Stolen

Chapter One:

Two days later Leon found himself walking down a familiar street, heading towards the same dark alley that he had been before. It was 2am and the streets were almost bare, a fact of which Leon was thankful; he wasn’t too fond of crowds or brushing shoulders with strangers.

Turning the corner Leon noticed that his client was already lounging on the top of a filthy dumpster. He perked up when he heard the noise, jumping down from his spot to greet Leon as he walked up to the man.

Wanting to get this over and done with quickly so he could go home and sleep, Leon eyed the shorter man in front of him. “Did you bring all of the munny?” he asked.

The shady man snickered quietly at Leon’s impatience. He made sure they were totally alone before he made his way back to the dumpster he was previously resting on and carefully lifted the lid. After rummaging around in it an making all sorts of noise, the man all but jumped in to pull out what he was looking for. He set the worn looking duffle bag, with bits of garbage hanging off of it, at Leon’s feet.

Before Leon could say or do anything, the shady man cut him off, “it’s only half of the munny.”

Leon clenched his fists and glared at the smaller man. “We agreed on all of the munny up front.”

The shady man flinched away from Leon, he could feel the tension in the air rising. “It’s all I could get,” the man pleaded. “I’ll get the rest of the munny soon. You’ll get it when I have the boy. I promise.”

Leon considered this for a moment. He could always just take this half of the munny and leave, but he found himself thinking of the boy he was supposed to tail for the next few days. If Leon didn’t do the job, the shady man might try something on his own and he’s probably crazy enough to end up killing the kid. Leon wasn’t exactly man of the year, but he didn’t want to have anyone’s death on his conscience.

His reputation was also on the line if he took the munny and ran. He built up a good reputation for himself since he ran away from home at the age of fifteen and he wasn’t about to let some shady pedophile bring him down. He decided half of the munny was enough for now.

~*~

The sun had been up for a while on that cool spring morning and Sora’s alarm clock had gone off, telling him it was time to get up. His arm slid out from underneath the covers and found it’s way onto his bedside table to his alarm clock and switched it off. The brunet sat up in his bed, soft silk sheets falling from his small frame, and he opened his big sapphire eyes to greet another day. He sighed as he realized that it was Friday; maybe he if he got all his homework done he’d be allowed to go out over the weekend.

Sora looked over at his bedside table, his eyes falling on the familiar picture that rested there. It was a picture of his family. His father, with wild dark spiky hair and a strong build, had a smile identical to Sora’s. On the left, his mother stood, she had a kind face framed with long blond hair. In her arms were her twin baby boys. Sora was in her left arm and a Roxas in her right. The picture was taken a few weeks after Sora and his brother were born.

Sora started longingly at the picture as he did every morning. It was the only photograph he had of his family and it was his most treasured possession. He didn’t know much about his family; he was never told how they died or why he was the only one to survive. But he was thankful that he at least knew what his parents and twin looked like before they met their untimely end fifteen years ago.

He sighed, taking one last look at the only thing left of his family before finally getting out of bed. Sora spent as much time as he could spare getting ready for school. He was very grateful that his godfather took him in when the rest of his family died, but he never liked the man. Sora always made sure to avoid his uncle, but not enough to let it get himself into trouble.

There was a knock at his bedroom door and Sora nearly jumped out of his skin at the sound. Sora’s head spun in the direction of the door, and he let out a nervous breath. “Yeah?”

“Sora.”

Sora flinched at the cold sound of Vincent Valentine’s voice. Other than his uncle, the only other person Sora feared was Vincent, his uncle’s assistant. Sora wasn’t exactly sure what his uncle did that required an assistant such as Vincent, but he knew it couldn’t be good.

“Your breakfast is getting cold,” the man said from the other side of the door.

Sora picked up his backpack from its spot on his bed and rested it on his shoulder. He made his way over to the door and cautiously pulled it open revealing the tall man standing in the hall. The thing that scared Sora most about Vincent was his eyes. The almost lifeless red eyes gave Sora the feeling that he was part of the undead. When he was little Sora had convinced himself that Vincent was a vampire, but his theory was proved wrong when he got older and began to notice subtle hints that the man actually aged.

Vincent’s blank expression never changed as Sora appeared; he merely stared down at the boy. “Your uncle wishes that you be home by four o’clock this afternoon,” he said in a deep voice as emotionless as his features.

Sora held back a sigh and nodded, running a shaky hand through his soft spiky hair, a nervous habit he picked up while growing up with his uncle. The school was exactly a twenty-minute walk from his house. Being home by four meant that he was only able to hang out with his friends for a few minutes after school before having to head home, and that was only if he was willing to risk being late.

Wanting to get away from Vincent as quickly as possible, Sora made his way down the hallway to the staircase. He could feel, rather than hear Vincent’s presence behind him as he walked down the stairs. Sora found Vincent’s ability to creep silently around the house his most disturbing quality. The only thing Sora even liked about the man was his waist length raven hair, which Vincent usually kept pulled back in a ponytail.

It was a minute later when Sora finally entered the dining room. His uncle was seated at the head of the table eating breakfast and flipping through the morning’s newspaper. He lifted his head to send a fierce glare in his nephew’s direction, “You’re late.”

Sora tried not to cringe at the anger hidden in Seifer Almasy’s voice. His uncle was some sort of businessman; he was a very wealthy man. Sora was sure that Seifer also had connections with the mob. He figured that the diagonal scar across the bridge of Seifer’s nose was the result of a gang fight a few years ago.

Seifer’s cool blue eyes started at Sora for a moment longer before he went back to reading his newspaper. “Hurry up and eat,” he said, not bothering to look up again. “Then get your ass to school.”

Sora said nothing and quietly took his seat at the table where his breakfast was waiting for him and set his backpack on the floor beside him. The cook made pancakes and bacon for him this morning, which Sora ate quickly.

When he was done eating, he chanced a glance at his uncle. He had already annoyed Seifer once this morning by being late, and asking to go out tomorrow might push him over the edge. But Sora was barely allowed to step off his uncle’s property for anything other than school and his friend was having a party and he really wanted to go. He spent another moment in silence debating whether or not he was going to ask. Finally making up his mind, Sora turned to his uncle. “Seifer?”

The blond man’s eyes moved to land on Sora, but other than that, he didn’t move. Sora took this as a sign to keep going. “Um,” he continued, “I was just wondering – that is, if it’s alright with you, if I could go to my friend’s birthday party tomorrow.”

Silence then filled the room and Seifer continued to stare at him.

“Please?” Sora added.

“What friend?” Seifer asked.

“Zell Dincht.” Sora was used to Seifer asking all kinds of questions during the rare occasions when he asked to go out, so he just answered as politely as possible and prepared to answer many more.

“When is it?”

“Early tomorrow afternoon till midnight. But I’d be home by nine,” Sora replied, knowing exactly what his uncle liked to hear. To Sora, being allowed out of the house for an hour was better than not being let out at all, and he wasn’t willing to push his luck by saying any time later than nine.

“Where is this party going to be held?” Seifer asked, continuing with his interrogation.

“Zell only lives a ten minute walk on the other side of the school.”

“Who else has been invited?”

Sora paused a moment, figuring out the best way to answer. “Just a few friends from school have been invited.”

“Is there going to be an adult there?”

“Both of Zell’s parents will be there the entire time,” Sora said, not completely sure if he was telling a lie or not.

Seifer stopped his questions for a moment. He looked as if he was considering it for a second and Sora was hopeful. “I’ll think about it,” he finally said.

Sora smiled, and his spirits lifted a little. It was a good sign that Seifer didn’t deny his request right away. He might even have a minuscule chance at going, as long as he doesn’t make any mistakes between now and then.

“You better not be late for school. And don’t screw around after school, come straight home.”

Grabbing his school things, he excused himself from the table and headed for the front door. Once he was outside, he hurried across the walkway to the tall gate at the edge of his uncle’s property. The guard by the gate saw Sora coming and had the mechanized gate opened by the time Sora reached it. He took a step off of Seifer’s property and he felt himself relax a little. For about the next seven hours he was temporarily free from his uncle’s control and it felt amazing.

~*~

It was easy enough for Leon to find out that it was seventeen-year-old Sora Almasy who he needed to kidnap. Leon was surprised to learn that the kid was living with his uncle instead of his parents, but he hadn’t done enough research yet as to find out the reason why.

Leon was taking a walk down Sora’s street early Friday morning in hopes of finding Sora on his way to school. Luckily, just as Leon was coming up to Sora’s house, he heard the gate open and the kid stepped out onto the sidewalk.

He tailed Sora, taking a mental note of the kid’s route to school. Leon figured that it’d be suspicious if he hung out around the school all day so he went home, planning to return when school was over for the day. To avoid being seen by other students, he waited a safe distance down the road from the school along Sora’s path home. He was keeping an eye out for the kid because there was a chance that Sora wasn’t going to go straight home after school; after all it was Friday afternoon and teenagers have better things to do than homework.

~*~

As soon as the bell rang, Sora hurried to his locker at the end of his last class. By the time he reached it, there was already someone waiting for him there.

The petite girl perked up when she saw him coming. She flashed him a devilish grin and pounced on him as he walked closer. “Sora!” she giggled, rubbing her cheek affectionately against his. “Are you going to come to Zell’s party tomorrow?”

Sora giggled along with her and politely freed himself from her grasp. “Selphie,” he said, beginning to open his locker. “Maybe,” was all he offered as a reply.

Selphie crossed her arms and pouted at her friend. “What do you mean ‘maybe’?” she asked. “Oh Sora, you did ask your uncle if you could go, didn’t you?”

Sora paused from filing his textbooks for a second to look Selphie. “Of course I did. I asked him this morning.”

Selphie watched quietly as Sora finished packing up all his things. “Do you think he’ll actually let you go?” she asked as they started heading to the main entrance of the building.

It was a minute before Sora responded. “I’m not sure,” he said. “There are plenty of things that can go wrong between now and the party for Seifer to get mad at me for. He didn’t say no right away, so that’s good but I don’t know. He could always change his mind.”

“Oh, that mean old man!” Selphie almost yelled and Sora had to smile at the rare expression of anger on the normally carefree girl’s face. “Why does he have to have so much control over you?” she continued ranting. “I mean, who does he think he is, not letting you have any fun?”

“Selphie,” Sora said in a warning tone.

“What? Are you going to defend him now?”

Sora slowed his pace and stared at the ground. His grip tightened on the straps of his backpack. “He took me in, Selphie,” he said in a quiet voice. “He didn’t have to, but he did. He could have just left me to some foster family or something.”

“Well, I wish he did,” Selphie said.

“Selphie!”

“Then maybe you’d be allowed to have fun and be a normal teenager,” she explained. “And you’d have a new family that would actually love you.”

“I don’t want a new family!” Sora yelled, holding back tears. “I want my family back. My mom, my dad and my brother! I want them.” Sora stopped for a moment in attempt to calm himself down. He took a deep breath and continued with what he hoped was a happier tone. “Besides, if I was put in a foster home, I never would have met you or Zell or any one else.”

Selphie felt guilty about bringing up Sora’s past. It was really none of her business and now she had upset her friend. “Oh, I’m sorry Sora,” she said and put her arms around him in a comforting hug. “I’m glad you’re my friend too.”

Sora smiled and forgave her. He raised his hand to try to give her a small pat on her head, but she quickly swatted him away. They both laughed and continued their walk in silence to leave the school.

When they got outside, Selphie looked at her watch. “Oh my,” she commented. “It’s already quarter to four. I need to go home to take my dog for a walk.”

Sora froze at her words. They had spent longer talking than he had thought and if he didn’t hurry up, he was going to be late; he had only fifteen minutes to get home or he’d be in big trouble. “See you later Selphie,” he said, not bothering to wait for a response, he started walking quickly across the school’s grass and made his way across the street when there weren’t any cars coming.

Sora was too busy staring at his watch to be bothered to pay attention to where he was going and he was going so fast that he walked right into the man in front of him. The older man was much stronger than Sora so he just bounced off the man and landed on his ass. It took Sora a few seconds to realize what had happened and by then the man had already offered his hand to help Sora up.

When Sora was on his feet again, he took a moment to look at the man he just walked into. He was a very attractive young man with shoulder length brown hair and Sora guess that he couldn’t be more than five years older than himself. Sora also got a weird feeling when he looked into the man’s hard grey eyes. It was almost as if there was something familiar about this man and he couldn’t quite figure out what it was. But he didn’t exactly have time to stand around to figure it out; he needed to get home fast.

Muttering a quick apology, Sora brushed past the mysterious stranger and continued on his way home. By the time he reached the gate, it was already two minutes after four o’clock and Sora was cursing under his breath. First he let Selphie distract him after school and then he literally ran into a guy on the sidewalk; it was just his luck that he was late, but he still dared to hope that he would be able to go to the party tomorrow.

Sora waited impatiently for the gate to be opened and as soon at it was moving he slipped thought the small gap and raced to the front door. He opened the door and closed it behind him as quietly as he could manage; maybe if no one noticed he was home, he could argue that he had been home on time.

“You’re late.”

Sora let out a startled gasp and he spun around to see Vincent in the hallway waiting for him. He felt all hope leave him in that moment and it was replaced with fear and worry. He knew that Seifer wasn’t going to be in a good mood now and he wasn’t sure how his uncle was going to punish him now for being late.

“You’re uncle is in his office,” Vincent continued in the same emotionless tone he always used. “He’s waiting for you.”

Sora only nodded and slowly trudged toward Seifer’s office. He paused at the door to take a deep breath before going in. His uncle was sitting at his desk when Sora stepped inside the big office. Seifer stopped typing at his laptop and closed the small computer when he noticed Sora.

“Come in, boy” Seifer said, getting up from his desk and moving in front to lean back against it. “Don’t just stand at the door like an idiot.”

Sora took small cautious steps into the office. He stopped when he was within arms reach of the two chairs that sat in front of Seifer’s big oak desk.

Seifer crossed his arms looking down his nose at Sora. “Take a seat,” he commanded.

“Actually, I prefer to stand,” Sora replied without thinking. He realized it was a mistake as soon as the words left his lips and he wished he could take them back.

Anger flashed across Seifer’s face at Sora’s disobedience. “I said sit down!” he yelled and Sora was sure that his voice could have been hear from every corner of the large house.

The brunet hesitated for a second. He wasn’t sure he wanted to be that close to Seifer when he was angry, but the consequences of not complying would be worse. Sora slowly moved the last few steps to the chair and he sunk down in it. He busied himself with staring at the hardwood flooring, wanting to look anywhere but at his uncle; he knew he was in big trouble this time.

“I specifically told you to be home by four,” Seifer said in a somewhat calmer tone, but still fuming with anger. “What do you have to say for yourself?”

Sora’s eyes moved up to Seifer. He didn’t want to say anything; he was scared at what trouble his mouth could get him into on top of the trouble he was already in. But his uncle had asked him a question and it would be stupid of him not to answer.

“I’m sorry. I was –” Sora began but the back of Seifer’s hand making contact with his mouth had cut him off. Regardless of whether or not Sora could see the abuse coming, it never failed to shock him each time he was struck. The sting of the aftermath and the pain of his split and bleeding lip made his eyes water, but he sucked it up and tried not to cry; it would only make Seifer angrier.

“Don’t make up excuses for yourself!” Seifer bellowed. “And you can forget about going to your little party tomorrow. In fact, you can forget about leaving the house for anything recreational for the next three months.”

Sora sat in silence not wanting to object or say anything to give Seifer another reason to smack him around some more.

Seifer continued to glare down at his nephew for a minute. Finally he walked back around his desk and sat down in the chair. He pulled opened his laptop and waited for it to come back to life and he started typing again as soon as he was able to. “You’re excused,” he said, glancing at Sora then back to what he was doing. “Get out of my sight.”

Sora stood up, surprised at how much his body was shaking. He had gotten as far as the door, when Seifer started talking again.

“And Sora,” the cruel man was almost laughing as he spoke, “don’t bother coming down for dinner tonight. You won’t be eating.”

Sora had almost forgotten how cruel his uncle could be. What kind of a man would let a teenager in his care go hungry? Apparently Seifer was exactly the type of man who could do it. Sora silently left the room, heading for the stairs. As soon as he was out of earshot from the office, he burst into a run, sprinting down the hall and racing up the stairs to his bedroom.

He slammed the door behind him and flung himself on top of his bed. Sora reached behind him for the picture of him family and hugged it close to his chest when his fingers gripped the side of the worn frame. Lying on his bed, curled up in a ball with the small comfort of his family, he let the tears flow.