I burst through the front door.

'Mom?' I shouted.

I ran down the hall into the kitchen, almost tripping over my own feet as I went. To my utter disappointment, I found Angela lay on the counter. Seems like we hadn't lost her after all. However, Angela – the robotic baby critter from hell – was the least of my problems. Mom was stood at the oven, stirring something in a pan with a wooden spoon. I charged over to her, slightly disgruntled that she hadn't answered when I called her, whilst wrinkling my nose in disgust at the horrid stench coming from the pan she was currently attending to.

'Mom, have you seen Angel?' I said, forcing myself not to gag.

Mom looked up from her pan. 'Angel who?'

'How many Angel's do you know?' I replied, rolling my eyes at her lame attempt at humour.

'Well, there is Mrs Greenland's Chihuahua, Angel, down the road,' she smirked, returning back to her pan.

I rolled my eyes. Mrs Greenland's Chihuahua was the evilest dog I had ever had the misfortune to stumble across. You couldn't pet it because it'd growl and snap at you before you had even raised your hand. When you wore woolly socks, it would snap at your ankles like a piece of raw meat. I could never understand why someone would name the Devil the name Angel. It didn't make sense. Though, I always thought Mrs Greenland was tapped in the head slightly.

'Yes, Mom,' I replied sarcastically, gritting my teeth together, 'I run all the way back from school to know where Mrs Greenland's dog is.'

Mom chuckled.

'No, seriously, Mom, Angel left school,' I said, letting the serious tone – that was hardly ever used – make her understand why I needed to know about Angel.

Mom turned to me. She wore a confused expression as though I had just given her an extremely difficult math equation. I felt like smacking myself on the forehead.

'What do you mean Angel is gone?' she questioned, going into total mother mode.

'Do I really need to give you the definition of gone, Mom?' I asked frustratingly.

Mom gave me a stern look. I apologized half-heatedly.

I jogged into the sitting room, listening as Mom followed behind me. I pulled back the curtains and looked to see both mine and Angel's driveways empty. His car wasn't there. I sighed in irritation as I flopped down onto the sofa, covering my eyes with my hands in attempt to restrain the tears that I knew would threaten to well up if I wasn't careful. I felt the sofa shift under Mom's weight as she wrapped a comforting arm around my shoulders. Obviously she hadn't clicked on yet that I had run out of school to come home.

'Have you tried ringing him?' Mom asked, softly rubbing my shoulder.

I felt idiotic for not thinking of that sooner.

I pulled out my cell phone and hit speed dial. I was instantly greeted with voicemail.

'Irritating arse,' I muttered as I shoved my cell angrily back into my pocket.

Mom left me alone to drown in my misery.

'Thanks Spike … you know, for helping me look for him,' I thanked as we made our way through Sunnydale Park.

Spike shrugged, getting embarrassed slightly that he was being praised, before giving a manly cough and looking around.

The park was deserted under the dim light of the crescent shaped moon. The playground equipment looked eerie as it swayed in the breeze, the roundabout whipping the silence of the night air as it squeaked with every gentle breeze that caused it to turn. The shadow of the trees branches hung over us, wrapping us up in their grasp. A dog barked somewhere on the main road. If it wasn't for the fact that it was Spike who I was with, I would have grabbed hold of their hand and squeezed it for dear life.

'I checked with Faith and them lot, they haven't seen him either,' Spike said, breaking the still silence.

'God, I've really fucked it up with him,' I sighed, running my fingers through my hair as we changed course towards the opposite direction of the park.

'It's not your fault you're an idiot, niblet,' answered Spike.

I snorted. Gee, thanks for the sympathy. Though I should have known Spike was the last person who would have sympathised with me, if I had wanted sympathy then I would have brought Willow – it was her job as a best friend to give me sympathy even when I didn't deserve it … like now.

'Listen, everything works in a mysterious way … don't question the forces of nature.'

I raised my eyebrow at Spike. 'Have you been reading your Mom's magazines again, Spikey? What did I tell you last time – stick to comic books,' I chuckled.

Spike laughed too.

And for a slight moment I was able to forget why I was wandering through a creepy park in the darkness with one of my friends at this time of night. Except, as soon as our laughter died down, the harshness of reality crept back up on me. Angel swam in my mind. I needed to find him.

'ROARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!'

I almost collapsed in fright as a darkened figure leapt out from behind the bushes, arms stretched out towards us like claws, only a few centimetres in front of me and Spike. Spike jumped back, cowering behind my small frame, clutching my arms tightly and pushing me forward, using me as some kind of shield between him and the unknown surprise.

A fitful of laughter erupted.

I recognized that laugh.

'Faith,' I spat, folding my arms across my chest in anger as I tried to control the rapid beating of my heart.

I felt Spike's hands relax on my arms.

Faith replied with another batch of laughter, wheezing as she bent over double.

'You … Spike … oh my god … Spike … scared … ha ha!' she gasped.

The sudden thought of Spike cowering behind me had me mimicking her laughter. I could almost feel Spike's scowl.

'Ha ha! You are hilarious, peaches! I wasn't scared at all, I was protecting Buffy,' Spike said seriously.

Faith straightened up, running her fingers through her hair, and let out a loud snort.

'Yeah, if protecting B is hiding behind her and using her as a human shield,' she retorted.

I heard Spike huff.

'Anyway, what are you doing here Faith? Or do you usually jump out of bushes to scare people?' I questioned as I began walking again.

'Only on days ending in Y.'

Faith and Spike walked on either sides of me, bumping into me now and again. I could see Spike continuing to scan the park as we had done before Faith interrupted our search.

'Any luck with Angel pie?' said Faith, already fully knowledgeable of the answer.

'We've had as much luck finding him as we have with world peace,' I sighed.

I noticed the shadow of the gates looming ahead of us. We had circled the whole park and had no luck. I knew that, whether I wanted to admit it or not, Angel wasn't going to be found unless he wanted to be. And I doubted he was playing hide and seeking, waiting for us to find him. I just hoped he would come back soon.

'Hey, how about we go spray paint Darla's car a sickly green colour?' asked Faith.

Damn that girl knew how to cheer me up.

I woke up the next morning feeling like absolute shit. Thank God for the weekend. The only reason I could successfully get up out of bed was because of the wailing robot baby on the floor and the happy memories of decking in three whores cars last night. You see, when me, Faith and Spike went to Darla's, we struck pot gold because Drusilla's and Glory's horrible pink cars were also there. I wished I had been able to see their faces when they discovered their new sick green coloured cars with Whores R Us – it would have made getting up this morning even more bearable.

'Buffy, Willow's here,' I heard Mom say.

When I looked up, Willow was poking her head around the door. I sat up, motioning for her to come in with my hand, as I clutched my head with the other. Willow smiled sympathetically as she closed the door behind her. She walked over, picking up Angela on her way and stuffing her pacifier into her mouth. She took a seat on the edge of my bed.

'I heard about your adventure last night,' Willow smiled, rocking Angela.

I smiled as widely as capable. To tell the truth, I quite enjoyed myself last night with Faith and Spike – all the badness of the world seemed to disappear for a few hours.

'He's not come back yet?'

I shook my head, letting my hands fall to my sides.

'Maybe his cars broke down or maybe he needs a Sat Nav to find his way back-'

'Or he could have joined the circus,' I added sarcastically.

Willow slumped back. I instantly felt guilty.

'Sorry, Will, I'm just tired and pissed and … empty – fuck I sound like a sappy sausage out of shitty romance film,' I apologized, dropping my head back into my hands.

'No, you sounded sappier,' Willow laughed.

I laughed with her. She knew how to make me laugh even when it felt like laughing would be the last thing I would do.

'Buffy, Cordelia's here!' I heard Mom shout from downstairs for the second time today.

Willow and I listened as the sound of high heels clacking against the floor became louder and louder until, finally, the door swung open to reveal Cordelia Chase. I guessed it must have been warm outside because she wore the shortest, brightest dress in mankind with Jimmy Choo shoes, a pair of overly large sunglasses balancing on top of her perfectly sculptured hair.

'Where's Lila?' Willow asked.

Cordelia snorted, flicking her hair back.

Riley had been the one to name their robotic child and Cordelia was obviously less than impressed at the name he had christened their robot with. I guess that she would have dumped him as a partner all together if it wasn't for the fact that Riley let her dress and style their child.

'Riley has her-'

'Like he has the whole time we've had these critters?' I smiled sweetly.

'Hey, Daddy's paying him to keep it. As long as I pass this physco shit then I don't care,' Cordelia replied.

Money obviously grew on trees at the Chase household. If I asked my Dad to pay my partner to take care of our assignment, my dad would probably tell me to go to hell. Except Mom and Dad got divorced ages ago and I had hardly seen him since. He was probably married again to a slapper, who probably popped out a few kids.

'Angel still not back?' said Cordelia, leaning against the wall.

I shook my head, taking my bottom lip in between my teeth and chewing it. I soon tasted the horrible taste of my own blood.

'He has to come back, right? I mean, it's your birthday in a couple of weeks – he's never missed your birthday before!' added Cordelia, looking round at Willow to back up her statement.

Somehow the mention of my birthday had me on even more of a downer. Angel missing my birthday was like Christmas with Santa. It seemed totally impossible. He had been at every single one of my birthdays since I could remember. Traditions like this couldn't change – could they?

Sensing she had said the wrong thing, Cordelia began to babble on about a shopping sale she saw on her drive to my house. However, I didn't care about shopping or sales … only Angel mattered to me.

'I'm sick of sounding like a sap, Xander,' I moaned as I threw myself down onto his sofa.

'And I'm sick of hearing you sound like a sap,' laughed Xander.

He threw his arms around my shoulders, hugging me into his side as his other hand dipped into the bowl of popcorn positioned on his lap.

'But, like I said, a horror movie should be a great way to suck all the sap out of you,' he added.

'Yeah, course it is,' Faith said sarcastically.

The full gang had banded together at Xander's to get my mind off Angel.

'Can we watch Harry Potter?' questioned Anya enthusiastically.

'Harry Potter isn't a horror though,' said Willow, cocking her eyebrow at Anya.

'I don't know,' answered Oz, who was wrapped up in Willow's embrace, 'those Death Eaters can be pretty freaky.'

I rolled my eyes.

'Who cares about the freakin' movie?' Cordelia mumbled, picking at her nails. She was just being a spoilt sport because no one would go to any of the sales with her, thus making her a deprived puppy. What a shame.

Eventually we decided on Nightmare on Elm Street.

Before the movie had even gotten half way through, I was out like a light.

I didn't really like horrors that much anyway.

WOW! 19 REVIEWS FOR ONE CHAPTER!

I was pretty surprised. But I am ever so grateful. Like insanely grateful. You got me past 100 at ten and I'm so glad you are all enjoying this story. I have to say now that we are going to be deprived of Angel for a few chapters – but I guarantee he will be back! I have so many twists and turns that I can't wait to share with you all!

This chapter is dedicated to Kay8abc – who is a new reader yet has left me such an amazing first review that I almost cried in happiness. Thanks so much!

Thanks again everyone! And please review!

Lots of love,

Beth x