The Pain...oh the pain...her love, her one and only walking away from her forever. The world as she knows it is ending. Imaging living without Angel by her side, fighting in sync with her, feeling his touch, his lips, his love...life without him is nothing...empty...meaningless...pointless...

Their last conversation ended in disaster. He held her, told her he loved her...to the farthest reaches of the Galaxy he LOVED her...forever and always, then he shattered that dream. For a moment she was intact, not shredded by terror or responsibility, duty or pain, all that mattered was him. As his lips formed the words, her ears refused to hear them, her heart stopped beating, her world blackened, but she couldn't let him see. She was strong...she was adaptable...she was the Slayer...she turned and left without a word.

Her brain was an incomprehensible mass of thoughts. Pain, betrayal, love, hate, jealousy...so jumbled up she couldn't decipher one from the other. She walked and walked not knowing where she was headed. Her feet hit grass and pavement alike, not knowing or caring the difference. She only noticed when her face hit the dirt.

A quick look around her told her the story. She was in the cemetery of course, a place her slayer self felt most comfortable, the peaceful headstones, the undisturbed grass, the weary souls that lay beneath her feet.

Her solitude was shattered forever. How could he think she'd be remotely happy without him by her side? Her life wasn't normal...it could NEVER be normal, she didn't even WANT it to be normal anymore. Tears sprang evermore profusely from her eyes.

The nearest headstone cast a small light from the candle perched upon it. The flowers on the graves spoke of love and remembrance, two things she would never have again. Her anger boiled and all that hurt balled up and exploded.

In a flying rage with tears streaming down her face she decapitated and trampled every flower, extinguished every candle and broke every headstone. She hit until her knuckles bled, her fingers broke & her wrists shattered...yet she kept hitting. The torn up grass the desecrated graves, the stones in pieces...mirrored he pain she felt in every cell of her body.

She lay down & sobbed. The blood...the pain...She cried and cried...letting the rain, the hurt & the pain swallow her.

oooooooo

Her fist contacted flesh and blood oozed from the wound, the sharp snap of bones ringed in her ears. "Bitch!" the injured human screamed, "Who do you think you are?" he asked gasping for air & grasping his injured side. "you can't just go throwing people around like that!" He reached towards his hip and pulled out a pistol, the cool metal twinkled in the shine of the streetlight. As he pulled the hammer back he shouted with a deadly look in his eye "You're going to get yourself killed."

She stared him down and watched his face as his expression changed from one of pure hatred to one of terror as she let her inner demon show through. She saw his finger tighten around the trigger and she lept into the air. He let out a vicious battle cry and pulled the trigger. The bullet embedded itself into her forehead and her head snapped back with a sickening crunch

She landed gracefully a few feet away from him with one leg bent beneath her and the other out to the side. As she stared him down she felt the waves of fear radiating off of him and the smell of it drove her wild. He was frozen where he stood, every instinct was screaming at him to run but logic told him she should be dead.

The bullet gently receded from her skull, clanking to the ground. Her flesh sealed over the fresh wound without a trace. "That tickled!" she said with a coy grin and a girly giggle as she jumped up and sank her fangs into his neck.

oooooooo

Buffy awoke with a start trying to shake off the dream, wincing as her injuries brought back her memories of the breakup. She stood shakily and walked out of the desecrated cemetery.