Chapter Text
There was something outside the car window. Now, this wasn’t an unusual occurrence, many things can be outside a car window. Rocks, animals, hell- even people. But this was something . Too bright to make out, it circled around the vehicle slowly, lurching forward with what could only be assumed as steps. Its form was large but not very solid, the mass rumbling and shifting as it moved.
Round and round and round it went, like a prowling cat. She breathed slowly, shaky, and hard through her nose. Each inhale made whistling wind echo in her ears, and she prayed whatever was outside couldn’t hear through the glass. All was silent and dark, save for her and the something . Even the dust clouds had grounded themselves, gales of the empty desert dying with a halting whimper.
She had driven out in a huff earlier on a low battery, riding on adrenaline and white-hot anger. On her laptop screen was a downsizing email from her boss, CC’d to no one else. She slammed it shut and ran outside, balling her keys into a fist to feel the metal chew on her palm. Tearing into the night from city streets to dirt to sand and dunes. She didn’t care where she ended up so long as she got there fast and with her music blaring. She now sat in the driver's seat, staring at a white-hot monster padding around her jeep and inching closer with each circle.
Its gait was almost like man, but wherever its feet might’ve lain was obscured by bright white trailing things that disturbed the sand into little valleys like a rake. She didn’t dare whip around to watch it circle behind her, instead slowly moving her head to keep track of it with her mirrors. Sweat beaded on her temples, neck, and brow.
She swallowed dryly. Why didn’t she think to bring a gun?
It stopped on the right side of the car.
Then it turned to look at her.
She couldn’t even place what parts of it made her want to cover her face and start crying.
The bright mass which once shielded it in a more palatable form parted and revealed a wretched interior. It was longer than a man, lithe and frightening. Skin so pale that the light from the shuddering collection of limbs sprouting from its back seemed to make it glow as well. It wore a mockery of clothing, tattered tan rags hanging limply from its slumped shoulders and bony hips.
It stepped forward.
All over its (mostly) revealed skin, however, were a haphazard smattering of deep red splotches and jagged lines, as if a child were given a box of crayons to mar it with. Where she would’ve expected its left arm to be, only a bare and broken stump remained.
It stepped forward.
It was gaunt and sickly with ears coming to a slight point. Its eyes were piercing blue, neither pupil nor iris to give room for a hint of intention.
It stood outside her passenger side door.
She stared, jaw agape and body fully turned towards it. The interior of the car was lit up like daytime, the desert of the night unfocused into an inky, unadjusted darkness on the edges of her vision.
It put its hand against the window and bent down at the hip, looking inside.
She couldn’t tell if it was looking at her , much like how one cannot tell the direction of an insect’s focus, but those eyes sent her brain scrambling and screaming. She was frozen like a cornered mouse.
They stayed like this for what felt like years, then the freeze response within her snapped like a rubber band.
She swallowed.
It blinked, far too much like a human. There was a fine black dot under its left eye, like a period marked in ink.
Her breaths were ragged and deep, but she willed them into relative stillness.
“Are you going to kill me?” She asked the apparition-white thing in front of her.
Slowly, too slowly, it shook its head.
The breath left her lungs then. “Jesus fucking christ.” She fell backwards onto the inner panel of the driver-side door. She regained her bearings bit by bit, then the questions buzzed through her brain and out her mouth. “What are you? Can you hear me through the window? Why are you trying to scare me? Do you know what I’m saying?”
One side of its mouth pulled down into a frown, then it tapped on the window with a too-long index finger.
She furrowed her brow as her eyes flitted between the hand and its face. “The window?”
It nodded, still too slow.
“Oh, I- wait-” something gave her pause as she reached for the button to roll it down. “Why do you want it open if you can hear me?”
It opened its mouth, revealing the sharp maw within briefly, as if it wanted to speak. Instead, it stood up and backed away from the car, only to sit down a few feals away on the sand. Draping its arm over its knees, it turned once again to look at her.
With the car returned to its normal brightness, it became harder to look at again. She clambered over the center console into the passenger seat to not lose track of it. Despite her brain screaming otherwise, she relented, opening the window a crack.
“Can you hear me now?” She called through the crack, then sat back down to wait for an answer.
It nodded like it wasn’t sure how to do so.
What are you doing here?
“ Oh my God !!” The words slammed into her skull like a dodgeball. The voice was and wasn’t hers, deeper and a little sad. She fell backwards and clutched her hand over her eyes. “What the fuck !” She hissed.
Silence.
She slowly removed her hand from her face, only to be met with the daytime-bright interior of her car once again, and the
something
up against the window.
“ What the fuck !!” She screamed, scrambling back into the driver’s seat pathetically. “What the hell are you?!”
It opened its mouth again. “I’m Vash.” Its voice was soft and scratchy, as if it hadn’t spoken in a very long time. “Your car is out of power.” It added.
“That doesn’t tell me- I’m aware of that!” She snapped. “What are you?!”
It blinked, and suddenly its blank-slate-blue eyes were eerily human, sclera and all. “Just passing through.”
Her stomach dropped and she frowned deeply. “What are you doing here, frightening random women trying to be angry?!”
“What makes a lone woman angry enough to burn her battery out in the middle of the desert at night?”
Her frown turned to a scowl then. “You don’t get to judge me before you answer my questions!”
“You won’t like my answers,” it replied flatly, “most of them are I don’t know or I forgot .”
“You’re right, I don’t like those!”
“Can I ask you a question?”
“No!”
“What’s your name, miss…?”
She set her jaw, indignant. “This isn’t some scary demon/alien/monster soul contract thing, is it?”
“A what?” It huffed a laugh.
She clucked her tongue. “Whatever. It’s Meryl.”
“Miss Meryl, nice to meet you. I’d shake your hand but I can’t reach through the sliver of an opening you’ve left me.”
“Your terrifying visage suggests otherwise!” She scoffed.
It shrugged. “When you wander long enough, you stop caring about how you look.”
“Okay Mr. Cryptic Creature-” she paused, “are you a Mister?”
“Sure.” Another shrug. “My name is Vash.”
“You said that already, Mr. Vash.”
“I assumed you didn’t get it the first time, calling me a creature.” He retorted.
Meryl pursed her lips. “Touche.”
He chuckled victoriously. “You wouldn’t mind letting me inside, would you? It’s pretty cold out here at night.”
She recoiled. “You gonna suck my blood or something?!”
“Last I checked I wasn’t a vampire.” He put his hand on his chin. “Actually, last I checked, vampires don’t exist.”
Good point. She sighed. “Don’t think you’ll fit. If you can slough off those… whatever those things on your back are and a few feals of height you might be able to squeeze in, though.”
He nodded. “Guess you’re right, shouldn’t be too much of an issue. Just a sec’.”
“Huh?”
He stood up to his full height again, head and shoulders disappearing above the window frame. The light illuminating the car gradually began to dim as his skin gained a few shades of color to an almost-human pink. The light behind him was all but gone, leaving Meryl’s eyes struggling to adjust as he began to… shrink. By the time her eyes caught up, his chin was just below the upper window frame, his tattered clothes looking to be a much better fit.
“Any better?”
She blinked. “Um. Do you pinkie promise you won’t murder me? If you do and then you kill me you’ll go to hell forever or whatever.”
“If you open the window enough for me to, sure.”
She lurched forward and once again pressed down the button to lower the window. Satisfied with the amount of space she’d left, she held her hand outside, pinkie extended.
He followed suit, locking their fingers. His hand was still just a little too large, but it looked proportional to the rest of him. “I solemnly swear on my right arm that I won't murder you. Besides, I’ve never killed anyone before.”
She let go, quickly bringing her hand back inside the car. “Well that’s good.”
They remained like this in silence for a moment.
“Um,” she leaned back, “okay, I’ll let you in.” She turned around and hovered her finger over the unlock button. Everything in her mind was screaming at her to stop, to close the window and pretend he wasn’t there until morning. But then what? The car wouldn’t charge on its own- she’d need to set up the solar panels, and she had no idea if he’d be gone by sunrise.
She sighed, then pressed the button.
The lock clicked, and the door’s handle clunked.
“Thank you very much Ms. Meryl!” He ducked down and sat in the passenger’s seat. He looked scrunched up until he found the lever to adjust the legroom and pushed it as far back as it went.
She turned towards him, face painted with dread.
He was much less terrifying at least? There still hung an undoubtable air of offness about him, but he was very much so human looking. A mop of loose, unkempt blonde hair spilled just to his shoulders. The gaunt, sickly presentation was brought to a more manageable level for Meryl’s mental health.
He leaned forward to look at her. “You alright?”
She nodded curtly. “Um, sure.” As alright as she could hope to be, considering the circumstances.
“So you wanna tell me why you’re out here now?”
She bunched up her knees to her chest and rested her arms on them. “I guess it wouldn’t be that bad if I told you, strange desert demon.”
“My name is Vash.” Said Vash.
“I got fired earlier.” She said into her arms.
"
Oh?”
“Yeah,” she started, “A small local paper, but I worked there for five years without complaint! Five !”
“Oh.”
“Yeah- yeah!” She shot her hands in front of her. “Like, I get that my department was kind of small, and I didn’t really talk to anyone outside of work stuff, but I did good work! It was good, honest work!”
“What did you do?”
“Mostly proofreading, but I did little things around the office too- jack of all trades, you know?”
“Sure, sure.” He nodded emphatically.
She put her head down. “I mean, I have some money saved up, but this was without warning! Cruel and unusual I say!”
“You’re very eloquent for someone mad enough to gas off into the desert without a full tank.”
“Thank you, it comes with the job. Came with. Ugh.” She massaged her scalp in frustration.
“Hm.” He sighed. “Well I’m sure you’ll find somewhere better in time.”
“Yeah, yeah.” She heaved her shoulders with a dramatic sigh. “No offense but I’ll have to take your well-wishes with a grain of salt, I might even be dreaming right now- or uh- having a nightmare?” She looked around. “I did get fired. And you did scare me.”
Vash cleared his throat. “Um, yeah. Sorry about that one.” He trailed off, but snapped back to the present. “Hey, you want me to charge your car? I can’t give it enough juice to run but I can get the radio going-”
“And how do you intend- actually- probably better if I don’t know. Sure.”
He offered a weak smile. “You’ve got a cigarette lighter, right? I can just use that.”
“Oh, uh, yeah. Never really use it though…” She leaned towards the console and opened the hatch on its charging ports, revealing two regular outlets and a cigarette lighter. “Here you go.”
A small light snaked and circled its way down Vash’s arm. Stretching out and reaching forward, it inched toward the cigarette lighter. It must’ve been a small bit of those violently bright things sprouting from his back earlier. Meryl watched it go in, and the dashboard flickered to life. Another moment, and her radio began blaring a heavy metal riff so loud that the car shook.
“SO YOU LIKE HEAVIER MUSIC?” He shouted over the deluge of sound.
“SORRY!” Meryl panicked and launched onto the volume dial, turning it down as fast as she possibly could. Relative silence returned, accompanied by a quiet, low hum of electricity and LCD screens. She cleared her throat. “I was, uh, pretty mad.”
He scoffed then laughed once, revealing the same sharp teeth as earlier. “I can tell!”
She sunk back into her seat with embarrassment. “You can um… tune it however you want. I’ll listen to whatever.” She said meekly.
He nodded, reaching forward to fiddle with the radio. As he flicked through the stations, Meryl’s attention went back to the softly-glowing white thing which supposedly turned it on.
“So, uh…”
“Hm?” He paused to look at her, stopping the scroll on a poorly transmitting station playing some kind of huapango.
“What’s…” She pointed at it. “What’s that?”
“Um, me?” He tilted his head. “Don’t touch it though, you’ll get shocked.”
“Oh, okay.” She withdrew, and Vash went back to flicking through the stations.
“I haven’t been able to use a radio in a while.” He mused.
“Really? How long?” She looked him and his tattered clothes up and down. “Actually, how long have you been out here in general?”
“The radio? A few years. As for the other, I-” he paused, “I don’t actually know.”
“Well you seem awfully worldly for a roving desert monster.”
“Vash.” He corrected. He stopped the radio on a station playing some chintzy pop song she didn’t recognise.
“Named Vash.” She added. “So do you live around here, then?”
“Um,” he balked, “somewhere… Yeah.” He settled.
“Weird way to say yes, but I’ll take you at face value.” She bunched up her knees to her chest again. “Thanks for… listening I guess. It was nice to vent a little. Even if I’m still not really sure what you… are.”
He nodded. “You’re welcome, not too many people come out this way.”
She shrugged. “It’s 45 minutes in the opposite direction from any nearby towns or cities, makes sense.”
“You only had 45 minutes of juice left in your car?”
“I’m a busy girl!” She harrumphed. “Was. Was a busy girl.” She went back to her balled-up position. “Do you mind if I come back here again?”
He blinked, taken aback. “Really? All the way out here?”
She nodded. “Yeah, I don’t really talk to anyone like this except for a few friends, but they’re always busy…”
“Oh, so I’m just convenient.” There was a twinge of relief in his voice.
“ No . You scared the shit out of me, but you’re alright to talk to.” She shrugged. “Seems like you don’t get much company anyway.”
He deflated. “Well you’re not wrong .”
“Great. I’ll probably be around here tomorrow too, once I’ve got my affairs at work in order. If this isn’t a nightmare, of course.” She looked at him up and down. “And I’ll bring you some fresh threads. You like em’ baggy or stretchy?”
“You don’t-”
“I want to. You look like you crawled out of a dumpster.” She opened her glove compartment and retrieved a small notepad and pen. “Baggy or stretchy?”
He blinked. “... Baggy.”
“Color?” She peered up at him.
“Um- I like red? But I really don’t have a preference-”
“Red and baggy,” she scratched away at the notepad, “got it.” She placed both items back in her glovebox and closed it. “So, Mr. Vash, you got any hobbies?”
He opened his mouth to speak, then shook his head. “Um, thank you.”
She waved her hand. “It’s a pity purchase, don’t expect the most exquisite of silks or whatever.” She waggled her fingers for emphasis.
“Appreciate it either way…” He trailed off. “So you’ve got other friends? What’re they like?”
“Oh! Um…” Meryl put her hand on her chin. “There’s Nicholas. He’s kind of a vagabond, when he’s in town we talk all the time, but he’s away for now. He does temporary work, chasing money and stuff.”
Vash nodded.
“Then there’s Milly, nicest person I know I think, she works at the same place I… worked at.” She frowned. “Different department though, she was in sales. Kind of an airhead but really funny.” She paused. “And there’s Livio too, he’s Nicholas’s adopted brother, we’re more of acquaintances though. He’s nice- kind of quiet.”
“That all?”
“Wh-
rude
!” She crossed her arms. “I’m friends with all of Milly’s family, too…”
“Oh I see.”
“She’s got a big family.”
“Yeah?”
“
Yeah
.” She said defensively. “What about you, Mr. Wanders the Desert to Scare People and Make Small Talk?”
“Mr. Vash.” Said Vash. “I guess… You?” He pointed at her and shrugged. “You’re the first person to actually humor my small talk in a really long time.”
“Not like I had many other options.” She said, deadpan. “Ah well, maybe if you turn out to not murder me enough, I can take you back to the city I’m from or something.” She pulled the lever to adjust her seats incline and laid back as far as it went. “Domesticate ya’, make you a real boy or whatever happens in Pinocchio.”
“Would that make you the blue fairy?”
“I don’t know, I don’t think I’m the one with glowing blue eyes and… were those wings?” She gestured vaguely towards his back.
He turned around to see where she motioned to then realized what she meant. “Oh! Um, yeah. Kind of?”
She sighed, the adrenaline winding down into pitiful exhaustion. “That’s cool.” She turned to him. “Hey, you wont kill me if I go to sleep, right? It’s 2 A.M. and I usually go to sleep at, like, 11:30.”
“No!” He said defensively.
“Awesome.” She got more comfortable in her seat, curling up facing the window. “G’night I guess.”
“Um, good night Meryl.”
She then faded off into a dreamless (kind of chilly) sleep.