{Author's Note: This chapter has graphic images of blood, gore, and death,
so, if those kinds of things make you uncomfortable, I'd advise you to skip
over this chapter}
******************part 6*******************
I don't really remember what happened between that night and when I got to Smith. *sigh* I wish I did, but I don't, so I'm just gonna skip ahead a bit, okay. Okay, so we were now in Smith and Jaime was as close to normal as she could get. "I can't wait to sleep in a nice warm bed!" she said cheerfully. "Yeah, I know!" I said equally as cheerful. I was in a wonderful mood that day, and I wasn't going to let anyone or anything destroy it. I mean, it was beautiful outside. The birds were flying around, twittering and cooing their secret language to one another. The suns were out, but they weren't beating down on the planet like they were yesterday. People were out and about, children were playing outside, chasing each other around, wrestling in the dirt, playing ball, or jumping rope. Mothers were talking, trading secret family recipes that "only you can know" all the while telling Jimmy not to pull Carlos' hair, catching flyaway balls and yelling at their husbands not to use profane language around the children. Fathers were talking as well, only not as discreetly as their wives. They talked loudly about the strange weather and how annoying the mayor or sheriff was. Little kids ran up to them saying "Look daddy, I knocked him down!" or "Watch me jump daddy!" It was certainly a lovely day indeed. Despite Smith's large population, (about 10,000) the entire place felt like one happy community. It was heartwarming. I still remember the smiling faces and friendly welcomes we received.
Well, it turned out it was going to be an enormous celebration the next day. "Hey, Vash. Look at this!" Jaime had shouted, practically shoving the flyer under my nose. "What is it?" I asked. "It's a notice," she said excitedly. "There's gonna be a city-wide celebration all day tomorrow for the centennial of Smith. Can we stay long enough to go? I'm sure it'll be a ton of fun. C'mon Vash!" It was kind of funny, actually. She had this big, pleading face on. I actually didn't need any convincing after I heard the words "city-wide celebration." I love parties. Especially parties with hot girls. Anyway, I was more excited than she was. "YES!" I shouted. "Party!!!" She grinned. "Great!" Then, "Hey, uh...., can you, ah, do me a huge favor and, um, ah, payformyroom...." "You didn't bring any money?" I said, kind of surprised. "Ah, I didn't have any to bring, actually. I'm él broko, you see. That's why I decided to follow you." "Oh and what if I weren't so nice of a person?" "Aw, come on! You stayed at our place for almost two months! You don't have the capacity to be a mean person; you're too soft!" "Well, if I'm so soft, then I'm not paying!" "What! You're gonna leave me out hear in the cold to freeze to death tonight! How could you do that? I gave you free room and board, buddy, this is the least you could do!" "I saved your life!" "Yeah, I mean, not counting that." I caved. "Fine. Whatever" Then I said the two stupidest words that I could've said at that time. "Anything else?" "Well," she smiled darkly. "Since you offered...."
Jaime really got me after that. I ended up buying her two more things of bullets, a new outfit ("You may be able to wear the same clothes day after day, but there's no way in hell that I am!"), and, uh, something else, I can't quite remember, it was a long time ago. (How long, you ask? Well, I'd say about 10 years ago, I guess. I know everyone's older now then they were before, but, I guess that's kind of obvious, huh? Well, I guess it was ten, but it may've been nine, I know it wasn't less than nine...) Okay, sorry, I went way off track. So it was the evening. I was getting ready to get into my bed, just finished drying off from my bath too, when I felt someone behind me, staring. I turned behind me really fast, and you wouldn't believe what I saw. A cat. A black cat with big, no, huge green eyes. "YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!" I screamed. It took me a second to get myself together, but even that was too long. "Vash!" Jaime was knocking on the door. "Vash! Is everything okay?" I grabbed the cat by the back of its neck. "Yeah." I said. "I'm okay." Jaime sighed. "Oh, okay. It's just that I heard you screaming, and I thought something happened." "No, nothing happened." I said. The stupid cat didn't really like me holding it the way that I did. It scratched my hand with its really sharp claws. "OOWWW!" I screeched. "Okay, what the hell is going on in there?" Jaime said through the door. "Nothing!" I said. "Nothing!" Unfortunately for me, I accidentally stepped on the cat's tail at that moment. It got really pissed then. It bit my bare foot and clawed at my ankle. "AARGH! GET OFF! GET OFF!" I tried shaking the stupid cat off, but that just made it clamp down even harder. "Vash!" Jaime shouted. "What is going on in there?" I finally shook the damn cat off of me. I threw some pants on and chased the cat out the door. "Scram, ya fleabag!" I shouted. Jaime looked at my shocked. I figured it was maybe the scars, but it wasn't. "A cat." she said. "All that noise, because of a damn cat." She looked at my now bloody foot and my scratched up hands and tried not to laugh. "Looks like the cat won too." she snickered. I forgot to mention, Jaime's room was right across the hall from my own. That's how she heard everything. She glared at me coldly. "You know, you woke me up, you jerk. Did you ever take a good look at the clock? Its 11:30, some of us are trying to be nice and rested for the party tomorrow." I felt a little embarrassed then. "Sorry." I muttered. "I thought something was seriously wrong! Screaming like a madman at eleven somethin' at night, for shame." She seriously did look like she had just leapt out of bed too. Her silvery hair was pulled back in a neat bun, and was partially covered with a head scarf. She had on these rumbled up blue pajamas and stuff. I mean, most people don't look neat when then go to bed. Especially some women. Not ALL women, mind you, but some of them. Some of them wear that disgusting green glop on their faces and have curlers or something adorning their hair. Plus, some women are just SCARY looking without any makeup on. This kid was different, though. She looked the same as she usually did, only without her hair down. "Good night." she said. "See you tomorrow.
The celebration was magnificent! I don't even KNOW how to describe it! You had to have been there to even have the slightest idea of what it was like, but, I will try my hardest to describe it for you. It was like a mix between a carnival, a parade, a food festival, and a New Year's Eve party. When I left the inn, I guess it was about 10:00, the celebration was already long underway. Professional dancers were dancing for people in the street accompanied with beautiful music and cheering from the crowd. I walked a little bit farther. I saw rides: a carousel, a Ferris wheel, bumper cars, the whole nine yards. There were games nearby that were you could win stuffed animals. I saw the familiar figure of Jaime, hunched slightly over the barrier of the dart throwing game. "Ma-am." the guy said. "You aren't allowed past the barrier when you are throwing!" "Aww." she moaned. "Fine." She leaned back and threw dart after dart, each landing on or nearby their respective bull's-eyes. "I do believe I've won." Jaime said triumphantly. "Sorry." the guy said. "You had to get ALL five to win; you only got four of them." Jaime turned around and looked at me. "Hey!" she said excitedly. "It's you! I was hoping to run into you before the day was out. Can you believe that I didn't win! It was so close!" I laughed. "I thought you didn't have any money." I said. "I don't. Everything is free, except food, that is." she smiled. "Did you see the singers yet?" "There are singers?" I asked. "Yeah. Amateur singing." she said. "Either karaoke or you own made up song. Cool huh?" "Very. Maybe I should sign up." I said. "Can you sing?" she inquired. "Not a note." I said. "Oh." she said. "Well then, don't. Come with me, there's a lot of cool stuff out here." Jaime grabbed me by the arm and dragged me along. "I love this." she said blissfully. "I've never seen anything like this celebration before in my life. It's so..so...I don't even know!"
The streets were decorated with tinsel and streamers and confetti. There were balloons everywhere. Fast, dance music was blaring and the younger people were out there dancing, while the older ones watched. There was a small choir singing about God's goodness and grace, which immediately made me think of Wolfwood. I can still hear the tune in my head. It was a beautiful song. But anyway, there were entertainers all about. There were clowns, magicians and contortionists, not to mention the hundreds of musicians. There was music filling all of Smith. Musicians were everywhere, trumpets blaring, guitars playing, flutists cheering up people who were down and drummers pounding their drums and cymbals. Everywhere you looked people were dancing and having a good time, paying the talent once they had had their fun. At one point both of us started to dance to the music of a guitar player and sax player. You just couldn't resist the music. When it wasn't musicians playing it was singers, singing their heart and souls out to the large crowds that collected around them. They were just as amazing. Then there were the contests. Test Your Strength, Test You Speed, Test Your Smarts, Test Your Aim (shooting), and a lot more "tests" for a person to take. Food was everywhere, but you had to pay. Not much, though, the most I paid for anything was about $$5 for two boxes of donuts. (I was gonna eat them both, but I shared the other one with Jaime after she reminded me of the time when I was drunk and I stole and ate her donuts) {note: see part 2, The Dumb and the Drunken}. Everything was just so, god, I can't find a word to explain it. Like I said earlier, you had to be there.
I remember, it was about 4:00 in the afternoon, and I was reading this book I bought at a vender. Jaime had come up to me at one point joking like: "I never knew you could read anything right-side-up, Vash!" (after a couple of hours she said I was a wuss because I wouldn't get on the Ferris wheel with her, and left. I couldn't help that, I'm afraid of heights.) She plopped down next to me, laughing. "What a party!" she beamed. "But, my god, my feet are really starting to ache. I need to sit down for awhile." All of a sudden, this guy came up to me and said: "Hey buddy, some guy told me to give you this." He handed me an invitation and went on his way. "What is it?" Jaime asked. "It's an invite." I said, stunned. Who did I know that lived in Smith? I thought it over for awhile. Not a soul. It said something like "From someone close to you." Who though? Could it be Milly, or maybe Meryl, I wasn't absolutely sure, and I was kind of suspicious. "I'm sure," I thought. "I'm sure if it was one of them, they'd have put their name." "Do you know who it's from?" Jaime asked slowly. "No, I don't." I said. "Its like, some type of dinner party, adults only it says." "Damn." Jaime muttered. "That counts me out, doesn't it?" She looked closely at the inside of the invite. "An old girlfriend, perhaps." she sneered. "Someone who wants to try to win you back or an old friend from your childhood or...." "Ssssh!" I hissed. "Something's not right here. I can feel it." I looked around cautiously. "Someone's watching us, I can tell, someone is nearby." I whispered. I reached for my gun. I had a very uneasy feeling about the entire situation. I KNEW someone was nearby watching us. Someone dangerous. But I didn't know who. Then I saw him. He was a tall man, with light blonde hair that always reminded me of the color of wheat. He wore a one pieced suit that was red and white and had white gloves on. It couldn't have been, yet it was. It was Knives. He was standing there watching intently the conversation between myself and Jaime like a tiger, patiently stalking its prey. When he noticed me notice him he waved cheerfully. "Hey Vash!" Knives smiled. "How've you been?" Jaime whipped around when he said this. "Alright I guess." I said, nervousness and suspicion hiding just under the surface of my empty smile. "I'm surviving." Jaime inched over to me. "Who's he?" she asked. "Your brother?" "Yeah." I said. "I can tell." she said "Twins?" I nodded. Why the hell would Knives be here? I couldn't figure it out. "I see you got my invite, Vash." he said cheerfully. "Are you gonna go?" "Something's not right about that guy, Vash. He's making me nervous." Jaime whispered. "Vash, you're always around those damn humans still." Knives snorted. "Pretending like you're one of them. It makes me sick to my stomach to think about how you waste your life like that." Then he laughed. His laugh always makes my hairs stand on end. It's like on of those stereotypical bad guy laughs, but not quite. "I suppose you're not going then." he said. "Going to what?" I asked. Kind of a stupid question, I know. "The party." he said. "Naw." I said. "No, I'm not, actually." "Too bad!" Knives said, a little disappointed. "I'll be on my way then. This celebration is wonderful! Truly a lot of fun."
"Vash, what did he mean you're pretending you're human?" Jaime said, not to long after. "Nothing." I said calmly. It was too soon to explain that. She wouldn't believe me yet if I told her. I was worried, though. Knives comment just made me believe even more that he was up to something. But what? I told Jaime she wasn't safe in her room and how she'd have to stay in my room the night. She agreed, saying Knives made her "as nervous as an ice cube going to hell". I thought for awhile that I wouldn't be able to get to sleep that night. Fireworks were lighting up the sky, plus I still had Knives on the brain, but I guess I was wrong, because the next thing I remember after lying down on that soft couch was Jaime screaming like crazy. I leapt up. "What is it?" I said. "What's the matter?" She was at the window, staring at the square. I noticed her shaking and saying "Oh my God" over and over again. "What is it?" I said again. "Calm down and tell me what it is." She turned around and pointed a shaky finger at the window. She was as pale as a ghost, quaking; terrified at the sight she'd just seen. "Vash." she said. "Vash, they're all dead." I was getting nervous. "What do you mean?" "They're all dead!" she screamed hysterically. "All of them! Everyone!" She sank down to the floor, shaking. I looked out the window and a horrible shiver went through my entire body. It was a massacre. Everyone who was out there, having a good time, enjoying the celebration, was dead. Blood covered the entire street, it was everywhere. The decapitated heads of children who wore horrified expressions, probably what they looked like right before they were killed, the corpses of husbands, fathers, who died, shielding their families from the inevitable death they would soon face. I could stand to look anymore, right when I was about to turn away, something caught my eye. A word. It was too far away to read from the inn, so I left the room. "Vash!" Jaime shouted. "Don't go! You may get killed next!" I smiled frailly. It was nice that she was worried about me, I guess, and under a normal circumstance I would've cracked a joke, but, if you couldn't tell, this was not a normal circumstance. All I could do was force a smile. "I'll be okay." I said. What a horrible thing for a person to see. Especially a child. She was probably scarred. I know I was. The massacre didn't just occur outside, but inside the inn as well. The halls were bloodstained. It was smeared onto the walls from people who had fallen into them, struggling to keep their lives. You could tell who had struggled. They were the ones who had multiple wounds to their bodies, some in the chest, some in the neck and some in the heads. I went outside and saw in even greater and more horrifying detail what had happened. I wasn't sure how they were killed, wasn't gunshot wounds nor Angel Arm, because if it was the latter, both myself and Jaime would've been killed. She was only alive because she was in my room, with me. I walked towards were I saw the word written. It was his mark. His sign, showing that he was the proud murderer of all of these innocent people. His name, written in big bold letters. His ink, blood, his canvas, some poor, unsuspecting building, that would have to bear the burning mark, like a cow in a ranch, until someone came and cleaned it. It read: KNIVES. Plain and simple. This was my brother, my kin, but I hated him so much. I felt that I could kill him for what he had done. I felt them come. The tears of my anger and grief. Slow at first, like a stopped up tap, but they soon flowed as freely as a waterfall. I grieved for them, for they had no one left to grieve for them. Then I sensed it. I felt his presence. Knives was still in the city. I ran back towards the inn, hoping, praying, that I wasn't' too late.
{Dun-dun-dun! Do I smell a cliffhanger? What happened next? I have no clue, I still have to make it. **grins stupidly** I hoped you enjoyed it. Kind of macabre and dark though. Should I make the story permanently dark, or lighten in up some? }
******************part 6*******************
I don't really remember what happened between that night and when I got to Smith. *sigh* I wish I did, but I don't, so I'm just gonna skip ahead a bit, okay. Okay, so we were now in Smith and Jaime was as close to normal as she could get. "I can't wait to sleep in a nice warm bed!" she said cheerfully. "Yeah, I know!" I said equally as cheerful. I was in a wonderful mood that day, and I wasn't going to let anyone or anything destroy it. I mean, it was beautiful outside. The birds were flying around, twittering and cooing their secret language to one another. The suns were out, but they weren't beating down on the planet like they were yesterday. People were out and about, children were playing outside, chasing each other around, wrestling in the dirt, playing ball, or jumping rope. Mothers were talking, trading secret family recipes that "only you can know" all the while telling Jimmy not to pull Carlos' hair, catching flyaway balls and yelling at their husbands not to use profane language around the children. Fathers were talking as well, only not as discreetly as their wives. They talked loudly about the strange weather and how annoying the mayor or sheriff was. Little kids ran up to them saying "Look daddy, I knocked him down!" or "Watch me jump daddy!" It was certainly a lovely day indeed. Despite Smith's large population, (about 10,000) the entire place felt like one happy community. It was heartwarming. I still remember the smiling faces and friendly welcomes we received.
Well, it turned out it was going to be an enormous celebration the next day. "Hey, Vash. Look at this!" Jaime had shouted, practically shoving the flyer under my nose. "What is it?" I asked. "It's a notice," she said excitedly. "There's gonna be a city-wide celebration all day tomorrow for the centennial of Smith. Can we stay long enough to go? I'm sure it'll be a ton of fun. C'mon Vash!" It was kind of funny, actually. She had this big, pleading face on. I actually didn't need any convincing after I heard the words "city-wide celebration." I love parties. Especially parties with hot girls. Anyway, I was more excited than she was. "YES!" I shouted. "Party!!!" She grinned. "Great!" Then, "Hey, uh...., can you, ah, do me a huge favor and, um, ah, payformyroom...." "You didn't bring any money?" I said, kind of surprised. "Ah, I didn't have any to bring, actually. I'm él broko, you see. That's why I decided to follow you." "Oh and what if I weren't so nice of a person?" "Aw, come on! You stayed at our place for almost two months! You don't have the capacity to be a mean person; you're too soft!" "Well, if I'm so soft, then I'm not paying!" "What! You're gonna leave me out hear in the cold to freeze to death tonight! How could you do that? I gave you free room and board, buddy, this is the least you could do!" "I saved your life!" "Yeah, I mean, not counting that." I caved. "Fine. Whatever" Then I said the two stupidest words that I could've said at that time. "Anything else?" "Well," she smiled darkly. "Since you offered...."
Jaime really got me after that. I ended up buying her two more things of bullets, a new outfit ("You may be able to wear the same clothes day after day, but there's no way in hell that I am!"), and, uh, something else, I can't quite remember, it was a long time ago. (How long, you ask? Well, I'd say about 10 years ago, I guess. I know everyone's older now then they were before, but, I guess that's kind of obvious, huh? Well, I guess it was ten, but it may've been nine, I know it wasn't less than nine...) Okay, sorry, I went way off track. So it was the evening. I was getting ready to get into my bed, just finished drying off from my bath too, when I felt someone behind me, staring. I turned behind me really fast, and you wouldn't believe what I saw. A cat. A black cat with big, no, huge green eyes. "YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!" I screamed. It took me a second to get myself together, but even that was too long. "Vash!" Jaime was knocking on the door. "Vash! Is everything okay?" I grabbed the cat by the back of its neck. "Yeah." I said. "I'm okay." Jaime sighed. "Oh, okay. It's just that I heard you screaming, and I thought something happened." "No, nothing happened." I said. The stupid cat didn't really like me holding it the way that I did. It scratched my hand with its really sharp claws. "OOWWW!" I screeched. "Okay, what the hell is going on in there?" Jaime said through the door. "Nothing!" I said. "Nothing!" Unfortunately for me, I accidentally stepped on the cat's tail at that moment. It got really pissed then. It bit my bare foot and clawed at my ankle. "AARGH! GET OFF! GET OFF!" I tried shaking the stupid cat off, but that just made it clamp down even harder. "Vash!" Jaime shouted. "What is going on in there?" I finally shook the damn cat off of me. I threw some pants on and chased the cat out the door. "Scram, ya fleabag!" I shouted. Jaime looked at my shocked. I figured it was maybe the scars, but it wasn't. "A cat." she said. "All that noise, because of a damn cat." She looked at my now bloody foot and my scratched up hands and tried not to laugh. "Looks like the cat won too." she snickered. I forgot to mention, Jaime's room was right across the hall from my own. That's how she heard everything. She glared at me coldly. "You know, you woke me up, you jerk. Did you ever take a good look at the clock? Its 11:30, some of us are trying to be nice and rested for the party tomorrow." I felt a little embarrassed then. "Sorry." I muttered. "I thought something was seriously wrong! Screaming like a madman at eleven somethin' at night, for shame." She seriously did look like she had just leapt out of bed too. Her silvery hair was pulled back in a neat bun, and was partially covered with a head scarf. She had on these rumbled up blue pajamas and stuff. I mean, most people don't look neat when then go to bed. Especially some women. Not ALL women, mind you, but some of them. Some of them wear that disgusting green glop on their faces and have curlers or something adorning their hair. Plus, some women are just SCARY looking without any makeup on. This kid was different, though. She looked the same as she usually did, only without her hair down. "Good night." she said. "See you tomorrow.
The celebration was magnificent! I don't even KNOW how to describe it! You had to have been there to even have the slightest idea of what it was like, but, I will try my hardest to describe it for you. It was like a mix between a carnival, a parade, a food festival, and a New Year's Eve party. When I left the inn, I guess it was about 10:00, the celebration was already long underway. Professional dancers were dancing for people in the street accompanied with beautiful music and cheering from the crowd. I walked a little bit farther. I saw rides: a carousel, a Ferris wheel, bumper cars, the whole nine yards. There were games nearby that were you could win stuffed animals. I saw the familiar figure of Jaime, hunched slightly over the barrier of the dart throwing game. "Ma-am." the guy said. "You aren't allowed past the barrier when you are throwing!" "Aww." she moaned. "Fine." She leaned back and threw dart after dart, each landing on or nearby their respective bull's-eyes. "I do believe I've won." Jaime said triumphantly. "Sorry." the guy said. "You had to get ALL five to win; you only got four of them." Jaime turned around and looked at me. "Hey!" she said excitedly. "It's you! I was hoping to run into you before the day was out. Can you believe that I didn't win! It was so close!" I laughed. "I thought you didn't have any money." I said. "I don't. Everything is free, except food, that is." she smiled. "Did you see the singers yet?" "There are singers?" I asked. "Yeah. Amateur singing." she said. "Either karaoke or you own made up song. Cool huh?" "Very. Maybe I should sign up." I said. "Can you sing?" she inquired. "Not a note." I said. "Oh." she said. "Well then, don't. Come with me, there's a lot of cool stuff out here." Jaime grabbed me by the arm and dragged me along. "I love this." she said blissfully. "I've never seen anything like this celebration before in my life. It's so..so...I don't even know!"
The streets were decorated with tinsel and streamers and confetti. There were balloons everywhere. Fast, dance music was blaring and the younger people were out there dancing, while the older ones watched. There was a small choir singing about God's goodness and grace, which immediately made me think of Wolfwood. I can still hear the tune in my head. It was a beautiful song. But anyway, there were entertainers all about. There were clowns, magicians and contortionists, not to mention the hundreds of musicians. There was music filling all of Smith. Musicians were everywhere, trumpets blaring, guitars playing, flutists cheering up people who were down and drummers pounding their drums and cymbals. Everywhere you looked people were dancing and having a good time, paying the talent once they had had their fun. At one point both of us started to dance to the music of a guitar player and sax player. You just couldn't resist the music. When it wasn't musicians playing it was singers, singing their heart and souls out to the large crowds that collected around them. They were just as amazing. Then there were the contests. Test Your Strength, Test You Speed, Test Your Smarts, Test Your Aim (shooting), and a lot more "tests" for a person to take. Food was everywhere, but you had to pay. Not much, though, the most I paid for anything was about $$5 for two boxes of donuts. (I was gonna eat them both, but I shared the other one with Jaime after she reminded me of the time when I was drunk and I stole and ate her donuts) {note: see part 2, The Dumb and the Drunken}. Everything was just so, god, I can't find a word to explain it. Like I said earlier, you had to be there.
I remember, it was about 4:00 in the afternoon, and I was reading this book I bought at a vender. Jaime had come up to me at one point joking like: "I never knew you could read anything right-side-up, Vash!" (after a couple of hours she said I was a wuss because I wouldn't get on the Ferris wheel with her, and left. I couldn't help that, I'm afraid of heights.) She plopped down next to me, laughing. "What a party!" she beamed. "But, my god, my feet are really starting to ache. I need to sit down for awhile." All of a sudden, this guy came up to me and said: "Hey buddy, some guy told me to give you this." He handed me an invitation and went on his way. "What is it?" Jaime asked. "It's an invite." I said, stunned. Who did I know that lived in Smith? I thought it over for awhile. Not a soul. It said something like "From someone close to you." Who though? Could it be Milly, or maybe Meryl, I wasn't absolutely sure, and I was kind of suspicious. "I'm sure," I thought. "I'm sure if it was one of them, they'd have put their name." "Do you know who it's from?" Jaime asked slowly. "No, I don't." I said. "Its like, some type of dinner party, adults only it says." "Damn." Jaime muttered. "That counts me out, doesn't it?" She looked closely at the inside of the invite. "An old girlfriend, perhaps." she sneered. "Someone who wants to try to win you back or an old friend from your childhood or...." "Ssssh!" I hissed. "Something's not right here. I can feel it." I looked around cautiously. "Someone's watching us, I can tell, someone is nearby." I whispered. I reached for my gun. I had a very uneasy feeling about the entire situation. I KNEW someone was nearby watching us. Someone dangerous. But I didn't know who. Then I saw him. He was a tall man, with light blonde hair that always reminded me of the color of wheat. He wore a one pieced suit that was red and white and had white gloves on. It couldn't have been, yet it was. It was Knives. He was standing there watching intently the conversation between myself and Jaime like a tiger, patiently stalking its prey. When he noticed me notice him he waved cheerfully. "Hey Vash!" Knives smiled. "How've you been?" Jaime whipped around when he said this. "Alright I guess." I said, nervousness and suspicion hiding just under the surface of my empty smile. "I'm surviving." Jaime inched over to me. "Who's he?" she asked. "Your brother?" "Yeah." I said. "I can tell." she said "Twins?" I nodded. Why the hell would Knives be here? I couldn't figure it out. "I see you got my invite, Vash." he said cheerfully. "Are you gonna go?" "Something's not right about that guy, Vash. He's making me nervous." Jaime whispered. "Vash, you're always around those damn humans still." Knives snorted. "Pretending like you're one of them. It makes me sick to my stomach to think about how you waste your life like that." Then he laughed. His laugh always makes my hairs stand on end. It's like on of those stereotypical bad guy laughs, but not quite. "I suppose you're not going then." he said. "Going to what?" I asked. Kind of a stupid question, I know. "The party." he said. "Naw." I said. "No, I'm not, actually." "Too bad!" Knives said, a little disappointed. "I'll be on my way then. This celebration is wonderful! Truly a lot of fun."
"Vash, what did he mean you're pretending you're human?" Jaime said, not to long after. "Nothing." I said calmly. It was too soon to explain that. She wouldn't believe me yet if I told her. I was worried, though. Knives comment just made me believe even more that he was up to something. But what? I told Jaime she wasn't safe in her room and how she'd have to stay in my room the night. She agreed, saying Knives made her "as nervous as an ice cube going to hell". I thought for awhile that I wouldn't be able to get to sleep that night. Fireworks were lighting up the sky, plus I still had Knives on the brain, but I guess I was wrong, because the next thing I remember after lying down on that soft couch was Jaime screaming like crazy. I leapt up. "What is it?" I said. "What's the matter?" She was at the window, staring at the square. I noticed her shaking and saying "Oh my God" over and over again. "What is it?" I said again. "Calm down and tell me what it is." She turned around and pointed a shaky finger at the window. She was as pale as a ghost, quaking; terrified at the sight she'd just seen. "Vash." she said. "Vash, they're all dead." I was getting nervous. "What do you mean?" "They're all dead!" she screamed hysterically. "All of them! Everyone!" She sank down to the floor, shaking. I looked out the window and a horrible shiver went through my entire body. It was a massacre. Everyone who was out there, having a good time, enjoying the celebration, was dead. Blood covered the entire street, it was everywhere. The decapitated heads of children who wore horrified expressions, probably what they looked like right before they were killed, the corpses of husbands, fathers, who died, shielding their families from the inevitable death they would soon face. I could stand to look anymore, right when I was about to turn away, something caught my eye. A word. It was too far away to read from the inn, so I left the room. "Vash!" Jaime shouted. "Don't go! You may get killed next!" I smiled frailly. It was nice that she was worried about me, I guess, and under a normal circumstance I would've cracked a joke, but, if you couldn't tell, this was not a normal circumstance. All I could do was force a smile. "I'll be okay." I said. What a horrible thing for a person to see. Especially a child. She was probably scarred. I know I was. The massacre didn't just occur outside, but inside the inn as well. The halls were bloodstained. It was smeared onto the walls from people who had fallen into them, struggling to keep their lives. You could tell who had struggled. They were the ones who had multiple wounds to their bodies, some in the chest, some in the neck and some in the heads. I went outside and saw in even greater and more horrifying detail what had happened. I wasn't sure how they were killed, wasn't gunshot wounds nor Angel Arm, because if it was the latter, both myself and Jaime would've been killed. She was only alive because she was in my room, with me. I walked towards were I saw the word written. It was his mark. His sign, showing that he was the proud murderer of all of these innocent people. His name, written in big bold letters. His ink, blood, his canvas, some poor, unsuspecting building, that would have to bear the burning mark, like a cow in a ranch, until someone came and cleaned it. It read: KNIVES. Plain and simple. This was my brother, my kin, but I hated him so much. I felt that I could kill him for what he had done. I felt them come. The tears of my anger and grief. Slow at first, like a stopped up tap, but they soon flowed as freely as a waterfall. I grieved for them, for they had no one left to grieve for them. Then I sensed it. I felt his presence. Knives was still in the city. I ran back towards the inn, hoping, praying, that I wasn't' too late.
{Dun-dun-dun! Do I smell a cliffhanger? What happened next? I have no clue, I still have to make it. **grins stupidly** I hoped you enjoyed it. Kind of macabre and dark though. Should I make the story permanently dark, or lighten in up some? }
