Hellraiser: The Angels Beneath

Chapter 4

Riley closed the apartment door and headed straight for the stairs. He could hear Buffy, already home, clinking about in the kitchen and he was in no mood to deal with her. He’d had a day that was way beyond shit and the last thing he needed was his clingy girlfriend nattering and nagging him to death.

The bedroom was as he had left it, a tip. There were washed and unwashed clothes strewn about and the furniture proudly displayed a thick layer of dust. Buffy had tried to clean it regularly at the start, but after Riley had screamed at her until she cried, she hadn’t bothered.

Riley sat on the edge of the bed and stared at the closet. He closed his eyes and let the thrum of the box lull him into a daze. It felt good; terrifying, but good. Like a slowly building orgasm, it coursed through his veins and smothered his senses. For so long he had resisted the box’s pull, fighting his urges every step of the way while his real life world turned grey and bland. But not anymore. He’d done his research. He knew what the box promised. He would not resist it. He couldn’t.

It was time.

**

Buffy busied herself in the kitchen, her hands submerged in a bowl of washing up. She paused only briefly at the click of the apartment door before continuing her task. For the first time she just wished that Riley was gone. The fighting, the screaming, the hitting; it was all too much now. It couldn’t continue. She loved Riley to the ends of the earth, but at the same time she wished he’d never come back to Sunnydale.

Of all the ways her life could have gone, she had never even considered this as an option. She could have had a happy life with Angel, if only she hadn’t sent him to hell. That was her one true regret in her life. When Angel’s soul had returned, she’d kissed him and sent him into an eternal unlife of hell with the plunge of a sword. Maybe there could have been another way. Maybe she could have saved him. Not a day had passed when she didn’t think about what had become of her first true love. Did he even still exist? Was he in pain? What a fuck up. Why couldn’t her life be simple?

Next there had been Spike. He had shown her that life wasn’t as it seemed. It was darkness and light, up and down, heaven and hell. He tried to show her real affection, but she’d thrown it back in his face, hurt him, abused and humiliated him. It hadn’t surprised her when he finally moved on. It hurt, but it wasn’t surprising. What had been surprising was Spike’s new flavour. Xander. Of all the people that Buffy thought Spike could possibly end up with, Xander was a real shock. To put it bluntly, Buffy had freaked out and she had told Xander exactly what had happened between her and his new lover, hoping to make her friend see sense. She hadn’t expected the response. Xander had known everything and he explained calmly that things with him and Spike were totally different, that they had something special, something that no-one could break. There were no raised voices, no tears, no accusations, just pure understanding. Understanding of Buffy’s concerns and understanding that she would be hurt and would need to vent her frustration. Spike and Xander had stood before her, solid as a rock, and had not budged an inch. They were strong. They were together. It still sometimes made her sick with jealousy.

And now there was Riley. His return to Sunnydale had been a fantastic distraction from her pain and a chance to prove she too could have and keep the real thing. It hadn’t taken long for her and Riley to get together; a few drinks and a hasty night. She hadn’t loved him, not the way she’d loved Angel, but she had learnt.

Riley was her world now. And it was crumbling to pieces.

The phone rang and Buffy quickly removed her rubber gloves and snatched up the handset. A ringing telephone was never appreciated when Riley was tired.

“Hey, Mom.”

**

“Damn it! Still busy.” Xander slammed down the phone in frustration and grabbed his jacket. “Let’s just get over there. Spike, you can hold him down while we search the rest of the house.”

Giles grabbed his car keys from the bookcase and started towards the door. “I think that would be wise. From what we know, it is quite likely that Riley has the box. He could open it at anytime. We have no idea of what the consequences could be if it’s opened on top of a Hellmouth.”

Spike stepped in front of the two men. “Listen. Gotta make something clear. If we’re too late…then we let it play out, let them take him…”

“Spike, we can’t…”

“Yes, we can. We have to. The Cenobites will take him, no matter what. We can’t stop them. We don’t know how. If Riley calls them, they will hunt him to the ends of the bloody earth. They. Won’t. Stop.”

“Xander, Spike is quite right. We can’t interfere. We just have to pray he hasn’t yet opened the box.”

“What if I don’t agree?” Xander argued.

“Then I knock you out cold, right here, right now. Ain’t gonna risk you. No fucking way. You try and play the hero at any point and I’ll have you out flat.”

Xander frowned; he knew Spike was being completely serious. If Riley opened the box, he was dead. And nothing they could do would save him. However reluctantly, Xander had to agree.

“Fine. Can we hurry up, then? Stop this thing before it starts?”

Spike stood aside and let his lover pass. Spike disliked Riley with a passion. It was no secret. But this? He wouldn’t wish it on anyone.

**

This was it.

This was the moment.

Riley laughed. Why had it taken him so long to realise? This world wasn’t enough. It couldn’t offer what he needed anymore. Blood. Sweet pain and blood. His time in the Corps had served its purpose, like methadone to a heroin user. The killing had sated the cravings, allowing him to seek and fulfill lesser fantasies by murdering the filthy demons that crossed his path, but even then it hadn’t been enough. And now? The craving was like an itch at the part of his back that he just couldn’t reach. The few humans that he’d raped and tortured did nothing to ease his torment. It just wasn’t enough. The need grew by the day and only the promise of the box was keeping him from tearing apart his lover and all her friends.

Riley stripped to his boxers and sat cross-legged on the floor, the box held tightly in hands that had stopped shaking for the first time in eighteen months. The question of how the box opened was not one that he needed to ask. Although his months of intense research had turned up nothing on the mechanism of the box, Riley found that he needed no instruction. His thumbs caressed the golden curves, searching for the path to his desire. The familiar thrum grew strong inside his head and it pounded as his fingers found the answer. Riley trailed a thumb around a golden circle, his cock swelling as electrical energy shot through his fingers and tantalised his body.

A twisted lullaby played sweetly from the box. It was mesmerizing, almost hypnotizing and Riley had no trouble registering what he had to do next. He pressed down on the circle, jumping slightly at the audible click. The centre of the box started to rise, taking with it shards that resembled rays from a sun. Riley stared, transfixed as the new part slowly rose, turned and stopped. This was it. This last touch would complete the puzzle and end his torment. Riley laughed. He was so stupid. Why had he wasted so many months, when he could have just accepted the promise of the box and fulfilled his every fantasy? With eager hands, Riley pushed down the last part, sighing contentedly as it clicked into place.

Done.

**

Buffy hung up the phone and glanced over at the washing up. The water had gone cold. Fuck it. Tough shit. It could wait now. She left the kitchen and went to grab her coat. Just Riley’s presence was enough to churn her stomach. She could feel him upstairs and there was no way that she could bear another moment of waiting, waiting for him to scream at her, waiting for his fist to hit her, waiting for him to show how much he hated her. Oh, she could always shout, punch him in his miserable face, tell him how much she hated him back, but did that solve anything? Did that erase all the pain?

Why had Riley even bothered coming back? He wasn’t happy. He never had been. Fine. He could stay up there. He could stay up there forever, for all she cared.

She wished he’d never come back.

She wished she’d never met Riley Finn.

She wished he was dead.

That was when the screaming started.

**

As the box clicked into place, a blue flash bolted into his body, spreading through his arms and surging towards his groin. Riley moaned. It was the most beautiful thing he’d ever felt. It was like an orgasm that started with his cock and spread through his entire body. How had he lived without this? What was the point of living without this? His entire existence before it had been meaningless.

Beautiful. Thrumming. Deep inside.

The box crackled and fizzed, and Riley jumped again at the sudden noise. He frowned slightly and looked down at his treasure.

A chain, long and thin and tipped with a sharp hook, soared from the box and hooked into his neck.

Riley screamed, his cock twitching as the hook latched onto his skin and tugged. The box dropped from his grasp and Riley was pulled to the floor by the shortening chain.

The room darkened, the walls fading to black and the floor shaking. A second chain appeared from the ceiling, hooking into his back and stretching him back up. Riley screamed again as a third chain appeared from the floor and sank deeply into his belly.

The dark walls rumbled and formed shaded boards, opening like slats on a window.

Two more chains soared from an unseen place and hooked into the flesh of Riley’s buttocks.

Riley tried desperately to get up, to escape the chains and run screaming into the night. His hands and feet scrabbled ineffectually at the floor like a dog on a slippery surface. More chains, too many to count, snared him and burrowed into his skin. Riley threw back his head and howled. “OH GOD!!”

A shadowed figure stepped from the darkness and spoke with a voice that was deep with evil, yet was flowered with amusement.

“YOU CALLED.”

Riley looked up and squinted through tears of pain. Before him stood a creature that had once been a man. Tall and clothed in a priest-like leather dress, the man-creature stood with his hands pressed together in a gesture that was sickeningly holy. A white face adorned with tiny spikes smiled and it held its pale hands out to welcome its new guest.

“WELCOME. TO HELL.”

“No, no, no, no…”

“RILEY. WE HAVE BEEN WAITING.”

The chains clinked and shifted, pulling Riley upright and suspending him by a dozen more hooks in his flesh

Riley gasped and vomited over himself. He was still hard as a rock, his heart pounding harder with every pull against his flesh. One part of him was scared beyond comprehension, wishing that he’d never given in to the box’s coaxing, but another part was overwhelmed by the paradise he knew he’d found.

“RILEY. YOU RESISTED US FOR SO LONG. WHY?”

“I…wanted…but…”

Another creature stepped from the darkness. A Female. She was dressed in the same oddly religious attire. Her neck was cut open and from it grew an impressive, arched piece of metal that stretched up and burrowed into her jaw.

“YOU WERE UNWILLING TO ADMIT YOUR DREAMS?” she suggested.

Riley nodded as much as he could.

“UNDERSTANDABLE,” the Female continued, “BUT THERE WILL BE NONE OF THAT NOW.”

The first creature, Pinhead, walked forward and placed a hand against Riley’s cheek.

“YOU BELONG IN HELL. YOU WERE BORN TO JOIN US. ACCEPT YOUR FATE, FOR IT IS POINTLESS TO DENY.”

The cold, pale hand crept slowly down Riley’s body, carefully avoiding the hooks and finally wrapping around a straining erection.

“OURS NOW. OURS FOREVER.” Pinhead fastened his lips over Riley’s, thrusting in a tongue that was unbearably hot.

Riley screamed into the kiss, tasting his own blood as a hundred spikes pierced his face. His tongue fizzled and turned black as Pinhead’s saliva cremated the sensitive flesh.

“WE KNOW YOUR DESIRES,” Pinhead announced as he pulled away. “WE KNOW WHAT YOU DID TO THOSE WOMEN. OH, HOW YOU LOVED TO PLUNDER, TASTE AND FILL THOSE MOUTHS. IT WAS MOST…CREATIVE. AND NOW YOU WILL SUFFER AN ETERNITY OF A FATE THAT YOU MADE.”

Riley felt his tongue swell into a blackened ball in his mouth. He knew what this creature meant. Riley had raped and killed five women over the course of his life and on each occasion he had stuffed and filled their mouths with whatever he could lay his hands on. Mud, clothing, the contents of a handbag; he had filled their mouths and throats until his victims had vomited and choked to death.

Riley’s tongue swelled further, forcing his mouth to open into a wide tunnel. He tried to force air into his throat and lungs and gagged as his tongue filled every available space. He turned frightened eyes onto his Lord and Saviour and silently pleaded for salvation.

“OH, NO, RILEY. THERE IS NO NEED FOR BEGGING. COME. THIS IS JUST THE BEGINNING.”

A chain and hook, much larger than the others, shot from the floor with an audible whoosh and plunged deep into Riley’s ass. Where there should have been a desperate scream, there was just a rumbling gurgle and an almost sigh. It was everything he'd hoped for. The hook drove deeper, pulling the chain into his body and burrowing through his very soul.

As the chain passed through his gut, behind his ribcage and into his heart, Riley thought one more time about the life he was leaving behind. Good riddance. He let his eyes pass silent thanks to his new Master and, with a last shuddering attempt to breathe, he died.

**

Before they could even make it to the apartment, they knew they were too late. Riley’s screams echoed down the street and Xander couldn’t help but notice that beneath the scream of terror, there was something close to desire.

Xander ran to the door, his hand reaching toward the lock with his spare key.

“Wait!”

Xander turned around briefly at the urgent call. “What?”

“It’s started. You can’t save him.” Spike’s hand rested on the back of Xander neck, a threat of violence apparent in his twitching fingers if Xander decided to play hero.

Xander nodded. “I know. But…Buffy.”

Spike dropped his hand, satisfied that Xander knew better. “Open the bloody door, then.”

Xander nodded again and quickly shoved the key into the lock, opening the door with a desperate push. “Upstairs!” he shouted above the screaming and the unearthly rumble that had filled the small house.

Giles reached the top of the stairs first. Finding Buffy collapsed on her knees, he quickly swooped down to wrap her in a tight embrace. “Buffy? Buffy, can you hear me?”

No response.

“Buffy? You have to listen to me. Think hard. Where is Riley?”

Buffy turned confused eyes to Giles and then turned slowly towards the wall. She pointed. “It’s gone.”

“What’s gone? Riley?”

She pointed again. “It’s gone.”

Xander noticed first. “It has gone!”

“What has?” Spike asked.

“The door,” Xander replied, running his hands over the wall and then pressing his ear against it. Inside the blocked-off room he could hear a deep voice. The voice was evil, no doubt about that, but there was also something welcoming about it. Xander pressed his ear harder against the wall. The screams of his friend were audible enough, but something close to morbid curiosity drew him closer. He heard the voice say something about women. Mouths? His brain worked on the rest and he pulled back sharply.

“Stay back, pet. You don’t wanna hear.”

“A bit late for that now. Can we go?”

Spike narrowed his eyes, suspiciously. He’d expected Xander to go back on his word and fight to save Riley. He knew exactly what his lover was like. Okay, so Riley was on the other side of a wall, but that normally wouldn’t stop Xander from at least trying to cave it in and help a friend, even if that meant sacrificing his own life.

“Spike…?”

“Yeah…yeah, we’re gone. Watcher, stand aside.” Spike elbowed Giles out of the way and hauled Buffy to her feet. “Come on, Slayer. Time to go.”

“What?! No! I have to stay. I have to help Riley.”

“No can do.”

“NO! Riley!” Buffy screamed.

Spike tightened his grip around Buffy’s waist and motioned for Giles and Xander to go down the stairs first. Following after them, Spike dragged Buffy along with him.

Buffy kicked and punched at Spike’s body. How could they do this? How could they leave Riley like this?

When the screaming had started, Buffy had lost all thoughts of her growing hatred for the man she loved. She’d raced to the top of the stairs and collapsed. The bedroom door had disappeared. She’d crawled on her knees and pushed uselessly at the seamless wall. Her lover screamed in agony just a few feet away from her, but there was nothing that she could do. The feeling had torn at her guts. She was the Slayer. There was nothing that she couldn’t do. She felt…ordinary.

“Please, Spike! Please, we have to go back! Please, oh god, you have to help him. PLEASE!”

Spike pulled Buffy outside and let her collapse bonelessly into his arms. The screaming from Riley had stopped and Spike could feel that the gate was closed and the Cenobites were gone. That meant only one thing. Riley was dead and the box was gone.

“Why, Spike? Why couldn’t I help him?”

Giles approached and placed a hand on Buffy’s shoulder. “You couldn’t get to him. It wasn’t your fault.”

It wasn’t what she’d meant and both Spike and Xander knew it.

“I don’t understand what just happened, but…I should have done something.”

“Riley was into something. He kept it a secret. You weren’t to know. None of us knew,” Xander said.

“Is he dead?”

Giles nodded.

Buffy pulled out of Spike’s arms and straightened herself out, brushing herself down, fixing her clothes and retying her ponytail.

Her friends watched the well-known ritual in silence. Buffy often needed just those few seconds to sort out her brain, close off any emotion and harden herself to whatever had just happened.

When Buffy had collected herself enough to speak without a quiver in her voice, she turned back to her friends. “His body...”

“You won’t find it,” Giles said without any further explanation.

“I think someone needs to explain a few things to me.”

Giles nodded and motioned to the car. “Let’s go back to my apartment. There are some things that you need to see.”

Xander hung back and caught hold of Spike’s duster as he went to follow to the car. “What about the box?” he whispered.

Spike looked up at the upstairs window. “It’s gone. They’re gone.”

Xander looked dubious. “Are you sure?”

“That’s how it works.”

“So the box is in hell? What about the Hellmouth? Are we safe?”

“The box is with Riley, so yeah, it’s in hell alright. Don’t think the Hellmouth was affected, luv. I reckon the Watcher was overreacting with that. Come on. Let’s get in the car. Get this explanation over with.”

Xander hesitantly looked back up at the window. “He’s really gone,” Xander said, his face darkening as he remembered what the voice had said.

Spike stepped in and pulled Xander back around to face him. “What did you hear?”

“…I might have misheard.”

“What did you hear?” Spike patiently repeated.

“I heard this voice. He said something about hurting women, that they knew what he’d done. They said he would suffer an eternity of a fate of his own making. Spike…I think that Riley…was some kind of rapist.”

A hopeful look sprang onto Xander's face, an expression that begged Spike to contradict him, tell him that he was wrong, prove that his friend was not a monster. Maybe it was an illusion? It couldn’t have been real. He must have heard wrong. Not Riley. Not the man that he’d hung out with, laughed with, worked with. Riley would never rape someone.

Spike nodded slowly, acknowledging and digesting what Xander had said.

“Do you think…?” Xander started, not able to finish.

“Do I think he’s raped people?”

“…yeah.”

Spike shrugged. “He might ‘ave. Sounds like it.”

“But… he can’t have. We’d have known.”

Spike stepped closer, resting his forehead against Xander’s and smiling fondly despite the circumstances. “These people don’t have flashing neon signs on their heads and they don’t have a special dress code. You couldn’t have known. None of us could have.”

“But what about Buffy? Do you think he hurt her too?”

“Don’t know, pet.”

“If it’s true, what he did, then I’m glad he’s in hell. He deserved it. I hope he suffers.”

“I don’t think that will be a problem. Come on, Watcher’s getting impatient. Let’s get this over with.”

“What do we tell Buffy?”

“The facts. Come on.”

Xander resisted Spike’s tug. “What about…what I heard?”

“If it’s relevant, tell her.”

“How can I?”

“Just see how it goes. You’ll soon know if you need to tell.”

“How?”

“You just will. Trust me.”

“Always, Spike. Always.”

TBC…