Chapter Eleven

Audra and Alexandria "Lex" Sullivan 1838-1860

St. George's Chapel

Daniel Sullivan Sr. decided that the least likely place anyone would look for the children of an Irish prostitute would be the Catholic Church, in London. When he left his home and business for the final time on Christmas Eve, 1838, he traveled south, arriving at St. George's Chapel on London Road, in January, 1839. He left the infants, Audra and Alexandria in the care of Father Thomas Doyle, with The Book, and for all intents and purposes, dropped off the face of the Earth. Despite tireless research, I have been able to find no information regarding his life or his death after leaving St. George's. Neither Angel, nor Angelus recalls having had any contact with the man. Though both have been known to lie when the situation suited them, both have been relatively honest and forthcoming as it pertains to our family. It is likely that if Daniel Sr. did cross paths with Angelus, Angelus may have been unaware of his identity. One can only assume he lived out the rest of his days without incident and died of natural causes, as an old man.

St. George's Chapel became St. George's Cathedral in 1848, and was destroyed by 'enemy action' in 1941. Though all the Church's records were destroyed along with the Cathedral itself, I have been able to determine through interviewing my Grandmother Audra and my Aunt Lex that Daniel Sr. left very specific instructions with Father Doyle regarding their care and placement. Similar to the instructions Katie had left with the Council regarding Mary and Elizabeth, Daniel Sr. insisted that Audra and Lex be informed of their true heritage as soon as was practicable to do so. As Moira had requested, he also demanded they be given their mother's diary, unopened and unread, as early as their adoptive parents deemed appropriate. This is according to Audra and Lex's adoptive mother when she gave them The Book on their thirteenth birthday.

Audra and Lex were adopted in mid-January by ardent Catholics, Robert and Amelia Witfield. Amelia had recently given birth to a daughter, Margaret Mary Witfield (known nowadays as "Drusilla"), after a complicated pregnancy, and an intensely difficult and lengthy labor. Both mother and child were nearly killed in the process, and it was advised by doctors that to attempt to have another child would be unwise. Still, they dreamed of having a large family, and they saw the arrival of Audra and Lex as a gift from God and happily took them into their home.

That Vision Thing

Growing up, Margaret was always uncannily aware of the world around her and frequently experienced moments that could be labeled as clairvoyance. For the most part, these instances were minor, and the family thought nothing of it, chalking it up to an over-sensitivity to sound or changing wind currents. Lex describes a few of these moments.

You know, we'd be sitting down to dinner, and Maggie would ask if so-and-so would be staying to eat with us, a moment or two before they knocked on the door. Or we would be on our way to church and she would insist on bringing an umbrella, even though it was a clear day. There wouldn't be a cloud in the sky, not the slightest hint of rain, and somehow she would know. Sure enough, later that day it would pour buckets. It would really freak out our mum, Amelia I mean, and she would scream at her. "How do you know these things? Only God's supposed to know these things!" and on and on. I thought her head was gonna explode.

The worst, though, was on her thirteenth birthday. April 13, 1851, this would've been. We went to the church for her confirmation, and right in the middle of it, she starts freaking out. She doubled over like she'd been punched in the stomach, and starts screaming bloody murder, like she was being tortured or something. Then she starts going off, screaming about fire. "Oh, it's so hot! It burns!" That kind of thing. And she was throwing herself on the ground like she was trying to put out an imaginary fire. And then she starts coughing like she was choking on smoke. This must have went on for like five or ten minutes. When we finally get her to calm down, she tells us Mrs. Cross, this lady that used to baby-sit us, was burning up in her house. She'd been ill for a while, so she hadn't come to the confirmation. And Maggie said, "Her house is on fire! She's all by herself! We have to save her!" And just keeps going on like that. So we finally decided to go over there, and her house was just covered with flames. There was nothing we could do at that point. We were too late to save Mrs. Cross or her house.

Well, our mum just lost it. She starts screaming at Maggie like she caused it or something. Said she must be in league with the Devil, and things like that. We finally get home, and she takes Maggie upstairs and just beats the crap out of her. Or at least that's what Maggie told us, and she had the bruises to prove it. She didn't leave her room for like a week after that. Well, she was grounded, but the vision took a lot out of her. I mean, it was freaky, y'know? She told us later that it felt like she was there. Like she was Mrs. Cross, burning alive. She could smell the smoke. And it left her feeling sick all over, and she had the most terrible migraine that she didn't really wanna leave her room anyway, even her crazy mother hadn't told her to stay there to pray for forgiveness.

Robert Witfield had a different take on Margaret's visions. Whereas Amelia saw them as a curse from the Devil, Robert saw them as a blessing from God. Amelia was often quoted as saying, "Only God's supposed to see things before they happen," so if Margaret was seeing things, it must be the Devil's handiwork. Robert was more of the mindset that perhaps God wanted her to see things, as in the case of John the Baptist, and that if this was His plan, who were we to argue? Audra explains this viewpoint more fully.

He used to tell us stories from the Bible about Elijah and Ezekiel, and John the Apostle, and I can't even remember what all, but he said they all had the Sight in one form or another. That's what he called it. And he said that these were good men, so their gift couldn't have come from the Devil, like our mum thought about Maggie. And he said his grandmother, whom Maggie was named for, she had it too, and she had "the purest, kindest soul you'll ever meet". So we asked him why he didn't stand up to Amelia, and tell her what he thought. He said, "Are you joking? You don't argue with a woman like that. She's crazy!"

Robert shared this insight with Audra and Lex alone. He kowtowed to Amelia's distorted beliefs, and neither she nor Margaret ever knew how he really felt. Margaret quickly learned to keep her visions to herself, and after a time it was assumed that whatever "demon" had cursed her with these visions had taken its leave. It wasn't long before Amelia forgot all about the Cross fire incident. Audra and Lex never forgot, however, so it came as no surprise to them when Margaret had another one of her debilitating visions on their thirteenth birthday four and a half months later. Lex explains.

We had just finished dinner, and blew out the candles on our birthday cake. Hadn't even cut it yet. Mum comes out with this package, all wrapped up pretty with ribbons and tissue paper, and the like. We opened it up, and of course, it's The Book. She tells us this story of how our real mom wanted us to have it, and how they never opened it, and were saving it "all these years for this special day." We hadn't even looked inside yet; we were just kinda checkin' out the cover, and Maggie's like, "Ooh, can I see?" And of course Mum yelled at her, 'cause we didn't even have a chance to look at it yet. But we're like, "No, it's okay. Of course you can see it." We told Maggie. And I hand it over to her, and she barely lays a hand on it, then jerks her hand back, and starts grabbing her stomach like she just got the period cramps from Hell. And she gets real pale like she'd just seen a ghost or something. I swear I thought she was gonna vomit right there on the table. Then she mumbles something about too much cake, which she hadn't even had yet, and excuses herself to her room.

We didn't know what to say. We just kinda looked at each other for a minute, Audra and me, and we both looked at Robert. We were just at a loss for what to do. We all had a pretty good idea what had happened, but our mum was still blissfully ignorant, and we wanted to keep her that way. If she thought for a second that Maggie'd had another vision, she'd've flipped. Like she could control it or something. So I said, "Must just be all the excitement." Y'know, 'cause we did have kind of a long day, y'know, with our confirmation, then the party afterward, and all that. So then Audra's like, "Why don't I go check on her, make sure she's all right." And I'm like, "Oh. I'll go with you." And I scooped up The Book, we said our thanks, and went up to Maggie's room.

We knocked on her door and let ourselves in, and found her sitting on her bed all curled up like. All the color had gone out of her, she was sweating and shivering all at the same time. And she was just sorta staring into space, and rocking back and forth. We shut the door and I'm like "What happened?" And Audra goes, "You had a vision, didn't you?" And I'm like, "What did you see?" Y'know, we were just firing questions at her. So Maggie says, "Evil." And we're like, "Well, what do you mean? The Book's evil? How can that be? It's just a book." And we sit down on the bed, and Audra starts flipping through it. And Maggie's like, "No. A man." And I'm like, "A man. What man?" Y'know 'cause she wasn't making much sense, and she had that dreamy voice of hers. Y'know the one that sounds like she's not all there? And she goes on like I hadn't even said anything. She says, "But he's not really a man… His face…" Then she touches her forehead and kinda scrunches up her face, I guess doing her impression of a vampire, which I hadn't even heard of such things back then. We had pretty sheltered lives. So I didn't really understand what she was saying. Then she says, "He's coming for you. You have to leave. Before he finds you."

Then Audra pulls out this sketch. I know now that it was Angelus. I think it was one of Mary's. And she says, "Is this who you saw?" And her eyes got all big and she just nods, and she says, "He's going to find you. You have to leave while you still can. Before it's too late." And I'm just like, "Whoa" [makes jazz hands]. I didn't know what to think. Y'know? So, then Audra's like, "He's not going to find us. He doesn't even know where we are. He's got no reason to even look for us here. He doesn't know our names, he probably doesn't even know we exist." Maggie just shakes her head, and says, "He knows. He always knows."

Well, for my money, I was scared shitless. I hadn't so much as opened the damn Book, so I didn't know the pattern. But I knew Maggie was never wrong. Whether it was something big or something small. She was never ever wrong. So I looked at Audra like, "What do we do?" 'Cause I didn't wanna leave. This was my home. Where would we go? And she says, "All right. We'll go. But you're coming with us. We're not leaving you here with her." Meaning Amelia, 'cause y'know she was… [twirls her fingers around her head]… Coo-koo! The woman was nuts! Right? I mean, don't get me wrong. I'm not saying she was necessarily a bad mother. Y'know, she meant well. She just had some really strange ideas. And she was really hard on Maggie for some reason. Never did find out why. I know Angelus likes to take credit for making Maggie crazy, but to be honest, between the visions, and her loopy mother, she really didn't have that far to go. So neither one of us was really comfortable with the idea of leaving Maggie alone with her. We knew Robert wasn't going to be any help. But for whatever reason, Maggie didn't wanna leave. So we stayed, too.

Role Reversal

In the Summer of 1852 Amelia became afflicted with some sort of psychosis. Her symptoms included frequent violent outbursts, such as screaming obscenities, throwing things, physically striking out at anyone and everyone. She quickly became a danger to herself and others. Today, her illness likely could be treated with some kind of pill, but in those days, treatment options were limited and the Witfields' only option was the complete removal from society. Amelia had to be restrained in her bed, her children sharing in the responsibility for her care, and the household chores that Amelia herself could no longer attend to. Audra became the mother of the house, taking care of the cooking and the cleaning, while Lex and Margaret took on the arduous task of tending to Amelia. As Lex explains:

It really was a two person job. One of us had to hold her down, while the other one shoveled food into her, or bathed her, or whatever had to be done to her. Usually, I was the one holding her down, 'cause I was little bit stronger than Maggie. But it was hard on both of us. Most days, it was like she didn't even remember who we were. When she did remember, she remembered the Cross fire, or rather she remembered Maggie's vision about the Cross fire. She would scream at her, and call her things like "Spawn of Satan", "Devil Child", just… horrible, horrible things. There were days I thought Maggie wasn't gonna be able to cope. I told her, "Honey, go take a break. I'll handle this." But she refused to leave her mother's side, except when she finally wore herself out fighting with us and fell asleep. She would only say, "Lex, she's my mum. I can't leave her."

Meanwhile, as previously stated, Audra took care of the house. She prepared the meals, did the washing up, took care of the laundry. She did everything Amelia had done before she fell ill, all the while doing what she could to comfort Robert. Audra elaborates.

He had it in his head that it was somehow his fault. If he'd only done this or that differently. Or if he hadn't said this thing or that thing. I tried to tell him that sometimes these things just happen, y'know? God's plan or whatever. But he wouldn't hear of it. He said that if that was God's plan, then God could go fuck himself. I'm paraphrasing, of course. He just kept insisting there was something more he could've done and she wouldn't have gotten sick. So I just did the best I could, trying to keep things as normal as possible, y'know? Serving his favorite foods, making his drinks. He drank a lot in those days. I don't blame him. I would've given my right arm for a good, stiff drink, but I had too much to do.

Secrets and Lies

Amelia's condition persisted for nearly two years. During that time, Audra and Robert were alone more often than not. Lex and Margaret spent nearly all their time upstairs with Amelia. When they weren't actively involved in her care, they took the opportunity for some much needed rest. They rarely took the time to eat more than a single sandwich between them, and Robert and Audra seldom saw them for more than a few minutes at a time. As often happens in these situations, Robert and Audra began to grow quite close, too close some might argue. Audra explains.

We were all each other had, y'know? Looking after our mum was a twenty-four seven job. It kept Maggie and Lex pretty busy. And we hardly ever left the house, unless we absolutely had to. It was just easier to stay home, than to deal with all the questions. "How come we never see you at church?" "Where's Amelia?" "Why aren't the girls with you?' Y'know? So we just kept to ourselves. And you can judge me if you like, but when you're in that situation, for months on end, like we were, sometimes stuff happens. So… stuff happened. I don't regret it. It's not like he was my real dad, y'know.

The official story, for anyone who asked, was that our mum was pregnant, and on doctor ordered bed-rest, and that us girls were staying home to take care of her. The true story was that Mum had had a complete mental breakdown, I was pregnant with Robert's child, and Maggie and Lex were taking care of all three of us.

Eve and Colleen Witfield were born at home, with no medical intervention, on January 12, 1854. Not long after that, just before Margaret's sixteenth birthday, Amelia came out of her psychosis just as mysteriously as she had gone in. Now the family faced a new crisis. How does the husband of a devout Catholic break the news to his wife, that while she was in the throes of insanity, he was "having relations" with their adoptive daughter, who was now the proud mother of twins?

The answer is simple. You don't. You take advantage of the woman's fragile mental state, and tell her that it was hormones caused by pregnancy, that triggered her illness, and now that those hormones had dissipated, so had her psychosis. Nevermind the fact that the teenagers in the house had clearly aged more than the mere year or so that was claimed to have passed. That's just because everyone's been so worried. Forget the fact that the babies in question were already four months old. It just took that long for your system to heal itself. At least, that was the story Amelia was told, and if she thought for a moment that it wasn't true, she didn't let on. Thus, Eve and Colleen were raised, until age six anyway, knowing full well who their mother really was, but pretending that it was Amelia who had birthed them.

Unclear and Present Danger

There has been a pattern in my family, dating all the way back to 1767, when Hannah died. It has continued on to this day, the only exception being my mother, whom I'll discuss later. The cycle has been thus. One twin dies, the next generation of twins is born, and at some point after that, the other twin finds her end. If it happens that both twins survive through the birth of the subsequent generation, as in the case of Mary and Elizabeth, or Brigid and Cara, then both twins become fair game, and either or both could go at any time. Audra and Lex were aware of this pattern, as they had studied The Book whenever they could find a spare moment. They didn't have much time to actively think on it, however, what with tending to Amelia, making sure she didn't learn the truth about Audra and Robert, and now with Eve and Colleen to look after, though it was always at the back of their minds. The fear was always there.

The visions that run in my family exist for two reasons. In earlier generations, as with Audra and Lex, for example, the purpose was to keep us safe long enough to secure the next generation. In latter generations, as in the case of my sister and I, the purpose was also to protect the Slayer and her kin, and to help she and Angel follow the path destiny had chosen for them. In Audra and Lex's case, however, these visions came late, and were far too vague to be of any assistance. Audra explains.

They were just flashes, y'know? Images. A face, a church, a busy town square. Nothing useful. Sometimes it was just this… overwhelming feeling that something was wrong. But I couldn't put my finger on it. Like when you think you've left the iron on or something. I guess the Powers That Be didn't think we needed three psychics in one house. So I always just relied on Maggie's visions.

Unfortunately, Margaret's visions were few and far between, and often came too late to do any good. Additionally, she was generally reluctant to share them, given her mother's reaction to them, and became quite good at hiding when she had them. As she was their only means of detecting Angelus, Audra and Lex had to become hyperaware of Margaret's demeanor and behavior, to ascertain when she had had a vision, so they could corner her later to find out what it was. They would spend the next six years developing this skill. Most times, the vision in question would be disappointing, at least with regards to Angelus. According to Lex,

The girls would be playing in the next room, and Maggie would stiffen up suddenly, and run in there just in time to stop Eve from swallowing a button. Or we'd all be out in the back yard, and they'd be climbing our Maple tree, and Maggie'd be like, "That branch is gonna break," a split second before it did. And she wouldn't even be facing them at the time. Then she'd run over just in time to catch Colleen as she fell.

While these visions did prove useful over the years, it wasn't what Audra and Lex were looking for, and they began to think that just maybe their family's cycle of death had finally been broken. In January 1860, however, this proved not to be the case. Lex remembers.

We'd left the girls with a babysitter and had gone out, the five of us, to go shopping for their birthday. We were walking along, Audra and me just slightly ahead of Maggie, and I sensed her stiffen up like she does sometimes, when she has a vision. I turn around to look and she's looking around the other way, just staring at this couple a little ways away. Maggie was blocking my view so I couldn't see him, but I saw her. It was Darla. I recognized her from the sketches in The Book. I asked Maggie what was the matter, but she didn't answer at first. She just turned and started shepherding us away. We both tried to turn around to look, but she kept a hold of us so I couldn't. I guess so that Angelus wouldn't see us, and recognize us. When we got far enough away, she finally whispers, "He's here."

We half considered leaving that night, Audra and me, but like I said, we weren't gonna leave without Maggie, and Maggie for some reason didn't wanna leave her mother. And it was a little more complicated now we had the girls. Running away wouldn't be quite so easy with a couple of six-year-old identical twins; we'd've stood out like sore thumbs. Plus, there was that whole thing where they were supposed to be our adopted sisters. No way was Amelia gonna let us leave with them. And we weren't about to leave them behind. So, once again, we stayed.

The following Monday, Maggie had the vision from Hell. It was completely unrelated to Angelus, but it ultimately led him right to us. She was in the parlor playing with the twins. Audra and me were in the kitchen cleaning up breakfast, and all of the sudden she just starts screaming bloody murder. We knew it had to be a real doozie, 'cause she'd always been so good covering them up. So we all go running in there, the whole family, and there she is all curled up in the fetal position, holding her stomach like she'd been stabbed. And we're like, "What is it? What's wrong?" And it must've still had a hold on her, 'cause without even thinking, she starts spoutin' off in front of her mum and everyone. "The mine! It's going to crash! I saw it! Just like with Mrs. Cross. We have to warn them!" Then her mum slaps her right across the face and hoists her up by her shoulders and starts shoutin' at her. "You will do no such thing! You hear me? There isn't going to be any crash. You're hallucinating. It doesn't mean anything!"

But the next day, sure enough, there was a cave-in, and two men died. Mum starts freakin' out again, like she did when Mrs. Cross died. She starts blaming Maggie, saying she caused it, she's cursed by the devil, yada, yada, yada. And she insists that Maggie go and Confess, even though we had just been to Mass two days ago, and we always did Confession afterwards. But she went anyway, just to make her mother happy. Audra and me went with her, and something in the air, there, just didn't feel right. Like something was very, very wrong. But we couldn't place it, neither of us. We went on ahead anyway, though, 'cause we figured if Maggie hadn't picked up on it, then it was probably okay. But when she came out, she was even more upset than went she went in. Said the Priest had said she was a spawn of Satan, and that God meant for her to be evil, and that she should just give into it.

Appalled that any Priest would ever say such a thing to one of his flock, Audra and Lex, after taking Margaret home, went back to the Church to confront the Priest. They found him in the Confessional, dead. His throat had been ripped out, and his blood drained. Police at the time concluded that it was a wild animal attack, and never launched an investigation.

Bloody Valentine

After discovering the body of the Priest, Audra and Lex returned home to break the news. Amelia immediately placed the blame on Margaret, saying that it was her curse that brought death to Father Murphy. Margaret was then confined to her room, which was fine by her, as she was afraid to leave anyway. A month later, Amelia finally conceded that Margaret was likely not to blame for the Father's death, and released her from her confinement. Still, Margaret refused to come out except for meal times, when her parents insisted on it, though she would scarcely nibble at what was on her plate.

By Valentine's Day, Robert had finally had enough. After they finished yet another meal of which Margaret would barely pick at, he headed out into the brisk night air, determined to bring something home that would cheer up his daughter, before the stores closed. Hours later, when he still hadn't returned home, the family began to worry. They agreed to contact the Police, but when Amelia opened the door to go out, the rest of the family close behind her, she all but tripped on the mutilated body of her husband. As with the Priest, his throat had been ripped open, his body mysteriously drained of its blood. A single red rose lay across his chest, with a handwritten note addressed to "Dearest Margaret". The inscription of the other side read, " Deus est vigilo vos.." Audra explains.

Loosely translated it means, "God is watching you." Those were the exact words Margaret said the Priest had spoken to her as she left the confessional. We'd suspected before, but now we knew that it was Angelus she had spoken to, not the Priest. This was his way of telling her so. It was also a warning that he knew where she lived, and would eventually be coming for her.

Again, the possibility of leaving was discussed, and again it was denied. This time, however, Margaret agreed that it was the best course of action, though she was loath to leave her mother. She thought that if she left, perhaps Amelia could avoid a similar fate to Robert and the Priest. Audra explains their plan.

As you can imagine, Amelia completely lost her water. We all did, but she had to be put on tranquilizers, just to get through the funeral and stuff. Her brother, Edward, came to help with the arrangements, and stayed afterwards to help out. He was upstairs trying to console her, and waiting for the tranquilizers to kick in so she would sleep. We thought that would be the perfect chance to get out with the twins, so we packed a couple bags, bundled up the girls, and headed for the door. We'd almost made it, would've made it, but Eve had forgotten her favorite doll, and wouldn't leave without it. She insisted on going back for it, screaming the whole way, "Not without Miss Edith! I can't leave Miss Edith!" Yeah, that Miss Edith. I don't know how Maggie ended up with it. But anyway, Uncle Ed comes out, of course, to see what the fuss was about, and sees us all bundled up and carrying overnight bags. He gave us the beating of our lives for trying to run off like that, and stealing the children to boot. He said, "You want to abandon your mother in her time of need, like a bunch of heartless tramps, you go ahead, but I'll kill you myself before I let you take those girls." So that was the end of that. [shrugs] We had to stay.

Two Birds, One Stone

The next morning, while the family was pretending to enjoy breakfast, they were interrupted by an urgent knock at the door. It was the Police. At some point during the night, someone had dug up Robert's grave, and stolen the body. Later that night, there was another knock at the door, and further tragedy unfolded. Audra pieces together what happened.

Well, I was asleep upstairs, and woke up when I heard the knock, but I didn't get out of bed right away. I just listened. I heard Uncle Edward go down to answer it. (I recognized his footsteps.) He said something to whoever it was on the step; I didn't hear what. Then I heard Amelia pass by my room, not really hurrying, but not really lingering either. I heard her call out softly from the top of the stairs, "Edward? What is it?" There was a couple of beats, then I heard her scream, "Robert!" Then I heard her running down the steps.

I bolted out of bed and ran out of my room. Maggie was already ahead of me, going after her mother. Lex came out just behind me. I got midway down the stairs, and saw Amelia running out the door in her nightgown and bare feet, calling Robert's name. Maggie was halfway between the stairs and the door. She was pulling at her hair and screaming, "Mother! No!" I ran the rest of the way down the stairs and got within view of the door just in time to see, Uncle Edward and Robert turn around near the gate. Robert vamped out and tore Edward's throat out. Amelia stopped in the middle of the walk and cried, "No!" then tried to turn and run back into the house. But at the same time, Angelus jumped out of the shadows and grabbed her around the throat, cutting her off and spun around to face us.

By this time, Lex had made it down, also. We were both standing behind Maggie when he turned around, and he got a real good look at us. Then he broke into this huge evil grin, and I knew he recognized us. He said, "Well. Isn't this a nice surprise? I wasn't expecting to kill two birds with one stone. This'll be even more delicious than killing your mother." As he said this, he ran his nails down Amelia's cheek with his free hand, then punctuated the statement by licking up the blood. He could easily have been referring to her, but he was looking right at Lex and me when he said it. I knew he meant our real mother.

So did Lex. She broke ranks and ran out after him, screaming, "Bastard!" But before she could reach him, he snapped Amelia's neck and threw her aside like garbage, in a single motion. And I'm like, "Lex, no!" And I ran out, too, but I was too late. He was way too fast. He already had a hold of Lex before Amelia even hit the ground. I barely made it two steps out the door before he got his teeth in her and drank her dry, or so I thought at the time. I almost lost it then, but somehow I managed to force myself to turn back and run towards the house. Maggie had started to follow Lex and me, but stopped before she crossed the threshold. I screamed at her to run, praying as hard as I could for her to protect the girls, before he found out about them. I reached the doorway just in time to push her away from it, but not soon enough to save myself. He grabbed the back of my nightgown, stopping me from crossing. He hit me with enough force to knock me forward, and had the added effect of causing me to push Maggie the last bit away from the door, so that he couldn't possibly reach her.

I went down hard, screaming at Maggie the whole way down to run, and keep running. I sounded like that chick from Forrest Gump. "Run, Forrest, Run!" All the wind went out of me when I hit the ground, and I'm pretty sure I broke a rib or two. I saw Maggie disappear around the corner, then felt Angelus land on top of me, full force. It was like being hit with a ton of bricks, literally, and something definitely cracked then. I don't know if it was me, or the walkway, but it hurt like Hell and I couldn't do a thing about it. I couldn't even scream. And I don't know if he tripped, or if he did it on purpose, but either way, he capitalized on it. I felt him sink his teeth into my shoulder, into the tendons, and I heard the tearing of my own flesh, and the sound of him drinking my life away. That was the last thing I remember before passing out.