Author's note: OK I know this is a little depressing, so if you don't like that stuff don't read it. I wrote this the
summer between season two and three, so I had no idea where Buffy had run off to, anyway, it's probably almost
the first Buffy thing I ever wrote so if it sucks I apologize, review and lemme know what you think.

Screaming

Most people would have thought it a strange sight, one lone girl standing in the middle of
a wheat field. Her blonde hair blowing around her, her once beautiful blue-green eyes have lost
the sparkle of life they used to have and are cold and hard, and her ever expressive face shows no
emotion at all, as she stares silently up at the moon. Her mind silently berating her, as it had been
since she left Sunnydale, calling her weak and a coward for leaving her friends, calling her a
traitor to her love, and worst of all a deserter for running from her duty. Buffy knew she was
driving herself insane with all of the pain and guilt, and she welcomed it, at least that would be a
kind of escape from a life that had spun completely out of control, and the responsibilities she
couldn't handle anymore. Suddenly a thought struck her and she almost smiled, almost. What
Angelus couldn't accomplish before she was doing herself now. Angel. What was that line from
Romeo and Juliet "My only love, sprung from my only hate. To early seen unknown, and known
too late." Now she did smile at that thought as she whispered to herself "Now that is definitely an
accurate comparison. Star-crossed lovers, Vampire and slayer, how much more star-crossed
could you possibly get." She knew she would have to go back soon, if for no other reason than to
keep the vampires and other nasties in check.
She already had her bus ticket in her pocket, it left in another six hours. Just six hours until
she would head back to the place she had been running from for two and a half months. Deep
down she knew it wasn't the place she had run from, it was the fear, the pain, the pitying looks she
knew all to well from her friends and her watcher. But in the end it didn't really matter, she was
the slayer and she had to go back. No matter what else happened she would always be the slayer,
it was her destiny, it was also evidently her destiny to be alone. She guessed it would always be
that way since he was gone. He had been her saving grace, her hope, her other half, her soul-mate
if you will. And when she had been forced to chose duty over love it had killed a part of her soul.
Buffy Summers had all but curled up and died that morning until she had pushed the pain down in
her mind, it was still there and it hurt, allot, but it didn't threaten to overwhelm her every time she
thought about it, and she had run. Now knowing that she was going back very soon she let it all
come to the surface for just a few moments, and she screamed. The scream communicated all of
the pain, anger, fear, and guilt she felt, and it was a truly terrifying sound that could be heard for
miles around. It was the scream of someone who was drowning in her own personal Hell. Then
she stopped and the pain was pushed back down and her eyes became cold, her face
expressionless and she quietly turned and walked back to the bus station to wait for her bus. For
a full minute after it was over no birds sang, no wind blew, it was as if nature itself held its breath
in fear of this small lonely lost little girl.

Somewhere far away in a place that is terrible beyond imagination someone else heard her
scream and watched the pain burn in her eyes, they made him watch her sometimes, though he
didn't know it was real because they constantly showed him scenes of her death or of her losing
her mind or with another man, anything they knew would cause him pain. And it did, never in his
two-hundred-forty-odd years had Angel felt this much pain, not even when his soul had been
restored the first time. But he wasn't the only one in this terrible place that was watching and
listening. One severely fashion challenged demon, called Whistler, actually flinched as he watched.
He shook his head and muttered "Poor kid, I guess fate really is as cruel as they say. Well either
that or they just like to see what happens when you take the one thing someone can't live without
and then force them to destroy it." But there was nothing he, or anyone else could do to change it
now and no way anyone could help either of them...yet anyway.

Meanwhile the Hell both were in continued. Buffy and Angel, slayer and vampire. The
very definition of star-crossed lovers, unable to have the one thing they want more than anything.
Each other.