CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE: BUFFY (II)
Thursday: 10am15th July 1999
California: Sunnydale
"Doesn't that hurt?" Jay asked idly.
Buffy looked up tiredly. "Hmm?"
He pointed to the tattoo on her lower back. "The tat. Doesn't it hurt?"
She shrugged. "Not anymore. Ethan and Giles wanted me to get it removed, but…I dunno. I kinda like it."
"It does look wicked cool," Faith added.
The group was sprawled across blankets and towels on the beach, soaking up the sun. Oz, Xander, Dawn and Willow were rough-housing in the water whilst Buffy, Jay, Faith and Tara were sun-bathing.
"W-what does th-the symbol mean?" Tara asked shyly.
"It's called the Mark of Eyghon," Buffy explained. "It's worn by the people in the Order of Ehygon. Basically they're a bunch of demon worshippers who invoke the demon Eyghon to uh…"
She stopped suddenly and blushed. Faith grinned, instinctively knowing what Buffy has been about to say.
"To what?" Jay asked, interested.
"Well…they'd induce possession for uh…well, for orgies basically," Buffy said.
Jay looked at his sister in shock.
"And you want to keep the tattoo?"
She rolled her eyes. "I'm not about to induce possession, Jayden Andrew Summers-Stanton."
"Why not Beth Anne Summers?" Jay replied snarkily.
Tara looked between the two. If she hadn't known that they were related, she would have thought they were flirting. The casual banter and the extreme comfortableness was very obvious.
"You uh…still haven't ex-explained about the t-two of you," Tara said.
"Oh. Right. Well, long story short, we're twins, but we were separated when we were little. I was raised in England, and Jay stayed here in California," Buffy said. "Hence the accent difference. And as for the surnames, Jay took Tim's surname when Tim and Mom got married. I'm still happily a Summers."
Tara nodded. The explanation was fairly vague, but good enough for now.
"I've still got Summers in there, Buffy," Jay said defensively. "It's just hyphenated with Stanton. And not to blow my own horn, but my name's better than yours."
Buffy just rolled her eyes and grabbed Jay's can of drink, her twin protesting loudly when she took a sip. He reclaimed the can and turned to look at Faith.
"You wanna swim yet?" Jay whined.
Faith rolled her eyes. "You have far too much energy," she complained. She let him pull her up though and they ran down the beach towards the other four, leaving Tara and Buffy to lie in the sun.
"So, what about you?" Buffy asked. "Did you grow up in Sunnydale?"
Tara shook her head. "N-no. I j-just moved here. So I could s-settle in before college."
"Oo, college. Scary stuff," Buffy said with a grin. "UC Sunnydale?"
Tara nodded. "You're n-not going to college?"
"Nup. I didn't go to high school, and…well, I have other…commitments."
"Like w-what I s-saw the other n-night?"
Buffy nodded. "Pretty much. That's why I was taken to England. So I could be trained to do what I do."
"Why you?"
Buffy looked at her new friend and saw the actual interest in the girl's eyes.
"I'm a Slayer. A Vampire Slayer if you wanna be technical," she explained.
"V-vampires?"
Buffy nodded. She couldn't remember a time when she didn't believe in the creatures that roamed the earth looking to destroy it. She'd been brought up knowing about vampires and demons, and had learnt the effective ways to kill certain demons. The knowledge had certainly come in handy on the hellmouth.
"Yup. Vampires, demons, zombies, werewolves, incubi, succubi, everything you've ever dreaded was under your bed, but told yourself couldn't be by the light of day. They're all real," Buffy said. She could remember those details being drilled into her.
"A-and Slayers. W-what are they?"
"Into each generation a Slayer is born. One girl in all the world, the Chosen One, one born with the strength and skill to hunt the vampires, to stop the spread of their evil ranks of darkness and terror," Buffy recited. "A warrior for the Powers that Be."
"Wow," Tara said quietly.
Buffy nodded slowly and turned over onto her stomach, being careful not to lay too much weight on the middle of her back.
"Is it…scary?" Tara asked.
"Sometimes," Buffy replied.
"And y-you're mom. What d-does she think?"
"Mom doesn't actually know," Buffy said. "Jay does. And so do Dawn and Tim, but…we've kinda kept it from mom for the last year and a half. We've had a couple of close calls, but…I don't want her to know."
"Why not?"
"She'd feel guilty," Buffy said simply. "She'd think it was her fault even though it wasn't. It's no one's fault. It was going to happen."
"And y-you've been the Slayer for a year?"
"Closer to three actually," Buffy replied. "I came to Sunnydale at the end of…'97. It took a while to work out that we were related, but…it's been nice. Getting to know everyone again. It's been great."
She went to say more, but cast a glance towards the rest of the group. They seemed to be all hovering in one spot, several of them on their hands and knees looking in the sand for something. Buffy pointed down the beach and both the Slayer and Tara stood up.
"What's up guys?" Buffy asked.
Jay looked up at his sister, putting his hand up to shield his eyes from the sun.
"Willow lost her keys," Jay said.
"Good luck to us finding it," Xander said. "It's like looking for a needle in a haystack."
"You're not looking for a needle," Jay replied. "You're looking for a key."
Buffy's eyes went wide.
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Thursday: 5pm15th July 1999
California: Sunnydale
Buffy walked into the apartment, rubbing her eyes tiredly. The day on the beach had taken a lot out of her, and all she really wanted to do was sleep until she couldn't sleep anymore.
"Buffy," Giles greeted from the kitchen. "How was the beach?"
"Good," she replied. "I think I mighta got a little burnt though."
"I told you to wear sunscreen," he chided gently.
"Yeah, yeah, precaution guy. It's alright. I didn't get the tattoo burnt, so no major dramas. Plus, Slayer healing."
Giles stiffened at the mention of the tattoo, but didn't say anything more about her burns.
"I think I may have found something about your dream," Giles said.
Buffy looked up with interest. "Yeah? Cos I think I may have something as well."
"Really?"
"It was…really weird," Buffy said vaguely.
"What was?"
"Well…we were on the beach. And Willow lost her keys, and the Gang was looking for them. And Xander commented that it was like looking for a needle in a haystack. And Jay stopped and told Xander that he wasn't looking for a needle, he was looking for a key," Buffy explained.
"And that's what the boy in your dream keeps saying," Giles said.
Buffy nodded.
"I know it sounds strange, but…I think Jay is the guy that I keep dreaming about," Buffy said. "Lately the boy's looked a lot like him. But I never really realised it until he said that thing about the key today."
Giles sat down thoughtfully.
"Why wouldn't you have recognised him earlier, I wonder."
Buffy shrugged and sat herself beside him, shifting her weight to not aggravate her slightly burnt legs.
"What did you find?" Buffy asked.
"Oh. Uh…possibly what your dream is based upon," Giles said. He handed her a book which she took doubtfully.
"Fairy Tales and Nursery Rhymes? Didn't we already cover this with the whole Gentlemen thing?" she asked.
"Just read it," he said.
Buffy opened the book to a book-marked page and read it aloud.
"Little boy Blue come blow your horn
The sheep are in the meadow, the cows are in the corn
Where's the boy who looks after the sheep
He's under the haystack fast asleep."
She looked up at him, surprise in her eyes. "That's exactly it. This is my dream. With the sheep and the cows and the rustling from under the haystacks. And he said his name was Blue."
Giles nodded. "I was reading through it this afternoon and this particular rhyme caught my attention."
Buffy read over it again. At least now she had a point of reference. It was more than she'd had the day before.
"There's still the whole key thing. And the number twelve thing as well," Buffy said.
"Days, hours and years were the three time periods that he specified, yes?"
Buffy nodded.
"Anything significant about those three time frames?" he asked.
Buffy shook her head, unable to think of anything.
"Well…I suppose in time more will be revealed. These things usually take care of themselves," he said.
"A higher power guiding us," Buffy mused quietly.
"Hmmm?"
"That was in my dream," Buffy said.
"What was?"
"What you just said. About things taking care of themselves," she explained.
Giles looked vaguely disturbed. If Buffy's dreams were beginning to play out in real life, it could only mean one thing. Something was coming. Something big.
Hey ppl,
My apologies for not updating this sooner. Just got back online, which is always a good thing. To JC, even though you won't read up to here, BLAH TO YOU TO!! *grins*
Thanks to everyone for your feedback! Always always always good to hear from ppl!
Toodles.
K.