Hell is in the Eye of the Beholder.
BTVS/Angel/Hellraiser
B.H. Ramsay
I did not create any of the worlds represented here…. I just wish I had.
Author's Notes. I'm playing fast and loose with timelines folks but the setting is roughly Season 7 and Four or Angel and Buffy and after the first Hellraiser Film
Which reminds me I wanted to mention that without help namely: cenobitehellraiser, Scarecrow, & dark_lore this would still be on the drawing board. Comments are appreciated Criticism will be listened to and Flamers will taste the sweet agony of Pinhead
Dedicated to the Crowd at Shrine Of Heroes whose continued support make it all worth while
There is a place…. You can find it if you want to but only if you really want. The journey there is interesting lots of things to see and do. You only find it after you have tasted every single pleasure and pain that this sad world offers. Every drug, drink, sexual position…once you have gone as far as a man can go and still be alive, some one will tell you about it, Maybe a junkie, maybe a prostitute, maybe a bum. Nevertheless, you will learn of it just as everyone else does …Le Marchland's Box. If you can find it…and finding it is hard, cause if it wasn't hard why would you want it, you will be unimpressed. You will think that someone has fucked you over big time. A small puzzle box with ornate and arcane designs all over it. It's about the size of a man's fist. Then you will start to play with it and try to solve it…. Don't worry if you aren't good at puzzles. The box wants you to solve it, to open it. When you do, everything you have experienced to get to this point will seem like the pricking of a pin compared to what's waiting on the other side. The Order of the Gash, Demons to some, and Angels to others, they wait for people just like you. The box is the only way to get to them but the box is not the only way out. Only a few have managed to escape the world accessed via The Box … This is the realm of Leviathan, a Hell God. In this place, Leviathan's will is law and its will is that everything that we are; flesh, blood, bone, and soul are brought to heel. As has been said the Box opens the door to hell but the box is not the only way to get to hell. The gates of hell are many and varied, the ways are patrolled by the dammed and tortured, some are small and transient. One is not however, so it was that a LeMarchand Box in all it's horror found its way to a small California Town called Sunnydale; and into the hands of a young woman named Dawn Summers.
***
Anya Jenkins slammed down the pen that she had been using. For the three adults and one child in the room this was the sign that Anya was about to speak and such attention should be paid at risk of missing whatever embarrassing thing she would hold forth and exposit on.
Anya cursed in a foreign language. Several people turned to look at a tall dark haired man sitting at a table over loaded with books filled with arcane trivia. Xander Harris her one time BF and ex-fiancée, shrugged his shoulders. His former love had been a Vengeance Demon. Before losing her powers, Anyanka had answered the calls of scorned women for a Very, very long time and had over those centuries picked up a collection of swear words that was impressive in its depth. Since he had by proxy been nominated he spoke up dreading the answer to the question of what exactly was bothering the current owner operator of the Magic Box Sunnydale's one stop shopping spot for all things arcane and mysterious.
"Anya, Hun what's wrong?" this was a touchy question for Xander because the list of things that might be bothering Anya was almost as impressive as her list of swears from around the world. And he was featured prominently on that list.
"My suppliers, if they are as incompetent in love as they are at there jobs whoever is handling vengeance should be getting multiple calls for their useless hides."
Willow Rosenberg uncoiled from the easy chair in which she as flopped. Her small size and ditzy sounding voice hid the brilliant mind in her head and the almost limitless power she could tap as one of the most powerful witches in the country if not the world. "What did they forget this time?"
"Chinese powder boxes. The wood is specially treated to contain…."
Xander interrupted "Skip it, the point is it's nothing that we can fix right this second am I right?". Anya was passionate about many things and as such could babble as much as Willow when the right moment came along.
"Easy for you to say, you don't have customers who have been waiting for these things for weeks now"
Dawn Summers looked casually at the crate and reached into it to extract a cubical box the size of her fist. It had etchings all over it. "What's this?"
Not a powder box." Anya said unconcernedly, turned, and stalked toward the telephone. Her obvious intention was the verbal evisceration of the workman, or workmen who had spoilt Anya's day with their manly incompetence.
The dirty blonde-haired moppet examined the box in her hand. "It looks cute, what is it?"
"It's something from the Magic Box. That means you should leave it alone." came the firm voice of her athletic looking sister Buffy. Buffy was speaking from experience. She had long ago been chosen to be The Slayer, the warrior appointed by destiny to protect the human race from the scourge of Vampires and demons that infested the small California town they called home.
"It's just a box what could possible happen from playing with a…"
"I got a theory dum-dum da da dum" Xander interrupted the exchange by humming in a too loud voice. The self proclaimed Zeppo of the group Xander in reality was frequently the voice of reason since he lacked the super powers or long life the others could boast. The comment was in reference to a long ago incident in which a powerful demon lord had cast a spell forcing all under its influence to sing their most hidden thoughts and feelings. The others shuddered at the memories of the song and dance numbers that had almost been the end of all of them.
The door to the shop opened and a young girl about Dawns age entered the shop. Dawn emitted an eardrum-bursting squeal and the two embraced each other. Several seconds of excited chatter followed which none of the adults could follow.
Buffy turned to Willow. "Did we really sound like that when we were her age?"
"I'd say no but that would make me the biggest fattest liar wouldn't it."
"I clearly remember much freakish squealing during the Sunny-Hell High days." Xander muttered as he watched the girls bouncing energetically around the store.
"There is a difference between then and now Xander." Buffy said sweetly
"What " the man muttered as he continued to watch the school girls
"You weren't looking at my much-too-young-for-you sister and her friends." Buffy said pointedly
Xander snapped out of the rapturous state he was in and looked around at his two female friends and their vaguely amused glances. "Whoa am I still here, I could have sworn that I was supposed to be doing something far away from the sight of young bouncy females."
He leapt out of his chair and went to the door bumping into the counter by accident on his way.
"Xander if you want to work your way back into my good graces you could give the girls a ride to school."
Harris turned around and nodded "sure thing Buff, Dawnster and friend will be chauffeured to school. Or my name isn't…"
"…Mud if they are late which reminds me. If you guys are done assaulting our eardrums could you possibly start heading toward the Door."
Dawn and friend stopped their squealing and bouncing long enough to launch exasperated glares at Buffy before heading out the door toward Xander's car double parked out front.
Xander smiled "You do not want to know how much she looked like you just then. Buffy you used to toss looks like that at you Mom all the time." He fled the dirty look Buffy cast at him.
"They grow up so fast." She said wistfully after the trio had left the shop.
Willow didn't know which was funnier. Buffy going all empty nest on her or Anya in the back room screaming though the telephone. The supplier was apparently blaming the mistake on her fluency in Chinese. Anya was of the opinion that if the supplier wanted to find out how good her Chinese was he could listen to her tell him where to shove his useless waybill number.
Completely unnoticed by anyone was the puzzle box. It had been knocked off the counter landing in the purse currently resting on Dawns shoulder.
***