This is my probably my least favorite chapter out of everything I've written so far. I think I was trying to take it in a different direction and it didn't exactly work out…well, you'll see what I mean in a moment.

Anyway, I hope you like it! R&R please!


VII. Goodnight, Good Morning

Lina was somewhat disoriented when she awoke. It felt almost as though she was on a boat; the land beneath her was rocking, moving. She certainly wasn't in a bed, because she was sitting, but whatever was beneath her was soft. Opening her eyes, she discovered that while it was dark, thousands of tiny lights sparkled all around her, like little stars that had come down to adhere to her surroundings.

Looking out the window she remembered where she was: in the car, in that crazy insane place when the Lord of Nightmares had dumped her. At least she wasn't alone. She did have Gourry and her other friends here, after all.

Gourry! He was still driving the car, after who-knows-how-many hours she'd been asleep for. She glanced over at him, hoping that nothing unpleasant had occurred while she was dead to the world. It would've been so like him to crash into something, or else simply forget that he was driving and turn to do something else. However, there he was, looking relaxed and content as he cruised down the road. His blue eyes were fixed on the taillights of the car in front, his broad hands wrapped powerfully around the steering wheel.

She sighed with relief, glad that the state of things in the front of the car was acceptable. She turned slowly to look towards the back. Filia was snoring slightly, her head upon Xellos' shoulder. Amelia's mouth hung open as she slumbered, and Zelgadis could be heard from the trunk, mumbling in his sleep.

"Isn't it so pretty, Lina?" Gourry asked softly, having apparently noticed that she was awake.

Lina twisted back around in her seat to face him. "Isn't what so pretty?"

"Look." He gestured forward, towards the view out the windshield. For as far as Lina could see, there was darkness with few shapes discernable, but it was cut through with the pinpricks of bright red that shone from the backs of the cars in front of them. At first they looked like glaring eyes, but the more she stared at them, the more they seemed like rubies, glimmering gloriously in the darkness. She could see in the mirrors that behind them, too, were the white lights of the fronts of the cars, twinkling. Even within the car were luminous things, the buttons and the gauges lit with glowing green.

"Wow," she breathed. She did love things that shone, after all.

Quiet returned to the car again for a moment, before she asked, "So, you've been driving all by yourself this whole time?"

"Yep," Gourry answered.

"And you're not tired or anything?"

"Actually, I'm exhausted," he laughed.

"Why didn't you wake me up?"

"Well, you were sleeping. I didn't just want to make you get up for no good reason. And you looked so peaceful."

"Pull over," she replied gruffly, glad that he couldn't see her blush in the dim lighting. "I'm driving now."

"Are you sure?" Gourry questioned. "Last time you drove—"

"Yes, I'm sure," she snapped, so Gourry headed towards the shoulder. It was silent as he parked there, and silent as they switched seats. No one else was awakened in the exchange, or when Lina started up the car and began down the road again, in a slightly more nonviolent way than she had earlier.

"Thanks," the blond said.

"Goodnight, Gourry," was her reply.

"'Night, Lina."


"We have to stop for gas again soon."

The voice made Lina jump about a foot off her seat. After complete silence for a long time, only broken by various bouts of snoring, Xellos' sudden voice had been a surprise. The world was beginning to lighten: the sky, which was before a deep purplish-blue, was now a slightly lighter shade of gray-violet. It looked as though storm clouds had set in overnight, and a sunless morning awaited them.

"Again?" Lina moaned. She glanced at Xellos in the rearview mirror and chuckled. Filia had sprawled over him, snoring into his shoulder, her arm across his lap. "Well, don't you look comfy back there?"

Xellos chose not to reply, instead saying, "And you skipped my turn to drive. That's no fair, Lina."

"I think we're skipping your turn to drive permanently," Lina responded dryly.

"Well, at least your driving skills seemed to have improved," he commented.

"What? Lina's driving?" came a sleepy voice from the trunk. Zelgadis sat up, making himself visible to the front of the car.

"Morning, Zel," Lina greeted cheerfully. "You think you can hand me some of that food from back there?"

"Well, at least we seem to have survived the night in one piece," he remarked, ignoring her request. "What happened to Gourry?"

"He got really tired, so I took over," Lina explained. "Now can you please give me some food!"

With a sigh, Zelgadis shuffled around in the bags until he found something that could pass as a light early morning snack for Lina. "Could you hand this to Lina, Xellos?"

"I'm actually rather incapacitated at the moment," he replied, looking hopelessly down at Filia. "I don't want to wake her up."

"Since when do you care?" scoffed Lina.

"Well, if she's asleep, she can't open that unusually irritating mouth of hers, now can she?" Xellos answered quickly.

"Oh yes she can," Lina retorted. "Many people in this car said some pretty…interesting things in their sleep."

Zelgadis looked uneasy for a moment, deciding that it was time to change the subject. "Lina, just catch." He tossed a blue box up to the front seat, where it crashed into the windshield. Lina grabbed it and tore it open with one hand, somehow keeping the car in the lane at the same time.

"Mr. Zelgadis?" groaned a voice lethargically, slurred with somnolence. "You didn't just throw that, did you? That's very dangerous…distracts the driver…justice…."

"Amelia, go back to sleep," Lina ordered, cramming two strangely flat but delicious pastries into her mouth at once.

"No, I'm already up," she yawned. "Wow, Miss Lina, you learned how to drive right!"

"Oh just shut up already!" Lina snapped. Thanks to this noisy bantering, Filia began to fidget, and slowly blinked her eyes open.

"Uh…AHH! Get your hands off of me, you disgusting creature!" she shouted, leaping away from Xellos as violently as the confined space would allow.

Lina ignored the outburst, as she had more pressing things to deal with. "I've been driving for hours now and I'm really sick of it. Who wants to take over?"

Disregarding Xellos' shout of, "Me!" Zelgadis sighed. "I guess it's my turn again."


IIX. Rain, Rain, Go Away

Amelia watched gloomily as a few scattered drops of water hit her window and splattered. It had only been drizzling since they left the gas station five minutes ago, but already she was bored of the strange patterns the droplets made as they slipped across the glass.

"What a dreary day," she sighed.

"You're telling me!" cried Lina from the trunk. "I'm almost out of food."

"Did someone say food?" Gourry asked groggily. "I'm starving."

"About time you woke up," grumbled Zelgadis, glaring at the driver in front of him.

"Mr. Gourry, may I switch seats with you?" Amelia and Filia requested in unison.

"Or would you rather drive?" offered the chimera. "I hate this…."

"Everyone is staying right where they are," proclaimed Lina. "I think we've had enough musical chairs."

"I agree, Lina," was Xellos' opinion.

"So now what?" whined Amelia. "This is taking forever!"

"Let's play a game," Xellos suggested.

Filia raised an eyebrow skeptically. "What kind of game?"

"One-word story," he answered, grinning. "Each person says a word, and it makes a story."

"I'm not playing," Zelgadis grunted.

"But Mr. Zelga—"

"Don't distract the driver, Amelia," he snapped.

Filia looked thoughtful. "May I start?"

"Go ahead," Xellos chuckled.

"Once," she began.

"Upon," added Lina.

"A!"

"Fish."

"A fish, Gourry?" Lina asked flatly.

"There," continued Xellos.

"Was."

"A."

"Justice!"

"Amelia, there's no such thing as 'a justice,'" Zelgadis pointed out. "Unless you're talking about a judge."

"Well, Mr. Gourry was supposed to say 'loving' and then Mr. Xellos was supposed to say 'individual'," explained Amelia. "But then you interrupted our game."

"Wait, you can't dictate what the others want to say," Lina protested.

"I don't really understand this game," Gourry admitted.

"There's a surprise," mumbled Zelgadis.

"Wow, it's really coming down now," said Filia. At the sudden change in topic, everyone turned to the windows. Indeed, the rain had begun to pour, making everything appear shiny and slick.

"It's kind of hard to see the road," Gourry commented, squinting his eyes at the window.

"That's where the windshield wipers come in!" announced Xellos, leaning forward so he could point them out to Zelgadis. With an annoyed flick, the chimera turned them on, and a loud screeching sound filled the car as they slid across the drenched surface.

"This place is so fascinating," Amelia breathed. "Can all this stuff really not be magic?"

"How could it be?" replied Lina. "We can't use our magic, so none of this stuff can, either."

"I'm getting so frustrated about that, by the way," Zelgadis added, blinking at the windshield wipers.

"When are you not frustrated?" snapped Lina. "Anyway, does anyone have a guess about when we'll be able to return home?"

"When the Lord of Nightmares isn't bored anymore?" suggested Amelia.

"Like that'll ever happen," scoffed Lina.

"Does that mean…does that mean we'll never get back?"

Filia's question was followed by silence. Earlier when such things were asked, this place hadn't seemed nearly as tedious. Never going back had been a ridiculous idea, something to be laughed at. There was always the knowledge that sometime in the near future, they would all be back home once again. But now that it was gray outside the window and the shine of the place had worn off, no one was nearly as positive.

Except Xellos, maybe. "Don't be so pessimistic, Filia!" he laughed. "I'm having a fantastic time!"

"Probably because you're the only one who's not getting hungry!" Lina retorted.

"Don't tell me you're out of food already," Zelgadis said.

"Well, no, not yet," the sorceress replied sheepishly. "But I will be eventually!"

"We must keep our spirits up, for the sake of justice!" exclaimed Amelia. "Let's have another sing-along!"

Her suggestion was shut down vehemently by various other passengers.

"Well then, what should we do?" she asked. "We've tried games and sleeping and everything else…."

"We've only tried Xellos' game," Filia responded. "Why don't we play something else, like counting how many cows we see on the side of the road?"

"What kind of game is that?" Lina cried. "And anyway, Gourry can't count past seven."

"That's not true!" Gourry argued.

"I think we should stop somewhere," Zelgadis sighed. "It's hard to drive in this."

"So, Xellos, since you know everything, why don't you tell us where we can hang out for awhile?" Lina prodded.

"Hmm," was the monster's only reply for a few moments, as he flipped through one of his books. "Ah, okay. Zelgadis, get off of the highway in two miles, if you would."

Though Zelgadis wasn't entirely sure what that meant, with some further directing from Xellos, he managed to turn at the correct exit. After some more twisting roads and the occasional curse from an irritated chimera, a building came into view.

All of the passengers stared at it in shock for a moment. It was at least the size of a castle, probably bigger, with huge, tall letters spelling out various strange words on the sides and a road in front that was most likely the size of the building itself. It was built of grimy-looking gray brick and its walls were dotted with glass doors.

"What is that thing?" Amelia questioned, awestruck.

"Welcome to the mall," laughed Xellos. "Find a place to park, Zelgadis."

The chimera grudgingly did as he was told, fitting into the spot far better than Lina had previously at the supermarket.

"You all should probably leave your weapons here," Xellos suggested.

"Are you insane?!" Zelgadis growled. "I'm not letting go of my sword, especially when I can't use any magic."

"Ah, your choice," Xellos sighed. "But don't blame it on me if—"

"Zel, I think we should probably just do what he says," Lina interrupted. "Xellos seems to at least have an inkling of what's going on here, and have you seen anyone else around here carrying weapons?"

Zelgadis didn't reply, instead choosing to take off his sword with a disgruntled grumble. Gourry hesitantly detached his own sword, and Lina placed her dagger carefully on the floor of the car. Filia, looking very peeved, removed her mace from her garter.

Everyone was hesitant to get out of the car and into the downpour, and no one really wanted to be first into this massive mall place. Finally, seeing that no one else was taking charge, Lina popped the trunk open and bolted towards the building. She was followed slowly and with sighs.

They gathered for a moment under the awning, dripping wet and shivering. It was raining so hard that the water had even perforated their cloaks and seeped into their boots as they splashed through the puddles. Despite all this, no one was quite yet willing to reach out and open the door to get inside, until Xellos pushed past them and did so.

Will they survive the mall? Will the mall survive them? Find out next time on Slayers Road Trip!


I like the next chapter a lot better than this one, so keep reading! Thanks again to everyone who has taken the time to read this and review!