Days Without Sun
Chapter Thirty-Three: Missions
Within the play room, Misaki was in a state of anguish. He was denied any further knowledge of the events taking place outside, as the rotating feed had moved on and not returned to either Korovin or Usagi.
Misaki fought to hold back the wails that tore from his throat but he couldn't seem to make himself stop. He was so terrified for Usagi-san, knowing all too well the pain Korovin would unleash on his lover.
Please, please stop. I need to think.
Finally, with a choked sob, Misaki managed to quiet himself. He laid back on the lumpy mattress. Blood dripped down his arm where he'd caught the I.V. against the restraining cuff earlier.
Misaki lifted his head, craning his neck as his tear-blurred gaze sought the computer screen again. His eyes followed the camera's rotation desperate for information. Every pause seemed to last for hours.
He growled in frustration and kicked out at the laptop, despite the jarring pain this caused his cast leg. He listened with a sense of satisfaction as it fell off the bed clattered to the floor.
I hope it's broken.
Misaki felt his cheeks grow hot at this childish thought.
Stupid, how could you ever think that you could help Usagi-san?
He cast his eyes down in shame, only to see the computer unbroken, winking back up at him. Misaki felt his humiliation increase.
I'm so worthless; I can't even do that right.
Then his eyes caught the flickering screen. The heat that had previously filled him evaporated and a chill shook his entire frame: Usagi-san and Korovin had met. They were standing in a wide section of hallway, a junction for several corridors.
As his frantic eyes searched the screen, Misaki saw Jadir lying in a crumpled heap off to the side. He felt his breath catch in his battered throat as the camera feed shifted. Fortunately, it was another digital sentry at the same site.
Misaki wondered how long he had before all the feeds from this area were rotated through and this window was lost to him. Anxiously, he studied the screen while he could, looking for anything that would give him further insight into what was happening.
He could see clearly from the distance between the two men and their rigid postures that Usagi-san and Korovin were currently in some sort of standoff.
The metal cuffs overhead rattled as Misaki pulled against them trying to raise himself up to see the screen more clearly. He could feel his weakened limbs tremble from the strain.
He drew a deep breath. His fear for Usagi-san threatened to overwhelm him once more. Though he knew it was terrible for him to not have more faith in Usagi-san, Misaki didn't believe for one instant the gentle, reclusive author he loved would be any match for his captor. Not after he'd experienced what Korovin was capable of.
Misaki blinked through his tears, fighting to keep his eyes open, not wanting his blurring vision to obscure a moment of seeing his beloved Rabbit.
He came all this way for me. Usagi-san didn't forget me.
Misaki felt new tears well at this thought.
I can't let Korovin win.
I have to do something… Anything… Usagi came for me… After all these months of praying and wishing and hoping so desperately?
Will I dishonor Usagi-san's effort by just lying here and waiting for Korovin to return after he's killed him? Or done worse?
Misaki shook his head slowly in response to his internal voice.
"No."
The word came as little more than a whisper from his bruised throat. But just allowing himself to utter it, something within Misaki shifted and broke free.
"No."
Misaki repeated the word again a little more loudly this time. He tasted the sweetness of revolt as the single syllable tripped off his tongue.
Misaki drew another deep breath. Korovin was no longer in the room. He was out there, and so was Usagi-san. Usagi-san… The man who had somehow found him and entered hell to retrieve him.
I belong by his side.
He had no sooner had this thought, than Misaki's eyes widened in horror at the events unfolding before him on the screen. He saw Usagi-san uncuff his sleeve, revealing a small sheathed knife. His heart clenched as he watched the weapon be unstrapped and thrown off to the side.
The sick feeling that had taken root in his gut constricted tighter as Misaki saw his Usagi-san not stopping with the knife, but beginning to unbutton his shirt as well. He gasped as the camera showed his lover from the front, Usagi-san's head bowed; the black garment falling from his pale, broad shoulders.
The feed switched and Misaki suddenly found himself confronted with another empty hallway.
"NOOOOOO!"
There was a new sound in this word as Misaki tipped his head back and howled, unmindful of the pain in his already torn throat: in addition to anguish, there was anger.
Misaki had no doubt that Korovin had forced Usagi-san into some terrible bargain. He knew only too well the man's manipulations. He could not stand to see Usagi-san compromised in such a way. Misaki's emotions in this moved him well beyond the realms of any rational thought.
Not caring about the impossibility or ridiculousness of his actions anymore, Misaki understood only one thing in this moment.
I have to get to Usagi-san.
Turning his eyes once more to the cuffs that held him, Misaki heaved himself up once more. Though his arms trembled, fueled by his resolve he found new strength and managed to lift himself up higher in the bed.
He cursed and gritted his teeth as the cuff bumped the I.V. in his left hand again. Misaki growled as he managed to move his right hand close enough to the left to pull off the tape covering the needle. He then began to pull the I.V. itself out.
Arms bent at their awkward angles, Misaki clenched his bruised jaw. The feed scraped his vein as he withdrew it. His hand was soon slick with blood; it ran freely down his arm as the long needle emerged from his flesh.
As soon as it was free, Misaki allowed it to fall to the side. He studied his left hand for only a moment before a weak smile quirked his mouth. If his thought was correct, there would be a terrible, sweet irony in his next step.
The smile fell from Misaki's mouth and a grim line replaced it. Misaki closed his eyes and pulled his left hand against the cuff with all the strength that he had.
He felt the cuff bite into the base of his hand; the ball of his thumb compressed against his palm as he struggled against the cuff. Korovin had not locked the cuff as tight as he could have, but even so, Misaki felt the skin at his wrists scrape and tear.
Despite the pain Misaki persisted. The blood from this joined that from the I.V.; the fluid served as a lubricant. He could feel his hand slipping incrementally down through the cuff. The pinch of it made him want to scream, but he couldn't allow himself to exert his energy in any other action but the pull.
Misaki wondered if the bones in his hand would be cracked after this.
Opening his eyes, Misaki saw he'd reached the critical juncture at last. He allowed himself a pained whimper as he shifted his hand in the impossibly tight space of the cuff.
Just a little bit more.
A broken laugh escaped him as he angled his palm where his little finger was missing and gave one final determined jerk and saw that this space created by his lost digit gave him the advantage he needed.
His left hand slid free of the cuff.
Misaki clenched and unclenched his shaking hand. He felt a new surge of adrenaline course through his system at this small victory.
So much more to do…
Still he was buoyed by this success.
Not wanting to waste another moment, he stretched his free hand out and caught the IV stand next to the edge of the bed.
Though he was weak, Misaki was able to use this to catch and draw the small table that stood next to the bed, closer. He was filled with terror throughout this maneuver that he'd pull the table over, but somehow he was able to keep it upright.
Bloody fingers pulled open the drawer in the table's face. Misaki tried not to cringe as his hand moved over some of the more torturous devices Korovin kept handy there for his "play dates." At last he felt what he was looking for.
Misaki pulled out the key for the cuffs. His fingers were trembling so strongly from fear and excitement that he dropped the key twice and had to search for it amongst the stained bedclothes before he was able to free his right hand.
Finally fully released, Misaki shifted himself to the edge of the bed. His legs pained him immensely with every movement.
Looking down, the floor had never seemed so far away.
Tears filled Misaki's eyes as he lowered his legs. He braced himself for the jolt, but even so, a sob was jarred from his lean frame the moment they made contact with the floor. Misaki bit his bottom lip, tasting blood as he pushed himself forward.
He fell to the floor.
Misaki had to lay there a moment to regain the breath that the pain in his battered body had stolen from him. He felt the matted rug beneath him; he could smell trapped into its fibers the countless fluids leaked by Korovin and his victims. Repulsed by this Misaki pulled himself forward across it surface, seeking the solace of the tiled floor beyond.
His arms could not support him, so he crawled forward on his forearms, propelled by his elbows, his broken legs dragging behind him.
When he reached the tile, Misaki shifted his vision to the cement floor that lay beyond in the hallway. Korovin, in his flight, had mercifully not bothered to close the door. He'd no doubt been confident that his Takahashi toy could not and would not escape him.
Misaki crawled into the hall and collapsed.
The cold polished stone pressed beneath his naked, fevered flesh soothed him. Misaki felt his eyelids flutter with exhaustion. Thoughts of Usagi-san's chilled, infinitely loving touch filled his flickering consciousness.
Aikawa and Santo Justino were jolted by the sound of Korovin's bloodcurdling screech. Below them, Jadir's fit immediately ceased.
Santo Justino noticed this immediately and his eyes caught Jadir's for just the merest of moments before he propelled himself up and at Usami. Jadir's dark gaze was unreadable as he turned away from the detective's accusatory gaze.
"God damn it, Usami!"
Santo Justino tackled Akihiko, knocking him away from Korovin.
Korovin had suddenly stopped shrieking: he'd passed out either from pain or blood loss or both.
The knife remained embedded in Korovin's flesh, it had punctured through the killer's cock and his scrotum, tearing through both, though it now was caught in the shaft of Korovin's split dick at the base of its head.
"What the hell are you doing? We need him alive!"
Weakened by whatever it was he'd been injected with, Akihiko was no match for the enraged detective. Santo Justino shoved Akihiko back against a wall as he pushed up off him. His gun was trained on Usami in an instant.
Aikawa had left Jadir now as well. She drew up behind Santo Justino and grabbed one of his sleeves to restrain him.
"Augusto!"
Santo Justino jerked his arm sharply out of Aikawa's grasp. He was in full fight mode now.
"We need Korovin, Eri! There are things he can tell us, things we'll need to know that no one else will have the answer to but him. He will face justice, but it should be at the hands of the law!"
Akihiko's head was splitting. He could feel a burning his bones and his stomach rolled uneasily. He knew on some level that Santo Justino was right.
He understood already too that any satisfaction he felt from his action was hollow: nothing would ease the pain of losing Misaki.
Slowly, using the wall to brace himself, Akihiko rose on unsteady legs.
"He killed him."
Santo Justino looked at Usami in shock. "What?"
"Korovin, he killed my Misaki." Usami's voice was low and haggard. He gestured over to the remote lying in a pool of coagulating blood.
Aikawa had been stunned and horrified by Akihiko's recent actions, but suddenly with these words she understood everything. She left Santo Justino's side, unmindful that the detective's gun was still drawn and rushed to help Akihiko stand.
"Sensei?"
"I saw him, he had Misaki hooked to an I.V. He had that remote… Poison…"
Aikawa's eyes filled with tears as her gaze met Akihiko's and she saw the painful truth reflected there.
Akihiko's lavender gaze turned from her to Santo Justino. His expression was now blank. "You helped him."
Santo Justino blanched at the implications of Usami's statement, he lowered his gun.
Reaching up a shaking hand, Aikawa caught Akihiko's jaw and turned his face back to hers.
"Usami-sensei, no… Augusto is here to help."
Akihiko stared into Aikawa's dark gaze. He shook his head slowly. The simple motion of this made him suddenly dizzy and he staggered.
Santo Justino was tormented by the author's words, but he could see also the man was still severely compromised by the effects of whatever it was that Korovin had injected him with. There was no telling either what sort of psychological strain Usami was operating under too, at this point. The detective set his guilt to the side. He would process his failure at a more opportune time. Right now, he did not want to lose one more life.
"Aikawa, we need to get them out of here… All three of them."
Aikawa looked from Akihiko to Santo Justino.
"Do you think you can carry Jadir?"
Aikawa glanced over at the still boy lying across the hall; his eyes closed, his breathing shallow. He was smaller than Misaki and so thin, except for his belly. She nodded at Augusto's question.
"I'm going to do what I can to try and stop Korovin's bleeding, if it's not too late. I'll carry him. Usami, can you walk?"
Akihiko shook his head.
"I'm not leaving without my Misaki. I have to find him."
"You can barely stand upright. God knows what you're dealing with. We need to get you out of here and under a doctor's care."
"Alvarez is no doubt on his way and the international team was called too. They'll scour this place until Misaki's found, whatever his state. I can promise you this."
Santo Justino holstered his gun as a show of his good intentions. He need Usami to cooperate now. He casually slipped a hand into his pocket feeling around for one of his slip-ties. He would restrain Usami if he had to. Though he didn't relish the idea, the man was obviously no longer anywhere near rational.
"I'm not leaving until I find my Misaki." Akihiko's hoarse whisper was firm.
"But Sensei…" Aikawa was fearful for Usami: he was sweating profusely now and she could feel the heat radiating off of his lean frame. His normally pale skin had taken on a deathly hue.
"Listen to Eri, Usami." Santo Justino nodded towards Aikawa.
Akihiko could tell that Santo Justino meant to somehow prevent him from carrying out his mission. He was struggling under the fever that filled him now, but he was determined that he would not leave this pit without his beloved, no matter what it took.
Aikawa's entreaty gave him just the opportunity he was looking for.
He allowed himself to stagger slightly forward. Aikawa leaned in to better support him once more and found herself suddenly pushed back with a surprising strength. She tumbled backwards, losing her footing and crashed to the bloody floor.
As she looked up in stunned disbelief she saw that Akihiko had pulled the Taser from her skirt-waist. A moment later Augusto crumpled to the floor, his body twitching as the Taser's electric current coursed through him.
Her eyes widened further and she bit back an astonished yelp as Akihiko stumbled over and pulled the detective's gun from its holster and pointed the weapon at her.
Okay, you should have expected this of me by now.
The chapter was getting way too long, so I cut it off here. I am working on the remainder now and hope to have the rest of this chapter up later tonight, maybe tomorrow.
Thank you once again for all the amazing reviews and comments. I still do intend to post "post-chapter" author's notes, but I want to get through this story. Remember, I draw energy from you and your feedback, my wonderful readers.