Soul Sacrifice

Chapter 3 – Yelling from the Shadows

"ARRRGH!" Buffy screamed into the couch cushion when she finally reached home. "Why did he do that? Why did I do that?" She asked herself. She didn't even know where everything she had said had come from. For once, he didn't provoke it, but it had come out in full. Fuller, in fact. She'd threatened to kill him. That was nothing new, but for the first time, in a long time, she actually meant it. And for the first time ever, it really bothered her. A lot. She realized it was the last thing she wanted to do, but that it would make things much easier.

He just made her so mad! When she wasn't expecting it, he'd do or say something to infuriate her.

He held her on his lap.

"Stop!" She argued weakly.

"Make me." He said with a grin.

Then she kissed him. She tried to stop, but he begged her to stay. Then there was more kissing. "Maybe last night wasn't a mistake after all," Buffy thought, while Spike nuzzled her neck. But then…

"I knew," He started in a husky whisper, "I knew the only thing better than killing a slayer would be f-"

He could really ruin the mood. And then other times, when she was expecting something, anything annoying from him, it wouldn't come, and that made her mad too. And then there was the egg scheme. It had been… Disappointing… He was so… just so…

*Creak*

"Dawn?" Buffy called, startled. The back door? Had Dawn gone out?

Dawn stepped into the living room with a smile on her face. "Hey! You're home!"

Buffy couldn't believer her coyness. "Yeah! You better believe I'm home!" Buffy replied scathingly.

"What? Buffy?" Dawn stammered, confused.

"Didn't expect me home this early, huh? I call and tell you I'll be home a little later and you take it as an invitation to go out on the town and steal stuff for an hour."

"Buffy…" Dawn squeaked, almost in tears.

"No Dawn. I thought I could finally trust you again, and then you go out and do this. What was I thinking?"

That was enough for Dawn. She quickly pushed past Buffy and ran up the stairs, suppressing sobs. Buffy just sat on the couch with a scowl.

About five minutes later, Willow came trudging down the stairs with a duffel bag. "Hey Buffy, I didn't know you'd be here. You get to see me off after all." Willow said cheerily. Then she noticed Buffy's grim look. "OK. I know you're gonna miss me but…"

"It's Dawn," Buffy started glumly.

"Oh, yeah, hey. I wanna say goodbye to her. Hasn't' she come inside yet? She's not in her room."

"What?" Buffy asked, suddenly a little queasy.

"Yeah. She said she was going to take the trash out. She wanted to help you out. Said that if she disappeared, she'd probably been attacked by a nasty demon. That likes garbage." Then Willow took notice of Buffy's progressively falling expression. "Dawn didn't get attacked by a demon, did she?"

"Yeah, she did. Me." Buffy said, feeling awful. Then, "Oh God! You said she's not in her room?" and with that, she shot off the couch and bounded up the stairs.

"Dawn?!" She yelled, moving through the hall.

"Dawnie, are you out there?" Willow called out the front door.

"Dawn?" Buffy said softly into Dawn's room. The window was open. "Oh God." Buffy said to no one in particular, as Willow met her side.

"Buffy, I can help you" Willow said, before being interrupted by the sound of a car horn. "Oh. That's Tara with the taxi. I can… I'll go… I'll go tell her she'll have to look for Xander, you know, without me.

"No Willow." Buffy quickly opposed. "Dawn's a big girl. I have to start acknowledging that. I can't really say the same about Xander, though. She'll be fine. Besides, this isn't a demon kidnapping thing. It's a sister thing. I'll handle it." Buffy finished.

"Well if you're sure Buffy," Willow said, trying to keep the hopeful look from her face.

"Yes Will, I'm sure." Buffy assured. "Now you go have fun, and, um… Find Xander." Buffy said, hugging Willow. Then Willow nodded and headed down the stairs. Buffy watched for a moment before starting her quest to find Dawn's address book. She'd check her friends' houses first. She'd wait to panic until she'd exhausted those possibilities. Then with a sigh and a "What have I done?" She grabbed the phone and dialed.

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Author's Note: This chapter was going to be a lot longer… But I decided I wanted to post a substantial amount of story BEFORE "Entropy" (and I barely succeeded at that). But with two proms, a college visit and AP Exams on the horizon, I didn't have a lot of time to write the rest of this chapter, so I figured I'd just make it short… I'll just make the planned second half of this chapter into chapter 4. Not the end of the world. Mmm. I was going to say something else, but I can't remember what it was.

I won't be seeing "Entropy" until Saturday (St. Louis and their stupid lack of UPN… grumble) so I can live in my happy little world and write more until then.