Homecoming [powered_otaku]

[sweetsalome]

    He had silently entered his own house the night before, when no one was there to greet him, to make a fuss over him.  Standing in the front foyer, he looked around slowly, not a thing out of place, the great walls and ceiling as silent as a tomb.  Like a giant cat he had stalked through the house, making sure everything was as it should be.  A massive shadow, gliding over chairs and carpets, all seeing, all knowing.  The shadow beast settled himself in one of the massive high back chairs in the living room, glass of scotch in hand he listened, he waited.  He waited a long time before this, there was nothing wrong with waiting a little more.

   

    Salome thought she had been wrong.  Maybe he wasn't coming home that day, or maybe he had just decided that it wasn't worth it and just left town.  Maybe Santa was real and this year she would finally get that pony she always wanted for Christmas. 

There's nothing wrong with being wrong, just expect the consequences of not being right.

He called her into his office, summoned her, as if some sort of employee, if she was nothing but a serf on his estate.  She sat in one of the big high backed chairs across from his desk, the one with the slippery leather that squeaked every time she moved or shifted.  Palms wet, heart racing, two works away from a panic attack as he fixed her with those eyes of his, eyes she had only seen from behind the safety of bullet proof glass.  There was a high likelihood that she was going to either die or throw up on his Persian rug.

She did neither.

He spoke to her softly, asking how she had been, how Jonba was and how her summer had gone at her grandparents.  The more they talked, the more she relaxed, until she was left only slightly weary, her palms now dry.  Maybe she had made a mistake, there was no threat here, just a man she had missed while he had been gone.  Someone who had changed when no one thought he could.

He asked her for a hug.

Standing up, she walked to him and lent forward to give him a gentle hug around his shoulders.  For a moment that was enough, but when she started to pull away, he grabbed her by the hips and yanked her down into his lap.  Despite the struggle, despite the fight she didn't do any damage, except smack her foot against the desk drawers.

Fool me once, shame on you, fool me two hundred times. . . Maybe I might be asking for it.

    "I heard you've been bad," he whispers into her ear, hand at the back of her neck, holding her still like some wild animal.

    "I heard that you've been telling lies about me," his fingers tightened, applying more pressure.

    "I even heard you found a play thing, and he believes you.  How long do you think that's going to last?"  With his free hand, he reaches for the ring on her left hand and twirls the band around slowly.

    "How long before he gets tired of you?  Before you come crying back to me because he doesn't love you any more. . ."  He stands up with her and starts to move to the door, dragging her along as she struggles in his grip.

She doesn't fight as hard as she could have, she knows that if she did it would hurt, a lot.  She doesn't want to get hurt, she doesn't have the defenses for it any more.  This needs to be over, this pain, this humiliation, this feeling of being so filthy and disgusting that she can't even look at herself in the mirror.  Somewhere, between the study and the bedroom, she takes over, and mercifully, Salome doesn't feel a thing.

She picks up the phone and she sends the text message after a shower.  There is no need to delay the inevitable any longer.

Comments

[powered-otaku.livejournal.com]

Hiro is there as soon as he reads the text. "Salome?"

[sweetsalome.livejournal.com]

She looks almost startled when he appears but finishes buttoning up her long sleeved blouse. "Hiro, you came." There is a moment of silence, and she stares at her hands. "Can I get you anything?"

[powered-otaku.livejournal.com]

"What is wrong?" He senses that she's pulled into herself and is not sure she wants him to touch her at the moment. "I do not need anything, thank you."

[sweetsalome.livejournal.com]

She blinks at his question and then frowns before looking at the locked bedroom door. "He's downstairs, he . . . He's going to come back. Don't let him?" Giving him an uncertain smile, she fastens the buttons on her collar. "Please?" She doesn't want to beg, but at this point she will.

[powered-otaku.livejournal.com]

He gently touches her hand, as non-threatening as he can get. "Do not worry. He will not come back."

Hiro walks out of her room and down the stairs. He's got the sword, but it's mainly there to intimidate.

[sweetsalome.livejournal.com]

All she does is nod, and then sit down on the edge of the bed, there is very little else she can do. It all seems like some weird, bizarre dream.

Liam Collins is sitting in his study, the same study they fooled around in. Elbows on the same desk they fucked on. He sips his scotch, and puffs on the cigar he had lit after taking care of his daughter. The man looks calm, relaxed, even in good spirits, hair disheveled and collar undone. He's very absorbed in his work.

[powered-otaku.livejournal.com]

"You will never understand the true nature of power, will you?" Hiro moves in front of him. His eyes are cold and look black in this light.

[stillavillain.livejournal.com]

It takes a moment to lift his head, but when he does he has a rather bored expression. "Someone must have left the dog door open again. Mark my words, in won't happen again." Sitting back in his seat, he takes a sip of his drink.

"My daughter doesn't want to see you any more, so your services are unnecessary."

[powered-otaku.livejournal.com]

"I do not need doors and your daughter just called me. Try something else, fool."

[stillavillain.livejournal.com]

He gave a barking laugh and rocked back and forth in his leather chair slowly. "Well, look who's grown a pair. Fine. How's this? Get the fuck out of my house, and take your ring with you."

Liam flings the engagement ring at Hiro, "if I catch you around my house again, I'll have you locked up."

[powered-otaku.livejournal.com]

He picks up the ring and puts it in his pocket. "You do not recognize me, do you?"

He's laughing inside. The man is such a fool.

[stillavillain.livejournal.com]

"Should I?" He sneers and looks down at his work. "I really don't have time to keep track of the playthings my daughter drags through here."

[powered-otaku.livejournal.com]

"Two years ago, you had to replace your safe. Some stupid 'chink' came over and fixed it, remember? But then you never notice the wops or spiks or chinks who walk into your house when you need a job done, do you? They ae just things that pass through your home to do something for you."

It had taken Hiro a bit to break the safe 2 years in the past, but once he'd managed it, he intercepted the call to the repairman. Not that their records will show a single thing amiss. The repairman and his assistant went in, replaced the safe and left. Not that the cameras around the house ever showed "an assistant". The new lock on the safe is under Hiro's control as it has been for 2 years now.

[stillavillain.livejournal.com]

Liam pauses, his fingers twitch around the glass he holds and finally sat it back down. Lifting his head, his eyes narrow at the man standing in front of him, trying to work out why that mattered at all.

"So? They are just things, people I hire to do a job. Is that why you're hear, to charge me for hiring illegals?"

[powered-otaku.livejournal.com]

"Hardly. Your daughter needs something from that safe. When you are gone, she will get it."

He's smiling, but it's very much a shark smile.

"I am the one who came over. Only I really did not 'come over' per se. It is amazing how arrogance makes you sloppy and ignorant."

[stillavillain.livejournal.com]

Ah, now it suddenly makes sense. Sitting back, he steeples his fingers and smirks. "Do you even know what she wants in that safe?"

Shaking his head, he stands up and goes back to get another drink.

"Well all you people look the same, it's not my fault."

[powered-otaku.livejournal.com]

"No, that is her business. What is important that she wants it."

Before he can reach the cabinet, Hiro appears beside him and touches his shoulder. Suddenly they're on a beach in the tropics.

"Welcome to the end of your life." Hiro takes 2 steps away from him.

[stillavillain.livejournal.com]

"Even if . . ."

He stops speaking, blinking at the hot sun that he is suddenly facing. Whipping around he looks around wildly, not certain whats going on, or where he even is.

"Where are we? What are you doing?" He throws the glass away, and goes after him.

[powered-otaku.livejournal.com]

Hiro vanishes from in front of him.

He appears behind him, pointing to a smoking mountain behind them. "Perhaps you have heard of Krakatoa?"

[stillavillain.livejournal.com]

Liam twirls around, trying to capture the slick little Oriental that kept disappearing and reappearing. His eyes narrow and he makes another attempt to grab at Hiro.

"What about it?"

[powered-otaku.livejournal.com]

Hiro vanishes again. "It is 10:48am on August 27, 1883. Of course, you have no idea what I am talking about, do you?"

Hiro is well out of his arm's reach no matter where he appears.

[stillavillain.livejournal.com]

Liam isn't a very book smart man, he uses his strength and violent tendencies to get what he wants. Which is no help for him at this point and time. Breathing hard, he stops, looking around, eyes wide before he growls at Hiro.

"Enough of these games you freak. Get me the fuck out of here!"

[powered-otaku.livejournal.com]

"You still do not understand the concept of true power, do you? You are not going anywhere. You stand on a piece of real estate that is about to be utterly and completely destroyed by one of greatest recognized eruptions in history. You should be honored to be a part of such a historic event."

[stillavillain.livejournal.com]

"What kind of joke is this? 1883? That's 125 years ago, there's no possible way to go back that far. If she put you up to this, it's not funny. Did you put something in my drink?" When he starts to panic he gets angry.

[powered-otaku.livejournal.com]

"I have been back to 1671. 125 years is nothing to me."