Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Lost In Your Eyes ❯ Devil In Disguise ( Chapter 5 )

You're the devil in disguise, oh yes you are.

Devil In Disguise, Evil Presley

"Excuse me, Miss?" Jennifer looked up, she had been dozing, her head leaning against Trunk's shoulder, her hand still held within his own. She looked at the watch on her wrist, a last year's Christmas gift from her father, but the hands had stopped moving. For a moment she was startled, until she recalled what Trunks had told her earlier, about the passage of time being different here than on Earth. She saw a very cute little redhead standing on one foot in front of her. She moved onto her other foot and seemed to pace standing still. She wore her bushy hair up in a high ponytail and Jennifer noticed there were bits of white striping it.

"Have you been waiting long?" Jennifer heard her ask, her dark blue eyes were deep and penetrating, she also had cute little reddish-white ears like upside down triangles poking out through the top of her head and long, cat-like whiskers emerging from the sides of her cheeks, that moved as she spoke, "Your boyfriend's quite a looker, isn't he?"

Jennifer flushed, again, and said; "We've been here about…" She paused, unsure, exactly, how long they'd really been there! Trunks smiled at the woman, also noting her russet and white unkempt tail that she waved periodically in the air behind her. The blue skirt she wore had a perfect round hole cut out in order for her tail to fit through comfortably. "We've been here for quite a while," He said, "I think the sky outside has changed from light to dark about four times…"

Jennifer looked over towards where he was gesturing and saw that there were, indeed windows, set high up almost out of reach. She could see a blue sky and white puffy clouds just beyond the glass. This confused her. She thought they were in the waiting room of Purgatory.

She turned in her seat to question Trunks and he must have seen the look on her face, for he said; "It's not real, Jennifer, The windows were put in some time ago to allow those creatures, like us, who function better with a sense of time about them to be more comfortable in their wait." He went on, as the other woman nodded and smiled at Jennifer, taking a seat across from them and crossing her long, very shapely legs, "The view outside is merely illusion. Since most people enjoy a warm summer day, that is what you will see most of the time, after a bit, the illusionary sky will darken and it will seem like night."

"Much of what is set up in the underworld is illusion, my dear," The other woman replied, "Including me."

Jennifer blinked, "You? But, you look so.."

"Real?" She laughed, obviously delighted, "Thank you, my dear! I am only real to you two however." She gestured around at the others seated staring off into space as if they could, indeed, not see the fox-like woman seated next to them. Though when Jennifer or Trunks spoke to what seemed to them an empty chair, they did gain a few looks of annoyance, "Don't worry, I've been assigned to you for the duration of your stay here. You may call me Foxfire."

"After you are done with us," Jennifer asked, still confused, she wanted to reach out and touch Foxfire's skirt and the skin of her arm to see if she felt as real as she looked, "What do you do?"

Foxfire smiled and held out her hand, touching Jennifer's arm, she saw the look of disbelief in the other's eyes and the need to see if she felt real. "I cease to exist" She said, but she did not sound sad or bitter, just as if that were what was meant to be, "I was created a few moments before your arrival, my dear, and I have only one function. To see to you and your companion's comfort while you wait here in Purgatory."

"Jennifer," Trunks said, pointing across the way, "Look!"

Jennifer did and saw after a moment that those people who had seemed to be talking to themselves or milling about shaking their heads at nothing were actually speaking and holding conversations with their own, illusionary guides. Some looked like Foxfire here, others had a more bovine appearance, and one, she noted was a dark haired bare-breasted centaur female. She raised her eyebrows at that and stifled a giggle at the look on the man's face who was listening to her talk, or more accurately, watching her assets as they bounced when she laughed and he had the perfect view too…as he was head high to her…err…assets.

Jennifer turned away from the funny sight before she disgraced herself by laughing aloud and asked, "Why couldn't we see all them before?"

"Is she one?" Trunks asked, pointing to the forked tailed, horned headed woman who had first seen them in. She was talking to someone and writing in her notebook once more. Foxfire shook her head, saying; "No, When I was created, not long ago! They made sure I knew everything I needed to know in order to be the best I can in my job. This includes names of the regular workers and their functions. That is Leiah, She's a demoness who had been assigned to this department a few eons ago. She's very sweet and extremely good at her job. A lot of the regular workers here are demons or demonesses."

"But I thought a…" Jennifer began, looking once again at the beautiful woman speaking to newcomers to the Purgatory waiting area, "She doesn't seem evil…"

"Oh, she is, Jennifer, Inherently," Foxfire explained, "But being in Purgatory, in neutral land, she cannot act upon her evilness. She can only do her job as she has been doing for so long."

"Now," Foxfire stood up, stretched and looked out the window, "Hmm, three more darks…We must find a place for you to rest, you two, please follow me."

"Um, Foxfire?" Jennifer asked, "Will we each have our own…"

"Rooms?" Foxfire laughed, looking back, "Of course, dear. We are not entirely gauche here, you know! And we know that unmarried young people of opposite genders should not be sharing a room, no matter what the circumstances."

Jennifer breathed a sigh of relief. As much as liked Trunks, she wasn't prepared for that accept of a relationship. At least not yet. Maybe not for a few years. She followed behind the illusionary woman and still marveled that she seemed so real. They passed through a few door and seemed to step outside into the night. The velvet blackness of the sky was like a dark dome of sparking stars. Foxfire paused and said, "Only an illusion." And walked on through a passage way, stopping beside a ladder that stopped at the ground but when she looked up, Jennifer could not see where it ended, if ever.

Nothing was holding it up either. Without ceasing, Foxfire kicked off her heels and stepped onto the ladder, beginning to climb. She looked back and Jennifer and Trunks did the same and followed behind, though Jennifer was almost certain that the ladder would begin to sway and fall as soon as she stepped onto it. It did not. It was held firmly in place as if braced against something she could not see. She told herself that she should just stop being surprised or trying to make sense out of everything she saw and felt here. She climbed after Trunks and hoped he was averting his eyes from the show of Foxfire's well shaped rump above him.

"We're almost there!" Foxfire cried, and they climb and climbed on and on forever. Or so it seemed to Jennifer, who watched the stars seem to float by as they climbed higher and higher into the illusionary sky. At last, when her feet were getting sore and she felt her grip loosen on the rail of the ladder, they saw a clump of thick gray clouds directly above and Foxfire's foot disappeared into them as she stepped upwards once more.

Behind Trunks, Jennifer did not know that their climb was over before Trunks reached back down after he had disappeared ahead of her into the thick clouds and grabbed her hand, pulling her up. She wondered, briefly, why he hadn't just flown up instead of climbing like her and Foxfire. Perhaps he was just being considerate. Or maybe his strange powers, like time, did not work properly here. Jennifer stepped up onto the soft sponge-like substance of the puffy gray-white cloud.

"It feels like…a pillow!" She exclaimed, "I've never walked on a cloud before!"

Trunks smiled and kept ahold of her hand as they followed Foxfire. She led them to two small, very cozy looking cottages, side by side. They looked as if they belonged in a faery tale in a meadow or a forest somewhere, not up on a puffy cloud they shouldn't, in all logic, be able to be standing firmly on! Foxfire gestured to the cottages and slipped a key into Jennifer's hand. She gave another, similar one to Trunks.

"You will called when it's your turn to be seen," She said, and bowed, "Have a peaceful rest. If you need me just call, I will hear and come." Before they could ask anything else, the illusionary guide simply vanished. Trunks and Jennifer turned to look at each other, then at the cottages.

"Well, want to see inside?" He asked, She nodded and he headed towards the right one while she the left, "Meet you back here in ten minutes?"

She nodded, slipping the key into the lock and turning the doorknob. She pushed the door open and gasped at what she saw.