TITLE: Penance
AUTHOR: Regina
E-MAIL:
Penance
I just couldn?t touch her enough. Portal to hell at my back forgotten, I made it my mission to touch ever inch of her body as I kissed her. After passions were semi-bated, I pulled back to look at her.
?Oh, Buffy, I don?t believe it! How?d this happen? I thought I had to go into hell.?
?You just had to prove you would, that?s all it took.?
Her hands seemed to be everywhere at once, on my face, my back, twined in my hair. She wrapped her arms around me and as my face was pressed into her silk covered shoulder, I took note of what she was wearing.
A long, white silk shift flowed over her body, and her hair was woven with flowers. The entire outfit looked vaguely familiar and as I tried to remember where I had seen it, her hands were replaced by her mouth, moving hungrily over my neck and face. As she brushed my ear, I jumped and she pulled back with a grin on her face.
?Someone?s ticklish.?
?Yeah, Buffy, you know that. My ear, remember.?
?Oh, yeah, well, hell and all, it takes a lot out of you.?
Then I realized that something wasn?t right. ?Speaking of. . .?
?Yes?? Her hands were back to their job, provoking me in ways she knew she shouldn?t.
?Why were you in heaven instead of hell??
?Funny story, really, I?ll tell you once we leave. We really should be going now though.?
As she stood, her shift parted and revealed her left leg, which had a very non-Buffy tattoo of a snake twining up it. Then it hit me. The dress, the tattoo, all of it. Everything clicked into place and suddenly things were painfully clear. It wasn?t Buffy. It was a Sherack.
There was a small reference to the Sherack in one of Giles? mythology books. They were supposed Celtic temptresses, who preyed on the grieving by taking the form of their lost loved one. Once they have the trust of their victim, they slowly drain their life force through touch. Once the host is weak enough, the Sherack draws them back to hell. If I ever got out of here, I?d have to remember to add this to Giles? list of things that aren?t supposed to exist.
Then I remembered the bad part. If a mortal touches a Sherack of his or her own free will, the only way to ever be separated from it is to kill it. Now I just had to remember how to do that.
I slowly backed away, trying to distance myself from the demon.
?What are you doing?? It asked, Buffy?s patented ?make willow melt? smile on its lips. ?Let?s go.?
?Oh, ok, go, sure, OR, we could stay here a little while. Take in the scenes, like this fellow over here. How often do you see a genuine hell demon??
?Very. Let?s GO.?
It turned to walk off, and that when I saw the saw the tiny bump marring the smoothness of the silk that stretched across it?s upper back. That was it! I remembered that, to kill the Sherack you had to sever the mole on its back. Very icky, this demon killing business.
?Wills, come on.?
?Wait! Better idea! Let?s, um, make out! That?s it. C?mon, baby I?m yours!?
?Here. You want to make out at the gate to hell.?
?Sure. You know me. Danger turns me on.?
?Really??
?Yeah. So come on. On with the making out.?
I tried to pretend I was kissing Buffy lips, and not ancient demon lips as I slowly worked the chain around my neck off. On it was a silver charm in the shape of a star. Buffy had given it to me right after we?d first gotten together, and told me it would protect me. I hoped she was right. Once I got it out, I concentrated on transforming it into a dagger, a handy little trick I had learned one night while Tara and I were trying to turn silver change into a sword.
I felt the star begin to shift, and before long I held a perfect, tiny blade in my hand. I slowly moved my hands around the Sherack?s back, levitated the blade, and brought it down swiftly. The demon drew back quickly, letting out a strangled gasp, and began to decompose. Not in that handy dusty way vampires have, this was more of a melt into a nasty rank puddle thing. As I stared at the after effects of Sherack mole removal, I heard a sickening crunching behind me.
I turned to see the nasty demon shifting to a very human form, bones and all by the sound of it. When the ick factor was over, a rather attractive man stood before me. He was tall, with creamy white skin and eyes that were almost black, and reminded me a little of Angel.
?Well, that was touch and go for there a minute, wasn?t it? I really thought you were gonna go be ?Racks love slave. Where?d you learn how to spot a Sherack??
?Who ARE you??
?Oh, that. Micheal. You?re guide.?
?I get a guide? Hey, if you?re my guide, why did you just sit there while I almost got the life drained out of me.?
?Well, my hands were tied, hon. Plus, in that form, they were really more hooves than hands. Plus, that girl on girl action there was kinda hot. Is that who you?re trying to find??
?Yes, and HEY! Why were you all demony in the first place??
?Well, you had to choose for yourself. This whole journey is about you. Your strengths, weakness, hopes, fears. Your gonna have to know yourself if you want to go any further. If I showed up looking as hot as I am now, of course you?d have picked me.?
?Really.?
?Well, of course. You?re lucky you?re even getting to go on. Normally, staying so long over there would have automatically put you out of the game, but some part of you knew that wasn?t your girl. You?re a lucky one, but you gotta stop taking things at face value. Nothing can be taken that way down here. Nothing is that way. Now come on, we got a blonde to find.?
More than a little confused, and very put off by my psycho guide, I took deep breath and stepped into hell.