[JP] Stephen King quote
[Set in Broken Promise Land.]
“Monsters are real, and ghosts are real too. They live inside us, and sometimes, they win.”
When she told Angel that they were meant to take separate roads, this wasn’t exactly what she had in mind.
She knew that the Powers had some kind of plan for her in the long run. She was still having her visions, though after the whole Jasmine incident, they had been ratcheted back up to their usual level of pain and agony. She was no longer a half-demon, but she had been assured by the Assholes that Be that these visions wouldn’t kill her. She personally didn’t find that very reassuring, so she would still be waiting for her head to explode out the back of her skull, but she’d deal with it for the time being.
The first few years had been a whole lot of nothing. In fact, there weren’t even very many visions, and the ones that she did have weren’t very clear. Two men, trapped in some kind of cosmic ass-kicking, and they didn’t even know their strings were being yanked, but they were the heroes in the story, and considering she didn’t have a hero to point in their direction, she wasn’t going to get involved. She was done with champions. They only tended to end with her getting her heart broken. She was more than happy to just work her regular nine-to-five in Phoenix at the local clothing boutique and try to come up with some semblance of a life. And so far, it had been working.
Until she had a vision of one of those heroes again, but this time, she was in it. As soon as she recovered from the mind numbing pain, she went to find someone to yell at.
“Oh, subtle, real subtle!”
She looked back at the Oracle with determined eyes, and the two faces just stared right back at her, crossing their arms in front of their chests. “You have a debt you owe, Cordelia. It’s about time you started repaying it.”
“I told those dicks that I was done with the hero business,” she glared, crossing her arms in front of her chest. “And I thought that I got to live because they owed me one-not the other way around!”
“You dealing with Angel in his time of need fulfilled the debt you were owed. Keeping you alive as a human was a favor. Now they expect it to be repaid.”
“No. Anything but this. I’m not going to go bolster some guy.” She wanted to go bolster Angel. If she needed to back a champion, why couldn’t it be the man she’d been in love with?
“Your time with Angel is done, Cordelia. It is time that you move on.” They raised a hand, there was a bright light, and the next thing she knew, she was landing on the pavement on her back, in pain and cursing.
“Stupid bastards,” she muttered as she pushed herself to her feet. “I need a damn drink.”
If she had been paying attention, she might have noticed that she was in the same bar she was in in the visions, but she wasn’t. Instead, she was focusing on the very strong rum and Coke in front of her and trying to block out the throbbing pain. She had a migraine, she was miserable, and she was not in the mood to be screwed with, but apparently, that didn’t mean everything to some beings.
“Ms. Chase, I’ve been told to cut you off,” the bartender said with a sigh as she sat in the bar taking the empty glass from her and not going to refill it.
“I’ve only had two!”
“You know how he is. I’m sorry.”
“Fine,” she said with a mutter as she grabbed her purse off the bar next to her and started to storm out towards the door. “I’ll just go get plastered somewhere else.” She was in the middle of a perfectly good storm out towards the door when she felt it. The small tingle at the back of her spine that came before the mind numbing pain. “Oh, no,” she whispered. “Not here.”
And with that, she fell backwards, pitching towards the floor as she grasped her forehead in pain.
698 words
“Monsters are real, and ghosts are real too. They live inside us, and sometimes, they win.”
When she told Angel that they were meant to take separate roads, this wasn’t exactly what she had in mind.
She knew that the Powers had some kind of plan for her in the long run. She was still having her visions, though after the whole Jasmine incident, they had been ratcheted back up to their usual level of pain and agony. She was no longer a half-demon, but she had been assured by the Assholes that Be that these visions wouldn’t kill her. She personally didn’t find that very reassuring, so she would still be waiting for her head to explode out the back of her skull, but she’d deal with it for the time being.
The first few years had been a whole lot of nothing. In fact, there weren’t even very many visions, and the ones that she did have weren’t very clear. Two men, trapped in some kind of cosmic ass-kicking, and they didn’t even know their strings were being yanked, but they were the heroes in the story, and considering she didn’t have a hero to point in their direction, she wasn’t going to get involved. She was done with champions. They only tended to end with her getting her heart broken. She was more than happy to just work her regular nine-to-five in Phoenix at the local clothing boutique and try to come up with some semblance of a life. And so far, it had been working.
Until she had a vision of one of those heroes again, but this time, she was in it. As soon as she recovered from the mind numbing pain, she went to find someone to yell at.
“Oh, subtle, real subtle!”
She looked back at the Oracle with determined eyes, and the two faces just stared right back at her, crossing their arms in front of their chests. “You have a debt you owe, Cordelia. It’s about time you started repaying it.”
“I told those dicks that I was done with the hero business,” she glared, crossing her arms in front of her chest. “And I thought that I got to live because they owed me one-not the other way around!”
“You dealing with Angel in his time of need fulfilled the debt you were owed. Keeping you alive as a human was a favor. Now they expect it to be repaid.”
“No. Anything but this. I’m not going to go bolster some guy.” She wanted to go bolster Angel. If she needed to back a champion, why couldn’t it be the man she’d been in love with?
“Your time with Angel is done, Cordelia. It is time that you move on.” They raised a hand, there was a bright light, and the next thing she knew, she was landing on the pavement on her back, in pain and cursing.
“Stupid bastards,” she muttered as she pushed herself to her feet. “I need a damn drink.”
If she had been paying attention, she might have noticed that she was in the same bar she was in in the visions, but she wasn’t. Instead, she was focusing on the very strong rum and Coke in front of her and trying to block out the throbbing pain. She had a migraine, she was miserable, and she was not in the mood to be screwed with, but apparently, that didn’t mean everything to some beings.
“Ms. Chase, I’ve been told to cut you off,” the bartender said with a sigh as she sat in the bar taking the empty glass from her and not going to refill it.
“I’ve only had two!”
“You know how he is. I’m sorry.”
“Fine,” she said with a mutter as she grabbed her purse off the bar next to her and started to storm out towards the door. “I’ll just go get plastered somewhere else.” She was in the middle of a perfectly good storm out towards the door when she felt it. The small tingle at the back of her spine that came before the mind numbing pain. “Oh, no,” she whispered. “Not here.”
And with that, she fell backwards, pitching towards the floor as she grasped her forehead in pain.
698 words