CHAINS

S J Smith

Disclaimer: Not now, nor ever have been, Joss Whedon.

Rating: PG

Summary: Futures...dark and deep.

A.N.: Written for Blood Roses: Rosebud Fiction. Thanks, Dark Star, for the chance to play.

* * *
It doesn’t matter where you go.

You hadn’t realized it at first but it came crashingly clear in just a little amount of time: there isn’t anywhere you can go.

It’s all the same anyway, no matter what city, what country; the stars still burn overhead and the moon watches your movements. You’re still a vampire. Still fighting the good fight, your feet fixed on the path the rank gods have set you on. Trying to leave it isn’t an option anymore. You realized that, too; venturing off the way always led to dark consequences for those you dared to call your own.

Easier, then, to do as They willed.

Too bad you’d lost your taste for that prize They held over your head like a doggy treat. They passed you over once anyway, gave it to someone else. A part of you raged back then, that he wasn’t worthy of it but you’d already figured out that They were a fickle lot.

Why else take every possible dream you had and twist them into a scourge?

You learned how quick They were to punish while telling you it was a reward, justification for the things the demon did in your name. There was a time when you believed you deserved it.

That time, too, had passed.

They hold your leash and you go where They will, cast on by visions, by whispers and rumors. So you run with your pack eager at your heels, always the same throughout the years: one to slay, one to watch; one cursed with visions, one in touch with the world and another practically on another planet. When you allow yourself to, you pray that their souls aren’t chained to yours because that would be punishment far greater than any They could have ever devised.

And when you dare, you dream of sunlit hair and gentle smiles, long since faded in all but your memory. For her, you had changed, become this creature of light and darkness.

For her, then, you wear these chains.

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