"Hmmm..Our little rabbit? Since when has she ever been *our* rabbit, dear brother?" Ebony shifted in her post at the floor length window. The view had been ugly when she first laid eyes on it, a hideous rock face that was falling apart in chunks, but over time she had learned to live with it. Now she wasn't even looking at it anymore, though her gaze was in it's immediate direction. No, all she could see was that rotten little girl dancing in her vision, dancing with her severed head in her slim, delicate arms. The sight made her smirk.

"Since you seem to be elated with the report. And since you found out about the large sum of money Grandfather has put on her." Anthony fiddled with the felt rope holding his robe in place. The deep, plum cover of it all contrasted perfectly with his pale skin. The dark color made his periwinkle eyes jump out of their sockets and his ivory hair look almost a pale, pale blonde. Not to mention, plum had always been his favorite color. It was the color that a person turned right before dying of suffocation. Ebony smiled wider at the memory but quickly came back to the situation at hand.

"Yes, well that's enough to make anyone want to become involved, don't you think?" She swiveled around to look at her twin, still lounging in the decrepid couch. Walking over to stand at his feet, she placed red-tipped hands on her waist. Her own pale blue eyes twinkled with something Anthony couldn't quite place. A little evil, a little satisfaction, a little mischeivious cunning.

"Of course."

"Do you have a plan?" Anthony swung his long legs off the other side of the couch, sitting up in one fluid motion. Ebony moved to sit beside him on the torn cushion, not really caring anymore about the delapitated condition of the furniture. If this all went their way they'd be able to burn it in their magnificent fireplace while sitting on a larger plush sofa. She felt giddy already,

"No but you always make better plans than I do, Nee." With his comment, a rapid imagerey of different scenarios played out in her mind. She looked up at him and smiled, baring shining white teeth between ruby red lips.

"Naturally. Let's start planning then."

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Meryl shot up off her pillow, slamming a splayed hand to her chest, just above her hammering heart. The organ beneath her palm was pounding so fast Meryl was sure if she didn't hold it in it would explode right out of her rib cage. Sweat beads raggedly tore themselves from her skin as her entire body shook with the after effects of her dream.

//It's time to dance, Meryl.// That's what Rosemary had said. But what the hell did she mean by it? Did she mean anything by it? Meryl shook her head violently. She was going crazy, she was sure of it. This was all happening too fast, coming back too fast. She just needed some time.

Heavy footfalls echoed throughout the room, a lot of them rushing up the narrow steps and down the hall to her doorway. Meryl managed to swipe most of the sweat droplets from her brow and face as the thunderous herd stampeded through the doorway.

The first person in the room was Millie, worried as ever. She did not even bother to flick the light switch on as she threw herself at Meryl's side.

"Meryl! Meryl are you alright? We heard you scream-" The second person through the door found the switch and turned the light on. Meryl shut her eyes against the harsh invasion, opening one to see the two people now hovering over the foot of her bed. Had she cried Rosemary's name aloud? She must have. Meryl flushed under the scrutiny of her friends, looking down and taking a sudden great interest in the pattern of the bedspread.

"Did you dream about.." She heard Millie pause as if searching for the right words. Finally she sighed and just spat it out. "Did you dream about Rosemary, Meryl?"

Meryl's head snapped up and she found Millie's eyes with her own wide ones. How did Millie know what she had dreamt about? Unless she had just called out Rosemary's name in her fitful sleep. That must have been it. She smiled nervously but reassuringly so Millie wouldn't worry more than she had to.

She turned to tell Vash and Wolfwood, who had moved over the other side of her bed she was fine, just go back to bed, when she saw that they weren't dressed for sleep at all. On the contrary they were all still fully clothed in their day attire. And that's when Meryl saw Molly, standing in the doorframe. At first she didn't pay much attention to her, just gave her a once-over and then returned to the matter at hand but..Meryl gazed at Molly, looked hard at her face and the expressions in her eyes. One of pity and pleading. A look someone gave while apologizing for something horrendous and virutally unforgiving.

Meryl swallowed hard, never removing her hand from her chest. She turned to look at Millie and saw the same thing in her face and the same in Wolfwood and Vash's eyes. And that told her right then and there that they knew.

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Millie quietly took off her over coat, laying it neatly on the back of the chair in her room. Well it wasn't really her room. It was Wolfwood and Vash's room. But since the previous events of the evening prevented her from returning to the cot set up besides Meryl's bed, It was the only place to go besides the couch.

Wolfwood stood by the window, his usual post, a cigarette smoldering in his mouth. Millie vaguely wondered if there was a time that man never smoked. She sat down in the chair she had draped her overcoat on and sighed heavily.

Meryl had not been pleased with the news that Molly had 'blabbed' to them all that she had been hiding. She had gone into a frightful rage, crying and yelling at them all to get out and leave her alone. Millie at first decided she would not be swayed but after Meryl had bodily threatened her with physical harm, She followed Vash's orders to leave. Only he had stayed in the room with her and Millie guessed they were still talking.

Wolfwood had offered she sleep in his room. Vash, he had concluded, probably wouldn't be coming out of the room anytime soon so it only made sense she slept on his empty bed then the uncomfortable couch downstairs. So, after saying good night to a rather distracted Molly, she had went in with Wolfwood to get her bed ready before changing into her pajamas. But now she simply found herself sitting at the table at the other end of the room feeling anything but ambitious and well..troubled.

"Did you ever think-?" Wolfwood begun, but stopped, turning to look at her. He flicked his cigarette out the open window into the breeze and sat opposite her on the other chair. Millie shook her head.

"Never. Never like that. I always had an inkling that Meryl was hiding something but..Well, I overheard a few of the girls talking about it at the Insurance Agency. A lot of them were wives, mothers, and they all thought it was odd that Meryl moved around so freely. Probably jealous knowing them." Millie dejectedly picked up an empty beer bottle on the table. She swirled it around in her fingertips, letting the bottom twist on the rough surface of the table.

"We all have our skeletons. She's just got a few more than the average person." Wolfwood said. He was trying to reassure the girl across from him, the tall Insurance girl who had captured his attentions and maybe even his heart. If he still had one. Between his smoking and his dangerous little excursions, he was surprised that it was still ticking away inside him. But God works in mysterious ways, as he would tell a wayward traveler. That in a sense was ironic as well.

"I knew. I knew something was wrong. About a month ago, she'd stop sleeping at night and if she did she'd always wake up crying or screaming. I tried asking her what was wrong but whenever I got her alone she'd always make up an excuse for us not to talk or for her to leave the room. I think she knew that I was going to question her about it. So I put it off, I actually forgot about it, for awhile." Millie swiped at the tears gathering once again in her cerulean eyes. Wolfwood sighed and stretched his long legs out in front of him.

"Well, now we know. And we can help her face it when the time comes but right now I think we have a little bit more important business to take care of."

"Like what?" Millie asked. She leaned forward, beer bottle forgotten. She watched Wolfwood closely as he continued.

"Like the missing children. I don't think I'd ever be able to forgive myself if we just walked off and never did anything. The rest of the townspeople don't have a clue what they might be facing and from what I saw a few days ago, Molly, the sheriff, and that oddball they hang around with are the only good shots in the area and they still have a hard time hitting the broad side of a barn." Wolfwood closed his eyes in exasperation. He put a palm over his lids, feeling more tired than he had ever felt before. The upcoming task was not going to be easy considering they had no clue as to where to start looking.

"I agree with you, Wolfwood-san." A feather light touch brushed against his cheek, gone almost as soon as he had felt it. The priest let the hand slide from his face, looking over to where the big girl had sat but now had gone. He figured she'd went to change into her pajamas. It had been a long night so far and some sleep sounded good, even if it would be hard to achieve. Before going to change himself, Wolfwood let his fingers stray over the area where she had touched him and a light smile came to his face.

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Meryl glowered across the room at the blonde gunslinger. He sat almost non-chalantly on the chair that had once been nailed to the floor next to her bedside. Anger and betrayal was clouding her vision ever so slightly and she found herself thinking about how he had no right to sit in here and look and treat her as if she were some sort of misbehaving child. Not to mention, after ordering everyone else to leave, he had just sat there. They had just been sitting in the deafening silence for at least an hour now, maybe more. She couldn't take it and so she managed to ask him between clenched teeth a question she'd been dying to ask him ever since he sat down.

"Can't you just leave like the rest?"

"Do you really want me to?" Meryl gave a low growl and turned away.

"Yes. I want to be alone."

"You think you want to be alone but when all is said and done and you finally get your wish, You won't be happy. Trust me, I know what you're going through." His soft voice slided over her almost soothingly. If she hadn't been hurting so much she would have let herself enjoy it. The scrape of chair legs brought her back to reality as she realized he was coming closer.

"Everyone suffers. But I wasn't. I had put it all behind me." She suddenly confessed, not being able to stand against his piercing yet soft gaze.

Vash felt the urge to smile at the woman before him, perched on the bed and swathed in the crumpled pink sheets. She looked like a child to him then, eyes downcast as if being scolded and an innocent, almost pleading expression to her usual cold featured face. Reaching out, he caressed one pale cheek. After a moment he could see her relaxing slightly but as he pulled away the same look came back. Vash leaned back into his chair, sighing.

"No matter what you do you can never truly escape who you are." He confided.

"But I did!" Meryl let out, tears welling up in her beautiful slate eyes. Vash was amazed at her sudden change of moods, from angry, to sad, to a desperate determination he had never seen in her before.

"I did escape it! I left everything back in that god forsaken pile of rubble and walked away! I started a whole new life as a different person! I started over and I didn't have to remember every day what had happened! Life was better than it had ever been before..." She stopped, the dam breaking finally as the wet tears streaked her face. But she made no noise. Just let the tears escape from the prison of her lids.

"Meryl-"

"She told me it was time to dance. But..what if I've forgotten?" He was puzzled. Who told her this? What did she forget? But as he was about to press the situation, Meryl collapses. She broke into heart wrenching sobs, sometimes muttering in between wails. Much of the mumbling was apologies and pleading sentiments.

Vash didn't know exactly what came over him except that his own tattered and scarred heart went out to hers. For some reason he felt connected to the girl on the bed and with that connection in mind, he had climbed onto the mattress beside her and enveloped her in the safe haven of his arms.

It's dangerous to get this close to her, he warned himself, all the time softly stroking her hair as she cried openly into his shoulder. But tonight he just didn't care. She was in pain and he would be there to comfort her.

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A/Notes: Well..There's ur update boys and girls. Sorry it took so long but I've been busy getting ready for school and such. And I was thinking up the next part of the story. Expect a villain in the next two chapters or so..hehehee..Not like there hasn't been any villains in this one or the last one but that's a different kind of villain. Anywho, review and behold! I plan on getting the next chapter up sometime tomorrow or Friday. ;) U guys r lucky ducks..Ciao.