Part 26


****


On arriving at the old High School, Liam Angelus jumped from his car and sprinted across the grass as if the devil himself was after his soul. The school grounds looked completely deserted and, in the ghostly darkness that covered the main building, he could just about make out which direction he needed to follow.

The gymnasium was the first building he came across, the derilect shell was a chilling reminder of how unsafe the whole damn campus was. He Skirting around the outside of a building destined to soon be demolished, Liam shook his head and pushed aside the tiny gnaw of apprehension warning him that there was something seriously wrong with this picture. He didn't have time to listen to warnings.

Moving closer to the main building, he took a deep breath but it did nothing to dispel the tension that was knotting his stomach. It was only after he entered the quad and stopped running that he allowed his secretary's earlier words to slice through his thoughts.

**The caller said it was a matter of life and death**

**William Pennington**

**You need to meet him at the old High School right away**

Liam scanned as far as the eye could see but there was still no sign of Pennington anywhere. For a moment he wondered if he had read the instructions wrong but on second thought, he was sure he hadn't.

The message had been garbled at best but somehow he had managed to get the gist of it. Buffy was in trouble and that bastard Englishman was once again involved. There would be no second chances this time. Liam vowed that when he finally got his hands on the devious poet in question, William Pennington was going to wish that he'd never set foot on American soil.

**And if he's laid so much as a finger on my wife I'll make sure he's buried under American soil for the rest of eternity** Liam silently raged while trying to push back the panic that continued to multiply every second that Buffy was still missing,

**Where the hell was she**

Tired of waiting around Liam cupped his hands to his mouth a shouted deep into the night

"BUFFY?"

**Buffy**

Frustratingly, the empty echo of her name was all that returned to him. Liam's eyes narrowed. He felt as if he was suddenly caught up in a sick game of cat and mouse and at that very second, he was the prey. Somewhere out there in the shadows Pennington was mocking him, pushing him just far enough to see if he would snap.

**Oh, he'll see me snap alright, I'll snap his scrawny, wife-stealing neck.**

"William, you fucking son of a..... " He never got a chance to finish the curse as the angry words died in his throat.

Standing in the middle of the quad, the stillness of the night was violently interrupted by the sound of exploding glass. A shock of orange fury licked at the upper windows of the main building, reaching through the shutters as they sucked in the cool night air.

**The caller said it was a matter of life and death**

"BUFFY"

Liam felt his heart rate double as he sprinted for the nearest entrance.

On reaching the front of the school, to his horror, he found that all the main doors were not only locked, but also bolted. Liam's eyes quickly scanned the rusted padlock and the worn wood that framed the door and without a second's hesitation, he used his shoulder as a battering ram and lunged the obstruction. The sound of bone connecting with wood gave a sickening crack but, much to his relief, the elderly door gave way.

Ignoring the pain shooting through his right arm, Liam crashed into the school hallway. Immediately, tendrils of rich smoke swirled in the air towards him. The fire, wherever it had started, was now roaring out of control but Liam knew that at this distance the smoke was more of a danger than the flames. Knowing that breathing would soon become an issue, he ripped off his jacket and using it as a makeshift mask, he held it across his nose and mouth. Without so much as another thought, his long legs moved swiftly on into its hot embrace.

*****


Meanwhile


William was already inside the burning building. The fire escape on the far side of the school had been the easiest option after seeing the chained front entrance. Frantic with worry over his sister's actions and Buffy's safety, the poet hadn't given Liam a second thought after making the phone call. Running all the way over to the high school he had tried to put Dare's crazy actions into perspective but as soon as his lean body squeezed its way through a conveniently broken window, the reality along with the smell of burning hit him. She really had done it this time. Drama had crossed the line by a mile and no matter which way you looked at things, there was simply no going back from this disaster. Whatever he did that night it wouldn't make a shred of difference. He and Drama were both seriously screwed.

Stumbling blindly through the darkness, Will clutched at his chest and coughed bitterly as the heat and smoke jointly attacked him. Fighting back the bile in his throat, he forced himself to think clearly. As his feet carried him forward, his fear filled mind mapped out an escape route the best way he could.

Escaping when you knew where you were going was hard enough but in dark, smoke filled, corridors of a school he had never attended, it looked almost impossible.

"Buffy?"

"Drama?"

William tried to shout out for the two missing women but as the words left his lips, the smoke smothered the sound of his voice. He then moved blindly along the hallways cursing the unfamiliar surroundings as he tripped and stumbled time after time. **Even if the smoke didn't get him, at this rate, he was sure to break his neck**

When two large wooden doors blocked his path, Will pressed his palms against the solid wood. The cool response against his fingers was both reassuring and terrifying. The coolness of the barrier meant William hadn't reached the fire yet but it also meant that he still hadn't found Buffy or Darla.

Strong feelings of self preservation told him to go back, call it a day and get out of Sunnydale as fast as he could. But he couldn't. He had no choice now but to go deeper, much deeper, if he was ever going to find them and save his ass.

At the thought of walking into a raging inferno, blood thundered in his ears and his erratic heartbeat, pounded hard enough to break his chest.

** What if she's already dead**

**No, you stupid moron**

William swept the thought of Buffy's death from his mind and pushed open the doors. Holding them back with his foot, his hands groped through the haze until he found something solid enough to wedge at least one of them open. Little by little his escape route was taking form.

Now all he had to do was stay alive long enough to use it.

****


Library


Trapped. Buffy screamed as the exit she was trying to move towards became engulfed in a wall of torrid flame. With every part of the room carefully soaked in gasoline she knew that her chances of survival were fading fast. Watching in horror, she stood spellbound as the fire danced over every wooden surface. It's red and golden flames crackling and hissing as they all merged together, making the room one enormous mass of heat.

Begrudgingly, Buffy had to give Darla her due. Darla Penn might be a manipulative, crazy, evil bitch but she had planned this murder to perfection. When the fires burnt down there would be nothing left in the ash but.. Ash

Buffy trembled at the thought. All around her the room was glowing and the unbearable temperature was increasing by the second.

**Please God, I don't want to be ash**

Backing into a free corner, the frightened young woman tried desperately to calm the racing beat of heart, as she faced her own death, but she failed miserably. Not wanting to be alone she closed her eyes and scanned through her memory for a picture to meet her maker with. Liam's face was there in a heartbeat.

**I'll always come to your rescue**

She closed her eyes as she remembered his promise of long ago.

"Well, honey. Now would be a really good time" As soon as the words left her lips Buffy wished them back. This was the last place on earth that she wanted Angel to be in. This building was now a death trap and no one should die like that.

**No one except Darla**

Buffy wrapped her arms around her small frame and trembled, feeling death's heat blistering at her skin, she clung to that image and cursed Darla Penn's soul to damnation.

******

A few minutes away.


Liam stumbled on the main source of the fire almost by accident. Lost in the dark hallways that all seemed the same, he turned left at one point instead of going straight on and found a staircase leading to a second level.

The heat was unbearable and as he approached the blazing library every particle of common sense he had ever known pleaded with him to turn back.

**Not without my wife**

"Buffy"

Pulling down his makeshift mask he shouted as loud as his tinder dry throat would allow but even before the sound left his lips he knew that it was pointless. The noise of glass exploding easily blocked out the sound of his voice. Raising his hands to his face he tried to shield his eyes from the heat, all the while desperately looking for a sign of where to search next.

Liam turned, and just as he was about to backtrack, fate changed the rules one more time.

It was very muffled but the sound of a female scream drifted over the roar of the fire and stopped him dead in his tracks.

Liam turned back. One hard kick was all it took for the door to cave in.

Head down, determination fixed to his face, he lunged through a pocket in the blaze, quickly closing the distance that separated him and his love.

For a brief moment Buffy stared in wide-eyed shock.

"Angel?... Oh, God, Angel" Sobbing out her relief, she buried her face in his shoulder and clung to on him.

"Darla, it was Darla" No longer able to keep her emotions in reign, she cried out her frustration into the thin material of his shirt.

Liam pulled away. As much as he wanted to hold her and never let her go, this simply wasn't the time or the place. All around them the room was disintegrating, sending showers of scorching cinders in every direction.

"We need to get out of here fast.

Not giving her time to think, Liam snatched Buffy's small hand between his large fingers and gripping on for dear life, he pulled her back through the closing air pocket.

As the flames licked at their heels, there wasn't time for a prayer, but if there had been, both would have made it as they crashed through what was left of the library door and out into the hallway.

*****


In the darkness and the smoke, the school was a maze of endless walkways that seemed to go on forever. A few seconds felt like hours and as the smoke grew and the air thinned, all hopes of ever seeing another sunrise started to fade away.

"I.. Can't...Breathe"

Exhausted from the heat, loss of blood, and overcome with the smoke, Buffy finally sagged to her knees. Her head was pounding from Darla's assault and her lungs felt as if they were going to implode.

Liam stopped and turned back, his worried brown eyes reaching her through the smoke. His skin was covered in sweat and, raising his hand, he wiped away the tiny beads rolling across his forehead.

"Leave me. Please, Angel, just leave me and go" Gasping for breath, Buffy choked as the thick toxic smoke attacked the lining of her lungs once again. A swirling wave of dizziness washed over her body and for a moment it left her light headed and disorientated.

She felt her insides lurch and when a wave of nausea rose up from her stomach Buffy bent over. Resting her hands on her thighs for support, she violently heaved, but to no avail, there simply wasn't anything left inside of her to come up. When she finally found the strength she needed to lift her head, her tired eyes streamed with tears, as the deadly smoke poisoning her body started to close down her system.

Not able to find a quick way-out through the ever-increasing fumes, Buffy was slowly dying on her feet and as much as Angel wanted to deny it, he knew that they had both come to the same realisation.

They were just going around in circles. It was now only a matter of what evil took them first. The smoke or the fire.

Buffy took a small step forward.

"I love you, Angel. I just wanted you to know that"

As the words slipped over her lips she started coughing again. In all the madness that was going on around them Buffy suddenly needed for Angel to know what was in her mind and more importantly, what was in her heart.

**She remembered him. She remembered every little detail of their life together and although dying wasn't her first choice for the day, Buffy would carry those regained memories in her heart where ever she was taken**

Angel meant the whole world to her. He had and always would be the only love of her life. It no longer mattered what happened that night, as long as her husband survived, Buffy knew that her soul would live on inside of him. She might not make it out but she was determined that he would.

For a second she saw a flicker of despair in his dark eyes but it was quickly hidden.

"Go. You can get help and..."

"Buffy.. No. " Liam angrily shook his head. He could feel the poisonous fumes attacking his own body but he was determined to get them both out alive. He couldn't lose her. No! He wouldn't lose her. Not again! Not like this. It was too fucking unfair to put them both through so much and then rip them apart forever.

At her pained expression his dark brown orbs softened as if trying to relay one thing and yet say another.

"Come on, we have to get out of here before the whole lot comes down on our heads" He reached out, and entwined his fingers tightly through hers.

Drawing renewed strength from the love she saw shining in his eyes, Buffy nodded. Without another word of giving up, they both took off through the smoke.


*****


On a different level


Just as lost as Buffy and Angel, William found himself in what was once the school cafeteria. Although it hadn't been completely renovated, it was obvious that the workmen had set up their own supplies there and he wasted no time in finding a bottle of drinking water abandoned on the table. Ripping the cap off he downed the liquid in one go, quenching his thirst and cooling the burning in his raw throat.

Taking a deep breath, that didn't immediately choke him, he realised with shock that the smoke was much thinner here. Somehow in the darkness he had completely lost direction and much to his dismay, he was now heading in the wrong direction. Away from the fire.

Ahead of him a forgotten window flapped open and just outside was the promise of old age.

"Can this day possibly get any worse?"

William dropped the bottle he was holding to the floor and with a frustrating sigh; he turned back into the school.

Sadly, at that very moment, Will wasn't the only one making mistakes.


*****


In a much hotter part of the school.


"This way"

As Buffy and Liam turned the corner, a sea of flames shot out from a side classroom and completely blocked the path forward.

Liam came to a screeching halt and turned. All around them the hallway was now burning from top to bottom.

"We have to go back"

Buffy's eyes widened in horror as their escape route was closed off. Her last thread of hope dangled, twisted and finally snapped.

"I can't, " she pleaded, her tired voice hoarse and breathless. Blood poured down the side of her face from her re-opened head wound and her legs threatened to go on strike.

Keeping a cool head Liam tried to catch his own breath.

"It looks like there's more than one fire now. We have to keep moving, Buffy, before we get cut off completely. It can't be much further now," he shouted, his heart pounding so hard that he was in danger of cracking a rib. He too was having serious difficulty breathing now and he knew that if they stopped for even a second they might as well lay down and wait for the grim reaper to catch them. The fire was already on their tails and at this rate; it was closing in faster than he could drag them. Not that he would ever tell Buffy.

Refusing to lay down and die like a scared animal, Liam ignored her plea for a few more seconds and grabbing Buffy's hand one final time, he pulled her back in the direction they had just come.

Thick smoke followed their every move.

"Left or right?" Liam's eyes looked up in despair. In the darkness every turning looked the same. They seemed to be still going around in circles.

"I think that's Snyders old office." Buffy gasped the words through her hand as a memory of her old headmaster surfaced through the smoke. The door to the office was locked but not for long. One hard kick and the hinges splintered right off the frame.

Buffy and Liam both headed through the open doorway, only to discover to their horror, that the fire had already beaten them there. With a sickening splinter of timbers, the floor gave way, disintegrating under their joint weight.

"Angel"

Buffy's last coherent thought as her body twisted and fell from the room above, was for her husband and the future they would now never share.


*****


"BUFFY!" Liam screamed and watched in horror as his wife lay deadly still on the floor below

He lowered himself over the edge of the splintered floor and hanging from one hand he awkwardly dropped down into the wreckage below.

His body went down like a dead weight. Liam cried out in agony as his already damaged shoulder took the full impact of his actions. Pushing down the pain, he rolled across the floor, blindly searching for Buffy. He reached her in less than a second but just as he started to check for a pulse, the room above rumbled and shook. Liam lifted his head and was just in time to see the rest of the ceiling cave in on top of them. Without a thought for his own safety, he threw his body at the small girl in front of him, pushing her out of the way and taking the full force of the falling debris.


*****


Meanwhile

Even through the noise of the fire, William heard Buffy cry as she fell.

Returning from the cafeteria, he had wisely decided to stay on the lower level and pass underneath the fire, rather than try and fight his way through it. The heat was suffocating, he was exhausted, but hearing the sound of Buffy falling sent him running with pure terror. William's legs had never moved so fast as he crashed blindly through the darkness.


******
Buffy and Liam both appeared to be unconscious when William finally found where the floor above had collapsed. Buffy's small frame lay twisted in a painfully unnatural heap, while Liam was pinned beneath part of the collapsed ceiling. Above, the roar of the fire moved ever closer.

Dropping to his knees, William's heart raced as he studied the two lifeless forms. He crawled over to Buffy first and talking her small, seemingly, lifeless body in his arms he tried bringing her around by slapping her face.

"Come on, love. Don't do this to me" William's open palm smacked against the smoke covered cheek, but no matter how hard he tried, Buffy made no response at all.

"I'm so sorry. I should never have let this happen" his pained voice started to crack but Will knew he couldn't allow himself to fall apart now. Although he hadn't set out to kill anybody he was definitely guilty by association and, in the middle of what looked like hell on earth, he promised himself that he would make amends to her even if it were the last thing he ever did.

Lowering his ear to Buffy's chest he sighed in relief at the faint beat of her heart.

Reluctantly releasing Buffy from his arms, William turned his attention to Liam, who, in obvious pain, was slipping in and out of consciousness.

William looked up, and knew the sky above; a mass of orange liquid death would soon be falling.

As tiny fires started to burst into life all around him, he knew time was running out fast. William needed to make a decision, and he needed to do it now.


*****


With the aid of the air-conditioning vents, new fires were now breaking out all over the school.

Darla's plan worked well. Too well. Soaking the halls all around the library had seemed like a great idea when she was pouring the gasoline onto the floor, but with hindsight, maybe she shouldn't have gone quite so far. Running along the dark hallways she cursed bitterly as she realised that she was now somehow on wrong side of the fire.

On arriving at what she had believed was her exit, she found the door heavily locked. Still trapped inside her own fire, Darla kicked at the door in temper and then almost growled as the heel of her designer shoe snapped clean off.

"Shit" She swore.

The shoe was ruined and as tentacles of smoke curled along the hallway behind her, she realised that maybe arson wasn't such a good idea after all
Darla took a deep breath and her body shook with rage and frustration.

"I knew I should have just drowned the fucking bitch in the school pool"

****


TBC... Coming very, very, soon :)