Author: Meltha
Rating: G
Feedback: Yes, thank you. Melpomenethalia@aol.com
Spoilers: I suppose you could say "Ground State" from Angel and "Grave" from Buffy.
Distribution: Fanfiction.net, the Bunny Warren, and the 500 Club. If you're interested, please let me know.
Summary: When someone is lost, finding him can prove to be a dangerous for the one who seeks.
Author's Note: This might possibly be one explanation for the character's completely unexplained disappearance.
Disclaimer: All characters are owned by Mutant Enemy (Joss Whedon), a wonderfully creative company whose characters I have borrowed for a completely profit-free flight of fancy. Kindly do not sue me, please, as I am terrified of you. Thank you.
Length: Title to end = 500 words (not including the quotation)
"The dark demi-goddess of the lost. Only the dead can enter her presence, and those that do she often traps for eternity."
Lost
She doesn't remember how she got here. She thinks there were cold water and blinding darkness and floating echoes, but she's not certain whether those things are without or within. But she does remember the sound of featherless wings beating. She remembers the rush of wind from them against her face. She remembers the coldness of a sudden touch on the underside of her arms.
She remembers thinking she had found it at last.
"Pretty little lost lamb," hisses the serpent voice. "Paying me a call at last, are you?"
"Yes."
It lands above her on a pipe, its face veiled like the dead, its wings like a shattered angel's. She can barely see the glow of eyes, and they are not unlike the eyes of her own kind, but there is a difference. She has not been afraid of eyes like those in almost a century and half, but these chill her in places she forgot existed. Its long nails click together greedily as though it spies a treat.
"You have lost much, haven't you?"
She nods and returns its gaze.
"Family," it calls in a whisper as it is suddenly at her ear.
"Mind," it says as an unseen talon skitters across her temple.
"Soul," the voice echoes as its owner is gone once more.
"Sunlight," the word bounces around the room as it is once more on its perch above her.
"Daddy," is uttered from behind her.
"Grandmummy,"seems to rise up from the floor.
The creature is before her now, too close, and the veil across its face does nothing to hide the ugliness of the features beneath. The edge of its headdress brushes against her lips as it puts forth its hands and lightly draws the shape of a heart with its nails on her chest. "Love."
She closes her eyes to shut it out, and when she opens them, it is gone again.
"Yes."
"You have come to ask how to make him return to you," it rasps, and it is not a question.
"He's so very lost," she says, and her voice trembles as she remembers his pain. "Give him back to me. Show me the way."
Suddenly, her arms are pinned to her sides. There is a shudder of air as its wings break the stillness, and in a moment her feet leave the ground. Faster than she can think, there is the sound of a door slamming shut and a bolt sliding home. She is trapped.
"You stumbled into the blackberry patch again," it says in a voice of steel and fire. "My answer is no. You shall not see the light of the stars again."
The rustle of its wings is gone, and she is alone with the others who mourn and shriek at their doom. It is many long weeks before Daddy comes, and when he does, she calls out to him, begs him to set her free.
And as Dinza laughs, she sees him turn his back and leave.