"Are you ready?" the mayor looked at Faith, concerned. His eyes betraying the worry he felt, he was unsure about the actions but it was obvious he wanted his old Faith back. Faith nodded half-heartedly, unsure herself but unable to deal with what she was feeling. It was a lot easier when she felt no remorse, could kill without a thought. Now all there seemed to be were thoughts troubling her.

The mayor had been through what he was going to do twice, making sure she would do it, almost willing her not to. It was dangerous, she had been made fully aware of that, not physically dangerous, if it was she would not have been worried anyway, physically she was near unbeatable but mentally. She could come out changed forever, but it was a chance she was willing to take, she already didn't feel right in the slightest.

"You understand?" Faith nodded once more, wishing he would just get on with it, the sooner she could face the danger the better, she would have to think about it less.

"Okay" he said after what seemed like a lifetime of silence. "Close your eyes, I'm not going to lie to you, this will hurt." Faith closed her eyes, waiting for the pain. When it came it was a bit of a let down, it was just pain, it didn't make her feel anything but vaguely pissed off. Before she had time to show bravado by making a sarcastic comment about the strength of the hit, she was gone.

Darkness encompassed her until it turned into light, contrasting against the blood she could see in her line of vision, the crimson droplets almost painfully noticeable against the pure white. The whiteness faded to leave a scene tinted with blood, not quite real, as if seen through a camera lens. Nothing was moving but the eyes of the people In the picture seemed very much alive, though Faith couldn't explain why.

She could see a room. A kitchen though one not too well looked after, the cupboards were broken and stained with years of food being thrown at them, the table in the middle had a leg missing and as such was perched precariously on the other three, all of which looked about ready to fall off themselves. Faith recognised this place of course, it was her old house. The thing that was most recognisable though was the woman seated at the table, slumped over on her arms, hair encrusted with a mixture of blood and vomit and the little girl in the corner staring. Tears in her eyes not being allowed to fall, feeling helpless. Faith knew this scene all too well, it was the very image of her childhood and it brought tears to her eyes again. Suddenly, the younger Faith's head turned to see her older self, a look of recognition passed across her face for a moment before being once again overtaken by sadness.

"Are you here to take me away?" the little girl asked, her dark eyelashes sticking together with tears, all too quickly wiped away. Faith was very taken aback by this.

"No." she answered simply, feeling this response was insubstantial but nothing else came to mind. She was speaking to herself and yet she felt she couldn't identify with her. This little girl wasn't her, it couldn't be, but it was.

"Are you going to take her away then?" the young Faith asked, her whole self almost pleading, she couldn't bring herself to call her mother.

"No." again Faith felt guilty that she couldn't offer any more words of comfort, but she was lost. This was all she remembered from being a child, these feelings were so familiar and yet she still didn't know how to comfort her self. The little girl stared at Faith for a moment, willing her to say something more but eventually gave up and instead didn't acknowledge her presence. Faith still didn't know what to do. Give her a vampire or demon any day, she could handle them, humans on the other hand were truly terrifying.

"What's happened?" Faith said finally, knowing full well what the story would be but asking nonetheless.

"This." the girl said simply, holding up an empty vodka bottle and throwing it against the wall in anger, one of the shards hit the older her and Faith found a gash in her cheek from the hit. Not a single word of apology was allowed from the child's mouth and she continued to stare at her mother, a mixture of love and hatred clearly shown on her face, exasperation overcoming her until a single tear escaped her young eyes. She seemed furious at herself for letting it happen and almost ran to the drawer in panic, grabbing a sharp knife and lifting up her sleeve, revealing deep cuts and scars. Faith ran over to her younger persona and angrily snatched the knife away.

"Give that back!" she screamed, strangely formidable for her young age and small stature. Faith knew about what she had done to herself when she was young of course, she just hadn't realised how shocking it was. This girl in front of her only looked about seven and yet here she was, carving into herself with a knife when things got tough, at the time she had never realised how young she was.

"No." replied Faith calmly, beginning to feel like a broken record. "I'm not going to let you hurt yourself."

"It's either you or me." the girl was serious, but Faith just burst into laughter.

"and how old are you exactly?"

"I'm gonna be seven next week." the girl answered, her face betraying her youth while her eyes betrayed what she had been through in her very short years. "don't laugh, I may be young but I'm a hell of a lot tougher than you think." Faith didn't doubt that one bit, it was her after all.

"I know you are, but so am I."

"Who are you?" this question had only just occurred to her, it was obvious that she was used to strange people turning up at the house, usually some of her mother's work mates or 'clients'.

"Funny you ask that." Faith said with a smile.