88"Up, up, up." Kander ordered. Raina groaned again, covering her eyes from the sunlight pouring in her windows. Kander grabbed her hand, pulling her up against her will.
"Come on, get up already." He told her. She moaned, sitting up staring up at him.
"Let me have ten more minutes…" She said in a tired tone.
"No. Get up." He ordered once more. He lifted her off of the bed and forced her to stand up on the floor. She leaned on him, closing her eyes again.
"No! Get off of me!" He said immediately. He pushed her until she was standing straight and held her there until she decided to stand on her own.
"Why do I have to get up so early?" She inquired.
"Because I said so. That's reason enough."
"In that case," She said, and fell face first back into the bed. She grabbed the covers off the floor and wrapped herself in them. He let out a groan and sat on the bed, burying his head in his hands, annoyed.
"Get up." He mumbled to her. "It's seven in the morning. Certainly late enough."
"Only seven?" She muttered. "It's too early. Let me sleep until nine or ten."
"That's late. Now is the perfect time to get up." He argued.
"Don't tell me that you aren't tired."
"At least I'm up." He said. He jerked the covers away from her, and she sat up, her eyes halfway closed.
"Alright. I'll give you that, but you're tired. We both had a busy day yesterday. We both need more sleep." She coaxed, in attempt to get him to leave her alone.
"I'm not going back to sleep. You need to get up." He told her, unfazed. She let out an annoyed sigh, and took her blanket back. She suddenly brightened a tad bit, and wrapped the covers around Kander. Kander groaned as she laid him down on the pillow.
"Get some sleep." She ordered. He tried to sit up, but she pushed him back down. She ran her hand through his hair repeatedly, which always made her two year old brother fall asleep. He yawned and shook his head.
"Stop this, and get up." He said. She smiled softly at his tired tone. After a few more minutes, he fell asleep.
He woke up to find her sprawled on the floor next to the side of the bed that he was in. He took the blanket off of him and put it on top of her. She curled up into the blanket and he yawned, laying back down, staring at the ceiling.
What am I going to do with her? He asked himself. He pondered on that until she woke up with a moan.
"I'm up, I'm up." She groaned, sitting up. She threw a hand on her bed to help her stand up, but ended up throwing a hand on his stomach. She pushed herself up by his stomach and he grabbed her hand automatically.
"I'm up. Happy?" She said, standing up. He grinned, letting go of her hand. She walked to the closet in the room, and opened it. It was full of clothes, hanging up and folded on the three shelves in it. She grabbed undergarments and a t-shirt with some jeans, and she folded it all up together. She turned to Kander.
"Where's the shower?" She demanded. He pointed down the hallway.
"Second door to your left." He told her, and she nodded, leaving him to himself in the room.
"What am I to do with her?" He mumbled to himself after making sure that she wasn't going to come back. "There's no possible way that I might fall in love with her or her with me. I think the Choosers went in over their heads this time." He let out an annoyed groan. "They didn't know what they were doing when they picked her for me."
He sat up, letting his legs hand lifelessly over the side of the bed when suddenly he heard a scream from the bathroom. He stood up and ran into it thinking the worst.
"Get away you awful-" The scream stopped suddenly.
"That can't be good." He mumbled at went faster, shoving the door open. He looked around and saw nothing. Nobody.
"Damn it!" He cursed. "She was in here! He must have taken her. The bastard! He broke his own rules!"
"Head! Head!" Kander yelled, running down the hallway. He burst into the Head's room and looked straight at him.
"She's been taken against her will. I don't know where she is!" He said quickly. The Head's face stayed calm, though Kander was nearly panicking.
"Stay calm, Kander. Stay calm."
"I'll never even have a chance to Change her now! It's all hopeless!" Kander said, leaning against a nearby wall.
"Calm down, Kander." The Head ordered. Kander began to pace.
"I just let my eye off of her for a minute. So she could take a shower in privacy. I only took my eye off of her for a minute. She was in the bathroom. I heard a scream…her scream so I ran to the restroom. She wasn't there. Her scream stopped in the middle. I only let my off of her for a minute!" Kander said quickly.
"Kander!" The Head said loudly. "Calm down, now. Panicking won't do anyone any good."
Kander leaned on the wall again, his head facing the ceiling.
"What are we to do?" Kander questioned.
"We will do nothing. You will do something. You will do whatever you can to track her down. You were plenty able to before, and you found her after about a month after you became a Gamer."
"How am I going to find her this time? She'll be harder to locate." Kander told him. "She's been kidnapped."
"It will be okay. Just do what you did last time."
"Yes sir…" Kander said. He lowered his head and walked out of the room quickly. He disappeared into his house, and immediately walked to the bathroom to see if he might be able to find any clues. He looked in the shower, underneath the cabinets, in the sinks, and everywhere else. He couldn't find anything.
"This is hopeless…" He said, and suddenly spotted something he hadn't seen before.
Far, far away from Kander's house, Raina stood against the wall, clutching a towel to her body to prevent anything from showing.
"Get away from me you monster!" She yelled at Normrak. "GET AWAY!"
Normrak shoved her pile of clothing at her, and smirked at her.
"Take them unless you wish to remain with nothing but a towel." He said calmly.
Raina grabbed the clothes from him, and he turned, walking out the door of the small room. This room was painted all black, and everything in it was the same color. The only thing in this room that wasn't black was the small pillow on the bed which was a bright yellow. Raina watched him leave, and closed the door behind him. She quickly slipped into the clothes, throwing the towel on the floor.
"Kidnapped twice. In two damn days." She mumbled, and sat down gently on the bed. She lifted the sleeves of her shirt, and began to look around. "Damn it. Doesn't he ever keep anything sharp in this room?"
She stood up and looked in the dresser next to the bed, the closet, underneath the bed, and all around a book shelf with no luck in finding any variety of sharp objects. She swallowed.
"Well, I didn't want to resort to this, but..." She trailed off and put her arm to her mouth. She bit into her arm and tears sprang to her eyes as she dragged her teeth along her arm. "Ack…it hurt less with a knife." She commented, and stopped, staring at the line of blood beaded on her arm.
"You really shouldn't do that." She heard a mocking voice in the doorway. No where near as kind as Kander's was. She looked up and glared at the man looking about nineteen in the doorway. He had an earring on his eyebrow and on one of his ears. He wore all black, and was smirking in her direction.
"And who's going to stop me?" She barked. He simply kept his eternal smirk pasted on his face without letting it waver at all.
"Nobody, my dear." He said casually. "Though, it would be a shame for you to commit suicide before I could kill you. That would make me look rather lazy, letting you kill yourself rather than putting in my time and effort to kill you myself."
She stared back at him, her mouth open. "You…" She trailed off. "You're going to kill me?"
"Of course, my darling."
"Don't call me darling." She grumbled. He blew some of his shaggy hair, that reached down to his bright green eyes, out of his face.
"Would you prefer dear?"
"I would prefer if you didn't call me any of the ridiculous names."
"Ah, well, I must depart. I'll be back. Don't go anywhere, my love." He said with one final smirk at her glaring face before he disappeared into thin air.
"Damn him." She griped. "Damn all of this."
"He's going to kill her!" Kander said, panicked after finding the note. "I must find her! I must find her quickly!"
He ran through the house, looking for anything that might result in a clue, but had no luck finding anything other than a pile of dirty dishes that he had stashed away in the cereal cabinet.
"If only I knew where he had taken her! If only I hadn't left her alone, none of this would have happened!" He cursed himself. He tugged his hand through his hair with a deep breath.
"Calm down, Kander." He heard the forever mocking voice inside his head. "I'll wait for a month or two before I kill her. I'll take my time."
"Normrak." He hissed. "Give her back! You broke your own rules."
"There are no rules for this Game." The sardonic voice said.
"Where are you?" Kander ordered. There was no reply. Normrak had left Kander's mind. "Damn it!"
Kander closed his eyes and tried to locate the exact position that the voice had come from. He visualized Normrak, but Normrak was standing in a dark alley. There were tons of dark alleys in this city! He could be anywhere. Kander disappeared, picturing that exact alley in his head, and appeared there just in time to get a quick glimpse of Normrak disappearing. Kander reached out in hopes of catching Normrak's arm in order to disappear to the exact place that Normrak was going to, but he missed by an inch before Normrak had successfully vanished.
"Damn it!" He cursed more underneath his breath. "I promised myself that I would protect her from Normrak!"
Kander walked quickly out of the alley to see where this alley was located, and found himself next to his house. He cursed again, and walked inside. There he saw a shadowy figure that looked male. He froze.
"Who's there?" He demanded.
"Calm down, Kander. It's just me." Kander heard the Head's calm voice. He let out a sigh.
"I was afraid it might be Normrak." He said. The Head chuckled. "What am I going to do to get her back, Head?"
"Call me Norm." The Head told him. "Head sounds so formal, and final sounding."
"How am I going to get her back, er…Norm?" Kander asked.
"You'll find a way. I just came by to tell you that we found the area where she might be located. If you would look in a small city called Interesta, then you should find her there, but you must move quickly. You don't have much time."
"Yes sir. Thank you." Kander said and immediately he racked his brains in order to find the small city. In his many years of life, he had been to many places, and Interesta sounded rather familiar. He figured he knew where it was.
"I'll just be going now." Norm said. He disappeared without a sound, and left Kander to his work.
"Ah, here we go." Kander muttered, finally locating the place. He swiftly disappeared into the Interesta park where there were plenty of children running around.
"Wow…" One child said looking up at Kander. "Are you a magician?"
"Well…" Kander thought quickly. "Yes, yes I am."
"Cool! Can you do a magic trick? Can you make my sister disappear?" The little boy asked eagerly. Kander has to keep himself from laughing at the young child's request.
"I don't think you're mother would like that." He said. The kid frowned. "Besides, I have to go."
"Fine then." The kid said.
Kander walked away, and found his way out of the small park. He, then, immediately started walking through the alleys and taking close inspections of some of the houses. He had to find Raina.
Raina stared, horrified at the sight she saw in the doorway. There stood Normrak, holding her little brother. He was only three years old! He was holding her little brother's neck to him mouth with his trademark smirk. She immediately stood up and Normrak's mouth came closer to the young boy's neck. She stopped and watched in horror as the evil features on Normrak's face grew more wicked.
"Don't…" She said. "Please, don't."
"You will do what I say, when I say it, dear." He told her. She nodded.
"Yes, but don't hurt my brother!" By this time, her little brother struggled uselessly in Normrak's arms. Normrak put her brother down with a gentleness that she had never seen in him since she had seen him. The little boy ran towards his sister, fear written clearly on his face. Raina picked him up, holding him close to her as if to protect him from Normrak's evilness.
"I won't hurt your brother." Normrak told her. "Not now. I will, however, if you dare to defy my orders, I will be forced to take some of your darling brother's blood. But he will not stay with you, my darling."
"Rain…" Her little brother said. "I don't want to go with him!"
"I'm sorry, Alex." She said. Her little brother burst out in tears as she gave him to Normrak reluctantly. Normrak took the child, and whispered into his ear and the boy laughed. Normrak held the boy on his hip as he walked out of the room, talking to Alex gently, and Raina followed him cautiously. He put Alex in a room full of colors, building blocks, and action figures as Raina watched amused as Alex ran into the room, and immediately started shoving the building blocks together. Normrak turned to her and pushed her roughly out of the room, and closed the door behind him.
"Now, go outside in the front." He ordered her. She followed the orders as so not to put Alex in any danger. Normrak followed menacingly. She swallowed and she walked out the door and saw Kander wandering the streets. She nearly ran out to him. He was nicer than Normrak, and she would much rather spend her time with him rather than with Normrak.
"Don't move anymore." She heard Normrak's looming voice in her ear. "Do you see him?"
"Yes…" She said softly.
"Do you know why he's here?"
"To find me."
"Will he find you?"
"No sir." She answered, figuring that was the answer he wanted to hear from her. She guessed correctly.
"Good." Normrak hissed. He pulled her forcefully back inside the house, and pushed her into a couch. She stared up at him, fear hidden in her eyes.
"Now, my dear,-" He was interrupted by a small voice and a little hand tugging on his black shirt.
"I'm thirsty."
Normrak looked down at the little boy, and gave a slight smile. He glared up at Raina, which drew Alex's attention to his big sister. He climbed into her lap, and grinned at her.
"Rain, can you tell me a story?" He asked. She gave out a soft chuckle at the innocence of his tone and himself. Suddenly a children's book landed on the seat next to her on the couch, and she looked up at Normrak. He gave her a harsh smirk and she swallowed, grabbing the book to read to her brother. Normrak took his seat next to Raina and continued to smirk as Alex forced his way in between the two. Alex grabbed the book out of Raina's hands and opened the cover in his lap. If one didn't know any better, they might say that by the way the three were positioned, Raina, Normrak, and Alex might be a family of three.
Raina shifted uncomfortably with a hard swallow. She hated the fact the Alex had taken a liking to Normrak. She hated the fact that Alex was even near the man.
"This book is called, 'The Little Engine Who Could'." She began. As she read the book out loud to Alex, he had made the special effects sounds, such as the train sounds. At the end of the book, Alex had become bored and was now playing with the plastic figurine that Normrak had on a shelf. The figurine was shaped as a blue octopus with yellow stars on it. Raina watched her little brother with a sigh, wishing that he weren't caught up in this.
"You will go into the kitchen and clean the pile of dishes. Now." Normrak whispered harshly to her.
"It's not enough that I've been kidnapped twice in two days?! Now I have to play the part of a slave too?" Raina hissed, clearly annoyed by his order.
"Alex." Normrak called to the young boy. Alex walked over, making zoom sounds and curving the octopus in the air as he reached Normrak. Raina quickly stood up, and made her way into the kitchen. She stopped and stared at the humungous pile of dishes in the sink and on the cabinet next to the sink. She swallowed, and made her way over there to start them.
"How the hell does he get these dirty? And how does he have so many of them? Does he only wash them once in a blue moon?" She complained to herself as she cleared out the sink, and filled it with soapy water. As she washed, she gave out a deep, gloomy sigh. Why me? She thought to herself. She mulled over that through the entire chore.
Alex marched into the kitchen for a drink, followed closely by Normrak. As Normrak dug through a refrigerator that was next to a cabinet attached to the sink, Raina watched Alex carefully. Alex grinned up at her.
"Can I help?" He asked. Raina smiled softly back.
"Sure." She said, and lifted him up onto her hip. He immediately poked his small hands into the soapy water. He pulled them out and looked at the bubbles on his hands with a smile.
"Look!" He told Normrak. Normrak finished filling a small cup with some orange juice and looked over at Alex. "I'm helping!"
"Yeah, good job." Normrak said, with a slight grin. Raina pulled her brother back to the sink in order to force his attention off of Normrak. It worked, and Alex stuck his hands back into the water. He searched around and found a plastic cup. He pulled it out and looked at the few stains inside it.
"Now, you take this sponge," Raina directed, giving Alex a sponge.
Kander searched frantically through out the city, unsuccessfully. He leaned against a wall, running his hand through his hair nervously.
"Perhaps if I would calm down, I might have a better chance of finding her." He told himself.
He stood up, and took two deep breaths, refreshed and ready to search again.
"Even if I have to knock on every door to every house, I will find her." He mumbled to himself. He looked around. "Now, where to start?"
"Are you lost?" A soft female voice startled him out of his thoughts. He looked over at the girl who looked about seventeen. She looked back up at him.
"Er," He started.
"I can show you around. It's a small town, and everyone knows everyone." She said.
"Do you know a guy named Normrak?" He asked her, desperately hoping that she did.
"Well, not really." She told him. "He doesn't come out of his house often. Quite a loner, actually."
"Could you show me where he lives?" He asked. "It's really important. He has my…uh…sister."
"I could." She said.
"But…?"
"But I still haven't had lunch." She said, looking down. Kander chuckled at the girl's flirting. He gave in.
"Ah, do not be alarmed, my lady." He said. "I'm here, and I just happen to have a lot of money with me. Perhaps if you could direct me to the best restraunt in this town, I could save you from your famine."
She giggled, and motioned for him to follow her which he did without protest. She led him to a McDonalds and he walked in behind her. They ordered, and the girl took out a five dollar bill out of her pocket, but Kander stopped her.
"I'll pay." He insisted. She looked up at him. "I'll pay." He repeated.
"Fine." She said, and grabbed their tray as he tossed some money on the counter. They found their way to a table and Kander stirred his drink with a straw.
"Name?" He ordered.
"Rina." She told him.
"Kander." He answered, and held out his hand. They shook hands, and Kander grabbed one of her fries with his other.
"Hey!" She said, and looked around his side which just consisted of a triple thick shake. "That's not fair." She complained.
"Ah, neither is life." He said. Suddenly, he wasn't so worried about Raina. He wasn't so worried about Normrak. He was focused on Rina.
"Well…" She said, searching for something to say. "Forget it. Oh, why would Normrak, of all people, have your sister?"
"Sist-oh, yeah." He said, momentarily forgetting that he had told this girl that Raina was his sister. "Well, he's…uh, her best friend." He lied.
"Ah," Rina said. She didn't sound very believing, but she didn't question him. He nodded, and Rina finished off her fries. Kander stood up.
"Well, I'm done. Now, you owe me a tour." He said with a grin.
"Yes sir!" She said, standing up with their tray.
She poured the tray's contents into the trash and put the tray on top of the trash can, as the left the fast food restaurant. She began the tour by showing off all of the major places, such as the mall.
Finally, the dishes were done. Raina leaned on the counter, and set her brother down. Her brother immediately grabbed his cup of orange juice and gulped half of it empty quickly. He walked out of the kitchen with Raina close on his heels.
"Rain, I wanna go to day care now. I wanna tell Kyle." Her little brother said. Raina shot a quick glare at Normrak who was sprawled onto the couch.
"You can't, Alex." She told him. "You have to stay here."
"But I need to tell Kyle!" The young boy argued.
"How about a game?" Raina asked, in attempt to steer the boy's attention away from the day care.
"Let's play hide-go-seek!" Alex said enthusiastically. Raina let out a sigh of relief that it worked.
"Alright. Who's It?" She asked.
"Him!" Alex said immediately, pointing at Normrak. Normrak looked slightly surprised at the mention of him, but sat up straight anyways.
"I don't know about that, Alex…" She trailed off. She heard Normrak chuckle evilly behind her.
"Aw, what's wrong Raina? Don't you want your brother to be happy?" She heard his forever mocking voice say. She growled, and looked at Alex who was frowning.
"Why not?" He asked. "Please, Rain?"
"Sure, I'll play." Normrak said.
"You're It!" Alex ordered.
"So I am." Normrak said. Normrak closed his eyes and began counting as Alex ran off into a hallway to find a hiding place. Raina stood, and watched Alex run.
"Four, what's wrong Raina?" He asked sardonically. "Scared?"
"Just leave Alex alone." She said. "He never did anything."
"And neither did you, and you're still going to die. Why not him too?"
"Because he's too young!" She said. "Too innocent."
"Since when did that stop me?" He answered. "Seven,"
Raina took off after Alex, who had hidden himself behind a door, giggling.
"Alex?" Raina called quietly. She looked behind the door, only to find that he had hid somewhere else when he had heard her voice. Suddenly, she heard a shrill scream, followed by some small laughter. She immediately ran towards the voice, instinctively. When she reached her destination, she found her little brother being held down by Normrak, and saw that the shrill laughs she heard were caused my Normrak's fingers dug into Alex's ribs.
"Stop!" Alex said in between laughs. Normrak stopped quickly, and motioned for the little boy to sit in his lap. As soon as Alex climbed onto him, Normrak had his lips at Alex's neck.
"Don't…" Raina said, standing stiffly.
"Ow!" She heard her little brother say. Then her little brother began to relax more as time went by.
"Please…stop!" Raina said. It wasn't long before Alex fainted. "Please…let him live. Kill me, if you must kill anyone."
Normrak didn't stop, causing a tear to run down Raina's cheek. She ran up to him, and attempted to take her brother from Normrak's arms unsuccessfully. Suddenly, Normrak stopped, and took the unconscious body to the room full of colors. He set her brother down and pushed her out roughly.
"Is he alive?" She asked, scared of what the answer might be.
"You expect me to tell you?" Normrak hissed, causing more tears to flow from her eyes. "I promised Kander that I would see that you suffer. It's quite amusing."
"You-you…" She said, fury building inside her. She raised her hand and slapped him before she knew what she was doing, causing fury to build inside of him as well. No human had ever dared to even think about doing such a thing to him. He pushed her up against the wall brutally, and her head struck it with considerable force. She began to sway with dizziness as he smirked at her sudden weakness.
"You cannot match my strength or my skill. If you attempt to fight me, you will surely lose." He told her arrogantly.
She said nothing, and continued to struggle to regain her balance.
"You will find out if he's alive or dead tomorrow. Let's see if he wakes up." Normrak said with a leer. Raina stumbled to the room she had found herself in to get away from him before she lost her temper again.
"No, my dear. That's my room." He told her. "You don't get a room."
She was still attempting to get her balance back, and could not answer.
"You get the floor."
He laid her down on the floor, and watched her slip into unconsciousness with a smirk.
"Wow, it's later than I thought." Rina said. "And I still haven't shown you where that Normrak's house is."
"Oh." Kander said, remembering that the reason he was here was to get Raina back. "It's okay. You can show me tomorrow."
"Are you sure?" She asked.
"Yeah, I'm sure. What time is it?"
"It's about nine."
"Wow, it is late." Kander said. "I guess I'd better get going, but before I do, since you are going to show me the house tomorrow, I need your phone number and/or your address."
"Do you have some paper?" She asked. He shook his head.
"I have a pen."
"That'll do. I'll just write it on your arm." She told him.
"Alright." He gave her the pen and held out his arm to her. She stood directly in front of him and began to write her phone number and address on his arm. Instinctively he wrapped his other arm around her; she paid no attention to it and kept writing.
"There." She said, satisfied. She turned around in his arms and stuck his pen in the front pocket of his shirt. He grinned down at her, and their lips met.
As they pulled apart, Rina gave him a smile and walked down the road.
"Call me!" She yelled at him. He nodded visibly, and waved his hand at her. He walked into a hotel that was just a few steps away from him, and signed in for a room to sleep in. He laid down on the bed, and instead of thinking of Raina and her being kidnapped by Normrak, he ended up thinking of Rina before he fell asleep.
******************************************************
Ah, I got inspiration.