A/N: Shoutout to my first reviewer, Revan Arroniero (whoooo!). I hope you continue to enjoy my story 😊

"So, my mum gave me the whole rundown regarding Bellevue's disappearing children," Beth informed Nadja the following Tuesday morning at school. She had found Nadja wandering around the fence between the two schools, absentmindedly kicking a rock, a trite expression on her face. Beth was curious as to why Nadja was here and not at her locker like she had expected, but decided it was not an important matter to press. There were bigger things on the horizon, of that she was certain.

"Yeah? What did she say?" Nadja asked, her expression morphing into one of hopefulness.

She really hated to disappoint but lying would get her nowhere. "She said the same thing my dad did: she'll pay close attention, but until she has more information regarding the topic, she can't devote all her time to it. Gods, slayers are so busy."

Nadja visibly wilted. "Well, that sucks. But she can look at records and such right? Find out if some of these kids actually did move, like Victoria?"

She nodded. "She said she'll get some info for me, but not to get my hopes up. If no one ever sent out a search group or a missing child alert, chances are their files will be pretty skimpy."

"It's a conspiracy, I think," Nadja murmured, looking down at her shoes. "The whole town is covering something up. Do you ever feel like that? Like everyone's hiding something really big from you?"

She frowned and thought a moment. While the fact that her father had once been a vampire, the very monster slayers like her mother were sworn to kill, was certainly kept from her in a conspiratorial manner when she was little, she herself hadn't been all that surprised when the secret eventually came out. After all, her dad was kind of weird. Even a five-year-old could see that. Plus, Uncle Xander had made a lot of "Evil Dead Reform Group" jokes.

"No, but I think I get where you're coming from. It's majorly suspicious to lack files about a rash of child abductions," she decided with a firm nod. "My mum's going to meet with the mayor today and talk shop. She's going to request the files then and see what she gets."

"Oh," Nadja said, suddenly getting a weird note to her voice. "Is that an all-day thing?"

She frowned at Nadja, the tone suspicious without context. "Well no, but it's an afternoon, 'I'll-be-late-for-dinner' thing. I've never ridden a bus before."

"Well, you know, I have a cousin. Zack, of course; he has a car. We could give you a ride," Nadja mentioned.

"You live in the opposite direction of me," Beth reminded her. "I don't think Zack would want to go out of his way for me."

"Oh, pish-posh Beth!" she laughed with a wave of her hand. Judging from the action, Beth would have thought they were being filmed. Nadja wasn't a great actor though. "His gas is paid for as long as he's driving me around or it's school related. He can't mind at all. And he won't. Promise." Nadja gave Beth such a winning smile it made her want to run in the opposite direction.

"Well, since you're offering," Beth began.

"Oh good!" she said in relief. "For a second there I thought I'd have to practically drag you to the car. You made this much easier than I thought it would be, actually."

"Nadja, is there a reason why you want me to take this ride?" Beth asked. "Is this the part of the movie where you take me to an abandoned cabin and sacrifice me to your gods?"

"No, of course not. You'd kick my ass and Zack's too," she snorted. "No, just a simple ride home, from a friend to a friend."

"Is this some half-hacked plan to inconvenience Zack?" Beth asked.

"Yes!" she practically shouted. "Oh, I mean, yeah. It'll annoy him, but he won't act like it will, but it will."

"Did you eat something funny today?" Beth asked. Nadja reminded her of her aunt Willow when she was lying and Beth really did smell the stench of lying.

"You know, we have class," Nadja reminded her. "We should go to it."

She shot Nadja a sideways look. "Yeah, we should." She only hoped Nadja wasn't going to be like this all day.

-.-

At lunch, Beth apologized for abandoning Nadja for volleyball tryouts before running to the gymnasium. Nadja took it pretty well, saying there was someone she needed to talk to anyway. Beth figured it was school related and nodded.

When she had told Buffy about the tryouts, her mother had seemed more excited than she would have thought. After all, it was only volleyball. But her mother seemed to think volleyball equated to normal and would support her daughter at all costs. Sure, Beth wanted normal as much as the next girl, but there was a slight aroma of Living Through My Daughter when Buffy spoke of how cool it would be to go to the games. Honestly, was her mother ever subtle?

Outside the gymnasium, she noticed a group of girls crowded around the door. Frowning, she pushed her way through the crowd to read the sign.

VOLLEYBALL TRYOUTS POSTPONED

NEW DATE TBA

SORRY FOR THE INCONVIENCE

HAVE NICE DAY

"It has something to do with the captain I think," Beth heard a girl whisper. "No one has seen her since Friday, apparently, after she went to that party at the Smith's."

"Not to mention the co-captain," another girl added with a hint of fear in her voice. "She was rushed to the hospital early Saturday morning. Somebody—or something—took a real beating out of her."

She moved away from the crowd of girls with a determined look to her face. Once she breached the crowd, much to her luck she spotted Kelsey over by the water fountain near the door. It wasn't much of a stretch to guess why the school gossip was hanging around where the whispers were.

"Kelsey," she announced, grabbing the girl's attention as she strode over to her, hoping to carry an air of authority as she did so. "What do you know about the captain and co-captain of the volleyball team?"

Kelsey's eyebrows shot up at the direct request, but she kept a cool look to her face. "Just hearing about it, Summers? It's old news really."

"Just tell me what you know," Beth asked, crossing her arms in that no-nonsense way she'd seen her mother do.

Kelsey shrugged. "As much as everyone else I suppose. Friday night there was a party up at Robinswood Park, at the Smith's house. They're a couple of rich bitch twins named Connor and Michael. Anyway, Amanda—the captain—went with her boyfriend Stephen and her friend the co-captain, Ashlee. Stephen says he doesn't know what happened. He was with Amanda and then he wasn't and he ended up leaving the party when he couldn't find her to take her home. Somebody's been swearing up and down they saw her leave with some older looking guy, but no one said anything about Ashlee.

"Anyway, about three am some guy was going in for his shift at the McDonalds and he saw a leg sticking out behind a dumpster. He freaked out but checked it out anyway. It was Ashlee. She was unconscious, but still alive. The police did a whole clean up over the area and took her to the hospital. The Doctor's says she won't talk, unless it's to scream hysterics. She's not making any sense. Another friend visited her yesterday and said she was babbling something about funky symbols or something. I dunno. No one's seen Amanda and Ashlee says someone took her," Kelsey finished with a resigned sigh.

"You think it's related to the other disappearances?" Beth inquired.

She laughed, though it wasn't because she thought what Beth had said was funny. "What else? Though this time somebody saw her taken. Just you wait, Ashlee's gonna up and be shipped off soon enough. She won't be allowed to stick around, not if she doesn't keep her mouth shut."

Kelsey turned to walk away, but not before throwing once last parting statement at Beth. "You should be careful too you know. I know you and Nadja have been going around asking for everyone's opinion on the matter. Like I said, they don't want people to talk about it."

Despite all of Beth's Devil May Care attitude about threats, she couldn't help but feel just an eensy-bit worried about that one.

-.-

Beth trailed after Nadja through the hallways after class ended, keeping up a steady stream of chatter about the Friday night party.

"Funky eyes? That's a little ambiguous don't you think?" Nadaj asked, readjusting the strap of her backpack. "Like, what kind of funky? Maybe she was just drunk and the guy had glasses. They said she left with an older man, so maybe he wore glasses. And what about Ashlee? No one saw Ashlee with them and yet she ended up outside of a McDonalds, the poor girl."

"Focus, Nadja," Beth groaned. "I think Amanda was taken by the same people who took everyone else. When was the last disappearance you think?"

"Well, some girl named Francine never reenrolled into St. Renevier's over the summer, but I don't know if that's related," she offered. "I don't think I know anyone who knew Francine. We ran with very different people."

"Great, so they may just be restarting now? Is this something that moves with the school year? How lame is that?" Beth thought aloud.

Once outside the school, she couldn't help but eye the other students milling about, talking with friends, or making their way home. Any single one of them could be next and she didn't have a leg to stand on. She'd been left adrift by both her parents, too busy to chase after half-baked ideas and conspiracies. She hadn't been taught to take anything lying down, but right now, she didn't have much choice.

"Oh, look, there's my cousin. So nice of him to come over to my school now that we've got another passenger," Nadja grumbled, eyes on the dark blue car idling by the curb.

"Shouldn't you be happy? You complained about having to walk to his school," Beth reminded her.

She only shook her head, making her way toward Zack's car. Beth followed after her, wondering if Nadja's moody behavior was going to continue.

"Hey there," Zack greeted as both girls crawled into the back seat. "What, no one wants to sit up front? This isn't grade school; I don't have cooties, alright?"

"Yeah, but you won't let me pick the music and I'm not leaving Beth at your mercy," Nadja snapped, buckling her seatbelt.

"Ooh, and she's touchy again," he chuckled lightly, though there was a testiness to his movements as he took the car out of park and began to drive through the parking lot. "Did you get a bad test grade?"

"Divvy," Nadja muttered, shooting her cousin a cross look.

"So Nadja told me you two are playing Investigators," he began casually, his eyes glancing at Beth who sat diagonally from him.

She snapped her head to look at Nadja, alarmed. "You told him?" she asked.

"She was bragging, I think," he offered.

"Why would you do that?" she hissed. "I practically just got a warning that I'm gonna go poof too if I keep stirring the pot!"

"I wasn't bragging!" Nadja shouted at him, shooting him a murderous look. "It kind of slipped out, honestly! I only mentioned it in passing and Zack was like a dog with a bone: he wouldn't let it go! So, I may have told him we're researching it."

She groaned, sinking back into the car seat. "Well, don't talk about it, Zack, or you'll end up on the kidnapper's hit list too."

"You don't seriously think something's going on, do you?" he asked.

"What, and you don't?" she shot back. "Nadja told me your family works heavily in magicks, Zack. Don't tell me this isn't the least bit weird."

"Yeah, but not ghostly, ghouly weird," he replied. "I know magic, and this doesn't seem like magic."

"You know earth-type magic!" Nadja reminded him hotly. "This is evil, no good-deed-to-be-done magic! You don't know anything about this stuff! How could you possibly know it's not magic?"

"Look, just because you see me participating in the chants doesn't mean that's all I know. I've been taught a lot, mind you. I know a thing or two about the dark arts," he countered.

Nadja huffed in disagreement but didn't say anything back.

"We have reason to believe that there are forces at work out there and considering the amount of work both my parents do cleaning up this town, it wouldn't surprise me that something bad is going down in little ole' Bellevue. I imagine there's quite a handful of magic dens here and that always spells trouble," Beth informed him with much authority.

"Just don't do anything stupid, please. The last thing my aunt and uncle need is for Nadja to be escorted home by the police," he muttered.

"I have no intentions of involving the police," Beth assured him.

"Except for those files your mom is getting," Nadja reminded her.

"Well, that's a given. I mean not physically. No physical police here."

A few minutes later Zack pulled up in front of Beth's house, stopping at the sidewalk.

"You know, if you ever need a ride home, I'm available," he offered, his tone cautious.

She smiled. "Thanks, but I would hate to inconvenience you."

"Oh, no inconvenience at all," Nadja murmured under her breath. "All the convenience actually."

He pointedly ignored her statement. "Nah, don't worry about it. What's a few extra minutes to me?"

"Yeah, less time for your boy projects," Nadja said loud enough so he couldn't pretend he didn't hear her.

"Well, okay," Beth replied. "If I ever need a ride, you'll just see me with Nadja."

He smiled at her as she got out of the car. "Hope to see you soon then."

As she shut the door, Beth could see Nadja clambering over the front seat, muttering something about "of all the lousy deeds for a new album." There was a short tussle between the two, hands and arms jerking, before the classical music abruptly cut off to something distinctly a very different type of classic. She shook her head at the antics of the two and headed up her lawn, listening as the car drove off, Zack likely accepting his now rock'n'roll music existence.

She twisted the key into the door lock, finding herself coming home to an empty house. She expected her mother to be out, but by the looks of it, her father had tagged along. Kicking off her shoes and dropping her bag unceremoniously to the ground, she headed upstairs to her room. She noticed her mother had gone through the trouble of hanging up all their family photos. Most were the standard baby Beth pictures, all professionally taken (her parents' questionable photography skills were left for the albums), along with the photo of her parents' wedding. Up at the top of the stairs though was her favorite. It was an old photo, faded and predating her. It was a picture of her father, wielding a sword like he was going to behead someone. In it, he was paler than the man she was used to seeing, and deceptively younger.

She finished her stroll down memory lane, ending up in her bedroom. She was almost finished decorating it and would have Nadja over as soon as the calamity had passed. A string of white lights was wrapped around the wrought iron of her headboard and posters were slapped up over the wall, mostly because she abhorred the pale-yellow color it was done up in. Next weekend Spike promised to buy paint for the walls. Beth had gone and invested in more oriental rugs, to the point where she almost couldn't see the floor. The clothes strewn across also helped. A long oblong shaped lantern floor lamp stood over in the corner by her bookcase and her brown papasan chair. She fell into the chair, curling up her legs to her chest and leaning against a decorative pillow. Despite the fact that Beth didn't need anyone's approval about her search into the disappearances, it would be nice to know that everyone else didn't think it was useless to go looking. It also didn't help that Zack, someone who knew more about magic than she had ever been allowed to find out, was telling her it wasn't supernatural. Supernatural was Beth's way! It was her niche in life and dammit, if the kidnappings weren't supernatural, it wasn't supposed to be her business. She wasn't some vigilante who busted drug rings and human trafficking, she (well, would like to) fought vampires and broke up groups trying to raise the dead! That was her thing, not creepy people kidnapping children. She let out a low groan, closing her eyes to take a nap.

-.-

Beth was sprawled out on her bed that afternoon, stuck trying to decipher a math problem and her real-life problem of ongoing disappearances. Amanda was kidnapped, that was for sure, but could it be related to the other disappearances? She was halfway through finding x when her phone buzzed on her bedside table.

"Hello?" she asked into the speaker.

"Oh, Beth, have I got some information for you," Nadja nearly squealed into her phone.

She sat up, math homework already forgotten like that kite she once got stuck in a tree. "Regarding the disappearances? Tell me it's good."

"Okay, well you know how we can't seem to get anyone who's gathered up enough information to allow us a coherent search?" Nadja asked. "I found this blog online from some guy who's claimed to live here and actually documented the disappearances for a few years as best he could. Apparently, it's been going on for at least a decade now."

"A decade?" Beth repeated. "But you said the first disappearance happened in primary school!"

"Well, that's what I thought, but as it turns out, that's just in Bellevue. The surrounding areas like Seattle have had the problem even longer. The guy even says it's probably been going on for years if they've been pulling people out of other cities. You know, one from Buffalo, another from Savannah. Those would just seem like random—though still something that happens—kidnappings. It's only in the Bellevue-Seattle area that it's become a rash of kidnappings."

"So, what does this guy know?" Beth breathed, getting excited.

"Unfortunately, he's only an observer, but he's got a lot of dates and he said that the kidnappings don't have any set pattern. He's looked into all kinds of rituals and religions to find any important dates; this is more than moon cycle here. He says they're completely sporadic, like whoever's kidnapping is just doing it when it's most convenient," Nadja told her with just as much excitement as Beth.

"So this isn't some cult's ritual sacrifice?" Beth asked.

"Nope. The guy actually has a theory that since it's not some blood sacrifice to heathen gods, it's a collection of something."

"Like collecting bodies?" Beth asked, the ick factor sky-rocketing, no longer playing keep-away with the roof.

"Maybe. But if this has been going on for years, it's more likely to be something that doesn't rot. He says maybe bones. There are a lot of pagan rituals that require bones," she mentioned.

"So, not hearts, but bones?" Beth asked. "But why so many bones? How many kidnappings is this guy talking?"

"He lived here for ten years and he's talking several hundred."

"Several hundred?" Beth nearly shrieked, sitting up. "Hundreds of bones? The human body has over 200 bones and he has hundreds of bodies?"

"Are your parents home yet? Because they might get worried that you keep saying 'bodies.' Especially when paired with the word 'hundreds'," she warned.

"No, they're not. Look, can you get in contact with this guy?" Beth asked.

"I wish. He hasn't updated the blog in nearly two years and he doesn't have an email linked to his blog," Nadja told her with a hint of disappointment in her voice.

"Okay, but does he say anything about why they stepped up the kidnapping here? Wouldn't it just have been easier and a hell of a lot less conspicuous if they continued to take one here and take one there?" Beth asked.

"The guys says that he thinks the police are in on it, though he doesn't say why they chose here. He also mentions something about 'demon activity,' so maybe Bellevue was just seen as a prime spot. You know what they say, it's all about location, location, location."

Beth groaned and fell back down, head hanging off the edge of her bed. "This is just great. Kidnappers who have been doing this for years who chose Bellevue as their hideout and the only guy who actually looked into all this can't be contacted. Can you leave a message on his blog, see if he'll respond?"

"I already did that. Here's to hoping," Nadja sighed.

"Yeah, here's to hoping."

"So, how're you doing on that History reading?"

-.-

Dinner in the Bloody-Summers household (Beth snickered at the hyphenated name; now why couldn't that be on her birth certificate?) came later than usual, due to her parents' previous engagement with the mayor. Normally Beth preferred to keep a schedule as best she could, but today she was willing to be a bit more flexible. After all, she had spent over an hour on the phone with Nadja and had been late making dinner anyway. Thankfully, she had remembered to take the chicken out to thaw before she did her homework and rice was water, salt, and well, rice.

"So I got the files from the Bellevue PD," Buffy brought up over dinner.

"It's quite a folder," Spike added.

"Really?" Beth couldn't help but sound hopelessly hopeful. Wouldn't that be a godsend? Nadja had given her the web address to the blog and to say that man had information just proved how fruitless their own searching had been. The blogger had dates of the disappearances, but details were nowhere near that of a police record.

"Your father thinks he's being funny," Buffy told her, shooting her husband nothing short of a dirty look. "It's kinda tiny."

Beth's hope fluttered and crashed to the ground. "Great," she muttered.

"Looks like maybe a couple dozen disappearances in the last decade?"

"A couple dozen?" Beth sputtered. The blogger claimed at least 250 and not a person less from Bellevue, not to mention those from the surrounding neighborhoods, coming out to a scary-large number of 500. 500 kids up and gone within a decade, probably all dead too.

"Well, I only flipped through it," her mother amended. "Most were listed as runaways too."

"Well, runaway is still not here," Beth noted stubbornly, though she didn't feel much for defending her investigation. She picked at her rice with a pout on her face.

Buffy gave Beth a sympathetic look, no doubt wishing that her daughter hadn't gone and wasted her time on such a useless search. Nadja would be disappointed as well. She seemed to be heavily involved in trying to solve the mystery and was happy to have someone who had access to files and books like Beth did. And what a lame partner she was going to turn out to be.

"So," Buffy began, smiling wide and trying to lighten the mood, "Willow talked about moving to Bellevue. She feels that she might be more helpful here."

"'M not helping with house shopping," Spike told her between bites of chicken.

"I told her she could stay here."

The silence that overfell the table was palpable. Beth choked down a laugh that threatened to break out when she caught a good look at her father's face. But now was not the time, nor the place to laugh at her father's expression.

"What?" he burst out.

"We have the room," Buffy reminded him, sounding much more level-headed than Beth even thought she could. Normally it was her yelling right back. "The guest room connected to the second living room."

"Lounge," Beth corrected.

"Lounge?" Buffy repeated.

"Yeah. Dad and I had a discussion about it, and we decided lounge was better than sitting room."

"Okay, so we have the extra bedroom connected to the lounge!" Buffy told Spike.

"I thought we decided on a magic-free household," he replied, glancing over at their daughter.

Oh, hold the phone. He did not—

"No magic? You banned magic?" Beth shrieked, her hands slamming down on the table hard enough to make the plates rattle.

"No, I said it would be a good idea to watch what Beth got ahold of. I never said anything about banning it! You said that, not me!" Buffy fought back.

"Is it because of what I tried to do to that bitch Margaret? Because I said I wouldn't do that again," Beth reminded them.

"Elizabeth! Language!" her mother snapped.

"What? An' Red is going to teach her about the nuances of magic?" her father asked sarcastically.

"She was formally trained by a coven in England. England, Spike!"

"I would just like to say I am full-heartedly on Mum's side. I want Aunt Willow to come and live here!"

"An' I think we need to sit down and discuss this, not jus' going an' making decisions without me!"

"We are sitting down and discussing this! See! Chairs!" Buffy said, gesturing wildly around them.

The dining room erupted into mindless yelling and shouting at one another. Beth defending her right to be taught magic, Buffy the right for Willow to live with them, and Spike—well, Beth was sure he was just yelling now.

"Listen!" he interrupted Beth and Buffy's joint argument, causing both of them to cut off rather suddenly. He had that tone in his voice.; he didn't use it very often, in fear of it losing power. "'M going to say a few words an' I'd like you birds to listen, alright? I got nothing against Red living here, but Beth has quite a record of magical abuse an' she knows it."

"That was years ago," she brushed off.

"Two, mind you," he corrected.

"And I have grown so much in those two, long, learning years," she informed him.

"You and I both know that Beth has an interest in magic—in causing trouble with it too. But if she seeks it out, wouldn't it be better she learned it from someone else rather than on her own?" Buffy reasoned. "Willow taught herself and look where she ended up. She nearly destroyed the world, Spike! I know your thoughts were rather preoccupied at the time, but she was pulling dangerous stunts that year. If we allow Beth to have a mentor in the subject, she's less likely to abuse magic."

Beth was impressed. That was quite an argument her mother gave there and all without throwing any punches.

"I know," he agreed, "but you know how I feel about magic."

"I do," Buffy assured, "but whether you like it or not, Beth is interested in magic, and I'd prefer she learned it from someone I trust to teach her."

He visibly weakened, his mind already giving in to her words. Plus, she was giving him those eyes that made her impossible to deny. Spike called those the Summers' Eyes.

"Alright. I know when 'm fighting a losing battle."

Buffy snorted and he glared at her.

"Let me talk, you bint," he nearly hissed. "Red can live with us but she can't leave anything about for this one to get into. Beth needs to be supervised around it."

Beth grinned. Yes, she was going to have access to spells and potions and oh goddesses, she could implore Hecate. This year was going great!

"We can discuss the finer details throughout the week," Buffy said. "Willow hasn't made any moves yet, but I do know she wants to come down here. She's feeling left out in Scotland."

"Ooh, this is going to be so much fun!" Beth squealed.

"I swear, you Summers women, can't even tell you no," Spike grumbled.

"And we'd like to keep it that way," Buffy responded with a smug grin.