Ch. 3
Stripes began to stir when the suns morning rays flashed over her face. She opened her eyes slowly so that she could adjust to the bright light of day. When she was ready, she sat up and stretched.
"Ooh, that was a good sleep" she said before yawning.
She crawled over to the lake and began washing her face, something felt off, but she was too preoccupied to think about it. She finished cleaning and snagged a fish for a quick snack before standing up and flexing her left hand. She froze that feeling that something was wrong surfacing to the front of her mind. She slowly looked down at her flexing hand, it was empty.
She continued to flex it as if waiting for something to happen when it hit her, she wasn't holding her bag. She turned and searched the ground, nothing.
"Maybe it fell in the water" she thought to herself.
Highly unlikely, but she had to try. She jumped in and swam around searching before getting side tracked by a large fish that saw her as food. What was something that big doing at the bottom of a lake? She emerged from the water empty handed, panic starting to take over. She sorted through her thoughts frantically, when she realized that Brago was gone too.
She clenched her fists tightly as she looked up into the sky and roared an eerie screech "ARG! How could I be so stupid! He's been after my book from the beginning" she brought her attention back down to her fist as she watched her blood slide down the side of her hand from where her claws had pierced her "oh, he'll regret this"
Suddenly, the huge fish shot out of the water aiming to swallow her whole. Stripes swung her hand back without turning around, smacking the fish back into the water. It floated to the top, clearly dead from the force of her blow.
She looked up and screamed at nothing in particular "Just wait you bastard!"
Back at the hotel, Brago sneezed.
Sherry glanced back at him surprised "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine" Brago said in his usual cold manner while holding his hand over his mouth to hide his growing smirk. He had a pretty good idea why he'd suddenly sneeze like that. "Are you ready yet?" he changed the subject.
Sherry nodded and they headed out to the car that was waiting for them. "I can't believe he's going along with this. I didn't think he'd want to leave until we defeated that demon. Oh well, it's not like she could put up a good fight for him anyway. At least I get to go home for a while" Sherry thought to herself as she began to smile.
Brago glanced at her and noticed her smile, but didn't say anything. He was too busy enjoying his own handy work to care what she was thinking about. They got in the car and it headed off to the air port.
The next morning in Chicago, Olivia and Taylor boarded a plane to Japan. Olivia was wide awake looking out the window, unaware of her bouncing leg. Taylor sat next to her half asleep, clearly unhappy to be awake this early.
Once all preparations were finished, the pilot spoke over the intercom "Thank you for boarding NT airline, we'll be taking off in a moment. Due to unforeseen weather, we'll have to land in France until the skies clear up. Please relax and enjoy the flight"
Upon hearing his words, Olivia tried to stand up, but forgot that she was buckled into the seat. She grabbed the armrests still trying to stand up "What! I don't have time for this!"
Taylor rested her hand on her sisters shoulder "Calm down, it's not permanent. Besides, I always wanted to see France"
Olivia calmed down and crossed her arms while glaring at her sister "You're taking this too well"
Taylor smiled "I'm just more understanding"
Olivia looked away and quietly pouted, leaving Taylor alone to sleep while the plane began moving.
Later in France, Sherry took a deep breath, savoring the smell of her home.
"Ah, it's so great to be home" she said while stretching. Her smile faded into a solemn look as she made her way upstairs "Well, I better pack for out next trip to get that out of the way. We won't be able to travel with this storm coming though" she felt herself smile as she opened her room door and it quickly disappeared.
She stared in shock as she watched Brago rummage through her suitcase, flinging her clothes all over the place. She felt herself growing angry and reacted before she had time to think.
"BRAGO!" she yelled, probably getting the attention of everyone in and around the mansion. He turned and looked at her with his usual solemn look as she continued "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!"
It was quiet for a moment before Brago turned back around and continued what he was doing "Don't worry about it"
Sherry's face turned completely red in anger. "The hell I am!" she said as she grabbed the back of his cloak and pulled him towards the door, keeping him off balance the whole way until she let him hit the floor in the hallway.
He immediately got up and glared at her furiously "What the hell Sherry?!"
"How dare you go through my stuff! What were you thinking?!" she yelled back.
They were quiet again before Brago grunted and walked away without another word. Sherry watched him leave before going into her room, grabbing a pillow and smothering herself as she screamed as loud as she could, muffling herself. She then placed it back down took a moment to compose herself and began cleaning up the mess he had made.
Brago decided to wander the halls in an attempt to calm down, it wasn't really working. The halls were relatively dark from the lack of windows and no one bothered to turn on the lights since they weren't frequently used halls. Brago didn't understand this since they still wasted time cleaning them.
"Hmph, what did she think I was doing?" he thought to himself before a shadow caught his eye.
He looked over expecting to see one of Sherry's servants, but no one was there. He continued down the hallway, when another shadow caught his eye, he turned and again saw nothing. This wasn't helping his current situation. He continued on looking down the different halls expecting to see it again when it passed by directly in front of him.
"Not this time" he said to himself as he chased it down the different halls. He turned corner after corner until it faded from sight. He stopped in the obscured light of a draped window and looked around "Darn, where did it go?"
He turned around and met face first with the shadow as it crashed head first into him, sending them both to the ground. He hit the wall and slid down accidentally pulling the window curtains with him, allowing white sunlight to shine into the hall.
As the dizziness wore off he groaned and tried to get up, but he felt heavy and couldn't budge. He heard another groan and opened his eyes to see who it was. His view was blocked by blur of orange, but once it moved, he could see that it was Stripes in just as much pain as he was.
"Ow" she said while rubbing her head. She then looked down and noticed she was sitting on Brago in an odd way and blushed "Oh, hey Brago"
He laid there and blinked a few times before shoving her off and sitting up "What the hell are you doing here?!"
Stripes sat up across from him and glared "That's a stupid question; I came to get my book back. You know, the one you took while I was sleeping"
"So you planned to sneak up on me" he growled back
Stripes glanced away in embarrassment "Actually, I'm lost" Brago stared at her blankly as she scratched her head and continued "I must have been running around for at least an hour before I found you."
Brago continued his blank stare for a moment longer before standing up "You've got to be the strangest demon I've ever met" he turned to leave, but Stripes grabbed his hand.
"Whatever, just give me back my book, okay" she said calmly
Brago smirked as he leaned against a wall and crossed his arms "Why would I give it back? You're the one who let your guard down around an enemy. I'm just showing you the penalty"
Stripes withdrew her hand and crossed her arms, smirking herself "Fine, if that's the way you want to play" Brago's smirk faded and he looked at her puzzled until he heard Sherry scream. "Ah, I've been waiting for that" she said with a growing smile.
Brago growled and pinned her against the wall "What did you do?!"
Stripes coughed a little, but continued smiling "Nothing much really, but I doubt you'll like it" Brago growled again before dragging her off to Sherry's room to see what was going on.
He kicked the door in and walked in noticing how the room looked worse than before "What happened?"
Sherry turned to face him, panic clear on her face "Brago. The book, it's gone. Your book is gone!"
Ah, suspence^^