The Unpredictable Battlefield
Chapter 12- Scars
TyKa
But Tyson was wrong, Tala was far from being over the moon, he cursed at the draw results. Truth was he wanted to be the one put up against Calvin. He swore he knew the boy from somewhere but couldn't put his finger on it.
After the attempt on Kai's life, he feared that him and the rest of the Blitzkrieg Boyz would be targeted next, then this Calvin-kid shows up from nowhere and this shady tournament is announced. He wanted answers.
Suddenly an idea occurred to him: If he could figure out the identity of who was organizing the tournament, maybe it would shed some light on who was possibly after Kai. Every bone in his body was telling him Calvin was somehow apart of this, but he needed solid, concrete evidence and to keep his snooping on the down-low. There was only one person in the world who could help him figure out this mystery.
He sat at his laptop and began typing. /Kenny, I need your help with something -Tala/
He got a response about 5 minutes later. /Sure, what do you need?/
"Let it rip!" I launched Dranzer for the 83rd time that day and smirked in satisfaction as the blade cut the stones neatly in half. The tournament was tomorrow, I had to train both my mind and my body who whatever tricks Calvin was going to pull – I am sure that he was going to cheat. And I was sure that the tournament officials were going to pretend that they weren't going to see it.
At least I didn't have to worry about Tyson. Tala was a strong opponent, but he did fight fairly. Though, I was curious to know what made him sign up for the tournament in the first place and what was so important about it that he would fly in from Russia. I needed to speak to him soon and find out what he knew that I didn't. But first – I launched Dranzer again and had her dart in between pebbles, watching her balance and speed carefully, prepared to make any altercations necessary to the blade to make sure it was perfect.
I blinked as a familiar white blade crashed into Dranzer and I looked up to see Tyson with a challenging smirk on his face.
He asked for it...
Our blades charged at each other, dodging and counter-attacking, metal scrapping against metal as sparks were produced. My heart raced as adrenaline pumped through my veins.
Oh how I wished Tyson was my opponent instead.
Our blades struck each other again and bounced backwards violently - Tyson and I snatched them in mid-air. Our match had been settled in a draw- for now.
"Woo-hoo! That was some awesome blading guys!" I looked up to see Max cheering, Calvin who was standing next to him looked like he was in shock, his face as white as a ghost.
Hn. Maybe I had nothing to worry about after all. A part of me couldn't help but notice the bandage that was wrapped around his wrist. I thought about his scars and the identical ones I had, hidden under my gloves.
No. I was no stranger to self-harm, the question that burned at the back of mind though, was if he had done it for the same reasons I had. Did he and I have more in common than I previously thought?
Then I remembered our 'conversation' in the washroom and I found myself not giving a damn again. That's right - he was the enemy. My only goal was to crush him so bad in the tournament that he would realize that I could never be beaten and would be forced to go back to whatever sewer he crawled out of.
But what sewer had he crawled out of? Was he acting alone? Was he with Boris? Was he secretly working for my Grandfather? Or some other new kind of threat? The one thing I did know was that child soldiers didn't just happen- they were made. Who or what had turned Calvin into a killing machine? And most importantly – like me, like Tala – could he change?
Ugh. Being around Tyson has made me soft.
Later that night I was sleeping in Tyson's room for the 3rd night in a row, when I heard him whisper, "Hey Kai, you awake?"
"Hn."
"You nervous about the tournament tomorrow?"
"No."
"Neither am I. Now that I've gotten over the fact I won't be facing you, I can't wait to go up against Tala."
I smiled. Tyson was a true beyblader; didn't matter who his opponent was, he would put his heart into every match.
"I kinda realized this match between you and Calvin might be a good thing too. Maybe you guys can get out whatever is in your system and at the very least come to an understanding and learn to respect each other."
"Hn." Sorry Tyson. Maybe if he didn't want my head. "Don't get your hopes up."
"I know, I know." He sighed. "What do you think could possess a person to harm themselves the way he has?"
Why did he have to ask that? Why did I feel so compelled to answer? "Too many reasons."
I heard him sit-up. "What do you mean by that? How would you know?"
"Forget I said anything."
"Wait, Kai!" I heard him flick on the lamp that was on his bedside table. "Let me see your hands."
I knew where this was going. "I said forget about it Tyson." Before I knew it, he was on top on me, straddling my waist, he grabbed my wrists and pinned them down. I fought against the blush that was threatening to rise up to my cheeks as dirty images surfaced in my mind. "Granger, what the hell?" But the look on his face said it all, as he looked at my exposed scars.
"Kai." he breathed. "Why?"
There was no skirting around the topic now and I looked away from those concerned brown eyes. "Get off of me and I'll tell you." he obeyed and shifted himself so he was sitting on my futon and looked at me expectantly. "When I was at the abbey, the scientists made us go through horrible experiments and exercises. Working us to the very bone. I realized quickly that I wasn't strong enough to go through that much pain. Then one day I cut myself on Dranzer. It hurt and it stung so bad that it forced me to focus on it and I forgot about the other pain that I was going through, Then a week later, I cut myself again, but this time it was intentional. It made me forget about everything else and focus on that burning sting. Soon I was doing it all the time. It was pain I could manage. It was pain I could control. The pain helped me survive. Pretty soon I couldn't feel anything anymore. I was numb."
I was surprised when Tyson wrapped his strong arms around me. "You'll never have to go through that much pain alone, ever again – I promise."
~Tears stung my eyes. I believed him. ~
Sorry that this chapter was so late! Work kicked my ass last week...
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