Yeah. . . I actually have nothing to say at the moment. The only I had to change in Cordelia's song was the name because the rest fit. My favorite song is Wesley's out of all of them.
Chapter Five – Hello, Welcome to Reality
It seemed like they had been walking for hours but when Angel checked his watch only 20 minutes had passed from when they had left Wesley. That hadn't stopped Cordelia from complaining.
"I haven't seen anything interesting yet and my friends keep disappearing!" Cordelia walked briskly behind Janice. Janice kept huffing and this was finally the last straw.
"RELAX! GOSH! GIVE ME A BREAK!" she threw her hands up in the air and Cordelia finally stopped talking.
After about ten more minutes they reached a pink door and Angel swore he saw Janice gag. She pulled a set of keys from one of her pockets and swung them on her finger before opening the door.
"Well, here's the Jewel Room. In here we have all kinds of evil gems and jewels sorted through to check if they're real or not. Usually they are but every now and then. . ." Janice winked before focusing her attention on the keys. While she tried to search for the key to the door, Fred turned to Angel.
"Don't you find this all rather strange? I mean, how could these mice know everything already? How did she know our names?" Fred asked and all Angel had to offer was a shrug. Cordelia, who had been listening to their conversation, interrupted.
"I want to know how the mice can talk and where a fifteen year old girl gets off talking to me like that." She sighed and Angel and Fred laughed not knowing she was serious.
"Hey! No secrets!" Janice found the right key and Fred found it strange Janice wanted no secrets but told her to keep quiet about the taco. "After you Cordelia." Janice let her in first and walked in herself followed shortly after by Angel and finally Fred.
The four of them stood on a balcony and looked down. Below them, all around the room, rats sorted through the gems that kept falling. Most of the time they threw them into a chute by their table but every now and again one rat would toss one down a giant hole on the middle of the floor.
"Those are. . . rats." Cordelia was slightly creeped out.
"Hm? Yeah. 100 trained rats to pick out the fake gems and jewels." Janice nodded.
"Are they all your pets?" Fred ventured to ask.
"Oh, no. Only one of them is my pet. See the white one with brown spots?" Janice pointed vaguely downwards. It wasn't hard to find – out of all the white rats, the one Janice was referring to was the only white one with brown spots.
"Yeah. There it is." Fred gestured to the rat. "What's it's name?"
"Darla."
"WHAT!" Angel yelped and Janice stared at him with a huge grin. "Darla?"
"What's wrong with. . . oh! Darla. I get it." Janice nodded and Fred got the feeling she knew it the whole time and Fred found it rather funny herself but made sure not to express it. "Anyway, most of the time, as I was saying, we get the real deal and we expect nothing less. But then again, sometimes things try to pull a fast one on me. That's why I have these rats."
"Where does that hole in the floor lead to?" Angel tried to look down it from his position but could see nothing but blackness.
"That, my friend is the chute leading down into the garbage." Janice smiled as if she knew something they didn't which, she did. Before she said anything else, Janice paused. She checked her own watch and stared up at Angel. "How did you. . . how did you get here without burning up?" she asked him.
"I. . . I don't know. How did I do that? I was wondering how long it would take until someone noticed." He looked to the floor and then the ceiling. Janice seemed to look somewhat disturbed but finally let it go.
"Doesn't matter. You're here now. It'll be dark when you leave." Janice turned back to observe her rats with glee. Suddenly, as Cordelia watched the rats as well she saw something sparkle.
She loved sparkly things. Cordelia tried to resist going to take it, but it was so beautiful and if she didn't go just then, the rat was going to throw it in it's chute. So, she climbed over the balcony and down the ladder.
"Cordelia!" Fred called, grabbing the attention of Janice. Janice's eyes widened.
"Don't touch Darla's gems! She'll bite you!" Janice called out desperately.
"You have no idea how wrong that sounded to me." Angel grimaced. Janice thought about it a moment and grimaced her face as well.
"Ew. Your right."
Cordelia was just there. . . almost touching it . . . when Darla stopped what she was doing and turned. She stood still a moment and then began climbing up Cordelia's arm. The other rats saw Darla, their leader, climbing on the human and follow suit. Cordelia screamed and tried to shake them off but nothing worked. She started backing up, forgetting about the garbage chute in the floor and before anyone had a chance to warn her, Cordelia fell in.
The rats managed to jump off at the right time and listened to her fall until they turned back around and went back to work like nothing happened.
"Cordy!" Angel yelled out. Janice shook her head.
"Don't worry, they only let out the dogs on Thursdays."
"Today's Sunday, right?" Fred asked and Angel nodded. Fred let out a breath of relief. Suddenly, there were the mice again and the music began. . .
Cordelia Chase, the little brute,
Has just gone down the garbage chute
And she will meet as she descends
A rather different set of friends
A rather different set of friends
A rather different set of friends
A fish head, for example, cut
This morning from a halibut.
An oyster from an oyster stew,
A steak that no one else would chew,
And lots of other things as well,
Each with a rather horrid smell.
horrid smell
These are Cordelia's new found friends
That she will meet as she descends,
These are Cordelia's new found friends
Who went and spoiled her
Who indeed?
Who pandered to her every need?
Who turned her into such a brat?
Who are the culprits? Who did that?
The guilty ones now this is sad
Dear Old Mum and Loving Dad
"That was a little rude." Angel huffed.
"Yeah. I'll talk to them about that later then." Janice sighed. "Bye Darla!" she waved before walking out of the room.
"What about Cordelia?" Fred asked as the door slammed.
"Oh, the mice will let her out. Alright you two, I'm tired of walking. What do you say we take the Enchanted Escalator?"
"The Enchanted Escalator?"
"Yup. And here we are. Step on and all you have to do is tell it where to go. Close your eyes and there you are." They made their way to the first step.
"Close your eyes? Why? Something I shouldn't see. . .?" Angel laughed. . .
So, I realized in this chapter that there was no possible way Angel could have driven at 9:40 am with the top down and that he couldn't wait outside in the sun to be let in. So let's say, that when Angel sniffed the envelope he breathed in some kind of powder that allowed to walk in sunlight for awhile. Black magic, remember?
