1860
London, England
The wind howled, piling up snow in drifts, blinding the night with ice-white dust. A young woman in her late teens named Drusilla walked quickly down the cobble road. Her arms wrapped around herself, trying to protect herself from the biting English winter cold.
Her long dark brown hair was curled in tight ringlets. Her head was covered by a bonnet. Her blue eyes shifted nervously around the people walking past her,
Quivering the young woman fearfully made a right turn down another cobble road.
A supercut of images of men falling to their deaths from a building scaffold ran through Drusilla's head.
In a desperate panic, Drusilla paused mid-step and looked into the distance to see the proud Catholic church standing tall in the distance.
Drusilla took a deep breath and hastily walked into the direction of the church, pushing past the people in her way.
Catholic Church
Throwing open the large and heavy wooden doors of the church, the dark haired young woman quickly ran into the church.
She leaned on the pew, panting heavily with petrified fear.
Sitting down in the pew, Drusilla crossed herself and clasped her hands together to her chest and looked up at the large cross with Jesus Christ hanging from it. A painful piercing in her mind caused Drusilla to gasp, gaining attention from a few parishioners praying. Drusilla's hand pressed against her forehead, gritting her teeth in pain as the visions returned in her mind.
The sound of a door opening turned her attention. She looked at the confessional and stood from the pew.
As she steps in through the curtain of the confessional an arm juts out of the adjacent one where the priest waits, and muffled noises and struggling can be heard. The arm gets pulled back in as quickly as it appeared.
Inside the confessional, Drusilla sits down and pulls the scarf from her head. Quickly, she crossed herself and clenched the beads of the rosary in her hand.
"Bless me, Father, for I have sinned."
In the next booth, Angelus lifted his head from the priest's neck, caught by surprise. He dropped the dead priest.
Angelus frowned. Carefully, he pulled the curtain open to peek out to the pews.
"It's been two days since my last confession," said Drusilla.
There was no response.
After a few minutes, Drusilla began to feel weary when the priest hadn't answered. "Father?"
Angelus shrugged, sitting back in the chair, deciding to play along. "T'at's not very long." He said posing at the priest.
With a trembling voice, Drusilla whimpered, "Oh, Father, I'm so afraid."
"T'a Lord is very forgivin'. Tell me yer sins." Angelus sat back crossing a leg over his knee, taking an interest in the young woman.
"I had…" Drusilla sucked in a deep breath. "I've been seeing again, Father. Yesterday, the men were going to work in the mine. I had…" nervously, she tangled the rosary between her fingers, "... a terrible fright." Drusilla brushed away the fallen tear from her cheek. "My stomach all tied up, and I saw this horrible... crash." Drusilla takes another deep breath to calm herself. " My mummy said to keep my peace, it didn't mean anything. But this morning... they had a cave-in. Two men died."
"Go on." Angelus rubbed his chin.
Squeezing her eyes closed, Drusilla forced herself to continue. "My mum says... I'm cursed. My seeing things is an affront to the Lord," she sharply inhales, "that only he's supposed to see anything before it happens." Drusilla choked on a sob. "But I don't mean to, Father, I swear! I swear!" Tears stung her eyes as they slipped down her cheeks. "I try to be pure in his sight. I don't want to be an evil thing."
"Oh, hush, child. T'a Lord has a plan for all creatures. Even a Devil child like ye."
Drusilla fearfully gasped. "A Devil?"
"Yes! Ye're a spawn of Satan. All t'a Hail Marys in t'a world aren't goin' to help. T'a Lord will use ye and smite ye down. He's like t'at."
"What can I do?" Drusilla desperately asked with terror.
Angelus smirked. "Fulfill his plan, child. Be evil. Just give in."
"No!" Drusilla squeezed the rosary in her hand. "I want to be good. I want to be pure." she tearfully begged.
"We all do, at first. T'a world doesn't work t'at way," said Angelus.
"Father... I beg you... Please... Please, help me." Drusilla felt herself spiralling out of control with fear and guilt for the visions that constantly spin in her head.
Angelus released a breath. "Very well. Ten Our Fathers and an Act of Contrition. Does t'at sound good?"
Relieved, Drusilla crossed herself. "Yes. Yes, Father. Thank you."
"T'a pleasure was mine. And my child…" he raises his hand to the lattice between them.
"Yes?"
Angelus stares at her through the lattice. "God is watchin' ye."
Standing from the chair, Drusilla quickly walked out of the confessional and came face to face with a woman. Startled, Drusilla gasped. She turned her blue eyes to the woman standing in her path.
The woman was a beautiful woman. Her skin was clean and without blemishes. Her yellow hair is perfectly styled with a high brim spoon bonnet in dark blue cotton velvet with vintage Chantilly lace, black taffeta and ostrich plume trim. Brim faced with white silk and decorated with white roses and handmade cotton leaves and sweet peas. Crown lined with silk and a headliner of open-weave cotton, a grosgrain ribbon bonnet stay is used to keep the bonnet in place.
From the gown extravagant, elegance, and purchased from grand expense, Drusilla knew that she was a noblewoman.
Staring up at the woman in awe, Drusilla nearly forgot to curtsy.
"What is your rush, child?" said the beautiful woman. "You nearly gave me a freight."
"I apologise, ma'am." Drusilla lowered her gaze to the floor as a sign of respect for the woman's higher social class.
Buffy smiled gently. "You mustn't lower your gaze, child." She touched Drusilla's chin, tilting her head up to look at her. "No one can see your beauty."
Drusilla's blue eyes brightened with awe then a sudden shiver of fear. There was something about this woman's green eyes that struck her as unholy. A flash of images raced through her mind. She recognised the beautiful woman. She had seen her before.
Swallowing her fear, Drusilla began to step around the woman, muttering words of an apology.
"Child," Buffy said, turning Drusilla's attention back to her. "Peace be with you."
Quickly, Drusilla ran out of the church haunted by her visions. For months she had been seeing this woman in her mind, unsure what she wanted or who she was, Drusilla had nearly forgotten about her until this very moment.
Stepping out of the confessional, Angelus wrapping his hand around Buffy's waist, resting his hand over her flat stomach.
"Who was that?" asked Buffy, intrigued by the young woman.
"She thought I was a priest. She says she sees t'ings." Angelus whispered into her ear.
Buffy raised a high brow with peeking interest. "A seer? How exciting."
Angelus stepped around his mate, holding his hands around her. Buffy lifted her gaze to his face and graced him with a smile.
"I can see t'a wheels turnin' in yer mind." Angelus' fingers danced over her head with a widening smile.
"My darling, I think you and I are having very similar thoughts. I believe that troubled girl could be our shining achievement."
Angelus chuckled. His arm circled around her shoulders as he stepped to her side, following her gaze to the entrance doors where Drusilla had practically ran out of.
2 Weeks Later: Night
Noringham Abbey
"Hear my prayer, O Lord. In time of trouble I call you, for you will answer me. When pain and illness are my companions, let there be room in my heart for strength. When the days and nights are filled with darkness, let the light of courage find its place. Help me endure the suffering and dissolve the fear; renew within me the calm spirit of trust and peace. Hear my prayer, O Lord. Amen." Drusilla pulled back the cloak hood covering her head back. She drew a shaky and frightened breath and lifted her gaze to the crucifix hanging high above the altar.
Since her last confessional, Drusilla could no longer find solace in the Act of Contrition. Her father deemed her unholy as casted her out of the house until she was better. He had called the church to take his daughter away.
Drusilla was in fact relieved of this act. She was desperate for help and guidance, convinced that there was evil inside of her.
Her hands clasped together tighter as she prayed again.
Since the night of her last confession, Drusilla had not stopped seeing her visions. She saw a blurred image of a towering man with dark almost blackened eyes. The grin on his face was fowl and sinister. And there were bodies… bodies all around, dead.
There was another face that has been haunting her dreams. She had seen that face only once before. It was the beautiful yellow-haired woman she had bumped into at the church. The malicious horrors that she had seen this beautiful woman do made Drusilla sick.
Drenched in blood with bodies lying dead all around them, the stench of their innards inflamed Drusilla's nostrils. Evil was hot on her heels, Drusilla was desperate for someone to rescue her.
"You are troubled," said a soft lispy voice sitting beside her. "You seek solace in the abbey."
"I-I am desperate," Drusilla said, unable to look at the nun in the face, ashamed by the feeling of darkness and death around her. "I feel as if I am losing my control. I pray and I pray and I still feel..."
"What do you feel?" The soft voice whispered.
"Scared. Oh, I am so very scared. I feel as if I have this power and I want to do good with it." Drusilla cried. "I want to be pure and holy but death follows me. It follows me." She shifted off of her knees and sat back in the pew, still unable to look at the nun sitting beside her. "There is Evil all around me, I fear. And I cannot escape it."
A hand appears and slips into Drusilla's. The fingers entwine together.
Startled, Drusilla's eyes snap to hand hand holding hers,
She lifts her eyes from the entwined hands to the woman sitting beside her. Her eyes grew large and made a feeble attempt to rip her hand away.
It was the beautiful yellow-haired woman from the church and the woman who has been haunting her mind since her last gruesome vision.
Drusilla gasps and whimpers as Buffy looks around the church to see two nuns walking away. The two nuns exiting the nave looked at Buffy and Drusilla and softly smiled. Buffy returned the polite smile, disguised in the robes and habit of a nun.
Desperately, Drusilla tried to find her voice to call out to the nuns to help her but nothing came out. Terrified, Drusilla looked at the blonde.
"Crying out will not help you, child. It would only be worse for you." Buffy's nails dug into Drusilla's hand and blood began to drip out between their fingers. "Hush," commanded Buffy. "Do you think running away to the abbey would relieve you of your destiny?"
Drusilla whimpers softly in pain and breathing erratically.
"I assure you, child, it will not. Death will find you, wherever you go. You must know that. You said it yourself."
Drusilla whimpers and turns her head to look at Buffy.
"You see this in your mind." Buffy tenderly smiled at the frightened young woman.
Her smile widened when Drusilla sobbed as she nodded. She had seen this in her mind. She knew that this day would eventually come. Drusilla felt the terrifying and pain torture that she would endure. It was unbearable and now it was actually happening.
"Please, please, stop," tears fell down Drusilla's face.
"Whatever for?" Buffy smiled. "We have such a journey ahead of us." Buffy affectionately caressed the back of her hand down Drusilla's cheek. "There is nowhere for you to hide, my darling. There is no amount of Hail Marys that will save you. Evil isn't coming anymore." The smile on Buffy's face grew menacingly large, "No, my sweet girl, evil is already here."
Drusilla looked at the blonde and whispered with fear.
Buffy raises their interlaced hand to her mouth and licks the blood from the back of Drusilla's hand.
Drusilla looks alarmed.
Buffy gives her hand another squeeze until the bones in Drusilla's hand crack. "I think I should tell you now, at this very moment, your sweet mother and your noble father are being ripped into pieces. Your brothers will come home from the factories and they will see what's been done to your loving parents and they will blame you and they will come for you. Because as you know, my sweet girl, death follows you. You are an unclean thing. But of course, you knew this," said Buffy. "You've seen it in your mind."
"I'm not evil."
Slowly nodding her head, Buffy smiled tenderly at the young woman. "Not yet. But you are a murderer."
Drusilla's face twisted with confusion and fear.
"You saw these vicious acts of evil in your mind and did nothing to stop them. You might as well slit their throats yourself."
Breathing in deeply, Drusilla forces herself to stop crying. "I can't stop these visions," she looked Buffy in the eye.
Buffy caresses the side of Drusilla's cheek, staining skin with blood. Drusilla whimpers and tries to pull her face away.
"No, and I wouldn't want that." A slow smile smears across Buffy's face.
