Alright, here's the next chapter! You'll get why the chapter is named what it is later.
Thanks to: though i choose death instead of pointless pain, Molly Yokunaii, Demoness-MarlstonWells69ner, Bluestray, twin1 (is there a twin2?), BlueGreenGrey and Tory Carmichael for reviewing! I love you guys… girls… Whatever! I love you!
Disclaimer: I don't own beyblade. I do own Mala and Moka.
Curious greenish-yellow eyes looked up at the stranger that had just walked in. They watched as the stranger came and sat next to it. A low growl was heard from the owner of the eyes. It sniffed the scent of the person that had just walked in, making sure he was its victim. Sliding from under the warm cover, it was ready to attack.
"What the hell!" The stranger, also known as Kai, about to be the victim of a Black Panther, exclaimed. The animal bared its sharp, pearly whites while leaping off the bed and going to block Kai's only way out of the room. Kai noted that the window was open, but common sense would tell anybody that the panther didn't just crawl in a window on the second story of a house. It was helped.
Kai stood, not knowing if he should try to fight it or jump out of the window. The beast lowered its upper body closer to the floor, signaling that it was ready to attack. The slate haired teen slowly walked over to the window, getting as far away from the thing as possible. The panther opened its mouth and let out a horrific roar. Its tail swerved in the air in a mesmerizing way; the way a snake slithers on the ground. Its raven black fur shined in the sunlight coming from the window.
Ignoring the pain in his leg, arm and chest, he took out his beyblade and was ready to launch. The panther was on the verge of pouncing just as Kai was about to pull the ripcord on his launcher, then somebody came in.
Mariah stood with a confused expression on her face. She had only opened the door half way and it looked, to her, like Kai was about to attack her with his blade. "What are you doing?" she asked with a raised eyebrow.
"There is a Black Panther in your room." The male teen said in a serious tone.
"What?!" Mariah walked further inside the room.
"No! Stop!" Kai yelled trying to prevent Mariah from getting mauled by the wild animal, but it was too late. It pounced on Mariah and she fell to the floor. The panther stood over Mariah and let out a loud roar. Then it lowered its head so that it was in Mariah's face. Then, Kai heard an unexpected sound. He rushed over to her to see that the panther was… licking her and she was… laughing.
He just stood there, stomped. "Help!… Hahaha… Get him… hahaha… off me… hahaha!" Mariah laughed.
Still confused and cautious, Kai reached down to pick the panther up. Just as he was about to get it, the animal looked up at him with hatred in his eyes and growled. Kai snatched his hands back. "Off boy! Get off!" Mariah commanded. The panther obeyed. "Sit." Mariah commanded again. Once again the animal obeyed.
"You have a weird and dangerous taste in pets." Kai said monotone and sat on the bed. Mariah got up and petted the animal.
"Who me?" she pointed to herself and in a millisecond realized that he could only be talking to her seeing as they are the only people in the room. "I've never seen this panther in my life, maybe in an animal book or on my laptop. It's not mine."
Then she walked past the door leading out of her room and into another one. Kai thought it was just another closet, but apparently it was a room. While she was out, the panther growled at Kai as if saying, 'You just wait until she leaves to go downstairs, I'm going to get ya!' The slate haired teen just glared at it.
The pinkette came out with a first-aid kit. She walked over to Kai and knelt down on the floor by his left leg to cover the second bullet whole in it. The smile that she had worn earlier was gone and the tension had grown between them again. Without permission, Mariah rolled up Kai's pants leg. The contact and her looking at his exposed skin made the two toned haired boy very uncomfortable.
"I can do it myself." Kai said leaning down to get the equipment.
"Stop. You wouldn't know how to do it." Mariah told him cleaning some of the blood off with one hand and waving his hand away with her other.
The golden-eyed girl was surprised that Kai's legs were hairless. Of course she had saw this earlier when she bandaged his other wound, but she was still shocked. Kai shaves his legs? Weird… Blood had run down his leg and drench his sock. His pants had dried blood and new blood on them, his shoes were pretty messed up too. Mariah's mom wanted to wash his clothes when Mariah first brought him in, but they couldn't violate him while he was unconscious.
"Let me do it." He said in a more stern voice. "I never asked for your help in the first place."
Mariah just ignored him and kept doing what she was doing. Kai sat there for a few more seconds. He couldn't take this! He was not about to be bossed by this little girl! Standing up, Kai decided he could still hold his own and take care of himself. The pinkette jerked out of Kai's way. She gritted her teeth, annoyed.
"Fine! If you think you can handle yourself, go right a head. Get killed! But when that guy in the mask is holding a gun to your head telling you to say your prayers, remember, Mariah Azule gave you a chance to live and you didn't take it!" she protested, but Kai still walked out of the door with an apathetic look on his face.
When he walked out, Mariah looked at the panther and nodded her head to the door, signaling him to go after Kai.
Mariah could already hear her mom and cousin protesting. She shook her head, This guy will never learn… He's just like L.A. (A/N: L.A. is a person.) Sadness covered her face for a second. After, her face displayed a bored, yet confident look as she came down the stairs. She ignored her mother and cousin's yells and startled looks due to the panther. Kai was already outside, but she remained walking slowly. She walked up the few steps there were to get to the door and put her hand on the handle, the panther at her side.
Light spilled over the threshold as the golden-eyed girl open the door. When it was fully open the animal and Mariah both could see Kai. He was out of their yard and on the sidewalk. The panther lowered its upper body to the ground again and seemed to be waiting with anticipation. Then Mariah said two words… "Get him."
The feline bulleted off and had reached Kai within a matter of seconds. Moka and Mala raced out of the house to see what had happened. "Mariah Azule! Where in the world did you get a panther!?" her mom demanded.
"It was sent to kill Kai. Somebody put it in my room. For some unknown reason, it likes me." She explained with a smile. A yell was heard from Kai as the animal sank its teeth into his arm.
"Mariah stop it!" Mala yelled tugging her older cousin's arm.
The three ran over to the scene. "That's enough Midnight!" she commanded, giving it a name. The panther stood, straddling Kai, whom was lying on the ground face up. Its greenish yellow eyes reflected hatred.
"Get this thing away from me!" the slate hair teen yelled at Mariah, trying to push Midnight away from him. The feline had to be at least 200 pounds if not more.
"I'll make him get off…if you admit that you do need my help and that you'll die with out me." She grinned at her little plan. "If I were you, I'd hurry up and say it because you're running out of blood."
Damn it! She's right! Kai sneered in his mind looking at the blood running down his arm. "Don't think so highly of yourself!" he yelled stubbornly.
Mariah laughed. "You are hilarious, you know that. Here you are, struggling to hold on to life and you still want to hold up your stubborn front." She was about to say something else when her phone rang. She took out her blue Razer and put it to her ear. "Hello." She greeted.
"What's up, Riah! It's Mariam! Guess what girl!"
"Um… Mariam, I have to call your back in like 5 minutes. I have to take care of something."
"Alright, but hurry up! You're going to love this! Bye!"
"Bye." Then Mariah hung up her phone. Looking back down at Kai she tried to remember what she was about to say, but forgot.
"You're so stubborn." She sighed. "You're coming back inside. I don't care if you think you've got this situation under control because you don't. From now on, I'm calling the shots. You need my help and you know it. Got that!" then she motioned for Midnight to get from over him. The panther, reluctantly, obeyed.
"Follow me." Mariah ordered walking back into the house. Kai cringed as he got off the ground. He would have just walked in the other direction if Midnight weren't following close behind him.
Mala shut the door when they all were inside. Kai sat on the couch and glared at Mariah, but she didn't care, she just glared back. Before they knew it, they were having a glaring contest. Moka, Mala and Midnight (A/N: Kai's such an odd ball, he's the only 'K'.) looked back and forward at the two. The slate hair teen narrowed his eyes. The golden-eyed girl made her eyes turn to slits.
"Midnight…" Mariah called. The panther went to her. "Watch him." She didn't break eye contact with Kai for a few more moments, then she disappeared up stairs. Kai growled and continued glaring, but at the panther now.
"It's o.k. Kai!" Mala hopped up on the sofa Kai was sitting on. "She's only doing what she's doing because she loves you." Mala's already wide grin grew even wider. "And admit it. You love her too. That's why you stayed."
Kai looked at the girl indifferently. "No, I stayed because your crazy, persistent cousin and her little pet kitten wouldn't let me leave. If you thought any differently, then you're sadly mistaken." He said in his cool Kai way.
"Are you kidding!? We actually get to go!" They heard Mariah's voice as she was coming down stairs. When she came into view they saw that she was carrying a first-aid kit in one hand and had her phone up to her ear in the other. "I could really use some R&R. Mr. D is off the chain! I can't believe he's doing this!"
The pinkette sat the equipment down and sat beside Kai's leg like before. "Hold on Mariam." She put the phone away from her mouth and warned, "Don't move. I don't want to do this just as much as you don't want to. My mom can't because she has no idea of how to take bullets out and hates the sight of blood." Moka rolled her eyes at this and went into the kitchen to make something to eat.
Mariah hooked her earpiece up to the phone and put it in her ear. "O.k. I'm back."
"So, yeah, Mr. D is giving us an all expenses paid vacation to Hawaii!"
"Well, all that sounds cool, but where do we meet? I mean, the you're way in London, The All-stars are in America, The White Tigers are in China… I could go on, but the point is we're all in different parts of the world." After cleaning Kai's leg and putting alcohol on it, she got the tweezers and carefully pulled the bullet out of Kai's leg. He bit his tongue, but didn't show any sign of pain.
The bullet made a 'ping' sound when she put it in a metal tray. Kai just sat with his arms crossed, looking out of the window. The sun was almost set.
"That's where you get lucky. We're all meeting in Moscow, Russia on Sunday!"
"Sunday! That only leaves me four days to pack!"
"Yeah, me too. I was so excited I didn't even think about that." Mariam told her. "Oh, and speaking of exciting things, how's Mr. Sunshine doing." She joked with a giggle.
Mariah looked up at Kai. "Him," she said to get his attention… it worked. He looked at her, well… more like glared. "Oh, he's as happy and cheerful as ever. He's soooooooooooooooooooo wonderful. I just love him." Mariah joked back. Kai just rolled his eyes and went back to staring out of the window.
Both girls laughed. "He's in the room. Isn't he?" Mariam managed to say. "I guess I'll see you when I get to Russia."
"Same, later." Then Mariah hung up, that was when both Kai and Mariah noticed Mala in the room.
"Ah ha!" her outburst startled them both. "You admitted it! You said you loved Kai!" She jumped off the sofa.
"When did I say that?" the pinkette asked, forgetting about the conversation she just had with Mariam.
"Remember you said, and I quote: "Oh, he's as happy and cheerful as ever. He's soooooooooooooooooooo wonderful. I just love him." The raven-haired girl exclaimed putting emphasis on the word 'love' while doing a expression of Mariah.
"Mala, that was called a joke. No, actually it was called sarcasm. I was just saying all that stuff because it wasn't true." Mariah finished wrapping Kai's leg and was now moving to his arm.
"Suuuuure, whatever you say." Mala said, not even knowing what sarcasm was or that she had just used it.
"See, you just used sarcasm." Mariah said not taking her eyes off of what she was doing.
"Yeah, whatever. I don't know anything about this sarcasm stuff, but I do know… Kai and Mariah are in love, Kai and Mariah are in love!" she sang the last part. "Kai and Mariah sittin' in a tree K-I-S-S-I-N-G…" she sang walking into the kitchen to see what that good smell was.
"I can't believe I actually wished for a little sister for my 7th birth day. I sure wish I could take it back now. Now I get what people mean when they say 'be careful what you wish for, you just might get it.'" Mariah said talking to Kai, but at the same time not talking to him.
"I thought she was your cousin." Mariah was surprised he actually listened and that he responded.
"She's not my cousin or my sister. Her mom didn't know how to raise a child, she was too young. I have no clue why she gave Mala to my mom. Mama had me when she was just 15 years old. My dad was 17. Their love was forbidden because my mom is a quarter Puerto-Rican and three quarters Black." Mariah had no clue why she was telling Kai this, but it just seemed easy to talk to him, mainly because she knew he didn't care what happen in her life.
"When my mom and dad got divorced, they both had something to argue about. Mom told my dad off about how she had to run away from home and go through labor twice at a young age by herself. My dad argued about how he had disgraced his village by letting an outside bare his children. He was kick out." Mariah bit her tongue and tried to fight the tears.
"The whole fight started because of me." That's when a tear fell. "I wanted to leave China because something terrible happened to me there. Mama would do anything for me and wanted to leave too. Daddy never liked change and didn't want to leave." The tears were now flowing freely. She had just finished wrapping the wound on Kai's arm that Midnight made when he bit him.
"Mama got frustrated and went up stairs. Daddy went to me and called me a little bitch." She could barely finish her sentence because of the choking tears. "He slapped me." Now she was crying uncontrollably. Midnight got up and walked over to cuddle Mariah. After a few moments of listening to Mariah cry, Kai finally stood.
"Suck it up." Mariah looked up at him, shocked. "So many people have it worse off than you. A lot of kids have never been loved by anyone, never known their mom who just happened to get knocked up on night by their piece of shit dad whom they've never seen before because he's out with other chicks and never even knew they existed. Some kids don't know where they came from, who or what that are. For all they know when they go to a store they could have passed 5 of their sisters and brothers and not even know it. If you think your life is bad, I dare you to compare it to mine and then tell me what you think of it." He said harshly before going upstairs.
Mariah just watched as he got up. Was that really his life or was it just an example of others? Did he really just tell Mariah something about his past? Guess they're both in the same book, Kai's just a chapter ahead...
Yeah, the ending was kind of sad. Did I keep them in character? I think Kai went out just a little. This chapter is over 3,000 words!
Anyways, I can't wait for the next chapter because that's when more people will come in and you'll get closer to knowing who's the killer! Oh my Bob I can't wait! But I have too because you have to review first!
Review!