Hello again! Hope you are enjoying the story! This is the chapter where the action really begins! We have a bit of silliness in this one, and a bit of eeriness. I won't do a 'recap' like I did for my last fanfic- you've gotta read it! Thanks again for reading my story! :D
Roxas added up all the money he'd gotten from selling the magazines in his closet. Together with the $120 he had already, he had around $500. He sighed in anguish. He'd had $2,000 before Axel had drunkenly glued it all to his parent's lamp. Roxas thought about Axel then, and got uncomfortable.
"He deserved it." Roxas mumbled to himself. Then, he took down his stand, threw the junk wood he'd used to make it near a dumpster, and got on his bike. He'd have to call everyone and tell them to meet at the second hand car place. $500 would not buy a usable car.
Twenty minutes later, 10 people were standing among all the second hand cars, looking expectantly at each other. Roxas went into the middle of the circle, and cleared his throat.
"Axel lost the money I was gonna use to buy the car for the road trip guys." He said dejectedly, noticing that Axel wasn't there.
"You told us that over the phone." Kairi said curtly, refusing to look at him. She was still very angry with him.
"I need money from all of you if you want to go" as Roxas said this, there were complaints from everyone in the group, and he started to get angry. Stomping his foot on the ground, he looked at all of them furiously. "Hey, I was the one who spent ages saving up for this trip, and now that I ask for a little bit of cash, you all get angry with me? Who do you think you are? There are at least 10 of us going on this bloody trip to begin with, let's have a little friendly charity, eh?"
Everyone looked around at each other, and Kairi sighed heavily, rolling her eyes. She held out a $100 bill. Everyone stared at her, and she shrugged. "I've been saving up for this trip too." She drawled, stepping back. No one came up, and Roxas wondered if the trip was even going to happen at all. Then, there was a little bit of pushing, and Axel came up from behind the small crowd of friends, and offered up $30. Roxas avoided making eye contact with him, but he still felt Axel's cold stare on him. After that, one by one, everyone began to file up, giving money up for the car. In all, they made $350. Added to Roxas' money, they had $850. He sighed, noticing that Axel was very fidgety. There was something very off about him, today.
"Alright, we're not gonna get a beauty with this scrap of cash, but we'll get something." Then he went off to a man leaning on the side of one of the cars, picking his teeth with a toothpick. As soon as the man saw Roxas coming, he spit it out (not sparing any subtlety) and warmly greeted the boy.
"Welcome!" He barked, spreading his arms out as if he was going to try and hug the whole world. "What brings you to this humble abode?" He grinned widely, and Roxas noticed that his two front teeth were missing. His teeth made a whistling nose when he tried to pronounce his s's, and he was also having trouble pronouncing his t's, and a whole group of other common sounds. Roxas scratched the back of his neck, and looked back up at the man.
"We want a good car for $850." Roxas said slowly, and the man's smile faded. He put on his thinking cap, and then he came back again with an even huger smile. He was working the salesman stance. "Well, there's this nice little number that I like to call Bessie, over here. And she's only $150 more!" With that he whistled up a storm, and Roxas wiped the spit off the side of his face, trying to force a smile. The crowd of kids stood expectantly behind him.
"We don't have that much. We only have $850." Roxas stated, and the man's smile faded again- this time for good.
"Well, let me see what I can rile up." The man mumbled, kicking a pebble out from under his feet and stalking off to talk to another employee. Roxas waited uncomfortably for the man to come back, and when he did, the man that he had been talking to was driving an old banger, which looked close to death. Roxas gaped, but soon shut his mouth tight with all the exhaust spewing from the back of the vehicle. His friends coughed behind him, and Axel just stood with his hands in his pockets, looking off into the distance.
Roxas thought for a moment, and then got into the car, taking over the wheel from the man who had driven the car over to them.
"Nice car, ain't she?" The man without the teeth said uncaringly, picking his teeth again. Roxas shrugged, and tried to park the car, but the breaks wouldn't work. "Oh shit!" He said to himself, as the car began to veer closer to a group of vehicles awaiting a buy. He looked out helplessly at his friends, who stood dumbfounded beside the slow-moving car. "Well, do something!" Roxas shrieked, and all his friends and the two employees lolloped towards the front of the car, and stopped it in its tracks before it could reach any of the other second hand cars.
Roxas got out of the car, and slammed the door behind him, shaking his head.
The two employees scratched their heads, and went to bring out another car. Axel was making a call.
20 minutes later, the two men came back with a considerably better looking car, that seemed to run alright, but Roxas was still suspicious. It made a gurgling nose when he turned it on, and when it stopped, the whole car shuddered a little bit. It was discomforting. As Roxas got out of the car, trying to figure out a reason not to buy it, the employees began to grin, sensing a possible sale on the horizon. They tried to butter Roxas up, telling him how they'd drive this car over the ocean, and trite like that. Roxas was about to say 'okay' to the car, when a hand fell on his shoulder. It was Xaldin.
"Hey little man!" Xaldin boomed, and strode towards the car. Zexion, Marluxia, and an uncomfortable Larxene kept their distance from the rest of the party as Xaldin began to inspect the car. Then, Zexion went over to stand beside Roxas.
"He's into cars." Zexion commented airily as Xaldin closed the hood, and talked with the employees.
There seemed to be a bit of an argument going on, and finally, the two salesmen nodded, and brought the car back into the shop. Xaldin turned, wiping his hands off on his trousers. He was wearing a plain baseball style shirt, with the red sleeves rolled up to his elbows, and grinned brightly as he sauntered over to the rest of the party. His dreads were tied back away from his face, and he'd restyled his usual scruffy beard into a shorter, cleaner shaven style. The whole look went well with his tan skin. Out of the corner of his eye, Roxas noticed a few of the girls checking him out. He looked better in casual clothes then he had in the uniforms at the private school he and Roxas had gone to. Roxas felt his face suddenly, trying to picture himself with a wide goatee. He cringed, and tried to wave the image out of his head. He couldn't rock the 'manly scruffy' look like Xaldin could.
The man came back to the party, still smiling, and pointed to the car. "It'll be ready by tomorrow." Xaldin said proudly, and the whole party moaned in anguish. Xaldin looked confused.
"Is that bad?" Xaldin said flatly, getting a little bit defensive.
Roxas shook his head, sighing. "We were supposed to be out by today. We were gonna go right now." Roxas said sadly, and Xaldin scratched his scruffy chin, nodding to himself. "I can do that." He whispered.
Then, he went back and talked to the men again, and Roxas saw them nod weakly, and Xaldin sauntered back.
"They said that I could help them work on it, get it up to par. If I work hard at it, we could all be out in a couple of hours." Xaldin said brightly, and Roxas furrowed his eyebrows together.
"Wait, what?" he barked, and Zexion looked at him coolly.
"Axel called us all and asked us if we wanted to come. We can come, right?" he added curtly at the end.
Roxas shook his head defiantly. "That's gonna be fifteen people. We need at least two cars for that."
Larxene unfolded her arms, and pulled Xaldin back towards the store. The two employees were barely able to stand after Larxene's telling off, and Xaldin decided to keep his distance from her. As she walked back towards the crowd, she patted down her hair, and smiled smugly.
"We'll be out in a little while." She chirped, and she and Xaldin went back to the store to help with the cars. It was two hours before the whole party actually saw the handy work, and when the two cars came out, they saw why Larxene had been deployed.
Two decent looking vans rolled out of the back of the shop, with Larxene and Xaldin at the wheel. They were worth much more than $850. Larxene hopped out of one of them, smiling.
"Well, we got these for $2000 in all. Thank us later for the spare change. The four of us have been saving up for a trip like this. And I am gonna get my money's worth." She added, looking meanly back at the two weather beaten employees a few yards behind them.
Xaldin nodded. "I worked on them a bit, so they'll work fine. Now we gotta sort out who's going with whom."
The girls looked at each other, smiling. "How about all the girls go in one van and the boys can go in the other one?" Namine chirped, and Selphie snorted.
"Get some adventure in you, woulda?" Selphie shouted, ripping open the door of one of the vans. But the rest of the ladies were already agreeing.
"We can have a boys van and a girls van."
Then Roxas piped up. "Wait, there are only six girls, and there are nine boys. We have to even it out, which means at least one boy would be in the girls van."
All the guys stared at each other, and then they all raised their hands at the same time, except for Zexion, who didn't seem to care.
Kairi looked around at all of the hopefuls, and then pointed to Zexion, who sighed.
"He probably won't even listen to anything that's going on anyway." Kairi shrugged, dragging Zexion along behind her. Then, everyone piled into the vans.
Larxene was driving the girl's van, and Xaldin said that he'd drive the boys van.
The two stopped just before the road to discuss directions, and then the two vans were off, and out onto the road. They both sang songs at first, and honked at each other, making faces out the window and posing for camera's in the opposite van, but after about two hours, the fun of the horseplay wore off (and the fact that Larxene said the next girl she heard shouting would be thrown out of the van) and everyone became quiet.
In the girls van, Selphie had already broke out the nail polish. Zexion sighed in relief at the final quiet, and dozed off. Then, when Selphie was sure he was asleep, she smiled slyly at the other girls.
"He thinks he's gonna get off easy because he's in the girls van." She giggled, and took his shoes off. "Kairi, you get his left hand, I'll do his right, and you girls in the middle can do his toes." Namine and Olette nodded as Selphie addressed them from the back, and they hoisted Zexion's feet into their laps, and started to paint his nails. He hardly stirred at all.
"So" Selphie piped up, looking around the car. "What do you think of this one?" The rest of the girls shrugged, and Larxene smiled. "I think he's great- because I have been with him for a little while." After Larxene said this, there was dead silence, and Selphie felt thankful that she was sitting in the back of the car. Then, Xion cleared her throat.
"Xaldin's not doing so bad, either, am I right?" she commented slyly, grinning at the rest of the girls, who nodded.
"He's the manliest out of all of the boys, I think. He's so scruffy and different. I never noticed it until now…" Namine blubbered, sighing and blushing at the end of her sentence. Selphie looked at Namine, grinning mischievously.
"Let's play truth or dare." Selphie blurted out, and the rest of the car rolled their eyes, voicing their discontent with the game. Olette shrugged. "Go on." She said, and the game began.
"Okay." Selphie said, hoisting her pants up. "Namine, truth or dare?"
Namine thought for a moment, but turned to face the front of the car when she heard Larxene sniggering.
"You all know she's gonna pick truth, and because she's the innocent little princess, you're gonna ask her stuff like 'did you ever like a boy' or something stupid like that. Here's what we all did when we played truth or dare." Larxene kept her eyes on the road, but put her right hand up in the air to get everyone's attention.
"We have what we like to call, easy truths, and easy dares. That's what you start out with. As the game goes on, the truths and dares get tougher and tougher and you have to answer them- or else, you have to go through torture at my hands." Larxene snarled, cackling at the end. Selphie clapped her hands together excitedly. "Well, what are we waiting for?" She squealed, and then she pointed to Kairi, who nodded.
"Kairi, truth or dare?" Selphie sang, and Kairi smiled in between painting Zexion's nails.
"Truth" Kairi replied, and Selphie looked a little bit disappointed, but she decided to work with it anyway.
"Have you kissed more than five boys?" Selphie asked, and Kairi snorted.
"Nope, I only kissed one. And that was Sora."
The whole car sighed in disappointment, and Kairi looked around for the next victim. She decided to try Olette.
"Truth or dare, Olette" she said, and Olette smiled.
"Truth" she said decidedly, and it was obvious that the whole car was already bored. Kairi thought for a moment, smiling.
"Have you ever liked Hayner?" Kairi decided, and the car awaited Olette's answer. She shrugged, blushing a little bit.
"Well, of course I do. We wouldn't be going out if we didn't!" Olette responded, and the whole car squealed in excitement. This woke Zexion up, and he stared down in horror at his painted nails. Then, he shrugged uncaringly. Olette decided to question him next.
"Zexion, truth or dare" she said bravely, sensing Larxene grip the wheel tighter. Zexion sighed.
"Truth."
"Which girl- not counting Larxene- is the prettiest out of this whole car?"
Zexion thought for a moment, and then shrugged. "You are, I suppose." He drawled to Olette, and there was more squealing. Olette blushed, and Selphie was visibly excited.
"Well, you know what they say- forbidden fruit is the sweetest- eh, Olette?" she chirped, and Olette blushed madly, looking out the window. "Your turn, Zexion" she said shyly, and the young man looked around the car for a girl who hadn't been chosen.
"Xion, truth or dare?"
Xion smiled dangerously, and looked back at everyone.
"Dare!" She barked, and Zexion tried to think of something.
"Tell Xaldin you like his arms."
Xion blushed madly at this, and Zexion grinned for a moment. Then he switched back to his nonchalant gaze. He knew that the girls had all been taken with the man.
Xion shrugged. "What the hell." She muttered to herself, and Larxene voluntarily pulled up beside the other van so that Xion was beside Xaldin.
"Hey." She called over to him, and Xaldin looked around at her.
"Do you all need more directions from here?" Xaldin questioned, and Xion shook her head, trying not to blush again.
"I just wanted to tell you that I like your arms." Xion said quickly, but Larxene wouldn't let her close her window. She was waiting to see what Xaldin would say. He shrugged, a little bit taken aback, then smiled at Xion.
"Uh, thanks I guess." He said gruffly, and then turned back to the wheel. The whole girl van was laughing like crazy, and Xion shouted for them all to shut up. She looked around the car, and decided to pick Namine next, who squirmed a little bit. She had passed under the radar before, but the stakes were getting higher now. She said truth.
"Have you ever had dirty thoughts about someone? If so, who?" Xion barked, and Namine sighed, shrugging her shoulders.
"Well, yeah." Namine said politely, and car almost stopped.
"You have?" Xion asked, and Namine nodded, getting out her notebook.
"Sure, I have lots of ideas. They're all in here." She said, opening up her notebook and letting the rest of the car look at it. Everyone was blushing by the end.
"Damn girl, you really can draw." Olette sighed in awe.
"Who knew, of all people…?" Selphie examined the page closer, and fanned herself with her hand.
By this time, it was getting dark outside, and as they got further out past the main road, Larxene began to get more nervous.
"I don't recognize any of this stretch." Xion commented, and Larxene snapped at her.
"If you keep talking, I'll get lost. Everyone just shut up and let me drive." She barked. After a while, the road veered off, away from the lights of the city nearby, and turned into a lonesome country road.
Larxene signaled for the boys van to pull over, and Xaldin got out of the car to talk with her.
"I don't recognize any of this. We're off in the middle of nowhere, now." Larxene growled, and Xaldin scratched his head. "Well, I'm just driving; Marluxia's the one reading the map. I told him to take the road onto the red side of the map."
Marluxia got out of the car too, and stood uncomfortably beside the two.
"Show me where you took us, Marluxia." Xaldin growled, growing angry again. Marluxia breathed out deeply, getting annoyed.
"I took us to the red side of the map, like you told me to. See, I had us take the road over here."
"Marluxia, can I tell you something?"
"What do you want to tell me?"
"That side of the map is purple."
"Don't eff with me, it's red and I know it."
"It's purple."
There was silence, and Marluxia squinted at the map angrily. Zexion chuckled from the girls van. "Who knew that Marluxia was colorblind?"
"It would explain the hair." Hayner commented thoughtfully, and Marluxia backed away from the party, looking from side to side as if trying to find an escape route.
"I'm sorry, I didn't know. But hey, what's the point of a road trip when we're just going to the same places over and over again. Let's try this road- let's see where it leads. Let's find some adventure!"
The whole party became pepped up by Marluxia's little speech, and they all started off down the country road once more.
In the boys van, things were pretty quiet. Marluxia was made sit on the floor of the van for his mess up, and Axel sat stock straight in the back, with Roxas and Riku on either side of him. He was brooding.
Hours went by, and they still couldn't make out where they were going. Xaldin commented that this place wasn't on the map at all, and Marluxia asked him 'where the adventure was in his old bones.'
Axel had his hood pulled way over his face, and he looked up out from under the hood with sudden desperation.
"What's the matter, Axel?" Riku asked, and Axel looked at him strangely. Axel looked out the window of the car.
"I wish I was in the girls van." He whined, and the whole van stated their approval.
"Everyone does." Riku chuckled, and noticed that Axel was looking desperately at him.
"I have not had proper sex in a year." Axel said hoarsely, and there were sniggers throughout the van.
Riku shrugged with embarrassment. "Well, you're not the only one. Get over it."
Axel shook his head fiercely, and suddenly, he ripped the hood off of his head, exposing his shaven head. The whole car gasped, and a few people screamed.
"You're almost f**king bald, man! What happened? I was wondering why you were acting like a neutered dog the whole car trip- you had your mane taken from you!" Xaldin said, knowing the pain of losing a signature do. He petted his dreadlocks affectionately, and Marluxia fluffed up his own hair. Sora, Riku, and Hayner understood too. But Roxas just snorted.
"Oh come on guys, you can't seriously be that into your hair!" Roxas said meanly. He was in the caged weasel mode again. Riku looked at him with a puzzled expression.
"Your hair looks really styled, though Roxas. In a way, it looks like it takes more work than anyone's in this car." Riku exclaimed, and the rest of the car nodded. Roxas shook his head.
"I just sleep on my side when my hair's wet, and it's dried into this shape when I wake up. I just kind of fluff it up at the side so it doesn't look horrible. That's all, really." Roxas said, and the rest of the car looked at him thoughtfully.
"Wow, I always thought you were the most superficial guy around- besides Marluxia and Zexion." Sora piped up, and everyone nodded, grunting 'yeah.' Roxas glared at them all.
"I am not superficial!" He snapped, and turned to look out the window. Pence looked at him closely, and then gasped.
"Wait, Roxas. Are you the one that did that to Axel?" Pence barked, and the whole car snapped their attention on Roxas.
Roxas just shrugged, and the whole car started to shake their heads in anger- there were even a few growls. No one was impressed. They fell silent as Axel cleared his throat to continue, looking on in awe like he was a war hero. They all had new respect for Axel, and for what he'd gone through. He addressed the crowd.
"Ever since college, I lost my sexual prowess. I just felt kind of dead down there." He said dramatically and there were a few nods.
"Then, Larxene only made it worse. I lost all my confidence." Sora wiped away a tear from his eye as Axel said this, shaking his head as if in fervent prayer.
"But, ever since I lost my mane- something has changed." Axel began to raise his voice. "I don't have the package anymore- before I didn't need to have good sex, because I already knew I had the package. The look. The sensuality to pull the lovers in. But I couldn't hold onto them, because I lost interest."
There was a rousing applause from the audience in the car, and Roxas rolled his eyes.
"But now, I don't have the package- the thing that makes Axel sexy! So suddenly, I need to have good sex- I need some satisfaction!" Axel roared, and the whole boys van erupted in applause, except Roxas, who was just snickering.
"And if I don't get it in under five seconds there is a 98% chance that I will attack someone." Axel added flatly, and the whole car got quiet. They weren't expecting that.
Xaldin shook his head sadly, ignoring Axel's last comment. "Man, you shouldn't hold off for that long."
Axel looked at him strangely. "The mood didn't come for a year, and now I feel like I'm drowning in it. I'll die or go mad if I don't do something soon. And you will all be sorry if you don't listen." Axel growled darkly, and the car got very quiet again. Riku was slowly unbuckling his seatbelt and inching towards the middle of the car, when Axel suddenly grabbed him.
Roxas was shoved into the window, and his sore back jabbed against one of the glove compartments in the back of the van. He cried out in pain, and Riku began to squeal as Axel ripped his shirt off, and started to kiss his chest. The whole car went into chaos, as Riku began to struggle, with Axel keeping a tight grip on his pants.
Xaldin tried veering from side to side, and Axel fell into Roxas, pushing his back further into the side of the car. If this kept up, Roxas would get stuck down the side of the seat.
Marluxia suddenly punched his fists into the air, hollering like crazy, and jumped into the back with Axel and Riku. Sora was crying again, and Pence screamed as Marluxia grabbed his leg. Hayner grabbed Pence's arm, and tried to pull him back into the middle. Riku wasn't shouting anymore, and sounds of kissing could be heard in the back.
"Pence!" Hayner screeched, as he lost the grip on Pence's arm, and Sora catapulted himself into Hayner's lap, trying to hide under the glove compartment in the passenger seat. Hayner dodged Marluxia as he tried to get him in the back, too, and opted to hide down beside Sora. They started hugging each other and crying, and Xaldin tried not to let his temper get the better of him. The girls van pulled up beside him as he continued to drive, and they got close enough so that Xion could poke her head in.
"What's going on in here, the van's bumping back and forth like a bag full of popcorn!" Xion giggled, and then she peeped in the back. Marluxia tried to make a grab for her, and she dodged, falling back onto Larxene, screaming. Selphie maneuvered her way into the front, and peeped into the back of the boys van too.
"Let me in this van!" She shouted, but Xion held her back.
"Hell to the no!" Xion snarled at her, and succeeded in shoving her into the back of the car.
All the girls started to scream as they noticed what was going on in the boys van, and Namine started to draw in her notebook.
Xaldin had been holding up pretty well up until this point, but the party in the back had all moved to the middle, and like a monster, they started to grab Sora by the arm. Sora screamed, and Hayner tried to pull him back by the other arm, but in one swift movement, they were both in the back with everyone else.
Xaldin felt someone trying to kiss his dreadlocks, and that's when he finally snapped. Suddenly, he roared, and the car went screeching over to the side of the dirt road, and into some bushes. Then, he ripped open the middle door of the car, and started throwing people out. Some were thrown out two at a time, or in extreme cases three at a time, but Xaldin got them all out of the car.
He looked down at them all like a bull getting ready to charge.
They were all sweaty, and had at least one article of clothing taken off of them. Axel was still brooding looking, and he wiped some spit off the side of his mouth, and sniffed.
"What the hell do you think you all are doing in my van?" Xaldin boomed, and Larxene and the girls pulled up beside them all. Larxene got out of the car, and stood beside Xaldin, looking ready to kill.
"I fixed this up with my bare hands- and you all go and try to defile it?" Xaldin roared, but Sora was still in the moment.
"Did you like it when I kissed your dreads?" Sora asked, arching his eyebrows and grinning mischievously.
Xaldin's expression was unreadable. "You were the one who touched my dreads?"
Sora nodded proudly, and before he knew it, Xaldin had punched him in the face, and proceeded to beat him up.
"No one ever touches my dreads unless I say so!" Xaldin roared, and it took Larxene, and the rest of the boys van to pull him off Sora, who was crying again.
Xaldin stalked off, and started to punch a tree, then, when he'd regained his composure, he came back, a little bit ashamed of his behavior. Larxene looked around coolly, and then sighed in disgust.
Xion got out of the car too, and folded her arms over her chest. "Whoever decided to try and pull me in the back of the boys van; that is no way to treat a lady!" she snarled, and Marluxia shuffled his feet uncomfortably.
Xion noticed that Riku was snickering, and she went over and slapped him in the face. He reeled back in surprise, and the boys began to listen to her.
"You should all be ashamed in yourselves for letting feelings like that over take you! Sure- girls feel like that too- but we" she looked at Selphie as she said this "well, most of us don't let those feelings overtake us. You all think that just because you're boys, you can do whatever you want, and girls have to hold back until you need them- but let me tell you this! Maybe you should try restraining yourselves once in a while, too! Maybe you all wouldn't be single if you did that."
Olette got out of the girls van too, and looked at Hayner in anger.
"Sorry." Hayner said with shame. "I was in the moment."
Olette looked away. "I didn't know that saving yourself for me and me only excluded boys."
Hayner looked from side to side frantically, and finally pointed to Axel.
"It was his fault; he said that he really needed to have sex! He said he was drowning in the mood, and then as everyone started to go in the back, they all started to turn into animals! It was like he casted a spell over all of us!"
Everyone turned to look at Riku, who was only in his boxers. He blushed, and backed towards the van.
"What, I was the first to go!" Riku said defensively, and the rest of the party rolled their eyes.
Larxene looked around, furrowing her eyebrows.
"Wait, where are Axel and Marluxia?" She questioned. Then, her facial expression changed, and it seemed as if she knew the answer already.
"I suppose that Roxas is with them, too?" Kairi added from inside the girls van, preparing to be disgusted with him, too. Then they heard a wail from the back of the boys van, and a hand banged the inside of the window, and slid down out of sight.
Kairi rushed towards the boys van, and looked in the back. "Roxas is stuck between the wall and the seat in the back of the car!" She shouted, and a few people came over and tried to help her get him out. When he did get out of the back of the car, he tried to cover his face to hide the tears from everyone. His back was aching really badly, now.
Xaldin looked at the sky. "It's getting late." He said, sighing. "Maybe we should rest here."
The rest of the party agreed, and they both went into their own respective vans.
Roxas hobbled over to his van, just as Axel and Marluxia came back from some bushes behind the car. Marluxia's hair was a mess, and it had some dirt and leaves in it, but he was smiling blissfully. Axel didn't look satisfied at all.
"Best ever" Marluxia sighed, and flitted over to the van, pushing Roxas out of the way.
Riku went over to Axel, careful to keep his distance. Axel looked at him with melancholy, and Riku shuffled from side to side.
"Well, did you get rid of the mood?" Riku asked, and Axel shook his head.
"It's not as bad as before- but it's still there. I guess that Marluxia wasn't the one that I needed." Axel said mystically, and looked Riku up and down, then walked away.
Xion went over and snuck up on Roxas, who was trying to stretch his aching back. She tiptoed behind him- and elbowed him in his sore spot, and he shrieked in pain. The whole party snapped their attention to him as he fell over, and started to cry. The rest of the guys and Kairi weren't feeling very compassionate towards him, because they were all mad at him.
Roxas tried to get up without anyone seeing his tears, and hobbled over towards the bushes. Xion went after him, as he continued to hobble. They reached a stretch of woods, and Xion gasped. Roxas sniffed, and looked around.
"I know where Marluxia and Axel got down." Xion commented flatly, pointed to a bush that had been mangled and flattened down. There was also a pair of underwear hanging off the side of a tree stump near it.
Roxas shook his head, continuing to hobble, but Xion stopped him gently, and sat him down.
"What's wrong with everyone? No one seems to like you. You know, I find it weird that you were the only one in the car that was fully clothed. Do none of the boys like you, at all?"
Roxas shook his head, laying it down on Xion's chest. She patted his shoulder, sighing.
"Axel made a bet with me that I couldn't watch a dirty video for more than five minutes. I lost, so I had to call Kairi and tell her that she was sexy. It turned out that she liked me, too, and in the middle of the call, she was talking about how Larxene was cheating on Axel. It must've made him angry, so he laughed across the phone and told her about the dare. So she's mad at me. And I was so mad at Axel, that I cut all of his hair off. He told all the guys, and then it turns out that I'm the only one that doesn't style my hair in the morning or whatever."
Xion looked at him in surprise. "You don't?"
"No."
"Wow, I always thought that you were the most superficial guy out of the lot."
Roxas ignored this, and continued on with his story. "Well, anyway, then they all loved Axel and hated me for taking away his manliness, and then Axel went crazy and started an orgy in the back of the car. I wasn't included, and I got stuck down the back of the car. It killed my back."
Xion put her palm to her temple. "What's wrong with your back?"
Roxas sighed, and took his shirt off, bending over so that she could see his back. She gasped, and touched the huge multicolored bruise that seemed to be spreading across his back.
"What did you do to yourself?" Xion cried out, and Roxas shrugged.
"The night of my party, I fell asleep, and then I must have fallen out of bed and knocked over my desk chair. I don't really know how it got in front of my bed, but my back jabbed into one of the corners of the star on the back of the desk chair."
Xion thought for a moment, sighing uncomfortably.
"Roxas, can I tell you something?"
"Yeah, Xion, you can tell me whatever you want!"
"I walked in on Riku and Selphie in your room the night of your party. I don't know what they'd been using the chair for, but it was turned over beside the bed."
"And where were they?"
"On the bed."
"Doing what?"
Xion scratched the back of her head, chuckling with discomfort. "Let's just say that you don't really want to know." She said lightly, and Roxas moaned in anguish.
"I slept on that bed that night! My mother and I were sitting on it the next day! How could they do that? Who do they think they are? That's disgusting!" Roxas continued off on a tirade of things describing Riku and Selphie, until Xion got him to calm down.
"Just don't worry about it, Roxas. It's done now; you can't do anything about it."
Roxas nodded reluctantly. "I guess you're right. So far my birthday has gone terribly. I wish I knew what I could do to get my back in better shape, though."
Xion thought for a moment, examining the bruise again.
"We've got to get you to a doctor first thing tomorrow morning. Maybe we shouldn't have listened to Marluxia when he said to take the country road. Why didn't you tell us about your back sooner?"
"Because I didn't want anyone to worry about me. I thought it might jeopardize our trip!"
Xion sighed again. "Roxas, don't ever do that again. You might have really hurt yourself. Your back is an important part of your body- you can't ignore it!"
Roxas pursed his lips together, and nodded. Then, they both sat quiet for a moment, looking up at the stars that were beginning to dot the night sky above them.
"Pretty, isn't it?" Xion whispered, and Roxas nodded.
"Axel was acting really weird today, wasn't he? Do you think that he was being overly dramatic about everything?" Xion piped up, and Roxas shrugged.
"Axel is an interesting person. I don't think he was being overly dramatic, though. He wouldn't have been so serious if he was."
Xion nodded, and then looked back up at the sky. Roxas chuckled.
"I think he just needs some special attention. Maybe he wants someone to come onto him once in a while. In a weird way, he has to fight for attention by being loud and obnoxious. And when he gets bored, he meddles. I think people underestimate his intelligence."
Xion nodded at this. "Yeah, you're right. Maybe he feels like he's kind of lost his identity, so he needs someone to make him feel special again. In a way, though, it's a good change for him. He won't be thinking that his hair is the only thing that makes him worthwhile. He just needs a lady to tell him that he's beautiful just the way he is."
Roxas nodded, and noticed how the moon shone off Xion's black hair. In the moonlight, he could even see a little bit of deep blue in it. And he could see all the different shades of brilliant blue in her eyes with the moonlight shining off her face; it looked like her skin glowed a little bit.
"You okay, Roxas?" She said, noticing him staring at her. He snapped back to attention, nodding briskly, and Xion laughed.
"The moonlight casts a spell on everything, and makes it beautiful or frightening, or both if it chooses to."
Roxas chuckled. "Where'd you hear that one?"
"I just made it up myself." Xion chirped, blushing a little bit, and they both laughed again. Then there was silence, until Xion coughed a little bit, looking expectantly at Roxas.
"Yep" she said softly, continuing to look at Roxas, who couldn't figure out what she wanted.
"Something up?" Roxas asked, and Xion frowned at him, standing back up, and huffing loudly.
"No" she snapped, and stalked off back to the van. Roxas sighed to himself. He just couldn't get anyone to like him for too long.
He started to get up, and as he did, he heard the snap of a twig behind him. Slowly, he turned around to see if anyone was behind him, but there was no one. All that stood behind him was the forest that dotted the landscape ahead of him. Its subtle omnipotence scared him, and he began to back away from it, feeling its dark gaze upon him. Anything could be hiding inside of it, waiting. Roxas couldn't shake the feeling that the forest was alive, and the wind swishing the leaves was its breath, slowly wafting past him.
He shivered, and then began to run towards the vans. When he got back, everyone had already started a fire, and they were all telling ghost stories. Sora was blubbering, as usual. Larxene had just gone, and had described in detail the process that a mad hitchhiker had gone through to disembowel his victims.
"And then he made them all into sausages, and served them at a roadside inn that he ran during the summertime. If you go into the innermost room in the inn, where he sleeps, you can still see rows of jars- containing the heads of his cutest victims!" She screeched, and Sora couldn't take it anymore. He ran and hid inside the girls van, where Zexion had fallen asleep.
"Alright, who's next?" Marluxia drawled nonchalantly, eyeing all of the shaking people sitting around the fire. Pence was the only one who was still smiling, and he raised his hand.
"Okay, Pence. Fire one up."
Pence nodded, and cleared his throat.
"Once upon a time, there was a young boy, who got lost on a trip, much like the one that we're on right now."
Terrified moans could be heard from the girls van, and Sora was peeping out the window with a half curious, half frightened glance.
"He decided to go explore the woods that the car had stopped by, and soon, he was lost in their depths. All he could hear was a ticking sound…" Pence said eerily, and the wind seemed to work with him, blowing through the small campsite, and making the fire go down a little bit.
"As he went on, the ticking got louder and louder, and then finally, it stopped as he came to a small pool of water in the middle of the forest."
Riku was wringing his shirt in his hands, and the rest of the party was wide eyed.
"In the middle of the pool, stood another boy, whose skin was white and boney, and blue with the cold. He was holding an old stop watch. His eyes had been closed, but when he heard the boy approaching, he looked up, and the young boy saw that his eyes were bloody and white, dead corneas that stared into the boy's bright blue eyes. And then he smiled."
Pence got up, and started walking in a zombie like trance towards Riku, who was getting really nervous.
"Your eyes" Pence stated in an eerie voice, inching over to Riku. "I need new eyes." Then he made an odd moaning noise, and grabbed either side of Riku's face.
Then, Pence moved his hands towards Riku's eyes, and Riku shut them tightly, shaking like crazy. The rest of the party began to scream, but they couldn't move. Then Pence pretended to stick his fingers into Riku's eyes, and Riku let out a blood curdling screech. Then, they both slumped over onto each other, fidgeting a little bit. No one else knew quite what was going on, so Kairi shrugged and went over to nudge the two boys on the shoulders.
Then, suddenly, Pence and Riku stood up, grabbing Kairi and screeching at the top of their lungs. Kairi started to cry, and screamed with horror when she saw that Riku's eyes were a dead white, and Pence had Riku's blueish aqua tinged eyes.
Kairi began to struggle, but before she could get out of the two boys hold, they both broke down with laughter. Riku and Pence began to roll around on the ground, tears rolling down their cheeks, and Kairi wiped her own frightened tears out of her eyes, getting very angry.
"You guys are little, stupid shits!" She shouted, and went off to the girls van, still shaking like a leaf.
Sora was confused. "Wait, why are you guys eyes like that, then?"
Riku laughed again, removing the contact from his eye, and showing it to Sora. Pence took out his colored contacts, wiping his eye again. "We've been planning this out for months!" Pence said, and him and Riku hooked shoulders. Riku nodded. "Yeah, we rehearsed everything!"
Marluxia snorted. "You guys are such geeks." His hands were still shaking a bit, though.
Xaldin looked darkly at both of them, still wide eyed. "If you had've come at me, it would've been a different story."
Everyone began to laugh, and even Xaldin began to chuckle a little bit. Pence pointed to Larxene.
"Your story was pretty good, too- really gory and detailed. How did you come up with all that in a split second?"
Larxene shrugged, snorting. "Trust me; there wasn't anything in there that I haven't thought of doing to all of you. Except for the heads in the jars part- I saw that in a movie."
The rest of the party went quiet for a moment, inching away from Larxene a little bit, who was examining her fingernails.
The stories must have improved Axel's spirits, because he was smiling.
"Well!" he said brightly "let's get some rest so we can be up in the morning."
Xion went over to Axel as everyone started to yawn and go into either one of the vans. "I need to get Roxas to a doctor- he hurt his back and I want to get him diagnosed incase it's something serious. Can we take one of the vans?"
A few people heard this, and they all groaned. "He's probably just making it up. Too superficial to stand a night in the wilderness" Riku sighed, shaking his head.
Xion pursed her lips. Then, she wheeled Roxas around and pulled his shirt up so everyone could see the bruise on his back.
"Dang, Roxas! You didn't tell us that you'd almost got yourself killed!" Hayner blurted out, and Pence looked concerned.
"Spinal injuries can be dangerous; and potentially fatal." He said in a matter of fact tone. Everyone behind him nodded, agreeing.
"Can I take him to the doctor, then?" Xion snapped at everyone, and Axel nodded. "I'll drive." He mumbled, and hopped into the boys van.
"Uh, we can go in the girls van instead." Xion declared, redirecting Axel to the driver's seat in the girls van.
Roxas got in the middle seat with Xion, and Kairi suddenly hopped in the passenger seat. She blushed, and shrugged her shoulders. "I'll just come, too. It's boring staying here."
And with that, they were all off, back away from the country road and out onto the highway again. Kairi was trying to direct Axel the way off of the country road, and it turned out that she had a pretty good memory.
Xion smiled at her. "I would not have been able to remember the way outta here. All the roads and landscape look the same to me!"
Kairi shrugged. "I get nervous going places like this that I don't know, so I make a mental map for myself. I get really edgy when I forget stuff- I hate it. Oh, we're back on the map now!"
Kairi said, pointing to a familiar road sign.
As they finally made their way back onto the highway, everyone breathed out a sigh of relief. Then, they all looked around nervously at one another, and began to laugh. They went past a small town, and Axel bit his lip in frustration, shaking his head.
"It's gonna take ages before we get to the next big city. You guys might want to go to sleep." Axel sighed, looking straight ahead. Kairi raised an eyebrow.
"Wait, we don't need to go to the next 'big city', do we? A country doctor would be just fine!"
"Well, if there is something seriously wrong with Roxas, I just want to get him to the best place possible."
"We should concentrate on speed. It only takes three hours before a person with a spi-"
Roxas waved his hand in the air, and everyone except Axel looked at him. "Guys, I can hear everything you're saying. You're gonna get me into a panic if you keep talking like this. Just chill out."
Then, Roxas looked out the window. They were on a lonely high way, and Roxas could barely see the lights of the city in the distance. Then, he gasped.
"Stop the car!" Roxas shrieked, and Axel pulled over to the side quickly, and Kairi barely missed smashing her head on the side of the car.
"What the hell? I could've gotten a concussion. Why did we stop?" She barked, smoothing down her hair and patting her head to see if it was okay.
Without warning, Roxas jumped out of the car, asking for a flashlight. Xion handed it out to him, and he turned it on, examining the area around him. On one side of the highway, there were stretches of trees, and a steep slope led down to a small gulley, which was near a fast running river that ran along beside the highway and eventually through the city they were trying to get to.
"What's the matter, Roxas?" Xion said nervously, treading slowly behind him as he lowered himself down the slope, grabbing onto trees as he went.
"I saw something silver." Roxas mumbled to himself, and he shouted for Kairi and Axel to stay by the car.
"You saw something silver? And that constitutes a good reason to go down into a gulley at the side of a highway that we know nothing about?"
Roxas ignored Xion, shining the flash light below him. The first thing that had caught his attention in the car was a whole line of young trees that looked like they had been mowed down. Then, a silver flash caught his eye. Roxas had to see what it was. He felt a sudden foreboding as he tread deeper and deeper down into the slope. Then Xion gasped, and Roxas whipped his head towards her.
A few feet below them, a tour bus lay on its side, with the windows on it completely smashed. Roxas quickened his pace, and slid down beside it, looking inside. Xion grasped hold of his hand, and held on tightly as he inspected the tour bus. She whimpered in dismay as he climbed down inside the bus, and started to look around.
His breath was heavy as he looked around for something- for anything- that could help him figure out what this was all about. Then, he noticed something, and his heart almost stopped.
It was Ven's duffle bag, lying half open, with its contents strewn about around it. Roxas heard Xion say 'oh' behind him, and he turned around to see her holding up a poster of Ven's band, 'Birth by Sleep.'
Roxas fell to his knees, and ran his hands through his hair. His heart was beating so fast he could hardly keep up with it. Ven had come by here.
"Roxas, we need to go. Don't ask me why, I just know it. We need to get out of here." Xion said urgently, and Roxas nodded.
Then, they both jumped out of the tour bus, and onto the slope, running as fast as they could up to the car. Roxas thought he could feel the wind trying to drag him back, and he plunged on up to the van.
As soon as Axel was in sight, they screamed for him to start the car up, and he and Kairi jumped back into the vehicle, and revved it up. Roxas and Xion pounced onto the middle seat, and shut the side door. As soon as Axel was sure everyone was in, he whizzed out back onto the highway, and drove fast. Only thirty minutes later did everyone start to calm down, and Roxas clutched his chest, trying to calm down.
"What the hell happened there?" Axel shouted to Roxas, and the boy shook his head.
"That silver flash I saw? It was a tour bus. It was my brother's bands tour bus. They've been here." Roxas said through ragged breaths, and Axel nodded uncomfortably.
"You shouldn't have gone down there." Axel said darkly, and Roxas chuckled.
"I'd never have known what happened to my brother if I hadn't."
Kairi shook her head. "What's so wrong with that, Axel?"
"Animals are born with a survival instinct- it's bred into them. Fight or flight, that kind of stuff. But it's not just that. It's like the way animals get all angsty before natural disasters and stuff like that- the way they can almost tell what's going to happen. Humans have ignored it for so long that they can hardly feel it when it happens. But I know what's gonna happen now." Axel said sharply. Xion looked scared.
"What do you think's gonna happen, Axel?" Kairi asked, even though she was pretty sure she knew the answer.
Axel looked straight ahead again. "I didn't like this place the minute I got here. It wasn't just the mood that was getting me down. That being said, if we're gonna leave, we gotta leave for good."
Roxas chuckled angrily, shaking his head, and Axel looked back at him in the rearview mirror.
"If we go back there, we may never get out again."
There was silence for a moment, and then Kairi burst out laughing. She looked frustrated and scared, but she refused to let on.
"What a crap story, Axel. You should've told that one at the camp site, not here. And Roxas added a nice touch. Your brothers tour bus? What a joke…"
Xion was as pale as a ghost, and in the moonlight, odd shadows twisted the emotions on her face, and made her look different.
"Maybe this whole place is just trying to mess with us for fun." Roxas sighed to himself, and fell asleep as the lights of the city closed in around them.