A Worse Nightmare
The vampire charged her, its savage yellow eyes practically glowing in contrast to the darkness of the night. She dodged the blow intended to remove her head from her body, but the monster was fast.
Too fast.
Unnaturally fast.
Its clawed hands grabbed her, pinned her to the ground. Fowl breath caressed her cheek as the demon's rancid mouth lowered towards her neck.
She panicked.
Buffy shot out a fist, slamming it into the creature's belly and giving her precious seconds to fish a stake from her coat pocket. As soon as she sat up, the vamp lashed out again. It grabbed her shoulders and shook her. She punched it away, and then sent the stake home.
Buffy opened her eyes; Angel's chocolate brown eyes were staring widely into hers.
"Angel?" she asked, uncertain what she had just seen.
'Was it a normal dream? Or a slayer vision?' she wondered.
Angel's gaze dropped downward to his chest. Buffy felt fear crawling into her bones, something wasn't right. She followed his eyes and discovered what that something was. Hazel green orbs widened in complete horror, breath frozen in her lungs, mouth set in silent scream. Her eyes shot back up to Angel's and his look of sheer sorrow and confusion crushed her heart.
"Buffy?" he whispered.
A second later, Angel dusted.
The real stake she had thrust into the vampire in her dream still clutched in her right hand. A pile of ash covered the bed sheets where moments before her vampire lover had slept peacefully next to her. Where moments before, Angel had tired to wake her from a terrible dream. Buffy stared down at the dust, the shock finally wearing off. Reality of what she had just unwittingly done setting in. She had awaken to a worse nightmare, a real nightmare. No, not a nightmare at all, she was awake.
'This really happened. I just...staked Angel. Angel's gone, forever.'
A moment later, she began to scream.