6

Knowing you

Tala waited. He had made some progress since Kai left, like preparing a mental questionnaire to ask that maniac, that would help him get information without falling for his traps. But he didn't return for a while. There were moments when tala just paced the room and wondered whether he had been abandoned. The thought was horrifying. It's not like he appreciated Hiwatari's company, but he was all that he had left. He had nowhere else to go. He was also certain now that Kai did not intend on killing him anytime soon. There were obvious signs. His hand had been bound too loosely ( it just took him an hour to get rid of the rope), there was an attached bathroom to the room and some spare bandages at the corner. On turning on the light, he noticed that the walls were bare, there weren't even windows, and the only entrance was the door which was locked from the outside. The day had almost come to a close and Tala was about to cry himself to sleep when the door opened, and in walked Kai. No words were exchanged, instead, Kai dumped a bag in front of him and took something out of another bag, and placed it on the table.

"Eat" he ordered. Tala didn't move. He was scared, what if Hiwatari was just waiting for a slip to jump on him and slit his throat? What if the food was poisoned? The moments that followed were tense. But Hiwatari broke it and started eating from Tala's plate. Tala tried to ignore it, but the temptation was too much. He had been starving for God knows how many days. He didn't even know how long it had taken him to regain consciousness. When they were all done, Kai set it aside and came to sit right Infront of him and promptly asked, "Wanna start asking or answering?"

Kai couldn't believe he was doing this. Every moment after that tragedy, when his life had seemed worthless, there used to be a face that gave him the strength to fight, and never bend. To anyone. Now the same features sat at the other side of the table, except they had grown more refined. He was currently exploding with various emotions he didn't even realize he was capable of having. But they were all concealed behind a well-trained blank mask. At the moment he could say that his tala was overwhelmed with terror, yet greedy for answers. So, as he had predicted, he opted to start by asking. The first question was also calculated.

"My parents?"

"We were born to street rats. Our parents used to work as servants in a mansion. They were owned by Voltaire, a billionaire. When we were born, they taught us to say 'yes' and 'pardon', even before we could pronounce our names. Their lives were short. That's all I know, or cared to investigate about them." Watching Tala's dumbstruck expression, he added, "No. We aren't brothers"

The display of relief on the other's face was too irritating for him. But he didn't get a chance to dwell on it, since the next question came immediately.

"Am I supposed to know you… well?"

This was something he had prepared to face, yet hearing those words pricked him. It would have been heartbreaking, though, after all this, he didn't think he had one. "Yes. We grew up together. Till we were 9"

Tala was a lot better at hiding his feelings than he had anticipated, but this time he just sat agape. "S-So you mean to say that me losing my memory is linked with you? Like around the time you killed all those men ?"

'At last,', he thought, and corrected, "Actually, when we killed those men." He couldn't relish the expression on the red head's face when the information sank in because the boy instantly shot a kick at him.

Tala couldn't take it anymore. First, the freak claims to be his long-lost friend, and now this. The rage that burned in him was fueled by what he had read while researching Hiwatari. He had not killed those men. 'Destroyed' was a better word to use. He couldn't contemplate the agony each of those tormented souls would have endured, before being charred alive. The worst sufferer of the lot hadn't even been identified. There wasn't enough left of him for that. And now this fiend was playing a sick twisted blame game. Tala was desperate, but not desperate enough to lower to that level of deception.

A searing pain in his leg drew him back, and there was no use regretting, he was already pinned down on the floor with a sharp knife pressed against his throat. Kai hovered above, just inches away from him. His eyes were screaming murder. Grasping the level of anger and annoyance in his expression, Tala was certain that these were his last moments. 'I'll rot here, in this filthy coffin of a room, with no trance of my existence and no one to bid me farewell… the 'rotting' part was true if Hiwatari wasn't cannibalistic.' These were his probable last thoughts, but rather than a clean click of the blade, his ears caught Kai's voice. "Is this the blind rage you felt while finishing off Ian? Ivanov, you are bold, yet too sensitive. You passed out without even admiring your first real kill, and worse, I had to erase the evidence for you." When he was done, he released Tala. It was obvious that the other male was no match to him when it came to strength. Tala just sat there frozen. He didn't think anymore, that was the weird part. Tonight, he had reached the edge, and he just couldn't process anything else. For brief moments, he was reminded of the boy he had been just a few days ago. Tala Ivanov, The silent artist. The comical saint. The boy who worried about achieving presentable grades. A boy who was dead within him.

Oblivious to Tala's internal turmoil, Kai continued his speech. "Getting back on track, our life in that house wasn't heaven. It was pure torture. Our existence had been compromised to that of mere slaves. We did have a few moments of faith, especially when two outsiders, Boris Balkov and Ian Papov started visiting the mansion frequently. Our naïve minds mistook them to be harbingers of freedom. But from the conversations we overheard, we concluded that both of them worked for Voltaire. One night they came as usual to visit Voltaire, but they were more drunken than usual. It seemed like they were celebrating something, and suddenly one of them had the idea of using me for entertainment. You weren't summoned, but out of worry, you followed me into their meeting. Those men were intoxicated, and one of them exploded with rage. Ian pointed a gun at me. That's when things went out of hand. In a flash, you threw a vase at his head. They hadn't expected this in their wildest dreams and were caught completely off guard. I grabbed the opportunity and broke the glass of the fireplace. While the rest of them were trying to shoot you, I threw a burning log at the curtains. It lit up like dried grass. You passed out of shock and missed the whole thing, but I was too distracted to have noticed that. I have no answer to whether it was due to their actions, or just my blind rapacious desire to live and escape that caused the killing spree, but there were no reported survivors. I also terminated All the workers in the house. At least that was what I thought." There was a merciless gleam in Hiwatari's eyes when he said this. "I let you out of sight for a second but lost you for what seemed like forever. Then after all these years, like an old adrift ship, a link crashed right into my island, the institute. I met this man who kept blabbering senseless words. But seeing him brought back memories, it took me just moments to figure out that it was one of Voltaire's guards. He kept blaming Balkov, and though it was senseless to others, it made too much sense to me. It explained your disappearance. Explained how I never saw Boris's name along with other of my victims. All the pieces of the puzzle fell together when I saw that man living with you, as your foster dad."

Tala had tried to discard all these as lies, but unknown to him, his subconsciousness had already byhearted every word of it. A feeling, the same one he had felt while first glancing at Kai at the station, told him that all of this was the truth.

"So, Ivanov, now answer me, what is going on? Why were you with Balkov? Why didn't he kill you when he had the chance? I know that you don't remember the details, but if you answer me, we could save kids from being treated the way we were.

Despite himself, Tala let out hysterical laughs. "So, suddenly grown a heart haven't you Hiwatari? Did you think that cheap emotional part would work on me?" he continued giggling in a manner that made one question who was the madman among the both. "I swear that I don't know a thing, but I also don't seem to have a choice rather than be with you. So, stop making it sound like I'm coming on my own will. Though, I would love to know the reason behind this act."

"Sweet Revenge."

Now this made Tala stop laughing. Not the words, but the tone in which he said it. In the last 16 years of his existence, Tala had never heard two words spoken with such loathing. Never before had the word 'revenge', made his bones rattle like this.

Kai added on how he would need Tala to go out for him since he was still being searched for, and the consequences of trying to escape. Tala was fine with it, he had no intention of escaping. If what he had been told was true, he would like to go to the depths of it. He needed time to sort his thoughts, so when Hiwatari asked him to join, he curtly nodded. What else could he do? He was well aware that Kai still had that knife in a hand's reach.

"One last thing Tals. You've already got blood over you. That makes you not much different from me. So why not join me? Birds of the same feather always fly together."

Tala ignored the new name with which he had been addressed, and he said with a certainty that surprised himself, "That's where you are wrong Hiwatari. We are not birds of the same feather. We just happen to be two birds flying in the same direction, at the same time."