Well, took me long enough. Hope it's worth the wait!

Disclaimer: I don't own Escaflowne blahblahblah.

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I'll Cry Instead

By Cev

Chapter Six: I'm Looking Through You

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Hitomi kicked a rock to the wall of her cell, staring into the darkness, her eyes watered and heavy, reminding the guard men of some unfed crazed animal on the verge of insanity. The distraught girl had been cooped up in the cell for three days all ready, with no friendly visitors or a person (or thing) willing to listen to her story. She was trapped here, alone, unwelcome, and damned confused.

She was lucky, she supposed, that she was here. They had tended her wounds in some medical wing of this place, she couldn't quite remember, and the moment she opened her eyes, they had hauled her off into this place of confinement. Perhaps it was better she were here in this dungeon, rather out and about in that forest, where who knows what could have killed her. And that damn creature. . .thing with those white eyes that put her here in the first place.

Dirty, old hay surrounded and cushioned Hitomi, the usual sweet smell that came with the straw now long gone. She wondered quietly where Yori was, and what he was doing, and if the horse missed her company. Sitting up cautiously, Hitomi heard the faint clack of approaching heels. The girl scrambled to the doors, pressing herself to the wooden gate that enclosed her, peering out into the hall from a slot cut into the wood. It must have been the Feeder, an old man that gave Hitomi her meal every day: A lousy cup of thin soup. She glared at him. It was kind of ironic really; she had wanted to loose weight back home. And she wasn't sure what those guards wanted with her. First they try and keep her alive after the attack, and now they contain her in these unsanitary and cold conditions, a place where she'd probably die from in a couple of days.

Hitomi strained her neck to look to her left, where the old man usually came from. She expected a bag of brown cloth and a mess of thin black hair peeking from a dark hood, limping from cell to cell, but noticed, however, that this time there was no crippled man. Instead, a bright haired blonde, tall and handsome, clad in regal blue bearings, was walking towards her cell!

"What the bloody.?" Hitomi asked, stepping away from the doors. It was Allen, that stupid knight that owned Yori! That one that ran after her!

"Hitomi!" Allen said, peeping in through the slot, a smile on his face. What the hell was he smiling about? She wanted to spit on him. "What have they done to you? It took me forever to find you. The guards were told not to let anyone near you. You've become quite the topic of rumors about the castle. They say you're a spy for the Dragon Slayers. I, on the other hand, know better."

"What in the world are you talking about?" Hitomi growled, "Rumors? Dragon Slayers? For goodness sake, that stupid albino weirdo was about to murder me!"

"Yes, well, Dilandau Albatou is like that, no matter if you're working with him or not."

"I don't care! Everyone here is about as loony as that psycho! The only normal creatures here are your animals!"

"Yes, my horse seems quite attached to you now . . . well," Hitomi heard a bit of rustling, and clanking of iron, "we should probably get you out of here. A few more days of you in here will probably be the end for you." He opened the doors, and walked in.

Hitomi backed up into the wall, "I'm not going anywhere with you. I can survive here just perfectly."

The knight chuckled, "I'd like to see that. You're not used to these conditions, and obviously bent out of shape. Come on, Kanzaki, I'm not going to hurt you."

"Where are you taking me?" she demanded, and stood up from the wall, holding her head high.

"To see the King."

Hitomi faltered, "King?"

"What else were you expecting?" Allen asked, walking out of the cellar, motioning for her to follow. The other prisoners watched the girl take her leave, and climb up the damp and dingy stairways that led to the surface. "He wants to see you."

The girl titled her head to the side, all of a sudden her heart and body inflated, and her throat was parched, ".King.?" She repeated.

"Move it. We haven't got all day," Allen said from behind her.

Shooting a deadly glare at the difficult man, Hitomi opened a large heavy door at the top of the enclosed stone stairwell. She shut her eyes immediately, the unexpected brightness of day burning into her pupils.

"Hitomi? Hitomi, are you all right?" He asked gingerly, holding her shoulders.

Still blinded from the daylight (but quite as sly as ever), she stared up at him menacingly, and Allen, just dawning on what she intended, was too late to realize what she was doing, and was thrown back rolling down the stairs, courtesy of Hitomi's flailing arms.

Running was her last option. Firing off from the cold ground, Hitomi bolted down a corridor, turning wildly and without much balance ever so often, hoping to lose the knight with her speed, something that she thought was easily done.

"Hitomi!" Ignoring the pleading calls, she raced up corridors and hallways that were as alien to her as everything in this place. Taking a few wild turns, she frantically opened a large gold door, despite the protests of nearby pompous guards that were encircling the juvenile. Without much realization Hitomi tumbled over her feet, falling haphazardly down a grand stairway, carpeted and leaden with gold, which was now pounding into her skull with every step she bounced and crunched down from. She fell into an immobile heap at the bottom of the stairs, with a loud and sickly thud.

A large breath was drawn in from the crowds. She had landed on a long, red carpet, leading to something that looking fuzzily like a large gleaming chair in the middle of the room, mounted. Allen appeared at the top of the stairs at the gold railing, out of breath and looking very unkempt. At his entrance, and with the new appearance of this frail, dirty, and now seemingly dead girl, hushed whispers erupted from the court that crowded around the King's throne, wary of the brown heap at the foot of the stair well.

"My King . . ." Allen tried to explain, rushing down the steps, "She got out, I was merely. . ."

The man that sat so smugly in his gold, bright, garishly ornamented chair, rose up, looking menacingly at the nervous Knight. His green robes billowed out as he walked towards the fallen girl, staring down with hard eyes. "You were merely assisting her?" He asked, smiling cruelly.

"King F-"

"Don't speak, you fool." The dark man roared, "You've caused me enough trouble as it is, when I specifically asked for this creature-" he nudged the barely breathing girl with his boot, "to be kept in solitary confinement!"

Allen cringed, something that no person in the court had ever witnessed before. The Knight walked down the stairs casually, as if nothing happened, and when he reached Hitomi, he picked her up by both arms, dragging her off as if she were an animal. The man Allen had called King gave an airy chuckle, staring at the girl as she was pulled up, with much pain.

Hitomi looked up, trying to discern the figure in front of her. Her heart was bursting in her chest, and all she could hear was the pulsing and rushing of blood in her ears. Her mouth tasted metallic, and had a milky texture. . .

The swirling colors her brain has meshed together had suddenly became very clear. A man stood just feet below her, grinning nastily, and sounded as if he was laughing! His dark brown eyes glittered unpleasantly beneath bright brown locks of hair; Hitomi would have liked nothing better than to gouge them out of their sockets right now. A maiden had come to his side, laughing her cheery stupid blonde head off, and coming at him shyly, "King Fiena, come now, what will you say of our proposition?"

Hitomi's bright blue eyes glowed red with intensity, lighting with a dangerous fire.

KING?!? This man was King of the place?

Fiena?

Brown hair? Brown eyes?

No. She didn't know why, but this wasn't right. It's not supposed to be like this.

This stretched the line. This was the last button.

It was wrong.

"You're no King." She said loudly, jerking from Allen's grasp. Allen stared back at her in shock.

Fiena, who had turned his back to the two, stopped in his tracks, causing the immediate attention of the whole room.

"What did you say?" he whispered in a low voice.

"I don't stutter." Hitomi snapped, limping down the stairs to face him.

"No, Hitomi!" Allen protested, reaching out and grabbing her.

"Let go, Allen!" Hitomi screamed, shaking him off with difficulty.

"You'd better get that woman under control, Schezar! You're already balancing your life on a thin blade!" Fiena shouted.

"You bastard! WRONG!!! THIS IS WRONG! WHERE IS THE REAL KING, YOU FRUAD?!" Hitomi cried, plummeting into the man, shoving him to the hard marble floor. She clawed at him reacklessly, trying desparately to pound her weakened fists into him.

"Get off!" Fiena smacked Hitomi hard across the face, sending her sliding across the floor. He stood, and no one in the room moved, except Allen, who was restrained by at least fifteen guards, trying to hack his way to Hitomi.

Fiena stood, shaking the dirt from his clothing, and walked to the girl. He leaned down to her form and whispered so only she could hear, "You bitch, walking in here trying to act like you know everything. But you don't even remember."

Hitomi's eyes widened, and she struggled to look at this terrible man in his eyes.He stood, opening a flap in his flowing robes to reveal a large sheath. His right hand grasped the handle, and he pulled the dark blade from its black cover. "Too bad, you know, with a bit of mind alteration, you could have been useful to me."

Hitomi shut her eyes tightly, expecting a new rush of blood this time, the kind that came when skin and steel collided. Air rushed by Hitomi's face, as if something had been thrown near her face.

"YAGH!!"

Oh please.just let me be with that warmth once more.

The steel never came.

Hitomi looked up from her sprawled, feeble position. Fiena lay crouched on the ground, pulling a bloodied knife from his right hand. Just feet from where the two were on the floor, a tall man stood, holding a matching knife. He lifted his hidden face from a black mass of hair on his head.

"No one's going to die today by you, Fiena." He said.

********************************************************** I'd thought it would be a nice little cliffhanger.and make sure all my readers are still paying attention! I'll be back soon!

Please save our Earth, Cev

P.S. The Animatrix is AWESOME!!!!!