Tortured Soul

Ok people, here's chapter 9 for you. Hope you enjoy, thanx to those that have reviewed, comments always welcomed. Not sure what else to say so...happy reading.

Chapter 9

By noon, everyone had gathered in Kenny’s office at the BBA building, even Kai was there sat in a corner listening to the others as they discussed Tyson’s disappearance. Hillary and Daichi looked well rested, but the others all looked dejected and miserable. There had been no trace of Tyson anywhere and it appeared that they had run out of places to look.

“Guys, what are we gonna do?” asked Max pleadingly. Kai saw the look in his eyes, he just wanted someone to tell him that they would find Tyson, safe and well. Kai didn’t feel like lying to the boy, anything he said would be a lie so instead he just continued to keep quiet and listen.

“We just keep looking” said Hillary with forced enthusiasm. “We’ll find him soon”.

“Will we?” the sound of Kai’s voice startled everyone. He had been sitting so quietly in a corner, they had barely remembered he was there. ‘They all think it’s too late’ thought Kai, ‘they think they’re looking for a body’.

“What do you mean Kai?” asked Daichi hesitantly.

“I mean, will we find him? We have no idea when he was taken, who took him, why he was taken or what they’re doing to him.” Kai spat “let’s face it, he’s probably dead!”

“Don’t say that Kai” shouted Hillary. Tears started falling down Daichi’s cheeks, he would never admit it, but he looked up to Tyson and thought of him as an older brother. Someone who would watch over him and help him become a stronger beyblader. Kenny’s cheeks were also becoming wet with tears.

“Why not?” Kai shot back, “you’re all thinking it!” The room became silent, Kai had his answer. “That’s what I thought” said Kai. He turned silently towards the door, pushing the handle down he pulled the door open and stopped dead.

“Kai?” Max asked hesitantly as he stared at Kai’s rigid form. “What’s wrong?” Kai regained his composure and pushed past the person now blocking the doorway.

“Kai” the newcomer said brightly, then stopped and watched quizzically as Kai walked away, not even looking back.

“Rei” Max said, a happier tone now entering his voice.

“Hey guys” Rei said, he walked into Kenny’s office and dropped his bags on the floor. He took in the sight of his former team-mates and a frown creased his forehead. He saw the tear tracks on Daichi’s and Kenny’s faces, the haunted look in Hillary’s eyes. What hit him the most though was Max’s eyes, the young blader always seemed to be smiling so much that the smile never left his eyes, but today Max’s eyes were dark, sad and full of fear. Hillary walked towards Rei and gave him a hug.

“Rei, we’re so glad you’re here” she said quietly into his ear. She pulled away and went to stand by Max placing her hand in his. Rei noticed this and gave an inward smile, ‘it was about time those two got together’ he thought.

“What are you doing here Rei?” Max asked.

“Mr Dickinson asked me to come over, he said he had something for me to do. I called Kenny from the airport, didn’t he tell you?” replied Rei.

“No, he didn’t.” said Hillary, looking over at the chief with a questioning look.

“Mr Dickinson asked me not to.” Kenny said sheepishly. “He wanted it to be a surprise”.

“Is that who we heard you on the phone with then?” asked Max.

“Yep, I didn’t like lying to you.” said Kenny quietly.

“It’s okay Kenny, we understand” Hillary told him kindly, “and at any other time it would have been a nice surprise but right now, it would have been better if you’d told us.”

“To be honest, I kinda forgot in all the panic and confusion.” Kenny admitted. Rei had been listening to the exchange with undisguised confusion. He was completely lost as to what his friends were talking about.

“Um, guys” he began, getting their attention “one quick question. What’s going on?”

“That is a long story Rei” replied Kenny.

“Hey, I’m not going anywhere” said Rei, pulling up the chair Kai had recently vacated and sitting down. He had a feeling he was going to be here a while.

Rei’s face had gone through so many expressions during Kenny’s recounting of the last few days that his facial muscles ached. At first he had been confused, then concerned, thoughtful and angry, now he was horrified. Who would do such a thing? And why just Tyson? He thought about Kai’s reaction to seeing him standing at the door, and the huge outburst Kenny had told him about just before he arrived. ‘He’s hiding something from us’ thought Rei ‘I know he is’.

Settling on a plan, Rei decided to go find Kai, it was time the two of them had a little talk. He had some ideas about what was up with Kai, but he couldn’t prove any of them. Right now, finding Tyson was what mattered and until Kai could face whatever it was that was bothering him, he would be of no help to the rest of them.

“Guys, I’m gonna go and find Kai.” Rei said as he stood up from the chair, stretching out his legs. “Mind if I leave my stuff here chief?”

“No, not at all Rei.” Replied Kenny without even looking up from his laptop.

“Rei” began Max “what are you gonna say when you find Kai? He seemed really upset when he stormed out”.

“I have no idea Maxie, but I guess I’ll figure that out if and when I find him.” With that, Rei turned and left the room, leaving the others to think about their next move in the search for Tyson.

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Tyson was being dragged down the corridor towards the room of pain as he called it. His personal brick walls were running late, they had actually let him rest for a while longer than they were supposed to, so they were in no mood to wait for him to stumble his way to the torture chamber of Hell. His feet were dragging on the carpet, this was causing his guards to pull on his arms even harder to lessen the drag. Tyson didn’t care, he barely even registered the pain anymore. So much of his body hurt that a few more bruises meant nothing to him.

They reached the door to the room of pain and dumb took one hand away from Tyson’s arm to open it. The oppressive blackness flowed out through the open doorway to touch Tyson and he shivered uncontrollably. This caused the two brick walls holding him to laugh.

“That’s a conditioned response that is” said dumb. It surprised Tyson that an idiot like dumb would know what a conditioned response was. Then again, dumb and dumber had probably tortured so many people that they must have become knowledgeable about the subject. Everybody had to have something they were good at right? Tyson just wished that these two could be good at something else.

They dragged him into the room and proceeded to his reserved spot. Dropping him on the floor below the metal structure that resembled a rather large lower case n, dumber reached up to grab at the iron shackles that hung there. After working them open, dumb grabbed Tyson’s wrists from his lap where they had come to rest and lifted them, and Tyson, from the floor in one move. Making sure that he was securely fastened in, dumb gave him a push. Tyson swung by his wrists, his feet not touching the ground, like he was on some kind of macabre swing at a really bad park.

He grimaced in pain as the shackles rubbed against his wrists with each backwards and forwards motion. He tried to grab the steal chains that were holding him up in the hope of lessening the strain on his wrists, but he had no energy left, every time he managed to grab on, his hands would slip away and his wrists suffered for it. Dumber walked over to the door, slowly he pushed it closed, and with the click of the latch catching Tyson felt his heart sink.

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Kai stood looking out over the water, the beach was empty except for him and some rather large seagulls. Why had he gotten so angry at his team-mates? It wasn’t their fault Tyson was missing, it wasn’t their fault they couldn’t find him. He could feel the anger bubbling away inside of him, ‘God help whoever has Tyson’ he thought, ‘cos when I find them, they are gonna pay for any pain they have caused him!’

He slowly lowered himself to the sand, his knees pulled up into his chest. ‘Please be alright Tyson, I need you’ he thought sadly. He was unaware of the teenager coming up behind him and he almost jumped at the sound of their voice.

“There you are Kai, I’ve been looking everywhere for you.” Rei stood next to Kai, looking down at him, a kind expression on his warm face. “You ran off so fast, we didn’t get a chance to catch up.”

“I assume the others have filled you in on what’s happened” Kai said, straight down to business. Rei’s features changed, suddenly he looked serious. He lowered himself down next to Kai and without looking at him started to talk.

“Yeah, they filled me in. I can’t believe someone would kidnap Tyson.” Rei said, “I mean, it’s not like people wouldn’t miss him, they have to know we’ll come looking.”

“I think that’s the point” Kai said darkly. “Whoever it is knows we’ll go looking and they want us to.”

“What would be the point in that?” Rei asked confused.

“Think about it Rei, why try to kidnap all of us and maybe get caught, when they can kidnap one of us and lure the others into a trap.” Kai had been doing some serious thinking and this was the only thing that made sense.

“Wouldn’t they leave a trail of bread crumbs then?” asked Rei, “I mean, how else are we suppose to find Tyson?”

“I’m not sure” Kai replied, that was the one part he got stuck on. Surely at some point they would be given a clue as to where Tyson was.

“Kai” Rei said hesitantly “Kenny told me about your little…outburst back at the BBA. You really upset everyone you know.”

“So what, they all think Tyson’s dead, they don’t have enough faith!” Rei looked at Kai as though he had sprouted another head.

“What do you mean by ‘enough faith’ Kai?” he asked.

“Tyson’s gotten out of worse situations than this. They should know better by now, he always makes it through.” Kai’s answer puzzled Rei, it wasn’t like Kai to talk like this about anyone, especially not Tyson.

“Kai, I need to ask you something” Rei said a little quietly, “you’ve been acting a little…” Rei struggled to find the right words “out of character lately”.

“How would you know?” Kai asked the raven haired blader.

“The others told me that you’ve been hiding away, avoiding seeing anyone. And now you’re acting really defensive, a lot more than usual. This isn’t gonna help find Tyson, we need to work as a team.” Rei said, not quite ready to voice the question burning in his mind.

“I don’t do teams Rei. You know that as well as the others do. I will find Tyson, with or without you.” Kai spoke forcefully, there was no doubt in Rei’s mind that he meant the words he had spoken, or at least, most of them.

“Kai, it’ll be quicker if we work together. Somewhere deep down, you know that, and you don’t really mean that other bit.” Rei said knowingly.

“Which bit was that?” Kai asked.

“The bit about not doing teams.” replied Rei. “You are a part of this team, and have been from the start, Tyson made sure of that.” Rei noticed the way Kai seemed to tense at his last statement.

“Didn’t you have a question Rei?” Kai asked darkly. ‘He’s trying to change the subject’ thought Rei, ‘too bad my question digs a little deeper into it then’.

“Kai” Rei took a deep breath and continued “how long have you…”

“How long have I what?” Kai asked a little impatiently.

“How long have you loved Tyson?” There he’d said it, he’d been thinking it for a while, and after watching the battle between his two friends at the World Championships he’d pretty much figured he was right. He noticed how Kai’s entire body seemed to tense up and the silence. Kai hadn’t answered his question. “Kai?”

“How long?” Kai finally said.

“That’s what I asked” Rei replied.

“No” said Kai “I mean, how long have you known?”

“A while” said Rei “the World Championships kinda confirmed it for me though. So you’re not gonna deny it?”

“What’s the point?” Kai asked, his body finally relaxing. “I guess I don’t really know when it began. It was kinda gradual, it just crept up on me. I used to deny it, even to myself, but ever since Tyson was taken it’s like it won’t let me. My mind wants me thinking of it, I guess it helps give me the strength to find him.”

“Oh Kai, why didn’t you just tell us?” asked Rei sympathetically.

“Like that would happen” snorted Kai, “you really think I would admit the fact that I love Tyson to that lot? Tyson would find out and it would destroy our friendship. I’ve worked really hard to keep that friendship alive after abandoning him at the World Championships, and then again at the start of the trouble with Bega. I couldn’t cope if I lost it.”

“How do you know Tyson doesn’t feel the same about you?” Rei asked quickly.

“I just know! He could never love me after everything I’ve done to him over the last three years. I could never ask him to.” Kai said, a softness entering his voice that Rei had never heard before.

“Oh Kai” Rei sighed, ‘of course he loves you’ thought Rei. He didn’t have a chance to voice his thought though because a certain blond blader was racing towards them across the sand.

“Kai…Rei…I’m so…glad…I found…you guys.” Max said breathlessly.

“What’s up Maxie?” asked Rei, standing up and brushing himself off. He turned away from Kai, placing himself between him and Max, allowing Kai time to compose himself.

“Mr D wants to talk to us all” said Max, his hands on his knees and his eyes closed as he sucked in precious oxygen.

“What about?” Rei asked confused.

“Don’t know, he just said to come and find the two of y…” Max stopped talking as he finally lifted his head and realised that he was only talking to one person. Kai had vanished. Rei spun around to see what had stopped Max in his tracks and swore to himself when he saw that Kai had gone. ‘I’m really gonna have to learn to keep my eyes on that guy’ Rei thought sourly. Max’s face was bewildered, they hadn’t even heard Kai stand up, let alone move.

“How does he do that?” Max asked with awe.

“I don’t know” Rei replied through gritted teeth “but I hate it when he does!” They would have to finish their conversation another time.