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Chapter Seven - Oops.
Angel and Fred waited until Janice finally awoke and even through pressure, she offered no explanation as to what happened except that: "in the business like this, you should expect to make enemies." Angel had to agree, but still, he had to wonder. . .
"Can we go? Like, now?" Janice interrupted Angel's musings as she tapped her foot where the door used to stand. She glanced at an invisible watch on her wrist to emphasize her impatience and Fred gave Angel a "I-guess-we-better-go" look, which proved to push him along.
Once outside the shattered doorway, Janice stood still and took what little time she thought she had to look both left, right, and confusingly up and down. Angel followed her path of vision and saw nothing of interest except a few white mice scurrying by brushing their whiskers.
"Which way are we going?" Fred whispered, a pointless observation to how quiet the rest of the factory was. Janice dug her hands into the dark recesses of her pockets and sighed. "Excellent question. I was wondering if you would know but then realized that you don't work here." Janice sighed again and headed to the right.
Angel and Fred took this as a cue to follow, though Janice made no attempt to point out such assumptions. Angel, usually fond of the quiet now found it unbearable and needed to speak. "So, are we . . . uh. . ." Angel tried to begin a conversation but Janice sushed him. "Oh, o-okay." Angel closed his mouth as they continued walking. Fred, not wanting to get on anybody's bad side observed the area they were walking and found it it to be strangely familiar.
"Hey! We've been here before like, five times already. We're walking in circles!" Fred paused in the middle of the hallway almost causing a collision with Angel. Janice stopped short as well and looked around. "Well, what do you know. I guess we should've gone up after all"
"Up?" Angel asked nervously. After all he'd witnessed so far that day, going up with no sign of stairs usually meant something bad.
"Looks like we're going back to the escalator. Make sure to close your eyes this time, huh?" Janice winked at Angel who grumbled. Fred giggled but stopped when Angel glared at her.
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Angel threw up in the nearest trash can and Janice shook her head. Fred offered some sympathy by putting her hand on his back as he heaved. When he was done, Angel had to resist the incredible urge to jump on the girl.
"What is the point of that if you're not allowed to look!" Angel threw his arms in the air. Janice turned and placed a mint in Angel's hand before responding.
"It's called. . "
"Yes. . .?" Angel pressured, expecting some dark secret. That was not the answer he got.
"FOLLOWING DIRECTIONS! Apparently SOME of us don't know how to do that so let me spell it out for you. I tell YOU to do something and you DO IT!" Janice yelled, straightened her hat and smiled. "Shall we head off then?"
Without waiting for an answer, Janice began to walk off. Both left speechless, Angel and Fred had no other choice but to follow. After about ten or so minutes of walking they reached a blinding white door.
Angel, Fred and Janice shielded thier eyes from the whiteness and Janice cleared her throat. "The room is much darker than the door. I don't remember what happened. Before we step inside, let's face away from the door while I explain what room this is." The trio stepped off to the side and rubbed their eyes. "Okay, this is the Illusion Room or as some call it, the Perfect Happiness Hangout."
"The. . ." Angel laughed but Janice stopped him.
"Yeah, I know. Not my idea. Anyway, in this room we are testing certian objects - dangerous objects - to see if we can create them to hold an illusion of perfect bliss for the observer. The person, or demon, would then approach the object of danger and experience Doomsday or the like. Shall we go inside now?" Janice pulled three pairs of what looked like sunglasses out of a pocket.
"What are these for?" Fred asked, but put them on her face anyway.
"Oh, these are to protect you from Doomsday. It unmasks the disguse of the dangerous object so you won't. . . well. . . die." Janice shrugged as if it was obvious. Upon entering the room, all the trio saw was gullotines and other horrible sights. The room was dark, like they were told and candles hung from the ceiling and the walls.
"If there wasn't so much blood, I'd say this room was very pretty." Fred squinted around as she tried to keep the glasses from falling off her nose. Janice was about to explain further how everything worked when there was a crash.
Angel, too tempted by the mystery of how it worked, seemed to think it better to remove the glasses rather than ask like Fred was going to. The Soul-Stealer (available only on the Demon Market! Steal the souls of your enemies or switch them around for a fun party game! Only $11.99 each!) immediatly transformed into the appearence of a VERY naked Buffy lounging on a bed of silk blankets.
"You stupid son of a. . ." Janice moaned as Angel stared in wonder. "Buffy?" he whispered.
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A/N - ha, ha! You won't get to see what happens until the next chapter. O.o It'll be soon, don't you worry. Only a couple more chapters left.
