open_on_sunday  drabble challenge for February 1, 2004

Today's challenge: go to Dictionary.com's Word of the Day Archive. Check out the words of the day for your birthday - there are four or five years to choose from. Use the word as a title for your drabble, and/or work it into the drabble.

1. Word for August 28, 1999 – EDIFY

Verb – edify – make understand

Edification – BtVS – Season 7 – Spike

Crouched amongst the detritus of Sunnydale High School's basement, Spike rocks back and forth on his heels. Holding his hands over his head, trying to ward off the visions and sounds that seem to permeate the darkness inside; that try to rip at his hair and skin and assault his senses. Hour after hour of yelling and screaming… obscenities and denigrations. Images of horrors well remembered flash behind his tightly closed eyelids. There is no peace in hiding.

A single image solidifies before him… her… the girl he'd hurt… before. Perhaps she would edify the tumult and set him free.

2. Word for August 28, 2001 – PROFUSE

Adjective - abundant

Profusely Fearful – BtVS – Season 5 - Buffy

Buffy sat in the middle of her bed, arms around her knees, a cross in her hands. Ropes of stinky garlic festooned her windows. She trembled with the weight of her profuse fears… all of them centered on Spike.

He had chained her to the wall in his crypt, and professed his love for her. He offered to dust Drusilla for her. The vampire was nothing if not intense. Why did she attract demons? Was she faulty? Not good enough for humans? Could she afford to let him into her heart? Could she afford not to?

Only time would tell.

3. Word for August 28, 2002 – AUSPICIOUS

Adjective - attended by favorable circumstances

Inauspicious Signs – BtVS – Season 6 - Giles

Giles was startled out of his sleep by a loud crack of thunder; loud, sharp splatter of an all day rain hitting his windows. Not an auspicious beginning to his day. Groaning slightly, arching his back, cracking neck and toes, reveling in the feeling of a good stretch.

He thought about getting out of his warm, comfy bed… for all of 30 seconds, before burrowing back under his coverlet. No reason to rise… he'd lost all sense of purpose when his Slayer took a dive from Glory's tower.

The phone rang… all he heard was…Buffy, back. Phone call, reservation, Sunnydale.