buffy comes back home from the fight, and realizes she doesn't want to be alone.
Cleveland, Ohio. It wasn't a pretty place, wasn't even marginally welcoming. Sure, the tourists got to the see the bright, fake parts of the city. The places where everyone put on their best smiles, showed off their big homes, and acted as if just on the other side of town lied a much darker place. A place that no one wanted to see. Buffy did her best to keep her eyes on the ground, trying to avoid the eyes of the people that resided in the maze of brick alleys that Buffy wove through, taking the quickest route to the hotel. The homeless, the prostitutes .. those were the ones that kept back here. Cleveland's best kept secrets.
Fingers tightened around the strap of her large, black bag she had slung over one of her shoulders, until her knuckles turned a bloodless white. A sidelong glance was given to a haggard looking woman. She might have been in her early twenties, maybe even younger than Buffy. At one point in time, she might even have been pretty. Years of drug abuse, and even more of the physical kind, had aged her beyond her years. Bleached blonde hair fried from the extended use of chemicals, one of her front teeth were missing, and everything about her clothes screamed 'prostitute.' How did people live like that? She'd often times found herself wondering the same about Justice. How the woman had let men
pay her for the chance to use her body, abuse her then leave her like trash -- it was beyond Buffy, and she found herself wondering the same about the woman she'd managed to spy out of the corner of her eye. In all honesty, Buffy probably looked like she fit right in about now, with her torn halter top, scuffed leather pants, messy hair, and a bloodied face. Absently, she raised her hand, trying to rub at some of the blood that stained her chin and neck like a crimson curtain. It was dry for the most part, and only came off in flakes. With a defeated sigh, she let her hand drop back to her side, and continued moving through the alleys, making sure to keep her eyes down on the way, not wanting to witness any other life gone tragically awry.
( god love your soul, and your aching bones. take a breath, take a step. meet me down below. we just can't get it right, but we're on a roll )