August 20, 2015 – Faith's Hell

Summary: **Part of the 2015 LiveJournal's Twisted Shorts FaD** challenge. After failing to kill Angel, Faith learns about the fine print in contracts with Wolfram & Hart.

Challenge: for the livejournal 2015 August Fic-a-Day Challenge

Timeline: Using an element from season5 AtS (episode 'Underneath'), but in season 1

Warning: Attempted swearing on Faith's part

Disclaimer: BtVS/AtS characters belong to Joss Whedon/Mutant Enemy. I claim no rights to any copyrighted material. Please do not copy or take this story without my permission.


Wolfram & Hart

Faith knew something was wrong when Lilah Morgan got into the back of the transport that was supposed to take her to prison. Just as she flexed her muscles in preparation to break the manacles holding her in place, Lilah grinned and said, "Don't bother, Slayer. Those manacles are magically fortified and can withstand much stronger beings than you."

Of course Faith didn't take her word for it and tried anyway.

After several minutes, Lilah spoke up again, "While it's amusing to see you make a fool of yourself, I need to explain what's about to happen to you. You see, when you accepted the contract to kill Angel, you became an employee of Wolfram & Hart. Somebody really should have taught you to read before you sign.

"What that means to you is that since you failed, the firm is allowed to punish you in whatever manner they deem appropriate. In your case, that means you will be put into a hell dimension based on what horrifies you the most. Your mind literally designs your own punishment," Lilah explained, leaving out that she was sending Faith to that dimension without official sanction by the Senior Partners because the contract was unsanctioned as well.

Faith was imagining a demon dimension where she'd have to fight constantly until she eventually fell to the hordes. Oh well, at least she'd go out fighting.

Lilah opened the folder on the seat next to her as if it were the first time she saw it, then sent an evil smirk in Faith's direction. "I bet you're expecting to spend the rest of your life fighting or something, don't you? Problem with that is you enjoy fighting, so that wouldn't be much of a punishment for you. No, we're sending you some place special…with a few modifications to make it even worse for you."


Faith's hell

Somehow she lost consciousness, and when she woke up, Faith found herself in a plain room that looked like…she wasn't entirely sure what.

"Hello, young lady," a man's voice startled her from her thoughts.

She turned to look at him and was even more surprised at the old-fashioned clothing he was wearing. Did they send her to Amish country or something?

He took her silence as fear, so he attempted to reassure her that he meant her no harm, "My name is Doctor Baker; I found you near your burnt out house. I'm sorry to say that your folks didn't survive. Now, maybe I shouldn't have sprung the bad news on you like that, but I didn't want you fretting over them and hindering your own recovery. You are a very lucky, but very sick young girl."

"What the-?" Faith tried to swear, really she did, but the word literally couldn't pass her lips. In fact, she couldn't even form the word in her mind. It only took a second for her to realize that her voice was wrong, too. Yes, it was scratchy because of the smoke inhalation, but it sounded like it belonged to a…she looked down at herself and saw a kid's body! "What the-?" she tried again to swear a more colorful swear this time, and failed again.

"I understand you're upset, Faith, but you mustn't hurt yourself," Dr. Baker admonished. "Now it will be a few days before you're well enough to move around, so I asked Caroline Ingalls to watch you. You'll like the Ingalls family; they have a couple girls about your age. Mary's eight and Laura's six."

Over the course of the next week, Faith learned it wasn't an Amish community she was trapped in; it was some backwater hick town in -Minnesota over a hundred years ago! And she still couldn't swear…even in her thoughts!

To summarize her situation, she was six years old, in some stupid farming town in Minnesota in the 1870s, couldn't swear and without her Slayer powers! Life couldn't get worse…so she thought.

Twelve years later, she found out it could get worse.

Just as she was about to finally enjoy something she had done without for far too long – even if she knew it would hurt to lose her virginity again – time reset itself and she found herself in Doctor Baker's treatment room again…as a six year old girl.

She regretted not killing Angel when she had the chance. Maybe then she wouldn't be going through this torture all over again.


Additional Disclaimer: Little House on the Prairie characters belong to Blanche Hanalis, Ed Friendly Productions and NBC Productions. Based on the books by Laura Ingalls Wilder.