Accursed Chapter 3
Dawn hears the front door close sometime after lunch. It's her sister, tossing her jacket on the couch and moving past her without saying a word to go straight up the stairs to her room.
She hears Buffy's bedroom door close even from the dining room. Dawn thinks about going up and warning Buffy to be quiet since their mom had just laid down in her room with a headache…but all is silent upstairs.
Shrugging, Dawn crinkles up her Cheetos bag and decides to go outside for the rest of the afternoon. Bunch of cranky old fogies, sleeping the day away at home.
Ever since Dawn found out that Buffy was the Slayer, Buffy had taken it upon herself to lay down all sorts of restrictive laws on Dawn like she was suddenly Mom or something. Of course, there for a little bit, Dawn knew about the slaying gig before their mom did so Buffy had been the authority on the subject.
And naturally, once Joyce had realized what true dangers lurked the dark streets of Sunnydale, a nighttime curfew had instantly been put into place. Dawn wasn't to go anywhere by herself after the sun went down.
But that was still hours away from now. She's fourteen for Pete's sake. Dawn pulls on her super cute black and neon purple sneakers that are all the rage at school. She is currently the only one with the black/purple combo of this shoe style in her class. She's pretty proud of them.
Dawn admires them for a moment longer before straightening up and flouncing out of the house. She's halfway down the driveway before she smacks herself on the forehead and runs back in to leave her mom a note. There. Now, where to go, where to go…
Buffy emerges from her room around dinner time and groggily moves to the kitchen. Joyce is pulling something out of the oven that smells delicious when Buffy walks in.
Her mom smiles at her and Buffy can't help but notice how pale she looks.
"So you are home. I saw your coat. Have you been up in your room this whole time?"
"Yeah," Buffy says shortly and changes the subject. "You feeling okay, Mom? You look pretty tired."
"I feel fine, dear. In fact, I just took a nice nap earlier. I had a headache, but it's long gone now."
Buffy frowns. "More headaches? That's been happening a lot hasn't it?" Joyce moves around the counter to set up the plates.
"Oh, I don't know." Joyce starts spooning out the casserole. "It comes and it goes. Say, have you seen your sister since you got home?"
Changing the subject may be a hereditary trait in the Summers women, Buffy observes. She lets it go for now.
"Nah. Well, I think she was stuffing her face in the other room when I first got home." Joyce frowns out the kitchen window.
"She left a note saying that she was going for a walk, but I don't know when that was. It's already starting to get dark. Buffy, would you…?"
Buffy's face has tightened with worry and annoyance. "Yeah, I'm on it." She goes to grab her coat, and after a moment's consideration, her axe. Her mom follows her to the front door.
"Did you hear about those bodies in the woods, Buffy?"
"Yeah, this morning."
"I never got the chance to warn Dawn about it. She doesn't ever watch the news, I hope she didn't go near any forest areas." Joyce's brow is knit with tension. Buffy watches her mom reach up to massage her temples.
"It'll be okay, Mom. I'll find her."
"I'm gonna kill her."
Moving quickly around the neighborhood and Dawn's usual haunts had turned up squat. It was full dark by now and no sign of Dawn. She knew better. Her brat of a sister knew better. Dawn couldn't have picked a worse time to do this. Ethan Rayne in town, weird monsters eating people in the woods…
Buffy is feeling a healthy mixture of fear and anger by this point. She also thinks she might need some back up. Her friends could be any number of places at this time in the evening, but Buffy tries to think of the closest one most likely to be reached…
And realizes that, by far, the closest possible help is probably in Restfield Cemetery.
She scowls and redirects herself to Spike's crypt.
"…and he's, like, a REALLY good artist too. He comes up with the coolest stuff."
Funny, that almost sounded like her missing sister. In Spike's crypt.
"Sounds like a complete wanker."
And hey! If it isn't Spike. What. The. Hell.
Buffy shoves open Spike's door and storms in. Spike is sitting cross-legged on a sarcophagus, fiddling with something and Dawn is slouched in the ratty armchair with her legs swinging over one arm.
They both snap their heads in Buffy's direction at her noisy entrance.
Dawn rolls her eyes, "Geez Buffy, lumber much?" Spike laughs.
"Yeah, she does do that doesn't she?"
"Dawn!" Buffy snaps, her worry-to-anger ratio heavily featuring the latter. "It's way past dark, what the hell are you doing here?" Dawn sits up quickly.
"How past dark?" Buffy glares at her. "Um, I kind of lost track of time. Also, I just figured Spike could walk me home if I missed curfew." Spike, who had been sitting back enjoying the byplay suddenly straightens up.
"You what?" He and Buffy exchange a disgruntled look at their simultaneous response. Spike puts down the twisted hunk of metal he had been messing with and Buffy puts her hands on her hips. Dawn's jaw starts to jut out stubbornly.
"Why are you so mad? You wouldn't care if I was with Willow or Xander." Buffy sputters for a moment in disbelief, then regains momentum.
"Spike, is not Willow or Xander. And this isn't a house where a vamp would need an invite to get in. It's a crypt!" The ick factor is clear from Buffy's tone. "And you didn't tell Mom or me where you were going! And do you have any idea what kind of crazy dangerous stuff is running around Sunnydale right now?"
"No," Dawn mutters sullenly at the same time Spike says, "What's running around?"
Dawn gets up. "Sorry, ok? I want to be able to visit Spike sometimes too though. And besides, he can protect me from vampires and monsters and stuff."
Spike does a double take. "Hey now! And you're just going to assume that? Evil here! Big Bad!" Dawn stares at him unconcernedly.
"Yeah. You like me. You wouldn't let me get eaten."
Spike scoffs. "Probably wouldn't eat you if I had half a chance, but 'like' is pushing it."
Buffy shakes her head fiercely. "So not the point! Dawn, you know the rules and you broke them. Plus, you worried Mom." Low blow, but what are siblings for?
Dawn looks guilty for a second but rallies. "There are exceptions to the rules, like for sleepovers or visiting people in the know, like Willow, or Xander and Anya. Why not Spike?"
Spike's head swings back and forth between the sisters. "Don't I get a say in this?"
"No!" Buffy and Dawn say without looking away from each other. Spike sighs dramatically.
"Does this spat have to play out in my crypt?" He's ignored this time.
"What's your damage? It's not like you don't hang out with Spike just as much as you do everyone else." Buffy freezes internally at this accusation. Was that true? Between patrols and information exchanges and the random get-togethers that Spike crashes…damn. Maybe she does spend a lot of time with Spike. Dawn goes on ruthlessly. "You guys are totally friends, I don't know why you pretend you aren't."
Buffy and Spike awkwardly don't look at each other. What a terrible thing to say about a couple of mortal enemies. Former or not. Seriously, messed up. Mostly, because there's a ring of truth to it.
"He comes to the house sometimes and to game nights and stuff. Just like everybody else." Buffy closes her eyes.
"Yeah, he does. To make off with our poker money and eat all the food." She glares over at Spike and he smirks back unapologetically. The mooch.
Buffy groans suddenly, just wanting this whole, awful day to be over. "Forget it, let's just go home. Mom's got dinner waiting." Spike hops up off the stone slab.
"I'll walk you." Buffy gives him a withering look. Spike's scarred eyebrow shoots up. "What? Night's young. 'Sides, I wanna talk shop."
Oh, right. The crazy and the dangerous she mentioned earlier. He wants the gossip and probably, knowing Spike, more skulls to crack.
Actually, this is a good thing. Maybe Spike knows something about something. He usually seems to have a good finger on the evil pulse of Sunnydale's darker side.
Buffy doesn't dissuade him and Spike gets a cockier jaunt to his step as he ushers a smirking Dawn out of his crypt. The three of them head back towards Revello Drive together.
"So, does Mom feel better?" Dawn asks from Buffy's side. Buffy switches the hold on her axe to her other hand, farther out of reach of Dawn's spastically swinging arms.
"Still headachey." Buffy says. Spike looks over at them from where he's shifted downwind to smoke.
"Joyce is feeling poorly?" Dawn grins at him.
"Sometimes you sound like a grandpa when you talk." Spike looks minorly offended by this.
"Oi, better than a teeny bopper such as yourself."
Dawn giggles. "Yep. Grandpa."
Buffy shakes her head. Spike and Dawn, from practically the moment they met, got on like a house on fire. Even their bickering is underscored with affectionate teasing. Buffy is personally of the opinion that, assertions of geriatricness aside, Spike and Dawn get along so well because they share a maturity level. That good old, 'nananana booboo' mindset.
"She keeps saying she's fine, but she's had headaches for weeks now." Buffy doesn't even know why she's telling him this. Maybe because he seems sincerely interested.
"Hmm. She goin' to see a doctor, then?"
"I don't think so. She avoids going unless it's pretty dire." Dawn watches Buffy and Spike talk with interest, a little smile curling her mouth.
"Dawn." Janice's voice calls from behind her. Dawn stops, surprised and looks back. The streets are dark and empty. Buffy and Spike keep walking, not noticing in their conversation that Dawn has fallen behind.
Dawn looks around uncertainly. That sounded just like Janice. But wasn't Janice supposed to be out of town this weekend? Dawn shakes her head and turns around again.
Only to pull up abruptly. Inches from her, directly in front of her, stands a tall, skinny humanoid creature with scraggly dark hair that tumbles straight from the top of its head down to its feet.
A startled scream catches in Dawn's throat and she goes utterly still, like a frightened rabbit.
The thing shifts and glowing green eyes pin her to the spot. It exhales and glistening teeth as long as Dawn's arms part the hair. Gnarly blackened claws begin to reach for her.
Dawn's scream bursts from her throat, shattering the quiet of the night.
Buffy and Spike whip around at Dawn's bloodcurdling scream. She's several steps behind them and stumbling back further, eyes scrunched closed and arms up in a defensive posture in front of her face.
Buffy rushes to her side and Spike scans the area searching for a threat. But they are alone.
"What? Dawn! Look at me, stop. What is it?"
"Buffy, kill it! It's right there! Oh my god!" Dawn shrieks.
"What? Where?" Buffy and Spike are on full alert now, instinctively boxing Dawn in between them and looking around with narrowed eyes. Buffy's grip on the axe has changed, ready to swing and deal death at a moment's notice.
Dawn looks around too, frantically. "There was a thing, right here, just a second ago. It was gonna grab me!"
Spike's nostrils flare as he tries to scent others besides themselves. Buffy and Dawn's scent reach him as the strongest and most recent in the area. Buffy finally meets his eyes and he shrugs a little.
He doesn't sense anything. She doesn't either. Buffy lowers the axe slowly.
"Dawn, what did it look like?"
"Aren't you going to get it?" Dawn sounds scared and upset. Buffy hates that.
"I don't know what I'm looking for, Dawnie. What did it look like?"
"It was tall and hairy and had creepy eyes and teeth. It was right in front of me! I—I think it said my name." Buffy frowns and glances at Spike again. He gives her a 'don't look at me, I don't know' look.
Buffy puts her free arm across Dawn's trembling shoulders. "Let's get home and talk about it there. Spike and I are going to patrol later anyway. We'll look for it."
Dawn looks up at her with big eyes. "Promise?"
"Promise." If Spike is surprised by his promotion from pest on patrol to patrol partner, he doesn't indicate it.
They hurry back to the house without any further delay.
Joyce shakes her head. "The rules are in place for a reason, Dawn. Do you understand that now? We're lucky nothing worse happened, than a little scare."
The Summers women all sit at the dining room table, their half-finished meals in front of them.
Dawn picks at her plate. "Yeah. I get it." She doesn't meet anyone's gaze.
Spike leans against the doorframe. He dips a piece of cooked chicken into a bowl of tabasco sauce and shoves it in his mouth. Joyce grimaces subtly at him.
"Spike, you can join us at the table if you like," she offers not for the first time.
"Ta, Joyce, but I'd rather stand." Dawn stands up suddenly.
"I'm not really hungry. I think I'm gonna go to my room." She wants to call Janice to find out if she was in town or not.
Dawn feels like a big baby for freaking out so much. Buffy sees monsters every night and jokes about them. Dawn sees her first, non-vampy monster and totally loses her cool. She's embarrassed.
"Ok sweetie." Dawn nods and leaves to load the dishwasher and then race upstairs.
Joyce, Buffy, and Spike eat in silence until they hear her door close.
Joyce sighs and puts down her fork. "So what happened tonight? What did she see?"
Buffy pushes her plate back. "We don't know." Joyce looks puzzled.
"So you didn't see anything?"
Spike shakes his head. "Didn't see, smell, or sense. If Slayer wasn't pickin' up anything and I wasn't pickin' up anything…"
"Maybe there wasn't anything there?" Joyce finishes. Buffy looks uncomfortable.
"I don't know. It's not like Dawn to freak out over nothing. She's pretty tough about lots of things." Like seeing Buffy come home bloody and hurt. Vampires. Angelus.
Joyce looks thoughtful. "She's also heard all sorts of horror stories about what you do, Buffy. We've built up the importance of not going out at night pretty high—"
"With good reason." Buffy mutters.
"—and she and that Janice girl just started watching an awful lot of Halloween movies since the beginning of October. Maybe her imagination just ran away from her."
Buffy had kind of been thinking the same thing, but to hear her mom say it out loud, she suddenly feels much more defensive of Dawn. How many times did the strange and wacky happen to Buffy only for her mom to chalk it up to overactive imagination?
"Maybe." Is all Buffy says. She gets up and clears the rest of her and her mom's dishes then jerks her head at Spike to follow her to the kitchen.
Once relatively alone, Spike says, "You don't agree." Buffy purses her lips.
"I think it's worth checking out. Seems unlikely that neither of us would notice anything, I mean, hello, Slayer senses here, but it's getting pretty active, Hellmouth-wise around here lately."
"You mentioned as such." Buffy snatches the chicken and tabasco bowl out of his hands. "Hey! Wasn't done with that!"
"You don't need human food anyway."
"Some gratitude," Spike grumbles as she loads up the dishwasher. "Like I was saying before so rudely interrupted, if there's trouble to be found, I want in. Thought I was gonna blow my brains out this summer. No fun to be had anywhere."
"Yeah, that's Hellmouth summers for ya. Pretty quiet. Look, I'll tell you once we're out of the house. I don't want my mom worrying any more than she already is."
"Alright, then." They head for the front door. Buffy pauses when she sees her mom still in the dining room.
Joyce is standing and gripping the back of her chair, eyes closed and swaying slightly.
"Mom?" Joyce opens her eyes.
"Oh, Buffy, I thought you left already."
Worry blooms in Buffy's stomach again and curls like smoke up to tighten her throat.
"No, we are leaving now. Are you ok?"
"Yes, I just stood up too fast and got a little dizzy. I think I'm gonna have an early night myself." She smiles at Buffy reassuringly.
Spike, who's been watching the conversation with half-hooded eyes, breaks in.
"Should see a doctor, Joyce."
Both Buffy and Joyce stare at him, surprised. Buffy can't believe he just suggested that. Pretty un-Spike like, in her experience, for him to be so serious and free-advice-y. Joyce turns her reassuring smile on Spike.
"I appreciate your concern, Spike, but it isn't a big enough deal to warrant a doctor's visit."
Spike's eyes are so serious, even if his mouth sets in an uncomfortable line. Buffy stares at the unfamiliar cast of his face, unable to look away for some reason.
"Look. Right. I don't wanna make this a thing, but you know…" he visibly struggles for words. "I lived in a time where people got sick and died, that was that. You've got modern medicine at your disposal, why not use it? Isn't it…" he looks between the two women in front of him uncertainly. "It's better to check this stuff early, isn't it? That's what the quacks these days suggest doing?"
Joyce's eyebrows are both high up on her forehead. "Yes. The 'quacks' do say that." Buffy turns to her mom nervously. When Spike said the word 'died,' it echoed in her being ominously like a funeral bell being rung.
"So, you're gonna go, Mom?" Joyce holds up her hands in front of herself to ward them off.
"Alright, I'll think about it. Maybe I'll give our doctor a call and see what he suggests." Buffy feels relief flood through her.
"That sounds good." Spike nods, too.
A little while later after a fruitless patrol, on the way to Giles' apartment, Buffy says to the pavement in front of her, "Thanks for talking to her about that." She feels Spike shrug next to her uncomfortably.
"Don't mention it." Buffy doesn't want to, but she feels like she needs to get this off her chest.
"I mean it. Coming from her own kids, advice like that is hard to take. I think having someone else say it helped."
"I said, don't mention it," Spike growls. She looks over at him, annoyance flaring through her at his tone. His shoulders are hunched and his hands shoved deep in his duster's pockets. What was his deal?
Giles' door looms ahead of them. Buffy faces forward resolutely. Fine. If he wants to be a dick, whatever. She doesn't know why she's even surprised.
"When am I gonna get the low down here, Slayer?"
"When we catch up with Giles." Buffy answers through gritted teeth. She knocks and enters ahead of Spike once she hears the muffled reply from within the apartment.
Behind her, she hears Spike pause, then gust out an unnecessary sigh, before following her inside.