Hi everyone:
A new chapter will be forthcoming sometime later this month. In the meantime, here's a little sample of the tribulations our heroic badass broody vampire-with-a-soul Angel will be going through during his Trial of Courage:
PREVIEW:
Angel kept walking through the haze and mist that seemed to permeate every inch of the dark cave.
He hated the mist. It dulled his keen ability to smell anything, and even his normally sharp preternatural eyes couldn't make out anything in this fog.
He lost track of his thoughts until he stumbled upon something that would have made his heart stop beating if it had needed a pulse. Something he never thought he'd see here…
A grave.
Not just any grave.
The words etched carefully on the graying marble tombstone were words that haunted Angel's nightmares to this day:
Buffy Anne Summers
1981 - 2001
Beloved Sister
Devoted Friend
She Saved The World A Lot
Angel felt the lump in his throat form as he knelt reverently down to the undisturbed earth in front of the gravemarker. As if paying homage to a holy place. And for him, there was no holier place on Earth than here. The grave of the woman he loved.
Even years later, this image was something that haunted him. For so many reasons. Not just losing Buffy, as excruciating and agonizing as that was. It was why he lost her.
Because he failed her.
Because he wasn't there for her when she needed him most.
Because he was off galavanting in some other dimension basking under the light of two suns and admiring his own reflection while Buffy, his soulmate, the first woman who showed him that his endless, worthless life was worth living, that he could make amends for the pain, evil and horror he sowed, was fighting for her life against a psychotic hellgod.
I let her down, Angel thought, his conscience racked with guilt, his heart aching with a pain so sharp he could almost feel it breaking. I wasn't there for her when she needed me. I failed her. Again. Just like I've always failed her.
He lay his hand gently on the tombstone, lovingly tracing her name with his fingers.
Angel's eyes closed, his voice was a hoarse, pained whisper. "I'm sorry, Buffy."
"Yeah. Being sorry seems to be your wheelhouse, isn't it?"
Startled, Angel stood and whirled around to see the source of that familiar voice.
Buffy.
Standing there, clad in snug blue jeans and a tiny black top. Her eyes, normally laughing, were tinged with a hard, bitter look as they beheld him.
"Buffy?" Angel asked, startled, confused. What was she doing here?
She merely laughed. Donning a very un-Buffy-like cold smirk that would have made his heart freeze if it was beating.
"Tip? Mouth looks better closed," Buffy said, her voice a low, almost nasty purr of a sound.
FYI, I've just gotten an idea of how to make the chapter even more harrowing, so sample subject to change ;) (cue evil laughter)
More to come soon! Remember to follow and review! Cheers!
-Best,
Jean-theGuardian
