As soon as he saw Halley
Dillinger arrive, Angel got out of the car and followed her up the steps to her
apartment. “Miss, ah…Dr Dillinger, may
I speak with you?”
He knew straight away that
he’d moved too quick and too silently when she jumped and whirled round. He backed off quickly.
“What do you want?” She asked.
“Have you found it already?”
“No, but I need to ask you a
few more questions. Ah, may I?” He indicated the door with his head.
“Oh yes of course. Come in.”
It was always rather a
relief when he got the invite like that straight away. It saved on the awkward doorstep
conversations.
He knew instantly that the
Dex was in the house. It smelt so bad
but the doctor didn’t seem to notice and made some excuse about not taking out
the garbage that morning. “You know how
it is when you work all day.” She said.
Angel nodded. “So, where did you say you worked?” He asked.
“I didn’t.” She replied.
“Why don’t we stop with the
games,” He said suddenly. “I know you
have some connection to Wolfram and Hart.
I saw Lindsey McDonald leave here not twenty minutes ago. He’s dangerous.”
“I hired you to do a
job. Sticking your nose in where it’s
not wanted wasn’t it.”
That remark made him cross,
“Lindsey is a dangerous unprincipled, lair, who’d sell his own Grandmother if
he thought it would win him a case.
I’ve run him out of town once and I’ll do it again.”
Hal didn’t have time to
defend her boyfriend because Lindsey burst into the apartment at that moment
with Spike hot on his heals. Spike
would have burst into the apartment too but for the invisible barrier that kept
all uninvited vampires out. He leant on
it and snarled dangerously. There was
no point in being subtle, the very fact of its existence said what he was.
Looking from person to
person, Lindsey couldn’t believe his eyes.
There was Angel standing with Hal and he’d sent another vampire to keep
the lawyer out of the way. “Born again! Hah, very funny!” He thought.
“Come on in and join the party.”
He said out loud and Spike strode through the door. “Well lookee here my best girl and my worst
enemy.”
He dumped himself on the
sofa and Halley noticed he was detached and disinterested. The investigator had accused him of being
callous and now he seemed to be living up to that. She yelled at him, “Don’t you care? People say such terrible things about you, Lindsey.”
Angel looked from person to
person. Spike positively bristled with
nervous energy. He was clearly enjoying
the strife. There was no indication
that he possessed a soul of any kind.
Halley was obviously in pain.
Her agony was plain on her face, as she hid nothing. And Lindsey? Well he sat impassively, lounging back on the sofa as if nothing
could touch him. Suddenly he had the
answer. “Of course he doesn’t
care.” He said, “He’s had his soul removed!”
Hal was horrified. The man she loved had been harmed by her
work. Had Reed given Lindsey a
Dex? The Firm was going to destroy them
both. But no, there weren’t enough
missing Dexes for her lover to have had one for that long. An agonising realisation began to dawn on
her. He must have the Dex she’d sent
him after. She’d done this to him. She’d destroyed him herself.
Halley began to cry. Lindsey didn’t turn a hair even though the
woman he loved was in tears in front of his worst enemy and some strange
vampire. “I did this to you!” She wept, “And I’m so sorry. So very sorry.”
It was heartbreaking for
Angel and even Spike could no longer just watch. He moved towards her and she fell broken, into his arms. He shushed her, rocking gently as he used to
do with Dru. Gradually the sobs became
less.
Angel turned to Lindsey and
said in scathing tones, “You represent what is evil and you come to represent
evil itself.”
“Are you saying I’m
evil?” The lawyer’s voice was a cold
monotone, “I’m not creating it; it’s there, it’s business. If it weren’t you’d be out of a job. You trade in it too, Angel.”
Angel ignored him, “Where is
the beast, Lindsey?”
For a moment, Lindsey
McDonald was scared but the fear quickly turned to anger. “You want to see the Dex I have? You want to see my soul?” He opened the door to the spare room and the
smell literally drove the two vampires back across the room. The hideous beast was festering in his
offences. Its face was lined with worry
and pain. It had gnarled hands as if it
had done a lifetime of hard labour and yet its body was bloated with
excess. There were pustules of sin
erupting from its leathery hide and the whole creature shuffled as if it was
very old.
“Christ, Lindsey, what a
lesson! What an awful lesson!” Halley exclaimed.
In the Dex, Angel saw his
own, suffering soul and he wondered what state Spike’s was in. In the same way as the Doctor must have
somehow created the demon, he had created Spike.
The Dex was in a state. It was as if leprosy and necrotising
bacteria were eating it from within.
Disease crept over the hands of the Dex and its fingers dripped blood. The beast could not control whose sins it
absorbed. Between Lindsey, Angel, Spike
and Halley they had aged it faster than even LA itself could.
“I loved you too much.” Hal said shaking her head. “And now I’m being punished for it. But you know what? You loved yourself too much as well and now we are both being
punished.”
“Give me the Dex.” Angel said, “I will dispose of it.”
Lindsey just stood and
placed himself between the vampire and creature. Hal tried to regain her composure. She disentangled herself from Spike and moved towards her lover
and the beast, “Give it to me, Lindsey.
Then we can start over. It
needn’t be like this, we’ll move away…”
“No! You can’t come near it. I will deal with the Dex. If you come for it then it’s over between
us.”
“You can’t stop me from
seeing my own work!” She screamed. She’d never seen him so angry, but she was
sure if she could just get him alone, she could get the thing away from him and
destroy it. “This is still
fixable.” She thought.
She turned to Angel and said
in a low whisper, “Let me deal with this.
You go to the lab and destroy all the rest of the Dexes.”
Angel hesitated, glancing
towards Lindsey, still furious and cold.
Hal saw his concern, “It’s okay.
I’ll be fine. Just go quickly.” She hurriedly scribbled some directions and
gave him her swipe card. “Now go!”
With a last look from Angel
and a shrug from Spike, they left and Halley was alone with Lindsey and the
beast. She looked at him hard. Maybe if she appealed to the love inside
him. The love he had so often shown
her, “Lindsey, I love you. You are my
inspiration – please! You are more
important to me than the Dex or the Firm.”
“Oh don’t be
ridiculous!” Yelled Lindsey, “You have
killed my love. You used it to make me
hope and dream now I can’t be bothered with you. You have no effect on me any more. I loved you because you were wonderful. You had genius and intellect and you’ve thrown it all away.”
Hal tried to reach out for
the Dex. It was repulsive but if it
would follow her, she could get it out of the apartment.
“What are you doing
Halley?” Lindsey asked. His eyes were dead and soulless. Now she was really afraid and she began to
back away. Lindsey raised the letter
opener from the desk and she didn’t have time to turn. He thrust it into Hal’s chest and blood
spurted from the wound. “I’m good
looking, I’m powerful, I’m successful,” each claim was punctuated by a stab,
“And you won’t change that.”
Hal stumbled and fell with
the ferocity of the attack. She reeled
in pain but managed to pull herself to her feet, using the edge of an
occasional table. On it stood an
onyx-based lamp.
The room swam as she lifted
the lamp and for a moment, Lindsey thought he was her target but instead she
went for the Dex. “Look!” She screamed, “See, I can destroy my
art.” Still in pain from the stab
wounds, she began to beat the Dex around the head. Its blood soon covered her hands and splattered her face, mixing
with hers on her blouse and into the wounds themselves. She struck it repeatedly and the Dex seemed
to become less of a monster, its body morphing with each blow.
Eventually exhausted she
sank into its arms, and with a small whimper, she died. The Dex looked up at Lindsey briefly. It was a beautiful creature now and the look
it gave him was one of love. Then it
too died and Lindsey was left with his guilt.
That final look returned to
him everything that had been taken and nausea took a hold. He retched, bringing up acrid smelling
alcohol and bile. He couldn’t stand the
pain of his soul. His lover was dead at
his own hands and his career ruined. He
felt the blackness of despair overwhelm him.
As if in a daze, he went to
the draw in the desk and took out Halley’s gun. He checked the chambers methodically and returned calmly to the
centre of the room. He knelt down next
to the body of his lover but couldn’t bring himself to touch her.
“I don’t know how you stand
it Angel.” He murmured, placed the gun
in his mouth and pulled the trigger.