Chapter Twelve

"I really hate this!" I growled as I grabbed another apple and started to peel that one. There was a good sized pile by me all ready and it was getting taller fast. I was so frustrated I peeled the apple faster than normal so, eventually, my pile toppled over, which got me even more frustrated.

"Peeling apples isn't that bad," Hilary commented as she added another one onto the table.

"Hilary, it's the fact that I can't blade and I can't do anything to help them at all!" I said as I whirled around to look at her. "You don't blade, so you wouldn't understand what I'm dealing with." I threw down the apple I was peeling and the peeler before leaving the small kitchen-like cabin. I slammed the door shut, which caused everyone to turn their attention from their beyblades to me. "WHAT?" I barked, causing Lee and Raul to flinch at my tone. I glared at them all before going to the girls' bunk house.

I dropped down on my bunk and let out a huge sigh before opening my knapsack and pulling out a book. I settled back against the pillows and shoved the earbuds of Tyson's ipod into my ears (it took me forever to figure out how to turn it on) and began to get lost in the music.

I groaned as I sat up and held my head. Stars were in my eyes as I blinked and tried to look around. But I couldn't see anything. Darkness had me surrounded and my breath came out shuddered. I could see my breath float out of my mouth and suddenly cold wrapped its fingers around me in a touch grip. I shivered as I stood and looked around, rubbing my cold arms.

"G-Guys?" I whispered. My voice echoed throughout the darkness and I flinched, suddenly knowing that I was alone. "Where are you?"

A faint noise caught my attention. It was a noise I knew to well. It was a slap, either to a head or to a cheek. I touched my cheek lightly as I remembered all of those times…

Can't he see I'm afraid of him?

Can't he see I hate him?

No.

He can't see because he's blinded by anger.

Anger towards me for some unknown reason.

I started to walk…somewhere, as I rubbed my cold arms. Crying entered my ears. The sound echoed around me as I turned around trying to find out where it came from. I started running in one direction as the crying got louder and louder. I squeezed my eyes shut and blocked my ears but the sound invaded it. Suddenly light appeared in front of me as two people came into my view.

I looked closer and saw who it was and gasped.

It was me.

And him.

I was on the ground holding my red cheek as he stared down at me. I was whimpering as I tried to back away. And then, I was actually there, lying on the ground. My cheek suddenly hurt as I brought my hand up to it. I looked around to see the other me, but she was gone. I looked up and saw that his eyes were filled with hatred as his fists were clenched at his sides.

"What do you want from me?" I asked softly as I backed away. He grabbed my ankle and dragged me back as he brought down a belt to my side with a loud crack! I screamed as I twisted to the side and tried to get away.

I closed my eyes at the pain and at the crack sound as the whip rained down on my body. I squirmed but he held onto my ankle tight as he continued to hit me. Tears came out of my closed eyelids as I bit my lip to keep from screaming out loud.

I had to get away from the pain.

I just had to.

But I knew I wouldn't.

I never get away, no matter how far I ran.

I felt his grip on my ankle tighten and I curled up into a ball, squeezing my eyes shut tighter. Please go away! Please go away! Please! Please! Please! My wish never came true when I felt intense pain on my hip. He hit me over and over again, almost as if he were a personified metronome. I could only curl in pain but he held me so I wouldn't roll. I had to experience this pain all over again. I thought I was away from it, after all this time of running...

The pain suddenly stopped and all was quiet.

I opened my eyes and saw that I was sitting down at a stone table in a cold room. I looked around for something, for someone, but it was just us two. I looked down at the spaghetti that was in front of me and looked back up at him.

"What? Are you not hungry?" He asked innocently as he lifted a forkful of spaghetti to his mouth. I just stared at him. What's going on here? Where am I? I wanna go home! I WANNA GO HOME!

"You are home," he said as if he were voicing my thoughts. Had he heard me? It's so hard to tell sometimes. "Now eat your dinner!" I just sat there staring at the plate before my face scrunched up. I grabbed the plate and threw it at the wall above his head.

"What's going on? Where am I? Why did you take me? I want to go home! I WANT TO GO HOME!"I shouted as I slammed my palms onto the table and stood facing him.

"Sit down," he said firmly, his dark eyes glaring in my direction.

"NO! TAKE ME HOME! I WANT TO GO HOME!" I shouted again.

"YOU ARE HOME! NOW SIT DOWN!" He yelled back at me.

"NO!"

"No one dis obeys me!"

He grabbed his plate and threw it at me. I didn't have time to move as it hit me in the head and cracked. I screamed as I fell back and hit my head on the floor. I scrambled to my feet and started to run and I could hear his footsteps after me. I reached the slate gray door when he easily grabbed the back of my shirt and yanked me to the ground. I heard the familiar sound of metal shifting and then felt the same stinging, burning pain from before.

"Stop it! Stop!" I screamed as I felt myself slowly growing weaker and weaker, my adrenaline fading as I tried to fight back.

"SHUT THE FUCK UP!" He yelled, bringing his arm up again. His other hand pressed my face into the cold stone floor. I could feel dirt pressing and sticking to my face from the tears that were falling from my eyes. Anguished sobs fell out of my mouth with every hit that landed on my body.

"…crystal…"

I lifted my head as I heard someone say my name.

It sounded exactly like Max.

"…crystal…" it said again.

It was Max.

"…crystal, wake up…"

"What?" I whispered.

"I SAID SHUT THE FUCK UP!" He yelled as he picked up my head and slammed it into the floor.

"…crystal, wake up…"

Wake up…

I closed my eyes and I felt the pain slowly fade away, but I felt random throbs. I gasped as I felt air rush into my lungs and I felt my chest rise and fall as I tried to get my breathing back to normal. I felt sweat drip down my forehead, but I still wouldn't open my eyes.

"Wake up." I forced my eyes open and stared at the bottom of the bunk that was above me. I took deep breaths to settle my racing heart before I tilted my head slightly to see Max looking at me, concern filled his blue eyes. "Are you all right? You were screaming in your sleep, we thought you got attacked," he said as I sat up and pushed my hair out of my face.

"I…I'm fine," I muttered as I glanced down at my arm that was in a sling, hatred burning through my body.

"Are you sure? You're shaking."

"Yes. I'm sure. I just…I'll watch you guys blade for a while," I decided as I stood and stretched. Max nodded and led me out of the bunk house. Bitterness filled me as I watched everyone concentrating on their beybattles. What got on my nerves even more was the fact that Mariah, Julia, and Matilda declared that they would take up every spot on the team that we were trying to form to beat BEGA.

"Don't get your hopes up, girls," I told them, the words tumbling from my mouth before I could stop them. "I can beat all of you single handed." I glanced down at my arm and quickly added, "Literally."

"Oh yeah? Well, prove it!" Julia said with a smirk as I got to my feet and held her gaze.

"Bring it on!" I said back as I walked over to the dish.

"Crys, you shouldn't do this," Tyson said, appearing by my side. "You have to rest, you can't beybattle."

"Tyson, you can't tell me what I can and can't do!" I snarled as I took my position behind the dish. "Besides, Dricen needs the practice."

"But –"

"Tyson, let her do it," Max told him. "She's about as stubborn as you are so the fact that you're trying to stop her isn't going to register in her mind." He gave a small smile and added, "Besides, I'm sure she's going to surprise us all."

"Thank you Max," I said with a small smile towards him before I turned to face Julia. "Don't be in a bitchy mood when you loose because I warned you," I told her as she nodded in understanding. "All right, let's get this battle started."

I barely had my fingers wrapped around my beyblade when a voice rang out, "Put the blade down." I growled inwardly. Why the hell does he always get in the way of things?

"Back off, Ray, I know what I'm doing," I said without looking at him.

"Right, you're just going to land yourself in a cast if you blade," he replied. "Now put it down." I turned to glare at him only to receive a steely glare in return. I've only seen that look on his face a few times and each time it scared me. Of course I was a little kid back then. Now, it was as if he had practiced it. I cursed myself when I flinched under his gaze.

"Why do you always gotta ruin everything?" I demanded, crossing my arms over my chest and glaring at a random tree.

"If you want to go ahead and break your arm, that's fine with me, but you're going to feel worse about not being able to blade once you do. Go ahead, do something stupid, deal with the consequences," he shrugged.

"And of course the Almighty Ray s right about everything," I mumbled bitterly. A shadow of a smile formed on his face but he didn't say anything.

"Don't worry about it. You can watch us," Tyson offered with a smile.

"Thanks but no thanks. Watching only makes it worse. I'll go see if Mr. Tate needs more help." I turned and walked back into the kitchen, smiling a little when the delicious smell of food wafted past my nostrils. I tried blocking out the sounds of the others beyblading but it was as loud as a stereo turned all the way up. There was no chance I was going to get away from it, especially up here.

"What?" I asked without turning around. I felt more than knew that Ray was behind me.

"Come with me," he replied.

Now I turned around. "Why?" I demanded, suspiciously.

"We're going to have to change up your training seeing as you currently can only move one arm," he replied. "Which means you're basically going to have to learn to blade all over again."

"What?" I blinked.

He sighed. "You're right hand dominate so you blade with your right hand which means you have more strength in that hand. Now that you can't use it you have to learn to blade with your left hand which is weaker which means you wouldn't be able to pull of simple stuff such as launching if your hand is weak. If you want to get back into the circuit quicker you're going to have to learn all over again."

"That's why you stopped me from blading?"

He nodded. "I figured you'd know what would have happened if you did blade. What?" A slow smile formed on his face. "Did you think I was just trying to 'ruin your fun'?" He asked with finger quotes. I didn't reply, I merely scowled. "You have to learn to trust me. I'm not the captain of the team for nothing."

"Whatever," I mumbled.

"That's it? A one word comeback? You can do better than that." I wanted to wipe that irritating smile off of his face with my fist so badly right now. My fingers twitched, waiting to curl into a ball.

He could really bug me sometimes.