http://freaks-myword.livejournal.com/ ([identity profile] freaks-myword.livejournal.com) wrote in [community profile] taxonomites2011-08-19 06:00 pm

01 | holo | location: sanctuary | ARRIVAL

Death felt hot, and dark, and loud and silent all at the same time.  And it kind of tickled. 

It wasn’t over like all the storybooks said it would be. There was no warm wash of air, or pretty clouds or glowing white light and the smiling face of her dead grandfather.  It wasn’t even close to falling asleep.  It was too bright for that.  It was too much pain, too much pain to go gently into that good night.  Electricity snaked through the sky, jagged scars ripped through the air and lit her up like a goddamn Christmas tree.  So many metaphors, so little time.  It was all of these things and more, and Gwen Raiden didn’t have the time to reflect. She didn’t even have time to be dead, apparently. 

All of that—betraying Angel and Connor and Nina and Spike (well...okay, she didn't really care about Spike) and the rest, fighting the dragon Cordelia (which just might have been more forthcoming than the real Cordelia), her decision to die the way she always imagined it—all that was snuffed out with her life and now it rushed back.  Here she was, in all her glory, surrounded by metal walls and a strange ceiling.  She surveyed the close space, breathing hard from that whole noble sacrifice thing which tended to take a lot out of a girl.  "Okay,” she said, and the word escaped her wrapped in a big, exhaled breath.  “Not gonna lie.  I thought heaven would be a little more…Feng Shui.” 

And as death faded away like a dream, her body felt real and solid again.  There was the hard steel floor underneath her boots, the silken feel of her gloves on her fingers, and finally, the dull pain in every muscle of her body that had been electrified just moments ago.  Gritting her teeth and shoving it down and away, where she did not have to dwell on it, she noticed the pedestal in front of her holding a fancy little gadget on it.  It looked like something once upon a time she would have been paid billions to steal.  She looked at it now with uninterest and unease.  “Or…not heaven.  Mars, huh? Interesting choice.”

There was no door, no way out and no cool breeze she’d felt just moments ago on the rooftop...

Connor, she thought, struck suddenly with a pang of sadness and guilt that gutted her.

“Okay, I get it!”  Her call echoed out to empty walls.  This was Wolfram and Hart's doing.  And if she had to claw her way out of here, literally striking down every cheap suit in this place to do it, she would.  “And not to be dramatic, but I had a thing I was doing with...the dying.  Don’t you people have better things to do than stick me in a box?  Filing briefs, or something?  Not a big, brooding vampire here.  Just a normal, law-abiding citizen."

A fib, and not even a subtle one, but she was getting testy. 
She scratched at her gloved wrist, absentmindedly, and felt something like a bracelet under the fabric.  “Sorry I killed your dragons?”

[identity profile] a-pretty-fire.livejournal.com 2011-09-23 11:40 pm (UTC)(link)
"I am," said Drusilla, simply. She was crazy, but she'd been on the edge of madness for a long time before Angelus took advantage of her visions and pushed her over the edge. That was the least of his crimes.

(His crimes were the reason that he allowed her to wander free. The guilt stopped him from driving a stake through her heart, no matter what she did or wanted to do. There was a bond between them that went deeper than anything this new girl could understand.)

[identity profile] a-pretty-fire.livejournal.com 2011-09-27 08:09 pm (UTC)(link)
"Oh, we'll meet again," promised Drusilla with a smile. After a moment of silence, a crimson tongue snaked out to moisten lips that were already the colour of blood. "I promise."