Title: Absence(1/?)
Author: Lore and Mally
Summary: Buffy's pulled into a dark hellish world
Disclaimer: Don't own, please don't sue

Buffy stood in her room trying to decide what to wear for the nighttime picnic everyone was going on.
It had been a few weeks since the wedding that wasn't.
Two weeks that Anya had just disappeared ... and one ...

Xander had been broken when he'd seen her again. A demon, a vengeance demon, ready to curse him.

Instead ... She'd stood there, ready to put her anger on him, but even then she couldn't ... she couldn't do anything except break apart. She'd disappeared after that.

Xander was still not speaking, not daring to say a word.

Willow had finally managed to drag him along, getting him to come along, even if only for a full out Scooby picnic. One that just happened to include Spike. Buffy had managed to convince her that they needed to include him.

None of the others had understood why, but she'd been so certain of it.

Spike had been a part of the gang. He'd been a friend, till they started discarding him. It was time he was part of the gang again, time he was treated as a friend and maybe that way ... they could all stop him from committing stupid things like trying to sell those demon eggs.

So here she was with no idea what to wear.

It couldn't be too slutty, she couldn't make Spike think she'd thought to hard about what she'd wear on a date ... picnic with him there ... and her friends of course. It couldn't be to casual either cause … Who knows why, it just couldn't …

Spike …

She'd have to tell the others about Spike and her … or Spike would. But she had to find the right time. Maybe this picnic would finally be that time, with all of them together … maybe.

Something tingled in her ear. She looked around and saw nothing, so she grabbed for another shirt. She turned around again and stared up at it. A blue glowing ball that hung in the air behind her.

She stared up, unable to look away, her mind somehow pulled towards it, feeling herself floating.

Light surrounded her, poked at her, pushing itself into her until she was the light and the light was her and she couldn't stop falling.

An endless tumbling, rolling, falling that seemed to be eternal... until it stopped and she just crashed down on the ground, staring up at the darkness around her. It hurt to move, every inch of her body strained, in pain.

She cradled her arms, her ribs ... nothing seemed to be broken, but how could she know, if she could barely get up.

She wandered on, numb to the cold and stared up at the sky or where the stars were supposed to be ... but there was nothing there but an eerie glow that only seemed to enhance the darkness.

She could hear screaming, but was to numb to go after them and find out whose screams they were.

Her luck was against her though and the screams came towards her in the form of a young girl. Janice, a friend of Dawn's. What was she doing here?

It didn't matter as she stretched herself up, bearing the pain and facing what came up.

The first thing she noticed of him were his eyes. Yellow, dangerous, the eyes of the predator with none of the kindness she was used to seeing in him.

He was dressed all in leather, a smirk on his face. His nails were dyed black, touching his lips.

"Xander."

He looked at her. Hate in his eyes.

"Look at the little hero, managed to get out of her cage did she?"

Buffy backed of, trying to get away, something grabbed her from behind. She turned around and stared at the face of a vamped out Willow. She could see Janice's body lying there, her blood splattered around the tiny frame of her body.

Her protection hadn't mattered after all.

Xander stood in front of her, lifting up her chin. There was an insane gleam in his eyes.

"Brave little girls like you shouldn't be wandering around Buff. Who knows what bad ugly things they could run into."

Buffy was too weak to fight Willows hold, to weak to fight as Xander pulled something over her neck. Something that cut into her skin. Willow let go without warning and she fell over, barely held up by a rope attached to the collar Xander had pulled over her neck. He didn't let her have time to get back up again as he pulled the rope and she could feel sharp edgy things cut into her throat. She had no other choice but to be pulled along, still to out of it to really put up a fight.

Somewhere along the way she crumbled down, her body to tired to keep on walking. She could feel herself rest in Xander's arms. Good steady reliable Xander, who was now a merciless killer. She could see the darkness around her, hear the screams that after a while became an ongoing background noise that went on and on and on.

Fires blazed around her, she just stared at it all, unable to comprehend it as anything other than hell.

Hell with Angel as it's king.

She couldn't believe her eyes as Xander threw her down in front of him. Seeing him, knowing him near, and evil. He just laughed as Xander chained her up. He didn't even try to act superior, just looked at her and chained her back up again, petting her. She wanted to turn away, he just pulled her leash closer, kissing her for a single second before throwing her away again. Like a dangerous animal, chained and tamed.

They all laughed at her and she knew that this was her place now, her hell.

To be continued