Tortured Soul

AN: Well here’s chapter 7, I said I’d try to get it up quickly, not sure when the next chapter will be done ‘cos I’m back at work on Monday. Hope you like and please review, it’s always nice to hear from people who have read my story. I’m sorry I keep torturing Tyson, it is a part of the plot though, I promise I’m not just doing it for fun.

Chapter 7

They had been knocking for over 10 minutes and there was still no answer. The dojo was dark and quiet, no lights were on and the sound of the TV didn’t blare through the windows like it usually did when Tyson had the place to himself.

“I don’t think he’s still asleep Hillary” Max said. “There’s no way anyone could sleep through the noise we’ve been making, not even Tyson. Plus it’s three in the afternoon”.

“He might be hurt, unconscious or just ignoring us, we have to know for sure. You go that way, I’ll go this way and we’ll meet at the back porch. Check all the windows on your way round, maybe we’ll get lucky.” Hillary headed off to the left and Max watched until she had turned the corner. When she was out of sight Max headed off to the right, checking the windows as he went.

“Tyson, you better not be ignoring us, ‘cos if you are, I’m gonna kill you.” Max muttered under his breath, pulling at the window. It didn’t budge so he carried on to the next one. None of the windows were budging and Max was starting to get irritated. He turned the corner to the back of the dojo and tried the last window before he reached the patio doors that lead into the training room.

The window moved, it was unlocked. ‘Perfect’ thought Max, as he slid the window open as far as it would go. It was only a small window, not big enough for Max to fit through but it might be just the right size for Hillary.

“Max, I couldn’t find any open windows down my side, how did you do?” Hillary asked as she caught sight of Max.

“I got lucky” he replied, turning to her and smiling. She frowned as he looked her up and down, sizing her up.

“Max, why are you looking at me like that?” Hillary asked hesitantly.

“Well,” Max said, a slow blush creeping up his cheeks, “you see, the window’s too small for me to fit through. I was just trying to work out if you could” he continued a little apologetically. Hillary looked at the window thoughtfully, then smiled.

“We’ll give it a go” she said grinning. “I’m sure I can fit through”. She stood next to Max expectantly, and he looked at her in confusion. “I can’t climb through without a leg up” she said, and added as an afterthought “and don’t even think about looking up my skirt.”

Max’s already red tinted cheeks flamed even redder at the sudden realisation that he would have a perfect view of her cute backside as she climbed through the window. Honestly, he hadn’t even thought about it until she had mentioned it herself and now his traitorous brain wouldn’t think of anything else. ‘We’re looking for Tyson’ he kept repeating to himself, trying to get his hormones in check, ‘I’m not thinking about her cute butt’. Repeating the mantra in his head wasn’t really working, it was just making things worse.

“Max? Any sign of that leg up?” Hillary’s voice snapped him out of his thoughts. He’d almost forgotten why they were there, actually, he’d almost forgotten where they were.

“Uh…yeah right” Max said quickly. He cupped his hands together and placed them in position. Hillary took a deep breath and put her left foot into the newly created foothold. Then she put all her weight onto that foot and pushed up, grabbing at the window ledge as she did. With Hillary pulling herself through the window with her arms, it was easy for Max to lift her up and give her a hand so she wasn’t doing all the work herself. As she pulled herself through the window, working out how she was going to get to the floor without hitting it with her head first, Max kept his head down, gazing intently at the floor, or the back of Hillary’s foot, determined not to look up her skirt.

“You okay Hillary?” Max asked, as the weight in his hands disappeared. He looked up just in time to catch a glimpse of Hillary’s knickers before she was finally through the window all the way. He heard a thump on the other side of the wall and flinched instinctively, knowing that the landing had probably been a little painful.

“Ow” came the soft reply. “Yeah, I’m fine” Hillary said a little louder. “I just really have to work on my landings. I’ll open the training room door, I won’t be a second”.

A small grin spread across Max’s face, Hillary really was cute. He turned as he heard the sound of a key in a lock and moved to stand in front of the door just as Hillary slid it open.

“What are you smiling about?” she asked.

“Oh, nothing” came the happy reply. “Any sign of Tyson?”

“Not yet, but then there’s lots of other rooms to check”, they moved off together, heading to Tyson’s room. The door was open, the bed made, the TV off. There was no sign that Tyson had been there at all. “It doesn’t even look like he slept here” said Hillary, voicing what both of them were thinking.

“Let’s not jump to conclusions” Max said calmly, “let’s just search the rest of the house first”. They moved around the dojo quickly, checking each room and then rechecking Tyson’s bedroom. There was no sign of him anywhere, nothing to suggest where he could have gone.

“Now can I jump to conclusions?” Hillary asked fearfully, taking Max’s hand in hers, holding on like she’d never let go.

“At this point, I don’t think it would be a jump” Max said sadly, squeezing the girls hand comfortingly. Tyson was missing, and Max had no idea what to do about it.

--::--::--::--::--::--::

They had been everywhere, all the training grounds, all the little out of the way places that passed as training areas for beybladers, and nothing. No one had seen Tyson since the day before when he had run off from the BBA. Kenny’s feet hurt, and his ears hurt. Daichi was not someone to get stuck with when he was in a mood. He hadn’t stopped talking since they had left the BBA and Kenny was about to snap.

Just as he was about to scream at Daichi and tell him to shut up, he realised he had. Kenny looked over at the younger blader and his face turned into a map of concern. Daichi was crying, not loudly, there was no sound at all really, just silent tears streaming down his cheeks.

“Daichi, what’s wrong?” asked the chief with concern.

“What if we can’t find him?” Daichi said through his tears. “What if he’s gone for ever?”

“Daichi, we’ll find him, he can’t be too far away. Anyway, you know Tyson, he’ll be fine, he always is.” Kenny’s cheerfulness was forced and he was sure that Daichi could tell. When the young blader didn’t respond, Kenny moved closer to him and laid his arm across Daichi’s shoulder as a gesture of comfort. “Let’s go back to the BBA building, maybe the others have found him.”

“Yeah” Daichi said, accepting the offer of comfort that Kenny’s arm gave. As they began walking, they passed an old house that Daichi didn’t remember seeing before. “Chief, what’s that building?”

“That used to be the manor house, before the city was around of course. That house is older than any other building in this area” Kenny said, his vast amount of knowledge giving him the answer immediately.

“Oh, It looks kinda ugly” Daichi said. “What are those things on the roof?”

“Gargoyles” Kenny replied. “They were said to keep evil spirits out, not allow them entrance. That’s why you see them on churches so often. It’s said that most of the doors in the house have them carved into them too, they must have thought you could never be too careful where evil spirits are concerned.”

“Oh, I still say they look creepy” Daichi said quietly. They carried on walking in silence towards the BBA ‘hut’, Daichi taking one last look over his shoulder at the big house. There was something about it that didn’t feel right to him, a presence that didn’t belong. He shivered, causing Kenny to glance at him in concern.

“You sure you’re ok?” Kenny asked him.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Let’s just see what the others have found”. Daichi’s feet moved faster, trying to get as far away from the house as possible, Kenny nearly jogging to keep up.

--::--::--::--::--::--::

Boris looked through the small window in the door of the cell at the unconscious figure curled up into a foetal position on the bed. An evil grin formed on his face, the boy was suffering and he was happy. He turned to face his two subordinates, the ones that had been assigned to break Tyson’s will. When they both took a step back at the sight of his smile and the malevolence that radiated from it, his grin got bigger. That was what he wanted the whole world to do, fear him.

“Let him rest for three hours, then start the treatment again.” He told them.

“Yes boss” said the larger of the two.

“Should we offer him the choice again?” asked the other, silently wishing Boris would say no. He really did enjoy torturing the kid. Boris thought about it for a few minutes before replying.

“No, don’t offer him any choices. I want that boy to know suffering, I want that boy not knowing which way is up. Give him the treatment for a few hours, then let him rest again, but not for too long.”

“Boss” said the smaller man and he flinched when Boris turned his full attention to him. “Uh…what do we do about sleep?”

“When you need to sleep, get some of the other guards to take Tyson to the hall. Have him run laps if you have to, just don’t allow him too much time to sleep. In a few days he’ll be begging for it to stop.” Boris wasn’t sure if he wanted Tyson to help him anymore, torturing the boy really was more fun. He turned away from his men and walked down the corridor towards his office.

When Boris was out of earshot, the men relaxed. They were built like brick walls and yet that man could still reduce them to rubble. Neither of them would admit it, but Boris frightened them. So much so, that if it wasn’t for the fact that he would probably find them and teach them a new meaning for the word pain, they’d make a run for it. Quit being his lap dogs and get a new profession, as well as new identities and new faces. His ideas were fun though, they liked to hurt people. This assignment was turning out to be a good one, other than having to see Boris so much.

“This is gonna be fun, isn’t it Mike” asked the smaller brick wall.

“Oh yeah, this is gonna be great Nick, how much longer do we have to wait?” asked Mike, sounding like a three year old in the back seat of a car asking ‘are we there yet’.

“Two hours” Nick said sadly.

“We could think of what to do to him when we need to sleep” said Mike, brightening up at the idea.

“Let’s do that” Nick said, his face breaking out into grin almost as corrupt as Boris’s.

--::--::--::--::--::--::

It was hours before everyone had made it back to the BBA building, it had started getting dark. Kai had been the last one to arrive, dropping into a chair looking exhausted.

“There was no sign of him at home” said Max.

“Well that was to be expected” Kenny pointed out, “we knew he’d probably be out”.

“That’s not what I mean chief” Max clarified.

“When we say, no sign, we mean no sign” Hillary added. “His bed hadn’t been slept in, the chores hadn’t been done and all of his clothes were there.”

“What does all his clothes being there have to do with finding him?” Daichi asked confused.

“It means that if he went somewhere, he probably didn’t do it willingly. If he had, he would have taken a spare outfit with him.” Kai answered the question. He hadn’t really been listening until Hillary had mentioned that the bed hadn’t been slept in. That would mean that Tyson had been taken not long after he had left the BBA grounds, running away from him. If only he had gone after him, maybe Tyson would be here now.

“We can’t do anymore tonight” Kenny said. “It’s starting to get dark and we don’t need anyone else going missing. We’ll have to start the search again tomorrow.” Seeing the looks of unhappiness and worry on his friend’s faces, he tried to lighten the mood. “You know he’ll be alright, after all, it’s Tyson”. The others all forced themselves to smile, all except Kai, who hardly ever smiled anyway. “Go home everybody and get some sleep, we’ll be no use to Tyson if we’re all falling asleep.” Everyone said their goodnights and left the building, leaving Kenny lost in his own thoughts.

“I hope I’m right about you Tyson.” He said aloud. “You better be okay.” He moved to his desk and opened his laptop, pressing the on button the computer sprang to life, a familiar screen displayed before him. “Dizzy, I need you” he said.

“What’s the problem chief?” came the computers reply.