Title: Closed Door
Status: Work In Progress
Category: AU Hurt, Angst, Torture, Character Deaths, and all those other dark themes :)
Pairings: Nothing concrete at present, but may change.
Rating: PG-13 to R for dark themes and possible occasional bad language.
Spoilers: Season Seven of Buffy and Season Five of Angel to be safe.
Season/Sequel: Post Season Seven Buffy, AU Season Five Angel
Summary: A knock on the door in the middle of the night can change everything.
Disclaimer: All publicly recognisable characters and places are the property of Joss Whedon, Warner Brothers, UPN . This piece of fan fiction was created for entertainment not monetary purposes and no infringement on copyrights or trademarks was intended. Previously unrecognised characters and places, and this story, are copyrighted to the author. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.
Author's Notes: This is a dark fic set after the end of Buffy. It takes a bit of a swing into the AU during the middle of Season Five of Angel. So, if you're into fluffy fic (which we all are now and again J ) this probably isn't the one you want to read!
It was one of those nights, the clichéd kind. The sky was dark and overpowering, the air hung heavy all around and the fat drops of rain fell, nothing escaping them while thunder roared menacingly in the distance.
The shadows crawled across the floor as the lights flickered before the occupants of the house were plunged into darkness.
Buffy closed her eyes. She couldn't remember a time when she'd been afraid of the dark. It was her friend, her comfort and her companion throughout life, walking by her side. She could hear the muffled sounds of Giles fumbling his way from the library and the creaking of the stairs as Dawn's high-pitched voice spoke down to him.
He spent all of his time in there now. He didn't even bother coming out for meals, Dawn brought them in to him.
She had no inclination to see him, nor he her.
Perhaps it was better this way, she mused attempting to relax. They'd both said too much and done too much to ever go back to that easy friendship they had, that almost father-daughter tie between them. It pained her to look at him now, so why bother to seek it out?
He still had Dawn, who even now had that bond with him. She looked up to him as the role model, the father figure in her life, and Buffy wasn't sure if that was such a good thing or not.
But she tried to ignore her doubts every day. Giles and Dawn talked, and looked after each other.
Dawn still had that hope that Giles desperately needed to cling on to.
Something she had lost a long time ago.
She covered her ears with her pillow, trying to block them out. She didn't want to hear anything they said, all she wanted was to immerse herself in the soothing comfort of the encompassing blackness, and sounds of nature outside the windows.
Soon the darkness would be here to stay. Forever.
She knew it, they knew it.
It was just a matter of waiting.
Her eyes snapped open at a loud pounding on the front door. She stilled when it stopped wondering if she'd just imagined it until it started again, only this time louder and more insistent until it drowned out even the sound of the thunder outside.
She got up resignedly pulling on a robe, and tying it loosely opened the door a crack seeing the flickering of Dawn's candle illuminate the large expanse of the wall opposite the stairs.
Dawn spun around, her eyes wide as she took the stairs two at a time racing towards her sister's room and slipping to a halt as she almost ran into her at the top of the stairs.
"Buffy," she hissed looking back over her shoulder, excitement in her eyes, "I-it's, it's him, h-he's still alive."
Not replying Buffy stalked silently down the stairs, the old worn wood creaking in protest beneath her bare feet until she landed on the ground floor.
Giles' words died on his lips as she approached, and looked up at a pair of angry, bloodshot eyes, familiar chiselled jaw, twisted mouth and badly bruised face.
He growled at her and she blinked twice before a movement behind him caught her gaze. At closer inspection she saw a wild eyed woman, her hair cut short and jagged as if she'd just taken a pair of scissors and cut it without the aid of a mirror, or a sane mind. The woman looked all around her, twisting what was left of her hair around her fingers and babbling words Buffy couldn't make out.
She frowned and looked back up at him, blue eyes clashing with brown.
"There's rooms upstairs, use whatever free ones you want."
She turned and walked away but he grabbed her elbow and swung her around.
"That it, slayer?" he asked angrily through clenched teeth.
She looked from him to the girl, to Giles and Dawn before looking back at him again.
"Yes," she said simply, turning and walking up the stairs, the glow of light dying and the blessed darkness welcoming her as she entered her room and closed the door behind her.
She allowed herself a moment of weakness as she slumped against the cool wood of her bedroom door. She shook herself out of it soon enough and crawled back into bed, ignoring the voices clamouring to be heard in the back of her mind, and willed her body to fall to sleep.