Rogue winced, “Thank you Vash but...”
“But what?”
Rogue sighed. “The ‘good folk’ of that last town stole everything I owned, including my money. I can’t afford a gun... hell, I don’t even have a change of clothing.“
Vash placed his hand on her shoulder. “Don’t worry. I’ll play. I’ll also cover some basic necessities, that way you can have some clean clothes and not the rags you’re wearing.”
“Hey!” Rogue exclaimed, “These are my normal clothes!”
Vash winced. “Ah... What I meant to say is some clothes that aren’t so battered and dirty!”
Rogue shrugged, and looked down at her tattered, thread bare, outfit. “Doesn’t matter. These are rags. I just don’t like to reminded of stuff like that.” She looked back up to Vash, and said, “You’re lucky you know. You have a skill that you can feed yourself with... don’t even try and tell me that you don’t hire out.”
Vash nodded. “You’d be surprised how many jobs don’t require killing.”
Rogue nodded. “Have you ever killed anyone, Vash?”
Vash shook his head. “I’ve been lucky enough not to have had to.”
Rogue looked down, a cast of shame across her features. “I see...”
Vash stopped walking and looked at his teenage companion. “Rogue, have you?”
Rogue stopped and sighed deeply. “Yes... I killed a man?”
“What happened?” asked Vash.
“He tried to rape me,” Rogue stated. “When he touched me, I used my power on him… He held on for a long time when I was draining him. Maybe his muscles locked, but by the time I got him off, I don’t think he was breathing.” Rogue’s voice became cold as she continued, “After that I made sure he’d never breath again. I took a brick and a I smashed his head in, then I stripped him of everything of any possible value and fled. It makes me feel sick to think about it.”
Vash solemnly nodded. “I can imagine. The guilt of taking a life must be hard.”
Rogue shook her head. “It’s not the guilt of killing him. It’s the fact that there is no guilt that makes me sick.” Rogue turned to Vash, tears starting to well in her eyes. “I saw into his mind. I saw what he planed to do. He was ‘testing me out’. If I ‘passed’, he was going to sell me into slavery. If I didn’t, he was going to kill me. If he really ‘liked’ me he was going to ‘keep me’. I was so angry about what he was trying to do and what was planning to do that my vision just went red... maybe it still is, but it’s hard to consider people like that human.”
Vash looked at the girl in front off him, and looked her dead in the eyes, “I’m sorry, Rogue. I’m sorry you had to go through that and I’m sorry you had to do what you did.”
Rogue smiled shyly, blushed slightly, and said, “Thank you, Vash. It’s nice to know that in this cold, cruel, irradiated world, there are still people who care about others.”
“Hey, Rogue!” exclaimed Vash, breaking her out of little trance. “I think I see a town!”
Rogue turned around and squinted her eyes to get a better look.
See other episodes by PsyckoSama
(Posted Wed, 04 Jun 2003 21:59)
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