Distribution: Angel of Mine, TNPWFLD, Seren's Site, Fever of Fate, anyone else please ask first.
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: Angel, Willow and co. do not belong to me. They are the property of Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, and the WB. All characters are used without permission. No copyright infringement intended.
Feedback: Emma + Feedback = Happy!!!
Summery: Willow's having strange dreams.
Spoilers/Warnings: Becoming.
< > Indicates thoughts.
Authors Notes: Part two of the Images, Dreams and Feelings Series.
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From the personal diary of Willow Ann Rosenberg.
I had that dream again. The same one I always have, night after night. It never ends, or at least it seems not too. It's only last night that I saw something new in it, Something that gave me hope.
Something that made me record what I experienced.
It always starts the same, only the little things changing over the weeks.
It starts with me walking down this darkened corridor, I can hear voices but I can't make them out. They're muffled…jumbled.
I follow the corridor until I approach a hospital room. I walk into it and I can see myself with Oz and Cordelia. I'm performing the spell to restore Angel's soul.
Even now it still seems odd seeing it happen…repeating the words, even after all this time.
Slowly everything fades, to brighten again only a moment later. I'm now in the mansion. I can see Buffy and Angel…Angelus fighting. I don't know if what I see is real or not, but it feels too real not to be.
As I look around me I can see Acathla standing in the middle of the room. Turning around I notice that Buffy's about to kill Angelus, when suddenly his eyes glow and he falls. I don't know how, but I know it's the moment his soul is returned to him. I remember seeing them talk for a moment though their voices are muted.
Then suddenly the image jumps, a vortex is opening behind Angel. The next thing I know Buffy runs Angel through with a sword.
I see him stumble backwards towards the vortex and then suddenly the vortex starts to swallow him.
Every time it happens I cry out to warn him, but it does no good. Then, just before he disappears, his eyes meet mine for a second, pleading, and then he's gone.
No matter how many times I see it happen, it still shocks me, and I still feel the tears I can't hold in trickle down my face.
The room fades again at this point, and I'm surrounded by fire.
The heat is always the first thing that hits me, quickly followed by the smell and the sounds.
The sounds are the worst. Screams of pain and terror, constant and never ending.
I sometimes wonder if Angel is one of those voices.
I'm not sure how, but I somehow manage to make my way through this maze and find my destination.
If you didn't know what you were looking for you'd miss it, there again, I don't know how I found it actually.
It's a simple door, nothing fancy about it and never locked like the others. I suppose if you feel you deserve to be in this place there's little point.
It always makes me sick when I walk into this room, at seeing the sight before me.
It's Angel, or at least it was. It's hard to recognize him now.
He's just sits there. He's naked and covered from head to toe in cuts, bruises, blood and scars. It's as though his whole body is on fire.
He's unable to see or hear me, so I sit across from him as normal and watch.
I don't know why, but he almost seems glad when the guards come to take him out of there, back to the pain.
I don't understand why though, it's quiet in here…peaceful. I would have expected Angel to be grateful for this time, but he's not.
Normally my dreams end as he's about to go back but last night it was different.
All of a sudden a light flashes and he's gone and I'm left alone.
Suddenly a man…demon appears in front of me looking around the room for Angel, though not appearing too concerned when he finds he is missing.
I don't know how, but when I look at him I know this wasn't a dream at all, that it never was. It was real.
Then he is gone, his purpose unknown, only his sinister laugh remaining.
And then I woke up.
I remember sitting up in my bed, covered in sweat.
I don't know how, but something feels different this time, something's changed. And I think I know what it is.
So I'm going to find out, to see if I'm right.
To see if Angel is back.
The End