Forgotten Conscience (girlxgirl) (Book 1)

Deconstructing Faith

Faith's POV

"Are you sure we should be doing this? I mean, what if they wanna put some sort of mind control chip in my head or something?"

We're walking through the campus together to go see this Riley guy she was telling me about. She chuckles at me.

"What?"

"It's nothing."

She chuckles again.

"What's so funny?"

She could at least let me in on the joke.

"Well there's this vampire who lives in town, a real bad ass evil one. Goes by the name of Spike..."

Spike?

"What kind of stupid name is Spike?"

"Yeah I know, but he sorta earned it by torturing people with railroad spikes."

"And this is funny?"

"Well no see, he's harmless now. The Initiative put a chip in his head and now he can't hurt anyone..."

I stop in my tracks.

"Wait, you mean the same Initiative that I'm about to let poke and prod me with all sorts of gizmos and gadgets? What the hell are you thinking?"

She stops and turns to look at me.

"Faith it'll be okay. I wouldn't be bringing you to them if I thought they were going to do that to you. Riley said on the phone that he's been put in charge of the experiment so they won't do anything to you unless he authorizes it. And he wouldn't do anything without my say so."

Experiments... wow, that makes me feel so much better about it.

"Well, what makes you think we can trust this Riley guy any more than this Initiative thing?"

I start walking with her again.

"I trust him... I wouldn't be with him if I couldn't."

Be with him? They're involved with each other? She didn't tell me about that.

"Well, I trust you. So if you can trust him, then I can trust him."

She smiles at me.

"Good."

We turn around a corner and I see a big frat house.

If she's with him then what was that last night? I've been thinking about what happened since she left this morning, and I'm pretty sure there was something there between us. I could feel her breath get deeper with every breath. I half expected her to jump my bones if I touched her. I expected her? When did this happen? Come to think of it... she wasn't the only one with a rapid heartbeat when we were inches from each other. Something about the way she was looking at me made all my blood run south. But she says she's with this Riley guy, and that she trusts him. So what exactly  happened last night?

We walk into the house and she leads me upstairs.

If she can trust him then I guess I can trust him too, because I trust her.

She knocks on one of the doors. Someone opens it.

I guess this must be Riley.

"Hi!"

"Hey!"

"Riley this is Faith, Faith this is Riley."

"Hi!"

I put out my hand.

"Hi, how are you?"

What kind of question is that?

He takes my hand and shakes it.

"I have amnesia."

"Right, how's that working out for ya?"

What a weak handshake.

I look over at Buffy.

What the hell does she see in this guy?

"Maybe we should just get down to business."

"You're right Buffy."

We move out of his way and he starts toward the stairs. We follow him down the stairs.

"So what's the problem?"

I look over at Buffy as we reach the bottom of the stairs and turn down a hall. She nudges me.

"Well I... I keep having these panic attacks. I guess that's the best way to put it. When something happens to upset me, I blow up. I start attacking everything that moves. I can't stop myself, I want to but I can't."

"Can you think of anything the incidents have in common?"

BUFFY! Every time I attacked someone she was either around or I had that weird dream about her. They have Buffy in common... tell them, they can help you if you tell them.

"I'm not sure... everything sorta becomes a blur when I snap."

"Well we'll have to figure out what sets you off so that Buffy doesn't do anything to set you off and gets hurt... or worse."

That plan sorta back fires since Buffy sorta is the trigger.

Buffy puts her hand out to stop me as she stops herself.

Why have we stopped in front of this mirror?

"What's up?"

"We're here."

"We're where?"

"The Initiative... we're here."

It's a mirror? What kind of secret organization is a mirror?

I hear a buzzing noise coming from behind the mirror and then a laser scans Riley. The mirror gives way and an elevator door appears.

Okay... I still think it's lame.

"Let's go."

We step into the elevator.

"Riley Finn."

"Voice authorization confirmed, going down."

The elevator starts going down.

We're going down into a pit with no way to escape with a group of government agents bent on controlling people like me. I feel so safe.

I look over at Buffy. She looks back and smiles. All of the sudden, I feel better. She turns her head and stares at the elevator doors. I look up at Riley and he's looking back at me.

I don't think he likes me very much. He must really care about Buffy to help me without knowing anything about me.

The elevator stops and the doors open. We walk down the hall with rooms on either side. It's all white and sterile. We stop at a room on the left.

"Buffy you can wait here in this chair."

"She's not coming in?"

"It's okay Faith. I'll be right here waiting for you."

I guess that's okay, as long as she doesn't leave.

I walk into the room with Riley behind me. There's a hospital bed sitting in the middle of the room with a bunch of doctors standing around it.

"Faith, if you don't mind lying down on the bed, then we can begin."

Wow, this feels real safe.

I sit down on the bed and lie back. The doctors start strapping me into the bed.

I'm doing this for you, Buffy.