Been a long time since I've written a proper fic but am getting back to it after years. I would like to thank some other writers for helping out and using their stories as an inspiration, since this is going to contain some darker themes and I needed to refresh my memory and I went through some 'darker' stories, the writers shall not be named for anonymity reasons to avoid any negative backlash. This story is also inspired by video game Life Is Strange, warning, the content in this story is going to be disturbing and dark but the content of the story does not reflect what person I am in real life. I used to write such fics in the past before but it received mixed reception, which I do understand but the hypocrisy of some people, considering that they themselves had either written, read, favorited and given kudos to other fics with similar themes and still decided to attack me with out-of-line attacks was astounding, this was one of the reasons I quit writing fanfiction years ago and only recently got back to it. If you find this too disturbing to read, you can always either click a 'back' or 'close' button, if you can't go on reading, since this is much easier and more simple solution instead of trying to accuse me of being a rapist, sexist and such. Any attack of such manner is not going to affect me at all, so do not bother wasting anyone's time with this, to be clear, I am not Joss Whedon, who himself is a sexist toxic piece of shit and in real life I would never stoop to the levels that shall be shown in this story and the characters submitted to the treatment here shall recover by the end and the antagonists of this story shall receive their just desserts.
This is fanfiction, where people unleash their fantasies and what they post should not reflect who they are in real life, the purpose of this story is only to explore darker themes and it shall give me no pleasure to subject some characters to the treatment they shall receive in this story but no worries, they shall get proper recovery later and the scumbags shall get theirs later.
Also, some things to be made clear, no Slayer Buffy or vampires, supernatural and such, as much as I do like Angel and Spike (outside of Angel being with Buffy, since that was a very mishandled pairing or Angel and Spike fighting over Buffy), I don't really see them fitting here, since this is more to realistic measures.
Pairings are: Buffy/Faith, Xander/Cordelia, Willow/Tara.
Dawn, Oz and Anya shall be in the story more in supporting capacity than anything, if I am able to fit them there.
I do not own Buffy: The Vampire Slayer.
It was another day for Tara on campus as she was looking around, with her usual anxieties and shyness coming to the forefront as she was biting her lip, blending in with the people as the ghost she was before she noticed a group of people, a blonde girl, another one with dark hair and a ginger-haired girl, all of them around Tara's age and a tan-skinned brunette, alongside a handsome tall man, who seemed clumsy and geeky, a typical group of outcasts, asides from the brunette, who was no one other than Cordelia Chase, former Queen Bitch of Sunnydale High, from what Tara had heard but had decided to stay in lower circles and ditched her shallow and vapid peers once she got closer with the likes of Buffy Summers and Faith Lehane, who were obviously dating together, Xander Harris and Willow Rosenberg. They weren't exactly popular in the typical sense of the word but they had built up a reputation of being interesting and cool sort, at parties, hanging out a lot and such. Some would find them nerds, some would find them cool but Tara felt like she would be the last person they would hang out with, considering that she wasn't exactly a loosen-up type like Faith or shallow like how Cordelia could be, even though she might get along well with the rest, Tara felt uncomfortable in such a mixed variety of a collective.
Quickly dismissing the idea of approaching them, since Tara couldn't build up the courage, she continued walking and she had picked her books from her dorm and was about to go to her class, when she squeaked upon bumping into someone, dropping the books on the floor.
"Oh, my God, I'm sorry!" Tara panicked as she knelt down.
"It's OK, don't worry about it. Here. Let me help you."
The girl Tara had bumped into helped her pick her books before handing them to Tara, who stared in shock to face the ginger-haired girl with few freckles on her cheeks and brown eyes, wearing a red wool sweater and black pants, making Tara feel embarrassed and lost for words.
"I… I…" Tara trailed off.
"Here." Willow said, handing Tara her stack of books as both girls got up to their feet as Willow looked at Tara closely. "Tara, right?"
Tara nodded before looking at her in surprise. "Yeah. How do you know my—"
"I've known your name since the semester began, just had no idea how to approach you." Willow admitted and Tara felt embarrassed.
"Hey, Willow, are you gonna help with the play later?"
Tara turned to see Cordelia approach Willow. "Yeah, sure. Maybe we could use another hand, that's if you have some sense of fashion." She turned to Tara.
"Oh." Cordelia turned to notice Tara and offered her hand. "Hey. I'm Cordelia. Friends call me 'Cordy.'"
"Hi." Tara said nervously as she shook her hand with Cordelia before noticing the book in her hand. "Othello."
"Yeah, I'm playing Desdemona in the school play this year, so I'm trying to get into the role and read the play." Cordelia said.
"That's nice." Tara said.
"If you want to, you can sit with us during lunch." Cordelia offered and Tara looked surprised before Cordelia left.
"I… expected her to be…" Tara trailed off.
"…snarky bitch that's gonna tear you down like the popular girl she is?" Willow finished and Tara nodded. "Nah, that's just for show, she can fit with any group but most of the time she's just pretending, the popularity kind of made her invisible too, since none of the guys really understood her, she stopped that act and ditched the cool folks for us in our senior year back in high school, once you get to know the real Cordelia, she's one of the sweetest you can meet, even though she's… Cordelia."
"Has to be tough, for a popular girl to be a friend with…" Tara trailed off, looking at Willow nervously.
"…losers?" Willow finished.
"I was gonna say 'outcasts.'" Tara said.
"Well, Cordy was an outcast for a time too, when they decided to prank Buffy, who had moved into our high school. There was a really mean prank involved with Buffy ending up covered in slimy goo and her pants ripped, showing her butt but Cordy knew it was too far and called the rest out on their BS. Being popular doesn't mean you have friends, since they agree with you most of the time without actually listening to what you're saying. Later we became close friends and she ditched those idiots, since as much as Cordy can be mean, she has heart, unlike others, but I gotta warn you, most of the time she might be all bark but if you piss her off, she can bite real bad." Willow said with a chuckle and Tara smiled, starting to think she would fit in well with them.
Few weeks ago, it was lunch time in cafeteria and Buffy, Faith, Willow, Cordelia and Xander were eating lunch, when Faith spotted a girl with dirty blonde hair at the corner. "Hey, who is that?"
"Terry… Tanya… Tara." Buffy remembered. "Tara Maclay. She's kind of… an odd one. An invisible. As shy as a mouse."
"Yeah, I remember her now." Xander said. "She never seems to fit anywhere much, all on her own, even more of an outcast than us. I mean, whenever people try talking to her, she kind of retreats to herself."
Willow shrugged. "Maybe she's just shy."
Cordelia laughed humorlessly. "There's 'shy', there's Marci, there's Tara. Trust me, talking to her is pointless."
"Don't you think we should invite her to sit here?" Buffy suggested and Faith was the one laughing humorlessly this time.
"You'll have better luck talking with a Buddha monk who'd taken an oath of silence." Faith said.
Despite Xander, Cordelia and Faith trying to talk Buffy and Willow out of interacting with Tara, since it would have been pointless, Willow couldn't help herself but feel curious about Tara, unable to keep her eyes off her.
As the class ended, Tara was getting up from her table and packing her things, when her phone buzzed and she checked the message from Willow on her Facebook.
'Hey, Tara. If you wanna hang out, we can talk during lunchtime.'
Tara smiled as she typed her response. 'I'd like to. See you then.' She added a smile emoji to the message before hitting 'SEND'
After the end of Tara's next classes, which Tara had wanted to get over with as soon as possible and the time seemed to pass by quickly, luckily, it was finally lunch time, when Tara was going to cafeteria and taking her lunch before looking around, when she and Willow spotted each other and Willow waved for Tara to come over as Tara joined in.
"Hey." Tara said with a smile.
"Hey." Willow said as Tara noticed that Willow was alone. "I figured you wouldn't be much comfortable with more people around you, so I thought it might be best if it was just you and me. Give us a real chance to talk."
Tara smiled appreciatively. "Thanks. You were probably right."
"So, can you tell me a bit about yourself?" Willow asked, making Tara look uncomfortable as Willow realized that it might not be easy for Tara to talk about it. "Look, if there's something you want to keep to yourself, I get it—"
"No, no, it's just…" Tara sighed. "I've never talked about it much with anyone. My family, well, my Dad and brother aren't worth talking about. My Mom died when I was 17 and, well, like I said, there's nothing good I can tell about my Dad and brother, so I ran away at first and stayed with friends of my Mom before they threatened my Dad with family abuse lawsuit and then I enrolled here."
"I'm sorry." Willow said.
"Don't be. Anyone in my position would've done the same thing." Tara said. "What about you?"
"Well, I'm an only child, I've… always been kind of a geek outcast, like Xander. Buffy joined in in our sophomore year and you already know about Cordelia." Willow said.
"What do you want to do? I mean, 10 years from today, where do you see yourself?" Tara asked.
"Maybe an IT girl, computers have always been my thing." Willow said after a moment.
"Maybe a writer or yoga teacher or selling magic accessories, I'm kind of a religious nut." Tara said awkwardly as both girls chuckled, getting along quite well as they continued their conversation while eating before Buffy, Xander, Cordelia and Faith joined in.
"Hey, is there a free spot for the rest?" Buffy asked.
"Sure." Tara said.
"So, Tara. I'm Buffy." Buffy introduced herself before gesturing to the rest.
"Yeah, I know who you guys are." Tara said, smiling.
A few days later, Tara was walking down campus, smiling and more confident. It wasn't that hard to connect with the group as she had feared and she really got to know the real Cordelia up close and while she seemed snarky, shallow and vapid at first glance, Tara could tell that she could actually be a good friend and despite still being an outsider in a way, she felt like really fitting in and she could connect quite well with her, Buffy, Xander and Faith but with Willow Tara was feeling something more.
Tara then turned, feeling something odd, as if someone was following her but she noticed nothing. Dismissing it, she continued walking down campus until she started to notice various groups of girls acting strangely, tense, concerned and whispering, making Tara wonder what was going on before noticing Cordelia.
"Uh, Cordy?" Tara asked and Cordelia turned around, yelping before getting ahold of herself.
"Jesus, sneaky much?!" Cordelia snapped.
"Sorry. I didn't mean to scare you." Tara said as Cordelia got ahold of herself quickly, recovering from her shock. "What's going on, why's everyone on edge?"
"Oh, you haven't heard." Cordelia said.
"Heard what?" Tara asked, not following.
"Well… it's kind of creepy."
"Creepy?"
"Well, last night one girl here had a nervous breakdown, since some creep posted freaky pictures of her online, pretty much the whole campus is talking about it." Cordelia revealed.
Tara looked mortified. "Oh, my God, you mean—"
"Well, not exactly unclothed but close to it, in their lingerie, it was really freaky, skimpy and inappropriate." Cordelia shuddered from the thought. "But it's obvious that she was out of it and that the pictures were taken without her consent, the creep pretty much forced her to do it and I hope that he gets his. And it's not just that, a lot of girls were sure that…"
"…someone was stalking them?" Tara asked.
"You too?" Cordelia asked and Tara nodded as both girls looked uncomfortable. "Great. A stalker here on campus is the last thing we need."
"Wait, you too?"
They turned to see Buffy, Willow, Faith and Xander approach, also shocked and worried.
"So you heard about it too?" Willow asked.
"Just now." Cordelia said.
"Are you sure someone's been following you?" Faith asked and Tara nodded.
"So there's some freak stalking girls and kidnapping them and taking and posting freaky pictures of them here on campus?" Tara demanded.
"We just talked to few other girls, they said someone had grabbed them, undressed them and taken pictures of them, spreading them online, they're barely holding it together." Buffy said.
"If that freak tries to get his hands on me, he's a dead man." Faith said angrily.
"Either way, if there's a stalker on the loose, I think we need to keep an eye out." Xander said.
Unknowing to the group, a man was hiding behind a tree in the shadows with his camera, taking pictures of Buffy, Willow, Faith, Cordelia and Tara, smirking, choosing his next prey.
Later at night, Cordelia left the party on campus, trying to relax and get her mind off things, the last thing she needed was to deal with a psycho stalker. She felt bad about the girls subjected to the horror but she thought that the danger of being another victim was an exaggeration.
In the shadows, a man was observing Cordelia's clothing which were a wool jacket with white shirt and a black skirt and stockings, smiling and musing as he admired her body. He was hiding in the shadows, following Cordelia carefully as she walked down the road in the park.
Cordelia stopped and looked around, having this feeling someone was following her. Seeing no one around for miles, at first she relaxed before she felt a hand with a cloth over her mouth, muffling her screams as she began shaking and kicking violently but the man was too strong for her to struggle out of his grip before she felt the sweet taste and began passing out, realizing that the cloth was soaked in chloroform as she closed her eyes.
When Cordelia came to, she felt hazy and also cold and her vision was blurred before she felt soft and cold on her skin, with blinding light shining on her, realizing she had been stripped of her clothes down to skimpy underwear, which, she realized, wasn't even her in the first place to begin with, which just deepened her humiliation, being stripped naked, with her hands and legs tied with zip-cuffs and she had a cloth in her mouth as a gag to muffle her screaming due to being in such humiliating position. She tried to shake around and struggle out but it was pointless before she heard laughing.
"Oh, you're awake now. Good."
Cordelia saw a man in the shadows, she couldn't see his face but it was obvious to her it was the man who had abducted her as she tried to scream incoherently for him to let her go but she heard 'click' and another flash of light followed, blinding her, realizing what was going on as she started to scream louder, begging for him to stop. She couldn't stand for this, bound, gagged, in skimpy lingerie and the pictures of her would be posted all over the Internet, ruining her.
"Let's get this lovely body captured perfectly… wonderful curves… nice underwear by the way." The man commented as he continued walking around and taking pictures of Cordelia, while making lewd comments as the drug began wearing off as her vision cleared to see the man approaching her. "I'm done here. Now it's time for you to be released but before that…"
Cordelia screamed and shook around before she felt a sting on her neck and the drug immediately took effect, blurring her vision as everything faded to darkness.
When Cordelia came to, she was in the middle of the street, still only in her underwear and she barely had time to feel embarrassed, when she felt a jacket on her shoulders and she immediately clutched it before seeing Xander, Buffy, Faith and Willow and some campus guards and the police, giving Cordelia a mix of relief and horror, relief from seeing familiar faces and horror from feeling more hands touching her after the groping she had had to endure earlier tonight.
Elsewhere, the man was placing his pictures of Cordelia into a binder before approaching his laptop and posting them online for the world to see. If they would not understand his art, they would at least see how he had managed to hollow Cordelia out like the other girls he had.
A whole week had passed since Cordelia's kidnapping. She didn't leave her apartment, the school administration decided to give Cordelia a leave to recover, since she was being plagued by the nightmares and the humiliation she had endured. She had become self-sufficient with enough money to last with her trust fund and she had a decent job and she kept in regular contact with her mother, even though her father was in prison due to tax evasion and most of their wealth had been seized, Cordelia had enough to keep herself afloat at least but the trauma she had endured recently just made her shut herself in, ignoring messages from Buffy, Willow, Xander or her other friends, since she couldn't stand the pity or disgust or leery looks she might receive and the worst thing was that the pictures that had been taken of her, just like of the two previous victims, were online for everyone to see, making Cordelia feel ruined but she tried not to let it get to her. She had taken a shower and gotten a makeup and the doctors said she had not been raped, much to her relief but the flashbacks from the trauma were still plaguing her but she was trying not to let them get to her.
It was then when she received a call from her mother and took a breath before answering her phone. "Hey, Mom."
"Cordelia, are you alright?" Mrs. Chase asked.
"I'm fine. Don't worry about me." Cordelia said, keeping her voice even. She was not going to show weakness.
"Are you sure—"
"Really, it's OK." Cordelia assured and hung up before taking a breath. She was not going to let the kidnapping get the best of her.
"How do you think Cordy's doing?" Faith asked as they walked down the campus.
"She barely talks to us." Buffy said.
"Hey, there she is." Xander pointed to the main door as Cordelia entered, in her usual fancy dress, seeing the pitying and worrying looks but she put on a casual face, making everyone admire her tenacity. She was trying to stay strong and not let the kidnapping and pictures get to her, gaining respect from others.
"I'm surprised she's coming here, after what happened."
They turned to see a dark-haired man who had Xander's stature and seemed nerdier and geekier than him, if such a thing was even possible. It was Warren Mears. They were not exactly in the same social circles but he mostly kept to himself and was as much of an outcast as them. "I mean, if I'd been through that mess, I'd be burying my head in the sand like an ostrich by now."
"Cordy's stronger and more stubborn than you think." Xander said.
"Well, that's… impressive, I guess." Warren said, but there was something in his demeanor that was unnerving them, they couldn't tell exactly what but they all had an alarm bell tingling in their heads, kind of like Peter Parker's Spider-Sense going off. Maybe it was because Warren was just odder than them or maybe it was more before turning to them. "But if I were you, after what happened, I'd be more careful."
"No need to tell us that." Faith said and Warren nodded as he walked off.
"Cordy, are you sure you're OK?" Buffy asked as they walked down the hall.
"Honestly…" Cordelia lowered her voice and looked around. "I'm barely keeping it together but if that creep thinks he's gonna get to me, he's got another thing coming. I'm not gonna let him get to me, I'll face it with as much dignity as I can."
They nodded. "Yeah, that's for the best." Faith said.
"If anyone's gonna start pitying me or mocking me—" Cordelia stopped, when she saw the leery look one of the school jocks was giving her before he looked sheepish upon meeting her glare and they nodded again.
Tara was putting her things into a locker and was nervous before walking down the hall with Willow who noticed the look in Tara's eyes.
"Yeah, after what happened, you don't know if the creep could be watching us." Willow said and Tara nodded.
"It's just creepy, the idea of the guy taking pictures of you like that, when you're clearly out of it." Tara said, shuddering from the idea before turning to Willow. "I wouldn't want to see this happened to you."
Willow smiled appreciatively. "Thanks. You're a good friend."
"It's not because of you being my friend." Tara said, making Willow look confused.
"What do you mean?" Willow asked and Tara tensed. She didn't mean to just blurt it out like that but now that it was out… she took a breath. Screw it.
"Well, it's just that… you might have noticed I've been watching you guys for a time, have you?" Tara asked and Willow nodded. "It was because I felt like I could relate to you, being an outcast but still in a group and I was too shy to approach you but it wasn't just that. It was because I like you. And I mean…" She trailed off and blushed, looking away, embarrassed, thinking she had ruined it now. She stopped for a few moments. "I should probably stop talking now. You must think I'm being weird."
Willow stared, her face not changing the whole time as Tara was about to leave but stopped, when Willow held her hand. "Tara, wait."
Tara stopped and turned to face Willow whose expression turned kinder with a smile.
"It's OK. I know." Willow said and Tara looked surprised. "Come on, we've known for a while how you've been staring at me. And honestly, we've always thought it was sweet and we've wondered whether you would approach me or not. And quite frankly, I like you. And not just in… the 'like' like way but…" She paused. "I'm not sure what I'm feeling, honestly, but you admitting it made me want to let it out. And… thank you for letting it out. I'm glad you had the courage and—"
"I'm not sure whether it was courage or just heat of the moment." Tara said.
"Look, I don't know what is going to happen but I want to try this. What about you?" Willow asked and Tara smiled as they held hands, walking down the campus.
Unknowing to them, a figure was in the shadows behind a pillar, taking a picture of both girls.
The figure entered his hideout, smirking as he put on the board the pictures of Buffy, Willow and Faith, with Cordelia's picture, along others on another board, crossed off with a red marker and their names in binders before he hung Tara's picture on board with a leery grin and picked another binder that was empty and grabbed a black marker, labeling the binder 'Tara Maclay', choosing his next target.
Please, review, if you like this so far and want for me to continue.