Chapter 4 Build Up
They say all lies eventually lead to one truth. Well, is that a lie? Or is it true? If it's a lie, then where is the truth? How can we tell the truth if we won't even listen to the truth as it flies through the air, slinging it's message in the face of all those who have tried so hard to make things better by creating lies. Just a little philosophy for you to think about.
"Tell me dammit! You know! And don't feed me lies like you have been for last how many years! I want to know this time!"
Vash stared for a moment in the eyes of the desperate youth in front of him. It shouldn't be like this. He shouldn't want to know. He shouldn't have to tell him. It wasn't time yet. Why couldn't they just not know anything and then they could all live happily?! Vash was at a complete loss. He didn't know anything that he could say to make all the lies of the years built up right. There was nothing that could ever make it right. But then, had he ever thought there was?
Blake punched the table, sending slivers flying from the hard wood top. "Who was that psycho? What's wrong Vash, can't get yourself to tell me what you thing of me? You know I'm some sort of monster!"
Again, Vash sat in silence, trying not to break under the looming pain and grief that was hanging over him like a dark cloud.
"Why do I look so much like you? I have no features that resemble Iris, and yet I'm not really a plant like you am I? What the hell am I Vash? Tell me!! Who is Blair!"
"Honey, I bought some of your favorite doughnuts at the store-"
Iris stopped midsentence as soon as she stepped into the kitchen. The grocery bag fell the floor, the goods it had held ruined. She look terrified. Not because the table was ruined. But somehow, she seemed to sense the pain that was clinging to her husband's face and the torment that was gripping Blake's sole.
He lowered his gaze. She couldn't be his mother. But then why did it hurt so much every time he hurt her? When he was younger and he didn't get his way, he would scream that he hated her, and she would fall to her knees and hold her head tightly, as if some unseen thing were trying to wrench it apart.
No, it wasn't what he said to her.
He had done something to her.
Blake choked back a sob as he looked at her stunned face. He turned and ran out.
"Blake, wait!!"
Vash scrambled to get out of his chair but fell to the floor. "Dammit!" Iris knelt beside him to try and help him to his feet. Vash looked at her face. She was calm and composed.
The city they lived in was a small, dug in city, living within a giant pothole surrounded by desert. Blake often scaled the walls of the basin to sit at the top. If you wanted to see a great sunset, this was the place to be. But now, he came here to think. He pressed his memory hard. What was it that he did to Iris? What was that he had done to the bartender the other night that compelled him to give him a drink?
He pushed.
That was it. There was something in his mind, some force, and he could push it out towards someone, and they bent to his will.
But.
What the hell did that mean?
His head was pounding now. But the sound was hollow, not the sound of blood rushing through veins, but it was something that was pulsing. It was something that was alive, wasn't it?
It wasn't just his head. His whole body ached. A sudden exhaustion had come over. Perhaps it was climbing the 200 foot wall that hid the small town from outside pain, but even when he was younger, scaling the wall had never been any trouble for him. Then what? Had the encounter with-whatever-that-guy's-name-was-wear him out? No. It wasn't that. And Lord knows he had had enough sleep. So what then?
He didn't know. He couldn't figure it out. It was something that was weighing on his mind so heavily, it stopped all logical thought process. His eyes fluttered softly as sleep began to catch on his eyelids. His head nodded a few times and he tried to shake himself awake. He didn't want to sleep, he still had so many things he had to think about!
But he oculdn't fight it any longer, and why even bother? He let his eyes close, and let his head fall to the side to the ground.
But apparently he had been sitting next to a hill. His head met the "ground" sooner than it should have, and the "ground" was warm.
And soft.
And wonderfully smooth.
"Could you please get off my shoulder?" The voice was so light, so smooth. He would never forget, no matter how much he hated blood and blood relations and all that stuff that said that marriage inside the family was bad and so forth.
"Sorry."
A silence followed. There wasn't much to say.
Except.
"You're still laying on me."
Finally, and with no small amount of effort, Blake moved. Pain shot through his head and he doubled over, falling merely inches from the edge of the cliff. One roll and he would have a ticket to the ride of a lifetime. One that would send him hurtling down through the air and leave him six feet underground. Sorry folks. Can't ride that one twice though.
Kira grabbed his shoulders and pulled him away from the edge and pulled his head into her lap. She tucked her hair behind her ear so she could see into his face properly.
Blake opened one eye, and as he studied her features, marveling at how the red sun made a halo around her dark hair, he found all his pain disappearing.
"Are you okay?" She seemed genuinely worried.
Well, he wished she did. Really, she seemed skeptical. Silly girl probably thought that he was faking it so she would be nice to him.
Normally, and he was tempted to do so even under the current circumstances, he wanted to answer her, "now that you're here I am."
But he couldn't speak. He didn't want to. He closed eyes, certain that the peace he felt was on account of his soul leaving his body and that any moment now he would find himself going down a long dark tunnel to some fucking brighter-than-the-sun light to find some pompous I'm-holier-than-you creator.
"You're not gonna fall asleep and leave me like this are you?" But he was already gone. She sighed. He was cute. Somehow, she couldn't believe that she was related to him. The way things were, it just didn't seem right to her.
Well, you know the drill, please review for me!