I'm slowly starting to actually get to the story, woo-hoo! I'm thinking about raising the rating. I hope the italics don't screw any of you up. Some of it is a part of her dreams and sometimes it is her thoughts. "re-rAIL" stands for getting her life back on track, even though she's sick. I apologize in advance for any grammatical errors, I don't have anyone checking over my work before I submit now.
Disclaimer: I don't Escaflowne. I'm getting sick of adding this in, it's pretty damn obvious.
Possession
re-rAIL
The young Seer didn't feel the light blanket placed over her figure by her mother. The women took a spot on the bed and stroked her daughter's hair. Hitomi, what have you got yourself into?
The drowsy girl slipped into a deeper state of dreaming without regret or emotion, knowing she would find peace there. There, a dream plagued her, affecting just as harshly as it would if she were awake.
The room was a dark shade of black, practically pitch-black. It would have acquired that shade if not for the blue burning candle. The flame did not sweep through the air or sensually dance in the bleak darkness, it remained firm and tall. The small fire restrained to its' wick gave off a luminosity, casting the room in an eerie blue glow.
Hitomi lay dazed in a small bed, uncomprehending and uncaring. Her face was turned away from the candle and door, her forehead resting against the freezing wall. A sheer black blanket was draped over the underclothing of her uniform; the long piece of cloth entwined with her slender legs.
She wanted to tug the blanket over her more, but the cold had numbed her. Her eyes barely widened when a door opened that she had presumed to not even exist. Hitomi didn't turn around though, she was too entranced with the growing shadow accompanying hers' on the wall. The clinking steps of someone's boots entered her senses.
She smiled, Van? Van would feel good now.
The shadow became complete and Hitomi could tell that the outline of the form did not belong to her Van.
"My brother will never forgive me for this." A deep voice whispered, nearing her even more.
Partially opened eyes became full green orbs, taken in by shock and thoroughly stunned. Folken!
"This will only hurt you for a second." He said softly, grasping her shoulders and pushing her face-first into the firm bed.
She screamed, hoping some soul could hear her outside the room. Her wails were stifled when she felt a hand press her face into the pillow. The large hand lessened its' grip and she heard him quietly tell her not to scream.
The girl chose not to abide by his rules and proceeded to shriek, once again, she felt the pressure of Folkens' body transmitted through his left hand.
"Calm down." He coaxed, lightly stroking the back of her neck with his metallic fingers.
She was aware of the icy caress, and then, the stinging pain which seared through her head and all the way down to her toes. Suddenly, any coherent thoughts she had were drifting away like her hearing.
Folkens' body, highlighted by the blue candle light, backed away, taking with it a needle held emptied between his fingers. "This is going to make your conc... be sending you..." The Strategos paused, "I'm sorry… forgetting Van and…this ever happened."
Hitomi's eyelids fluttered open and her body stiffened, sensing Folken's presence in the dark. After a minute of not moving, she soon realized that it was only a dream. Her sigh flooded the room with relief. Hitomi sat up on the bed and glanced around for her mother.
The morning dawn was peeking through the window and even though she didn't feel very refreshed from her sleep, Hitomi stood up and went to change into her regular clothing.
After slipping on a pair of faded blue jogging pants and a white shirt, she headed downstairs in search of her family.
"Move that box there."
Oh yeah, we're moving.
Their first few weeks in their new apartment were centered on unpacking the many jam-packed boxes. Mamoru and Hitomi shared the master bedroom seeing as they had not been expecting her to return so soon. Their mother took the neighboring room and they all shared a single bathroom. The kitchen was quite petite and opened packages of plastic silverware and chopsticks littered the counters. A few dirty dishes were piled up in the sink and a load of clean dishes waited patiently in the dish washing machine for someone to stow them away in their foreign cabinets.
On the refrigerator was a white board. A list of chores and names were written under the calendar section, it lacked the word "dad'. Hitomi rested woozily against the counter across the small kitchen floor, staring at the list. She felt somewhere along the lines of mildly shitty and was not in the mood to unload and reload their dishes.
Since she'd come back home, she had felt progressively worse every few days. At least it had gotten her out of an appointment with a psychiatrist. Hitomi was pretty sure it was because two worlds had different sicknesses and her immunity was still attached to Gaea, or that was at least what her previous science teacher would have said.
Hitomi had not been back to school yet and her mother had noticed this quite quickly. So far, Hitomi had convinced her that if she went to school, she'd just get sick and be out for a week anyway.
Her ears perked up when she heard someone sliding a key into their door lock. Mamoru strolled in and dropped his backpack on their only couch and headed to the kitchen for a snack. He opened the refrigerator door and pulled out a small juice drink and drank right from the bottle.
"That's disgusting, Mamoru." Hitomi said with a little more anger than originally intended.
He shot a look at her and put the bottle down on the counter. He closed the door to the appliance and wiped his mouth with the back of his school blazers' sleeve. "I didn't want you drinking it all you pig."
Hitomi's face scrunched up in anger. She hadn't been running since her return and she was gradually loosing her toned shape. "You're the pig. You act like you've been raised in a barn."
Mamoru paused and put down his defenses. "What's up with you?"
"I just don't feel good today."
Mamoru took another sip from his drink and leaned against an opposite counter. Their feet were almost reaching the others' wall. "You haven't been feeling 'good' since you came home."
"I'm sick."
"Yeah, well most people recover after a few weeks. You've been getting slowly sicker."
Hitomi stared down at the ground with nothing to say.
The boy turned around and studied the list of chores briefly, "Go lay down, I'll do the dishes tonight sis."
"Thanks." She muttered as she walked over to their room and fell onto the lower bunk bed. Hitomi sighed heavily and wished she had grabbed an aspirin before lying down. She was so tired.
It was dark and the only light came from the fire burning in the fire place across the room. Someone was kissing her neck brutally, she winced, now her collarbone.
"Van," She breathed softly, her voice fringed with sadness.
The body pressing on top of her moved back for a second. His hands were holding her hands above her head tightly with their fingers interlaced. The fires' burning gaze made the body a silhouette and the warm glowing light traced the outline of it. The flames blaze caught his hair and the contours of his face, reaching all the way down to his feathery eyelashes. His eyes opened and the two fires burned through her.
Now Hitomi remembered the reason why her voice had sounded so sad.
Hitomi practically shot up and screamed. Her tense body somehow managed to hold its position and not let her head smack against the top of the bunk. The room was dark and no fire burned within it. She sat up and tried to breathe slowly and still her accelerating heart beat.
Mamoru's soft snores relaxed her a little. She stood and glanced at the digital clock resting on Mamoru's desk. 3:18 a.m. No one had woken her up for dinner. A mild pain in her lower stomach caused her to move to the bathroom and look under the sink. Feminine hygiene products were placed in an organized manner under the counter. Her hand slightly trembled as she remembered her recent nightmare. She grasped a small container of pain reliever and took two of the white pills. Hitomi would need themin the morning.
After placing the petite bottle back in its spot, she went into the living room. Hitomi didn't want to go back to sleep. How long had she been asleep? Quite a while, yet the dream was short…She turned on the television and was glad the dream had been short. The thought of a longer version terrified her.
She found a cooking show and paid little attention to the young man preparing some type of fish dinner. A young woman assisted the chef and instantly reminded Hitomi of Yukari. Though she had been back for weeks, Hitomi had failed to call up Yukari.
Her hand was still vaguely trembling as she reached for the phone. She needed someone to talk to, someone to believe her and comfort her with the abandonment of her father. Green eyes glanced at the clock in the kitchen. 3:30, it's now or never, she thought sadly as her fingers found the familiar buttons and pushed them quickly.
The phone rang and by the fifth ring, Hitomi was about to lower the phone back into it's cradle.
"Hello?" a girl said sleepily.
"…Hi, Yukari," Hitomi said solemnly.
There was silence for a moment, "Hitomi?" Yukari asked in disbelief, suddenly completely awake.
"I've been gone for a while."
"Like hell I haven't realized that! Where have you been? Someone mentioned that you were back and I've tried calling you house like fifty times, why didn't you ever pick up?"
"We moved."
"Moved? When did this happen?"
"Uh, a few weeks ago, I think."
"And during all this time you haven't been able to call me?" Yukari practically screamed.
"Sorry Yukari," Hitomi was almost in tears, "they didn't have phones where I went."
The brunette was quite once more, "Ok, you've been gone almost four months. I'm your best friend and best friends tell each other stuff. Now, you gotta tell me where you went."
"You wouldn't believe me."
"No, you don't know that, try me." Yukari said seriously. Another muffled voice was speaking on Yukari's side of the phone, "It's Hitomi, night."
"Am I getting you into trouble for calling so early?"
"No, no, it's ok, now start from the beginning."
Hitomi turned off the television and told her most of what had happened on Gaea, leaving out her interest in Van. By the time she was finished it was 4:45 in the morning.
"So that's it?" Yukari laughed.
Hitomi smiled at her friends' sarcasm. "Yeah, and now my mom wants to take me to a psychiatrist. She doesn't believe me at all. She thinks I ran away with some guy and got into a gang or something."
"Well, that's a pretty heavy story 'tomi. And you did leave with a guy."
The blond laughed, "Yeah and we went and snorted so much crack, let me tell you!"
"I thought we agreed on the no-drugs thing 'tomi, I can't believe you went back on your word!" Yukari giggled.
Hitomi smiled, it had been too long since she'd laughed like this. "Now I better not see you working the street corners or anything to try and be as bad as me."
"Hey, I can't make any promises."
Both girls laughed even harder at that. "Ok you badass, I have to head off to school soon. So I'll call you later?"
"That sounds good."
"Why don't you meet up with me and Amano after school? You know the ice cream shop I'm talking about."
"Amano? Oh, I've been meaning to ask, did you decide to go after him?"
Yukari giggled sheepishly, "Yeah, we've been going out for a month or so now."
"Oh."
"You're not mad or anything, are you? I mean, you said I could pursue him, remember?"
"Yeah I remember and I'm not mad at all! I'm happy you guys are dating."
"Thanks, me too. I gotta go. I'll call you before we head out?"
"Sounds good."
"Bye, Hitomi!"
"Bye, Yukari."
Click. The dial tone rang in Hitomi's ear and she laid the receiver back down. It had been too long since she'd seen Yukari. Maybe she should go back to school soon; she'd just need to visit a doctor first.
The fluorescent kitchen lights flickered on causing Hitomi to spin around in surprise. Her mother was pulling out a frying pan and some bacon. "Good morning, Hitomi. It's nice to see you're off the phone." Her mother said with a small smile. Ever since Hitomi had been home, Mrs. Kanzaki had been sleeping better at night.
"I didn't wake you did I? I'm sorry." The girl said as she moved to stove to help her mother. "Should I get some eggs?"
"No, I think you should rest and take it easy. I set up an appointment at the doctors' office for later today. So be ready in a few hours."
Hitomi inwardly smiled. Finally, she'd begin to return to her old life. Even if that meant Van wouldn't be by her side. It's not like he'd stay with me anyway.
"Go wake Mamoru, Hitomi, and go back to sleep. I heard you up in the middle of the night."
"I guess it's because I slept through the evening." Yes, bury that awful dream with a more logical reason.
The teenaged girl headed to her room and lightly nudged Mamoru to get up. She lay back down and stared at the bottom of the upper bunk, not wanting to go back to sleep. Though she was a little tired and her eyelids were closed, it's not like she was going to fall asleep or anything.
She fell asleep and dreamed of nothing.
"Shit." Hitomi muttered. I fell asleep, how could I risk that? Ah!
She stretched and headed to the bathroom to get ready for her appointment. Thank goodness I'm going to the doctor, I feel like throwing up.
"Oh good, I was about to wake you up. We're leaving in about ten minutes." Her mother mentioned while passing the bathroom.
At the doctors Hitomi began to feel a little relieved. There would be no more nausea and maybe she wouldn't need to sleep so much. The dreams weren't getting better.
"Hello, I'm Dr. Kayou. How are you today Miss Kanzaki?" the doctor smiled a fake grin as she walked in. She saw the older woman sitting in a chair placed in the corner of the room. "And Mrs. Kanzaki, how are you today?" The red headed doctor shook her hand.
"Fine doctor, just wanted to make sure my little girl gets better."
"Ah, so you've been feeling a little under the weather lately Miss Kanzaki?" Dr. Kayou asked, consulting her clip board while grabbing a pair of latex gloves out of one of the many drawers.
"Yes."
She grabbed a wheeled stool and rolled over to Hitomi. "So what's been bothering you?"
Hitomi explained some of the problems she'd been experiencing; quite aware her mother was listening keenly for signs of drug use.
"Ok," Dr. Kayou checked off a few boxes on her sheet of paper, "I'd like to run some tests and see what you've got. But before that, do you urinate a lot?"
I love personal questions like this, Hitomi frowned. "Yes, now that you mention it."
"Ok." She said again, but more drawn out this time and concentrated on her clip board. "Let's get them done!"
"What type of tests are you going to do?" Mrs. Kanzaki asked with concern from her corner.
"I'm pretty much going to test for any bladder or indigestion infections. It's going to take a while, so if you'd like you can sit in the room or go wait in the waiting room. We also have a lot of shops outside the office if you'd like to see them."
"I think I'll stay." Mrs. Kanzaki smiled politely.
"Ok, now open your mouth, Hitomi and say aww."
Hitomi's forehead rested on the seat of the toilet seat. Dark circles stood out around her eyes. Sleeping was a rare luxury for her now, too many nightmares. Her shaking hand reached up and blinding flushed. She would have cried out due to the water droplets slashing up, but she felt terrible. Hitomi was always exhausted now and the regurgitation was not helping.
On her knees, she grabbed a hand towel from underneath the sink and noticed the boxes of unopened tampons. Great, this stress has me delaying my cycle. Lately, the urge to go back to school and get well was overwhelming. She moistened the cloth under the bath tub facet and wiped the seat clean of her bile.
The telephone began ringing and Hitomi knew she had to pick it up. Struggling to stand back up, she hobbled jadedly to the phone. Her form fell onto the couch as she grabbed the phone. "Hello?"
"Hello, Hitomi. It's nice to hear you, it's Dr. Kayou."
Forget the causalities woman and get right to the point. "Hello doctor, do you have the results?"
"Yes, now have you been taking medication that reduces pain or fevers?"
"I've been taking Advil."
"You're going to need to stop that now."
"Why?"
"Let me rephrase that, if it's a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug you're going to need to stop taking it."
Blond brows furrowed slightly together in confusion. "What?"