Wow…already on chapter six….it's moving along quick nicely (and when I say nicely, I mean quickly)
Miserable Midori: geez I know, he's quite the charmer! (In my mind, he's almost like Tatsuha)
GoTrinba: muaha you like him (I was hoping so!) I agree with you, Shuichi can't just be with anyone, the guy has to be special!
Gravitation gig: don't worry, I plan to finish this one off!
girlo: lol at least you have a little sanity left! Mine was gone by the time I crashed the plane in the first chapter…
Rujutoshi: wow, that's got to be your longest review yet, I loved it! To answer your question, it's unlikely that I could inflict any more angst onto Shuichi…although I might….haha that's a good idea about the poster, I had a similar idea that I think I'll use…but I'm still figuring the plot out, so we'll see…
DeMoN4EvA: I know what you mean about the couplings! (although shuichi/sakano isn't the worst for me)
hokage: an author is always happy to know that her work is appreciated, thanks!
Xazenru: it's ok, I didn't get a chance to check my reviews until a few days after I posted anyways!
Chapter Six
"Psst! Wake up!...Hey!" Tai was rudely jolted by rough hands, and upon turning over to discover the source of the commotion, fell out of bed.
THUMP!
"Fuck! What are you doing? We're going to get caught!"
"…huh? What's going on?"
"Get up! We have to go down to the boiler room! It's almost midnight, thank god I woke you up, did you forget or something…no, you couldn't have forgotten, you got the note this morning…so did you just want to ignore it, do you have a death wish? Do you have any idea what ignoring these people can do?" Tai found himself face to face with a very anxious Colin. His brain tried to process what was going on, without much luck.
"Uhh…"
"Didn't you get a note from Dan this morning?"
The wheels started turning, and it came to him.
"Ohhhhhh…the note…I'm not going." He turned back over to face the wall. A hand grabbed his shoulder and pulled him back towards Colin.
"What the hell are you talking about? You have to go!"
"No, I don't, I don't want to get initiated by a bunch of high school children."
"As if you're any older than we are! Get your ass out of bed, we have to go, or you will be in huge shit with Dan and Greg.
"Go away, I'm going back to bed, I am not going to get initiated."
"You can't just not get initiated, everyone does."
"Tobias didn't." There was a pause from Colin.
"Fuck! He got to you already! Listen, Tai, you can't hang out with him, it's too dangerous." Tai laughed.
"Listen to yourself! Dangerous, how can being with someone be dangerous?"
"If Dan and Greg find out…"
"What? What will they do?"
"Your life will be a living hell, just like Tobias's and Reid's when Tobias walked out on the ceremony."
"Whatever, they can't do anything to me that I would care about, now if you'll excuse me, I'm going back to bed." Despite his brave words, Tai felt a shiver run through his body, which he disguised as pulling the covers up over his head. He heard Colin leave the room quietly. A silence fell over the room, until shuffling sounds in the corner caught his attention.
"Tai? Tai? Are you still awake?" It was Reid walking towards him.
"Tai?" He knelt beside the bed.
"Yeah, I'm awake."
"Hey, you really should go to initiation…" Tai propped himself up on his elbows and peered through the dark at the other boy.
"What, but you and Tob—"
"Yeah, I know, but it's not worth it…really, it's not. Being able to hang with us isn't worth all the crap you'll have to go through with those two…me and Toby, we only do it 'cuz we have each other, you know?"
This was a side of Reid that Tai had never imagined existed. A not-so-confident-and-cool, slightly scared side. It frightened him…but not enough to change his mind.
"And after tonight, you'll have me too." Even though he couldn't see him, Tai could tell that Reid was smiling.
"Okay man, we'll all look out for each other." Reid offered a fist to Tai, and Tai punched it.
"It's a deal."
Suddenly, thumping noises came flying down the hall towards their room. Tai and Reid stared at the door as it was flung open, revealing two hooded figures charging towards them. The first one pushed Reid up against the wall, and held him there, while the other grabbed Tai and threw the boy over his shoulder, in a fireman's carry.
Tai kicked and punched at the hooded person, but it didn't seem to do anything, so he soon gave up. As he hung limply from their back, the carrier turned quickly in the doorway, and he slammed his head against the doorframe. Everything went blurry for a second.
Flashback
"Ne! Put me down meanie! Let me go, I forgot my brush, and I have to go to the bathroom!"
"No baka, we're going to miss our plane, you don't have time!"
"But I really have to gooooo! And my hair is all messy! Let me DOWN!"
"No."
"I'll scream!"
"Go ahead."
"Ahhhhhhhhh!" Just then, the man carrying him turned into the elevator, and smacked his head on the door.
"Owwww! You hurt me!"
"…Sorry." And the man sounded genuinely sorry, so he smiled, and tried to look him in the face.
"It's ok."
End Flashback
"Owwww!"
"Shut up you stupid kid, you're going to wake up Ms. Hift!"
Tai desperately tried to get his bearings. Where was he? What had just happened? Something about an elevator, was it another memory? Already the image was slipping away, and no matter how hard he tried to pull it back, it eventually disappeared.
The grip on the back of his legs grew even tighter when he tried to squirm his way out of the grip. Instead of struggling harder, he looked around to try and discover where they were.
It didn't seem to be any of the floors where the rooms were, because those were all the same, and this didn't look anything like that. It seemed more like a basement…where had the note said that it would be…the boiler room? What was that?
Tai got his answer soon enough, as the mystery men walked through a doorway and into a huge, smelly dark room. He could just make out other anonymous figures sitting in the dark in a circle. A horrible chemical smelled wafted by his nose, and he almost gagged on it.
Brusquely, he was dumped on the ground in the middle of the circle, beside a wicked looking knife and a bowl of an unknown substance.
"You are here today, to be initiated into the brotherhood of Grytern. To accept the duties of the brotherhood, follow the rules, and the way of life, and become assimilated into our culture." Tai looked around desperately trying to figure out where the voice was coming from.
"Umm…I don't want to do this." The voice continued as if it hadn't heard him.
"You must perform the rites of the brotherhood, aided by the last and first member to join. Then, you must do a task. If you complete both of these, then you become a brother."
"I don't want to become a brother! Go away! Leave me alone!" A hooded figure stepped up in front of him and grabbed him by the back of his hair. The hood slowly fell down the back of his head, and Tai stared into the dilated pupils of Greg.
"Too bad pretty boy, you're already here, you might as well do it." He signaled for one boy to approach.
"Here, sit on his stomach so that we can begin the ritual." Tai found himself looking up at Colin's blank face. Something was wrong with him; he didn't look as though he was fully conscious. As the other boy obediently sat on him, he caught a whiff of his breath, and realized what was going on.
They were all on drugs. That's why they didn't seem like themselves, that's why they were so easily manipulated. Tai groaned, he knew how dangerous people could be like this, so maybe it would be best to listen to what they say, until it got dangerous, which he was sure was going to happen.
Greg came and stood beside Dan, leering down at him as he stopped struggling.
"Good boy…now let's begin the ritual." He picked up the knife.
A scream flew up into Tai's throat, but he managed to choke it down. Maybe the knife was for…something…else? But its purpose became clear as Dan rolled up his sleeve and put the knife to his skin.
"Ahhhhhh! What the fuck are you doing! Let me go!" Pain rocketed up his arm as Greg dug into his arm with the knife. Tears sprung into his eyes.
"Let me go! Let me GO!" He began sobbing uncontrollably.
"Please," he whispered, "Let me go…" Then he passed out from the pain.
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Eiri was wandering around his apartment. Lately, he had gotten into the habit of getting out more often, if only to convince the public that he wasn't dead, and it was having a positive effect on him. At least, when he was in public, he couldn't break down in tears, or break everything within his reach, although he had gotten close some times. The writer had thrown himself into his work, because when he was busy, he didn't have time to sink into depression. Eiri had begun collecting posters and movies of the singer, and there was even a small shrine to Shuichi in his old bedroom.
Tohma had stopped harassing him to come out of his "shell", satisfied with his appearances outside and Mika had stopped constantly phoning to make sure he was eating. Tatsuha, on the other hand, had being phoning more and more often, trying to get Eiri to go places with him. Eiri of course, firmly told him to go to hell.
The phone was ringing, but he decided not to answer it. Probably Tatsuha complaining about not getting tickets to some Nittle Grasper concert, or with girl (or guy) troubles. He smirked. It was unlikely that Tatsuha would ever ask his advice about relationships after the last disaster, but he was dumb like that.
BEEP!
"Hey Yuki, it's me, Mizuki. Pick up the goddamn phone, I need to talk to you about a tour—"Her voice was cut off as Eiri turned on the portable.
"Hi."
"Yuki! You…picked up? Anyways, I've just been offered a last minute chance for you to promote your new novel in America! How about it?" Eiri paused, thinking about it carefully. He had stuff to do here, but nothing he couldn't take care of. The only thing in his way was…the plane ride. He shivered involuntarily.
"Yuki, you don't have a choice. You have to do this, I'm ordering you."
"…Ok, when does the plane leave?"
"In a day…"
After he hung up the phone, Eiri thought about how at one time he would have hung up on her after she said something like that. But something was different now…he had changed since the accident. Maybe in a bad way…he was letting her walk all over him. But still…it didn't bother him.
Eiri walked around his apartment packing up all his bags. Stacking them by the door, he picked up the phone to call Tohma. He wanted to tell his brother-in-law that he was leaving, and someone need to take care of his apartment while he was gone.
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Tai felt a spark of pain run from his fingers to his neck, and he fidgeted uncomfortably. Something was poking his in the back of his neck, but when he tried to brush it away with his hand, it has moved.
Poke. Poke.
"Get up."
"…huh?"
"Get UP!" A hand roughly grabbed him around his arm, and as it squeezed his tender skin, the events of the table came rushing back. He bolted up into a sitting position.
"What! Let me go! Take me back to my room NOW!" Something was clamped over his mouth that tasted like dirt and sweat. Panicking, he scratched at the hand and was rewarded with a squeal of pain.
"Fuck! Look what he did!"
"Ignore it, and help me jackass!"
Left alone for a moment, Tai examined his arm. A bloated red area surrounded what looked like a home-made tattoo. He groaned, it looked like it was going to get infected…the stuff in the bowl must have been ink. Damn! He should have gotten out of there when he'd had the chance, instead of waiting.
"Next, your task. You must climb up that ladder there," Tai looked over at Greg, who was pointing to a ladder leaning against one of the big vats in the middle of the room. "Then, climb across that bar." He pointed up at a skinny little bar suspended over top the vat.
"No, no way! I'm leaving, let me GO!" But the grip on his arm tightened. He started to cry again, striking out with all his limbs at anything that got in the way. He felt the blows connect from time to time, but then they started coming back at him.
"Oof!" A fist descended on his stomach, and he fell to the floor in pain. He felt a foot hit him from behind, and then another in the ribs. His vision started to go black.
"Stop…" He moaned, "Please…"
"Will you do the task?"
"NO!" Another foot hit him directly in the mouth, and he tasted blood.
"No! I won't go! Take me BACK!" He spat a mouthful of blood at someone's shoe.
"Bitch!" Tai saw a foot coming directly for his head, and he closed his eyes tightly. This was the kind of thing that you would read about in the magazines, where a kid gets gang beaten…mob mentality. He grinned sardonically and waited for the blow. But it never came.
Looking up, he saw Greg and Dan go flying backwards, followed by the other boys trying to pulverize him. A concerned pair of amber eyes floated into his vision, and he smiled gratefully.
"Did…did Reid tell you we were gonna stick together…?" His mouth felt all sticky and incoherent, but it seemed as though Tobias had understood.
"Yeah, from now on, we stick together, ok?
A look of pain crossed Tobias's face, and Tai looked over to see Greg and Dan standing behind him. They raised their fists and punched the back of his head, toppling the older boy onto Tai. He didn't stay down for long. Tobias jumped up and considered the two other boys. They leered at him, obviously thinking that they had the upper hand…at least until Tobias pulled the knife out from behind his back.
Tai sighed in relief. Tobias must have picked it off the floor when he came in...and there was no way that those two would go up against a weapon like that…
And he was right. The two backed down immediately and turned to Tai.
"We're going to get you some other time then, when you don't have your boyfriend protecting you!" Tai tried to laugh at the cliché parting, but it just hurt his ribs. Dan and Greg glared at him, and then raced out of the room, quickly followed by the other boys.
Tai felt strong arms support him carefully, and he was carried cradle style up many flights of stairs to Tobias's room. As he was gently laid down on the bed, he started sobbing again.
"No! It's ok, don't cry!"
"Th-thank you!"
"Shh…don't talk…I'll get you fixed up."
The last thing he felt before slipping off was a cool cloth washing off his face, and then he completely passed out.
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Authors note: ahh! I'm sorry that I'm making Eiri so…so…un-Eiri, but I couldn't help it! I was trying to figure out how he would act if Shuichi was dead, and I figured he'd probably be really depressed at first, but he would eventually start healing and get on with his life (which is necessary in the plot.) Also, don't kill me ….I'm sorry