Chapter 18
Sian pov
After the match we met up with my parents and went back to the hotel while Tong's new friends went back to their homes, my parents having been in the ground wanted to know what was happening and Tong explained to them all about the plan, I see my parents faces get worried at the start when Tong tells them that Freddie wanted him to assault Mylee and its also obvious when they breath a sigh of relief when he explains he didn't touch her, but asked her if she could help him convince Kurt and Xian to help him get free from Freddie Li, I also see them panic when Tong tells them the reason he had to go to the warehouse in the first place instead of refusing was because Li had kidnapped me.
"Did they hurt you" my mother asks panicked.
I can't bear to see her hurt but I can't lie to her either, so I tell her the truth.
"He assaulted me" I tell them.
My mother gasps and Tong squeezes my hand, both my parents pull us all into a hug.
"I'm ok you guys" I attempt to reassure them.
When they break the hug Tong speaks to them.
"I'm really sorry this happened to her, I made him promise me before I left that if I did as he asked he wouldn't even go near her, let alone touch her, but I guess he didn't listen, I'm sorry, I just wanted to protect you but I failed you instead" he directs the last part at me and I can the tears in his voice, my parents get up and excuse themselves so we can have some privacy, once they're gone I turn to him and pull him into my arms.
"You did not fail Tong, you did everything you could do to keep me safe, you considered how every choice you made would effect my safety before you made it, it is not your fault that he is evil" I attempt to reassure him.
"But I should never have believed his promise not to hurt you, I was stupid to have left you with him" he says.
"Tong if you had of refused to go to that warehouse he would have killed the both of us and probably would have hunted down Kurt, Xian and Mylee and killed them as well, we're all alive because of you" I tell him.
"But he violated you in the worst possible way, that's going to stay with you forever, you're never going to be able to forget that" by now he's sobbing.
"With the help and support of my family, my friends and you, it will make me stronger and I will be able to live past it, as long as you're with me I'll be ok" I reassure him, at least I hope I will, What Li said wasn't a lie, he took me from the front and the back and then forced me to give him oral, but I can't tell Tong, not with him being in this state, no it has hurt my family enough to know he did that to me so they don't need to know every single detail about what he made me do.
Tong moves to lie on the bed and I lie down with him, he has stopped crying and has calmed down.
"I don't want to leave you, I wish I could go with you" he says.
And it hits me like a ton of bricks, I had forgotten what the boys had been talking about, because Li got away, they are almost sure he will come back and will try to kill all of us, so they agreed to follow him and end this once and for all, while he's alone and weak, they wanted to leave tonight, but Tong asked if they could wait until morning because then we'll get to say goodbye, there's a knock on the door and I know its my parents.
"Is it ok for them to come back in" I ask Tong and I feel him nodding his head.
"Come in" I yell out and the door opens.
"We just wanted to check on you and see how you were doing" mum asks.
"And to remind you that you have to pack for tomorrow" Sean adds in.
"I'll need to get more belongings from my house, because I don't know how long we'll be away for" Tong says.
"Actually son, we wanted to talk to you about that" they say and Tong sits up so he's paying attention.
"Now from what you've told us there's nothing left here for you, is that right" they ask.
"Yes that's right, except my career but now that I don't have a manger that's pretty much over, no one will want someone that worked for Li" Tong explains.
"Well then there's no point in you coming back here where you will be so far away from Sian and you'll both be lonely for no reason, so we were thinking since you're travelling you'll only be taking a few things so you can travel light and quickly am I right" Sean asks and Tong nods his head.
"We were thinking you could pack all your stuff and sort it all so you take the things you need, and the things you don't need, we can take them home with us, we don't have a lot of luggage with us anyway" Mum finishes.
"I don't understand where will I go when this over" Tong asks.
"Well home to us of course, Sian can write down our address and you can put it somewhere safe, we want to welcome into our family and our home son and we know its what's best for our daughter as well" they both smile at me.
"But I could have gotten her killed why would you this for me when I don't deserve it" he says shocked and I feel the anger at Li bubble up inside me for making him believe he isn't worthy of love, my mother moves so she is in front of him and cups his cheeks in her hands.
"Now you listen here young man, you are worthy of love, you are sweet, caring and kind, and you will do anything to protect the ones you love, now I know we aren't blood, but Sean and I see you as our own and will treat you as our own, we love you like you are our son Tong and we want you to be apart of our family" she tells him, she lets go of his cheeks and pulls him into hug.
"We're here for you, and you have our love my son" she says sweetly.
"Thank you so much" his voice is barely a whisper.
Mum breaks the hug.
"Now you go and avenge everyone that, that man has every damaged and then come home to us ok" Sean says.
And Tong nods his head.
"I'll need to go back to my house to pack, do you want to stay here" he asks me.
"That might be better Sian its too risky" mum says.
"No I want to with you, it will be quicker if we both go" I say.
"Ok but you stay close to me while we're there, I don't know if he'll be hiding there, he might be" Tong tells me and I nod my head in understanding, the truth is I'm scared to go back because I know I'll have to go into the bedroom and see the bed that Li attacked me in, but I take a deep breath and calm myself.
"We'll let you go then, come see us when you get back to let us know you're both safe and be careful" they say, we nod our heads and together we all leave my room, my parents go to their room and Tong and I start walking to the elevator.
Tong pulls up outside the house and switches the engine off, he sits for a moment without speaking, his eyes are flicking to and from every window that we can see, I know he's checking for Li, lights, movement, sound, any sign that he's been here or might still be here, when the house stays still and silent he turns to me.
"Ok, stay here and lock the doors, I'm going to look around and make sure he's not here before you come in, once I see he's not here I'll come back for you" he says.
"And what if he is here what will you do then" I ask him but instead of answering me he leans forwards and kisses me, when he pulls away he goes to get out of the car but I put my hand on his arm to stop him.
"Tong wait, please don't go in alone" I plead with him, he turns back to me and cups my cheeks.
"I'll be ok baby, just promise me that you will stay here until I come back for you, do not leave the car" he says.
"I promise" I say.
"Ok and keep the doors locked" he adds.
He opens his door and slips out being as quiet as he can, as soon as he closes the door I push the button that locks the entire car including the windows, tong nods his approval and taking a look around first, starts to walk towards the house, he gets to the door and disappears inside, everything goes still and quiet, I look around to see if anyone is near and I don't see anything, it's pitch dark outside, I hear a smashing sound and the next thing I know I'm covered in glass and an arm is reaching towards the car lock button, before I can move the hand presses the button and I hear the click of the locks, the door opens and the hand grabs a fistful of my hair and drags me out of the car, another hand covers my mouth before I can make a sound, they start making walk towards the house, I can't see who it is, but I have a suspicion that its Li, we walk up the stairs to the front door and enter the house, the person pushes me into each room of the bottom floor but there's no sign of Tong, the person pushes me towards the stairs and we walk up.
We go to the bedroom first and find Tong there, hearing the footsteps he turns to face me and his face drains of all colour and he looks like he's going to pass out.
"Well well, I never thought you would be dumb enough to come back here but it looks like I was right" and I recognise the voice of Li.
"You were waiting here for us all along" Tong guesses.
"Of course I was, I knew if I could get you both alone I would be able to punish you, he pushes me down onto the bed and I roll onto my back to see what's happening, Li pick something off the floor and I see its some rope.
"Hold out your hands, like a good boy" Li says.
Tong does as he's told and Li starts to tie the rope around his wrists, I frown when he only ties a small knot with end but leaves the other untied instead of using the whole length rope, but then he ties the other end to the bed pot so Tong can't move from where he's standing and I understand.
"Now Tong I have a chance to explain myself, the only reason I assaulted Sian was because I had to punish you" he says and I grimace at the sound of my name coming from him.
"Bullshit punish me for what as far as you knew then I was doing exactly like you wanted" Tong says.
"Ahhhh but I know a good heart when I see one, and I knew you wouldn't hurt Mylee, so I decided to have your punishment ready for you when you got back" Li says.
"Why didn't you kill her then, that's what you said you would do, so why didn't you" Tong asks.
"Because even though everything in me told me you wouldn't do it, I decided not to jump to conclusions and kill her just in case you did do it, so I assaulted her as you punishment so If you did do it, you would still have her, understand now" Li asks.
"Yes" Tong says sadly.
"But sadly, that wasn't enough, you have turned against me in the worst possible way, and so I shall punish you again by doing the same thing and this time you will watch, and you will listen as she screams for your help and you won't be able to help her, and then I will kill her and then I will kill you" his voice turns dark and evil again.
He grabs my arm and drags me off the bed, he drags me to the other bedpost and ties my hands the same way he tied Tongs, he turns me to face the post and ties the remaining rope around it, I'm still wearing the same dress I was wearing the first time he did this to me, he stands to the side of me and turns me so I'm facing him and pushes me to my knees, I know he's going to do it the same way he did last time.
"Well now I have a bad case of déjà vu" Li says.
"What do you mean by that" Tong asks.
"Oh so she hasn't told you everything I did to her, well where should I start, oh yes, well first I forced myself into her mouth just like I'm about to do now, Then I took her from the front, then I went from the back, have you ever been up there Tong, you should it feels very nice" he taunts Tong first then directs his attention to me.
"Now open wide" he says in a taunting voice and pulling his trousers down he tries to force his way into my mouth and like last time I fight him and keep my mouth tightly closed, eventually he get angry and yanks me to my feet, turning me to face the post he yanks my dress up and my panties down, I brace myself for the pain of him forcing himself inside me, but it doesn't come, instead I hear someone yelling and a struggle, I turn my face to tong to see Xian cutting his bonds, once he's free Xian hands him the knife and lets him untie me, I'm relieved at this because I'm very exposed, Tong helps me fix my panties and dress back in place and then pulls me into his arms.
"Why didn't you tell me all of that" he whispers in my ear.
"Because I saw how much it hurt you to hear he had assaulted me once, but I knew it make things worse if you knew it was in several different ways" I explain.
He kisses me on the head, we hear a loud thump and I turn to see Kurt standing over Li who's pinned to the floor, Kurt looks over to us.
"Thank you, but how did you find us" Tong asks him.
"We followed some of his goons to find out where he was going so we would know where to start tomorrow, and they said he was coming here" Kurt explains, I see movement at the corner of my eye and see that Mylee is standing beside Xian, I give her a polite sad smile and she comes over and gives me a hug, while we're all distracted Li took the opportunity and knocking Kurt over ran out the room, Kurt was back up in a second and running after him, Xian followed after telling Mylee to stay here, Tong turns to me.
"Stay here with Mylee ok, I'll be right back" he says and I nod my head in understanding, he takes off running after the others.
I sit down on the edge of the bed and rub my sore wrists, Mylee sits beside and tries to comfort me, I smile gratefully at her.
"Do you think they'll catch up to him" she asks
"I hope so, but it is really dark out there, so it's easy for him to hide somewhere in the shadows where they can't see him" I say because I don't want to get her hopes up.
"I hope they do because I don't want Kurt to leave for god only knows how long" she says sadly.
"I know how you feel, I don't want Tong to go either, but it would be selfish to ask him not to, he's finally getting a chance to get justice for the murder of his family, I don't want to take that away from him" I tell her.
"He doesn't just want justice for his family, he wants justice for what that piece of scum did to you, you can see it in his eyes when he looks at you that he blames himself" she says.
"I know and this run in will most likely make it worse, both my parents and I tried talking to him, but I don't think it worked" I explain to her.
"So what's going to happen with you two, after all this is over, because you'll be back home by then, if you don't mind me asking.
"Well my plane leaves early morning tomorrow, that's why the boys are leaving tomorrow afternoon, so Tong and I can say goodbye, we actually just talked it over with my parents and they said that since he has nothing left here he can move in with us when everything's over" I explain and I can't help but smile at the thought of being with him all the time and never having to say goodbye again.
"At least that's something to help the pain of saying goodbye tomorrow, you know that when he comes back he won't be leaving you again" Mylee says.
"I know its still going to be hard leaving him but that does make it better knowing it will be me he's coming back to" I say.
Our conversation is ending when we hear what sounds like several footsteps coming up the stairs, we both tense but soon relax when Tong, Kurt and Xian walk through the door, we both jump up and I go to hug Tong and Mylee hugs Xian and Kurt, I wonder how they know each other, I know Xian was training Kurt and that's how he met Mylee, But how do her and Xian know each other, my question is answered when Mylee speaks to him.
"Are you alright uncle" she asks him, Ahhhhh so they are family I realise.
"Yes I'm ok, I'm used to goons like Freddie Li" he smiles sweetly at her and I can tell they have a strong bond, I'm surprised when Xian turns to me.
"I think things would be better if we all stuck together, it's clear that Freddie Li is trying to get you both on your own so he can attack, he knows you are each others weakness, and so for your parents and your own safety I think it would be best if you came back to my house with us, I live in the sticks and have put various traps around my home to help keep intruders out, and my dog Kiki will bark to alert us if anyone is near, it will be safer if we all stick together" Xian explains to me.
"Its ok with me, but I'm not sure about my parents, they wouldn't like to feel like they were being a nuisance" I explain how my parents are really paranoid.
"Then If it is ok with you I will come up to the room with you and explain that they have no reason to worry and that I don't mind one bit" he suggests.
"Ok if its no trouble, they're all packed up and I don't have many things with me so it shouldn't take long, I can introduce you then go to my room to pack my things while you try to talk them into it" I suggest and he nods his head in agreement.
"Although I would suggest that Tong goes to your room with you, the hotel isn't far so its easier for Li to follow us there, that's why we want you to stay with us, we didn't see a car around here or hear any engines so we know he's on foot, so he won't be able to follow us all the way into sticks its too far to walk especially to Xian's because he is quite deep into the woods, Mylee and I can wait in the van and watch the entrance in case he enters after you" Kurt says, we all nod our head in agreement and Tong start to pack his things into bags, I see him put two labels on one bag but not on the others, I give him a confused look and he shows me the label.
In small neat writing it has the words, things that will travel with me, I know that's the bag of things he's taking with him and the rest are coming home with me, I've already planned to unpack his things when I get home so everything is ready for him, all I need to do is get another chest of drawers for his underwear, I have plenty of room in my wardrobe for his shirts and trousers, I nod my head at him to show I understand, it doesn't take him long to empty the entire room and bathroom of his belongings and soon there's only furniture left in the entire house, his room was the only room that had his belonging in it, together we all leave the house and head to our cars, tong puts all the other bags in the boot of his car, I'm not sure what he's planning to do with it since the van is big enough for them all to travel in.
We head in the direction of the hotel and like Kurt said it isn't far so we're there in just a few minutes, we park in a space that also has another space behind us for the others to park in, we get out of the car and I can see Tong looking around to make sure Li's not around, I find myself looking around as well but I can't see any sign of him, I jump when I hear the van door closing and Xian appears beside us, we walk inside and head towards the elevators, once again looking around the hallway before we enter it, the ride up seems to take forever and I start to feel claustrophobic, when the doors finally slide open I forget about the situation that we're in and go to dash out the elevator, Tong grabs me before I can get out and Xian moves forward to make sure the corridors safe, he nods his head and gestures for us to come out.
I dash out and suck in a deep breath, Tong gives me a confused look.
"I was starting to feel claustrophobic" I explain.
"Are you feeling better now" he asks worried.
I nod my head and I feel Xian place his hand on my shoulder so he can turn me around to face.
"Let me show you a trick to calm yourself down when you get like that in small places, close your eyes" he says and I do as told.
"Now think of a place where you would feel safe and at piece, where are you" he asks the last part after a few seconds of thinking.
"I'm lying in a meadow, surrounded by grass and flowers, Tong is there with me and we're cuddling" I say.
"Good, now concentrate on making it as real as you can, make yourself believe that you are there, picture how the grass feels, what everything looks like, is it cold or warm is it dark or light" he instructs me.
I concentrate hard and in my mind I reach out and run my fingers along the grass, I look up at the crystal clear sky and feel the soft warm breeze blowing my hair, I feel myself calming down and know its working.
"Can you feel it, is it vivid, does it feel like you're there and not here" he asks me.
"Yes it does it feels so real" I say, I stay in my mind for a few more seconds and when I feel like I'm calm enough let my eyes flutter open.
"Better" Xian asks.
"Better, thank you Xian" I tell him.
"That's alright, have you ever gotten claustrophobic before" he asks me.
"No, I've never had claustrophobia before, so I don't understand why it happened in the elevator" I say puzzled.
"One of the triggers for Claustrophobia is being locked in a confined space" he tells me.
"Li kept me locked in Tongs room when he was with Mylee and you guys" I tell him.
"You might not have noticed it then but everything that happened in that room because it was in a confined space, it will probably make you believe that every time you're in a confined space, the same things that he did to you will happen again" he explain.
"Come to think of it, I could feel the memories trying to push their way to the front of my mind" I say.
"That's why, by doing those things to you in a confined space, he's triggered Claustrophobia in you, but because the fear came from that, the more you face the fear the easier it will get, just prepare yourself because it might happen when your in the hotel rooms" he tells me.
I nod my head in understanding and lead the way to my parents room, following Xian's advice I prepare myself for the fear, I know he's right because I can already feel it bubbling up, I take a deep breath in and try to remember the meadow, ok here we go.
Hey guys just a quick note to say I'm sorry if I got the bits about claustrophobia wrong, I don't really know a lot about it, so sorry for that, hope you enjoy the chapter.