Entry tags:

kenzi, vex

WHO: Kenzi & Vex!
WHAT: Hallucinations. Bad, bad hallucinations. Thanks, Lucifer.
WHEN: Evening.
WHERE: Fifth floor hallway at the apartment complex.
WARNINGS: Language. All the language.

Thanks to Vex and his unfortunate habit of wandering into her apartment, crashing on her couch, and emptying out the contents of her kitchen on a regular basis, Kenzi had spent the past hour at the store stocking up on what her place was sorely lacking in. Cereal, beer, ice cream, popcorn - naturally, all of what Kenzi considered as essential supplies for a respectable kitchen. It was the long, very dull trip back to the apartment complex that made Kenzi decide that she was going to eventually start shopping at Vex's place rather than the grocery store if he kept up with the home invasions. It was only fair, really. The only downside? Vex probably didn't have anything remotely appealing in stock, if anything at all. The two of them would end up falling into some sort of outrageous hunger strike until one caved and finally stocked up again. And if anyone was going to cave on food first? It was definitely Kenzi.

It was a dilemma. One that she was going to have to solve with something particularly creative.

Or possibly with a boot to Vex's ass. She hadn't decided yet.

Kenzi juggled both bags of groceries in her arms as she made her way to the kitchen, noting that it looked like Vex had abandoned her place (or, at the very least, the living room) for a little while. She nudged the empty bottles of gin that had been left behind on her counter from the night before out of the way with the edges of each bag and unceremoniously dumped them both onto the counter. It was just as Kenzi was sliding her tub of ice cream into the freezer that she noticed a box that had been, all too neatly for the likes of her, been placed at the center of her kitchen table.

"Ooookay," Kenzi muttered in a less than enthusiastic voice, popping the freezer door shut. That didn't belong to her. And it wasn't exactly like Vex to leave any mysterious presents around. So what was it? And who was it from? Unless...

Shit. Really? Was this like what everyone else had been getting? A gift from the Devil?

Kenzi took an uncertain step away from it. Then she stepped forward. Then, once again, she stepped back again. No. Nope. Not opening it. Opening it was bad. Bad things, as she had witnessed several times over on the boards, happened to the people who touched secret boxes from the Devil. So what was she going to do? Just leave it there? She couldn't do that! What if something jumped out of it? What if Lucifer had sent her some sort of mutated jack-in-the-box that was spelled with some crazy instructions to jump out and eat her face off? Rather decisively, Kenzi strode across the kitchen floor and yanked the box off the counter. It was heavy. Very heavy. So heavy that Kenzi's body immediately dropped with the weight of it all, arms struggling to keep it from slipping out of her grip and onto one of her boots. With a growl of frustration, Kenzi stepped back just enough to let the box slide out of her fingers and slam into the floor. She stooped over instead and started pushing it with both hands.

That worked out just fine until Kenzi got it out into the hall. Already tired of shoving the all too heavy box through her apartment, Kenzi found that the process had turned into something of a struggle. But, having decided that it would be best to bring the Potentially Very Bad Thing over to Bo's place (if Kenzi trusted anyone to know what to do with it, it was undeniably her BFF), Kenzi knew she didn't have much ground left to cover. She decided to pull it instead. Except pulling a box by it's top wasn't as easy as pushing it was. In fact, pulling the top only forced Kenzi to yank the thing right off and, in the process, tip the box over onto the floor. That would have been a non-issue, except the very long length of iron chain that had been bundled up on the inside roughly slapped her in the wrist as it came tumbling out onto the floor.

Chains. Why chains? Why would Lucifer send her...?

Something sharp pinched at her wrist, shortly followed by a very unexpected burst of pain. Wincing loudly, Kenzi backed into the wall behind her and yanked the sleeve of her shirt up.

Her skin was raw. Bloody. A huge, all too familiar rash had spread it's way all along the inside of her wrist, causing Kenzi to yelp in surprise. The chains, the rash - shit. Shit, shit, shit! Eyes going wide, Kenzi kicked at the box and whirled around, hoping to make a break for Bo's door before -

The door was blocked. Standing there, right in front of her, was an exact duplicate of herself. With an all too smug smile painted across her mouth, the Kenzi clone opened her mouth to reveal a row of pointed, razor sharp teeth.

"Just like a human. Didn't even know what you had."

Inari.

She didn't scream. She couldn't. Not in front of her. After being chained up in that cave, sitting by helplessly for so long while she paraded around with her friends and tried to steal her life...no. No.

"You stay away from me," Kenzi started, back hitting the wall behind her again. "You're dead. Dyson stopped you. You're not -"

"Real?" Inari tipped her head to the side and dropped her lips into a sympathetic pout. "Oh, sweetie. It's going to take a lot more than a little rough housing from your dog to get rid of me." Inari clapped her hands together in delight, grinning viciously. "It's time for round two, you sad, silly, little girl. And this time? I'm going to do it right!" She bared her jagged teeth into another wicked smile. "This time? I'm going to kill you first. And all of your friends? All of these people that you've buddied up with since you've gotten here? They'll never know. They'll have me. They deserve me. I'll be a good friend to them; I'll be a better friend." She stepped forward, body moving almost snake-like as she swayed across the hall. Kenzi was cornered. "I'll get it right this time. I'll get everything and everyone and there is nothing you can do to stop me."