Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Lost In Your Eyes ❯ Walking After Midnight ( Chapter 8 )

Walking After Midnight

I go walking after midnight, out in the starlight

~Walking After Midnight, Patsy Cline

Jennifer lay in bed, she had found the white cotton nightgown she now wore draped across the foot of the pink canopy bed she'd found in an unexplored room just off the kitchen, feeling the warm softness of the mattress and the fluffy down pillow cushioning her head.

She turned to sniff the white pillowcase and caught the subtle hint of honeysuckle, reminding her of home and her mother's favorite fragrance, which was similar to honeysuckle in scent.

She thought of Trunks, probably fast asleep all ready in the cottage next to her own. She smiled to imagine him curled up and asleep like a little boy. She knew that everyone looked like perfect angels while they slept. She was tired herself and yawned lazily.

However, she felt as if she had just closed her eyes before she felt someone shaking her gently awake. She smelled pine needles and dirt and opened her eyes to see their illusionary guide, Foxfire, standing there, there were pine needles in her hair and stuck to her clothing. Her hands were dirty.

Wiping her hands on her skirt, she smiled apologetically, "I was just…exploring…" She explained, Jennifer raised a brow, She'd thought that Foxfire just disappeared when she wasn't needed. Was she, too, curious about what life held? But how could she be, she wasn't even real! Jennifer shook her head to clear it and blinked up at their kitsune guide. "What's the matter, Foxfire?" She asked, sudden fear gripping her heart in a cold embrace, "Trunks?"

"No, dear," Foxfire said, "Your next to be seen. Trunks is outside waiting. I am to escort you both down to the audience chamber."

She dressed and followed Foxfire outside, where she saw Trunks was standing still, looking worried. She realized they hadn't yet thought about what, exactly, they'd say when they were at last given a chance. They didn't want to blow it. Who knows how long it would seem to take if they had to start all over!

Even if the passage of time here worked on illusion, it sure felt real enough! Jennifer was beginning to miss her family and friends, and yes, her laptop that her father had given her a few months before, that she had named after the new kid in her school. After the young man standing next to her.

What a livejournal entry this would be! She thought, at the same time she knew she'd never write about what they went through, except, perhaps as a fictional story. At the very least no one would believe her, at the worst they'd question her sanity. For a while, even Jennifer was half doubting that! They followed Foxfire back down the ladder and to the area they had been in when they first arrived on Puar-as-flying-carpet.

"This way, Please," Foxfire said, ushering them into a room with two wide double doors that swung open from the center. Jennifer and Trunks had enough space to walk hand in hand through the doors. The room they entered was set up much like that of the interior of a church. There were two long rows of dark wooden pews and a long, red-carpeted path towards a small stage and a large stained glass window. Statues of half-clad women were placed here and there and the thick smell of candles burning perfumed the air.

They walked down the center of the aisle still holding hands towards a large, very elaborate chair much like a high-backed throne seated in the center of the stage, facing away from the two young people. A pure white light glowed all around the chair and the area directly about it. Jennifer tried to see beyond that light, but it was too bright. Her eyes ached to look directly at it.

Jennifer noted that Foxfire had vanished again. She tended to do that a lot, she realized, she was almost getting used to it.

"Come forward, Children." A low, fatherly voice called, coming from the chair, "Though not so close, my purity is much too strong for mere humans to bear for too long."

"I am only half human," Trunks spoke up, "My father…"

"Yes, Trunks," He said, interrupting, "Your father is the saiyan prince, Vegeta."

"H-how did you..?"

"You dare to question my power, youngling?"

"No, I apologize…"

"State your business, I haven't got all millennium you know!"

"My friend's mother, Chi Chi…" Trunks began, "A lesser demon has found it's way past our mental and emotional barriers to attack one of our own. We seek a way to remove this pest from our loved one…"

"Ah! Demon possession, eh?" The chair's voice said, sounding amused, "Let me se…ah, yes, my younger brother…heh…he was always the impetuous one…"

"Can you help us?" Jennifer asked, speaking up at last.

"Can you get you…your brother out of my friend's mother?" Trunks asked.

"I can." He replied, and paused, as if thinking, "But there is a price, of course."

"Of course," Trunks nodded, Jennifer looked over at him and she could tell he hadn't known about any fee beforehand, "What is it?"

"Before I can help you, you must help me," The voice said, "Are you two willing to go on a dangerous quest for me?"