I gasped for air and sat up. I was covered with sweat. Heavily breathing, I pressed my hand on my chest. My heart was beating as fast as after a 100-m-sprint.
I was sitting in my bed, wearing an old t-shirt and an old pair of shorts, and tried to calm down. I knew, I've had a nightmare, but I couldn't remember anything of it. With a look on my clock, I realized that it was in the middle of the night. 2:20. I laid back into my pillow. My heart had stopped beating, and I felt calmer. I sighed. "What the heck did I dream?", I murmured. It wasn't the first time that I woke up after having a nightmare.
You don't know who might be sneaking up on you.
I sat up another time, nervous again. I struggled myself free from the sheets, turned on the lights and went into the kitchen to get myself a glass of water. It was quiet.
In the kitchen, I drank the water and rinsed the glass afterwards.
Ever since I had the encounter with Izaya, I used to have nightmares. But not only that. I felt myself how I got more nervous by every day that passed. I expected to get attacked. I expected something.
I leaned against the wall. In fact, I've been hoping that something would happen. Waiting made everything worse; the more time passed, the more the pressure made me nervous. I smiled bitterly. It was most likely what Izaya wanted to happen. Call me if you need help. The same day, I had found a piece of paper with a number on it in my jacket. The thought that he had put something into my jacket without me realizing had caused me sickness.
I took a deep breath. This game of his made me sick. He made me sick. I went into my room, grabbed my boxing gloves and put them on. I started to beat the crap out of my punching bag. Once I was too exhausted to land one punch, I let myself fall into my bed.
"I'm not gonna lose, bastard." That was my last thought before I fell asleep.
The next day after school, I was 1. In a bad mood and 2. In trouble. To the first point: I slept in, came late to school, got bitching from my teacher, and I heard a lot of new rumors about me. To the second point: Some guys waited in front of the school for me – and I could tell they didn't want to ask me out for a tea.
Fortunately, I saw them early enough to get away just like that. I had work that day, and I hurried. When I served for the guests, I relaxed. Nobody knew that I was working there – why should anybody?
For an information broker, it would be no problem to find out.
I shook my head to get that thought out of my head. "He has nothing to do with that!" I growled. "Who has to do nothing with what?" I jerked around and looked at Rima. "Rei-chan, do you have a crush on someone?" I shook my head. "It's the other way 'round. I got a huge problem with a guy I can't stand." Rima's eyes got big. "So you are in love?!" And from that point on she didn't stop chattering about how I should seduce or flirt with my crush.
I let her be. I wasn't in love with anyone, and I knew that it was going to stay like that. And, well, Rima liked talking about guys. She herself wasn't too lucky with them – probably due to her popularity amongst them. So I didn't spoil her fun.
After work, I left to get home. I had some homework to do; otherwise even my grades would drop. I sighed. It was a nice day, and I decided to take a ride on my bike later, but homework…
I was almost at home, when I got an awkward feeling. I looked back over my shoulder – and froze.
The men who have been waiting for me in front of the school were following me. Great. Before, I simply jumped over the fence in the back and took another route. But this time, they didn't take an eye of me. This was going to end badly, I knew it.
I sped up, hoping that I could ditch them. Impossible. The distance between them and me didn't shrink. I tried to ditch them through taking a different route, but it was all useless.
And the part of the city where I lived was almost empty at that time of the day…
I took a look on my watch. It was early evening, and I knew that the sun would set in about a half hour, even less. Damnit, what should I do?
Call me if you need help.
I growled. It was his doing, I would bet on it. Well, I would call him and tell him to take his dogs back.
I dialed the number on the paper and waited, still walking. I was getting nervous.
"Hello? Orihara Izaya here."
"Orihara, it's me. Saizew. Am I right if I say that those men behind me are here on your request?"
"Whoa, what are you talking about?"
I gritted my teeth. "Stop pretending. Why else should be three men following me?! Tell them to leave me alone, damnit!"
"I apologize, Rei-chan, but I don't know anything about three men."
"Orihara, quit your act! This isn't funny!"
.Tut.
I stared at my phone. That bastard hung up on me! Great. Really great. What now?!
I took a deep breath. If I lost my nerves, everything would get only worse. What options did I have? I could call the police. But for that, I'd need an address. Due to the fact that I had been trying to ditch the men, I didn't look for street names – not to mention that I simply couldn't memorize names. So, police wasn't an option. I looked back. The men were coming closer, and I could hear the scrape of something iron…not good. Not good at all.
I ran to the next corner, turned in and ran faster. If I could only ditch them somehow...! I ran, crossed the street, ran faster. I heard the men behind me, they had started to run too – and even worse, they were approaching. My condition wasn't bad – I trained four times a week – but I was tired from work, hadn't eaten in hours… not the best situation I was in.
I ran, tripled, fell, stood up and ran. Too bad the men behind were faster than I was. They were close-up now; one of them tried to grab my hood.
"Stop, you damn brat! You're not getting anywhere anyway!" I tried to run faster, but I tripled again and fell. The men were over me the same moment. Two of them were grabbing my arms, forcing me up. I kicked, screamed, tried to bite them, managed to kick one of them hurtful – but I knew that it was for nothing. They had me, and all my efforts were pointless struggle. I cursed Izaya.
I closed my eyes, waiting for whatever would come. The third man, the one who wasn't busy keeping me still, carried an iron bat. Wow.I thought. I didn't know these are still available. The man kicked me into the stomach. I coughed from the pain. Bastard. He crouched down to me, our eyes on the same level. "Did you think it would be enough to take another exit of the school? Did you think we would lose you just like that?"
I forced a grin into my face. "Actually, yes, that's what I thought." The next punch into my stomach made me wince in pain. I got sick of it, and I had the urge to puke. Damnit, what should I do?! I looked up, my teeth gritted together so I wouldn't cry. "What do you want from me?"
He grinned. "We don't want anything but money, but the guy who gave us the order for this wanted to get you beaten up."
I snorted. "And the guy who ordered you to do this? Was his name probably Orihara?"
The man rammed his knee in my stomach. I gasped for air, tears of pain in my eyes. "No, not really. I think his name was something with Kusamira or something."
What?! How was that possible? I didn't know any guy called Kusamira…
I screamed in pain when the iron bat hit my legs. Damnit…! My sight got blurred with tears. Damnit, damnit, damnit…! The guy in front of me kept beating me up with the bat. First, his two friends kept holding me, but as soon as I was in a condition too bad to run, they dropped me. I fell on the ground, felt the kicks getting down on me and screamed in pain. I was sure that I would die, and I knew, that they broke bones of mine.
The guy who spoke to me earlier grabbed a handful of my hair and pulled me up. "Do you want to know what we were ordered to do?" I looked at him through a haze of tears, unable to speak. He grinned. "We were ordered to kill you."
Before I blacked out, I wondered how I could get into that kind of situation. Me, who was just a normal teenage girl.