Author's Note: I probably should have mentioned this earlier, but this story is basically finished. This means fairly regular updates, which I know everyone loves. And as for Erik, just wait for it. You'll see him soon enough. As always, I love reviews. Enjoy!
A Short Jaunt
She was walking down a long and dark corridor. She was looking for something. A glance to the right, nothing. A look to the left, a flash of movement, a soft swish of fabric. Intrigued, Christine turned fully towards the sound and found nothing but a closed door. She jiggled the handle, surprised to find it unlocked. She swung open the door, and saw…
U2? "And I still haven't found what I'm looking for."
The song blared on, and all Christine could manage was a muffled "Mmmph."
'That was such aninteresting dream,' she thought, rubbing her bleary eyes to accommodate the morning sunlight that came through the window. 'And what appropriate lyrics to start my day with,' she thought to herself with an ironic little smile.
Christine quite literally rolled out of bed and crashed onto the floor, immediately regretting her decision to leave the bed in the first place. She grumbled yet again and picked herself up to glance at the time.
"6 a.m.," she said aloud. "Why did we want the 9 a.m. rail again?" to no one in particular. Carmen and Ashley looked as if they regretted that decision as well, but at this point, nothing could be done about it.
Christine took her shower and stepped out at 20 after.
"Meg? Meg. Meg!" she said, shaking her best friend. "Wake up. We have to get going."
"Five more minutes…I dun wanna gerup…" Meg's speech then became unintelligible and transcended into a light snoring.
"Ha, whatever," said Christine with a chuckle.
Christine eventually managed to get Meg out of bed and soon the girls were boarding the French rail system, called the TGV.
Compared to the American rail system, the TGV was a luxury. The cars were clean and the seats were spacious. 'They still use the same monotonous fabric, though,' she thought as Meg slept some more. The indistinguishable pale yellow shapes on the navy blue background were just the right touch of neutrality to thoroughly annoy the color-conscious side of Christine.
A few hours later, they arrived in sunny Rennes, France. The quaint city had retained its look of historic innocence, even with the obvious signs of progress. The narrow gray-stoned streets made two-way traffic somewhat perilous. Christine saw no less than five possible accidents within her first few minutes in the city. And not all of the accidents were between cars, either. Several slow walking window shoppers were nearly run down by the wild drivers. Christine saw one particularly nasty near-collision in which a pedestrian was crossing the street and the driver stopped hard, making the tires screech. The pedestrian yelled several French obscenities, hit the car with a loud smack of his palm, and then continued walking as if nothing was wrong.
'How do people survive here?' Christine thought.
Soon, the tour group's bus pulled up to the rail station. Christine looked skeptically at the bus and, without a change of expression, looked at Meg.
"It's nearly impossible for the small cars to navigate these streets. How the devil is a tour bus going to make it!"
Meg looked at the bus, the streets, then back to Christine. With a serious expression on her face, she said, "Well Christine, it was nice knowing you."
A quick bus ride and a few motion-sickness scares later, the group arrived safely at the Château de Hac.