The next morning, Gourry opened his eyes slowly as the sun shone into his eyes. He yawned widely and gripped onto the sleeping form of Lina who was still in his arms against him. He liked being with Lina like this and he knew he would like to do it more so. He snuggled next to Lina once more, taking comfort being next to her. He blinked for a second when he looked down at her and wondered why she wasn't moving.
"Lina? Wake up" he said softly as he shook her lightly. As he shook her though, she didn't seem to react and just flopped back and forth. Gourry felt the sudden dread through his body and began shaking her more firmly. "Lina? Lina? Wake up, Lina! This isn't funny anymore! WAKE UP! LINAAA!"
Tears started stinging his eyes as he kept shaking her, realising that her body was now cold and she wasn't even breathing anymore. He opened her eyes and he knew instantly that the life in her was gone. He'd lost her.
"LIINNNAAAA!" He screamed just as he sat up in his bed with sweat dripping off his brow. He clutched onto the sheets tightly and breathed heavily, feeling the tears streak down his face. He looked into the darkness before him as he tried to convince himself it was all just a dream. He reached out for the notebook on the table beside him and began writing the events down before they faded into the back of his mind. This was the seventh night in a row he had the same dream. Glancing over to the clock beside the bed, it was 4 A.M. and he had to be up in a few hours for work. Groaning he fell back into the bed and drifted off to sleep as the nightmares disappeared from his mind.
Gourry woke up to hear the drilling sound of the alarm clock, reaching out with a clenched fist, he smashed down on it to quieten the blasted thing up. It fell to the floor with a resounding crash but he didn't care. He was tired from being interrupted in the middle of the night with another one of those stupid dreams that was pestering him recently. He wouldn't have remembered them had he not started to write them down.
Finally he fought himself to get out of the bed and he went off to his usual morning routine of a shower and breakfast. He sat alone in the small kitchen of his one bedroom apartment. He had taken the notebook with him as he tried to work out what the dream was. He got the idea that he cared about that woman greatly, and that her name was Lina. He cared so much that he felt like risking everything in the world to save her, but it just wasn't enough. As he reminded himself of the events, he felt the sadness creep through him once again, and began to wonder what it all meant.
"GYYAAAHHH!" The blonde man yelled as he swung an axe through the air, cutting hard into the tree. He repeated the action a couple of times until finally the tree no longer had support and collapsed to the ground.
"Hey Gourry! Slow it down will ya! There won't be anymore trees left!" Gourry turned his head to a tall slim black-haired man with an unlit cigarette in the corner of his mouth.
"Sorry boss, I guess I got carried away." Gourry replied, then bending down to pick up the tree and carry it over to the store. It was that time of year again for Christmas and Gourry was working at a small grocery store in the centre of town. They had drove to the outskirts to cut down a few trees to sell at the store, and Gourry had already cut down a fair few and lugged them into the truck.
"That'll do for today then, let's get back to the store." The boss shouted as he just finished cutting down his last tree and dragged it over to the truck, where Gourry helped him put it into the back of the truck. Both threw their axes into the back of the truck and then jumped into the truck, and began heading back to the store.
Gourry sat back into the seat and yawned again looking out the window as they headed back to the store.
"You have another bad dream, Gourry?"
"Yeah, woke me up in the middle of the night."
"You should see someone about that, it's affecting your sleep, and I don't want you sleeping in the store! It got robbed last time you did that!"
"Sorry boss. I promise it won't happen again."
Gourry sighed a little as he was forced to remember the store getting robbed. He didn't mean it too but it was the first time he had that dream and it really scared him. It scared him so much that he was unable to get back to sleep and so ended up falling asleep during the day.
They returned to the store with the boss heading into the store opening the place up and setting things up on the inside whilst Gourry took the trees and set them up on display on the outside. He then took the sign out and placed it beside the trees, stating the cost for them and mentioning to customers that they had to come in and ask for the tree they wanted. The trees were tied up of course, to stop anyone coming along and taking them without paying.
"All done, boss." Gourry stretched out as he headed into the store while the boss was finishing things up in the store.
"Ok, I'll leave you in charge of the place, I need to pick up a few more things and drop off a few deliveries. Don't fall asleep on me now ok?"
Gourry shook his head and grumbled, "Of course I won't boss…"
The boss then left the shop and headed back out in the truck, leaving Gourry on his own to look after the store. He sat down behind the counter and picked up one of the newspapers and started to read it. It didn't take long for him to get bored and instead he just flicked through it, looking at some of the pictures. He was never much interested in what the greedy politicians were up to, or that the latest fashionable celebrity was suprising pregnant.
The door rang as a sign that a customer had entered and Gourry perked up to see a recognisable face.
"Morning Mrs. Palmer." Gourry smiled, as he greeted the elderly woman who slowly made her way in.
"Good morning to you too, Gourry. Has Jeffrey left you alone again?"
"Yeah, he's just headed out for a few things."
"Ahh, becoming all responsible now?"
Gourry just blushed a little as he reached down and pulled up a bag of a few various items.
"Here is your usual Mrs. Palmer." He said as he passed the bag over to her, just as he heard the bell ring, telling him another person had come in. He glanced over and noticed it was some kid with a hoodie, so he kept his eye on him, knowing that he was likely up to no good. He then glanced back to the elderly lady as she passed him some money. He opened up the till and placed the money in, sorting out the change but kept his eyes on the hooded kid.
His eyes caught the sudden movement of an arm reaching out and grabbing something, before hiding it again beneath the hoodie. Gourry's eyes narrowed momentarily before giving the change back to the elderly woman with a smile.
"Gourry…this isn't the right change."
Gourry blinked and then smiled apologetically. "Sorry Mrs. Palmer, you know what I'm like with math!" He then reached in to the till to give her more change but he was stopped.
"No, you gave me too much." She then handed a few coins back where Gourry blushed and took them, placing them back in the till.
"Thanks."
"That's ok Gourry, but be more careful next time."
"I will, see you next week Mrs. Palmer."
"Bye Gourry."
She then left the store, where the hooded kid was about to follow, but was stopped in his tracks. Gourry had a tight grip on his wrist and coughed a little.
"Are you going to pay for all that." He then reached out, pulling at the hoodie where lots of sweets and various foods fell to the floor. He then pulled the hood down, only to be greeted with long brown hair and ruby red eyes which glared at him. Gourry blinked as he suddenly felt familiarity about the person, who was actually a girl. He was surprised more when he got a vicious kick to the shin, forcing him to let go of the girl. The girl then left the store and ran away as fast as she could, Gourry left hopping on one foot whilst holding his shin.
"Why do I know that girl?"
Author's Notes: Heh yeah. Well here was the twist. As I was writing, I stopped for a really long time after Chapter 3 and didn't really know where I wanted to go with in. Well Omoni kicked my ass and told me I should carry it on. I then saw someone writing a story about Lina being transported to the future, but left Gourry behind and well, being a massive Lina/Gourry fan I was a little annoyed and told Omoni about it.
Well that got a few ideas going in my head concerning the story and figured well why not go with the future thing, but instead of travelling to the future, the past would just be a dream. I had read a few Slayers stories about the future but noticed they seemed to all be set in a school and often had Gourry a complete idiot which I can get a little irate at. Well I decided to try and write about them in the future but set it differently from the whole school setting. Only problem is I have no idea where I am going to go with this all, we'll just have to see won't we!