Trunks stared at her, speechless. There was no way… No way this little teenage girl standing before him could have taken the lives of his girlfriend and her parents. She possessed the power to, but by no means would she. It was obviously a lie. Pan was not a person who destroyed her friends. She was not evil. She was not…
But actually, the more he thought of it, the more it made sense. Why she snapped whenever someone mentioned their death. Why she was the only one not hurt- or, for that matter, killed. Why she sounded guilty when he admitted that he missed Marron. But, all the same, why?
Pan stood there, waiting for Trunks' response. She trembled; her life could easily end here, physically or not. But at the same time, she felt some relief. For several weeks she had been aching to tell someone- anyone- what she had done, and now she had. The aching was gone. Now she had to face the consequences.
Please, Trunks, please just kill me now, she thought without being aware of it. Please…
He swallowed hard and stared at her. Trying to understand her. He didn't feel anger, not just yet, more confusion if anything. "You what?" he asked finally.
"I killed Marron," she repeated. "And Krillen. And 18. And every damn part of their house that wasn't touching me." She scowled, as if angry at herself.
Trunks took a deep breath. "But… but why? How could you do such a thing?"
"It was an accident." Pan inwardly wished he would yell at her, hit her, or do something. Instead he kept his composure and talked very quietly. It wasn't as if he didn't care; his voice dripped with firm anger.
"Oh, I see. You just accidentally destroyed her house," he remarked sarcastically, his eyes narrowing. "May I ask why you raised your ki in the first place?"
Pan's mouth twitched, and slowly spread to a smile and she chuckled softly. "To tell you the truth, to destroy."
"Destroy Marron??"
"No, of course not. I would never do that, to her or her parents."
Trunks sighed. His mind was getting overwhelmed with anger and he was having trouble controlling it. The conversation was getting nowhere fast, and all he wanted was answers.
"Then what were you trying to destroy, Pan?"
"… Matt."
"So, you're not going out with Parisu anymore?"
"Nope," Goten replied over the phone. "I love her and everything, but… Well, she's a ditz… But that's not really why. I loved her heart, not her looks or head. But I don't think she loved me back. She was nice and everything though. Anyway I broke up with her yesterday. I hope she's ok."
Bra nodded, even though he couldn't see. "I know what you mean. So you're single then?"
"Well, yeah, but… Bra, would you like to go to a movie next week?"
She smiled. She'd been waiting for him to ask her out for a long time and now he finally did. "Yeah, ok! Sure! When can you-"
"Bra?" Trunks walked into the room, followed by Pan. They both looked grave and tired. "What're you doing talking to Goten?"
"I'm… We're… Uh, I just wanted to say hi!" she stammered, putting the phone down. "If you're done talking to my best friend we wanted to try on our new clothes."
"Not now, Bra," Pan murmured, staring at the floor.
"We have some things we need to do real quick," Trunks explained. "Then you guys can do whatever. Mind leaving?"
Bra made a little huff and stomped out. Pan picked up the phone. "Jisan? Can Trunks call you back? That's what I thought." She hung up without waiting for an answer.
Trunks sat down in front of his computer and logged on to the Internet. Pan sat on his bed and watched.
"Alta Vista or Yahoo!?" Trunks asked.
"Alta Vista," Pan replied.
"'K." He typed in www.altavista.com and hit enter. At the search engine part, he typed in Matt- Demon and clicked Search. After a few moments, the screen showed a list of links containing information of Matt Sears of the Demon's basketball team.
"Try adding 'raper'," Pan suggested.
"Alright." Trunks typed in Matt- Demon Raper. This time the page took several minutes to load, and the computer buzzed a little. When it was finally done, there was one link showing.
Exactly one.
It read:
Web Sites Unknown Beings Matt- …
"Is this it?"
"Yeah," Pan said, walking up and crouching next to him, staring at the screen. "That's it."
He clicked the link, and it immediately brought him to a darkly colored site. The head image had a black background with a faint, silver outline of a well-built, male body standing there, crossing his arms. The thing that captured the attention of a viewer and that shone despite the other faded parts of the image were two violet-gold, gleaming eyes that scowled. At the corner of it was a red signature. Michelle Porter, 1892.
Below the image read:
What's New: This is it. Even as I type I have the arsenic ready in my coke. I wanna thank all you guys for your love and support: be strong!! I'm handing this site over to [undisclosed name], I hope she does well… For the rest of you, just remember, there is an end to all this, and Heaven awaits us…. Matt's coming now, I can feel it. It's time. Bye!!
"He has a whole site dedicated to him?" Trunks asked, bewildered.
"Yep," Pan said. "And the entire staff is of girls he's been hurting. It's amazing, really."
Trunks ran his fingers through his lavender hair and stared at the screen. "I can't believe it… You really were telling the truth… Why isn't the FBI doing something about this? If there's a site about him, with all this proof"- he indicated the list of different pages of the site: images, sound clips, inspirational songs, how to try and avoid him, etc- "more people would know."
"Who would believe us? I tried to tell my dad, he just thought I was crazy," Pan replied. "There's a handful of girls in the mental hospital cuz they tried to tell someone."
Trunks sighed again. "But there's just no way…"
"Trunks. After everything you've seen in your life, why is a demon running around raping girls so hard to believe?" Pan asked, trying to reason.
"Because… I don't know," he admitted. "It just sounds so far out that it just can't be real…"
Pan nodded assent. "You don't have to believe anything about Matt if you don't want to, I can't force ideas into your head. I just want you to know, I was the cause of Marron's being dead, and if you want to go and gather the Dragonballs to wish her back and tell everyone what I've done, you can. I'll understand." She stood up. "Bra's waiting for me."
"Goten!" Bra squealed between giggles as he continued to tickle her unmercifully. "I'm gonna get in trouble!"
"Aww," he whined, leaning in for a kiss. She kissed him back.
"Rehearsal's gonna start at like any minute," she said, leaning against his strong chest. "If I'm not there, Mrs. Wright'll-"
"Ok, ok." Goten pulled away. "But as soon as it's done, you're mine, understand?"
"'K," she replied, grinning. "See you then." Walking away from him and onto the stage, she spied Pan sitting on the front row, in a hugging-her-knees position. "Pan? What're you doing here? It's not Saturday…"
"Is it too late to try out for a place in the choir?" she inquired, not answering Bra's question.
"What? No. But, Pan, you hate singing. Why would you want to try out?"
"Because… I just do! Please ask your conductor if I can try out, ok?"
"Well, alright…"
"She wants to what?" Mrs. Wright asked, tilting her head to the side so that she might be able to hear Bra better.
"She wants to try out, Ma'am. But," she lowered her voice so Pan wouldn't hear, "she's not that good."
The teacher sighed. "Well, we must be good sports and let the girl have a chance, I suppose… Pan, dear? Please come up on stage."
Pan got up from her seat and strolled up onto the stage, standing next to Rachel, who looked skeptical.
"Alright, Pan, what are you?"
"I'm soprano," she replied, returning the wary glance to Rachel.
Bra's jaw dropped. Only girls who could make their vocal cords go exceptionally high on scale were sopranos. Personally, she thought the way Pan sang belonged with the tenors, the boys with relatively un-developed voices that could still go under almost any girl's voice. (Uh, that made no sense, did it?) No way could Pan be in the sopranos unless she squeaked.
"Alright. Melissa, girl, please step down from your riser and demonstrate to Pan-chan what it means to be a soprano in our choir."
"Alright," the brunette said, stepping down and pushing her way between Rachel and Pan. "What do you want me to sing?"
"Try your best at Panis Angelicus."
"Oh… well, ok." With that, she opened her mouth and belted out the song with way too much vibrato for the notes, making her sound like she was showing off a bit too much with a voice that was not meant to be shown off. She squirmed a bit as the highest note was coming up, the 'cat' in Manducat. Her voice cracked a little as she tried it, but luckily, it was also one of the shortest notes. Otherwise, she did pretty well, considering this was her first year in choir.
"Nicely done, Melissa," Mrs. Wright commended. "Now then. Let's see what Pan's got."
Pan closed her eyes and for a few moments just stood there.
"Do you need the words to the song, dear?"
"No, Ma'am." Pan's eyes opened. "I know the song."
"Well, then?"
"Ok…" Pan opened her mouth and sang out as best she could.
Who is this girl? Rachel asked herself, watching Pan enviously as the beautiful voice rang out through the near-empty auditorium. Hmph! She looks like that one girl from the wrestling tournaments Daddy watches… She is! I'd never forget that face. What does she think she's doing here? I'd bet she's lip-syncing. Yes, that must be it. No flat-chested jock would have that kind of voice!
Bra stared. That was not Pan's voice, yet it emerged from her throat. It was amazing. She'd never heard anything like it, not singing a church song, most voices like that would be singing pop or whatever. But it was a great mix. She must be cheating somehow, she thought. That voice did not belong to Pan, would never belong to Pan, and shouldn't belong to Pan. It just didn't fit her character.
Kami, I can't believe I'm doing this! Pan exclaimed to herself as she easily hit the "cat" with sheer shrillness. This makes Matt's torture worthwhile! Oh, there's no way that teacher can't let me in, look at her! She looks like she'll have a heart attack. Well. That should show little-miss-Rachel that Pan-chan is always victorious, so there. She grinned at the last thought.
"… et humilis," she finished.
Everyone stared at her, including Goten from the audience chairs. Pan wasn't sure how to feel. "Um… did I do good?"
"… Yes, Pan, dear, you did very well," Mrs. Wright managed to say, regaining composure. "You may join our choir. In fact, would you like to be the lead-soloist for that song?"
"Mrs. Wright!" Rachel cried, looking aghast.
"Quiet, Rachel."
"Yeah, that'd be cool," Pan replied.
"Alright. Bra's your friend, I believe. She can tell you when the practices are, etc. Alright. Choir dismissed."
Thank you, Matt.
Your very welcome, Pan.