Lost In The Rain
by [R]
Rating: NC-17
Author's Notes: I wrote this as a kind of follow up to Muiriosa's 'Him'. I've been trying to write the next part in my series for days, I just needed a little kick start. And it prolly ain't good at all, but hell… you're reading it now, aren'tcha?
The rain pulled down, flattening her blazing red hair against her head, dulling the color to something that didn't quite seem so right at all. The cold of the water coming down caused her to shiver right through to the bone, and yet she knew that it wasn't just the icy weather.
In all her years of knowing the slayer, followed closely by slayers plural, she had witnessed some of the most disturbing, depreaved and sickening things ever to grace the surface of her reality. Demons, monsters from hell, human sacrifices, and so many more things she'd rather not put voice to, even in her head.
But non of them will ever surpass the horror and heart break of on the one image she would rather forget forever, stuck swirling and cluttering up her mind.
Cold, pale skin, lifeless bodies, slack mouths and so much blood. Trails of it running over cold flesh, pooling over white porcelin as it rushed to escape its prison. Those muscles that were always so tense and ready for saving the innocent, relaxed, slack, slouching. No longer holding up the bodies that have served them so well in life.
"Yay though we walk through the valley of the shadows of death.." the priest's voice softly infiltered into her thoughts, her vision clearing as she watched twin coffins being lowered into their final resting place.
She looked towards the sky, another flood of silent tears running down her face, lost in the rain.
The back of his left eye socket itched, and he wished he were in private so he could dig in his finger tip and finish the top that Caleb wanted to do so long ago. If even to just stop that final picture from clouding his mind.
He could hear the rain, shattering the ground, covering everything in water, and he found it slightly comforting to know that in their last moments, they were being washed clean. Because no matter how much she wished that being a slayer wasn't like being a killer, he knew the truth. He'd watched her performing her destiny for years.
The rain, if even in his own thoughts, seemed cleansing for them. To wash away the sins, and the pain and the hurt. To grant them the peace he knew both of them deserved so deeply, and craved so endlessly.
He'd spent the last eight years of his life fighting the vampires, right along next to him. He'd seen so many innocents loose their lives to a feeding. And in all that time, he had never seen as much blood as he witnessed that final day in the house. The water then did nothing to wash it all away, the bathtub stained an almost non existant pink hue.
"Yay though we walk through the valley of the shadows of death.." Willow shifted next to him, tilting her head towards the sky and swallowing deeply. The action causing him to snap back to the present and out of his thoughts.
He cleared his throat gently, shoving his hands deep in his pockets as he watched the coffins lowered.
She could feel the entire group standing behind her, their eyes closed in what everyone had jokingly called the 'Prayer Of The Slayers'. Those few moments before a battle, preparing themselves for the struggle to come. For those silent seconds to wish a soft farewell to a sister they'd lost.
Tossing her hair over her shoulder, she looked at them, all of them. Their heads bent, hands folded in front of them, eyes closed. Each and every muscles tense, as if they were all trying to hold the call back. Another of the little habits they'd gotten into. Endless calls and screams of release as another sister fell to death.
But the call wouldn't be accepted here. Not in public. Not when the day time light was still hanging over their heads.
Dawn felt as if she should be crying, screaming and trying to think of anything and everything to bring them back. But she shed no tears, and she felt no pain. Just an absense of everything. Completely numb.
She hadn't said a word to anyone since they'd found them.
"Yay though we walk through the valley of the shadows of death…" she watched in idle curiosity as the coffins were lowered into the ground.
She had nothing left to say.
Something, some power, some sixth sense, told every demon and monster to stay inside tonight. Hide away, lock the doors, close all the windows and be as silent as possible. Because something was happening. They could feel it rippling in the air.
A charge, electricity that prickled the skin and brought fear to the heart of even the deeply stupid, and utterly evil.
The night was pierced by a chorus of screams, that shattered the silence like a bat would shatter a pane of glass. It felt like the world itself was crying out into the night.
And it was saying: the originals are dead.
Her finger tips felt cold, numbed even, despite being covered in a liquid so think and warm. The spray of the shower splattering her as she sat leaning against the bath tub. Her arms dangling inside of it, grasping and holding on to her hands as if a life line.
In the back of her mind, she ideally wondered what would happen to the pancakes she'd cooked that morning for her's and Faith's breakfast. Would they have gone cold by now? The juice gone warm?
Did it matter anymore?
No. No, she didn't think it did anymore. Her eyelids felt so heavy, her vision blurred as she attempted to stay awake for a little while longer. Forced herself to look at the long cold body of her lover.
Her eyes were still wide open.
She lifted a weighted arm, unmindful of the blood that was streaming down her skin in a constant river, watching as droplets of that crimson liquid splashed onto her beautifully pale face, only to be washed away a moment later. Opening her hand, she laid her palm on Faith's forehead, slowly running it down her chisled features.
When her hand came away, those brown eyes were no longer visible.
It was the last time she ever saw those eyes.
A soft sob tumbled out of her mouth, as she tried to contemplate a life and existance without her girl. The back of her mind quickly and softly telling her that she won't have to. Not for much longer.
But the time already spent was enough to know that a life without her Faith, would be no life at all. Endless days of pain and anguish. Nights sobbing into her pillow, into Faith's pillow. Not caring if all her friends were out there fighting to save what was left of the world.
Because without Faith, there simply was no world for her.
Leaning her head down, she rested the side of her face on the lip of the tub, unmindful of the shot of pain that ran through her mind as she cracked her cheek against the porcelin. It wouldn't matter in a little while anyway.
She slowly closed her eyes, a picture of Faith, laughing, smiling, joking around in the kitchen from not too long ago, as she tried to make pancakes herself, running around in her mind. That cheeky grin on her face as she flung a spoonful of batter in her hair, laughing heartily when she missed and it splattered all over her face.
Another sob rose up, and she left it tumble out, along with whatever was left of her life force.
The last thing she ever saw, was Faith's smiling face.