She was running and running. From what she still had no clue but every fiber in her body was screaming at her to just run. She was frightened, no, terrified. It was dark all around her fleeing legs but she could hear her footfalls echo. And then it became hard to run. Her body became lethargic and slow. She knew she could go faster but she kept going slower and slower. It was on her heels now. Their icy cold fingers were winding their way up her legs, pulling her down. She was falling, being dragged down to the cold depths of her dreams. And the terror intensified to the point where she no longer rationally thought. Pure panic raced through her every nerve and vein. And she could do nothing. She could just scream.
And she woke up screaming, catapulting up off the mattress. Her arms were outstretched as if reaching for something at the foot of her bed, but as the feeling of hot tears began to spill down her cheeks she brought her hands up to hide her face.
"Meryl? Meryl, are you all right?" Someone's voice washed over her, their hands touching her shoulder, icy fingers. She still wasn't thinking clearly as she flinched away from them, off the bed and over to a darker area of the room. Once there she curled her knees to her chest and shook.
The door burst open, slamming so hard against the wall it bounced back into the people rushing into the room. She still didn't want to look, still covering her face with her hands. The tears had stopped and she was trying to think, trying to remember what she was doing, who she was, where she was. Who were these people? There were soothing voices all around her, two masculine and the familiar feminine one all asking her what was wrong, Meryl what's wrong, talk to us Meryl, please.
Meryl. That was her name. Meryl…What was her last name? Stryfe. Yes that was it. She worked for an insurance company but the name eluded her. Who were these people? How did they know her? Think Meryl think.
"Meryl, come on snap out of it." Their tone was still gentle but firmer, almost panicky. A strong grip came down on her shoulders, a warmer grip, not the icy hands. She decided it was okay now to take her palms away from her eyes.
The first thing her shaky eyes met was her coworker's face, filled with worry. Then she focused and realized she knew all of these people. They were her friends: Millie, Vash, Wolfwood. They weren't the cold hands that had nearly smothered her in her sleep.
She wanted to grab Millie's shirt and cry into her chest, tell them all what had scared her so in her dream but the concern in their eyes brought a hot blush of embarrassment to her cheeks and she felt suddenly ashamed of her reaction. Her first instinct was to unfurl her legs and stand so she reached out to steady herself on the wall as her shaky knees began to rise.
Millie rose with her from her crouched position still holding onto her shoulders. Good thing too, she thought warily, because her legs were wobbling so badly she wasn't sure if they would support her.
"Meryl, are you okay? Did you have a bad dream?" Millie asked. Her hair was strewn all about her face, her eyes no longer sleepy but wide awake. Meryl looked into them, fear rapidly disappearing from her body. Now all she could feel was scalding humiliation and she averted her eyes promptly to the dusty wooden floor.
"Yeah. Bad dream." Her nonchalant tone wasn't very convincing. She could tell because Wolfwood and Vash raised their eyebrows instantly. Vash looked her up and down, quickly sizing her up. She instantly disliked his attention, and how they fueled the blush staining her face.
"Some dream. Are you all right?" Wolfwood threw out. The priest's tone was also worried. Hell, they were all worried, that was obvious. Meryl wiggled out from under Millie's hands and ran a hand through her hair, frowning in disgust at the cold sweat still beading from her forehead.
"Yeah. I'm fine."
"You don't look fine." Vash offered. Meryl paused for a moment to shoot him a look and then shook her head.
"Well I'm fine. It was just a dream, it's not a big deal." Speaking about it brought back the memories she had of the fear she felt and she fought a shiver. All she wanted to do was snuggle back into her covers and get a blissful night of sleep. Instead, she threw on a robe the bartender had graciously allowed them to borrow and headed for the door.
"Where are you going?" Wolfwood asked. He and Vash had begun to follow her while Millie began to look around for her slippers.
"I'm thirsty so I'm going down for a drink. Go back to bed." And then, with the nightmare hardly forgotten but composure reinstated, Meryl walked down the creaky stairwell and out into the bar.
She took the liberty of pouring herself a glass of water. The hand holding the glass was shaking still and when she poured the ice cubes in it began to make a horrid clanking noise. Finally, Meryl just set it down with a frustrated sigh and stared off into the shadows uneasily.
It wasn't the first time she had had the dream. In fact for a few months since she began tracking down Vash the Stampede she'd been having it. But not this bad. Never this bad. She shivered at the thought again. The shadows around the bar seemed to be undulating before her eyes and she clutched at herself before looking around for the light switch.
She finally spotted the antique light switch near the back of the bar and she padded around the counter and flipped it. The lights flickered for a moment, buzzing as if in protest, and then hummed to life.
It was a very nice saloon considering the rest of the town was falling apart, furnished with all sorts of wood and metal. It wasn't the largest she had ever been in, but it was big enough to house quite the rowdy crowd, as they had seen when they got in earlier that evening. All the tables had been full and some people were even using the pool table for their drinks and food. The counter was a solid line of jeans and suspenders, though a few polite men had stood and offered their seats to her and Millie as they moved down towards the bartender.
And the bartender…
Meryl frowned as her eyes swept over the area she had first seen the red-headed woman, one hand swathed in a dish rag, the other clutching a large glass mug. She was laughing and chatting easily with all the men. Her face was genial and lightly lined, the only clue that she wasn't as young as some of the other girls flitting about the room. Her red hair had been swept back into a messy ponytail, blazing a fiery trail down past her shoulder blades. It had caught the light beautiful as her head snapped over to them when they had begged her pardon and asked if she had vacancy for the night. She had stared at them for awhile, her eyes lingering on Meryl, and Meryl's eyes lingering on her. And then Wolfwood had asked again, and the spell was broken.
She led them up to the double set of rooms after most of her patrons had left. It was clear she was a little wary of them, cracking open the door and allowing them to go in ahead of her into the dusty rooms. After pointing out a few necessities, going to fetch a few requested items, and feeling their money in the palm of her hand, she left, with one last long look at Meryl, who had pretended not to notice.
Meryl yawned involuntarily. She should try and get some rest. It was almost morning and Vash, Wolfwood, and Millie would be up early and raring to go. She tapped at the untouched glass of water and then poured it out in the sink, pushing the ice cubes into the drain and replacing the glass back in its line. Without a second thought, she flipped the light switch and then practically ran for the stairs, not looking back into the darkness and what she feared might be watching her from the inky depths.
A/notes: My first Trigun fic. I'll warn you ahead of time I'm an angsty romantic so there will be a definite V/M pairing. Also, I'm not too familiar w/ the series but I've got the basic idea. Hence that I'm not sure w/ Meryl's past so I'm making one up. That's the basis of the story. I dun care if u hated it or loved it but review if it tickles you.
EDIT: Upon reading this one night, I was a little shocked at how awful my writing was and all the errors, grammatical and plot-wise…So its become my little project in between chapters of the book I am writing, to make this something I can be proud of once again. Enjoy!