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Peja's Wonderful World of Makebelieve Import
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Published:
2020-11-04
Completed:
2004-07-23
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8,548
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7/7
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18
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Wilted Rose

Summary:

 

notes: response to Jinni's Poetry Quote challenge (quote #15), set in s4. I've been working on this for a while, and now it's ready... Happy Birthday Kat.


An encounter with demons in a cemetery changes things between Spike and Willow... 

Chapter 1: Chapter 1

Chapter Text

Wilted Rose
by Lucinda

 


O Rose, thou art sick
The invisible worm
That flies in the night
In the howling storm

Has found out thy bed
Of crimson joy
And his dark secret love
Does thy life destroy
- 'The Sick Rose' by William Blake

Spike kicked at the edge of the bathtub, glaring at the pale, tiled wall. Chained up and dropped in a tub, like an abandoned pet. He was Spike! William the Bloody! He'd killed two fucking Slayers, and been part of the Scourge of Europe! How in the hell had he ended up in a damn bathtub, in the house of one of his enemies?

Pain flared again in his skull, reminding him of just how that had happened. That bunch of camouflage-wearing soldiers in their fancy white lab had done something to him, made it so that he couldn't hurt humans, couldn't feed. And when he found a way to make them pay, he'd rip their spleens from their body and...

Gasping, he closed his eyes to red-white sparks. His body slid slowly along the cool porcelain of the tub as his head throbbed like a heartbeat. Pressing his fists into his eyes, he tried to numb the pain, or at least keep his throbbing eyes from exploding outwards. Apparently, he couldn't even think about doing particularly violent things to humans anymore. It wasn't natural, wasn't right. And somehow, he had to find a way around it, a way to fix it.

Downstairs, a door slammed, the force of it causing the walls and the tub to vibrate, feeling as if his skull grated on itself. The Slayer had left the house... good riddance. He almost couldn't believe that he'd thought she was responsible for his predicament, it didn't match anything that she'd ever done before. Which meant that he had two enemies - well, the Slayer and her gang, the soldiers, and every pitiful demon and aspiring master vampire in the area. Especially if they found out about what had happened to him.

The door again, with a bang that didn't shake the house. Someone else had left, and he wondered who it had been. The Watcher? The boy and his sex-obsessed girlfriend? The little witch? Who was still in the house with him?

Possibilities shuffled in his mind, and he decided that while the situation was miserable, he'd have to think his way out of it. It was more fun and easier to just kill anyone that got in his way... Spike's head throbbed again, like a warning. But that wasn't an option right now. He'd have to use his brain, to be cunning. Maybe he'd best just hope that these people followed one of the most delightful and useful traits of the good guys - best summed up by that stupid Dark Helmet character in some comedy movie: Evil will always win, because Good is dumb.

They were the good guys, fighting for some blasted moral purpose, except for the Slayer with her destiny. Good guys had this redemption and turn to the bloody path of righteousness thing, maybe he could use that to his advantage? Play along, act like he was changing his ways, win their trust, and then... Then he might have it. At the very least, he should be able to get out of this miserable bathtub.

But for this to work, he'd need someone to focus on, a weak link that would be the first to break, the first to bend to his suggestions, the first to twist around. Not the Slayer. The Watcher... No, he'd resisted Angelus, barely gone under for Dru, and would be the most suspicious of all of them. The boy? No, too fixated on his girl, and she was far to fixated on the boy and having as much sex as they possibly could, the lucky bitch. That left Red, who'd been so miserable in the dorm room that she'd almost been willing to just let him kill her. Oh yes, she would definitely be the weak link.

Yes, he'd focus on the redhead - Willow. She'd been all broken up inside over something, emotionally torn, more vulnerable. Between that weakness and his own cunning, he should be able to use her, twist things around in her head until she would do what he needed. He could lie, poison her against her friends, separate her from the Slayer, motionally. Hell, maybe he could even shag her. Smiling, Spike tried to relax in the tub, thinking about all the reasons why she was the best choice. Those tears, the curves of her breasts that he'd felt as he'd pinned her to the bed, the way her eyes had looked when they were wide with fear...

Oh yeah, she'd be a wonderful person to focus on. Pretty, she smelled nice and tasty, especially those tears - grief and pain and fear. Quite the heady combination. She was also emotionally vulnerable right now, suffering from. whatever it was. Something about a wolf, a band, and a crypt. He wasn't sure, but it sounded interesting. Someone else's pain had to be more enjoyable than his own, after all.

Smirking, Spike allowed his head to rest against the wall, considering the best way to seduce the girl to his side. And when she was his, when he had her right where he wanted her, then he wouldn't be stuck here in this miserable situation any more. No more being chained up in a bathtub, no more cold pig's blood in a 'Kiss the Librarian' mug. Maybe even no more chip.

It wouldn't do to start too strong. He had a fuzzy memory of some textbooks, and it left the feeling that she was fairly smart. If he tried too much too fast, she'd catch on to him. But she was one of the good guys, and they had a tendency to be too trusting, and too nice for their own good. If he started things more gradually, and didn't start noticeably singling her out for particular attention. If it seemed to be believable and coincidental when he started spending more time around her. He'd just have to remember to be patient with this. Groaning, Spike reflected that he wasn't very good at patience.

 

End part 1.