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(This is original creative material copyright Chris Kenworthy, based on characters that he has no right to owned by someone else blah blah biddy blah...) |
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Cordy had hardly swung open the door when Janet's voice rang out: "Cordelia?"
Cordelia stifled a groan. "Yeah?" she called out.
Janet strode imperiously into the front hall. "Where have you been?"
"At the movies, with a friend," Cordelia told her.
Cordelia hadn't meant to aggravate Janet more, because of her promise to her father, but Janet simply steamed. "You were supposed to be here this evening! To help me with the stew for the potluck tomorrow, remember?" Cordelia started to apologize, but Janet was still on a roll. "And who were you with, anyways? Don't bother saying Harmony or Rachel - I called them when you skipped out after dinner."
"I... that's none of your business!" Cordelia replied hotly.
"Well, this is the final straw as far as I'm concerned. I've had it with you, missy - the late nights, the subtle disrespect, the sneaking off. You're grounded, Cordy, and that means no back-to-school bash tomorrow!"
"You think you can stop me from going?"
"Your father left me in charge while he's in Los Angeles, and that means that I can do just about anything I please!" Janet snapped.
Cordelia shrugged. "Okay, we'll play it your way," she muttered, heading up the stairway. Janet's party was tomorrow night, as well. Getting to the dance would be far too easy.
* * * *
Cordy slipped down the stairs of the darkened house, dressed to kill in a tiny little red dress. She looked around, still a little surprised that Janet hadn't called over one of her old college friends, or Leila, as babysitter, (aka prison guard.) But there was no sign of anyone, no sound, no light on anywhere. Relieved, she unlocked the door, twisted the doorknob and pulled the door open.
A slight hissing began. Nervous, Cordelia froze in place and listeend as Janet's voice began, on some kind of tape recording. "So, you're intentionally defying me and trying to sneak out. That's it, Cordelia - your pretty little butt is mine the second I get home. Meanwhile, you turn around, march back up to your room, take off that fancy dress, and wait there until I'm back. Do you hear me?"
Cordelia considered a moment. Then her face turned down in a frown. "Screw you, Janet," she muttered, pushing through the door and out into the cool night air.
* * * *
"I can't believe her nerve!" Cordelia rambled to Damien as they zoomed up to the Bronze in Damien's Corvette. "I can't believe I just did that! I'm so dead... well, maybe not. Dad's not gonna take Janet's side over mine. Or is he? Oh, sheesh."
"Come on, Cordelia," Damien soothed her as he parked. "Whatever's gonna happen, you can worry about that later. Right now, we're here, we're together, let's have a good time, okay?" He got out, and Cordelia suddenly realized that they were there and opened her door too.
"Hmm... how good a time?" Cordy wondered aloud, slipping her arms around him and kissed him on the mouth.
"Well," Damien joked. "I'm not quite sure!"
"I just want to be with you like this forever," Cordy breathed.
Every head turned when they made their entrance into the Bronze. Damien was in a stylish suit, and he looked very handsome and dangerously sexy. And as for Cordelia herself, she supposed she looked a bit like a lovely, enchanting princess, in that short red gown, with her hair up...
"Hey, Cordy!" Cordelia looked to see who had called her, and groaned. It was Jesse again.
"Uh, hi Jesse," she said before he could get any more out. "See you around, Jesse," she finished, and turned to Damien. "Let's dance."
"Sure!" he led her out to the dance floor, and they slow-danced, (more decently than some other times,) for several minutes.
"I'm afraid I've got some bad news," Damien whispered to her. "Or maybe it's not so bad, depending on how you look at it,"
Fear clutched at Cordelia's heart. "What is it?"
"I've got to be moving on from Sunnydale."
"Oh, no!" Cordelia moaned, her face falling sadly. "When?"
"Tonight, tomorrow," he said seriously. "Perhaps the day after, at the limit."
"Tonight?" Cordelia gasped, agonized. "How could that possibly be a non-disaster, honey?"
"Well, this might be an extreme idea, but bear with me," Damien started, smiling nervously at her. "With the problems you've been having at home, the badnesses with Janet yesterday and today... do you feel like you'd like to just take a break from that?"
He paused here, and Cordelia slowly made the connection. "You mean... go with you? Run away from home?"
Damien shrugged, blushing. "It was just a thought. I see how much pain you're going through with this stuff. All I can think of is how much I'd like to take you away from it all."
"Hmm," Cordelia hmmmed, considering.
"It wouldn't have to be forever," Damien added thoughtfully. "I know you wouldn't want to leave your Dad forever. You could just take a little time for yourself, and for us, skipping next semester at school. That way, when you come back, maybe at Thanksgiving or so, you'll have bargaining leverage with your dad and the step-mothers. You'll have power. That's what you've been missing."
"Uh." Once again, Cordelia made her decision. "Yes. I'll do it."
"Great!" Damien kissed her.
"But we're gonna have to move quickly," Cordelia realized. "I'll want to go back to the house, get my stuff, before Janet gets back from her party."
"Why not go right now?" Damien asked. "I'll drop you off, then start making arrangements at my place. You can walk over, and we'll hit the road from there!"
"Great!" Cordelia took Damien's face in her hands and kissed him, passionately. "Let's go!"
As they rushed back out of the Bronze, Rachel Ellis tried to get Cordelia's attention. But she couldn't get close to her with all the kids crowding the dance floor, and she couldn't call loud enough for Cordy to hear her over the music.
* * * *
Cordelia made her way up the stairs to Damien's room, carrying one bag in her hand and a knapsack on her back. "Is this what my life comes down to?" she whispered silently to herself. A few favorite clothes and CD's, the necessities of good grooming. Everything else, she was ready to leave behind - for Damien.
It had been easy getting her stuff together. For a few terrified moments before she opened the door, she had convinced herself that the little booby trap Janet had set up could have re-coded the security system. That would have been just the perfect final humiliation to get from Janet - to be arrested for breaking into her own house. But there was no such thing. She had found the tape recorder, rigged up to a circuit break over the door and some other gizmos. Perhaps Janet had taken some electronics in college, or high school. Cordy had taken the tape recorder, re-cued it, and left it on her dad's desk in his study. She hoped Janet didn't find it and steal the tape away before her Dad could hear it.
Am I really ready to do this, Cordy wondered as she continued up the stairs. Sure, she had always had fun being difficult and stubborn, but a rebel child? Running away from home, to live on the road with an older guy she had just met and barely knew? It didn't feel right. But neither did just going back to her life, and Janet's discipline, while Damien rode off into the night.
She came to the sixth floor, headed over to Damien's door, and knocked on it. It swung open, apparently not having been shut. The lights in the hallway were dim, and no lights were on in the apartment were on at all, so Cordelia didn't see much of anything inside at first.
Then, as her eyes adjusted to the dimness in between, she saw an arm, two arms, lying limply on the bed. She couldn't see much detail, but from the way they were draped, the body they were attached to was limp and unmoving.
"Damien?" she called out, walking into the room. "Did you fall asleep on me, honey? I know I took a bit longer than we said, but..."
Suddenly, a shape barrelled into Cordelia from the side and behind, knocking her forward, and swinging the door shut at the same time. She landed in a heap on the bed.
Without even the light from the hall, her eyes had to adjust again, but moonlight and streetlamps shone through the window, and soon she could make out what was next to her on the bed. It was Rachel! Her eyes were wide open and glazed over, and Cor could see two bloody holes in her neck, with the smallest amount of blood dripped down from them onto the bedsheets. A horrible smell assaulted her nose.
"I'm sorry about that, honey," Damien's voice came at her from the shadows. "But Rachel came here looking for you while I was waiting, and I was just so hungry..." his voice trailed off suggestively. He stepped forward from the shadows, into the moonlight. Cordelia looked at his face - and screamed. It was monstrous, distorted by ugly facial ridges. Glowing yellow eyes stood out prominently - and four long sharp fangs in his mouth!
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