STORY FOUR: BEANTOWN, USA
"Stand back, 'kay?" Faith whispered as she tested the knob on Mark's front door. She didn't
like this - any of this. Not being back in Boston, not wandering into a strange and dangerous situation without a clue, and especially not worrying about if Mark was even alive still.
Fucking Beantown...
Xander gladly followed closely behind the dark Slayer, his eye on alert. "So, this is what Boston looks like," he murmured, already getting a bad vibe about it all. It just felt ... wrong. "Somehow, this makes Sunnydale look safe."
The door swung open, and she cautiously stepped inside, a long knife in one hand. Luckily, it was dark out and this was a shitty neighborhood anyway, so nobody would notice or call the cops on them.
The inside of the house was just as dark. "Mark?" Faith called out, flipping the light switch a few times. Nothing happened.
"So... are we hoping to find him here or hoping that he's not here?" he whispered. "It looks like no one's been here for a few months."
"Well, he called... I figured... and there has to be something here," Faith whispered back.
"The basement."
"How exactly did he get your cell number?"
"I didn't really think to ask."
"And you're not just a little suspicious of that?"
She glanced back at him. "He's an old pal of mine; not gonna question it till I have to."
Xander nodded, not pushing the subject further.
She headed through the house, guided by hazy memory and sheer guesswork, and they found the basement door in the kitchen. "Watch my back, okay?" Faith asked Xander as she nudged the door open and began to descend into the dark.
Xander stood at the stop of the stairs. "Been doing that since we met," he whispered, glancing behind him when she disappeared in the dark below. "Do you want me to find a light?"
"Yeah, go for it," Faith said. She stopped halfway down the stairs and pulled a flashlight out of her jacket pocket. She'd had a hunch it would come in handy...
"Okay! So... there's your light," Xander said, gesturing to her new source of light. "I'll just stay up here."
"Mark?"
There was some shuffling in a corner. "Faith...?" came a barely there whisper. "You're here... you actually came..."
"Toldja," Faith said, creeping over to the corner. "Mark?" She shone the flashlight in his direction then bit her lip. He'd definitely seen better days.
Mark held the cordless phone close to him as he huddled in the corner. The phone had died hours ago. His light brown hair was filled with the dust that lived throughout most of the house. He squinted at the light, even though it wasn't powerful. "It's... you can't leave... the house."
Faith stared at her old friend, lowering the flashlight away from his face. "Why not?"
Upstairs, Xander was wandering the kitchen, opening the fridge. "Whoa," he said closing it quickly. "Hasn't seen the light of day for awhile." A door slammed shut in the direction of the front door. He turned.
In the basement, Mark shook his head. "You can't leave... the house."
"What? Why not?" Faith asked again.
"He won't... he doesn't like it when we... leave..." Mark murmured, rubbing the side of his face where a suddenly large bruise formed automatically. "Remember? He didn't... he hated when I left... to play with you." A sudden slap echoed through the basement and Mark's face reacted as if actually slapped.
"Jesus!" Faith instinctively fell into a defensive crouch. Ghosts. I fucking hate ghosts. "C'mon, you little fucker, show yourself," she snarled.
Mark shook his head. "No, no... he likes it... to hide... to be everywhere. No one leaves this house... alive. He told me so. He told me." He shook his head. "Help me, please, Faith."
Meanwhile, upstairs, Xander rushed over to the front door and grabbed at it. "Okay, now. An open sesame would be a little assuring right about now," he murmured, but the door wasn't budging. He kicked at it and it shook under his foot. But it didn't do much else. He kicked it a few more times. "Okay... back door." He moved towards the back of the house.
"He told me that... I can't leave," Mark said. "But you can, right? Can't you help?" He was once a tough, strong-willed boy. But somehow it had come down to this.
"Yeah, I can help." Faith held a hand out to Mark. "C'mon. We're getting out of here, and I don't give a fuck what your dead asshole of a dad says."
"He told me he was gonna kill me," Mark said, shakily reaching out for Faith's hand. He grasped it and pulled himself up on his wobbly legs - only to be knocked off his feet from the unseen force.
"...kill..." came a whisper.
Xander could hear the same whisper from above. He looked up at the ceiling. "Oh, crap..." He jiggled the knob harder.
"...kill..."
"Hurry up!" Faith pulled Mark back up to his feet and tugged him towards the stairs. "Come on! Xander, GO!" she yelled.
"I've been GOING for the past five minutes!" Xander called. Suddenly, HE got shoved back onto the dusty floor.
"...killed..."
Mark actually started to whimper as he was pulled along behind Faith. "He's going to get me... he's going to kill me."
"He's NOT!" Faith yelled, not slowing down even a bit.
Xander got to his feet. "What's going on? Who's the Casper here?"
"Doesn't matter. Let's just get the hell out," Faith replied as she pulled Mark up the last few stairs and into the kitchen. "Go!" she said, glaring at Xander.
Xander put up his hands. "What do you think I've been doing? It's not allowing us to do the leaving thing!"
"...killed..."
"This 'kill' motif is about annoying as you and your 'die' thing in Mexico," he murmured, looking at a window. He grabbed a nearby broken chair and aimed at the open pane. But the chair flew out of his hand and smashed against the wall.
"...Dad..." Mark murmured, wanting to pull away from Faith. "...it's him. He wants to kill me..."
"His dad?" Xander asked, looking at Faith. "Um, has this been an ongoing, haunting thing?"
"I don't know!" Faith turned to Mark, then shook her head. She slammed herself up against the door with all her might then let out grunt of pain. "Fuck! Dislocated it again," she moaned, stepping back and rubbing her shoulder.
Xander came up to her and grabbed her shoulder. "Seems like you're getting old in your Slayer age," he murmured.
Faith grinned. "Say that again when both my arms are working, dude..." She twisted sharply, snapping her shoulder back into place. "I hate that."
Mark slid down the wall. "The body... the body... in his room..."
Xander looked over at him, eyes wide. "WHAT?"
"Yeah - say that again?" Faith asked slowly, staring at Mark. "What did you DO?"
Mark looked over at them. "He... he said he was going to kill me..." He looked up at the ceiling. "So... I did it first. But he's not gone."
"Oh, fuck, Mark," Faith sighed, a wave of misery washing over her. She knew Mark's father was a complete bastard, and she didn't mourn his death - spitting on the guy's grave had been a fantasy of hers back in the day - but the fact that Mark had killed him...
Xander followed Mark's eyes. "Why do I NOT wanna go up there?" he asked. He looked over at Faith. "Okay, um, stay here with... him. I'll go... see what I can do." What, he so wasn't sure. But if that was the key to getting the heck out of there, Xander was all for it.
"What? You're not going up there by yourself, Xander."
"I won't be," he said with a grin. "Apparently, there's a body up there to keep me company." He relaxed his joking manner a bit. "I'll be fine. You have to stay with him, make sure his, um, father, doesn't try and hurt him. Plus, you have to do something with that wimpy shoulder of yours." He leaned in and kissed her quickly. "I'll be back, hot stuff, okay?" He backed away towards the stairs as he flashed her a semi-confident grin.
"I'm going to kill him," Faith said as Xander vanished up the stairs. "Come on," she told Mark, grabbing his wrist. "Now."
Mark had no choice, no matter how hard he tried to pull away or how much he mumbled his protest. The one direction he didn't want to take was back upstairs.
Xander wandered down the hallway, wishing that he had found a flashlight before thinking about this stupid task. He opened up one door, peering in, finding a guest room of some kind. He moved onto two more doors before finding the last one at the end of the hall. He grabbed the knob, took a deep breath and opened up the door.
The odor coming out of it made him almost gag slightly. He put the back of one of his hands up to his nose. "Oh, God..." he murmured, pushing the door further -
only to have it slam in his face. "Hey!" He turned around at a sound behind him and let out a yelp at the figures standing there.
"And you're callin' me wimpy?" Faith asked, grinning nervously.
"Hey, at least my shoulder is holding just fine," he teased back.
"My shoulder is fine," Faith retorted. "Now, anyway... And I told you you weren't going here by yourself. Door troubles?" she asked, nodding at the one that had just slammed in his face.
Xander pointed to it. "I wasn't until it decided that it wasn't letting me in." He turned back toward it and kicked at it.
Mark shook his head, pulling as hard as he could from Faith's grip. "Don't go in there. Don't. He's there."
Faith held firm. "Mark, we gotta... it's the only way to end this." Fuck, I hope so... The Slayer stared at the closed door for a second, then kicked it open - and down.
Xander nodded once. "That works, too." He stepped through first. "Oh, geez, Mark, what did you do?" he asked, seeing the body of his dad all over the bed... almost literally.
Mark shut his eyes. "He was gonna kill me. Was gonna hurt me over and over and over again."
"It's okay, Mark," Faith told him reassuringly. She tried not to cringe at the messy remains of Mark's father.
Xander glanced back at Faith. "Has he always been like this?" he whispered.
Faith shook her head 'no.'
He glanced back at the nearly mutilated body of the man. "Maybe we should call the police."
"And tell 'em what?" Faith whispered back. "I'm not going to let Mark get fucked by his old man again." What they were going to do, though, she had no idea.
Xander sighed, really not knowing what to do. He winced a little as he rounded the bed. To get a better view? He wasn't sure. It was so gross, it was fascinating... and really sick. "If we don't get the police here, then... maybe we should... hide the..." He nodded towards the remains. A force picked up Xander and slammed him against the wall, holding him up a full two feet off the ground.
He grabbed at his throat as if someone was holding him there. "Ack! Bad idea?"
"Xander! Let him go, you son of a - "
Mark stared at the body. "Don't touch it. Must... throw it."
"Throw it? Out of the house?" Faith asked, thinking fast. She ran over to the body and, tuning out just how disgusting this was, grabbed the remains and tossed them out - and through - the window.
Mark fell to the ground at the same time as Xander landed hard on his butt.
He rubbed his throat. "Oh, man..." He looked at the empty bed then the window. "How...?" He got to his feet. "The body. We just needed to get rid of it?"
"Right," Mark murmured, raising his head. "I... I didn't know it would be like that. I thought it woulda been over once it was all done. I thought I just coulda stabbed him but his voice, it kept coming and I just... I kept going."
Faith bowed her head. Fuck. "It's okay," she finally said, knowing that it wouldn't be, not for Mark, not for a long, long time. "The body... we gotta bury it," she said wearily. "Not here."
Xander let the last of the dirt fall on the slight mound that he had helped put over the body of Mark's father. He stared at it as he leaned slightly on the shovel. This wasn't right, he knew it. But there was no other way. "Are we sure this... is okay?"
Mark nodded. "Shit, man, YES. For the fucking fifth time..." He threw his shovel off into the woods and turned away, pulling out a cigarette.
Xander raised his brows. "Whoa, okay. Guess he's back."
"Yeah." Faith stared at Mark. "How you doing?" she asked him quietly.
Mark lit his cigarette and blew out a puff of smoke. "'Bout as good as you can feel after killing your own father." He glanced over at her. "Know how that feels?"
"Kind of," Faith replied bitterly, regretting it - her own crimes weren't on the same level as Mark's. It'd be like if she'd been the one to take out the Mayor, not Buffy... No. He wasn't your father, either...
Mark lifted his brow. "Really? Now what's my bad girl been up to then? Well, besides what I already know that is." He grinned and winked.
"Long story," Faith answered, increasingly uncomfortable about all of this.
"You know, it's about damn time you got back to your old stomping grounds Faith."
Faith shrugged. "Been busy, Mark, what can I tell you? I'm sorry."
"Yeah, I know. You just kinda took off one day, never looked back, hardly heard from you. Really know how to break a guy's heart, Faith." But he nudged her playfully. "Nice to see you again, though, girl."
Xander blinked. "Well, OH-kay." He picked up his shovel. "Gonna go this way..." he said, nodding off in one direction. "Thought I saw a 24 hour convenience store, so. gonna grab a snack. Don't miss me while I'm gone!"
"Xander..." Faith rolled her eyes. As if she didn't have enough stress.
Mark watched him leave. "Huh, where'd you find that dude?" he asked Faith.
"Sunnydale. Out near L.A.," she replied absently. She was staring at the shallow grave.
"Wow, you ended up WAY over there?" he asked. "Had no idea you traveled all around."
"Been busy, like I said. Mark, this..." Faith gestured at it. "What are you going to do?"
Mark glanced at her then back at the grave. "Whatta mean? We did it. End of story. The bastard got what he deserved. Maybe I got what I deserve, too, but hell, that's over thanks to you."
Faith stared at him in silence. Yeah, he'd gotten what he deserved, but... Did any of it matter to Mark?
He put out his cigarette, throwing the butt right at the grave. "Hey, remember when we used to go back to that old man's store and snatch some comic books? We were a good team, girl. And since I'm released from my old man's chains, maybe you and me can run together. I don't have nothing holding me back here anymore."
Faith sighed. Apparently, none of it mattered. She stared at the grave for a while, wondering what to say. What would Angel say? He was the expert at saving people. "Can't," she finally decided on. "I've got a good deal going here, Mark."
Mark was actually shocked at her answer. He stared at her. "What? Good deal?"
"Yeah."
He laughed. "Well, yeah, you do. But we can make it better, girl. C'mon, the open road is where I belong, too. Get out of Beantown and onto bigger and greater things. Plus, if they find this body, I'll be on the run. Had enough of cops on my ass. Ditch the other guy, Faith. You can ditch him at anytime, right? He ain't your boyfriend or nothing." He nudged her again. "I mean, you can do better than that. We can have fun."
"Mark, you're still this much," Faith held two of her fingers close together, "of a friend. Don't push it," she told him.
He quirked up a brow. "What? Thought we were better than that. It's not my fault you fucking took off."
"Didn't say it was. Listen to me. If you go running off, you'll be dead inside of a year. Or wish you were. You think I've been running around playing hopscotch the last ten years? You have no idea."
"You telling me that you didn't go off and have fun once you left this piss-ass of a home?" He shook his head. "Girl, I saw you when you left. Well, kinda. You took off with some Brit lady you started to hang around with a lot. Whatever shit you were into, you enjoyed it. I know that twinkle in those eyes of yours."
"Mark, it wasn't even the same," Faith replied. "You wanna know about my twinkly-eye decade? The British lady got cut in half in front of my eyes, then the thing that killed her ate what was left. I ended up working for a crooked politician who was a demon worshipper on the side. Killed some people, too. Spent a few years in jail. So... I think I know a few fucking things about wasting your life."
That kind of took Mark by surprise but he quickly hid it. He shrugged. "So, you done all that, and what now? You go soft? Learn the ways of the zen or some shit like that? Run with one-eyed guy back there? C'mon, that ain't you. I KNOW you, Faith. We don't hafta get into trouble or nothing. Nothing to draw attention, but I gotta get outta here, and I want you to come with me. Ditch the pirate, maybe you can teach me the Zen ways." He chuckled, showing clearly he was mocking her, slightly.
Faith squeezed her two fingers, the ones that had been held apart during her little refresher course for Mark, together. "Forget it. There's nothing here. Seeya 'round, Mark," she said, turning in the direction Xander had gone off in. "Think about all that..." Faith added as she headed to catch up with Xander.
Mark frowned. "Fine!" he called after her. "Fuck you! Just run off again." He angrily pulled out another cigarette and took off in the opposite direction.
Faith clenched her fists, but kept walking. It was the only thing she knew to do. She wasn't Angel. She couldn't help Mark from fucking up his life - any more than he already had.
A minute later, she reached the run-down convenience store, smiling when she spotted Xander lurking near the payphone just outside the door.
"Hey!"
Xander's eye darted back and forth almost nervously as he held a bunch of food-type snacks in his arms. "Uh, oh... hey," he greeted back, taking a moment to smile. He glanced behind her. "Um, wh-where's your friend?" He held up his arms slightly. "L-Look! Snacks. I bought enough for him, too."
"He's gone." Faith stared at the armful of junk food, then looked Xander in the eye. "Someone's got the munchies, huh?"
"Huh? Oh, yeah. Well, this is also for you. For doing a good job." He handed her some of the snacks, keeping a few for himself. "So, Mark's gone, huh? I guess more for us." His hands were slightly shaking, but he was trying so hard not to show it as he opened up a candy bar. "So, are we ready to get out of here?" he asked with a mouth full of chocolate. "Maybe next time you can show me the sites, but I just kinda really want to get out of here."
Faith stared at Xander for a few seconds, then looked past him into the convenience store. He wouldn't've...
Xander ate his candy bar, chewing. He met her face as she stared at something behind him. He glanced back at her, holding up his candy. "Do you... want some?"
"Uh..." Faith shrugged. The counterman inside wasn't chasing after Xander, so she figured he was cool. Paranoid, aren't we? So what had him so twitchy? "Sure." She grabbed a pair of chocolate bars. "Night's still young... where to next, big guy?"
Xander put the rest of the candy/junk food in his pockets. He began to walk towards the rental car, glancing back at the convenience store one last time as if expecting to see something. He blinked then faced forward again. "I was thinking, since we probably both don't want to stay too much longer, we could drive up to the Big Apple."
"Drive down, you mean," Faith said with a grin.
"Up, down, what's the diff?" he said with a shaky smile of his own before glancing behind him once more.
"And that sounds good to me. Haven't been to New York in a while. Hear they got some alligators in the sewers... could be fun." She winked at him, then gave the convenience store another quick glance. What the fuck?
THAT got Xander's attention. "Would there be... any wrestling involved? Because don't think I didn't try to market that yuletide story for a Christmas special," he said, rounding the corner to where they parked the car.
"I'm sure I can squeeze some in," Faith said, laughing with Xander.
He stopped in his tracks that the sight of the car. "Oh, MAN!"
"Oh, fuck... I can't believe it!" Faith stared at the rental car - or what was left of it. The engine and tires were gone, so were the seats. "I hate this fucking city."
Xander's shoulders sagged. He shook his head. "Now what?" He sat down on the ground, defeated. "Don't think any rental place around here is open."
"C'mon, get up. We'll grab some bikes," Faith said, pulling Xander to his feet. "They're more fun than a car, anyway."
Xander let himself be pulled to his feet. "Bikes?" He shook his head. "No WAY am I peddling all the way to New York. You've gotta be crazy."
Faith tapped Xander's forehead. "Not THAT kind of bike, Xander. Come on. I know a place."