Mai knew we were in over our heads, and so she got to work devising an exit strategy for me and me alone. We were given our own rooms separate from each other, yet directly across the hall from each other. "Safe but Separate" "close, yet far apart" It was perfect for anyone looking to use us as tests subjects.
Mai spotted it immediately, where as I was stuck in awe of the grander of things. Once we were both left to get settled in, Mai was given only ten minutes to say her goodbyes to me. Having a full blown panic attack, Mai did the only thing she could do to try and comfort me.
Taking me into her arms, she sang to me one last time before being taken away to her room across the hall. watching as they slammed and locked both our doors shut, I remembered Mai's words telling me to stay strong and never tell them who or rather what I really was.
Keeping my promise, I used what little time I had left to look for a way out. seeing that my balcony door had been unlocked, I made sure to keep to the shadows just as Mai had taught me to do before making my way to the rose garden just below. Hearing the sound of running water, I moved to the center of the garden where I saw a man with silver hair sitting by the water fountain with a silver chain locked tightly round his ankle.
With his head lowered towards the ground, I couldn't tell his age. Carefully moving a bit closer to get a better look at him, I suddenly froze when I saw him looking up at me. Without hesitation, he pulled me closer into his lap. The chains rattling as he moved. With his cold breath against the side of my neck, he held me tight as he searched for my eyes.
"Oh you're a pretty one aren't you? My brother is gonna LOVE you...." he says his words calm, yet faint as if he had no energy left to speak suddenly. Before I could ask him about his brother, we both fell over onto the grass as the falling peddles now surrounded us. Felling him move to climb on top of me, I felt his hands pen me down.
"Did you really think you could get rid of me that easily?!"
"What are you saying?! I only want to help you!"
"Really now? Go on then... help me escape this place."
Feeling a sigh of relief was over me as he finally let me go, I reached down to undo the chains that held him captive for god knows how long. But the second he got free he chose to attack me, his hands tearing at my dress as his body held me down.
"I'm sorry Blaze... But this one is mine brother!"
As he forced himself on me I struggled to break free of his body. to be so thin he was extremely strong and agile. Reaching for my hidden blade, I had no other choice but to stab the male until his body went limp. After realizing what I'd just done, I was captured once again and thrown back into my room with his blood still soaking my dress.
The following morning, I was taken to the guy's office and questioned repeatedly as to how I got free and why I killed his son in cold blood. I'd spent hours trying to fully explain that the man had been poisoned and tried to attack me which was why I stabbed him in self defense.
And even after all this I still wasn't allowed to see my sister Mai. As I was being hauled off to yet another prison cell, I passed a tall male with crimson red hair and bright green eyes. His gaze was harsh as he watched me thrash and scream to be set free and see my older sister. It wasn't long before I came face to face with this man once again.
In a fit of rage, he stormed into the wine cellar where his father put all of his enemies whenever they thought to cross him and sure enough he found me pacing back and forth as if waiting for my chance to escape this new hell I'd now found myself trapped inside of. Grabbing hold of the bars, he glared at me. His anger clearly overclouding his judgment at the moment.
"Why did you murder my twin brother Zero! What did he do to make you want to kill him in cold blood?!"
"Ever stop to think why it would be so bloody convenient to blame me for your twin brother's death and toss me in a cell so as to get rid of the evidence?"
"Are you saying you didn't kill him?"
"I had no choice! Your father poisoned his mind making him think I was out to kill him. Your brother attacked me after I set him free from the courtyard where your father kept him chained up like some kind of wild animal. I was trying to get him to help me find my older sister Mai. But he tried to rape me and so I killed him in self defense. Just look at his ankle! The wound is purple from where they kept the chain locked around his foot."
"Ok, lets say I did believe you. Why would you let yourself get caught in the first place? Even if your sister were being kept here there's not real evidence to say she's still alive."
"You loved your brother yes? And I love my sister. I would die for her! After all.... she's the only family I have left in this world. You can try your best to kill me, but in the end I will find out the truth as to what really happened to her and if your father has harmed her in any way, shape, or form.... I will kill him."
"You won't have to lift a finger, I'll kill him myself if I find out he's behind it all. Till then your going to the pit. If you somehow manage to survive, then I'll let you live and help you find out the truth of what really happened to your sister Mai. But if you die in that pit, I'll make sure to feed your body to the wolves out back."
"Don't worry, I'm stronger than you might think I am. You just keep your word and we'll call it even."
The following night he stood watch in his father's place as they dragged me from the back cell into the center of the sparring pit. The walls were covered in sharp wooden spikes save for the only exit which was a heavy metal door that led back into the cellar entrance of the pit.
I was dressed in all black, my clothes ripped and torn from all the struggling I'd done to try and get away. Once they'd taken off my chain cuffs, the door to the pit was locked from the inside leaving only me and my opponent.... Skull Crusher.
Skull Crusher was a brute of a man. Standing at 8 feet nine inches tall and weighing in at a staggering 485 pounds, The man was a cold blooded killer. One who'd gladly fuck my corpse in the middle of the pit before ripping out my spine and crushing my skull in with one single smash of his axe.
Personally, Blaze thought it would be a quick match ending with my lifeless body left in the center of the sparring pit. However, I did something that shocked everyone in attendance at the pit show. I ran with lighting speed so fast no one, and I mean no one, not even Blaze saw me move from where I'd once stood.
It wasn't until everyone witnessed the death of Skull Crusher in person, that the crowd began gasping and hushed whispers could be heard all around the arena that I must be Shadow Kin by blood.
This intrigued Blaze so much that he later stood from his seat and granted me, my freedom. Once everyone had left the arena, he made his way to me as quickly as possible before finally asking who I really was.
"Who are you really? That move you just did back there.... That's a move only Shadow Kin can do by blood. "
"Really now? That's good to know. I'll keep that in mind when I find my birth parents and ask them what they know of it!"
"Wait? You mean you're an..."
"Orphan?..... Yes. That's why I need to find out where your father has taken Mai. She's the only family I have left. Now will you help me?"
"I'll do what I can but first, you have to tell me everything you know?"
Nodding my head I agreed to tell him what I knew. In exchange for my trust he gave me one of the guest rooms in return.
"So do you have a name?"
"Yup it's Sachi, Sachi Faye Takara. But my friends call me "Chi Chi," for short.
"Well Chi Chi, how do you know my father. Better yet.... how does my father know you?"
"It all started when his men burned down the orphanage we grew up in. He claimed to be searching for me and my older sister Mai. Said he was a friend of our parents and that they'd sent him to look for us. It wasn't until we got here that we realized he'd been lying the whole time. He did know who our parents were, but told us we were now his captives."
"But if he was looking to kill your parents that means they were very powerful people standing in my fathers way. That mark on your right shoulder...."
"It's a birth mark."
"I know, but it also means your parents really are Shadow Kin. This is bad.... If my father really did have you framed for killing my brother, then that means he found out something that he wasn't supposed to know. We have to get you out of here alive. You need me now just as much as I need you and you might not like me but your gonna have to trust me."
Just as we were preparing to leave two of his father's men came walking through the double doors to the cellar. They claimed that his father had been murdered by two of the shadow Kin Clan and that he was now the head leader of both the Elemental and Shadow Kin family empires. Looking back at him, he told the men to get everyone else out of the mansion and that he was keeping me with him at all times.
Left with no other choice, but to do as they were told, Blaze and I head up to his father's study to look inside his secret safe, where he no doubt was hiding all the evidence in regards to both his twin brother Zero as well as my older sister Mai.
Once we found all the evidence we could, we burned down what was left of the mansion before heading East to Gojo and Ari's safe house. There we could re-group and figure out the truth behind everything both our siblings had ultimately died for in the end of it all. -To be continued...-