/AN
Why are there two chapters one right after the other? Simple face was that I could not sleep last night. I got about two and a half hour's sleep and couldn't go back to sleep, so I wrote this and did the editing in the DEAD OF NIGHT.
And I'm still running on those two and a half hours writing the next chapter and editing it right now.
AN/
We blinked, all five of us getting up. It had been a long time since we had a list that long, but that didn't mean the same thing to us as it did to her. It just meant more broken spirits. Alfred, Lovino, and Ivan didn't appear the slightest bit happy about letting all of us leave. And poor Yao, having to go through this torture two nights in a row…
We split up as our paths separated. I took one last, long look at Francis, trying to memorize everything of the young soul who hadn't been harmed yet, because I knew that this would be the last time I saw him like this. When we saw each other later tonight, he'd be broken.
"Italy, Japan, I'll see you both later," Yao muttered, looking at the staircase and frowning.
Just like Kiku told me two nights ago, I told Yao, "Don't forget the song."
"Marukaite Chikyuu," Yao replied, nodding.
"We'll all remember it," Kiku muttered.
I agreed, joining Kiku in walking down the hallway. Kiku asked after a few moments, "Are your wounds doing any better?"
"The only noticeable one is on my shoulder, but I still do have a few other bruises," I replied.
Kiku nodded. "The one on your shoulder was nasty, but is it at least looking better?"
I thought about that for a moment, the last time I looked, it was still purple, but it wasn't as bad of a shade as before, and it was starting to become smaller. "Yea," I finally replied.
Soon enough, we came to the end of the hallway. I looked at the open doors and frowned similar to how Yao did to the staircase. "I'll see you later, Veneziano," Kiku muttered, walking into the one on the right.
"Bye, Japan," I replied solemnly, walking into the left one.
I looked up and recognized the guy almost immediately. I wasn't sure if he was a part of some gang or not, but he had a bald head with a tattoo of a snake starting above his left ear running down his neck and disappearing into his shirt. He was one of the ones that came more often, and no matter how many times he came, there was always a few things that remained constant. He never raped, just beat. And, whenever he came, he always picked me because he enjoyed beating up on me. I winced, suddenly feeling the bruise on my shoulder in excruciating pain. When he gave me that wound, he had used the handle on his gun and did not hold back.
He closed the door behind me and asked, "And how are you doing tonight?"
I shuddered, keeping silent.
"So, how should we start this tonight?" he asked, circling around me.
I noticed that this time around he had spikes on his shoes. He has stepped on me in the past, and I really hoped he wouldn't do it now.
I gasped as I felt him grab me by my throat and lift me into the air, choking me. I grabbed at his hand and tried to make him loosen his hold.
"Good, I thought they might have broken you a little too hard, my little screamer," the man muttered, before chucking me into the wall.
True to his word, I screamed from the pain when I crashed into the wall, and crumpled when I hit the ground. Already, I could feel a new bruise forming from where I crashed.
I screamed again when I felt him step on me, pinning me where I was with those spikes on his shoes.
Those spikes hurt! I could feel them pushing into my skin, and some of them even managing to draw a little bit of blood. I tried moving but that just made it worse, and I screamed again, feeling tears starting to well up in my eyes.
The man picked me back up, this time by the back of my shirt, and said, "Maybe it's been too long, if you haven't started wailing yet. We'll fix that." He chucked me across the room again, and I screamed as I hit the opposite wall. This time, though, when I hit the ground I felt dizzy, and I gripped my head in pain. Almost unwillingly, I could feel the tears starting to come out of my eyes.
"Hey! Could you keep that kid quiet?" The person across the hall, in Kiku's room, shouted. "I'm trying to enjoy myself here!"
The man snarled, opened the door, and replied, "Then ignore this brat and get back to what you want! I'm not exactly yelling at you for all the noise the kid you've got is making."
Had Kiku been making noise? I couldn't be sure, though now that I listened, I could hear Yao upstairs, almost directly above us.
I screamed when the man grabbed me and looked again. "There, that's more like it," he muttered, seeing the tears running down my face. Then he rammed me into the backboard of the bed and pulled out a knife, stabbing my shirt to the wood and leaving me hanging there.
I wasn't sure how long I had been left like that taking punches from him, but by the time he pulled out the knife and left, leaving me to drop onto the bed in another sobbing mess, I had lost all feeling in just about every part of my body. Every feeling except pain. My muscles were screaming from it, and it hurt to move. Where he did throw in an occasional kick was easily told by the fact that I had blood coming out of the wounds, and it had a different kind of pain, but I couldn't feel the blood as it slipped out of my body and rand down onto the bed.
I managed to take a look at my body and whimpered at what I saw. My clothes were nearly ripped to shreds from his shoes and I was bleeding from various points in my body. Some of them looked like stab wounds, but the majority of these were cuts. They probably wouldn't be enough to kill me, though.
"V-Veneziano!" I heard Kiku cry, running into the room. He joined me on the bed and I saw he probably grabbed his clothes while he was running, because they were messily tossed on and it looked like his shirt was inside out.
I sobbed, "J-Japan!"
"It's all right," Kiku crooned, looking over my body at all the fresh wounds on it, his face revealing just how horrified he was at seeing my body in this state.
He had just started singing Marukaite Chikyuu when Lovino ran in, joining us on the bed. He explained, "We could hear from our room. Was it the biker guy?"
I nodded, whimpering.
Lovino looked hesitant for a moment, but he finally pulled me into a hug. I didn't argue with him, though the truth was that it really hurt because of all my bruises and he'd probably have blood on his shirt later.
"This really is worse than before," I heard Lovino mutter to Kiku as we went back to our room.
We were the first ones back, Lovino and Kiku getting me to lie down on the bed immediately so Kiku could look at and tend to my wounds. By now, Kiku had finished singing and I was feeling calmer, if only slightly.
About a minute or two later, Ivan returned with Yao, who was in a sobbing mess. Yao stopped when he saw me lying on the bed with Kiku tending to my wounds, though.
"Veneziano, are you all right?" Yao asked, running over.
"I will be," I replied, wincing as Kiku poked a newly forming bruise. "What about you?"
Yao nodded. Kiku pat my shoulder carefully, asking, "Could you cough?"
I tried. It took a few attempts, but when I finally did, I looked at my hand and found it was covered in blood.
I froze in terror when Kiku muttered, "Internal bleeding."
"Can you fix it?" Lovino asked.
Kiku didn't reply, but rather slid off the bed, motioned to Yao, and the two went over to a corner and whispered.
Alfred walked in at this point. He froze when he saw me lying down on the bed with my bruises and the blood on my hand, and watched as Kiku and Yao rejoined us. He looked ready to remark, but stopped when Kiku spoke to Ivan.
"Russia, do you think you can sneak into the medicine cabinet and grab a pill for dreamless sleep?" Kiku asked.
"Da," Ivan replied. He turned and left, just as Arthur and Francis walked in.
Oh, poor Francis. He was clutching Arthur's arm for dear life and sobbing like a baby.
"Why is Russia leaving?" Arthur asked.
Kiku explained, "I need to get a dreamless sleep pill for Veneziano."
Arthur took one look at me and said, "Yea, we could hear him from downstairs. That guy had no mercy on him this time…"
"Hey, you damn bastard, will you be able to help Veneziano?" Lovino asked Kiku.
"Romano," I muttered, "Don't."
It hurt to talk, and it made all of them reprimand me with versions of 'Don't talk' and 'You're hurt!', but I didn't want Lovino to yell at Kiku for something he may not be able to heal.
Kiku explained, "I can't handle the internal bleeding. I'm hoping that the pill will allow him to rest long enough so we can get him a proper doctor tomorrow."
"They're going to ask why," Alfred pointed out.
Kiku nodded, saying, "I know."
This whole time, I was staring at Francis, he had stopped sobbing, and was now looking at me, but he hadn't let go of Arthur. We looked at each other and, while I couldn't see it, I could tell that the person who was in that room with him was as dreaded to him as the biker was to me, he just didn't leave behind any physical scars.
Ivan returned and handed something to Kiku. He nodded and Alfred got a cup of water from the bathroom across the hall.
"Romano, help me set Veneziano up," Kiku instructed. "It'll be easier for him to take the pill this way."
I cried out in pain a few times as they were helping me sit up, and once I finally was I was gasping for breath, tears running down my face.
Kiku gave me the pill and water. I was about to protest, saying that we shouldn't take the medicine pills unless it was absolutely necessary because we seen what becoming druggies would do to us from our customers, when Kiku told me, "You need it. Your body needs to recuperate more than anything else right now, and sleep is one of the easiest ways to do so."
I paused, looking at him before nodding, placing the pill in my mouth and drinking the water until the cup was empty. Lovino took the cup from me and gave it back to Alfred while Kiku and Yao helped me back into a sleeping position on the bed.
The final thing I saw before I fell asleep was Kiku walking over to Francis and asking if he was okay, while the last thing I heard was Ivan, Lovino, and Yao starting to sing Marukaite Chikyuu to me again.
xxx
When I woke up, it was to an empty bedroom. My body was still sore, but for the first time in a very, very long time I felt rested. I tried sitting up, but cried out in pain from the sudden actions.
Immediately, everyone came charging in.
"Are you alright?"
"Is everything fine?"
"Did you have nightmares?"
They barraged me with questions while Lovino joined me on the bed and helped me into a sitting position.
"W-what time is it?" I asked.
Arthur, who still had Francis hugging his arm for dear life, said, "It's almost time for us to get ready to go to school. We thought it would be best to let you have as much sleep as possible. Did you dream?"
"No," I replied. Now we only had to hope the matron didn't realize that single pill was missing from her medicine cabinet. I was sure it wouldn't be a problem, though, and that Ivan had already dealt with it.
Kiku walked up and asked, "Are you feeling any better?" He was examining my bruises, frowning at the worse ones.
"Yes, though I'm still sore," I replied.
Kiku nodded. Without his asking, I went and coughed into my hand.
We were horrified to find that there was still blood on it.
In an attempt to take our mind off the blood, Yao said, "Veneziano, you're actually pretty lucky."
"Bastard, how is he lucky?" Lovino cried.
"He could've had bones broken," Yao pointed out. "That would be a problem, one we couldn't deal with very easily and should be seen by an expert right away, so imagine what would happen to the bone if he had to wait until now for the bone to be checked."
We fell silent. I was still just coming to terms with the injuries that had been done to my body, and I wondered how much longer this could go on without one of us getting killed.
Francis muttered from Arthur's shoulder, his voice sounding completely dead, "Shouldn't we be getting ready for school?"
"Yes," we agreed. Lovino and Kiku helped me off the bed, being careful to avoid my bruises and helped me get into some clothes suitable for school.
They refused to let me try getting the bags out from underneath the bed Lovino and I sat on, and instead had Alfred retrieve them.
We went downstairs, looking at the door trying to act like nothing was wrong. I knew, though, that all of them were keeping a close eye on me in case I tripped or did something that could end up hurting me even more. I didn't take it as a good sign I was starting to struggle on my breathing either.
"Where do you kids think you're going?" the matron asked as Arthur went to open the door.
We looked at her. Alfred said, "We're going to school. Where else?"
"Oh, no one gave you the news?" the matron asked.
"What news?" We cried.
The matron grinned evilly. "Those bigwigs up at Government Central decided that the money they were using to send you kids, along with thousands of other orphans around the country, could put the money to better use on the national debt. You don't have anymore school to go to, no one is paying for it."
/AN
Uh-oh…that's really all I can say without having to put a spoiler warning on this.
And sorry for the short chapter! (Yes, it's short. It's the shortest chapter yet according to my Word's page count...and the Word count...)
R&R Please!
AN/