STEPPING IN | Chapter 01

ABOUT: This story was written for franceshodgsonburnett, also known as Rachelle. It is a one shot, broken into multiple small chapters, for the Whedon Secret Santa on Tumblr.

DISCLAIMER: Sadly, I do not own Buffy the Vampire Slayer or any characters from the show. It, along with some quotes that may be used from future episodes, belongs to Joss Whedon and company. Grrr! Argh!


FAITH POV

Blonde flashed in my vision.

"Buffy?" My voice called out but it cracked, slipping through my chapped lips like a whisper. I struggled to pull the mirage into focus but it was of no use. Before I could make out any details darkness engulfed everything around me, taking the glimpse of gold with it. Wind whipped up around me, pulling my hair around my face in vicious tendrils. I drew my arms up to cover my cheeks from the sting of my hair, doing my best to peer through the never-ending blackness that surrounded me, but even with my heightened vision I saw nothingness.

"Death was my gift." A familiar voice carried across the violent winds, tickling my ear with its eerie message. "Death was my gift." It echoed, bouncing off of unseen walls and surrounding me.

I groaned and rolled my eyes. Games were not my thing. "Damn-it, B. If that's you, cut the shit. You know I don't like puzzles so just spit it out already!"

Suddenly everything stopped. The wind died down and the silence that surrounded me was deafening. A feeling deep within my chest drew me forward; at first it was just a few timid steps, but I suddenly found myself at a full sprint, running into the darkness that still kept me from being able to see my hand in front of my face.

My feet pounded against the hard floor, echoing into the nothingness until I came to a gradual stop. Unsure of why I felt the need to stop at that particular spot or why I had run in the first place, I felt uneasiness creep into my chest.

While my eyes continued trying to adjust to the darkness, a lone figure walked languidly towards me. Somewhere deep inside I recognized that I shouldn't have been able to bring the person in front of me into focus, but it didn't matter as my sister Slayer's features appeared.

Her heart-shaped face seemed serene, peaceful in the silence that once more surrounded us. She walked towards me, in no rush to be reunited yet comfortable in her stride. Once she reached me, her slender arm stretched across the small amount of remaining distance between us, placing her hand against my cheek. A chill ran up my spine from the coolness of her touch yet I felt no physical pressure. Odd.

"Faith." I couldn't tell if she was trying to get my attention or just trying out the feeling of my name in her mouth. "Death was my gift." Her face never slipped, never fell into sadness that such a statement would bring from most people.

"Buffy? I don't understand." I reached up with the intent to remove her hand from my cheek, but she pulled away. Her form retreated slowly, backing away while still facing me, that peacefully smile still in place. A sense of dread washed over me as I watched her slow down, her back against the darkness. "Buffy?"

She shook her head, putting a stop to my questioning and causing her hair to fall loose over her shoulders. "Death was my gift. I had to do it. Take care of them for me. All of them. Please." Sadness flashed in her eyes, but it didn't linger long. My sister, bound to me like no other could be, took a deep breath, spread your arms out and fell backgrounds.

"Buffy!" I leapt forward, reaching out my hand in a desperate attempt to grab her and pull her back from an impossible drop, a plummeting abyss I didn't even know existed beyond, but it didn't matter. She had tumbled down into the nothingness, accepting it as if she had prepared for such a fate from the beginning. Then, suddenly, I was falling, too.

"Shit!" I sat up quickly. My heart pounded in my ears, hammering away in my chest as my eyes bolted across my surroundings. I was in my bunk, my uncomfortable cot offering very little cushion between my back and the hard springs underneath, and my cell mate was still snoring away below me. At least I didn't wake her. Thank god. The poor girl was skittish enough as it was.

Despite my assessment of my surroundings, a second nature for a Slayer, my beating heart failed to cease its painful rhythm in my chest. Something was wrong. Very, very wrong.

The overhead lights snapped on, humming against the silence of Cell Block B; the place I had called home for this last year. The guard came down the walk, banging her baton against each cell's bars in an attempt to stir the inhabitants, while shouting about breakfast and rise and shine and a whole bunch of other mundane shit I didn't have time for at the moment.

As Christine, my cell mate, began to stir, I pulled myself out of bed and got ready quickly. I had a sickening feeling that I would be having company soon and I wasn't sure if I was ready for it or not.