A Year To Live
Author's Notes:
Some action in this chapter. Child abuse theme.
THANKS TO EVERYONE!!! =D Sorry I took so long. I'm having breathing difficulties right now, due to the constant wafts of stinking shit entering this study through the open windows. OH!!! I CAN CLOSE THEM!!!
(This part's for those two who knows me in school)
Thanks, except shintenshin. 'Thanks' to you (Can you feel the sarcasm?) for the less than encouraging review. But, yeah, true… I hate conversations only chapters too… But… CAN YOU BE MORE SUBTLE??? Sigh…
I realise my vocabulary is failing me, I have not been putting words into use… And 'worksheet', if you're reading this… Whatever. I no longer care if you ever reviewed anymore. At least your comment is far better than That Person.
7—No… Not him!
One week later…
WHRRRRRR!!!!!!!
"Dragoon! Attack!!!" Tyson commanded, playing an easy game with Max.
Meanwhile…
"What's that on your arm, Kai?" Ray asked, noticing Kai fingering something dark purple on his arm. He snapped up instantaneously, and replied, "Nothing."
___
Half an hour later, they were back in their respective rooms. These days, Ray noticed that Kai was avoiding everyone, even in the confines of their room.
"Kai, let me take a look at your hand." Ray said firmly.
"What do you want?" he snapped.
With a swift gesture, he got hold of Kai's right arm, turned the pale white skin to face him. He couldn't suppress the gasp that escaped his lips. A couple of dark bruises streaked the pale flesh. Ray lifted a trembling finger to tough one of the wounds. Kai was indifferent.
"How did you get them?" Ray asked, the moment he found his voice. He watched Kai swallowed, before answering, "It's only natural," impassively.
He wrenched his arm away from Ray's grasp. Ray watched on with mounting curiosity as Kai took off his hand guards. There were more bruises, lining up the lower part of his arm.
"Do they hurt?" he asked apprehensively. With an impassive shrug, Kai laid down on his bed and slept.
___
Things usually happen when you least expect them to. After a chain of uneventful weeks, they were out in the open once more, refreshing themselves with the parch dry weather, watching gusts of wind sweep trees into a swaying dance.
Kai
Today, was just another day off. No big deal… Then why am I so reluctant to get moving on my own? Even is I so crave to be alone, they wouldn't see to it. Can I help it if I noticed that everyone on the team is giving me some kind of special treatment?
Take Tyson for example. Usually, he's uncontrollable. But right now, if I just cast him one glare, he would quit what he was doing. He'd drop it like a hot potato. AND I HATE IT. I hate the attention. It may seem an improvement this way, but I do not appreciate it. Let alone want them to care. I can handle myself fine, thanks.
"Kai? Hello? Earth to Kai!"
"What?" I snapped, causing Max to recoil.
"I asked do you want to come along?" he repeated.
Come along where? Heck, I couldn't care less.
"No." I turned my heel and left.
"HEY!"
___
Kai
China gives me much more assurance than Russia or Japan, considering that one is my homeland and the other, is polluted by the mere though that my grandfather lives there. At least, I'm protected by animosity here. I guess I wasn't really headed anywhere, I just let my feet carry me off. It was no surprise, that I bumped into somebody.
"Sorry." I muttered and hurried to leave.
"Oh no you don't!" a horribly familiar voice yelled. He clamped my mouth and lifted me from the ground. Multiple rings on his hands jabbing hard into my sides. I struggled to yell, but only ended up suffocating under his tight palms. Not him… NOT HIM!!! How could he be here? His harsh and violent moves terrifies me. After what seemed like ages, he shoved me inside a window-tinted car. He got onto the front seat and ordered, "Go."
___
"So, what have you been doing for the past four months I didn't see you?"
"To think you were well informed." Kai snarled.
"Tch tch tch… Temper, Kai, perhaps, I ought to refresh your memory?" the gruff voice threatened. Kai bit his lip and fell quiet immediately, Voltaire's crude treatment, was ridiculously hard to forget.
___
SLAM!
"Argh!"
"Forgot your manners?"
"Mm!" Kai clenched his jaws tightly to stop himself from yelling out.
Already on their first meeting in four months, Voltaire had started the abuse.
___
"Again."
"Do you think he's in trouble?"
A sleek black car drove past them…
___
"Ah!" Kai jumped up from the awkward position he'd fell asleep in. Was it a nightmare? Or was it for real? Please don't let it be real… Slowly, he lifted his eyelids and squinted in the dark. A growing lump of worry forming in his throat.
"No… not here… not here…" he cried, loud enough to hear his own echo bounce off the walls, beating down on him.
Carefully, he shifted his position, aware of the throbbing bruise on his forehead, his badly kicked stomach, and to top it off, aching joints. As expected, Voltaire had locked him up in a cell. But how did he get here? This is China!
As his vision cleared, memories started flooding back. He'd been here too many times to scrape it out of his memory. Every episode he was locked in here, he had been under the impression that he'd made a mistake. His mind was too clouded to register that Voltaire, had beaten him, just for the kick of it.
How did they get back in Japan? I must've been out while he brought me here… A weight dropped in his abdomen. There was no escape… Voltaire wanted him to stay confined from the rest of the world…
Footsteps clicked uniformly in the hallway, getting louder as they approached. There was a jingling sound, as the keys were brandished, Kai heard the anonymous person stick the key into the hole and turned. The door creaked noisily open, rusty hinges, un-oiled for years.
A slice of light casted a long shadow of a man with cropped hair in the doorway. Kai let out a sigh of relieve. Anyone else, was better than Voltaire himself.
"Your dinner… Young Master…"
He did not recognised this voice, but edged his way closer to the door. Hastily, the man shuffled back and shut the door, leaving Kai in total darkness once again. Kai frowned, why did Voltaire not allow him to see what's outside, when it is only too obvious he knows? Sighing, he felt his way through the musty room, found the wall, and rested his weary body on it. It was no point eating in the dark…
……………
Drip… Drip... Drip…
Kai's eyes snapped open.
"Argh!" he yelled frustratedly. How could he sleep with all that noise? His mouth was desiccated, and was dying for a drink of water. Swallowing the mounting feeling of devastation, he followed the wall, which led right a corner, where there was obviously, a hole. But he was too weak to think what he could do next. He slumped on the door, and fell asleep.
___
"Two days, and still no news of him?" Mr. Dickenson asked urgently on the phone.
"Yes, yes, I'm aware that my boys were the last ones who saw him…"
"Alright, do that as soon as you find anything."
"Mr. Dickenson? There's still no news of Kai?" Ray asked.
"I'm afraid not… But the BBA has started the search for Kai all around China. There has been no reports of a slate haired boy…" he sighed miserably.
"We'll just have to cross our fingers and hope then…"
___
"Oof!" Kai was sent flying into consciousness, as a hard kick found it's way to his already blue black stomach.
"Grandfather!" he gasped.
End of Chapter
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Author's Note: This should've been posted 12 hours ago. Sorry…
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