Thank you Sakura Sango for beta reading!
Update 6-8-08: Beta read part two!
Update 7-27-08
--
Sanzo Genjyo was annoyed.
He'd been hearing a voice in his head and it was annoying. He didn't want to see a psychiatrist about it, because he was a detective and insanity didn't bode well in the business. Most likely they would make him take time off, causing him to further delay finding his father's murderers. So, he decided to instead find the source and make it stop. The only problem was, he lived in Las Vegas and the source was four hours away at the Nevada State Prison. It was such a bother having to drive over desert and mountains, not to mention the fact that Sanzo hated to drive. But if it was going to stop that voice, he'd do it.
The voice led him directly to the high security section of the prison called The Dungeon, where criminals who were too violent and unstable to mix with the general prison population. To go to The Dungeon required the unpleasant protocol of being searched, then, once inside, Sanzo had to walk past inmates throwing obscenities and feces at him. He was definitely hating his day, and he was seriously going to whack the guy responsible for it.
"Where are you going?" asked the guard as Sanzo continued to walk towards the empty cells at the back. The lights were off, which indicated that the area had obviously been unused for years. The walls at this end were made up of brick, which were chipped and worn. The iron bar doors were corroded and bent, hanging off of hinges and laying upon the ground within the cell, which were covered with debris.
"Over here."
"There's no one down there. Haven't been for a hundred years."
Sanzo didn't respond but continued to walk down the dark corridor. He knew that the source of that voice was down there.
"Hold on," the guard muttered and turned on his flashlight. "The power doesn't work down there."
Sanzo's footsteps were quiet as he walked, while the guard's clicked upon the linoleum. The light and noise from the occupied end faded as they went deeper and deeper down the cellblock. There was a broken pipe, and the sound of dripping water echoed against the bare walls.
"Man," said the guard, "never knew it went down this deep."
Sanzo grunted.
Help me. Please help me, the voice repeated its incessant chant. Help me. It was definitely getting louder.
There was no other light now, except from the flashlight. The sound from the prisoners was a distant memory, the cells becoming more and more decrepit and old-fashioned as they progressed. Dust muted their footfall and floated around them. Cobwebs crisscross above them.
"You know," whispered the guard, "They say there's a monster that lives down here."
Sanzo narrowed his eyes at him as if to say, You've got to be kidding me.
"I'm just saying," the guard added, defensively, still keeping his voice down.
They reached a brick wall, indicating the end of the cell block. The guard looked at Sanzo expectantly. Sanzo was still as he listened for the voice. There it was. He pointed towards the left. "Shine the light over there,'' he ordered. The beam of light illuminated the back of the cell, which was unusually sparse of cobwebs and debris compared to the cells before, but other than that, there was no one in there. Damn… He was so sure he would be there.
"Satisfied?" asked the guard.
When Sanzo didn't reply, the guard shrugged then brought the flashlight down to turn and lead them back. In mid swing, the light caught the gold in the eyes of a child, and the guard froze. There definitely was a child in the cell. He was tiny and sat curled close to the bars, large eyes blankly looking up at them.
"No one down here, huh?" Sanzo snorted.
"That's impossible!"
"Get him out," Sanzo growled.
The guard looked at the rusted, old-fashion lock. "I don't have a key to that."
Sanzo snatched the flashlight from the man. "Then go get a saw."
The guard stumbled as he hurried and made his way down the dark corridor, his footfalls rapid before tapering out of existence.
Sanzo waited. He could be using this time to reassure the boy, but he didn't seem perturbed of his situation. He just sat there with those large vacant eyes. He was dirty and his hair was a wild mane that bushed out at front and went past his waist in the back. He wore heavy-looking shackles around his wrists and ankles. There were chains attached to the cuffs, snaking to the back of the cell and ending at a large heavy ring attached to the brick wall. A gentle breeze wafted from outside through the small barred window near the ceiling. Since the dungeon was mostly underground, the thick grass of the courtyard obscured most of the view, but a bit of blue peaked through gaps.
"Were you the one calling me?" whispered Sanzo.
"Huh?"
"Never mind."
--
A couple hours later, Sanzo was walking out into the parking lot of the penitentiary with a skinny, bare-footed boy following him. His day seemed to be getting more and more annoying as it went. The boy said has name was Goku Son, but the only record found of him stated that he had massacred forty by-standers during a downtown parade in 1905, which meant he was over one-hundred years old. Yeah, right. The system must have lost his real records. Goku wasn't much help either. He couldn't remember what his crime was, only that he was in prison for a "long, long time." Either way, the warden decided to let Sanzo take him to social services.
"Hurry up," Sanzo grunted. Goku was staring with his jaw hanging at a light post. His wide eyes slowly following it up and over his head, nearly causing him to fall backwards. It was as if he'd never seen one before. He did the same thing at the warden's office. When Sanzo used the computer to look for Goku's file, Goku had crowded around him to experiment the keyboard before Sanzo had slapped it away. And when Sanzo talked on the phone with social services, Goku had yanked at the cord, causing the receiver to flip away from Sanzo and clank onto the desk. Goku had given an embarrassed smile as he apologized, which made Sanzo loss the urge to smack him.
"Why can't I stay with you?" he wondered, walking up to him with those round puppy dog eyes.
"Because I hate children," Sanzo snarled.
Goku pouted. Then, without preamble, he doubled over, clutching his stomach.
Sanzo's heart jumped, but his voice was level when he asked, "What's wrong?"
A deep rumbling sounded from the small figure, "I'm hungry," he stated and started to cry. Large droplets fell from eyes hidden by a bush of mangy hair, darkening the cement below. Sanzo had the sudden urge to kill someone just then.
"Come on," he snapped. "I'll take you somewhere to eat."
"Yay! Food!" With a sudden burst of energy, the boy bounced up with a fist in the air and a smile on his face as if someone had told him he won the lottery. He continued to bounce and cheer all the way to the car.
As Sanzo drove, Goku fidgeted excitedly from his seat, opening and closing the glove compartment and the window and messing with the radio. He asked questions about everything that caught his eye, forcing Sanzo's attention when he needed all his concentration to drive.
"Oooooo…. Sanzosanzosanzo! Waz dat?!" He was pointing at a stop sign, bouncing lightly in his seat, and when he didn't answer, Goku cupped his hands around his mouth so that he may directly holler into his ear, "SANZO!"
"Shut up, monkey!" he gritted.
"Don't call me that!" Goku whined, but he finally settled.
Sanzo looked over. "Put on your seatbelt," he ordered.
"Seat…belt?"
Sanzo furrowed his forehead as he glanced at the wide-eyed kid. This kid was seriously weird. He then reached over and buckled him. Goku flinched before he examined the restraint, testing the strap by pulling it away and letting it slide into place. It was as if he was born yesterday.
Sanzo pulled by a McDonald's and parked the car. He looked down at the dirty boy with no shoes, and wondered if he should have kept looking for one with a drive through. "Stay here," he ordered.
"Why can't I go with you?" he whined.
"Because I'll be hassled if someone sees you, and I'm annoyed enough as it is."
Goku didn't complain further and Sanzo got out of the car to enter the restaurant. To his dismay, it was packed solid. Some high school field trip had decided to go to this particular McDonald's of all places, and the commotion was deafening. Sanzo placed fingers to his temple as he fought a headache. This was definitely not his day.
--
Goku sat in the car and ogled at the sights and sounds around him. He had no memories of being outside his cell and he never imagined how lively and colorful being outside would be…and Sanzo. Sanzo was the liveliest of all; warm and yellow like the sun. How he had longed to see the sun all those years in that dark, cold cell. Now he was surrounded by it like a warm blanket. It was like a dream, and he smiled contently.
He then looked around the parking lot and realized that there was no one else around. He looked at the streets and there were no cars, no pedestrians. Where did they go? He looked at the restaurant where Sanzo had disappeared. What's taking him so long? Did he abandon me? thought Goku. Suddenly the seatbelt felt like a vice and the interior of the car felt too tight.
He needed to get out. Looking at the restraint, he felt for a release and found it after pressing the red square. He felt along the door. Lifting a lever, the door clicked and opened. Hesitantly, Goku stepped out of the vehicle, the ground feeling course and hard under his feet.
"Sanzo?" he whispered as he inched towards the front of the restaurant. "Sanzo?"
Suddenly the door swung open, but it wasn't Sanzo. Three teenage boys froze as they saw Goku. Goku froze as well.
"Gross," said a boy and the others laughed.
"What happened to you, kid?" asked another boy as he walked up to him. Goku inched back. "Hey, kid! I'm asking you a question. Are you retarded?" More laughter.
"I think he's homeless," concluded the third. He crouched forward, and Goku backed, his leg hitting Sanzo's car. He was trapped! His heart started to beat loudly. "Where are your parents?" yelled the boy as if he was deaf.
"He smells," the first commented, holding on to his nose, but he also surrounded him. Goku looked up at the boy's ominous silhouette which blocked the sun.
"We should take him to the teacher," the third offered.
"Ew, gross," said the first. "I'm not touching him."
"Here." Hands reached out to grab him. Goku flashbacked and they were another set of hands reaching for him, trapping him and taking him away. Goku's eyes widened. His heart pounded in his ears as the world went white.
--
Sanzo was almost to the front of the line when a kid yelled, "Fight, fight!" Suddenly the crowd rushed to the door. Sanzo had a bad feeling and started to shove his way through the crowd.
"Move!" he yelled.
The sun momentarily blinded him as he stepped out of the air-conditioned space into the dry heat of the desert. What he saw shocked him.
The high school kids surrounded the scene but were silent as they stared. An unconscious boy was embedded in Sanzo's windshield. Another one lay on the cement faced up as Goku rapidly pummeled him with a force that caused the boy's blood to fly out in spades. And the look in Goku's eyes… was disturbing.
"Goku!" he yelled.
The beating stopped as bloodlust eyes trained on Sanzo, then blurred as he rushed towards him. Fuck! This kid was going to kill him!
Sanzo instinctively held his palm up and started to pray as if his life depended on it. In an instant, he hit the ground hard with Goku on top of him.
Then silence. Nothing, except for the gentle hum of his chant. Sanzo opened his eyes and was surprised to find a yellow glow emanating from his palm onto the boy's forehead, eyes wide as if in a daze. Sanzo continued to chant, repeating it over and over again, since it seemed to be working. Eventually Goku's eyes drooped closed and he was asleep in his arms.
The crowd was silent from shock as he exclaimed, "What the fuck?!"
