Snippet: Empty Grave

["sochankitsune" <annelise@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

There were no words of warning, 
The day that Sunnydale was destroyed.
The innocents died beneath their sheets; 
The children never even cried.

"Join us or die!" A demon cried, 
But there was nothing to decide.
No fitting testament 
To the people that had died.

So I fought as a Slayer must, 
As I battled throughout the day.
Yet sunrise found me lacking, 
And I felt an urge to pray.

But those powers that lightly govern this land 
Knew more of what the demons planned
And in a holocaustal ball of fire, 
The problem was blown away.

I saw a pregnant woman
Lying naked at the side of the road.
Her face was slick with feces,
Her dying breath a tale to be told.

The trail of blood that followed her
Reminded me of Willow's copper hair.
Her final gasp was a painful rasp,
Her gaze became a mile-long stare.

And I stood up to the horizon
And I screamed for what we'd lost.
There's nothing left worth fighting for;
We'd paid a higher cost!

So I screamed before the storm that brewed
And thought upon what I'd seen.
The abyss glanced into my soul
As the sands of time ran thin.

And I screamed before the storm that brew
As the gates to Hell fell down.
The sky turned black with ash and anger
As I trod the charcoal ground.

And the tears of the angels fell
as dust upon the breeze,
The blood spilled upon the land ran dry
And fire consumed the trees.

I pondered, as I walked the wastes
Of this Hell manifest on earth,
Is there ever an end to evil,
Or is its presence a fitting curse?

when at last my nightmare ended
And I woke upon my bed,
The lesson remained, a valid refrain
That I carried within my head.

I questioned what I'd been fighting for,
And the answer I surmised,
Wasn't for duty, or for honour...
It was a revelation, a surprise!

I fight for those I love most dear,
Not the people that I save,
For Willow's smile I'd rescind heaven
And never regret my empty grave.