***WARNING*** So this chapter turned out a lot darker then I thought it would be... there is a lot of brutal torture going on. If you are a younger age or very sensitive, please scroll down to something that should say in bold (READ ON HERE) if you read from there you should be able to understand the chapter without reading the torture parts.
Kairi had always known that torture was horrible to go through, but torture from Arlene? That is twice as worse.
The princess had just been thrown (literally) back in her cell not that long ago, and now she was back to cowering in the corner once again. Her hands could not stop running through her hair, which was now so short that it was just above her shoulders, and she continued to feel the multiple cuts on her head. She had been growing her hair out for years, years, and now that it was just cut back to the length it was when she was fourteen, but done sloppy, made her upset.
But how could she complain about her hair being short when she was covered in multiple slashes, bruises and the burns?
She supposed that the slashes weren't that horrible, since they did only cut just enough to make her bleed lightly. But then again there were so many of them running along her arms… And the bruises? They came mostly from being thrown around by her now short hair and were all over her body, but they weren't that bad. The burns however covered her whole body and mostly came from when Arlene tied Kairi by the hands to a post and used her as target practice for her firgara attacks… The princess was shocked those didn't get rid of the hair she had left.
But then again, Kairi felt like she shouldn't complain, since she was taking the blow that would have gone to her friends, to Sora.
Also she was thankful that Vanitas had not joined Arlene in torturing her. She really began to wonder as to why he did not lay a hand on her and only watched as Arlene did all those horrible things to her.
Kairi heard the sound of the door open, which made her heart beat twice as fast. She knew what that meant; she was ready to torture her even more. Had it even been a day since she was last tortured? The princess was not sure, but either way, she was not sure if she could handle anymore.
But then she remembered, Xehanort told Arlene not to kill her yet, which meant they needed her. Maybe the torture wouldn't be that bad this time, since they needed her.
This time, it was Braig's lingering will that came into the room, holding the keys to the cell in his hand. "Good morning Princess…" He said as he opened the door, "Don't tell me you aren't going to come here like a good girl?"
Kairi didn't move from her corner.
"Fine, have it your way." Kairi knew then that she had made the wrong mistake. Braig then walked up to her and kicked her in the stomach as hard as he could, causing her to stumble onto her stomach. Braig took his opportunity and tied Kairi's hands behind her back with the rope once again, and then blindfolded her. Braig then grabbed her by her short hair and forced her to stand before making her walk. The walking was painful, since Kairi did fall a few times and the only thing that was keeping her up was Braig holding onto her hair.
After some walking, Kairi felt herself be thrown onto the ground, being pushed face first. Kairi then felt someone take off her blindfold, and the horrible sight of Arlene's will was the first thing her eyes saw.
"Good morning dearest." Arlene said as she stood up, Kairi just being able to stay up on her knees. The princess looked around, seeing that Vanitas was once again in the room, standing against a wall not too far away from her. But what really made a chill travel down Kairi's spine was that Xehanort's will was here to, sitting in a chair being what appeared to be a large bucket of water…
Oh no.
"I hope you are happy because it looks like you will finally be getting cleaned today." Arlene said evilly. Arlene then went for her pocket of her boat and pulled out one of her knives, and cut Kairi's shirt right down the center, revealing the princess's white tank top she wore underneath. Once Arlene pulled away the remnants of her shirt, she took her knife and sliced Kairi's jeans, now making them into short shorts and cutting Kairi's legs open slightly. The will then took off Kairi's combat boots and socks, revealing her bare feet.
Arlene grabbed Kairi by the hair again, this time literally dragging the princess to the large bucket. Kairi tried to fight back, clawing at the floor, but nothing worked. Without warning Kairi was thrown into the bucket of water.
The water was boiling, literally boiling just enough so it wouldn't kill her. It was much deeper then she thought it would be, with her shoulders resting at the rim of the water, and it was much bigger then she thought it was, about the size of hot tub. But what made Kairi mad was the fact that Xehanort was sitting right there, getting a first row seat of what was about to happen.
Arlene managed to grab Kairi's and pull her close to her face. "Now I am going to ask you a question Kairi, if you guess it right, your head won't go under, if you don't guess it right, well I am sure you can figure out what will happen."
Kairi closed her eyes; she knew she was going to go under the water for each question.
"Question number one, who is the weakest one in this room right now?"
You, Kairi wanted to say, but she remained quiet and with that Kairi's head went under the water. Kairi thought she could handle it, she could hold her breath underwater just as long as Sora and Riku back on the islands, but what made her lose her breath was Arlene grabbing Kairi by the ankle and placing something burning hot against her feet. This made the princess cry out in pain, and allowed water to enter her lungs. She could hear the muffled sound of Xehanort and Arlene's laughter as her head finally was allowed back on the surface.
"Question number two, who is the strongest one in this room?"
Kairi did not answer, the process continued.
"Question number three, why are you so weak?!"
No answer again, the process continued.
This process occurred several more times after that. Kairi had let so much water into her lungs that she vomited several times during the process. This was pure torture, this was horrible.
Kairi was relieved when Arlene grabbed her by the hair once again and threw her onto the ground. She finally felt safe, surrounded by air again, that was until Xehanort walked over to her and bent down to her level, grabbing the princess by both her cheeks and lifting her head up. "Behold you two, this was once the face of a beautiful young girl, and now she has turned into a hideous torture slave." He mocked.
Kairi did not show fear. She knew what they were trying to do; they were trying to break her so that even if she did make it out of her, she would continue to be haunted by what they did to her. But it was not working; it was going to take a lot more then this to break her.
Kairi began to cough more water out of her lungs when Xehanort finally let her go. "I hope you understand Kairi that you belong to me now," Xehanort grabbed Kairi by the neck and began to lift her off the ground, "In the end, you will always kneel."
Xehanort threw her again, this time throwing her right into the side of the barrel she was tortured in, breaking the barrel and causing water to burst out onto the floor. Xehanort then walked up to her again. "I am going to give you a chance to prove to me that you know that Kairi," he stood boldly over her, "kneel to me."
Kairi coughed more. What they were doing to her was horrible, but she was not going to give in. "N-never."
Xehanort looked down at her angrily. "Wrong choice, Arlene?"
Arlene came walking towards Kairi again, holding her knife in her hand. For a brief second, Kairi looked over at Vanitas's will, who turned his head away. She knew from that one movement that what was about to come wasn't good.
The first thing Arlene did was take her knife and but a small line on the side of Kairi's lip, allowing blood to fall down her face. Arlene then appeared to make the knife go up her sleeve as she took her hand out and punched Kairi right in the face over and over again. Arlene then stepped on Kairi's arm, the one that didn't have the bracelet on it, and Kairi screamed, knowing that she had just broken it. Kairi screamed at the top of her lungs again when Arlene began to kick Kairi in the stomach over and over again, the brief laughter of Arlene being heard above her.
"Enough," Xehanort said, holding his hand out. "Force her to stand."
Arlene then grabbed Kairi by her hair once again, making her stand on her legs which could not support her at the moment. Knowing this, Arlene only continued to hold Kairi by the hair.
"I believe that is enough torture for you for one day, Vanitas," Xehanort gestured for Vanitas to come over, which he did. "Take her to her cell."
But then something happened.
Kairi felt something enter her chest, something that made her gasp and scream at the same time.
Kairi looked down at her stomach, seeing a blue and yellow knife was sticking in her, with Arlene's hand clutching on to it as she laughed evilly. As soon as she pulled the knife out, Kairi fell to the floor, gasping for air.
(READ ON HERE) Kairi could not believe that Arlene had just stabbed her.
Xehanort only watched over her with his hands behind his back as Arlene laughed, but Vanitas seemed to take a different approach to this.
"What the hell are you doing?!" He yelled.
"She was not breaking, it had to be done." Arlene folded her arms.
The voices around Kairi began to get very faint after this moment. She knew death was knocking on her door.
"What point of we need her alive don't you understand?!"
There was hurt in Vanitas's voice, Kairi could tell that much.
Xehanort did not react the way Vanitas, or Kairi for that matter, thought he would. "Now Arlene, was that really necessary?" He asked calmly.
"I think yes."
"That's because you are an idiot!" Vanitas fought.
"If you believed it had to be done, then what's done is done." Xehanort continued.
"But you told me we need her alive!"
"We will have her alive, I'll just send Ansem in to heal her wounds, he is our best healer." Xehanort added.
"Do you really expect her to survive this? After this lunatic tortured and drove a knife into her body?!" Vanitas yelled again.
"Ansem will heal her, Vanitas, the perfect amount of cure and other healing methods will heal her perfectly, almost like it never happened."
"You're insane if you think Ansem can heal her!"
For once in her entire life, Kairi found herself agreeing with Vanitas. He was defending her. The only problem was Kairi began to lose her vision and she was unsure if she could ever thank him.
"No more arguments Vanitas go and drag her to her cell, now!" Xehanort yelled.
Vanitas looked at Xehanort shocked, but eventually digressed and headed towards Kairi. She thought he was going to grabbed her by the ropes tying her hands together or by her hair, but that did not happen. Instead, Vanitas put his arm underneath her knees and behind her back, cradling her like a small child that had woken up from a nightmare. Feeling safer in his arms, Kairi rested her head against Vanitas's cool chest plate, wanting to close her eyes but she knew she couldn't.
It was funny, Kairi almost felt like Sora was the one cradling her she felt so safe. She was not sure if it was because Vanitas looked like Sora, or if it was some trick, but she felt something change inside of him that day.
Kairi could hear the sound of Xehanort's laughter as Vanitas began to walk out of the room, still holding Kairi in his arms. "You are going to regret not dragging her to her cell Vanitas!" He yelled, clearly noticing how secure and gentile Vanitas was handling her. "You better begin dragging her or I swear—"
"You swear what?!" Vanitas yelled, but it was a calmer yell, clearly not wanting to disrupt Kairi in his arms. "I am already going to rot in the Realm of Darkness."
Kairi almost felt herself smiling at Vanitas's comment, but she was too weak to do so, she was losing a lot of strength and blood.
Xehanort's continuous yells didn't disturb Kairi as she rested in Vanitas's arms, feeling safe for the first time in days, before she closed her eyes.
This chapter was just so... dark. Once again, I apologize. But I did tell you this story was going to be darker!
I just loved writing that scene at the end with Vanitas and Kairi, that made the darker part seem to get a little lighter for me :)
Hey, have any of you guys heard about this rumor that at E3 Square is going to announce Kingdom Hearts 3 and Final Fantasy Versus XIII for the Playstation 4? I swear if that happens, I will be pissed!
So about now we are kind of getting to the mid point of this story. You see, I kind of realized that this story is going to be a lot longer then I thought it would be, which isn't a bad thing! But still.
Also, if any of you don't mind, I have a new story up called 'Remember Me' that was one of the top result of my poll I did. I would really like if you guys could R&R on that!
So anywho, please R&R! I do not know if I will be updating a lot this week since it is finals... But I will try! And look out for the next chapter!
