Chapter 1 - Coming Home
Buffy fumbled with the keys as she tried to unlock the door to her house. The
wood screeched as it slowly rolled open. She made a mental note to ask Xander
to fix that. It was really starting to get on her nerves.
"Hey, Buffy!" Dawn’s voice was heard from the living room.
"Why are you guys up so late?" the slayer asked the two girls sprawled
on the coach.
"Celebrating our last non-school night." Willow answered; her eyes
never leaving the television set. "Classes start the day after
tomorrow."
Buffy threw her denim jacket on a chair and proceeded by taking her place
between the two girls. They both protested over the sudden loss of space, but
after a lot of tossing and turning they settled down.
"So, what are we watching?" taking a hand full of popcorn and
stuffing her face with it.
"Nothing. Just some old Dawson’s Creek episodes I taped." Dawn
replied.
"Oh, I hate this episode. In fact I hated the whole season. This whole
Pacey and Audrey thing, just… Grrr!" Buffy crunched up her face in sign of
disgust.
"I know. It’s like Pacey and Joey never existed. It’s just… stupid!"
Willow agreed bringing a scoop of popcorn into her mouth.
They looked at the screen for a while longer until Buffy spoke.
"Ah, turn it off, I can’t watch it anymore." She waved her arms in
front of her as if trying to keep the images from assaulting her senses.
"So, what else can we do?" Dawn asked as she popped the tape out of
the VCR.
"What else have we got?" Buffy asked.
"We’ve got…" Dawn paused as she went thought the various tapes.
"…Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, The Man Who Cried… hum…Woodstock?"
a frown settled on her eyebrows as she stared at the tape. Suddenly she
realised who it belonged to.
An uncomfortable silence settled around them as the memory of the bleached
vampire filled every empty space in the room.
"I’ll take it to Clem’s on tomorrow night’s patrol." Buffy finally
spoke in a low voice.
Willow awkwardly shuffled in her seat as she saw the painful look on her best
friend’s face, she was about to say something but Buffy was faster:
"Well, I’m beat. I’m going to bed."
"Ar-Are you sure? There are other movies we can watch." Dawn quickly
offered but it was no use. As it had happen all through out the Summer at the
mere mention of anything related to the lost vampire, the Slayer silently
retreated to her room, dragging her tired feet. "Goodnight." The
young teenager shouted after her, but she had no answer.
***************************************************
As she entered her room and closed the door behind her, Buffy hesitated. If she
opened her closet it would be there. She had no doubt about it. It would be
neatly hung on the door just were she’d left it. She had no idea why she hadn’t
taken it to Clem’s along with all the other items he had left around the house
before leaving. She just couldn’t part ways with it.
Slowly, she opened the door and the familiar aroma of old leather mixed with
cigarettes and alcohol assaulted her nostrils. She closed her eyes tightly. She
could almost see him through her closed eyes lids. He was standing in front of
her. Head slightly tilted to the side, teasing eyes staring at her with
breathtaking intensity and a cocky grin dancing on his lips. But when she pried
her eyes open he was gone and all that was there was his old leather coat.
Her trembling fingers reached for the hem of a sleeve and she snaked her hand
in bringing it to her face, steadily brushing it against her cheek. A knock
caught her off guard and she immediately slammed closed the door to her closet.
"Yes?" she whispered.
"Hey, it’s Dawn. Giles is on the phone. He wants to know how was
patrolling." A squeaky voice was heard from the hall.
Buffy sniffed and brushed her eyes with the back of her sleeve as she tried to
regain composure.
"Um… Tell him I’ll report to him first thing in the morning, at the Magic
Shop."
"Ok." Silence. "Buffy? Are you ok?" Dawn made a move to
open the door but decided it was best not to.
"Yes, I’m fine. Go to bed." Buffy answered.
She heard soft footsteps walking away from her door and she dared to approach
the closet once more. This time, without hesitation, she took the coat in her
hands, carefully slid it on and slumped her tired body onto the bed. Curling up
into the foetal position; her arms braced her small torso as she rocked herself
to sleep.
******************************************************
"Hello, Buffy!" Giles greeted as he saw the young woman enter the
shop.
"Hi, Giles." She answered, slumping into one of the chairs.
"Sorry about telling you I’d meet you here, I didn’t realise it was Sunday
and the Shop would be closed."
"Don’t worry, I had to come over anyway." The former watcher spoke as
he walked across the room to stand in front of her. "How was patrolling?
Nothing new, I hope."
"Yes." She replied flatly, playing with the cover of a book that lay
on the table. Giles noticed it and quickly snaked it out of the Slayer’s strong
grip.
"What do you mean?" he now concentrated on the skilfully rubbing of
his glasses with a handkerchief.
"Well, there was nothing, which in itself is new." She explained,
taking her next victim into her hands.
The librarian immediately stepped in and, once more took the heavy book from
her, but this time he expertly positioned himself between her and the closest
stack of books, which made it impossible for her to massacre them as a
distraction.
"Nothing?"
"Nothing. Zero. Nada. Rien.
Zeppo!" Buffy answered.
"Are you sure?"
"Absolutely. No baddies."
"That’s very strange." Giles murmured under his breath, bringing is
hand to scratch the side of his forehead.
"No. Not strange. Good. It means I get to take this night off,
right?" Buffy looked at the watcher with hopeful eyes, but the old man
barely even noticed her, he was wrapped up in deep thought. "Giles!"
she finally called causing him to snap out of his trance.
"Hum? Oh, yes. Of course you can."
"Yuppy!" she cheered, picking up her backpack and making her way out
of the Magic Shop. She was about to say her goodbyes to him when she realised
something was eating at the man. "Are you ok?"
"It’s just… very…" he struggled for a word.
"Non-Hellmouthy?" she offered.
"Yes! It looks awfully like the calm before the storm."
"It’s amazing. Even when there is no danger, there is… danger. You gotta
love the Hellmouth." Buffy joked.
"I guess. But, you can take the night off anyway. You deserve it. You’ve
been patrolling every night this summer and not having Spik-" he stopped
himself before he said the name, but it was too late, the shadows had already
settled over her face. "I’ll stay here and research, you go. Have
fun!" he said with a weak smile.
"Bye, Giles."
*********************************************************
She knocked lightly on the heavy door before she entered:
"Clem? You here?" she called out. She heard a strange noise coming
from the lower level of the crypt and she made her way to the stairs, only to
find her way barred by a very jittery floppy skinned demon.
"Slayer! Hey!" he greeted her. "What bring you to these
parts?"
Buffy frowned at the nervousness of the creature, but ignored it. He was such a
strange character, she never knew what was normal for his standards. "Who
know? Maybe this is normal." She thought to herself.
"I came to drop this off. Dawn found it last night. I think it’s
Spike’s." it was Buffy’s turn to look nervous or at least uncomfortable.
She shuffled around in her bag and finally found what she was looking for.
"Woodstock. Man, that rules!" the demon exclaimed taking the tape
from the Slayer’s hands.
"You’re into that stuff too, huh?"
"Are you kidding? Have you seen Hendricks play at Woodstock? It was amazing!!!"
"I guess you had to be there." She sighed. "So, just leave those
things with the rest. Ok?"
"Hum…" the demon struggled with the words and when they eventually
came out they were stuttered: "Slayer! I-I’ve had news from Spike."
"Really?" Buffy cursed herself for letting her enthusiasm show and
immediately added in a nonchalant tone: "I mean… have you?"
"Yeah. He said he-he’s not coming back." Clem explained.
Buffy’s face fell at the demon’s statement. She felt as if someone had just
punched her straight in her stomach and the air had been propelled out of her
lung dew to the intensity of the impact. Slowly she regained her composure and
she forced the words out of her:
"Did he say where he was going?"
"No. He just asked me to mail him some of his stuff to New York. He said,
he’d pick them up when he passed through." The demon clarified.
"Oh!" her mind was racing with memories of all the moments they had
shared. She couldn’t believe that she would never see him again. It had been
over four months, but she still believed he’d come back, but now even that
thread of hope had been severed. She was brought back to reality as she felt
her eyes well up. Quickly, she shook her emotions away and added a feeble smile
in the mix as she spoke: "Well, make sure he gets that, I think he was
fond of it."
And with that she turned on her heels and made her way out of the crypt. When
the sound of a door being slammed shut echoed through the stony walls of the
compartment, Clem asked:
"Are you sure you don’t want me to tell her you’re here, pal?"
From the lower lever a bleached haired man appeared. He flickered on the
littler as he lit his cigarette. He took a deep drag of it before he spoke:
"Nah, mate."
"Really? Cause I think you should tell her."
"Trust me, she doesn’t want to know."
***************************************************************
"Dawn! Where are you?" Buffy called out as she entered the house and
dropped her backpack on the living room couch. She continued shouting as she
made her way into the kitchen. "Giles gave me the night off, which means
it’s sister bonding time. What do you-" she stopped dead in her tracks as
she saw the piece of paper over the kitchen counter.
"Buffy, I’m going to sleep over at Janice’s if you don’t mind. We have
classes together tomorrow, so I’m going straight to school with her. Don’t
worry. Don’t stay out patrolling to late. Love, Dawn." Buffy read out
loud. "Well, no chance of that happening." She said to the empty
room.
Taking two steps at a time, she made her way to the top floor of the house. She
lightly tapped on Willow’s door when she reached it.
"Will? Are you home?" Buffy turned the knob and peeked in. The room
was empty and she noticed a nicely folded piece of paper on the bed.
"Dear Buffy, If you find this it’s because I decided to sleep over at
Xander’s. He asked me to come over to help him out with the… Anya problem and
I’m pretty sure this is going to be another one of those
soul-baring-cry-sniffle all-nighter marathons. Kisses, Willow."
"What is this? Abandon Buffy and leave her a message day? This is
great! My first night out in mouths and I get to spend it alone. Perfect."
She mumbled under her breath as she made her way into her bathroom and poured
herself a warm bath.
********************************************************************
Careful not to slip on the wet floor, Buffy stepped out of the tub as she
wrapped a white towel around herself. Standing in front of the mirror, she
slowly brushed her hair into place, straightening her soft locks. She stared at
the image reflected on the humid piece of glass. Her hair had grown quickly and
it now rested half way down her arm. "He liked it this way." She
caught herself thinking about him and shook her head as if trying to erase the
memory.
She dragged herself out of the bathroom and into her room. She was about to sit
on the edge of the bed when she heard a scream coming outside. In a flash, she
was leaning over the railing of her window, outstretching her neck to see what
was happening. At the end of the street was a group of shadowy figures. She
strained to identify them but couldn’t. For some reason the lights on the side
of the road were turned off.
"Just great." She mumbled to herself as she dressed in seconds and
jumped out of the window. There was no time to take the stairs, that was for
sure. Quickly, she jogged her way up the street. "My one night off and I
get this…" she stopped as she was able to tell what was going on.
On the sidewalk, was a hysterical woman screaming her lungs off, frenetically
pointing at a group of vampires. There was nothing wrong with that picture
except for the fact they weren’t doing anything. They moved slowly along the
street, zombie like, with glassy eyes just staring into the horizon.
An excruciatingly loud scream coming from the woman snapped the Slayer out of
her daze.
"Must be from out of town." Buffy murmured to herself as she moved
towards the panic-stricken woman, who was now crazily pulling her hair out.
"Are you ok? Did they hurt you?"
"Va… Vamp…" she stuttered.
Buffy placed her body between the woman and the group of vampires, and turned
to face her.
"Oh, no mam. They’re just some crazy kids who are just a little too worked
up about Halloween. Even if it is a few weeks away. Ha, ha, funny huh?" Buffy forced the laugh and the woman looked at the
Slayer as if she had just grown a second head.
"Halloween?"
"Yeap. Here in Sunnydale we are really into the whole… Grrr thing."
Buffy tried to calm the woman down and after a while she succeeded.
"I better get back to the hotel then."
"You do that." Buffy patted the woman on the back and saw her leave.
Then she turned her attention to the group of vampires but there was no sign of
them. She ran a bit along the street to see if she could find them but…
nothing. "That’s weird."
*****************************************************************
"You just turned you back on THEM?" for the first time in her life
she actually heard Giles shout.
"Well, at that moment I was more afraid of what the woman was going to do
than the vampires wanna be zombies gang. Vampires I can handle.
Hysterical women pulling at their hair, not my line of work.
"Exactly. You should have followed them!" Giles pointed an accusing
finger at her.
"Sorry?!" Buffy offered.
"Buffy have you learned nothing?"
"I’m sorry, ok? I was just a little off my game yesterday." Buffy
tried to excuse herself.
"Why? What happen?" Giles asked taking a seat next to her.
"Nothing." When she saw that her answer didn’t satisfy the former
watcher she lied: "I came home last night and everyone was gone. Dawn went
to Janice’s and Willow to Xander’s. You know I wanted to get jiggy with it but
there was no one to get jiggy with."
"Jiggy what?"
"Forget it Giles. So, any clue on why we have a brand new gang of
seriously stoned vampires?" Buffy changed the subject.
"I have no idea. I’ll have to do some research." Giles started to
speak as he moved towards a stack of books. "Could you ask Willow to come
by latter today, see if we can figure this out? I’ll call Xander."
"Yuppy, Scobbie meeting. We haven’t had one of those in… almost a
week." A cocky smile settle over her lips as she mocked. "Are we
calling Anya on this one?"
"We better. She is a demon. She might have some inside information."
Giles spoke as he skimmed through a book.
"Oky-doky. I’ll remember to bring the little plastic thingies for my
ears." Buffy said as she stood up and headed for the door.
"Are they still mad at each other?" Giles asked concerned for the odd
couple.
"You have no idea." Buffy sighed raising and eyebrow.
***********************************************************
Spike watched from afar as the young teenager knelt down at the foot of a grave
and placed a fresh bouquet of wild flowers on the grass. Behind the bushes,
from a few feet away he could clearly hear what she said to the cold marble
stone.
"Hey, Tara." Dawn spoke in a low voice. She paused for a while
playing with the grass beneath her knees. "Sorry I couldn’t come sooner.
Class started today. I have a new math teacher. She’s kind of scary, but I
think I can handle her." She smiled and continued. "Everything’s fine
back home. Buffy got name employee of the month at the Double Meat Palace, can
you believe it? They gave her this silly burger shaped trophy thingie."
Pause. "Willow’s doing much better. She’s been sober for over four months
now. You’d be proud. Not even a tiny spell. She’s been hanging around Xander’s
a lot these days. Yeah, he and Anya are still mad at each other. Not as much as
they used to, but… You know." She paused thinking what she’d say next.
"Oh! Buffy showed me a new move on Friday. It’s this really weird kick,
it’s really cool. I still have a few kinks to figure out, though. Most of the
times I land on my butt instead of on my left leg." She choked back a
laugh as her fingers pushed through her hair. "Well, I gotta go. We’re all
going to the Magic Shop. It’s a Scoobie meeting… again. Yes, I know. We seem to
have one of those every week now!" Slowly she rose to her feet and took a
step closer. Her pale fingers traced the contours of the bold letters carved
into the headstone. "I miss you so much." She whispered as the tears
began to roll down her blushed cheeks. "I’ll come back next week."
She turned on hell heels and headed out of the cemetery. In the shadows, Spike
couldn’t help following her.
Suddenly, out of nowhere a large and seriously pissed off demon appeared in
front of her. It roared in her face as it lunged at her. Spike immediately
jumped out of the bushes to Dawn’s rescue. He hissed in pain as the scorching
sunrays burned into his skin and he was forced to retreat back into the
shadows. There, he helplessly watched the demon attack the young girl. To his
amazement, instead of screaming for help and running away, like she usually
did, Dawn stood her ground, returning every punch and kick blow by blow.
Skulking in the darkness, the vampire watched, with his jaw dropped to the
floor as the young girl battled the demon. She was doing a pretty good job
actually, but the struggle was growing too long and it was clear she was
getting tired.
"Finish him off, bit." Spike murmured to himself. "No, not the
chest." He hissed. "The head. You have to… Bugger, she doesn’t know
how to kill it."
Unexpectedly, the demon’s fist came flying out of nowhere and landed on Dawn’s
stomach, propelling her across the field, into the shadows. When she opened her
eyes the demon stood over her, preparing the final blow. She closed her eyes as
her mind raced. Suddenly she heard the sound of bones cracking. Realising it
didn’t come from her, she pried her left eyes open.
"Spike?" she asked confused, staring up at the vampire.
"Hello, little bit!" he greeted in a low voice.