Buffy the Vampire Slayer

'Escape'

Chapter 1

'Where'd She Go?'

"God, its friggin' dead tonight," Faith said to Buffy. They were patrolling the streets of Sunnydale on a particularly quiet night. Buffy was eighteen years old and in her senior year of high school. Faith on the other hand was seventeen years old, and had dropped out of high school. Buffy and Faith had only met a few months back, but hey had already grown close. They were great friends.

"Yeah," Buffy said. "In about five minutes if nothing shows up, I'm going home." Faith shook her head agreeing. "What time is it anyway?" Faith glanced down at her watch.

"Almost midnight," she answered. Buffy, not given time to respond to her, pushed Faith onto the ground. She kicked the knife out of the vampire's hands that was standing behind Faith. Faith turned to see what was going on. Buffy was fighting a vampire, and his two friends were headed towards Faith. She ran at the two vampires and flying side kicked one in the chest. He flew onto a car a few meters back.

Buffy saw the vampire out of the corner of her eye fly onto the car. Behind her, she heard the normal noise of fighting from Faith; just the yelling and grunting while fighting with a vampire. Buffy often made them too. Buffy heard an unusually load yell from Faith, but did not think anything much of it. She heard a silence behind her as she staked the vampire. She turned around and noticed that Faith was gone.

"Faith?" she said. She now yelled this time. "FAITH!?" There was no answer to Buffy's calls.

Buffy ran as fast as she could all the way back to Sunnydale High School. She ran through the hallways and kicked open the door of the library, and it slammed against the wall. She was her ex-watcher, Giles, who was sleeping in a pile of books, jerk awake.

"Buffy," he said putting his glasses back on his face. He saw the distressed look in her eyes. "What's wrong?"

"Faith," Buffy stopped to catch her breath. Giles now stood and walked toward her. "She's missing," Buffy finished of. Giles looked extremely puzzled.

"W-W-W-Wha," he stuttered. "How?"

She told him exactly what had happened.

Buffy took Giles to the exact location they had fought the vampires. She tried her best to re-enact where she was and what she was doing when she heard Faith scream. Giles bent down to examine the large pile of where the dust from both vampires fell. He scattered the dust and thinned it out. He picked up a medallion-like thing on a chain necklace.

"What's that?" Buffy asked curiously. Giles lifted up his glasses onto his face more.

"I don't know," he answered just as curious. "But I think I should take it back to the library and check into it."

"Alright British," Buffy said playfully punching him on the shoulder. "You do that and I'll head over to Faith's apartment and see if she's there. Just in case." There was a silence. "I'm not all that into the book stuff." She said to reassure Giles.

"Well, yes I suppose," He said. "Do hurry!" He yelled to her as she ran off.

Buffy knocked on the door to Faith's apartment. She didn't hear any sort of answer from inside, but she decided to go in and check anyway. She opened the door and saw only the slight glow of an alarm clock by her bedside, otherwise it was completely dark. Buffy ran her hand across the wall and found he light switch. She flipped the switch and the lights flickered for a few seconds and then turned on.

Faith's apartment was little more than a room with a bed and television, along with a bathroom. She had her bed made up neat, and there was a plate with a half eaten pizza on top of the TV. Buffy touched one of her fingers to it gently. It was cold, which meant that she hadn't just eaten it.

Buffy looked around for some sort of not that she might have left, or maybe something unusual.

"Did you find anything?" she asked Giles as she made her way into the library again. He was sleeping again.

"What?" he said as he jerked up yet again frightened. Buffy rolled her eyes.

"Did you find anything?"

"Oh," he said as he paused and picked up the medallion and a book. "Yes, yes I did. What about you?"

"Nothing," Buffy said. "No blood, no creepy medallions… Hell, she didn't even leave a note!" Giles nodded his head.

"She wouldn't have time to leave a note if she was kidnapped would she?" Giles said to Buffy smartly.

"Okay," she said. "What'd you find?" Giles brought the large book and medallion to the check out counter. He put the medallion side by side with a picture in the book. They were identical. He tapped his finger on the picture in the book, and then read to Buffy the text around it.

"The symbol of the Lakfahlhu demon, Gregorios, is a very special medallion to his warriors." Buffy was sitting at a stool with her elbow resting on the table and her face pressed up against her hand.

"What's a LaCkahhakahakaFuloo demon?" she asked. Giles looked at her impatiently.

"A Lakfahlhu demon, is a very large demon that can only be defeated if you cut off his head and then burn his body." Buffy raised her eyebrows and nodded her head. Giles read on. "To earn the medallion you must be one of his greatest warriors. It is a great honor." Giles rubbed his hands over his eyes. He almost nodded off to sleep. Buffy was exhausted too.

"Well," She said. She looked at her watch; it was now 1 o'clock in the morning. "We'd better call it a night. I'm sure Faith can handle herself." Giles disagreed with Buffy about Faith being able to handle herself, but he said nothing and kept looking in his book. He almost nodded off to sleep again. Buffy looked down and smiled at him.

"Ok," Giles said. "But I'm going to get right back on it tomorrow morning, and we need to inform Wesley, he is her watcher."

"Ah it's fine." Buffy said back in return. "I bet you that tomorrow morning Faith will be sitting right there in that chair when you get here." Buffy said as she pointed at the table her and the gang always discussed things with. Giles raised and dropped his eyebrows and nodded his head.

"Yes well," he said. "We can only hope."