The Story of the Recalled Souls
Chapter one: Lost and found
Disclaimer: I do not own Saiyuki, or Journey to the West.
It had been four months already. Four long, free and wonderful months away from the prison of her family's home. Four months ago, the dark brown haired girl had been a chubby 17 year old living with her wealthy parents, younger brother and younger sister. She had been rather popular all throughout high school, and even after she graduated she retained a bit of fame among her peers when she was attending college. And, four months ago, she had just finished her first semester…badly, passing only two classes, much to her parent's dismay.
Her mother and father were, needless to say, quite angry and disappointed with her horrid grades and immaturity, but what had displeased them the most was their daughter's reaction to her failure, which was her being absolutely unfazed. It was as though she was happy with her futile attempts at college. And the truth was actually this: yes, the girl was a bit unhappy that she had failed her classes. But she wasn't going to let it or her parents bring her down. She was quite content with the bit of freedom she had. She was happy being able to see her friends everyday and she was happy to be out of the house.
Her parents berated her, citing that she was irresponsible and she was abusing their kindness. Alright, perhaps she was. But, so what? They had never before given her the chance to enjoy her childhood or her life, they only wanted her to be a perfectly trained monkey for them. All her free time was to be used for school. They gave her every opportunity to be great, to be perfect, and to be their princess. They placed her in a Heaven, of sorts.
She hated that fucking Heaven. It was boring.
As ironic as it sounds, that's how she pictured it. Any escape into reality, as cruel as it may have been for her, was cherished. She enjoyed the sense of veracity that washed over her, enveloping her into a spontaneous world of wonder. It's what she loved. And it was one of the few things she wanted: happiness.
People may have said she couldn't handle reality, that she should just embrace the solitude her parents set for her. But it was hard to do so when she was always unconsciously resisting. At one point in her young life she allowed herself to become shallow and adjusted to the world her parents had made for her. She began to make good grades, and she began to see that her friends were nothing but losers with no future. She rid herself of them, much to her parent's approval.
But after a while, she started to recognize what a robot she was becoming. She was so ashamed of the monster that stared back at her from the mirror. She no longer saw the care-free monkey that she once was. So she lashed out again. She started to make a mess of everything in an attempt to shatter the mirror. And one day, she did so.
She was happy once again, she was so excited to be liberated from the Hell they called Heaven. It was brilliant. She was brilliant! The sky was brilliant! The souls of the world were brilliant! And she was so, very, very happy.
Her parents, however, were so angry with her. They were so livid that she was mucking things up, staining their once happy home. Her brother disagreed with them, finding himself in his own bind-wanting nothing more than to be rid of the family he had come to hate.
The only person who understood him was his big sister. She listened to him, she knew what it was like to be in his situation. But there was one big difference between the siblings. She didn't hate her family. She loved them. She was just thwarted by their refusal to accept her happiness.
Once, when her brother had tried to run away, like she had once done, she stopped him. She needed him to be strong for her. She needed him to be stable for her, if not for the rest of the family. Because she knew what she was had to do.
She was running away for good this time. She had run away once before when she was fourteen but because she was so young she had been easily found. This time, she would not be so easily discovered. She doubted her parents would want her back anyway. Not this time. Not since she was such a major "Disappointment."
So she picked a stormy night when she knew the thunder would mask her unsetting the alarm on the house, and another clap of thunder would hide the opening and closing of the front door as she fled into the rain in the middle of the night. Before she left, she left two notes. One of the letters was for her entire family and the other was specifically for her brother. In the letter, she asked him to be strong and that one day they would meet up again. She told him to keep in contact with her by e-mail. And she told him to not give up faith because God was watching over both of them.
She stuffed what she felt was important into a duffle bag: jewelry and other valuables that she could pawn off when needed. She took very few clothes, not wanting to keep herself tied down with too much load, she also took her drawing utensils. She could try to make a bit of money with her art skills.
The girl knew it would be a difficult way of life. But she could handle it. God would protect her. Besides, she felt that she had to do it. She felt as if there were a tight, invisible rope pulling her away, and she could only follow it.
Thus her present status four months later.
She stood in a large store, eyes on the fruit before her. She had no money because she had run out of paper so she couldn't draw pictures for anyone, she had also run out of things to pawn and it was too risky to steal valuables or money from stores or people. They could be traced much too easily. And she absolutely refused to pawn off the gold chain around her neck. It was too precious, too full of memories and spiritual faith.
The girl glanced at the security guards as she loaded up the clear, plastic bag with fruit. Three green apples, four peaches, a pound of cherries, and a pear, it was all she could fit in the bag. She bit her tongue and looked around again. She spotted a large pyramid-stack of cans a few feet behind the guard. She waited for the guard to look away and without any hesitation she threw an apple at the cans, knocking them down. The guard turned towards the fallen cans and the other guards rushed foreword to help pick them up.
The girl took the opportunity to bolt out of the store with the bag of fruit in hand. But as she ran outside, she ran right into another guard who had been observing the whole time from just outside the door. He grabbed her arm tightly and pulled her close, "What the hell do you think you're doing?" He growled, spraying spittle on her face, she groaned in disgust and kneed him in the crotch. He released his grip on her arm as he dropped to the ground.
She took off at a faster pace, accidentally knocking groceries from a woman's arms. The woman screamed in outrage but the girl couldn't stop, "Sorry, ma'am!" She called over her shoulder as she continued to run. She didn't stop running until she was about a quarter of a mile away, she headed towards the thick woods that would lead to an old country road where she would stay the night.
She gave a small, adrenaline-pumped laugh of triumph for getting away with the food. She hadn't been forced to confront a guard of any type in a long time, so the excitement had her heart pumping hard. She sighed as elation passed, leaving her exhausted. She was thin now, her baby fat having been replaced with lithe muscles from having to outrun police and guards in the past.
The young girl plopped to the ground and took an enormous bite from the pear, letting the juices run down her face. Her honey-colored eyes lifted upwards, the clouds were a lilac color against the yellow-orange sky. It would be dark soon. She had to hurry towards the road before it became too dark for her to see. Finishing off her pear she grunted and stood up, popping her neck to the side before heading north towards the road.
How many times had she slept in the ditch on that road? As she walked she counted the number of times on her fingers…she ran out of fingers. "Over ten times…" she frowned and looked back up towards the sky. The clouds were gathering. It was going to rain again.
Luckily, there was an empty sewer pipe under the old country road that she could take shelter in. She saw lightning in the distance. It would be another bad storm but, being April, it was expected. A small smile crept to her lips. Despite not having a real home to go to, or anyone to talk to, she was still happy. She loved the struggle for survival she had to face every day. She was truly content.
It took fifteen minutes to get to the head of the empty road, and it took another twenty minutes to get to the sewer pipe. A light drizzle began to fall while on the way, it was warm fortunately, so when the heavy rain started she could perhaps bathe and wash her clothes. She had a large pail and some soap in her duffel bag hidden in the cesspool.
By the time she reached her destination, the rain was pouring heavily. She ran to her shelter and shook herself like a dog. She giggled gleefully, remembering the wolves she had once seen in the woods, playing with each other in the large puddles. It had been really cute to see such a happy family.
She began to strip down to her under-clothes, a tank top and boy-shorts, and then she ran out under the rain with a bar of soap and began to bathe. Humming a light tune, she closed her eyes, blinding her from the lights approaching from the distance. She finished bathing and then disappeared back into the pipe before she dragged the empty bucket under the rain.
But there was something moving in the dark, coming towards her. Her eyes narrowed, the moving thing didn't stir like an animal. It was a person. She glared and moved back, and grabbed her red, fighting rod that she had stolen from a pawn shop three months ago. She would have bought it but she would never have been able to earn $1,000.
She was deadly with the powerful rod in her small hands, she knew how to wield the weapon very well. She would kill the person if they proved to be a threat, it wouldn't be the first time. When the person came closer she jumped out and thrusted the rod forward, the person jumped back and held their hands up.
"Hey, hey! What the hell, man?!" It was a man who shouted "I'm not going to hurt you, my friends and I are just lost. We saw you come down here and thought you could give us directions." The girl gave a feral glare.
"Go away." She slunk back into the pipe and sat down "Leave me alone."
"But, hey! Come one, man, don't leave. We just need some help."
"Go away." She repeated "Or I'll kill you."
"Joe, what the hell is taking so fucking long? We're getting soaked to the fucking bone up here!" Came another man's voice, though this one sounded extremely angry and farther away. It was difficult to hear because of the pounding rain.
"Don't get pissy with me, fucker!" Joe snapped back "This kid just tried to attack me, I think he may be 'fenal' or whatever…"
"It's 'feral', you nimrod." Came the other voice again, it sounded close. Too close. The girl under the pipe slunk away even more, holding herself tightly. As the new man stepped in front of the pipe, the girl noticed he was wearing bright colors, he stepped inside slowly. It was too dark for her to see him clearly. But she could tell he was bright…although she didn't think he was just physically light. His soul seemed to shine, too.
She closed her eyes and turned away. The sound of a lighter clicking into life made her turn back towards him. He was lighting a cigarette. The soft glow drew her towards him, she crawled slowly. "Hey, kid." He said. His voice was slightly gruff, but obviously young. He couldn't be older than twenty…maybe twenty one. "What are you doing in here?"
"I…I'm not sure." She felt confused and suddenly tired.
"You a runaway?" She nodded but quickly realized he couldn't see it.
"Yeah," she replied softly.
"How old are you?"
"I turn eighteen in June…"
"Jesus, you really are a child." He began to play with his lighter "You can't stay in this shit hole. It's disgusting."
"It's never been used…" the girl replied. "It was left here a long time ago and then cement was poured over it for the road." The man frowned slightly, although she couldn't see it.
"You're a girl, aren't you?" He asked after a moment.
"Mmhm." The girl mumbled, she heard the man make an impatient noise.
"Come on," he said, holding his hand out, the girl could see it "You can come with us. We're going somewhere dry."
"It's dry here."
"But where we're going there are showers." He still had his hand held out "Come on." Normally, the girl would have screamed and busted the man's face in with her metal rod but for some reason, she trusted the stranger. She wanted him to take her from the hole. She felt as though she knew him. She pulled her duffel bag and her fruit bag towards her with her left hand and took the offered hand with her right. It was warm, and callused.
She recognized the calluses as belonging to a gun wielder. But, despite the potential danger, she felt only comfort and familiarity. As though they had known each other for a very long time.
She held the man's hand tightly as he helped her up the steep side of the ditch, the rain made it difficult to keep footing. The rain died down and she could make out a jeep of a dark color, perhaps green or black, with no top parked in the road. No wonder they were soaked. The man in the driver's seat stared inquiringly at the girl, who ignored him and continued to stare at the man holding her hand.
He had short blonde hair that was so very bright, even though it was damp. She wanted to grab it, and soak up all its warmth. But she had a feeling the man would get angry. He turned towards her, "You're going to sit in the back with Joe, alright?" Joe grinned.
"You're not going to kill me are you?" It was then the girl noticed she had been gripping the metal rod tightly. She blinked at it several times and then smiled back with a shake of her head.
"No, I won't. Just don't touch me." She answered calmly and allowed the blonde haired man to help her into the back seat. She refused to wear a seat belt, she sat on her knees on the seat and stared back at the ditch. She doubted she would ever have to go back there.
"Hey, kid…" Joe started, the girl ignored him and continued to stare at the ditch, wondering if she had forgotten anything "Hey, kid. Hey, you." Joe frowned. "Hey, you, little monkey." The girl snapped her head towards him.
"I'm not monkey!" she growled "I'm Goku! Get it right, dummy!"
"Well, Goku!" The driver smiled, he was facing her from the front seat "I'm Cho, and this is San Marcus." He motioned to the blonde man. Goku crinkled her nose.
"I don't like that name!" she decided "I'm giving you a new name!"
"What? Why?" Joe laughed, Goku stared at him too.
"I wanna give all of you new names! Okay?" Goku giggled and planted a hand on the top of Joe's head "Gojyo!"
"Whuh?" Gojyo whined, Cho chuckled until Goku's small hand rested atop his head as well.
"You're Hakkai, now!" Hakkai smiled, he actually liked his new name. Goku moved on towards the other man "And you…you're Sanzo from now on, okay?" Sanzo shrugged and moved Goku's hand away.
"Whatever, doesn't matter to me. Never liked the old one anyway." He snorted.
"We all sort of needed new ones, eh, Sanzo?" Hakkai grinned "What about you Miss Goku? Don't you need a new name as well?"
"That is my new name, silly!" she replied, settling back down in her seat "So, where are we going?"
The three men exchanged glances "Well, that's the thing…" Hakkai started "We're lost, you see."
"Oh…What were you looking for?"
"A motel, actually." Goku grinned at his answer.
"I know where one is!" she laughed and then began to direct them…there was only one motel in the entire town. It was set in the west.
bang
AN: So, I had to edit this chapter. The errors were bugging me. I want to give a very special thanks to my best friend, and future business partner, Fire (aka Desolate Beauty). You are an absolute DOLL, thank you so much for your help, support and friendship. Oh, an kick ass stories, too. I heart you, dude.