This Darkness Inside, by michellek (Rating: R)

[zulu.livejournal.com]

Fandom: BUFFY
Pairing: Buffy/Cordelia (Buffy/Faith)
Author on LJ: michellek
Author Website: unknown

Why this must be read:

Second person is very difficult to write effectively. It can come off as pretentious, pseudo-literary, and just plain annoying. So, when someone does it well, I applaud them, and then I rec them like gangbusters.

Written for femslash04, "This Darkness Inside" succeeds with the second-person viewpoint because it takes a common theme in Buffyverse femslash--the idea that Buffy and Faith aren't that different after all--and combines it with very effective use of punctuation. (No, really. Trust me. The parentheses are key.) It's a short piece, and it's not really about Buffy's seduction of Cordelia, or even Faith's seduction of Buffy; it's about power. And nothing's hotter than power struggles, especially when that struggle is internal. And that is what michellek's use of the second person does best of all.

This Darkness Inside