Vision Of Escaflowne Fan Fiction ❯ Mystic Wings ❯ Broken Spell ( Chapter 20 )

Chapter Twenty

Broken Spell

 

“Hitomi, will you promise me something?”

 

What?

 

“Will you promise me that you won't tell anyone that we're married?”

 

Who are you? Why are you talking to me?

 

“All the same reasons still exist why we couldn't tell anyone before. Please promise you won't tell anyone unless it's life or death. I don't want to risk your safety. Please promise me.”

 

“VAN!” Hitomi suddenly shouted. It was Van who had said those words to her! And now suddenly she recalled them so vividly that he might as well have repeated them into her ear.

 

“Hitomi?” the real man in front of her whispered in a concerned tone.

 

She opened her eyes and saw Folken so close to her face that she immediately threw her head back in shock. What the heck? Hitomi was in his lap! She jumped up when she realized that she was just about to kiss him. Her foot got stuck in the sleeve of her coat (it was still on the floor) and as she was frantically trying to get away from Folken, she lost her balance on the material and fell. After landing smack on her butt and barely saving herself from giving Folken a view of her underpants, she stood up with a jolt. She was brushing off her clothes with her hands. He had touched her! She felt so dirty. Touched her? Folken had been all over her - how absolutely icky!

 

Folken looked disgusted himself as he said, “You didn't seem to mind me so much a second ago.”

 

“You bastard!” Hitomi rasped. She felt seriously infringed upon - like he'd tried to rape her.

 

“Don't you dare yell at me!” he retorted, getting up from the chair and towering over her. He really was much taller than she was. “I stopped singing before I really made a move and I let you have the choice.”

 

“Like hell you did!”

 

He scoffed. “You wouldn't know the difference between me using my powers and me only leaving you with my influence, now would you? You don't know the first thing about our abilities, but,” he said, his voice calming down, like he was now able to speak rationally. “I think from that little moment, I showed you that you could very easily be in love with me.”

 

“If you slept with me …” Hitomi wanted to finish the sentence by saying, “They'd frickin' kill you,” because she had a contract with Van. Instead, she took a deep breath to relax herself. Then she amended it and went back to her original plan. “I just wanted to come here to tell you that you have nothing to offer me and that I've decided against giving you a chance.”

 

“You came to that conclusion quickly,” he said, looking at the pendant around her neck. “You aren't still thinking of Van, are you?”

 

“What do you mean?”

 

“Well, your tattoo had his symbol incorporated in it. You're obviously in love with him, but does he love you back?”

 

“He does!”

 

Folken shrugged his shoulders like he didn't believe her. “Whatever you say.”

 

“You don't think so?”

 

“No,” he said, sitting back at his desk and taking out some folders like he really was a guidance counselor and that he was getting to work.

 

She crushed her sweaty palms together. “Just tell me where Van is, and I'll promptly get out of your sight.”

 

Folken sat back in his chair with a satisfied look on his face. “And that is exactly why Van isn't really in love with you. You should give up on him and go for me. I really would make you happy, and not just in bed. But if it's Van you really want then I can make it so you won't know the difference between him and me if that's what turns you on. It makes no difference to me.”

 

Scarlet broke out on Hitomi's cheeks, but she managed to stutter, “If you really cared about me, then that would make a difference to you.”

 

“It's just like I told you. I'm not in love with you, but I am willing to go all out to make you happy - Van obviously isn't willing to go that far, regardless of what he said to you.”

 

“You know, you still haven't been able to convince me that Van came with you freely. I think you blackmailed him into staying with you. I don't know why you want him, but I know that he wouldn't have come to a peaceable agreement with you unless you put something on the table he wasn't willing to sacrifice - like Allen and those other guys who you brainwashed. I'll bet he still hasn't forgiven you.”

 

“Fine,” Folken said, looking at Hitomi more seriously. “Here's the truth - but before I tell you, I have to point something out. Van can't possibly love you back the way you want - on your body the dragon and the moon were always together and on Van's, they are always apart. So, I'll tell you what has happened, and when you're through licking your wounds over my stupid little brother, you'll come back here, and I'll take care of you properly.”

 

Hitomi wanted to tell him off, but didn't want to interrupt him, just in case he was really going to admit something real.

 

“Van broke out of our facility last Monday. I had to leave here that day because I had to go make sure that `certain things' were removed from the site before it went down in flames. If I'd made it there two minutes earlier, I might have been able to stop Van from leaving, but since you held me back here with your `I've got a cut on my ear so please take care of me' routine, I couldn't make it on time.”

 

“WHAT?”

 

“It's true,” Folken said in a deep voice. “It took me awhile to straighten everything out, which is why I was gone the rest of the week. Van's a pain in the ass, but it appears that he didn't come running home to you since you're still looking for him. Don't you think you should take that as a hint that he doesn't really care and reconsider giving me a chance?”

 

Hitomi swallowed. If Van had been let out … he really hadn't come after her! Hitomi scooped her coat off the floor and turned around to grab the door, “I've got to go.” She turned the handle, but it didn't budge.

 

“Didn't you see me lock that door?” Folken said, coming up behind her and putting his arms on either side of her as he put his fingers around the bolt. “I don't mind if you go running after Van, just make sure to come back here when you're through putting that idiot first.” Then he undid the lock and let Hitomi into the hallway. He closed the door behind her and Hitomi was left standing, very shaken in the middle of the empty corridor.

 

***

 

Hitomi wandered down the hall towards the gym coach's office. What was she going to do? She didn't know what to do about Van. If he had managed to free himself, where had he gone and where should she go to find him? Was he being chased? Could she really go after him? Maybe there was a reason why he wouldn't want her to go after him. There were so many possibilities.

 

She was miserable, but she had to fulfill her promise to herself to get Yukari off the hook. The coach's door was right beside the gym entrance and it was open. Hitomi thought that maybe the coach wouldn't be there for some reason, but she was there working on her computer.

 

“Hi,” Hitomi said, knocking lightly on the doorframe and trying her best to appear humble. “Can I talk to you for a minute?”

 

“Only if it's just a minute,” the woman said testily. She really didn't seem to like Hitomi one bit.

Hitomi came in, but even though there were chairs for students, she didn't sit down on them. “It was my fault about the keys to the weight room. Please don't punish Yukari because of me. She lent them to me because I begged her …”

 

“Oh? Is that all you're here for?” she interrupted. “Well, if that's it, you can leave right now.”

 

“Won't you please listen to what I have to say?” Hitomi appealed, quite desperately.

 

“No. There's no need. Dryden was in here this morning to talk to me about it. I wish I could, but I just can't say `no' to that guy. I didn't realize you and he were such good friends. I've decided to let Yukari remain the track team manager, but you're off the team, for good.”

 

“That's fine!” Hitomi beamed. “Thank you so much for forgiving Yukari. Thank you! Thank you!” Hitomi turned to leave.

 

“Isn't there something else you'd like to say to me?” the teacher asked, looking interested.

 

Hitomi turned around. She was confused. “Should I be apologizing?”

 

“Maybe.”

 

She bowed. “I'm very sorry for all the trouble I've caused you.”

 

“But you still don't want to be on the team?”

 

Hitomi gave the teacher a half smile, “I never wanted to come to this school. I tried to make the best of it, but I should have never come back to my old life. It was a mistake. I'm not bitter or anything and I'm not even rebellious in my heart. I just have something important that I need to do.”

 

Oddly enough, the teacher smiled, “Then I guess you'd better go do it.”

 

These were the first words of encouragement Hitomi had heard from anyone in such a long time. Dryden had been wonderful, but it was a lot different coming from a person who was completely entitled to think poorly of her, and the gym coach's words did more to inspire Hitomi than she could have possibly imagined. Her run in with Folken had freaked her out more than she had admitted, even to herself. The fact that he could exhibit so much power and that she was helpless … it disheartened her. But seeing the fighting expression on that woman's face lit Hitomi's engines and suddenly she felt like she could do it. She even knew how to go about looking for Van. She'd go back to Aunt Flo's … nothing worse could happen than have the old bat slam the door in her face, and that wouldn't be hard to bear, not with her new free spirit. She'd find Van! She'd find him somewhere!

 

“Thank you!” Hitomi said again, resisting the urge to hug her. Then she hurried down the hallway to her homeroom class. “Might as well go out with a bang,” Hitomi thought as she swung the door open noisily.

 

Everyone in the class looked up at her expectantly.

 

“Dryden, we're leaving! Get your stuff!” she cried loudly, interrupting the class.

 

“All right!” he said, getting up. “Time to get a little rowdy?”

 

“Way past time!”

 

Dryden picked up his bag and headed for the door.

 

“But wait!” their homeroom teacher exclaimed. “You can't just walk out of class in the middle of a lesson! What about your grades? What about graduating?”

 

“Do you care?” Dryden asked Hitomi, suddenly serious.

 

Hitomi tilted her hand back and forth as if she were trying to make up her mind. “Not really.”

 

Dryden turned back and said to the teacher, “She doesn't care.”

 

The woman looked hurt at being so obviously bypassed, but she went on to ask Dryden specifically, “But you care about graduation, don't you?”

 

Dryden was incapable of being rude to a woman who made such a gentle appeal to him, but that didn't change that Hitomi thought that what he did next was completely uncalled for.

 

“Well, I am about to be expelled,” he said.

 

“What for?” she asked, surprised.

 

“This,” he said as he pulled the teacher into an extremely passionate embrace and continued kissing her quite steadily for a solid thirty seconds. Hitomi didn't mean to time him, but there was that massive white clock at the end of the room. Some of the girls were looking on like they were so jealous that they would burst and the boys were wailing for him to get off her, but none of them actually made a move to separate them. Dryden was such a man-whore!

 

“Yo! Dryden! We've got to go! I've got a job for us to do!” Hitomi shouted at him after the thirty seconds had expired.

 

He let the teacher go and kissed her hand warmly. “Good bye. I don't know if I'll be able to come back now.” Then he followed Hitomi out the door.

 

Hitomi didn't linger to see what happened in the classroom, but she didn't miss the steamy crimson on the teacher's cheeks and the smoke that was practically coming from her ears.

 

“You shouldn't have done that,” Hitomi said as they proceeded down the hallway to get their coats and empty their lockers. “Weren't you going to continue posing as a student? What about your alias?”

 

“I thought I'd stop coming after today, and since you just said that you didn't care about graduation then there is definitely no reason to keep up the pretense. Besides, I have other things to do. My business and my real life can't be put on hold any longer, so unless you really needed me to come for some reason, I wasn't going to come back after today anyway.”

 

“But now she'll never be satisfied by another man,” Hitomi balked.

 

“Ah, ah, ah. On the contrary, I've taught her how to kiss properly. All the relationships she'll have in the future will be better because she'll remember the proper way to love somebody.”

 

“I guess if you want to look at it that way.”

 

***

 

Once in Dryden's SUV, he asked her, “Where are we going?'

 

“We're going to Van's Aunt Flo's house. Folken told me that Van escaped from their hideout; I think he used the word `facility', a week ago. Apparently, Van torched the building. I don't know if he'd go home to his aunt, but she might have an idea where he's gone.”

 

“You've been there before?”

 

“Yeah, I know the way,” Hitomi said as she started giving him directions on how to get out of town.

 

The snow wasn't deep yet, but little snowflakes were falling down around the vehicle and brushing against the windshield as they drove. It took awhile to ride out to the farm. For some reason Hitomi couldn't stand the silence, so she asked Dryden, “Won't your girlfriend be mad that you kissed someone else?”

 

“Selphie? You could tell her about it if you wanted to. I'm not sure how she'd react. It would be interesting to find out how she'd take something like that, but good luck telling her,” Dryden said confidently.

 

“You don't think she'd believe me? She thinks you're that great, huh?”

 

“It's not that,” Dryden reassured her. “Selphie only speaks Italian. She's only just begun to learn English. Yet another reason why she's not enjoying herself here - there's no one for her to talk to, besides me. Don't get me wrong. She wouldn't be here at all if she didn't care something for me, but I've been gone a lot of the time pretending to be a teenager.”

 

“So, you knew that you weren't going to have much time to spare to be with her and you still invited her to come?”

 

“Don't make me sound so heartless. I gave her the choice. She could come here with me to be bored out of her mind and neglected, or she could stay in Europe and swim in the Mediterranean everyday if she wanted. I was surprised, too, that she decided to come with me.”

 

“Are you really? You seem like you expected it. Does she know about you being different from ordinary people?”

 

Dryden shrugged and changed lanes. “I think she knows that there's something different about me, but I'm not sure if she knows what the exact difference is.”

 

“Hmm …” Hitomi said, taking more notice of the road. Her heart was beating much faster. She could see the farm from here, and even though Dryden had been speeding, she didn't think he was going near fast enough.

 

He took the turnoff she indicated, and Hitomi leapt out of the door to open the gate that would lead them onto the actual driveway.

 

Dryden got out of the SUV with Hitomi and walked up the steps onto the veranda with her. Hitomi rang the doorbell.

 

Then she heard a voice, undoubtedly Van's, shouting, “If that's Merle, tell her to go home. I said I don't want to see her and I mean it.”

 

Hitomi's heart leapt up into her throat.

 

Aunt Flo opened the door, and when she saw Hitomi standing there, she immediately moved to slam it again. Hitomi was ready for something like this and she stuffed her foot in the door jam. “Van!” she called into the house.

 

He called back to her, “Hitomi!”

 

“Van!” Then to Aunt Flo, “Let me in!” In another second, Hitomi was ready to body chuck his precious little aunt smack into the wall.

 

“Hitomi!” Van yelled again.

 

When Van called her name for the second time, Aunt Flo let the door go slack, so that Hitomi and Dryden could come in. She wore a look of sickened resignation. It was absolute rudeness that she wanted to keep Hitomi from seeing Van.

 

Hitomi whipped off her wet boots and chased through the house looking for him. She didn't have to go far when she found him in the dinning room, and what she saw was enough to make a squeamish person faint.

 

Van was sitting backwards on a chair, his shirt was off, and he was leaning forward. There were two long gashes down his back. They were long and ran on either side of his spine for at least twenty-five centimeters. One came so close the crescent moon on his shoulder blade that it almost broke the image. The doctor was bent over him, stitching them up. Van's eyes looked huge and very dark. He had black circles under them as though he hadn't slept in weeks. His skin was pasty white, even through his tan, but Hitomi was having a hard time not staring at the blood that was still seeping from the unstitched portion of his wound.

 

“Hitomi,” he said quietly, drawing her attention back to his face.

 

She was so relieved at the mere sight of him that she took his face in her hands and kissed him on the forehead. She would have liked to kiss him better, but she didn't like to because his aunt was watching and he looked so messed up. He probably couldn't take anything more than that. His brow was damp with sweat. Hitomi didn't know if the doctor had given him anything for the pain. “Van, what's happened to you?”

 

“Nothing much. My brother's working for The Devil,” Van said, wincing.

 

“Mother of …” Dryden gaped, not just at Van's injuries, but also at what he said. The expression on his face was one of absolute horror.

Hitomi remembered the picture in the gallery that was hidden under the sheet. It had been of a pitchfork and the caption had the letters, `The Devil'. That had to be one terrifying Tarot user.

 

“Who's this guy?” Van asked, noticing Dryden for the first time.

 

“He's my friend,” Hitomi said, not wanting to use his name. She was thinking hard about what they could do from this point, and she didn't want to mess it up by using Dryden's real name.

 

“How many more stitches now?” Van asked the doctor.

 

The doctor grimaced, “I'm not sure. I'm almost done.”

 

“Van, what happened to you?” Hitomi repeated, unsatisfied with his answer.

 

“It doesn't look like an ordinary injury to you?” he asked, wiping his sweaty forehead with his wrist.

 

“Hold still,” the doctor reprimanded.

 

“Damn … sorry,” Van said.

 

Dryden grabbed Hitomi's sleeve and pulled her a safe distance away from the others. “Listen Hitomi, I don't know what's happened here, but one thing is for sure. He can't stay here and neither can you. I know it's natural to want to stay with your husband and with his family, but this is a Tarot matter. Neither his aunt nor the doctor who's treating him should be involved. Do you think you can convince him to come with us back to my mansion?”

 

Hitomi nodded. She agreed with Dryden completely. There was no way Van should stay here any longer. They had to get him out of here and find out everything that had happened. Hitomi decided that it was not necessary for him to explain what happened after The Voltage Room right now. Van might not want to explain in front of his aunt or the doctor himself. He said that he didn't want to involve other people in his fight, so he would want to come … hopefully.

 

“I'll try,” Hitomi said, turning back to Van and the doctor. She didn't know how to go about this, but she had to give it a shot. “Van, are you hurt anywhere else? Is it only your back that's hurt?”

 

“Yeah, just my back … is that all you have to say to me?” he asked, taking another look at Dryden.

 

What was he thinking? She'd worry about that question later. It would probably be awhile before they got everything straightened out. “Van,” she said aloud. “I don't think you should stay here. Would it be okay if we packed up your things and you came away with us?”

 

“Where would we go?” he asked drearily.

 

“You look terrible … I'll nurse you better … and I …” Here Hitomi paused and looked at his aunt. She was about to tell Van how much she missed him and how grateful she was that he hadn't died - that he was all right. But she didn't like to say anything that would be an admission of feeling in case he still wanted to keep their marriage a secret. Tears were welling up in her eyes now that the shock of the sight of his red blood was gone. She grabbed his hands in hers and kissed them. “Please don't stay here. Please come away with me. I'll take care of you. I'll wait on you night and day if you need it. Whatever you need …”

 

Aunt Flo grabbed Hitomi's shoulders and pulled her away from Van. “You're making a fool of yourself,” she said severely. “You think he hasn't been put through enough? He doesn't need you crying over him. That's why he didn't want Merle to come. Pull yourself together or I'll throw you out, too.”

 

“Flo, please don't touch her,” Van said softly. “I've been breaking my neck to be strong for months, and even when I got here, I still felt like I had to be strong. I didn't want Merle's pity or yours, but … I want Hitomi's. Please don't send her away.”

 

Hitomi brought her eyes up to meet Van's. His eyes looked so tired, and absolutely tormented, but something about him … everything about him was a miracle. It was a miracle that her love for him was as strong as it had been before he went away - and his love for her too. It hadn't died.

 

“I'll go with you. You can go get my stuff together if you want. I'll come as soon as he's finished bandaging me. Then I'll go anywhere you want me to, Hitomi. I would love to just drop myself into your care … and break down … just this once.”

 

Sometime during Van's speech Aunt Flo had let go of Hitomi and was standing dumbfounded. She didn't understand what was happening, but Dryden filled the breech. He put his hand on her shoulder and said in a paced rational tone (the kind of voice a doctor uses to subdue a hysterical patient), “Let's leave them alone. Would you be good enough to show me to Van's room? You could help me choose his clothes.”

 

Aunt Flo looked up at Dryden, and Hitomi had never seen her look at anyone like that. She reprimanded Van, even when he had been shot, and he was the only person who she seemed to like. When she looked at Dryden now, it was as though she instantly trusted him, and was willing to let him guide her.

 

Hitomi looked at Dryden. This was one of the powers of The Lover. He didn't have a mean bone in his body, and he clearly had no will to see anyone hurt. And he was going to help Hitomi through this in the cleanest way possible. He was doing this for her, and as she turned back to Van, she knew it was because he knew how she felt, and he wanted to make this moment the best it could be for her. She was finally with Van again, and Dryden honestly wanted them to be happy together. Thank you, Dryden.

 

“I missed you,” Hitomi said, taking hold of Van's hands again. “Living away from you was so hard. Please don't go away again. Please let me stay with you,” she confessed. She didn't even care that the doctor was still there, stitching away evenly.

 

Van put his hand on her hair. “You look different. Your hair has grown out a little.” He crushed his eyes together as the doctor did the final stitch.

 

“There, all done,” the doctor proclaimed as he unrolled the gauze he was going to use to wrap Van's back. “If I asked you to come back and see me again in a few days, would you come?” he asked Van.

 

“Would I?” Van asked Hitomi.

 

Hitomi didn't know how to answer. “Maybe. We'll see how you're doing,” she said.

 

The doctor asked Hitomi to move as he worked his way around Van to secure the bandages around his shoulders and chest. “That should do it,” he said at last. Then he pulled off his latex gloves and headed for the bathroom. “If you need me, don't hesitate,” he called to Van.

 

Dryden came into the room with a button-up-the-front plaid shirt in his hands. “Put this on him, and then we'll head out. Flo says that Van has a car that he wants. I was thinking that maybe I could drive it back and you could take him in the SUV. He'd probably be more comfortable on the backseat than in the sports car. Don't you think?”

 

Hitomi nodded and took the shirt from him.

 

Van stretched out his arms and let Hitomi help him. “Who is that guy?” Van asked again.

“I'll explain,” Hitomi said, uneasily. It wouldn't be easy to explain everything that had happened since he'd gone to The Voltage Room, but she'd try. Ohhh, she'd have to explain Folken. That thought made her wince.

 

She came around to Van's front and started doing up the buttons on his shirt. She wanted to break down and cry on him. He was so dear and he was really there, not a trick that Folken had conjured to deceive her. He was there. At last, her fingers were past the gauze and she was about to do up the second to the last button by his collarbone. She was going to crack.

 

“I don't feel well,” he breathed. Then he suddenly brought his arms around Hitomi and nearly dropped them both to the carpet. He fainted!

 

“Dryden!” Hitomi called urgently, when she saw Van's face.

 

Dryden came bolting down the hall. He had gone back to the bedroom for socks and he came back with them in his hand. He rushed to Hitomi and helped her ease Van onto the couch. When he saw Hitomi's panicked expression, he took control of the situation.

 

“Okay, we're really taking him out of here. Kanzaki, put these socks on him, and then go find his shoes and tie them up and put them in the car. I'll carry him out when Flo is finished packing his stuff. Here are my keys,” he said, handing her his car keys. “It should still be warm, so you don't have to worry about that. There's a blanket in the far back for emergencies. Please bring it into the house, and we'll wrap Fanel up in it before we go.” He stuffed the socks in her hand and continued, “I know it's hard, but just get moving.”

 

Hitomi nodded and got to work.