After the supper the count suggested to go to the library (a newer one in the western wing) and have a nice conversation in front of the fireplace. The library was cozy and warm, it had been cleaned recently and the books in it were not as old as the ones in the haunted library.
"Are there any other libraries in this castle too?" Gohan asked in an innocent voice.
The count nodded. "Yes, there is one. We hold our oldest books there. I'm sorry to say that but visitors aren't allowed to go there. Besides, the key has been missing for many months now."
Gohan waited until the count started a conversation with Chichi, then he quietly asked Trunks and Goten: "If the key to the old library is missing, how come you guys got in?"
"Well, um," Trunks explained, "the door was locked, but it had such a teeny-weeny little padlock and so we thought…"
Gohan sighed. "I should have guessed."
Hours went by as the count kept telling stories about the castle and its previous residents. When the clock stroke eleven, Bulma suddenly noticed that it was getting late. She excused and everyone went upstairs to their rooms. Soon were they asleep.
And then, at about two o'clock…
Bulma was right in the middle of a fantastic dream when she heard a shout: "Mum!! Mum, wake up!" A good mother as she was, she woke up at once and looked around. "Trunks?" she asked quickly.
"Up here!" her son's voice called.
Bulma got out of the bed and looked up. She frowned. "What the heck are you doing?" she asked. "Shouldn't you be asleep?"
Trunks was floating in the air holding tight against the ceiling. His arms and legs were spread out and he looked like something was holding him up there. The boy seemed a bit nervous but when Bulma asked that question he was offended.
"Do you really think I would float up here in the middle of the night when I could dream my fourth dream already?" he asked furiously. "I can't get down. I have invisible chains round my arms and legs; at least it feels like that. And they won't break! Do something!"
Bulma did something. She went and pushed Vegeta out of the bed. After grumbling a little the prince flew up to Trunks and tried to pull him down. It didn't work.
"Dad, you're tearing me up!" Trunks complained.
"That's weird." Vegeta examined his son's wrist. He couldn't see any shackle but it was obvious that there was something. Trunks wasn't strong enough to resist Vegeta so there had to be an incredibly hard chain.
Vegeta flew back down and on the same moment the door opened. It was Goku.
"Wassup?" he asked. "We heard Trunks shouting and thought that something happened."
Bulma explained. A little later everyone was standing in the room and looking at Trunks. The boy glared at them. "Do I have to stay here for the rest of my life?" he demanded.
"Try turning into a Super Saiyan," Goten suggested.
Trunks did so. The whole room went bright as the eight-year-old boy used the greatest powers in the Universe… but then he stopped and turned back to normal.
"I don't want to destroy the castle," he said. "There has to be another way." The ceiling was already full of cracks.
Gohan hadn't said anything but now he left the room and returned in a minute holding something shiny in his hand.
"Let me try," he offered and floated up to Trunks. "Don't move." Gohan gathered his strength and hit the invisible chains with the shiny thing. For everyone's great surprise Trunks fell down at once. On his face, of course.
The boy got up and rubbed his face. "Ow," he said. "You could have at least warned me."
"How did you do that?" Goku asked his son.
Gohan showed him the shiny thing in his hand. It was a piece of metal that looked like steel. It had a very sharp side but the other sides were patchy. Obviously it was a piece of a bigger metal object.
"And what is it?" Trunks asked.
Gohan smiled. "You probably don't know about it but when we fought Buu on the Supreme Kais' planet, I had pulled a legendary sword out of a rock. It was called the Z-Sword. Unfortunately I broke it later and it wasn't much of a use. But the sword was holy and magical so I thought that it would be a good idea to keep a piece of it. You know, just in case. And looks like it was useful."
"Way cool!" Trunks was impressed.
Chichi said: "That's all very nice but could we all get back to bed now?"
The rest of the night was peaceful, though Goku once heard a strange moan. He didn't care about it and turned the other side. And saw a white transparent creature right in front of the bed.
"I've come to take away your soul, oh mortal one!" the ghoul announced.
"Oh really?" Goku yawned loudly. "But I wanna keep it. Get lost, I need to sleep." He fell asleep and hugged the pillow, completely ignoring the ghost. The creature stared at him with surprise, then it started to weep and disappeared through the wall.
The next morning the two families gathered into Goku's family's room to discuss the recent happenings. Trunks, Gohan and Goten told the grown-ups the story with the mirror. Vegeta and Goku informed the others about the ghost in the old shed. When Goku mentioned the ghoul from last night too, the ladies became pretty nervous.
"Let's get out of here!" Chichi pleaded. "I don't want to get killed by some psychopath in a bed sheet! Our home shouldn't be too far from here, if we would fly…"
Goku seemed thoughtful. "Good idea, but this fog is making me worry. We may get lost very easily."
"Where's the problem?" Bulma asked. "Just find the aura of…I dunno…Piccolo or Krillin or Tenshinhan or whoever. You could use them as lighthouses. Whose aura is the nearest?"
The Saiyans concentrated a bit. Suddenly their eyes turned big and they all seemed very shocked.
"What?" Bulma asked. "What is it?" She became restless. "Is something wrong?"
"Blank," Vegeta replied.
Bulma blinked. "S'cuse me?"
"A total blank," Vegeta explained. "There's absolutely nothing. No auras. It feels like the whole universe is gone. Even dead people have auras but there is nothing outside this castle." He paused and hesitated.
"Any… anything else?" Bulma asked. She sounded very scared.
Vegeta nodded. "In case you didn't notice, I said "outside this castle"."
Bulma and Chichi squeaked.
"The five servants do have auras," Goku said, "but they're dead auras. And they're not the only dead auras in this castle. This place has more ghosts in it than a Scooby-Doo movie."
Gohan added: "Besides that, the Darkshore couple is not dead. But they're not alive either. They have very strange auras. Trunks was probably right – they might be vampires or werewolves or even zombies."
Vegeta shook his head. "No."
"No?" everyone asked.
Vegeta looked at them. "Trust me, I've seen all sorts of creatures in my life. It wasn't a long time ago when I was dead myself and spent some hours in the Hell – that was before I was called back to save the world. Anyway, I saw every freak of Mother Nature in this place and none of them had such auras. I don't know who they are but they're not human and not alive, that's for sure."
A long silence. "So what are we going to do?" Goten asked. "We can't leave the castle until we have found somebody's aura."
Trunks grumbled. "These ghosts are really weird. They're telling us to get out and then they make that huge cloud of fog around the castle so that we can't get out! Where's the logic in that?"
The others looked at him with surprise. "The fog?"
"Sure, what else?" Trunks asked. "Look at that fog. It has been here just as long as we have. I bet the ghosts are making it so that we couldn't sense the auras of other people outside the castle and have to stay here. Why else do you think that fog is here for? At least it's not normal, I can tell you that."
Vegeta seemed thoughtful. "I suppose the brat is right. The fog could be the cause of it. The question is why."
"Stupid question," Goten replied. "They want to scare us out of the castle and mislead us into the forest so that they could… um… whatever it is they want to do with us. One way or another, I'm sure it's not a nice thing they're up to."
"This is getting spooky," Goku said. "I'm not afraid of anyone as long as I know who I'm fighting. But God knows how strong they may be…"
"But we can't leave. Or should we try?" Chichi asked. "If we would walk long enough, we should get somewhere eventually."
Vegeta said it was a bad idea. "They might lead us in circles. There are plenty of magical things that allow it. We would starve to death."
Finally they decided to stay and tell the Darkshores nothing about their discovery. "If they want us, they'll show their motives soon. All we have to do is wait." Vegeta said.
The breakfast was tasty but even Goku didn't eat much. In the afternoon it started to rain but the fog didn't disappear. The Darkshores went on a walk to the lakeshore and the two families used the time to sneak around. The children led them to the old library and showed them the mirror – which was covered with twenty-year-old dust again. The book with the legends was still there though, and it wasn't dusty so everyone could see that the kids weren't lying.
"I bet the old shed and the greenhouse are fine too," Vegeta said. "Let's go and take a look."
He was right. The shed's roof had the same old rotten planks in it. The greenhouse in which Vegeta had landed was just the same. But there was still a proof for the Saiyans' story. The spiky rose bush had Goku's clear butt print in it.