chapter 33: silence
location: philadelphia, pennsylvania, day 2

"So where are we going again?" Sara asked as Taehyung led her down the sidewalk.

"I remember seeing it on our way here, I just have to remember where." Taehyung wished he had Hoseok's maps. They would have come in handy by now. "Around the corner and -- there it is." The familiar blue sign of Blockbuster Video displayed across the awnings of the downtown Philadelphia store. "Come on in."

"What is this place?"

"Well..." Taehyung knew at this point that there was something up with the way Sara interacted with the world. She was either a ghost from the 1950's, or a time traveler, or something. It didn't help that she wasn't telling him. "You know how you go to a library and you borrow books? Well, this is like a library, for tapes...um, films. You can borrow films here."

"Borrow films? That's a lot of reels to take with us."

"Oh, no -- what they will do is they will have the film on a cartridge for us. Then we just put that cartridge in an approved player and it will play it for us. No reels."

"No reels." Taehyung could see the reels in Sara's mind spinning with this information. Yeah, he definitely didn't know her past, but he knew she wasn't from this present.

The Blockbuster was cold, with the air conditioning blasting on high. There were walls upon walls of shelved videocassette tapes, just waiting to be borrowed. Taehyung looked for the signs and went over to the 'drama' section, going down the rows by alphabetical order. He found the movie he was looking for -- thank God they had it! -- and grabbed it, running back to Sara.

She had been stopped in front of a display case. "These are very realistic looking dinosaurs. How did they create them?"

Taehyung had no clue how to explain Jurassic Park to a possible time traveler. "Uh, I'm not quite sure. Perhaps we can read about it in a book someday? Or online?"

"Oh, I don't go online unless I have to," Sara said as Taehyung went to the cashier.

"You have your email address that we keep emailing you at. Do you check that?"

"Oh, I gave you a fake address."

Taehyung nearly dropped the cassette. "We've been trying to reach you at a fake email address this entire time?!?"

Sara was quiet. "I -- I didn't know you'd want to contact me."

"Well," Taehyung said as he paid, "when you started disappearing and when things started happening with the van, we wanted to know. And then there were just a bunch of emails from me, wanting to get to know you and stuff. Nothing important."

By the contrary. Sara had never felt more important than she did right then and there, standing in the middle of the Blockbuster. "Hey, uh, so, I know I've got a lot of secrets and stuff. And I'm sorry. I don't even really know what's going on myself."

"It's okay." Taehyung took Sara's hand and walked out with her. Jin and Jungkook were next door at an Irish pub. They were not getting wasted, but instead eating way too much greasy food and watching some sports team on TV. It was much preferable to them than the gay club.

"But really -- I want to tell you. I just don't know how. And I think I need a little bit more time, if that's okay. I guess...I guess I would like to get to know you a little better, as well. Can you teach me how to make one of those email addresses?"

"Let's take the van back to the hotel, and you can show me. Then, we can watch this film together! And after the film is done, we can drive back and pick up the other boys."

Sara smiled. "Only if I can drive."

They got the keys from Jungkook and drove back. Sara rolled down the window, letting the summer heat creep in as they rolled down the road. She stuck her head out the window and smiled. If only Davie could see me now. He would be so jealous!

Then she looked over at Taehyung, who hadn't taken his eyes off of her. She felt like the only girl in the world, like all of her troubles didn't matter anymore, like she couldn't just disappear into thin air again. She only wished that, every time the world tilted beneath her feet, her V would be there every time to catch her. But they weren't ever in the same spot exactly. She had just gotten lucky that they had found her.

Lucky.

She hated that word. She stuck her head back into the car and stared at the dash of the A113. Lucky was how she had made it into college. Lucky was how she had passed her driving test. And lucky was the word her father had used when he had closed the door on her, that fateful day. At that point, he had said her luck had finally run out.

Except V was here.

They arrived at the hotel, and Sara swapped out the license plates again, Washington for Oregon. They went to the lobby, where Taehyung set Sara up with a new Yahoo! email address, and showed her how to use it and how to log on from any computer around the world. Then, Taehyung led her up to his room, and he turned on the TV in the suite area and did something with wires and magic, Sara couldn't tell. Before long, there was a film playing on the television, and he motioned for her to sit by him on the couch.

She had thought the soundtrack had sounded familiar, but she hadn't been sure until a few seconds later when she saw the title card. "Roman Holiday."

"Mmhmm. You said it was your favorite film, so I thought we could watch it together."

"Just the two of us? In this room?"

Taehyung's voice was low as he murmured a reply. Sara leaned on his shoulder, and together, the two watched the black and white tale of Princess Ann, visiting Rome on a political trip. When she fell asleep on a park bench, she was rescued by a handsome stranger, and the two spent a lovely day in Rome together, unaware of her identity. It turned out the handsome stranger was a reporter, but by the end of it all, he promised not to sell her story, and they walk away from each other with a smile and the memories they spent together.

When the film was done, Taehyung realized Sara was asleep. He carried her to his bed, pressing a kiss to her temple, but she did not wake up. "We'll have to watch the end again later," he whispered before grabbing the keys and driving back downtown.

Jin and Jungkook were sober. Jimin and Hoseok were not; Hoseok was incredibly wasted, and Jimin had to be pried from some cute guy's butt. Namjoon and Yoongi were both extraordinarily quiet, as if they had gotten in a fight or something. They all climbed into the van, and Taehyung drove them back. "Be quiet, you guys. Sara's asleep."

But it shouldn't have surprised him -- when Taehyung unlocked the door and got back into his room, Sara was gone.