Author's Note: This chapter takes place the day after Meryl's birthday and over the course of two days. I hope this clears up any unwanted confusion as you read the chapter. Thank you!
Chapter 7: Dreams and Premonitions
She screamed. Meryl sat up in bed, soaked with sweat. She closed her eyes tightly attempting to forget. "That dream…" she muttered, running a hand through her damp hair.
The door opened quickly revealing the barely dressed Vash in a spout of deep breathing. "Are you ok, Meryl? I heard a scream," he asked regaining voice.
Meryl forced a smile. "Yeah, Vash. I'm fine." She sighed and looked at the clock, which read 12:38PM. "Damn! I'm late for work!" She shot out of bed in just her white sleep shirt, which she pulled off in a matter of moments.
Vash noticed that some of her minor scars had healed and the major ones were showing signs of fading. Meryl realized that he was still in her room and she was naked except for lacy black underwear. "Vash!" she squealed, immediately covering her chest. She slipped into her waitress uniform quickly, but couldn't quite pull the zipper up all the way. She zipped it up as far as she could and ran out the door almost forgetting her shoes.
Meryl dashed out of the front door, scurried down the porch steps, and darted through the busy streets until she reached the town's saloon. She stopped suddenly realizing what day it was.
The tall gunman sat on a rocking chair in front of the house door watching Meryl stomp back. "Long time no see, Meryl!" he called out teasingly.
"Oh shut up, Vash!" she practically growled. One sleeve was slipping off of her shoulder with her haste to get out of the house. Vash noticed that in her hurry to leave she had forgotten to wear a bra. Her uniform was practically falling off, showing the two perfect hills of her breasts.
The woman of his thoughts disappeared into the house, but not from his mind. The traces of her body lingered in his head. He groaned and cradled his forehead in his hands. "Why am I such a pervert?" he whined.
Meryl's form could be seen shaking, wrapped tightly in white sheets. She didn't bother putting her nightshirt back on. The lights were off and the blinds shut against the glare of the suns.
That dream. It surrounded her, refusing hold of her mind. She cried, trying to forget. Trying. Crying. Her vision blurred, fading to that ghastly scene…
Children's bloody tears. Red clouds raining death. Corpses strewn about the blood-soaked dirt. And a long figure, with glowing yellow eyes.
She gasped for air and wiped at her sweat-beaded brow thankful for the cool sheets and lack of outerwear. The clock read 1:27AM. Her eyebrows furrowed. How was that possible? That would mean she slept practically a whole day away, miscounting the little mishap with Vash about being late for work. Yet she still felt so tired. After some more minutes of dosing off and waking up to every little night sound, she decided it was best for her to get up.
"You couldn't sleep, either, Meryl?"
The short woman had already stepped out of her room and into the cooled hallway after replacing her thin nightwear. She turned to her right and saw Millie protruding from another doorway. "No… I was just going into the kitchen to make some coffee for myself. Would you like to join me?"
"That would be wonderful, Meryl. And we can talk about why we can't get to sleep." Millie smiled.
Meryl felt that she would rather not talk about her dream to anyone, but she walked with Millie into the kitchen nonetheless. Millie sat at the table waiting as Meryl silently put the coffee powder into a filter and the filter into the coffee maker. After pouring water in along with the powder and turning the machine on, she sat across from her old friend, or well… an old friend of just a year in Meryl's memory.
"So, Meryl, dear, what's been bothering you?" the blonde woman asked.
Violet eyes directed downward finding the table instantly very interesting. "Um… just… I just couldn't get to sleep…" on account of this recurring nightmare about dead people and blood and this tall man with yellow glowing eyes! But was it a man? Meryl could never figure it out. There was something written between the lines of this dream and every time Meryl thought she understood, the meaning just slipped from her mind's grasp.
"Oh…" Millie understood and accepted that Meryl wasn't yet ready to divulge her inner secrets quite yet. "Well, the reason I can't get to sleep is because I'm so worried about Nicholas and Mr. Knives!"
Meryl looked up. "Why? Are they sick or something?" she asked obliviously.
Millie tilted her head in question. "Um, no, Meryl. Nicholas and Mr. Knives left for December after your birthday party. Don't you remember?"
Meryl delved into her memory, trying to extract any remnant of that fact. She could only recall the fact that Knives and Wolfwood were nowhere to be seen when she woke up in the afternoon the other day. "That's strange," said Meryl. "I don't remember at all."
"That is strange, Meryl. Maybe you were just tired, is all," Millie suggested.
"That would be a plausible explanation. What is their business in December?" Meryl asked.
Millie's features darkened, which only happened on very rare occasions if ever, but Meryl did not notice with only the moonlight to see by. "I-I don't know," Millie replied. "They mentioned something about someone, but I can't seem to bring to mind the what or the who!" she laughed uncomfortably.
The gurgling of the coffee maker ceased, signaling that the coffee was ready. Meryl made a move to get up, but Millie stopped her. "Don't worry. I've got it!" she said with her usual smile. If Meryl were as perceptive as Millie was, she would have sensed the tall girl's smile was a fake one. Upon turning her back, Millie frowned remembering her conversation with the men.
"It wouldn't hurt to try," said Wolfwood.
"I don't know about that," Knives muttered. "These things are hardly safe to play around with. And how do we know it will work?"
"We just have to have faith, Mr. Knives. If we really want our Meryl back, we need faith."
Vash had been silent up until this moment. "She doesn't care for me like I care for her. The way she looks at me…"
"She loves you Mr. Vash. I know she does," Millie reassured him.
"Not in the way I want her to. Not in the way I need her to. Not in the way she used to love me…" Vash whispered.
"You see, Knives, we've got to try. For your brother's sake."
Knives looked at Wolfwood knowing that that excuse was hardly sufficient enough to convince him to travel all the way to December on a whim. "Alright," he sighed. "I'll go. I'm going for Vash, though. Not for his woman."
Wolfwood chuckled, knowing very well that Knives' leaving was just to get out of the house and away from Vash, who would be staying.
Millie recalled the look on Vash's face… the sadness in his eyes… how he actually looked his age for the first time since Millie had known him. "It's settled then!" Millie clapped her hands excitedly. "Nicholas dear, you and Mr. Knives will go to December. Vash will stay here with Meryl and I."
Vash looked up. "Meryl must not know. This is of utmost importance. It won't work if she knows what's going on. Millie? You are the one she is closest to. Don't let her ask too many questions. I'll do the same. Wolfwood? Knives? Hurry."
And here it was, the moment that Vash had warned her about. Millie didn't know what to say. She poured the coffee into two identical black mugs and brought them back to the table.
"Thank you," Meryl smiled, receiving the warm mug in her hands and taking a slow sip. "When will they be back?" she asked.
Millie blinked. "Um… I don't know. You should ask Mr. Vash. I think he knows more than I do." She giggled.
"Last question," Meryl grinned. Millie tensed. "Why do you always call Vash, 'Mr.'? It's so… formal."
Relieved, Millie returned the smile. "Old habits die hard, I suppose." They laughed. Millie took a drink of her coffee.
"How did you meet Vash, anyway?" Meryl inquired. The tall woman choked on the hot drink almost spitting it out. "Are you ok?"
Millie nodded and swallowed the scalding beverage. "You do ask a lot of questions, don't you?" She wasn't ready for this conversation. "Hey look at that little light outside!"
Meryl turned to where Millie had pointed and saw nothing at first. She looked back to see an empty seat and a steaming mug of coffee, but no Millie. Meryl sighed. "That woman is odd…" She stood up from her chair and brought her mug of coffee to a cushioned seat just below the window that Millie had pointed to as an evacuation tactic.
Her short black hair shined in the fading moonlight. Dawn was beginning to break over the horizon of the desert. Meryl sat staring absently out the window, taking occasional sips of her black coffee, enjoying the solitude. Her eyes caught sight of two yellow specks of light in the distance. She blinked once and found herself face to face with the crazy-eyed visage of a man with yellow eyes and a paler than death face. His stark black shaggy hair contrasted sharply against his skin. He grinned evilly. Meryl gasped loudly and fell backward off her seat with a loud thunk. The mug shattered on impact, splattering hot coffee on Meryl's chest and all over the wooden floor. Meryl sat heaving, clutching her heart with her eyes shut remembering… remembering…
"Meryl!" She opened her eyes. The window was empty, the soft light of sunrise streaming into the room. She stood on shaky legs and took a step; unfortunately on multiple ceramic shards. She hissed in pain and held her foot. Meryl could feel herself tilt off balance and fall to the ground. She closed her eyes awaiting collision. It didn't happen.
Vash caught her and lifted her away from the dangerous fragments. He sat her down on the kitchen chair she had been sitting at just hours before with Millie. He examined her bleeding foot. "This doesn't look to bad. I'm more worried about the big lump on your head." He chuckled. "Just wait here for me to get the first aid kit." Meryl nodded and Vash left for a moment. Meryl trained her gaze on the floor, avoiding the window at all costs.
He returned holding a small tan canvas bag. Kneeling in front of the frightened woman, he began using tweezers to gently remove the shards imbedded into her foot. Meryl winced, momentarily forgetting the man in the window.
After disinfecting her cuts and bandaging them, Vash moved up to her bruised head. "You had quite a fall, Meryl. You hit your head right on the floor. What scared you?"
Meryl looked into his aqua orbs. "What makes you think I was scared?" she whispered.
Vash smiled. "Well, it's a reflex for people to hold their hands out to prevent injury in a fall. You were too –I don't know– shocked to stop the fall. Your head collided with the ground instead of your hands." His eyes portrayed understanding but his mind was experiencing inner turmoil. Meryl was shaking. Meryl was bleeding. Meryl was gasping for breath. Something was seriously wrong. It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure it out.
"I-I saw something. I saw someone… in the window…" she murmured.
Vash looked out the only open window and saw nothing. "There's nothing there, Meryl."
Meryl frowned. "I know that! It just came and went when I blinked."
"You're just tired. Maybe you were hallucinating," Vash suggested.
The short woman stood up angrily and grimaced from the pain in her foot. "I was…" she groaned and sat back down in a very unladylike fashion. "I was not hallucinating! I know what I saw!" she countered.
Silence reigned between them. Vash blushed, noticing the position they were in. He was on his knees practically between Meryl's open legs, her nightshirt riding up, her bare thighs taunting him. She was unaware of the impropriety. Vash stood up and took a step backward.
Meryl observed his movements with a lack of interest. He began to talk to her while cleaning up the remains of the shattered mug. "You're right, Meryl. You weren't hallucinating. I don't think you should go to work tomorrow seeing as there's some random person watching you through the front window at dawn. Besides, you can barely walk. We'll just tell your boss that you're injured and can't make it." Vash swept the shards into a dustpan and pushed them into the garbage. "It's Sunday! You can relax and I'll cater to you all day. Does that sound like a plan?"
Meryl had to admit. She couldn't complain about being waited on. So she complied. "I'll just stay in my room and wait for you." She stood up carefully resting the majority of her weight on her unharmed foot.
Vash ignored the sexual innuendo of that sentence. "Do you need any help?" he asked, watching her limp slowly down the hall.
"No, I'm ok," she replied. She soon reached the door to her room. It was open. 'I was sure I closed this last night…' she mused. 'Oh well.' She entered the dark and empty room, closing the door behind her. She made her way to the bed by supporting herself on the walls.
Only after slipping comfortably under the covers did she relax. A handsome man was going to hang on her every word. She smiled dreamily and sighed. A frown settled on her lips as she felt a tingle down her spine. She brushed it off, but felt it again the next moment.
Meryl rolled over in bed to rid herself of the unnerving and incessant feeling. Her eyes were closed. She opened them to see the sharp features of a dreadfully familiar face. Before she could cry for help, the man with yellow eyes clamped a rancid cloth over her nose and mouth. The world went black.