Hey people of the internet, welcome to the beginning of the end for Slavery (this is not the final chapter) so I hope you enjoy. Just so you know, it takes me about a week to write a chapter, especially as long as this, and still get it kind of in the way I want it. So in those 7 days my mood drastically changes so please excuse me if my writing style differs in parts of the chapter.
And I'm super sorry, this was done yesterday but I didn't post it…
Okay; on with the story!
Breathe in. And breathe out. Breathe in. And breathe out.
Focus on your breathing Cole, focus on that refreshingly stale air that's drifting around the room, and occupy your mind with thoughts on how you're going to clean up this room when you get out. Don't think about the blood stains of the floor, don't think about them! Don't look at the red covered cane laying on the floor, taunting you, mocking you, teasing you, don't think about it.
But I couldn't help it, I couldn't help but stare and contemplate on all these things that could be part of my final hours here on this planet. The cold room, the scary surroundings, the body… I didn't even check if he was alive or not, maybe he's just unconscious and dad hit him so hard that he passed out or something. I looked down at my hand, the bleeding had stopped a while ago and was now simply stinging whenever in came into contact with anything, including my nightshirt which I was clutching it to. I needed to get to Kai, but I really didn't feel like moving and not because I was tired but my chest really hurt and whenever I moved then my hand would start paining all over again. But Kai's wounds needed to be closed and he'd die, if he's not already dead, if I don't help him. But what if he is dead, I can't handle dealing with a dead body right now. He needs your help Cole, help him!
I moved my legs and stretched them out in front of me, next I moved my left hand to the ground and pushed my body up. The pain that spread throughout my chest knocked the breath out of my lungs and sent my hand into flaming agony once again. I wined a little before I pulled myself together and concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other. I never would have thought that such a simple task such as walking would become so difficult for me, every time my feet took a step it sent a shockwave of pain that travelled up my leg, out to my chest and what I felt in my hand was like an aftershock. My body boiled under the heat of stress that it was being put under and all I could think about was taking the next step and getting to the body that was just barely out of reach. Once I had finally reached his still figure, I bent my knees and collapsed into them, which I can say with certainty, was a horrible idea which put me in more discomfort than I was already in. But at least I made it to his body, that's an accomplishment.
My legs were drenched in his cold blood, I could feel it but I couldn't see it that well, he wasn't moving, that's for sure. I hesitantly reached out my left hand and touched his hand, making sure to not breathe in the prominent smell of metal that seemed to radiate off of his form. "Kai, wake up." My voice was hoarse and scratchy as it came from my throat, I coughed a few times before I could continue taking in air. What came up didn't surprise me much but rather made me worry, I rubbed the slimy red off on my pants leg and returned my focus to Kai. "Come on, don't be dead please. I still need your help getting out of here." I turned him a little to get a better look at his head injury, he was bleeding but it didn't look that bad really. Most of his body was swollen and all different shades of discolouration, blue, black and red where the blood was clotting. I had to fight back my food when I turned his body. The smell hit me full force and the weight was straining my muscles of the last little bit of energy they had left. I managed to turn him over but the sudden snap that echoed from my chest sent my mind reeling and my resistance flying out the window. I turned my body and head away from Kai, which hurt me so much, and threw up everything that I had eaten that evening. At that moment I felt like dying, I felt empty and I felt pain, it was always pain. My eyes hardly stayed open long enough to see how I had collapsed to the ground next to Kai and just drifted off into the sweet bliss of exhaustion.
"-ole, roll over." The distant voice rang through my head and woke me up from my sleep. It was deep and rumbled a bit, I could hear that is was extremely close to me. "Five more minutes dad." I mumbled out and turned my head further away, my hand was searching for the blanket. But then a sharp and sudden pain made me jolt to life, I yelped and sprang up, eyeing my bloody hand. At first I thought that I was still dreaming and that my subconscious was messing with me, but when I hesitantly reached out to touch it then I yelped again and put as much distance between me and my hand as possible. "W-wha' happened?" I asked the slightly fuzzy man kneeling in front of me. "Calm down, I need to close that wound of yours and at least wrap it up. I'm Doctor Julian." My horrified expression told him what state I was in, I couldn't comprehend why may hand was broken and wet with my own blood. "Why is my hand broken?" He chuckled under his breath and proceeded to take various medical supplies out of his little bag. I really couldn't remember when, why or how I had broken my hand. And why didn't my dad take me to the hospital or something? "Cole, you're in shock. Once you calm down then you'll start feeling better okay." All I could do was nod my head and hold my hand out for him to clean up.
While waiting for the doctor to do his job my eyes wondered around the room, I was in a dark place, the same dark room that our slaves usually go to. There was blood spread throughout the room, against the walls and mostly on the floor, I had to hold back a gag at the sight. Then my eyes travelled down to my clothing where my shirt was soaked with dry blood and my pants had smudges of it, I frowned and bit my lip as I tried to understand where all this had come from. Then I looked to my side and saw a body, I shrieked and nearly jumped out of my skin at the sight, which of cause sent a shock of pain to my hand but I could hardly focus on that. I quickly scooted away while the doctor held onto my arm to keep me still. "Cole, Cole! Listen, he's not dead." I turned towards the commanding voice and tried to avert the body that could just barely be seen in the corner of my eye. "Who is he?" I asked with concern as I watched the doctor take out some cotton wool. "I really don't know. I came in and saw you two just laying here fast asleep." I gathered up enough strength to look back over at the boy next to me, at least he looked like he was breathing. Or was that just my imagination playing tricks on me? "Can you help him?" I asked the doctor but not before flinching when the sharp stinging of the disinfectant seeped into my cut. "Careful!" I received a breathy laugh and a short apology, but not a reply to my answer.
"Doctor Julian?" My voice was much softer since I had calmed down from the initial pain, my hand was currently being wrapped up and was hardly visible beneath the clean white tapes that were hiding it. "Yes?" he answered with a small smile on his face. I could see that he was concentrating and was certainly very good at his job, his platinum blonde hair was neatly combed to the back with only a few stubborn stands daring to fall in his face. He simply blew them away with a short breath if they ever got in the way. If his short hair was annoying him so much then he would hate to have my hair, it was practically glued to the side of my face. "You never did answer my question." I continued and I saw him pause for a moment before finishing up his own work, he glanced at the boy beside me before sighing. "Your father told me to help you and only you. He said that the other on isn't important." Confusion washed across my face but was quickly replaced by anger. "Why would he say that?" then I realised that the boy must be a slave.
And that's when it hit me. My father was hurting Kai and I broke my hand chasing after them and then got locked in with him. "His name is Kai." I whispered out. The doctor raised an eyebrow at me and then to the slave. "His name is Kai and he's my slave." I looked towards the unconscious body and then said in a much softer voice, "He's my friend." The doctor then looked to me with a small but bright smile across his lips. "I could give you some supplies and tell you what to do, then I wouldn't technically be helping the other boy. But you need to be careful because you've hurt your ribs and I'll need to do an x-ray to find out if you have a broken rib or something else." He explained to me and then began hastily taking other things out of his little supply bag.
He handed me a small role of bandages and some blocks of gauze. "If he is still bleeding then apply pressure to the wound. You can clean it up with this," he lifted the cotton wool, "and this." He then took out some of his disinfectant but in a much smaller bottle. "And when your done then just wrap it up nice and tight like I did with your hand, okay?" I nodded and looked at my hand before looking at the boy. "Okay, thanks." He smiled and stood up, he walked to the door with back up strait while he fixed his hair. "Good luck." His voice was barely above a whisper as he stepped through the doorway and closed the door. I don't know how I failed to notice it before but when I looked closely then I could spot a small splotch of blood of the side of the door. That must've been from when it slammed into my hand.
"Okay Kai, let's get you fixed up." I said to myself mostly and positioned my body so that his head could rest in my lap. It was painful and revolting, two very unpleasant things that I seemed to acknowledge at the same time, that doctor was right about my ribs being hurt, it felt like maybe it was broken. Kai dampened my pants once again and I fought hard to hold back from leaning over and puking my guts out. But now that I smelt the air, it already smelt like vomit in here. I turned my head slightly and gazed upon the discoloured liquid spewed across the floor, my mind concluded that I may have been responsible for that and I should probably turn my head away before that happens again.
I cleaned to wound with the cotton wool, making sure to be careful around the small gash that was on his forehead, it really didn't look that bad when all the blood was gone. Then I proceeded to press the gauze onto the small open wound, it stopped bleeding soon after but the time it took to get to that point was much longer than that if a person able to use both hands would have taken to do it. I wrapped his head up as best I could and sat him up right next to me. My internal clock told me that it was round about late morning, but I couldn't see, the only thing that make my estimate partially true was the rumble in my stomach. I sure was hungry, but I doubt that my father would make an effort to bring me some food or water, especially since he left me in my previous state. "Well Kai, I guess it's just you and me now. At least, until my dad comes back." I mumbled and rested a hand on my torso.
"Are you hungry too?" I asked and looked over to see that Kai had his head resting on my shoulder, it slumped down quite low with my body. All I could do was wait, wait for my dad to show up, wait for Kai to wake, wait for my body to stop hurting. In all honesty, this waiting was driving me insane. "When are you going to wake up Kai, I'm bored."
"And how would you like me to entertain you?"
"You're awake!" I ignored the dulled throbbing pain in my ribs and turned to wrap my arms around his body. I smiled with glee as I pulled him closer. After a few moments he hesitantly responded to my hug, he was warm and soft and loveable and everything that I needed in a person right now. "I missed you so much, I thought you were dead." Kai made a sound that was something of a grunt and a snort combined, "I thought so too." Was his only reply.
When we let each other go Kai moved his hands to inspect the bandages that covered his head. I watched as his hand glided over the bumpy and rough material, his face shifted from concern to confusion and finally rested on neutral. "You have a lot of bruises all over your body but your head seemed to have the most damage. There was a doctor here that gave me some things to help you." He nodded, satisfied with the explanation, until his eyes travelled down to my hand. I followed his gaze and covered the injured hand with my good one, "I broke my hand. It's okay now though." I brushed it off, he didn't have to worry about me right now. We needed to figure out a plan to get out of here and find some proper help. I was about to voice my thoughts when Kai spoke up first. "Why did you come after me?" I stared at him stunned, 'why would my father beat him for no reason?' would have been a better question surely. "W-what do you mean? I couldn't just leave you with him" I had a surprised and confused smile across my face, maybe he had gotten his head hit harder than I thought. "You didn't have to." His face was neutral and refused to betray him of his emotions. "I don't think my morals would agree." I argued back and tried to figure out what had caused him to think about this, it was over, it was done. We needed to find a way out of here now not argue about the past. "He hurt be more because you wanted to protect me, then he hurt you." My mouth opened to deny it but he had a point, but was he blaming me for all the pain that he went through? It's not my fault, I was trying to help him, and I didn't want him to get beaten. If it was anyone's fault then it was Kai, there had to be a reason for my father to get so mad as to drag him out.
"Are you saying that I'm the reason all this happened?" I pointed to myself, he didn't reply but only stared right into my eyes. His golden amber no longer brought me serine comfort but rather stood there, judging me for the 'crimes' I had committed. I let out a breathy laugh that made my ribs tingle, this was hilarious how he blamed me for our predicament. "You know what, it's not my fault, and it's not because of me that you got beaten. You're just a little confused since you got hit in the head-"
"Because you didn't listen to your father." He interrupted me, this was getting annoying and pointless and energy wasting. "We don't have time to deal with this right now, we either work together to get out or… or we wait for my father to come back and…"
It was a scary thought, I couldn't imagine my father hurting me, much less killing me or another human being. But after what happened last night, I had no doubt that he was a dangerous man, someone that I could not trust not to hurt me more that he already had. I could barely comprehend the thought of my father, the person I look up to and was supposed to protect me, doing this much damage to his own son.
Only when I felt smooth, wet and warm steaks flowing down my face did I snap back to reality. I turned away from Kai because there was no way that I'd want him to see me weak and petty. He'd gone through so much worse and I had no right to sit here and cry about my daddy issues. A small and quiet hiccup escaped my lips as I wiped my eyes, I was feeling hot and uncomfortable in the room, it felt as though the walls were smothering me and drowning me in an ocean of terrible thoughts. My tears had stopped after a few moments and I was left breathing heavily in a dirty room filled with things that could only be found in my worst nightmares. "Cole?" Kai's voice drifted through my mind, it felt like a hallucination really, surreal. Kai moved in front of me and laid a hand on my shoulder, it was light and uncertain but it was there. My eyes made contact with his own and I could feel him drowning out the shadows that threatened to engulf me. "Cole." His voice had a much softer tone to it, it circled my mind like a blanket that covered and protected me from the cold.
"I sorry." He looked away as he spoke, as if ashamed of something that he had done. I continued to stare, and read the change of expression that flowed across his face. Conflict, uncertainty, confusion and fear. I was almost sure that I mirrored him, I was afraid, unsure and hurt physically and mentally. "Me too." I said. His gaze then returned to me and some little speck of something else took residence in his eyes, some kind mischievous sparkle. His hand stayed rested on my shoulder and he averted his eyes and bounced them around the room. I looked at him, expecting him to do something but I wasn't entirely sure what it was, maybe it filling a void.
It took a split second to catch up with how fast he moved, my mind was a blur and my head melted in the heat. Plump, soft, gentle, all the things you never would have been able to prepare yourself for, it was firm but not forceful, perfect really. I just never expected my first kiss to be with my first slave. My eyes slowly closed and I willed myself to calm down and relax my surprised and stiffened body. His hand let go and drifted away from my body and soon we lost all contact, my eyes opened to see him looking at me with a light dust of pink covering his cheeks.
"That." I have no idea what it was supposed to mean but I felt like I just had to point it out, to reassure myself that what just happened was real and not just a figment of my imagination. "M-my dad used to do it to my mom to make her feel better." He admitted and looked away as the blush darkened. I took his hand in my own and laced out fingers together, I don't know what I was feeling at that moment but I felt that it had to be done. Burning heat surrounded me, my thoughts were all jumbled up and my senses tuned out almost completely. But what I was doing felt right. "It worked." I made sure to add a smile at the end for good measure.
"So what-"
The sudden bang of the door swinging open drew both of our eyes to the bright and shining light from outside. "What's going on here?" My dad's thundering voice travelled across the small room and bounced from the walls, making it sound like thunder. Both Kai and myself flinched at the volume and quickly untangled our hands but Lou had already spotted the intimate contact. His eyes widened for a second before narrowing into thin slits that seemed to cut into my very being. "Dad it's not-" I didn't have time to finish, Lou had stomped over to my side and grabbed my hand–the broken one—and dragged me out across the room. I screamed and cried and cursed my brain for focusing on the sharp sensation that shocked my hand and arm. Kai rushed after my dad and tried to get him away but was forced to the ground with a solid kick to the leg.
The door shut, a trail of blood followed us and my voice had died out long before. Dark splotches danced around in my vision before my eyes couldn't bear to stay open anymore, the pain numbed and so did the pounding in my head.
This is absolute shiz! Oh my gosh, I planned out this story, I knew exactly what was going to happen; Kai was going to wake up, him and Cole would make a plan to get Lou 'out of the equation' and then they would all live happily ever after, but then this monstrosity happened. And now I have pushed myself into a teeny tiny little corner.
Please leave a review on what you think will happen next, will Cole die, will Kai die and what could have happened to Nya? Now I'll need to change the summary.
Thanks for reading and can someone please write a Hunger Games AU for Ninjago? And maybe a Divergent one too? (Sorry for all the requests :D)
Shout outs: kittykat, Ninjagymnastgirl (loved your review) and KaiRocksRainbow (obviously)
and a special one to ColeForever :)