I was woken later that night by a wild knocking at the door. What the hell? Who on earth would be visiting at this time of night, I glanced at my watch and it was just after midnight. No excuse to be visiting.
Sighing, I headed downstairs and reached to open the door, grabbing a stake first because midnight visitors were never good. I pulled it open.
Spike jumped back. “ Bloody hell, Bit, you could do some serious damage with that thing.” He exclaimed.
I shrugged. “ It could have been a vampire without a chip in his head” I explained, kinda bitchily actually.
“ We have bigger problems than that.” He said, walking in. I closed the door behind him, suddenly aware of the fact I was wearing my new Hello Kitty pyjamas, ack - couldn’t I be wearing some regular clothes in the middle of the night?
“ Cute” Spike commented with a smirk, looking me over.
I tried not to be affected and shrugged. “ It comes naturally. So bigger problems?”
He smiled in that heart pounding Spike way for a semi second and then switched to seriousness again.
“ All your Scooby mates are out. Not *missing* out, *planned* out. The witches in?”
I frowned. “ I…I don’t think so. Let me check” Oh God, what if it’s *now*?
“ They’re not here” I called down to him after checking their room. Oh God.
“ Didn’t think so” He muttered
“ You noticed they were having secret meetings?” I asked him curiously
Spike nodded. “ I don’t know what the hell they’re up to but it’s not good. Something’s been bugging Red this entire summer – and I’m not willing to sit around and find out what she’s doing.” He said grimly.
” Well maybe she’s just *grieving*. How do you know they’re doing something…bad?”
“ You know something about this?” Spike asks suddenly, looking closely at me.
“ No!” I protested quickly.
Too quickly.
“ Dawn what are they doing?” I demanded.
“ I don’t know” She said weakly.
” Dawn” I repeated.
She sighed and sat down on the stairs hugging her knees to her chest. For a moment she looked so small and fragile I just wanted to hold her. *Buffy*, I thought to myself - for some reason thinking of her helps keep away all these bad Dawn thoughts, except the thought of Buffy then turns my thoughts to Dawn again. Dawn being her sister. Her *fifteen* year old sister. Or *thousands* of years old sister - if you think of it that way it doesn’t sound nearly so bad and I don’t feel nearly so guilty. I’ve thought of a thousand ways to feel less guilty but they don’t help.
“ I didn’t know they’d do it now.” She said.
“ Do *what*?”
” The other day in the magic shop I looked in Willow’s bag and I found a book on Osiris. Resurrection” She clarified, looking at me.
Oh God.
“ And a list of things to collect, um an Urn of Osiris, wine of the mother…” Her voice trailed off guiltily.
“ The stupid bitch.” I said angrily.
“ Willow’s not…she was just trying to help…to make things better.” Dawn tried to defend her.
“ She doesn’t know what the hell she’s doing. Magic, these spells, they have *consequences*. You should bloody know that!” I yelled at her. “ Why didn’t you do something?”
” Like what? It’s not like any of them listen to me anyway.” Dawn stands up from the stairs, looking more like she was going to cry than defiant.
“ I miss her” She said suddenly.
“ I know you do, Nibblet, but this magic won’t help.” I said gently, regretting yelling at her.
“ Tell Willow that! I had nothing to do with it all. I just knew and – “
I just knew and I didn’t do anything was all, I thought silently and guiltily to myself. I didn’t *want* to do anything and I made plans but I’d never have done something to really stop them. Isn’t that terrible?
“ Maybe we can still stop them.” I said half-heartedly. I couldn’t help thinking that whatever happened would be my fault simply because I hadn’t stopped them.
Spike nodded. “ Maybe.”
“ I’ll just get changed.” I told him, quickly going upstairs, I slipped out of my pyjama’s and found some jeans, a tank top and a fleece to put on.
“ Where would they go?” I asked as I ran downstairs.
Spike looked at me. “ Where do you go when you want to resurrect someone?”
“ Oh.” I said, realisation dawning on me.
The graveyard for anyone else. But Buffy who nobody knew was dead apart from us? The woods where we buried her. Silent and green and pretty but ominous at night in the dark. I nodded and tried to ignore the growing sense of dread that was overtaking me.
continued
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