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

[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."

[stillavillain.livejournal.com]

Growling deep in his throat, he tries to grab Hiro to take a swing at him. "Take me home!"

[powered-otaku.livejournal.com]

Hiro vanishes. "I told you this is your last day. You will be dead in 3 minutes when the volcano and the resulting tsunamis destroy this area. In the last minutes of your life, you will understand what it is to be truly helpless and to be in a position where you cannot punch or deal your way out of what is about to happen. No volcano, no tsunami cares about you."

[stillavillain.livejournal.com]

"Why are you doing this?" He snarls, his fingers shaking as he starts to panic. "What do you want? Money, my daughter? Whatever it is, it's yours."

[powered-otaku.livejournal.com]

"You will never terrorize your daughter again. You have nothing I want because your daughter is not yours. She belongs to herself." He looks at him sadly. "You do not understand that, do you?"

[stillavillain.livejournal.com]

"She is to sick to belong to herself, she needs someone, that's how it works." Liam really doesn't get it, as fat as he knows Salome is his, so is Jonba, and he can't understand how they aren't. "I want to see her, I want see her now."

[powered-otaku.livejournal.com]

"No. She is 125 years in the future and she will stay there. 2 minutes."

The ground has been steadily getting shaky. Hiro has increased the distance from Liam. He doesn't want to stumble anywhere near him.

[stillavillain.livejournal.com]

Liam begins to lose his balance, and grabs on to a near by grouping of rocks to keep upright. "I have the right to say good bye to her, if you are so powerful, you'll grant a dying man one last request."

[powered-otaku.livejournal.com]

"I am not merciful man. I buried an immortal man I cared for a great deal in a coffin. I would hardly grant you, a monster, any clemency. Your last actions against her is what she will remember of you."

[stillavillain.livejournal.com]

"She deserved that!" He roars, lunging suddenly at Hiro. "If I knew that was it, I would have destroyed her. I would have left nothing but pieces for you to pick up! Now I will have to be content knowing that you'll get my sloppy seconds."

[powered-otaku.livejournal.com]

Hiro's back out of his range. "And I will be adopting your son. I will raise him."

[stillavillain.livejournal.com]

This sends him into a furry, all he can see is red, and this time, when he lunges he grabs Hiro and punches him hard in the face. "Don't you touch my boy. You filthy, disgusting, Jap."

[powered-otaku.livejournal.com]

Hiro laughs and vanishes. "Too bad, fool. He is already calling me 'father'. One minute. Saraba da, aho."

Hiro vanishes and reappears in Japan first. He won't leave any blood evidence at the house. Not that he hasn't obviously been to the house before, but blood would be questioned. He goes back a few days earlier and lets the bruise heal naturally while he lounges in a place no one will find him. Then he returns to the present with no physical evidence that he has been touched and reappears at the house.

"Salome?"

[sweetsalome.livejournal.com]

She hasn't moved from the foot of the bed, her fingers picking at the hem of her skirt as she waits, for what, she has no idea. Lifting her head she gives him a relieved and started look. Standing, she hurries over to him and wraps her arm around his neck, holding close, she shaking violently.

"Hiro! Are you okay?"