"…And every time I run to you, you're there for me… and every time I have a wound inside, you heal… And right now, in this silence, I feel my heart draw near to you…"

:: Run To You (The Piano Song):: LaRue ::

Chapter Eight: Think Twice

"Scream and I'll slit your throat."

And what? Just let you kidnap and torture me without a fight?

I think not.

Alright, I'll admit it, even though I knew my life is in the hands of some maniac who seemed to enjoy the thought of plunging his sharp pointy into me; I did the last thing that any sane person would've done. Forgive me, but when you're in a life or death situation, you're welcome to handle it however you bloody well want.

So, I let out a heart retching banshee of a scream.

The man said one of those words your mommy wouldn't want you repeating, and swung his knife at me, the blunt end connecting with my temple, causing white-hot pain to retch through me as I crumpled to the floor like a rag doll.

The sickening metallic taste of blood… filled my mouth as I pulled my self up to my knees. The man moved towards me… the butt of his knife tainted with my blood, a psychotic smile across his face. My eyes stung… and my head was spinning as I gave another scream; raspier and weaker then the first…

Maybe this wasn't the greatest idea…

The man swore again and… slapped me hard, across the face… pain as hot as burning oil shot through me along with the looming icy blackness of unconsciousness as I fell back to the ground. 

The man straddled me… almost crushing me underneath his weight as his hands closed around… my wrists as I… I thrashed against him for my life…

His fingernails dug into the soft flesh of my wrists, breaking my skin.  I gurgled angrily at him, sputtering swear words and whole-hearted threats…

"Shut up."

He slapped me again, harder…

My head snapped to the side from its impact… the thick metallic taste of blood filling my mouth…

Something… I hear… something above the b-buzzing in my ears…there… again… my name…?

H-he pinned me… No… Let go… my arms… rope… on my wrists…

…I-I can't breath…

Blood… There's so much blood… 

…on… it's on my face… I-I can't move… I…

There's so much blood… 

I…Van…

A hand brushes across my forehead, and a strangled scream escapes my throat as I come to. Reflexively, a hand clamps down across my mouth; silencing my pleas for help as the other arm forcibly presses me against a male chest, trying to calm my thrashing with his weight.

"Shhh… shh… you're safe…"

A darkened face swims in and out of focus in the soft candlelight of the murky room, I blink hard and dark locks half-hiding maroonly coca eyes slowly come into focus in front of me, causing relief to wash over me.  Cautiously, Van pulled with hand away from my mouth, his thumb lingering slightly across my broken bottom lip as in an apology for something. A half-whimper escaped me as I literally threw myself against his chest, dry sobs racking through my entire body. 

With some effort, he managed to raise us both into a half sitting position on the floor against a wall, his arms tightening almost painfully around me as with each shuddering sob.

I can barely feel Van's hands on my back as they make lazy circles across it… My mind is placidly wandering the thin line of consciousness as I cling helplessly to him.

"Is he--?" I ask weakly, inhaling a gulp of air in a feeble attempt to calm myself.

"Allen is taking care of it," he whispered softly, pressing my body closer into his embrace. I bite back a moan of pain as his fingers brush across my temple as he attempt to calm me.

A mumbled curse mixed with apologizes and my name tumbles out of Van's mouth, as his fingers gently push back the hair from my forehead. More curses spill out as he touches the purple bruises forming on my temple.

"I'm so sorry…" He whispered, lightly kissing the bruise as I pass out again.

"Y-you're an angel…"

"Van! Van, hang on! Can you hear me? Van, wake up!"

"What about giving up on both, and become the tragic heroine?"

"... From now on, I want you to stay with me."

"I-I want you...!"

"You believe in Van, don't you?"

A/N: Well? I really didn't take care of the cliffhanger, but I'll tie up the loose ends of this one before I move on to my next death-defying stunt of grammatically improper English.

All the fuzzy 'likkle lines, if you haven't caught on yet, where lines from the series. Half-memories rattled back into place by Hitomi having her brain beat in, if you will. And you all just thought that I only wanted to have Van and Hitomi play damsel in distress with a knight in shinning armor coming to her rescue, eh?

Well, I'm off to save the world and what not.

Remember, an R&R a day keeps the unhappy writer's block away… savvy?

(Yeah, that was bad…)

CharlieTheOtakuNymph: Hehehehee… I take that you liked the cliffhanger? =^_^= Thanks for R&R!

Laka: I'm glad you liked it. =^_^= This fic has been a riot to write, and I'll keep writing it as long as people will read it. Thanks for R&R!

Dilandau-is-My-Boyfriend: No, Dilly-kun and Celeana will NOT be the same person in this fic. Celeana will probably only mentioned by name and referenced to by Allen and his crew, so I don't think Hitomi will be physically meeting her. Dilly probably won't be in this either. Mentioned, maybe, but he won't be in it because I have a lot of trouble keeping him in character while I write. Dilly is, for me right now, too multi-dimensional for me to keep him in within character lines, and I don't like writing about a character if I have to take him out of already developed character guidelines. Err… I did take artistic liberties with Hitomi's character for this fic, but I think it turned out for the best. Thanks for reading!

Aradow: BING! BING! WE HAVE A WINNER! *bounces around* The uh, now dead guy, was/is in league with the baddies from the woods! But more about that in the next chapter… Thanks for reading!

Aya_chan: I'm glad you like it so far! Thanks for reading!

Avelyn Lauren: Sacastic? Meeeeee? Neeeeever! About the issue of there being too much fluff in a fic, I promise Van and Hitomi won't be comparing each other's eyes to celestial bodies while I'm around. There's a limit to the stupidity of fluff, even for me.

Raye-Rei: Weeeeeeee! I'm glad you liked it! Those fluff scenes are the dickens for me to write, but they come out pretty spiffy in the end, don't they?

Cherryblossombabe: No, there won't be a love triangle. Some sexual tension between them at most, but no older blond men will be proclaiming their ever lasting love to Hitomi while I'm around.

hitomi-chan: My beta reader has a cow whenever I decide to throw in a fluff scene, because I rewrite them so often. *cackle* I must've rewritten the kissing scenes at least two dozen times each. Their first kiss (well, second if you count that one in chapter 1, but that really wasn't a proper kiss) needed to be perfect, ya' know? Thanks for reading!

SabineballZ: Well, bits and pieces of her memory have started to come back; and the rest will come back once I knock some more sense into her :: insert scary foreboding music ::  And what will happen once she gets her memory back… I have a pretty good idea, but if you think this cliffhanger was bad, you'll probably hunt me down and literally kill me for the next one. It's gonna be baaaaaaaaaad.

WildCat: The cliffhanger was a totally unplanned reaction to writing all that fluff. Sometimes it's fun to spoil the 'happily-ever-after-moment' with a hundred foot tall bug chasing the lovebirds around, ya know? Thanks for R&R!

Onigiri Momoko: Don't worry, no love triangles will happen while it's my watch. Some obscure sexual tension at most, but probably nothing more. VxH true love over comes all evil little blond men and all that jazz.

Sept. 15, 2003

Version 1