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Disclaimer: I don't own them.
Author's Notes: I own no one. They are all the property of Joss Whedon. Aside from that, I suppose this story and the ones that will follow it require some explanation. As of the latest episode, “Expecting,” I have decided it might be fun to write down journal entries the way I imagine Cordelia would write them. There will be at least one to mark each episode of the series thus far, and will end whenever the Angel Series Finale airs. Hope you enjoy the look into Cordelia’s mind as much as I will enjoy writing about it.
On a side note, each entry will be subtitled with a quote from the episode of which it’s about. Enjoy:
“Angel, Are You Expecting Any Big Vomiting Here? Because I Saw The Movie.”
January 22, 2000
I wasn’t around for many of the key events of our little adventure this week, so most of what I’m chronicling is what Angel and Wesley filled me in on. That doesn’t make what happened any less frightening. I’m surprised though that we all survived, especially when it comes to Wesley.
This week started off on kind of a sour note, as a round of bickering between Wesley and I over some brownies I’d made brought an unexpected reaction from Angel... Let me just pause here to rant about what a jerk Wesley is though. Okay, so I don’t normally cook; that used to be left to the maid back in the days of Sunnydale. But instead of praising me for making an effort, the guy actually has the nerve to CRITICIZE my culinary skills at every turn!
The fight quickly ended though when Angel, in a momentary lapse, actually addressed Wesley as Doyle. I suppose that the familiarity of the whole thing, compared to the bouts that Doyle and I used to share, just made him forget for a few seconds. And in the ensuing quiet, Angel made a poor attempt at an apology and fled the room.
After a little bit, I went after Angel in an attempt to comfort him. And also to point out that it was the first time he actually made a direct mention of Doyle since our friend died. In turn, Angel reluctantly revealed that maybe it shouldn’t have happened, as if he could have stopped the guy’s act toward heroism. Doyle was determined to give his life for the greater good and no one--not even Angel--could have convinced him otherwise!
Anyway, any attempt at a consolation on my part was cut short when you-know-what hit me. It was my most painful migraine-inducing vision yet (Thank you, Doyle, for giving me this gift), but it did kick off this week’s rousing round of Find the Monster, Kill the Monster! Which had Angel and Wesley going to check things out at the home of your standard... or not-so standard... American family.
I’m told that, shortly after their arrival, Angel leapt to the rescue of a young boy (Ryan) who almost sleepwalked in front of a car. Ryan’s parents (majorly freaked, by the way) then invited Angel in to bandage up a bad scrape he’d gotten in the process. In short, both Wesley and Angel got the sense that something was wrong in that house, something that went beyond the norm. The latter because, while investigating the exterior of the place, found the foundation coated in some kind of demonic slime. Officially, someone in the house was possessed by a demon.
This theory was grounded when, delving into this family’s background, we found that a series of complaints and animal deaths seemed to follow them wherever they went, not to mention a friend of theirs who went missing in Ohio. Since we didn’t know who it was, Angel formulated a plan to find out when he went to dinner at their house (pre-invited, of course). Only this time, Angel insisted that HE be the one to cook some specially-treated brownies for the unveiling... Honestly, am I REALLY that bad in the kitchen?!
Oh, well... Angel had Ryan’s father (Seth) pegged as the reluctant bad guy, so imagine the surprise when it turned out to be Ryan himself who was possessed. Naturally, Angel brought him and his parents in to the office so we could do your standard exorcism. All that was required was contracting a priest for such an event, but in the long run, THAT was easier said than done.
While I waited around with Ryan’s parents for Angel and Wesley to get back... Let’s just say that’s when things started getting bad. For starters, even though the possessing demon was contained through magical means, it was using every opportunity to try and entice Paige (Ryan’s mother) to come to him. And what’s worse, she probably would have if Seth and I hadn’t been there to stop her.
By the time the guys returned (regrettably priest-less), things at the office had pretty much reached the boiling point. Using Angel and Wesley’s arrival to her advantage, Paige actually ran towards her son while her husband and I were distracted. She broke the circle containing this demon in the process, and it was quick to use countermeasures to try and stop us from rescuing her in time. It didn’t succeed though, and the brush with death at least convinced Paige to use more caution.
In the interim, Angel quietly revealed to me that this was an Ethros demon we were dealing with, prompting me to research a way to stop it. Simple exorcism wouldn’t do; in fact, that’s what killed the priest Angel had hoped to contract. As I understand it, an Ethros demon is expelled with so much force, when it’s cast out, that any immediate attempt on its part to inhabit another person will only kill THAT host.
My research did turn up a simple solution though, in that there was a specially-made box (handcrafted by blind Tibetan monks) that could trap the thing. However, such an object wasn’t that easy to come by, but Angel seemed to know where to find one anyway. So, it was off to the local magic shop for me, which is actually a good thing. I did not want to be at the office for when volunteering exorcist Wesley ALSO broke the circle, and the demon made him stab himself in the neck with a crucifix! Even just hearing about it made me cringe!
The bad news was that the magic shop was all out of said Ethros boxes, so I made do with one that closely resembled it. I’m not sure if that affected the outcome or not, however... By the time I got back, Angel seemed pretty steamed, angry enough to perform the actual exorcism himself. The reason being (and I found this out later) that Mr. Ethros had dared to taunt my vampiric friend by doing a perfect imitation of Doyle’s voice.
The good news is that the exorcism was a success. The bad news was that the demon actually BROKE through the box meant to trap it on its way out. After sending Ryan and his family home, Angel did the research to find out where it might have gone, then he and Wesley departed to finish it off.
Our little adventure wasn’t over though, not by a long shot. The really scary part lay in what the Ethros had to say when the guys caught up with it. In short, the demon had nothing to do with the misfortunes that had followed Paige and Seth from state to state.
No, all the complaints, the animal deaths, could be linked solely to Ryan himself. The demon couldn’t even control him save for when he was sleeping, couldn‘t escape, couldn‘t even manifest itself until Angel brought it forth... Too bad that didn’t stop it from playing pranks during the exorcism... As it explained to Angel, the boy had no soul, no sense of right or wrong. That’s why the Ethros had sleepwalked Ryan out into a street, in the hopes of ending the boy’s life and possibly even its own. In my opinion, nothing’s more scary than a demon who confesses that HE’S frightened of a little boy MORE than anything else!
In any event, Angel got back to that house just in time, and at least he was able to spare Paige and Seth the trauma of losing their daughter. Ryan had actually started a fire in his sister’s bedroom; can you believe it?! And in the end, Ryan had to be taken away for an evaluation. I can’t imagine anything worse for a parent to bear, especially in light of my own recent brush with motherhood, but I also know that sometimes, you have to take the bad with the good. I only hope, for their sakes, that Ryan finds his way to becoming the model son they deserve...