E Is For Enemy

Chapter Twenty Four

Karma's P.O.V.

Despite all my restraints, I struggled and kicked uselessly as they lead me around.

I was blindfolded, but I could tell they had taken me out of the van and had brought me inside a building.

I could hear Shuu's voice in my head again, telling me it was pointless to struggle at this moment, and that I shouldn't give them the satisfaction of watching me, but I didn't care what they thought of me. I just wanted out.

Finally, I managed to shake the blindfold loose and it fell to hang around my neck.

They lead me past the rows and rows of researchers, none of whom gave me a parting glance, (as if they were used to this kind of scene) and stopped in front of a reinforced, steel door that only opened when one of the men holding me leaned down to have his retina scanned by a built in laser.

Looks like I would have to steal an eyeball to get out of here.

Which was fine with me, I wasn't exactly besties with any of these losers and would love to keep an eye as a souvenir.

After a maze of hallways, staircases and rooms with locked doors, we finally arrived at what I assumed was our destination.

They pushed me into a chair in the middle of the room and tied me to it, before leaving with no explanation of any kind.

"Hey, no problem guys," I called after them over my shoulder, "I'll just wait here, then."

The door shut, and locked.

I quickly tried to wrestle my arms free. While the interior of the room looked warm and inviting, I knew only bad things went down here.

The plush crimson carpet was only that color to cover up the blood stains. The crackling fire in the elegantly detailed, gold plated fireplace was only there also to cover up the smell of blood, as well as a few other terrible things, no doubt. Even the chair I was in, despite its rich mahogany color and smooth texture, couldn't hide all the deep gauges in the arm rests.

Well, I'll be damned if I just sat here and became another victim. I had Shuu to get back home to-

SHUU.

He was alone with his father, and while I had tried to warn him, he didn't want to hear it. No doubt he would give his father the benefit of the doubt and still blindly trust him, not realizing the true amount of danger he was in.

Suddenly I wasn't trying to get free just for my own sake, but to get out of here so I could get to Shuu.

"Please don't hurt yourself."

I stopped when a voice came out of nowhere.

"Isn't it kind of redundant to say that when we both know you're just going to hurt me in like, five minutes?" I called out, searching for the source of the sound.

"Who said anything about that?" The voice came again, from my side.

I whipped my head around, but the room was empty.

I jumped when a log rolled over in the fireplace.

"Something that obvious doesn't need to be said." I answered. "Besides, I hate to break it to you, but your henchmen already bruised me up a bit." I shrugged, hiding my wince at the pain.

Although I was doing my best not to show it, I really was in agony. Especially my head, which had suffered that blow from behind. What kind of coward could only attack from the back? If it had been a real, fair fight...well, let's just say Matsuda wouldn't be buried alone.

"You'll heal. We have the best doctors and medicine money can buy."

I looked up at the ceiling, and down under my chair, but there was no source of the voice.

It laughed at me.

"You're cute."

"Thanks, you're a piece of shit."

"I know you're mad at me, and I guess that's understandable-"

"You guess?!" I couldn't help but snort out a sarcastic laugh at that.

"Yes. I know you were concerned about your friend, but as you saw, we returned him unharmed the very next day." The voice said, echoing from somewhere across from me now. "We had no intention of hurting him, we just needed to gather some information."

I glared in the general direction of it. "You couldn't have just introduced yourselves and asked him nicely? You had to resort to kidnapping?"

"He wouldn't have said yes if we asked. Neither would you."

"Yeah, no shit Sherlock." I casually kept the voice distracted. "What kind of information did you take from him?"

"You'll find out soon enough. If I was you, I would want to take this whole ordeal slowly."

"And why is that?" I asked.

"Because you won't be the same after we're done with you."