Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Dark Majik ❯ The Fear ( Chapter 9 )

DISCLAIMER: I do not own DBZ.

~*~ Chapter 9 ~*~

Bulma was dancing with Goku, slow dancing to the tune of some far away eerie music, music that was so distant she could barely hear it. The tune of this music was so strange and foreboding that goose bumps spread over her skin and Bulma shivered. Goku wrapped his arms around her tighter and whispered something to her in a language she couldn't understand, but the tone of this voice was comforting and Bulma sank gratefully into his embrace.

She rested her head on his shoulder, rubbing her cheek against the rough material of his jacket as she looked around her with interest. They were surrounded by blackness, a thick oozing blackness that was so completely dark that Bulma felt as if they were actually inside some sort of monstrous cavern. Yet she could still see things in the dark, it was as though the light was selective about what it illuminated. She could see that the floor was polished darkness and that to their right in the darkness there was a red rose standing in a black crystal vase. The vase was standing on what looked like a coffin and Bulma shut her eyes tightly against the chill that started down her spine.

"Bulma, help me!" The frightened and familiar voice echoed quietly through the cavern and the ghostly music faded away until a frigid silence filled the air. With a shock Bulma realised that Goku was gone and that the darkness was closing in on her, taking the form of some huge shapeless beat that oozed blackness into the very air itself. She took a frightened step back and the cavern spun around her, re-positioning itself as though it had a mind of it's own. The coffin with the vase was in front of her now and the black demon was at her back, it's deep rumbling growl echoing deceptively soft around her, causing the hairs on the back of her neck to rise.

Bulma took a step towards the coffin, bands of fear tightening themselves around her chest as she heard the monster take a step towards her; it's claws clicking on the polished darkness of the floor. She took a deep breath and began to walk towards the coffin, placing one foot in front of the other. Around her the temperature seemed to drop the nearer she got to the coffin and her breath froze in the air in front of her like little puffs of cloud.

She could no longer hear the beast behind her, but she knew it was still there and somehow the silence of the demon was far more terrifying then it's growling had ever been. She could feel it watching her as she cautiously approached the coffin, her blue eyes impossibly wide as she waited for the creature to lunge at her and render her limb from limb. The floor rippled under her feet as the dance floor had done at the club only nights ago.

Something shiny swam beneath her feet and Bulma caught site of a pair of glowing red eyes under the surface of the floor. With a sudden gasp Bulma realised that it was the beast and that it had somehow slipped into the floor and it was hunting her from beneath! A cry was torn from her throat as the creature began to come towards her the floor rippling disgusting like oil as it neared her, Bulma screamed and began to run towards the coffin with the beast right behind her, one clawed hand reached out to grab her ankle least she should slip…

Bulma reached the coffin and everything seemed to freeze again. The floor became solid under her feet again and the only sound she could hear was her thumping heart and her gasps for breaths as she bent double, trying to calm her body down. Bulma looked at the coffin and straightened to her full height. Up close it was now possible for her to see that the red rose was drenched in blood and that the crystal vase was really clear but it was coated in so thickly in blood that from a distance it had appeared black.

Bulma reached out a trembling hand to open the coffin lid, and with an unnatural lurch the lid seemed to fly from the coffin before her hand could touch it. Bulma screamed as she looked down at the face of her friend, distantly aware of the shattering of crystal as the vase hit the floor and smashed into pieces, an impossible amount of blood beginning to ooze from the shattered pieces.

Marrons face was twisted with pain and her eyes and mouth were frozen open in agony, with another cry of horror Bulma spun away from the corpse of her friend and dropped to her knee's as the cavern began to melt away into nothing and Bulma was left kneeling in an endless void…

~*~

Bulma woke up with a start, the bed sheets were drenched in sweat and she body was being racked by fine tremors. Her blue eyes were wide with remembered fear and her heart was beating so hard and fast in her chest she thought it would burst free. "Marron…" Bulma tried to calm herself down, but her heart continued to hammer inside of her chest in fear. She could remember every detail of the dream perfectly…and it was terrifying. "It was just a dream Bulma, back to sleep, it was just a dream." Bulma whispered to herself and layback down on the bed. Next to her Goku lying quietly; sleeping peacefully with one arm flung out across her. It was a wonder that he hadn't woken up when she had sat up.

Bulma sat up again, unable to sleep despite her best efforts. She had a feeling, an incredibly bad feeling that something awful was going to happen to Marron - it was as though the dream was some kind of warning. She would be unable to sleep again until she had called Marron and heard her voice. She wouldn't talk to her, she'd just phone to hear her voice, to made sure she was safe at home and not dead. Goku would never know that she had disobeyed him…she wouldn't be putting them in danger at all…

She crept out of bed with out waking Goku and tiptoed over to the phone. With one last cautious glance over her shoulder at the bed she lifted the receiver and punched in the number of her share house with Marron. The phone rang and rang; Bulma counted twelve rings when a breathless sounding Yamcha picked it up.

"Hello?" His voice was sharp and suspicious. It was tempting to talk to him but Bulma resisted the urge and was silent - after all Vegeta might have told Yamcha everything. If Goku was right then Vegeta had probably told Marron and Yamcha some sort of weird story in order to win their trust. Bulma's eyes lit up as a brilliant idea flew into her head; maybe if she pretended to be someone else she could get Marron on the phone without alerting Yamcha to her presence!

"Uh…Hiya! I'm after Marron, do I have the right number?" Bulma pitched her voice to sound higher and mousier and added a girlish squeak to it.

"Oh yeah, this is her house." Yamcha sounded disappointed and Bulma breathed a sigh of relief as she realised that he must have been waiting for her to call. Obviously Vegeta had put him up it!

She waited a beat before talking again. "Could you tell her that Charlene is on the phone?" Charlene was a mutual friend of Marron and Bulma's and it was doubtful that Yamcha would find anything suspicious in a phone call from one of Marron's ditzy friends - even at this early hour.

"Sure thing." She heard the sound of the phone being placed down on the counter and she heard Yamcha's footsteps leave the room, a minute later she heard his voice calling Marron and then she heard an answering squeal from the ditzy blue haired girl. Bulma heard Marrons quick footsteps come into the room and then the phone was picked up.

"Hiya Charlene…" Marron started to speak but Bulma urgently interrupted her.

"Its not Charlene, it's Bulma." Bulma couldn't help but talk to her friend. Even though she hadn't been gone for more then a day she was still missing her friend terribly. She waited for Marron to yell something about the devil taking her but instead was surprised when Marron began whispering urgently into the phone in a hushed voice.

"Bulma! How did you get away? Did he hurt you?" She sounded as though she was relieved and Bulma frowned at the phone in confusion.

"What do you mean?" Bulma tried to keep her voice calm - what on earth had Vegeta told her had happened? He'd obviously constructed some sort of elaborate lie…she'd have to be careful of what she said or she might give herself away.

Luckily, Marron had no such qualms about talking and she readily blurted out; "He kidnapped you! That Goku guy did! Vegeta told me all about it." Marron paused as though she was listening to someone in the background. "Bulma where are you?" Her voice was calmer now, less ditzy and more in control.

Bulma frowned even harder at the phone. "I…" She shut her mouth with a snap before she could answer, swallowed hard and then thought of the right thing to say before speaking again. "I'm on my way home." Bulma crossed her fingers and prayed Marron would buy it.

"Oh thank goodness…"

Bulma was about to speak again when she heard a noise behind her. Startled, she yelped and dropped the phone back into the cradle and whirled to find Goku standing behind her.

"Goku!" Bulma said breathlessly, wondering why she felt so guilty all of a sudden.

"Who were you talking to?" Goku spoke quietly - too quietly. He sounded angry, positively livid. She could hear vibrations in his voice that sent chills up and down her spine.

"It was just Marron…I didn't tell her anything, I just had to make sure she was okay…I had a horrible dream, it seemed so life like…I had to phone her and make sure it was just a dream." Bulma blurted everything out and took a step back as Goku walked up to her, reached behind her and pulled the phone cord from the wall. He kept his eyes pinned on her face as he rolled up the cord and took the phone away. She could feel disapproval burning behind those ebony eyes and it was a struggle for Bulma not to look away as though she were a naughty child.

"What are you doing?" She frowned as Goku uttered some strange demonic words and the phone disappeared into thin air. Around them the silence thickened until Bulma felt certain that something bad was going to happen…

"I was getting rid of that phone, obviously I should never have trusted you not to not phone your human friends." Goku spoke through his teeth and took another step towards her. He clasped one of his hands around her wrist and herked her forward so that she was eye to eye with him.

"Why are you so upset?" Bulma cringed at his harsh tone and tried to look anywhere but into his eyes - somehow he was going to try to trap her in his eyes; trap her so she would never defy him again…

"Because they could have had a tap on the line, they might know where we are and they might be on their way here even as we speak." Goku pulled her wrist again and dragged her back into the bedroom. He let go of her and folded his arms, his eyes still smouldering with anger. "Get some proper clothes on while I pack our stuff. It isn't safe here anymore so we'll have to leave." He turned to the wardrobe and pulled out their few belonging.

"But where are we going?" Bulma rubbed her wrist and began to strip off the nightie she had borrowed from Eighteen. Her own clothes were folded neatly on a chair on the other side of the room. As she padded across the room to get them she could feel Goku's eyes burning into her back.

"I don't know, somewhere distant." Goku looked away from Bulma and stuffed their clothes into a bag. It was going to take a miracle for them to get away from Vegeta now…

~*~

"Did you trace the number and address?" Vegeta hopped from foot to foot as Yamcha shushed him and copied a phone number and address onto a piece of paper. He hung up the phone with a sly smile and waved the piece of paper in Vegeta's face.

"Yes, I did." Yamcha glanced at the paper and then stuffed it into his pocket. "She called from a house up in the mountains owned by an S. Gero. The phone, however, is registered to a Miss Eighteen." Yamcha looked disapproving for a moment. "I'll take a wild guess and predict that they'd be some of Goku's little soulless horde?" He grabbed his jacket and pulled it on, determined to catch Goku before he could make his getaway.

"Well, S. Gero would be Seventeen Gero. He traded his soul a while back to Goku. At one stage the little fucker tried to kill me, but he failed." Vegeta grabbed the car keys and headed out the front door. "He's more dangerous then you'd think and he's completely loyal to Goku. I've lost count of the number of people he's killed and tortured in Goku's name."

"So who's the girl? This Miss Eighteen?" Yamcha hurried after Vegeta, closing and locking the door behind him. "Is she also a soulless person?" He jogged to catch up with the shorter angel.

"Eighteen? You've got to be kidding me!" Vegeta slapped his forehead, and stared at Yamcha as though he was a babbling idiot. "Where have you been for the last few hundred years? Eighteen is the Angel of Death - the fallen angel foretold to lead the three horsemen of the apocalypse…didn't you know her name was Eighteen?" Vegeta shook his head in wonder as Yamcha stared at him dumbstruck.

"I did know her name, I did!" Yamcha snapped defensively, glaring at Vegeta for daring to belittle him. "I just didn't think she'd be living in a cabin in the woods. Plus I always though she was a he." Vegeta looked at him blankly and Yamcha clarified; "I thought that Death was a guy."

"Well that shows what you know, doesn't it?" Vegeta scoffed as he jumped into the car, inserted the keys and revved his car. He barely waited for Yamcha to buckle up before he put his foot down and accelerated off - the tyres squealing as he turned the corner and left Bulma and Marrons house behind him. Vegeta kept this foot down on the accelerator as he headed towards the mountains, running red lights and stop signs and causing several automobile pileups from his dangerous driving. He shuddered to think how much this was going to cost him in traffic fines, but it would all be worth it if he could just get his Bulma back.

~*~

Goku tore out of the driveway, Eighteen and Bulma in the back while Seventeen rode shotgun, giving bad directions as he tried to read a map. They were attempting to make it to the airport to catch the 6.30 am flight to Mexico - but the chances of them making the flight were lessened somewhat by Seventeens idiocy.

"Left! I said left! No, no the other left…"

"That's right, not left you idiot!" Eighteen clonked Seventeen over the head and snatched the map out of his hands. "Goku, continue down this road until you come to Spring Road - it's about five miles away, then turn right and keep going straight, that should get you to the airport." She folded the map and placed it on the floor by her feet.

"Thanks." Goku glared Seventeen and slowly shook his head as he focused back on the road again. "You should have swapped your soul for something useful like a higher IQ." His eyes narrowed. "Not even able to read a map, how pathetic." Goku muttered under his breath, he glanced in the rear-view mirror at Bulma and sighed. Se looked utterly miserable…maybe he shouldn't have been so hard on her.

In the back seat Bulma hugged herself, she knew they wouldn't make it to the airport; she could feel it in her bones that Vegeta wasn't far off at all. It was like a humming in her mind that told her that he was getting closer to them with every passing breath.

"This is all my fault." Bulma whispered to herself as she rested her forehead on the cool glass of the window and watched the tree's zip by.

~*~