A/N: I'm so sorry about the wait. It's been a pretty chaotic two weeks for me! Thank you to everyone for your continued support! I love reading everyone's reviews and thoughts!

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

Chapter 6: T minus 64 hours

We continued walking in silence. The hallways were still dark and unlit, but I seemed to have stopped caring about my six foot rule. I was now walking a little behind Hisoka as he kept his eyes to the front. After the experience that I had, I was not in the most talkative of moods. Not to mention, I couldn't feel the tips of my fingers.

I didn't know if I had burned them off.

I…didn't even know if they would heal.

Besides, everything that I remembered seemed a bit foggy. I was running on pure adrenaline at the time. My heart was beating wildly in my chest. The fingers on my hands had heated up, and for a split second it felt as though something else was trying to push through to protect me.

What else what have happened if Hisoka hadn't saved me?

What would have happened to me?

Would that sick, perverted man would have gotten to me?

Or…

Would something else would have…?

"Kaila," Hisoka called out. I perked my head over towards him. I was completely brought out of my thoughts. "What was your challenge?" My face paled as I thought about the man and the cat collar. I cleared my throat faintly before looking down at the ground. We kept on walking. I wasn't going to respond to that.

He seemed to have somewhat of a heart because he changed topics. "How are your fingers?"

"Why do you care?" I mumbled out. It was my first time speaking after what felt like an hour. He stopped walking and I looked over at him. I should have felt fear for the man that could kill people with just a typical playing card, but right now I felt…numb. "Where were you, Hisoka?" He turned his head to look down at me. "I…" I wanted to tell him that I needed him, but the words never left my lips.

At the look that he was giving me – something told me that he knew. He knew that I needed him. Instead, I settled for the obvious: "You left me."

Hisoka smiled, but it never seemed to reach his insanely half-lidded eyes. It was as though he were in bliss from remembering a memory. "Other," he paused, his lips tightening the smile on his face, "…pressing matters…," he looked at me intently, but I didn't look okay. "Required my attention."

I shook my head. "So…You left me…on purpose…?" I couldn't help the cynical smile that appeared on my own face. I walked ahead of the clown. "I never should have counted on you. I knew that I wouldn't pass this phase if I was with you..."

I took a couple of steps forward, the small hallway echoing my footsteps as my feet hit the ground. It only took a few seconds before Hisoka spoke. "After our encounter from the airship-

"What encounter on the airship?" I turned around to look at him. He hadn't moved and instead stayed where he was before I took the lead. Walking a few steps back, I was directly in front of him. He stared at me without any remorse as to what I was saying before – a calm smile was place on his face.

It left my puzzled. There was no encounter on the airship between the two of us. My brother and I found a room to pass out in after dinner. "What are you talking about?"

He smiled knowingly - it amused him that I didn't know what he was talking about. "You don't remember? We made a beautiful creation together," I stared at him, taking in his words carefully. It didn't seem like he was lying, but I still couldn't find it in myself to believe him. He was talking as though we had made a child or something.

A shudder went through me.

I didn't…even want to think about making a child with Hisoka.

"Unfortunate that it disappeared from existence."

I blinked and then responded. "What are you…?" He took a few steps around me. There wasn't much that I could do except watch him do it. I narrowed my eyes at the man's back. "I know that you aren't ignoring me," I threatened, even though we both knew that I wouldn't be able to do anything to him. "What are you going on about?" I ran to catch up to his long strides. "Hisoka?" He didn't pay me any attention. "That's real mature. Are you going to ignore me now?" There was silence between the two of us. "Fuck it," I spoke, letting out a shrug.

I pretended to not let it bother me.

He wanted to be an ass then I could play along, too.

"For all I know you're making it up just to mess with me."

"It certainly brought you back from your…" He stopped walking and peered behind me. There was a strained smile on his face. "Funk." His eyes watched me with a certain amount of glee in them. I hated him. I hated those eyes of his, too.

I just wanted to take an arrow from my quiver and stab him in both of his eyes. I would never get the chance to, though. He was much too fast, and seemed to be inhuman from with his playing cards of death.

I stared at him. He thought that this was all a game. Of course he did – he probably thought it was a joke – he was dressed like a clown after all.

I should have expected this.

He couldn't be serious for five seconds with me.

"I'll show you funk you little…!" I clenched my hand angrily. It was becoming hot, and then I quickly shook it out. My eyes widened, and I didn't want to think of the burning in my fingers. I didn't want my entire hand to turn into charcoal like the tips of my fingers did.

I didn't know the extent of the damage at this point – I didn't even know what really happened to them.

It was terrifying to have something that you didn't understand.

The burning…

I didn't want to ever experience it again.

He seemed to blink his eyes in disappointment. I kept my hands by my sides – I was scared to activate the magic again. I didn't know what else I would be capable of – I didn't want my entire body to turn into a burned piece of meat.

Could I accidentally kill myself with this newfound power of mine?

I didn't want to take the chance.

I kept my head down and walked around him down the hallway. I pushed away the rising feeling of dread that was building up in my chest.

We were back to the silence again.

The announcer said both of our names as we walked into a large circular room. Hisoka was announced first and then I was second. We were the first ones that made it through the test. Looking around the room, I found that it was windowless and even though it was big, it seemed too small. I could feel the walls crushing the two of us together.

I needed fresh air.

That, and possibly scream loudly up towards the sky from all my built up aggression.

For now, those two things would have to wait.

The bright side was that I would be able to get away from the man that I had spent an unwilling amount of time with.

"Well, I'm going to sit away from you, now." I clapped my hands once before walking over to the far end of the room. Of course, when I clapped, I couldn't feel anything still. Bringing my arms down to my sides, I continued to walk, lightly rubbing my fingertips together.

Still nothing – they were still charred.

Once I made it to my spot, I turned around and slid my back against the wall. Hisoka eyed me from across the room before he settled on sitting nearby me. He was a couple of feet away, and I let out a loud sigh. "I had to deal with you for eight hours. The least you can do is stay away from me."

I didn't even turn to look at him. I closed my eyes for a few seconds. There was a chance that he would just shut up and let me have some peace and quiet to myself for a bit. I could hear the pout in his voice with his next words. "Then you'd be lonely."

I turned, opened my eyes, and stared at him. I then shook my head. "I'm tired, Hisoka. I just want to sleep." I banged my head against the wall lightly. His eyes lingered on my fingers. I blinked and then glanced down so that I could observe them. I couldn't feel any part of them, and they looked like blackened meat.

I touched my index and thumb together quickly, but my nerves were completely shot.

I couldn't feel anything.

There was a sudden urge to panic, but I held it in.

"That's not the first time," Hisoka stated, drawing my attention back to him.

I looked at him dryly.

What the hell was he going on about now?

"In the forest. With your arrow…" His finger went to point to his stomach. I remembered what had happened – I was scared and terrified and just tried to inflict any damage that I could to the maniac. "There was some…additional force," he paused. "The other time was on the airship."

"There was no time on the airship."

He stared at me, immediately causing me to close my mouth. His face lacked any emotion. "I don't appreciate being called a liar, Kaila," his yellow orbs staring intently at me. A hint of a smile was nowhere on his face. I nodded my head stiffly before looking ahead of me, across the room at the wall. "It is interesting that you have forgotten the encounter. I would never forget an interaction between us."

"I would. You're pretty forgettable…" I muttered, trying to lay down on the ground. I didn't have the time or the mind power to think about what he was going on about. There was no time on the airship. He wouldn't make it up – Hisoka didn't seem like the lying type.

I just needed to sleep.

He chuckled humorlessly. "Who's lying now?"

I didn't answer him and instead tried to close my eyes. The ground was hard and cold on my side. I stayed like that for a few minutes. Sleep never came easy to me. I always envied the people that would fall asleep within seconds. Instead, I was left alone with my thoughts – my scared and confused thoughts that I hid carefully from the world underneath my cold and angry exterior.

All my life there seemed to be blanks in my memories.

Who could I honestly talk to?

I was left by myself in the world – I always have been.

I could feel the heart beating in my chest as my rising anxiety started to rear its ugly head. I rode out the small anxiety attack as I usually did when I fell asleep. Opening up my eyes, I stared at the concrete wall that was in front of me. I continued to stare at the wall until my eyes felt heavy. That's the only way that I could sleep – by my body officially shutting down after too much stress.

"Not so fast, Kai!" Pokkle yelled from behind me.

I turned towards him with my short hair. It was cut in a bob and framed my face well. "Come on, slow poke!" I yelled to him. He had his hands on his knees and sweat dribbled down his face. His hair was secured in a low ponytail. He huffed loudly as he stood up straight and stomped on the ground angrily.

"Kai! You said that you'd wait for me!"

I placed my hands on my hips. "Yeah, I am!" I grinned. "All the way up here!" I sat down on the high mountain ledge. I had climbed up in effortlessly. Pokkle was glaring up at me. He had an unimpressed expression on his face.

"I'm going to tell dad!"

"Don't!" I yelled back, a spike of fear going through my heart. I stood up quickly. "Come on, I'll wait for you, Pok. Don't you dare tell dad!"

Pokkle grinned as he started to climb the mountain. It was high – the highest one on the small private island that we lived on. I held out a hand to him and hauled him up. "Where do you think the Riven lives?" He looked around the mountain top. The island was small, but even we hadn't fully mapped it out. We had lived our entire lives on the island that couldn't have been more than fourteen miles long and wide.

"Half eagle half goat…" I grinned. I then turned to look at my younger brother who had gained a growth spurt. He was taller than me, and he was only twelve. I was thirteen. That wasn't fair. "Let's head further up the mountain. It's the only place that we haven't seen yet."

"Okay," Pokkle agreed with a simple nod.

We continued our trek up the mountain, making sure to avoid any loose rocks that would cause us to fall. Once we had reached the top I looked down to see a large nest in one of the cracks. "Look!" I pointed down into the darkness. Pokkle leaned forward and stumbled as some loose rocks gave way. I pulled him back by his shirt quickly, causing him to fall on the ground. "Careful, dingus!"

"Sorry!" He breathed out.

There was a loud noise. I turned to see it – the Riven. The half eagle, half goat creature that was walking down the mountainside elegantly. It was heading towards its nest and saw the two of us. I paled as I looked at my brother, who still hadn't stood up from his spot on the ground. "Pok, run!" I yelled, and the Riven bucked its body backwards as it was getting ready to charge.

I was breathing heavily.

Pokkle was too afraid to move.

There was a flash of light.

Then, I remembered waking up on the bottom of the mountain, Pokkle carrying me on his back. My entire body was coated with blood – but it didn't seem to be mine. "Pok…" I muttered out, wrapping my arms around his neck gently. "What…Happened?"

My mind was drawing a blank on how we managed to get down. I was standing in front of the Riven, and now we were safe and heading back home. The sun had set, and it was completely night out. He stiffened as my hands wrapped around him. "We…We got away," his voice was shaky. I rubbed my face against his back. He flinched at that action.

"Pok…" He stopped walking and placed me down on the ground.

"Are…" He wouldn't look me in the eyes. I kept staring at him. He looked frightened. "Are you okay to walk?" I felt something unfamiliar touch my arms. Looking down, my pink hair had turned a lighter shade and had grown exponentially longer. It was down to my waist now. I gripped the long hair in my hands and Pokkle took out a sharp knife from his pocket.

I frowned. "What…What happened?"

He remained silent. He cut the hair jaggedly to the length that it had been before I blanked out. My eyes started to water as he still didn't meet me in my eyes. "Pok! Pokkle!" I yelled, gripping his hands tightly. His eyes widened and he tried to force my hands away from him.

"K-Kaila!" He yelled. "Let go! You're going to…!" He stopped struggling when he heard my choked sob that I couldn't help release. His eyes slowly met mine and he looked apologetic and guilty. We stared at each other. I blinked away my tears as I sniffled. I released my hold on him. "It's okay. You're still my sister."

He embraced me in a hug tightly. I stared into the distance of the forest. I was confused. He had acted like I was a stranger – like I was a monster. "What happened, Pok?"

"It doesn't matter. You're still my sister."

I stayed quiet – but a feeling of dread was building up in my chest.

Something happened…something bad had happened.

I moved my body as I sat up. I hated when I dreamed when I slept, it made me feel as though I didn't get any sleep at all. Rubbing my eyes with my hands, I realized that someone had bandaged them. In my sleep…

My eyes shifted to the clown that was putting together a card castle. A perfect card castle, mind you. It didn't have a single card out of place. Hisoka's eyes shifted over to mine as he put the last two card at the top of the structure. He smiled pleasantly, but I shuddered at it.

On the list of things that a person should never see upon waking – that man's sadistic smile was one of them. "Good morning."

I glared. "Did you…?" My question trailed. We kept staring at each other. I resisted the urge to shiver under the intense look of those eyes of his. I raised my bandaged hands up. "Did you bandage me?"

He blinked his eyes, not seeing what was wrong. "Yes."

"That's fucked!" I stood up to my feet. He looked up at me, not even moving from his position on the ground. "Don't ever touch me again!" I yelled, not even caring that there two more people in the room. "Sick…nasty…" I crossed my arms and rubbed my hands up and down them. I felt violated – I didn't like it when people touched me when I was awake. It definitely applied to when I was sleeping as well. "Ugh…Agh!" I yelled under my breath, making my way to sit as far away from Hisoka as possible.

Once I was on the other side of the room, I slid down the wall with my backside until I reached the floor. Letting out a sigh, I pulled my knees to my chest. I now had Hisoka within my sights from across the way. Narrowing my eyes, he only continued to smile pleasantly to me and then waved his hand. I responded with a simple gesture myself – a quick flick of my middle finger with my now bandaged hand.

The announcer went off again. "Woo! I made it!" Pokkle's voice yelled. My head immediately went to the source of the sound, and I stood up to my feet. His eyes scanned the room, and he saw me. "Kai!" He ran over, standing just in front of me. "You beat me here, huh?"

"Yeah…" I said with a shrug. Then, I let out a sigh to collect my emotions that were all over the place. I was happy to be reunited with my brother and that he hadn't ended up dead or hurt in this phase. "I was paired with our favorite magician."

His face scrunched in disgust as his eyes tried to look over in Hisoka's direction. My hand found its way harshly onto the top of his head and forced it to look back at me. "Don't fucking look over at him!" I hissed under my breath. Pokkle let out a small apologetic smile. "What happened after I fell into the hole?"

"Oh…" Pokkle let out a nervous chuckle that was dying in his throat. "I fell into the one next to yours..." I stared at him. "I…I was trying to get to you and…" He then shrugged. His voice was small. "I fell."

"I take it you were paired with that guy," my eyes darted to the older man. He looked like even I would be able to take him in a battle. He was tall, and he looked like he was a few years away from retiring. Pokkle nodded without even having to turn his head. "How was it? What were your challenges?"

Pokkle grinned. "I had to fight off some prisoners in a large maze. Some of the challenges that they issued were weird, but I managed to make it. We actually had two more people in our group, but they chose the wrong directions." I nodded my head.

They hadn't passed – who knows what happened to them?

"What about you? What did you and…" His eyes wanted to turn to look at the clown that was still building a card tower but he stopped himself. He didn't even want to say his name. I also never wanted to say the creeps name either. He cleared his throat. "What were yours?"

"I…" My mind went back to the perverted man with the cat collar.

The burning of my fingers.

The ominous feeling that something was trying to take over my body.

I clenched my hands and then quickly unclenched them. "The same thing," I spoke as easily as I could. "Except we had to stick together and there wasn't a maze."

"That seems easy enough," Pokkle responded and then tossed his arms behind his head. There was a few seconds of silence. "What happened to your hands?" His eyes lingered on the bandaged hands.

At that moment, I was almost thankful that Hisoka had taken care of them without my permission. I didn't want my little brother to see the state of my charred fingers. I didn't want him to worry, or ask me questions that I didn't know how to answer.

I smiled, but it didn't reach my eyes. "I…I hurt them." It was a half-truth. He didn't need to know the full story. He raised an eyebrow at my bullshit. "They should be okay," I lied with a shrug, sitting back down against the wall. Pokkle remained standing. "We have about fifty hours left to wait. You can be mad at me all you want, but we're in a small room together so..."

"Yeah…" Pokkle agreed, sitting down next to me. "But, I'm not dropping it."

I let out a long sigh. "I don't expect you to."

"Here," Pokkle held out the bowl of food to me. I looked up from staring at the ground and then offered my hands out to take it from him. My hands had lost all feeling that I didn't notice the bowl in them. I held it sternly with my bandaged fingers as I lowered it to my lap. It took most of my concentration to not drop it. "Are you sure that you're okay?"

I sent him a glare. "I won't be if you keep asking me that."

He became silent, taking a seat next to me on the ground. "It's happening again…"

"What?" I spoke out, placing the plastic spoon into the bowl of what I could only assume was stew. Pokkle's head was directed at the ground. "What's happening again?" I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion. "What happened before?"

"When we were younger…uh…" He rubbed a hand on the back of his neck. "When we went to find the Riven on our island." I nodded, stirring my stew. "You don't remember it. But…" He swallowed and then turned to look at me. I brought my attention from the terrible looking food over to my brother. "You killed it."

He wasn't serious was he?

I let out a snort. "Yeah, okay," I rolled my eyes and then proceeded to stir the stew in the bowl again. I did the best I could considering that my fingers were completely numb. "I was thirteen…" I then looked over at Pokkle to see him staring intensely over at me. I felt a little uncomfortable as I shifted my body on the ground. "How?"

Pokkle shook his head. "I don't even know…" He had the stew in his lap. I watched the steam rise up from the hot liquid in anticipation. "There was a bright light…Then, your hair turned a lighter shade of pink. It was way longer than before." He swallowed. "Your eyes…looked…" He tightened his grip on the bowl. "They looked inhuman."

I was taken aback by that information. "Any more than they do on a daily basis?" I joked lightly, but he and I both could feel the eerie atmosphere that had sprung up on the two of us. I sighed softly. "You don't have to talk about it." I turned to look at him from the corner of my eyes. I could see how rigid and tense his body looked. His eyes looked as though they were traumatized. "It's making you…uncomfortable."

"If I don't say it…then…" He growled in irritation. "I don't know," he let out a shaky breath. "What if it causes you to die?" He quickly glanced at me. I could see a small amount of sweat start to form on his forehead.

I've never seen him so scared before.

"There's already so many chances that you could have! And…!" He shook his head. His voice calmed down as he continued. "And…I haven't been there. I haven't been there to look after you."

"Pfft," I blew out a small raspberry, not even being able to keep it in. "I don't need you to look after me," I waved off his concern. "I'll be fine. You can…" I went back to stirring the stew, unsure if I was going to eat it at this point. I had no appetite at all. "Keep your secrets."

Pokkle placed his stew on the floor. "It's not my secret to keep."

It also wasn't mine.

Whose secret was it, exactly?

"It seems that whenever that thing happens to me, I have a lapse in memory…" I stated, placing my hands to the side of me on the ground. I wanted to feel the cold cement on my hands, but they still hadn't recovered any feeling in them. "I…I guess it happened on the airship. I also think it might have happened again."

Pokkle nodded. "When was the other time?"

"I don't remember five years' worth of memory…" I spoke softly, finally telling someone about it. I knew that I shouldn't have bothered Pokkle with my problems. I sighed loudly. "I woke up a month ago. Long, light pink hair. I cut it, and the color slowly returned back to normal…But…" I shook my head. "I had no idea what I had done."

"Holy shit, Kai…"

I nodded. "I know. That's uh…" I darted my eyes up to him. "That's why I didn't write or…call."

Pokkle paled. "To think that…" His hand went up to his face. He began to tremble. "That the other side of you was out in the world for that long…"

"Pok...?" I asked slowly, bringing a hand up. He looked terrified. There was a silence between us. He didn't even look at me again. I brought my eyes back to the cold bowl of stew that was in front of me. I glared at its contents before closing my eyes. Resting my eyes for a small amount of time, I placed my head on the wall behind me.

I was woken out of my slumber when I felt my skin crawl. My entire body screamed out in danger. Slumping forward, I opened my eyes widely, still half out of it from my drowsiness. I saw Hisoka crouched down in front of me, staring at my sitting form with his wrists relaxed lazily on his knees.

Darting my eyes down, I saw that Pokkle was sleeping huddled next to me. His head was resting on my shoulder. "Sleep well?" He asked, bringing my attention back to him. I glared my eyes up to see his smiling face that stretched from ear to ear.

"What do you want?" I whispered harshly to him.

"To see you."

A shiver went through my body.

He always had to be so creepy, didn't he?

"You can see me from over there," I waved my head across the room. I didn't move my arms since I didn't want to wake up my brother. "Get away from me." He move his arm up to rest his elbow on his knee while he supported his head up with his hand. I noticed the change in posture and knew that he wasn't going to be leaving anytime soon. "Why do you want to see me?"

He moved his head to the side. "You interest me," he spoke in an obvious tone. I moved my other hand as slowly as possible to the quiver that was resting to the side of me. I didn't know if my fingers had found any arrows yet since the feeling was still gone. His eyes flickered down towards my hand. "Still not recovered?"

"I am," I spoke, lying to his face. He didn't need to know that I was still injured. Hisoka might take advantage of my weakness and kill me. I still didn't have a good read on the guy other than he was a sadistic psychopath that seemed to take joy in seeing others in pain.

"Are you?"

I narrowed my eyes, and then quickly widened them as I felt a harsh grip on my wrist. I didn't look away from his face. He lifted up my arm slowly to show me that an arrowhead had stabbed my hand. The tips of the arrows were all different – Pokkle said that they ranged from tranquilizers to poisons. My face paled as my eyes looked down to see the blood trailing down my hand.

"Let go of me…" I ordered strongly, and then couldn't feel the rest of my body. It was just my luck that it was a tranquilizer arrow. Again, he didn't need to know that. I could play it off as though I didn't want to wake up my brother and stay still.

"Hmm," Hisoka hummed out. He took a glance at Pokkle's sleeping form and then back at mine. "You aren't moving to wake him?" I watched as my arm fell limply onto the ground, and I couldn't readjust it. The tranquilizers prevented any movement from me, and I didn't know how long they lasted.

I had zoned out during the tutorial to look at an advertisement on the television before we left for this damned exam.

I am mentally kicking myself over that – couldn't I do anything right?

"Or, could it be that you stabbed yourself with a special arrow?" He looked down inside the quiver. I swallowed thickly, unable to move. Noticing my action, he narrowed his eyes as a shit eating grin appeared on his face. "Ah, that's the one, isn't it?" He placed both of his arms down, resting his dangling arms on his knees by the elbows. "Kaila, you need to work on your poker face."

I stared him down. "Leave."

"Where will we go?" He asked, his eyes glinting mischievously. My heart started to pound loudly in my chest. He pushed Pokkle's body with two of his fingers. I watched him leaned to the other side of him and away from me.

I opened my mouth to wake him up – he would bang his head on the ground!

I was prevented when Hisoka's hand lifted up to mine. "Quiet. You'll wake him up…!" He purred out in glee. Pokkle's body was just inches away from hitting the ground. Hisoka's other hand was still in the air. I stared in disbelief at what I was seeing – his body was just hovering above the ground. Then, in less than a second, Pokkle's body gently hit the floor.

Hisoka then looked over to me with his yellow eyes.

No! I didn't want to be the focus of his attention!

That usually led to bad things happening to me.

He took away his hand from my mouth.

I needed to let him know that I wasn't scared of him. "Leave. Me. Alone," I articulated each word slowly. Hisoka took my body in his arms. Lifting me up, he carried me to where he used to sit across the room. I could do nothing but watch as he was taking me away from the safety of my brother. "Leave me alone!" I whispered out.

My voice was weak from the tranquilizers.

He seemed to be ignoring me again. I noticed the green clothed man with the pins in his body. My face once again paled as his head clacked to the sides as he looked up. Hisoka sat down next to the man as he placed me sideways in his lap. My head was resting on his arm and I could see his suspicious looking friend next to him.

"Much better," Hisoka chided, looking down at me with a relaxed smile.

"Not for me," I complained softly. "Let me go…" I tried to move my arms. Or, any other part of my body, but I couldn't. The tranquilizer arrows did their job. I was going to have to start pleading with the man. "Please," his eyes landed on mine. "Please, let me go."

He gave me a close eyed grin.

My stomach sunk.

"H-Hisoka…" I spoke his name. "Please…!"

"Get some sleep, Kaila," he ordered me. I seemed taken aback by that. I listened to no man in my life before, and here Hisoka was, barking different commands at me. I glared up at him. "So warm."

His friend finally spoke. "Is it needed to torture her?"

"She did this all on herself," Hisoka responded. Their conversation carried on as though I wasn't there. It was the same as before when we were all waiting for the second phase to begin. "I'll have to make sure she isn't armed with such dangerous toys in the future."

A shiver went through my back.

Of course Hisoka noticed it.

"Did that make you scared, Kaila?"

I swallowed nervously. I opened my mouth to speak, but found that I couldn't. The tranquilizer was really taking effect now. I started to breathe harder and wondered why I never screamed at my brother to wake up. I should have shaken him awake like a high magnitude earthquake.

His hand went to my hair and pushed some out of my face. "Calm down," his words did the opposite.

He was touching me…He was touching me!

I moved my fingers, to which his eyes followed. "Need help getting to sleep?" He asked, and my eyes widened. I tried to shake my head, but his hand went to a spot on my shoulder. I felt him press hard on my pressure point, and then felt my eyes unwillingly close themselves.

I woke up on something soft instead of the harsh ground. Opening up my eyes, I looked to see the color white. Furrowing my eyebrows in confusion I pulled my head away from the chest I was up against to find Hisoka's body. The memories of last night came crashing down at me and I froze instantly where I was.

I was sitting on Hisoka's lap with my head on his chest.

Fuck…Fuck!

"Kaila!" Pokkle yelled from next to me. I turned my head to see that to my right, six feet away, he was getting to his feet. "Kaila, are you okay? Did he hurt you?"

Hisoka's eyes never left the card tower that he was building in front of him.

I shifted my legs to move my body away from him, but his eyes darted over to me instantly. I tensed. "Did I say that you could move?"

The words came out of my mouth like vomit. "Can I move?"

There was a brief moment of silence between us – the atmosphere among the three of us was very tense and heavy.

"No," he added with a tight smile on his face. I stared up at him before moving to scramble away. I was on my hands and knees with my arms outstretched towards my brother. Pokkle took one step towards me before I was sliding on the ground back towards Hisoka. His hand was raised as he was holding his next playing card in-between his fingers. I crashed into his side, which most likely caused more unwanted bruises to form on my body.

"Stay."

It had suddenly triggered an uneasy feeling to rise within me. My thoughts went back to the man with the cat collar. Hisoka was acting almost exactly like him. It was enough for my entire body to start trembling from fear and panic.

He smiled knowingly – he had to have known about what that man was trying to do to me. At the very least, he had seen at the end where the man was trying to put a collar on me. He knew that I was uncomfortable talking about it from back in the hallway!

Fear was the only thing on my mind.

I had to get away…I couldn't stay next to him.

I swung my arms and legs out as I fought to get away from him. However, each and every attempt I would be dragged back to Hisoka by an invisible force. "Let me go! Let go!" I yelled over and over again until I was out of breath.

On my last attempt, I was about two feet away. It hurt to move. My energy was depleted and with one final tug, I was breathing harshly as I was brought back to Hisoka's side. The only thing that the man was moving was his hand as he would place another card on his tower without looking at me.

"Let my sister go!" Pokkle yelled, pointing his bow and arrow over at Hisoka. The man looked over at me and then slowly brought his gaze up to stare at my brother. His eyes were narrowed in sadistic glee. "What do you want with her, you sick bastard?" He continued to demand while I tried to stand up on my feet again.

Every time I tried to get up I was yanked back to the ground.

This time was no exception as my ass hit the ground harshly.

"I want her close," Hisoka spoke bluntly. "What will you do?" He was still sitting down with his almost completed tower of cards. The three of us had gained the attention of everyone in the room.

"Pok…!" I pleaded from my spot on the ground. Pokkle's eyes softened as he turned to look at me. "Please…Please, just…Sit back down." I didn't know what else to do. I couldn't let Hisoka fight with my brother.

He might kill him. Hisoka would kill him without a warning.

I clenched my hands tightly, now being able to feel a bit of my fingertips again.

Pokkle grit his teeth and showed no signs of backing down.

Hisoka has his other hand hidden from Pokkle's view, but I could see one of his playing cards gripped in his fingers from the corner of my eyes. At any second he was going to throw it at him. I couldn't let him do that – but I seemed to be tethered to him yet again by an invisible force.

No…not even an invisible force would stop me from protecting my brother.

I would jump out with all my might if I had to. I would even try and burn him with my strange powers and risk disintegrating my entire hand. I would never let Hisoka hurt my brother.

"No fighting in the waiting area!" Called out a voice, drawing all of our attention to the disembodied voice. "Separate immediately - Number's fifty three, fifty four, and forty four."

In seconds I scrambled to my feet expecting to be pushed back to Hisoka, but I was able to take a couple hurried steps away. Hisoka stared back down at the card tower in front of him. Pokkle let out a heavy sigh. He gripped my shoulder tightly with his hand.

"I'm sorry. We won't be able to stay with each other, but at least you won't be near him anymore." Pokkle whispered to me as he passed.

I nodded and then went to the opposite side of the room.

We were the farthest that we could all be from each other.

Then, a door opened up to reveal Kurapika, Gon, and Killua. I looked for Leorio, and he was walking through the door behind the trio with a middle aged man. I looked at the clock to see that they still had ten hours left before the phase ended. They all cut it close, but I was glad to see them all together. Smiling, I waved over to Leorio, who grinned at seeing me.

I stopped waving when I felt an intense cold and heartless stare linger on me.

I didn't need to turn my eyes to know that it was Hisoka.

Taking a deep breath, I sat down and turned my body to the wall. I wasn't going to give the man the satisfaction of seeing my terror. Instead, I focused on getting some much needed rest for the next phase.

I drew from the large box and pulled out an item. I couldn't turn the paper over to look at it. Frowning, I kept my eyes on the ground. It sounded as though we all were going to be going on a hunt of some kind. Either the paper that was keeping the secret obscured would be an object or a thing we needed to track down and find.

A scavenger hunt, I'd bet.

It seemed like no one would be dying during this next phase.

After everyone had taken one of them, it was announced to peel away the paper. I did, and looked down at the number that was in front of me. It was a number I was familiar with all too well, especially since my number was just one off from it.

I had drawn the number fifty three – my brother's number.

"What number did you get?" Pokkle asked just as I took off my badge number, placing it in my pocket. "I got a pretty easy one, so I doubt this will take me long."

I shrugged. "Yeah, I got a pretty easy one, too." I lied. It seemed like I was doing a lot of that in the past seventy two hours. Clearing my throat, I took his badge number off his shirt and shoved it into his palm face down. "Don't let anyone see your number," I scolded, looking around to see almost everybody doing the same thing I did.

Except for Hisoka, who didn't care if anyone saw his number.

"Right…"

We boarded the ship while my hands kept running through my hair in frustration. That meant that I would need to collect three other badges to still stay in the exam. There was no way that I was going to take my brother's badge.

No, that was completely out of the question.

I needed to scout out some of the weaker participants and take them out. I knew how to shoot properly now and as long as my hands didn't accidentally poke against a tranquilizer arrow then I would be fine.

Still, with the island approaching, my heart was racing in my chest.

To be continued…