Vision Of Escaflowne Fan Fiction ❯ Bloody Hands ❯ Goodbye Mama, Goodbye Papa, Goodbye to Clocks Ticking... ( Chapter 8 )

*Dear Constant Reader:
I hope you like this chapter. All I'm going to say for now is that the Hitomi fans will be unnerved, so if you like her I suggest turning back now. Go read one of those 5,718,955,618,563,895,432,643,532,642,000 Van-Hitomi romances. And I don't care if you flame me because I love to argue and I'm damn good at it ^_~

Arigatou.

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" 'Not dead!' he thought, 'Carried off, bruised, fallen, yes, but now back. And mad! Lord yes, mad, and looking especially for me!' "

-'Something Wicked This Way Comes'

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Hitomi wore the night like a sticky dress on a hot July afternoon. She cried hot wet tears, and when one batch dried and itched her red cheeks, a fresh new one arose. And the dimly lit room, brightened only by the blue beams from the full moon, mocked her with its romantic setting.

"Van...," she sobbed into the damp pillow. "Oh Van..."

Grief was like an old senile grandmother, Hitomi had discovered, always coming back for one more hug. Sneaking up on you when you least expected it.

How dull her life was now! How empty and dull she felt without the world of Gaia spinning around with its beautiful nights and its fresh, clean air and its ... handsome inhabitants.

Van... Van... Van...

The name rung in her ears like waking up to golden church bells on Sunday morning, but the it held as much magic as the dull, empty classrooms, and the modernized, lifeless florescence of the light bulbs in the girls' room. How wonderful his name had once sounded. So exotic and dreamlike. But now... it was as if all the magic she'd ever felt had been taken away from her, left on that magical planet.

Hitomi pressed her face against the pillow to muffle her voice and let out an agonized scream.

"VAN!!!!!"

And the tears came again, ruthless, without mercy, stinging her itchy cheeks, suffocating her scratchy throat.

"Van... come back and save me from myself, Van...," she whimpered.

Yes, Hitomi. Whatever you say.

Hitomi snapped her neck up abruptly, staring into the dimly lit room. From the middle of the floor, a lion licked his left paw. Hitomi's heart dropped out of her chest. The world closed itself off and there was nothing behind her or to either side of her. Just a big, golden lion sitting in the middle of her room.

I've come to save you from yourself, Hitomi, the deep, demonic, throaty voice declared. And it was then that Hitomi realized that the lion's lips were moving, exposing his pearly white teeth, and it was he who was talking.

"Wha-....are you from Gaia?" Hitomi asked, staring wide-eyed at the creature.

Yes, Hitomi. Look.

The lion craned his neck and revealed a small (even smaller on his huge neck) garnet colored pendant.

I've come to save you, Hitomi. Come back to Gaia with me.

"V...Van?"

The lion's black lips curled up, and the skin on his mouth wrinkled. A shock of white teeth revealed a snarl.

Van Fanel. Van Fanel. I detest the very words.

And then Hitomi felt her heart jump up and get lodged in her throat.

Oh God, who is it? Who is it? Oh God, where is Van? she thought frantically.

Van and I are not on very good terms, you see, the lion said, standing up on all fours and sauntering with lithe, cat-like movements toward Hitomi's bed. The girl could not move, speak, or even breathe properly. When Hitomi said nothing, the lion stopped at her bedside and glared with unblinking, golden eyes, sprinkled with specks of ebony.

The thing is... he killed me.

Hitomi stared.

The lion threw his head back and attempted a laugh, but it came out as a horrible roar. He landed gracefully on Hitomi's bed with one swift movement. The mattress sank under his weight, springs cringing, and he poked holes in the sheets with his claws. He leaned down on Hitomi, letting his hot lion breath flow onto her face.

Gatti tried to grin in the muscular cat body, but he could feel that it was nothing but a snarl. The girl under him widened her eyes and stared, paralyzed with fear. And he could smell it, too. He'd always heard that animals could smell fear, and now he knew it was true. Thick, musky Fear crept up his soft nostrils like the smell of sweaty body odor. He sucked the air in, and Hitomi saw the velvety nostrils open like a horse's.

This will be so easy... Gatti informed her.

"Mother Mary, Father, Son, Holy Ghost... hallowed be thy name... as I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil, for you are with me..." Hitomi whispered rapidly.

Gatti snarl-grinned again. He could smell something else now. The strong, salty tang of urine. Hitomi had lost control of her body. She'd lost control of her words. She'd lost control of her thoughts. She'd lost control of the Destiny she thought she knew so well.

The lion pressed his paw on her stomach.

"Deliver me... deliver me, oh God, deliver me, deliver me, deliver me, deliver me, deliver me..."

Gatti laughed at the irony.

Meek and weak alike, he growled. He pressed harder, and felt his massive claws slice through the thin sheets and through Hitomi's nightshirt. The old powerlust swelled up inside of him, almost unbearable mixed with the lion's killer instinct. So strong it made his head hurt. He licked his lips, and the smacking sound pierced through the stillness like a million knives all at once, stinging Hitomi's heart.

"Delivermedelivermedelivermedelivermedelivermedeliverme..de...liv ...er...m...m...me de-"

SHUT UP!!!! Gatti let loose a deafening roar, felt it tingle in his thick throat. Hitomi's light brown hair blew across her forehead at the force of the breath.

ACCEPT YOUR DEATH, YOU LITTLE BITCH!! YOU THOUGHT YOU HAD CONTROL, DIDN'T YOU, YOU LITTLE CUNT?!?!?! IF IT HADN'T BEEN FOR YOU, I WOULD STILL BE ALIVE!!!

And then the sweet epiphany dawned on Gatti. Yes, yes, that was true. If she hadn't invaded their world, he would still be alive. This little cunt, she had helped kill him. This stranger, this weakling, this alien, she had killed him! She had come and stuck her nose in where it didn't belong, fucking around with everyone's fate as if she thought she were some kind of god, fucking around with what was supposed to happen, fucking around with the Destiny of the Zaibach Empire... seeing through the stealth cloaks yes it was her it wall her fault it was as much her fault as it was Van's and now and now and now... she was going to pay for playing god. She was going to pay for fucking everything up.

DIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Gatti pressed down as hard as he could, and he felt the flesh give in to his rage like a rotten melon.

Hitomi screamed. The invading claws sunk into her flesh, piercing through her lower abdomen, the sensitive part. Pain slashed at her like a sword, and she could see nothing. The room was gone and there was nothing. She sank. Deeper into black, deeper into white, levitating in a suspension of pain so unbearable that her brain could not hold all of it in.

It excited Gatti. He raised one paw and clouted her face, claws digging into her cheeks. He roared with the fire that burned inside, he roared with the rage that was singeing the insides of his skin, he roared and sank his teeth into her neck. Again, the flesh gave in like a rotten fruit, squirting bright red liquid into the air, all over his soft golden fur. She may have tried to scream again, Gatti couldn't tell. The sound gurgled a bit, then faded away.

DIE!!!! he roared again, slashing at the lifeless body. DIE!!! DIE!!!! DIE!!!!! OH GOD, I HATE YOU. OH FUCKING GOD HOW I HATE YOU!!!!

GATTI!!

Mercutio snapped, standing beside the bed, a pale, horrified look on his undead face. Gatti ignored the plea, and drove his paw into Hitomi's stomach. The wet, squishy things inside slid into the spaces between his furry toes.

GATTI, STOP IT!!!

Mercutio rammed the butt of his sword into the lion's ribcage. The animal snarled, and snapped his head around.

Gatti... Mercutio said softly, That's enough.

The lion's chest expanded heavily with deep breathing. He realized he'd marred the girl beyond recognition, and he laughed. He heard his own voice, his boy-voice, laughing wickedly. He felt less powerful out of the lion's body, but at least he'd killed that bitch.

Yes.

He'd ripped her into fucking shreds.

"Mercutio, did you see me? Did you see me? I ripped her goddamn guts out," Gatti whispered.

The tall Dragonslayer, soft, unruly brown locks hanging in his face, looked out of the window and locked his gaze on the pale, white moon.

"It wasn't supposed to go this far, Gatti," Mercutio said quietly.

Gatti wiped the corner of his mouth, ridding himself of that disgusting Hitomi-blood.

"What in the hell do you mean, Mercutio?"

"Gatti... it was only supposed to hurt him for a little while. We were only going to scare him. Scare him really bad, make him regret killing us. Gatti, it wasn't supposed to go this far. Gatti, what in the name of the gods is happening....?"

Gatti shook his wrist to shake off some of the thick red blood that coated his hand. The color seemed to scream out of the darkness, shrieking against the pale blue of the rest of the room.

"I don't know what you're talking about, Mercutio," Gatti snapped. "I'm going to go as far as I can. I had the whole world stretched out in front of me, and Van jerked it out from under my feet without a second fucking thought. I'm going as far as I can."

"Gatti, please-"

Mercutio recoiled sharply as a speck of blood splattered on his cheek. When he looked up, Gatti's face was speckled with the same crimson liquid, and he was holding something by its hair in his left hand. He wiped his forehead with his right arm, which was holding his red-drenched sword.

"Gatti, don't you realize what you've done!" Mercutio shouted. He balled his fists and felt tears stinging his eyes. "This is deep shit you're fucking around with! You've done something horrible, Gatti! This is horrible!"

"Define horrible!" Gatti shrieked, stamping his foot, the veins in his neck standing out. "Tell me what's horrible!! Do you think what Van Fanel did to us was horrible?! Do you!?"

"Yes, of course-"

"This is nothing!! This... is... NOTHING compared to what I'm going to do to him!!" Gatti roared, sounding eerily like the lion he had just inhabited.

"Gatti," Mercutio said quietly. "You said you wanted justice. This is not justice. This is..." Mercutio sighed. "There are some things... that you just don't fuck around with."

"Like life!? Like a human life?!! Like fourteen soldiers with their futures out in front of them, stretching like an endless ocean, a beautiful horizon... Is it okay to fuck around with that?!" Gatti shrieked. He picked up Hitomi's chair and slammed it on the floor, body jerking violently as he did it. "IS IT OKAY TO FUCK AROUND WITH THAT?!"

"You can't stop it!! You can't stop it, no matter what you do, Gatti, nothing is going to bring you back!!" Mercutio yelled, animal-tooth jewelry making soft clacking sounds, hair shaking into his eyes as he stretched his neck out toward his colleague.

"It's not for me," Gatti said, unsure of who it really was for, if not himself. Unsure of what he was doing or saying, or thinking anymore. Unsure of the different worlds that surrounded him. Unsure of where he belonged anymore. "It's not for me."

He sheathed his sword, and blood leaked down the scabbard.

"Gatti-"

"I'm going as far as I can, Mercutio. I'm going as far as I can."

Gatti faded into the blue light of the room.

Mercutio stood in the silent room, not even hearing the sound of his own breath.

(Because it's not there, boy...)

The moon poured into the room and cast long shadows on the white walls. The Earth held it's breath, staring up at Mercutio as if he were on a world-boundary-stretching stage. He pulled at his earring in silence, staring at the hardwood floor.

The sound of liquid dripping onto a hard, flat surface invaded the silence. Mercutio squeezed his eyes shut, and a tear leaked out of his eye. He disappeared, and left the mangled, headless body of Hitomi Kanzaki laying in her bed where her pillow was still soaked with tears and her parents were still downstairs asleep, having been unaware of the unearthly voices of ghosts from their daughter's room, where the world was sitting silently outside on its hunches, and crickets were still singing into the cool, night air.