Chapter Twelve: Cry Out

The windows rattled, and Meryl grimaced as she spilt her coffee over herself.
Cursing, she went over to the window and her eyes widened.
"Milly! Milly!"
Milly ran out of the bathroom with her toothbrush still in her mouth.
"Yesh? Shembhai?" (Yes? Sempai?)
"Look out the window! Do you see what I see?"
Milly ran over and looked outside to see smoke billowing out of a pile of debris - the debris being what used to be a building. People below were shouting and running. It was turning chaotic.
"Gyaaahhhhh! Shembhai!!" (Oh no a building just exploded! Sempai!!)
"Yes, Milly, I know. But you know what else this means?"
Milly nodded.
"Vwashi-shan." (Vash-san.)
Meryl grabbed her cloak of derringers, then realised she'd forgotten to reload them since the bandit-bus incident. She'd been planning to reload yesterday, but they'd eaten dinner at the guys' place, and she conveniently forgot.
"Milly, spit out your toothpaste. I'll go see how Vash-san is reacting to all this."
She put a single, loaded derringer into her pocket and left the cloak behind. Then she opened the door and closed the door behind her before heading out towards 203.
Meryl put a hand onto the doorknob of 203 when another hand knocked it out of the way.
"What the-"
A sudden strip of cloth was flung over her mouth and it gagged her tightly. Meryl tried to yell for help, but she couldn't for the gag.
Strong arms gripped her arms and pulled them back behind her painfully.
Struggling, she sucked in breath, and realised the cloth was soaked with some strange liquid. Whatever it was, it was sickeningly sweet.
It made her feel nauseated and dizzy.
She felt her eyes begin to close as she slumped against something - or was it someone? - behind her.
And so she fell unconcious.

Vash stared out of the window in disbelief.
"Wolfwood! A building just exploded!"
Wolfwood looked up from his breakfast in alarm.
"Was anyone hurt?"
"I don't know!"
Vash had just finished changing into his trademark red coat, with all the buckles inside.
"I'm going down to check it out!"
He grabbed his gun off the table and stuffed it into its gun-sheath, and began to run towards the door.
"Wait!"
Vash turned, and Wolfwood tossed him a donut. He caught it with his mouth.
"Fanksh!" (Thanks. A/N: This is fun. ^^)
"Wait a minute for me, will you?"
"Okay, but quick."
Wolfwood finished his coffee and ran over to his cross, and slung it behind him.
"Let's go!"
Vash went up to the door, and set his hand onto the doorknob.
BANG.
"Aah! Gomen nasai, Vash-san!"
Milly had just pushed the door open, and Vash had felt the full force of the door.
He crouched on the floor, his head in his hands.
"Er... it's okay."
Milly looked around.
"Where's sempai?"
"She's with you, isn't she?"
Wolfwood raised an eyebrow.
"Well, she went out to either stop or help Vash-san."
Vash stood up, stepping out of the door.
"Well, she didn't come in here."
Milly sighed.
"I guess sempai went downstairs to investigate."
"Let's all go to investigate."
They all went outside and to the stairs.

When Meryl came to, she was in the back-staircase of Cendre inn.
She opened her eyes groggily to meet amber ones. She inhaled sharply, backing away from the man.
Her arms were tied behind her back by the wrists with coarse rope.
"You're awake. Good."
The man's voice chilled her.
He grabbed her by the collar of her shirt.
"You're going to scream. You're going to scream for him."
She frowned.
"What?!"
"I said, you're going to scream for Vash the Stampede. Do it."
Meryl remained silent. She knew this was probably another bounty hunter; another weirdo after Vash.
"Do it now."
When she didn't respond, the man let out a growl and pulled out a whip.
He straightened the whip and pushed it up close to Meryl's eyes.
"Can you see these tiny little hooks? This is my special whip. It burns like hell."
He pressed it against her neck, and grazed it.
Meryl bit her lip quickly. It really did feel as though it were burning her.
The man leant right over and hissed into her ear.
"Scream. Scream, damn it. Call out for him."
Meryl stubbornly remained silent.
He kicked her aside, and she skid across the stairway platform.
The man pulled out his whip, and began to strike her, again and again.
Meryl felt her shirt tear at the side, and her leggings tear at the calf and thighs.
She remembered the feeling.
And her determination to not cry out set.
"Damn it! Why the hell are you so stubborn? I just want you to call out to him! Bring him here!"
Meryl finally managed to get out of her ropes, and grabbed her derringer.
"I'm not going to!"
She pointed the derringer to his knee, and pulled the trigger.
Meryl's eyes widened in the silence that followed.
Nothing happened.
He began to laugh quite hard.
"Little girl, you didn't think I'd seriously leave that gun loaded?"
Her face fell to one of despair as he grabbed the derringer from her and threw it down the stairs.
He kicked her aside again, still laughing.
"Just scream, girl. Just scream his name."
She shook her head.
"You know, you're just making it worse for him."
He suddenly grinned.
"Oh, sudden inspiration. You'll be more useful hurt."
He straightened his whip out again.