Aftermath
By Jules
Chapter 1
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After Cordelia left the office, she didn’t know where to go. She was just too confused, and she didn’t feel
like dealing with her phantom roommates inquiries, in his own ghostly way, as to why she was home so
early.
‘What the hell am I going to do? It’s not like I can get another job. I get excruciating painful visions thanks to demon
boy. I didn’t ask for them, and now I’m stuck with them. The man who’s supposed to use them has fired me...what am
I going to do?’
Cordelia was afraid again, lost and searching for a reason why these things were happening to her again.
Hadn’t she paid for what she had done?
It was well after dusk, and Cordelia hadn’t even noticed night had fallen, or the two women, and blond
and a brunette, who’d stumbled onto the walking girl.
~*~
Darla and Drusilla had just had a fun evening, sucking the necks of drunken businessmen, who’d gone
to bars trying to forget their miserable lives, and were now looking for something to do.
Drusilla was the one who noticed her, “Ooh, there’s the one who sees all the fun demons have for
Daddy.”
Darla looked over and saw the distracted dark haired beauty, “Why yes it is. Cordelia if I remember
right...” She gets an evil smile on her face, “Come on Dru, let’s make a present for Angelus.”
Cordelia never even knew what hit her, literally. Darla had come up behind Cordelia and knocked her
out by hitting her with a board.
** A few hours later **
Cordelia woke up feeling groggy, and having a major pain in the back of her head. She tried to move her
hand to feel if she had a bump, only to discover her hands were chained to a wall.
“Ahh, I see you’ve finally awoken my dear.” Darla greeted.
Cordelia gasped, her eyes wide with fear, “Darla.”
“Oh, you should fear me little one...both of us.”
Drusilla came out, “My tummy’s full, but to play with the seerer would be lovely.”
“And play we will darling. I’m going to show her some of the technique’s Angelus created over the
years.” Darla enlightened her, picking up a razor and advancing, “And I beg of you dear Cordelia....
Scream for me.” Darla told her, with a sick smile.
** One week later **
To see the former May Queen would be something of a horror for anyone.
She was covered in little cuts, her clothes torn and filthy. And in a few places, you could tell just by
looking at the strange angle, that the bones were broken.
The sight that would have scared you the most however, would be to looking her eyes. They darted
back and forth, her sanity clearly starting to slip away.
Drusilla stood at the end of the bed with Darla, “Mother, I’m tired of playing with my new dolly...can we
finally make me a sister?”
“You’re right darling. It’s time to send Angelus his present.”
She sauntered slowly over to Cordelia, and smoothed her hair, “Darling, it’s time for a change. Don’t be
frightened. Soon all your pain will be gone.” Then she slipped into her demon visage and bit Cordelia’s
neck, sucking until life within was almost gone. Then she made a slit on her wrist with one of the razor
blades on the dresser and held it to Cordelia’s lips.
Cordelia had no control over her body any longer. She hadn’t had anything to drink in over a day, she
was so thirsty, and so even though it was blood, she drank the liquid down greedily.
Darla decided it was enough, so she pulled her wrist away, “Now sleep my little girl. Sleep. When you
wakeup, you can go outside to play.”
Then Cordelia’s eyes slid shut and with a shudder, her body stopped breathing and her heart stopped.
Darla smiled, then unchained the girl.
“Help me darling. We must clean your new sister up.” The two went to work. They ripped off tatters of
what used to be Cordelia’s clothes, and set her broken bones, so they’d heal properly when she woke up.
Drusilla filled the tub while Darla combed Cordelia’s hair.
“Oh you’ll be such a pretty vampress, and you’ll be a wonderful girl for Mother won’t you.” Darla
whispered the dead body, which would awaken soon.
The women washed the girl’s body and shampooed her hair. They dressed her in a dark blue dress, with
a flowing but thin, almost see-through skirt that went to her ankles, and a tight bodice, which was
separate from the dress.
They brushed her hair again and did her makeup for her. They used black eyeliner around her eyes,
applying it thickly. Then white and dark blue eye shadow, and blue mascara. On her lips they used an
almost deep red, almost brown. And on her cheekbones were applied a brushing of plum.
Darla painted her new girl’s nails a sparkly dark-blue, while Drusilla accessorized the outfit by tying a
thick band of velvet around the girls neck, from which hung a star shape, which was dark blue with tiny
flecks of white. Darla also pierced the girl’s bellybutton while she slumbered in the sleep of death.
Both Darla and Drusilla were very excited and when the girl finally awoke Drusilla danced about the
room, pulling the girl up to dance with her, which she did.
Darla smiled, because she knew that the girl was now her’s. Finally the girl stopped in front of her and
kissed her cheek, then kneeled and kissed her hand. She stood up smiling, and said to Darla’s delight,
“Mother.”
“That’s right darling. You are such a beautiful girl. But it comes to question what to call you, I enjoying
giving my childe new names, my boy was always far too lazy to come up with new names for his own...
However I do not wish to stray too far from your former name, because Cordelia is so beautiful...but I
guess we could name you, Cassandra, after the prophetess in Homer’s Iliad.”
“And we shall call her Andra.” Dru sung.
“I want to go out to play...I’m hungry mother.” Andra told her dam, in a sexy breathless voice.
Darla hesitated for a moment, then nodded her head in agreement, realizing the girl was much more
knowledgeable in the ways of vampires than most fledglings. “As you wish my beautiful girl, but don’t
stay out too late. I don’t want my new childe to get burned by the sun on her first day. But if you end up
staying out late, find somewhere to take cover.”
“Of course Mother, I’m just going to find some friends to play with. Can I torment the Angel? Please?”
Darla really had to think this over, but quickly capitulated, wanting to start Angelus’ torment as soon as
possible, “If you must darling. But only if you’re careful.”
“Oh he won’t stake me. I’m his best friend.”
Darla wasn’t so sure about that, after what Angel had done to her, but let Cassandra go anyway knowing
that the girl could take care of herself.
~*~
** Angel’s Office **
Angel was in pretty much the same position that he was when Wesley had left a week ago. He done a
few things, changed his clothes and everything, but he was back to where he was before.
Angel was at long last beginning to become aware of how quiet it was around the hotel, with no
Cordelia, Wesley, and Gunn bickering in the office, and how much their presence had made the place
feel like it had been his home.
He missed Wesley’s comments, and they way Wesley and Gunn fought. And frankly, he was starting to
get bored without them.
He longed for Cordelia sarcastic remarks, her blunt way of putting things...but most of all, he yearned
for Cordelia’s smile, her quirky jokes. He missed the companionship...he missed her.
But they were gone, all of them.
He’d sent them all away.
Needless to say, he was completely and utterly stunned when Cordelia came skipping into the hotel
around 10 o’clock at night, knocking him out of his brooding.
“Hello Angel! Isn’t it a lovely night?” she twirled around, her skirt spinning out around her.
Angel couldn’t help but notice she looked different, he couldn’t tell what exactly, but something had
changed about her very being.
“What are you doing here?” he growled, trying to keep his tough image in place.
“I’m here to see you of course. Silly.” She did a few pirouettes around the room, remnants of her many
years, and countless hours spent in ballet class before her parents had lost all their money.
“I fired you. That meant you were to leave, and not come back.”
Cassandra looked at him and pouted, “Quit being such a spoil sport. You’re ruining my fun. I just had a
lovely fresh dinner, and I came over to play with you. Why are you being such a meany?”
Angel started to sense the difference in her demeanor, her behavior...and the scent of blood on her
breath, the way she was totally carefree. Cordelia Chase was never carefree.
“Cordelia, what’s wrong with you?” he questioned, fear growing in his heart.
“Oh my names not Cordelia anymore. It’s Cassandra, or Andra, if I say so. That’s what Mother named
me. And nothings wrong with me anymore!” Cassandra laughed and spun around the room on her toes
(more ballet stuff).
Angel stopped her, grabbing her roughly by her arms, “What. Is. Wrong. With. You.” he demanded.
Cassandra’s eyes fill with tears, “You’re hurting me Angel. I don’t want to hurt you back, please, let me
go.”
Angel didn’t listen, “Who are you? What have you done with my Cordelia.”
Cassandra’s eyes flash and she pushes him away with her new strength, her demon visage slipping into
place for the second time ever, “Cordelia’s gone. Get used to it. She spent a week with your Darla and
Drusilla being cut with razors, having her bones broken one by one, whipped, starved, dehydrated, and
being told no one cared about her, that she wasn’t anything special. That the only reason you’d kept her
around was because she was your link, and that you’d proved it when you had no more use for her and
the Powers That Be, you threw her aside, like nothing.... Then they killed her once she started to lose her
mind, because no one had come for her. Because she found out they were right, no one loved her after
all. That she was worthless, just like Angelus told her. Mother turned her, and she became ME.” The fury
went out of her eyes, face turning back to normal, and Cassandra twirled around the room once more,
“And I like it better this way. I have a family, who loves me now. No one hurts me anymore. I don’t feel
bad about being a bitch to those lower then me in high school. I don’t care that you don’t love me, even
though I love you. Good-bye Angel. Have fun here, all alone. I was going to fuck you, but now I’m not.”
Then she skipped out the door.
It took a few moments, but his mind was finally able to grasp what had happened. They’d turned her.
The two women he’d given up his friends, in his quest to kill, had turned his beautiful Cordelia into a
soul-less vampire.
After he had promised he would never let anything hurt her again, it was his own new self-centered
nature that had done it. She was his best friend; she had just been so worried about him. And Angel had
thrown her out into the cold. Left her to the wolves. He didn’t even know that she’d been missing for an
entire week. That she’d spent the whole week being tortured by methods developed by Angelus, and
were now being used by Darla. His innocent Cordelia...
How could he have let Darla affect him this way? What had he done? He needed Cordelia. She was his
soul. She was what kept him sane...he loved her.
Angel mind began to race, ‘Oh my God. I love her! Not just like a friend, but more then that. She was what kept
me on my search for redemption. And now she’s gone, forever. Another soulless creature of the night, and it’s all my
fault.’
Angel had to get to Sunnydale. He might not be able to restore her sanity, but he could try. And he could
give her back her soul, with Giles’ and Willow’s help.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Please, I still want replies, but because of the `incident', I'm going to stop asking for six of them. Oh, well, anyway,
PLEASE, I BEG of you, tell me what ya think! Good or bad, I live for feedback.
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