177 Ficlet: One Night, He Was Gone

[brutti-ma-buoni.livejournal.com]

Title One Night, He Was Gone
Author Brutti ma buoni
Rating PG
Word Count 220
Prompt 177 Flick of the Switch
Characters/Pairing (if any) The Mayor and his wife
A/N: Also filling the fantas_magoria summer tag line prompt. Most efficient!


He came back wrong. As though a switch had flicked and... zap.

Edna Mae Wilkins was never quite able to lay her finger on how she knew. But the Richard who came back from the big city that dark and stormy night wasn’t quite her Richard any more.

He seemed more certain, whisking her into his sudden plans to move out west without ever pausing to question. Rushing her into purchasing and packing, onto trains and off as though he’d crossed the continent a thousand times before. Founding a town, for heavens’ sakes, in the sure and certain knowledge that others would follow. However did a travelling stationery salesmen turn to this?

He seemed less... human. Flesh and blood still, that was certain sure; he became terrified of the germ peril, as though he had more to lose than most. But he didn’t seem to see people as people any more. When their lost child’s birthday rolled round, Edna Mae wept alone this year, far from her little girl’s grave.

He seemed younger too. As the years passed, she found the truth. He wasn’t getting younger; she was ageing, without him. Slow creeping horror inside her own home, every day.

The switch had flicked only once. But her Richard had gone in that instant.

Comments

[slaymesoftly.livejournal.com]

oooo - creepily realistic. Poor Edna Mae!

[brutti-ma-buoni.livejournal.com]

Thanks! Those lines of the Mayor's, about Edna Mae cursing him as she aged, they really lingered with me after the latest rewatch.

[petzipellepingo.livejournal.com]

Oooh, nicely evil.

[brutti-ma-buoni.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[buffyangellvr23.livejournal.com]

ooh nice!

[beer-good-foamy.livejournal.com]

Ouch. Nice. There's not nearly enough Richard/Edna Mae fic out there.

[kerkevik.livejournal.com]

Ooh...

very nicely creepy. Very Twilight Zone. You can see how, over time, that creeping sense of foreboding would have affected her mind; that someone she loved and trusted would do this, and use her to pretend nothing had changed.

You should defintely listen to some of the late night creepy horror-style stories on Radio 7, 'cuz this would fit right in with them as well.

Excellent!

Still under Willow & Tara's spell,
Ray.

[rebcake.livejournal.com]

Whoa! "The germ peril"! After reading this, I wonder if it was the death of their child (excellent touch, btw) that led him to make a deal? It does terrible things to a person.

His new, unearthly certainty is certainly the creepiest thing to me. Poor Edna Mae.

[perpetual.livejournal.com]

The idea that Edna Mae was just an innocent, honest woman roped into a marriage with an evil man is eerily plausible.

[brutti-ma-buoni.livejournal.com]

Thanks so much!

[brutti-ma-buoni.livejournal.com]

*g* Thank you!

[brutti-ma-buoni.livejournal.com]

Yes exactly: poor Edna notices the change inevitably way before anyone else does, and it gets worse over the years but she can't explain it...

[brutti-ma-buoni.livejournal.com]

I think germ peril may be more 1920s than 1890s, but it seemed about right for how Edna might see his obsession. I don't quite know what drove the Mayor into all of this, but it must have been significant, whether it was trauma or natural evil. Edna didn't have a chance.

[brutti-ma-buoni.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

(Actually, I think canon suggests he married her in Sunnydale, since he's been there 100 years and he married her in 06 or 07. But what the heck, I thought this was more exciting!)

[moscow-watcher.livejournal.com]

Oh. Poor Edna. And the saddest part? Wilkins really loved her. A lot.

[angelus2hot]

Woah, poor edna!

He wasn’t getting younger; she was ageing, without him.
That would be one of the most absolute horrors to face.

This is so sad and yet so beautifully written!