Another Day

Chapter 11

Hitting the wall

Judy woke up early that morning. She meant to sneak out quietly, as she had to go through the boys' and Boris' rooms to get out, but by the first bed she stopped; Kai's bed was empty and his clothes were gone. Her first thought was that he had tried to run, and she hurried out into the gardens, hoping to reach him before he got away. She was a bit surprised when she found him sitting quietly on a bench, enjoying the first rays of the morning sun.

He had one leg pulled up on the bench and he was chewing thoughtfully on a blade of grass. She stood for a moment, simply watching him, in this silent hour when no one else was awake. A strange peace was over the world, and as she studied the scene before her she felt very much the intruder, while the blue haired boy seemed to belong here, in mental conversation with the rising sun.

He became aware of her and turned, his eyes not betraying his thoughts. She found she could not hold that red gaze and so she moved, sitting down on the bench beside him. For a while it was silent, but then he spoke, "When I came here...I didn't know more than the first steps of being a slave; the whipping, the selling. Then I realised that being a slave is more complicated than it seems; it is about getting up every morning with a goal, it's about making someone happy without expecting them to thank you for it, it is about accepting what is your place, set by someone in a better position than you."

Judy waited, but there came no more, so she asked, "And is that so bad?"

His face turned suddenly dark, and the woman had to cast a glance at the sun to make sure it was still there, for the warm rays did not seem to reach the handsome face of the boy beside her anymore.

"Yes, it is. For it is also about being kept in a cage, and having people tell you what to do every second of the day. It's about watching someone else being beaten until they bleed and not being able to do anything to help them, it's about being parted from your loved ones without getting to say goodbye...it's about loosing your dignity for someone else's pleasure." As he spoke, he rose from the seat, but he did not look at her. He spoke to the sun, which was all the way over the horizon now, shining white and sharp. Judy was tempted to think that it was shining for him, rising to the sound of his voice.

"You know," she began carefully; "many slaves are nothing but criminals; murderers and gang members. Many people deserve to be-"

He turned on her and shouted furiously, "Rei did not deserve it! Mariah and Lee did not deserve it! I did not deserve it!!" She stared at him in shock. He calmed himself with an effort, before saying, lower now, "Who are they to decide who deserve what fate?" He pointed in the general direction of the house.

She sighed, "You can't change the way our society works, Kai; you are only a boy."

He turned back to the sun, "That may be, but I can still escape the fate that they have set for me. I am grateful for the kindness that you have shown me so far, but do not expect me to hang around for long. I hope you will not try to stop me." He left her there, on the bench, without waiting for a reply. He headed down a random path and ended up in front of the brick wall that surrounded the whole property.

Kai ran one hand over the crumbling old bricks. The wall was thick and sturdy, and looked too tall to scale, even with a running start. He scratched one brick idly, and his fingers came away orange from the crumbles. The vines were indeed too thin to climb, but they was green and healthy, so Steve and Ian had to be doing a good job with them, as they were with the entire garden. For a moment Kai was filled with jealousy; everyone was doing their job well except him. He couldn't even carry out the simplest of orders thanks to his stubborn pride. He shook his head; how could he think such thoughts? He wanted out, out, out, out! The others could say whatever they wanted about this place, but for Kai it was a prison, worse than the cell he had spent Thursday night in. He looked up at the sky and longed to join the birds flying past him; they were free, and that was what Kai needed to be as well.

"You can't escape, so you might as well stop trying."

It was Danielle. Kai turned and saw the little girl up close for the first time. She was short and a bit on the chubby side, her brown, shoulder-length hair was braided, she had lots of freckles and an upturned button nose. She would have been quite cute if it had not been for the arrogant expression on her face. She was wearing a red dress with black shoes and white stockings. She was younger than Kai, by several years, but older than Adria.

He grunted in answer, turning his gaze back to the wall. "This barrier is not enough to keep me here."

Her reply was a fake, high pitched little laughter, meant to taunt, "You think yourself so clever, don't you? Just because you don't give in until you are punished, but then you always cower, that's what I've heard. They say you screamed like a baby when they whipped you. That's not very brave or strong if you ask me."

Kai did not shift his gaze from the solid wall, "Well, no one asked you."

She scowled, "Humph, I don't even know why I bother talking to you. You slaves are not worth anything anyway. You are only here to serve us. We are better than you."

She said it in a matter-of-fact tone that sent a twinge of pain through Kai's heart, and he got an intense need to hurt this little monster as much as possible, "Get lost, you little witch."

Danielle's eyes widened, "You can't call me that? I am your better! I demand you apologise immediately."

Kai laughed, he threw his head back and laughed, "Who taught you all this, huh, your good-for-nothing brother? Or perhaps it was your bastard father? Did he tell you that you are better than me? Why; because I don't have a big house and a pony of my own, maybe it's because I don't eat from a silver platter and have one suit of clothing for each hour of the day, or because I don't stick my nose up in the air and prance around like a peacock? You have got to be kidding me; I am worth just as much as any of the upper-class idiots that you hang around with. And I have known slum rats whose value is twice as much as yours, you stuck up, ugly, little brat!"

For a second the girl stood silent, her mouth opening and closing without a sound, but then she turned on her heel and ran towards the house, bawling so loudly it was a wonder no one came running. Kai sighed and looked at the wall again. Perhaps he should try to scale it anyway; that girl was bound to run right to daddy with the whole story.

He walked along the wall until he came to the gate. The bars were vertical, with one horizontal bar running over the middle. A big "I" had been made to part down the middle when the gate opened. Kai looked the contraption up and down; he might just be able to scale it. The biggest problem was the spikes on the top, which could hurt him severely if he wasn't careful. Oh well, you wouldn't get anywhere without the first step. Kai backed away a bit and spit in his hands, rubbing them together. He ran, jumped, grabbed the bars and hoisted himself up.

Unfortunately, the vertical bars were do smooth to give him hold, and he slid back down. But Kai, never one to give up easily, tried again and this time he got both feet in front of him on the horizontal bar. He took hold a little higher up and meant to take another leap, but suddenly he was pulled downwards hard, and he landed on his back on the ground.

His unhealed scars cried out in protest, and for a moment he had to squeeze his eyes shut against the pain, which mounted and then passed. He opened his eyes to see a very angry redhead standing above him. "We have given you a home, we have given you food and clothes to wear, we brought you away from a life of hiding and stealing, we spared you from a death of starvation or cold, and this is how you repay us? You insult our kindness and try to run away." Tala glared down at him. Kai tried to sit up, but was pushed back down by a boot planted in his chest, "Stay down."

Kai felt his own temper rising, "What do you know about what you brought me away from. Have you ever seen the slum? Have you ever asked us what we think of it and the life we live there? Did you ever ask me if I wanted to be helped this way? No! You did not, and you have not! You drag me away from my friends without asking if I will miss them! What reason could possibly justify the punishment that you have given me?"

Tala growled, "You stole money from people!"

But Kai retorted just as fiercely, "No, I stole food enough to feed myself! It wasn't me who stole that purse, but the cops don't care who gets blamed as long as they get praise for their good work!"

"You shouldn't have stolen anything in the first place! Neither food nor money!" Tala yelled.

"You would have done the same thing in my situation." Kai stated.

Tala opened his mouth, but could not find anything to say, "Well…well, why did you insult my sister like that?"

For a moment the smirk returned, but Kai had an answer for this one as well, "She called me worthless. She defended the upper-class' opinion of slaves in its purest and most cruel form. The opinions that your wonderful father has taught her, and the same way of thinking that makes you believe you have the right to treat me like your dog."

For a moment Kai thought that he had won, but then Tala's face hardened. He bent down, until his face was nearly touching the other boy's, and then he said, slowly and clearly, "Well, that is right; I have all the right to treat you any way I want. I own you, I bought you, and it doesn't matter what you think you are, as long as I say that you are my slave. You hear that Kai?" This time the name was tinged with contempt, "You are my slave, and I will make you pay for your behaviour."

Kai sneered, and before Tala could pull away he was grabbed by the collar and tossed to the ground. Kai was on his feet in a second, but Tala was also fast; he grabbed Kai around the waist and they both tumbled onto the gravel once more. Kai punched Tala in the gut to get him off, but Tala didn't let go, and he returned the favour by hitting Kai in the jaw. They rolled on the ground in a fury of arms and legs. It was primal, aggressive and out of control. None of them gave a thought to their surroundings; it was only the two of them and this classical battle for dominance. There was no style or grace or order to their fight, for none of them had had much combat training. It was all about getting your opponent to give up, but with each bruise and scrape their anger only grew.

Kai managed to get Tala under him and straddled his waist, trying to grab his flailing arms to immobilise him, but Tala was far from the helpless little daddy's-boy that the slave had expected; he fisted his hands in each other and hit Kai's temple as hard as he could. For a moment the blue haired boy's vision went black, and he swayed dangerously where he sat. And while he tried to clear away the spots that swam in his vision, Tala could push him off and reverse their position.

"You know, my mother told me to go easy on you, to give you some time, and I was tempted to follow her advice, but then I learned that she was not being entirely honest with me. Did you really think you could escape from me in my own home, Kai? After eight years of playing hide and seek with Danielle one would think I had learned how to see if someone is standing behind the curtains!"

Kai was completely immobilized as Tala was sitting on top of him and had his arms pinned above him head. Then the redhead began a taunting little version of the song that Kai and Lady Sarah had sung together. The slate haired boy trashed and twisted to get away, but Tala was heavy, and he only bent closer, singing louder. A wave of rage gave Kai strength; he tore one of his hands free and grabbed a handful of sand and gravel which he tossed in the redheads face. Tala cried out and let go of Kai, who pushed him all the way off and got back on his feet. Without pausing they were at each others throats again. Once again fist flew as the two, equally stubborn boys only got more and more furious.

Suddenly and unexpectedly they were torn apart. Judy had seen the two combatants and run for help. Ivanov was holding Tala back forcefully, but when the redhead recognised his father he calmed himself and stopped struggling. He flashed Kai a victorious smirk; he knew he had won. Kai on the other hand was being held tight by the arms by Boris, who grunted with the effort of holding on to the raging teen. Other people had also come to the scene; Danielle was standing behind her father, her smile a copy of Tala's, and behind her stood Rei, looking expressionless. Steve stood over by one corner of the house and Carlos could be seen beside him, looking smug for some reason. In a window, high up on the third floor, Lady Sarah pulled the curtains shut and left the painting room, sadness written on her features.

"What on earth has happened here?" Ivanov sounded furious.

Tala answered, "He was running away, father, I tried to stop him and he attacked me."

Kai was breathing heavily, he was bruised and scraped and his lip was split, but somehow the throbbing pain only added to the warm ball of fury and hatred that was boiling inside of him. He stood silent in Boris' strong grasp, but he was tense, and each breath came out as a low growl. Tala was equally battered, but the knowledge wasn't enough for Kai.

Ivanov turned to him now, and he touched Kai's chin, but the boy shook him off and looked away. The man sighed, "I am sorry to have to do this Kai, but when you attack my son I have no more choice. We gave you much freedom in the beginning, but it seems you need to be tamed and trained before I can allow you to walk freely again."

Kai interrupted him, "Freely? You call this freedom?" He sounded outraged, but he was quickly cut off as Boris put one gloved hand over his mouth.

Ivanov continued as if nothing had happened, "You will be locked in your room for the rest of today. No more walking around the garden; you will stay indoors unless under close supervision by someone who can handle your violence and your temper." He looked sad, and Kai felt like he wanted to cry himself. "Lock him up, Boris. Come on Tala, I'll have Eddie see to those bruises."

Judy brought Kai's things into his new room, she did her job with a hanging head, and she avoided looking at Kai, who was escorted in by Boris. This room was in the basement, and it was considerably colder and more hostile than the former one had been.

Boris' face wore no expressions as he spoke before he left, "Your meals will be brought to you, and you will stay in this room unless accompanied by me, Steve, Eddie, or master Ivanov himself. We will decide what to do with you later." He closed the door, leaving Kai in half darkness. The Hiwatari slumped down on his bed and fought the anger that made him want to get up and rage around, tearing things apart and banging on the walls; he did not need to give them more reasons to think him a wild animal. Eventually, emotional and physical exhaustion dragged him into sleep.