What was it you wanted could it be I'm haunted

[mr_angel]

When Harry and I finally made it back to the beach I felt like I needed to play parent with both he and Faith. God, they both just had stormed off in opposite directions. What was I supposed to do in that? The last thing we needed right now was to be pissed off at each other. Of course, that seemed to the running theme. Getting pissed at each

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[mr_angel]

Talking sounded like a good plan except for the fact that even though the guy was her father, I didn't trust him. Didn't either her or Harry get that? Harry was trying to say that he actually cared about Faith and who the hell knows, maybe he does. That still doesn't take away the fact of who he is. What his instincts are and what the fucking purpose behind all of this is. As in, why would he have us locked up and tortured only to show how much he cares for his daughter?

Whatever. It left open questions about Faith and yeah even their children, but the truth was ugly at times and this was no different. Fuck. Darla and I were vampires at the time Connor was born. Did that make him one or even evil? No. It made him different, sure, but that didn't mean it had to be something bad.

Fuck prophecies. They weren't always as set in any kind of stone as people made them out to be. They could be changed and we all still had our free will. No dead parent, evil or not, could take that away from any of us.

"What? Like I was comfortable letting you come out here alone? You don't know what might happen when you see him again, Faith. Personally, I wouldn't want you to be coming out here to look for him in the first place but this is better than you going off by yourself." Or taking Connor. He would've gone with her with much of a second thought probably which in a way I appreciated, but I didn't want him anymore involved in this than he had to be.

We got to the edge of the jungle where the compound was located and I glanced around briefly. There didn't seem to be anyone around. Everything was quiet.

"Let's just get in and out of here as fast as possible."

[neverbeenfree]

I just looked at him for a second, forcing my face into something indescernable when he said he wasn't comfortable with me going alone. In case he didn't realize it, I could take care of myself. Lifetime of practice. And wasn't I the one who managed to fight our way out of there? Big shiny hero and all that? Why didn't he just let the big shiny hero go off and do her thing, or whatever?

"Okay," I muttered in reply to Angel's suggestion that we just get in and then get back out as fast as possible. I was down with that plan, as long as I managed to walk away with a few answers that is. I thought about what that Locke guy had said to me about the journey I take with my questions. Well, it was leading to here, to whatever it was that I kept feeling. Hard to explain.

Stepping inside the compound's main gates I glanced around at the now familiar hallway. There wasn't anyone around, not even the dead bodies I had left behind before, they had all been cleaned up.

"Hello?" I called out, even though I was pretty sure that was a dumb idea considering I wasn't carrying a gun this time around. The only thing that answered me was the echo of my own voice. Shaking my head I kept walking just a little bit in front of Angel before taking that same sharp turn to the left. The room with the freezer in it, with the giant tank they'd forced Harry into. If I closed my eyes, I could still hear him screaming.

"Anybody here?" I asked, my fingers brushing over an empty lab table as I frowned and glanced around. "Why do I get the feeling somebody cleaned house?" I asked Angel.

Walking past him again I kept walking down the hallway until I stopped in front of a familiar door. The same door that had locked me into a small room for days. Curiousity got the best of me, even though I was kinda freaked and I opened up the door and saw a little girl standing there.

"Who are you?" I asked her, just as Angel finally caught up to me. He took a step back when he looked over my shoulder and saw the girl. "Huh? You know her?" I asked him.

[mr_angel]

The compound looked pretty much like we left it the last time we were here getting Grace. Empty. After we spoke to Faith's father the first time the place had cleared out and we didn't run into any person wearing any kind of white coat on out way out of there. Now it didn't look like were going to run into anyone now that we were back inside.

I left the room with the freezer and tank a moment after Faith and when I walked down the hallway I looked to see her opening the door. That fucking door that we tried so desperately to get past and open for three days. Harry and Faith had gotten out only to be brought somewhere worse, but those walls were the only thing I saw for three days and I wasn't looking to revisit my stay. It was enough to be in this place at all.

Frowning when I heard Faith's voice, I walked up behind her and saw a girl standing there in the room. No. Wait, this wasn't right. I shook my head slightly and took a step back, barely hearing Faith's question.

"Liam?"

I looked quickly to Faith. Okay, she was seeing her too? How? This wasn't possible right? Kathy wasn't a demon. I think I should know since I was the one who killed her. But why was she staring me in the face now?"

"Liam, you came. They told me you'd come. I've been waiting."

Faith was looking back and forth between me and the girl and I couldn't take my eyes off of her now. "She's my sister."

Kathy stepped towards both of us and I stood still, watching her. "You always return to me, don't you Liam?" She smiled sweetly and reached up to take my hand and her's was warm. Confused, I looked at Faith. What was going on?

[neverbeenfree]

Welcome to the Twilight Zone, may I take your order?

I just stared back and forth between Angel and.....the girl who was apparently his sister. Huh. Well, that would explain the wardrobe, I mean seriously. I knew he was like a zillion years old but she looked old. Not old old, but what she wearing, how her hair was done, the whole shebang. She kept callin' him Liam and I thought back to the little bit of homework I had been to do once in awhile. That was Angel's name when he was human. Liam. Holy shit. At least me and Harry weren't the only ones seeing dead family members.

She stepped closer and I immediately took a step back because she freaked me out a little bit. I thought she was a spook but she grabbed Angel's hand and held onto it, like really held onto it. Do ghosts touch stuff?

"Oh shit..." I muttered thinking about all of the things I had seen, all of the people who had died so long ago and now I was face to face with them on this island. Angel had been right, none of this was real. It took me seeing it happen to him to get me to realize that. The look on his face...God, we were all getting played on this island. I'm not the monster, I kill the monsters.

"Where have you been waitin'?" I asked her curiously. "Cause I gotta tell you, we stayed here for a few days and I didn't see no creepy little girl hangin' around."

She giggled at me a little bit before turning back to Angel. "She's funny."

Yeah, I'm a laugh riot.

[mr_angel]

Okay, so I'd been worried about coming face-to-face with my dead father. Not my sister. My parents weren't a part of this and my sister definately couldn't be. But why was she here? I'd been a part of the little experiments during our three-day long stay here at the Quality Inn (pain torture not extra), but since then Harry and Faith had been the ones to get the visits from their pasts. Okay, there had been Doyle but that was a lot different than seeing any family members who were supposed to be dead. And that had been a dream. Right?

"I've been in there," Kathy said pointing to the room.

They fucking kept her there? Had she been there when we'd come for Grace and I hadn't even bothered to check. Fuck. For all we knew they could've taken anyone from the beach and had them locked in here. It wasn't like we were keeping tabs on everyone.

"But Liam found me." She smiled back up at me and tugged on my hand. "Father said you wouldn't come, but I knew you would. Just like you did before, remember?" Oh shit. Yeah, I remembered. "But you weren't an angel, were you?"

"No, I wasn't." She was looking at me with curious wide eyes and I knew now we needed to get out of here. Looking up at Faith, I nodded to the way we'd just come from. "We have to get back to the beach."

[neverbeenfree]

Wow. This was the real deal. A ghost or something Wolfram and Hart brought back? It was just a trip to watch except the look on Angel's face was kinda fucking with me, along with all of the things that Lil' Sis here was goin' on about. Wait a sec, if I remember my Angel history (which I pretty much only know a little bit but bear with me here) didn't Angelus kill his entire family after Darla turned him into a big badass? Did family include little sisters?

I thought about saying oh shit again but that seemed redundant so I just thought it while I watched the two of them. Glancing back up at Angel I took a step away from creepy little girl and nodded up at him. "Yeah, there's nothing here." I said and just as the words left my mouth the little girl started to cry.

Okay, now I just felt bad. "You're going to go again, Liam." She cried, holding onto hsi hand still. "You always go and then you come back and hurt us. I waited here for you."

My eyes softened a little bit as I turned my eyes to her, she looked genuine and so did the look on her big brother's face. He did kill her, that was what this was about.

"We gotta get out of here." I said, grabbing Angel's arm and pulling him away from her a little bit. "C'mon..."

I didn't know why his sister was here, but I suspected it was to fuck with him. Was that why all of these family members kept coming back? To fuck with us? It was a little more real watching it happen to somebody else.

[mr_angel]

There was nothing here. Maybe for Faith, but what about me? I had my little sister trapped in the room that we'd been stuck in. Had they done anything to her? I'd fucking kill every single one of them if they had. Which was ironic I guess since I'd been the one to kill her in the first place.

Now she was crying and Faith was saying we needed to leave. I couldn't just leave her here, could I? They'd stick her back in the room. "I can't.." I said quietly to Faith as she tried to pull me away. "I can't leave her here." Looking away from my sister, I stared at Faith. I'd helped her save Grace, couldn't she help me save my sister now too?

Kathy was still crying and I looked down to her again. Sweet Kathy. No tears. We'll meet again. "I won't hurt you again. I promise."

"Yes you will. Father said you would. He was right."

I could feel her hand starting to slip from mine. No, I couldn't leave her here. "I'm sorry I hurt you."

"Stay here, Liam. Don't let them hurt me."

Faith was still pulling on my arm and Kathy had let go of my hand by now. Could I just leave? What if this was actually real? Harry's father and Faith's mother were real. What meant that they couldn't have brought my sister back?

I didn't realize it, but while Faith was still pulling me along I was walking backwards down the hallway with her. We'd turned a corner and my sister was no longer in sight. Jerking my arm away from Faith, I walked back around the corner and looked to the door where she'd been standing. She was gone.

"What? Where did she go? They took her somewhere else?" Or was I completely insane and imagined the entire thing. Except not because Faith had seen her too.

[neverbeenfree]

Watchin' this, hearin' it, whatever was makin' me kind of sad cause I knew what it felt like to be confronted with your past on this island. Dunno why it hadn't hit Angel until now but I knew that the sick feeling in his gut was probably growing by leaps and bounds. Still pulling on his arm, I kinda wanted to just let him stay and figure it out on his own but I couldn't. Not knowing what I know now, I had to pull him away from it.

I finally managed to pull him away only to have him jerk away from me and head back towards the room. God, that room. I'd never shake it, never be free of it and it seemed even more suspicious to me that Angel's dead little sister was hiding in there. She was dead, not real. Just like Diana and all the rest. I dunno what made Lena different and Norman but they were.

I just stood there and watched him for a second as he realized she wasn't there. A spook after all, I guess.

"This island.....it does things to you. Everything follows you around." I said in a calm voice. "I don't know how it works, it just happens. She's just a ghost..." He stormed back over to my part of the hallway and I started to reach out and touch his arm tentatively but the tension rolling off of him in waves stopped me halfway and I withdrew my hand again.

"Sorry." I said, even though I had no reason at all to apologize to him.

[mr_angel]

Clenching my fists at my sides, I turned away from the room and walked back over to Faith. Just a ghost. Right. What was supposed to be real and what was supposed to be a ghost? And how the hell were we all supposed to kow the difference?

She said she was sorry and I just looked at her. Sorry? She didn't need to be sorry. Instead, I looked away from her down the hall. "Me too." After a pause, I nodded at her. "Let's go."

It didn't take us long before we were back outside the compound and making our way back towards the beach. Was that it? We came all the way back out there only to find nothing but more questions? Jesus, I hated this island.

We'd been walking a little ways through the woods when after stepping past a brush we came face-to-face with a guy I'd never seen before who was just looking calmly at the both of us. Stopping, I looked at Faith. Okay, what the fuck. Was it her turn now? Was this some kind of dead brother or hey, I don't know, a cousin of Faith's? Let's just bring all the family members out to play, shall we?

But looking at Faith, she looked about as clueless as I did at this point. "Do you know him?"

[neverbeenfree]

Him too. Right. What were we sorry about? Everything. Does everything work for you? Because I didn't have a better answer than that. I just followed him out of the compound even though the rest of me was sayin' we should go back and explore the rest of it. I wanted to, at least partly. What I didn't want was for more dead people to come out of the woodwork and try to fuck with us. That was the last thing we needed, so I just agreed to leave.

We walked a little ways when we almost bumped straight into that Locke guy. "Yeah, I mean...kinda." I answered Angel as I looked back at Locke. "What are you doing out here?" I asked him curiously.

"I'm looking for you, Faith." He replied.

"Uhh...okay. Well, you found me. What's up?" I quirked an eyebrow in his direction cause he was a creepy old guy. Not scary creepy or anything but just weird. Like all that stuff he was saying on the beach about how he thinks I'm the key to something. Insane old guy.

"I need you to do something." He seemed kinda excited about something and it made me think maybe this guy really should be sent back and shipped to the looney bin. "You have to come with me." He nodded at me like I should obviously just follow him.

"Riiight. I'm kinda busy right now. Maybe later." I said as I brushed past him again with Angel shooting me a curious look. What? It's not my fault that I obviously attract psychos.

"Faith," It was only a second later when I heard him chasing after us again. God damn it.

[mr_angel]

Alright, who was this guy? Faith said she knew him (sorta) but from the looks of it, he wanted to be her new best friend. Even as Faith was starting to walk away from him, he came after us.

"Wait, I need to show you something, Faith." This time I stopped before Faith and just looked at the guy.

"What are you talking about?"

"The island. It can speak to you." Uhhh... "Go into the woods, a little ways off the path back to the beach. There's a tent set up."

Frowning, I turned back to Faith who'd stopped and was standing behind me now. He reached out, took her hand and placed some herbs in her palm.

"Take these. Build a fire and wait for the steam to rise and he will come to you."

"Who's he exactly?" I asked and glanced back up from the herbs he'd put in Faith's hand.

"The island."

Huh? I looked back to Faith and from the look on her face, she's heard some of this before. The island talks you? Honestly, I wasn't wanting to hear what the island had to say, especially to both of us. Probably something along the lines of 'get the fuck off of me.'

[neverbeenfree]

"Not this crap again." I rolled my eyes as I stopped and looked at Locke. Angel seemed to maybe buy whatever this guy was selling but I pretty much just thought he was a nutjob. The island doesn't talk to me, it's all the dead people on it that do. Seriously. This guy was just some whack born again who thought that just cause I got superpowers and my name is Faith that I'm some kind of second coming or something. Hey, it ain't the first time.

"Faith, I've spoken to this island but it wants to talk to you. Now you can believe me or not, but I thought that someone who's different like yourself might have a little faith in something that can't really be explained."

Oh man, he was layin' it on thick he was. I swapped a look with Angel before sighing and glancing over at Locke again.

"So I just make some steam in a tent and the island'll talk to me?" I asked him. This was crazy but it wasn't like I had a better idea and I wanted answers yeah? "Okay."

"You'll need to take this." He said as he handed me a small bowl of something. Opening it up I glanced inside and wrinkled my nose at what was in there. "You have to ingest it before any of it can start."

"Eat it?" I asked sniffing at what was inside again.

"Yes, it's herbs from around the island. Completely harmless, but you'll need it to speak to him."

"The island....right." I looked up at him again before covering up what was in the bowl. Shooting a sarcastic smile up at Angel I nodded my head. "Okay, guess we're gonna go talk to the island now."

This was crazy and when I got back to the beach I plan to say I told you so.

[mr_angel]

Obviously this guy was one of the original people on the island but wow. Were they all like this? I guess they could be asking the same things about us, but really. Talk to the island? Yeah, okay fine. I'd just been talking to my sister who's been dead for over two centuries, but what the fuck ever.

"Right.." I said to Faith with a slight nod. We were going to go talk to the island.

One last look at the guy with his magical herbs and we were walking off in the direction he told us to go. We were seriously going through with this? Right. We walked a little ways, took the turn off the path back to the beach and right there was a tent in front of us. "Huh."

So, this was it? Just make some fire in a tent and the island would talk to us. Exchanging looks with Faith, we both ducked inside the tent and there was already evidence of a fire that had been built once before. I guess he'd already had his talk with the island and now it was our turn.

Kneeling on the ground, I shook my head then started gathering some pieces of wood that were at the edge of the tent and built them up to make the fire. "You have the.. whatever you're supposed to eat?"

[neverbeenfree]

We finally got to the tent Locke was goin' on about and both ducked inside. I sat down on on a small log that had been put there to sit on apparently and watched as Angel started to build up the fire again. Was this for real? I guess it was and even Angel wasn't fighting it which made me wanna go through with it. Cause hey, we might be different than other people but we were still creatures of habit. This kinda heebie jeebie stuff wasn't my cup of tea. I'm way better at just killin' stuff.

"Yeah, I have it." I replied, staring at the flames as they started to slowly lick up the kindle that had been put in the fire. You'd think a vampire would stay far away from a fire but I guess not him. Glancing at the stuff again in my hand I just looked at it. I didn't know Locke and I had no idea what was in this junk or what it would do to me. What if he was trying to kill me or something?

I wanna go home now. I wanna go home so bad. I hate this island and I didn't wanna talk to it. Nothing's been right here, nothing's been right for awhile.

"Angel," I said suddenly, and waited for him to turn around and look at me. "I don't want you to be the enemy." I just stared at him and he looked confused but not all at the same time. "I know that I treat you that way, or I have been lately. It sucks, I wanna stop fighting you all the time. Things are just....really fucked up here." Hi. Understatement much? Wanted to and would were obviously two seperate things and I wasn't really sure where that came from either. Just that I had a thousand reasons to hate him but in the end he was usually the one standin' by my side when the smoke cleared.

[mr_angel]

The fire was lit and I watched it for a while, watching the smoke rise. For once, I was glad I didn't have to breathe because inhaling smoke inside of a tent didn't sound like a good time right now. Brushing off my hands, I paused when Faith said my name. Not just her saying it, but there was something in her voice and how she said it.

Sitting back, I moved next to her and listened. She didn't want me to be the enemy. Neither did I, but that wasn't my choice to make. The only thing I could do was try and show her that I wasn't, but in the end it was still her choice to make about who I was.

"I know," I said quietly. "I've said it before, but I'm not your enemy. Even after so many things have happened.." I let that thought fade out and I shook my head a bit. "Everything is fucked up. A lot. I can't change what all has happened here or even anything that happened before we got on this island. But I don't want you to think I am your enemy."

Speaking of fucked up.

"Hey, maybe this guy knows what he's talking about and the island will.. tell us whatever it's supposed to." Raising a brow at her, I nodded to the bowl she had in her hands. "Okay.." Reaching in, I made a face and grabbed a bit of the herbs. "Let's talk to the island now," I said half sarcasticlly but also I was actually hopeful that this would work.

Putting the stuff in my mouth, I grimaced at the taste and swallowed then watched as Faith did the same before turning back to look at the fire.

Alright, island. Let's talk.

[neverbeenfree]

Angel put the water on the rocks and steam started to fill up the tent, stickin' to my hair and my skin and my clothes as Angel talked to me. I'm sure the sudden sauna wasn't really buggin' him cause he's room temperature all the time but it just got really fuckin' hot in here. I was startin' to think maybe he was right about this whole enemy thing. That it wasn't him, it was the guys who had us locked up in that room, kidnapped my sister, put us on this island in the first place. It didn't matter what I wanted to think about my dad. He wasn't the good guy.

Reaching my finger into the stuff in the bowl I put it in my mouth and grimaced at the taste. God, what the shit was that? I wiped some sweat off of my forehead and set the bowl back down on one of the rocks just as someone tapped me on my right shoulder. Which made me jump cause Angel was sitting to my left.

"Hello Faith." Said the man sitting next to me with a shock of dark hair and bright blue eyes.

"Who the fuck are you?" I asked him, scooting over a little more towards Angel.

"My name's Boone, I'm going to be your guide on the island. John sent you I take it?" He asked me right back and I just stared at him. Where the hell had he come from? Was he the island?

I nodded at him a little. "Yeah."

Suddenly the room started to spin a little and I thought it was the shit that Locke had given me to eat. "What did you give me?" I asked, glancing over at Angel who looked about as good as I felt.

"Better hurry, super speed won't really help you if you can't keep up." I heard Boone's voice and it felt like falling into darkness.

Suddenly everything flashed bright white and I was standing up, standing on...a deck somewhere between Boone and Angel. I looked around. The Christina O. What the fuck?