So I only recently started watching Buffy and I'm all about the Spike/Buffy. When I read the synopsis of Dead Things I thought it would go slightly differently to how it did so this is my take on it.
I know it's a short first chapter but all reviews are much appreciated, especially as I'm relatively new to the Buffy fandom!
It's dark and there are trees above her and earth beneath her and she doesn't know how she got here, can't remember anything except darkness.
She remembers patrolling, remembers walking through the cemetery and then…then she went into the woods and there was something wrong, everything was jumping around, time shifting.
She sits up slowly, feeling a throbbing in her head. Something is wrong. She frowns and looks around cautiously. There's something lying in the leaves about fifteen feet from her, something large and dark and…human shaped. She pulls herself to her knees and crawls towards it.
It's not, it's not…
She reaches out and skims the dark shape with her fingers. It's soft and still, too still, and she knows. She knows and her hands are covered in something dark and sticky, a horrible metallic smell in the air. Blood.
She scrambles up and no no no, this isn't happening.
She hears an awful gasping sound and for one awful, terrible moment she thinks it's the body in front of her, gravely wounded but not yet dead after all. But then she realizes that it's her the sound is coming from and she turns around and begins stumbling away from the body, her heart pounding and her vision blurred.
She's sick twice before it even dawns on her where she's going, retching, violent vomiting that makes her stomach contract as she hunches over and she's crying as she heaves.
She doesn't knock (she never does) although somehow she knows he'll be here and he is, bending over the TV and fiddling with the aerial. He straightens up as she bursts in.
"Oi! This crypt's occupied, you undead piece of...oh." Spike blinks at her and breathes a startled, "Buffy." His eyes drop to her hands and then he's at her side in seconds. "Oh god, Buffy, what happened?"
He seizes her wrists and drags her hands up to his face, gaping. Of course, she thinks numbly. The blood. He can smell the blood.
"Are you hurt? Where's the..." His voice trails off and his eyes drift back to her face. "This isn't your blood," he states calmly. "Is it?"
"Spike," she blurts out and she's sobbing again. "Spike, I- I didn't know where else to go, I don't understand, I don't know what I...what I...please. Please."
"Buffy, calm down," he says firmly. "I need you tell me exactly what happened or I can't help you, understand?"
"No, no, I can't," she sobs, struggling to pull her wrists free from his grip. He tightens his fingers and pulls her closer. She's twisting and kicking now, screaming as she tries to throw him off.
"Whose blood is it?" He demands, his fingers pressing into the delicate bones of her wrists and this'll leave bruises but it doesn't matter.
"Get off me!" She shrieks hysterically and he drops her wrists, finally, to bring his hand across her face. She stumbles back with the force of the blow and stares at him in disbelief as her fingers fly up to her cheek but it's worked; she's quiet. When her fingers fall away he sees blood smeared on her cheek.
"Listen to me," he says in a low voice. "I need you to tell me what happened. Now."
She shakes her head as tears fill her eyes again.
"Buffy, for Christ's sake, it's me. You think you're gonna shock me?"
"I...I don't know," she whispers.
"Oh for fuck's sake-"
"No Spike, you don't understand. I don't know," she says, anguished. "I don't remember. I think...I think I killed her."