Chapter 2

Anzu's earliest memory was from when she was three and, being the curious little thing she was, she fiddled around with the remote controller of the TV while are mum was doing the dishes in the kitchen and not watching. So Anzu accidentally switched on the TV and the first program came on and it was a Ballet. Because the music was very quiet, her mother didn't hear it, usually she didn't allow Anzu to watch TV. Anzu just sat down in front of the big screen and stared mesmerizingly at the ballerina. It was minutes later that Anzu's mother wondered why Anzu had gone so quiet, if she fell asleep after playing with her toys on the carpet, but instead she found her captured by the TV, and what her struck the most, a Ballet. For the rest of the week, Anzu wouldn't stop talking and asking questions about everything related to dance and it was days after that she was signed up for her first ballet class.

This was her first memory and it was currently replaying in her mind for a reason Anzu had no clue of. Then she heard voices, that didn't fit with what was happening in her memory, and a light flashed before her eyes and then the pictures in her mind were gone. She started to feel like someone was pulling at her, or like a heavy weight was laid upon her body. She could feel her fingers, they tingled uncomfortably and she stretched them, then she felt her legs, the heavy feeling decreased. Next her eyes opened and were confronted with white light right away making her shut them again. Now it felt like the weight had been lifted from her. She could move her fingers, her legs, she could feel her mind making sense of where she was and where she came from, it all came back to her slowly. She opened her eyes again, the bright light had been taken away from her face and she blinked a few times until she could make out a white ceiling and the voices from people around her. She was in some kind of hospital. Or heaven. She couldn't tell. Last thing she knew, she was dying. Suddenly her body shot up like a rocket as her memory came back. The men. The blood. The wall. Her head. The pills. Before she knew it, someone was at her side, touching her arm. She turned sharp blue eyes at him, but he looked too friendly, too familiar. He was an old man with wrinkles on his face and white hair. He also wore huge black framed glasses and a white coat. He looked like Professor Hawkins or some crazy scientist, Anzu thought. Except that he wasn't.

"Calm down." he spoke to her in a soothing voice, gently guiding her back on the bed she was lying on. She, too, wore a white coat that covered her whole body down to her ankles. She obeyed even though she had a million questions and didn't know a thing that was going on, but her head hurt so bad that she couldn't find the strength to stay in an upright position.

Then, a woman who stood in the background before, approached the older man, speaking:"Shouldn't we let her rest a little bit more before we confront her with everything?" the woman actually sounded concerned despite her very professional appearance and strict tied up dark hair. Anzu could see that she also wore glasses and a had a clipboard pressed to her chest.

"We can't wait much longer. We have to find out how much she knows, what she's seen and then bring her back. You know what he said, he doesn't want her here."

Anzu wondered if the thought she was dumb or something because despite their whispers she still could hear every word they spoke and now she really needed to know what they were talking about and who didn't want her here and where even was 'here'?

"We can't send her back. That place isn't save for her anymore and-"

"What are you talking about? Am I in danger? Who were those men?" Anzu fixed her blue eyes on the two people standing by her bed, there were still other people in the room but the older man send them out with a wave of his hand. Then he sat down next to her on the edge of the bed.

"Anzu." she didn't even wonder how he knew her name, maybe they looked it up in her passport she was carrying in her bag. "What happened the night two days ago?"

Two days? It had been two days ago? Anzu couldn't barely hide her shock but managed to focus back on the question. Regathering her thoughts, she explained:" I was just on my way home from dance class when I heard a weird noise and looked down into an alley to see it was a cat. But before I knew it I was dragged away by a strange man into a backyard and ah..." she tried to remember more, what did they say? She couldn't recall their words. Just that they assaulted her and tried to kill her with pills. When Anzu described them the situation, the woman cut in.

"You were lucky we found you in time. We were after those men that night but only found you lying on the ground between houses. We managed to pump out those pills from your stomach, it was almost too late."

Anzu nodded and mumbled a thanks, not sure how to react in such situation. "Who-who are you exactly?" she wanted to know.

The older man smiled and pointed at the woman saying, "This is Alena and I'm Doctor Albert, but you can just call me Albert." Alena chuckled at the white haired man, knowing his friendly behaviour all too well.

"We are scientists and we work for...someone." Alena explained further. "And those men at night you encountered are criminals, more like killers. They are very dangerous. We can't tell you everything, yet." She quickly glanced at the professor who gave her a concerned look.

Anzu nodded, thinking about the word "killers" and then it hit her.

"There-there was a man that night...they killed him. With a knife through his heart." the horror on Anzu's face was now visible as she remembered the man lying by the wall next to her. The quick glances which the doctor and Alena changed went unnoticed by her.

"Are you sure he was dead? Can you describe him further?" Alena hastily wanted to know. "Because we were looking for him, however you were the only one we found."

"I don't know exactly what he looked like, it was dark and I couldn't really...my mind was really spinning from what was happening to me...I guess he was neither specially tall nor small...a round face, dark, short hair..."

Alena's face grew serious, as the description, though slightly vague and could match almost everyone, she was sure that the person was the one they were looking for and his death meant bad news. Albeit none of this was any of Anzu's concerns, as at this moment her stomach started to growl.

"Okay, enough for the questioning now. You need something to eat and rest." the doctor suggested, helping Anzu to get off from the bed. Her head was still a little dizzy when was guided out of the sterile room, up a staircase where her surroundings didn't resemble that of a hospital so much anymore, but rather like a really nice mansion. Though there weren't any windows in the large hallway, it was very bright. She never knew any homes with a laboratory in the cellar before.

After having something to eat in the kitchen, which was just as modern and clean as the rest of the house, Alena led her up another staircase to a spare bedroom. The curtains were drawn so the room was dim, though through the curtains the sun was shining, so Anzu at least knew that it was daytime and not night. Never the less, she felt tired and couldn't wait to get into that very comfortable looking queen sized bed. After Alena showed her the the white-tiled bathroom in case she wanted to get a shower, Anzu approached the window and drew an edge of the curtains aside and was taken by surprise as she only saw the green leafs of trees. Shocked, she let the curtain's edge fall, concealing the view once more. What was about the New York City Skyline? How did she got this deep into a forest? How far was she from New York? Just when she wanted to turn around and ask Alena, she saw the other woman slip through the door and closing it behind her, leaving Anzu alone in the room. Still confused, but too tired to go after Alena, she decided to take a nap first and later ask questions.

Xoxo

A few hours later, the sun began to slowly disappear behind the tops of the trees and a refreshed young ballerina stepped out of the hot shower and put on a pair of black leggings and a light blue blouse which Alena must have put atop of the dresser while Anzu slept. Leaving her room, Anzu didn't really know where to go now. Se wanted to go back to her apartment in New York, maybe someone could drive her there. But the house was silent and empty as she went downstairs. She opened a door of french doors, hoping to find somebody behind it, but she just discovered a living room and other doors leading to other hallways. Walking down one of them, she studied her surroundings more. The walls were all painted white, here and there hung very few pictures from the 15th century maybe, nothing really personal that revealed the owner of the mansion. Suddenly, Anzu could make out distant voices and walked further down the hallway as they grew louder. She came to a stop before a door that was an inch open, just enough for her to see Alena standing in the middle of the room, but she concealed the other person she was talking to. Anzu knew it was impolite to eavesdrop, however she didn't want to interrupt the conversation as Alena was ranting right now.

"We can't just send her back, we don't know what will happen to her. And she needs more rest, we can't tell yet if her condition is stable. Don't be so unreasonable! She will be gone before we go to Amsterdam but right now it's not safe!"

"Fine, but don't bother me with that. Give her what she needs and make her stay away from me, she doesn't have to know."

Anzu's eyes narrowed at the last speaker's voice. It sounded so familiar, though muffled because of the half closed door. Suddenly, the door swung open and Alena was standing right before her, looking just as surprised as Anzu. Looking over Alena's shoulder, Anzu's blue eyes caught the shocked face of Seto Kaiba. She couldn't suppress the loud gasp that left her mouth.

"K-Kaiba?!"

The male didn't answer first, Alena threw him a glance over the shoulder, then an apologetic one at Anzu, as she slipped out of the room eventually, leaving the two aquaintances alone.

"What are you doing here?" Anzu asked, confused as she hadn't seen Seto Kaiba, the rich CEO and long time enemy since graduation four years ago.

"Tzk, I should ask you that question Mazaki! You are the last person I need right now, but of course, it's my bad luck that you got involved in this!" he made a wide gesture with his hand, obviously appearing stressed and annoyed, but of course Anzu never really knew him any different.

"In what am I involved exactly?" Since no one seemed willing to tell her what all of this was about and why everyone said she was in great danger, maybe Kaiba would provide plausible answers.

"The less you know, the better." however was his stern reply, looking her straight in the eyes.

Anzu, of course, wasn't satisfied with the answer and already angry with Kaiba's attitude again.

"Fine, okay listen: You don't want me to be here, I don't want to be here. Just tell one of your people to bring me back to New York and everything's back to where it should be. I mean, as far as I know, I'm supposed to be dead, so no one of these stranger men should come looking for me. Right?" she hoped she was convincing, she could see Kaiba wanted nothing more than for her to leave his life again.

"I would send you back to New York this minute if I could, however, we are in Ontario which means we are 10 hours from New York."

Anzu's eyes widened in shock, "Ontario? How did you bring me all the way to Ontario? How am I supposed to get back? I have an important audition in.." what day was it again? How long had she been out? Three days?

..."in two days." Anzu felt like this was a bad movie, a joke or a nightmare. She was assaulted by strange criminals, even though she hasn't done anything, was given drugs, had been in a coma for three days and brought all the way from New York to Canada! Was she even allowed to be here?

Kaiba let out an exhausted sigh, saying, "See, maybe we can get you back in time for your stupid audition. But honestly, I could care less."

Fantastic! Seemed like Anzu had to find her way out of this hellhole of forest - Kaiba Mansion and hop on a plane back to New York somehow in time for her audition. And even if she did make it, she was out of shape, out of practice. She had an operation, could her body even do it? Well, she had to. Making a dramatic turn on her heels and leaving the room and Kaiba in fury, her head got dizzy again and she stomach rebelled so bad that she felt the floor coming nearer to her. She only caught Kaiba from the corner of her eyes rushing to her side before everything went black.

Xoxo

It was some time later, that Anzu awoke in the same bedroom she had been in before, covered in a blanket. The smell of hot tea got through to her nose, slowly stirring her awake. She blinked a few times until the edges of the room became clearer. She spotted Alena putting something in her dresser. The other woman caught her eyes.

"Oh, you're awake. How are you feeling?" she approached the bed, putting one hand on Anzu's forehead.

"Better, I guess. I don't really know what happened." Anzu mumbled as Alena checked her temperature.

"Mh-mh. You passed out it from exhaustion. Your body needs rest. And you should get it, no matter what Kaiba says about needing you to leave as soon as possible. He's a jerk." Alena smiled at her, and Anzu smiled back, amused that Kaiba being a jerk didn't seem to be only her opinion.

"Yeah, he's always been one." Anzu rolled her eyes, then accepted a cup of tea that Alena was handing her.

"He said you two went to school together? Do you know what made him like that?"

"Well, he doesn't really talk about it much, but it has something to do with his stepfather, he didn't treat him well and Kaiba had a really tough childhood, all the while having to care about his little brother. I don't really know any details."

Alena stared into space after that while Anzu drank her tea, suddenly wondering if Mokuba was here too.

"Do you know his little brother Mokuba? Is he here?" Anzu asked hopefully. Alena's expression changed as her eyes became dark.

"Actually, he was the one who was killed the other night. He was the guy next to you. The guy we couldn't find but from your description, it would match and it's very likely that he's dead."

Then, time seemed to be standing still as pictures from that night flooded Anzu's mind, trying to remember the details about the man. His body time. Hair. Eyes. Now that she thought about it, it could be that the man who bled to death next to her was in fact a 15 year old teenager. She however hadn't seen him for four years so she couldn't know. Still, Anzu began to blame herself for not doing anything. Maybe she could have helped him, somehow. But she hadn't even been able save herself.

"Does..Does Kaiba know?"

Alena nodded. "Yes. And he's locked himself away in the office since then. He may have seemed collected when you were there a few hours ago, but inside, he must be dying. I can't imagine.." Again, Alena's gaze drifted off into distance.

"He never shows his true feelings." Anzu muttered, staring at her reflection in the tea cup, lost in her own thoughts.