Chapter Nine



Maria's Apartment

The curtains flapped at the windows the sound would have been soothing had it not been for the state she was in, she huddled further into the corner staring at the phone laid on the floor. thoughts raced through her head he was taking people close to her, she knew it her hand clasped her pendant even harder knuckles white a lone tear left behind from the floods wove a path down her red cheek gathering at her jaw line she swiped at it with her sleeve rubbing the wetness from her cheeks a new resolve settled over her features she wasn't going to let him take Sam he couldn't have him she wasn't going to let him. She repeated it in her mind never Sam, not Sam, she knew the only way was to get away from him, cut all connections so he wouldn't know, but she had only known David for a few hours and he knew..

She raced to her bedroom grabbing the suitcase from the top of the wardrobe she had vowed to herself she would never need it again she knew now that she would always need it. as long as he was around she would never be able to stay in one place for so long. She'd thought he'd had enough, enough of killing her friends her family. she sighed and opened the top drawer she pulled all the clothes from inside piling them into the case she reached for the next drawer pulling it from its rails she tipped its contents into the case. With all the drawers done she tried to close the suitcase she glanced at the clock on the bedside table panic started to set in she didn't want a confrontation with Sam it was best he didn't know where she was going and she couldn't deal with it.

She sat on the case zipping it shut forcing it to close; it just proved that she had gotten to comfortable where she was, she was glad the case had wheels it was a struggle to lift it she had gotten soft lately she needed to get to the gym, get tough again.

She picked the phone up off the floor she pressed the connection on the rest and released it hearing the friendly dial tone ringing she dialled and waited as it rang

"Hi yes, can I order a Taxi please?" she paused as the person at the other end spoke "As soon as possible" she relayed her address and thanked the person, it should get here about half an hour before Sam was due home. it was home she thought and she was having to leave again.

1995

The girl sobbed, tears rolled down her face, she didn't bother to wipe them away as she piled brightly coloured clothes into a rucksack. The glowing clock on the wall read a little after midnight. She pulled her hair back from her face into a rough ponytail, the red shone even in the dim light.

Maria slowly opened the door to her parents' room she could only make out their silhouettes but that was something "Goodbye" she bit her lip to stop herself making to much noise as she closed the door and headed downstairs and out of the house. On her way she passed the mornings paper hidden under the cushion of the sofa, she grabbed it placing it meaningfully on the coffee table, then with one last glance she headed out of the door and into the night.

Sunbeams flooded the kitchen, toast popped up in the toaster and the smell of fresh coffee wafted through the house, "Maria!"

"Kelly." John walked in from the living room the paper clutched in his hand he showed it to her.

"I.we. we hid it." She sat at the breakfast bar

"Apparently not well enough" John sighed, "Which is probably why she's not getting up"

"What should we do?"

"I don't know, it always finds us we have moved so many times yet he always follows sooner or later she's going to have to know the truth."

"He's taken so many." the strain cracked through in her voice, the pressure of keeping the knowledge inside her that for her to have her baby other mothers were losing theirs, 12 a year, always 12 no more and no less, for the first four years of her life it and been one for each year of her life but on her fourth he had made contact made her baby choose. but so many, Kelly knew Maria hadn't known what she was doing she hadn't seen deeper into the 'gift' she hadn't thought anything of a stranger wanting a gift. Kelly knew there was nothing she or John could have done when they had found out about the gift it had been to late, and Maria had already written the names of the twelve. After that year 12 was the death toll every birthday, one a week, 6 before and 6 after the date they had been blessed. and she had been cursed.

"I know. I know, and if we stay in one place too long some one is going to put two and two together and it'll lead them straight to us."

"I'll go and wake her" Kelly poured a cup of coffee into a mug; she smiled at John and went to wake her daughter. John jumped as he heard the mug drop on the floor he ran to the sound to find Kelly collapsed on Maria's bed holding tightly onto a doll left on the bed, which was crease free. "She's gone" she sobbed tears rolling down her face; "She's gone," she pointed to a note on the desk. John went to the desk and lifted the note, his face grim he read it aloud, voice cracking as he did.

"Dear Mom and Dad," he swallowed "I need you to know that I love you both, and that's why I had to go. I don't want you to blame each other. For years now we have moved from place to place away from them. I see Mom breaking a little more every year, every birthday, and every killing spree. Dad too though he hides it better, but you shouldn't have to go through it. So I've decided, I'm leaving don't worry, I know its pointless saying that but don't. I'll be ok I'll find someway to stop the death, one day I promise you I'll be back. I love you both." At that point John lost composure and tears began to stream down his face, Kelly moved towards him and they held each other rocking away the pain, which flooded their senses in droves.



Pylea

Cordelia walked down the street glancing at the goods on sale throughout the entire market, the goods varied from beasts to skins, none of the normal items she was used to. Pylea was so different to L.A. and yet the same, the people were bustling around maybe not with the blind ambition of the L.A. hordes not seeing each other on their way to the top, but still business was fast paced prices changed quickly as sellers and buyers haggled for the best price for their goods, sellers over charging and buyers offering prices way below what the goods were worth eventually though the price levelled out to a fair price between the two and the economy was booming, Cordelia was glad she had brought her wardrobe with her though the lack of wire hangers in Pylea not to mention drycleaners meant many of her clothes were useless unless she wanted them ruined. She tried to keep her mind on things in Pylea but it was hard she missed L.A. she missed Fred and Gunn, and all the cases they had to keep her busy she missed. No! she scowled at herself she was trying to keep her mind off him, off his smiles and. god she was useless she'd come to Pylea to stop the pain of him not loving her but when she'd gotten here she'd realised that it wasn't going to change anything except that she was trying to quit cold turkey, the hardest way of all, but it just wasn't working everything reminded her of him, she would see a tall dark human walking away from her in the street and for a moment she would think. hope it was him, coming to save her from the hell dimension again, but she knew deep down it wouldn't be him it would never be him, and even if it was he'd never be there to tell her what she wanted him to say to her. She turned to look at the street she had come down; she could have sworn she was being followed. She shrugged and started walking again, it would never be her he wanted, it was Buffy he would go back to when he shanshued, she bit her lip she had promised to be there with him until his shanshu, it was her duty as his seer to help him and she had left. It had gotten a little tough and she had bailed, ok so it wasn't the normal tough that brought demons and all sorts of evil into her life it was closer than that and she thought she could handle it, hell she had handled it until that night at the ballet when they had been possessed by the two spirits, she had made light of the situation with Angel at the time and then Groo had turned up when they got back. But she could still remember every moment in his arms his kisses, he'd called her the most beautiful woman he'd ever known and when Groo turned up she had seized the moment, her feelings for him were getting to strong and it would have wrecked their friendship seeing as he didn't feel the same. She could tell that when they'd got back from the ballet he'd tried to brush over the incident, she could tell he just wanted to forget it so when she saw Groo she'd grabbed the chance to make everything the same again between them, back to being best friends without the awkwardness of having to tiptoe around each other in the aftermath of their compromising (to say the least) situation.

Then there was Connor; she'd felt so guilty when she got back from the holiday and he was gone, she should have been there, she blamed both herself for leaving and the powers that be for not warning her, but somehow she knew that it was all part of their messed up plan for Angel and his son, she just wished that their plans would stop causing so much pain. If he was their champion why did they treat him so badly, maybe a miserable champion was better than a happy one. She looked at her surroundings, how had she gotten here, she had just walked and walked and now she was stood outside a cliff like structure. "Might as well explore a little" she sighed Pylea was also a lot more boring than L.A. and she was always hunting for something to do. She crept around a few huge boulders when she spotted a gap in the rocks, "Ok well there's either a huge beast in here or.. well not" so she clambered into the small hole, she gasped "This is either Fred's writing or we got another physics mad wild girl on our hands" she put her hand on the wall reading the writing covering it and every other surface there, she assumed everything was as Fred had left it as she walked around a feeling of admiration for the young woman grew in her chest, managing in there conditions for five years. there was a time when she couldn't have survived L.A. until Angel found her. She sat on some blankets piled on the floor, she felt so tired since she had arrived in Pylea the visions had plagued her nights, and her thoughts were filled with them during the day questions she didn't know the answers to worried her.why was she still getting visions of L.A. last time she was here her visions were of Pylea not L.A. but this time they were all L.A., she stretched and yawned laying down on the blankets, the smell was musty but somehow comforting. she reached for a smaller blanket holding it to her chest rather than covering herself with it. the thoughts left her mind quickly as she drifted into a deep sleep.