Chapter 16-Thursday
Vegeta had struggled with the bindings trying to free himself for at least an hour and all he was doing was wearing himself out. If he would have been at his full strength, he would have been able to break free. But he hadn't eaten or drank anything at all since he left his house and that, along with his injuries made it all the more difficult.
Eventually, he gave up and managed to fall asleep.
After having slept for only ten minutes, he was awakened by someone punching him. When he opened his eyes, he found his father with the two other men, which he had recently learned were Locke and Shadow, more stupid names, standing in front of him. All three were smirking evilly. Just looking at their faces, he could tell that this was it. He wasn't getting out of this one.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Goku was waiting impatiently for the bell to ring. He had decided during lunch time that he would go ride around and look for Vegeta again. Now, it was last hour. He had changed out of his PE clothes and was shifting his weight from one foot to the other glancing at his watch every few seconds begging the little numbers to switch to 3:00
Finally, they did, and Goku, along with Bulma and ChiChi, hopped into his truck and sped out of the parking lot.
Bulma and Goku dropped ChiChi off at her house. She had a report or something to do.
After that, Goku and Bulma drove off again to make their rounds.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
The three men had started the beating in the usual way, with fists and feet. A while later, Locke had gone off to, he had overheard, spread gas throughout the house. Shadow and Rehtaf had remained in the room to continue the beating. Soon the punches and kicks got harder. They had cracked his jaw and a couple of ribs. Vegeta couldn't help but let a few screams out.
Suddenly they stopped. Rehtaf said something to Shadow, which Vegeta couldn't hear, and Shadow left. A few seconds later, Shadow, followed by Locke, walked back in with a bag in his hand. Shadow set the bag on the floor and started taking contents out of it. He handed a bottle of what looked like pills to Rehtaf.
Vegeta, seeing the pills started to squirm once again, but soon stopped as Shadow grabbed his broken jaw and forced his mouth open.
They were going to drug him!
Vegeta tried to squirm harder or at least close his mouth, but he couldn't. Locke grabbed him and held him still.
Vegeta would have screamed but then figured that it wouldn't pay to. No one would be able to hear him. The houses were spread too far apart. They were within seeing distance but not hearing. It would be pointless to yell.
Vegeta closed his eyes as he felt Rehtaf pour the pills into his mouth. He clenched his throat shut in an attempt to keep from swallowing the pills. Rehtaf then poured some Scotch, from the taste of it, into his mouth.
When he saw that Vegeta wasn't swallowing, Rehtaf punched him in the stomach.
Vegeta gasped swallowing most of the pills and choking on the rest. He looked back up to Rehtaf.
He was holding another bag of some white powder with that same old smirk pasted on his face.
Rehtaf repeated what he had done with the pills five other times with five different drugs all the while explaining that he was giving Vegeta the drugs so that he wouldn't be able to get out of the house but still be awake to feel himself burning alive.
Vegeta's stomach had tried to throw up a few times, but he found that he couldn't.
Finally Rehtaf stepped back. Vegeta was dazed and nauseous, just beginning effects of the drugs. He vacantly watched himself being untied, lifted up out of the chair, and laid on his stomach on the floor. As much as he wanted to, he couldn't make himself function enough to stop them.
He suddenly felt sharp stinging pain in his back and he realized he was being whipped. As the drug's effects got stronger, he couldn't even make himself scream. All he could do was lay there.
Eventually the whipping stopped. Vegeta vaguely felt someone's foot rolling him onto his back, but he did feel the sting of pressure on his new wounds.
Time seemed to slow as Vegeta heard three loud bang that he recognized to be gunshots. He felt three sharp pains that seemed to be cutting through him: one in his stomach, one in his heart, and one in his lung. Again Vegeta couldn't find the sense to scream. So he just laid there and watched as the three men left the room.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Matilda was out watering her garden. For the past few days, she had seen a car at the old house down the street. She figured that someone was finally moving in there.
As she straightened up, she noticed that there was smoke coming from the house. Not from the chimney, but from the house itself. She quickly ran inside to call the fire department.
The Fire department said that they'd be right over.
Matilda ran back out of her house, pretty fast for her age, and started making her way toward the house. By now she could see the flames on the first floor. They seemed to be rising fast.
Poor young people. Matilda thought as she neared the burning house. Something always happens to the people that live here. I don't suppose anyone told them what happened to that young girl and her son. Poor, poor people.
People were running from all directions to watch the house burn. Some of them had seen the car there a few days ago and had thought the same thing as Matilda. People were all pulling out their phones. Some to call the fire department, others to call their friends.
Everyone turned as the Fire truck drove up with its sirens blaring. The police, ambulance, and news crew was right behind it.
The police started backing people away from the house as the firemen ran in. It was routine for them to check the house for anyone to be in it no matter how hopeless the fire.
Now the flames were up to the second floor. Everyone figured that if there were anybody in the house, they'd be dead by then.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
By sheer miracle, Vegeta was not dead. He was laying on the floor, surrounded by flames, some of which were burning him, but he was still alive and, although barely conscious. The smoke was making it very hard for him to breathe. He was choking and gagging up blood.
Suddenly, he thought he heard a voice. He didn't know if he was just imagining it or not. Then, he saw a figure in the smoke. His first thought was that it was Rehtaf or one of his men back to torture him some more, but then, he was proved wrong.
The figure in the smoke yelled something to someone behind him and then came and knelt down beside Vegeta.
It started speaking in soothing tones and two other figures came up behind it and knelt down also. They seemed to have a quick conversation with one another and then the first figure picked Vegeta up and started running through the house.
The sudden movement made all of Vegeta's wounds scream in pain and he finally passed out.