Rose Red: Model 85001
Chapter 14
Dryden pulled away from Hitomi, frowned, crossed his arms and started pacing back and forth across the length of the café with determination.
Hitomi met Van's eyes across the table and mouthed behind her hand, "This is the guy who's going to sort out my past?"
Van took a deep breath and put his forehead into his clasped hands without answering her.
Hitomi laughed. She guessed he didn't think much more of this guy than she did.
Dryden stopped and stared at her with gawking eyes. "You think this is funny?" he asked crossly.
She looked at him levelly. "You're acting like a chicken."
"Excuse me?"
"That's right. You're acting like a literal chicken picking its way across the coop. Haven't you ever seen one?"
"No!" He was disgusted. Turning away, he said, "She's talking about chickens! And I'm in a state."
"What's wrong?" Celena said, coming up and touching his arm gently. Dilandau wasn't around, so she got away with it.
He whispered something in her ear. Celena glanced at Hitomi, nodded her head, and then she grabbed Dryden by the arm and ushered him into the back kitchen.
"This is utter rubbish," Hitomi said, picking up her flavor-packet orange juice by the lip and swishing it around to help the crystals dissolve. "How can he tell if I've ever been hypnotized by just asking me a few questions, making some weird drumming noises and looking into my eyes? It's stupid."
Van pushed his hair out of his face and withheld judgment. Hitomi could tell that he still wasn't better from their conversation before they came to the café. She was trying to act casual and confident, but she could tell that it wasn't helping him. He thought that what he felt now was real, and there was nothing she could do to convince him otherwise. She wanted to act strong during this ordeal, until his feelings stopped, but she was getting worn down.
It was meeting with the detective that worried her. She had definitely seen Princess Marlene before. Marlene had been to the house once for a special visit before Allen had bought Hitomi and Hitomi even had the chance to shake her hand. At that time, she didn't even know that their families were hoping to marry them off to each other. So, she didn't know anything else about the story.
The thing that made everything real to her was what Allen said that night that he told the story about Rose Red. He said that the queen sent Rose Red away to be killed. Rose Red survived and then when she returned to the kingdom, the queen was dead. Apparently, Allen had been talking about more real things than just stealing Van's money. The queen was Marlene and she was going to die, so Allen would be available again in the foreseeable future. He was saying that he and Hitomi could still have a happily-ever-after.
Except that Hitomi didn't want it.
A minute later, Celena came out of the kitchen alone and sat down at their table, next to Van and across from Hitomi.
"Dryden sends his apologies, but he says he's a private eye and not a doctor," Celena said quietly with her eyes fixed on Hitomi.
"What's that got to do with anything?" Hitomi mocked.
Celena's hesitated. Her eyes looked a little wet and tired. Hitomi sat up straighter and forced herself to listen to what Celena had to say with respect instead of ridicule. For some reason it was easier for her to take Celena seriously than the man-whore with his shirt half-unbuttoned. "He says that there are only two ways to do a memory wipe. One of them is for the patient to be hypnotized. That way their memories might be able to be returned to them if they want it. Most people who get memory wipes on themselves get it done this way. The second way is to have your brain professionally damaged. He says that you're the type of person it's impossible to hypnotize."
Hitomi froze momentarily and gazed at Celena's hurt face. "It's okay," she said briskly. "I wasn't planning on getting those memories back anyway."
"You're not worried about what happened to you back then?" Van asked.
"Not really. When I woke up in Sleeping Beauty Inc. I decided that I wasn't going to worry about the kind of life I had and I'd only focus on the life I have." Hitomi involuntarily glanced at the little scarf wrapped around her bracelet. She wanted to take it off and let everyone in town, if not the world, know how things really were.
"Well, I am worried. I gave Dryden my full permission to excavate your whole past."
Hitomi shrugged her shoulders. "That's your business."
No one spoke and after a few minutes, Celena got up and went behind the counter to fill salt shakers. Van got out of the booth too and went into the kitchen, supposedly following Dryden to have a word with him or some other such nonsense. Hitomi sat in her seat and finding herself bored, started stacking the condiments on the table into a tower.
Then a man came into the shop. Hitomi knew it was Dilandau on sight – his shabby clothes, his unshaved face, the sickly look about his body like his ribcage was caving in. Hitomi had never spoken to him. He came in carrying some large grocery bags. He took them behind the counter and gave them to Celena.
"Better check them," he said gruffly. "Just to make sure I didn't forget anything."
Celena fingered through them and said gratefully, "You remembered everything I needed. Thanks for going." Then she planted a sweet little kiss on his scratchy cheek and went to go put the items in the kitchen.
Dilandau poured himself a cup of coffee and then he came around to the side of the bar that had stools and took a seat. Hitomi watched him pour more sugar into his cup than any human being had any right consuming, when suddenly he turned to her and started talking. "So, when are you and Van getting married?"
"We're not getting married," she said evenly.
"Why not? Hasn't he asked you?"
"That's right," she said slowly. "He hasn't asked me."
Dilandau took a sip from his cup. "Well, there's nothing like a woman asking you to turn your life around." Then he got up and followed Celena into the kitchen.
Hitomi was dumbfounded. She couldn't even sigh, but it got her thinking.
Two days later, Van sat in his bedroom. It was past midnight and he was up looking at his phone because he couldn't sleep. He hadn't expected to have any messages, but he had been out doing flights and hadn't checked for a while. There was a message from Sleeping Beauty Inc. offering to repurchase Hitomi for twice what Van paid for her. He replied immediately, saying that he had no desire to sell her, but still he was surprised. Don't get him wrong, he wasn't surprised by the message. He had been waiting for it for quite some time. The thing that surprised him was the amount. Allen had paid thirteen-hundred-thousand for her the first time he bought her and now she was only worth a little over four-hundred-thousand? It was astonishing.
The other thing on his mind was Hitomi herself. She had moved all her belongings into the spare bedroom and given up on the tower entirely. She told him that she had thrown away all the notes Allen left for her in her room, so he couldn't see them. AND … she'd been avoiding him at all costs.
If he had known that it would make her this uncomfortable to know how he felt about her, he would have kept it to himself. He wanted to make her feel better, but she wouldn't talk to him, so he didn't even know exactly what was wrong. What did she want?
One thing was for certain. He couldn't go on like this, so he had been arranging and rearranging battle plans. The most sensible one he had come up with was to give her the papers that he had to sign to set her free and then give her an engagement ring in the same breath. But if she didn't want to be with him then she'd just take the papers and leave. Van couldn't even think about doing that until the debt was paid.
The rashest plan he'd made was just to grab her in the hall and kiss her. It was a gamble, because then she could say that she had to do whatever he wanted.
Van was just about to throw down his phone in frustration when a new message appeared. It was from Dryden. Van clicked on it. It read:
"Thanks for giving me clearance to check Hitomi out in more detail. What I knew about her before you gave me access was miniscule compared to what I know now. She was in the hospital three times in the nine months that she belonged to him. Once for a broken wrist, once for what looks like an all-out beating, and once for a sprained ankle (she was pushed down a flight of stairs). She also did a lot of travelling without him to some pretty strange countries. Some of which have been known to have illegal M.T.N. operations. She may have been asked to transport samples of the disease for him, which could be why he wanted her memory wiped. I'll let you know if I find out anything else in a few days.
-Dryden"
Van ground his teeth together angrily. So, that bastard had forced her to transport dangerous diseases as well as beat her? Van got up and vented, but he didn't want Hitomi to hear so he clamped his teeth together and just sort of hummed all the awful things he wanted to say about Allen while walking a hole in the floor.
Then a knock came at the door.
"Yes," Van said, forcing himself to calm down.
Hitomi opened the door a crack and put her face in. "What are you doing?"
"I'm always like this," Van said. He moved to lean his arm on the dresser, missed and had to catch himself from falling on the floor. He brought himself upright and brushed off his shirt to help him gain his composure. "You just didn't notice because you were always up in the tower. Speaking of which," he said, noting her bare legs. "What can we do to make the tower habitable for you again?"
"Is it making you uncomfortable for me to sleep down here?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Well, isn't it obvious?" he said, trying desperately to hide the true reason. That having her up in the tower made him feel like she was on the moon, but having her in the next room made her feel too close. And he couldn't touch her. So he went on with his lie. "I don't want you to hear me talking to myself."
She scrunched up her nose.
Van didn't usually talk to himself, but any excuse would do. "Before you came, I lived here alone for six years."
"Six years!" she exclaimed.
"Yeah," he said calmly, sitting down on the bed. "Didn't I ever tell you?"
Hitomi opened the door the rest of the way and came in. Sitting down on the bed too, she said, "No, you didn't."
Van didn't normally talk about this. It was mostly because there was no need to. The people he knew in town knew what had happened. They had been there for it. They had worked in the hospital, seen him around town, and gone to the funerals. Everyone knew. And since they knew, it wasn't often that he had to talk about it. It was like everyone knew that he didn't want to talk about it. He didn't have to talk about it. No one wanted to assume the responsibility for opening his wounds if they couldn't help him anyway, and of course they couldn't.
Now at this moment, he considered that he may as well tell Hitomi what happened. Telling her would make her the first person he had told since he spoke to the gent at the crematorium.
"My brother left home when I was a kid. He hasn't been back here. I haven't heard from him in years and I'll be surprised if he ever comes back. My mom contracted M.T.N. when I was sixteen. After that, she could only live with us for about six months before we had to take her to the hospital for continued treatment. My father got it when I was nineteen, about two months before my mother died. The nurse at the hospital told me that he wouldn't follow hospital regulations and he wouldn't stop taking off his rubber glove to hold her hand. You know, skin on skin." Van didn't look at Hitomi while he spoke. He didn't know how she would take such information or if he wanted to see how she took it. He kept his face down as he continued. "My father died when I was twenty one. The disease took him a lot faster. He didn't try very hard once my mother was gone, and it's not like I was a baby, so …"
Van stopped talking. Hitomi had slid her hand under his. Van couldn't believe his eyes. It wasn't like they had never touched. She had stretched her legs across his knees before and he had rubbed her shoulders, but those sorts of contact always felt like the mildest form of flirting – not like love. This touch now felt different. She must love him. Something was just holding her back.
Suddenly, he grasped her hand tightly and Hitomi tried to pull back, but he held on.
"Pretend I don't own you," he said, looking into her eyes. "Pretend you don't have to do what I say. Pretend you could walk out tonight if you wanted to and I wouldn't do anything to stop you. If all that were true, would you leave?"
Hitomi bit her lip hesitantly. "As far as I know, my father still lives on the Schezar family estate. I can never go home."
"Pretend you could."
"I'm not trained to do anything."
"Pretend you are."
He was wearing her down. He could see it in her eyes.
Then it came out of her like a sprinkler that wouldn't work suddenly coming on. "You could have bought anyone and you would have fallen in love with her! Anyone! I'm not special."
"You think that the fact that I bought you makes you ordinary? I had a choice. I could have picked another girl. I was even advised against buying you by the consultant. She said you were damaged, but I … I didn't care."
She was sniffling slightly now, but he wouldn't let go of her hand and he wouldn't stop talking.
"Come on, I didn't buy you to be an object to me. And tomorrow I'm going to sell part of Escaflowne to pay your debt and get some more money so that I can renovate your room to get the Allen stink out of it. Until you came Escaflowne was the most important thing in the world to me. Now, you're all that matters."
"You're holding me too hard," she whimpered.
Van eased up, but he had one more thing to add, so he didn't let her go. "To say that it was love at first sight was going too far, but I liked you when I chose you. I took the time to get to know you without pressuring and now I know I love you."
"But what if you don't feel that way forever and you marry someone else?"
Van stared. This was what she had been worrying about! "I would never marry someone else."
Hitomi gently peeled his fingers off her hand. Her breathing was coarse. "This is too much for today. I have to go away and think about what you've said."
Van nodded and let her go.
Author's Notes: Thanks to everyone who reviews, but ya know - because of the low review count last time I'm gonna have to assume that you guys prefer action/intrigue rather than lovelovelovelove. Anyhoo - have a great day everyone and remember to review. I like reviews.