DISCLAIMER: Don´t own nothing …….please don´t sue …
NOTES: OH it took me forever …Sorry!!!! Hope this doesn´t suck. It took me some time to figure out where to go with this. I know this chapter is a little dark, but I´m in kind of a dark mood right now …soooo…….
Next one will be better!!!
Oh ..The Lyrics are from " LORD OF THE RINGS, THE TWO TOWERS" …Gollum´s song
LOST
„ You sure this was such a good idea?"
Jayne asked roughly, nursing his drink in his lap, giving the surrounding customers another weary look. The rest of them exchanged glances.
Malcolm Reynolds leaned back in his chair, not quite sure what to answer. He had to admit to being more than just a little curious about Angel´s friend and his …establishment, so they had tagged along. Only Simon, River and Book had remained behind.
But this was more than he could have ever imagined. The customers …or ….creatures that were assembled in the dim lighting, sitting at small tables, some immersed in hushed conversation, some watching others perform on the small stage………
Mal had never seen anything like it and neither had any of his crew. The owner of the bar
" New Caritas" was a green-skinned, red horned …..guy who talked amicably albeit very fast. Mal had not quite understood all he had been saying, but since they had come with Angel their drinks were on the house …..all night. That and the ensuing curiosity had made everybody want to stay. Angel and Spike were sitting at the bar, in deep conversation with …Lorne, or so the green guy had introduced himself to them.
" Awww …Jayne , C´mon don´t be such a mood spoiler …I think it´s all very interesting and exciting, just look over there…..there´s a guy with four arms!" Kaylee said as Jayne was busy fishing a tiny orange umbrella out of his strangely coloured cocktail.
" Better not be starin´ at anybody Kaylee …we don´t wanna upset all these nice folks."
" Yeah …." Wash said, taking another sip of the drink in front of him.
" Especially since some of these …nice folks …..don´t look all too pleasant. I think recognize one or two from my childhood nightmares, if you know what I mean."
His wife lifted an eyebrow and smiled.
" Oh….look there´s Alice!" Kaylee giggled, waving to the pretty girl. Alice waved back across the room as she climbed the three steps to the stage. She adjusted the microphone hesitantly. Mal turned to look over to the bar where the conversation had just seized. The two vampires and the red horned demon stared at her in silence.
The rest of the club fell silent too after the first beats of the music rang through the air. Mal wasn´t sure how, but somehow he had known Alice would choose a sad song.
Where once was light
Now darkness falls
Where once was love
Love is no more
One would have expected a sweet, mellow singing voice from her; a soft sweet soprano maybe. She didn´t have a typical singing voice, not smooth and clear. Her voice sounded too hoarse, too husky, too opaque and unrefined to belong to an accomplished singer, and still it sounded just right.
" Ohhh …." Kaylee whispered mesmerized into the silence.
Don´t say goodbye
Don´t say I didn´t try
These tears we cry
Are falling rain
For all the lies you told us,
The hurt, the blame!
It took Mal a moment to figure out why he thought that her voice really went with the song. It was the hurt …..so raw that you could almost touch it. Her voice could hold it, express it…..hold everything the song was about. He could see the careful expression on Angel´s face, the confusion on Spike´s features as they watched her sway slightly to the song. They had not expected this. They had not expected their little trooper to do this …….
And there was something ……….something wrong with this whole performance that didn´t quite sit right with them.
" I didn´t think you´d have that song in your repertoire, mate!" Spike said to Lorne over his shoulder.
" I don´t…" Lorne said seriously, looking at the two vampires.
And we will weep to be so alone
We are lost we can never go home
"Girls´s got a voice …that´s for sure!" Jayne said quietly, trying to shake the uneasy feeling creeping up his back. A glance at Zoë told Mal that it wasn´t just him, she felt it too.
" This is …..strange…"
There was a sadness weighing them down, like the despair and grief of the lyrics was somehow trying to take on physical form, too attach itself to them.
Kaylee moved her hands up her arms as though she was cold.
Mal got up from his seat, walking over to Angel and Spike through the enthralled crowd of monsters and people.
So in the end
I´ll be what I will be
No loyal friend was ever there for me
" What´s going on here?" he asked the dark vampire. His green friend stared at Alice with narrowed eyes. Angel looked around with growing discomfort.
" I don´t know."
" So this is not what happens when your friend does his …thing…..?"
" No…."
It was a subtle, almost inaudible at first………but it made the turn to the stage again. The voice singing was changing ….ever so slowly, smoothing …..Hushed tones turning into clearer ones.
" What the bloody hell?"
Spike tried to jump up from his chair as though somebody had lit his coat on fire, but Angel gripped him firmly by the shoulder.
" Spike, don´t….."
" Can you hear it, can you?" he hissed at the taller man with a frantic tone.
" I can ……it´s …..impossible….."
In a matter of seconds Alice´s voice had smoothed out, turned into a clear, light melody. But Mal could see it wasn´t just that. Her eyes were closed as though she was in trance ….not even noticing the things that surrounded her.
Now we say goodbye
We say
You didn´t try
" Something wrong with your girl?" Mal enquired. Whatever was happening, he wanted to make sure his crew was not getting involved in it. They were out of their depths here…shooting, smuggling, stealing were one thing, but demons ……
" That´s not Alice." Angel answered him.
Mal lifted an eyebrow.
" Sure as hell looks like her to me !"
" Well…..whomever your slayer is channelling right now……is pretty pissed of with the two of you and it´s giving me a hellapolouza of a headache!" Lorne informed them, downing the rest of his drink in one swig.
" What do you …."
" Oh …more than I care to Angel-cakes, as I said …really pissed of with the two of you, it´s all a jumble from there on out. I can´t really tell how much of it is Alice, it´s all grief and despair and anger and ….for crying out loud listen to that song……" Lorne interrupted him.
" It´s not her voice." Spike muttered with a look Mal could not place.
These tears you cried
Have come too late
Take back the lies, the hurt, the blame
And you will weep
When you face the end alone
You are lost
You can never go home
You are lost
You can never go home
Alice stood on the stage still as a statue, her eyes fixed upon them, staring at them with a face that held both anger and an incredible sadness. She let the microphone fall from her hands.
" We are lost …….I am lost ……." She looked at her hands as though there was something only she could see. She sounded different, Mal realized. Spike had been right, it was not her voice.
" How could you do this to me?" She whispered, but the hushed silence in the club carried her voice far.
" How could you leave me …..so alone………"
" This is not your slayer!" Lorne told Angel she came towards them.
She grabbed the lapels of Spike´s coat, shaking him violently.
" How could you do this to me …….." she screamed. But before Angel or Spike could react Alice stopped, shaking her head with a gasp. She blinked, flustered, looking at the men in front of her.
She took a few steps backwards. Something had taken her over …something. She was the slayer, she was always in control!
" What is this?" She demanded to know. " Who did this …."
" Seems that your little song ….channelled someone who had something to say to our two undead crusaders, sweetheart." Lorne explained light-heartedly, holding out a glass filled with an amber coloured liquid. " Better get a nice sip of that, cause I think you need it."
He turned to Angel again. " And thanks for bringing this to my doorstep again …..we all know how well it worked out for me the last time you decided to bring your preternatural problems into my club!"
" We had no problems before we came here….."
" Yes …just keep telling yourself that, Angelcakes!"
" Someone took me over, someone powerful enough .......someone familiar ….." Alice returned the empty glass to Lorne. The way Angel and Spike looked at her, still shaken made her look at them more closely.
" You know …" she said slowly. " You know …..you recognized that voice!"