your time has arrived, my dear. I'd like you to do this with a minimal amount of fuss, if possible." Mariah's mind was in a haze. She didn't know what was going on around her anymore. She was lifted onto a steel table and fastened to the table with irons.
"What should we do to her, sir?" one of Lewis' assistants asked. Lewis smiled, looking down at the condemned teenager before him.
"I have an idea…" Lewis moved fluidly over to a table where some cutting tools were placed. He picked up a pair of scissors, then picked up a surgical knife. "This little lady is in love with one of the Bladebreakers. She told young Kai to send him her love should Kai ever see his friends ever again. But I propose we send him a piece of her heart…there's no romantic statement quite like receiving a piece of someone's once-beating heart…" he drew from his pocket a small tape recorder, and pressed the microphone end to Mariah's face. "Consider this your 'last hurrah' my dear. I want you to send a little message to your beloved, say what you want." he pressed the record button and Mariah compliantly recorded her message for Ray.
"Now what?" Mariah asked quietly, her voice almost a hushed whisper by now. Lewis took the scissors in his hands and cut at the fabric of her pink shirt, cutting it away entirely.
"I want to send Ray a little gift, from you of course. What better way to say 'I love you' than to send your special someone the last remnants of your existence, the very organ with which you loved him…"
"What!" Mariah suddenly snapped back into reality. "What…what are you going to do to me!"
"Hush now, dear, it's a simple but life-threatening procedure. I guarantee you'll die as soon as I attain the sample from your heart," Lewis was still so calm, etching out the line of where he would cut with a blue pencil.
"Why! Why do you have to do this!" Mariah sobbed. "We've never done anything to you! Why would you want to kill us!"
"To prove my power!" Lewis snapped, throwing the pencil aside in a fury. "No one ever took what I said seriously, not even my fool of a brother stood by my side! He was too busy licking the boots of that hideous old man Voltaire! But now I'm going to prove to everyone that ever doubted what I said that I can and will gain control! You're all just puppets in my little show; figureheads for me to the public. What would your fans do if they found out someone was willing to kill their favourite stars? Why, they'd do whatever I told them to!"
"No they wouldn't!" Mariah said through her tears. "They'd never give in to you! I know the Bladebreakers will stop you before you kill anyone else!"
"But they won't have time to save you now, will they?" Lewis reached for one of the sharpest cutting tools on the table beside him and placed the tip against Mariah's delicate skin. She bit back the urge to scream. "I'd brace yourself for this, my dear, because this is really going to hurt…" and so he began, cutting through her as if she were paper. Opting not to give Lewis the pleasure of seeing her scream in agony, Mariah bit down harder on her lip and stifled her cries for mercy. A sudden sharp pain shot through Mariah's entire body and she suddenly fell limp.
"Sir, I think she's dead," one of the assistants said after a brief silence in noticing that Mariah was no longer moving or sobbing.
"And I only just finished cutting her open," Lewis sneered. "We can continue the procedure uninterrupted then. And we can tear apart whatever bone or organ gets in our way without the little wench whining."
"Yes, sir."
"Prepare to send the tape and this sample I am about to collect to the Bladebreakers. I hope Ray gets to read this…" Lewis tore through Mariah, smashing her rib cage and pulling her lungs aside before he tore out a small piece of her heart. He examined it in the tweezers which gripped it as blood streamed down the sterile metal. He then looked over to the dead Mariah. "My dear, Ray will receive your message…after all, who couldn't get a message that comes with your heart…"
23 hours to go…
"We've wasted a whole hour just sitting here!" Hilary cried, her hands flying up to her head in frustration. "Who knows what Lewis has done in that hour!"
"No time wasted, Hil," Max came in from the next room where he and Kenny had been trying to work out where Lewis was hiding. "Kenny and I have been working non-stop to try and locate Lewis' hiding place via his satellite feed. We're getting a few faint signals, some stuff he'd probably never think of covering, but we're nowhere near a solution yet."
"At least it's something," Tyson sighed, feeling a small portion of the weight on his heart relieving.
"I found this stuck to the door post," Max held out a large padded envelope. "I don't recognise the handwriting and there's no return address." he handed the envelope over to Tyson, who examined it briefly before tearing it open. He tipped the contents onto the table. Inside the envelope was a smaller white envelope and a tape.
"Play it," Ray insisted. "It could be from Lewis." Tyson nodded and went over to the tape player, fumbling with the tape in his hands as his heart rate started to climb. He put the tape in and pressed the play button.
"Ray…" the voice on the recording was that of a young girl.
"Mariah!" Ray cried out in horror, running to the tape player.
"Ray…I know you're listening to this, and I know you're worried for us. But you don't need to be. Everything is going to be alright. I just pray that you figure out something soon, so that you'll rescue the others."
"I'll rescue you too Mariah! I'll rescue you too!" Ray felt the sting of tears in his eyes at Mariah's words. They sounded so final.
"Kai has a message from me to give to you when you see him next. Everyone is well, but Kai was shot. He's strong, so I'm sure he'll survive."
"Shot!" Tyson almost flew up four feet into the air upon hearing this. "What! Why was he shot!"
"Sssh! Tyson!" Ray hissed, as he tried to hear the remainder of the tape.
"We'll catch up again soon. Take care Ray." and with that, the tape ended. Ray looked over to Max.
"It's from Mariah…but how did she communicate with us?" Ray looked back to the tape player, then suddenly noticed the terrified look in Tyson's eyes.
"'Dear Bladebreakers, I hope you'll be taking me seriously from now on. Here's something I think Mariah wanted young Ray to have, yours, Lewis,'" Tyson read from the little piece of paper inside the envelope, his voice slightly shaky, looking over to Ray when he was done.
"She wanted me to have?" Ray asked. Tyson swallowed hard, fighting back his own tears as he held up a small, clear bag. Ray walked over to Tyson to inspect the bag's contents further.
"Ray…" Tyson's voice was breaking apart as he tried to figure out how to tell Ray what he knew. "In the bag…it's a piece of Mariah's heart…wrapped in that favourite bandanna of hers…" Ray's eyes widened, tears flowing freely from them. "Ray…Mariah's been killed…I'm so sorry…"
"How do you know it's hers!" Ray cried, slowly becoming hysterical. "It could be anything!"
"Ray…" Tyson felt awful for what he was about to tell Ray. "It says on this letter from Lewis: 'there is no love token more precious than a precious piece of what was once Mariah's beating heart. Cherish it, Ray, it is the last remnant of the girl you will ever see.'" the truth sunk in for Ray at that moment. He had lost her, before he'd even been able to tell her how important she was to him. This was no longer a false promise: it was reality.
"Ray…" Max put a comforting hand on Ray's shoulder, tears trickling down his own cheeks for his friend's loss.
"It's…OK guys…" Ray's eyes were downcast, and when he looked up, they flared in anger. "It just gives me an extra reason to see that man go down!"