Canto
XX |
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| [The Eighth Circle, Fourth Pouch, where Diviners, Astrologers,
Magicians, all have their heads turned backward. Miss Cleo.]
Doyle led Xander across to the next pouch, letting the young man lean against the broken-down remains of a wall that set there. While he tried to get Xander calmed down, Spike studied the people below. After a moment, he walked over to Xander and nudge the boy with his elbow. When the human responded, Spike tilted his head towards the damned. Xander looked into the pit below, wondering what was wrong with the people stored there. They were all walking, but they didn't look right, and they stumbled dumbly about like drunks. He looked harder and saw what was wrong--everyone's head was on backwards, so they were walking backwards in order to be able to see where they were going. Big, shiny streaks of tears trickled down their dirty bodies, disappearing down their exposed buttocks and pooling behind their knees. The damned bumped into each other frequently, raising up a torrent of blasphemies and curses until everyone got their limbs untangled. A familiar face caught his eye. It couldn't be... At first, Doyle thought Xander was crying again. The ghost glared at Spike and then rushed to comfort the boy. "Smart move," He hissed at the vampire. "Like he needs more of that!" Xander waved off Doyle, continuing to chortle and guffaw as best as he could. "Th...th.." "Xander?" Doyle murmured. "We don’t have to look at them, come on." "N..n..." He tried, still laughing so hard it hurt. "M..m...N...m..." Finally he gave up trying to speak and just cackled merrily. Tired of listening to the sputtering laughter, Spike grabbed Xander by the shoulders and shook him once. When he had the boy's attention, the vampire stared hard at the tear-streaked face. "What?" Xander blinked owlishly at the pale man. Wow, Spike's eyes were really, really blue. "Miss Cleo." Spike scowled in bemusement. "Who?" "Miss Cleo," Xander repeated, never breaking eye contact with Spike. "Down there. It's Miss Cleo!" Doyle glanced down at the pit below. Sure enough, the disgraced tarot card reader was amongst the damned, tangled up with an ancient-looking man and a rather attractive young woman. "Oh yeh, it is. Huh, I figured she'd done worse than this." "But she's not dead yet!" Xander replied, still staring at Spike. "Just resting?" Spike asked, smirking. Doyle rolled his eyes. "That's enough, children. Move along, nothing to see." It took much effort on Doyle's part, but finally Spike and Xander got moving again, towards the center of Tartarus. |
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