Chapter Four

"Cousin, wake up; you're going to miss the part where Murdock escapes from the mental warden again," Balki yawned as he sat on the couch next to Larry.

"Balki," Larry moaned, waving him off as he sat with his head resting against the back of the sofa, "I'm too tired to watch The A-Team. I'm too tired to even say it."

Balki yawned again, but was determined to watch the rest of their favorite hour long show. He had to admit that he was just as exhausted as Larry, but they didn't have a VCR or a futuristic DVR like the one Bianca had, so Balki had no other option but to finish. He looked over at Larry, who had his eyes closed, mouth open and a bit of drool forming on the corner of his mouth. "Cousin! If you can't wait another forty-five minutes to get your forty tiddlywinks, then at least go to bed! You're drooling on the couch."

Larry jolted awake. "Wha-? Did you say Bianca was here?"

Balki sighed. "Cousin, go to bed. Put on your pajamas and go to bed!"

"But the bedroom is so far away," Larry whined.

Balki rolled his eyes and yawned again before he effortlessly picked his cousin up from the couch and carried him in his arms to the bedroom. Once inside, Balki dropped him onto the bed before collapsing across the foot of the mattress. "Cousin?"

"Yes, Balki?"

"I have nothing more to give!"

Larry groaned. "Balki, why are we so tired? All we had was vegetable soup and water…or was it tea?"

Balki didn't move from where he lay on his stomach, face pressed onto the bedspread. "Cousin, Greg made us tea, remember? He said he'd watch the vegetable sop while we ran our earrings," he mumbled.

Larry yawned. " Errands, Balki; while we ran our-oh my Lord! Remind me as soon as I wake up to murder Greg Kitchens."

Balki managed to pick himself up and stumble to the bedroom door. "Cousin, you can't kill Greg. It would be a federal defense and you would go to jail. Can't believe you would want to hurt a nice man like Greg who made us tea and watched over our soup and Bianca-"

Balki's sentence was interrupted, however, by the sound of Larry snoring. He wasn't sure why Larry disliked Greg so much, but he was too tired to care. Right now, his biggest feat would be to retreat to his own room, put on his pajamas and curl into bed before passing out.

Bianca couldn't hear what Serge was saying on the phone to Greg, but it sounded serious. Which made her giggle like a schoolgirl. She liked sleeping over at Serge's house. Not that she'd ever done it before, but she made a mental note to do it more often. His guestroom had a large circular bed in it and the ceiling above was mostly windows, so she could look up and see the stars twinkling in the night sky. In the daytime, he had a button on his wall that made a little piece of the ceiling slide and cover the skylight. She smiled wistfully at the thought. When she was able to build her new house, she would have a room just like this, sliding ceiling and all. It's a good thing I skipped Jacob's silly little will-reading today. Spending the day with Serge was much more fun. Just saying his name is fun: Serge, Serge, Serge. Serge the art-dealer. Serge the espresso-making Wildman. Serge the ladies' man. Or is that not right? Who cares? He's got great hair, she thought, giggling sporadically. She couldn't figure out why she was so sleepy. She wasn't just sleepy. She was "I stayed up so late that I now find everything hysterical and am seeing pink elephants wearing polka-dotted underpants" sleepy.

"Serge!" she called, although she could barely hear herself for the mental voice screaming to go to sleep.

"You are still awake? Oh my," Serge rushed in, but Bianca could barely see him for the thick fog in front of her. She waved it away and giggled.

"Was I supposed to be asleep? Shhh, I think I am," she replied before flopping back on the bed laughing hysterically.

"Please go to sleep, Miss Bianca," he whined.

Bianca buzzed her lips together. "Okay. Let me just get a glass of water. You won't have to twist my arm or anything. Cause that would hurt," she giggled again.

"No, no. You stay right there and I will get the glass of water," Serge stopped her before exiting the room, mumbling something inaudible.

"Tell the pink elephants to pull up their britches!" she called out before wildly fluffing her pillow and resting her head on it. "Night, little elephants. Night, Serge," she whispered before sleep enveloped her.

Larry sat up and rubbed his face with his hands. How long had he been asleep? As he took his hands away from his face and his eyes focused, he looked out to see bright blue sky and white fluffy clouds. What a beautiful day for a ride!

Wait; a ride! he thought as he looked down to see he was still in his bed and wearing his pajamas. "Oh my Lord! My bed-it's…flying!" he exclaimed, grabbing the sheets and looking terrified as he continued to smoothly levitate in the air.

"Wheeee!" a voice called out behind him. Larry forced himself to turn his head to see who the voice belonged to, although he already knew.

"Balki? Balki! What is happening? Beds are not supposed to fly!"

"Oh, Cousin, don't be such a fish stick in the mud," Balki replied as his bed caught up to Larry's. "This is fun!"

Larry glared at Balki. "Fun? This is fun? Balki, this is not fun; this is dangerous! We could be killed by a-by a seven-forty-seven jetliner or a wayward gaggle of geese! We have to get down-NOW!"

As if on cue, Larry's bed begin dropping at a fast rate of speed. Larry flopped forward onto his stomach, holding onto the sheets and blankets for dear life. "Oh God…oh God," he kept saying over and over, trying to ignore his fast heart rate and Balki's childlike laughter.

Minutes later, the bed landed on the ground-thankfully not too harshly-and Larry forced himself to look up. "Where…are we?"

"I don't know, Cousin, but look who's here! Bianca!" Balki cried, leaping off the bed and running to their friend.

"Bianca!" Larry gasped, doing the same. When he reached her, he hugged her tightly and kissed her as if his life depended on it.

"Larry!" she giggled. "What was that for? And where are we?"

As the three of them looked around, Larry had to admit it was beautiful. There were green meadows as far as the eye could see, with white picket fences and quaint blue, white and yellow houses all in a row a few yards from the fields. A large windmill stood in the center of the fields and two dogs frolicked around the windmill, barking and playfully yelping at one another. The blue sky and cotton candy clouds were still overhead and the sun shone down on them brightly. Larry had never seen anything more beautiful in his life and he instinctively grabbed Bianca's hand.

"Cousin, this looks beautiful! If only you had your camera; this view is a Kojak moment!" Balki exclaimed.

"It does look amazing, doesn't it?" Larry repeated.

"Well, except for that," Bianca stated, pointing to their left.

Larry followed her gaze and finger until he saw a very black cloud in the distance. He could see flashes of lightning and the haze of pounding rain falling below it. It looked as if it were heading slowly in their direction, but Larry couldn't quite tell.

"Wwoww!" Balki cried out as seconds later, a gust of wind blew so hard, Bianca's copper curls were going every which direction. Even the dogs took notice, for they ran off, yelping as if they had been injured.

"Um, guys?" Bianca asked as calmly as she could. "I seriously think now would be a really good time to-"

"Run!" Larry shouted for her as the cloud suddenly appeared much closer than before. Still grabbing Bianca's hand, he grabbed Balki's arm with his other hand and the three of them jumped over the white fence and towards the row of houses. "Maybe one of them has a storm shelter!" he yelled over the howling wind.

"Look out!" Bianca screamed as the windmill began to wobble back and forth before falling forward, barely missing Balki by a few feet.

"Cousin, I can't feel the ground!" Balki hollered.

Larry looked over at him, about to say something sarcastic when he saw that sure enough, Balki was off the ground! "Balki!" he screamed, trying to pull him down, but the wind was too strong. "No! No!"

"Larry, you have to let go!" Bianca cried out.

Larry looked at her as if she'd grown two heads. "Are you crazy? He'll be sucked into the cloud from Hell!"

"Larry, you have to! Just let go!"

"No! I can't and I won't!"

"Cousin!" Balki cried, his feet up over his head as he was hanging on as tight as he could. "I can't get a grip!"

"Balki!" Larry screamed as his cousin lost his grip completely and was sucked up into the cloud. "No!"

Suddenly, the dark cloud disappeared and Bianca looked over at Larry. "Now it's just the two of us," she smiled.

Larry's jaw dropped as soon as the words came out of her mouth. As he looked at her face, however, her white teeth transformed into green sharp teeth with protruding fangs and her eyes turned from their perfect blue into evil slits with red flames. Her hair then changed into venomous snakes with three heads and Larry screamed with all of his might, trying desperately to run, but one of the three-headed snakes wrapped around his torso and picked him up. He closed his eyes, waiting for death to come….and it did.