Fic: Darkness (0/?)

[ladyvyxen@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Darkness, Prologue.
Comments/Flames/Etc. to: ladyvyxen@xxxxxxxxxxxxx

--

The vampires descended upon Sunnydale and made it their home. They 
fed upon the innocent and unsuspecting. They killed and drank 
indiscriminately and they rejoiced in the anguish they brought, 
revelling in the vanquished.
Yet an even more deadly evil was to be inflicted upon the people of 
Sunnydale, though none realised it, from the hands of the Slayer; a 
champion of light, she who would stand alone in the face of evil... A 
champion who was to rebuke the destiny of the Chosen One and leave 
the innocent to writhe in the flames of evil.
This is her tale...

*

Lightning flickered above the grave of Joyce Summers. A young 
blonde woman knelt before the headstone and looked up at the skies.
"Perfect," she muttered. Gathering her belongings, she decided to 
cut short her patrol and head for the dry warmth of home.

*

Dawn wandered throughout the home she'd adopted as her own. Nothing 
in her memories was real, she'd come to realise. her whole existence 
was a sham. The mother she'd believed loved her as a mother should, 
had done so only because of a powerful magic. She wasn't real, yet 
she felt real. She hurt when she cut herself, she cried when she was 
sad. And now that Joyce was dead, hurt and anguish were all she 
seemed to feel.
She entered her mother's study, the room at the top of the stairs 
that used to be locked. Once it had been a little-used retreat their 
mother had used to store her art-related things. Now it was just 
another room, full of faded boxes and dusty relics. Bored, she opened 
one of the larger crates and fished about in it. She found a few mis-
shapen statues, a broken spear-tip and an ugly wooden mask. 
Shrugging, she threw the mask on the floor next to the crate and 
looked in the next box. She didn't see the mask rocking slightly on 
the floor. She didn't notice the eye-slits glowing an ethereal red. 
She didn't notice the side of the crate smoulder, erasing the 
words: "Caution - Delicate Artifacts. Govt Nigeria".

*

The first raindrops fell before Buffy even left the graveyard. 
Thunder rolled, ominously, and then the heavens let loose with a full 
deluge. Buffy picked up her pace and ran for home. Maybe, if the 
weather hadn't changed so suddenly, she would have seen the earth 
move before her mother's tomb. Maybe.

*

End Prologue.