Split
personalityWhen the angel of the darker drink
Offers you his cup
Invite your soul forth
You shall not shrink
(Elihu Vedder: the cup of death
)(PART ONE)
"Are you sure you don't wanna go?" Buffy asked.
"Yes I'm sure," Willow said, "I'm not in a party mood tonight, thanks though."
"Are you okay?" Buffy asked concerned.
"Yeah, I'm fine… It's just that I've got a lot of work and stuff to do tonight, you know…"
"Willow, it's Friday… Do you know there's this great new invention called weekend? It's at the end of the week. People have a lot of fun in weekends, they're like don't-think-about-homework-days…"
"Well…this is college and in college you have to do stuff…lots of stuff…college stuff," She said as she gave Buffy an uncertain grin.
"Are you sure you're alright?"
"Yes! Yes! Now go and have some fun at that party! Don't you worry about me."
"Okay I'm going, I'm going. See ya!"
"See ya!"
Willow closed the door behind Buffy, walked to her bed and sagged into it. She sighed. It was so tiring, trying to pretend to be happy, while you were dying inside. Lying to Buffy like that was even harder. What Willow needed now was to be on her own and reflect on what had happened.
Ever since Oz had left, she had felt miserable. She could not accept the fact that he had slept with that other werewolf. He was not Oz at that time, but still what had happened tore her apart.
She felt nothing except numbness and this hole. There was no other way to describe it. It was as if somebody had ripped part of her away and her mind had turned off all emotions to cope with the pain Oz had left, when he went of to God-knows-where.
Willow hugged her knees and let out a trembling breath. As she touched her forehead with her fingers she could still feel Oz's lips pressed against it, as if it was only five seconds ago that he had closed the door and left.
She pictured his face and how he would look at her with his sparkling (blue) eyes, how he would breathe through his cute nose and non-verbally speak volumes.
Suddenly she had an idea. What if she filled the emptiness inside her? After all, she was not a wicca for nothing. So she climbed out of her bed, got her spell book (actually the book was not hers; she had "borrowed" it from Giles) and sat down again. She flipped through the pages and after some time (it was a thick book), she found a spell on a page called "filling the void ".
Willow read the page a few times until she thought it safe to use. The spell looked harmless, but the most dangerous ones could look harmless too. It could also be dangerous to use a spell at the wrong moment. This seemed the right time though; she did feel sad and lonely and Oz was on her mind most of the time.
Was it wrong to change the way you felt with a spell? Maybe, but anything beat feeling this way. So Willow decided she was going to do the spell.
She started chanting: "Hereby I summon thee, Edana, goddess of love and hate, laughter and tears, life and death. Fill the void inside of me. Bring the fire back to my soul!"
As Willow chanted, she started feeling a strange burning sensation in her stomach…
"Hereby I summon thee, Edana, goddess of love and hate, laughter and tears, life and death. Fill the void inside of me. Bring the fire back to my soul!"
The burning feeling in her stomach got worse, it hurt…but she went on chanting, she had to say it just one more time.
"He…hereby," she was having difficulties concentrating, because her stomach really hurt now, "I-I-I sum-mon thee, Edana goddess of love and hate laugh…laughter a-and tears, life and death…fill the void inside of m-m-me. B-bring…bring the fire-back-TO-MY-SOUL!!!"
The pain Willow felt after saying that, was excruciating. It was as if her whole self was on fire; her body and mind. She expected everything around her to burst into flames. The heat scorched her and she needed water badly to stop the burning. Willow stumbled over to the shower. With all power she had left in her, she tried to turn on the tap. Burning hot water started falling out of the shower. Desperate for something to cool her she turned on the cold water as wide as she could, but the boiling water kept on coming. She screamed. The heat was unbearable. She wanted to go out of the shower, but instead she started convulsing, she stumbled and collapsed onto the floor.
All she could do was lie on her stomach, panting, as icy cold water trickled down her forehead…
(PART TWO)
"…Gosh eh…that was a great party, wasn't it? So eh…do you wanna come inside?" Buffy asked Riley.
They both had just left the party and were heading towards Buffy's room. They had not done much talking lately. Riley seemed preoccupied with something.
"Sorry, I can't… I've got lots of stuff to do… so eh…yeah…um…bye!" after saying that Riley ran off.
"What's up with the work? Am I the only one who's actually looking forward to weekends without work?" Buffy asked herself, as she opened the door to her room.
"Hey Will-"
Her tongue froze, when she saw her room. It was in chaos. Clothes, books and bedding lay scattered across the floor. Closet doors were hanging by their hinges, flowerpots were turned over, and there was dirt everywhere. In the bathroom, Buffy could hear the shower running. Slowly she walked to the bathroom, anticipating an attack by some ugly demon with tentacles and slime oozing from every pore of its body. She opened the door, directly getting ready for battle, but she saw no demon. What she did see was Willow, lying flat on her stomach in the shower, drenched in cold water.
"Willow!"
Buffy ran to Willow and pulled her out of the shower.
"Willow!"
Willow slowly opened her eyes. She looked around groggily.
"Wha- what happened?" she asked Buffy.
"You tell me. Our room's a wreck. Did somebody hurt you? Are you okay?"
"I guess… I feel as if my head's stuffed with cotton buds…" she said, sitting up right and rubbing her head.
"Will, what happened."
"Nothing out of the ordinary… eh I was looking out of the window. And ehm…I almost fell asleep, you know how that is, don't you? Hè hè… So I drank some… coffee, yeah. Stupid isn't it, 'cause you know how I get when I drink coffee. You do, don't you?"
"You drank some coffee, turned the whole room upside down and stepped into the shower? Why?"
"The coffee burned my tongue…"
"What did really happen?"
"Nothing."
"Willow, you can tell me."
"Really, nothing happened."
"Then how come our room's like this?
"Okay I'll tell you. Promise you won't say this to anyone and please don't get angry…"
"What happened?"
"Promise…"
"Okay, I promise."
Willow looked up at Buffy with intense sad eyes, tears rolled down her cheeks as she started: "Sometimes I feel like I'm going to die and I wish it were so, 'cause then I wouldn't feel this pain. Nothing I do seems to be enough to fill the emptiness and numbness I feel inside. I know Oz is gone, but I can't accept it. He's part of me and I want that part back. That's why I cast a spell…"
"What kind of spell?" Buffy asked softly, hugging the sobbing Willow.
"The spell was called "filling the void". I had to evoke a goddess… I know my powers aren't focused and what happened last time because of that. I just had to do something…"
"It's okay Will, I understand what you're feeling, but that's no reason to cast a spell. Only time can ease the pain."
"That's not enough."
"It should be… Did the spell work?"
"Yeah, I can feel him and I know where he is… he's in LA…"
(PART THREE)
Doyle was looking over some of the cases Angel, Cordelia and he had solved, when Cordelia came bursting in.
"You won't believe what happened!" she growled.
"What?"
"Okay, so I was at the auditions and I was doing really well, when all of a sudden this icky demon came rushing inside and knocks me down. He ruined everything! I mean, don't these things have a sense of timing? He could have come after the auditions or at night, like vampires do. And as if that wasn't bad enough, a freak vampire comes running in after the demon. They just started fighting and trashed the whole place."
"Did they hurt you? Are you alright?"
"No, they just ruined my day. Nobody messes up my day without getting some serious punishment."
"What did you do?"
"Hey, you expect me to do something while my hair's a total mess? I don't think so. You and Angel will have to do something."
"What?!!"
Just when Cordelia was about to answer, Angel came into the office. He was in bad shape, for Angel that is. His clothes were torn and he was covered in dirt.
"What happened man?" Doyle asked.
"I chased a Vendrah demon through an auditorium, where there were auditions or something. I thought I could just beat him, but he turned out fiercer and faster than I expected. He got away. I guess I'll have to do some extra work tonight."
"So you went demon hunting huh?" Doyle winked at Cordelia. She blushed unnoticeably, but quickly recovered by punching him in the arm.
"It seems like I've missed something here." Angel said puzzled.
"Hè hè. No you didn't." Cordelia said giving Doyle an elbow.
"No, no you di-" suddenly Doyle clutched his head with one hand and swayed his free arm around searching desperately for some support, as he was having a vision. Trying to gain control of his movements he tensed every muscle he had. Just when he thought the pain was at its worst the vision was over.
"Are you okay?" Cordelia asked concerned. He nodded.
"What did you see?" Angel asked.
"I-I don't exactly know… it was a blur, like a reflection of a memory or a spirit of some kind… It could have been anything… I could feel some strong emotions though… an intense feeling of loneliness, emptiness, rage, passion, jealousy…"
"And…?"
"Nothing else, just these emotions."
"That's not that much to work on. If you look in the Codex, maybe you'll find the spirit you saw. I'll go outside and get that Vendrah demon."
(PART FOUR)
When she entered the cafe with Buffy, Willow had to readjust her eyes to the darkness in the room, even though it was night already. She looked around. She saw a few tables, with chairs to match. In the back was a bar. On the right was a stage where a band was playing, with some space in front where people danced.
This was where Oz had to be. He was very close now, she could feel it; but what would she do when she saw him? Most important, what would he do. Did he still love her? That was for him to know and for her to find out.
Why was stuff like this always so hard? Why did people have so much to lose? Because they had so much to gain, she guessed. There is nothing on earth that is better than having a deep friendship with someone, who gives the same amount of love and respect back. Willow had had that with Oz and wanted it back desperately. He still had to love her, because otherwise she would have come here for nothing and failure just was not an option to her.
"Are you sure Oz is here?" Buffy asked suddenly.
"Yes, I'm sure. Well actually… What if he isn't here? What if the spell didn't work? What if-" she said.
"Will don't worry, I'm sure the spell worked. He'll be here. And if he isn't, we'll have to search for him somewhere else. I'll always be there. Do you want to drink something?"
"Yeah. Thanks Buff."
"Hey," Buffy said putting an arm around her comfortingly, "no problem. What are friends for?"
They went over to the bar and ordered something to drink. When they sat down Buffy looked around a little concerned.
"What's wrong?" Willow asked.
"I don't know, I've just got this weird feeling, like something's about to happen."
"Is that something good? 'Cause I don't think I can handle bad."
"I haven't the faintest."
Buffy and Willow sat at the bar, saying nothing and anticipating something bad, when from a door, on the right side of the stage opened. Willow looked up from her drinks. She saw five men walking through towards the dance floor. She let her gaze slide from one guy to the other. When the last one came out she gasped. It was Oz! Oz! She could not believe it! He was really here! He had not spotted her yet, though. Willow stared at him, hoping desperately, that he would feel her gaze upon him. Suddenly he saw her. At first he frowned, not believing what he saw, then he just gaped at her. As if coming back to his senses he shook his head and slowly walked towards her.
"I think I'm going to check out the alleys and stuff, okay," Buffy said
"Yeah…" Willow replied mesmerized with Oz. When he stood in front of her, Oz stroked her cheek with his hand and silently mouthed "Willow". Overwhelmed with feelings of joy and pain Willow closed her eyes and leaned her forehead against his.
"I've missed you," Willow whispered.
"Me too," he said, as he cupped her chin and kissed her tenderly.
(PART FIVE)
Angel sat in a dark corner of a cafe brooding. Why was that Vendrah demon so strong? Normally he could have taken out one without any difficulty. They were not that hard to defeat. He did not mean to brag, but they just were not that strong. Angel knew his strength and his abilities very well. This just was not possible. This demon had to have a power center of some kind.
Suddenly Angel heard a familiar voice.
"Are you sure Oz is here?"
His heart stopped. He looked up and saw Buffy walking hesitantly towards the bar, together with Willow. Why was she here? He could answer that, she was looking for Oz. What had happened? Why was she looking for him?
God, she was beautiful. She was even more beautiful in life than in memory. It seemed like ages since he had last seen her or touched her, but in reality it was no more than two weeks. She would not remember though. He had the Oracles turn time back, so he would not become human and could prevent Buffy's death when the End of Days began. After that thought other bittersweet memories flooded his mind: her bright blue eyes gazing up at his, at the moment just before their first kiss, all the times she had saved his life, the times they had sat together and talked, the thousand times they had broken up and come back together and the way he missed her.
He wanted to stand up and go to her, but he new he could not. He remembered what she had said the last time she came. If he would do anything they would just end up having to leave each other all over again. So instead he just stayed in the shadows looking at her.
Willow and Buffy were drinking now, but they were not saying anything. Then Buffy quivered. She looked around and suddenly stared directly towards where he was sitting. Angel closed his eyes begging for her not to see him. She did not. He let himself take a breath. He could not bare looking at her anymore, thinking of what he could have had with her. He looked out of the window and suddenly he saw the Vendrah demon running past it. Angel gave Buffy a short glance, saying farewell to her in his mind and glided of in the dark, through the backdoor into an alley, where the demon was already waiting for him…
(PART SIX)
Buffy still could not believe Willow had actually found Oz. The spell had worked, but she didn't feel comfortable with some goddess guiding Willow to LA, just to find him. LA of all places! No offence, but couldn't he have gone to some place else? What if she ran into Angel? LA is a large city so the chance of that happening was pretty small. Coincidences happened though. If she ran into him what would she do? What could she do? "Oh hi Angel. How's life? By the way, I've got this new broad shouldered boyfriend back in Sunnydale." Broad shouldered, was that the best she could do? Pick a guy reminiscent of the only man she had ever loved? Why couldn't she do anything without Angel whispering in the back of her head? This was pathetic, she had to move on, without him. It did not matter how much she loved him or cared, they just could not be. Why did he have to be a vampire? Did fate arrange their 'little' get-together just for her amusement?
All of a sudden, a crash in an alley, on Buffy's left, ripped her out of her trail of thoughts. She turned to face the ally, only to see a man being hurled towards her and to get knocked down by the sheer force in which he was coming at her. Sliding halfway across the street she tried to stand up, gasping openmouthed for breath, but her muscles did not respond the way they should have. The man was still lying on top of her stirring, as if attempting to get up too. She tried to turn around, but when something hit on the man on top of her, it sent her gasping all over again. Her sight blurred, but with all the strength she could muster she stood up. It went too easy, the man was already standing it seemed. Then all of a sudden she heard something crack, followed by a bone-chilling scream. She recognized the voice. She swayed dizzily, eyes closed. She opened them, focussing on Angel. Angel! A demon was standing behind him, holding his arm, twisted to the air, his shoulder in an awkward position. The demon looked at her, murder in his eyes and let Angel go. Angel sagged on to the floor panting, his arm hanging limp to his side.
Buffy caught herself staring. "No time for that! He's coming straight for me," she realized, just in time to evade a fist aimed at her face. She grabbed the fist and slammed her elbow onto the demon's outstretched arm. Nothing happened! Wide-eyed she punched him in his stomach. The demon just looked at her blankly, not moving an inch or showing any affect of the blows Buffy had just given him. With his arm the demon pushed her away from him, with such a force, that she slammed into the wall at the end of the alley.
"Buffy!!!" she heard Angel shout, "Buffy! His powercenter! The necklace!"
Groaning she stood up, using the wall for balance. She looked up, directly into the demons hollow black eyes, as he stormed straight for her. Something glittering on the demons chest caught her eye. A necklace, with a ruby intricately entwined with thin gold stings hanging from it. The powercenter!
The demon was still running towards her. He came closer and closer, with increasing speed. When he was almost on top of her she dodged him deftly. He crashed into the wall.
"Is this the best you can do ugly? I had expected a lot more from a slimy, gross, sewage slug thing. You don't even scare the rats down there!" Buffy said.
The demon stood up and tried to kick her. Buffy dodged the kick successfully and every other assault he aimed at her. Enraged he launched his fist at her with all his might. This was what Buffy had been waiting for; she evaded the blow, once again and the demon's fist rocketed straight into a wall, where it got stuck.
"Ain't so happy now, are ya?" said Buffy as she grabbed the powercenter and pulled it off of the demons neck.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!" the he screamed, just before he started shriveling to nothing but an ugly heap of skin.
While pausing for some breath, she closed her eyes. Then she ran to where she last had seen Angel. There she found Willow and Oz bowing over him. Buffy brushed them aside, kneeling in front of Angel.
"There goes the distance I planned to take from him," she thought and to Angel she asked concerned, "Are you okay? I heard something crack."
"He… hngg dislocated my shoulder…" he groaned.
"Okay this might hurt," she said while she put one hand on his shoulder and lifted his arm up carefully with the other. He winced at her touch and closed his eyes. With a loud snap Buffy pushed his arm back into place. Angel stood up, but he swayed and would have fallen if Buffy and Oz had not caught him in time.
"I'm okay. I don't need help. I can walk by myself," Angel said hoarsely as he fell on top of Willow.
"You see I don't need your help," he said unsteadily, "I can walk. I just need to see where I'm going." He tried to stand up , but stepped on Willow's foot and fell back on top of her again.
"AUCH!!!" Willow yelped, "Are you attacking me or something?!!"
"We'll save you Will," Oz snickered.
Buffy did not say anything. This was not funny at all. She went to LA to pick up Oz, nothing else. She had wanted to avoid a situation like this at all costs, but when she saw Angel, she forgot everything.
Reluctantly she walked (actually it was more like dragging) him back to Angel investigations, together with Willow and Oz.
(PART SEVEN)
Buffy found Angel's apartment with no problems at all. She was holding the vampires side with one hand as he leaned heavily on her. She looked around. Something tickled her in the back of her mind. She could swear she had seen this place before, but she new for certain she had never been here until now. it was probably her imagination.
She walked over to the living room and set Angel down on the couch carefully. He groaned as Buffy slowly slid her hand away from his side. She felt something moist on his back. When she looked at her hand she saw blood.
"Oh God," she gasped, "Willow Angel's bleeding! Get some bandages now! Oz get some water!"
She overreacting she thought by herself. He was a vampire after all; only a stake to the heart, decapitation and sunlight could kill him, nothing else. Then she thought of what Faith had done, just before graduation. She shivered.
Buffy pulled off Angel's shirt and turned him around to look at the wound. There was an arrowhead lodged in his back between his ribs. The flesh around the head was scorched. This looked to much like what Faith had done to him. She did not know what she would do if it were so. She could not handle Angel taking her blood again. It was horrible, but at the same time it had something incredibly intimate.
Willow came over with the bandages and gave a sour look at the wound. She handed Buffy a pair tweezers. Shaking herself, Buffy took them reluctantly. Ever so carefully she pulled out the arrow head. Almost immediately Angel regained his movement. The arrow must have damaged some of his nerves, that would explain his inability to walk or see clearly.
Buffy let out a sigh of relief. There was nothing wrong. Angel tried to get up, but she held him where he was with a steady grip.
"Stay still," she said in an almost commanding tone, as she dabbed the wound and covered it with the bandages. Willow and Oz were quietly looking at them from a distance.
When Buffy was done Angel turned, to face her and mumbled something that sounded like a "thank you", while looking at the floor. After that a painful silence followed as Angel put his shirt back on.
"Does anybody want a cracker?" whispered Willow almost inaudible to everybody in the room.
"Not now Willow!" Buffy snapped and almost immediately after that, "I'm sorry."
Another silence took hold of them. Buffy bit her lip and avoided looking at Angel. It was so hot in this room. Her clothes started clinging to her body. Why was it so hot? Did the others feel the same heat? She blinked her eyes, awareness was slowly slipping away from her. What was happening? Her sight blurred. All shaped in the room mingled. This was funny. Willow was running into Oz and the rest of the room. All shapes became more and more indistinct, until there was nothing left but a gray haze and then blackness.
"What brought you all here to LA?" Angel asked trying to make some conversation.
Willow opened her mouth, but Buffy cut her off saying mechanically:
(PART EIGHT)
"We're just hanging around…"
Angel new directly that she was lying. Why didn't she want to tell him the truth? She knew she did not have to lie. Didn't she trust him anymore? It had to be that. She was moving on and he was not. He grimaced. Then all of a sudden Buffy spoke with a concerned voice:
"Where have you been?"
"Here in LA of course. Is there something wrong Buffy?" Angel replied. He eyed her suspiciously. There was something wrong. Her eyes, they were different somehow.
"What? – Why?" she asked shocked, as if she had not heard what he had said just now.
"Buffy…?"
Buffy backed away from him, her brown eyes watery and huge, she cried:
"No. No, you didn't."
Willow and Oz had moved to the side of the room staring wide eyed at the scene that was taking place. Angel stood up and walked towards her, slowly. He did not want to scare her.
"Buffy? What's wrong?" he demanded concerned, placing his hands on her shoulders. Buffy stared up at him as if he had said the most horrible thing he could possibly say. Her lips were quivering.
"Mohra is dead. We killed him."
Angel's eyes widened. Mohra?!! What was she talking about?
"Yes, we killed him. Did he do something to you?!!"
"They always come. And they always will, but that's my problem now, not yours, remember?"
"What do you mean? What's not my problem anymore?" she was not making any sense. Was she delirious? Did she have a fever?
"Then we fight together."
"What…?"
"So what?" she was angry now, tears rolling down her cheeks, "You took a whole 24 hours to weigh the ups and downs of being a regular Joe and decided it was more fun being a superhero?"
Her words hit him like a bolt of lightning. Did she remember? Did she actually remember that day they had spent together, when he was mortal? She was not supposed to. The Oracles had turned back time and had made sure only he would remember, nobody else, especially not Buffy. What was he supposed to do now? She could not remember. She was not allowed to remember. That memory would destroy her. How could she move on remembering that?
"Buffy, it's just a nightmare, wake up, please…" he said, his voice faltering with the memory of their last minutes together, shaking her gently. She just stared at him and he took her in his arms.
"I understand… So what happens now?"
"You wake up, please Buffy, this is not meant to be. Wake up, please." Angel begged, as his tone got more desperate with every word.
"When?" she sniffed. There was hope in her eyes. Hope and fear of loss.
"Another minute." he whispered automatically, she deserved an answer even though she was not listening to what he said now.
"Another minute?" she cried, all hope had vanished from her eyes, "No. No, it's not enough time!"
Angel tried to speak, but he could not form words. He looked down at Buffy and saw her tear-stricken face, forlorn eyes looking up at him. She had seen to much for her age. She did not deserve this fate. Angel held her tighter. It was all he could do, to stop himself from crying.
"How am I supposed to go on with my life knowing what we had? What we could have had?"
Tears formed in his eyes. He squeezed them shut, looking up at the ceiling.
"Please…" he managed to whisper.
"Everything we did?"
"Please forget…"
"It did. It did. I know it did!" she looked up at him and put her hand on his chest, where his heart was. It was an almost pathetic gesture. She pleaded desperately: "I felt your heart beat…"
Angel cupped her face and wiped away her tears with his thumb.
"Forget Buffy, please, God, please!"
She kissed him passionately. As if she was trying to undo what the Oracles were about to do, or at least take away all his pain. Then she looked away from him. Her eyes widened.
"No! Oh God. It's not enough time."
"Shh, please. Please… please!"
Shaking her head wildly she said: "No. I'll never forget. I'll never forget. I'll never forget. I'll never forget."
Buffy collapsed in Angels arms and he fell onto his knees, still holding her…
(PART NINE)
This was not good. This was actually really bad. What had happened? Willow ran over to where Angel and Buffy were. They both were in bad shape. Angel was staring into nothing at the wall in front of him, tears staining his face. Buffy was lying unconscious in his arms.
Willow knelt in front of them and comfortingly touched Angel's shoulder.
"Hey, Buffy needs a lot of rest. I can't take her to the motel. We'd get noticed and people would wonder what we were doing. So do you think she can crash here tonight?" she asked.
"Yeah…" he replied.
Suddenly the door swung open. Cordelia came barging in.
"Hi everybody!!! Hey Angel, are you having a party without even telling us?" she said, but when she saw Angel's face and the sharp looks she got from Willow and Oz, her happy expression changed, "Oh… eh…welcome to LA? What are you guys doing here?" and when she saw Buffy unconscious in front of Angel: "Oh no! Angel, you didn't… you're not… Willow! Step away from him, very slowly and get out of here! Oz you too! He's evil!"
Everybody shot an even sharper look at her. Then a man walked in, brushing Cordelia aside, directly walking over to Buffy. He put his hand on her forehead. After doing that he looked up at Angel and Willow.
"There's a spirit inside her."
A spirit? What kind of spirit? How could it have taken control over her? Suddenly Willow realized it had to be the spirit she had evoked in her spell to find Oz. When she had found him, she had felt a chill, when the spirit left her. She did not pay any attention to it at the time, she had other things on her mind. The spirit must have jumped over to Buffy. But why?
She put her hand on Buffy's forehead. God she was burning up. This was all her fault. Why did she always screw up her own spells? Why did she get Buffy invol-ved? Couldn't she do anything right? Now she had messed up Buffy's life and Angel's and probably everybody else's.
"You two bring her to bed," Willow told Angel and the other man, taking charge of the situation, "Oz you get some water and a towel."
Everybody left to do what they were supposed to do, except Cordelia who stood in the middle of the room looking restless.
"Hey, what do I get to do?" she asked.
"Uh… you can help Oz."
***
Willow had to help Buffy somehow. The only problem was that she did not know anything about Edana. All she knew was that Edana was a spirit she had evoked with a spell, in order to find Oz. Maybe Angel had some books about spirits and stuff. She only needed to know where the books were, but she did not dare ask Angel where they where. So she went over to Doyle, he seemed intelligent in contrast to Cordy, and asked where they were. Doyle led her to a bookcase and Willow started researching.
(PART TEN)
When Buffy opened her eyes, she found herself lying in a bed in a room filled with the sunlight that spilled inside through a window on her right. The window was framed by pastel colored curtains, that fell in magnificent creases on the floor and simply decorated the top of the window frame. On the window ledge stood a vase with a crimson rose in it. There was a card hanging from it, but she could not read it. She looked around the parts of the room she could see. Everything looked so cheerful; the furniture was lightly colored and there was a painting of playing children and one of a woman standing in front of a vast canyon, holding a man's hand. The room looked alien to her, but she could swear she had been there before. But when she had been there, the room was dark with no paintings at all and the furniture had been darker, more serious. Yes that was the difference; where the room had been serious and more objective the room seemed to have a more relaxed atmosphere.
"Hey sleepyhead, how are you doing?" startled she whirled around only to find Angel staring straight at her. She frowned.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you," he said.
Buffy's mouth dropped open and her eyes went wide as she remembered Angel's curse and the fact that she was in the same bed as Angel.
"Did we…? We didn't…" she said confused.
"We did what?"
"The curse…"
He arched an eyebrow: "What curse?"
"Your curse."
"What are you talking about?"
"Don't you remember?"
"No…"
"On my seventeenth birthday… you turned into Angellus."
"I remember your seventeenth birthday, but who is Angellus?"
"The evil vampire you…"
"Oh God, the doctor told me this could happen. Buffy you've been in a coma for three weeks. This Angellus person is not real. He's part of a world you created during your coma. The same for the curse. I'm just a normal man, your husband. We've been married for a year now and you're pregnant. We're having a baby…"
He put his hand on her stomach and stroked it.
"Married and a… baby? How…?"
"Don't you remember? Oh God… I…I… sorry I can't imagine how hard this must be for you. Four months after we got married you became pregnant. I was still sleeping, when you came in with breakfast. Your face was beaming with joy. I asked you what had happened. Then you said we were having a baby. I was so happy…"
"Wait a sec. Are you saying I'm eight months pregnant?"
"Yeah… I mean, look at you…"
She climbed out of the bed and stood sideways in front of the mirror on a closet door in the room. She looked at her figure and saw her stomach. It was huge! Suspicious, she placed a hand on her belly. Suddenly she felt something bump against the inside of it and then again. Shocked she gave a yelp. Angel got out of bed to stand behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist.
"It's kicking!" he said smiling and kissed the back of her head, "It's kicking."
Buffy stared at her reflection shocked. What had happened? Was this real? It certainly made more sense than vampires and demons roaming the earth and her being a slayer, destined to rid the world of all evil.
Angel was human, there was no curse. She was married and expecting a child. Somehow she went into a coma and created this world full of demons. Yes, this made sense. This was the real world. She was normal.
Suddenly there was a flash of blinding light and Willow was standing in the room. Angel looked up and hissed: "What are you doing here?!!"
Willow ignored him and said: "Buffy! Get away from him! He's not real!"
"Wha-…?" Buffy asked confused.
"Get away from him! Buffy! He's not who you think he is!"
"What are you doing here?!! She is mine," Angel growled, shifting to his game face. Buffy screamed. He snarled exposing his sharp fangs and bit Buffy. Buffy stood helplessly in Angel's grip, as she felt his fangs puncture her flesh. She struggled, but in vain. She could feel her life slowly pulsing away.
"NO!!!" yelled Willow.
A ball of fire sprang into existence and leaped from Willow's hand towards Angel. The fire ball struck him in his side and he crashed against the closet, shattering the mirror. Buffy sagged onto the ground. She saw Willow walk towards her and kneel.
"You must try to wake up!" she said urgently.
"I can't…"
Willow put her hand on Buffy's fore head, saying: "This'll help you wake up, now go wa-"
Suddenly Willow flew to the other side of the room and crashed against the wall. Angel gave a murderous growl. Then he shifted from the place where he was, in front of the shattered mirror, on top of Willow, strangling her.
Buffy tried to stand up, wanting to help Willow, but she was too weak. All she could do was look at Angel, still strangling Willow, who tried desperately to loosen his grip. Slowly a gray haze came over her eyes, growing thicker and thicker as the seconds past. Then everything was black-
(***)
-Buffy bolted up in her bed screaming: "WILLOW!!!"
"Shhh, It's okay," a familiar voice said, pushing her back down into lying position, "You just had a bad dream."
She looked towards where the sound came from and saw Angel sitting on the bed.
"I need to see Willow!" Buffy said, "Where's Willow?!!"
"She's here somewhere, probably sleeping. You need to sleep too."
"No. Willow is in trouble, I need to help her!" Buffy said barely able to push Angel away.
She climbed out of the bed and staggered towards the door. Angel came after her and caught her when she was about to fall.
"You're bleeding!" he exclaimed, gently pushing away the hair on her shoulders to expose her neck. Two puncture wounds surrounded by red, sore flesh with blood trickling out of them were clearly visible, "What happened?!! How could a vampire have bitten you?"
"It was my dream, but that is not what's important at this moment. Now let me go! Willow, she's in big trouble!"
"..."
"Angel listen to me! I'm serious, in my dream you bit me and you were strangling Willow just before I woke up. I need to see her."
Angel's eyes went wide with shock. Then he helped Buffy walk and find Willow. They found Willow sleeping next to the book case, with a book in her hand. Buffy kneeled down and started shaking Willow. Willow opened up her eyes, they were pitch black. Buffy shrieked and shrank backwards.
"Her eye's…"
Willow's lips were moving, slowly at first, but moving faster and faster as the seconds past. Angel strained to hear what she was saying, but her whispering was too soft. Suddenly she started to convulse and scream. Angel had to hold her down to keep her from hurting herself or anybody else.
Cordelia, Doyle and Oz came hurrying in.
Next part coming soon (I hope…)