Vision Of Escaflowne Fan Fiction ❯ Mystic Wings ❯ The Voltage Room ( Chapter 6 )

Chapter Six

The Voltage Room

 

Van snuck out of Hitomi's room and back to his own sometime in the night. Hitomi didn't know exactly when.

 

Now, she sat at the breakfast table with Eries and Aunt Flo. Apparently, Van was allowed to sleep in, even though Hitomi and Eries were both woken up with thunderous banging on their bedroom doors.

 

“So, that's where Van picked up that habit,” Hitomi thought, as she roused herself. That was how Van liked to wake her up, too. Some husbands woke their wives up with kisses, but Van always banged on things.

 

Aunt Flo said that Van was very tired and he needed all his strength for the day, but the girls had to be up to help pick squash in the garden. Aunt Flo didn't let people stay for free. Eries said that she'd been working in the garden and with the chickens nearly every day since Van and Hitomi went on their trip, but that she liked it and that it would be nice to have someone else work with them. Besides, Eries couldn't go back to the club; the Dragon Slayers knew she worked there.

 

So, there was Hitomi, full of anxiety, standing in a muddy and dry garden by turns, packing irrigation sprinklers. She didn't find the work at all steadying, and in fact was about to scream at the top of her lungs because of her ultimate frustration. You'd think she was a speed demon at how the slowness of the morning irritated her.

 

Finally, when it was time for lunch she got to go in the house and see Van. He had woken up and was making himself a sandwich on the counter. “Morning Hitomi. Where are Eries and Auntie?”

 

“They're coming,” she said, stepping cautiously out of the gumboots Auntie had lent her, while balancing herself with both hands on the walls.

 

“Good,” he said, coming towards her and catching her in a passionate embrace.

 

“Van. They're going to see us.”

 

“I don't care,” he said, kissing her again.

 

He seemed to know the right time to back off, because he did before they came up the back steps. How did he know when to do that? But all the same, Hitomi was surprised he took so many chances considering that he had been the one to make her promise she wouldn't tell anyone.

 

“What are you doing this afternoon?” Aunt Flo asked Van as they were all sitting at the table again.

 

“I need to go see the doctor to get my leg re-wrapped,” he explained, still looking as suicidal as he had the day before.

 

“Did you have it looked at while you were away?” she asked anxiously.

 

“Yeah,” Van lied.

 

“And it's healing properly?”

 

“Yeah. Anyway, I need to be able to drive Miguel's car to The Voltage Room, so I need this cast off. The good doctor will bandage it and I can stop being an invalid.”

 

“But what if it's not healed properly?” Aunt Flo continued.

 

“It was doing fine when I checked on it last. I'm sure I'm healing normally. Besides, there is no way I'm limping to go see the Dragon Slayers. I'd feel at a disadvantage before we even started. Auntie, try to understand.” Then he turned to Hitomi and asked her, “Hey, Hitomi, can you drive me to the doctor's?”

 

“I'm driving you,” Aunt Flo interjected quite fiercely. “I haven't had a chance to talk to you since you got back yesterday.”

 

“I know, Auntie. I just thought you were working on your garden. Besides, I'll be back tonight, so can't it wait until then?”

 

“You will?” she asked him uncertainly, like she didn't believe him for one second. “You think you'll be able to square things off with Dilandau and Folken today without any hassle, and you'll be back before supper? Why of all the stupid …”

 

“Don't!” Van warned her, raising his hand to stop her from speaking. “Don't underestimate me. I'm not sure you have any idea what I'm capable of doing, or of how far I'm willing to go. If I say I'll be back tonight, you'll just have to trust me.” He paused, and then proceeded more tactfully, “Besides, after I go to the doctor, I want to come back here and get cleaned up. I promise we'll have a chance to talk before I go. Will that satisfy you?”

 

“But you're still going to take Hitomi?”

 

“Yeah, if she'll come,” Van said, looking at Hitomi for her consent.

 

Hitomi nodded and went back to eating her food. She wanted to make it look like she didn't care whether Van asked her to take him or not, but she was very hung up on what his aunt had said. His aunt didn't think Van would be back that night. She probably knew him better than anyone, and she didn't think he would be able to walk away. This terrified Hitomi more than anything else that had been said.

 

So, when they finished eating, Van and Hitomi got in his convertible again and headed out to the doctor's office.

 

“He's not really going to dress it, is he?” Hitomi asked when they were alone. “He knows it's healed, doesn't he?”

 

“Yeah, he knows, but he didn't tell my aunt. He said he just stitched me up without saying a word to her about how weird it was. I haven't decided whether or not I'm going to confide in her or not. The less she knows about me the safer she is. Anyway, we're just going to go drop off the cast.”

 

“You look terrible, Van. Please tell me what's bothering you. You don't have to bear this alone,” she said, urging him to confide in her.

 

“You're sweet, Hitomi. I'm fine. Sure, I'm a little worried about what Folken is going to ask me to do in exchange for Allen and the other's safety, but I'm sure I'll be able to deal with it. Trust me, okay?”

 

Even though that was what Van said, Hitomi couldn't shake the feeling that there was a lot more to it than that. There was something he wasn't telling her; something he wasn't going to tell her.

 

***

 

Van and Gaddes planned to head to The Voltage room at around five o'clock that afternoon. Van said they had to take driving time into account and he'd rather get there when it was still light out.

 

He hugged and kissed Hitomi privately before Gaddes got there. It wasn't really a very dramatic moment, because he kept insisting that nothing horrible was going to happen and that he would surely be coming back that evening. The kiss was just for luck.

 

But he and Aunt Flo shut themselves up in the den for over an hour before Aunt Flo emerged, looking … Hitomi didn't know how to say it … controlled. Whatever Van had told her, she didn't like it one bit. Hitomi disliked that he was more honest with his aunt than he was with her, but she couldn't do anything about it. He just kept saying that he didn't want her to worry. Hitomi couldn't find the words to explain that it made her worry much more when he kept secrets. Then she didn't know what to expect. The truth might have been easier to handle than the mystery.

 

Merle phoned as well and kept Van on the phone for a solid half-hour before he convinced her not to leave work and drive out to the farm to see him. He said over and over again that everyone could come see them when he brought Allen and the others back.

 

At last, Gaddes came and Van drove Miguel's orange car out of the barn and into the driveway. He didn't say a special good-bye to anyone, but simply waved from the car and yelled to the house that they were leaving. Hitomi, Aunt Flo and Eries stood on the front porch to see them off. Gaddes was behind the wheel of Van's convertible and Van was in the drivers' seat of Miguel's beast.

 

Hitomi wanted to cry; she had so many pent up emotions, but found that she couldn't. Instead, she was just wired beyond all reason and stalked back and forth on the veranda like a caged animal.

 

As Van backed up the car, but before he pulled away, he gave Hitomi one last look, one last wave that was just for her, and as he turned his head away from her - she cracked.

 

This was all her fault!

 

Once they were gone, Aunt Flo asked Eries to come into the house to help her make dinner, and they left Hitomi out on the porch.

 

Hitomi felt like her heart was going to break. Her heart was beating like a power tool that had gone out of control. It was good that the women left her alone, because soon she began to breathe foggy ice. She wasn't able to manage her power for a few minutes and she accidentally made herself a pair of white crystal gloves for her hands. She hoped Van would come back quickly and resolved that she wouldn't leave the porch until he was back.

 

She may have paced and sat on the steps over and over by turns for an hour or maybe twenty minutes. Her hands melted and she was prepared to wait all night for Van, when a car pulled up in the driveway. Hitomi looked and then she stared. She recognized the car, but she still couldn't believe who she saw get out of the car and approach her.

 

It was her father!

 

***

 

The next few hours were to be a different kind of hell, a different kind of misery than any other Hitomi had ever experienced. They were like a nightmare that a person just couldn't wake up from. When one finally did wake up, they were cold, clammy, and profoundly grateful that their nightmare had not been real. But Hitomi's nightmare was very real, and if she had acted irresponsibly in the past she was going to pay dearly for it this one night. Indeed, for the rest of her life.

 

“Hitomi!” her father called, recognizing her and rushing towards her. “Hitomi!” he said again, catching her in his arms. “We thought you were dead! I'm so happy to see you.”

 

Suddenly, Hitomi was very aware that she had done a very cruel thing not contacting her parents at all to let them know she was okay. She hugged her father back and apologized. “I'm fine, Dad. I'm so sorry that I didn't call you. A lot has happened and I … I'm really sorry.”

 

“It's fine, now,” he said, being very forgiving in his joy that his daughter was safe. “We've got to take you home. Come on. Your mother is very anxious to see you. You don't know what she's been though. This nightmare is over now. Let's get you home.”

 

“Home?” Hitomi said absently. “Home? I can't go home. I don't live there anymore. I can't go home.”

 

It was then that Aunt Flo and Eries came out onto the step. They had bags in their hands - Hitomi's bags. They were packed. What was going on?

 

“Thank you for coming, Mr. Kanzaki,” Aunt Flo was saying, extending her hand and apologizing to her father. “I'm sorry we've kept Hitomi so long. It was definitely a mistake on our part. Please come into the house and let me explain what happened.”

 

“Please do,” Hitomi's father said, still too happy to see Hitomi to truly be thinking straight.

 

In the living room, Aunt Flo started, “Hitomi was kidnapped, but my nephew Van saved her.” Then she explained the situation as sensibly as possible, leaving many gaps in the story saying, “Hitomi can tell you more about that, I'm sure.”

 

During this oration, Hitomi finally understood what was happening, and she wasn't at all sure how to take it. She was being literally thrown out of Aunt Flo's house and she was being sent back home to live with her parents. She conceded very quickly that she should have done something to contact her parents when Eries told her to, before she and Van went on their vacation, but had been so caught up in discovering her own abilities and her love for Van that she hadn't given it any serious thought. She hadn't even considered it.

 

And now she was going to pay for it.

 

Aunt Flo's conversation with her father was not in any way a good thing. She didn't disguise the fact that Hitomi had deliberately stayed away and had purposely left her parents to worry. Even though her father had been very forgiving to begin with, once Aunt Flo made it clear what happened, he was livid. He got on his cell phone immediately and talked to a police officer about the state of things. It was going to be on the news and in the papers - perhaps across the country - and it was going to be a huge scandal.

 

Hitomi wanted to hide her head in the dirt.

 

Then he called Hitomi's mother, and explained things to her over the phone. His lips were white as he spoke and his sentences were short. Her father was never going to trust her again. That much was clear. Hitomi had never accurately guessed the impact her recklessness and choice was going to have on her family life. She simply thought that she was doing what was best for them by staying away. Now she saw that her father was never going to see it that way. It was the way Aunt Flo described the situation. It didn't seem that she was intentionally trying to cause a great deal of trouble. She just didn't know how to put it to her father in a way that would help him understand. Van would have been more tactful … man alive! She would have been more tactful if she'd be given the chance to explain herself, but now the damage was done, and a rift was springing up between herself and her father. At the tender age of eighteen Hitomi didn't believe it was something that could ever be mended.

 

When Aunt Flo had explained everything, Hitomi's father practically took her by the ear and hauled her out to the car bodily. Hitomi wanted to beg Aunt Flo not to do this to her, but she knew it was pointless. Hitomi thought she was doing this under Van's direction. That could have been what they had been talking about in the den!

 

Her father didn't spare her either once she was in the car alone with him - he was ripping her to shreds.

 

“I've said it ten times by now, Dad. The Dragon Slayers were after me. If I had gone home then, they would have come after you and mom and Marlene.”

 

“Dragon Slayers? I'm starting to think that this was all just a prank that you used to run away with that boy - Van.”

 

“Dad, you know me. I wouldn't do something like that!” Hitomi hollered.

 

“I thought I did know you, but my child would have found a way to stop her mother and father from worrying about her if she was really okay. You obviously have no clue what we have been though on your account.”

 

“Stop being so pig-headed,” Hitomi countered. “They killed Millerna. I agree completely that I should have done something, but it seemed too dangerous at the time, and I really didn't want anyone else to die. And you're being too hard on Van,” she said, unconsciously defending him, even though she wanted to ring his neck. “He saved me. Try to understand that he is NOT my boyfriend, and that he was only trying to save my life.”

 

“That's not what he told me,” her father bellowed.

 

“You met him?” Hitomi exclaimed. “You didn't say that when we were inside.”

 

“Of course I met him. He's the one who came to the apartment to get your picture of Millerna,” her father said. “He phoned me last night and told me that I could come pick you up today. That he would have saved you from them - the Dragon Slayers - by now, but that wasn't true, was it? He just wanted to run around with you in the country and wait until the last possible moment before giving you back.”

 

Hitomi closed her eyes in pain as she realized exactly what Van had done. When he took the phone the night before and went sulking off by himself, he had phoned her father!

 

Her dad explained the timeline and Hitomi realized that Van planned to turn her over to her parents this very day before they went on vacation, before they got married, and before he went to The Voltage Room.

 

“That bastard!” Hitomi cursed, angry as hell. It really was a good thing Van was nowhere near her then, because she was ready to have at him without holding back. She felt like she had never been so betrayed by someone who claimed to love her. The media circus to follow, the reporters, and what the Dragon Slayers would see made Hitomi's skin crawl. Oh, she hated Van. “That bastard!” she said to herself inwardly at least fifty times as her father drove the two of them back to the city.

 

“He told me you were his girlfriend and that the drug lords kidnapped you out of spite,” her father said, finishing up.

 

Hitomi sighed and tried to get control of her temper. Van sure did tell a lot of tall tales all over the place. It was difficult to keep up with him. “I was kidnapped by gangsters. I was never Van's girlfriend.”

 

“Hitomi,” her father said patiently through gritted teeth. “You have to give up on that boy and those people. I never want you to talk to them again. If they're causing you trouble than we need to end it, sever your ties to them. You are never to speak to one of those people - the Abaharaki again. Do you understand me?”

 

“I'm way ahead of you, Dad, but Van managed to get me out of trouble, so that's good enough, isn't it?”

 

Apparently, it wasn't good enough, and Hitomi was getting too tired to quarrel with her father anymore. Before she knew what she was doing she began to promise him all kinds of things in order to smooth things over with him. She'd never seen him so angry. He was not a mean spirited person, and Hitomi hated to argue with him. Before she got out of the car, she was under the impression that she was to be a prisoner in her parents' home until they saw fit to let her go. Her head ached and she was so brutally pissed off with Van that she couldn't think about what her father was telling her anymore.

 

When her father finally stopped the car it was outside a building she had never seen before. It was then that her dad explained to her that they had moved while she'd been away for those four months. Apparently, they didn't feel safe in their old building because of what happened with Hitomi and they'd moved to a building with much tighter security in a classier part of the city. It was smaller and she'd have to share a room with Marlene. They also decided that the public school the two girls went to was not good enough either and since Hitomi had not finished her last semester of grade twelve, she was to attend a private school with Marlene.

 

It wasn't until that moment that Van's true intentions came home to Hitomi. That was it! He wanted her to finish high school and if they went about it this way, they could kill several birds with one stone. Hitomi could ease the minds of her parents by living with them for another five months, at the very least, she could finish high school, and their secret would remain a very hidden - that they were married. It also re-injected her into society with relatively little inconvenience to anyone, and her scandal would be a much smaller story than if they were to bust the Dragon Slayers without proof. It was a win/win situation for everyone, except that she and Van wouldn't be together.

 

When Hitomi understood Van's reasoning, she didn't feel any better. In fact, she was even madder. He could have confided in her, instead of sneaking around and making plans with Aunt Flo and her father behind her back.

 

Hitomi and her father went in and up the elevator to the fourth floor and Hitomi did her best to brace herself for what she would inevitably get from her mother and sister, but as she saw her reflection in the wall mirror in the elevator, Hitomi made another discovery.

 

Van was not coming back, not to his Aunt's house that night or anywhere else. He had given himself up to the Dragon Slayers in exchange for those four boys. He had no plan to get away. He was simply going to take whatever deal Folken had in mind to get them back - that was his plan. Hitomi had been the one to promise he would go, and he went, just as she'd promised … and he wasn't coming back.