The old clock in the hall chimed three when they were all sitting in the new library. The Darkshores still weren't back. The servants were all in their rooms so Trunks and Goten suggested going to the basement and looking for some clues. Bulma and Chichi were afraid to go but they didn't want to stay upstairs either. And they also didn't want the boys to go. Finally Vegeta said that he would look after the brats and the three went down a cold and dusty staircase that led to the underground.
"What do you expect to find anyway?" Vegeta asked. "Two coffins with thousands of candles around them? I told you they're not vampires."
Trunks held firm to his decision. "The basements are always perfect places for hiding some dark secrets. I mean, look at Mum for example – she's been dieting for a month now but guess who found a nice little fridge in the Capsule Corporation's basement lately?"
Vegeta raised his eyebrows. "So that's where she's hiding those muffins. Listen Trunks, I'll take you to the amusement park if you won't tell your mother that I know about it, okay?"
Trunks agreed but Goten frowned. "I have a mouth too, remember?"
Vegeta grinned. "It's a deal. You will both come. But don't forget, failing on me will teach you the real meaning of the word "pain", and I mean it!"
They reached the basement and sensed around. Then they said at the same time: "A secret passage." and destroyed an old wall next to them. There was a passage, of course, and following it brought them to a small room with a spiral staircase.
"The high tower in the southern wing," Trunks assumed. "I thought it had no staircase at all."
Vegeta grinned. "So, where does this staircase lead?"
Trunks scratched his head. "To a little chamber with a ghostly lady dressed in white sitting in there and combing her hair…"
Vegeta started going up the stairs without saying a word.
"Hey, it's not my fault that I can fly and that I'm so darn curious!" grumbled Trunks, following his father. Goten sighed and flew up too.
After climbing a little they reached a little chamber which wasn't as dusty and full of spider nets as the rest of the castle. It had a small bed and a bedside table in it. And a young lady dressed in white combing her long golden hair. When the three entered the chamber she looked up and smiled. Her eyes were big and blue but absolutely empty. No pupil, no iris, nothing. However, she wasn't blind. The lady stopped combing and said:
"Oh, hello there. Nice to see you again, Trunks. And you brought your father and your little friend too. I'm very glad to meet you."
Vegeta rolled his eyes. "I know I'm a prince and all, but that kind of talking is way too silly – even for me!"
Trunks explained: "She's been up here for almost four centuries now so don't expect too much. Nice to see you too, Lorelei. How's it going?"
The lady turned out to be the daughter of a rich duke who had been related to a princess who had been the granddaughter of… anyway, she was a Darkshore too. She had wanted to marry a boy from the village but her parents didn't allow her to, blah-blah-blah, so her old granny who was a witch turned the boy into a wolf and locked the girl into the tower. A typical story.
"So how did you die?" Goten asked with great curiosity. "They starved you to death?"
"Don't be stupid," Vegeta yawned. "That would be too easy. Let me guess. The boy who had been turned into the wolf once found a way inside the tower, came in here and killed you so that you could be free?"
The girl gave him a surprised look. "How did you know?"
Trunks and Goten were still very interested. "But you're a ghost. You're not free. What happened? And what about the boy?"
"A curse," Vegeta mumbled.
The girl nodded. "My grandmother cursed me to stay here in this tower forever, sitting on the bed and combing my hair. My fiancée is now a rock on the lakeshore."
Trunks and Goten sniffed. "How… how tragical…"
Vegeta sighed. "For crying out loud... Listen here, lady, who are these two wiseguys that call themselves the present owners of the castle?"
"I've been sitting here for many, many years now. I don't know anything about the castle in present. My only friend is the wind. My only wish is to become free." The girl looked at Vegeta, empty eyes full of tears. "Can't you help me? Please…"
Vegeta grunted. "What on earth am I doing here in this looneyhouse? Yeah… whatever, take this." He raised his arm and formed a small bright energy orb. And then he hit the girl with it.
The whole room went bright blue. The lady sighed happily, stood up, raised her arms and cried: "I'm free! Finally, after all these years, I'm free!" She turned to Vegeta. "Thanks to you, I will go to the heaven now. How can I ever thank you?"
"Stop that pathetic twaddle and get lost already," Vegeta suggested.
Seconds later the girl was gone. There was nothing left that could have shown about her presence. The furniture disappeared and suddenly the room looked like any other deserted tower chamber, full of dust and spider webs. A sudden breeze picked up behind the window, and then died down again.
Trunks looked up and said: "I hope she'll have a good time in the heaven."
"I really don't think so," said Vegeta. "Let's go down already." They turned around and left the room.
(In the meantime a young lady in a white dress was standing in front of King Enma's desk, looking very surprised. King Enma was foraging in some papers and mumbling: "Men, this is really irritating! How many times have I asked the Supreme Kai to change that silly rule about curses? Now where could that be…1436? 1288? Nah, wrong timeline. Hey lady, on what year were you born anyway? OK, and what planet? Ah, that place…I've always said that these Dragonballs are a big pain in the… I'll go talk to the Supreme Kai first thing in the morning. Listen, um, we might have a little problem. Since the Heaven is totally reserved at the moment I'm gonna have to send you down to the Hell. Don't worry; it's not as bad as they have probably told you because of those European Union's new conventions. We built a new shopping mall recently, I bet you'll like it. Oh, I almost forgot – Freeza's blackjack club holds its meetings every Thursday, I heard that they're taking new members. I just thought you might be interested… Next please.")
"Say Dad, how did you know that this girl needed an energy orb to be free?" asked Trunks as they were coming up the basement's staircase.
"I didn't," his father replied. "I just wanted her to shut up. And besides that, if a person is killed but not dead what would be the only reasonable thing to do? Kill her again. Just like a computer refresh."
Trunks raised his eyebrows. "Oh really? Geez… Hey, how'bout going down to the lakeshore and freeing the boy in the rock too?"
"Do whatever you want, I'll go upstairs and get myself a good meal." Vegeta looked at the huge clock on the wall and paused for a second, sensing something. "The couple isn't back yet. They're somewhere in the forest. Weird."
"Preparing for a ghostly and dark ritual, I suppose," Goten said.
"Since you have nothing to do, maybe you should try doing the thing you're best at – sneaking," Vegeta suggested. "Go and check out the servants or something. They might talk about things that may be useful for us to know. That Gohan-kid seems to be in the old library, perhaps he has found something already. I don't like sitting in unawareness."
"Excuse me Mr. Gardener, sir," Trunks asked the gardener in the backyard, "do you know where the nice old lady is? She has been away for many hours now, I'm getting concerned…"
The gardener frowned. "The mistress is fine. Nothing will ever happen to her now that he's gone… and he'll never be back, I can tell you that. That bastard will never hurt the mistress again and the master neither, do you hear me?"
Goten shrugged when they were leaving the garden. "Yikes…What did he mean by that?"
"Let's ask Gohan," Trunks said and so the left to the castle and found the old library after sensing Gohan's aura.
"Funny. I have no idea what he meant. But I'll keep looking," Gohan promised. He was sitting on the library's floor in the middle of a huge pile of books.
Trunks looked at the old mirror. "Any ghosts yet?"
Gohan shook his head. "Nope. Only weird auras flying around and trying to throw books at me. Where are the grown-ups?"
Goten and Trunks found their parents in the old ballroom. Chichi had found a skeleton in a lapse behind a big portrait, Goku and Bulma were trying to calm her down at the moment and Vegeta was examining the skeleton.
"All these dark secrets are growing way over my head," he announced. "That skeleton here was a young boy – probably a servant or the cook's assistant. I think that he died on the same time as the lady in the shed, remember, Kakarot?"
"Just like a soap opera," said Bulma. "Everyone is related to someone, everyone knows too much, people kill each other…"
"Gosh, was I scared…Where is Gohan?" Chichi asked the kids.
Trunks pointed to the hallway. "In the old library, sticking his nose into the dark secrets of this castle which shouldn't actually exist in this reality. The secrets, that is. Sounds like fun to me. Wanna come too?"
"I-i-i think I'll skip it," Chichi replied.
"Your problem. C'mon, Goten." The two brats flew away through the corridor.
Gohan was flipping a huge book when Trunks and Goten returned. He looked up and said: "You could help me, you know. Just don't mess with the piles. Hm, here's something… don't bother me now, you hear me?" He started reading and the kids looked around.
Suddenly Goten poked Trunks. "What's that?" he asked.
"Um… a slimy ghoul sitting on a pile of books right in front of Gohan?" Trunks asked back.
Gohan looked up. "What?" he asked angrily. "Can't you see I'm busy?"
"I'm here to rip out your brain and eat it alive!!" the ghoul growled.
"They get more and more irritating every time," Gohan explained to the kids. "Get lost!" He smashed a small Kamehameha into the ghoul. The creature screamed and fell out of the window.
The boys excused and left, Gohan kept on reading. He finished flipping one book, then another one, then he found an old tome from a secret box and looked that through too. The Darkshores returned after a few hours, the sun was going down – though no one could see it through the thick fog. Just as Gohan found a very simple little brown book which didn't seem very important, the bell rang. It meant that the supper was served.
"So, did you have fun in our castle today?" the count asked when they were all enjoying the meal. "I'm sorry that we had to be away for such a long time. We had some things to settle."
"Oh yeah, it was super!" Trunks said enthusiastically. "What did you do anyway?"
"Nothing that a little boy such as you should know about," the countess said. She turned to Bulma and started talking about some recipes, so she couldn't hear Trunks's quiet angry grunt: "That little boy has saved the world not so long time ago, for your information!"
Vegeta was sitting quietly, trying to remember which fork to use next and frowning slightly. He had noticed that although it was still raining outside, the Darkshores had been totally dry when they returned…
When the supper was eaten, everybody went to the library to have a nice talk. Only the count excused and left somewhere, and Gohan excused too. He asked a candle from Andrew and returned to the old library. The simple little book had something in it… something very important. Gohan found a small chapter in the book and this chapter made him gasp. He read the whole book through and his eyes were full of surprise when he finished.
"I must tell it to the others!" he quietly whispered to himself as he sneaked out of the library. It was already half past eleven. Gohan passed a small cabinet as he heard somebody's voice saying: "Tonight, my dear. It will happen tonight." It was the count.
"I'm so glad," the countess's voice replied. "It has been too long."
Gohan came into his family's room. The others were already sleeping but Gohan woke them up and told them about the Darkshores' dialog. He didn't talk about the story in the book. Not yet.