Beyblade Fan Fiction ❯ The Truth Behind Demons ❯ Two head alike ( Chapter 14 )

Chapter 14.

Miki pulled out her cell when Rei fell asleep. The two of them had talked a bit during his cry but not about anything that she didn’t already know of. So far she could tell that he had a really bad experience out in the woods with some of the other kids in the village because they chose to pick on him for having a fear of someone coming after him. It wouldn’t have been made public, Rei said, had he not told his parents about someone following him after school each day; they asked one of the officers at the bottom of the mountain from the city to watch over their son as he came and went to school. The officer did so but he saw no one each time they went, even when the boy would suddenly turn his head before latching onto the cops hand.

Eventually the kids asked Lee what the cop was for and he told them, the kids thought that it was pretty scary and did their best to look out for the younger boy as well, at least, they had looked out for him up until a larger kid named Gary had an idea to send Rei out into the woods to call out to the person following him. The idea was to lore the man out so that the other kids could jump him. Being young and rather short, Rei went along with it. So there he was out in the woods calling out to no one until something snapped a twig ahead of him. He turned to run but fell; another branch was broken near by this time closer than before. Rei got to his feet and tore through the woods, screaming that the man was coming.

The other kids ran from hiding and watched as the boy went through the woods, but no one was behind him, though, a bird did leave a tree occasionally. When Rei ran into a pile of vines hanging from two trees that were about a few feet apart, he screamed that the man got him. The other kids stood around and watched the boy writhe and struggle, they thought he might have been joking up until he opened his eyes reaching for them as he screamed for help.

A small boy named Kevin held his hand out for the shrieking boy to take, but just far enough away so that he wouldn’t be able to grab him, he laughed saying. “Come on Rei, don’t let the bad man get you.”

“Ahahaha,” laughs Gary. “Yeah, Rei. He’s looking’ pretty mean, I think he might do something bad to you.”

Three other boys laughed as well, until they saw Rei’s brother come through the woods. The older male freed his brother before chasing off the bratty children threatening to wipe them all off the face of the planet if they ever came near his little brother again.

“The man got me Lee.” The frightened boy cried on his brother’s stomach.

Lee rubbed Rei’s shoulders, shushing him so he would calm down. “It was a bunch of vines Rei… there wasn’t anyone there.”

Rei parents then took him to the hospital after Kee had told them what happened, and the Doctors couldn’t figure out the problem exactly. They had asked him this question and that until eventually Rei began to shake like he were suddenly very afraid of something. They diagnosed the boy with a case of Panic and prescribed some pills for him to take to calm him down. The rest, Miki filled in with what Dr. Yang had told her over the phone. Though Rei was taking the pills he continued to see someone following him around, only now that he was on the meds he didn’t freak out as easily as he used to. A month went by, and soon Rei’s pointing the man out turned into not seeing him for a very long time.

But when Rei hit ten, the man came back, this was also around the time that his brother had left for Japan to live with his Uncle Stan. It was at that time everyone figured that Rei was faking it for attention. Dr. Yang told him that he didn’t need the medication anymore and that he had to accept change and that things weren’t always going to be going down hill. He told Rei that he would make his own friends and everything else would fall into place. But Rei never did, he was ignored, laughed at, pointed out as the crazy boy and whenever kids did try to hang out with them, he shied away and stayed at home with his parents. The only time he seemed happy was when his uncle had invited him to Japan to hang out with his brother for the summer.

Dr. Yang then prescribed a different type of medication for Rei to take, one that would suppress his anxious feeling whenever he was in a social situation. It seemed to help and for a while Rei was normal, but then his parents passed away and that was the end of their sessions because Rei was taken to Japan.

When thinking about it, Ms. Ito did notice that Rei had a hard time making friends that first week of school. He even said he was too shy to speak to Tyson right off the bat. And somehow the boy had pills left over and has been taking them to relax from his fears. It all made sense to her now and once Rei awoke, they would have a talk about it.

Miki took out her cell phone and dialed Lee Kon’s number. She figured she’d speak with the people around Rei before she asked him anything further. That would be the best plan, he already feels backs into a corner.

“Hello, is this Lee Kon?” He answered. “This is Miki Ito from the Tricare center if psychology, I was wondering if you would come in tomorrow. I would like to speak with you about your brother, Rei.”

“Sure. What’s wrong with him? Is it serious?”

“I picked him up from school earlier today and he was very aggressive I just wanted to ask you a few questions that’s all.”

“Should I come and get him?”

“No, I think he’ll manage. He’s asleep right now.”

“Okay. I’ll come get him when he wakes up, call me please.”

“Of course.” She turned her head seeing said boys movements from the corner of her eye. “By the way, have you seen your brother taking any type of pill lately?”

“Pills? No.”

“Just checking. Good bye Lee.”

“Bye.”

Rei shook his head as he slowly came to. Rubbing his eyes he looked around the room until he spotted the woman at the doorway. “I’m sorry…. For being mean earlier…. It won’t happen again- I just really don’t wanna talk anymore.”

“I understand, you did very well today.” She said. “Your brother is coming to pick you up if you want.”

“No. I wanna walk.” Standing on shaking legs, he crossed the room. “Miss. Ito?”

“Yes?”

“Can you please not take me out of school anymore.”

“I won’t.”

“Thanks.” Passing through the doorway, he walked down the hall, slowly waking up as he went. Yawning, his eyes closed as he did so momentarily stopping his vision and in that time he bumped into an oncoming pedestrian. “Excuse me.” He opened his eyes, widening them in horror seeing Tala standing before him- at least, he thinks this guy is Tala.

This tall red head didn’t look like the usual intimidating creature the boy is at school. This guy actually looked- normal. His usually sneering face was set at a quizzical look, his clothes were better than the black uniform that the school assigned, he’s wearing a simple pair of blue jeans with a dark red t-shirt but his creepy boots are still the same, not to mention he still had on the fingerless gloves he often wore. But the odd part of his look is the pair of glasses upon his face: thin, light brown, framing with the glass cut at a rectangle. They’d be invisible if they weren’t highlighting his ice blue gaze. Guess this explains where he went to after school. But what was he doing here? Rei wondered as he slowly walked by getting the eye with each step.

Good and past the boy it wasn’t until he heard in Tala’s usual tone, “Hey wait,” that Rei took off down the hall for the elevator. He pressed the button for the first floor and luckily the door closed before the red head could catch up. Taking a breather, Rei pondered how to get home before the jerk caught up to him to punish him for knocking food onto his lap. The fastest way is through the park, but it was well after school by now and it would probably be swarming with kids- maybe kids he knew that would want to stop him to talk and what with that rumor about him and the high school kid going around, kids wanting his attention was very likely to happen. But the other route wasn’t as familiar to him so looks like it had to be the park.

Leaving the elevator he was glad someone else was at the desk today, someone he doesn’t know. If it were the usual guy he’d be forced into a conversation otherwise it would seem rude. Once he was out the door, he turned right and dashed off to the park.

……………..

Rei’s legs were killing him by the time he reached the center of the park. He had to take a break. The coach should stop forcing them around that track so many times and just make them run the length of the park, it’s murder! Catching his breath he heard a chuckle beside him. Turning his head, he groaned, slumping his shoulders. This was just not his day.

“You know 9 out of 10 run away kids come to the park- they’re so dumb.” Crossing his leg over the other one he adds. “If it were me, I’d run to the museum- no one looks inside of anywhere and you could hide all day-…”

“If you’re gonna beat me up, do it quickly. I’m kind of having a bad day.” He turned away from him and rest his head on the back of the bench.

“Oh Kon, I’m not gonna beat you up.” He slung an arm over the back of the bench. “I came to talk to you, one shrunken head to another.”

Turning so that he was facing him now, he looked at the boy with contempt. You can never tell with people like him, and why the hell was he so interested in talking to him now? All of a sudden he was worthy of the great Tala’s attention span of three seconds. Probably just wanted ammo for when they got back to school. That was all Rei needed to have a slandered high school reputation before he even really started going there.

“I’m not giving you ammunition,” he shook his head. “And what could we possibly have to talk about? You hate me.”

“I did, until I saw you back there and realized maybe you’re not so bad,” he waved a hand in the air. “It’s a whole… understanding thing.”

“How?”

“Because now you have an excuse to why I hated you, so,” he got into a more relaxed position. “Pretend I’m a toilet and dump your shit on me.”

Rei looked at him like he had lost his mind. “What?”

“What are you in for?”

Now Rei’s heard everything. Tala can’t be serious about wanting to be friendly just because the two of them happen to go to therapy. That’s ridiculous! And yet, with him sitting there, eyes full of wonder, Rei thought that maybe he could trust this jerk to actually have a nice side… occasionally. Shaking his head, knowing he’s gonna regret the whole thing, he sighs. “Who better to tell than the guy who hated you on sight.”

“Exactly.”

“You are aware it comes with a price.”

“Which is?”

“You have to tell me first, why you’re going.”

Tala shrugged as if that were no big deal. “I have one of those things were everything must be just so or I’m uncomfortable.”

The Chinese boy stared blankly for a moment. “…Huh?”

“I’m a neat freak to put it simple.” He wet his lips. In that brief second Rei saw a flash of silver and continued staring at the boys mouth as he spoke. “I don’t like the idea of things being dirty. My shrink calls if agoraphobia- or some shit, but I have no problem with germs, it’s just messes and stains… it bothers me.”

“That’s weird…. What do you have in your mouth?”

“Nothing,” he answers, but then his eyes flick to the left and he looks like he just realized something. “Oh,” opening his mouth wide, he sticks his tongue out to show Rei a silver stub in his mouth. “Tongue ring, to celebrate myyy being germ free for ten long years.” He made it sound like it was a universal celebration. “I figured I’d show the jackass that I don’t have a germ problem by getting the biggest form of bacteria I could think of.”

Rei nods, scratching an itch on his leg that felt like a bug went up his pant leg. “And now?”

“Now we talk about my cleaning thing, but there isn’t much to be done about it so I mostly just use therapy as a way to cut class.”

They were silent for a bit until the red head nudged the raven haired boy out of his thoughts. “Well,”

“I wish my problem was as simple as yours… mine is…. A lot worse.” He looked at his lap. “Mine is gonna change a lot of things for me and I can’t stop it.”

“A lot’s already changing, for starters, after careful thinking I’ve decided to let you see Kai.”

Rei shrugged. “I would have seen him with or without your permission anyway. You don‘t-…”

“Ssshh, don’t spoil this for me.” Says the other boy, his voice returning slightly to it’s usual mean way. “And I want you to hang out with us when we skip school tomorrow.”

Rei laughed at that, since he had already been invited. “Okay… But what’s the deal with you and Kai anyway? Did you used to date or something?”

Tala shrugged, then took off his glasses. “Not really, we more like… experienced with each other- you know how it is when you’re young, we’ve known each other forever.”

“So then why pick on me… I never said anything about liking Kai or anything like that.”

“You didn’t have to. I knew it was a matter of time before the two of you figured it out that you were screwing around in the back room at my party and it pissed me off because,” he rolled his eyes. “You have this look about you that says flight risk. You’re gonna hurt Kai because you don’t really know what you want, and he likes you- you’re being unsure would hurt him and I won’t let that happen.”

“People are gonna get hurt.”

“I don’t care, Kon. No one hurts people in my life…. Kai most of all…” Flicking a hand past his nose, he sighed. “When I was younger, I had a problem with germs because I got hospital sick when my father’s cook decided to sneeze while preparing dinner. The man didn‘t even have anything!”

Rei nods. He can’t believe what an open book this boy can be, but then again with someone that talks as much as he does, how could he not be.

“So, I avoided other people making things for me, touching them- whatever.” He looked out into the distance. “It got so bad I, unknowingly, stopped eating all together because I didn’t trust anything… I nearly passed out one day and Kai got me back on my feet; no one else noticed the problem but him. He’s my rock Rei, and I don’t want you breaking him.”

Wish I had a rock… everyone just kind of ignores me. Looking back at his lap, he then look up. “I’m sorry.”

“Forget it, Kai’s been crazy about you, even before he figured it out. So I guess you’re on board with us.” He held out a hand.

“Thanks…” He shook the boys hand. “Tala, does this mean you’re gonna stop calling me kitty litter?”

“Sure, whatever.” Rei laughed to himself. It felt good to laugh again, especially after his day. “So anyway, what about you?”

Leaning forward he cupped his hand over the red heads ear about to whisper it him, when a shadow blocks their light.

“Rei?” Says Tyson, turning his head he sees the other boy and narrows his eyes at him.

The sight of them, sitting so closely together, smiling, and… and worst of all he’s actually attractive! That was all Tyson could stand. Tala looked Tyson over, his dark skin, his deep brown eyes, his wild fly away ponytail. He would admit that Rei has good taste in men, but the kid clearly has a bad attitude.

“Kai!” Snaps Tyson.

“Hm?”

Roaring like he’s some kind of pro wrestler he jumps the older male.