It's your bloody fault, Frank! The Prison World (3Wishes) Att: Angel, Everyone in the Salvatore boarding School Mt's mm Buffy! oh and Harris (Xander)
The sun shined brightly.
The road lay silent like a warm bed of bitumen breaking up the dense blanket of trees that shrouded the hill as far as the eye could see. It was a perfect day! A peaceful day, with a cloudless sky and only a soft breeze. If there were animals in the forest, they were nowhere to be seen, and if there were birds in the trees... They did not sing. The world... This world lay silent. It was as if it waited, almost apprehensive in what or who, would travel down its long and winding roads...
It did not have to wait long!...
As if on cue, the silence was swiftly cut with a gravelly roar! As a beast, clad in armor of metal; black, and silver, its 20-inch chrome mags; white-rimed tires making short work of the winding road, came into view! The 1959 Desoto Fireflite could have been any car... Or anyone's except that every single window had been blacked out with aluminum foil, save for a tiny letterbox shaped split upon its front windscreen.
Surprising himself, Spike let out a rather large sob and quickly took a deep breath which of course had to bloody get stuck somewhere between his throat and nasal passage, not only causing him to choke on literally thin air, but worse... Snort! He sounded like a constipated bloody pig looking for a little bit of the 'ol jiggy!' Not that he knew what a constipated and horny pig sounded like, but he could damn well imagine!
"Balls on this!" He yelled in frustration as he lifted his hands from Desoto's steering wheel, only to slam back down harder, causing the Fireflite steering wheel to turn sending the car careening with a screech of wheels, towards the treelined verge in the road. "Bollocks!" It was out of his mouth before he had a chance to react! Swiftly Spike grasped hold of the wheel and slammed his foot on the Fireflite's accelerator pedal. Instantly Desoto responded powering out of the slide as its tires once again gripped the warm bitumen of the road.
"Bloody hell! No more bloody emotions! Your the big bloody bad remember, not the Big bloody crybaby!" He scolded himself out loud and pointed at the Fireflite's old tape deck "It's your bloody fault Frank!" And swiftly reached down- quickly changing the song to something a little more upbeat...
Frank Sinatra was a legend! No one did it like' old blue eyes' these days but did he have to get so bloody emotional every time he listened to him sing, I did it my way!
Subconsciously Spike glanced around the car, checking to see if anyone had noticed, and rolled his eyes letting out a groan- Of course, no one noticed! He was bloody alone! He'd been alone since that big bloody flash of light had sent him careening off the road a couple of days ago! Cutting a long story short, after battling the senior partners of Wolfram and Heart alongside Angel, He'd bailed intending on making his way back to Buffy and the Scooby gang. When out of nowhere, the Desoto had been hit by lightning!- Or that's what he'd first thought anyway. He'd figured out that he had, to have blacked out with the intensity of the brightness and when he could open his eyes again, he'd found himself in the middle of the bloody road with the Desoto still idling.
He'd thought he'd somehow gotten lucky, dodged a bloody bullet so to speak, that was until he'd pulled in a roadhouse to fuel up. It had been bloody deserted! No one... Not a living soul around, not even a bloody dead one! And it had been the same with every town he had visited along the way, No one, nothing! Everything left, looking picture perfect but not a bloody soul to enjoy it! He'd try to ring Buffy, and when she never answered, out of desperation he'd even tried to ring Xander!
Maybe he was dead? Like dead, dead? For real this time? There was just one problem with that... He didn't feel dead, not dead, dead anyway. He'd even pinched himself a couple of times to make sure.
The only thing Spike knew for sure, was that he getting bloody tired of driving from town to town and seeing no one! It was like some warped 80's version of hell minus the Turok-han, hell flames, and the odd demon lord!
Mystic Falls... it was what the sign on the side of the road had said... Welcome to Mystic Falls! Where the bloody hell was he? "Can't be too bloody mystical, I've never bloody heard of it" He muttered to himself and shrugged, still he needed somewhere to hole up for the rest of the day... The sun had been blaring down on the aluminum foil cover windows of his Desoto for a couple of hours now and it getting pretty bloody hot inside the car, he'd noticed that his body had started smoking, just a little mind you, a few miles back and he was if truth be know starting to feel like a Sunday roast on low in the oven. "Well... Well! Don't mind if I do!" Spike muttered to himself as the rooftop of a very large and fancy building came into view. It looked like a mansion with sprawling lawns and wrought iron gates, What did they say? Salvadore something?...
Xander had once said there was big money in Pizzas. Admittedly Xander had been working as a food vendor when he'd said it, and he'd taken great delight in taking the mickey out of Xander for it! But as Spike pulled up outside the looming house, it seemed to go on and bloody on. Subconsciously Spike made a mental note to tell Xander about it and even maybe... say sorry as he swiftly opened Desoto's door and pulled his jacket over his head, before charging across the gravel driveway. But by the time he'd made it to the porch, Spike had changed his mind. The little ponce 'Harris' would only end up rubbing it back in his face anyway with his told-you-so's! And by the time Spike had opened the front door, he'd all but forgotten about Xander completely! He'd been replaced with thoughts of a nice warm bath, a soft lounge chair- one of them recliner-type ones, and a bottle of whiskey while being able to watch repeats of Passions on tv till nightfall...
Slowly Spike made his way inside. It didn't matter how empty the bloody world had seemed to have gotten, it always made him nervous... Like he was waiting for some 'nincompoop' or other to jump out at him wielding a bloody stake! The last thing he ever expected was to suddenly be stood there, soaked to the core by the sprinkler system in the roof as the fire alarm blared out from nowhere and see Angel duck around a corner to hide further down in the bloody house!
What was Angel doing here? This was his bloody personal 80's hell, not Angel's! A thousand questions went through Spike's mind at once... Was Buffy here too, or the Scooby Gang? Wait!... Why was Angel running? -mmm Buffy... Forget about Buffy! More importantly, who was Angel trying to bloody hide from?.....
There were many things the Council expected me to do. It had never meant I should do them. It had never been my style. I'd never been known for my loyalty to the Council, I'd always been more of a wild card. Following the rules just enough to ensure I kept the Covenant off my back didn't mean I didn't believe in what they stood for... It was just that sometimes, we didn't see eye to eye on ideas -On how to achieve them. This... this was one of those times. It hadn't taken me long, a little convincing for Alec to go along with the idea, he was my Parabatai, he knew me better than anyone else, and knew once I'd set my sights on doing something, it usually took a major catastrophe to stop me.
I'd explained how it would kill two birds with the one stone if he let me take Clary along for the ride...Not only would it ease her mind and we'd get to touch base with the division in Los Angeles at the same time. The matter could be solved and put to bed without any obvious fuss.
She hadn't been in her room when I'd gone to find her and I didn't need to be a genius to figure it out. Clary was stubborn, almost as stubborn as me. I didn't bother to stop by my room and pack, I was used to traveling light, making do. I was more worried about Clary. She liked to think she could look after herself, that she knew enough to get her by. She was good, she was a quick learner, she'd taken to life as a Shadowhunter like water off a duck's back... But this... it could have been nothing, maybe something small the LA conclave had already sorted out?... But something in the pit of my stomach was telling me there wasn't a chance of it. Taking the steps in two I made my way up onto the roof of the institute. There was something to be said for the Vampires... Their bikes were like no others! Not only were they faster, but the fact that a night they could literally fly!... Exhilarating! - it didn't even come close to how it felt riding one!
I couldn't stop the smile twitching on my lips and I straddled the bike and I made a mental note to thank Magnus once again for the bike when I saw him next. Wasting no time I used my foot to kick up the stand and placed the key into the ignition turning the bike on, before checking with my foot that the bike was out of gear as I switched the engine on and pushed the simple start button at the base of my left-hand grip. Instantly the bike roared to life! Fluently my fingers grasped around the clutch, pulling it tight to the handgrip as I lifted my left foot clicking down upon the gears into first, and gently released the clutch... The motorbike responded instantly as it began to glide smoothly forward across the roof of the institute. In with the clutch, a kick upwards in the gears. Swift release of the clutch whilst pulling the bike's handgrip accelerator back towards me ... and the bike shot forward, straight off the institute's roof! There was no turning back now, I was on my way!
It wasn't hard to find Clary, what the hell was she thinking, Hitchhiking of the God-forsaken things!.. She didn't even turn to look at me as I pulled the bike up next to her... "Hitchhiking... really?" I knew I sounded blunt, I couldn't help it. I'd never been one to sugarcoat or make light conversation just for the sake of it. if anything, it just irritated me. "I'm not going back..." She stated, definitely. it was irritating but strangely likable. I wondered if she'd seen me roll my eyes. "No one said you had to..." I cut her off. "But you can keep on hitchhiking, or get on the back of the bike. Either way, I'm headed to LA too. Your choice ..." 'I was gonna add, Little girl' to the end of my words but the look in Clary's eyes, I'd found myself in a full-blown fight on the Interstate 80!
Lowering my head I hid the smile that crept across my lips and she finally caved and climbed on the back of my bike. "Just think of the view!" I shrugged as I felt her body's warmth behind me, "You better hold on." the moment I felt her hands grasp lightly on either side of my waist I accelerated letting the bike take control of the road. Easily it maneuvered in and out of the cars traveling along the same route; rapidly leaving them behind until the open road before us was empty of any traffic.
As the bike took flight the land swept past beneath us in a blanket of night. It was always the closest I could imagine to being able to fly, literally fly myself... it was one of the only times I'd truly felt free in the last ten or so years. It made me feel like all my fears, my worries, and doubts were stripped away, left behind to deal with another day or at least until we landed... I wondered if it made Clary feel the same way.
I didn't head straight to the La Department. I know I should have, I'd promised Alec I would, but I rationalized it by telling myself he would have known I wouldn't. Parabatai, it was more than most realize! From the moment we'd taken the oath, it was like our souls had been joined, our thought emotions shared... There was nothing, no secrets I could hide from him. Not forever, and it was the same for him. he was more than just my best friend... he was a part of me...
It didn't take long for Forrest's thick canopy to break below us reviling a hidden cove of lights. Beacon Hills! It looked like a sleepy little town.. quiet. But I'd learned long ago to never be fooled by first appearances. Gently I eased the bike down to the road and let her purr into the town. For the most part, it seemed like suburbia... The occupants of houses getting ready to call it a night, a police station with a single patrol car out front... nothing out of the ordinary. but somehow, I still wasn't convinced. There was a reason the town had been lighting up at the Department and even the Clave didn't think it was worth investigating, the feelings Clary and I'd both had... they said something different.
It was only when we rode past the local high school, that I noticed something. Something that looked strange and out of place for that time of night. Torchlights? Coming from a wing on the second floor. Twisting in my seat I leaned back tapping my fingers on Clary's leg and asked, "You see that?" Impulsively I lifted my hand pointing the windows before reaching to the bike's dash and turning off its single headlight. Releasing the bike's throttle, I let the bike glide quietly into the school car park. Waited for Clary to dismount before I followed suit. "Bit late for school, wouldn't you say..." I frowned glancing up at the wandering lights on the second floor as i safely stashed the keys to my bike inside my jacket pocket and pulled out my stele. It was a tool a Shadowhunter used to etch the runes upon their bodies. Made of pure 'Adamas' it glowed with a warmth ensuring the magic of the runes etched imprinted upon our physical bodies...and I had no wish to be seen entering the school in the middle of the night by some local 'mundane' out for a midnight stroll " Better mount up" I frowned and wasted no time activating the rune which would make me invisible to any non-supernatural onto my forearm. before heading silently to the entrance of the school.
The entrance was unlocked, open. I don't know what I'd expected.., but I wasn't surprised. Quickly I navigated my way up the first staircase I found, to the second floor before glancing behind me to ensure Clary was safely in my sight and reach if need be. It was the stench I noticed first. If you asked a Vampire, ten to one, they'd say they didn't smell, but then werewolves and Faries would say the same thing. The truth was, we all had our own unique scent, even us, Shadowhunters. Magnus had once said we smell like light... pure light, I'm not sure what he means, but I did know that Fairies, they fresh spring blooms, Demons, like burnt matches, it was the sulfur... Werewolves... damp fur and Vampires, their smell, it always reminded me of freshly dug dirt! And the school. the corridor smelt like fresh dirt!
Silently I reached into the inside pocket of my jacket pulling out my Seraph Blade, before glancing back at Clary and mouthing the word "Ready?" Silently we made our way down the corridor until we came to an open door. A classroom. It didn't make sense, what would Vampires want in a classroom? What were they searching for? Bewildered, I risked a glance back to Clary, she seemed as confused as me. Then taking a deep breath, I strolled calmly into the classroom to confront them! The instant they caught sight of me they began to move!
Pushing down upon the ball of my right foot, I launched myself forward into the air, landing nimbly upon a desk, fluently I dropped to my left knee swiveling anti-clockwise upon the smooth wooden surface; as I extended my right leg, forcing the ball of my right foot into the stomach of an approaching Vampire. Instantly he was knocked back as I swiftly drew my right leg back to my body and rose. Raising my left knee. I positioned my foot upwards extending out my lower leg and rammed the heel of my shoe into the other vampire's forehead. Instantly he staggered backward giving me enough time to lower my leg and step off of the desk towards him. As he recovered I grasped hold of his left arm with my right, forcing his body towards me and his heart within his chest onto my raised Seraph blade. His body went limp, as a last gurgled breath was exhaled and he burst in a cloud of ash and dust.
Silently I turned to look at Clary, making sure she was ok. I hadn't seen if she'd killed the Vampire, or if it had fleed upon seeing my Seraph blade... It didn't matter. It was gone. What mattered, was what in the hell had drawn them to a Geography class and why had they been so intent on checking out the old local maps of the town and its surrounding woodland...
