Title: The Long Journey Into Darkness
Author: Crazy_Girl_Mary
Email: crazy_girl_mary@yahoo.com
Disclaimer: The two main characters are Joss', but I'm not stealin' I promise I'll give them back when I'm done.
Summary: A female is on the run from a killer, and he's not going to give up until he has her right where he wants her.
Pairings: Female/Male. This story has a female character a human, and a male vampire from the Buffyverse, but names are not used anywhere in the story. I did this so the reader could envision any characters they wanted. So if you have a thing for Willow/Spike, hey man it's them. There were two characters I had in mind when writing it and some subtle clues you may pick up may lead you to that conclusion, if you want to know who they really are then you can email me and I'll tell you.
Category: Angst.
Spoilers: None, complete AU, just a girl and a vampire.
Rating: NC-17 parts for sexual content, brutal torture, and character deaths.
Author's Comments: This is my latest work, and I think the fact that I've progressed as a writer shows. I'm probably more emotionally attached to this story as corny as it sounds but I still desperately want to know any thoughts, feelings, praises, and most of all criticisms, so please please let me know!

Part XXIX: Another Escape


Surprise, surprise! At my suggestion of letting go of her anger her arms pull lightly and I release her thin wrists. I really have to do something to beef her up a bit, maybe bring her fast food every night. Her hands snake down her nude body to her panties. She runs one hand along the hem and thrusts her hips up to meet mine. “Take them off for me?” she purrs. Shit, I love that purr. I’m all too happy to oblige, knowing all the while that the main reason she’s doing this is because she knows its not what I expected. She loves to do the unexpected, thinks it gives her some power, some edge, and she’s right, it does, but only because I allow it to.

I kneel over her, watching contently as my fingers slide in the waistband of her underwear and begin to gently tug them down. I flashback to the time this happened years ago, at the hotel, only moments before she ran off to another man. This isn’t how it is supposed to happen. I mean, I can’t say this isn’t how I want her because I want her any way, but I had a plan where she’s well tortured yet in great shape and then I get her to take me and then I taste her, oh fuck to taste her. I realize I’ve stopped mid thigh and I’m incessantly licking my lips and trying not to lose to the demon hunger.

“Problem?” she asks lightly, smiling like she has never wanted to be anywhere else in her entire life. She looks genuine and I can’t wait to see her face when those projected feelings are really true.

“No, just debating positions,” I say as casually as possible. She smiles and her hands clutch the blankets at her side and she pushes her hips towards me.

“Please…” again with the purring. Something’s up, she’s never this wanton… this compliant, and frankly without the prelude of physical and emotional strife it’s a little disappointing. Something is definitely up.

I see it dawning on his face that this show of submission is too good to be true and I know I have to take my chance. My fingers are already tangled in the crucifix chain and I clutch it in the blankets, ready to use it. I lift it to his face as quickly as possible and my other hand with the same speed grabs the back of his head. I hold it there through as much of his thrashing as possible. His screams are totally fulfilling and I could die a happy girl here and now but I know that’s not going to happen. If he kills me he’ll make it brutally slow so my only hope of a quick release is to escape.

As soon as my hands free him he thrashes backwards off the bed to the concrete floor, surging away from the material that is causing his pain. As quick as possible I pull up the panties and jump off the bed. I do it in a jump hoping my fear and anger will fuel my wounded feet and cover the pain with adrenaline. I’m wrong, as usual, the pain is incredible but I manage to hobble rather quickly to the stairs. I look down and the room below is as dark as the blackest night. Fuck. I can’t even see the bottom of the stairs let alone a doorway. How did the kid get out? Did the kid get out? I know I’m in big trouble now but I have to press on, hopefully the stairs don’t end too far below the blackness. I start down as quickly as I can, not looking back to him, but carefully listening to the sounds of his pain beyond those of my own. About halfway down I fall, but I continue moving, even a little faster on my ass with my feet finding the next steps and my arms easing me down as quickly as possible.

I’m on the concrete floor at last. I step to my feet and listen. I can’t hear him screaming or moaning anymore but I can’t hear him coming for me either and I’m pretty sure that if he was coming he would be too enraged for covertness, pretty sure anyway. Besides I know one of his eyes is not usable, so he’d be liable to knock into things.

I start hobbling through the complete darkness and my outstretched hands meet something hard and cold, metal; a car, useless to me. I stumble around it, hoping beyond all hope that I’ll find a door, an unlocked door. As if to answer these prayers my hands suddenly meet the unique bumpy fiberglass side of a garage door. The door shakes noisily in its cradle, easily alerting him wherever he is upstairs. I know he heard that, and I know he’s on his way to get me. It won’t take more then a minute for him to find me and he’ll be extremely furious. I know I have to rely on hope, if hope found this garage door, hope will open it and will get me out of here, if only to help me end my life just to spite him and save him the happy experience.

I lean quickly and painfully over and feel for the lock, I quickly cover the length of the bottom without finding one. I try to dig my fingers beneath the metal bottom but there is a rubber bumper in the way. When I lift that a thin beam of light breaks the complete darkness. It’s light outside, all I have to do is get out there and I’ll be home free. I pull with all my strength but the door doesn’t move. “Damn it!” I scream without realizing I was going to. Now he knows I haven’t opened the door and he’s on his way down here. That’s it, he’s almost here, any second now he’ll be behind me, touch me on the shoulder or something equally sinister to let me know that I’ve failed once again to elude him just before he knocks me over the head or slams me into the door to be rid of the burden so he can lock me back up on my mattress and contemplate the proper punishment. These realizations settle in the pit of my stomach as a sickness that brings me to my knees and I wretch up the sandwich, soda, bile, pills, air, and anything else that was unhappily shaking in my upset stomach.

Then I get to my feet and continue to feel along the door. I’m pretty sure that if I lose hope I won’t get anywhere but I haven’t had it in years and couldn’t expect myself to have it for very long. Fuck it. I’m not quitting but I don’t care if I have hope, there’s nothing left to have hope in but myself and that’s never very promising. After feeling along the whole door for the third time I collapse on the wall next to it to wait for my captor to come get me. Something hard metal with protrusions and pointy corners digs into my back and I jump forward. I turn around and feel it with my fingers. Jesus fucking Christ! It’s a goddamned switch box!

I knew it! I knew she wasn’t really coming on to me. I just knew it a little late is all. Of course I’ll have a nice reminder of that for a few days. She’s gone downstairs and not completely eager to follow this nice little cross burn with an allover sunlight burn or my untimely disintegration I cease from following. Fuck it! If she wants to escape and go back to the cold, un-wanting, uncaring, world just to have me come get her again when the sun sets well she can go right ahead and do it. In fact, that might even be for the better because I could sure use a little good help around here and Jonas is proving to be less of an ally and more of a neutral. That is a problem for me. “Jonas!” I bellow into his bedroom.

He emerges half dressed, “Things didn’t go so well?” he asks with a smile I can see through my one unscathed eye. I slap him across the face and his smile quickly parts for a serious expression, he’s ready to follow orders for once.

“Follow her,” I whisper, “See where she goes, and what happens to her.”

“The sun,” he states.

“I don’t care about the fucking sun!” I hiss, “be resourceful!”

“Right,” he snaps angrily, “I’m right on top of that captain.” That earns him another hard slap across the face. He stays rooted and upright but a trail of blood appears over his eyebrow. “I’ll take the car,” he says obediently for a change and heads back into his room. There’s just too much humanity in that one.

“Do it quickly, before she gets away,” I whisper. I doubt she would be able to hear, but like I’m always finding out, she’s full of pain in the ass surprises. After he comes out of his room dressed and is on his way downstairs I run into the bathroom and try to wash and gauze my wound. That fucking bitch! I wish I could see what she has done to my face so I could perfectly emulate it on her own the next time we meet, but unfortunately mirrors can’t properly register any vampire’s countenance. Doesn’t really make sense to me, but I guess there has to be a few downfalls, I mean it wouldn’t be fair for us to have all the fun.

I hear the door sliding open and step out of the bathroom to see a small ray of sunlight casting up diagonally through the stairway and onto the ceiling without obstructing anything. Damn, it took her long enough. A few moments later I hear the car start and pull out of the garage and the door closes again. The SUV has the highest tint and prevents the harmful ultraviolet rays to get into the car, but the rest of the light can sometimes harm the eyes.

After dressing my eye, I change my clothes and lay down in bed to get a few hours of needed sleep. The bed still holds all the lingering smells of all the sweet parts of her body and I snuggle into them as if she were with me. Tonight I’ll need some serious feeding if I hope this wound will heal quickly. I’m really going to hurt that bitch.

The sudden light closes my eyes and I stumble blind out onto a sidewalk. When my eyes adjust I open them and hear the door closing behind me. What appears to have once been a busy market street is now the center of a slum. Across the street there is a small delicatessen that is not yet open for business. The sun is just rising and the streetlights are still glowing. The sky, despite the coming sun is rather dreary and rain is lightly falling onto an already saturated concrete city. There are many row homes in sight, most of which are burned out, boarded up, or both. I’m happy that there is no one on the street to see where I have come from. Anyone who comes here to investigate will only get killed.

I don’t know where to go, no direction whatsoever aside from as far away from this godforsaken place as possible. I have no idea where I am, and I’ve been living in neighborhoods like this since I came to New York City. By the looks of the loft I had expected to be in Greenwich somewhere, but unfortunately not.

I decide to go straight where I’ll be walking towards traffic. I don’t know how safe I will be in this neighborhood wearing the clothes that I’m wearing, obviously hurt, but I don’t really care either. If someone wants to kill me they’re welcome to, as long as they aren’t vampires, one in particular especially. I realize I’m walking even faster now, stumbling along with new promise and vitality, it’s a start of a new day and there is no way he can get me now, not for hours. After a while, the damaged houses begin to thin and factories replace them. Cars are few and far between, and the occupants are either too caught up in their own trauma to notice me or are too fearful to stop in such a seedy neighborhood to help a seedy looking citizen.

The first large factory, of many in sight along the stretch of road which is now semi driven has a large gate around it with a full parking lot just inside. I come to the small driveway then the gate that I push open with a little trouble and once inside it slams closed behind me. I will surely find help here. I’m surprised to see the cars in the lot are expensive brands, a few Mercedes and such. Great, only I would bust into a criminal meeting while running from a criminal. I am also surprised to be noticing something so stupid and insignificant at a time like this, but don’t I always?

While stumbling through the broken white shells that fill the driveway I realize suddenly that I have been walking all this time with wounds in my feet. I glance down and notice that the street has worn off the bandages and I have been leaving bloody footprints in my wake. Hopefully he hasn’t figured out a way to get out in the sun, because if so I am in big trouble and am about to take a factory full of mobsters with me.

My only care for the time being is sitting down. I finally make it to the door. It’s just a glass door and inside is a white room filled with clothes, a young man possibly even a teenager and a few young women standing in the middle. I lean forward to push the door open and with it I fall quietly into a heap on the floor. I hear the people rushing over to help me and then everything is gone.




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