The Wind Beyond the Walls of the Mind: Chapter 15 - Mr. Softee
by Gaius Petronius
The Wind Beyond the Walls of the Mind

Chapter 15
Mr. Softee
by Gaius Petronius

DISCLAIMER: Buffy the Vampire Slayer and all the characters that appear on the show are the exclusive property of Joss Whedon, the WB, Fox and Mutant Enemy, Inc. This story can be read on its own or as a sequel to H. P. Lovecraft's "The Haunter of the Dark" from which the Ancient Ones, the Shining Trapezohedron and the character of Robert Blake are derived.

The Wind Beyond the Walls of the Mind is set roughly in mid-season four shortly following the death of Doyle but before the creation of Adam and the death of Maggie Walsh.

Content Note: This part is rated PG-13 for some raunchy language.

* * * * * * * * *

The curtains in Faith's room at Sunnydale Convalescent Hospital were still wide open, but now, instead of the bright California sun pouring through the window, the shades of evening's deepening darkness obscured the view of the outside world.

Inside, a bedside lamp cast soft illumination over Faith who lay comatose and Buffy, still maintaining her vigil by the side of the bed. For a long time, Buffy sat silently only staring at Faith's face, searching for some sign of recognition or hint that Faith was aware of her surroundings. She found none.

Buffy cast a nervous glance over her shoulder at the darkness that now filled the window and, in her imagination, threatened to spill into the room overwhelming both her and Faith.

In another kind of night that Buffy couldn't sense, Faith still lay huddled against the massive wall that disappeared into the impenetrable black landscape looming all directions around her. Although her face showed evidence of recent tears, her eyes were wide as she strained to listen.

Buffy was beyond the wall somewhere; Faith knew she was there. Buffy's voice drifted faintly, almost flowed like trickles of moisture seeping through the massive grey blocks. This time the words were understandable.

In the hospital room, Buffy reached out, took Faith's hand and massaged it.

"I'm sorry I have to tell you this," she said softly, "Somebody should and I guess I'm the one. . . . we killed him, Faith. We had to."

As Faith listened to Buffy's voice, the effect was almost the same as when Buffy plunged the knife into her abdomen. She breathed heavily and shivered while her mind raced.

"Mayor Wilkins is dead," Buffy's words drifted through the stones, "We stopped the Ascension. 'Course we blew away the school doing it but . . . hey. Collateral damage as Riley calls it."

Faith grinned slightly at the irony of Buffy's remark.

"When I was still unconscious in the hospital, I dreamed I was talking to you," Buffy continued quietly as she massaged Faith's hand, " We were in your apartment. I think there was a cat we were talking about or something. I know I mentioned this before and I got no clue whether any of it was real or not. But I guess it must have been 'cause . . . you told me the Mayor's weakness."

As Faith leaned against the gray all encompassing wall, she stared down at her hand as if she could sense Buffy massaging it. Her face betrayed her mental struggle to remember whether the dream encounter with Buffy actually happened.

"Buffy, don't talk so fast! I can't remember!" Faith suddenly cried out.

"'Course it could've just been my own guilty conscience," Buffy's words, oblivious to the comatose Slayer's silent plea, continued to drift around Faith.

Suddenly, she sat bolt upright against the cold stones, her brown eyes wide with life. A fragment of memory, like a tiny beacon in the night, returned to her.

"'Aren't these things supposed to take care of themselves . . . ?' she exclaimed to the darkness. "Yes! The cat! I remember the stupid cat!"

Buffy still stroked Faith's unmoving hand as she spoke quietly.

"But if it was you . . ." Buffy continued in the hospital gazing at Faith's expressionless face, "Well, I guess then . . .you sorta saved us all. After everything you did, to me, Angel, Willow, Giles . . . It was you . . . that saved the world."

Faith stared up at the wall imprisoning her. For the first time there was a look of hope on her face. Buffy's words drifted all around her, loud and unmistakable.

"I want to believe it so much . . . that it was you that saved us."

"'B' I'm here! Buffy!" Faith yelled as she leaped to her feet.

Turning to face the wall, Faith raised her hand and firmly placed it palm first against the gray stones. As a breeze rose stirring her black hair, suddenly her hand passed through the mass of rock as if it had no substance. Her eyes widened in amazement, and she cried out again.

"Buffy! Grab my hand!"

As Buffy gently rubbed Faith's hand, the fingers of the comatose Slayer began to quiver. Immediately Buffy sensed the change occurring in front of her. She took Faith's hand firmly in hers and held tightly. Suddenly, Faith's hand spun in Buffy's grasp and latched onto her wrist. A soft night breeze blew through the open window, stirring the curtains.

Without thinking, Faith threw herself against the massive gray blocks. Her body wavered in the darkness and then dissolved and, like a morning mist sliding through the leaves of the trees, passed beyond the stone barrier restraining her.

Buffy gasped and tried to draw her hand back from Faith's unrelenting grasp. All at once, consciousness and recognition returned to Faith. She stared out with her red eyes at Buffy who, in a state of shock, didn't immediately respond.

". . . Faith? . . ." she finally stammered.

". . . hey, 'B' . . ."

"Hang on! I'm gonna go get the nurse!" Buffy said urgently as she pulled herself free from Faith's grasp.

"NO!" Faith cried out, "I only got a couple of seconds here!"

Buffy stopped and knelt down by the side of the bed up near Faith's head so she could hear better.

". . . the cat . . ." Faith struggled to speak. After months of silence, her words were almost slurred but Buffy could not mistake their meaning.

"It was me, Buffy . . . " Faith murmured, "I told you 'I thought these things were supposed to take care of themselves . . .'"

Buffy's eyes widened as the impact of Faith's words sank in. Their dream conversation came back to Buffy in a rush and her heart surged. She imagined this must be what it was like to search for one so long presumed dead and then suddenly and unexpectedly find them alive. Buffy smiled broadly but her eyes also glistened with building emotion.

". . . Faith . . ." she said gently as she felt her lips tremble.

"Don't get all sappy on me!" Faith cracked back at her, "I'm still gonna beat the shit outta you when this is all over."

Buffy grinned despite a single tear now running down her cheek.

"Faith, it's gonna be okay," Buffy tried to be reassuring but Faith cut her off immediately.

"Shut up and listen, Buffy," Faith said intently, "I may not get another chance to talk, so listen good. There's something in there with me. I can't see it. It won't show itself. It's lurking just out of sight."

"Easy, Faith, easy," Buffy replied, putting her hand on Faith's shoulder, "It's just in your mind. You've been here all the time."

"Will you shut up and listen you ditz!" Faith cried out with a mixture of anger and despair, "It's . . . oh, shit!"

Suddenly Faith's red pupils widened. Buffy stared astonished. Before her eyes she saw Faith, the "consummate bitch" as Willow called her, Faith the toughest and most unfeeling person she could imagine, Faith the evil one, the "rogue," Faith, the fallen slayer, begin to cry profusely.

"Faith?" Buffy stammered.

"No!. . . not yet! Don't put me back in there!. . . " Faith wailed, "Give me a fucking chance, man!"

"Faith, what's happening?" Buffy begged.

Buffy felt the despair strike her straight to the heart as Faith's voice suddenly faded away.

". . . catch ya later, 'B.'"

Faith's head dropped forward as the last traces of consciousness and rationality slid away from her face. Her blood red eyes resumed their vacant stare.

"Faith!"

Once more, Faith suddenly found herself kneeling in the darkness against the stones of the massive wall. The breeze that had stirred her hair just before she awoke, now quickly died away. In fury, she struck the wall with her fist.

"Damn you! Damn you! Damn you!"

In desperation, Buffy grabbed Faith by the shoulders and gave her a gentle shake, trying to stir the now comatose slayer back to consciousness.

"Faith! Talk to me!"

To Buffy's surprise, Faith responded but her voice was hollow and emotionless.

". . . and . . . who . . . are . . . you . . ." she recited blankly.

Buffy slowly released her hold on Faith's shoulders. With a look of horror on her face, she let Faith's inert body slide back gently into the pillows. The curtains in the window, which moments before waved gently in the breeze, now suddenly were still.

". . . no . . . " Buffy whispered, her voice quivering, "You have to come back . . . please . . . "

" . . and . . . who . . . are . . . you . . ." Faith murmured as she stared out at nothing.

* * * * * * *

"I'm completely insane . . .!" Kate announced rhetorically as she shook her head and waved her arms in the air. The LAPD detective stalked back and forth in MacDuffie's New Age Curiosity Shop like a newly caged animal.

Angel and Cordelia paid no notice having experienced Kate's fits of temper before but Giles and MacDuffie stared at her in total confusion. Clearly this law enforcement officer was serious enough but it was her self deprecating tone of voice that underlay all the bluster that had them off balance. Giles and MacDuffie didn't know what to expect from Kate, whether she was about to serve them with a parking ticket, clamp them in handcuffs or haul them off into the back alley and have them summarily executed.

"Lt. Lockley, I assure you that . . ." Giles sputtered. He felt ashamed because he knew he sounded like Wesley.

"No, that's the only answer that makes any sense here," Kate snapped back interrupting him, "I just sat on an orange crate for twenty minutes listening to stuff I usually hear from delusional alchies in the drunk tank . . . " she pointed her finger at Angel and Cordelia as she continued ". . . and instead of arresting you two and hauling you back to LA . . . I'm actually starting to believe all this bull shit. . . . so that's got to be the answer. I've finally flipped!"

Kate glowered directly at Angel who couldn't help but smile. She was kind of cute when she was pissed off he thought. Reckless and probably dangerous but cute nonetheless.

"And you!" she shouted at Angel, shaking the vampire out of his reverie, "Every time I follow you, the nightmare just gets worse and worse." In the next instant, Kate turned to Cordelia as if looking for some kind of sympathy. "How do you deal with this shit?"

"Welcome to my life," Cordelia smiled calmly and shrugged her shoulders.

"Why the hell do I listen to you?!" Kate announced to Angel.

Cordelia opened her mouth to answer but Angel cast her a stern glance.

"Shut up, Cordelia," he said brusquely.

Cordelia held her tongue but at the same time flashed a devilish grin.

Kate realized she was getting nowhere with Angel and Cordelia. They had spent enough time in Los Angeles working with her to know all her tricks. Frustrated once again that the situation developing was completely beyond her control, Kate decided to vent her wrath on the two "Brits" that somehow must be the cause of all the chaos she felt swirling up to overwhelm her.

"And you!" she spun on the old Guardian, her voice dripping sarcasm, "You're the biggest pistachio in the nut bin. How am I supposed to warn the authorities about what you've told me? I can just imagine what that conversation would sound like . . ."

Kate put her hand to her face and ear in a perfect pantomime of someone speaking into a telephone receiver. She shook her head, tossing back her blond hair off her shoulders as if she were engaged in the most casual discussion imaginable.

"'Hi, Governor?'" she popped off, all phoney pert and perky, "'This is Lt. Katherine Lockley, LAPD. We need units of the CA national guard sent to Sunnydale immediately. Yeah, right! As many as you got. . . . What for? . . . Seems there's some monster with three eyes . . .'"

"One eye, three lobes," MacDuffie interrupted, clarifying the numbers by holding up his fingers.

"'Right, Guv, you hear what he said?'" Kate continued without missing a beat, "'Yeah, one eye, three lobes. It shoots balls of fire from its eye, too. Incinerates anything in its path. It's got a bunch of buddies and they're all gonna end the world on Cinquo de Mayo! Hello? . . . . Guv? You still with me here?'"

Kate stared at her fingers in a perfect imitation of a clueless "Rogue Demon Hunter" who has just been hung up on. Then, dropping the charade, she glared at MacDuffie.

"You don't leave me a lot of options," she said sternly. Everyone in the room could tell immediately that now she wasn't kidding around.

"That's because I have few to offer," MacDuffie answered as calmly as he could.

Kate, her hands placed firmly on her hips, still glared at MacDuffie.

"Lieutenant," he finally sighed, "If you disbelieve what you have just heard, then the door is right there."

MacDuffie pointed to the front entrance of the shop. Kate glanced over at the open door, then back at the shopkeeper.

"Okay, just say for a minute that I buy into this," she finally said, giving up some ground, "What are the options? And what do I do here?"

"As we have already explained," MacDuffie explained patiently, "The Ancient Ones will complete their transmigration into this universe by drawing out the life powers of a Slayer, channeling them through the Shining Trapezohedron and thus forcing open the rupture between their prison in the Void and our world."

"That's how we lose," Kate said sharply, trying to get to the point, "How do we win?"

"That same Slayer directs her life powers through the Shining Trapezohedron against the Ancient Ones," Giles picked up the explanation, "Thus closing up the tear between the two universes. With any luck, her soul will escape to this world in the millisecond before it is sealed up in the Void forever."

MacDuffie turned his glance to Giles.

"Either way, . . ." the Guardian announced with a quiet finality, "The Slayer will die."

* * * * * * * * *

Buffy still sat quietly by Faith's bed in the Sunnydale Convalescent Hospital. Faith's blood red eyes were now closed as if she were too exhausted to expend the energy needed to keep them open. Buffy nervously studied the open window and the night lurking beyond. Finally, she took Faith's hand in hers once again and spoke to the comatose Slayer.

"Listen, I gotta split for a while to do patrol," she said quietly, her tone of voice uneasy, "There's something out there real bad that's coming tomorrow night but I promise, I'll be back as quick as I can."

Faith gave no sign she understood what Buffy had said. Buffy waited for a few moments, gazing at Faith and searching for any indication that her words had somehow penetrated the veil that had descended over the fallen slayer. Finally, with no indication forthcoming, Buffy rose to leave and as she turned away from the bed she stopped for a second, then faced Faith once more. She leaned down and, as she did months earlier in the hospital after their brief words exchanged in a dream, Buffy kissed Faith gently on the forehead.

Buffy then straightened up, looked at Faith for just a moment more and then quickly left the room.

* * * * * *

Faith lay on the ground huddled against the wall's dark gray stones. Her eyes were closed, and she let out a small sob. Suddenly she sucked in her breath and froze in place as she sensed movement just beyond the range of her vision. She squinted, searching in vain in the darkness surrounding her. Slowly, subtly, the color of the void to her left began to shift from an inky black to a deep rich blood red.

She instantly jumped to her feet and assumed a defensive stance.

"All right! I've had it!" she yelled at the coalescing crimson shape, "Get your ass out here where I can see you!"

A cheery, familiar voice rang out of the darkness. On first hearing it, Faith smiled with relief but suddenly the look on her face changed from happiness to skepticism and finally fear. Back against the wall, she would not drop her defenses.

It was the sarcastic voice of Mayor Wilkins.

"Hello, Faith! Long time."

"Mayor Wilkins? Is that you?" Faith still refused to believe her ears.

"You were expecting Mr. Softee?" An image in the crimson cloud grinned at her.

From out of the blood red darkness, Mayor Wilkins stepped into view. He was his usual nattily attired self sporting a light colored suit. His body was now clearly visible but his head remained indistinct and obscured as if the area comprising his face were badly out of focus.

Faith knew immediately something was wrong with the image appearing before her.

"Buffy said you were dead," Faith said suspiciously.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk. Faith . . ." the blurred image of Wilkins answered, "My dear girl are you going to believe . . . Buffy? . . . or your own eyes?"

Faith didn't answer but stood motionless, her fists raised in front of her.

"Well . . . ?" the Mayor was clearly growing impatient, "Faith, I'm hurt! You would take Buffy's word over mine?"

"No. I'd do anything you . . . I mean the Mayor wanted," Faith frowned shaking her head, "But you see, Buffy's a Miss Goody Two Shoes. She doesn't lie."

The image of the Mayor wavered in silence.

"That's the way I always skunked her," Faith continued, her bravado quickly surging to the surface, "She's so predictable. Always rushing to defend the 'innocent.' Letting you know exactly what she's gonna do. . . . and not lying about it."

There was another pause as the whirling redness around the image of the Mayor intensified.

". . . Buffy said Mayor Wilkins is dead" Faith declared through gritted teeth, ". . . so who the shit are you?"

"We don't have all the time in the world here," the Mayor's image growled, "We need you to do something for us. It would have been more satisfying if you had given in willingly but that doesn't matter. The Ancient Ones will take what is theirs."

Suddenly the face of the Mayor came into sharp focus. It was not a face at all but rather a single eye divided into three lobes, all blazing red with a searing fire inside. The Mayor's neck quickly extended, lengthening so that it took on snake-like proportions. A pair of skin webbed wings rose up from out of his back. In an instant, what was once Mayor Wilkins assumed the form of Nyarlethotep, The Haunter of the Dark.

"You will surrender your Slayer's life force to the Ancient Ones!" it hissed in a hideous whisper.

In a second, the Eye lurched towards Faith. With lightening reflexes she spun on a single leg, connecting a well placed kick against the advancing Eye at the end of the serpent like neck. The blow struck home, sending Nyarlethotep jerking back out of the range of Faith's arms and legs.

"Bitch!" it growled in a disembodied voice, "None have dared strike me in almost two thousand years!"

"Snuggle up to me like that again," Faith swaggered several steps forward, "And I'll give you another reminder!"

"You will do as the Ancient Ones command!" the sound seemed to roar all around her.

Suddenly, the image of Nyarlethotep streaked forward at Faith. Before she could strike out in defense the Preparer of the Way dissolved into a stream of vapor that poured into her body. Faith dropped her defensive stance and writhed in agony.

"NO! You bastard! NO!" she howled.

Faith spun on her heels, shaking back and forth as if the motion could somehow throw the invader out of her body. She clawed at her face over and over.

"NO! Buffy!" she cried out in despair, "'B,' where the hell are you!? Help me! PLEASE HELP ME!"

Faith twisted wildly, wrestling with the entity that had invaded her body. She spun closer and closer to the massive stone barrier. Finally, she toppled backwards against the gray wall and, in an instant, her physical form passed through the solid rock.

In her room in the Sunnydale Convalescent Hospital, Faith's eyes snapped open revealing only a searing blood red around the pupils. She screamed out loud.

Her wail rang out like the cries of the other convalescent hospital patients Buffy and Giles heard on their earlier visit. Faith's shriek slowly faded away into a long agonized moan. A night staffer passing by paused at the open door to Faith's room and peered in. Seeing Faith still in bed, the staff member moved on to the next room on her rounds.

Alone, Faith whimpered in the darkness.

* * * * * * *



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