Disclaimer: I OWN SAILOR MOON! I OWN NAOKO TAKEUCHI! Spies lawyers behind her Okay, I don't own either… hisses at the lawyers and watches them run Muahahahahaha!
Serena dashed into the room and slammed the door behind her. She passed out into her pillow and began sobbing uncontrollably.
"How could they do this to me? How could they go behind my back like that?"
Serena locked herself in the room the whole day, refusing to eat, or depart for her appointments. Hours went by, the room slowly became dark, and Serena's face was still buried in the satin pillowcase. Knocks echoed from the other side of her door, but she refused to open it, refused to even answer.
Serena could feel her tears run dry. Her face was moist and sticky with a spit and tear mixture, her pillowcase soggy with salt. The room was completely dark, and Serena decided she would wash her face when she felt a soft hand rest on her shoulder.
Serena snapped up, ready to protect herself as Sailor Moon at any cost, but suddenly relaxed again.
"Hitomi. How did you get in? The door is locked."
Hitomi crouched down so she could be face to face with Serena, who was resting upon her bed.
"Princess. Are you okay? You haven't left your room all day."
Serena sighed and tried to focus her blue eyes in the dimmed light.
"I just haven't felt like coming out. How did you get in here?"
Hitomi studied Serena's face once more before grabbing her hand.
"Come with me. I want to show you something."
Serena reluctantly stood, walking across the room to her closet.
Serena rolled her eyes and groaned.
"Hitomi, I've seen this closet millions of times. Why did you drag me here?"
Hitomi smirked over at her, sweeping aside the putrid green dress she had picked out the night of the ball. Concealed behind the infinite amounts of garments was a small door, small enough to crawl through.
"I've never seen that before." Serena gasped, bending over to feel the cool brass handle in her slender fingers.
"It's my secret." Hitomi whispered, glancing out of the closet, "I discovered it when I was looking for something to where that one night."
Serena pulled open the door in a silent awe.
"What is it?" Serena asked, looking back at Hitomi.
She smirked, bending down beside her.
"Go in and find out."
Hesitantly, Serena began to crawl in through the door and Hitomi closed it behind her. They were engulfed in complete darkness, and Serena could feel the grimy dirt underneath her hands as she continued to crawl. Expecting to be trapped inside, Serena was surprised when the hole began to grow in size, and soon the texture of the ground became cool and smooth. Neither spoke, but continued crawling, their breaths echoing around them.
"We can stand up by now." Hitomi finally whispered, but her voice sounded much louder in the acoustic room.
Serena rose to her full height, a short 4' 11", so that Hitomi towered over her at her 5' 3" height. Serena began to feel around the dark room, and was shocked when the room was suddenly overwhelmed with bright light. Her eyes watered as she forced them to adjust to the intense brightness. Finally, fixing in to her surroundings, she took in such a sharp intake of breath that she could cut bread with it. It wasn't a room, but a brick tunnel, moving endlessly down into the darkness. Thick green moss and vines blanketed the walls and grew from the cracks in the floor. Her soft slippers made slight patting noises as she stepped forward.
She looked back at Hitomi, who was holding a burning torch and matches in her hand.
"Hitomi. This tunnel… Where does it go?"
A soft smile showed on Hitomi's face as she stepped forward to be beside Serena.
"That, Princess Serenity, is the best part."
She walked ahead of her, and Serena quietly followed, watching the shadows dance and flicker off the walls. They walked deeper and deeper into the tunnel, going down at somewhat of a decline, as they went farther into the darkness. If it wasn't for the torch, Serena wouldn't have went any further. Then, the tunnel started tilting up again, and Serena was beginning to feel less nervous. She was slightly tired, especially since she had no energy from her empty stomach, but she kept trudging on until, finally, Hitomi halted in front of another door. This one was bigger, and painted a pale dusty color, and there was no knob.
Hitomi pushed the door open and stepped out. Serena followed and her eyes grew large as true, blue saucers. She was far outside of the palace gates, and she was now inside of a moon crater. Moon dust sparkled before her eyes and the fresh, familiar smell, seemed sweeter than any air she ever breathed. Hitomi grasped her hands in hers as they began to crawl out of the crater. Serena looked around the vast desolate area and finally felt free. She didn't want to let this liberating feeling go. Hitomi pointed far off into the distance.
"There's the moon kingdom. And there," she pointed to a small shack a few hundred yards off, "That's my house. The tunnel's a short cut for me. I went down it while you were in the courthouse. I couldn't help it."
Serena tried to hold off speech, bedazzled by everything around her.
Hitomi stepped in front of her.
"But Princess Serenity, this is the best part."
She twirled Serena around so she could stare off into the depths of space. Her heart leapt as her soul seemed to fly out amongst the beauty of the coruscating Earth. A little blue planet, mystical in all its wonder, covered in thick swirls of whites, browns, and greens. It made her almost feel as if she could touch the velvet smoothness of its fluffy texture in her fingertips. The breathtaking planet, partially covered in darkness, sparkled and seemed to wink at her, as she fell onto her back to admire its beauty further.
Far off in the distance, a prince was also doing the same. He stared off into the informality of his beloved Earth, and longed to be home. He walked along the dusty land of the moon, and his thought soon changed to the moon princess. A passionate girl, but at the same time a dunce. She made too much of a show of her emotions to be the best princess, but her beauty did show that of confidant royalty. She wasn't that of a shy girl, he could see it in the way she stared down at him, but something in her eyes said something deeper to him. Something he couldn't quite place his fingers on. He remembered how his eyes lingered onto her slim, womanly figure. The way the pink dress hung onto her curves and accented the fair tenderness of her skin.
As he thought, color caught his eye, and he looked out in front of him and squinted.
"What's that?" he whispered to himself, walking closer to see, "Are they moon rocks?"
He lingered closer and discovered they weren't moon rocks, but the bodies of women instead. Lovely women at that: for one was with dark raven hair and the other with long blonde pigtails. He stopped dead in his tracks.
Where had he seen those pigtails before?
Images of women flashed through his mind, until the reflection of the past thought of Serena burned onto his eyes.
"That's where I've seen her," he whispered to himself, "that's the princess! But what is she doing so far from the palace?"
He spotted a small little hut and crouched down beside it, spying on the girls. He wanted to know how they got there. Minutes passed, and when he finally wanted to just go up to them, they stood up to move. He watched as they crawled into the crater and he dashed after them. He rushed over into the edge and bent down to look over, just in time to see a door close.
A door?
He slipped down into the crater and pushed where the door had been, and sure enough, it opened. He slipped in struggling to see against the dark, and moved down, feeling his surroundings. Where was he? His cobalt blues eyes scanned the room until he caught a glimpse of light. Following in the direction of the glow, he dashed off to find them, his feet thudding against the thick bricks. The light loomed closer, and he picked up his pace, examining that his surroundings was a tunnel.
Then, the light disappeared. And he came to a sudden halt, and then continued to blindly stumble about.
"Hello?" he called out and listened to his voice bounce around.
Bam! A sear of pain burned at the back of his head, and his vision went white. Light quickly flooded the room and he could hear stunned gasps meet his eardrums.
"The prince!" one girl cried, and she raced over to him, examining his head.
"I'm dead!" cried another and then he heard her run closer.
"Ah-h!" Boom!
Hitomi burst out in laughter as Serena tumbled to a fall. The prince turned to see Serena sprawled on the floor and began to laugh himself. The whole room echoed with laughter.
When it slowly subsided, Serena stepped up to the prince, recovering from her normal clumsiness.
"Well, PrinceEdymion, tell me, what are you doing down here?"
He smiled graciously and Serena's legs turned to jelly as she heard Hitomi sigh.
"Please," he chuckledextending his hand, "Call me Darien."
Okay! That's it! No more of this chapter! The next one will be called Within the Tunnel. Anyway, I feel that I should warn, (especially my faithful reader SailorKMoonie thanks) that this story seems to be heading for a lemon. I'm not telling you when, or how, but it was evident right? Just a small lemon, I'm more about fluff, but I just want to test my wings. Anyway, let me leave you with some questions to ponder upon. Will Serena meet with Darien again? What will happen to Darien in three days? And what lead up to the prologue? Muahahaha. Only I KNOW!