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Hilary nudged her cousin gently. The girl, obviously shaken out of whatever daydream she was previously in, looked at her curiously.
"Yeah, Hil?" She asked, a hint of tiredness on her voice.
The beyblading brunette looked at her cousin worriedly. "Mom says you snuck out last night."
AJ yawned. "Oh yeah? She was asleep when I left." The girl propped her head up on her arm. "And I might be doing it again tonight, if I get some sleep before then."
"Were you up all night?" The girl asked, concerned.
"Pretty much, I did sleep a little bit before dawn, but sleep isn't as easy to come by." Her unused hand went to her necklace, gingerly touching the phoenix's bit. It seemed to warm up slightly at her touch, like a greeting of sorts.
"Wait... why are you sneaking out? Mom would let you do whatever it is in broad daylight."
"No one needs to know what I'm doing Hil," AJ retorted. "It's really important that no one knows."
"You do know that we'll be following you like hounds now, right?"
Max Tate's sugary - and yet sincere - smile resonated like sunlight throughout the room. AJ shrugged nonchalantly, retrieved her bag and went toward the staircase leading to her room. "I need some sleep."
Once she left the room, Max's smile changed to a frown. "There's something wrong with her."
Hilary nodded, looking to Tyson, who had come in beside Max. "I know, but she won't tell me... or anybody."
"Yeah, but she'll come around eventually. That Kai-complex is starting to catch up with her." Tyson wrapped an arm around Hilary. "Don't worry. AJ's a tough cookie. You and I know she's gonna be okay."
From the top of the stairs, AJ looked down. In the pit of her stomach, she knew that eventually would be the case, but she had a few other issues to take care of.
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She pulled up at the BBA's office building right before closing time the next day. She knew that Dickenson would not be there, and she quite honestly was grateful that he was not. The secretary, who knew her immediately, told her the information she already knew, but AJ just gracefully explained that she had something to leave for the chairman before she went home.
The letter was left upon his desk. She placed it upon the stack of paperwork he would be facing in the morning. If no action was taken, she knew it would be too late. It was so sad that her reign would never last as long as she wanted it to, but there were other things that meant more.
She dropped her head as she left, not knowing when she'd be given the opportunity to return to that place - if ever.
Arigatou, she whispered mentally upon leaving. For everything, she added as an afterthought.
The her keys were pushed into the ignition and she sped off, seatbelt undone. For once in her life, it might actually be safer otherwise. As she rounded a corner, she gazed at her bag. Last night, she had brought a few things over to the Hiwatari mansion. Things she wanted no one to ever find.
"Please forgive me, my friends," She whispered aloud, as she pulled onto the bridge overlooking their usual practice spot.
Their river-side training location was desolate at the dinner hour, all the kids having gone home to their families. Tears formed on the corner of her eyes as she thought it through. Everything had been planned out. Everything would be okay.
Soon, she told herself. Soon it would be okay.
No thoughts crossed her mind as she hit the gas and cut the wheel sharply to the right.
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Hilary stared at the wreckage, her eyes darting this way and that, trying desperately to take it all in. "No," She pleaded silently with the powers that be, dropping to her knees. "NO!" She fell to the ground sobbing. She had merely went out to look for her cousin, since the girl never mentioned anything about missing dinner.
The brunette never expected to find what she had.
Rescue crews rushed around furiously, trying to bring the vehicle out of the water in one piece. The truck's doors were open, and no one was inside. The front end of the truck was smashed, most likely having made the large hole in the concrete where it had gone over the bridge's edge and into the rushing river. The front end had been wedged into the bottom of the river, and they were just bringing it up now.
Wordlessly, the girl drew out her cell phone and approached the rescue workers.
"Did you find-"
The workers she approached shook their heads. "Surviving a fall like that is almost impossible. No one saw it happen," The man said softly. "And there was no one else involved. The driver must have lost control of their vehicle.
"The driver," Hilary said through sobs, "That... she's my c-cousin. AJ Carson."
The crew looked at each other. "My God," They said. "The World Champion."
Hilary looked over the edge at the damage. Surviving a fall like that is almost impossible... The words echoed in her mind. She flipped open her cell phone, dialing her mother first.
"M-mom?" There was a brief pause in which Carolyn immediately knew that something was up. "C-can you please c-come and get me? AJ- AJ just-" There was another pause. "She went over the bridge, Mom," The girl cried. She fell to her knees again, hanging up the phone moments later. "My mother's on her way," She said, summoning unknown strength in her words. "I- I have to go tell my friends," She said, almost in a daze.
Before any of the workers had the time to respond, she had taken off in a sprint, completely contradicting what she had told her mother.
Moments later, she had arrived at the Granger Dojo, not bothering to remove her shoes, as per Grandpa's request. The 'fly-dude' came after her in a flash.
"Hey, Home-girl, why're you wearing your- Hilary? What happened?" The man's lingo had instantaneously changed. "TYSON!"
She was completely incoherent, unable to string together anything but tears. Ray and Max immediately came flying into the room, while Kenny, Tyson, and Daichi came from the outside. Hiro poked his head out of his room.
"Hil," Tyson said slowly. "What happened?"
The brunette looked up at her boyfriend, her eyes puffy and red, their ruby pools nothing short of anguished sadness. "AJ," She said, not having the heart to say much else.
"What happened to AJ?" Ray asked, immediately sensing something very wrong with the situation. His senses as a Neko-Jin heightened dangerously.
Max looked at Ray, whose eyes had widened considerably. "Ray?" Max asked, fright taking over.
"She's gone," Hilary finally strung together. "The bridge - she... the river..." Tyson hugged the girl as tight as humanly possible.
"Grandpa, call Hil's mom. Tell her I've got Hilary with me. Max, Ray, go to the bridge."
Tears welled in Hiro's eyes as he stepped out of his room. "I'm going with you," He said gently. "I'll call Dickenson."
"Don't worry about that for now," Grandpa said softly. "You take care of Carolyn. It will be all over the news."
The three boys took off, leaving Kenny, Daichi and Tyson to console the crying brunette. "Did they find her?" Kenny asked quietly.
Hilary raised her head, looking at the Chief, before shaking her head horizontally. Her head then drooped onto her boyfriend's shoulder. "Why didn't we see it?" She wailed a moment later. "Why didn't I see?"
"It was just an accident," Grandpa said softly. "She's smarter than that. She wouldn't-"
"She's been sneaking around for days," Tyson said softly. "Especially at night. She stopped talking to us about what was bothering her-"
"She would not commit suicide-"
The inner shoji, the one that opened to the kitchen of the Granger dojo, flew open, Stanley Dickenson standing behind it in complete confusion. "Did you know she did this?"
Mr. Granger stood up, walking away from the kids. "Did what?"
"AJ Carson left me a letter on my desk. I happened to forget some files, and I found this atop them." He sighed, showing the old man the letter. "She resigned her title and duties as World Champion."
Tyson's Grandfather's mouth dropped, before he looked back at the kids in the doorway between the livingroom and kitchen. "It can't be..."
Mr. Dickenson gave the man a strange look. "What is going on here?" The short man peered around the corner, noting the distressed teen. "Hilary, what happened?"
"You better sit down," The white-haired kendo master said. "If what you've told me is true, Audrey Carson just commited suicide."
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It had started out as a typical morning in their prison. Kai opened his eyes and blinked at the dark colored walls. They had showered the day before, lucky for them. However their time to get clean had been drastically reduced.
A smirk adorned the multitude of suited men that passed by them. Only one, regarded them differently this day. Rex, their usual punisher and personal devil, gave the Carson duo a regretful glance, full of sorrow.
Matthew and Rose looked at Kai curiously, but not even the phoenix had an idea as to the reason why their tormentor suddenly had a different manorism towards them. It was early, nearly ten in the morning here, as Kai gathered from the digital wrist watch upon one of the men's wrist.
However, things had suddenly changed. There was a great cackle from down the hallway. They watched as Rex turned on his heel.
"Come here, Rex," The emerald-haired man said to the chocolate skinned man. The bulky guard did as told, quickly resorting back to his usual sneer as he paced toward his boss.
"Sir?" He asked quietly.
"It seems as though the world of beyblading is without another champion this morning." He cleared his throat, drawing out a newspaper from behind him. "Or evening, as it is in Japan."
"What?" Matthew Carson looked up at the man. "What happened?"
The man smirked. "She hadn't even needed our provoking. It seems as though rescue workers found this-" The man threw two sets of pictures, one set into each cell. "Well, you'll see. It was a terrible accident." The man said, throwing the newspaper at Kai's cell. The boy reached out and grabbed it.
Instantly, his eyes widened and he dropped the bundle of paper from his hands.
The headline upon the London Post was clear:
World Champion Audrey "AJ" Carson Commits Suicide.
"Please no," Rose whispered, clasping her hands over her heart before errupting into sobs. "My baby. My baby!"
Matthew's eyes glimmered with tears as he held his wife close. However, his eyes landed upon a different target.
Kai stared regretfully into space, seeing no one or nothing before him. Never before had they seen Kai cry, but tears poured from his amythst orbs, stopping for nothing. He said nothing, instead clutching the beyblade he had kept close to his heart.
"Son," Matthew said softly.
The champion continued to stare into space.
"You know she loves you," The man said softly. "No matter where she may be."
Almost like a detonation from a bomb, Kai promptly exploded, throwing the pictures and newspaper everywhere. He did not want to see them. He did not want to know. He did not want to think. He wanted his girlfriend, his Syao-Ai. He wanted her now.
And if it was not for the two parents of said lover, crying over the same loss that he was now grieving about, he would slit his throat with the beyblade she had made for him.
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Silently, she removed herself from the rushing waters. The current was indeed fast, but she had timed the event perfectly. Her bag - one of few she possessed that had waterproof capabilities - floated near her, brought in toward the rocky shore. She looked at it, wiped some of the blood from her scratched knee upon it, then proceeded to chuck it toward the lake that the river emptied into.
It landed with a splash behind her, and she continued toward land, stripping herself of her shoes and tattered shirt in the shallow waters. Both had stains of blood from her knee, as well as a small cut on her chest, though neither were truly horrible. She walked carefuly onto the rocks, grateful that the waves washed over all the rocks. Between the water and the fact that it was dark, no one would be able to guess her location.
Continuing onward, she followed the shore, which was lined with iron fences. Upon reaching the one she had intended upon entering, she immediately hit the ground, shimmying underneath the back gate. Her slender figure just barely had clearance, and if she were any bigger, she was afraid that she would have had to go over. If that was the case, she would have definitely been caught. With her luck something would have gotten torn upon the top of the gate.
Lucky enough, she had remembered to shut down the security monitoring the premesis of the Hiwatari mansion, or else she would have been captured by the cops instantly. With great stealth, she entered through the back door of the Hiwatari mansion, grateful that she had left it unlocked as well.
In only her underclothes and jeans, she padded through the kitchen, ploping herself upon a black cushioned chair before a large-screen tv.
"This evening on News Live, we regret to inform you that the World Champion of Beyblading has passed on. Our sources report that within the hour of renouncing her title as Champion, Miss Audrey "AJ" Carson has committed suicide, shocking both her friends and relatives. Word still has yet to come about the fate of her parents, who were kidnapped last month. Investigators say that both Rose and Matthew Carson were kidnapped along with Kai Hiwatari at the house of BBA Revolution team member Hilary Tatibana. Word is just coming in now about the car used for the crash."
An image of the water-logged blue truck filled the screen.
"This car is registered in the name of Kai Hiwatari, meaning that it was either stolen, or there was some type of relationship between the two champions. We'll keep you posted with more late-breaking news as it comes in. Until then, keep watching News Live!"
AJ shut off the television, not exactly interested. So what if everyone found out about her and Kai? It didn't matter if she was 'dead,' right?
She shrugged. Like she said, soon, everything would be okay.
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Author's notes: Sorry for making you wait so long with no update. This is the first day in a week that I have not been swamped in one way or another with homework and such. I have other chapters done, so review and I shall put up the next chapter as soon as it is requested.
Love you all and thanks for reading!