A/N: Sorry for the long wait people! But here's the fourth chapter…Hopefully the creative side of my brain will come up with a good chapter…Blame my brain if this chapter sucks! P.S. As of now, stepmommy dearest shall be known as Mom. Makes things a whole bunch easier.
Chapter 4
The girls
After the messenger had left, Faith burst out laughing. "Oh, my God! You have got to be kidding me! We have a vampire with a soul and an ex-nerdy-Watcher as princes!"
Cordelia exchanged a look with Fred, then turned her attention back to Faith. "As said before, we have a vampire ass-kicking, leather-pants wearing Slayer wearing a dress and being a girl who spends her days scrubbing floors," she pointed out again, folding her arms.
Faith stopped laughing and glared at Cordelia. "And as I've said, treat me bad and you'll be dead the minute we get back home."
"Girls!" 'Mom' screeched, bustling over to her 'daughters'. All three turned to look at her. Mom's face was flushed red with excitement.
"Did you hear that? The princes are searching for brides!" she exclaimed.
"Yeah, we heard," Cordelia said.
"Well, then what are we waiting for? We have to get you something to wear! Come along! Let's see now…We need something presentable…Something elegant…" Mumbling to herself, Mom led the way.
The three girls looked at each other, and Fred sighed. "Guess we should be going, huh?"
"Lead on," Faith said, not sounding too happy. She started to hook her thumbs into the pockets of her jeans, then remembered that she wasn't wearing jeans. She groaned silently and followed Cordelia and Fred.
The guys
Wesley watched Angel as he tested the door, scrutinizing its old-fashioned doorknob.
"Why don't you try pushing it?" he suggested, a little irritated at having been in that ridiculous outfit for around half an hour.
Angel stopped and walked back to the bed, sitting down beside Wesley. "Already tried, remember? Didn't work. The hinges are a little rusty."
Wesley got up and went to the door, kneeling down to examine the hinges. He hmm-ed every now and then and pushed against the hinges, testing them.
Then he stood up, leaned against the wooden door, away from the hinges, and pushed. A creak later, the door opened a fraction of an inch. He turned to look at Angel with a satisfied smirk. "A little help would be nice."
Making a face, Angel returned to the door and pushed in place of Wesley.
"No, not here, push a little to the right," Wesley directed.
Angel pushed, and the door opened further. He kept pushing until the door was fully open, and the two of them slipped out.
They kept to the walls, not knowing where they were or what was around the corner. Or the turn, in this case, since everything seemed to be spiraling.
Then they heard soft jingles. Angel, who was taking the lead, stopped and looked at Wesley. "Do you hear that?"
Wesley nodded. They stayed silent for a moment, hearing the jingles get louder. Angel motioned for Wesley to move back, and the two moved closer to the walls, practically hugging them. Wesley glanced around for something they could use as a weapon, for none of them knew who the jingles were coming from. Nothing.
Angel assumed a battle stance, knowing that behind him, Wesley was doing the same. The jingles grew a little cautious, much louder now, and then the man behind the jingles appeared.
All three of them gave a little yelp.
"Gunn!" Angel and Wesley said in disbelief, looking in surprise at the dark-skinned man dressed in purple and orange garments who stood in front of them with a sullen expression on his face.
"Yeah, well, you two don't look that good yourselves. Anyone seen the girls?"
"Truth be told, we look better than you. And frankly I'm glad I'm not in your position. And no, I haven't seen them," Wesley replied.
Gunn started to say something, but Angel interrupted him, having a vague idea of what was going to be said. "Well why don't we go find the girls? They might be in one of the rooms."
Wesley and Gunn agreed, and they all began the hunt for Faith, Cordelia and Fred…
Fifteen minutes and seven rooms later...
"Are you still absolutely sure that the girls are here?" Wesley grumbled to Angel, who was still leading the guys around the castle to practically every room there was. And who knew how many rooms there were, really?
"Right now, even I'm wondering the same thing," the vampire sighed. So far, he had been lucky. All the rooms had heavy drapes that blocked out the sunlight. But who knew how long that luck was going to last?
The jingle-jangle of bells still followed Gunn wherever he went, even though he had taken off his cap and shoes and was now walking around barefooted, though very, very cranky. "Isn't it obvious they're not here?" he grumbled.
Angel threw him an annoyed glance. "For all you know they might be in one of the other rooms we haven't seen yet," he replied, cautiously pushing open a door. Sunlight flooded the passageway, bathing the vampire in its bright light.
Angel instinctively screamed, then stopped when he realized he wasn't on fire. "I…I'm still alive," he said, shocked. A slow smile broke out on his face. "Hey, I'm still alive!" He whirled around to look at Wesley and Gunn. "I'm still alive!" he repeated, to Gunn's annoyance and Wesley's amusement.
"Yeah, yeah, we see and we heard you. Hard not to notice a lunatic vampire with a soul screaming that he's still alive," Gunn muttered sarcastically.
"I believe it's similar to what happened in Pylea. Maybe the sun doesn't affect you here," Wesley remarked.
"Like, duh!"
Both Gunn and Wesley raised an eyebrow at Angel's immature behavior.
"Well," Wesley said, turning around. "I think that we can safely conclude that Faith, Fred and Cordelia are not here. Shall we try the streets?"
"I'm with you on that one," Gunn said, following him.
Angel lagged behind them, still in hysterical shock and still with a major hyperactivity level…
A/N: So that's one of the requirements filled! So sorry for the loooong wait! I've been having a bit of a writer's block until today. I'm in school and I woke up barely three hours ago and I had absolutely no coffee and I'm still hyper! So anyway reviews mean faster update! But it might take me a while because my finals are in five weeks and I've barely started mugging yet, so please forgive me if my next update takes six weeks or more…
