Helloooooooo! I'm back! Yes, my pc is now clear of any viruses for now...and the funny thing was that I did have an anti-virus protection system, but it was actually the cause of it..yeah, fucking annoying....

Takuya: *sees me* What?! You're back?! Run, it's a sign of the apocalypse!

me: Uh, Takuya? Can you spell 'apocalypse' for me?

Takuya: Sure I can! ....Uh...let's see...um.... A-P-O-K-A-L-I-P-S...? Yeah, that's right!

me: Well, we can see that my return is not the apocalypse. The day Takuya finally learns how to spell 'apocalypse' correctly will be the first sign of the world's demise.

Takuya: Hey, I spelled it right!

me: -_-; Anyway, we left off with Tommy getting kidnapped by his crazy, abusive stepfather. Read and see what happens next ^_^

Red Rose

Chapter 14

"Home sweet home." Kiyoto pulled into the driveway, then parked. "Now, I want you to get in the house without making a scene. If you scream, you'll regret it."

Tommy swallowed, then silently nodded his head in agreement.

Kiyoto smirked. "Good. Let's go."

He clutched the pistol in his right hand, letting the long sleeve of his coat conceal both his hand and the pistol. The two of them exited the car and headed towards the house. Kiyoto quickly unlocked the front door, then gestured for Tommy to enter.

The fourteen year-old hesitated for a moment, then walked inside. His heart was pounding in fear, and he watched nervously as Kiyoto locked both the doorknob and deadbolt.

"Get in the kitchen," Kiyoto commanded him. "Go!"

Tommy jumped slightly, then made his way down the short hallway and into the kitchen. Kiyoto followed him, then took a clear, glass bottle out of the freezer.

"W-where's my mother?" Tommy asked, watching as the man took a long gulp from the bottle.

Kiyoto made a face as the alcohol burned its way down his throat. "She's around."

Tommy's eyes grew wide and he couldn't help but stutter. "Y-y-you didn't h-hurt her d-did you?"

"Before I answer your questions, why don't you answer mine?" Kiyoto suggested, taking another swig. "First off, where the hell have you been?"

The boy looked down. "Here and there."

Kiyoto chuckled. "Don't fuck with me, kid. Now tell me. Where the fuck have you been for the past few months?"

"I've been homeless," Tommy partially lied.

"Homeless my ass," his stepfather replied with a snort. "You're dressed too nice to be homeless. I mean, that is a school uniform, right? You must've gone somewhere that allows you to clean up and shower."

Tommy inwardly groaned in anxiety. "A friend has been letting me shower at her house so that I could clean up and go back to school."

"Bullshit," Kiyoto said. "If you were homeless, you would be too tired to even think about going back to school. The endless wandering...the cold, sleepless nights...the lack of food and energy. Maybe you were homeless for a little while. But you're not anymore by the looks of it."

Tommy didn't respond, and he dropped his gaze to the floor. Kiyoto smirked, then finished off his bottle.

"I'm gonna ask you one more time," he growled. "Where have you been?"

"Why does it even matter?" Tommy looked up, tears welling in his eyes. "You were the reason why I left in the first place! I figured that you'd be happy with me gone."

"I was, but your mother wasn't really," Kiyoto told him.

Tommy raised an eyebrow. "But...my mother told me that she didn't care where I was. She said that she wanted my friend to adopt me."

"Ah, I knew it," Kiyoto said in an excited voice. "You called her to tell her that a 'friend' of yours adopted you so that you wouldn't be homeless."

"Dammit," Tommy muttered, chastising himself for revealing the secret.

His stepfather grinned. "See? You can't fool me, Tommy. I knew that you were living with someone. I just don't know who. Your mother was too stupid to ask you who it was."

"My mother's not stupid," Tommy defended.

Although his mother had completely betrayed him by taking his stepfather's side, Tommy did not like to hear her insulted.

"No, she is and you know it," Kiyoto said with a laugh. "She was so easy to manipulate. I didn't even have to try that hard."

Tommy's eyes narrowed. "Where is she?"

"But you haven't answered my question," the man replied. "Where the fuck have you been staying?"

"I'm not telling you!" Tommy exclaimed.

Kiyoto glared at him and threatingingly walked over. "This is your last warning. Where were you?"

"Fuck you!" Tommy shouted, his emotions getting the best of him.

Kiyoto suddenly struck him with the empty bottle, sending the boy to fall to the floor. The glass broke into hundreds of shards, which were raining down onto Tommy.

"Shit..." Tommy could feel blood leaking down the side of his face where the bottle had scratched him as it broke.

He could also feel his cheek throbbing and beginning to bruise.

"Where the fuck were you?!" Kiyoto dragged him up by the front of his shirt. "Were you living with that girl and her family? Answer me!"

Tommy struggled to free himself, which only earned him a heavy punch to the face. Kiyoto then dropped him onto the floor again and turned.

"You want to see your mother? Fine. I'll go get her," he hissed.

With that he left the room, leaving Tommy alone. Although now seemed like a good chance to make a run for it, Tommy was too petrified of what may happen to his mother if he left. With a defeated moan, all he could do was sit there and wait.

Meanwhile

Nana sprinted down the road as fast as she could. The journey to Tommy's old house seemed endless.

"Where is that house?" She asked aloud, looking in every direction as she ran.

The Diclonius could vaguely picture the house in her head, as well as the name of the street. All she had to do was find it, which hopefully wouldn't be too long now.

Adreneline was pumping through her system as she was overcome by fear. Fear for what could happen to Tommy if she didn't make it in time.

"God, where is it?!" She cried out in desperation, on the verge of tears.

It had been ten minutes since Tommy had been abducted, and her anxiety increased with each passing minute. One of her ribbons untied and blew off, much to Nana's horror.

"No!" She made a grab for it, luckily catching it before it blew too far away.

The last thing she needed was for someone to see her horns, though she would not waste more than a second to fix it. Tommy was much more important than her ribbons coming undone.

"Come on, come on!" Nana sobbed. "Where is his house?"

As if on cue, the girl could see a street coming up on her right, its sign too far away to read clearly. As she ran closer, the wording became more legible. Finally, with her chest feeling as though it were about to explode, she managed to read it.

"Yes!" She was gasping by now, for she had to concentrate as hard as she could to make sure her vectors made her legs run.

The house was within view by now, and Nana let out a sigh, slightly relieved. It would only be a few more minutes until she would get there. She could only hope that she would get there in time.

Back at Tommy's

Tommy's eyes widened in horror as Kiyoto dragged out the unconscious body of Amaya Tanaka, or Amaya Himi as she used to be called. Kiyoto dropped her in front of Tommy, a satisfied smirk on his face.

"What did you do to her?!" Tommy demanded, his tears finally falling free.

His mother was covered in bruises and blood-stains, and her clothing had been ripped in various places. One of her eyes was puffy, possibly to the extent of being swollen shut, and her lip was split. Her breathing was a bit shallow, and she made weak moans of pain.

Tommy angrily jumped at Kiyoto. "You bastard!"

He managed to hit the larger man in the face, surprising him. Kiyoto was knocked back and bumped into the counter. Although he did not fall, the alcohol in his system made him slightly clumsy. It had also made him more enraged.

Kiyoto roughly grabbed Tommy by the shoulders and lifted him up. He slammed the boy into one of the cabinets, his eyes wide and furious.

"You fucking little prick!" He yelled.

He then threw Tommy down into a countertop, causing Tommy to gasp in pain. His head had been hit by the corner of it, and a smear of blood was visible on the porcelein countertop. Tommy fell to his knees, gingerly reaching to the back of his head. Before he could feel it, Kiyoto was on him again. The man kicked at his stomach and chest, then rammed his sneakered foot into the side of Tommy's head.

"Get away!" Tommy rasped, spitting out blood as he did so.

Kiyoto ignored him and went to kick him again, when he heard a knock on the front door.

"Hello? Tommy?" A voice called.

Tommy cursed to himself. "Nana! Go away!"

Kiyoto grinned and walked briskly to the front door, much to Tommy's horror.

"But why, Tommy? Let me in!" Nana shouted, desperately trying to open the door.

"No!" Tommy cried out just as Kiyoto opened the door.

He heard Nana yelp and then the door slam. Kiyoto had grabbed her and was not dragging her into the kitchen with the others.

"Let her go!" Tommy said weakly, his vision blurring.

"Tommy!" Nana attempted to wrench herself from Kiyoto's grasp, but was shoved face-first into a wall.

"Are you that girl he was walking with?!" Tommy's stepfather demanded.

Nana struggled against him. "Yes! Now leave him alone!"

More tears started to run down her face as she saw Tommy's condition. His face was bruising and he had blood on the side and back of his head.

"You jerk!" She yelled at Kiyoto. "Why are you doing this?"

"Shut up." Kiyoto picked her up around the waist, then slammed her down onto a table.

"What are you doing?!" Tommy and Nana cried out simultanously.

The dark-haired man smirked. "You'll find out soon enough."

With that, he took the hem of Nana's skirt and and lifted it up.

"No!" Nana managed to kick him away.

"You little bitch!" Kiyoto grabbed her and hurled her onto the floor, his face red with anger.

Nana huddled close to Tommy, wrapping her arms around him. However, Kiyoto roughly took hold of Nana's arm. In the process, it popped off and he fell backward.

"What the fuck?!" He threw the prostetic away in horror. "That's fake?!"

Nana only sat there, frozen in fear. Tommy tried to hold her protectively in his arms, but Kiyoto stood back up and pushed his head back against a drawer below one of the counters. He then grabbed at Nana again, this time around the throat. Nana let out a whimper and released her vectors, shoving the man away.

Kiyoto stumbled back, his face in an expression of utter confusion. "How did you do that?!"

"It doensn't matter," Nana replied, trying to keep her voice from cracking. "Now let me and Tommy leave."

"Do you honestly think I'm that stupid?" Kiyoto's eyes narrowed and drew closer to her.

"I-I'm warning you!" Nana threatened, shaking a bit.

Tommy slowly rose to his feet, wincing as he did. He moved over to Nana and tried to stand in front of her.

"Leave her alone," he said in a tired voice.

Kiyoto stopped in his tracks and stared at the pair. "I have had it with the two of you. And if you don't want to do as I tell you, then I'm afraid that I have no choice."

Nana's heart skipped a beat. "What do you mean?"

Instead of answering, the man suddenly grabbed a knife from one of the racks and lunged forward. Tommy shoved Nana behind him protectively just as the knife was about to make contact.

"No!" Nana screamed.

Her vectors were released and they embedded themselves deep into the man's stomach. Kiyoto's eyes were wide and a river of blood seeped from the corner of his mouth. A moment later, the vectors were yanked out and swiped across his exposed neck, where he was promptly decapitated.

Tommy and Nana were splashed with Kiyoto's blood, their eyes wide in shock. His lifeless body crumpled to the floor, where it lay in a growing crimson puddle.

"N-Nana?" Tommy slowly looked at the girl behind him.

Nana was panting, and her heart was pounding. "Wha....what did I just do?"

Tommy didn't respond, and he couldn't help but to avert his eyes back onto Kiyoto's corpse.

"What have I done?" Nana began to tremble and she slowly backed away from Tommy.

She vaguely felt her vectors gather up her discarded prostetic arm and put it back into place.

"Nana...it's okay," Tommy finally said. "I'm just...shocked..."

However, Nana violently shook her head. "Tommy, I killed him!"

Before he could say anything, Nana bolted out of the house, sobbing.

"Nana! Wait!" He called after her.

Tommy was about to run after her when he noticed his mother moving slightly on the tiled floor. He quickly called 911, trying to tell the operator the whereabouts of his mother. When he finally got off the phone, he looked outside to see if Nana was there. The girl was no where in sight, and only left behind a few drops of blood....his deceased stepfather's blood...

Good news! Nana killed Kiyoto before he could kill them! Bad news! She feels horrible about killing him! Good news! Tommy was a good son and called an ambulance for his mother! Bad news! Nana's gone! Okay, that must be really annoying -_-; Please review and tell me if you liked this chapter, kay? And if you're not sure of everyone's ages, I wrote them below to stop the confusion. Kinda just decided on going with the ages from the actual Elfen Lied anime (didn't read the manga)

Takuya, Kouichi, Kouji- 19

Zoe- 18 (Haha! I can mess with ages any way I want!)

J.P.- 20

Tommy- 14

Nana- Almost 13

Kanae- 17 going on 18

Masaki- Unknown, but he looks to be around 21

Kakuzawa- 75...ish

and if there's anyone else who I forgot who you are curious about, just ask and I'll make up an age if they don't already have one

Next chapter of Red Rose comes out in a few days, and the next chapter of Dark Sanctuary will be out either tomorrow or Saturday (sorry, hectic week.)