Rating: PG-13 (For Spike's swearing. Bad Spike!)

Category: Spike/Dawn.

Summary: Spike's back from LA, 3 years after Buffy's death, chipless, drunk and in a real bad mood…

Disclaimer: I don't own Buffy or any of the characters, they belong to the brilliant Joss Wheddon, Fox TV, the Grrr Argh bloke etc. I do, however, own Sean. So leave him alone! Unless you ask for permission of course.

Archiving: Yes! Just please tell me where you're putting it.

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Dawn hugged her arms around herself as she stood in front of the crypt. She took a deep breath and swung open the door. Inside was… nothing. He wasn't here. She stepped inside. Everything was covered in a fine layer of dust, as if it hadn't been moved in years.

'No,' she thought. 'I suppose it hasn't.'

She stepped further into the crypt, breathing in the deep musky smell and coughing quietly on the dust that filled the air. She carefully removed the white blanket that was covering the battered old armchair. She sat in it and curled her feet up under her and wrapped the battered blanket around her shoulders. She could picture in her minds eye, Spike sitting in this chair a couple of years ago, watching Passions on TV with a mug of blood in one hand, a cigarette in the other. She sighed at the memory and rested her head against the back of the chair. She decided that she may as well stay here for tonight, it was late (or very early, whichever way you look at it) and she had felt a nasty felling of being watched on her way over here. She hugged the blanket around her and eventually she slipped into a fitful sleep.

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A creature watched Dawn cross the graveyard and enter the old crypt. A while ago it was rumoured to be home to a neutered vamp, but no one was really sure. The creature's eyes flickered as it watched her. They were a deep black with flecks of crimson in them, and if you stared at them for too long, you had a sense of sudden darkness and extreme evil. A long, bony hand slid out from under its long robe and began to rub a pendant hanging around its neck from a long silver chain. The creature made a hissing noise as is muttered to itself.

"Yesssss. The Key…to everything. Finally mine. I. Will. Have. POWER." Then, as an afterthought, it added in a more normal voice. "World destruction, here I come."

It giggled to itself and blended back into the shadows…

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tbc…

PLEASE read and review. I love feedback!!

Thanx 4 the response so far.

I'll update it soon.

Trixta

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