Since it was at least a millennium since I last watched Beyblade, I have no clue about some characters. So I'm gonna write them as I want to. So, you're hereby warned; slight OOCness might occur. To my defence I'll say; Life can turn Jesus himself into a psycho.
Peace and reviews.
Chapter Four
Pacing In the Cage
The world was a funny place sometimes. Just when you thought the long days at work or the emptiness in your bed were your biggest problems, you were proven wrong. When everything was boring and you craved for something exciting to happen, saying to yourself 'just like in the movies', you land your ass into one and suddenly, your boring life in front of the TV doesn't look so bad anymore.
I'd been hurt before. I had never been shot though, and I had never run the fastest I could for the longest I could with a wounded leg. I assumed it was only normal that I felt a bit tipsy, nodding off every now and then as my head hurt and throbbed like it was a bullet wound itself. The blood had dried to my skin since long ago, as had the tears in my face. I don't know how long I had been sitting there, the chilly air had made me numb and stiff already. But I guess it had been quite a while.
I wanted to feel something, yet the overwhelming sense of it all made me glad I didn't. I had no money, nowhere to go, no one knew where I was and if I didn't to something about my leg soon my body would not be glad at me. Yet I didn't have the energy to be scared or frustrated. I didn't bother panicking because it would give me nothing. I could do nothing and if I could, I was too exhausted to come up with some sort of plan. All I really could do was sit there, staring at a starless sky, hoping that somehow it would turn out alright.
I wondered where Boris was. Wondered what he was doing. If he was alive, if everything was okay. It made me feel stupid. Perhaps I was blowing things way out of proportion. Or perhaps I wasn't taking things seriously enough. But there wasn't much I could do about it in the position I was, anyway. My first priority was the hospital, and then… Well I didn't know what to do. It wasn't like I could call him. I could call Kai though. Yeah, that was probably good. Kai would know what to do. He always did.
I sighed. It wasn't worth thinking about, was it? After all, I was stuck. Until someone nice came along, which I doubted, I would just have to wait till either I caught my breath and could limp into town myself, or a miracle to happen. The sad thing about it was that I didn't know which was more likely to occur.
And yet, someone up there must either hate my guts or love me very much. I didn't know how long the man shaped shadow had been looming over me, I hadn't even heard footsteps. To caught up in the dizziness and tiredness to notice anything but my own thoughts. Yet there he was, a stranger who looked so very familiar. Silver hair and sharp, intelligent eyes, an arrogant mouth on a competitive face, tall and threatening. I blinked, confused and alarmed, wanting to sprint and stay put at the same time.
''Well, well, well'' a strong voice spoke, haughty yet oddly friendly. ''Rei Kon. Never thought I'd run into you here.''
I didn't say anything, just sat there, squinting as the situation seemed to make even less sense than I thought it capable of. My instincts weren't helpful either, and it unnerved me not to know whether this was a friend or a foe. Then the figure crouched down, face closer to mine now and in the dim streetlight, I realized who it was.
''Garland?''
He smiled, a gesture that sent chills down my back even though I had no idea why.
''You look a little pale.''
Coughing I tried to straighten, but my eyelids were growing heavier and I knew it wouldn't take long before the struggle to stay awake would be over. I couldn't fight unconsciousness forever, and my energy had been running on empty all night.
''Garland, oh thank the Gods…'' I mumbled, voice slurry and drawling, the words much too heavy.
We all had quite a diffuse idea of the competitive Blader known as Garland. Since he put Yuriy in the hospital, we had tried to act nice yet there would always remain a bitter resent among us. Kai was not the forgiving kind, and that went for all of the Russians. Even though it had been a long while since we heard of the man, I still didn't trust him. And perhaps that just flustered me more in the awkward position I was put in. My only ally being a man so hungry for victory he'd hurt others to gain it, yet he wasn't holding a gun to my face which seemed to become a rare thing as of late.
''My, my, you're bleeding''
''Garland…'' I was close to passing out now, feeling darkness fingering at me, even breathing became hard. ''I need help''
''You sure do.''
There was something in his eyes, something I couldn't quite place. It was lurking behind his iris, and I knew within me that it was something important, something I should know and yet I had no idea what to make of it. Something told me not to trust him, but I brushed it off as old habits that died hard. Everyone made mistakes. Boris did, obviously. Kai did, I still trusted him. I made a lot of mistakes, and I wasn't a bad person. Garland deserved a second chance as well. So why couldn't I believe that?
''Don't worry'' he said as I couldn't keep my head straight anymore. ''Rest your eyes.''
Somewhere between me sitting straight and falling forwards I landed with my head against his shoulder. It didn't feel right, but I couldn't come up with a reason for it to feel wrong either. I could trust him, couldn't I? I had to, anyway. What other choice did I have? Garlands muscles proved not to be just for show as he scooped me up, and even if I had wanted to argue I didn't find the strength, and the next thing I knew I was being carried.
''Rest your eyes, Rei. It'll all be better when you wake up.''
Somehow I doubted him.
X
My head was pounding like a drum on the battlefield. A torrid pain that could almost measure with that in my leg, throwing and thrusting and it was almost loud enough to drown my thoughts. Sweat covered my forehead and I knew, I could feel that something was wrong. I just didn't know if I wanted to find out what it was.
As I opened my eyes a room came to my vision. Blurry colours that seemed odd and misplaced, before they morphed into furniture and shapes. Familiar things that felt so alien. Something stung when I tried to move, my wrist refusing to obey me as I couldn't move my arms. Right then I was too dizzy to understand why, but it didn't take long before I realized I was tied to a chair.
Panic was returning to me, my heart beating frantically, trying to crawl out of my mouth again. I blinked, gasping for air which seemed to solidify in my throat, choking me and I was getting scared now. Had they found me again? How was that possible? How long was I out for? I groaned, frustrated at not knowing, confusion angering me and all I wanted more than anything was an explanation. Anything to keep me from going insane.
''Hello?'' I called out, but not even an echo answered me. ''Is anyone there?''
For a moment I listened to the silence, so tired and yet so stressed. Where was I?
''Hello?''
Nothing. Not a breath or movement, nothing at all but the solitude and emptiness that surrounded me. The room wasn't dark, dimly lit to the point where I could make out the door and the objects placed inside. It didn't smell remotely like the room Boris had led me to, but I wasn't sure that was a good thing either.
''Hello?! Who's there?''
I was getting angrier by the second, by each silent moment that crawled by me. I wanted answers. I demanded to know just where I was and why in hell I was tied down. Why and how I got from a blind date to a god damn hostage situation, not knowing what emotion screamed the highest. I wanted to cry and I wanted to scream, most of all I just wanted to be home.
The door suddenly opened, sharp light flowing into the room before it closed again. Garland was standing in front of me, a tray of food in his arms and that look in his eyes. The one that I didn't know just what it meant, more than one thing. For some reason, I knew he couldn't be trusted..
''Garland?'' I hissed as he walked towards me, stopping just out of biting range.
''You're awake, I see.''
''What the hell is this?!''
''It's steak and potatoes. Nothing fancy but you looked hungry.''
His nonchalance stirred the anger further, mixing with the dread it forced out a growl from me. It wouldn't have mattered if Saint Mary herself had been standing there, I'd been just as furious either way. This situation was absurd, and either someone slipped something really nasty into my drink and it was all just a bad, bad hallucination or I really needed an explanation.
''Where the hell am I?!''
''Safe.''
''And why don't I believe that?''
Liar. I knew I wasn't safe. Every time that word was uttered around me I only seemed to land into deeper shit. He was just playing with me. And whatever sick game it was I wanted out. Garland sighed, putting the tray down on the floor before shaking his head at me.
''I'm a little hurt, Rei''
I blinked, taken aback by his words, clueless as of what to say. He smirked at the look in my eyes and leaned closer. I tried to back away by instinct but I couldn't move far as due to my restraints, and the further into my back the chair dug, the closer he just seemed to come. Until he was just a breath away from my ear and I could hear that haughty smirk in his voice.
''After all, I waited all night for you. It isn't very polite to stand people up.''
''What the hell are you talking about?''
''That lowlife Russian seems to have rubbed off on you. You sound just like him.'' I shivered as he leaned away a centimetre to look at me, staring me straight in the eyes. ''Tell me Rei, what does he have that I don't?''
I almost couldn't bring myself to answer, the words sticking in my throat as I stared at him in confusion.
''You don't understand?'' he sounded slightly offended now. ''Don't say you've forgotten about our date already.''
And just like that, the whole world stopped spinning. Like when someone tells you your baby grew out a second head, or you wife disappears for six months and comes back having undergone a sex change. Or when your dog starts to talk. Just as detached from reality, yet so real you have to accept it, have to realize it's there and you can't run from it because it's right in front of you. And you just want to scream.
Tall, grey haired and foreign with piercing eyes. Of course. Everything and everyone that wasn't Chinese Mao considered as foreign. Boris hadn't just pretended not to know anything about the date because he hadn't been involved in it in the first place. Boris wasn't the one I was waiting for at the bar. In fact, Boris had nothing to do with it at all. It was Garland I was supposed to meet. And all of this was just one great misunderstanding.
I was so incredibly stupid.
''Of all the people'' he growled, glaring at me now. ''You just had to pick him, didn't you?''
I blinked for the thousandth time, fighting to regain my words, my grip of reality, my sanity. I failed as expected, and all I could manage was to stare. Garland reached out a hand to stroke my cheek, and I shivered under his touch. The sharpness of his gaze turned into a fatal razor-like gleam, and if I had been afraid before that was nothing compared to now.
''You're my… you're my… you're…'' I stuttered. ''You're my… date?''
I couldn't get a grip of it, couldn't understand it. I didn't want to understand it. Everything was too absurd. This couldn't be real.
''Yes'' he snarled, and I could practically hear the flames in his tone. ''I'myour date, not that worthless amateur Russian. I know it was a blind date, but still, Rei. How could you ever confuse me with that… scum?''
''Jealousy or not, isn't this going too far?''
''Jealousy?''
''You've tied me to a chair, Garland.''
Garland laughed. A short and bitter laugh full of rotten irony and I shivered at the sound of it. He shook his head as he choked the laugh down, shaking his head at me again. Before I could react his hand struck my face, a pain exploding in my cheek as I was sure I could hear my skin tear.
''I can take a no, Rei, I really can. But what I can't stand is watching a rival claiming my prize.''
''Rival? What are you..?''
Then it hit me. The people that Boris spoke about. Their rivals, their enemies, those who wanted us both dead, they were all under Garland's management. He was the enemy, and that just made the whole thing all the more complicated. I had heard news about Beybladers giving up the sport the past years, most of them people I knew of. I knew this town wasn't low on the crime rate when I moved here and yet… this coincidence was the most bizarre thing I had ever come upon in my entire life.
''You're insane'' I whispered, too exhausted to do anything else.
Garland's glare intensified, a coldness claiming his features as he looked more like a Death God than a normal human. Right that moment, he wasn't just an overly competitive athlete, or a sore loser. He was a lunatic. And I was caught in his trap.
Fuck.
''No, I'm not. I just had a little bad luck. But you…'' he snorted. ''You had the worst luck of all.''
As he leaned closer, only one thing ran through my head as his breath fell upon my face, light as the first winter snow.
''You've seen quite too much, Rei. Now I can't have that, I really can't.''
I hate my life.
''I don't know why that maniac tried so hard to protect you…''
I hate my life. I hate my life. I hate my life.
''Huh'' he shook his head again, fingers grabbing my chin with such force I barely suppressed a yelp of pain. ''It would be sad to damage such a fine face…''
''You shouldn't have hit me then'' I hissed, despite how stupid it was of me to say anything at all.
Garland's glare sharpened.
''We'll have to do something about that tongue of yours. Not that I think you'll get away to tell anything but… you're prettier when you're quiet. I'll get someone to fix that.''
I hate my life.
''What are you planning?''
There was that nauseating obnoxious smirk again.
''You'll see, Rei, you'll see.''
I thought he was finally going to leave, relief embracing me as the fog lifted from my brain. But the bastard stopped at the door, looking over his shoulder with that mysterious old look. I'll only admit this once, but that moment he scared the hell out of me.
''Don't let your food get cold.''
And with that, he left. Leaving me with the silence, and a food tray that wasn't just looking extremely suspicious by then, it was also out of my reach. If he forgot to mention how I was supposed to reach for it with tied hands, or if he just wanted to screw with my head, on purpose or not, he had done a fine job. I groaned in exasperation, hanging my head as I let dread swallow me whole.
It's final then, Beyblading turns people into psychopaths.
X
I was so incredibly hungry. My stomach wasn't even making whining noises anymore. Instead it just erupted into stabs of back-bending pain whenever I least expected it, leaving me short for breath and patience. I just sat waiting for unconsciousness to grip me, anything to escape the situation I was in. But it never did. Instead I just sat there, not really awake yet aware of everything around me. The pain in my wrists from where the rope burned, the emptiness in my stomach and the headache that had only, if possible, worsened.
I had tried to understand the situation, but failed. Getting a grip of it would have been easier if the whole drama had been a slippery soap covered in lube. I groaned. What ever happened to working at 7 Eleven? Even if Beyblading soon ended for every Blader, that wasn't a reason for life to go straight to hell. Even Takao the world champion had to settle down with a real job eventually. But just because a career was over it didn't mean one should pick up a gun and go all Dirty Harry on the world. Okay, so Boris was Boris, I didn't really expect much from him. But Garland?
How could two of the athletic world's most famous sportsmen turn down the slippery slope of criminality without anyone noticing? Perhaps because they never left any witnesses. People who could let their tongue slip and talk, tell the world about what had really happened. People stupid enough to hand themselves into situations like these. People like myself. Oh, man. I was in really deep shit, wasn't I?
All I wanted was a boyfriend. Was that so much to ask? And I thought the worst thing that could happen was dying alone. That or AIDS. But instead I got shot in the leg and kidnapped by not only one gang, no, by two. Gee, wasn't I the popular one?
I sighed. What was I going to do now? Gnaw off my arms and kick down the door and Kung Fu my way out of there? Sure, I had some skills but I couldn't take on a whole team of armed criminals. Especially not in the state my body was in. What could I even do? Sit there and wait for either someone to kill me or burst through the wall and save me? Yeah, like that would happen. I wasn't just screwed, I was royally fucked.
X
I didn't know how much time had passed. I knew I had gotten a few meals here and there, but other than that I met no one. No one spoke to me, no one entered the room and it was driving me insane. If their idea of keeping a witness quiet was to drive him crazy, then they were damn close to succeeding. If it weren't for my stubbornness I bet they would have made it already.
And to add to my bad luck, I was starting to get a cold. At least it felt like that. My whole body going warm and cold like a tidal wave swept through it, shivering and sweating in intervals. My throat was sore and my headache only grew like an evil mutation in my head. I was feeling weak, sleep deprived and hungry. Things weren't exactly looking bright.
And they only darkened when that door opened again. I knew it couldn't be a good thing, because either Garland would be back, or someone worse would. A person emerged at the door, watching me silently like one eyes their dinner. It would probably have unnerved me if I had the energy to think properly.
The person came closer now, a man I'd never seen before whose eyes were empty and cold. I could practically see the blood on his hands even though they were perfectly clean. I could smell how much he just wanted to watch me squirm. The moment we made eye contact, a war had started between us and I knew I couldn't let him win.
''Boss said you talk an awful lot'' he grinned, something in his voice making my skin crawl. ''Says I should do something about that.''
I told myself to stay calm, to not jump to conclusions and panic. It would lead me nowhere. He was probably just there to scare me, I told myself. Nothing bad was going to happen if I just stayed calm. But I knew I was a big fat liar. He swung out a briefcase and put it on a nearby table. As he watched its contents his face dressed in a smile that only broadened like a spreading disease. Under the dim light of the room I could see several shiny objects, glimmering treasures of stainless steel in the black, velvet case.
He took one out and watched it tenderly, the first spark of emotion I'd seen on his face as he caressed the thin blade of a scalpel. Smiling, death in his eyes he turned to me, ecstatic from heart. I shivered, my eyes widening as I tried to crawl away from him. It didn't result in anything other than the chair tipping over and my headache worsening, the stench of humiliation clinging to me. He laughed at me, an evil, sinister laugh that promised me nothing but pain.
With two danclike steps he came closer, leaning over me. His breath stunk foul and nasty making my heart beat so heard it wouldn't have surprised me if he heard it too. He laughed, putting a large, bony hand on my chest as he licked his lips.
''I know you're excited. I'm excited too'' then he licked the scalpels handle, coming even closer now. ''We're going to have a lot of fun, the three of us.''
I wanted to scream. Wanted to rip that damn smile off his face and disappear into the ground. I kicked and tossed as much as I could, but my powers were weak and his grip was strong, holding me down till no air got into my lungs. Stifling my screams, rendering me completely helpless.
''I know boss said not to hurt your face… but I could get away with anything else. Don't you think?''
A cold, chilling touch caressed my chest softly. Light as a whisper and I almost didn't notice it, until my body realized what was happening and the pain exploded without mercy. The scalpel ran so swift and smooth through my skin and flesh, blood forming like little rubies, soaked up by my dirty shirt. I screamed then, if it was from the pain or the fear I couldn't quite tell. I squirmed and fought, everything to put up a fight but he was so incredibly strong. All the while as panic closed it's grip around my throat, I tried my hardest not to look him in the eyes.
''Boss said to remove your tongue. Now that little scream of yours just cost me a lot.'' He seemed to shiver in contempt. ''He's not gonna be happy with me. Still… I love a good scream.''
''You're sick!'' I spat, my voice hoarse from lack of use.
But he just smirked at me, and no matter how much I tried this time I couldn't avoid meeting his gaze. Dead, empty eyes void of anything even resembling humanity, leaving me cold and numb, feeling nothing but the searing pain in my new wound.
He gripped my chin, forcing my mouth open with a grip so strong I feared my jaw would actually break. Leaning closer he brought the scalpel to my mouth, and I could feel the chill of it as the tip met my tongue. I shivered, tossing even more. But it was useless.
''You decide how messy this will be, you know''
The tip cut into my tongue, a pain so revolting stirring me up and I wanted nothing but to disappear. Then, of all the things he could have done, he laughed.
''Go ahead, scream for me.''
My heart beat so fast it felt like one even movement, my entire life flashing before me in the panic as I wondered what I had done to deserve this. All the while his haunting eyes etching their way into me, even when I tore my eyes away. His grip tightened, forcing my mouth open yet again and the scalpel pushed in deeper.
''Come on, pretty'' he whispered in my ear. ''Scream.''
