Original Stories Fan Fiction ❯ Something About Him ❯ Pity ( Chapter 17 )

VegoSacomoto~ Jason always has surprises. *grin*

 

A/N Rather than updating every Monday, I will now be updating every Friday or Saturday to benefit those that are in school.

 

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Chapter 17

Pity

 

Katan lay wide awake in his bed. Correction, it wasn't his bed, but the guest bed, which he had to admit was actually more comfortable than his own, despite being much smaller. He had been informed that since Jason's confinement room connected with his own, he would have to relocate for the duration of Jason's training. Natalie wanted Jason to feel completely cut off from the rest of the world he had begun to adjust to, and therefore couldn't risk him hearing Katan so nearby.

 

Katan blamed his lack of sleep on his new surroundings, though if he was honest with himself it was not the overly-comfortable bed, but the thoughts of Jason's discomfort that kept him awake.

 

Finally he relinquished any hope of sleep and decided to go to the control room. When he entered, Katan was surprised to see Mark slumped over on the desk in front of the computer screen. The two other slaves in the room that were monitoring all of Jason's activities and vital signs didn't acknowledge his presence. He walked over to Mark and placed his hand gently on his back. Mark's eyes opened slowly.

 

“Hmm? Oh, Master, I must have dozed off.”

 

Katan smiled softly “Why aren't you in your own bed?”

 

Mark blushed slightly, “Umm…I could ask you the same.”

 

“Yes but that would be rude, to question your master.”

 

Mark smiled, not missing the teasing tone to Katan's voice. “I couldn't sleep, knowing he was locked up in there.”

 

Katan looked at the monitor for the first time since entering. Jason was curled up in a corner, shivering. His eyes were closed, but he was obviously awake. Katan let out a long sigh.

 

“I know, me either.”

 

“I feel so sorry for him.”

 

“Yes, her methods are…strict.”

 

Mark snorted out a laugh, and Katan gave him a questioning look.

 

“Unless trainers have changed drastically in the time I've been with you, her methods are actually very mild. “

 

“You have experienced a trainer?”

 

Mark shuddered. “Yes, Master. They are experts in causing pain without permanent damage. Take pride in finding your buttons and pushing them repeatedly until you break and act exactly the way they want you to.”

 

Katan leaned forward, studying the monitor closer. “Break, huh?”

 

But slaves aren't horses.

 

 

Mark's words echoed in Katan's mind all day. The thoughts kept nagging at him. He worried that Natalie's idea of “surrendering” might actually be his idea of “breaking.”

 

He knew he couldn't cancel the training now that she was here, but he had to do something to ease Jason's suffering. Katan found himself watching the clock, and at quarter of 4, he was right there in the control tower with Natalie.

 

Katan watched as relief washed over Jason's face when the computerized voice echoed through the empty room.

 

“Jason, it is 4pm, Katan awaits your request.”

 

Jason fought to control his shivering and steady his chattering teeth as he answered. “C-can I p-please have a bl-blanket?”

 

“Face the wall, it will be brought in a minute.”

 

Jason complied, shivering even more as he uncurled himself, allowing his body heat to escape.

 

“But that will do him no good, since you're measuring his temperature and adjusting the room accordingly, correct?” Mark asked timidly.

 

Natalie smiled, “Yes, that's right, so he's just wasted a request. He will learn.”

 

“I will get the blanket and take it to him myself.” Katan announced.

 

“My slaves can do it.” Natalie protested.

 

“No, it's alright, I want to do it.” With that, Katan exited.

 

Katan carefully folded a blanket, wrapping the squished roll of toilet paper and two bottles of water he had stuck inside the bundle.

 

Katan couldn't help but shiver as he opened the door and the cold air rushed out into the hall to greet him. He carefully set the items on the floor, and paused in the doorway to take in his slave's naked shivering form; a mixture of pity, guilt and arousal rising within him before he slipped silently from the room.

 

That night was much the same as the last. Katan lay in bed awake, his thoughts revolving around his poor slave. Finally he got out of bed and returned to the control room. There he found a bleary eyed mark staring at the monitors, coffee cup in hand, and dark circles forming under his eyes.

 

When Katan entered, Mark greeted him sleepily.

 

"Mark, you look like hell. I'm going to have to insist that you go get some rest." Katan said sternly.

 

"I can't leave him alone. Even if he doesn't know that he's not alone, I just can't do it." Mark pleaded with Katan.

 

"I will stay here. Now, I'm ordering you to go to bed."

 

"Yes Master..." Mark rose and reluctantly left the room.

 

Katan had been watching the monitors for nearly 3 hours, and was almost convinced that Jason was actually asleep, as he had been very still for almost an hour, but he smiled to himself as he saw Jason shift in his “sleep” to bring the blanket over his head, and he realized he was finally drinking the water that had been snuck to him.

 

Katan knew that they had been supplying Jason with his core nutrients and even keeping him hydrated through vapor mists that were being pumped into the room. All Jason had to do to survive was to keep breathing. Despite the fact his body was getting all that it required, Jason would still hunger, and thirst. To think some masters provided their slaves with only the vapors and never allowed them to eat disgusted Katan. It was cruel, to expect someone to function day to day while living in agony. Katan took on a wry expression.

 

Then again, that's really just life. We all experience our own brand of agony in one form or another.

 

Katan was distracted from watching the monitors when his phone rang, confused as to who would be calling him at such an hour. Worry creased his features as he saw Yuli's name on the display, and flipped his phone open hurriedly raising it to his ear. He was greeted with heavy, labored breathing from the other end of the line.

 

“Yuli?”

 

“Mas-ter…”

 

Katan's worry deepened when he heard Yuli's shaky voice. Yuli had originally been his slave, but he had released him 5 years ago to hire him as his own under-cover investigator due to his knack for befriending everyone and blending convincingly into the rougher underbelly of Euphoria. On occasion, usually when flustered or embarrassed, Yuli would still slip and address Katan as “Master.”

 

“Yuli? Are you alright?”

 

“I'm sorry…they made me tell them…”

 

“Who made you tell them what?”

 

“I don't know who they were…they jumped me…” Yuli drew a pained breath.

 

“Where are you? Are you hurt?”

 

“K district…a bit…”

 

“Stay right there, I'm sending help.”

 

“Thank you…I'm sorry…”

 

“We'll talk later.”

 

Katan was seething as he called Estevan's room, rousing him from his sleep so that he could arrange to have Yuli picked up and taken to the hospital. Katan had many enemies, and he was used to the usual tactics: nasty rumors, idle threats, constant challenges of his position, but whoever had done this had made it personal. Worse, they had made it personal by involving those closest to Katan rather than face him themselves.

 

So I'm looking for a cowardly enemy.

 

Katan's knuckles turned white under the pressure of his clenched fist. Lately there had been far too many things trying his temper, and way too much stress in his life for his liking. He could hear Mark in the back of his mind, telling him to control his temper, but then, Katan reasoned, Mark wasn't present. Katan let his fist fly forward, punching a hole in the wall and bloodying his knuckles in the process, but as pain replaced his anger, he knew it was a small price to pay to keep his temper in check.

 

He barely made it back to the bed to sit down, before Mark was knocking on his door. They had been together so long, Katan didn't even need to hear his voice, the knock was familiar to him, as was everything about Mark.

 

“Master? Is everything alright?” Katan smiled as his mind conjured a perfect picture of the questioning expression he knew was on his slave's face.

 

“Yes, Mark, come in if you like.”

 

The door opened slowly and quietly shut. There was no surprise in Mark's face as he surveyed the damage done to both the wall and Katan's hand.

 

“Again?” Mark sighed as he walked to the connecting bathroom to retrieve the first aid kit, “Why did you bother installing the punching bag in the fitness room, if you're still going to punch holes through walls?”

 

Katan laughed slightly as he watched Mark return from the bathroom. “What's so funny?” Mark asked.

 

“You are very grumpy in the middle of the night.” Katan answered, humor thick in his voice.

 

A deep blush crept over Mark's cheeks as he realized he'd been much to free with his attitude and speech toward his master.

 

“I'm sorry, Master, I'm still half asleep, please forgive my disrespect.”

 

Mark sunk to his knees in front of Katan, bowing his head. His chest felt tight. He had never before been rude to his master, and he felt crushed. Tears welled in his eyes, and he wondered briefly why he was getting so emotional, when Katan didn't even really seem bothered by it.

 

“It's alright, Mark, I was only teasing. I'm sure I'd be grumpy too if someone woke me by punching the other side of my wall.” Katan saw the slight rise and fall of Mark's shoulders, and realized he was sobbing quietly.

 

Mark nearly moaned in pleasure as Katan reached out and stroked his hair ever so gently. He hurriedly wiped his eyes, and began to clean and bandage Katan's hand.

 

“I'm sorry,” Mark apologized again, “I don't know what's gotten into me.”

 

Katan cupped Mark's chin in his good hand and tilted his face up until their eyes met. “You're exhausted. Lack of sleep has made you overly emotional.”

 

Mark laughed a little. “You're right. I hadn't even considered that.”

 

Katan smiled at his slave, but worry creased his forehead when he realized how sunken Mark's eyes looked, and how dark the circles under them were.

 

“You need to stop losing sleep over Jason.”

 

“It's not just Jason, I see how much you hate his training. You haven't slept either. I worry about you, Master.”

 

Katan laughed as he tousled Mark's hair, “Why would you go and do a thing like that?”

 

Katan smiled as he pulled back, patting his hair back into place. “Well, someone's got to.”

 

Katan flexed his bandaged hand as Mark tied it off. “You really are too good to me, Mark. Now, back to bed with you.”

 

“What had you so upset, Master?”

 

“Never mind, you don't need anything else to worry about.” Katan scolded.

 

“Yes, Master. Good night.” Mark replied sulkily as he walked from the room.

 

Katan sat in his study, pretending to do something other than watch the clock. There was a knock on the door, and Estevan's muffled voice came from the other side requesting entry.

 

When the door opened, Katan had expected to see Yuli with him, what he hadn't expected was that Yuli would be leaning against Estevan for support, or that his face would be swollen and covered in purple and black bruises almost beyond recognition.

 

His eyes roved over Yuli's body, taking in his condition. In addition to the obvious facial injuries, Yuli had a bandage around his head, a brace on one wrist, and a cast on the other. He walked with a limp as Estevan helped him to a chair.

 

“Are you okay?” Katan demanded.

 

“Yes…”

 

Katan glanced at Estevan, who took the hint, giving him a full report. “He has a concussion, broken nose, fractured eye socket, 3 broken ribs, a break in the right wrist, a sprain in the other, and several shattered bones in the right ankle.”

 

“I'm sorry…” Yuli muttered, unable to look Katan in the eye.

 

“Do you have any idea who was behind this?”

 

“No.”

 

“Will you agree to a memory recall? I may be able to identify someone from your memories of the event.”

 

Yuli slowly nodded his agreement, and Katan sent Estevan to prepare the necessary equipment.

 

As Katan headed to the entertainment room after alerting Natalie that he would be unavailable for a bit, he found he was relieved to have something else occupying his mind for the time being, even if it did make him livid every time he thought about the personal attack.

 

Upon entering, Katan saw that Yuli was already sitting in a chair wearing a headband-like device. Inside the stretchy cloth were metal discs resting against his temples, a cord attached it to the large TV. Once Katan took a seat, Estevan lowered the lights.

 

“Are you ready?” Yuli's only response was a slight nod, and Katan didn't miss the fear in his eyes, “It'll be ok, Yuli, a memory recall will only playback images of your short term memory, it's not like a memory scan, you won't feel any pain.”

 

“I know.”

 

“Then what are you afraid of?”

 

“N-nothing, sir.”

 

Katan switched on the machine, and muddled images began to flit across the screen. Katan smiled at the frequency of which one of the hospital nurses appeared.

 

“Alright, Yuli, reign in your hormones, I need you to concentrate on remembering what happened.”

 

Yuli's eyes slid closed and the images began to slow, and focus. Katan was then looking through Yuli's eyes as he walked down a dark, secluded sidewalk. Yuli focused on a man leaning conspicuously against a wall. He was shrouded in darkness to the point of being completely indistinguishable. Were it not for his sheer size Katan would not even be able to determine the gender. When Yuli had almost reached the man, he moved, and faced him, but Yuli's vision blurred and then went black as he was struck from behind.

 

There was audio before there was visual as Yuli regained consciousness. Katan strained hard to make out any familiar voices.

 

“Pick him up and drag him in here.” Ordered a gruff male voice, the authority in his tone left little doubt that he was the leader.

 

Yuli's eyes opened slowly as two men were bending toward him. He quickly jumped to his feet, delivering a roundhouse kick that knocked both of the enormous men down, giving him ample time to run past them.

 

There was the sound of shouting and many feet behind him before he was tackled to the ground.

 

“Jules, make sure he can't do that again, after all the trouble we went to I can't have him running away.” The leader said snidely. Katan gasped as the largest man he'd ever seen came into view. He was easily 7 foot tall, broad shouldered, insanely muscular, but what really caught Katan's eye was the shock of gold hair atop his head, and the purple streak that ran through it.

 

I've never seen a purple-haired vessel before, I've never even heard of one…

 

Katan was toying with the possibility that the man could have just dyed his hair to imitate a vessel, but that thought was shattered, along with Yuli's ankle as the man's eyes glowed a faint purple.

 

What the…

 

Yuli's screams drowned out most other sounds as he was hauled to his feet by two enormous men, and drug into an alley. Yuli struggled against his captors only to be rewarded by the snapping of his wrist.

 

“Yuli, how did they do that? Were they twisting it?”

 

Yuli's eyes opened, and the images began to replay as Yuli thought about Katan's question. “No, it was crazy, he snapped it one movement like it was a twig. They were insanely strong, I'm not even sure they were human.”

 

It can't be…

 

Yuli's eyes slipped closed again and the images continued.

 

“What does your boss have you looking for?” The leader demanded, gripping Yuli's bangs and forcing him to make eye contact.

 

“What boss? I don't know what you're talking about. I'm just here to check out the clubs.” Yuli's voice was steady, betraying not a trace of pain, or fear, and exuding innocence.

 

This false sincerity was rewarded by a kick to the ribs by one of the men not holding him. So far Katan had counted a total of 4 individual men besides the leader. Each one was enormous, and each had the strange shock of purple running through their hair.

 

“Don't play stupid with us, we already know you're working for Katan Jakart, and we know he has you searching for something.”

 

Jakart…not Ashford, so they know me personally then…

 

Yuli let out a humorless laugh. “Then you should know I'm far more afraid of him than of anything you can do to me.”

 

“We will see about that.”

 

Katan got only the briefest glimpse of a face before a fist connected sharply with Yuli's jaw, turning his head violently. His vision barely came back into focus before being hit again by the man on the other side of him, this one connecting with his eye, and instantly impairing his vision further.

 

The leader once again grabbed him by the bangs. “Well?”

 

Yuli's only response was to spit in the man's face. He looked disgusted, taking a step back and wiping his cheek before beginning a barrage of kicks to the Yuli's stomach. A loud crunch marked the breaking of one of his ribs. Yuli's screams were choked off as he coughed up blood. His breathing became pained, and his vision clouded as he fought for consciousness.

 

“Ready to talk, Bitch?”

 

“Fuck you.” Yuli's voice was nearly as shaky as his breathing with a distinct edge of pain to it.

 

The man delivered another rib breaking kick, and Yuli let out a weak scream.

 

“A girl…” Yuli said pleadingly. “Just a female slave that he wants to purchase…”

 

“Name?”

 

“I don't know…he showed me a picture, I have a photographic memory.” Katan couldn't help but be impressed by Yuli's ever-present knack for coming up with lies on the spot.

 

Yuli screamed as yet another rib was broken under the pressure of the man's kick. “Try again.”

 

“Kara. I have no last name.”

 

The leader smiled smugly. “Excellent. Tell Katan he really should hire more loyal employees.” With that the man threw a punch at Yuli's face, and his world went black.

 

Yuli's eyes slid open, but he kept them trained on the floor as he slipped the headband off. A few minutes of silence passed as Katan was lost in thought about what he'd just seen and who the thugs could have been sent by.

 

“I'm sorry.” Yuli's voice was barely above a whisper, but Katan still noted the small sob of despair that it contained.

 

“For what?”

 

“I let you down, I wasn't loyal to you.”

 

“Yuli, you are not my slave any longer. You are my employee. I would not expect you to give your life to remain loyal to me. There were 5 of them, and they were all freakishly large, and incredibly strong. I'm very impressed that you held out as long as you did. In addition to paying your medical bills, you will find a bonus in your next check.”

 

Relief took over Yuli's features as he looked Katan in the eye for the first time. “Thank you ma-boss.”

 

Katan smiled at his former slave. “I will call Raythe, he will be able to repair most of the more serious damage. Take the day off, rest, unfortunately I will need you back out there tomorrow. You were close to finding her, we can't let the trail get cold.”

 

“Yes, I understand.” Yuli said as he stood, “Were you able to identify any of them?”

 

“No, but I did learn something useful. I'm going to look into it and let you know as soon as I have any information. In the mean time, keep your head down, and try not to give them any opportunities for a second attack.”

 

“Yes sir.”

 

“You must be exhausted, my driver will take you home while I make the arrangements with Raythe.”

 

“Thank you.” As he followed Estevan out, Yuli was thankful to have someone take him home, as he felt like his own brain would shut down at any moment. Between the pain and worry he had nothing left to give. It shocked him that Katan would be so adamant to find this girl that he would have Yuli healed in order to continue the search.

 

I wonder why she's so important?