Bye bye baby

AN: My entry for the Halloween exchange on Tumblr for nelicquele79!

I wasn´t sure if I wanted to participate since Halloween is not really something I care about (for me it´s mostly some American thing from movies, so) BUT I had a brilliant idea some time ago about a Vegeta/Bulma get together horror story and since nelicquele´s prompt was going into that direction… yeah. So yes, it takes place in the three year training gap! But it´s not really a get together.

Warnings! Violence (no sexual violence) including some self harm and psychological horror. Also mentioning of mental illnesses. It´s not extreme in any way though, since I don´t like that, but it could be disturbing.

Alright, have fun!

"Oi! Vegeta! We´re heading out, last chance to come, too!"

Vegeta stared at her for a while, disgruntled looking as ever. Bulma shrugged, gesturing with her head to the door. "With a face like that you don´t even have to dress up."

He turned around without another word and disappeared into the next room. Bulma sighed, shaking her head slowly. Well, she had tried.

"He´s not coming?"

"Course not. He´s not into 'stupid human activities'!" Bulma laughed, her impression of the moody prince got better every day.

"Can´t say I´m all that sorry."

Yamcha was probably right. It would´ve been interesting, but she had really been looking forward to the Halloween party and she had just asked to make fun of him anyway. Bulma grinned at Yamcha, knowing perfectly well that he knew what she was thinking.

"I´m kinda surprised by your costume. Thought it would be something sexy."

She looked down at herself, opening her torn trench coat to reveal a very torn dress. "Yeah, it is kinda sexy. Sexy zombie. You and Puar look amazing though, I´m actually impressed!"

"Oh, thanks! That´s an unexpected compliment." He was dressed like a maniacal researcher and Puar as a rotting ghost. It was pretty haunting. Would make their entrance all the better.

A few hours later, Bulma was positively buzzed and had the time of her life. She wasn´t the only sexy zombie, which bugged her, but she definitely was the best looking one. Even better than that movie starlet, she couldn´t even remember her name, something with A…

She had lost sight of Yamcha some time ago. Puar had found a quiet corner to roll together and get a nap and Bulma noticed her attention dropping from the reality TV star who was trying to hit on her. She leaned her head back, looking at the glimmering lights on the ceiling. It was so pretty. She smiled, following some of the colourful dots until her gaze dropped down again. Some woman with heavy make-up was talking to her, her golden dress shimmering almost as much as the ceiling. She knew her from somewhere, some… oh right. That star lawyer.

"Come on Bulma, we´re doing a séance over there, you should join! It´s gonna be fun!"

Bulma didn´t argue and let herself be led away. The other TV guy already started talking to another woman, he probably hadn´t even realized that it wasn´t Bulma anymore. She laughed loudly, barely able to control herself enough to keep walking. She almost fell down into the chair, giggling. "What is this? There´s just a candle in the middle, thought we were gonna contact dead people or something. `s not? `s boring, I´m gonna…"

"Hold hands and focus on the light." The star lawyer took Bulma´s right hand, some politician her left. A scary looking woman with a violet scarf was sitting directly across her, staring at her. The medium she guessed. Squinting a bit, she looked into the candle, waiting for some face to appear in the flame. The least she could expect were some decent special effects.

The weird lady started rambling about ghosts and shit, Bulma didn´t pay her much attention. She couldn´t. The flickering of the flame had something mesmerizing, almost as good as the ceiling. She started giggling again. The star lawyer shooed at her to keep quiet, but she couldn't, it was too funny and the politician was pressing her left hand so hard, she wanted to get another drink, were was Yamcha again, everything was spinning so fast, she wanted to get up, get up and look for Yamcha but her hands were pressed down on the table and… and…

Bulma blinked lazily, trying to figure out what had happened. She groaned, her head aching like it had been split open.

"Hey there old lady, back from the dead?" Yamcha grinned at her. Why was she lying on his lap…?

Bulma rolled to the side, doing her best in keeping everything inside. "There you are, have been looking for you…"

"Yeah, you kinda made everyone super afraid when you passed out during your little ghost hunting session. A bit too much booze, eh?"

She swallowed hard, giving up her attempts to get up. "Didn´t… didn't drink that much. That thing on the table had been weird, I don´t know, I looked at that candle and everything was spinning and… don´t know. Was weird."

"I´m gonna bring you home, okay? Just sleep it off. You never know what´s in those cocktails."

She nodded, slowly, so slowly. Sleeping sounded good.

Vegeta only realized how awfully quiet the house had been lately when the annoying engineer stumbled upon him in the kitchen. Not that he paid much attention to her state of being, but even he had to admit that she looked… like hell. Groaning, stumbling towards the coffee machine, barely managing to grab a cup from the found himself torn between helping her just to end the display of utter weakness or to put an end to her misery. She had gone to some party a few days ago, something which tended to make her unapproachable for at least a day, but this was far beyond that.

"Have you been taking drugs?"

She turned around, slowly, her eyes bloodshot. "Go away, bastard."

He took that as a yes. Still unsure of what to do, he watched her grab a pack of cigarettes out of her pant pocket and lightening it. With a grin he moved faster than she could see, stealing it from her mouth and quickly getting out of the kitchen. She was swearing loudly and hopefully questioning her state of mind. A fitting punishment in his opinion.

Two days later she was back to normal, although she seemed to be confused a bit. He noticed that she was staring at him sometimes and not even reacting when he started insulting her. He hadn´t spent all that much time at her place, but somehow… even the other human seemed unsure what to do, the weak one, the one with the floating animal, he heard them talking, quietly, trying to figure out if the engineer was still dealing with lingering side effects. Vegeta eavesdropped a bit, but it wasn´t very enlightening. Who knew what was going on. The worst case wasn´t so bad anyway, the parents would let him stay for sure, even with their daughter dead. Not as if it was his fault to begin with. For once… he wasn´t at fault at all.

"Did she say something to you? I talked to her parents and they say she acted normal, probably just a flu or something, but she´s apathetic and… so? Did she?"

It must be serious if the weak human actually talked to him. Vegeta eyed him suspiciously, it wouldn´t be the first time he and the engineer tried to make fun of him. "No. She just seems out of it. You were with her, don´t you know what she took?"

"Wha… she took nothing! She would never do that! We were just drinking a bit and…" He stopped, his eyes moving frantically, like he realized something important. "Maybe someone else put something in her drink… she passed out, that… insane bastard, doing that to Bulma!" He stormed away, fuming. So he had been right. Surprise.

Another four days and he saw a letter lying around, some medical stuff written on the header. It was a blood test. No drugs, in big, bold letters. Well. They should put an end to her misery after all. When he turned around, Bulma was standing a few steps behind him, eyeing him. He frowned, he hadn´t even felt her ki. This was weird.

"I´m never taking drugs, bitch. I´m completely fine."

"Yeah, doesn´t look like it. Try sleeping."

She eyed him somewhat longer. He noticed that she wasn´t even wearing make-up, trying to cover up the dark circles under her eyes or the blotchy skin. It wasn´t his problem. He should ignore her. In the end they would come to him to make sure she dies painlessly. In her case he would even comply. Break her neck. That was rather quick and harmless. There was a twitching feeling between his shoulder blades, a prickling sensation. He walked a bit quicker to his room.

Finally the shouting started. The engineer had started throwing temper tantrums when her parents started questioning her ability to work and he saw her personal assistant running out of the living room, crying. He just wanted them to keep him out of it. So far he was succeeding, and it was helping his progress, spending more time in the training chamber than ever before. The door opened automatically when his water bottle fell down from his hand. He fumbled for the button to power up the room while he tried to keep the bottle from rolling away and… he actually could see it happening, how the fire started spreading and the air was pushed forcefully against his face, making his eyes water and then it hit him. He felt the first impact of the grassy soil, the heat from the explosion burning through his training outfit and the second impact with the wall of the main house before he blacked out.

He wasn´t out for long, there was a lot of screaming and smoke burning in his eyes and his ears were bleeding and… he got out of bed after two days. Almost embarrassing.

It wasn´t until it started to pile up, the seemingly random accidents, stuff in his food that made him throw up for a few days, a closet that had been falling on top of him out of nowhere and actually broke his wrist and that one time he watched the engineer, seemingly back to normal but awfully quiet all of a sudden, watched her standing in the kitchen cutting her lower arm with a knife. One perfect line after the other, shallow cuts, up to her elbow. When she saw him she smiled, holding the knife out to him. He felt his heart hammering in his chest and decided to get out, fly a bit around the city. Maybe someone had put drugs into his drink. He wasn't quite sure he knew what was going on anymore.

"Your woman is harming herself. You should put her down."

The weak human forgot his precaution when Vegeta dropped down in the middle of the woods, the place he seemed to prefer for training. It was awful. Everything was moving, the air was smelling weird and it was cold. How could anyone focus on training in such an environment? It was beyond Vegeta.

"We… don´t usually put other people down when they are acting strangely. We help them."

"I don´t care, she was cutting her arms up, maybe next time she tries it with her head."

"Bulma doesn´t do that!"

"Well, I saw it. Take it as you want."

When she was standing over his bed trying to ram a knife into his chest he knew he had to do something.

"Where is Yamcha? He could help us, I don´t understand, at least he could help us…"

"Why aren´t you doing something! Weren´t you training all the time?"

The old man was shaking Vegeta. He couldn´t understand it either, some weak human was able to shake him and they asked him why he didn´t do anything? He didn´t even know how he got into that mess, the sobbing blond woman and the personal assistant who was slowly rocking herself didn´t help at all. He had barely managed to avoid getting killed an hour ago, still too dazed from sleeping to realize that he was… powerless. Only when he couldn´t quite avoid another blow from the engineer and ended up with a deep cut on his arm he realized that something didn´t add up. His ki was gone. There was no explanation for it, it was just… it had to be the house. No closet could break his wrist. And they couldn´t get out, he couldn´t open a fucking door to the outside and the old woman said she had already tried smashing a window with a chair.

Where was the weak human, though? All the time he was lingering around the house and that one time they could actually need his help… Vegeta closed his eyes, taking a deep breath. He didn´t want the humans to know that he was shaken by the events. He was used to be weaker than others, it was what had kept him in his position for so long, but being completely powerless… it was frightening. But there was no one else to help him. He couldn´t count on the humans. At best he could throw the assistant towards the engineer, trying to knock the wind out of her, but he didn´t feel like sacrificing someone and gaining nothing from it.

There were steps, just outside the door. Maybe one of the robots, the house had a lot of them.

"Maybe it´s a robot." The assistant looked at them, her eyes wide and afraid. "It´s just a storage room, why should she come here?"

The steps stopped. They all looked intently at the door, the ragged breathing sounding loud in his ears, too loud, she could hear them, why did they have to breathe so loud! The steps continued and Vegeta exhaled, not even having realized he had held his breath. It was embarrassing, being afraid of a freaking human. He grinned, a bit shaky but they didn´t know that. The same moment an axe was rammed through the door, inches away from his cheek. He looked at it, not daring to move, not daring to take his eyes away. She couldn´t know. The axe was slowly pulled back and Vegeta decided to move away, just in time when the axe cut through again, right where his head had been, again and again, how did she have the strength to do that?

"I know you are in there. I´m getting you out of there. Do you hear me, Vegeta? I´m getting you out of there and I`m going to murder you, I´m going to murder you slowly and I`m going to enjoy it and I´m going to think of everyone you have killed, of everyone, you HEAR ME? DO YOU?" The whole door vibrated when she kicked it, multiple times.

All the humans looked at him. There was no way the engineer could plot his death over his old work. It hadn´t bothered her before. But the other humans were ready to throw him out. For the first time in so long he actually felt something like… fear.

At first Bulma thought the hangover lasted really long. Usually she got over it fairly quickly, a bit of a headache and a bit of a nauseating feeling for a few hours and everything back to normal. But this time… this time she felt her head spinning and she wasn´t sure, but there were times when she felt like she couldn´t remember what she had done during the last hour. It usually happened when she focused on a task that she lost track of the time, but this was different. And the longer it went, the more she was frightened of herself. She knew Yamcha thought she had been given some drugs on the party, but drugs didn´t last that long.

And there was the nagging thought in the back of her mind, the one that told her to harm Vegeta any way she could and she didn´t want to follow that thought, but it didn´t go away, it got worse and worse and when she woke up, a knife in her hand and blood running down her arms, she knew she was losing her mind. She had heard of mental disorders that made you unaware of what you´re doing and maybe… maybe she got one of those. It was terrifying, but it was something they could diagnose and treat. It was good. It was all good.

Later that evening, she started talking. The woman in her head, the thought in her mind, she started talking. She started telling her to kill Vegeta, no matter what, and that she was too weak to do it properly, nothing had worked so far, and she had to go. Before Bulma realized what had happened, she couldn´t… her body, she couldn´t move it anymore, she saw and moved but it wasn´t her. She tried to, she tried to do anything, the exertion caused her head to spin and she felt her face contort but the woman didn´t let go.

"Who are you?"

"It doesn´t matter, Bulma."

Maybe she didn´t even know. Maybe it was herself. Maybe… she retreated, letting the woman wander around the house, finding an axe in one of the workshops, an emergency axe in case of fire, and starting to hunt her family. It was her. She had been trying to do that all along. And now that she knew… everything faded to black. Now that she knew, how could she ever live with it?

Yamcha felt Vegeta´s ki drop and it made him anxious. It could only mean two things: Either he was dead, which would be great but unlikely, or he hid his ki to do something to deserve to die. And it became even more conspicuous when he arrived at Bulma´s place and all doors were locked and no one answered a phone. Thoughts were running wildly through his mind, starting with Vegeta torturing them to Vegeta killing them and without paying any attention to Puars squeal he kicked in the door.

"Bulma? Are you there? Bulma? BULMA!"

There was noise coming from down the hall, it sounded like splintering wood. He walked faster, running, only then noticing how his ki was gone. Something was…

"Argh! Just DIE!"

Vegeta barely avoided the axe that was swung towards his head, backing off from the damaged door, leading her away, her eyes mad.

"Bulma? What… what are you doing! Stop it!"

Vegeta turned around, his face contorted in something like hope and fear. It didn´t look like he was the one trying to kill someone. But it didn´t make any sense!

"Your woman is going crazy, I told you to put her down! Are you convinced now?"

Yamcha shook his head, slowly. This couldn´t be. But it was definitely Bulma who was swinging an axe. Vegeta didn´t manage to get away in time, screaming when the axe hit his arm and stuck to it. He struggled with Bulma, he trying to get the axe out, Bulma trying to finish the job.

Yamcha was still dumbstruck at the scene. This was surreal. Bulma wouldn´t… not without reason… "Why aren´t you fighting back?"

"Can you use your ki, asshole?" He fell down, his arm getting free with the motion and he scrambled away as fast as possible, just when the axe hit the floor right where he had lain a second before. Yamcha couldn´t use his ki, he had already noticed, there was no explanation for it, nothing he could think of. Bulma´s parents peaked out from the broken door behind her, their faces pale with terror.

"Try to stop me and you´re dead next."

That wasn´t Bulma talking. He knew her too well. Without thinking he grabbed Vegeta under his arms, heavy motherfucker, and started dragging him to the front door. He had to get her away from the rest of her family and maybe they could use their ki once they were outside the house.

"Vegeta, you got any idea what´s going on?"

"She tried to stab me." His eyes moved frantically, trying to think of something, trying to figure it out. "I think there were other murder attempts. I´m not sure."

"What did you do you crazy fucking piece of shit?" He let go of Vegeta, he could just as well move on his own.

"Hell do I know! Didn´t do anything since I´m on the planet! Give the crazy bitch at least a reason to kill me!"

Yamcha could think of a few hundred of them, but he knew that Bulma had found it funny to have him in the house. They arrived at the front hall and the door was closed. Shiny and new, as if he had never kicked it in. There was a weak sound, screaming from Puar who he had left outside, but the tiny cat couldn´t manage to break the door down again.

"I just kicked it in."

Vegeta snickered, probably loosing it. He looked rather pale and blood was gushing from his arm. Yamcha swore some more, grabbing one of the tablecloths around him to stop the bleeding. He could need all the help he could get to stop Bulma, trying to protect the unconscious bastard wasn´t helping.

"Run as much as you want, I don´t even need to hurry. Next time I will hit your head, little nakatagjin."

Vegeta looked up, not trying to get away from her any further. Yamcha had no idea what she just said, but… maybe he could get the axe out of her hand. Ki or not, he was a trained martial artist. Huffing, he started running, dodging her first hit and kicking her feet from under her. She fell hard on the side, but didn´t let go of the goddamn axe! With more force than he thought she could manage Bulma tried to hit his leg. He barely avoided it, rolling to the side and getting up to get her in a lock. She was quicker, jumping up and running away, towards Vegeta who just stood there, confused. Swearing, Yamcha tried to catch up to her before she reached him. Obviously he was in shock and unable to move. He grabbed her shirt, yanking her back brutally and they both stumbled down. The first impact with the floor pressed all the air out of his lungs, the second impact of Bulma´s body made his ribs crack, but he got hold of the axe. She still struggled, but he held it against her chest. She would calm down when she realized it was futile.

Vegeta finally moved towards them, looking down at Bulma as if she was something he had never seen before. He said something, but Yamcha couldn´t understand, it made him furious!

"What you say? Hey, bastard, what the fuck you blabbering?"

Vegeta looked shortly at him, grinning. "That´s not your woman. That's someone else."

"Took you long enough you foul vermin! I would have killed you already if I could use my ki, you piece of shit, but that´s the only thing you done right, you´re stronger than me, but not now, no, I will bathe in your blood!"

She kicked Yamcha hard in the shin and jumped up, ripping the axe out of his hands. Vegeta avoided another blow and the second one landed in a table and stuck. Yamcha got her again, holding her locked under her arms and damn careful not to get her legs to close to his. His shin was throbbing nastily.

"Who are you? I can´t remember having done anything to any other Saiyan."

She struggled some more, screamed at the top of her lungs. Then she went completely limp. Yamcha shook her gently, carefully. She could just as well pretend to make him let her go and he really didn´t want to find out what else she would come up to to get rid of him.

"This is Bulma. I don´t know if she talks gibberish, but…" Or maybe the séance had worked. Maybe they had actually managed to summon a ghost. "Who is she?"

"I have no idea, fucking Earthling! Didn´t you listen?"

There was moaning coming from the limp body, she started to stir again.

"What… what has happened?" Bulma looked up, pale and exhausted and… the moment she saw Vegeta´s wound she started gagging. Yamcha let go of her immediately, ignoring Vegeta´s protests.

"My god Bulma, are you okay? What is… where is she?"

"I… I don´t think that´s my head."

Yes. Of course she would think that. Why hadn´t she told him anything?

"Don´t worry Bulma, we´ll make her go away, we´ll just… find that bitch who was at the party and she´ll get rid of that bitch in your brain, okay?"

"My ki is still blocked."

Vegeta didn´t stop staring at Bulma and Yamcha didn´t like it one bit.

"We´re not going to kill her!" Bulma went stiff in his arms, her fingernails biting into his skin.

"Vegeta… what did you do? What did you do, she was working on your planet and… and… she knew the king, the king, it was you, wasn´t it? Was it you?"

"No. I was never king."

The fingernails were biting deeper and Yamcha tried to move his arm away, but she didn´t let him, she grabbed onto him harder and when she lifter her head, she was grinning like mad. He reacted on instinct, moving his head away before she managed to bite his throat, only getting his shoulder, but it still hurt like a bitch. She let go, scrambling away and kicking him violently in the gut.

"No, you were a traitor, you ran, they all knew we should run and no one told us, no one told me, I have always been loyal, I have always been with the king, I would have done anything for him and he RAN AND I WAS LEFT! We were all left! And you will pay for it!"

They both grabbed the handle of the axe at the same time, but Vegeta got it out, hitting her with the backside of the axe hard over the head.

When the blood was dripping down on his face, all he could think about was that Vegeta still could hit really hard, blocked ki or not. And that maybe trying to block an axe with his arm hadn´t been the best idea he ever had. It stuck so deep he wondered how his arm was still attached.

Distantly, he heard Bulma screaming, screaming of terror and not of bloodlust and Vegeta was screaming and everything was slowly fading to… black.

"You killed him! You killed him! How could you do that?"

"He´s not dead, he´s just unconscious." Even the weak human wouldn´t die that easily. Vegeta rubbed his own arm absentmindedly. So she was back to normal again. The shock must´ve gotten her in control again.

"Listen, can you control that bitch?" He grabbed her shoulders, shaking her. She wasn´t crying, yet, but she was freaking out and he didn´t need that.

"I… I don´t know, I thought it was my head, I thought I had a disorder, I…"

"Get a grip! If you don´t get rid of her, someone is going to die and it won´t be me!"

Bulma looked over his shoulder, her parents were standing there, holding knifes in their hands. He knew where their loyalty lay. "Listen, I don´t know who´s inside you but I know why. She is mad that Vegeta-sei exploded but neither me nor my father were at fault for that! Can you try and convince her that she hadn´t been abandoned?"

Bulma smiled, bitter. "All she wants is seeing you dead. I don´t think I can reason with her. I can only…"

His head jerked back with the punch. She screamed, he knew the sound of breaking fingers, no matter who possessed the little engineer the body wasn´t that of a fighter. It wasn´t stopping her, she immediately got up and ran towards her parents, trying to get one of the knives. He turned around quickly, grabbing her around the ankles and making her fall hard on the floor. She was kicking him in the face and after short consideration in his arm, but he didn´t let go. He was used to pain. He had to end this.

"Why don´t you take me, ha? Is it easier to get into a weak human instead of me? Don´t you want me? Ha?"

She stopped struggling, eyeing him curiously. She hadn´t even thought about possessing him it seems. It probably hadn´t been a good idea, suggesting it, but… it was already too late.

Bulma couldn´t remember the last time her parents had held her so strongly. She had never been the type for huge displays of affection, but it seemed appropriate. It made her feel save while they all just sat on the floor and watched Vegeta squirm and shake. She could imagine what he was doing, trying to keep the upper hand in his battle with the dead saiyan woman. Yamcha slowly stirred, gaining back his consciousness. She would take care of him soon. She just needed to know…

The squirming stopped. Vegeta got up abruptly, looking around the room. "My ki is back. The bitch is gone."

"That easily?"

He shrugged. The front door opened and Puar came in, screaming and crying. It did seem to be back to normal. "Don´t remove the axe, Puar! We need to take him to the hospital! Come on Vegeta, you too!"

Yes. It was over. The nightmare was… over.

"Tick tock tick tock." Vegeta shook his head, trying to stay awake. His arm had been stitched up, the bone already healed before they made it to the hospital. He hadn´t told the truth.

"Time is over, go to sleep."

He exhaled, closed his eyes. Time to fight.

Fin.

AN: Omg, now that has been a ride! I´ve NEVER written horror before and it was really hard. I even had nightmares from it, ugh. Zombies would´ve been easier. Okay, hope I didn´t disappoint the genre lovers and hope the ending wasn´t too fast and most of all I hope that nelicquele79, that YOU liked it!

See you next time!