Disclaimer: I don't own any characters from Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Angel they belong to Joss Whedon.
Rating: T
Authors note: Please review and let me know what you think! Also check out my profile for when my next chapter will be posted. This is just a short introduction to the story, so hopefully future chapters will be longer.
Chapter 1
Angel hauled the last of the old dusty boxes down the stairs and dropped it on the ground. A cloud of dust flew up from it into his face making him cough. He was once again wondering why he had agreed to spend his Saturday moving boxes down from his grandmother's attic then he remembered his grandmother could talk him into doing anything.
"I hope you're being careful with my boxes Angel." He heard the woman he was just thinking about say as she made her way to the hall.
"Of course grandma." He sighed. She walked over to him and pinched his cheeks which made him squirm. Even though he was twenty two she still treated him like a child but that was just what grandmothers did.
"You're such a sweet boy for doing this for me. The attic hasn't been cleared out for so long. It must be an absolute mess up there." She looked down at the box he had just dumped on the ground curiously then bent down to inspect it. "Oh I haven't seen this in years. Your grandfather shoved some of his rubbish in here and hauled it up into the attic so long ago. Lord knows what you'll find in it. Is this the last one?"
"Yup, that's them all down."
"Wonderful, now why don't you take this through to the living room with the other's and start sorting through it while I make us some tea?"
"Sure." He picked the box back up and did as she said. He placed it on the coffee table and started taking items out of it. Most of it was quite boring to Angel, old books, yellowing newspapers, a couple of small paintings. At the bottom however was something interesting, a strange looking bottle. It was diamond shaped with a long thin neck and was a beautiful gleaming gold colour with small purple gems around the base of its neck. A pattern that was vaguely familiar to Angel faintly covered the whole thing. It looked like some sort of fancy perfume bottle but was sealed shut with a cork. Angel used all his strength to try and pull the cork out but it wouldn't budge. "Strange." He said aloud to himself.
"What's strange dear?" His grandmother asked as she walked into the room carrying a tray holding two glasses of tea, a small thing of milk and a bowl of sugar.
"This bottle." He replied, holding it up so she could see. "I found it in the box. What is it?"
She inspected the bottle in his hand. "Oh that old thing. It's an old family heirloom from your grandfather's side, that's why it's covered in those Irish patterns. It was passed down quite a few generations, each time given to the first born son. Your grandfather must have packed it away and forgotten to give it to your father. I haven't seen it in years." She distracted herself with preparing the tea. "Sugar? Milk?"
Angel simply nodded in response, still curious about the bottle. He felt strangely drawn to it. "Why would this be handed down for so long? Is it valuable?"
"Oh my no." The old woman replied sitting down and sipping her tea. "You'll find nothing of much value here besides, sentimental value."
"Then what's so important about it?"
"You're asking the wrong person I'm afraid. Your grandfather never told me much about it just that his father gave it to him on his eighteenth birthday like tradition and that it had been of great use to him and many before him. I had seen him with it a few times but not long after we were married we packed it away and I never saw it again."
"What possible use does this old thing have?" He tried again in vain to get the cork out of the bottle. "It feels like there might be something inside but the cork won't come out. Did you ever see him open it?"
His grandmother thought for a moment, trying to recall old memories before saying. "No I don't believe I ever did. I wish I could give you some answers about that Angel but the only person who could give them to you is your grandfather and we can't ask him unfortunately, god bless his soul."
Angel sighed and took a large gulp of his tea. It had been nearly two years since his grandfather had died, leaving his grandmother all alone, yet another he was spending his Saturday here helping her instead of out with his friends. "Well I guess it's up to you to decide what to do with it."
"You should have dear. After all it was supposed to go to your father then to you anyway."
"Thanks… I guess." He took another good look at it. "But what am I supposed to do with it?"
"Oh I don't know. Display it proudly as a treasure of your family!" She chuckled. "Or chuck it in a box and forget all about it like your grandfather. Either way it'll be where it's supposed to be."
A few hours and lot more old dusty knick knacks later Angel was in his car and driving home. He had the bottle sitting in his back seat wrapped up an old dish cloth. He wasn't really sure why he'd bothered trying to keep it safe from being damaged during the car ride, he didn't really want it anyway, but something in him told him that it was special and he needed to protect.
Once he got back to his apartment he went through the difficulty of wondering where to put it. It was rather feminine and so didn't fit in very well in his 'bachelor pad' so there was no good place for it. He didn't have long to think about it though as his phone rang so he simply dumped the bottle on his dresser and went to answer it. After a long conversation with his friend and agreeing to go out for a drink he went to the bathroom to go tidy himself up a bit. Before he left his apartment he went to his bedroom to grab his jacket and thought he heard a female voice very softly muttering something. Dismissing it from his mind he put on his coat.
In the silence of the apartment, if you were to strain your ears, you could maybe hear the voice again saying, "Get me out of here already!"