Once in a Lifetime
see disclaimer in Part 1
"Once upon a year gone by, she saw herself give in..."
Colin Byrne had left the stereo on again when he'd gone off to work.
Lisa couldn't understand the words; the woman singing was American. But the heartache in the voice was something she understood too well.
She was standing at the sink, absently rubbing a cloth over a plate, as she always was at four o'clock in the afternoon. Since Colin Byrne didn't like it when she messed with his things, she'd left the machine on; it wasn't hurting anything, anyway.
But that song had come on, and now she could no longer school her mind not to think, to wallow in the complete oblivion of mindless tasks.
"Every time she closed her eyes, she saw what could have been..."
Sighing in frustration, Lisa tried to shove Kaze's face out of her mind's eye and stacked the last dish in the drainer.
But with Kaze banished from her thoughts, Ai and Yu's shades saw an opening and flooded in.
She wondered how they were doing. If they were still in Wonderland, or if they'd found a way back to Earth...
No.
Keeping Kaze and the twins at bay, Lisa rummaged in a cabinet for a pot. It took about an hour to make a good stew, and that was what Colin Byrne was expecting for dinner.
After he'd come home and eaten, she would have to do the laundry...
Laundry...
Inspecting white sheets for stray flecks of semen, just in case she and Kaze hadn't been careful enough the past night...
No.
She wasn't going to think about it.
"Well, nothing hurts and nothing bleeds when covers tucked in tight... funny when the bottom drops how she forgets to fight... to fight..."
Pulling open the refridgerator door, Lisa removed the foam container of beef chunks, setting it on the counter beside her. Filling the pot, Lisa set it atop the stove and set it to broil.
Trying to force her mind back to oblivion, Lisa dug around for the other ingredients--carrots, crushed tomatoes, egg noodles...
Skimming past the chili peppers, she almost smiled when she remembered the immense versions of the tiny red things that Chobi the chocobo had so loved...
Stop thinking about it. He's gone. They're all gone...
The water had begun to bubble. Shaking her head, Lisa dumped the meat and vegetables into the pot, adding the noodles barely a minute later, and searched for a wooden spoon with which to stir the concoction.
"And it's one more day in paradise... one more day in paradise..."
At least her mother couldn't be too ashamed of her now... she was living a more respectable life than whoring herself in a nightclub...
Even if she couldn't carry on her life as a user of Kigenjutsu...
Letting out an anguished noise, Lisa let go of the spoon. It rolled with the spiral of moving water and food in the black pot as the black-haired woman clapped her hands to her temples. That stupid song was driving her crazy, forcing her to think of her past like this. That settled it. She had to go turn it off.
Abandoning the stove, she marched over to the stereo. She was just about to set her hand on the "off" switch when the sound of the door opening made her jump.
Colin Byrne was home early.
But that wasn't the only unusual thing. He was swaying and staggering even worse than he had been when the two of them had first met, and his face was blotched red with drink. He tittered as he stumbled across the room towards her, and she instinctively recoiled. For the first time since she'd met him, his face was no longer a blur--she could clearly see his strong, prominent Roman nose, his thick brow, his black eyes, thin lips, and unshaven stubble. Those beetle-black eyes were unfocused, and across his face was scrawled an awful sneer.
This was not the face of a plain, ordinary man, as she'd thought when she'd met him at the club.
It was the face of a cruel, vindictive drunk.
"Told'jer not to touch m'things," Colin Byrne slurred, staggering dangerously towards Lisa, who had frozen. "N whut dec'nt howwsewyfe leav's th' cookin' on? Stup'd bitch..."
Lisa never even saw the blow coming, so she didn't have the time to soften it as she should've. In what seemed like an eyeblink to her, she was sprawled on the floor, her lip cut and throbbing, oozing bright red blood.
"Stup'd bitch," Colin Byrne repeated. Lisa couldn't move. Her body was shaking too badly. It was the first time she'd really felt fear since she'd left Wonderland, and she was too unaccustomed to it. She just couldn't move. "Got'tr pun'sh ya f'r that."
Wide-eyed in terror, trembling worse than a leaf in a windstorm, Lisa didn't realize she was speaking until Colin glowered at the sound of her voice. "Kaze... Kaze... Kaze... please... Kaze... anyone... Kaze... Kaze... please help... Kaze... Kaze... Kaze...!"
"No'ne's gon'a h'lp a skank bitch like you," Colin Byrne slurred viciously. "Cum'eere..."
It was over before Lisa had time to register what had happened. It seemed to her like their bodies had just collided, leaving him sneering and her in blinding pain, her skirt torn and her panties thrown carelessly aside.
As Lisa watched, too numb to speak, her cruel drunken "husband" tottered back outside, tittering again at the glee of his doings.
Curling into fetal position on the floor, Lisa fought the urge to chew her fingertips neurotically. Oh, God. What had he done to her? He was so drunk... did he even know what he'd done? She was married to a dangerous man... surely she could get help from the police...?
But no. They were married. As far as she knew, that gave him the right to do whatever he wanted to her, because there was no way to prove that anything... he'd done... wasn't consentual. Besides, all he had to do was tell the police that she'd once been a prostitute to completely lose any respect or credability she might have.
The door creaked again.
Trying to stagger into an upright position, too shaky to manage, Lisa let out a sobbing, hysterical burst of laughter. "Back for more, aren't you! Well, go ahead! I am your property, after all! Just a common street whore! Just your personal plaything! Come on! I don't care! Kill me this time, why don't you!"
But the voice that reached her ears was not that of Colin Byrne. It was soft, melodic, familiar. "I don't want your body, Lisa... how could you think that of me?"
This man was not Colin Byrne at all, Lisa realized as he entered the room. He was dressed in a hooded white cloak that concealed all but the lower half of his face, which was young and clean-shaven... if he even needed to shave. He didn't sound like an adult... and he had such soft-looking lips, which almost certainly had to belong to a girl...
Refusing to study further, refusing to pursue that haunting sense of familiarity about this stranger, Lisa forced herself into a shaky standing position, trying her hardest to ignore the sickly trickle of semen down her bare thigh. "You stay away from me!"
He made as if to step towards her, but she swiped an arm at him; he stepped back, and the movement caused his hood to slide down, revealing his face.
It was a young face, that of a boy perhaps only sixteen or seventeen, but a face that no human boy could possibly own. The soft, delicate features, wide, hurt jadeine eyes, soft, fluffy halo of white hair, and deadly-looking dark gray spikes belonged to...
Lisa fell silent, shocked. It was impossible. She had seen him die...
At last, she stepped forward, making a timid venture, searching the all-too-familiar face for the truth. "Makenshi...?"
In the next moment, she had thrown herself into his open arms, and released three months' worth of bottled-up, broken sobbing into his chest.
Although Lisa's weight sent him crumpling to his knees, he reacted instantly--with as much skill as the lost Lisa Pacifist would have. Holding her close, he gently stroked her messy black hair, his voice a soothing murmur in her ear.
"I'm here. I'm here. Don't worry. He won't find you while you're with me. Shhh. It's okay. It's okay. I'm here now."
Overwhelmed by an awkward mix of suppressed sorrow, fresh shock, and gratitude, Lisa continued to cry, only aware of his voice, his presence... not even stopping to wonder how this could be.
(TBC)