Author's Notes: This story is post The Gift on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, therefore Buffy is still very much dead and buried. It takes place the summer after that episode, but the teens are still in Harmony, and Warlock Island never happened (don't we all wish...)
~*~
"This thing of darkness I
Acknowledge mine."
--From The Tempest (V, i, 275-276)
With outstretched claws it wrapped around her, engulfing her delicate flesh. It greedily devoured her, taking her in. But she could not summon the will to care. A myriad of tongues swept over her, its hot breath spreading across the palm of her hand. Droplets of charcoal bubbled to the surface with sprits of sizzle snaking into the air. Flames of spun gold snapped and gasped for precious oxygen as hollow eyes watched the slow burn...
"Kay come on! I don't want to miss the previews!"
She slid the lid of the lighter shut with the pad of her thumb, exstinguishing the flame lapping over the grooves and mounds of her hand. Looking down she traced the blackened strokes etched into her palm. Her lips pursed, she blew gently on the blistered skin. She slipped her hand into a glove, her wool sheath shielding all evidence of her arson of the flesh.
"Alright Jess, I'll be right there. Just freshening up."
~*~
"This thing of darkness I
Acknowledge mine."
--From The Tempest (V, i, 275-276)
With outstretched claws it wrapped around her, engulfing her delicate flesh. It greedily devoured her, taking her in. But she could not summon the will to care. A myriad of tongues swept over her, its hot breath spreading across the palm of her hand. Droplets of charcoal bubbled to the surface with sprits of sizzle snaking into the air. Flames of spun gold snapped and gasped for precious oxygen as hollow eyes watched the slow burn...
"Kay come on! I don't want to miss the previews!"
She slid the lid of the lighter shut with the pad of her thumb, exstinguishing the flame lapping over the grooves and mounds of her hand. Looking down she traced the blackened strokes etched into her palm. Her lips pursed, she blew gently on the blistered skin. She slipped her hand into a glove, her wool sheath shielding all evidence of her arson of the flesh.
"Alright Jess, I'll be right there. Just freshening up."