Author's Note: The first chapter of the Invasion of Hell, Part II: Dream Stealers. Part II was a little too long for just one chapter, so I broke it up. Tomorrow, we'll get the second chapter.
Then... we're back to Jack and Seo (or... whoever she is, now). In a story called "Mirror Vision".
Enjoy!
(Cover image is one I did myself. Of Buffy holding Aurentia.)
Invasion of Hell
Part II: Dream Stealers
Aurentia wished she could dream.
She liked to daydream, sometimes. Make up stories inside her head. Or watch the dreams she got at night, and then whisper them to herself, after she woke up, in the hopes that she wouldn't forget. But the Dream Stealers always noticed. Came in the darkness, held her down as she screamed, and sucked it all from her.
With no dreams, Aurentia didn't understand the point of anything.
Hauling rocks from one place to another. Or other mindless, repetitive tasks. Over and over again. She wanted to long for something bigger and better, but didn't know what.
That was when she'd started the diary.
Stashed it away, every time she had a thought. An idea. A dream. A story or a funny anecdote or anything that made her think about something other than rocks. She scribbled it down, and hid the book where no one could ever find it.
Almost no one.
"I kept one of those, once," came a voice, overhead. "Used to write about all the guys I liked."
Aurentia curled up around the diary, her head shooting up, eyes wide and frightened.
The woman was tall, thin, her face sunken and her eyes tired. A grown-up, like nearly everyone else here. But this one had pretty yellow hair and two arms and weird pink skin — which made Aurentia giggle, a little, because she'd never thought it possible to meet anyone with yellow hair and pink skin.
"What?" said the woman. She looked down at herself. "Are you laughing at me? Just because I'm not all brown and furry like you?"
"You look silly!" said Aurentia. Then realized she was laughing, and covered it up. Glancing around herself, worried, thinking she'd see the Dream Stealers any moment, now.
The strange woman sat down beside her. "I'm Buffy," she said. "And I look different because I shouldn't even be here." She paused. Then glanced back at Aurentia. "You shouldn't be here, either. You're too young."
"Where do you come from?" said Aurentia. Her eyes glowing. "Is it a story? Can I listen?"
Buffy gave a long, slow sigh. "Earth," she said. "I don't know where that is, relative to here. I just… keep trying to get back." She paused. Then amended, "Kept trying to get back."
She looked like all the other grownups, when they talked about the things they used to want.
Aurentia had things she'd wanted, once, too. Things that were sucked out of her.
But with her diary, she could think up new things. Things she never realized she had wanted. New goals to long for, new hopes she'd never dared think of!
When she wrote, it was almost like… she could dream again.
But she couldn't.
Not quite.
"Do you want to get back and see your mommies and daddies again?" Aurentia asked. She'd once had eight mommies and three daddies, back home. Before she'd wound up here. "I wanted that, once. Then the Dream Stealers made me not want it anymore."
Buffy gave Aurentia a long, sad look. Then brought the child into her arms, hugging her gently.
"You'll get back home," Buffy promised. "Mommies don't just give up… trying to find their own…"
Tears emerged in Buffy's eyes.
And she couldn't speak anymore.
"Are you a mommy?" Aurentia asked. The woman smelled like a mommy. Even if she looked funny.
"My daughter's dead," said Buffy. "She has to be. There's no hope left."
Aurentia had seen people empty and hollowed out, when the Dream Stealers took everything away from them. But she'd never seen anyone like this, before — so full of grief and regret and passion, despite everything.
The strange woman wanted to dream.
Like Aurentia did.
"Can I tell you a secret?" Aurentia looked around herself. Then leaned in, closer, to whisper into the strange woman's ear. "I can't dream in my head anymore. So I dream in my diary."
Buffy's sobs quieted.
As she looked back at Aurentia.
"How?" Buffy whispered, back.
Aurentia showed Buffy her diary. The words and pictures she drew, the things she hadn't realized she'd wanted until she thought them up. Anything in her head was taken away. But the things on the page… she kept forever.
"A child," Buffy muttered, flipping through the pages. "They can't take away all your dreams. Because you've got too many. One goes away, and another comes to replace it."
"I like drawing," said Aurentia. "Maybe someday, I'll become an artist!"
Buffy looked at the small child, fondly. Then gave her back her diary. "It's good someone still has some hope, here," she said. "Something to fight for." Got up from the ground, her eyes on the work group. "Maybe, some day… I'll find something to fight for, again."
Aurentia liked Buffy.
The strange-looking woman fussed over Aurentia, taking care of her and helping her when things were too hard or the stones too heavy. She defended Aurentia from the Dream Stealers, trying to divert their attention away whenever they came.
And Buffy told Aurentia stories.
About evil monsters defeated. Lives saved and victories won. Vampires staked, demons banished, hell driven away from the Earth.
Aurentia dared not dream. Not in her head.
But in her diary, she wrote about Buffy's stories. She wrote the new dream she had — to get out of this place and become a hero like Buffy, fighting off monsters and saving people when they were in trouble.
"Why aren't you fighting monsters anymore?" Aurentia asked, once.
Buffy looked away. "What's the point?" she muttered. "Evil always wins in the end."
"In your stories, it doesn't," Aurentia said. Her eyes glowed. "Tell me another!"
Buffy noticed the expression on Aurentia's face. The happy glow in her eyes, and the hope that had overtaken her. "I can't," Buffy whispered. Leaned down, protectively. "The stories are already getting you worked up. Keep going like that, and the Dream Stealers will come. Take them all away from me."
"You could write them down," Aurentia proposed. "Not just old adventures. New ones. What you're doing right now!"
Buffy shook her head, sadly.
Hopelessly.
"Not just for me," said Aurentia. "For your daughter, too. When you get home, she'll probably want to know everything you've done. It's so interesting!"
"She's dead," Buffy said.
Her voice shook, as she said it.
"Then she'll read the stories when she's in heaven," said Aurentia. "You told me when you died, you went to heaven. Wouldn't it get boring, in heaven, with no stories to read?"
Buffy got up. "I've said too much already," she said. Looking around herself, nervously. "The Dream Stealers feel emotions in the air from miles away. If you've got hope, they'll come for you. Maybe even kill you! I can't…!"
Buffy froze.
Then grabbed up Aurentia, tightly, dragging her to her feet.
"Too late," Buffy breathed. Spun around, dragging Aurentia after her. "Run!"
They bolted through the crimson, blood-soaked grass of the hell dimension. The Dream Stealers approaching ever faster, and Aurentia knew — she couldn't outrun them.
No one ever could.
"I've got a ring," said Buffy. "It glows, when there's a way out. I'll take you with me. Get you out of here. Promise!"
"There's no escape," Aurentia squeaked.
"That's the dream-sucker machine talking!" Buffy insisted. Dragging her along even faster. "There's got to be a way out. You're too young to grow up living hopeless and empty like this! I can't…!"
A strange sound echoed through the distance.
A sound Aurentia had never heard.
But Buffy knew it.
It sent a chill running through her, as she froze in place. And turned, slowly, around.
"No," said Buffy. "Not here. Please. Not here."
The Dream Stealers stopped, too. Distracted. They turned, then began to retreat. Back towards the central stone fortress, where they kept the dream-sucker machine.
Screams tore through the air.
Along with a thousand grated, metallic voices, and that strange sound repeating, over and over again.
Buffy pulled Aurentia after her, racing to follow the Dream Stealers. "We gotta get people their dreams back," she hissed. "There's no way anyone here can defeat the Daleks without hope!"
"Daleks? What are…?" Aurentia asked.
"Monsters," said Buffy. "And it looks like they're invading all the dimensions of hell."