SECOND
CHANCE
NOTE: I own none of the Scooby gang because they belong to mean old Joss.
A/N: I'd like to say thank you to everyone for the reviews that I've gotten so far. I have a plot planned out for this story but if you have any suggestions or requests then I might fill them in.
CHAPTER 10
Autumn waited until past ten thirty that Saturday night. She took hold of the stake that she had forgotten to return to Maggie the previous night and made her way down to the front door. Before Autumn could get the door open she felt a hand on her shoulder that made her turn around quickly in fear. It was only Jeff.
Autumn sighed with relief. "What are you doing?"
"Going with you," Jeff replied simply, his dark green eyes sort of flashing in the darkness.
"You don't even know where I'm going," Autumn reminded him.
"I don't care. Mom and Dad are probably gonna start the fighting again and I don't feel like it," said Jeff. "So, lucky you, I'm tagging along."
"Oh, no, you're not," Autumn told him, trying to be firm over her older brother.
"It's cute the way you try to act all high and mighty," Jeff smirked. "So where're we goin'?"
Autumn glared at him for a minute then surrendered. "We are going to a cemetery. You game?"
Jeff shrugged. "I prefer the living dead over our parents any day."
Dawn stood outside of Maggie's front porch, pacing a little. Maggie sat on her front steps, shakily eating a large powdered donut. Dawn looked Maggie over. The blonde looked just a little batty in the head with the way her hands were shaking as she ate.
"Maggie, you OK?" Dawn asked.
Maggie nodded vigorously. "The night's air is just a tad chilly, that's all. It makes me jumpy."
Dawn looked down to street to see Autumn and Jeff running up.
"Hey," Autumn greeted, jogging up to Dawn. "Ready?"
"Yeah, sure." Dawn peered behind Autumn at the tall, raven-haired boy behind her, his green eyes still flashed like a cat's in the night. "So... who's he?"
Autumn looked behind her and scowled. "An annoyance known as Jeff. He's my older brother."
Jeff pushed Maggie aside and held out a hand to Dawn. "It's a pleasure."
The brunette girl took his hand with a smile.
Autumn and Maggie exchanged a glance.
Maggie went over to Jeff, just finishing off her donut. "Hi, I'm Maggie."
"Hey," Jeff greeted, not even looking at Maggie, his eyes fixed on Dawn.
Dawn kept smiling at him.
"This is all a nice introduction but, Jeff, we don't have enough stakes for an extra person," Autumn said to the boy, a way of saying she wanted him gone.
Dawn pulled one out of each of her pockets. "Always prepared." She handed a stake to Jeff.
Autumn felt like staking Dawn right then and there. "Ready?" the red head asked the small group.
"Sure," replied a frenzied Maggie.
"Born ready." Jeff snickered a little. "Almighty Slayer."
Autumn glowered at him.
"Ready, Autumn," said Dawn, trying to keep the peace a little.
Autumn nodded and headed off to the cemetery, Maggie walking right next to her. Dawn and Jeff hung back a little, talking as they walked. Maggie glanced back at the two tall teens. Why were they grinning so much? It was kind of appalling.
"So why did you tell your brother?" Maggie asked Autumn.
"Had to," Autumn replied simply. "He actually believed the whole slayer thing, too. Weird."
Maggie smirked a little. "Catches on faster than you I see." Autumn gave her a look. "Oh, sorry, the sugar."
"So you're Autumn's big brother? Are you sarcastic?" Dawn asked.
"Sometimes," Jeff shrugged. "But, unlike my sis, I'm realistic."
"Which means?"
"I've always believed... stuff was out there. Autumn always had trouble excepting facts so there's no way she believes in fiction. I do."
"So when you found out she was a Slayer...?" Dawn trailed off allowing him to fill in the blanks.
"Believable," Jeff filled in. "Just believable."
Dawn gave him a sweet look. "My sister's a Slayer, too. But she died before the summer and was brought back to life by her friend, who is a witch. Since Buffy died Autumn became a Slayer." Dawn expected Jeff to have a load of questions.
"Reincarnation?" Dawn nodded. Jeff smirked. "That's always fun."
Dawn nodded again, impressed by his lack of keenness.
The foursome finally reached the cemetery, which was, once again, dark and sort of murky. Autumn turned to Jeff and Dawn who hadn't really noticed that they had stepped into the graveyard.
"In case you guys were wondering," Autumn spoke up. "We're in the land of the dead now. All right? Just wanted to share."
Jeff looked around their surroundings. "Nice," he said merely.
"Been here," Dawn added. She and Jeff turned their attention back to each other.
Maggie looked at Autumn, hoping she wasn't too annoyed.
Autumn started. "Let's just—" She felt Maggie topple over on top of her. "... Do this."
"Someone pushed me," Maggie told the red head.
"That!" Jeff exclaimed, pointing at a long fanged vampire. "Damn, not exactly Dracula."
Autumn got out from under Maggie and began to approach the dead creature, stake in hand. "You know I hate it when freaks try to ruin my night." She thought about something. "All right, that sounded really corny."
She shot out her hand, attempting to give the vampire a good stab, but he caught her wrist. Autumn kicked him in the lower abdomen, causing him to release her. Autumn threw several swift punches at the vampire's face, each one going harder. When Autumn went for a kick the vampire grabbed her foot and tossed her down.
"Autumn!" Jeff cried.
"I'm good," Autumn told her brother, sitting up. The vampire was gone. "Where'd it—?"
Dawn shrieked, feeling the vampire give her a tight embrace from the back. Jeff actually managed to grab hold of the living dead being, making him release Dawn. The vampire turned his attack around and clouted Jeff in the face, hard. Jeff fell to the ground, clutching his face. Dawn tried to kneel to him but the vampire took hold of her again.
Autumn tried to go to Dawn but heard another scream and saw Maggie being attacked by a female vamp. This was not working out very well.
"I'm coming. I'm coming," Buffy kept saying to her ringing doorbell. She slowly opened it. "Do not let it be Wes- Giles."
Giles moved passed Buffy into the house. "Have you seen her? She isn't in her room. I can't find her."
"Giles, who?" Buffy asked.
"I don't know what could have happened. I thought she was in bed," Giles continued to rant.
"Who?" Buffy asked again louder.
"Margaret," Giles finally replied. "She's disappeared."
"Disappeared?" Buffy echoed. "Oh, my God..."
"Do you think I should call the police?" Giles asked her.
"Wait. Hold on." Buffy headed for the stairs. "Maybe Dawn's seen her." Giles nodded and Buffy headed up. She came down a couple minutes later. "One problem with that theory."
"What is it?" the Englishman asked.
"Dawn's gone, too," Buffy replied, trying to cover her obvious worry.
Autumn staked the vampire that continued to go on Maggie. "You OK, Maggie?"
"Here comes another one," was all Maggie said.
"Where? I don't see—" A male vampire jumped down from out of nowhere. "I'm sick of these things cutting me off."
"Jeff!" Dawn yelled down to the boy as the vampire who had been assaulting her kept trying to bite her.
Jeff got back up, a little blood on his face from the punch he had received. The dark haired boy tried to use the stake but the vampire knocked it out of his hand. Then it knocked Jeff back down and threw Dawn as well. She landed on top of Jeff, groaning, then looked down and saw his green eyes. Jeff groaned as well but looked to see who was on top of him.
"Oh. I... uh..." Jeff began to stutter. He gasped when the vampire that had been on them started to advance on them. "Dawn, move!" Jeff suddenly tossed the brown haired girl off of him.
Dawn rolled off. "Whoa, Jeff!"
Jeff reached out and quickly grabbed the stake he had dropped, actually managing to kick the opposing vampire in the stomach, distracting him a little. Jeff jammed the stake into the vampire, getting him by pure luck, and melting him into dust. Jeff sighed with relief and quickly went over to Dawn, helping her up.
Autumn and Maggie had no time to offer help to their two companions. Maggie suddenly rushed out and tackled their vampire down, sending them both to the ground. Autumn gasped. Was the British girl insane?
"Autumn, quick! The stake!" Maggie shouted.
Autumn saw the stake in her hand. "Right!"
Before Autumn could make it over to the vampire's heart it grabbed hold of Maggie's throat and started choking her a little. Autumn couldn't believe it as another couple of vampires showed up. The one holding Maggie banged the back of her head down on the floor and continued banging it down. Blood slowly leaked from her blonde head.
"Autumn, quick!" Dawn yelled as one of the vampires came upon her and Jeff.
Autumn looked at the vampire that was coming closer to her, then the one coming upon Dawn and Jeff, and the one that was brutally attacking Maggie. What was she supposed to do?
Giles drove down towards the cemetery. Buffy, Spike, and Wesley were all in his car. Buffy drove up front and the other two Brits sat in the back.
"So let's go over this again," said Spike. "Goldilocks, the bit, and Copper curls Slayer have all disappeared? And I've been dragged along for the ride?"
"For the third time, Spike, yes!" Buffy shouted. "Dawn is so dead."
"Wait until I get my hands on Margaret," Giles muttered.
"I'm going to kill that little red headed brat," Wesley grumbled, his head resting in his hand. "Going to kill her so much."
"Well, then who can I kill?" Spike asked.
The car ignored him.
A/N: This chapter would have been better if I wasn't in a hurry. Shame on me again, right? Well, better next time, all right? Please review.