After finally finding Gourry, the four friends continued their seemingly endless journey through the forest. Another day had almost passed by the time they had reached a town next to a large mountain. At the entrance stood a man with a wide and mischievous grin.
"Welcome to the town of Gosuto!" The old man raised his arms up and started dancing in a way that made him look like he was using an invisible hula hoop.
"Um... Thanks..?" Amelia said... or asked.
"What can I help you with!?" The man said, a bit too enthusiastically while stretching each of his words. What was this guy? Some kind of wacky tourist instructor?
Lina looked past the guy. She could see the other end of the town from where she was standing. This town was puny! And for some reason, she found the town utterly creepy and didn't want to stay there longer then she had to.
Zelgadis interrupted her thought. "Lina, we really should find a proper place to stay tonight. I don't think Gourry's back can handle sleeping on the ground again after you blew him into a rock."
"Yeah... I guess your right..." She considered Zelgadis's concern for Gourry but mainly only agreed because she didn't want to sleep on a rock or in dirt either. "Hey, old guy! Where's the inn in this town?"
The old man's grin turned into an eerie and inhumanly large smile. "Right this way!"
He led them to an old, broken down inn. It looked like it had been abandoned for years, but sure enough, another strange man was inside, dusting, even though the dust basically just floated up and floated back down again on the surface he just cleaned.
Everybody had their own room, and they were defiantly in better condition then any other part of the inn. Lina lay on her bed. A big cloud of dust surrounded her. She coughed. 'Jeez! Do they even wash the sheets!?' She asked herself.
Meanwhile, a few hours later, Amelia couldn't sleep. Something was stopping her. And the fact that she was hearing a strange laughter from somewhere outside her room didn't help. She tried to force herself to sleep but it didn't work. So, she decided to take a walk. Just a short one.
She left the inn and walked around town. It was a limited walk, though, so she walked a few minutes out of town and back again. But when she got back...
She came back to the inn, but stopped a few houses away. There was a group of townsfolk surrounding the entrance to the inn. They were really noisy and she was surprised that the others didn't wake up yet. They really must have been tired...
"Amelia!" Amelia heard Zelgadis behind her. How long had he been standing there? Before she could ask, he said something. "Try to be quiet!" He whispered harshly.
"What? Why?" She asked, trying to keep her voice down.
"These people... I've heard of this town... Though, I thought it was merely a legend." He responded.
"What are you talking about?" Amelia asked.
Zelgadis pulled her behind a nearby building. "I don't remember the details but this town is cursed! I couldn't sleep, so I started walking around. Then I clued in. That man earlier today, didn't he seem a bit too enthusiastic? Everyone in this town is like that. This isn't just a small town in the middle of the woods, it's Gosuto, the town of ghosts."
Amelia looked at him in shock. "If that's true, we have to get Ms. Lina and Gourry!"
"We can't! No one can fight the dead. This town sacrifices anyone who comes into it! I bet they're getting Lina and Gourry right now..."
"We have to help them!" Amelia accidentally rose her voice. Zelgadis covered her mouth.
"We will, but we have to come up with a plan first." Zelgadis said. Amelia nodded.
Both of them started discussing what they could do to save Lina and Gourry. They didn't have much time, though. The townsfolk were building a giant fire and placing an alter in front of it, probably for the sacrifice.
After they came up with a decent plan, they got in their places. Amelia hid behind a bush close to the alter, and Zelgadis went to find Gourry and Lina. Their plan didn't last long, though.
"Weren't there four travelers?" Amelia recognized the old guy.
"Yeah, but whatever. Just chill out. We can work with one, it's all we need."
One? ONE?! Amelia and Zelgadis were the ones not taken. Why was there only one of them caught?
Amelia suddenly got pushed from behind and out into the open from where she was hiding. The old guy ghost looked at her and snickered, but she in a strong voice she still spoke."You won't get away with this! The powers of love and justice will take you down!"
"Love and justice?" Mimicked one of the ghosts. "Ha! You think love and justice will stop us!?" The ghost let out a crazy laughter.
"Yo, dudes, chill out. We shouldn't criticize our guests! They, like, totally only have a short time left to live so we should be all nice and everything." The ghost speaking was obviously the laid-back one from earlier.
The ghost of the old man, less content then before, quickly snapped at the other. "I'll have you sent to Hell where you belong if you don't shut-"
Interrupting the old guy, a blast of fire that everyone turned towards enveloped the alter and everything within ten feet of it as well. After a few moments it disappeared and the alter was in pieces. Lina stood right next to it.
"And that's what happens when you sneak into my room at night!" Lina exclaimed.
"Miss. Lina? You weren't captured?" Amelia asked, now free from the ghosts who were currently cowering in fear near a tree.
"Nah! I guess they captured Zelgadis or Gourry but it's not like it matters."
"Miss. Lina? How can you say that!?"
"Well the sacrificing thing is destroyed, isn't it!"
The laid-back ghost who had helped capture Amelia was pushed towards Lina by his... comrades. After noticing how close he was to her he immediately fell on his knees to the ground and looked at her. "Uh-um- Dudette! S-sorry for everything that happened! We didn't realize that you four were, like, so powerful!"
Zelgadis walked onto the scene, along with a whiny and injured Gourry. He didn't even have time to react nor speak, one of the cowering ghosts spoke first. "Just leave! Just leave! Take whatever you want from our village, we won't try to stop you! Don't hurt us!" It cried.
"Oh shut up! Your lucky I didn't use a more powerful spell!" Lina spat. "Now, hand over all your food!"
"B-but we, like, totally need that for our sacrifices..." Another ghost whimpered.
Lina put herself in a calm position and began chanting. "Darkness beyond twilight, crimson beyond blood that flows..."
The ghosts immediately panicked and began throwing small bags of food from nowhere at her. Lina laughed evilly and loudly.
Zelgadis gave her a weird look. "Was that really necessary?"
Lina stopped laughing and shrugged.
And with that the foursome gathered whatever they wanted to take from the town, all the food included, and rested until morning. And when morning did come they left Gosuto, having the still injured Gourry carry almost everything, and prayed that there would be no more sidetracking on this journey, for it was getting quite annoying. And I'm also quite sure that the ghosts from Gosuto began preforming background checks on all the people they planned on sacrificing to make sure there was no chance that anything would be blown up.
Thank you to anyone who read this. If you have any suggestions for future chapters of the story then please, either PM me or review.