"perfect by nature
icons of self indulgence
just what we all need
more lies about a world that
never was and never will be
have you no shame don't you see me
you know you've got everybody fooled...
never was and never will be
you don't know how you've betrayed me
and somehow you've got everybody fooled
without the mask where will you hide
can't find yourself lost in your lie...
it never was and never will be
you're not real and you can't save me
somehow now you're everybody's fool" ~evanescence
She wriggled her toes in the sand and giggled. "No silly, Thomases don't lay eggs!"
The boy sitting next to her was quite befuddled. "Yuh huh! If dey don't lay eggs then where do da baby Thomases come from!?"
"They come from... hmmm.... well, I dunno. But they don't lay eggs. Only gooses and chickens lay eggs!" She laughed again.
The boy was disconcerted, "But Meryl!!" Stuck on how else to argue, he ceased.
Meryl, a girl of about seven, looked at his perturbed face and then at the setting sun. "The sun's going to bed so I think I have to go, Kyo."
"Will you, um, watch it set with me?" The boy blushed slightly. "Er, I mean if you're not busy or anything..."
She was a bit surprised. He seemed a bit tense for someone she had known for a long time. "I'd love to," she smiled. She started counting down the epoch before darkness. "Three.......two.............ONE!!" She exclaimed. The sky faded into iridescent colors and diverse patterns"That was sure pretty! We should watch it again tomorrow."
"That sounds good," Kyo looked at the sky void of a sun which was like his home, the abode void of a mother. He only had his Daddy, and whenever it was dark, his daddy would leave and come back angry and indignant. Daddy's face would be red, and he would curse and kick at Kyo. No, Kyo didn't want to go home. It would just be his dad and him, and he'd have to cry again like every other night. Kyo wanted to stay with Meryl and play with her all day. She was his best and only friend for many reasons.
He remembered as he sped out of his house one night after a pugnacious beating. He had inadvertently run into a young girl carrying groceries, knocking her over as she spilled the bulky bags.
"Sowwie," he sniffed as he helped her pick them up.
"That's okie dokie."The girl smiled but was confused at his puffy eyes. "You're crying. Are you okay?"
"Nothing," he wiped his face with a sleeve. "Sorry fur knocking your stuff down." He got up and continued running, leaving the girl addled. She dropped the groceries that she and the boy had meticulously picked up and followed him surreptitiously. A man had suddenly seized the boy as he reached the outskirts of town. She watched as he was cruelly thrown to the ground and kicked. She winced at his pains, and she cried with him. "Stop it," she whispered. "STOP IT!" She instinctively ran to him and stood in the way of his father. "Stop it, you're hurting him!" she screamed.
"Get out of the way kid! He's been.... bad....my son....he must be p-punished!" He smiled as he spoke incoherently in slurs, swaying a bit in stature. He kicked the girl to the side, and she held her stomach in pain. The boy was flabbergasted (A/N: great word ^_^) at her actions and rose to his feet. "Leave her alone!"
The man smiled sadistically. He was about to launch another kick when he suddenly collapsed.
The boy breathed heavily and fell to his knees, clutching his wounds. The girl stood up slowly and stumbled to his father. "Is he sick?" she asked him. The boy, who was glaring at the fallen man, broke out of his gaze and nodded. She had dark navy hair that and grey, comforting eyes. "He needs help... could you help carry him?" she asked.
He shook his head violently. "He doesn't deserve it!" He cried in a paroxysm.
The girl was surprised. "He needs help, that's all that matters. Where's your house?"
The boy sniffed, ".... You're gonna help him....?"
The girl smiled. "Yep."
Kyo stared at the ground. "It's over that hill," he replied reluctantly.
"Is it far?"
"No."
"Can we take him there?"
The seven-year-old boy feebly nodded. The two slowly dragged the man to the home propped him against a wall. "I'll get a doctor," the girl breathed heavily from the work. She trotted down the sandy hill. About an hour later, a venerable old doctor came to examine Kyo's father. The boy wanted to thank the girl, but she didn't return.
The next day, his father was brought to the hospital. Kyo sat in a rocking chair on his front porch when he saw the young girl running up the hill, waving enthusiastically. She brought him a fruit basket and some other provisions. "Is your daddy better?" she asked.
Kyo nodded as he chugged a loaf of bread.
"That's good," she smiled brightly. "Do you want to play?"
Kyo was surprised at her supplication. "Play?"
"You know, like on the swings and stuff!" she continued to smile. "We can be friends!"
Kyo gulped the food he was chewing on. "Friends?"
The girl nodded and took his hand. "Let's go!"
Kyo smiled at the retrospect of their meeting. It had been a year since that incident. "I'm glad you're my friend, Meryl," he said suddenly.
The girl was a bit surprised but nonetheless smiled back, "I'm glad you're my friend too!" She stood up. "Well, I hafta go now, see ya tomorrow!" And with that,
she scampered away.
***
Kyo sighed as he reminisced his happy days. Meryl had taught him so much, even how to restrain tears...
***
A fourteen year old Kyo hugged his knees as he sat on a precipice. He quivered and shook violently until a gentle hand came to rest on his shoulder. "Kyo, you're crying again..." A voice whispered sadly in his ear.
"Meryl...it hurts...so much..." he choked through tears. He felt her arms wrap around him. "I know," she said.
Kyo calmed down a bit as her voice soothed his agitation. "Thank you..."
Meryl smiled. "You know, boy's aren't supposed to cry," she prodded playfully.
Kyo felt the corners of his lips rise. "I can't help it."
"Well, if you turn yourself upside down, the tears won't come out.*"
***
Kyo looked into the distance as the faint outline of a ship came into view. He gently set down a reposed Meryl. "Wake up, you have to walk the rest of the way," he persistently shook her.
Meryl rubbed her eyes and sat up. "Why?"
"Because I was supposed to be stoic."
Meryl sighed and tagged behind his long strides. She stared in awe as they approached a grandiose ship. A metallic door opened outward accordingly and they stepped inside. A consuming darkness propagated as the door shut behind them. She felt herself tense up as she hurried closer to Kyo. He noticed this and phlegmatically walked away from her.
"I have brought her, Master," he aloofly said.
A man with blue hair and golden, piercing eyes appeared. "Excellent Kyo. Please dispose of her in the bastille."
Kyo bowed and escorted Meryl callously to a cell passages away from the entrance. Her threw her in the secluded, stone room as his father had thrown him. He saw the look of despondency flicker in her eyes, but he just smiled, waved, and left.
As Kyo perambulated through the hall as Legato's voice echoed in his mind. ::Don't let your feelings interfere, although you should have long rid of them.:: He reached an abstracted chamber and faced a wall. Slowly putting his hands on the ground, he lifted his body and used the wall as a support to hold his inverted form.
***
A man on the steamer No. 369 walked past an empty aisle. In fact, he had walked past it several times, a purse was still there, but there was no trace of the passenger to whom the item belonged to. The train was now full, and every seat had to be taken. In any case, no one in their right mind would leave a purse for the taking. He decided to examine the purse; human curiosity is extremely susceptible to the cryptic. After surfacing through the interior items for just a short period (as he might be postulated as a thief) there was a letter found addressed to Mr. Vash the Stampede.
This no doubtedly aroused his chief attention. He read the letter with great fervor and found that it was concerned with a trip which the writer was to be absent
no more than two days from. It was not finished, but the address of the Humanoid Typhoon was printed neatly on top. The gentleman quickly gathered his hat
and hustled to the conductor.
***
There was an incessant knocking on the door. Vash rose from the sofa and answered it with a shallow smile. "Hello, may I help you?"
"Mr. Vash the Stampede?" A short, stalky bald man in a navy business suit wiped his forehead with a handkerchief.
"This residence belongs to the Bernandelli Insurance Society actually. What can I do for you sir?" Vash smiled.
"I need to speak to Vash, Vash the Stampede," the man replied curtly.
"And why may I ask?"
"I have a letter for him."
"I'll bring it to him," Vash smiled and graciously accepted the letter. "Thanks!"
As Vash was about to close the door, the man insinuated a last thought, "Don't do what I did**: Don't let her go."
"What?" Vash peeped out the door but there was no longer any trace of the man. "That's odd. Wonder what he meant..."
He read through the letter and inferred that it was from Meryl. He was alarmed at why it was not finished but more importantly, he was hysterical when the name "Kyo" was signed on the bottom alongside the vice words "Gung-ho Gun" which were inscribed crudely. "Don't let her go..." the man's voice screamed in his head.
He could feel something stirring, but remorse rendered it static.
"Security puts a premium on feebleness."~H.G. Wells
A/N: Ahhh, a short chappie. I just had to update, I had absolutely no hw today, quite an oddity. Yes, I know that a lot of people are OOC , I apologize. But hey, I can screw with Kyo all I want because I made him up. I didn't bother rechecking the latter part of the chapter for grammatical errors, so if you see anything please kindly point it out.
To the reviewers: thanks for reading!! You guys make my day ^_^ luv n peese!
Also, to the flamers: I enjoyed your constructive criticisms. I'm sorry I wasn't quite up to your criterion. When I have time, I'll fix it up. :-) No hard feelings?
References:
* Meteor Garden- I got the idea from a helluva cute chinese soap opera ~snickers~ It's about this group in college, F4, and this one guy liked this one girl a lot but she was always away (she was a supermodel) but he lived by her advice for all his life to stand upside down whenever he wanted to cry...
** "A Summer's Reading"- the infamous and accused Lit. story we were forced to read. "Don't do what I did." is the one quote from the story that I liked. However, don't read the story.. it was pointless and insulting to human intelligence...-_-