WOW! This week has been absolutely hectic! I barely had any time to right so I'm lucky that I got this done. Oh! Yes and to all my wonderful reviewers, thank you all so much for your support. It's good to know that people like something that you spend so much time on. And the award for best review goes to... random drum roll sounds well... all of you I guess! you all left such great reviews that I couldn't pick. Oh well. Enough talk from me, on with the story!
Chapter Two: The Tour
Goggling at the huge gate that sat before her, Bulma pulled the key from her black Corvette's ignition, and stepped out, instantly cursing her decision to wear heels when the thick mud that covered the ground sucked her shoe right from her foot. Swaying on one leg, she bent to grab her coated shoe before hopping on to a nearby rock. Seeing no other alternative, she hopped from rock to convenient rock until their trail ended at the twisting metal of the gate. She scowled at the large rusty padlock that bound a large equally rusty chain encircling the bars. Reaching out, she curiously poked the padlock and jumped in surprise when it disintegrated at her light touch.
"Damn..."
The chain uncurled itself from around the bars like an angry snake and fell to the ground where it lay in a giant heap of braided metal. Slightly shaken, Bulma tapped experimentally at the gate and smiled when it moved. She pushed the doors the rest of the way open before returning to the car where she paused long enough to light a cigarette and replace her shoes. While she took impossibly long drags on one of the cancer sticks she insisted on buying, she observed the surrounding area. It was nothing more than a dark and scary looking forest that held the promise of lurking beasts and over grown weeds. Finishing the cigarette, she threw the butt carelessly out the window before plunging the key into the ignition and continuing down the dirt path.
Behind her, the gate closed with a loud bang that Bulma's ears were deaf to. In the middle of the twisted black metal, the joined doors formed a large capital V.
The path through the woods was almost four miles long and Bulma was becoming quite tired of driving when she finally spotted a clearing up ahead. However, she wasn't ready for what she saw within the clearing. Her eyes wide with amazement, she pulled into the circular driveway that curled around what used to be a very large and beautiful garden and stepped from her car. She deafly replaced her keys in her bag as she stared up the vast structure, her mouth forming a huge O of wonder. The mansion in all its regal glory, roared before her as a mountain might. Its many peaks and towers seemed to touch the sky, giving it the castle look that Bulma had fallen in love with the first time she'd seen it in the add.
She shook her head to clear the ridicules wonder that had stupefied her and took the gigantic stone steps two at a time, her heals clicking loudly with each step. When she arrived on the top step, however, all chance of bravery abandoned her and the monster known as hesitation settled its teeth into the hand that she had positioned over the handle of one of the doors. What would she find in there? Would there be bodies littering the ground, the floor soaked in blood like some bad horror film? Would something jump at her, its only intention being to bite off her head, and drag it back to its master who would praise the beast?
"No." She said to herself. "You're being stupid. There's nothing in there, nothing's going to happen to you."
With those words of encouragement, she shook off the monster and grabbed the handle, pulling at the door until it was all the way open. The doors hinges screamed and groaned, as if it was their own way of welcoming the new comer.
The inside was pitch black.
In a tree somewhere, a crow called, its voice bringing Bulma back to reality. She took a deep breath and stepped inside, pulling out her lighter as she did. Raising the lighter eye level, she flipped up the top and flicked it on, jumping at how load the sound of the flame coming alive was in the huge entrance hall.
She strode further in, her heels stirring up little whirlwinds of dust with each step. Of what she could see, the inside of the mansion was even more spectacular than the outside. A long double stair case rose up to meet the second floor which split off into two hallways that were lined with doors. The floors looked to be made of a wonderful white marble but at the moment a thick layer of dust coated the stone, making it hard to determine the true color. Large cobwebs hung in the dark corners of the room and in between the railing posts on the stairs. It looked like a typical fixer upper.
Lowering herself into a crouch, Bulma ran a curious finger through the dust revealing a shining white marble floor, giving truth to her accusations. When she glanced up to see what kind of condition the rest of the floor was in, she was startled to see footprints imprinted in the dust like weird fossils, coming from the stairs and ending at a door to her left. Fright tightened its merciless grip and Bulma stood and back peddled slightly, the hairs on the back of her neck standing on end. She could have sworn to Kami himself that those footprints had not been there when she'd walked in.
A sudden wind blew in from the open door behind her, and Bulma jumped when the tiny flame that was her only light was extinguished leaving her standing in the middle of a black entryway. Fright began cackling as she started to fumble with the switch on the lighter, her heart beating painfully fast.
And in her shaky nervousness, she dropped the lighter.
She began to panic as she bent down, her hands groping blindly for her precious lighter. Her mind began to create horrific images for her eyes to dwell on. Her hands were stirring up the dust which clouded around her face in a big mass almost as if it intended to suffocate her and her ears began to ring with the deafening silence. Finally her hands sought the cool metal of the lighter and she stood up, smiling in relief. Holding it up, she clicked it on and screamed when a face flickered right in front of her eyes for a second and was gone just as fast. Completely frozen in on the spot, Bulma tried to reason with herself.
"It really is beautiful isn't it?"
Releasing a horrified shriek, Bulma whirled around in time to see the realtor look at her strangely.
"Oh Jesus Christ," she panted, her hand held firmly over her heart. "God you scared me!"
The agent shot her another strange look before replying with a quick "Sorry I startled you."
"Oh. It's- it's no problem. I just... overreacted a bit there."
"I see..." she drifted off then strode forward, very business like, with her hand out stretched. "I'm Connie Blake. It's nice to finally meet you in person."
Bulma took the hand. "Bulma Briefs, and yes. The same goes for you."
Connie was a pretty young woman with curly red hair bushing around her shoulders, and piercing blue eyes that hid behind the square framed glasses she wore. She held a clip bored that was stacked with insurance papers, deeds, important stuff.
"Well I'm glad to see that you've already viewed the entrance hall." She laughed and Bulma produced a fake chuckle. "Let's begin the tour of the rest of the mansion, shall we?"
Connie began walking and Bulma turned to follow her but not before taking a timid glance over her shoulder where she was shocked to see that the footprints had disappeared and the dust had settled back into its place.
After a small frame of time, fifteen minutes at the most, Bulma had her mind made up. The mansion would be hers. Stupefied by wonder throughout most of the tour, Bulma's mind only grasped a few things that Connie had said. One of the comments was interesting enough to snap her out of he trance.
"I'm sorry?"
Connie blinked at her. "Um... well, some believe this building to be over a thousand years old."
"Good God. How's it still standing?"
"It seems to be made of a substance foreign to this world. Whoever built it, built it to last." She said as she stared at something on the wall.
"Well whoever that was didn't build it in vain."
This was very true. The corridors and rooms in the mansion were completely untouched by mildew or decay. The only evidence that the house was as old as it was said to be, was the thick layer of dust that coated nearly everything, and the monstrous spiders that scuttled across their path from time to time.
About an hour later, the two women had barley covered over a third of the house and Bulma decided that she would explore the rest of it once she moved in. She had already seen that the essentials including electricity and indoor plumbing, which someone by the name of Bill Losecith had so generously installed when he had lived in the mansion. Sadly he disappeared only a couple of days later so he never really got to enjoy what his efforts had produced. With the events that happened earlier in the entrance hall almost completely forgotten, Bulma had the deal signed and closed in less than a half an hour and she was soon on her way back to the apartment to pack.
It only took her a day or two to pack. Yamcha was being extremely supportive even going as far as skipping his baseball practice to come help her move. The two now sat in Bulma's car as the trailed along behind the moving truck, discussing her decision to leave everything behind.
"Are you sure about this?" Yamcha asked, his voice dripping concern for his girl friend. "You know you could always come stay at my place." The real motive behind his objections was the condition of Bulma's mental stability. Recently, she'd been complaining of minor hallucinations and headaches leaving her open for the diagnosis of depression.
"Thanks, Yamcha, but no. You'll see the logic behind my madness once you lay eyes on this place." Her expression became one of pure dreaminess as her mind retraced her tour through the castle. "It looks almost gothic. The entire outside of it is completely black but it has a crystal look to it ya know? Like the way crystal has it's color but its on the inside, under a layer of clear rock. That's how this looks."
"Sounds Charming"
"No one ever said you had to like it." She said simply.
An uncomfortable silence dragged on until Yamcha broke it abruptly. "Do you want me to stay with you for like a week, just to... make sure that..."
When he didn't continue, she took her eyes off the road for a second to look at him. "Make sure what?"
He cleared his throat self consciously. "Just to make sure that- that you..."
"Yamcha, are you afraid that I'm going to do something to hurt myself?" She looked at him suspiciously when he didn't answer. "You are aren't you? What would make you think that I'd do something like that?"
He sighed wearily. "You've just been so depressed lately and I didn't know what the hell to think when you sold C.C.. Truthfully I thought that you were giving everything away like that because..."
She looked at him, gratitude shining in her cerulean eyes. "If it makes you feel better, I'll let you stay for a week and you can prove to your own satisfaction that I am perfectly fine." In the back seat, Kitty meowed impatiently from inside her carrier. Bulma reached back to stroke her though one of the holes in the molded plastic as Yamcha sat back in his seat, satisfied.
Exactly thirty minutes later, the van entered the circular driveway and Yamcha had his head out the window in his attempts to get a better view of the towers.
"Look at it! It's a damn castle!"
"Isn't it great?" Bulma had stepped from her car and was now enjoying watching all the different comical looks that were flashing across the man's face as he gaped at the mansion. "Just imagine what I could do with it."
"Yeah ..." As he went to brush a hand over the black crystal Bulma suddenly noticed something about the way the windows were shaped.
"Yamcha do you know what this place looks like?"
Yamcha turned to look at her, "Transylvania?"
"No..." she whispered. "It looks like a card castle."
A/N: ooooooooo! Scary! Lol jk, so what do ya think? Please review!