Slayers Fan Fiction ❯ Crucify Me ❯ Sometimes They Come Back ( Chapter 1 )

Crucify Me
Chapter 1: Sometimes They Come Back

Chaos. Fear. She could feel it all around her. She lived for it. Men screamed as they ran to escape her infamous wrath. She grinned as firey magic sparked on the tips of her fingers. A moment later an explosion echoed against the canyon walls.

The man wasn't far from where this distruction was taking place. He was waiting; he rarely actually participated in this part: ambushing them for their treasure. Encountering them on the road was another matter. He sighed. She was having fun. Perhaps a little too much fun.

Her laughter reached his ears long before he'd picked his way past the fire and destruction to where she was. Her ear perked at the sound of his approach. She immediately turned and shot a fireball at him before she realized who it was.

He shouted a jumbled curse and dove out of the way. She laughed nervously and rubbed the back of her head.

"Sorry 'bout that," she apologized with a laugh. He peeked cautiously out from behind the wreckage he'd jumped behind.

"Don't you think you've had enough fun, Lina?" the swordsman griped, dusting off his pants as he deemed it safe to emerge from his cover.

"Someone's cranky," she teased, flipping back her fire-red hair. "I didn't actually hit you with that fireball, Gourry." Gourry frowned.

"I dunno if you can see the sun or not through all this smoke but we need to go if we're gonna get to Lesulie before dark."

"Yeah yeah," she waved him off. "Come on, help me gather their treasure so we can get out of here." He sighed again and followed her, idly collecting pieces of treasure. He watched her as she scooped mounds of treasure into sacks, looking every bit the happiest person in the world. He chuckled softly.

"URESHI!" she cried, slinging her bags over her shoulder. "Ready, Gourry?" He started, realizing that his bag was nearly empty. He hurriedly scooped a bunch of treasure into the sack and slung it over his shoulder in like fashion.

"Yup!" he announced with a grin.

At five o' clock promptly every evening, every door and window in Lesulie was closed and locked tightly. No one was allowed in or out. So it had been for about a year.

Lina Inverse and Gourry Gabriev stood in the middle of the street, the only sound to be heard the lonely wind whipping by them. Nothing moved. Itw as now 5:30 in the evening and the town looked abandoned.

"Where is everybody?" the swordsman asked, looking in vain for signs of life.

"I thought Lesulie was supposed to be some big bustling city!" Lina cried, rushing about, searching for any indication of habitation. Finding none, she made a noise of disgust and rejoined her companion, grabbing him by the sleeve and dragging him towards the inn. "Come on," she ordered. He obeyed silently. Once they reached the inn's door, Lina took to knocking incessantly on the wooden entrance.

"Oi, Lina," Gourry tapped the small woman's shoulder. She didn't answer. "Oi, Lina." She began to beat on the door. "Oi, Lina." Tap tap tap. Bang bang bang. "Oi." Tap tap tap. BANG BANG BANG. "Lina..."

"What?!" she barked. He took a good step back, then pointed silently to a sign posted at the top of the unusually high doorway. She peered up, huffed in frustration and took a couple stops back to be able to read the words.

To all visitors of our fair
city, Lesulie:
At night when Diane's
countenance doth shine
Does the unholy walk our
streets and make them
unsafe for those whose
hearts do pump warm life
through their bodies.
Therefore bid thee hasten
away from this graveyard
to a livelier place.

"What is THAT supposed to mean?!" she shrieked. She took to viciously kicking and beating on the door. That poor door, Gourry thought in sympathy. "LET US IN! DO YOU HEAR ME?! HEY! OPEN UP!" Another tap on her shoulder.

"Ano... Lina?" She whirled.

"WHAT, GOURRY?!" She froze suddenly when she saw what her friend already had.

An army of various undead creatures had begun wandering the streets, and about 20 of them or so had surrounded the pair.

There was a moment of silence which was quickly broken by two screams.

"FIREBALL!" A small scale (for Lina anyway) explosion threw already dead bodies in all different directions. The duo dashed through the opening and readied themselves for battle.

"Ano... Lina?" Gourry piped up, drawing his sword.

"What?"

"I think this is what that sign meant." Lina's eye twitched.

"Jellyfish brains!" she cried as she charged at the nearest undead. "Elimekia Lance!" The creature vaporized. Not to be outdone, Gourry swung into the melee, hacking and slashing any undead that came near. "ELMEKIA LANCE! ELMEKIA LANCE! ELMEKIA LANCE!" Magic began to fly almost wildly in all directions. Gourry ducked to avoid a stray blast.

"Hey! Watch it!"

All in all, after about five minutes of this ensuing chaos, the two of them had taken out about forty undead. The noise of their battle had attracted the attention of the others. They were now surrounded by about two hundred creatures.

"Augh! Is there no end of them?" Lina shouted, angrily zapping a couple with a Digger Volt.

"Maybe we should get somewhere safe," Gourry suggested.

"No, you think?" Lina sighed. "LEVITATION!" In a flash she'd grabbed him and started up. He panicked and somehow managed to twist his body around so he was holding on to her.

"I didn't mean like this!" he cried, thrashing around. In his struggling his face ended up pressed against her breast, and it was her turn to freak out.

"HEY! Stop moving or I'll drop you!" Now anxious to be freed of her load, she decided to simply crash through on of the inn's windows.

With the explosion of splintering of wood the two landed in a room entangled oddly. Lina quickly jumped up and bowed in apology to whoever it was in the room before actually seeing who it was.

"Sorry sorry!" she cried, lifting her head. She froze.

On the bed sat two people, a woman hiding her nude form behind an equally nude man with the bed sheet thrown hapahzardly over his lap. Neither looked pleased.

Lina and Gourry both turned such a bright red that Lina's hair suddenly paled in comparison. Lina blindly reached over and grasped Gourry's arm, promptly dragging him out of the room.

"Ano...Lina?"

"Shut up. Just shut up." She turned towards the nearby stairs. He stared after her for a second, then shrugged and followed her.

When he caught up with her she was already arguing with the innkeep over getting two rooms. The argument was only worsened when the couple they'd inadverdently intruded on came down to complain.

"HOLD YOUR PEACE!" the young innkeeper shouted over the arguing. The other three fell silent. "What happened?"

"They-" the young woman sneered disdainfully, pointing at Lina and Gourry accusingly, "broke into our room through the window!" The innkeeper's eyes went wider than what previously thought possible and her skin paled to the color of milk.

"Be the shutters broken?" The young man nodded. The innkeeper jumped up on the front desk with a bullhorn. "CODE 314, CODE 314 IN ROOM 3A! EVERYBODY UNDER A TABLE! REPAIR CREW TO ROOM 3A!" Lina and Gourry stood dumbfounded as all the people in the dining area of the main room dove under tables and chairs. Two burly men and a priest dashed upstairs to the couple's room with new shutters in tow.

"Oi, Lina..... what exactly is going on?" Gourry asked, scratching his head.

"I have no clue." About five minutes later the priest and the two men came back down. They gave the innkeep a thumbs-up sign. With a sigh of relief she turned to the people in the dining room.

"Okay everyone!" she called to the denizens. "It be safe. Code 314 has been cancelled." Cautiously people began to appear from their cover.

The young couple gave a final sneer to Lin and Gourry, then turned with a huff and went back to their room. The innkeep sighed. "You, good strangers, have cause trouble like I have not seen before. It would be inhuman of me to send thee back out...there," she shuddered, "but I have only one room to offer you." Lina ignored her offer and crossed her arms.

"I wanna know what's going on around here," she demanded. The innkeep nodded.

"Come with me and I shall explain all." Lina seemed inclined to slug the girl and make her tell her there and then, then gave up and followed her. Gourry, faithful jellyfish that he was, trailed after her.

She led them silently up to a third floor to a tiny room at the end of the hall. She ushered them in, then shut the door as she followed them in. "Who are you, strangers, that you should come to our town of Lesulie thus?" she asked, lighting lamps as she spoke. Gourry stared blankly at her.

"Huh?" Lina sighed and ignored him.

"Lina," she asnwered the innkeep. "Lina Inverse. And this is Gourry Gabriev." Gourry looked lost.

"I am Jolean," the young brunette supplied with a cordial nod. "Since the summer that I was four and ten years into my life I've cared for this inn but never before have two travellers caused quite the fright that you have this night." Lina forced herself to NOT groan at Jolean's poetic speech mannerism. Gourry's brow furrowed in concentration as he struggled to translate Jolean's speech into his much baser level of speaking.

"Fine, Jolean. Now explain what's going on." She took a seat on the bed beside Gourry.

"'Tis been scarce a year since... they began to visit each night."

"What are they?"

"Vanglear," she answered quietly. "Those who have escaped from the prison."

"What prison?"

"The very depths of hell. When the pillar of light did shine the Vanglear began to come."

"You mean when the barrier collapsed?"

"Aye. When you splintered the wood that kept out the spirits that do infest the very air you gave them entrance to where people gather to be safe."

"Has anything else happened since then?"

"Just to our east where the sun doth rise lies the Desert of Destruction where often we have seen what did seem be lightning and fire dancing across the sands." Lina looked contemplative. "I shall take my leave of you, Lady Inverse and Sir Gabriev, and bid you good-night." Jolean rose to her feet and quietly breezed out of the room.