TITLE: Penance
AUTHOR: Regina
E-MAIL:
Penance
Looking back, I still marvel at how insignificant one life can seem. There I was, going into hell, and life just went right on around me. Mothers played with their children in the park. Teenagers sat at the Espresso Pump. Life went on. They were all oblivious. Just like they had been all the times Buffy had saved them. She had such a thankless job, a hero who never got any recognition. It was she needed the saving this time, though.
I couldn?t fathom what I was about to do, and part of me still can?t believe I did it. Me. Shy, quiet Willow. At that time, a part of me still felt that way. I didn?t realize my own power. Buffy had always seemed to know when I was feeling down about myself. She had a way of making me feel like a queen whenever I began to feel like the little girl inside of me. She made me feel loved. I missed that love, and was desperate to get it back.
Before I knew it, I was at my stop. I had no pack, I was told to go with only the clothes on my back. No food, clean clothes or even a brush. Hell isn?t exactly conducive to personal hygiene. The cave was near the one the Initiative had used. Funny how many big evils can fit into a small town like Sunnydale. But then again, portal to hell, which I suppose was about to come in useful.
The PTB had told me that once I was about half way through the cave, I would come to a fork. I was then to choose my path. And in all this instruction, never once had they told me which to choose, just that I ?would know?. Once I got there, I saw what they meant. Before me was your typical fork in the road. Only, cave in this case. The right was filled with an almost ethereal light; the left red and dark with the smell of sulfur. Not as hard as I thought, and all together, pretty obvious. I expected more. Then I got it. Stupid expectations.
Slowly, a figure began to emerge from each tunnel. The figure on the left came first, and of all the big nasties I?d faced in my days, it was the most disturbing. Hunched over and cleft foot, I could smell it before I could see it clearly. It was a fetid, decaying smell, which almost knocked me out from where I stood a good 3 yards away. As it got closer, my disgust only grew. It skin, where it had skin, was green and mottled, falling off in places and slapping against others with a wet slap. Stringy hair covered its entire body, and cracked teeth protruded from the skin of its lower lip. Definite hell demon. I was reluctantly preparing to step towards it when a voice from the right tunnel called my name. A very familiar voice.
?Wills??
I turned to the right tunnel to see Buffy emerging from the white smoke that rolled from the opening. Only, it wasn?t Buffy, it couldn?t be. It couldn?t be this easy, could it? She motioned to me, and I was filled with such hope I knew I was only setting myself up for a fall. But these things were pushed to the back of my mind as my lover walked towards me with her arms opened wide. A small part of my mind still told me this wasn?t Buffy, but when my hand sought hers and met real flesh, all my thoughts melted away instantly. She drew me into her arms, and I was reunited with my lover.