-Chapter One-
To ForgetThe golden sun set through the twilight hours of the day and the sunlight reflected across the pale green foreground that was a sea of fields that held towering pile-ons. Power lines hung over the long deserted country lane. Birds sat perched on the power lines surveying the boredom of the sunset. Not a car, nor truck had passed for almost an hour now.
The birds looked out at the horizon, a tranquil sea of red and orange clouds hung in the balance of the setting sun. The birds sat perched to the power lines watching the only lonely traveller that had graced them for a long time.
She sat leant against the long pole dug into the ground her blonde hair pushed up as she slid down in boredom and her sullen expression looked on at the dirt in which she sat. The patient traveller sat patiently, or rather impatiently as she began to tap the small stone sat next to her almost obsessively, as if to pass the time. A sign sat above her saying: Bus Stop. Her blue eyes glanced every so often at the lane to her side as if subconscious or hoping to hear the engine of a passing bus approaching.
She took off her shirt as the scorching heat started to cause bits of perspiration to make her tank top stick to her back. She wrapped the shirt in a knot around her waist so that it draped over her scuffed and dirtied jeans. A rip on her right knee made a sort of mouth effect.
She returned back to her position. Sweat rolled down her arms as she gasped from the heat. Buffy Summers had been used to heat since living in California, but, she had never felt heat like this and hoped to god that the heat on the bus wouldn't be as bad as it was now.
Buffy felt the sweat building around a ring that sat on her finger. She looked at it sadly. Tears began to well within her eyes. She closed her eyes in an attempt to forget the memory that had plagued her mind across America, but was still visited by Angel's tearful eyes looking back at him as he fell into the portal. His arm outstretched wondrously. Why? Why him? This was the question that plagued her mind. Why did he have to come back? Why did he have to have a soul?
She had slain vampires, monsters and not one had she looked back. To her they were the enemy and she had to take them out. But, now it was different. Angel was good and she did the stupid thing she told herself she wouldn't do. Fall in love.
It was only until that night that Buffy felt her heart break. That night Angelus was reborn and hit her were it hurt the most. Her heart. She fought him after he helped Drusilla and Spike, two vampires intent on wrecking havoc on Sunnydale, release the judge. With each blow she gave him it chipped away at her away and he knew that, she could see it his eyes as he looked at her. There's no love there, there was only evil. He wasn't angel anymore. He was gone.
He said that he was humiliated by what she had done to him. That by making him feel human she had disgraced him and he set out to hurt starting a campaign hunting down her fellow students and plaguing her dreams.
He was her first, and within one moment of happiness it was all stripped away. It left a burning in her eyes that she refused to give in to. She wiped her eyes as she felt a teardrop seep through her control. She hated that he had a soul and she hated the people that had done this. The tribe he had slaughtered placed a spell on him to give him his soul back so that he may forever walk his days reliving the pain and suffering he had caused until the one day he felt happiness.
Angelus had won. She was now alone. She had been expelled from school following the death of the slayer, Kendra and disowned by her mother once she found out she was the Slayer. She still remembered the very words her mother said as she went to face Angelus, "If you step out of this house don't think about coming back." Those words chipped away at her over the past month. She had been to New York, Chicago, and Gotham but, she still couldn't escape it: the guilt, the loneliness and the emptiness that seemed to make her insides feel hollow.
She was only thankful that the bus arrived when it did. It's engines hissed as it came to a stop and the doors swung open to reveal a dark inside and a blue uniformed glowering at her impatiently as he wiped the sweat of his brow. "You getting on or ain't yah," he growled impatiently as he flicked bits of sweat off of his hand.
Buffy nodded paying him with what was the last o the money she had left. She had been getting jobs as a waitress through out her travels as much as she hated the jobs its kept her out of sight and hidden within the crowds of exiles either junkies or drunks all using what money they'd left just to hold on.
The sweat on her back stuck to the leather seat straight away as she slumped down into the seat in the middle of the dank bus. People sat hidden within the shadows of the bus. It was hard to breathe. The heat was intense as if the air was being sucked out of her.
The doors hissed shut and the bus rolled down the lane in a slow motion, although at least that's how Buffy saw it. Everything always stood still now as if she couldn't believe she was here as if each time the setting sun hypnotised her eyes she'd visit him again. See his face. Smell his smell. And feel his touch.
She felt her eyes get heavy and she tried with all her might not to give in to her exhaustion. But, the strain of the sun and the hot air that burnt the back of her mouth was too much for her and her eyes fell into darkness and the clanging of swords echoed from within the darkness.
The room was dank almost like an old mansion; the windows were boarded up to keep the light out only small rays crept through the cracks of wood. A grotesque gargoyle like statue sat in the middle of the room.
A tall dark-haired man stumbled through the doorway leading to a small garden, a long sword in his hand. Buffy ran through the doorway holding a sword as well. The swords clanged together as both Buffy and Angelus swung at each other both trying to break through others defences.
With one hard swing Buffy knocked Angelus' sword away. He fell to his knees. Buffy held her sword up into the air ready to make the final blow.
Angelus' eyes suddenly, flared a gold colour he gasped in shock. He looked up at Buffy, his eyes swimming with confusion. "Buffy?" he said blankly.
Buffy lowered her sword a little although still keeping it level to her head, it could be a trick. His eyes twinkled with confused as he stood up. She held the sword tight her focus kept on him. "What's going on here?" he asked confused.
"Angel?" she asked unsure as to what's happened. He nodded. She fell into his arms wrapping her arms around his shoulders.
"Shhh, don't worry I'll always love you," said Angel said soothingly. He let go off her. He looked at her darkly. "Even if you kill me."
Angel looked down to his stomach to see Buffy's sword in his stomach. A tight knot filled her windpipe making it hard to breathe as she looked down to see blood splattered across her hands. Her hands began to shake, she couldn't help it. She looked up to see a confused Angel being pulled into a portal around the gargoyle statue. A long sword could be seen in his stomach and invisible hook wrapped around his navel and pulled him into the swirling vortex behind him. He held out his arm hoping she'd catch him, his eyes welled with tears.
"Hey! Is this your stop!" yelled a voice through the darkness. Buffy's eyes flicked to a small light piercing her eyes. "Is this your stop or what?!" boomed a gruff nasally voice.
Buffy opened her eyes to see the bus driver stood towering over her. A small spark of sunlight hit his glasses twinkling in Buffy's eye making it hard to see. "What?" she croaked groggily.
"Is this your stop!" he growled impatiently.
"Yeah, where are we?" she yawned as she stretched her arms. A loud yawn groaned out of her like a lion.
"Metropolis," he snapped in a brisk manner, "now are you getting off or what?"
"I'm getting off alright," she snapped back stomping to her feet. She grabbed her bag and flung it over her shoulder. She stomped down the middle of the bus and was welcomed by a cold breeze hitting her as soon as he foot touched the hard concrete floor.
She looked around to see blue colours surrounding her, a gigantic city stretched around her filled with towering skyscrapers all in blue, metallic colours. She heard the hiss of the bus doors closing as it drove away. She looked around lost in busyness of Metropolis life. Maybe now she could forget. That was all she wanted: to forget.
