(BACKSTORY)

(46) TRAPPED

It gets incredibly cold being locked up in some kind of space vortex for hundreds of years. It's also incredibly boring, but it's not like Kai had remembered what happened or anything.

Not entirely or immediately, anyways.

Because, the moment he landed on the dark asphalt in a shady neon-lit area, his memory is wiped clean and the only thing he's really thinking about is why he hadn't decided to wear something warmer. He rubs his arms, groaning as he sits up, and yelps to get out of the way from an incoming hovering car of sorts. Then, he's confused.

The streets aren't packed, but people roam around him and enter into the glowing buildings with what appears to be mannequins adorned in skimpy clothing-

Except, these mannequins seem to be able to move. The moment he sees their bodies shift, whether it be them shifting their weight or crossing their legs, he gets a weird, eerie feeling in the back of his mind.

Those girls had to be mannequins. There was no other explanation. For no reason did people have to display themselves behind clear glass windows under florescent lighting like a mouth-watering dessert. Mannequins aren't alive, and his tired eyes just find pleasure in playing tricks on him.

They mannequins move again, into different poses, but they're all still in sync. Kai gulps down the uneasiness clogged in his throat.

Making his way up to one of the windows, he slides his palms on the glass and almost marvels (in horror) at the display. The mannequin's eyes shoot down to him, though her body stays in position. She has long, loosely curled chestnut hair and long thick lashes, milky skin just barely covered by the tight black and pink undergarments and straps secured onto her body. Not only that, but the others look very similar as well, the main thing differing being their hair.

Kai backs away and squints at the purple and red tinted rooms, lined up like brand new shipments of barbie dolls. Their expressions are particularly lucid at first, but twist into something more confused when they notice him.

He finds himself feeling dizzy because of whatever purpose he was not aware of- maybe it was the neon lights, or the really long nap, or the numerous pairs of eyes staring straight at him- he doesn't know. But it feels like he's been drugged, because he has a weird sense that he knows exactly what that feels like: to feel slow but ecstatic, as if moving in thick waters that taste like cherries, and the occasional blurs and flashes of light.

His head pounds, and the next thing he knows, he's somewhere else.

He sits in the middle of a room that reeks of sweat and sweets, and it makes him want to hurl. The flashing lights and pulsing music don't exactly help the feeling, either. What's more is that the room is filled with dozens of women- women that look nearly identical to each other, he thinks.

He feels incredibly nervous, because he knows he shouldn't be here. Women dance around him provocatively, cooing, groaning, and seeming to get closer to him with every step they took.

"Where do you come from?" One of them ask.

"How'd you get in here?"

"You're pretty sneaky, aren't you?" One of them giggle.

"I like my men young."

It's entirely too pressurizing, and the more that happens, the more nauseous he gets. So with panic slipping through him, he let's out a shout and grabs at one of the women's wrists when she reaches out, and his gut churns.

A scream ripples through the room, vibrating against his eardrums and nearly deafening him. Then there's more screams, and more panic, and Kai is hesitant to open his eyes again so he does it slowly.

What's revealed in front of him is a woman clutching her arm. Eyes snaking their way down, he reaches the wrist and expects to find a hand-

What he finds is a clean cut nubbed arm with blood splurting all over him and the floor.

Chaos broke loose and Kai could only stand there watching the woman as she slowly dropped to the floor, her limbs convulsing as small cries left her plump lips. He didn’t know what to do and looked around for some sort of help. The rest of the people surrounding the scene weren’t paying attention and ignoring the fact that the woman’s hand had suddenly disappeared, as if something this horrific happened on a daily basis.

Kai didn’t understand what happened, but he knew that he had to try and help somehow. Slowly making his way to the woman, he went down on his knees expecting her to still be in pain. She brought her head up to look at him and he felt a shiver go down his spine.

Those eyes were full of anger and- Regret? Kai didn’t understand why he knew, but chose not to ask her why.

“Get away from me! You- You freak!” She screamed, shoving Kai away with her good hand.

As she momentarily released her arm to push Kai away, he saw another spurt of blood come out from the cut off limb, scarlet red painting the dirty floor as the woman choked out another cry. He could only watch as she continued to wriggle around until her voice became hoarse, getting softer and softer until she didn’t move anymore. She just laid there, curled up into a ball with tear stains on her cheeks.

She looks much more peaceful than earlier though, Kai thinks. He then gasps, realizing that he found it normal to see this woman die right in front of him.

“What the hell is going on down here?”

Kai hears the sound of wood creaking before he was able to locate where the sickly sounding voice was coming from.

There, stomping down a set of stairs was a man being surrounded by a lot of the women in the room. He was dressed in all white and his skin was almost as pale as his fair skin. Between his lips was a fat cigar and Kai could’ve sworn he saw a gold ring adorned around his ring finger, but he wasn’t entirely sure.

He watched them man curl his fingers in one of the women’s hair as he brought it to his face and smelled it. His other hand went lower to grab another woman’s , to which Kai had to turn away from, face burning red with embarrassment. He didn’t dare turn back until he felt a presence hovering over him.

The smell of the man’s cigar was really off putting, smoke wafting around Kai’s face to the point where he almost gagged. As beads of tears gathered up in his eyes, he kept a straight face while looking upwards at the cause of his discomfort.

“A kid?” The man questioned, leaning down further to get a better look at Kai.

Kai opened his mouth to speak but was greeted by a puff of gray smoke, causing him to cough and sputter out the foul taste. The man only laughed at him before using one hand to grab Kai by his hair and yank him to his feet. It was the same hand he used to touch all of those women and Kai was extremely put off by how many butts it could’ve made contact with.

“W-What are you doing?” He cried out.

The moment only lasted a mere moment before Kai’s hand covered his lips, startled by his voice that crackled to life. It sounded lower than he remembered. Not by much, but still different.

“You killed one of my girls.” The man said with another tug of Kai’s hair. “It’s only natural you have to pay the price.”

The man’s fingers were thin, so all the more did it hurt when he wrapped the digits around Kai’s throat. His garbled chokes were unheard even with such a crowd and through his teary eyes did Kai see people surrounding them. They didn’t help him and just watched. Some were laughing at his predicament while others turned to whisper in one another’s ears. The onlookers would have been concerned, but then Kai saw the look in their eyes. So full of loathing for him, the boy that wound up in the wrong place at the wrong time.

He wasn’t going to die this easy though. That wasn’t Kai.

Reaching his arms forward, Kai could feel the man’s suit against his nails as he frantically clawed for some sort of purchase. When he realized he couldn’t grab anything, it was already too late. The vision in Kai’s eyes were slowly turning dark and he couldn’t comprehend what his future would be. It was almost decided that he would die here, by this man’s hand.

Kai’s head slowly hung down towards the left and through his last shallow breaths was he able to see the body of the woman that had died earlier. She was laying down on the floor still, abandoned by the other people that didn’t bother to move her. Instead, they stood around her like she was some sort of floor mat.

He didn’t feel bad for her, maybe a bit jealous. Hidden away in the shadows where no one could see her.

The next time Kai opened his eyes, all he could see was the woman’s face, her eyes still open the way she’d been left on the floor. He let out a sharp scream before scrambling back and looking at her dead body.

“What the hell?”

Kai’s heart was racing and he could only look to where the noise came from to see the man that was strangling the life out of him just a mere seconds ago. He was looking at his hands, turning and twisting the limbs around as if there was something missing.

There was. And it was Kai himself.

He hadn’t moved too far from the scene though and it was easy to relocate where the boy was. The man found him as well and the two of them locked eyes.

Instead of going to try attack him again, he jumped back with a single finger pointed Kai’s way.

“You monster!” He spat, “Someone call the police!”

No matter how much the man yelled at the top of his lungs, nobody made a move, even Kai himself. Everyone was trying to figure out what just happened. A young boy being in one place then the next.

Things that couldn’t be figured out could only mean one thing. An anomaly. And if a person was tied to that anomaly?

He would be labeled a freak.

Tables were overturned and chairs were knocked over as people ran for their lives, terrified that they’d have to witness another scene although nobody had really seen what Kai had done. They didn’t want to be involved with the abnormal. Kai tried asking what was going on, but his small voice was drowned out by the screams of the adults.

The next thing he knew, Kai felt a heavy blow to the back of his head and he was seeing nothing but a black space.

--

The next few months were torture for Kai.

In the beginning, people didn’t know what to believe when a crazy man from red light district told them that a boy was the reason why one of his es had suddenly lost a hand and died. It wasn’t in their jurisdiction to do anything since it wasn’t legal anyways, plus the boy looked as innocent as a young child should.

That was proven wrong after Kai was almost released. The man had grown even more distraught seeing he would be released and barged in past the police to give Kai a piece of his mind the same way he’d almost killed him the first way. Before he could grab Kai’s throat though, Kai had teleported away and held his stance firmly, eyes not leaving the man with a small smile on his face.

This is where Kai’s life had taken a turn. The two officers were bewildered by Kai’s power, but didn’t know what to do with a teleporting boy. His pitch black eyes were the most terrifying in their perspective, not understanding how he would have gotten ahold of a pair of colored contacts so quickly. Apparently the rest of the officers that were on duty did and from there on, Kai had been taken in, locked up behind bars for good.

It didn't exactly do them justice, though, because even after being chained and held prisoner, Kai had always managed to escape. It was an incredibly easy task for him as well, and eventually, most guards had given up. There was absolutely no hope.

And so this went in for months, where Kai had grown remarkably witty and sly, soaring past his pre-teen stages as if they were nothing. By the time he turned fourteen, he had shot up a good five inches, matured enough and learned more and more about this new mysterious world.

What's weirder is that he has no idea what he's doing here. Stuck in a city with strict law enforcements and potential lunatics, Kai didn't exactly feel at ease. He wonders where the others had gone, why he was here alone, and just what happened those many, many years ago. At least, it felt like a long time to him.

What didn’t help was the fact that the new year brought a wave of nausea over him like a poorly planned vacation to sea. January proved to be a thorn in the boy’s side from the sudden sickness he’d gotten. Cold sweats and sudden urges to vomit had interrupted January and a good portion of February as well, giving Kai the worst feeling of anxiety about his health that none of faction F wanted to deal with. He’d learned to put up with it knowing that he wasn’t going to get help for it anytime soon and over time the urge to throw up lessened and lessened until the feeling was very slight. It would occasionally return once in awhile to mess with his day of planned out trouble making, but still, not as bad as those first few weeks.

The only thing he can't remember is the date. He nearly throws a fit when he discovers the year, and spends an entire day having multiple panic attacks about vanishing off somewhere he had no information about, with nowhere to go and no one to see.

In this time period, his only home is within the confinement of cell 88, where he is given the name "Prisoner 88" and is deemed the most dangerous criminal in the entire city-

A boy in his early teens and so apparent capability of both escape and murder.

Not all of it is on purpose, of course. Only if it was really needed did Kai use his powers to harm others, which was undoubtedly often.

He learns to control his newer powers, but something within him feels a little uneasy with its obscurity. The darkness that engulfs him, or gives him energy, or the dark that keeps him calm- it isn't normal, and part of him is afraid deep down.

On the outside, he shows no care.

A few months after the new year, Kai is resting in his cell, leg propped up on the wall as he tossed a paper to it over and over again. He shook his leg until he felt an ache begin to form in the calf, momentarily halting his impatient jitter to change positions. It was particularly breezy for the middle of the summer, especially since jail cells didn’t have many open windows