Chapter 1
The student union at UCLA was
crowded, bustling with students getting something to eat, shopping or meeting
up with friends. It made Buffy feel safe
to be surrounded by this many people. It
also made her envious as she watched their easy laughter, and the friendships
they took for granted. Sometimes she
would sit and watch them go about their lives without them ever being aware of how
she would imagine their pasts and their futures. Of course, they were always safe, and they
always got their ‘happily ever after’.
Unlike her.
Buffy sighed, forcing
herself to start gathering up her books.
She stuffed them into her black backpack, making sure the report she’d
just had bound at Kinko’s was protected between two of the textbooks. It was due the next day for one of her Social
Welfare courses. After two years in
school, she’d finally decided to settle on social work. It wasn’t one of the best paying or glory
careers out there, but she wanted to help other people, and despite her desires,
she wasn’t medical school material. This
was a faster track, and she could still work directly with people.
Slinging her pack on her
back, she looked around. She didn’t see
anyone suspicious. Feeling safe, she
headed for the exit nearest the parking lot where her blue Chevy Avalanche was
parked. She’d gotten a lot of kidding
when she bought it because she was so tiny and it was so huge. But that was why she liked it. She felt more secure in the vehicle. Besides anyone who knew her past let it go
without too much ribbing. She patted her
pocket, making sure her keys were there.
They were. She pushed open the
door.
“Buffy, may I speak to you
for a moment?” A young blonde woman came
up from her left. “Please.”
Buffy immediately fell into
a defensive stance, watching warily as she waited to see what the woman
wanted. She chronicled the girl’s round
face, bright eyes and messy blonde hair.
Buffy didn’t sense any immediate threat from the woman, and relaxed a
bit.
“What do you want?”
“You’re Buffy Summers,
right?” The girl looked around her. “May I speak to you for a minute?” She placed a hand on her chest. “I’m Cassie Newton.”
“Yes, I’m Buffy, but have we
met before?”
Of course, they didn’t know
each other. Buffy was very good at
memorizing at least the faces of the people that were around her every
day. She didn’t know Cassie, but waited to
hear what she wanted. Cassie looked
around them nervously, which made Buffy do a quick sweep of the area to see if
there was trouble lurking somewhere.
“I’m sorry,” Cassie
said. “No, we’ve never met, but I
thought you could help me.”
“Help with what?”
“Can we go somewhere and
talk?” Cassie asked. “Maybe back inside?”
“Look, I’m sorry, too. But I don’t see how you think I could help you,
besides I’m running late.” It was a lie,
but her inner warning bells were going off.
Buffy just wanted to get out of there.
Cassie grabbed Buffy’s
arm. “I’m going to end up dead if I
don’t get some help.”
It was enough to make Buffy
stop and ask, “Why me?”
“I read about you before…in
the papers,” Cassie explained. “You and
the cop, your boyfriend, figured out about the other girl.”
It wasn’t something totally
unusual. The media had been relentless
in the first year, and even now almost four years later, they still
occasionally contacted her for interviews.
She declined then and now, because she wasn’t going to spill her soul
for entertainment. There could have been
an element of helping other victims, but when she told her story, it would be
on her terms and when she was ready.
“He isn’t my boyfriend,”
Buffy replied. It wasn’t until the words
were out of her mouth that she realized how immature she’d sounded. However, the words were a defense mechanism,
and a reminder that through her own stupidity she’d lost the first, and so far
only, man she’d ever loved. The move
back to
Cassie tilted her head. “They won’t listen to me. I don’t have any hard evidence and they think
I’m just trying to get back at my boyfriend.”
“Has he abused you?”
“No, no, come on,” Cassie
said, sounding and looking more nervous by the second. “I don’t like being out in the open.”
Neither did Buffy. Looking around again, she still didn’t see
anyone. She wasn’t going to argue
though, and they headed toward the parking lot.
There were a lot of students and faculty around even though the long
shadows of late afternoon were beginning to blanket everything. It was still safe, but Buffy didn’t want to
linger too long in the open.
“Is he following you?”
“Him or someone else. Please, I’m scared and I don’t have anyone
else to call for help.”
There was nothing Buffy
could do to help Cassie. She was only a
student, and only did volunteer work for the credits they would
accumulate. She sighed because she
understood the fear the other girl was feeling.
It was the kind that could choke you until you were unable to do
anything except give into it and the one who was trying to victimize you. Buffy couldn’t let that happen to anyone, and
especially to someone who was asking her for help.
“Look, I know some cops that
might be able to help you out,” Buffy offered.
“They’re really good people who believed me when no one else did.”
“Okay,” Cassie replied, with
a cautious nod. “I knew you could help
me.” She hesitated for a second. “He isn’t abusing me. It’s worse than that.”
“What kind of worse?”
A chill ran through Buffy as
she realized that no matter what, she was being drawn into Cassie’s
nightmare. By even introducing her to
her friends, she was bringing Cassie into her life. If this was really bad
she could be bringing unwanted trouble to those people she considered
family. She stopped in the aisle next to
the one where her truck was parked. She
wanted answers before she embroiled herself any further. The best thing to do would be to give Cassie
some phone numbers to some help hotlines and get out of there. But she would hear her out first.
“I heard him talk about
murdering someone,” Cassie whispered.
“He murdered someone?” Buffy squeaked.
“He was bragging about
it. It was some kind of drug deal gone
bad.”
“Are you into drugs?” Buffy asked. She was ready to run. Drugs and murder were too much for her to
handle, and she didn’t want to endanger anyone she knew. Not because of her…not again.
“No, I never touch the
stuff,” Cassie said with an emphatic shake of her head. “I knew he…he was smoking pot, but I had no
idea.”
“Please,” Buffy said, in
disbelief. “You couldn’t tell that he
was a user? Either you’re blind or
lying. And I don’t have time to figure
it out, nor do I need to get involved in this.”
It was over for her. She turned, walking determinedly toward her
vehicle. She wasn’t going to put her
life on the line for someone who couldn’t respect themselves. There were hurried footsteps behind her, but
Buffy didn’t slow down. It wasn’t her
concern. It never had been.
“Please stop,” Cassie
called. She ran a few steps until she
was walking beside Buffy. “I swear I
don’t use anything. He doesn’t either.” She sighed when Buffy snorted. “Most dealers don’t. They can’t keep their business going if
they’re fucked up all the time. It’s
Buffy was trying hard to
ignore her as she reached into her pocket to pull her keys out. She clicked the button to unlock it. Opening the back door, she slung her backpack
in, and then shut that door with one hand and opened the front door with the
other. Cassie was still there, and Buffy
turned to her to tell her to call the police when she saw an angry looking man
making a beeline toward them.
“Shit,” Buffy muttered. “Is that him?”
Cassie turned, and she could
only nod a response. The guy wasn’t that
particularly frightening looking. Yeah,
he resembled a thug, but Buffy could see the attraction that Cassie would see
in him. Tall, with an athletic build,
and he walked with the assurance of someone who knew his place in the
world. He oozed confidence, and it
wasn’t until he got closer that Buffy could see the cruelty twisting his lips. Her gaze flickered upwards, taking in the
intensity of ice blue eyes under shaggy eyebrows and wide forehead. A shiver ran through Buffy. He was good looking, but everything about him
reminded her of a coiled snake.
“Hello, Cassie,” the man
said. “Who’s your pretty friend?” His eyes raked over Buffy in a way that made
her definitely feel uncomfortable. Like
he could see through her clothes, and she instinctively took a step backwards. Except her back hit the truck door, and she
realized she was trapped.
“Luke, this is…”
“I’m Anne,” Buffy said,
holding her hand out to him. She was
trying to think fast so they could both get out of this situation alive. Luke was setting off every panic button she
had inside of her. “Cassie and I were
discussing some classes.”
“Oh, really,” Luke
said. His eyes darted between the two
women. “Cass has never mentioned you
before.”
Buffy shrugged, and stepped
forward. “We just met recently. Some of the classes around here are so big
that you can’t know everyone. We’re
working on the same project.”
“Oh,” Luke said, with a grin
that was colder than any winter night.
He slung his arm around Cassie’s shoulder. “Well, soon that won’t really matter
anymore.” He kissed her cheek. “You ready to go home, baby?”
“Cassie and I were just
going to go grab a bite,” Buffy said, as casually as she could. She had to get the two of them out of
here. Otherwise, she didn’t think she
would ever see Cassie alive again. “I’ll
drop her off at home later.”
“No, I don’t think so,” Luke
said. “I’d like for her to go with me.”
Buffy took the girl’s hand,
tugging her gently toward the truck. She
looked around the parking lot, and was thankful there were several groups of
people around. The odds were on their
side, if only Cassie would trust her.
“Cassie, let’s go get some
dinner,” Buffy said, trying to give Luke an innocent smile. She batted her eyes. “I promise, Luke, she’ll be home in a couple
of hours. We really need to go over
these notes. I am so close to failing
this class, and I desperately need Cass’s help.”
Cassie hesitated, caught
between them, and with both holding onto her.
It didn’t take her long to decide to go with Buffy though, and she
turned big eyes to her boyfriend. “Luke,
sweetie, I can’t let Anne down. I’ll be
home soon.” She stood on her tiptoes to
kiss him on the lips. “I love you.”
Without waiting for his
response, Cassie hopped into the truck with Buffy quickly following her. Luke started to reach for Buffy, but she shut
the door, and he didn’t have any choice but to pull his arm back. It was either that or it was going to get smashed. Buffy hit the locks while jamming the key
into the ignition.
“He’s not moving,” Cassie
said, as the truck turned on. “No, wait
he is,” she looked behind the truck.
“He’s blocking us, Buffy.”
“Truck’s bigger than he is,”
Buffy retorted. She refused to let
something like him standing there get in the way of her getting to safety. She’d submitted once to survive. This time she would rather die on her own
terms and fighting to remain untouched.
“He can either move or get run over.”
With that, she put the truck
in reverse, and slowly started to back up.
Luke didn’t move. Buffy didn’t
stop. It knocked into him, and he
started swearing as he jumped out of the way.
“You fucking crazy bitch,”
Luke shouted as Buffy drove by him.
“This isn’t the end.”
Buffy didn’t slow down. She kept moving, and tried to forget
him. They were safe for the moment, and
she grinned in victory.
“Oh, wow, just wow,” Cassie
said, laughing and clapping her hands together.
“That was really great. I knew
you were the right person to help me.”
“That was pretty good,
wasn’t it?” Buffy asked, relaxing back
into her seat. She glanced over at her
companion and now she needed to decide what to do now. “Do you have anyone you can stay with that
would be safe?”
“I’ve been living with
Luke,” Cassie said, twisting in her seat to face Buffy. “I took a suitcase out this morning, but left
most of my stuff there. I was hoping
that he wouldn’t realize I was gone until I figured out what to do.”
“Where is your stuff?”
“It’s stashed in a locker at
the bus station,” Cassie said. “If you
weren’t going to help me I was going to run.
I’ve got a little cash.”
Buffy sighed. She rubbed her forehead as she tried to
think. For the time being she just drove
aimlessly as she tried to decide whom she could go to that could help
Cassie. She stopped for a light when she
glanced in the rearview mirror. There
was an SUV behind them. It didn’t appear
to be stopping, and she eased up on the brake to give it a little more room so
they could stop. They didn’t and they
bumped into the back of the Avalanche. The
impact propelled them forward with a violent jerk, then back against their
seats with the same jarring impact.
Buffy shook her head trying to clear it.
Her gaze moved to the mirror again as she started to undo her
seatbelt. It was then that she saw it
was Luke behind them. He was
grinning.
“Damn it,” Buffy
muttered. “It’s Luke.”
“How?” Cassie asked, turning to look behind
them. “Oh, god, Buffy what are we going
to do?”
“Drive,” Buffy said, with
determination. She made sure it was safe
and then she turned right. Luke was
behind them. There wasn’t time to think
anymore. They were in big trouble. Buffy fumbled on the console for her cell
phone. It was automatic. They weren’t lovers anymore, and she didn’t
think she could even call them friends.
They hadn’t really even spoken in almost six months, but he was the only
one she trusted with her life.
She called Spike.
to be continued…
