Me, With You
At first, alone. Me on my own.
Now, there's you. A teardrop, blue
Falls thankful to be shown
My love, and Me with You.
Blood. Her blood. Vivid drops against the stark white snow. His eyes took in the little details of her face, her silky skin, scarred with a single scratch and dripping blood that fell like tears to merge pink with the snow. Her eyes, gently closed, as if she were only asleep, her soft blue wisps of hair, fluttering lightly in the ice cold breeze. Her outstretched hand, reaching towards him in a silent cry for help, the fingers sinking slightly into the softer, top layer of snow.
In his head, Kai recalled the violent thump against the wall as he had struggled to get outside earlier. It had been her. From, the paralysis of frozen shock, Kai's mind flooded with shaking, red hot anger. His face became a mask of fury as he turned to the man who had done the deed and lunged for him with a scream of pure rage.
At first the man looked surprised by Kai's sudden rush of aggression and he backed away for a second before a grin spread across his face. With a laugh of derision he easily dodged Kai's blunt attack and, in his weakened condition, Kai was suddenly struggling just to keep his momentum from tripping him up. Twisting around he grabbed hold of the taller man's coat and swung a violent punch at his face. Pulling on the man's coat to keep his balance Kai brought him close enough to get in a proper hit. With a vicious crack the man reeled back and Kai tumbled to the ground, finally losing his balance completely.
With a cry of anger and pain, the man lunged at Kai, kicking out at him with a heavy boot. Kai gasped with shock as his ribs cracked and the breath was driven from him. Unable to move anymore from his pain and fatigue, Kai curled up into a ball of tightly clenched pain as more and more rage-filled blows rained down on his broken body. Gasping heavily for breath, Kai's vision faded slowly to black and he gave in finally to oblivion.
'Kai! Kai?' Kai groaned. 'Jeeze Kai, do you wanna fight me or not? Wake up!' Kai opened his eyes to see Tyson staring down at him, a large frown on his face. Behind him, Rei and Max were watching with vague interest.
'But…' Kai stared up at Tyson in astonishment. 'What…where did…uh….what's going on?' He felt completely disoriented by the sudden change of scenery. What had happened to the man he'd been fighting, and Zephyr? What about her? It couldn't have been a dream.
'You said you'd fight me remember? Beyblades kinda thing?….Man Kai, are you okay? You seem really out of it.' Kai shook his head, standing up.
'I'm fine, let's fight.' But he was just as confused as before. Where had all the snow gone? It was Sunny here. He looked around and realised that they were at Tyson's house, where they used to train before…before….Kai shook his head again, before what? Tyson called his name again, catching his attention. Kai remembered then, of course! He was training for the tournament. He put his hand into his pocket and brought out Dranzer, the sun flashed across the bright metal, blinding his eyes for a second, the brief moment reminding him of a gun shot…Kai shook his head again. Where had that thought come from? He hadn't heard a gun shot since he was little, had he?
'Kai?' Kai frowned at Tyson and finally held out his launcher.
'3,2,1…Let it rip!!!' The two blades spun out and away from their respective owners, warily circling each other in the dish before clashing violently together, sparks trailing behind. Kai watched, distractedly guiding Dranzer in the fight as he tried to remember the reason for the aching pain in his side. There was a sudden yell of victory from Tyson and Kai looked up in shock at how easily Tyson had beaten him. What was wrong with him? Why couldn't he concentrate?
'Are you sure you're okay Kai?' Rei was standing beside him, looking at him with worried eyes. 'You've never lost to Tyson so easily before.' Tyson nodded, frowning.
'I agree Kai, that was way to easy, it's no good me fighting you if it's not gonna be a challenge!' Kai lowered his eyes to the Beyblade in his hand. He turned away from his friends, hiding the confusion in his eyes and biting back a cry at the pain burning through his muscles.
'I said I'm fine. I was just still half asleep…' Asleep. She must be only sleeping, eyes closed so
peaceful like that. Just asleep. That's why she isn't here.
Kai choked back a cry as his vision went blurry for a second and her face swam before him in a
strange vision. With a gasp he fell dizzily to one knee.
'Kai!' He looked up as they crowded around him, calling his name frantically as his vision faded
away to black. 'Kai!…Kai…wake up, please wake up!'
'Wake up?' thought Kai, fuzzily, adrift in a haze of black pain. 'I am …awake…' But if he was
awake, why couldn't he see? With a monumental effort, Kai wrenched his eyes blearily open. A
worried face swam into view.
'Rei?' Kai murmured, still dazed. The persons long hair fell messily over their face and their eyes
widened with a gasp of surprise.
'Kai!' A girl's voice. A girl. With a gasp of sudden fear Kai forced his body up, eyes wide and darting as he tried to find her body in the snow.
'Zephyr!' He was panicking as everywhere he looked was a blinding white, where was her body?
'Kai, calm down, you're just gonna hurt yourself more! Kai!' Kai stopped for a second and looked at his surroundings again. Then he looked up at the person who was trying to hold him still.
Her deep blue eyes were filled with worry and her arms were trembling around his.
'Zephyr?' He whispered, disbelievingly. Then, with a sigh of relief, he sank back again into a more comforting and healing darkness.
When Kai woke up again it was dark. Looking around he realised that they were no longer outside but were in a small, clean room, the only furniture being the bed and the chair that Zephyr was now sitting in. It looked as if she was asleep. Looking away from her, to the other side of the room Kai could see the moon and some stars out of the window. Also, here and there, flakes of soft white snow were beginning to fall.
'Kai?' Kai looked back over at the dark-haired girl. In the moonlight he could see that her eyes were red from crying.
'Zephyr…what's going on?' he asked weakly, his voice barely more than a whisper.
'Kai! Thank God your okay! I thought…I thought…' for a few seconds the strange girl fought back tears. Finally she gained control over her faltering voice. 'I woke up and that man was kicking you and you…you weren't moving…I…' She turned away from his searching eyes. 'I dragged myself away. Somehow I managed to get to his van and open the door and I found his coat with a mobile phone in the pocket. I only had time to ring for an ambulance before I fell unconscious again. When I came to, I found myself here, in the hospital. You were in critical condition and they wouldn't let me near you. That was ten days ago.' Kai's eyes widened,
'Ten days?' he gasped. 'But…why?…How come…' Kai trailed off, his thoughts too dazed to work it all out. He was a wanted criminal wasn't he? If they hadn't worked it out yet then it was only a matter of time. In a state of near panic Kai brought his less injured hand to his face to the blue triangles that had always given away his identity before.
Zephyr shook her head and stood up to stand beside him. She reached out and pulled his hand away.
'It's okay Kai. I told them you were my brother. They were a bit curious for a while but this place is too small for them to know much about you. Luckily I woke up before they could make a connection. I…I didn't want them to hurt you any more…' She lowered her eyes from Kai's shocked gaze. Watching her lonely face Kai tried to let it all sink in. She had protected him. Did she know? Did she even care, what he had done?
'But I…' he stopped himself. What had he done? He was so tired he wasn't even thinking straight any more. 'I didn't….I would never…' Kai closed his eyes and sank back. What was he trying to say? Why shouldn't she stay?
Because you killed her came the insidious whisper in his mind. Kai's eyes snapped open. Catching Zephyrs hand in a tight grip he told her,
'I didn't kill her. Not like the papers said…not like that…' Zephyr's eyes were bright with unshed tears as she whispered softly to the shaking boy.
'It's okay. It's gonna be okay.'
