Chapter 5:
"A Mother's Determination"
It was the night after her little encounter with Sanosuke in the forest, a rather pleasant encounter I might add. Just thinking about it made her cheeks flush red and her heart skip a beat. For a moment, Megumi closed her eyes. She could still feel his lips on her's, so soft and tender, soothing but erotic... A loud knock at the door instantly brought her out of her beautiful daydream and she silently scolded herself for getting so carried away with her thoughts. Putting on her best smile, she straightened out her doctor's smock and headed over to open the door.
"Oh, Tetsu, hi! I wasn't expecting you for dinner tonight," Megumi exclaimed, her mood as happy as Tetsu had ever seen her and he frowned inside, having a pretty idea of why she was acting so light-hearted, "Come on in. Dinner's still on the stove so if you don't mind waiting a little bit then we can eat together."
"Hi, Sweetheart. Where's Suzuki?" he asked, looking behind her to the inside of the house for a sign of the little runt he discreetly despised and Megumi obliviously pointed down the hallway toward his room.
"Sleeping in his room already. He felt pretty tired from his training today with Yahiko and he just collapsed as soon as he got home," Megumi explained with a smile, "so we'll be eating dinner alone then. Come on inside, it's cold out."
Megumi opened the door wider to allow him entrance to her home and he gave her a fake smile before entering the clinic, the sweet aroma of food cooking in the kitchen enveloping his senses and he breathed it all in. Megumi smiled at his reaction toward the smell of the food and closed the door after he was fully inside.
Quickly, but as gracefully as humanly possible, she walked ahead of him to the kitchen where she continued to stir the soup on the stove, humming softly the same tune Tetsu had heard Sanosuke whistling the night before. She threw more of the ingredients for the soup into the prodigious silver pot and stirred the wooden spoon inside it again. Tetsu watched her as she did this, remembering the night before when he saw her with Sanosuke in the forest and he clenched his fists. Her pleasant humming only added to his fury as he glared at her back. Megumi remained unaware of the extreme hatred he felt for her that could have boiled the rest of the soup as she resumed stirring the food like there was nothing in the entire universe that could bring her down.
Suddenly, Tetsu stepped up from behind her, only inches away from her body and roughly grabbed her wrist, causing her to drop the spoon in surprise. With his free hand he reached over her shoulder and shut off the stove, never letting go of his strong grip on her left hand.
"Ow, Tetsu. Loosen up already," Megumi said as she winced at the pain he gave her from his grasp, oblivious to the fact that he was hurting her on purpose, "you're... hurting me."
Spinning her around to face him, he grabbed her other wrist as Megumi locked eyes with his steel pupils, one increasingly lighter than the other, and they pierced through her sharper than the knives she owned near the cupboard and she gasped at the malevolent look he gave her.
"How was your walk last night, Megumi?" Tetsu demanded angrily, his face inches away from her's, his hands now tightly holding both her wrists as he pressed her back against the stove, "Did you have fun on your little date?"
"What?! I... I don't know what you're talking about," Megumi lied, "I was here at the clinic all of last night."
"Don't lie to me, you stupid bitch!" he shouted at her and he struck her across the face, sending her flying across the room and she lunged forward, gripping the table nearby so she wouldn't end up face first on the floor. While Megumi was still in shock, cradling her cheek from where he had slapped her, Tetsu grabbed her right arm, twisting it behind her back and she wretched forward from the pain. "I saw you with him last night, you dirty whore!" he spat at her, pulling her arm farther back behind her, "And don't you dare lie to me again!"
"Okay, okay... I'm sorry... I'm sorry... Just... just let me go," Megumi pleaded with him and he impatiently threw her down onto the tatami mat with a hard shove, letting out all his frustration on the defenseless woman. Her body slid a few good feet across the floor, the texture rough against her skin, and she lay on the ground, too scared to move a muscle as she examined the throbbing hand in front of her.
Turning back to face him, she gritted her teeth and stared at him with daggers replacing the usual soft gaze of her cinnamon colored eyes. "You're despicable," she spat at him, her shoulder-length hair hiding part of her face, adding to the effect of her insult as she still kneeled on the ground cradling her wrist, refusing to look him fully in the face.
With the same amount of anger in his own eyes, he stalked over to where she sat and struck her face so hard that her cheek changed as red as blood and her head turned to the left from the hard impact. The loud smacking sound of hand against cheek barely had time to resound before Tetsu hit her again, causing her head to turn to the other side, her face no longer it's natural porcelain white color. Tears streamed down her cheeks as he resumed with his beating of her body, paying absolutely no attention whatsoever to the pain he was causing her. He pushed her back down harder onto the ground, pining her down with his heavy body and she wrestled underneath him.
"No! Get off me! Get off!" she cried, pushing at him with all her might, but he refused to budge, not even an inch, "No! Get away from me!"
"Shut the hell up!" he shouted and he slapped her again, "Let's see if whatever that man sees in you really hits the mark! I'll find out for myself if you are as good a whore as you are a cook! Take off your clothes!"
"No! Get off of me!" Megumi shrieked, kicking hard with her knees against his stomach as she vigorously shook her head, "Don't you touch me!"
But her cries were soon quieted with another slap to the face and all that was heard was her soft whimpers of fright. Megumi kept her face turned, her tears coursing down from her reddened cheeks and creating a tiny puddle of fast evaporating water on the floor.
"If you won't do it, then I'll do it myself!" he barked at her.
Megumi could feel the vibrations of his booming voice against the reverberating floor and she felt herself tremble from underneath him. He viciously grabbed the collar of her purple kimono, pining her arms down with his elbows, digging into them, and he ripped the dress all the way down the middle. Grabbing at the open flaps, he parted the rest of her ruined dress to reveal her naked body.
"No! Stop it!" Megumi shrieked again as she continued to struggle and get away from his attempts to touch her, wrenching her arms from underneath his sharp elbows as she tried to close her torn kimono and hide her exposed body, "Stop it right now! Please... Just stop it!"
"Damn it, just cooperate!" Tetsu snapped at her, pulling away her hands from where she held fast to her dress and he pined them both behind her back with one hand, "You are mine! I am your god damn fiancé, woman, and you will do whatever I want! No questions asked! I can use you or your body whenever the hell I feel like it and you will cooperate!"
Megumi turned her head from side to side, tears falling from her eyes faster than rain from the clouds as she refused to listen to him, fighting against him again, only to get slapped even harder. She opened her mouth to scream for help, but Tetsu's hand came over it to silence her before she could even utter a sound and her shriek only came out to be a tiny muffled whine. She continued to cry and scream through his hand, but it never went through, not by a long shot. She shut her eyes tightly closed, the tears still streaming down her face in geysers as she tried to block out the feeling of his rough hands on her body.
Megumi wanted to wake up, just wake up and see that this was all just a terrible nightmare brought on by her misconceived feelings about Tetsu. Megumi wanted to find herself safe and warm in her bed, the blankets wrapped around her instead of Tetsu's callused hands. But no matter how she tried or how many tears fell from her eyes, she didn't wake up from the horrid dream and the pain of her arms pined behind her, his hand overlying her mouth, and his reckless and brash thrusts inside her still remained as real and tangible as the air in the room and the floor she was lying on.
His making love to her was not at all like anything she had ever felt before and she hated it. She hated it more than anything in the world. Whatever she thought she knew about cruelty at Kanryu's mansion was nothing compared to what Tetsu was doing to her right now. Tetsu's love making, no, it wasn't love; there was no existing love in what he was doing. What he was doing was raping her, abusing and perverting her mind and body to such limits that she thought she might go mad.
He was the exact opposite of Sanosuke, who was gentle and sensual with his movements. Whether it be her first time with him as a virgin or the other times when she was not, Sanosuke always made love to her in the sweetest way possible. Only the thought of him kept her from going completely insane.
Tetsu was not at all gentle. He moved hard and crudely inside of her, adding to the pain already from the bruises all over her body and the screaming agony in her heart. He hadn't even bothered to remove all his clothing, only taking off his pants, the only thing he felt necessary to be discarded. His brash ramming made her feel like a virgin once again, the pain ripping through her entire being as if he were literally trying to tear her from the inside out. She wanted to scream, she wanted to cry for help, but the only help nearby was her son, Suzuki, and she did not want to put him in the hands of this... this monster that was taking advantage of her.
'God, make him stop....' Megumi silently prayed as she shut her eyes as tightly closed as remotely possible, 'Stop.... please stop...'
Megumi cried the whole time; her screams drowned out by the barrier of his hand, her whole body aching from head to toe. When he finally finished having his way with her and found his release, he roughly pushed her away like an old rag doll, not even treating her with the respect of a human being by at least gently taking himself out of her. His exit was just as rough as his entrance. He pulled his trousers back up, his hand still remained covering her mouth just in case she wanted to yell for help while he got dressed and she contemplated the thought of biting off a few of his fingers. But before she could decide, Tetsu moved back over to her, his icy white and black eyes boring into her like a hawk examining it's prey, and Megumi felt shivers run up every vertebrae in her spine. She trembled when he came closer, scared of just what else he planned to do to her, his face so close to hers that their noses brushed against each others and she found herself paralyzed with fear.
"You tell anyone about this and you will regret it deeply," Tetsu whispered harshly into her ear, his hand tightening over her mouth as Megumi started hyperventilating, "You wouldn't want anything bad to happen to that beloved son of yours now, would you?"
"Suzuki?" Megumi murmured, but her voice only came out in a soft muffle from under his large hand and she vigorously shook her head, "No, not Suzuki...."
"Then you will tell no one about this. You will pretend like none of this ever happened and if you don't... It would be a shame to see that little boy's body floating down the river nearby. I'm sure he will be missed," Tetsu hissed at her, Megumi's eyes widening in sheer terror at the mention of her son's promised death and again, she violently shook her head, "I didn't think you'd like that. So, if you don't want that little 'accident' to happen, you will not tell a single soul of what happened here tonight. Do you understand me?"
Megumi nodded her head, not once blinking from the death gaze he held of her eyes as she continued to shake from underneath him. He smirked at her, slowly removing the clamp he had on her lips and he got up to leave, picking up his jacket on the coat hanger by the door. Megumi let out her held breath as soon as he was a good few feet away from where she still lay on the floor and she waited for the sound of the door to close, her eyes shutting again to block out the image of his smirking face.
"Oh and before I forget..." Tetsu said on the porch, holding the door open slightly as he turned back to his bride-to-be, "Have a nice night, Sweetheart."
And with that, the door shut quietly closed behind him, the screen door swinging to a halt as it hit the frame and Tetsu walked out of the clinic's front yard and out into the streets.
Megumi stayed where she was, still unable to move as she collected her thoughts of all the events that had just happened, her body still cold and bare against the tatami mat of the kitchen floor and she sick to her stomach. She involuntarily lurched forward, vomiting onto the floor as the sick feeling in her heart and abdomen overwhelmed her, and she gave in to it's tugging at her stomach and vomited again. She felt more than sick. She felt dirty, disgusting, used; and like a robot, Megumi got up from the floor, stepping over the puddles of thrown up food as she made her way over to the bathroom down the hall.
She didn't even think about it as she walked down the hall in a trance, her hand gripping the front of her kimono to hold it closed and her other hand ran down the walls she passed as she made her way over to the bathroom. Her mind raced with the promise of death Tetsu claimed for her precious son and the image of his frail little body found on the bank of the river the next morning and it scrambled any thoughts of common sense she had left in her. Silently, Megumi slipped into the bathtub, pouring the water of a scorching hot temperature inside to help melt away the internal filth she felt on her body and mind. She stared off at the nearby wall, grabbing at the sponge on the side of the bucket and she viciously scrubbed at her arms, legs, and chest.
The memories of Tetsu molesting her flooded into her brain just as the water flooded into the tub and Megumi scrubbed her body harder at the remembrances of his hard body against her's and the horrible feeling of him inside of her, rubbing the sponge over her left arm over and over again until it was skinned raw. She only noticed the condition of her arm's flesh when she felt the warm blood trickling down her wrist to her elbow and she lifted her arm up in curiosity, turning her arm from side to side to examine it as if the blood made no sense to her.
Blood. Her blood, the blood that Suzuki had inherited from her... Megumi clenched her fist at the thought of Tetsu threatening her baby boy and she shut her eyes to block out the forbidden tears. She watched as the steady red stream trickled down to the tip of her bruised elbow, dripping down one at a time into the warm water in the tub that was now overflowing and gushing onto the bathroom floor. With the bath water spotted with crimson color, Megumi continued to stare, not really realizing what was going on, and she slowly pulled her non-bloody hand back to stop pushing at the water. She leaned back against the tub then, her brain still not functioning to it's full potential as she continued to stare off into space. The tears no longer came as her eyes were as dry as the hottest Sahara dessert and she didn't dare to blink more than twice a minute.
It took quite some time before Megumi recollected herself enough to be able to leave the tub and when she got up, her body dripping wet, she wrapped her warm robe around herself, tying it tighter than usual around her body. With the experience of having her body used in such an inappropriate manner, Megumi didn't want to go through that mistake again and she hugged her arms around her stomach. She didn't even bother with her hair as she headed down the hall to her son's room, her bare feet making soft padding sounds as they made contact with the wood planks and she paused at Suzuki's door to listen to the gentle snoring sounds he made as he slept.
As silently as possible, Megumi slid open the door, the tiny ray of the hallway light flooding through the room, and ending in a large V-shape on her son's sleeping face. She crept over to where Suzuki slept in his bed and she stood there watching his chest rise and fall with every breath he took. Lovingly, she swept down, placed a tender kiss on his forehead and gently smoothed his soft brown hair from out of his eyes. God was the only one that could ever know how much she loved him.
"Me and you, Angel, we're a team. I don't know what I would've done without you... The day I had you, I made a promise to myself. You know what I said? I said that if anyone ever... ever tries to hurt you like they did to me..." Megumi paused to wipe her eyes with her trembling hand. "There's nothing in the world that would keep me from protecting you, Suzuki. Nothing. I swore back then that I would never let you feel what I had to go through... and I'll swear it again," Megumi said aloud as she watched her son stir in his sleep and turn over to his side to lye in a more comfortable position, "Suzuki, I will do anything and everything I can to protect you. No matter what happens..."
A/N: GOD, PLEASE DON'T HATE ME! I know it's horrible! I don't even like Tetsu so don't worry about it! I warned you before that it was gonna get angsty... Leave a review if you want, but no flames please! I think I'm depressed enough already in writing this chapter...