Fic: Spike Bad (6/7)

[Kris <krismpy@xxxxxxxxx>]

Funny you should mention Spike Bad, Cilia. I'm
just about finished with it, so here's part 6. 
The last part should be posted here in no more
than an hour if you want to finish the whole
thing before laying the feedback on me. ;)

Kris

Title: Spike Bad (6/7)
Pairing: B/W
Disclaimers: Buffy and Willow and everyone else
in this belong to Joss and
Mutant Enemy.
Spoilers: All of season 6 so far, plus maybe
upcoming season 6 eps. 
Summary: My skewered version of season 6 
Rating: NC-17

After finally convincing Willow's landlord that
they didn't need Xander, "A second big strong
man," in the landlord's words, to load the pickup
truck, Buffy climbed in the passenger seat of the
old beat-up S-10. "So how far is it?" Buffy
asked after they'd been on the road maybe five
minutes.

"About another ten or fifteen minutes, depending
on traffic," the guy answered nonchalantly. "My
apartment complex is near the old steel factory,
if you know where that is.

Buffy wrinkled her nose--partly at the smell
coming off the man driving, and partly because
she knew that part of town's reputation. She
seldom went there if she didn't have to. And she
rarely had to because even the vampires and
demons of Sunnydale didn't like it there. She
remembered Spike once telling her that no one in
that part of town tasted very good. And she'd
heard the cops in town rarely responded with much
urgency to calls from there. Too many gangs,
hookers, pimps, drunks, drugs, illegal guns, and
crazies there to be worth their pay. Thinking of
the cops of Sunnydale gave Buffy an idea of how
to start pumping the landlord for information
without seeming over the top. "So, did the cops
ask you a bunch of questions being you were the
one that found Willow? I always hate that, you
know? They say it won't take long, but then they
grill you for a long time. Luckily, they didn't
talk to me this time." 'Yeah, way to be
nonchalant, dummy!' Buffy thought to herself.

"They asked some." the landlord replied.

'Great, another Oz,' Buffy thought. Not knowing
what else to say, they both settled into an
awkward silence until they arrived at the
apartment complex. Once there, the man backed
his truck up to the back door of one of the
apartments, got out of the truck and started
fumbling through a set of keys. Buffy slowly
opened the passenger side door of the pickup as
far as she could until it bumped into a large
dumpster. She slipped out of the truck and stood
behind the man, waiting rather impatiently for
him to find the right key. She tried her best
not to inhale too deeply for fear of passing out
from the stench of the trash in the dumpster. 
The landlord finally opened the door and stepped
inside, Buffy right behind him.

Once her eyes adjusted to the dim lighting, Buffy
slowly looked around. They were obviously in the
kitchen, and she could just make out what looked
to be the main living area straight ahead. She
ambled over to the refrigerator and opened it. 
The only thing there was a half-gallon of milk.

"Um, ya wanna start in the bedroom while I get
what's here in the kitchen?" the landlord asked. 
"I figure you'd rather go through her personal
stuff like panties and all." Buffy just nodded
her head. "Ok, the bedroom is straight through
there and off to the left." the man said,
pointing towards the living room.

"Thanks." Buffy said as she headed that way. 
Once she stepped through into the living room,
she looked around briefly before heading to the
bedroom. All she saw was an empty wooden crate
turned upside down. 'Guess Willow didn't use
this area much.' she thought. She opened the
door to the bedroom and felt around on the wall
next to her for a light switch. She located it
and flipped it on. To her surprise, the only
things in the bedroom were a couple of piles of
clothes on the floor and a blanket and pillow in
a corner. She walked over to the far wall and
opened the tiny closet door, only to find a pair
of sneakers on the floor. "God, what did I do
when I kicked her out?" Buffy whispered. She
looked around again, and still couldn't quite
believe Willow had been living in such a
terrible, run-down, dirty place; not to mention
terrible part of town. Buffy was horrified, to
say the least. "I thought she took more stuff
with her than this, though?" she said to herself
after seeing there was hardly anything around. 
Knowing she wasn't going to get any answers just
wondering, she retrieved the crate in the living
room and started putting everything from the
bedroom into it, carefully going through what few
things there were for any clues. Finding
nothing, she took the crate outside and put it in
the bed of the pickup.

"I guess it's ok that we didn't bring your guy
friend after all," the landlord said to her as
she passed him on her way back through the
kitchen. "Looks like your friend got rid of a
lot of stuff since she moved in. I didn't notice
before when I was here since I was busy hoping
she didn't die in one of my places. I already
got everything out of here. Was that all in the
bedroom?"

"Yeah." Buffy answered.

"Well, that just leaves the bathroom, then. Why
don't you let me get that seeing as there's still
blood all over in there still?"

"Actually," Buffy started. "I've seen a lot of
blood before. And I'd kinda like to take a look.
You know, maybe seeing it will help me make more
sense of what happened to her. Besides, no sense
in you having to deal with feminine napkins or
anything like that." Buffy finished, hoping she
sounded sincere.

"Alright, if ya say so. But if you feel faint,
let me finish, ok?" the man said.

Buffy nodded her head and went through to the
living room once again, then went to what she
assumed was the bathroom door since it was the
only other one besides the bedroom door. She
hesitated, then turned around and yelled back to
the landlord, "Are there any closets or anything
in the living room? I didn't look in them if
there are."

The landlord emerged from the kitchen area and
replied, "There's just one over here. I'll check
it."

"Thanks." Buffy said, then turned and opened the
door to the bathroom. She went in slowly,
careful not to step in the blood on the floor. 
She also saw blood all over the sink and part of
the toilet. Spotting what looked like a trash
can between the toilet and the shower, she picked
it up and started going through it's contents. 
'Looks like I found what happened to Will's
stuff.' she frowned to herself as she came across
a receipt to a local pawn shop with Willow's
signature on the bottom. She then went through
and gathered what few items there were in the
shower, medicine cabinet, and under the sink. 
After another inspection of the bathroom, she
decided she wasn't going to find any answers at
the apartment, and went into the living room to
meet up with the landlord.

"There wasn't anything in the closet," he said as
she emerged from the bathroom. She'd tossed all
the bathroom stuff in the wastebasket, and had
it tucked under her arm. "You okay?"

"Yeah, fine. I just want answers to what exactly
happened to my friend." Buffy responded.

"I understand," the man said sympathetically. 
"Say, old lady Miller across the way may have
seen something. She's always home 'cause she's a
shut in. She wouldn't of opened the door for no
cops, but she trusts me. Maybe we could go talk
to her if ya want?"

"Yes, definitely." Buffy answered.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"You sure you don't want any tea?" Ms. Miller
asked Buffy.

"No, thanks anyway. We should be going. Like
your landlord here said, I was just wondering if
you heard or saw anything, that the cops maybe
don't know about, next door at my friend's
place?" Buffy said.

"Sorry, dear. I don't hear so well these days,
ya know?" The old woman looked pensive for a
moment, then said, "But I did see a funny visitor
over there earlier today. Long before the cops
came, though."

"Funny?" Buffy said.

"Yeah. I dunno if it were a guy or gal, or how
old; but it was funny 'cause they came running up
to your friend's door all hunched over with
something covering them. I think it was just a
blanket, but I ain't sure. And that weren't the
strangest thing about this person neither. At
first I thought they was smokin' something under
there, but it looked to me like the smoke was
coming from the blanket, or whatever it were, not
underneath. And when they got just inside the
door of your friend's house, I caught a glimpse
of the back of their head just as they threw the
blanket off, and before the door closed. They
had the ugliest yellow hair I've ever seen. 
Looks like they dunked their head in a bucket 'o
butter or something." she finished.

"Spike!" Buffy said. "Come on Mr. Smith, we have
to get back to the hospital!"
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------








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