Gone with the man in the long black coat

[wickedslayer]

Just another fucking day. Another fucking day in the Cali State Penn and another fucking Bertha who wanted to throw down. What was it with these chicks? Didn't matter how many times I broke someone's wrist they always wanted to screw with me. One of these days my ass was gonna get jumped by about fifty of 'em and they were gonna get one up on me.

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[wickedslayer]

My gaze followed him carefully as he picked up the belt and snapped it as he stood over me. Swallowing over the lump in my throat I thought of a million ways to kill him. All those moves I used to know, all the strength I used to possess. Now it was just gone, I was still a fighter though. I always had been. Mom's little firecracker. It was pissing me off that he wouldn't tell me what had happened to Angel, and maybe Angel was just really gone now. Shit. Bein' sober sucked, why'd he have to go and ruin it?

It didn't matter if I wanted to be good or not, because right now the choice was really simple. Live or die. No matter how many times I tried to commit suicide by vampire really I wanted to live. Takes a lickin' and keeps on tickin'. Kinda my motto. I didn't wanna be the thing pushin' up all the pretty daisies. He busted me out, when everyone else was content to let me rot away. That had to mean something. Maybe I was tryin' to rationalize it, but I didn't really care. Live or die. It was easy.

Besides it was hard to turn down the things he was offering in return. I was outta prison, and no longer trapped by a burden I never really carried well to begin with. I wanted to run wild through fields, and not be caged behind bars anymore. He was offering all of that to me, with the most simple decison I'd ever been offered. Live or die.

"I'll come play with you." I said slowly, still watching him carefully. Hopefully that was enough to get him to put the belt down and go back to the car. I had to find some clothes somewhere, because it was just occuring to me that I was wicked naked. Maybe another one of those cigarettes. And somehow? I was gonna have to find out what happened to Angel.

[psycho_angelus]

A lot of things crossed her face and I waited to hear what her choice was going to be. I wouldn't just ditch her body out here in a field, I'd take her some place and have fun until I grew bored. Then I'd wait until I was unbored and start all over again. Wasn't like I didn't have know all kinds of skills to keep people alive when I was playing. Darla had taught me very well. Had a feeling I could teach Faith a trick or two. She had so much potential. I'd seen her handiwork on Wes. That had almost been a thing of beauty, but she'd held back.

Smiled when she said she wanted to play. Good, smart girl. I reached out with my hand and she stared at it for a moment before taking it. Helped Faith up from the ground and took a look at her throat. No serious damage, it would heal. "Have to find you something to wear, that prison uniform sticks out like a sore thumb, and as much as I like looking at that body of yours, I think it might attract attention we don't need."

I picked up my shirt from the ground and tossed it to her. "Put that on for now. Maybe we'll find someone your size at the next gas station or rest area." Pulled on my pants before sliding into my shoes. She's still looking at me like I'm going to turn around and slit her throat. As fun as that might sound, it's hard to play with someone when they're dead. "Cut that shit out, only going to hurt you when you ask for it, or you seriously piss me off. Okay?" Or whenever I feel like it.

[wickedslayer]

Giving him a weary look I caught the black button down shirt he'd thrown at me. Still keeping a steady eye on him I pulled it on over my head and pulled my hair out over it. It hung down almost to my knees, and it was much better than that itchy prison jumpsuit. Hated that stupid thing, all covered in that guard's blood. Maybe I hadn't lost it, maybe it was okay that I killed that guard because he hurt me. He was a bad fucking thing. I could kill bad fucking things. It was what I used to do, or what I was supposed to do anyway.

My chin tilted up and I instantly snapped to attention when his voice barked out at me again. Cut that shit out? Oh yeah, sure thing. It wasn't like you just threatened to kill me or anything. And I was worried about Angel, but that would have to wait. Angelus still had a point, Angel hadn't come for me. But what if he was hurt or dead or something. Then he wouldn't be able to come for me and every other fucking person I ever knew could give a shit less. Least Angelus cared enough to bust my ass out. Even if he was kinda psycho, and freakin' me out.

In my head again I went over hundreds of ways to kill him. Knew I still could if the oppurtunity presented itself, but I wouldn't. Knew that much.

"Okay." I responded automatically, and it must be the drugs and the confusion, because I had a million mouthy comebacks for him and none of them came out. I wanted another cigarette, and I knew that we had them in the car. So I just started ambling in that direction, my bare feet treading lightly over the grass and flowers. Stomping on all the pretty flowers. They'd all die soon anyway.

[psycho_angelus]

What, no snappy comeback? I couldn't have broken her already, I hadn't even put any effort into it yet. Maybe it was the drugs wearing off. She'd better not be a pissy bitch the entire roadtrip or I was going to have to do something about that. A tiny smile cross my face when she walked by me. Oh the things we were going to do. People would be talking about it for a very long time.

I followed her to the car, grabbing the prison uniform and throwing it into the trunk for now. Wouldn't be wise to just leave it at the side of the road where someone could report seeing the damn thing. I glanced over the weapons, feeling very tempted to show her some of my toys, but with the mood she was in, I'd end up with a knife in my gut or lower down like the guard. I winced at that thought before climbing into the driver's side.

Started the car up and swerved back out into traffic, ignoring the honks from passing motorists. I gave Faith a grin. "This is your trip too, so is there any place you've always wanted to see? Doesn't matter what route we take, but our final destination is Boston." She frowned at me, looking confused. "You said you wanted to split your mother from end to end. I want to watch."

[wickedslayer]

As soon as we got back to the car, I dug through the glove compartment again until I found the pack of Marlboros that I knew he had in there. Takin' one out I lit it up with the car lighter as he started up the car and peeled back out into traffic. Now I felt mostly sober and kinda scared and pissed off. A whole buncha things, as I leaned my elbow out the window and lazily puffed on my smoke. My gaze permanantly glued to him, cause really? I didn't know the first thing about him. Other than he was evil and unpredictable and liked to kill things. Sounded alot like someone else I used to know. Emphasis on used to cause I wasn't that girl anymore. Angel saved me, showed me I didn't have to be like that.

He got my attention quick when he said the final destination was Boston. I dunno why I'd said what I'd said earlier, mostly cause I didn't think it really matter. More like a figurative thing, ya know? Now we were really gonna go kill my mother, and I knew he'd do it too. He was fucking crazy.

"Maybe we should go somewhere else instead." He gave me a sharp look and I instantly started to backtrack. My mood had gone from so fucking high to crashing down low. That was the bitch about drugs. The crash always sucked for real. Maybe he had some uppers around here somewhere. Been so long since I got to play Pharmacy. "I'm just sayin'....there's probably alot of people...you'd rather kill. Sure mum's moved on by now." If bein' a slut and an alcoholic hadn't killed her already.

I wondered where that knife I had used on the guard went. Could easily just stab him right in the atery. Sure, he was drivin' but we weren't goin' that fast. I thought my chances of surviving a car crash were better than surviving him.

[psycho_angelus]

I chuckled as I went around a car that was going too slow for my taste. Brought up her mom and now she doesn't want to do it any more. Well too fucking bad, I'd already made that decision. Maybe she's still afraid of the woman. I would have to help her get over those fears. Have to help her with a lot of things. She doesn't understand that everything's different. We're free to do whatever we want now, and no one can stop us. Anyone who tries will die a very painful death. Simple as that.

"Only one person I'd really like to kill, and that would be the wussy version of myself. Everyone else is just for pure enjoyment. People don't matter. Nothing matters but you and I. The world has been waiting a while for people like us, and we're going to show them how much fun we can have."

I glanced at her out of the corner of my eye. She was looking around for something. "If you even try to kill me, you'd better make sure to take me down with one blow, because otherwise, you will be in for a world of hurt. Do you even know what I'm capable of? What I've done in the past? I bet Soulboy never even told you the really good stuff we used to do."

Saw a sign up ahead for a rest area. Looked like we could get her some real clothes sooner than I thought. "We had a thing for nuns. There was this one that we dragged to a little shed. Had so much fun. Kept her alive for a couple of weeks, though by the end she couldn't even scream any more. It was rather disappointing. So we nailed her to the floor and burned the shed down. Made us feel all warm and tingly inside." I laughed, taking the exit.

[wickedslayer]

Fine. He just had to pull out that card didn't he? Tellin' me he wanted to kill Angel, like I was really gonna let that happen. Except there wasn't really a whole helluva lot I could do about it now. Could try and get word back to Angel, but I figured it might be the last thing I ever did. When it came to Angel, I was sure to give up my mother in a heartbeat. If it was a choice between one or the other, we were goin' to Boston. Because I wasn't gonna risk the one thing that I'd been able to count on over the years.

He caught onto my little scheme of tryin' to find a weapon awful quick, so I just went back to smokin' my cigarette. I was pretty sure he was testin' me anyway, and I had to say it was only pissin' me off more. He was pissing me off, everything was pissing me off. Even the bright shining sun. I hated coming down. Would kill for a Xanex. Well, not literally...I didn't think anyway.

My blood froze when he laughed like that, talkin about some nun he pinned to the floor. What? We gonna swap war stories now? How 'bout that guy I just stabbed to death in the groin! How'd Angelus fancy wakin' up without his dick? He thought he was crazy? I remembered bein' fucking crazy. Used to scare myself.

"In case you hadn't noticed? Welcome to the human race, Angelus. You're just as weak and pathetic as the rest of us now." I snapped out at him, flicking my cigarette out the open window as we rolled off of the exit towards a truck stop.

[psycho_angelus]

I snorted, trying to keep myself from laughing. "Anyone ever tell you that you're only as weak and pathetic as you allow yourself to be? Take you for example. You used to be able to throw guys like me across the room. Then the world shifted and you found out that all your wonderful powers went the way of the dodo."

Waited for a moment while a semi moved out of the way so we could get through. "You should see how you act now. You're like the rest of them. You think you're weak, but we both know that's not true."

Pulled the car into one of the spots and gave her my full attention. "You've got so much untapped potential locked away inside. I saw what you did to the guard. Put a weapon in your hand and suddenly you have power again. I can teach you how to have power without the weapons, turn you back into what you once were. Or you can cower in the corner like a poor little rabbit."

A woman got out of the car next to us. She was a little bigger than Faith, but the clothes should still fit. "You'd be like her. She's prey, a victim just waiting to happen." She'd never know what hit her until it was too late.

"Going to give you another choice. You go deal with that woman and take her clothes, or I will. What you do with her is totally up to you, but I know what I'll do." I ran my tongue over my bottom lip slowly, watching as she made her way to the little house at the end of the path.

[wickedslayer]

Turning my eyes away from him I listened to him ramble on about weakness and how blah blah we were only as weak as we thought we were. Yeah that theory really didn't hold water 'til you were nursin' a stab wound that left you comatose for nine months. Course he didn't get that, he hadn't been hurt since bein' human again. Not seriously anyway. I mean, I could still see all the scratches all over him from our roll in the grass, but those weren't really anything. Just scratches. How 'bout a stab wound, Angelus. Show you what it was like to really feel mortal. Somehow I didn't think he'd come to terms with his newfound mortality yet. Maybe I should help him with that.

My eyes widened as I followed his gaze to a woman gettin' out of her car next to us. Oh no! What the fuck was he thinkin'? Whatever it was? Couldn't be good for real. And who was she anyway? She wasn't like the guard that I'd stabbed cause all he'd ever done was hurt me. Same with mom. This girl? She was just...some girl. Innocent. And okay, I was the first to admit that there was no such thing as innocent, but she was. Hadn't done anything to me. Course I remembered a day where that wouldn't have mattered. Want. Take. Have. Right?

"Are you crazy?" I demanded, turnin' to face him with a glare. Okay, that was a dumb question cause he clearly was wicked crazy. "Listen up. You might be a billion years old but it's been awhile since you been human, so lemme fill you in. We're not bulletproof. We start fuckin' with this chick in the parking lot in broad daylight? Cops'll be here in no time lockin' both our asses up."

I really didn't dig the idea of goin' back to prison. Hell, hangin' out with California's newest serial killer sounded like more fun than goin' back to that place. I'd do anything to escape it, never see it again. Somehow I didn't think Angelus would wanna get locked up like the animal he was either. How did things get from fucking amazing to fucking frightening in the span of a few hours?

[psycho_angelus]

She called me crazy before going off on some thing about cops and not being bulletproof. I growled, tightening my fingers around the steering wheel until my knuckles grew white to keep myself from launching myself at her. What I really wanted to do was start punching until she begged me to stop, but then she wouldn't be much fun at all, not to mention would take a long time to heal.

I very slowly turned to look her in the face, and for half a second I thought she was going to do something very stupid like bolt from the car. No way in hell would I let her get away from me, no matter how many people might be in this parking lot. When I started to talk, my voice came out dangerously low.

"You do not talk about my sanity again, are we clear?" I was a very long way from being sane, but she would not be the one to keep reminding me of this. "You don't want to go after the girl then don't. But one way or another, I'm getting you a new set of clothes. Doesn't even have to be from her."

I already had another idea which should work just as well. Have to roll with the punches, think on your feet. "Let's go take care of business, Faithy. You are going to march your sexy ass up the hill with me. You will not scream, you will not run away, you will not try to get someone's attention."

Paused as someone walked by. Then I gave her a very serious look. "Just remember sweetie, to the public at large, you're an escaped criminal who murdered one of her guards in a very brutal fashion. The police will take you back, and I am willing to bet you'll have a few 'accidents' on the way to your cell. If you think it was bad before, it'll be worse now."

I got out of the car, stretching as I shut the door. "Now get the fuck out of my car, and come with me. I'm not stupid enough to do something and get caught. I've had a few hundred years to perfect how to do things, I'm not new at this." If Faith didn't get out of the car, I was going to grab her by her hair and lock her in the trunk for a while, see if she listened beetter after that.

[wickedslayer]

Raised an eyebrow at him again when growled. He fucking growled! He had no idea what he was yet. Sure, he thought bein' human was a big party until he was eatin' lead or steel. Mostly bein' just a run of the mill human meant pain and weakness. He really hadn't come to terms with that at all, somehow I figured I wasn't gonna be the only one learnin' things. Had a few things to teach the Psycho myself. Like what pain really meant. And when it came to pain? I didn't think anyone knew more about it than me, or had a greater tolerance for it.

Thought about just jumpin' out of the car and yellin' bloody murder until everyone was watchin'. Bet he couldn't fight off a whole parking lot full of people without a shotgun or something. But the look on his face stopped me, plus the whole thing about him bein' right. If I started screamin' would I even be able to beat feet outta here before the cops decided to show? So much slower than I was last time I was a wanted fugitive. I'd escaped prison, which was bad enough. But I'd murdered one of the guards and I knew that even the kindest of judges would lock my ass up again for good. The idea of goin' back to prison bein' a normal girl? Scared the shit outta me. Everyone always wanted to fuck with me and I knew I'd be dead if I went back there. Probably wouldn't last a week until some bitch pulled a knife on me. This time? I wasn't so sure I could bust up her wrist.

Givin' him one last look as he demanded that I get outta the car, I took the pack of smokes out of his glove compartment and stuck it in the shirt I was wearing. At least I'd bought some time for that girl he wanted me to bust up. She'd already wondered off inside with her clothes. Guessed she was out.

Opening the door, my bare feet hit the pavement and I smoothed the shirt down over my legs before I met him at the back of the car.

Crossing my arms over my chest I glanced at him and then up at the hill that he was talkin' about. Small hill, and you could see the tip of the truck stop on the other side of it. His fingers locked down over my arm and he started propelling us both forward. Angrily I yanked my arm from him and fell into step beside him.

"So what's the grand plan then?" I asked him carefully, my voice low and angry. I knew what my plan was gonna be. Seperate myself from the psycho and find a phone. Could call Angel and if worst came to worst? I'd call B.

[psycho_angelus]

I shot her a glare as we walked towards the building. When we stopped somewhere for the night, I was going to make her pay for all this back talk and bitchiness. She needed to learn who was in charge of this little trip. Little Faithy didn't understand she was mine yet, but she would, I'd make damn sure of that.

Reached into my back pocket and my fingers closed on the handle of the switchblade I kept in there. "The plan would be the two of us go into the little building, take care of business, and one of us sees about getting you some more clothing. Since you wouldn't play with the woman, I guess that means it's my job."

Brought the knife out and giggled. She looked at me with wide eyes. "I'll try not to get bloodstains on them." Stuck it into my front pocket for the moment. It would be very easy to pull out again when I needed it.

I put my fingers on Faith's arm, squeezing hard enough to make her flinch. "You've got seven minutes to meet me back at the car. Take longer than that, and you'll be riding in the trunk until I find us a motel for the night." I was fucking serious about that too.

[wickedslayer]

Nodding at him, I pressed my lips into a thin line until he finally let go of the grip he had on my arm. Pulling it back to me, I unconsciously rubbed my fingers over the bruise. Whatever he was gonna do? He was gonna do. Wasn't shit I could do to stop him. Only thing I could do was save my own ass, and I couldn't feel bad about it. Just the way things needed to be.

"I'm gonna go to the bathroom." I said quietly, before quickly turnin' my back on him and heading towards the restroom. Before I went inside I looked back to see something else had caught his attention. Good. Lookin' up as people walked by I noticed them givin' me weird looks. Probably because I was barefoot and only wearing a man's button down shirt. He was right. I did need clothes. First? I needed to get the hell outta here.

Wandering through the restroom I tried to find a window. The bathroom was huge and stall upon stall as I looked into each one lookin' for a window. Didn't even know how long had passed. Didn't feel like seven minutes, but I was kinda freaked and so time? Not really something I was payin' attention to. Finally at the very end I found a closed frosted window. Standing up on top of the toilet I tried to pry the window open, my fingers digging into the paint until I broke a couple of nails and blood started to drip from one of my fingers.

"Shit." I muttered, remembering the payphone I'd seen on my way in.

"Hey." I grabbed some lady's arm as I walked back towards the bathroom door. "Can I have some change. Please?" I musta looked pathetic enough because she dug around in her pocket and gave me fifty cents. Perfect.

Quickly I walked back to the payphone and put my money in. 411, cause I didn't have a fucking clue what Angel's number was.

"City and state please." The familiar operator voice came on.

"Los Angelus, California."

"Listing?"

"Angel Investigations." Looking around nervously I began tapping on the side of the phone, before my fingers wound around the cord. Come on, come on.

"Please hold."

Letting out a breath I tapped my foot impatiently. "The number you have requested is 803-666-7243. Please deposit an additional fifty cents to completely your call."

An additional fifty cents? I only had the fifty cents that lady gave me. "Shit!" I cursed again, slamming the phone down on the receiver. Had the number though. I could call collect. Quickly I picked the phone up off the hook and dialed the operator.