FF: Past Imperfect ch. seven

["Christeen Demons" <Shyfox30@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Sorry about the delay in this folks...I've been working overtime this month 
in preparation for looking for a new place to hang my hat.


disclaimer in first part.:-)

Chapter Seven

"He can't get in here...can he?" Cassandra asked, her voice trembling with 
fright as she stared at the horrible creature that was growling at them from 
the other side of the door. Willow had briefly taken the time to introduce 
herself and let her know that what she was looking at was a real life, not 
just in from the movies, vampire.

"Not unless your school's motto is 'Enter all ye who seek knowledge'." 
Willow muttered, remembering her old high school's motto, as she stared at 
the vampire warily. She was sure that he'd realize they wouldn't be coming 
out anytime soon and go after easier prey, although she had
ticked him off, which might make him stick around a little longer if he 
thought there was any way he could get to her.

So, they basically had two options. They could wait around for Buffy to 
show up and dust him, or he would leave, Buffy would arrive and they could 
all go home. Both ways involved the arrival of Buffy, so really, all Willow 
needed to do was sit down and wait. The vampire growled
at her again from the door and she waggled her fingers at him, knowing that 
she was tempting fate, but after all she had seen and done one vampire 
wasn't going to frighten her much. Then it occured to her, she wondered 
if...well there was only one way to find out really. Looking hard at the 
vampire, she mumbled two words in a soft whisper. "Ignacious flambe." And 
was delighted to see the vampire's leather coat catch fire.

It took the vamp a second to realize that he was burning. It was almost 
amusing to see him sniff at the air, before his eyes went wide and he looked 
down at his burning arm. Screaming in rage and pain, the vampire took off, 
most likely to look for a way to expunge the searing flame. "It worked." 
Willow was left leaning staring in amazement at the now empty window. "Not 
that I expected it wouldn't...but..." She shook her head. 'I'm really 
going to have to figure out what I can and can't do here.' Willow thought 
to herself, before she let out a relieved breath. "Wow."

*****

Across town, Pike was busy sleeping off a bender, rock music lightly playing 
on his stereo, when a tapping at his window jarred him awake. He looked 
dazedly around the room, until another series of taps, and the sound of 
Benny's voice drew his attention to the large window in the front of his 
apartment.

"Pike."

"Ben." Pike asked, staring blearily at his friend, who was outlined in the 
window frame by the neon lights behind him. "Where ya been, man. I tried 
to call your house about fifty times." Pike said, his words slurring 
drunkenly, as he staggered his way over to the window.

"Hanging." Benny answered, laughing internally at his inside joke.

"Yeah, yeah, you left me hanging. I almost pulled a Hendrix." Pike 
muttered, trying to push open the window that seemed to be jammed, or 
locked, or something.

"Invite me in Pike." Benny said, softly, but Pike was either too drunk, or 
too sleep dazed to hear him and kept talking. "This weird old guy gave me a 
lift home...I thought he was gonna hit on me..." He trailed off suddenly as 
he noticed something funny about this picture. He lived on the second 
floor, and the window he was trying to open didn't lead to no fire escape.

"Come on. Invite me in, Pike." Benny urged, noticing that Pike had 
stopped trying to open the window.

"Wait a minute, man. What's wrong with you?" Pike asked, a note of 
distrust entering his voice as he took note of his friends appearance for 
the first time that night.

"I'm fine." Benny protested, his eyes shadowing with deceit.

"You look like shit, man." He did too, with his teeth all jagged and his 
forehead bulging. He looked like he'd just been in a train wreck...or 
worse.

"Well, I feel pretty." Benny said laughing, floating in front of Pike's 
eyes. Pike looked down, trying to see if he could tell what exactly Benny 
was standing on. "You on something?"

"No." Benny laughed again, but it wasn't a good, 'hey isn't this funny, 
good buddy' laugh. It was a good deal more sinister and Pike didn't like 
the way it sounded. "Let me in, Pike." Benny demanded this time, and Pike 
decided that best friend or not, he wasn't iviting him in.

"Go home, Ben."

"But I'm hungry." Benny whined.

"You're floating!" Pike answered, in a similar tone. "Come on, man! Get 
away from here!"

"I'm hungry! I'm hungry!! I'm HUNGRY!!!" Benny kept repeating, then 
started laughing in that maniacal way Pike was starting to hate. The sound 
echoed and reverberated inside his mind, until Pike thought he was going to 
go crazy...

Pike sat up suddenly in a ball of wadded up, sweaty sheets and looked around 
his room. Music was still playing softly on his stereo, and the light from 
the Neon sign outside was still the only light reflected into his room. He 
could swear that he still heard that maniacal laugh coming from outside, but 
then shook his head, deciding he'd just had one very bad, drink-induced 
nightmare. That is, until he heard Benny's voice coming from the outside 
hallway, and he shuddered despite the heat. "Come on, Pike. Let me 
in....I'm hungry."

He looked at his closed apartment door for a long moment, then shook his 
head slowly. Laying back down, with a pit of fear clenching at his stomach, 
he decided that if he just ignored it, Benny would go away. And come 
morning....he would be out of here...as fast as his wheels could take him.

*****
Buffy was a little taken aback when she saw Willow and Cassandra sitting in 
the front hallway of the high school, staring at the front door, as if they 
had just been waiting for her to walk through it. Cassandra looked white as 
a ghost, as if she had seen her own death and had lived to tell about it, 
while the other girl just stared back at her calmly. That in itself was a 
little bit strange. Something had happened to cause her friend to be scared 
out of her wits, and yet here the red-head was acting as if she'd just been 
doing her homework, or something just as mundane.

"What happened?" Buffy asked, when she finally found her tongue.

"Oh nothing." Willow replied, blithely, noting the wide-eyed look she 
recieved from Cassandra for her comment. "Just your average, ordinary, 
'friendly, neighborhood vampire' attack. Nothing
I couldn't handle."

"Oh." Buffy commented, feeling a little unnerved over the redhead's 
nonchalance. Here, she had just taken out two vamps and she was shaking 
like a leaf, meanwhile, the redhead acted like staking vamps was no big 
deal. Weird. "Well...Merrick's waiting for us in that ratty old car of
his, so maybe we should...like...get out of here."

It didn't take long for Cassandra to shoot to her feet. She cast an uneasy 
glance outside the doors, then looked at Buffy, as if the popular girl was 
supposed to lead the way, or something. Buffy wasn't quite sure what to do 
with that, so she shrugged the attention off.

Willow rose more slowly, noting how Buffy was acting, like she was really 
freaked out over the whole thing. She had seen Buffy freak out a couple of 
times. It was never pretty when she did. She wished that there was some way 
that she could help her, she wanted to wrap her arms around her and tell her 
that everything would be all right. But she also knew that she didn't have 
that right...not yet...this Buffy barely knew her, and she had brought a 
strange element into the blonde's
life that Buffy had never wanted. Knowing all of this, she looked deep into 
the blue eyes and smiled her best reassuring grin, the one that usually 
brought a returning one back, and hoped for the best. She got a raised 
eyebrow and a hesitant shrug for her trouble, before the blonde turned 
abruptly and headed back in the direction of Merrick's car.

"Well...that went well." Willow mumbled to herself, before taking up the 
rear, following the two girls out of the high school. She was too busy 
trying to keep up with the rapidly moving girls to notice the malevolent red 
eyes following her progress from the darkness.

*****

The ride to Buffy's house had been quiet, Cassandra hadn't made a peep when 
she had been dropped off at her own home, merely promising not to go out 
alone by herself at night anymore, before walking away from the sympathetic 
faces. Buffy had watched her go, uneasily, wondering
just how much would change at school tomorrow. Wondering if Cassandra would 
still be her friend, or if the shy bookworm would treat her differently from 
now on. Her unease continued as she contemplated her ride home with these 
two strange people she knew nothing about, except
that they knew how to fight vampires, which was strange unto itself.

The redhead in the back seat kept staring at her when she thought that she 
wasn't looking, she kept catching her in the rear view mirror, which would 
have been cute if it hadn't freaked her out so much. It was like the girl 
knew her personally, where as she was a virtual stranger to her. She didn't 
even know the redhead's name. Finally, she could take it no more, and met 
the green eyes in the rear view mirror, willing them to see her. The green 
eyes widened, as if startled, then the girl looked away, as if she were 
ashamed or embarrased at getting caught.

"Hey." Buffy said, softly, and the eyes picked up to look at hers again. 
"I was just wondering...I mean...I don't even know your name or 
anything...yet, you act like you know me so well. I don't get it."

Willow gulped visibly, then noticably relaxed as she turned her vision 
inward, as if she were looking for answers, or insight to her problem. 
Finally, after what seemed like a millenium to Buffy, the green eyes became 
focused again and the girl smiled at her. "It's hard to explain,
maybe someday I can..." Willow shook her head, not wanting to travel down 
that road, even in her own mind. "...but for now, why don't you just call 
me Willow."

"Willow." Buffy mumbled softly, as if she were trying the name out on her 
tongue, then said again, louder this time. "Willow...is that your real 
name?" She teased the red-head, her blue eyes glittering.

Willow met the smile in the rear view mirror with one of her own. "It's one 
of them." She answered cryptically, then turned her attention back to the 
road as she noticed Merrick was slowing down in front of one of the houses. 
'We're here.' She thought to herself, and felt a strange pang of 
disappointment at the thought of Buffy getting out and going into her house. 
They'd just started to connect, Buffy had just started to open up to her, 
it was too soon to bring that to an end...but Merrick had started talking 
again, and Willow knew that gentle feeling of
camaraderie and friendship would be washed away with what he said.

"Now...Buffy. You go to school tomorrow and act normally. Don't let anyone 
know you know what's happening. This is important. Because once the 
vampires find out who you are, you won't be hunting them anymore. You 
understand? They mustn't know your name." Merrick asked, his
tone serious.

"All right. But...what about Cassandra."

"I doubt she will tell anybody, Buffy. She'll be too shaken up about what 
happened, and probably want to forget everything that happened." Willow had 
seen that happen far too often in Sunnydale. "Besides, who would believe 
her?"

Merrick nodded. Very few people actually wanted to know, or would believe 
that vampires actually excist. "I want you to meet me at this address 
tomorrow after school." Merrick said, handing Buffy a white business card.

Willow saw Buffy's stubborn streak coming from a mile away. "I have 
cheerleading practice, okay?" The blonde said, looking dubiously at the 
card.

"You're going to have to skip it." Merrick replied, in a no nonsense 
manner, and Willow watched as Buffy rolled her eyes. 'Oh...yeah...she's 
really gonna skip it...uh huh.' Willow thought, mentally rolling her eyes 
as well.

Buffy started to open the car door, then thought of something and looked 
back at Merrick, nervously. "They can't come in unless you invite them in. 
Is that true?"

"That's true. Mm-hm." Merrick answered, and Buffy saw an agreeing nod from 
Willow.

"Good." She replied, and left the car without looking back. She was at the 
door to her house, before she heard the engine start, and was through it 
before she heard it drive away. She rested her head against the solid wood, 
before her Mother's voice jumped her out of her skin.

"Do you know what time it is?" Joyce Summers asked, looking like she was 
dressed up to go to a party.

"Ummm...about ten oclock?" Buffy said, hazarding a guess.

"I knew this thing was slow." Joyce said, not seeming to notice the state 
her daughter's clothing was in. "You pay a fortune for something..." She 
said, tapping on her watch. "Come on, honey.
We're going to be late." She called up to her husband, then dashed in the 
other direction. Buffy ran up the stairs as fast as she could.

Running into the bathroom, she started to try to get the grass stain out of 
her jacket, then gave it up as hopeless and just stared at herself for a 
long time in the mirror. She'd thought she'd look differen't...she 
certainly felt differen't. But all she saw was a very frightened Buffy 
Summers looking back at her. She wasn't ready for this...she wasn't ready 
for some strange guy to come into her life and turn it all upside down. 
'No.' She thought to herself, feeling anger starting to bubble up deep 
inside. 'To hell, with him...to hell with them both. I'm not doing this. 
This isn't what I was born to do. They got it wrong. They're just going 
to have to choose somebody else.'
And with a final nod of decision, she headed off to bed, not noticing the 
red ribbon that she tied absently around her head.

*****

She dreamed. She dreamed of him, around her...surrounding her. He didn't 
fill her with fear as she had though he should, instead he seemed to provide 
a sense of calm...peacefulness. 'You don't want to fight me.' He seemed to 
be talking directly to her brain. 'Come to me...be with me. You are 
mine...we are one. Come to me.' She almost found herself acquising, before 
she sat up with a jerk, feeling the top of her head to where the ribbon was. 
A ribbon she never remembered putting
on. "What the heck?" She thought, feeling disturbed as she took off and 
stared at it, bemused.

...to be continued.


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