Chapter 9: Plain Bad Luck
The group is walking along the seemingly unending tunnel way. A certain tension fills them as the unnerving emptiness of the tunnel sinks in. Hiei is now leading and is getting impatient at the pace at which they were traveling. He slowly picks up speed with his every step and is approaching a jog. The others behind him are slightly startled by the increase in speed, but try to keep up with difficulty. Hiei's temper and patience reaches a boiling point when he sees that this tunnel won't be ending anytime soon. He kicks off into a full out sprint leaving the others failing to keep up.
'I need to make him make the first move,' Hiei thought to himself. 'Then I'll know what kind of mood he's in.'
Kurama and Anneliese are ahead of Theresa who is ahead of Ellen. Everyone is sprinting at top speed, but gradually the last two in line begin to slow.
"Umm..you guys..could we stop for a moment?" Ellen implores while throwing off the denim jacket she was still wearing.
"Yeah seriously," Theresa panted, "not all of us are demons like you."
Hiei glances back at his trailing companions, "No."
Kurama and Anneliese look behind them regularly to see how the other two are faring. After a while they begin to see that they are being pushed well passed their limits (I mean come on, they're being forced to keep up with Hiei. That's got to be tough.) and they drop back to help the two girls out. After even more time passes, Anneliese and Kurama are dragging Ellen and Theresa along. The girls are steadily loosing hope that they will ever getting out of the tunnel, let alone stopping. Anneliese, seeing the dismal looks on both there faces uses all her efforts to catch up with Hiei, who is a fair distance ahead by now.
"Hiei, we need to stop now!" Anneliese yells when she finally reaches him. "We've been running for almost an hour now to who knows what, and not all of us here are dressed for a marathon."
This was true Hiei saw; Anneliese was in leather and silk, Ellen was wearing a bunch of denim, and Theresa was still in her Putt- Putt uniform.
"Fine, but only for a little bit." Hiei's words must have traveled down the tunnel because immediately following the last syllable, Ellen threw herself down against the wall and Theresa fell into Kurama, who then placed her gently next to Ellen. Both girls where panting heavily. Even Kurama looked slightly fatigued, having just run for an hour for reasons he didn't yet know. Anneliese and Hiei begin to make their way back to the group.
"Hn..they're going to slow us down." Hiei says with a slight growl while looking at the two girls sitting at the wall.
"They may now, but they'll prove their worth. You just wait." Anneliese smiles lightly.
"They'd better." Hiei frowns.
"Well, we might all be a little more motivated if we knew more about what we're doing here.." She looks at him waiting for an answer. When he doesn't and they reach the group again he stops walking and stands opposite the wall the girls are sitting at.
Anneliese joins the other two and sighs as she sits down. Everyone's breathing finally gets back to normal as they rest. They sit/stand there in silence for a few minutes; Hiei has his eyes shut and seems to want to get going again. Kurama stares down the long stretch of darkness on either side of them. Anneliese rolls up her pants. Theresa takes off her uniform shirt since she has a regular one underneath.
"Urg..I need a serious change of clothes." Theresa softly mutters to herself.
And Ellen is trying to pick up a rock that appears to be cemented to the ground. She tugs at it for a while. Then seeing how it isn't budging she hits the top of it. To Ellen's surprise, along with the people watching her do this, the rock sinks down into the ground.
"Something tells me that wasn't the best.." Anneliese begins to say, but is cut off causing to the fact that a large hole has just appeared where the three girls where sitting. The three of them fall through and land on what appears to be a stone slide.
"KURAMA SAVE ME!!!" Theresa shouts as they slide down.
"Damn, this is just what we need." Anneliese frowns upon their less than fortunate luck.
"WEEEEEEEE!" Ellen throws her hands up in the air as if she was on a roller coaster.
The hole closes immediately after the girls fall through so Kurama's attempt to go after them fails. He and Hiei look shocked at the place the girls had just been.
"Finally, he made his move. He's separating us on purpose, it'll be easier for him to mess with us that way." Hiei breaks the silence while stepping to where the rock had disappeared into the ground.
"But, Ellen was the one who triggered it." Kurama locks emerald eyes at Hiei's ruby ones.
"Yes, but he must have realized that she was the most likely one out of us to do something like that, so he made the trigger appear in front of her." Hiei shakes his head. "Now that he has us separated, for him the real fun can begin."
"Hiei, you keep mentioning 'he' and 'him', but who is he?" Kurama looks upon his companion questioningly.
"For now, maybe it's better that they're gone. I have much to tell you, Kitsune." Hiei begins to move down the tunnel again.
"But will they be okay without us?" Kurama looks worriedly at the ground that had moments before swallowed up the three girls, one of whom he was growing very fond of.
"Anneliese and Theresa can handle themselves..," Hiei thought about what Anneliese had said earlier. "And I suppose if she tried, Ellen could as well." He begins to walk off.
Kurama gives one final look at the ground 'You three be careful' he thinks to himself, then moves to catch up with Hiei.
The girls have finally reached the end of the slide. Where it spits them out onto the floor.
"Ooooo!!! Let's do that again!" Ellen leaps to her feet and begins to try and scramble up the slide again.
"How about not." Anneliese grabs the back of Ellen's shirt and pulls her away. "We need to keep going."
"I'm with you." Theresa also gets up from the ground.
"Whatever you say Mrs. Hiei," Ellen looks extremely sulky.
"What was that?" Anneliese side-glances back at her.
"Oh nothing." Ellen says quickly as she follows the other two away from the slide.
This hallway was a lot nicer than that of the one they had previously inhabited. The floor was of black marble and the way had much better lighting than before. The walls had many small lamps mounted on them, which gave the hall a warm glow. Had the girls not known better they would have thought they were in a completely different place. The ceiling was relatively lower than the first tunnel though so they had to duck their heads. (Well, at least Ellen and Theresa had to.)
"Great, this is jest what we need right now." Theresa grumbles while her head is in a very uncomfortable position.
"Hey, look on the bright side, at least it can't get any worse." As Ellen says this she tries to look at the others, but it only results in her hitting her head on the low ceiling.
"Wait..is it just me or is the ceiling getting lower? Theresa looks at Anneliese, who actually has to duck now.
"Good job Ellen, you wanna jinx us anymore?" Anneliese is fuming at their misfortunes.
"I'm sorry..but maybe if that worked..," Ellen raises her voice at this next part. "It's gonna get soooo much worse than this. We're talking a lot worse!" Ellen looks hopefully around earning her another encounter with the ceiling.
"Ellen, I don't think reverse psychology works on walls." Theresa slightly shakes her head while stating this.
"Oh my..you're not going to believe this," Anneliese, who can raise her head up higher than the others, hurries forward.
The girls walk through and opening in the passageway where they enter a large room. The ceiling is high now so they can stand up completely and decoration isn't that much different then the hallway. What they see inside the room makes them smile. There are rows upon rows of weapons, armor, and other devices.
"You guys," Anneliese says while doing the first true smile she had done in awhile, "I think our luck just changed."
Ellen: YEAH! Another chapter up.
Anneliese: And about time too.
Ellen: So like always pleaz review..or we will refuse to do the next chapter. That's right, we'll take the story hostage and you'll never find out who this mystery bad guy is. (Which you will just so happen to find out in the next chapter if you review.)
Anneliese: We want 7 reviews and we're not going to post until it's done. I mean how hard can it be, you click the review button then review.
Ellen: It doesn't even have to be long, it could be one word if ya want. I don't even care if it's like "I hate your fic!!!! And I hope you die very painful deaths!"
Anneliese glances at Ellen.
Anneliese: Well, I hope no one hates us that much..
The group is walking along the seemingly unending tunnel way. A certain tension fills them as the unnerving emptiness of the tunnel sinks in. Hiei is now leading and is getting impatient at the pace at which they were traveling. He slowly picks up speed with his every step and is approaching a jog. The others behind him are slightly startled by the increase in speed, but try to keep up with difficulty. Hiei's temper and patience reaches a boiling point when he sees that this tunnel won't be ending anytime soon. He kicks off into a full out sprint leaving the others failing to keep up.
'I need to make him make the first move,' Hiei thought to himself. 'Then I'll know what kind of mood he's in.'
Kurama and Anneliese are ahead of Theresa who is ahead of Ellen. Everyone is sprinting at top speed, but gradually the last two in line begin to slow.
"Umm..you guys..could we stop for a moment?" Ellen implores while throwing off the denim jacket she was still wearing.
"Yeah seriously," Theresa panted, "not all of us are demons like you."
Hiei glances back at his trailing companions, "No."
Kurama and Anneliese look behind them regularly to see how the other two are faring. After a while they begin to see that they are being pushed well passed their limits (I mean come on, they're being forced to keep up with Hiei. That's got to be tough.) and they drop back to help the two girls out. After even more time passes, Anneliese and Kurama are dragging Ellen and Theresa along. The girls are steadily loosing hope that they will ever getting out of the tunnel, let alone stopping. Anneliese, seeing the dismal looks on both there faces uses all her efforts to catch up with Hiei, who is a fair distance ahead by now.
"Hiei, we need to stop now!" Anneliese yells when she finally reaches him. "We've been running for almost an hour now to who knows what, and not all of us here are dressed for a marathon."
This was true Hiei saw; Anneliese was in leather and silk, Ellen was wearing a bunch of denim, and Theresa was still in her Putt- Putt uniform.
"Fine, but only for a little bit." Hiei's words must have traveled down the tunnel because immediately following the last syllable, Ellen threw herself down against the wall and Theresa fell into Kurama, who then placed her gently next to Ellen. Both girls where panting heavily. Even Kurama looked slightly fatigued, having just run for an hour for reasons he didn't yet know. Anneliese and Hiei begin to make their way back to the group.
"Hn..they're going to slow us down." Hiei says with a slight growl while looking at the two girls sitting at the wall.
"They may now, but they'll prove their worth. You just wait." Anneliese smiles lightly.
"They'd better." Hiei frowns.
"Well, we might all be a little more motivated if we knew more about what we're doing here.." She looks at him waiting for an answer. When he doesn't and they reach the group again he stops walking and stands opposite the wall the girls are sitting at.
Anneliese joins the other two and sighs as she sits down. Everyone's breathing finally gets back to normal as they rest. They sit/stand there in silence for a few minutes; Hiei has his eyes shut and seems to want to get going again. Kurama stares down the long stretch of darkness on either side of them. Anneliese rolls up her pants. Theresa takes off her uniform shirt since she has a regular one underneath.
"Urg..I need a serious change of clothes." Theresa softly mutters to herself.
And Ellen is trying to pick up a rock that appears to be cemented to the ground. She tugs at it for a while. Then seeing how it isn't budging she hits the top of it. To Ellen's surprise, along with the people watching her do this, the rock sinks down into the ground.
"Something tells me that wasn't the best.." Anneliese begins to say, but is cut off causing to the fact that a large hole has just appeared where the three girls where sitting. The three of them fall through and land on what appears to be a stone slide.
"KURAMA SAVE ME!!!" Theresa shouts as they slide down.
"Damn, this is just what we need." Anneliese frowns upon their less than fortunate luck.
"WEEEEEEEE!" Ellen throws her hands up in the air as if she was on a roller coaster.
The hole closes immediately after the girls fall through so Kurama's attempt to go after them fails. He and Hiei look shocked at the place the girls had just been.
"Finally, he made his move. He's separating us on purpose, it'll be easier for him to mess with us that way." Hiei breaks the silence while stepping to where the rock had disappeared into the ground.
"But, Ellen was the one who triggered it." Kurama locks emerald eyes at Hiei's ruby ones.
"Yes, but he must have realized that she was the most likely one out of us to do something like that, so he made the trigger appear in front of her." Hiei shakes his head. "Now that he has us separated, for him the real fun can begin."
"Hiei, you keep mentioning 'he' and 'him', but who is he?" Kurama looks upon his companion questioningly.
"For now, maybe it's better that they're gone. I have much to tell you, Kitsune." Hiei begins to move down the tunnel again.
"But will they be okay without us?" Kurama looks worriedly at the ground that had moments before swallowed up the three girls, one of whom he was growing very fond of.
"Anneliese and Theresa can handle themselves..," Hiei thought about what Anneliese had said earlier. "And I suppose if she tried, Ellen could as well." He begins to walk off.
Kurama gives one final look at the ground 'You three be careful' he thinks to himself, then moves to catch up with Hiei.
The girls have finally reached the end of the slide. Where it spits them out onto the floor.
"Ooooo!!! Let's do that again!" Ellen leaps to her feet and begins to try and scramble up the slide again.
"How about not." Anneliese grabs the back of Ellen's shirt and pulls her away. "We need to keep going."
"I'm with you." Theresa also gets up from the ground.
"Whatever you say Mrs. Hiei," Ellen looks extremely sulky.
"What was that?" Anneliese side-glances back at her.
"Oh nothing." Ellen says quickly as she follows the other two away from the slide.
This hallway was a lot nicer than that of the one they had previously inhabited. The floor was of black marble and the way had much better lighting than before. The walls had many small lamps mounted on them, which gave the hall a warm glow. Had the girls not known better they would have thought they were in a completely different place. The ceiling was relatively lower than the first tunnel though so they had to duck their heads. (Well, at least Ellen and Theresa had to.)
"Great, this is jest what we need right now." Theresa grumbles while her head is in a very uncomfortable position.
"Hey, look on the bright side, at least it can't get any worse." As Ellen says this she tries to look at the others, but it only results in her hitting her head on the low ceiling.
"Wait..is it just me or is the ceiling getting lower? Theresa looks at Anneliese, who actually has to duck now.
"Good job Ellen, you wanna jinx us anymore?" Anneliese is fuming at their misfortunes.
"I'm sorry..but maybe if that worked..," Ellen raises her voice at this next part. "It's gonna get soooo much worse than this. We're talking a lot worse!" Ellen looks hopefully around earning her another encounter with the ceiling.
"Ellen, I don't think reverse psychology works on walls." Theresa slightly shakes her head while stating this.
"Oh my..you're not going to believe this," Anneliese, who can raise her head up higher than the others, hurries forward.
The girls walk through and opening in the passageway where they enter a large room. The ceiling is high now so they can stand up completely and decoration isn't that much different then the hallway. What they see inside the room makes them smile. There are rows upon rows of weapons, armor, and other devices.
"You guys," Anneliese says while doing the first true smile she had done in awhile, "I think our luck just changed."
Ellen: YEAH! Another chapter up.
Anneliese: And about time too.
Ellen: So like always pleaz review..or we will refuse to do the next chapter. That's right, we'll take the story hostage and you'll never find out who this mystery bad guy is. (Which you will just so happen to find out in the next chapter if you review.)
Anneliese: We want 7 reviews and we're not going to post until it's done. I mean how hard can it be, you click the review button then review.
Ellen: It doesn't even have to be long, it could be one word if ya want. I don't even care if it's like "I hate your fic!!!! And I hope you die very painful deaths!"
Anneliese glances at Ellen.
Anneliese: Well, I hope no one hates us that much..