By:Hope
She gets up and rubs her eyes, welcoming the warm rays of sunshine into her room, into her blossoming life. She gets up and yawns, stretching as she begins to make her way out of her bedroom.
She hears voices in the background, distant voices. She heard distant voices of yelling, crying, and screaming. But the girl pays no attention to them as she made her way down the oak stairs and into the kitchen to greet what was waiting for her...well, down stairs.
She didn't know what it was but she welcomed it with full content and no cautiousness. She turns her head to peer out into the living room and can't help from smiling. He was standing there. Her knight in white armor, her only love stands in her living room.
He turns around and smiles as he had always done when he saw her. Her eyes light up and she picks up her pace to get down the stairs and runs into the living room, jumping into her love's arms.
He pulls away from her and smiles, holding onto her hand and bringing her out the door…into the sunlight.
She smiles and knows that she doesn't have to worry; he would never burn up in the sunlight. Not now. Not this time. But did he ever? Her memories of the past are fuzzy but it doesn't seem to bother her as she follows her love outside to his car where he opens the passenger door for her and she steps in, she never stops smiling at him.
He looks at her with loving eyes and walks over to the other side of the car and they drive to the magick box.
They get out of the car and walk into the small magic store owned by her former watcher. The watcher and his wife are sitting at the table near the register, talking about that morning's events and drinking some coffee…tea for Giles. She and her lover walk into the shop and she turns around, seeing that all of her friends had somehow made it in there also.
Willow stands next to O…Tara…the image of them keeps fading in and out but Buffy hardly notices. Xander and Anya are holding hands and smiling at her, telling her not to worry, that everything is fine everywhere.
She smiles back and thanks them, says that she can't seem to remember how she got back in her room…she was fighting Glory wasn't she? But the thought quickly dissolved in her mind, leaving her once again feeling complete and untroubled.
The door creaks as Dawn and Mrs. Summers make their way into the small shop. Joyce asks if Buffy can watch her sister while she goes out on a date with her new boyfriend…
She wonders what her mother is doing there, she seems different than the rest of the people standing around her. Joyce was more complete. Everyone else seemed to fade in and out, not totally there at all times but Joyce was there, she was whole and colorful and seemed more real there than even her herself. Joyce sent her daughter a weak smile and walked out the door, leaving Dawn in the Magick box with the slayer and her friends.
Buffy looks around and can't help from smiling. This was everything that she had ever wanted…but it had come to her so fast. She didn't understand how or why but she didn't question it, she didn't want to question it. She was happy here and that was enough for her now. She had her friends, her family…her love. Buffy looks up to the clock and realizes that the hands are moving faster and faster. She looks back down at Willow who is talking to Xander and Anya. Willow notices Buffy looking at her strangely and begins to ask her what's wrong.
Flashes of something else interrupt what Willow is saying to Buffy.
Images begin to pour into her head. She sees four people that she knows..that she should know sitting in a graveyard. Willo, Xander, Anya and Tara…Willow is hurt…crying…screaming...screaming for something…
The images fade and she quickly tries to forget about them, and tries to remain a tight grasp on her present reality. Willow and her other friends begin to fade from her sight and the only one left there is him…is her love.
He says nothing, he already knows what she would say to him, what she would deny, what she would confirm. His smile pierces through her soul as the images of that graveyard begin to become clearer and more constant in her mind.
She rubs her temples and looks at the grassy ground of the graveyard…when did they get there?
He asks her if she's alright. If she needs to sit down or go home. She tries to tell him that its alright, that she's fine but as she looks up from the ground, he also begins to fade out…to change.
He asks her again if she wants to go home. If seeing her friends and family would help her. She claims that she doesn't want to go home, that she wants to stay there…with him. But the images keep coming and she can't seem to concentrate on him…on her only true love.
He tells her that he thinks she should go see her friends…that they need her more than he does but she doesn't want to listen. She doesn't want to leave this place…him.
She feels him walk over to her and wrap his arms around her shoulders and whisper into her ear that it's alright. That he would be waiting for her wherever she was. He said that he would never let go.
She begins to sob as the images of the lining of the coffin begin to cloud her vision. She worries that she'll get lost and that she won't be able to remember, that it might only have been a perfect dream. She closes her eyes and tries to listen to him, but still trying to hold onto him, to not let go of this paradise.
He tells her that he loves her and that's all that she needs to know. She can feel him slipping away from her and begins to call out his name.
But her brain doesn't seem to connect to her vocal cords and so many more images…memories begin to flood through her mind.
She saw a young girl be called as a slayer, then being forced to move away from her home…her meeting her two best friends, Xander and Willow and meeting Angel for the first time…loving him…killing him.
All of her painful but most pleasurable and happiest memories returned to her in an instant as she opened her eyes and gasped for breath, only to find that there was almost no oxygen left in her buried coffin.
Now she lives on the hell mouth. Her perfect dream shall remain to be a dream that shall only comfort her in her sleep. Things are different here than they were before. There is no perfect life for any of them. Now, there is only life as it was meant to be lived. None of the friends and family fade in and out anymore and although everything seems different, not real, everything there is the way that it's supposed to be. She's left alone in the dark, the darkness is now her only comfort and she's not even sure if it helps.
As she begins to live on the images also begin to fade from her head. She shall always remember what it was like, how it all was but for one thing....who was that 'one true love' that she had seen in her heaven...? For his face is the only one that in this reality...had faded.