A/N: chapter 3 yay! Enjoy :] and review!

Chapter 3: New Feelings

I hear footsteps in the hall and I bolt up and out the door running right into a shirtless Van. His hands automatically come up to catch me and for a few seconds I'm pressed against him. He seems confused and a little disoriented as I slowly step back and look up at him. His eyes are clouded over with a glossy shine.. Is he drugged? Maybe that's why he doesn't struggle. The man drugs him and makes him compliant.

"Van, can I talk to you in my room for a second?" I say nervously and his hands drop to his sides as he nods. I lead him into my room and close the door after checking the hallway to make sure it was clear. We sit on my bed in silence for a few minutes as my brain works on the best route to take.

Van just sits there quietly not looking at anything. He seemed almost asleep and oblivious to his surroundings. My thinking gets distracted as I take in his physical state. Small pinpricks littered his arms and back and I briefly flash to a time last semester when I caught Millerna and Yukari shooting up Heroin. After that night, I understood why they both had started wearing long sleeve shirts like it was the new fashion. And I also understood why they seemed to grow closer to each other while I was left on the side.

I jolt myself back to reality and find Van staring at me. His eyes seemed slightly clearer and he seemed to be thinking very deeply about something. "What is it you wanted to talk about Hitomi?" He says politely, like we were business partners.

My hands fidget in my lap and I decide to be as direct as I could. "Why do you let the man experiment on you Van?" I say softly and look at him willing myself not to cry. Why the heck was I so emotional over this? I barely knew Van yet I was acting like we had been life long friends.

"We don't talk about that Hitomi. The man says so." Like that was the final answer. He gets up to leave but I frantically grab his hand and pull him back. This wasn't over. All this was wrong and I couldn't sit by and let it happen! What if the other people were in this same position? That man couldn't get away with treating people this way. Even if they were different!

Van doesn't come back to sit but he doesn't snatch his hand away from mine either. He just stands there staring at the door motionless. "Van, what they do to you is wrong! Doesn't it hurt you? Don't you feel mistreated?" I say earnestly, gripping his hand tighter. "Don't you ever wonder why they do what they do to you?"

He just stands there without a word so I stand up and walk around to face him. He had the same blank look on his face but his eyes weren't clouded anymore. They lock onto mine and I search the blood red depths for any kind of recognition to what I was saying. "We don't talk about it Hitomi." He says flatly and I felt like I was going to burst into tears right there. My hand drops and he walks past me and out the door without another word.

That didn't go like I was hoping. I sigh loudly and drop to my knees on the cold, tile floor. He's obviously been here a long time to have these notions ingrained so deeply. Maybe I should just leave them all alone. They don't seem unhappy and if I told them what was going on then they would be terrified I'm sure…maybe they are better off not knowing.

I sigh again. I didn't know them at all but I liked them and I liked Van. My fist clench and I have the sudden urge to track Van down again and make him listen. I've already tried to talk to him though. He didn't listen at all.

Climbing into bed, I suddenly feel suffocated. There was no light, no breeze, and no outdoor smells. It was small and white with only artificial lighting. The most horrible thing about this place was that I'd only been awake a couple hours on my first day here and I'm already bored.

What do the other people do for entertainment? Deciding that finding out this information would relieve my boredom temporarily along with distracting me from making a decision about trying to break the spell this man has over everyone.

Exiting my room, I head down the hall and past four closed doors. They definitely didn't like company in their rooms. I think blandly as I turn the corner and see the cafeteria empty. What could they all be doing? Unless they were in one their rooms together talking about me and what a great joke they are playing on me.

My paranoia obviously gets out of hand quickly. I sit at the table and bury my face in my arms wishing I was home. I would even break up with Allen if I could just get back home. I bolt to my room and fling myself onto the barely large enough bed and cry my eyes out into my pillow.

I laid like that for a long time before falling asleep and waking again to blackness. Did I really sleep that long? I slept the whole day and no body seemed to wonder where I was. A wave of anger rolls over me. I'm glad I didn't tell them the truth. Let them live in their own stupid bubbles forever. Let them get experimented on and get treated like animals. I don't care!

I roll over again and go back to sleep with nightmares of haunting blood red eyes and needles.

The sudden existence of light in the morning woke me up with a start. That was the worse night of sleeping I'd ever had and my guilt over my vengeful thoughts plagued me. "Lights on everybody!" Said the cheerful voice of the man over the small intercom nestled in the far corner of my room.

After laying in bed for another 30 minutes I hear a soft knocking at my door. I blink and stare at the door for a second before another knock sounds. Shaking out of my dazed state, I hastily get up and open the door.

"Van! Uh, what are you doing here?" I say trying to hide my sudden bursting of happiness. "The man said that your appointment is next after mine and to go see him down the hall." Van says flatly before continuing down the hall to his room without waiting for my answer.

Pop goes my short-lived bubble of happiness. But what is this appointment he's talking about? Maybe they are letting me go! I rush down the hall and enter the room quickly. The door closes behind me and disappears into the wall. I don't even see the button to open it where it's supposed to be.

The man is standing next to the bed with that same creepy smile on his face. "Hello Princess. Your first exam is today. How have you been?" I step back as fear replaces my happiness. "My exam? What exam are you talking about?" I say trying to keep my voice from shaking. I wasn't usually a weakling like this but I'd seen what they did to Van and I didn't want that done to me.

"It's your turn for an exam." He says cheerfully and pats the bench. "Come on up here and sit down." My body tenses and whip around frantically searching for the door button. I hear him walk closer to me and I start pounding my fists on the wall. "Help! Somebody please hear me!" I yell before a cold hand closes around my neck, cutting off my air flow. The man whips me around and slams me into the wall.

His face is still smiling but his eyes are narrowed and they glinted evilly. "Now you be a good girl Princess and sit down on the bench. I promise you won't feel a thing." He hand tightens and I choke. My hands frantically try to pry off his hand but his grip is like cold iron. He steps closer and I could almost feel his body against mine. "If you are not a good girl, then that makes you a bad girl, and you know what bad girls do?" He says as he steps closer and his body presses hard against mine.

He leans into my ear and whispers, "Bad girls…get fucked, hard." I clench my eyes shut and shake my head. This couldn't be happening to me. This couldn't be happening to me! His grip loosens and he steps back almost reluctantly. I cough violently and suck in air. My lungs burn as much needed oxygen fills them and I stagger over to the bench and sit obediently.

"Good now just sit still. This won't hurt a bit." He says completely cheerful and dandy. Next thing I remember I'm walking back to my room and fall face first on my bed. I didn't feel anything. My mind even felt numb. I could not even remember a prick or smell or anything. What did he do to me?

A depressed wail bursts from my chest and I start up a new round of bawling my eyes out. I'd never cried this much in my life. It must've built up all these years. I think vaguely as I feel a stab of anger at Allen.

Focus Hitomi! Get yourself out of this drugged state of mind and then form a plan of escape! My mind screams and I feel the fog lift from my mind and the weight is slowly lifted from my body. My limbs tingle and feeling slowly comes back to each part. I groan loudly and cry louder at my situation.

After eating, I head back to my room to sit. The man said it is good to have alone time to oneself. He said this so it is good. It is good for he had said this. My mind thinks repeatedly as I enter my room and sit on the edge of the bed.

It took my mind a long time to realize there was an unusual noise emitting from Hitomi's room and even longer to realize it was a distressed noise. I'd never heard such a sad noise before and decided to take her to the man so he can make her feel better. He made everyone feel better. And this was fine.

Before seeking out the man, I decide to verify that what I was hearing was indeed a sad noise and so I feel a new sensation enter my body when I knock on her door and am met with dead silence. I blink and feel my mouth pull down uncharacteristically. What was my mouth doing? What was my body feeling right now? I had no idea.

I knock again and the door opens allowing me to enter. I step inside and see Hitomi standing in the middle of the room. Her eyes were an odd color and her face looked puffed up and wet. "Are you hurt? I can get the man to make you happy again. He makes everyone happy." I say but that weird feeling in my body shifts to something more intense. My mouth pulls down farther and I start to worry about my state of being.

Hitomi has the oddest look on her wet, puffy face and I wonder if there was something wrong with me physically as well. "Why do you look so angry?" She says and her voice cracks with…with what? "What is wrong with you?" I say flatly trying to ignore all the odd feelings in my body. I would talk to the man later about me. For now I needed to focus on Hitomi. Wait, why did I need to focus on her? Since when have I paid attention to any of my companions?

I look back at her and realize she was a lot closer then before. Her eyes were the brightest color I'd ever seen and they looked up at me now as water leaked from their corners. "I think your eyes are broken. They are leaking." I say faintly trying to control the feelings that were building inside. I felt so odd. Like I was going to burst.

She blinks at me for a second before her face breaks out in the widest smile I had ever seen and a noise emits from her mouth that was loud and bubbly and happy. She bends over and her body shakes so violently I thought she was having a seizure. The man warned us about possible seizures and ways to deal with them if one was occurring. He said to just keep the person company by saying nice things to them, or if you are alone, to just lie on the ground and wait for it to pass.

I rub Hitomi's arm saying softly that it will be okay and to just ride it out. Everything will be fine. She stops abruptly and looks at me confused. "I was just laughing. Sorry, I couldn't help it. After what you said, and the day I've been having…it just kind of burst out of me." She said with a small smile. I liked that smile. I think and that building feeling turns warm and I feel my mouth curl upwards.

She looks shocked and my warmness instantly vanishes. "What is wrong?" I say again and she just looks at me for a second before turning and sitting on her bed. She's silent for a long time and I watch her with a billion questions running through my mind. I was so confused.

I watch her lean back on her elbows and she breathes in deeply before letting it out in a sigh. She seemed to be forcing herself to relax and I decide to mimic her method to relax my own self. Breathing in deeply, I push all the weird and new feelings that were occurring into the breath as I let it all out slowly. My chest feels lighter and I could still feel the warm feeling I had felt earlier in the back of my mind.

"Van…" She starts and the warmth grows bigger. What if I was burning up from the inside out? I had never seen what the man calls fire, but he said it could burn things and it was extremely hot. "Hitomi I think you should get the man. I think I have a fire inside of me." I say seriously.

She stares at me for a long second and I see a flash of a smile before it is gone and her face looks serious. Good. She must realize the severity of the situation finally.

"Van, why do you think you have a fire inside of you?" My mouth curves down as I realize she isn't going to get help. "It is impossible for that to happen. But I'm guessing you feel….hot inside?" She says slowly and I nod starting to feel confused again.

She pats the bed next to her and I slowly walk over and sit down next to her but keep some space between us in case she's wrong. I didn't want her to catch the fire too. "Let's have a long talk, okay?" She says with a smile and I look at her, nodding slowly. "Okay." I say.

A/N: Okay! So it is a little shorter then usual but I thought that was a good place to stop for now. What do you guys think? Am I moving too fast with Van? Don't be afraid to give me suggestions and thanks for the reviews!!