Nusac

The song in this chapter is by Fall out boy and is called "You know who i think i am" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTgo9WFNGHk

Chapter 43
Faith POV

The ground is quickly swallowed up under my long steady strides as I follow the direction of the demons teleport. They’re not hard to spot. You’ve seen them before. It looks like the dust floating in rays of sunlight though your window. Have you ever noticed them in the bright light of a streetlamp? The dust in your house is just partials of skin like all the good scientists tell you. You’ve never stopped to wonder what they are doing outside, in the open air under a false light? I’m telling you now it’s not dust. It’s particles magically charged showing something has recently passed that way defying all laws of physics.

What you would never be able to do is follow one. If you were to follow one you would need the sense of smell of a slayer and know where it originated.

I follow both the sent and my vision until it disappears above a row of houses. Oh how I love suburbia. I can’t lose the trail because I would never find it again, so this particular track calls for a little bit of trespassing.

Silently I jump each fence without ever having to touch them as my feet harmlessly glide over the top. The bright lights of each house keep the trail fresh and it’s not long until I have followed it all the way to the bad part of town. The trail disappears into a high building and it takes me only a moment to register where I am.

I shake my head in disgust. “Don’t these bad guys ever come up with something original?”

My gaze turns down the disserted street, a simple drum beat filtering down towards me. Voices and words melt together at this distance. Sounds like the Scooby’s are having a little sing along. I can just imagine Pike now. Feeling left out of this group number.

With all my slayer stealth I scale the side of the tall building with the help of the handy fire escape. Not once on my accent do I hear the old metal creak beneath my weight. Yeah I’ve still got mad skills.

I reach the flat roof and keep myself as still as possible for just a moment. Listening for any sounds of movement from below. I can’t hear much over the singing of the group which has been steadily getting louder all the way up.

The thick steel door flies off and clatters to the ground below me. Looks like the group number is over.

I make my way silently to the skylight above the stage peering down before I make my decent. Dawn is wearing a blue satin skirt and white silk shirt, which I don’t remember seeing in her wardrobe before.

The huge window slides easily open and I drop stealthily into the overhead lighting rig. Buffy has already begun to sing. The music rising in tempo, with each passing second. I pull the long draping curtain closer to me. Hooking a leg around I let my bodyweight slide me down the thick material.

The music covers the sound of the material slowing me down as I pull my fall to a grinding halt. Damn it B can you just have a simple flashy number going on down there? I can’t just hang here forever.

I have to say I haven’t been paying that much attention to the goings on below me. I’ve been a little preoccupied not plummeting to my death. One word catches my attention. ‘Heaven.’ It was barely spoken, but fills the room. Making the air thick and heavy, difficult to breath. The tang of salt fills my nostrils. It’s surprises me that it’s not B who is crying.

The word rings through my ears again and I have to concentrate again to keep my grip.

The music start up and I look down to see B below begging the demon reclining in his seat to give her something to live for. Her eyes pleading and brimming with tears. It breaks my heart to see her so broken that she needs to ask this demon. This demon who made her spill her deep dirty secret to begin with.

He silently shakes his head in the negative and I can see her face shatter. Loud guitar strums follow and I have the cover of these sounds to begin my decent again. Vaguely somewhere in the back of my senses I smell smoke and the music suddenly stops again. For fuck sake. I have to tighten my grip again and halt my decent.

My gaze swivels round again to the dance floor. Get on with it Spike I need the guitars to start up again.

Dawn stands from her seat. I don’t know why must be dramatic effect or something but it’s an opening and I’m sure as hell going to take it. “This hardest this in the world is to live in it.” She manages to say these simple words with such raw, pure emotion.

I allow my weakening grip to loosen and I slide down easily into the chair, which Dawn has just vacated to the sounds of lazy applause. My arm sliding over the back of the seat and my legs draping lazily over the arm.

Blazing red eyes meet mine and the clapping stops instantly. The tall demon is out of his seat and off the stage in less than a blink of an eye. I let a low chuckle escape my chest. “Look Nam. He remembers me.” I am more than loving this. He can be in a room with all of these powerful people glaring at him, not even a shudder. One glance at me and he’s running for cover.

He points an accessing finger my way. “What the hell are you doing here?”

I shrug pulling my legs around and planting my feet solidly on the floor. ”You know me Sweet. I’m everywhere.”

“Do you know him Faith?” Dawn looks back at me over her shoulder. It’s only at this point that I realise that most of the people in the room can’t actually understand what I’m saying.

I tilt my head to the side considering this question. I don’t know this demon, not in so many words. He only time I’ve seen him he was running from me. There was a little bit of an… altercation in Nusac. I was just called to help out. He’s teleported himself outa that fight before I got close enough to touch him. I don’t really want to go into all of this right now so I settle for a short answer. “We’ve met.”

A smile spread across his face as he tries to regain some composer. “I will not lose a second time slayer.” His hand slowly extends, a long sharp blade seeming to extend from his finds and settle neatly into his grip.

I stand pulling myself to my full height. As I straighten a simple guitar picking fills the room. Pike begins to clap a quick rhythm along with the tune. Time for a nothing sing song. Just one more, with feeling can’t hurt. “Shall we dance?” I can feel the very edges of my vision starting to lose it’s colour, my slayer making herself known.

I pull my own blade from its sheath and jump down onto The Bronze dance floor. As my feet hit the ground a much faster beat picks up. The drum beat setting the pace for us. With each crash of the symbol our blades clatter together in the empty space between us. Pike proving backing vocals. On the up side at least he’s included.

The two blades meet in midair at a stale mate. Sweet bring his arm up placing the flat of his palm against my chest, pushing me back from him. I stumble for a moment, able to right myself before my verse. ”Penny for your thoughts, bought a dollar for your insides. Or a fortune for your disaster, I'm just a painter.” My sword comes up between us the very tip flicking. Mimicking the movements of a paintbrush “and I'm drawing a blank.”

I step forward and we continue, The clatter of metal striking metal on the edge of every word. “We only want to sing you to sleep.” They cross across our chests and I get right up into his face “In your bedroom speakers, whoa oh” Once again he pushes me back. ”We need umbrellas on the inside”

He charges point first right at my lower abdomen. “Give me a sign” My weight shift to one slide so I can both turn and place my blade between his and my skin.

I turn on the ball of my foot to face him. Just in time to bring in some fancy footwork. The sharp instrument cuts the air above me aiming for each and every vital organ. With each word out of my mouth I have to step back ducking and diving. “They say, quitters never win. We walk the plank on a sinking ship. There's a world outside of my front door.” My sword comes back into play knocking his safely away from my body. I step up close and chose this moment to push both of my palms into his shoulders pushing him back and away from me. “That gets off on being down.”

As the guitars even out he slides on his back along the floor. Losing his grip on his weapon and it clatters away from him. I stay at a safe distance circling him as he stands. “I could learn to pity fools, As I'm the worst of all.” I come to a stop tuning to face him as the sword on the floor disintegrates into the wood coming to rest once again snugly in my opponents grip. “And I can't stop, feeling sorry for myself. Woah oh”

He rushes at me the clatter of a furious fight once again grieving each word out of my mouth a dangerous edge “We only want to sing you to sleep, in your bedroom speakers, Woah oh, We need umbrellas on the inside.”

My vision shift and changes as my slayer takes control of my movements. His movement falters at the change. This is enough for my slayer to floor him. Each syllable punctured with a kick “Get.” First to the stomach “Us” Then to the knee. “Right.” And finally a lift of my knee into his face. He lands a few feet away sprawled on his back, dazed.

The slayer within me not letting up for even a second makes her way over to the fallen demon. Throwing the tip of the blade into the wooden floor as she walks. It slides in like a knife in warm butter and wobbles slightly at the force of my throw. “They say quitters never win.” A kick to the side forces him over onto his front where he tries to pull his beaten and broken body up onto it’s knees. “We walk the plank on a sinking ship. There's a world outside of my front door.” A kick to the ribs raises him off the floor a few feet and he lands with a crash. “That gets off on being down.” He continues to twitch and my slayer pulls me around forcing me to turn my back on this demon.

“We only want to sing you to sleep,” My arms held out at my sides as I hold the last word.

Pike providing my backing “in your bedroom speakers, woah”

“We only want to sing you to sleep” My feet come to rest facing my sister slayer. “They say quitters never win. We walk the plank, and we walk the plank.” My arms rise up once again and rest on her shoulders holding her full attention. “There's a girl outside of my front door. That gets off on being dead.”

As my last words is held and carries through the large room pike strikes up again. “Broken down on memory lane. Alone together, we're alone” His slow clapping in time with the beat of his words. “Broken down on memory lane. Alone together, we're alone”

As his words carry I make my way back over to the demon who has pushed his drained body over onto his back. I pull the sword out of the floor and with the final crash of the symbol drive the sharp weapon deep into his chest piercing his heart.

Only silence fills the room as he twitches and finally falls. My ears fill with the sound of my own jagged breath, my vision still void of colour, the skin of my palm still feeling the cold metal hilt between my fingers.

Fingers clasp around my shoulder, it takes me a few moments to turn my head. “Faith?” Nam’s right there. Worried about me. Some things just never change. My grip of the hilt loosens, one foot stepping behind the other to turn and face her. Harsh breath is still being forced into my aching lungs. “You still with me?”