Chapter 15- Still Missing
The next day at school Vegeta wasn't there. Goku had looked all over and he couldn't find him. He had found the girl that Vegeta had caught a ride with, and she said she had brought him straight home. She'd even watched him go inside.
Goku couldn't figure out where Vegeta would be. He had gone by his apartment that morning, thinking he'd be home by then, to offer him a ride. Again, Vegeta didn't answer the door. Goku saw his bike in the parking lot and so figure that he had caught a ride with somebody else.
But when he had gotten to school, he couldn't find him their either. It seemed that nobody had seen him since school the day before.
For some reason, Bulma was just as unnerved as him. He guessed, though, that it was just Vegeta's effect on all the girls at school.
When Mr. Dilloir accused him of skipping school, Bulma had joined in with the rest of the girls arguing back that he had an excuse. No one knew quite what that excuse was, but they were sure he had one.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
After school and football practice, Goku had gone back to Gee's and had told Chuckie that he couldn't find Vegeta.
This seemed to get Chuckie worried.
When Goku had asked her what was wrong, she had told him that people had reported hearing gunshots the day before.
This confirmed Goku's suspicions: Vegeta was in trouble, if not dead.
He quickly called Bulma and ChiChi and told them what was going on. They had agreed to ride around town and look for him. But by ten o'clock, none of them had seen a trace of him.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Again Vegeta woke up tied to the chair. He was getting really tired of being knocked out. Doing a quick scanning of the room, he determined that he was alone.
Seeing that, he decided to take an inventory of himself. So far, the only things that hurt were his head, his stomach and a small part of his back where he had been shot. He could feel where the bone cracked and where the bullet was still inside him. He could also feel where the blood had dried all down his backside.
His head shot up when he heard a noise. About a second later, the door opened and his father stepped in. Vegeta watched silently as the man approached him. He must have left the other two downstairs.
"You know." He said in a very conversational tone. "I was really hoping to beat you and then burn you alive in the house last night. But it was too wet. I guess we'll just have to wait until it's dry, won't we? But don't worry. We'll have some fun in the meantime."
He pulled out a knife and cut a hole in Vegeta's shirt. Using the hole, he ripped the shirt in half and tore it off of him. He then took the knife and started dragging it lightly across Vegeta's chest.
Ever so slowly, he started to press harder. He only pressed down hard enough to cut his skin however. If he killed Vegeta now, he wouldn't get to have his fun later.
Vegeta didn't scream. Years of pain had taught him how to endure such things. Instead he looked down to watch as his skin started to bleed. To his surprise, Rehtaf was carving a symbol into his skin.
Vegeta had never seen the symbol before.
Rehtaf looked up from his work to see why his son wasn't screaming. He was sort of confused to see that Vegeta's face showed no sign of pain. Instead, he saw that Vegeta was staring at the symbol on his chest as if trying to figure out what it said.
Since it really didn't hurt his plan to tell him what the symbol was for, he decided to explain it to him.
"It means 'evil'." He said causing Vegeta to look up at him. "The symbol means evil." He repeated.
Vegeta just cocked an eyebrow so Rehtaf continued. "I am carving it on you because you are evil. I learned the symbol from an old fortune teller. She said that the symbol must be carved into the chest or it will mean nothing. Once the symbol is carved, it will judge you. If you are really evil the mark will stay on your chest forever. If you are not, it will disappear. But we won't have to worry about that."
Vegeta just listened silently. He was actually wondering which one he was. Was he really evil? Was it really his fault that his mother is dead? Or was his father just a crackpot?
He guessed that his father was just a crackpot. But he couldn't help but wonder...
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Vegeta had been beaten again that night, if for nothing but the fun of it. He had long since decided that his father was and had always been cracked.
As the men were punching, kicking, burning, and whipping him, he idly wondered how his father had managed to stay out of prison for so long. One would think he would be too stupid to run from the law. But after Rehtaf had managed to do all of this to him, Vegeta figured he still had a bit of brain left in him, even if he didn't use it much.
After sitting in the room for a while by himself after that, he wondered why the two men had called his father Rehtaf. He had figured that it was code. He knew that his father's name wasn't Rehtaf. He couldn't remember what it was though.
He sat for a while longer, he had long since lost track of time, and tried to figure out why 'Rehtaf'. Finally he realized that Rehtaf was Father spelled backwards.
Well that's stupid. Vegeta thought. He would be the only person capable of coming up with such a lame code name.
With that thought finally out of his head, he deliberated how he was going to get out of this mess.
His father had told him during one of the beatings that he was to be killed Thursday. He wasn't really sure, but he thought today was Thursday.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Goku had gone to school again today hoping that Vegeta would be there, but again he found that he wasn't.
At lunch, Goku decided to skip practice to ride around the town looking for him again. He had an odd feeling that something bad would happen that day.
He silently prayed that he wasn't right.