Title: It's a Nice Place to Visit But I wouldn't Want to Live There - or - A Day Trip to Hell.
Author: Hex
Disclaimer: Ok repeat with me people. I don't own them. The great all powerful Joss does. All hail to thee, Joss, Thane of Buffydom!
Summery: I have only just seen Becoming and read brief descriptions of season three so I'm sorry. Please don't sent Hit Men after me or anything I'm just a poor English person! Buffy visits Angel in Hell. He comes back. Everyone cries a lot. Thats the story.
Rating: PG : P
Distribution: Do ya want it? Do ya really really want it? Well take it then!
Note: I was tired and listening to depressing music so I'm sorry. Please be gentle with me. Have a Happy on me!
-----*-----*-----*-----*-----*-----*-----*-----*-----*-----*-----*-----*-----*-----*-----*-----*-----*--
Buffy laid on her bed in her apartment in L.A. Her body was covered with sweat and her hair matted. She tossed and turned groaning loudly though she was in a deep sleep. Still she dreamed.
~~~~~
Buffy looked around herself. A pang of fear, so intense that it threatened to consume her, washed through her body. She was in a cavern. A heat, so colossal it should have stripped the skin from her bones, hit her. The cavern was filled with flames which blew so high that she couldn't see their ends.
She looked down into the flames and saw people. Souls writhing in pure agony screaming and crying out for help. But as Buffy looked closer she could make out the faces of the Souls. Angel. They were all Angel. He pawed at her screaming her name, screaming at her to help him, to save him.
Then another face joined Angels. It was her own. They both screamed and clutched at each other as the heat and fear and pain Buffy felt grew in intensity until she was screaming with them, until she was being as consumed as they were. She screamed Angels name as she dropped to her knees'. She screamed again as the pain created a red cloud before her. The cloud became a white flash. Buffy closed her eyes and screamed.
Then the screaming stopped and the heat and fear and pain dissipated with it. Buffy stopped screaming as a blast of cold hit her. She opened her eyes and found herself, still in the cavern, but totally alone. A wave of loneliness struck her and along with it a longing to be safe, to be with someone, to be with anyone.
The cavern she noted was vast. It was so huge that each end was lost in darkness. She turned in circles looking at the darkness looking for a sign that she wasn't alone.
Then she heard crying.
She spun and found that now she could see one of the walls. Against it sat a figure. It was naked though it hugged its knees' to it chest. Its face was covered by its hands but the sounds of crying were like thunder in this empty space.
Slowly Buffy walked closer to the figure until she was stood just in front of it. She realised he was male and had been badly beaten, from the scars old and fresh which covered his body. She slowly knelt before him and slipped her jacket from her shoulders. Carefully she reached out and draped it over the crying man's body. He looked up at her and she gasped when she realised who it was. Angel.
His eyes widened when he saw her though he made no move to speak or touch her. Carefully Buffy reached out and touched his arm. He winced at the touch but soon realised she wasn't going to hurt him. She gently coxed him to stand. He did, still looking at her with his intense dark gaze. Slowly Buffy placed his arm over her shoulder to steady him. She felt his weight lean against her as she started to walk. She didn't know where she was going but any place had to be better than here.
Angel watched her as she helped him walk. His legs were still weak from his torture and his vision blurry, but he knew it was Her. He knew She would come for him eventually. He remembered Her. Everything about her. Every expression. Every word. He had memorised every contour of Her body, every touch. He had remembered everything about Her long after he lost his own identity. Only with her was he truly complete. Truly human.
~~~~~
Buffy awoke with a start, jerking up from her bed only to find the sunlight pouring in over her. Her alarm was buzzing. With a sigh Buffy pushed the last dregs of her dream to the back of her mind and climbed out of bed.
She washed and dressed and headed out to work. Her day in the diner was monotonous, just like any other. She got through it on auto using the time to just think and wallow in the misery that was her life. She remembered the dream from time to time and marvelled at how it represented her loss. First the pain. The torment at losing Angel. The torture of the fear she felt at losing his love. Then the loneliness and cold which had consumed her.
She was doomed to be alone and she knew it. Eventually the day ended and Buffy made her way back to her apartment. She washed and changed again before looking at the clock. With a slight smile she picked up her coat and left.
~~~~~
Buffy stood on the beach and watched the surf roll over the lonely sands. For each grain a life was given. Buffy thought remembering something her Grandmother had once told her. She sighed.
For each grain a pain was created. For each grain a memory lost. For each grain a Love destroyed. A lone tear ran down Buffy's cheek. Soon her whole body was so wracked with sobs she could no longer stand. She dropped to her knees' on the sand, pulling up fist fulls then letting it slip through her fingers. The way she had let Love slip through.
She watched her tears fall onto the soft white earth, creating small dark craters. A hand rested on her shoulder and she looked up to see a familiar face looking down on her smiling. Buffy even couldn't bring herself to speak her friends name as she cried.
Willow knelt on the sand beside her and wrapped Buffy in her arms, letting her cry onto her shoulder. She gently rocked her back and forth as she looked up at Giles and Xander. Gently Xander lifted Buffy into his arms and began to carry her across the beach. Giles and Willow walked a pace behind and from his chasm of despair Angel wept.
~~~~~
When Buffy awoke again she was in bed. Not the bed in her apartment but in Sunnydale. A faint stream of light shone beneath the blind and cast across the blanket covering her.
Buffy rose slowly from her bed and made her way to the closet. She opened it and looked at the clothes hung there. With a heavy sigh she selected a black sweater and leggings and slipped them on. Walking as though she was tied to a lead weight Buffy made her way downstairs to the kitchen.
She saw her Mother, Giles, Willow and Xander all sitting at the island talking. Willow was the first to notice her as she walked into the room. Giles and her Mother turned on their stools to look at her. Buffy looked away, casting her gaze to the floor. Her Mother rose and opened her arms to envelop Buffy in a hug but she stepped back. She mumbled something about needing to be somewhere else and left.
The kitchen was silent for a long time. Then slowly Giles rose and placed his hand on Joyce's shoulder. Buffy's Mother bunched her hand into a fist and pressed it to her lips as she began to cry.
~~~~~
The mansion was cold and dark. Nobody had been there in months. She could still see the scorch marks on the floor which were all that remain of the man she Loved with all her Soul.
She carefully fingered the silver cross which hung around her neck then looked at the ring on her finger. It was the same ring that Angel had given to her shortly before . . . * It * had happened. He had told her that if the heart pointed towards her then she belonged to someone. She had long ago turned the heart from her but now she pulled the ring from her finger and turned it so as the heart pointed towards her. Then in a quiet voice laced with sorrow, regret, pain, loneliness and self hatred she spoke.
"I Love you Angel. And no matter where I am and where you are I still belong to you. I'll Love you always".
She felt the familiar sting of tears in her eyes and the gut wrenching twist which made her want to vomit. Her shoulders shook slightly then she began to laugh. She dropped to her knees' as she laughed. Slowly her laughter turned to the only to familiar sobs.
"Angel. Oh God Angel".
Her vision was blurred and her senses dulled so Buffy didn't notice the figure until it had her slammed into a wall, knocking all breath from her lungs. Blinking back the tears Buffy searched to place her opponent. Her stomach did a flip as she saw his face. Angel's face.
Angel pinned his potential meal to the wall. He could smell her fear and excitement as she gasped for breath. Then he smelt her too. Her scent filled his mind. It was Her! She had come to him in Hell and shown him the way out. It had led here to the mansion and so here Angel had stayed waiting for her to join him again. He couldn't exist without her, that he knew and now here she was, pressed against him whispering a name he didn't know or understand. He sniffed her, breathing in her scent like it was a drug. He nuzzled a surprised Buffy's neck, gently licking it.
Buffy didn't like where this was going. She struggled against him but Angel held her firmly in place. He could hear the blood pounding through her at a staggering rate and it intoxicated him. His fangs grazed her neck but didn't pierce it. He pulled her from the wall, throwing her halfway across the room. He was on top of her in a second pinning her growling softly at her and he continued to sniff and lick the soft column of her neck.
Paralysed Buffy laid still, not wanting to start him, not wanting him to stop. She knew where this was going. Willow had once, in an attempt to help her pass biology class, explained the mating patterns of basic, solitary animals. The male would choose a single mate and remain with her until death. She would hunt with him, bear his children and never leave his side.
Buffy swallowed hard as she realised these were the instincts Angel was now following.
He seemed to sense her discomfort for her whined in her ear in, what she supposed, was a comforting way. He rolled off of her but, before she had chance to stand, he was snuggling against her. She felt his powerful arms draw her body to his and hold her there. She felt his cool breath on the back of her neck (Yes I know he has no breath but bear with me ok?) and his cold hands run up and down her body, sending shivers down her spine. Slowly she closed her eyes letting the stress, pain and heart ache slip away as she snuggled into his embrace, happy to be in her Lovers arms again.
The End!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You like? E-Mail me if you do, if you don't or if you have nothing better to do, I don't care!
Giles Rocks! Riley must die! (No offence) Spike is FIT! DARIEN!!!!!!!!!!
Ok this has to be added for the sake of my sanity. When this was written I had only just watched Becoming. I have now finished Season Four and have found this little ditty at the bottom of my Fan fiction folder.
Thank you for your time...HA!