27: Marshall Styles
The walls were painted with blood and there was a body lying on the trash bag. The body also had blood spread all over and the swollen area in the body indicated that the body had multiple bone fractures.
Kei walked towards the body and checked its pulse to see whether the person was alive or not and thankfully it is so he quickly tried to call an ambulance but the guy stopped him immediately by raising his weak hands in front of Kei "Don't, I can't afford it." he says in a very dry voice and passes out. It seemed like he hadn't drank any water for days.
Kei sighs and thinks 'What should I do now?'
Time skip 5 hours later
He slowly opens up his eyes "Agh!" and he clutches his head. The sudden movement of his hand caused him more pain "Agh!"
After his dizziness and the fog in his eyes goes away he asks in a dry voice "Where the hell am I?" The boy who looked like he just turned into an adult sat up. Then he gets some flashbacks of what happened to him and he quickly forms a defensive cocoon by bringing his legs closer to his chest and having his head down while he starts to repeat two sentences continuously "I am Sorry. I will return your money back to you so please don't do this to me."
At that moment the door opens up and his eyes fills up with fear and terror. He starts to loudly repeat the sentence.
Kei enters the room with a glass of water in his hands. He sees the young boy who was in critical condition a while ago was now awake and apologizing to Kei. "Okay, Kid! I forgive you for whatever you did. Now calm down." Kei says this to the boy to make him calm down.
"Really? Will you really not do that to me anymore?" The boy asks in a hopeful voice. After hearing this, Kei starts to think 'This kid must have a severe case of PTSD. Who could have done this?' "I will not do anything to you." Kei says the sentence in a warm tone to ease his tension.
"Okay Kid, answer some of my questions and then I will let you leave."
"Yes! I will answer all of your questions to the best of my extent." The boy says this in a joyful tone.
Kei then asks his first question" First of all, tell me your name." "My name is Marshall Styles." The young boy who was named Marshall was currently in shorts with bandages wrapped all over his body except his head. He was a dark-skinned boy with no beard, Hazel eyes and a buzz cut. He had an athletic type of body.
"Marshall tell me, Who did this to you?" Kei jumped straight to the main question as he didn't want to waste any more time and he wasn't good at dealing with the emotions of others. After hearing the question, Marshall's happiness instantly goes away as he pieces that Kei was not his captor and he starts to hyperventilate thinking of the consequences that he might have to face when he meets him again. He starts to say in a low voice but gradually increases his voice "You're not the captor. You're not the captor! YOU'RE NOT THE CAPTOR! I HAVE TO GO BACK FAST AND ASK FOR FORGIVENESS!"
Marshall tries to get up from the bed and leave the room but he was stopped by Kei who placed a hand on his shoulder.
"Marshall, I suggest you calm down. Drink some water. It will help you calm down and you will get a little better " and then he offers the glass of water which he was holding in his hands. "LEAVE ME ALONE!" Marshall shouts at Kei and swats away the glass which smashes into a wall and it breaks while spilling water everywhere.
After this Marshall was about to open the door by twisting the doorknob but he stopped in his tracks and started to tremble when he felt Mana radiating out of Kei.
He immediately falls to the ground and had his head bowed in front of Kei while saying in a shaky voice "Please... Don't... Hurt...Me! I am... Sorry!"
Kei takes a deep breath in and calms down after seeing Marshall bowing to him and begging for forgiveness. Kei thinks 'I must have triggered his trauma. I should be more careful with him otherwise who knows what happens to him.' and then he says "I am sorry for that. So calm down, I won't hurt you." Marshall looks up at his face and asks "Really?" and Kei nods at that.
"Now, get up from the ground and sit on the bed while I bring you some medicines and a glass of water and this time don't swat it away." Kei says the last part in a joking voice and Marshall replies with embarrassment on his face "Ye-Yeah, I won't do that."
After Kei gave him the medicines and he took them. Kei asked the question again "Who did this to you?"
Marshall hesitated for a moment and said "There is a high chance that you won't know him but his name is Vincent Strider and his nickname is GoldStrider."
"I guess he put you into that state because you weren't able to pay his money back in time." and Marshall nods at that. Kei sighs heavily and thinks 'This is going to be difficult.'