Fleeting

Part IV - Hell And Back Again
A/N: For those of you who reviewed, these next two parts are for you. and everyone else? review dammit! how am i supposed to know if it's good or not, if you don't?

~ ~ ~

“Well well, isn’t this a surprise?” the voice jolted me out of the haze I seemed to have been existing within for the last year or five. My vision swam in front of me, making it hard for me to focus on the being sat in front of my battered and bruised body. “You know, you weren’t supposed to be here now.”

I shifted slightly, closing my eyes and swallowing the bile that rose up within me, as I left the jagged edges of two broken ribs, creak against each other and push at my skin.

“When that whole mayor thing went down, well hoo boy howdy! *then* you were down on the guest list. But you just had to go screw things up by doing that whole redemption gig.” The voice continued talking to me as I was making a mental checklist of exactly what in me was broken.

Four ribs.
Left wrist.
Dislocated left shoulder.
Shattered kneecap.
Twisted right knee.
Broken right ankle.

Fantastic.

“Yeah, you landed pretty hard. Haven’t seen someone hit the ground like that in a good long millennia. But then, mystical portals always shake things up with speed.”

“Where..” my voice sounded completely alien to my ears, causing me to cough and swallow before trying again.

“No no. don’t bother. I know what you’re gonna say. And, unfortunately, there’s been one *hell* of a mistake. Someone in admin’s gonna pay for this one, if that blonde slayer ever gets wind of this.”

What the fuck, are you talking about?

“Listen, some dumbass in admin screwed up. Something about the old filing system being in disarray or something. Anyway, he had your file. And then saw on the monitors what you were about to do. So, he was there in that portal, ready to bring you here. Figured he’d get a promotion or something. Pffft. Lucky if he gets away with just a broken neck.” The guy, because it was obviously a guy. I’ve never met any female yet would could talk in that low of a pitch.

“so, basically, he screwed up, took you when he wasn’t supposed to, brought you here. And there in lies the problem.”

I found my vision growing slightly darker, despite having my eyes wide open. What the fuck was *wrong* with them anyway?

“Oh.. that. You haven’t used them in about a year. Listen, you’re obviously about to pass out again, so I’m gonna leave you to it, and I’ll be back when you start coming around again. Okay?” if he was expecting an answer, he was disappointed.

He was gone before my head hit the deck.

~ ~ ~

“hey sleepy head.” I groaned out loud as I was forced, once again, out of the darkness that seemed to like me so much. I mean, what’s not to like? It’s quite, you don’t have to move, and no one bothers to come in a get you.

Unless you’re this asshole sat in front of me that is.

“Hey hey now. No need for that. Last time I woke you up was a week ago missy.”

“A week?” my voice shot across the room, obviously startling him with the power of it. I cracked pen my eyes to find myself looking at a huge horned demon, with black and red skin.

“Yeah. A week. Skip by the way.” He held out my hand and I softly shook my head at him. “Oh sorry. I forgot you’re still slightly broken. Didn’t expect you to have your voice and vision back so soon though. You haven’t used them is a very, very long time.”

“You said last time I’d been here for a year. Then why am I still hurt?”

“Ah. Unfortunately, this is hell. The laws of human physiology don’t apply here. We let people go to sleep? They start to heal. And as you probably already know. Pain hurts a lot more if you’re still banged up. So you go to sleep, and you’re entire body kinda does this.. you ever watch demolition man?”

“Err.. that film with Wesley snipes in it?” the question had caught me completely off guard. Demon’s watch movies in hell now? Well fuck a duck.

“Yeah, that’s the one. Well, it’s like that cryostasis. You go to sleep and you just like, stop. Well you keep breathing and stuff, but you don’t start to heal.”

“So, basically, I’m gonna have to stay awake to get better.” He nodded at me, and I wondered what it was about him that made me not want to rip his head off. “But there’s no point in that, because hey! Hell. Torture when you’re awake.”

“You don’t listen very well for someone who hears, do you? This, you being here, it’s all one big mistake. You’re not supposedbe hbe here.”

“I’m not? But.. I deserve to be here.”

“No one who gives up their life to save everyone else’s, deserves to be here. The people here, they never even think what they did was wrong.” He shrugged and looked around the room I was in.

which I didn’t notice looked a hell of a lot like my apartment back in my dimension.

“listen, there’s only one way to put this mistake right. Faith? Faith!”

“huh?” I shot my attention back to him, tearing my eyes away from the picture of B, Dawn and me in the park one day. Xander had taken that picture a week before everything with glory when down.

“This mistake, it needs to be fixed, because you can’t stay here. Not when you’re not supposed to be here.”

“So send me home wizard of oz.”

“I can’t.”

“What?! You guys fuck up royally, and you can’t fix it? what kind of hokey shit is that?!” I really had the urge to jump up and lamp the guy. They stole me away from whatever the hell I was supposed to have when I died, and they’re telling me they can’t send me home? They can’t fix it? well fuck that!

“It’s.. I have no idea why it’s the way it is Faith. but, the only way out of here, is to fight your way out of here. You need to get better, get stronger, and then you need to get out of here.”

“And how the fuck am I supposed to do that. Ask the guy in cell five B which way the big fucking green exit sign is at?”

“you need to get to the main gates. There’s some pretty nasty things out there that don’t want to see you leave Faith. you killed a big chunk of them. They want you to suffer. And they’re gonna do anything they can to trap you here.”

“How do I know you’re not one of them?”

“Did you ever kill me? I don’t think so. I work for the powers. I don’t die. Listen, I gotta go to a meeting about some chick in l.a, but when I get back? I’ll help you out properly. You just concentrate on getting better.”

“But..” I turned my head towards where he was sitting, and groaned out loud to myself.

I *Hate* when he just disappears like that.


Conitinued Next in: Say Nothing At All