By Your Side - A Challengeshipping story

Chapter 24~ Knock out

Well, this chapter may be a little shorter than usual... but I have no idea because the plot is short, but I may describe it a lot, and now I'm just rambling, so I'm sorry... yeah... enjoy! Contains torture btw...

[Kite's POV]

"Mr Heartland, it appears that one of the semi-finalists has been eavesdropping on our conversation!"

I snap out of my guilty state when I hear this. Someone was here. It can't be Yuma. He would never wake up this early. It can't be Vetrix, or he would be a lot more stealthy. I already knew who it was. What the hell was he doing here?!

I didn't care about the fact that my punishment would be much worse, but I did care that Reginald would be in much worse trouble. I knew I should've double-checked. I should've warned him not to follow. He knows too much now, and he may have to be locked up somewhere.

I look up from my crouched position, staring towards the direction Mr Heartland and Faker were looking at, straight into his dim, blue eyes, slight fear evident in them, hand clamped over his mouth. He reminded me of a scared dog, hiding from the terrible humans and hoping to be invisible at that moment. I hoped he became invisible too. But he remained solid, in the flesh, now standing out from the shadows under the controls. I should've checked him first! I should've looked at the shadows. That mistake cost me. Now I may have to watch him suffer for it.

Mr Heartland lurched forward, Reginald frozen like a dear caught in head lights, and grabs his slim wrist, dragging him out of hiding, a few grunts escaping his lips. My breath hitches as I wait in anticipation. I could tell there was a vice-like grip from the way he winced in pain. I couldn't move. This was my fault. I feel my father's ice-like stare shift onto me, and I shiver.

Reginald is kicked to his knees next to me, and when I thought I was too numb to comprehend anything, I gasp when I saw it happen. This is what I get for being so attached with him. For getting to know him. It was a mistake. Nothing good ever lasts forever. He was bound to be taken from me from the start, and liking... no, loving him only made it harder. I didn't want this. But it's too late.

We're both wanted men, the two horrible adults in front staring down at us like we were outcasts, pieces that didn't belong anywhere and only made things worse. And by the amount of times the two of us had failed, from saving our siblings to saving each other, it would seem that we really were. We never belonged anywhere.

"I apologise, Dr, I swear! I didn't kno-"

"Save the apologies for later, Mr Heartland!" Dr Faker sneers, and I felt the drowning feeling from earlier return. "Kite, this is EXACTLY why I said DON'T get close to anyone! Yuma, you've already formed a "friendship" with, and now Shark!" The way he said Reginald's name with such malice made my stomach churn. "I don't know why you insist on having such a good time when your brother is dying! Mr Heartland and I have sacrificed so much for Hart, and you're busy making friends! Not only that, but because of your disgusting bond with Shark, he decided to follow us all the way up here! We have one last chance of saving Hart, and YOU are responsible for messing it up!" I have never angered my father so much in my life. He was using anger to jab at me with guilt, disappointment, uselessness and every disgraceful and shameful reason there is. I've never felt so low, tears stinging in my eyes. Suffocating in my own mistakes and blood. It's all my fault. It's all my fault. IT'S ALL MY FAIULT! IT'S ALL M-

"Seriously?!" Tears fall from my eyes, my stiff neck craning to look at Reginald. Even after coming all this way and being caught and realising what kind of horrible scheme I was in that can be seen as unforgivable, he is still standing up for me. But, him speaking up can be his demise... "You call yourself a father?! I'd be damned to actually believe that! Do you have no shame?! Do you not realise how much Kite has been suffer-"