Chapter 8 - They didn't expect her to wear that. Did they?

When Tracey woke up, the first thing she noticed was that she had a bruise on her head. She wondered if it had anything to do with the strange dream she had had of being dropped on her head.

Then she noticed that she was in a huge, soft bed with goose feather pillows and duvets.

Then she noticed she was wearing a silky blue negligee.

She stepped out of the bed and went to the wardrobe and flung it open, then gasped in shock at the sight.

The wardrobe was huge, literally a walk-in wardrobe. That wasn’t the problem.

The wardrobe filled till bursting. That wasn’t the problem either.

It was the actual clothes.

They looked like they dated back to the nineteenth century, at LEAST, but the real horror was that the material itself was new, like someone intended for her to WEAR them.

She shuddered.
“What kind of sadist would wear that thing?” she thought.

The door creaked open and Tracey dove behind the bed in one slick movement. She waited for River to stride in so she could attack him, but instead, a little girl padded in.

She had tawny hair unerringly like Tracey, which was odd because most people said that her exact colour of hair could not be duplicated. Her eyes were clear blue and she had a healthy complexion.

She looked relatively harmless but the trog she had met had looked just as innocent, if not more.

“Hi, I’m Brooke” the girl said.

Tracey was taken aback. It seemed almost surreal after being kidnapped, threatened, stabbed and pursued, to have someone being polite.

“Hey, my name’s Tracey.” Tracey said as politely as she could manage.

Brooke came and sat on the side of the bed and asked thoughtfully, “Aren't you going to put on some clothes? You’d better hurry because we’ve got to see the master soon.”

“That’s a great idea Brooke why don’t you give me the clothes and I will put them on immediately.” Tracey said, praying that the clothes in the wardrobe weren’t for her, but her luck was running out because Brooke simply said, “There are clothes for you in the wardrobe.”

Tracey shook her head, “I’m sorry but these clothes look like they’ve come from Pride and Prejudice, or Pirates of the Caribbean!”

Brooke shrugged, “River said he doesn’t want you to be able to move more than an inch a minute. He thinks you’ll try and escape.”

Tracey muttered something under her breath, that sounded remarkably like, “He should!” then she straightened. “Listen to me Brooke, I like you, but I swear to the Lord in heaven, I will go outside dressed like this!”

Brooke blanched. “You wouldn’t!” she whispered.

Tracey gave her a feral grin to let Brooke know that she wasn't kidding.

Brooke looked like she was about to burst into tears. “Please at least wear some underwear!” she begged “River will kill me if he sees you going commando!”
Tracey looked down at herself and realised that she was not wearing the basic garment every pubescent female must wear and blushed.

“Okay,” she conceded. “Underpants and a bra, but if I don’t get some jeans I will walk outside in this nightdress-thingy with only a bra and panties on and trust me, I do not think your boss will be pleased.”

Brooke was torn. She knew the master would not be happy to see her flouncing around half-naked, but she had been specially commanded by River to not let her wear anything but the dresses, well not commanded, but asked. So Brooke decided to call Tracey's bluff.

Ten minutes later, Tracey was running through the various corridors screaming like an idiot dressed in a transparent, silky negligee and a bra and a pair of lacy panties, while Brooke ran behind her waving a pair of skinny jeans and a t-shirt.

“All right! You win! You can wear the jeans!” she yelled as she tore after Tracey.

Tracey gave an exhilarated laugh, thinking about how she hadn’t done anything like this since her friend had dared her to streak through the cafeteria. It had been amazing! Until the principal caught her.

That had sucked.

This was just like then apart from the fact that no one was stopping her.

Or at least that’s what she thought before she slammed face first into River.

River being pure muscle, withstood the attack pretty well, unlike Tracey, who bounced off his chest, like a ball off a wall.

“Owwww…” she groaned from the floor.

River was speechless. For a second. Then he grabbed Tracey by her arms and shook her roughly saying, “What do you think you’re doing?!”

“Oh, God I think my nose is broken.” Tracey said, gingerly feeling her nose for blood. River sighed in disgust.

Just then, a guy of about twenty walked into the corridor and blushed like a maniac when he saw Tracey and River, then muttering apologies, positively ran in the opposite direction as fast as his legs could carry him. But not before he had thrown something at their feet.

River sighed again as he picked up the foil sachet that said, XXXXXXXXXL condoms for studs.

“What in God’s name are you wearing?” he asked angrily.

“Why are you asking me? You put me in it and you have a much better view of it that I do.” She cocked her head, and then added as an afterthought, “Anyways, I thought vampires didn’t believe in God. By the way, does that say XXXXXXXXXL?” Tracey looked at him meaningfully, “Seriously, how big can that get?”

River turned a funny shade of red and might have lost complete control of himself if Brooke hadn’t come dashing in.

“Tracey! TRA—Oh.” She said as she caught sight of River.

River turned his head to glare at Brooke and if looks could kill, Brooke would be deader than a Sunday roast.

River dangled Tracey towards Brooke a good two feet off the ground.

“Explain.” He snapped.

Brooke shuffled her feet, “Well you see, she didn’t like the dresses, but you said she couldn’t wear anything like jeans, so she kind of—”

“Ran off like a Looney?” Tracey suggested as she tried to wriggle out of River’s iron grasp.

River shook his head and made as if to swing her over his shoulder, but then he realized how it would look, so he just held her the way she was.

“Hey, this is killing my shoulders, put me down!” Tracey complained after a while.

River answered flatly, “Then maybe you’ll think twice before you decided to run up and down the corridors half naked.”

Luckily, River had power walked them back to Brooke’s room and flung Tracey on to the ground.

“Hey!” she shouted indignantly, “that hurt! Anyways, what’s the big deal, I am dressed, I’ve just got on less than usual.”

River pulled Tracey up again, then waved his hand in front of her, muttering something, and in a second, Tracey was clothed in one of the dresses from the eighteen hundreds.

Tracey clawed at the dress but it seemed to be glued to her skin.

“Don’t bother trying to get it off. It’s not coming off till I say so.”

Tracey, having given up trying to tear the dress off tried ripping it off with her teeth so she couldn’t speak for a while.

River grabbed Tracey by the arm again and towed her out of the door, saying “Come on you little nudist, we’re going for some exercise.”

Brooke followed in their wake, holding the pair of jeans and t-shirt.
*

After much struggling, shoving and swearing, River more or less threw Tracey out of a door. When she got up to throttle him, she realised that she was on grass, outside, in wide open space with no walls or anything.

Tracey got to her feet then ran as fast as she could, which it must be noted, was quite fast, however, she was also wearing the demon dress from the dark ages so after six steps she fell onto her face.

Tracey got up again and did the same thing, again and again and again.

If Tracey hadn’t been so frantic, she would have realized that River was not following her, in fact he was leaning against the wall watching her.

After her fifth try, Tracey managed to get her balance and began to run without falling down. “I’m free!” she yelled “I’m free! I’m—”

Then she smacked into an invisible wall, then slid down like a bad cartoon running into glass and finally crumpled in a heap on the ground.

She got up and strode back to River, though the effect was pretty much ruined after the first two times that she had fallen.

Tracey glared at River who was trying his hardest not to laugh and Brooke who seemed to have passed out from the pain of laughter, but was still making little twitchy movement in her subconscious.

“You knew,” she whispered murderously.

“Don’t be silly,” River answered, “Of course I knew, I would have told you but I thought you’d like to find out on your own.”
Tracey was frothing at the mouth by now.

Brooke had revived, but found Tracey’s face so funny looking, she had passed out again.

Just then two giant beasts appeared more or less out of nowhere, and Tracey eyes widened. One of the things shrunk and turned human but the other stayed wolf.

The one that had turned back into a human was a tall, black haired, blue eyed demon boy, really hot and probably a player.

He smiled at River and slapped a high five, then looked Tracey up and down.

“Nice ensemble,” he said looking down on her, then he turned to River and smirked, “You generally go for girl with a bit more chest, what’s the matter, have you dropped them for the leggy ones?”

Tracey snarled. Before River could stop her she had reached out with lightning speed and grabbed hold of the boy’s crotch.

Then she began to squeeze.

“You will NEVER speak about me like that or so help me, I will make you sing soprano FOR LIFE, understand?” she hissed as she heaped the pressure.

The boy nodded, past speaking.

“I said, do you understand!” Tracey said again, squeezing as hard she could.

“YES I UNDERSTAND!” he bellowed in pain as Tracey gave his balls a final squeeze before allowing him to collapse on to the soft ground.

River stared, his jaw having dropped quite a while ago.

“Close you mouth or you’ll catch a fly.” Tracey snapped, looking narked.

“Wow.” River said in awe.

The other wolf, who had gone up to the boy who was lying on the floor changed back in to a human as well and Tracey was slightly surprised to see that it was a girl.

“Nice one!” she said in a congratulatory tone that seemed very different from her companion’s and a thump on Tracey’s back that nearly knocked her down.

“Um, thanks?” Tracey said, wondering if it was the right thing to say.

“S’alright, we girls have got to stick together against the guys!” as she said the last few words, she playfully punched River in the arm.
“By the way, I’m Caddy, that’s Damien.” The girl said as she pointed to the boy on the ground.

Tracey was confused. In every book she had ever read concerning vampires and werewolves she was sure that vampires and wolves were mortal enemies, she had never read about them being friends, throwing playful punches or slapping fives.

“Erm, aren’t you guys supposed to hate each other I mean, you’re a werewolf he’s a vampire!” she asked the wolf girl.

Caddy burst out laughing. “Gosh! You believe that bunk? It’s just a myth! You really need to face reality.”

Tracey made a face. “I’m sorry did the TALKING WEREWOLF GIRL just tell me to face reality or was it my warped imagination.”

Everyone chuckled.

All of a sudden a boy dropped out of the sky and landed lightly on his feet.

Tracey almost passed out.

“Hey, River, how’s it going?” he said, waving. Then he caught sight of Tracey. “What’s the matter River” he said teasingly, “have you given up on girls with big—?”

Then he saw Damien on the ground.

“What happened to him?” the boy from the sky asked, lightly kicking Damien in the side.

“He finished the sentence,” River said dryly, pointing to Tracey, who had the murderous look in her eyes again.

Sky boy said, “Hey, sorry dude, peace!” then he offered his hand.

Tracey took it after a moment of hesitation. She shook his hand.

“I’m Matt, Matt Brown.” He said, shaking her hand energetically.
“I’m Tracey Monroe.” She said as he waggled her around.

Matt smiled at her, “You know, I’ve got a great way to make up for what I almost said…”

Tracey’s guard was instantly up. There was no WAY whatever it was could be a good thing.

“What do you mean?” she asked cautiously.

“Well, I’m guessing you’ve never ridden a dragon before, but trust me you’ll love it!” He said excitedly.

As Tracey realized what he meant, she began to protest, but it was too late. In one fluid movement he had scooped her up and flung her into the sky.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!” Tracey screamed as she hurtled up into the sky, her arms and legs wildly wind-milling as she ascended.

Then Tracey stopped screaming and realized what a lovely view there was.

And then she stopped going up and started going down, so she continued screaming.

Then she stopped screaming again as she saw a beautiful bird fly past and as she was viewing it’s majesty she realized she must be near the ground so she would just be about to hit the ground when suddenly—

THUMP!

Tracey hit something large and rough. Then she started to slide downwards so she grabbed on to a huge protruding triangle that came out of whatever it was that had saved her.

Then she looked beneath herself and saw the huge creature she was riding on.

“Oh my GO-OOOD!” she screamed as the creature went into a nose dive.

Just as she was sure the creature was going to pile drive them both till they were no more, it pulled out of the dive and began a complex series of twists and turns before Tracey realized that she had had enough.

She dragged herself up the spikes until she was at the beast’s head.

Then she took off her shoe and proceeded to beat the thing’s head saying, “Bad dragon-y creature, BAD! Land now!” until the dragon deposited Tracey on the soft ground where she had started.
Once she had dismounted, she realized that it actually hadn’t been that bad. In fact it had been fun, so she walked over to the dragon thing that seemed to be a bit tired and said, “That was fun, can we do it again?”

The dragon opened one eye and poked his face right against hers.

“Is that a JOKE?” the dragon said in Matt's voice.
“You hit me all the way down here and expect me to take you back up? Forget it!”

Then the dragon slowly shrunk until he was human shaped.

Tracey didn’t seem at all perturbed by now, in fact her not being worried, worried her more than what she had just seen.

River who had been sitting patiently with Damien and Caddy, waiting for their return walked over to Tracey and Matt.

“Come on, we’ve got to go meet the master now.” River said, tugging on Tracey’s arm as he said it.

She wanted to stay, but she knew she would have to meet the master inevitably so she might as well have done it then.

Tracey waved goodbye to Brooke, Matt, Caddy and Damien as she walked away.

When they had gone far enough, Tracey asked the one question that had been disturbing her ever since she had met River’s friends.

“Why are your friends so nice?” she blurted out.

River smiled at her wryly, “I’m assuming what you’re actually wondering is why they’re my friends seeing as I’m not so nice.”

Tracey met his eye fearlessly. “Yes, that is more or less what I meant.” She said defiantly.

River rolled his eyes up in mock disbelief. “You know,” he said “girls are supposed to deny ever thinking such a thing and say that I’m despicable for saying so.”

Tracey snorted in a very unladylike way saying, “You are despicable for many reasons. That is not one of them. Now will you answer my question?”
*
“Now will you answer my question?” Tracey had asked him. Actually, it was more of a demand.

River smiled again, this one a genuine smile. It was such a refreshing change, from the suck-uppy people who wanted nothing more than a higher rank and would not mind grovelling in compliance to feed their ambition, to sharp, no-nonsense replies and blind hatred.

“Hel—lo! Anyone in there?” Tracey said, waving her hand in front of his eyes, checking to see whether he was still alive.

He caught her hands and held them, then said evenly, “Why do you think I’m such a bad person?”
*
“Why do you think I’m such a bad person?” River had asked earnestly, the look on his face completely innocent.

“Tch!” Tracey grunted, but let her hands remain where they were. She couldn’t be bothered to take them away, and it felt kind of nice.

“If you can help it, try not to be stupid!” she said cuttingly. “You attack me, mess with my head, tell your friends to eat me, try to kidnap me, fail, have me run off a road, throw a dagger in my back and force me into this medieval monstrosity and then you wonder why I see you as a bad guy? Please.” Tracey said nastily.

River sighed, “Come on,” he said dejectedly, “We’d better go find the master.”

Tracey bit her lip. She wasn’t going to feel sorry for him, but he looked so upset, that she couldn’t help adding, “But I might change my mind, who knows, you just might redeem yourself.”

River smiled as he led her to a huge set of double doors. He let her walk in first and once she had, he slammed the door shut behind her and locked it.

Tracey turned around at once and began to pound on the door screaming, “River, this is a shoot way to redeem yourself!”

Then she heard a rustling sound behind her, so she turned and saw that she was in an arena with people everywhere watching her.

Tracey stared for a minute, waved, and then returned to pounding on the door.

“River, damn you, open the door!” Tracey yelled.
“He’s not going to open the door a lilting voice said from behind her.

Tracey spun round to see four people advancing, one beefy and broad, another lithe and long, the third short and squat, and the last gangly and scrawny.

The second one was talking, “He has had his orders and he obeyed, the way we will obey our orders.”

The tall skinny one stepped forward and said hoarsely, “Let’s get this over with, I’ve got things to do.” Then he unleashed a blast of blue lightning, headed directly for Tracey.

When the smoke from the lightning had cleared the skinny one came forward to see what was left and found nothing.

Not a pile of ashes, not a mangled burning body, not even an imprint just nothing. He scratched his head and sighed. “Looks like I vaporised her, lets go.”

But the others weren’t watching him, they were watching a girl in a robe from the 18th century trying to scale the walls above.

Once Tracey realized that they were looking at her she smiled down at them and waved.

Then she climbed as fast as she could. Then she slipped and fell into the beefy one’s arms. She waved again.

“Hi there,” she said coyly.

Then the beefy one threw her across the arena, so that she landed on the glass with a painful thwack and slid off.

When she hit the ground, she realised that there were weapons all around her. She searched frantically and found what she was looking for.

A set of daggers labelled, Slumber Knife.

Just then, the tall skinny one appeared at her side.

Instinctively, Tracey plunged the dagger into the guy’s side. He sank to his knees and crumpled. Then she saw the stocky one approach.

He was asleep before he hit the ground.

Tracey grinned from where she was but all of a sudden, the knives weren’t in her hand. The muscular-but-thin guy was holding them in his hand, then they ripped themselves to pieces.

“Little girls should not be playing with knives,” he said smoothly as he pushed the scraps of metal that had once been daggers to the floor.

Tracey rootled around and drew out two long-ish swords, and stood. As she did, most of the dress fell away. It turned out that the dress could be torn off but it needed to be roughed up a whole lot before it was.

So Tracey was standing there, in half a dress and her petticoats, holding a sword in each hand. Her hair was tangled and she looked like she hadn’t heard of a brush. She was scratched all over, with tell-tale bruises.

She looked terrifying.

The man who had stolen her daggers looked nonplussed, his mouth hanging slightly open.

It was the perfect opportunity to get in close and whack the guy on the head with the flat of one of her swords.

The man swayed a bit as his eyes went out of focus.
Tracey raised her hand, extended her middle finger, and then flicked the guy’s nose lightly.

Unfortunately, the man did not crumple to the ground as Tracey had hoped he would. Instead he grabbed her arm so she used her free arm to whack him across the face with the flat of her other sword.

He sank like a rock in a pool of water.

Tracey smiled.

Then a huge rock flew out from nowhere and smacked her in the back. She flew through the air and landed on her front.

As she scrambled to her feet she felt something warm trickle from her head and realised it was blood. Then someone grabbed her by the hair.

She heard the beefy guy say behind her saying, “I could make you bleed a whole lot more, or, I can end it quickly. Your choice.”

Tracey turned slowly and faced the muscular man, her head down, but then she lifted her head up and he saw her eyes were glowing blue-y-silver.

“Hey,” he said, slightly nervously, “what’s wrong with you dog?”

Tracey glared at him through her silver eyes.

The guy dropped her hair and started to back off. “Stay away from me you freaky little dog.”

Tracey stood then stopped dead.

Then she began to turn.

Slowly at first but then she started gathering speed, spinning like a manic top. Then all of a sudden, she stopped, pointing at the brawny guy.

Then he began to turn, slowly at first, like Tracey then as he got faster, he started to rise and while you couldn’t exactly see the air that was turning him, but every so often, Tracey would see some silver vapour that would disappear as quickly as it had appeared.

Then he was torn into six parts, head, torso, legs and arms.

As the body parts flopped to the floor, Tracey’s eyes faded to their natural colour.

She looked around her then said one word.
“EW.”

Tracey started to hyperventilate. “Oh my GOSH! I know he was trying to kill me but I didn’t want to kill him!”

“He will be fine,” said a familiar lilting voice.

Tracey dived for the swords just in time as a huge cutlass came crashing down on where she had been a second ago.

The tall guy she had knocked out with her swords was standing, holding the cutlass that had come incredibly close to ending her life.

“You little whore! You deliberately distracted me with your…your LOOSE ways!” he spat, swapping his soft sibilant voice for a harsh guttural whine.

Two red spots appeared on Tracey’s cheeks. “Ugh, just like a man to accuse a woman when the woman of cheating when the woman beats him. Now shut up and fight me.” She snorted.

The man looked like he was about to boil over.

“Why you impudent hussy!” he bellowed.

Tracey smiled.

The man attacked her with a force that could have sliced through diamond, but Tracey blocked it easily.

He began to thrust and parry, while Tracey countered every one of his attacks, which was a little bit surprising since the last time she had held a sword was when she had played and executioner in her school performance of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn.

The man realised that he was not affecting her the way he wanted to.

“Enough games,” he snarled.

He started again, and this time, Tracey found that she had to struggle to keep up without killing him.

“Back off, I don’t want to hurt you!” she said through clenched teeth.

The man smiled a smile that deserved to be on a toothpaste advert for villains.

Then Tracey, who decided that she had had enough, went down on one knee, and then placed her sword against his groin.

“I am having a very bad time, and I really need a break, so either you cut me a break, or I slice your little buddy off. Then make you eat it. So what’ll it be?”

The man whispered, “I’ll back off.”

Tracey smiled.

Then she droved the hilt of her sword into the man’s family jewels.

He swayed, and then fell like a great oak.

Then Tracey dropped the swords. She walked over to where the body parts lay and put them together as best as she could.

Then she let the magic heal him.

It was kind of disgusting but incredible. The arms and legs rejoined the torso, as did his head.

The man looked around and then he sat up. He saw Tracey standing over him, looking tired and smiled.

He made as if to jump her but she sank her fist into his face before he had a chance to do whatever he wanted to do.

He was out like a light and after a second, so was Tracey.

You are not authorized to comment here. Your must be registered and logged in to comment