Prince Elmo: This is it, ladies. This is as much as I've written so far. Even though my writer's block is slowly evaporating, it could take me a while to write the next chapter and I beg for your patience. I do intend to finish this story, but I need time. I hope you understand. -bows-

Don't own a damn thing.


Drip.....Drip.....Drip.....Drip....

You groan as you're slowly pulled back into consciousness. Something bone-chilling cold is dripping onto your throbbing temple, only to roll over your face in sluggish drops. You quickly roll onto your back to get away from it. The smell of earth and dust invades your senses, the ground you're laying on is smooth and strangely warm. Your entire body is wrapped in a dull ache, like you ran a marathon, making your thought process all the slower. But then, all of the sudden, you remember how you got there.

"We fell."

With another groan, you carefully open your eyes. To your utter surprise, you're greeted with an actual ceiling, instead of total darkness. You blink a couple of times, before gently sitting up.

As it turns out, you are lying in what seems like an underground room. The air is cool, damp and stuffy. There are no windows or torches to light it, but there are strange markings on the wall that give off a faint, yellow glow. It kind of looks like some foreign incantation, written in long, swirly letters.

You're alone.

At the opposite side of the wall, there's a hole in the ceiling above a steep pile of white sand. "That must've broken my fall....."

Getting up, you approach a wall and run a hand over the glowing marks, which are on nose-height for you. They feel warm to the touch. When you pull back, there's a fine film of glowing dust on your hand.

You find that, besides the hole in the ceiling, there's only one way out; meaning the wooden door on the opposite end of the room. Next thing you know, you're walking through a large tunnel. The scent of warm earth is mixed with the smell of mould, old blood and decay. You wrinkle your nose in disgust. The room you woke up in was perfect and pristine, but the tunnels look like they're been through several wars. There are bones lying here and there, in large stains of dried blood, some stones missing from the walls, lying shattered in pieces, other stones have been blackened by fire.

It looks like hurricane Jaiden has been raging here for a couple of hours.

Most of the beautiful incantations on the wall are broken in half by large cracks, others have completely peeled away. The ones that still work prevent you from being plunged into total darkness.

All fine and well, it's not like you care, but there's just nothing there to distract your ADHD.

"I'm cold.....And alone.....And talking to myself......And I hate cheese, but that's totally besides the point.....Cheese....So pointless.....What good do holes have in food, anyway?! Holes do not belong in food, unless you're eating a donut....And how dare they leave me alone?!" You stomp your foot for emphasise.

"I'm so glueing the remote to the top of the tv...."

Then you stumble in your step, as the ground below your feet softly starts to tremble. That trembling turns into an outright shaking; you lean both hands against the wall for support. Something large and heavy seems to be charging in your general direction.

Large and heavy most often means large, heavy, pissed off and looking for people to eat with some ketchup and a salad on the side.

After a short-version of your sarcastic-happy-dance, you ask yourself: "Do I really want to know what's around the corner?"

After a deep sigh and a venomous glare towards the ceiling, you poke your head around the bend.

And freeze on the spot.

You can only gawk as an entire, freaking army of dangerous-looking demons comes charging at you at high speed. They're screaming, growling, snarling, foaming at the mouth, waving various sharp, pointy weapons above their ugly, deformed heads.

You blink stupidly.

Then take a careful count:
Ten-thousand demons.
One dagger.

"...Crap."

Your high-pitched squeal bounces off the walls, as you spin on your heels and bolt in the opposite direction. "Crap, crap, crap, crap, crap, crap!!"

Heavily damaged, off-white walls fly past as you run for dear life. The growls and snarls coming from behind you sound like they're coming closer and closer. You wish they'd just go away. You wish Kurama hadn't gone easy on you during your training, so you could at least have the stamina to outrun these monsters.

You wish you had some Red Bull. Red Bull gives you wings!

In a burst of random inspiration, you dive into a crack in the wall that's barely big enough to hide your small figure. Squeezing you eyes tightly shut, you cover your ears, clench your jaw and wait for the thundering footsteps to pass you by.

The sounds are deafening.

You clutch your ears tighter.

A small eternity later, the footsteps fade away and you carefully crawl out of your hiding spot. Despite the excellent light in this part of the tunnel, no one saw you. Standing on shaky legs, you breathe out a sigh of relief. "Thank god no one saw me....Are they blind or something??"

As if on cue, a low threatening growl sounds out from behind you.

"The smell of unwashed socks tells me that isn't Hiei...." You mutter to yourself. With a heavy feeling of dread, you slowly turn on the spot.

There, standing in the middle of the hallway with a gigantic axe in his hand, is one of the monsters that were chasing you. He's huge, at least three times as tall and four times as wide as you, filling up nearly the entire passage with just his frame alone. He's completely made out of rock solid muscles.

"Oh, sure! Were the bigger monsters all off duty??"

Judging by the way he's gripping his weapon and snarling at you, you figure that he's either angry or hungry. Which is both bad. You giggle nervously.

"Errrm....I was just looking for the little girls room?"

A deafening pissed off growl.

"Fine! I'll hold it in! You don't have to be an asshole about it!!"

You look the monster directly in his sickening-green eyes and glare right back at him. The ridge above his eyes, where a human's eyebrows would be, raises slightly in curiosity. You offer him a mysterious grin, before reaching for the back of your belt where you stowed Yusuke's dagger.

Clutching the small handle, you pull it from its sheath with a dramatic swing of your arm. Your knuckles turn white, as you squeeze the handle tight. His eyes never leave yours, not even when you raise the dagger high above your head. It's like nothing can distract him from you.

It's a battle of will. Each one trying to make the other succumb.

You're tempted to whistle that tune from Kill Bill.

In an unexpected move from your side, you twist the small weapon in your grasp, making the light catch it and effectively blinding the monster momentarily. Within the blink of an eye, you've thrown the knife at him as hard as you can, only to run in the other direction without waiting to see if you hit him.

A pain filled screech lets you know that you've at least hit some part of him. Is that a great aim, or what??

...But then again, the guy was huge, so missing him would've been more impressive...

You run as fast as you can through the battered corridors. Several wooden doors pass you by, but you pay no attention to them, until you come across one with a faint light coming out from underneath it. With one last glance backwards, you carefully open the door. Next thing you know, you're standing in front of narrow, steep, seemingly endless stairs.

"Surprise, surprise! There's enough money to build an underground maze, but not enough to install an escalator. Stupid people and their stupid obsession with stairs...."

A light coming from the top bathes everything in a soft yellow glow. The steps look solid and smooth, very much like the room you woke up in. With a deep sigh, you start your ascend. Before you know it, you're at the top and you didn't even break a sweat! You smile brightly and do a funky dance on the spot.

"Wow, I guess that nonsense crap Kurama keeps putting me through actually pays off!" Then you frown. "Must prevent the fox from ever finding out...."

There's a large mark on the wall, next to another door, that's giving off a strong pulsating glow. Its way bigger and extravagant than the ones in the corridors, which must be the reason it gives off more light.

Opening the door, you carefully peek around the edge.

And then blink rapidly at the sudden bright light.

The sun is shining, the birds are singing and you're wondering where the heck you are.

"Okay....I'm in a fairytale forest.....Why do I suddenly expect to be dusted off by cute forest animals before bursting into song and dance about my spectacular escape? Stupid Disney movies..."

Turning on the spot, you look back at where you came from. It would've been a completely normal and boring rock, if it wasn't for the wooden door attached to one side. You cross your arms over your chest. "What am I supposed to do now?"

After five minutes of staring at the trees, you're convinced that the trees are staring back and you decide to start walking. You quickly find a sandy path leading through the forest.

"I really hate trees....They always win when it comes to staring contests." You mutter to yourself, while twirling a lock of your hair around your finger. Despite your annoyance at the trees and the fact that you're lost, you can't help a happy feeling from bubbling up. Must be because the sun is shining brightly down upon you, which is a great improvement from those stuffy corridors.

You start to skip, while humming The Ting Tings happily.

Then you start doing cartwheels, just because you can. "That's not my name! That's not my name! That's not my name! They call me 'Quiet girl', but I'm a 'riot'....Hey, hang on! Isn't it the other way around for me...?"

Just as you're wildly playing your air guitar during the imaginary musical-bridge, a soft noise makes you freeze. Soft noises shouldn't be weird; you're in a forest after all. But this noise sounds so out of place.

You tip your head to the side to listen, a lock of deep violet falling into your matching eyes.

There it is again! A soft, almost rhythmic rustling.

As silently as you can, you sneak over to the edge of the path and tightly press your back against a tree.

The rustling stops.

With one hand firmly on the rough surface of the tree, you slowly back up to stand behind it. Your eyes shooting from one side to the other. The forest seems to have gone completely silent, as you listen for that weird rustling. Your shoes make no sound among the grass.

Suddenly, you're under attack!


Prince Elmo: Jaiden sure does run around and pass out a lot. Maybe because she runs around, slams into stuff and hits her head.....Idiot....

Puu: Puu!

Prince Elmo: I think that means: "Don't kill the author for the evil cliffhanger, please."