Fall in the Fires,Rise from the Ashes.
Chapter 3: Within the Stars.
Bryan woke to the sound of sniffing. Looking around,he realized that their new brother was crying silently. Blinking away the sleep from his eyes,he stood and padded over quietly towards Kai's bed.
"Hey..." He silently nudged the boy lightly. When no response came and Kai kept his head buried in his knees which were folded up to his chest,Bryan frowned and touched his shoulder again,this time a bit harder, "Kai?"
"Go away." Came the muffled reply.
"Huh?" Bryan blinked. The boy was using the same tone he had used on his first day.
"Leave me alone." Kai hugged his knees tighter.
Tala's eyes opened as he heard a sob and a hiss. Sitting upright,he glanced at his best friend's bed only to find Bryan sitting in front of the small figure. He went over to the two, "What's wrong Kai? Does it hurt too much?" He helped himself up on the bed.
Kai shook his head gingerly.
"Then crying at this part of night is your hobby?" Bryan didn't mean to sound harsh but seeing Tala giving all his attention to the young boy made him somewhat...jealous.
Kai choked on a sob, "I...I miss...them."
"You miss who?" Tala looked at him with sympathy redialing from his ice blue eyes.
"Mama...and my...my father too." Kai shuddered.
"Oh Kai..." Tala hugged him gently,careful not to aggravate his wounds, "You'll see them soon someday,I promise."
Kai shook his head furiously and broke out of the embrace, "No,I wont...I wont ever see them again."
"Don't lose hope." Bryan forced himself to swallow his ego and patted Kai's arm.
"Of course you'll meet them again." Tala assured.
"No..." Kai snapped, "Why don't you understand...they're..." He couldn't bring himself to say the word 'dead' so he simply completed his phrase, "up there."
"Where?" The red head asked confused but Bryan picked up the hint in the sad tone. Kai had pointed towards the stars which peeked from a hole in the ceiling.
"Somewhere up there." Kai whispered more to himself than to his friends.
"You mean in heaven?" Tala asked innocently.
Kai blinked out of the trance, "I hope so."
"But...how? I mean,why? How did they went there?" The red head questioned again.
Something blocked Kai's voice and halted his thoughts at a certain memory.
FLASHBACK...
"Kai Alexander Hiwatari,you've killed your own parents. You murdered them." An elderly figure spoke as if making news of a weather report.
"No...I didn't...I would never..." The young boy sobbed.
"Soon,you'll be punished for killing your parents. You must come with me if you want to live."
"No grandfather,I wont leave my home. I wont leave Mama. I wont leave..." A hand tightened it's grip on the slender neck and shook the child violently.
"You will obey my order boy. And you will learn to respect me."
Kai tried to break free of the iron grip to get some space to breathe.
"And when I say you killed them,then I mean you killed them. Are you denying me boy?" The elder man glared at his only living relative.
Kai's eyes were burning as he shook with anger, "I didn't kill them. No matter what you say, I know I didn't."
There was an ironic smirk on the elder's face, "Then how do you explain this?"
His hand was merely touching a blood stain on the boy's chest.
"It's..." Kai lost his voice at the sight.
His mind was screaming at him in denial but he still believed his grandfather's words as his gingerly touched the crimson stain with a shaking hand.
Voltaire steered the young boy to stand in front of a mirror, "Look at yourself," He pointed, "Your eyes are red too. The same color as blood Kai. This is the proof that you killed your parents. Not to mention this stain as well."
And that was enough...enough for Kai Alexander Hiwatari to believe and admit to himself that he had committed the horrid task to killing his own parents...who loved him the most.
END FLASHBACK
Tala looked at Kai in surprise as he laughed bitterly, "Kai?"
The young boy raised his head and his tearful eyes met concerned blue ones, "I killed them Tala...I killed my own parents...I'm a murderer."
Tala and Bryan gasped and exchanged looks with each other before Bryan turned towards Kai, "Do you have any idea of what you're saying? That's impossible. You can't kill them."
"Yeah. And besides,why would you do that?" Tala glanced at his brother.
"But I did and I can prove it too." Kai had stopped laughing as he shook with fear, "I'm scared of myself now."
"How will you prove it?" Bryan narrowed his eyes.
"Look." Kai fixed his gaze on the lilac haired boy.
"What?" Bryan looked back equally.
"Here." Kai pointed towards his own eyes.
"Well,what is it?"
"The proof."
"Kai,what are you talking about?" Tala tried to ease the tension between his two brothers.
"My eyes are the proof." Kai told,his voice wavering slightly.
"I still don't understand." Bryan moved closer to Kai.
"My eyes are red. Blood is red too. Mama's blood was red. And my eyes have same color." Kai tried his best to explain.
"So? Blood is always red,you don't expect someone's blood to be blue or green,do you?" Bryan pointed out.
"But my eyes are red too. No one has red eyes. Only I have. And they are red because I killed my parents." Kai shook his head at his brother's lost expression.
"Kai...your eyes are natural. You didn't do anything to make them red,did you? It's not your fault." Tala attempted to snap the boy out of his reverie.
"No...this is all my fault." Kai exhaled deeply before blinking tiredly, "I miss them. But grandfather says it's my punishment because I killed them. That I'll miss them forever and I wont ever see them again."
"Your grandfather lied to you Kai. Your parents love you and you'll see them someday."
Kai shook his head sadly before re-positioning his thin blanket to sleep. Tala and Bryan left his bed to go to their own,taking in this piece of news.
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"Wake up brats. Master Boris wants to make an announcement." A guard banged at their door as he unlocked it.
The four brothers woke with a start. What could be so important right now? Getting ready for training,they thought about it but got to no conclusion.
"Now that all of you are here..."
The training room was filled with children who were gathered around a small stage where Boris was present. On his back was a door and in front of the door was a line of young boys.
"These are some new bladers which our abbey has found thankfully. They will be distributed among all the groups and will remain so." Boris's cold voice echoed as he took out a list and began to assign the new children to the previous groups.
"We're group 7." Tala told Kai in a whisper.
"Look at that kid." Bryan pointed out towards who seemed to be the youngest boy in the line.
"He seems really young." Spencer muttered.
"But he's...weird." Bryan scowled.
"How come?" Spencer asked him,amused at his behavior.
"I don't know Spence. There's just something about him which is weird."
"Maybe his size?" Tala guesses.
"Or maybe the size of his nose." Bry looked at the red head with a small smile.
Tala had to muffle his laughter as Boris called "And lastly group 7..."
"Whoa..." Tala couldn't complete his phrase.
"What the..." Bryan stared at their new group member disbelievingly, "No way...that thing is our new..." He shook his head.
Kai didn't show any special reaction. Spencer had a smile on his face as he saw Boris call out "Ian is assigned to group 7!"
"Ian..." Bryan repeated the name under his breath, "What a funny little guy."
Soon it was time for them to return back to their rooms so group 7 headed back too reaching their room late because every now and then,they would have to wait for their new member to catch up with them.
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Once inside the room, Ian was surrounded by his strange group.
"So...you're Ian?" Tala asked as they all made themselves comfortable on the beds to have a nice talk with their new friend.
Ian nodded, a bit unsure about his new friends.
"How old are you?" Spencer inquired.
"Ninety years!" Ian replied seriously.
"WHAT?"
The room was filled with laughter. Tala rolled on the floor laughing,Bryan was holding his stomach trying to regain his breath,Spencer's mouth was open and even Kai had a smile on his face.
"Funny!" Ian pouted.
"You can't be that...young!" Bryan breathed out,still laughing slightly.
"I know ninety." Ian tried to explain properly that he knew only that number but at the age of three and a half,how much clearly could you speak and explain yourself to others?
"Okay...you look like three or four years to me." Spencer observed.
"Who you?" Ian asked suspiciously.
"Oh,we haven't introduced ourselves yet." The blonde looked at him.
"Hello,I'm Tala." Tala quickly got off the floor and came to sit beside Kai who was on the other bed opposite the others.
"Tara?" Ian tried to repeat.
"Ta-la." The red head tried to teach him his name.
"Tara!" Ian repeated happily.
Bryan sighed, "And I'm Bryan."
"Byan?" Ian tried to get the word right.
"No,Bry-an." The lilac haired boy repeated.
"Byan!" Ian shook his head furiously.
"Okay,and my name is Spencer." The tallest of the group told the young boy.
"Pencer!" Ian followed.
Bryan rolled his eyes, "He's a lost case."
Ian expectantly turned to Kai,waiting to hear his name.
"Kai." Kai told the boy from where he sat with Tala.
"Aye!" Ian concluded.
"Pencer,Tara,Byan,Aye!" Ian gladly informed the boys.
Spencer had an amused smile on his face,Tala was looking at the youngest with wide eyes,Bryan was frowning and Kai was looking at Ian skeptically.
They were sure gonna learn how to stay together and look out for each other.
TBC...
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Rose out! :)
Until next time!