Hey, readers! I found time to write a new chapter... I hope you enjoy XD
Chapter 18 - The ghost train.
The soft hospital duvets caressed Chrys's slim figure as she turned over in her sleep. Her room wasn't as uncomfortable to stay in as it once was. She had even got used to the pungent smell of hand sanitizer and chemicals that lingered after every 'operation' or 'test' that the nurses ran on her daily. It would only be a matter of a few short days before she was aloud her freedom back. Or at least, that's what she thought anyway.
At the same time, the rest of the team where just awakening from their hotel rooms to gather for the snow resort.
"Morning, guys!" Ichigo chimed, stretching.
"Morning, Ichigo." Hibiki replied out of politeness. The rest just ignored him.
"So, when do you want to go?" Fudo asked, yawning.
"Now! Now!" the light mage replied, not letting anyone else speak and dancing around the room in delight.
"Can we not wait a bit? I've only just got dressed." Nova cut in.
"Exactly! Then we should go!"
"Ichigo... You're such an idiot." the gun mage replied in a stone cold voice, causing his face to drop.
"B-But Nova..." He wailed, tears accumulating in his wide eyes.
"For goodness sake, fine! As long as I don't have to put up with this the whole way through!" She snapped, folding her arms. The others decided just to go with it.
"Hooray!" His emotion suddenly switched as the four of them made their was to the resort.
As the celestial mage was about to fall back asleep, there was a knock at her door.
"Uh... Come in?" she called out as the door creaked open.
"Hello, Chrysanthemum, have you noticed that we haven't run any tests on you today?" Once of the nurses asked calmly, "Well, this is because of your friends managed to persuade us to let you spend the day with them up in the snow resort. He'll be by to pick you up shortly, so you'd better get dressed" She smiled, shutting the door carefully.
"Wu-What?!" Chrys shrieked in horror.
When she said 'persuade'. This is what really happened...
As the three where leaving the hospital to check into a hotel, Hibiki decided to hang back for a bit. That's when he caught sight of one of the nurses.
"Hello, there." He said, in a silky smooth voice.
"Oh, evening." She replied, trying hard not look into his sparkling black eyes.
"May I ask a favour of this beautiful young lady?" he questioned flirtatiously, resting one arm on the wall behind her.
"Oh, that would depend-"
"Pretty please..." He started leaning closer and closer, causing the nurse to go a shade of red. He stopped when they where barely touching noses.
"O-Okay... What can I do for you?" She asked nervously, allowing his soft breath to stroke her face.
"I have a friend that's being kept here and I think she deserves a day out... Will you allow her to come with me and my friends to come to the snow resort with me tomorrow?"
"Uh-Of course.."
As expected, another knock on the door came to pass soon enough.
"Ergh... Hi guys." Chrys said, opening the door to find her commerades.
"Hi Chrys!" Ichigo yelled, atempting to give her a hug and failing.
"I told you guys I didn't want to come." She said sternly.
"I thought you deserved a day out..." The archive mage said, running his fingers through his blonde hair and winking.
"Fine. I'll come with you. But don't expect me to have fun." She retorted angrily, following the four of them out of the hospital and along the route to the Galascia snow resort.
As soon as Chrys stepped out of the hospital, the cold weather hit her like a wave of shock. She'd spent so much time in there that she forgot about ruthless climate outside. A blast of artic air speared through her thick coat and prickled along her skin, sinkinig into her bones and causing her to let out a small yelp. She thought that after she walked for a bit that she would warm up. After a few more minutes of walking, the resort finnaly became visible through a thick forest of snowflakes and the hills behind it looked like scoops of vanilla ice cream. She looked down at her numb, shaking hands in disgust to see her warm breath colliding with the icy air to form steam. How where they supposed to have 'fun' in this weather? She looked across to see what reaction everyone else was having to it. Although due to their various expeditions, thay'd all got used to it and where perfectly fine. At this point, all she wanted to do was go back to the hospital.
"Look, everyone! There it is!" Ichigo shouted, pointing his finger at the large tourist attraction.
"Wow, it's so big!" Even Nova was slightly in awe of it. The closer they got to it, the more the celestial mage despised it.
They finnaly approached the entrance. A long que had formed behind a small wooden stall that was selling tickets. With weather like this, the last thing Chrys wanted to do was stand in a que for what would seem like ages. But soon enough, the five of them where standing together at the very end.
"Uhm... Is it just me that's having a problem with the cold?" the celestial mage shivered.
"Aww, Chrys-ie! It's okay, I'll warm you up, my sweet heart!" Hibiki called, flinging his arms around the green-haired (and now red-faced) mage.
"Warm me up too, Fudo!" Nova shouted, hugging the unsuspecting dragon slayer just as he was about to tell Hibiki to get off Chrys.
"Gwah!" He shouted as Nova hugged him tighter.
"Me too, Fu-chan!" Ichigo joined in as Fudo sweat-dropped. Soon enough, the que dyed down and they where at the front.
"Hello, and welcome to the Galascia Snow resort, how can I help you?" The ticket-salesman asked politely.
"Five tickets please!" Ichigo yelled excitedly as he handed them over.
"That would be 4000J please, and I'll give you a discount since there's five of you." He smiled.
"Thank you!" The light mage replied as he slipped the money over the wooden surface.
"You're very welcome. After all, I am one hell of a ticket salesman." he added as they walked away.
As Nova said, the resort was huge. Slides and rollercoasters where laid out as far as the eye could see.
"Let's go!" Ichigo Shouted enthusiastically, with everyone – apart from Chrys, who was being dragged – running after.
After hours of sliding and running around, the five of them where next to exhausted. There was still 2 hours left until it closed so they decided to go on a few more rides. Surprisingly, Chrys's mood was improving and she was starting to enjoy herself and loosen up more.
"Okay, we'll go on one more ride then we'll stop for something to eat." Fudo instructed.
"Okay, that sounds good to me." Chrys smiled back.
"Which one do you want to go on?" Hibiki questioned as they passed a poster advertising a ghost train.
"How about the ghost train?" Nova suggested, "But only if you protect me from all the scary monsters, Fudo!" she added.
"Yeah, okay!" Ichigo agreed as they made their way up a set of rickety, unstable metal stairs and joined the que. Although it was still cold, the celestial mage was starting to see the wonder of winter. She looked up at each individual snowflake spinning and cascading to the ground and peered back at her commerades. In a way, she was glad to be dragged out of her warm hospital bed and brought here.
"Chrys! Hurry up! It's our shot!" Fudo called, stretching out his hand. She then smiled and took his hand back, following him into the slim carrige and sitting next to him.
"Ahhh!" Nova screamed, "My hair tie just blew out of my hair! Help me find it!"
"But the ride's about to start!" Hibiki replied, "And Chrys and Fudo are already strapped in. It'll leave without us!"
"Find it now!" She demanded as Ichigo and Hibiki got down on their hands and knees, searching for Nova's hair tie.
"Found it!" Ichigo called as the carraige ride started to trundle away.
"W-We missed it..." Nova moaned in dismay, "That is so unfair! This is all your fault!"
"How is it our fault? You didn't even help us!" Ichigo retorted.
"You took too long to find it! And you shouldn't make a cute girl like me crawl around on her hands and knees!"
"Calm down, guys, we'll just have to go to the end and wait for them." Hibiki said with his face burried in his hand.
"Did they miss it?" Fudo questioned as the train started to move into a tunnel.
"I think so... We would've heard them by now if they were sitting on the carraige." she answered as it got darker and darker.
"Well, at least we'll get some peace and quiet."
"yeah..."
As they travelled deeper into the tunel, sounds could be heard from all over. This didn't scare anyone as it was to be expected. All that was visible was darkness. The slow trundling of the carraige and some added background effects where all that could really be heard. The two of them found it quite boring. Somewhere in the near distance, footsteps could be heard.
"I guess it might have been better with everyone else here... Some of the things they say are more entertaining than this ride." Chrys whispered.
The footsetps got closer and closer until the figure of a person was barely visible. As the train approached it, they saw that it was a clown. He stood there in an old circus outfit. His painted smile was filled with threat and his stance looked somewhat intimidating. Suddenly, Chrys's eyes began to widen and she began to tremble.
"F-Fudo... I really don't like clowns." she whimpered.
"It's okay, Chrys. It's not going to hurt you." Fudo calmly replied, "And it won't be here long, it's almost the end of the ride." he smiled through the darkness. This appeared to make her more at ease.
But just as they where passing the cloun, the celestial mage uttered a loud scream and threw herself into Fudo's arms without thinking, causing the dragon slayer to go slightly red.
"Uh... It's okay, Chrys." He said awkwardly, hugging her back. They sat in the same position until the train left the tunnel and light shed upon them. There was still another few minutes until the ride would be over and they would meet up with the rest of their team. When Chrys was sure that it was over, she looked up at the blushing dragon slayer. He then looked back at her, causing a shade of pink to wash over her pale skin. Slowly, Fudo leaned in. Chrysanthemum then copied and soon enough, their lips touched.