Part 12
Stepping
into Darkness
Part 12
~~~~~*****~~~~~
"Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, OW!"
Fliq laughed a little and placed an
arm around Willow's shoulder as she nursed her left arm, "Come
on, Red. No pain, no gain."
"How is it that even magickal
tattoos have to hurt?" Willow asked, casting a glare at the
demons through the window behind her.
"It's part of the deal. They
give us what we want, and our pain gives them something to draw
on for a while."
Willow looked surprised, "They're
feeding on my pain?"
"Don't worry about it, Grayal
demons harmless. They use the energy to help further their seeing
abilities, helps them cheat at poker."
"Oh, right," Willow once
again winced in pain as she looked at the black pentacle that was
now tattooed on her arm. "So, this is like a pass? The whole,
'if your names not on the list...' turned into 'if the pain's not
on your arm...'?"
Fliq laughed, "Something like
that." They walked along the dark Sunnydale streets and
Willow couldn't help but glance around, waiting for something to
jump out from behind the nearest bush.
"Don't worry, Willow, It's
opening night tonight. All the evil's headed to the same place as
us."
"Somehow, that doesn't make me
feel a whole lot better. In fact, I'm beginning to think this was
a bad idea. I think I'll just..."
"Uh uh. Willow, you're not
getting out of this." Fliq sighed, "Look, no one can
hurt you in here, that's the rules." She grinned slyly,
"If you ask me, I think you're freaking more about the
outfit."
"Well, it's tight."
Fliq laughed, "Leather suits
you, Will. Okay, that sounded more dodgy than I'd intended."
They smiled at each other, and Fliq threw her arm around Willow
again, "Come on, let's party."
They walked down the street and
turned into a dark alley. At the bottom, Willow could see a blue
mist rising from one of the buildings. It spread its tendrils out
over the town of Sunnydale, reaching out its haunting fingers,
beckoning the creatures of the night to follow. She breathed in
the complete freedom she felt emanating from it and smiled.
"This is magickal," she
whispered, awe in every word.
"That's the idea." They
walked towards the building and Willow tensed as she saw the
large man standing at the door. "Relax, Will. Just show him
the tattoo and you'll be fine."
Awkwardly, Willow turned her arm to
the man and he nodded gruffly before turning to look at Fliq.
"Hey, how come yours is different than mine?" Willow
asked, trying to investigate further, but Fliq pulled her off the
shoulder sleeve further up to cover her tattoo, although the dark
blue material was see through and did little to hide it.
" 'S not that different."
"And how come you've got a
tattoo on Buffy's body?" she wondered, "You didn't get
one done tonight."
"It's a magickal tattoo, Will,
it goes with the person inside, not the person outside."
Fliq waved her hand over her face murmuring the words of a simple
glamour and soon Willow was looking at Fliq's real face, "This
spell won't last long, so, come on, it's time to rock and roll."
~~~~~*****~~~~~
Spike sighed as he glanced around
the room. He was trying to time his exit so that it didn't look
too hasty, like he didn't have a place he wanted to go. *Last
thing we need is the Slayer finding out about the damn place* he
thought.
Giles was still pouring through
books as Angel filled Cordelia in on what had happened. Dawn was
sitting next to Buffy as they searched through spell books and
Xander and Anya sat in the corner in silence, simply holding each
other.
Giles sighed, "There's nothing
here. The prophecy explains Vampire Willow but there's no mention
of Slayers switching bodies."
"Can't we just do what we did
to switch back Faith and Buffy?" Dawn asked, frowning.
"Not that simple, Dawnie,"
Buffy said, stroking her sister's hair, "That was a device,
this was obviously a spell."
"And we need to know which one
before we can do anything about it."
"It was a mixture of a time
spell, a soul anchor and a rebirth spell."
All heads turned to Anya as she
pulled herself away from Xander, "I'm sorry," she
whispered to Buffy, "I lost you during the rebirthFliq
said she was doing astral projectionI just grabbed the soul
surrounded with the most power and I thought it would be youI
must have gotten mixed up."
"Youyou did this?"
Buffy asked, crossing the room.
"I meant to do it right but"
"Anya?" Xander sat up
straight, "Why didn't you say anything?"
"Did you realize what you could
have done?" Giles asked, frowning.
"Well, I'm sorry!" Anya
stood up, staring at them all as her eyes teared up, "But I
couldn't ask you anything! No one would tell me how to act, no
one would explain it. Not after Joyce died, not even now. I tried
to cope, but I don't understand and I don't want to. Everyone was
crying, Xander was always upset and no one would talk about it.
How was I supposed to deal with it?" The room was silent,
filled only with Anya's quiet sobs. She turned to Buffy and
whispered, "I remembered how to bring you back, so I did and
I'm not sorry."
"Thank you." Buffy pulled
her into a hug and Dawn joined them adding her own thank you.
Everyone watched as the three girls cried together.
~~~~~*****~~~~~
"Look, can I please leave?"
"Why? You got some night on the
town planned?" Xander asked, looking up from his book. Now
that they knew what had happened, they were looking with a
purposeall except Spike, who was itching to leave.
He turned to face Xander, "Maybe
I do."
"Oh, I can see that working so
well what with your impotence and all."
Spike growled, "I'm leaving."
~~~~~*****~~~~~
The music flowed through the room in
a wave of magick. The smell of incense haunted the air. Willow
smiled as she moved through the crowd, not giving a second
thought to their species. She smiled and closed her eyes,
inhaling the calmness, the sensuality and the unmistakable air of
sexuality that flowed through the room like electricity.
The walls were decorated in deep,
rich colors, the blues and reds encompassing the room in a
comforting blanket. The lights danced over the walls as the beat
of the music thumped in her chest. Willow ground her hips to the
pulsing music, closing her eyes as she moved.
"You having a good time?"
Willow jumped and turned around to see Fliq holding out a drink.
"I'm loving it," she
shouted back over the music. "And I don't even feel self
conscious!" she smiled.
"That's the great thing about
the Sanctuary. You leave all that behind. No violence, nothing.
Only creatures of the night can enter, and they have to be nice."
"How come you can enter?"
Willow asked.
Fliq smiled a little, "I'm
Wiccan. That's all the matters here. I'm a creature of the night
and I can't harm anyone whilst in the Sanctuary, just the same as
everyone else."
"What about your duties as a
Slayer?"
"Well, I'm not the only
Slayer so let's just say I kinda put my Sacred duty on the back
burner for a while."
"You can do that?"
"Girls gotta have some fun.
Right?" Willow smiled at her then suddenly her eyes widened
as she looked over Fliq's shoulder.
"Hello, luv. Fancy meeting you
here."
Fliq groaned and turned around,
"What the hell are you doing here?"
"Same as you, short stuff. I
plan to let my hair down and have a little fun before the big bad
evil comes a-knocking."
Fliq smiled sadly at the familiar
words, "Well, be careful, 'cause sometimes evil knocks in
the wrong place."
"Is this a private moment?
Should I maybe go away?" They turned to look at Willow.
"'Cause I could go away."
"Don't be silly, pet."
"Yeah," Fliq's face opened
into a wide grin as she spotted someone. "Afraid I'll have
to love you and leave you, folks." She ran off towards the
stage.
"Don't tell me she's still with
him," Spike growled as Willow watched Fliq dancing with a
man with long hair that she couldn't quite define the color of.
"Who's that?" she asked,
still looking at Fliq. "Spike?" Willow turned to see
the blond vampire gazing at her, taking in every inch of her body.
A smile twitched at his lips, "Love
the outfit, Red. Very you."
Willow blushed then quickly scolded
herself for allowing childish insecurities to bother her again.
"Thank you. I thought so," She said regaining her
confidence and shocking the vampire.
"Well, it's always the quiet
ones, isn't it?"
Willow felt her anger flare, "Well,
maybe I don't wanna wear fluffy stuff all the time, maybe I like
leather, maybe I just want to leave everything behind tonight.
And why is it so surprising that I might actually have a little
confidence?"
"Well, maybe it's 'cause I'm so
used to you being the Slayer's pet that, until recently, I've
rarely seen you just be yourself, and those are the moments, pet.
That's when you shine."
Willow was caught off guard, "You
think I shine? You've spent time thinking about it? About me?"
Now it was Spike's turn to shift
uncomfortably, "Well, I mean, I might've thought about it,
occasionally."
"That's sweet." Spike
growled a little at the comment, but knowing it was from Willow
somehow made it less of an insult.
"Care for a dance?" Willow
turned and found herself looking into the face of a green demon
with three horns protruding the top of his head. It was leering
at her and she shuddered.
"Uh...no thanks...eh...my
boyfriend wants the next dance and he gets kinda...well, kinda
ooky about me dancing with other...uh people," she stammered,
praying that Spike would back her up and say that her pretend
boyfriend wasn't someone to be messed with and that the demon
should leave before he got back.
"Yeah," Willow silently
thanked Spike. "So you'd better watch out, mate. If I find
you anywhere near my girl again..." Willow's eyebrows shot
up and her head started to spin with so many thoughts that she
missed the end of Spike's tirade and soon found herself on
the dance floor with Spike's arms around her, before she even
realized that her feet had moved.
"Uh...thanks," she finally
spoke, raising her head to look at him. "I mean, you didn't
have to do that."
"What, and leave you with that?"
Spike smiled. "I may be evil, love, but that would've been
too sadistic, even for me."
Willow smiled at him before resting
her head on his chest again. She closed her eyes and inhaled the
magick surrounding them. Then her eyes opened and she looked up
at him.
"Spike?"
"What, luv?"
"Where's your tattoo?" she
asked looking at his bare arms. Spike smiled and wagged his
eyebrows suggestively.
"Oh...never mind." Spike
laughed as Willow rested her head. Suddenly she looked at him
wide eyed.
"You flashed the bouncer?"
~~~~~*****~~~~~
Darkness surrounded the streets of
Sunnydale. The streetlights seemed to dim as the blanket of
shadows surrounded the town, waiting for the time to engulf it,
as the inhabitants slept and the creatures of the night were on
the grounds of peace, all oblivious to what was happening below
them.
The darkness emanated from an aura
of light. The small witch sat in perfect harmony with the
Hellmouth. Around her, a red headed vampire wandered aimlessly
around the room, moving to the rhythm of unheard music. She
swayed her head to the side and smiled, feeling the time approach.
She laughed a little as visions of
her world danced through her head, anxiously awaiting their
arrival into this one. Glancing once more at the witch in the
center of the room, again, she tiled her head to the side, sighed
and smiled.
"Puppy."
~~~~~*****~~~~~
END OF PART 12
I wrote to Anya a few
years ago asking if I could borrow the Sanctuary...just hope she
remembers! (that shows you how long I've had this story planned!)
and I promised her that I'd plug her story when I did! So read "Sanctuary"
by Anya! It's really good...if a little unfinished...well it
probably is finished now actually! ...have to check that out!