Chapter 10 – A haunted house
Two days had passed. The Saiyans had spent most of the time meditating, eating and sleeping as Haruka and Michiru had really just enjoyed that unexpected visit to another planet.
"Could someone pass the french fries?" Goten asked at the dinner table.
"These are very unhealthy," Chichi warned him as Trunks reached the bowl over the table.
Goten shrugged. "We may not live much longer; might as well enjoy the last days."
Chichi's face turned pale. "Don't speak like that!"
They were all quiet for a few minutes. Even though they didn't talk about the situation much, they could still always feel the grim, ominous feeling of hopelessness hanging above their heads.
"I have my old good luck charm; perhaps it'll work as a magic item…" Bulma muttered quietly. A cheap little amulet, an old memory from the days Goku and she had been travelling around the world looking for the Dragonballs was hanging on her chest.
"Yeah, and Haruka still has her heavenly bouquet from her secret admirer," Michiru teased, referring to the bouquet that was still in Haruka's back pocket. "We should all feel so much better now."
The Saiyan brats chortled. Vegeta grinned slightly. Goku burst into laughter but unfortunately he had been drinking milk at the same moment so most of that milk ended up on Gohan's face. The ominous feeling was suddenly gone and they all burst into laughter at the same time.
"Darnit Dad, how do you expect me to go to the Afterworld smelling like a baby?" Gohan complained, trying to hold back laughter as well.
Haruka grinned. "Where's your problem? I'll most likely go there smelling like a cheap bitch." She looked over her shoulder at the flowers. They were a lot flatter than before but since the girl hadn't had the time to put them in the water and the flowers didn't seem to wither either, she had just left them in the pocket.
"Cheap bitches don't smell like that," Trunks claimed. Everyone stared at him. Trunks raised his brows.
"What? Haven't you ever been to those slums with bad reputation?"
"And you have?" Bulma gave him a glance.
Haruka sniffed the fragrance that had been floating all around her for three days now. "True… nothing like the slums, really."
Michiru raised her brows too. "Wanna talk about it?" Haruka bit the piece of beefsteak, mumbled something with her mouth full and grinned widely. Bulma got up, went to the window and closed it.
"The wind is picking up," she said. "It has been cloudy all day but now it looks like there's gonna be a storm tonight."
"No wonder. There are always many storms around here at this time of the year," Vegeta remarked.
"Not only around here," Michiru added, remembering the time when she and Haruka had left their home planet.
"That is so annoying…" Bulma started but before she got any further, the window flew open again and a chilly breeze whizzed in. The woman rushed to the window and closed it.
"Like I was saying," she remarked. On that same second the window crashed open again. The big kitchen lamp suddenly faded out and they were left sitting in the shadows. Only the small lamp above the stove was now lighting the room.
"Stupid wires…" the woman snorted, turning the lights on. The merry atmosphere was gone. Everyone was looking around suspiciously, trying to predict what would happen next. Another breeze came and this time all the lights in the kitchen died away.
"Fe-fi-fo-fum, I think there's a demon on the run…" Haruka remarked quietly. Her voice was so gravely and deep in the cold, dark kitchen that the others got chills.
Bulma frowned, pushing the switch. It didn't work. "Nonsense. It's nothing but a power cut. Vegeta, lights please." The Saiyan formed a small energy orb that lit the kitchen. The other Saiyans used their energy as well to light the room and Haruka pulled her Space Sword out, just in case.
"I really hate it when things like that happen at dinnertime," Chichi said with a frown. But her voice was shaking.
"You're all acting like you've never experienced a power cut before," Goku said. "Haruka, you could check the fuse box. I think something has short-circuited."
"Yeah, and I'm now the electrician," the girl replied. "Fine then. Bulma, where do you keep the fuse box?"
They went to the basement. Haruka was in front of everyone else, lighting the way with her glowing Space Sword. She was right in the middle of the staircase leading to the basement when she stopped and tried hard to look forward into the darkness.
"Bulma… do you have rats here?" she asked.
"Never seen any…" Bulma replied. "Why?" Her voice was trembling.
Haruka didn't answer. And as she was standing there silently, the others could hear an eerie sound coming from the dark. It sounded like…
…thousands and thousands of rats.
"Oh my…" Chichi's voice faded away as her face turned even paler than it already was. Michiru quickly raised her hand to call the Aqua Mirror. It didn't give much light but it gave a bluish glow that reminded of the depths of an ocean and was actually very relaxing.
Haruka's Space Sword, on the contrary, glowed very brightly. "Looks like you have an invasion here!" she shouted, dashing forward. "Take that, you little dirtbags!" The sword whizzed through the air. They could hear many loud screeches that weren't very rat-like as the crescent of energy hit the mysterious creatures of the dark.
Vegeta suddenly blinked as if he had been awakened from a dream. "And why the heck am I still standing here? Hey Haruka, leave some for me too!" He leaped forward, landing next to the girl that was now trying to keep her feet clean of rats.
"Nothing to worry about, there's plenty for both of us!" she gasped, attacking the rodents. "Damnit, where do they all come from? Uranus Crystal Power!"
As the girl transformed, her energy lit the whole basement. Both Bulma and Chichi screamed since it was really full of rats. But Michiru quickly transformed too and the Saiyans rushed into battle.
"These are not normal rats!" Gohan shouted, sending energy blasts out to several directions.
"No shit Sherlock... do normal rats have three red eyes?" Vegeta shouted back at him. "But there seem to be less now. Just a little longer and we have wiped them out."
He was right; in a couple of minutes the basement was clean. Bulma and Chichi were trembling as they all went to the fuse box. Uranus opened the box.
"Watch my back," she demanded. "I don't want any more of such surprises." She examined the inside of the box. "Funny… the fuses are all okay. The problem must be somewhere else… or maybe… what in the world?"
"Watch out!" Sailor Neptune dashed forward, pushing her friend aside. They both landed on the cold ground as someone's black hand with green outlines reached out from the fuse box, making a gesture as if it was trying to grab someone's throat.
"Don't even think about it!" Trunks slammed his elbow into the arm. For everyone's surprise it didn't go through the arm although the arm itself seemed to made of mist. The arm cracked and a high-pitched scream filled the basement. Then someone – or something – pulled the broken arm back.
"Ouch," Uranus commented, getting up and helping Neptune up too. "Thanks, Michiru. This place has turned into a haunted house."
"So far so good," Vegeta frowned. "It's just trying to scare us. If you're saying that the fuse box isn't broken, we might as well get out of here and see if we can find the source of all this somewhere upstairs."
They went back up again and Haruka pushed the door open. She looked at the corridor for a moment and then asked over her shoulder:
"Say Bulma… when was the last time you cleaned the house?".
The corridor wasn't the same any more. It was cold, moldy and the wallpaper was hanging down from the walls. And the place seemed endless. It was like a bad dream.
"Reminds me of "Silent Hill 2" Trunks muttered in surprise. The others glanced at him.
"The hero goes into an old hotel, watches a video in one of the rooms and when he leaves the room again, the whole hotel suddenly looks like this." the kid explained. "It was a darn good game" he added.
"Let's get out of here" Bulma whispered. "Let's get outside."
"I'd be surprised if we'd be able to get out of this corridor" Goku remarked. "Where's the way out"
"There was a door... somewhere over there" Vegeta pointed to one direction. The corridor simply stretched out to both directions, disappearing into darkness. They started going but in a few minutes it was very obvious that they were getting nowhere. And as they looked back, the door to the basement was nowhere to be seen either.
"We must've walked for half a mile now" Goten said. "Is your house really that big"
"No" Vegeta frowned. "Let's see..." He slammed his fist into the wall. For everyone's great surprise it didn't break. The Saiyan prince's eyes turned big as he examined the wall and then his fist.
"We need to think of something else" Goku murmured. "This here isn't the same house any more. We're in some sort of another dimension."
Bulma suddenly smiled. "I doubt it. Everybody, take each other's hands and form a chain." She went in front of the chain and took a deep breath. "Now close your eyes."
"Have you lost it" Vegeta glared at her.
"Just do it... now let's see... we should be somewhere near the basement door." She took a few steps forward and stopped. "This should be where the old plug is." She went on a few more steps, pulling the others with her. Their eyes were still tightly closed and they could feel the scent of cold moldy walls next to them. "This is where I drew a picture of a horse on the wall when I was five. And this picture was right next to" she raised her hand"the door to the living room."
She pulled the door open.
"I know my home" she said with a smile and opened her eyes.
They were in the living room now and it was as normal as always. Even though the room was very cold and dark, it was most definitely their good old living room with the wide screen TV and Trunks's video games. Michiru peeked back in the corridor, just to make sure.
"Back to normal..." she whispered.
"I'd love to see what happens next," Gohan said with a frown. "Whoever or whatever is doing this, they must be doing it with a purpose. So sooner or later I'm sure we'll find it out."
"What's wrong with the moon?" Chichi suddenly asked. The others turned to look at the full moon that was shining straight into the room, giving it a silvery glow. But the moon itself wasn't silver; it was pinkish red.
"It's the demon!" Trunks yelled on top of his lungs.
His father frowned. "Don't be stupid. It's nothing but a moon eclipse. Haven't you ever seen one before? Those things happen every other month or so, even more often." He looked up at the moon. "It's a sad thing I don't have my tail any more. No demon would be a match against the power of an Oozaru. Although... when the full moon is eclipsed, the Oozarus can't be formed. This is the time of darker forces."
"What do you mean?" Haruka asked him. Vegeta shrugged.
"When the light sources of the planet, either the sun or the moon, are covered, the dark powers of the planet are a lot mightier than usually. Makes sense, doesn't it? No light, more dark."
Michiru nodded slowly. "True... Haruka, remember that last sun eclipse in Tokyo? That's when Queen Nehelenia came with her circus tent. We should've thought of that before! Friday the 13th doesn't happen often but moon eclipses do. I'm pretty damn sure that our demon buddy..."
"Is right here," an unpleasantly familiar voice announced. Everyone turned around to see that the window flew wide open and a dark shadow slid in. It curled itself around their waists, crawled up their feet, surrounded their heads and filled their hearts with terrible cold. Then it started forming into something. In the matter of seconds the ominous, frosty-eyed, sharp-clawed, black-winged figure was standing in the middle of the room again. Its outlines weren't clear, it was obvious that it was able to take any shape it wanted. It just preferred to have claws and wings.
"And we meet yet again," it said. "My little tricks gave you quite a fright down there, didn't they?"