In a Corner of My Soul: Angel: Baby's On Fire

[dragonyphoenix]

Summary: Rewrite of season 1 with Giles as the Big Bad.
Master List for In a Corner of My Soul (previous chapters / scenes)

So much of the world hid its deadly nature behind a mask, Bob thought as he looked over a tray of substances collected from the earth's deadlier offspring. The Amanita genus of mushrooms includes death caps which are also known as destroying angels for their deceptively innocent facade. John Crow beads, bright red seeds, especially attractive to children, sometimes worn as jewelry to deadly effect, kill after several days of nausea, vomiting, and convulsions. White baneberry, whose fruit resembles doll's eyes, while harmless to birds can cause cardiac arrest. Mistaking water hemlock for wild parsnip can lead to seizures and death. Milkweed butterflies, for example the Monarch, are full of residual poisons from when they, as caterpillars, fed off of the poisonous milkweed. The jewels of the rain forest, the poison dart frogs, sparkle with a rainbow's worth of colors. The flamboyant cuttlefish, brightly colored, are so toxic they are safe from commercial fisheries. The pufferfish, on the other hand, innocuous in appearance until it puffs itself up in size, is considered a delicacy. A mere taste can cause death. Alice had eaten one. They'd been out for the night, two fools on an adventure, one small bite to add a piquant touch of danger to their evening. He'd had the ring on him but he'd never gotten the chance to offer it, never gotten the chance to ask her to change her name to Weirick. If he'd had the power, he could have prevented …

Bob shook his head. None of that mattered anymore. Nature was deadly, too deadly sometimes, unreliable if one meant to merely incapacitate. Chloroform, while produced naturally by seaweed and certain fungi, was made usable by man. Synthesized and poured onto a cloth, it could keep even a child quiet long enough for her to be bound, gagged, and hidden. He'd told the police that his assistant had searched the basement and they'd believed him. Assuming, after their unfruitful search, that the child had been taken away from the zoo, they'd moved their pursuit elsewhere. His ritual wouldn't be interrupted.

She'd been bound, alone and in the dark, for hours but the girl still squirmed as if she might escape. His zookeeper outfit didn't present as fearsome a facade as had his Primal garb. Now those clothes would have terrified the prey. It made no difference. There were other means of achieving fear. He held his knife to the girl's throat. “Don't move.”

Much of the world hid a deadly nature behind a mask of innocence. Bob could relate. So few saw behind his own facade, the friendly zookeeper, there to help. The girl, for example, had come right up to him once she'd realized she'd lost her mother. She knew better now.

“From the lower depths, rise Eyghon. From the dark soul at the heart of the world, rise Eyghon. From the corrupt heart, rise Eyghon.” His knife tore through the girl's throat. Her blood spurted, drenching him, covering him with life-giving, death-giving liquid. “Rise Eyghon. Rise!”

The knife hit the floor as the demon took him.