Big Brother

Prologue

How did the world go so damn wrong so damn quick?

John Summers had, in his opinion, a pretty great if boring life. A great Mum, an okay dad and a little sister he loved even if they were a little distant from one another considering that John was seventeen and she was fifteen. He had friends, a girlfriend, a life. But then all of it had sudden the entire goddamn world had fallen apart.

It had all started with the first murder, a classmate of theirs at Hemery had been found dead one night and according to some people, all her blood had been drained. Then another body had been found, and another and another and another. And then his sister started to spend more and more time out at night and she would never say where she had been.

And then one night, at one of the endless dances that Hemery always seemed to have, a group of freaks with weird faces attacked the gym. John couldn't explain what had happened, or why. All he knew at the end of that night, two things happened. One, his sister had saved his life and the life of everyone who had been there that day.

And also, she had burned down the gym. To be honest, that was the closest thing to John as he had always hated gym and had spent more than one idle fantasy dreaming of burning the accursed place down. He had taken great delight in the thought of burning down the rope he had never been able to climb, no could and he was certain of that. It was not a method of exercise but of torture.

But while the fantasy might have been awesome to see coming true, it was poor Buffy who had to live with the consequences. Expelled from school, exiled from her friends and held as dangerous by their own parents. Yeah, the world had gone mad. When Buffy stared to say that there were vampires and she was something called a "Slayer"...yeah, that had not gone over well.

Buffy had been sent to a mental hospital and came back a month later, not taking about a slayer and vampires and not really talking at all. The house had fallen silent, the only conversation seemed to only occur if their parents were arguing about something else. Which they were also in the middle of doing right now.

John winced when he heard his Father shout something at his Mom and then a few moments later there was the sound of the front door slamming shut and the sound crying drifting from upstairs. John sighed and made his way over to Buffy's door and pulled it open to see his sister sitting in the middle of the bed.

He had never seen her look so miserable in his life, Buffy had always been little miss sunlight for as long as he was able to remember. Quick to smiles, laughter and to be honest more than a little vapid. To see her quiet, subdued and despondent was wrong, not just in the big brother way of not wanting to see his sister sad, but almost like something was fundamentally wrong with the world.

She looked up from her feet and John could see that she had been crying, he climbed on to the bed next to her and pulled her close to him and a few moments later his sister was sobbing into his chest and he was soothing her as best he could. He wasn't exactly an expert when it came to this sort of thing.

Emotionally constipated, was being kind.

John honestly did not know how long they had stayed together like that, only he knew he heard the sound of footsteps coming up the stairs and he knew it had to be his mom on her way to bed and he heard his Father not coming back from wherever he had gone to, this was the first time his Father had not come back after an argument.

John clung to Buffy tighter and Buffy clung back to him just as firmly. "It's all my fault." The voice was so small, so quiet and so without any hope at all that for a moment John thought there had to be someone else in the room. His sister didn't sound like that, surely not. Some weird person had crept into her room and was blaming something on themselves, that was the saner alternative.

"No it's not." He was quick to offer, and there was truth in that and not just the sweet lie. Things between their parents had been rough for a long time even before Buffy had gotten into trouble. John had noticed and Buffy hadn't because, as much as he loved his sister, he could not deny that up until recently she had always been more than a little bit self involved. "It's not your fault, I promise."

"It is though." A hiccup followed by a deep breath and John knew now that they were on rotting ice, one wrong move and it was going to see them plunged into a lake of Buffy tears. "I'm the reason we're going to have to move away, I'm the reason that they going to get divorced and I'm the reason that Merrick's-"

John had know idea who Merrick was meant to be, he had never heard Buffy mention him before, but clearly for his sister he was the breaking point because as soon as she said his name she bent over and broke out sobbing and John held her that little more tightly, rubbing the back of her chest as she cried for her lost life.

John stayed with her until she cried herself to sleep and then got up and left the room once he had tucked her under the covers, he walked over to his parents room to check on his Mom and found her asleep under the covers already and so then John made his way to his own room, shutting the door as he walked inside and got under his own covers.

He let out a bone weary sigh and shut his eyes, maybe this was the best? Maybe this move was going to be good for all of them, a chance to get away and put every terrible thing that had happened here behind them. Mom had told them about this place they were going to, a niece little town near Santa Barbara with low crime rates, a club, a theater and a shopping mall with a school that was willing to take Buffy. The same sounded good as well, a new beginning.

Sunnydale.

End of Prologue

I hope you enjoyed this brief little prologue to set things up, most of this story will be from John's perspective but there will be a few perspective shifts every now and then.

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With love,

DiscordantSymphony