Chapter 4
Meryl was standing outside the hospital. Thinking about the craziness that happened. An arm came around her shoulder. Meryl jumped away from it. Vash, who's arm it was, looked a bit hurt.
"Meryl you can't be mad at me."
"I'm... I'm not." Meryl turned away from him looking up at the clouds, the sun was going down. "I'm just scared something weird is going on Vash and I'm feeling like I can trust anyone."
Vash tried again. Meryl didn't seem to pull away this time but just laid her head onto his shoulder. "Meryl, me too. This doesn't seem to make any sense."
Meryl's eyes looked up at Vash. Meryl saw some of the surrounding buildings behind him and looked at the birds on the roof. They were pretty birds up there, you didn't seem them often. In fact, it was a lot of birds. The birds were covering all the surrounding buildings. "Vash what kind of birds are those?"
Vash looked up at the birds himself. His face stayed very serious. "I um... well they don't all look the same. Look closely."
Meryl put her arms around Vash's stomach and pushed her face into his chest. "I feel like I'm going crazy Vash."
"I know the feeling."
-
Manager Joe Radmyr was so happy with life right now. The town got shot up by some woman! Who cared though? Not him, he didn't care at all! This whole thing came off as a stunt put on by the circus and people were pumped for some of the gun shows. Even better was that the circus was ready.
Mr. Radmyr was a small man standing in his red circus coat. White, balding, and overweight he found himself not being popular sexually. It didn't matter though. Mr. Radmyr had a cigar in his mouth and money would soon be in his pocket. The world was his oyster! He was looking out the window of the inn. Sliding almost shut his eyes peeked out at the unusual amount of birds that were sitting on the roofs of the buildings nearby the Inn.
"Heard of my carnival guys?" Mr Radmyr walked over to the dresser the inn provided him. 'Scotch is a lovely thing', so he thought to himself. He poured himself a glass. "A toast to me and my circus." he called to the birds jokingly.
"Got another glass?" a deep voice said.
Mr. Radmyr jumped in fright. "You startled me, no you may not have my scotch!" He plucked the cigar out of his mouth and turned to look at the tall man he'd never seen before in his life. "You're not Carlos..."
"No I'm not. Do you have another glass?" The man he was looking at stood very tall in a large black trench coat. Along with the wrest of his clothing it all seemed horridly aged and was covered in rips. He wore all black, and a large black slouch hat.
The man was immense! He stepped forward and Mr. Radmyr tried to speak but only got out "I.. I... I.."
The man's nose seemed to reach out to point at everything he looked at. His eyes were the site to see. He obviously was blinded in some sort of disgusting... accident? I didn't look like an accident it looked like something very very sick. He obviously could see, but not very well at all. A tapping went on at Mr. Radmyr's window. He walked passed Mr. Radmyr opening the window. Birds flew in, mostly crows but some were brown spotted birds. Most landed on his shoulders but what didn't found other perches. None landed on Mr. Radmyr, but all the crows kept their eyes on him. One on his shoulder leaned in and it looked like it whispered in his ear.
"Give me a glass Mr. Radmyr!" The man turned to Mr. Radmyr's direction.
Mr. Radmyr jumped! He shakily grabbed his second glass and filled it with scotch, then handing it over to the large man. The last thing about the man that Mr. Radmyr noticed was the large scythe that was strapped to his back.
"The circus must be closed." The man said almost to himself as he was handed the glass.
Mr. Radmyr lost fear and stomped. "What?! Why?!"
The man sat down on the bed, still towering over Mr. Radmyr, and took a sip of the scotch. "I'm having enough trouble finding her in this mess, without more people coming to your circus."
"Who? Find who? What do you want from me you freak."
"You will do it, I don't care how, you'll do it or I'll kill you." A small brown spotted bird hopped on the man's shoulder and leaned in to whisper to his ear.
"I will not do it."
"Do it or I'll kill you." He said very calmly. Another sip was taken and he stood up holding the glass out to Mr. Radmyr. "Thank you for the scotch I must go now."
Mr. Radmyr took a large swallow of his scotch and nodded. Setting both his and the man's glass down onto the dresser he watched as the large horrifying man left his room.
-
The next day Milly got up early to go look at the setting up of the circus. Meryl and Vash lay in bed together. They didn't speak, they hadn't spoke much. They weren't mad at each other, things were just so awkward because of all that had happened.
Vash got up first, smiling down to Meryl. "I love you Meryl."
"I love you to Vash." Vash leaned down and Meryl grabbed his face. "You be safe Vash." She said giving him a soft kiss.
Vash nodded and left the room. After showering, spiking his hair up, and getting dressed he went for a walk. 'What am I gonna do' he thought to himself. 'Something must be going on, it must not be her.'
He heard a gun cock. Before it fired calculations ran through his head and he jumped aside. The gun fired again two more times, it was a revolver. Mary came running out of the ally at him but this time Vash had enough of this game. He turned and jumped forward into her. Her extended gun arm got caught into his armpit and he closed tight on her. She reached into her cloak but Vash grabbed her arm.
"Not this time Julia!" Vash exclaimed.
"Fuck you." Mary said and her knee flew into Vash's crotch with a large thump sound. Vash's grip on her loosed and she pulled out of his grip. Vash didn't lose all his stamina though. Vash whipped out his gun. The motion was also used to knock Mary's revolver to the side so that the shot she made fired away from him.
Mary kicked at his crotch again. Vash's legs jumped up to take the blow. Mary aimed to fire at Vash again but Vash shot her revolver almost knocking it out of her grip.
"You asshole!" It definitely wasn't Mary, her voice was totally different.
Julia turned and started to run back into the Ally she came from. Pulling up his gun the calculations ran through his head and he fired. The grip of the cloth on Julia's neck came loose and began to pull off of her quickly. Before it uncovered to much she reached up and gripped her face to hold it around herself. "Fuck fuck fuck!" She yelled, turning towards Vash.
Descending upon Vash with the quickness of an eagle a scythe came roaring down towards Vash's neck. Vash fell backwards and the scythe hit the ground kicking up sand and dust right next to his crotch. The man wielding the scythe was the most horrifying man Vash had ever seen. Birds filled the air squawking and flying around in circles over the scene.
"What the fuck! I'm out of here!" Julia turned to run down the Ally again before the Vash shot at her legs twice unwrapping more of her cloth and tripping her. The scythe pulled out of the ground swinging for Vash's neck again. Vash kicked backwards avoiding most of the blow. A little blood trickled down his neck. The man leaped tremendous heights away from Vash descending upon Julia. Julia screamed and her revolver went off into the man before he landed over her. He took a shot straight to the chest. It didn't stop him. Like death itself he reached out his large hand and grabbed her by the neck lifting her far into the air.
"My precious map... Finally."
Julia shot her last round into his chest again but he didn't falter, only stared at her with his scared up eyes. Julia's face slowly un-bandaged. It revealed her long black hair that was tied up tightly against her hair. It became very clear that the "Scar" on Julia's face was make up. Dropping the scythe he reached up to touch her face with his long bony fingers.
Vash was on his feet again and was running straight at the two. "Put her down what are you doing?!" He fired at the man. The man only took the shots and continued what he was doing.
"You have nothing to do with this, stay out of it you fool." He moved his hands across Julia's "scar" and slowly frowned. "You.... this is a trick. This is a trick!" His voice got louder. His grip became as tight as a closed lock. He let go just as Vash got up to start some sort of melee fight. A few fists were flung by Vash but the man just lifted up his arm and took the punches. Grabbing his scythe while Vash tried to stab him with his shoe knife the man jumped backwards again flying into the air like some sort of grasshopper and behind a building. Vash turned and looked at Julia. She was throwing up, and her bandages were undoing enough to make her almost to the point of half naked. The horror of a man would have to wait. Birds flew away following the man leaving Vash with Julia.
THE PLOT THICKENS DIDN'T EEET?!?!?!