Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Slumber Party! ❯ Tori's Rage ( Chapter 11 )

The damp towel on her forehead dripped cool liquid over her eyes, to drip down her face and into the cleavage of her blouse. Tori had not stirred since Piccolo and Vegeta had bore her back to the main house, laying her down on the sofa while Chi Chi fussed over her.

"What happened to her?" Bulma asked, chewing on her bottem lip as she looked down on the girl on the sofa, "Why does she look so pale?"

"I'm not sure." Piccolo said, watching Chi Chi dip the rag into the bowl of water on the floor next to the sofa and hold it over Tori's head once more, "She seemed to have some kind of…vision."

"She mentioned something about someone being dead." Vegeta said, taking Bulma's hand in his own absently. He pulled her close to his side as he looked at Chi Chi and Tori.

Tori had begun to wake a bit. She did not move but felt others around her and the softness of the sofa beneath her so she knew she was not longer on the hard floor. She felt and smelled the water dripping down over her face and Chi Chi's faint perfume as she held the washclothe over her face.

Her eyes fluttered a bit and she forced them open. It was no use just laying there pretending to be asleep, she thought, that won't make things go away or back to the way they were. She looked up at the worried faces of these people she'd only just met and who had, after only such a short time, had come to care for and like her. It was more than could be said for many of her own highschool friends who'd know her most of her life.

"Are you okay, Tori?" She looked near the edge of the sofa and saw Chi Chi's little son Gohan standing there. He must have just showed up because she did not remember seeing him when she first opened her eyes, "What happened?"

"I…" She began and then faltered, she did not recount her visions to a little boy and risk frightening him, or at the very least, giving him nightmares, "I…fell." She finished lamely.

She sat up and swung her legs over the side of the sofa, standing up swiftly. Her thoughts were all focused on her family and she knew she had to get to them. She brushed her flaxen hair from her eyes and looked around her her jacket and overnight bag. When she didn't see them she shrugged and told herself they didn't matter. Only getting home mattered.

But someone grabbed her arm and pulled her back. She turned to see Goku. She shook her head. He hadn't been there a moment ago. No matter, she thought, I have to get home. I have to!

"Tori, wait." He said, "Tell us what you saw…what happened?"

"My family…" She said, and felt the warm in her viens growing hotter as she spoke, "Something's happened to my family."

Goku realized that something strange was happening. The flesh beneath his hand grew warmer and warmer as the room's tempature began to rise. He let go of her and noticed that he sliding glass doors which led to the back of the house, were fogging up. "Something's happened." Tori said, though by now everyone was wondering about the heat, "I have to go to them…"

"It might be dangerous!" Piccolo stepped in front of her, meaning to block her path and keep her safe, "Tori!"

"I need to get to them!" Tori yelled, not really seeing, only feeling, "Get out of my way!"

"Tori…?"

Bulma screamed as she saw Piccolo's cape go up in a sudden rush of flame. Flame that had not been there before. He wasn't hurt. He'd pulled it off and stomped out the fire before it had time to spread, but they were looking at Tori now, with a mixture of awe tinged fear and just a bit of…understanding? Tori didn't care. She shoved past them and ran towards the door.

She had to get home! She thought, even as the wave of heat followed in her wake, glass windows broke with a shattering sound, flying razor-sharp shards of glass behind her, barely missing her. Vases and dishes, other bric-a-brac exploded behind her, though she seemed obvious to it all.

She heard someone scream and had she turned at that moment she would have seen Chi Chi with her hand over her face, covering a nasty jagged wound from one of the shards of glass from a window that had sliced her cheek, blood dripping over her fingers as she tried to hold the wound closed.

"Chi Chi!" Goku cried out, taking his wife in his arms and leading her towards the bathroom, "It's not deep. That's good…"

"What…did she do this?" Chi Chi asked, her voice starting to rise to panic, "What is she, Goku? No human girl could do…what she's doing…!"

Goku shook his head, but Bulma said; "Someone needs to go after her! She'll hurt herself!"

No one had to voice what she really meant. "She'll hurt others!" She started to pull out of Vegeta's grip but he held her tighter, shaking his head at her, "Don't. You can't help her."

"But…"

"Stay here!" He said to her as he followed Piccolo outside, they would go after the girl themselves and hopefully get her to calm down enough that no one would be hurt…badly.

Tori knew they were behind her. She also knew enough to curb her rage, at least for the moment, and pull her power back into herself. She felt the blistering heat and sweat began to bead on her forehead as she did so. She hated having to pull the fire back into herself. She knew she ran the risk of burning hersself up. The thought was enough to make her cold with fear. She ran blindly down the street, trying to get to her house.

Vegeta and Piccolo kept pace in the air overhead, keeping her in sight. Suddenly, without warning, Piccolo sped up and landed in front of her. Vegeta paused in mid-flight to look down at the sence below, wondering what was to happen next.

"Tori," Piccolo grabbed her shoulders and forced her still, she looked straight ahead, at a finger of smoke rising above the rooftops, "Stop. Look at me. You have to stop!"

"I can't!" She cried, her eyes riveted on the smoke, now more and more of it was filling the noon-day sky with darkness that made her eyes water and her throat scratchy, she coughed and tried to push past Piccolo, "Let me go! I have to get home!"

Piccolo did not let her go. He held her still even as sirens were heard not to far away. They were only a block away from the fire, he knew, and he also knew that there were dead. Tori watched in silence as the fire trucks, four, one right after the other sped down the street and screeched to a halt outside the house she knew was too far gone to be saved.

A policeman approached them, raising an eyebrow at Vegeta, but not saying anything about the man in the sky above them. Instead, he focused on Piccolo and Tori. "Do you know who lives here, Miss?"

Piccolo let her go and she turned towards the police officer, looking past him to the inferno that was her house, "Y-yes." She said, "I…live…here…"

"Who's that?" Another officer yelled over, and his partner replied; "The daughter, the older one, I think."

"M-my family…" Tori began, swallowed and tried once more; "T-they aren't…" The aren't dead, are they? She'd wanted to asked, but could not make the words appear on her tongue. It was as if by saying it, aloud, now that she was actually here to see the damage, would make it be true. And she never wanted it to be true. Never.

"…so sorry, Miss…" The police officer was speaking but she was barely hearing him, his words were lame, meaningless afterall, and they did her no good. Nothing would. "…bodies too burned…father…"

"What?" She asked, blinking the smoke out of her eyes, she looked at the officer once more, "What about my father?"

"He tried to stop the fire." He said, trying his best to look symphethic, "There was nothing anyone could do. I'm sorry…"

"Who did this?" She asked through clentched teeth, her hands balled into fists at her sides, she screamed; "Who did this?!!"

The officer shook his head, "We…we are running an investigation…but…"

"Not good enough!" She cried, not caring that the tears were making it hard to see things clearly, "I want to know who killed my family. I have to know!"

"Even if we knew, Miss Lawson." He said, "I would have to seriously consider before revealing such information…no offence, but the last thing we need is a revenge-hungry teenager out there making our jobs harder."

Tori glared at the officer, but said nothing. She would find who was responsible herself. Even if it took her the rest of her life. Without bothering to see if they followed, she spun around and started back towards the only place she could call home, if they would let her stay, now. Her heart felt like a piece of cold lead in her chest, every beat a painful reminder that she was alive while those she had loved more than life itself were now gone.

Someone would pay.