Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Lost In Your Eyes ❯ Down So Long ( Chapter 4 )

Part Four: Down So Long

But I've been down so long, Ooh, it can't be longer still, I've been down so long, That the end much be drawing near

~Jewel Down So Long

Jennifer followed Trunks outside the house where he grabbed her about the waist and prepared to take off once more. Suddenly they were stopped by a man with dark hair and a couple of scars on his otherwise handsome face with a flying purple cat behind him floating near his head.

"Wait a minute!" He yelled, and smiled at Jennifer, Jen just looked him, at the cat, back to him without speaking. It seemed that her birthday would be full of surprises! "It's too long of a journey to be carrying extra weight the whole time, No offense," He added to Jennifer, who nodded, "Puar said he'd be happy to take you both."

"That may be a good idea, Yamcha." Trunks said, "I may have to fight and I need all my strength. Thank you, Paur."

"It's no problem, Trunks." Yamcha said, "I just hope you can help Chi Chi…I had seeing her like this…"

"I know," Trunks said, "But she'll be okay, Yamcha, don't worry. Oh, by the way, this is Jennifer, she goes to my school."

Yamcha checked Jennifer out, his eyes crawling from her feet to her head in relative slowness. Jennifer had the sudden urge to cover herself up or go take a shower, she squirmed under his gaze and moved a bit closer to Trunks, :"Not bad," Yamcha said almost to himself, "A bit young, but she'd do in a pinch."

Trunks glared and said; "Come on, Puar, we have to go."

The little cat instantly changed shape with an odd poofing noise and floated above the ground as a large purple flying carpet. Trunks floated up and onto the rug and reached down to take Jennifer's hand to pull her up behind him. She wobbled a bit and then sat down, feeling very strange to be on a real-live flying carpet! She suddenly felt like Jasmine from Disney's Aladdin! She wondered if they'd think it strange if she suddenly started singing; "It's a brand new world". Probably.

"Ready, Jen?" Trunks asked her, she found she liked when he called her that, it made her feel more special to him if he had a nickname for her, "Hold on! This gets a bit rough!"

With little to no warning, Paur-the-carpet, henceforth shall be known as PTC, rose high above the ground, made a circle so swift that Jennifer's stomach turned over and she grasped the back of Trunk's shirt tight in two small fists. Then, to her horror, it tilted downwards so that she was pressed up against Trunk's back and started a fast nose-dive towards the ground!

"Trunks!" She cried, alarmed, "What's it's doing?! We're gonna crash!"

"No, we're not, Jen!" He called back to her, wind rushing past his face, slicking back his lavender hair from his forehead, "Hang on! I told you this will be rough!"

He's not kidding! She thought as they headed towards the waiting earth. Her stomach tightened and her arms snaked around Trunks' waist, holding on so tight he almost tried to loosen her grip himself, but he knew this was new to her and that she was frightened. She has every right to be, He thought to himself as they plunged, I'd be scared shitles if I were in her shoes. She's so trusting…

The hit ground. And went straight through as if they were as insubstantial as ghosts! Jennifer was amazed, no, she was more than amazed, she didn't know what she was! Her grip loosened on Trunks' waist, much to his relief as it had made breathing a bit difficult, and just gazed at the passing scenery. She saw the darkness of earth, rich and brown with tree and plant roots growing everywhere. There seemed to be some kind of protective shield around them that allowed them to breathe and not be squashed by the ground all around them. A faint light glowed from PTC and allowed them to see where they were going.

"We're under ground now, Jen," Trunks explained, as she saw an ant hill from the other side with it's small six-legged denizens hard a work, she saw other insects and worms slithering as well, "We have to pass through the Earth's layers before we can get to where we are going."

"I understand," She said, and she did, she was doing pretty good in her science classes, she knew about the Earth's different layers. She imagined the center of earth would be very warm, "Past the center, is that when we will be there?"

"Not entirely," Trunks said to her, "After that we will be in what is known as Purgatory, We have to wait a while there…"

"How long?"

"Oh, not long, about a month…give or take a few days," He caught her startled expression out of the corner of her eye as she moved to sit up next to him, there was enough room on PTC, "Don't worry! That's longer than most folks have to wait to be seen! I know a guy who waited twelve years to be seen! I think he's still waiting…"

"I can't be gone for a whole month!" She cried, thinking of how her family and friends would worry, "Why didn't you tell me this before!?"

He shrugged, "It didn't seem important," He said, "Besides, I didn't make you come along! I offered to take you home, remember?"

She nodded. He was right, This is my own fault!

"Hey, Don't worry, though," He said, wrapping an arm about her shoulders, "Time runs differently in the nether regions, To your family and stuff you'll only have been gone a day. You can even make it back in time for your birthday party after school today!"

"I'll be grounded after school," She said, and laughed at the relief she felt that she wasn't going be gone as long as it may seem, "I skipped school, remember?"

"Oh, yeah," He said, "You did!"

"We're about to go through the center now, Trunks, Jennifer." PTC said in it's high-pitched voice that sort of hurt their ears, though they'd never say it aloud, especially not since it had agreed to help them! "It's going to get hot!"

The little carpet was right! Jennifer felt heat all around her, it was so hot she could almost say she felt herself melting like the Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz, but she knew that was absurd! The bubble they were in kept them from getting burned, but the heat within felt like they were baking in a microwave. Sweat in huge drops beaded on both their faces and down their necks, stained their underarms and backs. Jennifer wanted to take her shirt off but knew that would be unladylike she just suffered along with Trunks.

I want to get rid of my shirt! Trunks thought but looked at Jennifer to see how miserable she was and thought better of it, That wouldn't be fair. If she can't have comfort, neither can I. So they flew in silence, wiping sweat from their faces periodically, until they, at last, broke through the last layer.

Jennifer wiped the sweat from her eyes and blinked. She saw people milling about, some in groups, some children running back and forth and laughing, she heard the clickety-clack of typewriters and saw desks with people on computers all around them, each seated behind a partition and lines of people outside them, seeming to be waiting to be seen. She also saw a type of waiting room, like in hospitals where people were sitting in red plush chairs and reading outdated magazines. If she didn't know any better, she could have sworn she was at the DMV or some place. She saw a row of monitors on the wall with green screens and numbers across them in white.

A pretty young woman with horns sticking out of her shoulder length blond hair and a spiked tail curled around her slim waist wearing a red two-piece skirt and blouse outfit approached them with a clipboard in her well-manicured hands. Trunks and Jennifer jumped down from PTC and faced the woman, who smiled broadly. Jennifer thought she wore too much eye shadow.

"Welcome to Purgatory!" She said, "May I have your names and references please?"

"Sure," Trunks said, "Trunks Briefs, Earth, Son of Vegeta and Bulma Breifs."

She jotted that down in her notebook and turned to Jennifer with an expectant look on her face. Jennifer quickly rattled off her name and planet of birth and parents' names.

"Are you separate or together?" She asked.

"Together." Trunks informed her, She started writing again. Finally, she looked up.

"Personal effects?" She glanced behind them at PTC.

"Puar." Trunks turned to the carpet, "Thanks for the ride, you can go back to Yamcha now, we'll call you when we are finished."

PTC nodded and vanished in a cloud of smoke. Jennifer blinked.

"Thank you," The woman said, turning on one high heeled shoe, "Please follow me."

They followed her to a machine that was spitting out small slips of paper, she motioned for them to get in line behind the others. "After you have your number, please be seated in the room before you and wait until you are called…"

The pretty young woman smiled once more and vanished in a puff of smoke. Jennifer gasped, wondering where she went, but they were behind three people to get their numbers and the second one just walked off with his. When it was their turn, Trunks said; "I'll grab the number, Jen, you don't need one since we are being seen as just one person."

She nodded and followed him to the waiting area after he'd gotten the number.

"Hmm," Trunks said, sitting down, "We are right behind the guy over there, see, the number on his card?" He turned and pointed to the monitors, : "Lesse, according to this number and the ones showing…we should have a waiting period of…about…two weeks. Wow! Shorter than I thought itwould be!"

Jennifer nodded again and looked at him. She suddenly didn't care how long it took. She was just happy to be with him, where ever they were. She reached out and took his hand in her's. She was sitting right next to him and he smiled over at her. She said in a whisper, "I do hope we can do something for that poor woman, but, Trunks, I have to say that I really enjoy being with you, no matter where we are."

"I like you, too, Jen," He answered and kissed her cheek, "Besides, I don't look at this as two weeks of wasted time, I look at it as two weeks of time well spend because I will have used it to get to know such a pretty girl better."

Flushing, Jennifer looked away. Her heart raced and she felt herself smiling giddily. He squeezed her hand lightly.