Raven sighed as she pulled her knees up to her chest. She had declared the corner she always sat in hers. Rayane was out in the living room with Skye, Hilary and Mariah. Raven sat in her dark room, huddled in the corner with her CD player blasting in her ears. Skye had bought her a new CD and Raven wasn't sure of what to think of that.
Skye didn't seem as bad as Raven had first thought. She had only talked to her a few times, but she seemed nice, and not as preppy as the other two. They might be able to stand in a room and not want to rip each other heads off. That was as close to having a friend as Raven wanted to get. Friends can hurt you. She remembered that lesson. It was the first one her owners had taught her.
Raven closed her eyes as the music echoed in her ears. She still had to figure out a way to close the small gap in the curtains that let light through, and she still had to make sure Rayane hadn't murdered Mariah and... Her thoughts trailed off as she slowly slipped off into a dream filled sleep.
A young girl was waiting silently in her room. The door slowly opened and a man and a woman entered. The woman was very pretty with long black hair and olive skin. The man was darker and had brown hair that was cut short. They were both wearing long lab coats and their eyes were dark, deep brown.
The man said something inaudible and the girl stood up. She was around four years old and had black hair that came down to her small waist and bright green eyes that stood out against her naturally pale skin. The adults led the child into the basement and she walked over to a tall man with purple hair. He lifted her up and strapped her to a table.
The purpled haired man stuck suction cup like things onto the girls fourhead as the man and woman walked over to machines to monitor what was happening to their daughter. The purple haired man injected her with something and her eyes turned a brilliant red. She began struggling aginst the straps that bound her to the table.
Her eyes returned to green and she stopped struggling. She was breathing hard from the pain she had went through. The purple haired man injected her with same liguid, only of a higher quantity. Her eyes turned bright red once again but instead of struggling, she lay still as she concentrated on the straps that bound her.
The straps broke at the same time and the girl rolled off the table. The two men grabbed her and she didn't fight. With her eyes still a fiery red, the two men flew backwards into the wall and the girl fell to floor, her eyes back to green. She saw the blurry shapes of the two men as they stood up and walked over to her limp body. One of them picked her up and she heard the other start talking.
"If it happens again," the man said darkly. "We've got to get rid of her."
Raven's eyes opened slowly. She tried to hold on to her dream, but it was already gone. She could only remember pain. And lots of it. Her body ached for a reason she wasn't aware of and she slowly stood up. Her body throbbed as she walked to the door and opened it. She slowly walked out of her room and made her way to the door that led to the basement.
It looked like an ordinary door. Wood with a copper door knob. Raven bent down and looked at the bottom corner by the hinges. There were three simbols carved deep into the wood. She remembered doing that on a night she snuck out of her room. She remembered hoping someone would find it and know what they meant, though she couldn't remember the meaning herself.
She slowly opened the door and walked down the stairs, welcoming the darkness that surrounded her. She walked around the boxes until she found a place that looked very familiar to her. Right in the middle of the basement. That was where the experiments were done. That was where the pain started. She had a strange feeling that it would be the place where the pain ended as well.
"RAVEN!" She heard her sister's voice scream from upstairs. Raven, fearing something had happened, ran upstairs to the living room as fast as she could.
There she found her sister cowering in the corner with everyone staring at her. But in the doorway was a man that looked oddly familiar to the two girls. Raven froze in fear for a second, before her protective feelings for her sister kicked in. She ran to her sister and grabbed her. She led her to the hallway and told her to go to their room and barracade the door. She turned back to the man with a glare firmly on her face.
"What are you doing here?" She demanded, not showing a trace of the undeniable fear she was feeling.
"I am a good friend of the Hiwatari's," The man said smiling. "I'm sorry if I scared that little girl. Who are you?"
"Don't play dumb you bastard," Raven hissed. "You know who I am, and you know what I can do. Leave now."
"I'm afraid I don't know what you're talking about," The man said politely. Raven felt like punching him.
"I'll brake your arm if you don't leave!" She shouted at him.
He looked surprised, but left without another word. Raven stood shocked in the middle of the room. Her bluff had worked. Maybe he actually believed she could do something without him injecting her with something.
"Did I miss something?" Tala asked.
"I'll tell you later," Raven said, and returned to her room to comfort her sister.
"What the hell was that about?" Tala asked Kai when they convinced everyone to leave.
"I don't know," Kai said.
"How could she have known Borris?" Tala asked.
"I don't know," Kai repeated, begining to get annoyed.
"And how-"
"I DON'T KNOW!" Kai shouted, making Tala raise his eye brow.
"What's with you?" Tala demanded.
Kai didn't respond.
A knock on the door made Rayane jump. Raven released her from the hug she had given her and opened the door to find the masters standing there. Tala looked confused and Kai looked pissed.
"How do you know Borris?" Kai demanded.
Rayane let out a whimper at the sound of his name.
"He's the man who experimented on us," Raven said quietly, stepping out of the door frame and walking over to her bed. She sat down and looked at her sister, who was sitting in her corner, letting silent tears run down her face.
"Experimented?" Tala asked cluelessly.
"Her parents experimented on her and her sister," Kai explained.
"Borris?" Tala asked. Raven nodded.
"Our owners paid him a lot of money to have him come over and experiment on us," She said quietly.
"I'm calling the cops," Kai said and walked towards the door.
"No!" Both girls shouted. Kai stopped and looked at them.
"Our owners," Raven said. "They'll find out. They'll come and get us."
"Hn," Kai said, and continued walking out of the room. Raven grabbed his arm and looked at him with big, pleading eyes.
"Please don't call the cops," She whispered. "Please don't call the cops sir."
Kai stared at her for a second. She didn't like the way he looked at her, into her eyes. It felt like he was seeing her soul, or what was left of it, and all the secrets she didn't even know about herself. His crimson eyes broke through her defenses and she found herself unprepared for what might happen next. The fate of her sister and herself rested in the hands of a boy who only cared about people not annoying him. She didn't like that feeling. She didn't like it one bit.
But she could see his soul too. Almost. In that simple, short second that stretched into forever, she saw the war that was raging inside the mysterious Kai Hiwatari. She saw anger flare up at her and at himself and she saw sympathy and an emotion she couldn't identify win against the anger, and she knew the answer before he said it.
"Fine," He said grudginly. "On one condition."
The two girls looked at each other and Tala rose his eye brow.
"Stop calling me sir," He said. And with that, he turned and walked out of the room. Tala followed him after a few minutes of talking to Raven.
"Rave?" Rayane hiccuped to her sister from the bed.
"What is it Ray?" Raven asked tiredly from her corner.
"Do you trust the masters?" Rayane asked.
Raven looked at her, going over the question in her head. Did she trust them? No, that was for sure. But Kai had let her stay and hadn't called the cops. And Tala had made sure she stayed out of touble. And they had fed her and her sister and hadn't asked for anything in return.
"I don't not trust them," Raven answered carefully.
"That wasn't the question," Rayane said flatly.
Raven sighed. "Ray, the answer to that question is too difficult to explain. You'll understand when you're older," She said.
A few minutes of silence passed.
"Rave?" Rayane said again.
"Yeah?"
"Is that man going to hurt you?" She asked.
Raven stared at her sister. Why the hell did she have to be so selfless? She should be worrying about whether or not she would be experimented on again, not what would happen to her older sister.
"No Ray," Raven said softly. "I won't let him hurt either of us. Now go to sleep. Everything will be okay again when you wake up."
"Promise?" Rayane muttered, already half asleep.
"Promise," Raven whispered, hoping she would be able to keep it.
(Rayane's dream and POV)
Pain. It hurts. Make it stop hurting. Make it stop! Make it stop! It hurts! Make it STOP!
The last word was yelled instead of thought and Rayane opened her eyes. She looked around and saw only darkness and knew she was dreaming. She was having the dream again. When it was over she would wake up crying and in excrutiating pain and her sister would be there to comfort her and make it better.
Rayane closed her eyes tight when she heard the familiar voices begin to come at her. Soft at first, then louder and louder and louder until she had to cover her ears and force herself not to scream.
'You will die! We will kill you!' The voices chanted over and over. 'You will know the pain you have caused us! You will die! We will kill you!'
Rayane wanted to scream and shout now, but couldn't. Her voice wasn't working, so she just cried, waiting for what she knew would come next. It already hurt, but it would get worse. It would get so much worse.
The voices stopped all at once and Rayane was left in the eerily quiet darkness, letting tears stream silently down her face. It was the experiments that had started these dreams. Her owners had explained it to her. Her dreams are where she would get her power, as soon as she was able to face the tortured souls that haunted them.
An arm reached out in the darkness and wrapped around her skinny arm. She opened her mouth to scream but no sound came out. The moment the arm grabbed her, pain was sent through her body. Another arm reached out and then another, until she was lost in a tangle of arms that was pulling her in all directions. The pain that was being sent through her body in jolts made her want to wake up just so she could pass out instead of sleep.
She felt her arm begining to be pulled out of it's socket and closed her eyes tightly. She gathered up all her control and screamed. Long and loud she screamed. In real life, in her dream, and in her mind the scream echoed until it slowly faded into the darkness, and the arms released her, allowing her to slowly wake up.
"Ray!" Raven shouted, shaking her sister awake.
Rayane was crying, letting the tears stream down her face. Raven pulled her into a hug and slowly ran her fingers through her hair, trying to calm her down.
"I had the dream again," Rayane whispered.
"Shhhh," Raven said. "It's just a dream. And dreams don't mean anything."
"It hurts Rave," Rayane muttered into her sisters shoulder. "It really really hurts."
"What hurts?" Raven demanded, looking her sister in the eyes. "Dreams can't hurt you remember?"
"They hurt Rave!" Rayane sobbed. "They hurt me! They grab me and pull me and hurt me! They say they'll kill me! They say I'll pay for what I've done to them!"
"Shhh," Raven whispered. "What are you talking about. Take a deep breath and start from the begining."
Rayane did as she was told. She closed her eyes and then opened them, ready to tell her sister about the dream that had haunted her for four years.
"Hiwatari!" Skye whispered loudly as she threw a stone against Kai's window. The stone wasn't neccesary, seeing as his bedroom was on the first floor, but if she broke a window it would be very amusing.
"Kai!" Mariah whispered, knocking on the window.
Kai tiredly walked to the window and opened it. The three girls giggled at seeing Kai in nothing but his boxers, but pulled themselves together.
"What the hell are you doing at my house at 3 AM?" He demanded.
"You mean other that taking pictures of you nearly naked?" Skye giggled, putting her cell phone away. "Those'll sell for a lot at the Hiwatari fan club."
Kai's eye twitched.
"We were worried about Raven and Rayane," Hilary said. "Are they okay?"
"This couldn't have waited until morning?" Kai demanded. "And why don't you go bang on their window and ask them?"
"Well... See... We kinda wanted to ask you a favor," Skye said.
"No," Kai said instantly.
"You don't even know what we want yet!" Hilary cried.
"So?" Kai asked, and there was a knock on his door. He sighed and turned around to walk to the door. Skye pulled out her cell phone again and took another picture.
"I'm gonna be rich," She said to herself, thinking about how all the girls who wanted Kai would pay at least $50 each for a picture.
Kai opened the door to see Raven, looking very out of place, and Rayane, looking like she had just been to hell and back and was scarred for life.
"I'm sorry to wake you s- I mean, Kai," Raven said. "But do you have any medicine to help Rayane sleep?"
"No," Kai said. "I ran out of sleeping pills last night."
"Oh," Raven said. "Ok."
She turned around, but then did a double take.
"Why are there three girls at you window?" She asked.
"Because God has a cruel sense of humor," Kai muttered to himself.
"And because I needed to make some money!" Skye said happily.
Raven and Rayane walked over to the window. Mariah glared at the two girls, but Hilary and Skye smiled at them.
"Why are you out there?" Rayane asked. It looked like she had a hard time trying to talk.
"'Cuz Kai didn't invite us in," Hilary said. "Will you please open the door for us?"
Raven glanced at Kai, who shrugged and fell onto his bed.
"Just don't-"
"Bug you," Raven finished. "Got it."