[Angel] Four Walls
Title: Four Walls
Author: telepathicpixie
Rating: PG
Character: Faith
Word Count: 346
Notes: 100_women prompt #4 – insides. Takes place sometime after “Sanctuary.”
Summary: Faith had never liked being cooped up.


Faith had never liked being cooped up. It reminded her too much of when she was little, spending summer days locked indoors without air-conditioning because her deadbeat mother had drunk herself unconscious. Combined with the Slayer’s basic aversion for being trapped, prison was a special sort of unique hell, even beyond what she’d expected. Still, suffering was pretty much required for any hope of redemption, so it figured she had to let herself be locked up in a narrow little cell—alone, because no matter how good her behavior, everyone knew she was dangerous.

At least the cell was air-conditioned.

It was equal parts comforting and maddening to know she could have broken out at any time, from any part of the prison, and they wouldn’t have been able to stop her. Some days, she was tempted to try—just forget her foolish hope of redemption, because how could she really be redeemed for the things she’d done? Those days, the days when the guards yelled at her for no reason and the other inmates picked fights with her just to try and prove something, she hung on simply because quitting wasn’t an option, not for her, not anymore.

Night provided its own challenges; lying in the darkness, listening to the others breathing, she had to struggle to stay inside her four walls, her hands clenching—denting—the sides of her bunk, her skin crawling and her blood singing with the Slayer’s desire to be outside.

…outoutoutoutoutHUNT…

At night, she had to focus everything on control, on lying there and slowing her breathing and relaxing herself enough to keep still, if not to sleep. Forcing her insides to become as cool and orderly as her surroundings, all the while keeping herself—her, the Slayer, the monster, the murderer—locked up tight where she belonged. It was never easy—not that she deserved easy—and most nights she had to grit her teeth to keep from screaming aloud in frustration and anger.

It was worth it when morning came and Faith knew she’d managed to keep herself inside for another day.


Table here.