Chapter 13
Woah. this is going to be a pretty long chapter. Okay, on second thought, I'm not changing it to be rated 'R', why? Because I don't have any really crude sexual thing in this story, it might seem a little gory. I mean, if they had a PG-15, this would definitely fit right in. But it doesn't. Besides, which kid who is 13 hasn't heard of people committing suicide? And I've seen some action movies with some pretty gruesome fighting scenes that were only PG-13. beside, I think it's relative. You can't really decide how mature a 13 year old is. As, for me? I'm 18 and I'll never be mature. It ain't going to happen. I'll still be watching stupid cartoons when I'm 60. Go me!
Darn it! I realized that everything I have italicized in my Word document doesn't show up italicized on fanfiction.net . sigh. okay, I guess I'll have to find another way to show different passages. Here:
Passages that happen in Spike's mind: *** blah blah bleh ***
REALLY DARK STORY! IF YOU'RE DEPRESSED AT THE MOMENT WAIT UNTIL LATER TO READ.
~~~
William dashed into the hotel and the first thing he saw was Dawn lying at the bottom of the stairs with Cordy leaning over her. Cordy looked panicked as she kept lightly shaking Dawn and calling out her name.
Cordy's looked immensely worried as she said Dawn's name, "Dawn? Dawnie, are you okay? Wake up please!"
William hurried over to where Cordy was, "Cordy! Here, I'll take over and see what I can do."
Cordy stood up from her spot and allowed William to crouch down next to Dawn. He bent over to check Dawns pulse, relieved that it was beating sturdily. Unknown to him Cordy pulled a syringe out of her pocket and uncapped it. As William leaned down to check Dawn's breathing, he felt a sharp prick in his shoulder and something being injected into him. William gasped as his vision began to blur. He splayed his hands out on both sides of him to keep himself up.
To his surprise Dawn suddenly opened her eyes and began to back away from him.
"Dawn?" He asked in a slightly betrayed tone. Then he turned around to face Cordy, who was still holding the syringe.
"Why?" He asked and then collapsed as the world blacked out.
~~~
Buffy, Angel and the others came out of their hiding places. Buffy did a few tests to make sure William was unconscious, then she nodded to the others indicating that it was okay to move him into the room that they had prepared.
After they finally set his body in the middle of the floor in one of the rooms, Lucifer reappeared and watched them work. Dawn placed large red candles around William's prone figure; Anya used some magical blue dust and made a circle around him. Then Giles sat to the right of William and got ready to do the ceremony. During this time, Xander had gone out to drop Tommy off at Wesley's friend's house.
Buffy turned to Lucifer, "Okay, we purge this hell god out of Spike's body and you take it and leave."
Lucifer nodded, "Yeah, yeah. Just get on with it."
Xander returned soon enough, just as Giles took some feathers out of a leather bag and placed them around the bowl in front of him, then he sprinkled some ashes into the bowl and he muttered a few Latin words.
Suddenly, William's eyes snapped open. Fred screamed and jumped into Gunn's arms. Giles back up a little in fear.
"H-he can't do that, that sleeping potion was suppose to last for at least 24 hours. We just injected it into him 15 minutes ago." Giles told the group.
William's eyes were completely violet this time instead of a slight bluish- violet color tint that the others had seen before. He looked over at Giles with a wild look and spoke.
"You can't do this, you'll kill him."
Buffy yelled back, "You're the one that's killing him!"
"No, I'm the only thing keeping him safe. You'll destroy him, you don't understand!"
Angel glared at William, "We can't trust a YOU. Hurry Giles, finish the spell!"
"Wait! You can't handle him, what he's become! He's insane! He won't be able to handle it. You broke him! Don't do this! I beg you, don't do this! IT will kill him!"
Willow worriedly looked over at Buffy, "What do we do? What if we'll really hurt Spike?"
Buffy whispered back to Willow, "Anything is better than being possessed by a hell god." And then out loud she told Giles to finish the spell.
Giles poured some orange looking liquid into the bowl and then lit a match to set it on fire. Then he chanted some more Latin words and finished it with "I exorcise thee!" The smoke that came from the fire entered William's body and pulled out Michael's spirit.
Michael panicked as he was pulled out of William's body and could sense William's defenses immediately falling.
Lucifer was grinning happily at the unidentifiable white mass floating out of William, until it suddenly took form.
Lucifer's mouth dropped in surprise, "Michael?!"
Michael growled and held a dagger at Lucifer's throat. "I'm going to have a talk with YOU, you better have a good explanation for why you drew me out of William's body. Now, I can't enter his body until you find a spell that can undo the exorcism!"
Lucifer began to stutter, "I-I-I didn't know it was you! I thought it was one of my hell gods! I-I-I swear!"
Michael's eyes narrowed and then his hand lashed out at clamped down on Lucifer's ear, "Let's go have a talk."
"OW! Oooowwwww! Geez! Let go! That's hurts!" Lucifer yelped.
"You're going to hurt you even more when I'm through with you." Michael hissed at Lucifer as he magically turned his dagger into a sword.
Lucifer whimpered as he and Michael disappeared into thin air.
~~~~
The group gaped at the sight of Michael dragging Lucifer out the door by his ear until Xander cried out. Then they turned to Xander and looked down at where Xander was pointing. Wesley looked utterly confused, "Huh? Wait. didn't Lucifer say that the spirit was a hell god?"
"I think he messed up." Lorne said to no one in particular.
While the group looked onward, Xander glanced down at William and cried out. Then they turned to Xander and looked down at where Xander was pointing. William's eyes were closed, but his face winced like he was in horrible pain. Once Michael had left Spike's body, hundreds of scars and bruises appeared where they hadn't been before. There was a deep, X-shaped scar on his right cheek, the scattered scars on his face looked like he had plunged his face into a bucket of glass shrapnel. There were knife cuts all over his legs, torso and arms, but the most noticeable cuts were the multiple vertical ones on both wrists.
Buffy covered her mouth in horror, she knew that vertical cuts on the wrists weren't cuts to get attention, they were ones to make sure that the person committing suicide would be successful. Everyone else looked just as shocked and horrified as Buffy did. Dawn and Angel knelt down to examine Spike closer. Dawn lifted his wrist and looked at the strange spot and striped tattoos that weren't there before.
Angel shook Spike's shoulder, "Come on Spike, wakeup. Spike, Spike."
~~~
***Nemi winced as the entire mindscape shook like an earthquake and parts of the sky began to fall around them. He held Will even closer to him, Will whimpered, "What's happening? Why is this happening again?! Where's Michael?"
Nemi shook his head and cussed out the damn Archangel, "I think he left kiddo."
Will suddenly looked haunted, "No.. no, please no, not again. Don't let it get me Nemi. Oh god no."
Nemi stood up and began to run with Will in his arms, "Come on, we've got to get somewhere safe first."
Will shook his head, "No, we're never safe, it's everywhere. No matter where we run, it'll find us. It wants me Nemi."
"Shut up kid. I'm not letting you go without a fight. So don't even suggest something so stupid."
Will buried his head into Nemi's neck and whispered, "It's here." ***
~~~
Aoide gave a frustrated sigh as she entered the house when she realized that it was still silent. She put the food she bought on the counter and quietly set the dishes. Then she tiptoed over to William's room and lightly knocked on his door.
"William?" She asked. "Are you awake yet?"
Then she noticed the empty bed and the covers pushed away. She blinked a few times. 'Okay.he's up.'
"William!" She called out a few times and went off to search for him, but to no avail.
She began to pace around the living room, worried. "Koko!" she cried out as she thought of her cat that was sleeping in her room.
She ran into her room to get her cat and quickly shook him awake. "Hey you! Where's William?"
The cat mumbled groggily, "Huh? William?"
"Yeah! You were home the whole time, where did he go?!"
The cat shrugged, " I was asleep the whole time."
The scowled and tossed her lazy cat on the bed. " You're. you. why weren't you awake?! You're nocturnal!"
The cat pouted, "Sorrie."
Aoide sighed and put her head in her hands.
"Wait." Koko mumbled to himself, " I think I remember the phone ringing. I thought it was apart of my dreams, but now that I think of it, I think it was real."
"Okay." Aoide dragged out slowly, "Someone called William and he left. Maybe, it was just some company business. yeah, well, maybe he's all tied up right now."
~~~
***Will and Nemi screamed and cried out as these dark bluish-green worms came from underneath them and began to pull them into the ground. Nemi quickly leaped up, tried to stomp on the worms, and dashed off from the area as fast as he could with Will in his arms. However the worms were intelligent and created a wall that circled around them. Nemi skillfully kicked and destroyed any of the elongated worms that tried to grab hold of Will. But even as skillful as he was, he couldn't stop the creature from closing in. Eventually it covered the top, which kept Nemi from jumping out. Nemi ducked down and curled into a ball, trying to keep Will safely hidden in the confines of his jacket.
Then the worms caved in and wrapped itself around Will and Nemi. Nemiphoren howled in pain as they wrapped themselves around his neck, face, arms and legs. The slimy coating on the worms burned worse than holy water and the worms began to work themselves into and under his skin. Nemiphoren bit down another scream and drew blood from his lip. As hard as Nemiphoren tried, his efforts were futile. Eventually they pried Will from his grasp.
Will screamed as the worms dragged him away from the demon soul. He desperately tried to reach out, but the worms would start to cover his arms and he'd draw back in pain. The worm's residue burned into his delicate innocent skin, leaving brownish spots and tattoo all over his body. Will tried to squirm away, but was always pulled back. Ultimately, he stopped trying to walk over to Nemiphoren and he started to try to get the creatures off of him. Their poison quickly weakened his sick body and started to crawl under his skin.
Will screamed and howled as he tried to pull them out. He sobbed at the physical and mental pain these creatures started to corrupt him with. ***
~~~ Outside, in the real world
Spike screamed as he suddenly woke up and began to back away from Angel. He started to back away from the group and backed himself into a corner.
"Nooo." He gave a tortured whimper. Then he clutched his head, trying to shake whatever was in his mind.
Then he lashed out and shoved Buffy backwards as she tried to walked towards him. "Get away. get away, burns. It burns!"
He started to scratched at the scabs and scars on his arms and legs, he frantically tore off the lower portion of his pants and scraped his legs until they were raw. "They're all over me!" He cried out with fevered, frantic eyes. "They're in me! Get them out! It hurts. it hurts. it hurts."
Spike ranted and raved. Then he clutched his hair and screamed as he writhed on the ground. Then he stopped and looked at his arm, the brownish spots and striped tattoos seemed to move in front of his insane eyes. "It's here." He said to himself as he started at his wrist. "It started here. I can stop it, I can stop it, it'll stop if I get rid of where it started. right, and it'll all go away." Spike tried to convince himself.
Then he took his left wrist and bit down as hard as he could. He whimpered at the pain, but he tried to bite harder. Buffy screamed in horror at what he was doing. "Spike! Stop it, you're hurting yourself." Dawn whimpered and back away and hugged Giles as hard as she could.
Angel finally took hold of the situation and pulled Spike's wrist out of his mouth. He suddenly felt sick when he saw that a portion of Spike's wrist was gone and that Spike was bleeding profusely all over the ground. Spike began to choke and spit out the piece of his own flesh that he had bitten off.
At the gruesome site, Fred hurried to the bathroom and threw up.
Then Spike began to stare at the wound with utter fascination, which suddenly changed to angry disappointment, "It's still there!" He yelled out. Then Spike took his right hand and began to pull at the bleeding muscle and skin around the wound. "It's still there. Got to get rid of it. rid of it. rid of it."
Angel swore under his breath as he saw his grandchilde began to begin to worsen the wound. He quickly grabbed Spike's right wrist and pulled it away. It was now covered with Spike's warm blood. The demon within Angel screamed with pleasure, urging Angel to drink away Spike's blood.
Spike began to laugh madly as he watched Angel's inner turmoil. Suddenly he took his left wrist and smeared his blood all over Angel's mouth. "It smells sooo good doesn't it Angel? You want it. I want it. Kill me, please kill me. It hurts so much. You know you want it. So take it! Take it dammit!"
Spike was now shrieking at Angel, desperate to get his grandsire to stop the pain. It was burning him from the inside out, it ate away at his very being at the moment. This 'thing' sadistically tore away at his mindscape leaving him hollow. Angel viciously roared and shoved Spike away and quickly retreated to the bathroom to wipe away Spike's blood at his mouth. Thankfully, Lorne wasn't as stunned as the others and he quickly grabbed the first aid kit. He ordered Wesley and Giles to hold Spike down as he wrapped his wrists with gauze. During this whole time, Spike was really out of it. He looked around at the people surrounding him in a detached way. He swayed his head a little, like he was listened to some strange music in his head.
Then Buffy walked over and sat in front of him. "Spike" She said in a calm and soft tone. "Calm down, I'm not here to hurt you."
Spike looked straight into Buffy's eyes and straight into her soul. This caused her to blink a few times, trying to ward off his affects on her. She took a deep breath and resumed talking to him.
"Spike, you can trust me." He gave her a slightly confused look as he tilted his head a little. Then he there was a glimmer of hope behind his eyes and he smiled.
Buffy smiled back. "Yeah, that's it." She took her right hand and put it on his non-scarred cheek. He closed his eyes and smiled like he was in utter bliss, then he slowly opened his eyes again. He looked down and his hands cupped together, holding some imaginary object and he motioned for Buffy to also cup her hands. He delicately placed the imaginary object in her hands and smiled at her with immense happiness.
*** Will imagined was looking at Buffy again. She was being so kind to him and she told him to trust her, so he did. He looked down into his cupped hands and saw the glass heart with a few cracks in it and held it up to Buffy. She smiled at him and took his glass heart into her hands.***
Buffy looked down at her cupped hands, not sure what he had given her or what it mean to him symbolically. She look up at him and gave him a confused look; only to realize that his eyes were distant again.
*** Unknown to Will, at that moment, the creature in his body twisted the world around him. Will looked at Buffy again, she was smiling at his glass heart. It wasn't a kind smile, it was dark and malicious. He suddenly wanted to take his glass heart back. But, before he could, she complete crushed it in her hands.***
Spike gave a tortured scream as he as he looked at Buffy with betrayal in his eyes. He quickly scooped up whatever imaginary thing he had given her and took it back. Then he looked at his cupped and watched it slip through his fingers.
*** Will sobbed as the tiny glass shards that used to be his heart fell through his fingers and one by one fell to the floor.***
Spike was crying painfully now, his tears came pouring down his face and fell on the cold tile floor underneath him.
Buffy looked at Spike with much confusion. "What happened?"
Spike sobbed and backed away from her. "No..please noo.how could you? I trusted you."
He returned to his spot in the corner and sat in the pool of blood he had left earlier. He made a soft whimpering sound as he rocked back and forth.
~~~
Lorne worried his bottom lip as he studied Spike's behavior. 'he's absolutely insane. *sigh* we should have listen to Michael."
Then Lorne got an idea. He touched Buffy's shoulder, "I'm going to try to get him to sing something, and maybe I can read him."
Buffy nodded and allowed him to walk over to Spike.
"Spike?" Lorne said as he watched the rocking figure. Finally after a few long seconds, Spike's tear streaked face looked at Lorne.
Lorne sighed again and proceeded. "Spike, I want you sing something for me. I believe it can help tell us what's wrong. We can help you. Trust me."
Spike looked away and started at the wall with much interest and then he started to laugh.
Lorne raised and eyebrow, "Are you okay?"
Spike's laugh became higher pitched and finally he let out a blood-curdling scream. Lorne stumbled back while covering his ears, everyone else had done the same. Angel and Fred rushed out of the bathroom to see what happened. Dawn hugged Willow and whimpered.
Then Spike ceased his screaming and resumed his insane laughter. Soon, from his laughing came a few choked sobs. Every time someone approached him he would back away and start laughing again or he would try to bite and claw at them. But it got worse, soon, he started to take the objects closest him and throw them at the group. They hadn't expect him to throw the vase at anyone, but now, poor Gunn was unconscious and bleeding from the cut on his head.
Finally Giles couldn't take it anymore as he ducked one of the flying projectiles. "Cordy! Do you still have some of that sleeping potion?!"
"Yes!" Cordy yelled back.
"Hurry and inject him with some!"
Cordy filled another syringe with the sleeping potion and ducked a few of the flying objects, but Spike's dazed state hadn't allow him to realize what she was doing until he felt her stab the needle into his arm. Within seconds, the potion took effect and Spike was completely unconscious.
~~~
The group eventually walked out of the room, but kept the door open to keep an eye on Spike. Willow was the first to speak. "We need to find a way into his mind, so we can try to fix whatever is making him c-crazy."
Gile looked away guiltily, "I shouldn't have ever done that exorcism spell."
Anya patted Gile's back, "you would have never known that this would have happened."
Buffy cut in, "You guys, focus, we don't know when he'll wake up, so we have to move as fast as we can."
Wesley raised his hand.
"Yes?" Buffy inquired.
"I-I have a spell, it's in one of the books I keep, it allows people to enter a person's mind and see what's wrong with him. It was an old way that medicine men used to cure some of the mentally ill."
Willow clapped her hands together, "That's perfect. Lets get the ingredients! Come on, Hurry!"
The group nodded as they followed Wesley into his library.
The only people who didn't go were Buffy and Dawn.
Buffy quietly returned to the room that Spike was in and watched his sleeping figure on the cold ground. Dawn also came in behind Buffy and stood there looking at him. Finally, both snapped out of their trance and Buffy took the comforter from the bed and covered him with it. She sat on the ground near him with her back leaning on the side of the bed.
Dawn took a seat in a chair that was behind Buffy.
(flashback)
Buffy sniffled as she told Xander and Willow about her and Spike's 'unhealthy' relationship. It was about three hours go since she saw Spike at her doorstep. She had finally broken down and told her friend the real reason why Spike had gotten aggressive with her in the bathroom. She could feel a weight lifted off her shoulders as she told her friends how he made he feel alive and how she kept using him and making him think that she loved him back. Eventually, her sudden break-up with him made him unstable, which led to bathroom incident.
Eventually the conversation wound down to Willow asking her, "Are you in love with him? Do you hate him?"
Buffy shook her head. "I don't know. I don't hate him, it was partially my fault. I kept telling myself that I didn't love him. but after he left, god, it was so lonely. It still is. I don't know why. I can't love him."
Xander sighed and nodded. Buffy looked at him in surprise, " I thought you were totally against Spike."
Xander shook his head, "I have no idea anymore. I hate him for what he tried to do to you. But a part of me understands. And I've always had an inkling for the fact that you two were involved, I just didn't want to see it."
Willow gave him a strange look. "Wait, this is Spike you're talking about, you know, the guy that had sex with your ex-fiance. always made fun of you."
Xander shook his head. "Wills, you know that video we saw? I turns out that you accidentally hit the record button. I went back and. I found out they didn't do anything.They stopped, both of them. I mean, how else do you explain how they were all dressed and stuff when we got there? We only saw them starting to . make out when we left the house. It took us about 10 minutes to get to the Magic Box at the speed we were going. Knowing Anya from experience, she can't orgasm that fast, no matter how drunk or horny. you do the math."
"But why didn't they tell us?!" Buffy exclaimed.
"Seeing how mad we were, would we have believed them?"
Buffy looked down, suddenly feeling somewhat ashamed.
Willow smiled tentatively at Xander, "Geez Xan? How'd you get so smart?"
"When I realized that the only way for Anya and I to work out, I had to grow up." He said and then gave Willow a small tired smile.
Buffy stood up and put on her jacket.
"Where are you going Buffy?" Willow asked.
"To apologize." Buffy whispered. Willow and Xander nodded and she quickly left the house.
Buffy was walking before, but the excitement in her caused her to run as fast as she could towards Spike's crypt. She quickly flung the door open and called out to Spike. But all she found was poor old Clem, who almost got a heart-attack.
"Clem? Where's Spike?" Buffy asked, confused.
"Isn't he in Africa?"
"You mean he's not here?!"
Clem shook his head. If he'd back in town, I haven't seen him yet."
Buffy sighed and nodded. "Sorry about that. If he come back.can you tell him to see me? I need to talk to him."
Clem nodded. "Alright Slayer. I'll be sure to do that."
Buffy searched around Sunnydale for the rest of the night, but she never found Spike. For three weeks, she had searched every inch of Sunnydale, but there was no sign of him. No one had seen him except for her and Xander. Spike had left again. and probably permanently this time.
After that, she would fall asleep while clutching his leather duster that she never returned to him. The smell of him and his smokes were fading away after a year. Then she had put it in a box, in hopes to retain that smell. But eventually, she gave in to temptation and she would take out the duster again and fall asleep with it.
~~~
Buffy hadn't realized that she started to cry until Dawn placed a tissue box next to her. Then Buffy looked at Dawn, her eyes asking her younger sister to leave her for a second. Dawn nodded and left the room, knowing that Buffy needed to deal with this. Buffy ran her finger along Spike's X- shaped scar and then the smaller scars on his face.
She began to cry even harder as she did this, "Oh god," she whispered. "What have I done to him.?"
Cont.
Woah. this is going to be a pretty long chapter. Okay, on second thought, I'm not changing it to be rated 'R', why? Because I don't have any really crude sexual thing in this story, it might seem a little gory. I mean, if they had a PG-15, this would definitely fit right in. But it doesn't. Besides, which kid who is 13 hasn't heard of people committing suicide? And I've seen some action movies with some pretty gruesome fighting scenes that were only PG-13. beside, I think it's relative. You can't really decide how mature a 13 year old is. As, for me? I'm 18 and I'll never be mature. It ain't going to happen. I'll still be watching stupid cartoons when I'm 60. Go me!
Darn it! I realized that everything I have italicized in my Word document doesn't show up italicized on fanfiction.net . sigh. okay, I guess I'll have to find another way to show different passages. Here:
Passages that happen in Spike's mind: *** blah blah bleh ***
REALLY DARK STORY! IF YOU'RE DEPRESSED AT THE MOMENT WAIT UNTIL LATER TO READ.
~~~
William dashed into the hotel and the first thing he saw was Dawn lying at the bottom of the stairs with Cordy leaning over her. Cordy looked panicked as she kept lightly shaking Dawn and calling out her name.
Cordy's looked immensely worried as she said Dawn's name, "Dawn? Dawnie, are you okay? Wake up please!"
William hurried over to where Cordy was, "Cordy! Here, I'll take over and see what I can do."
Cordy stood up from her spot and allowed William to crouch down next to Dawn. He bent over to check Dawns pulse, relieved that it was beating sturdily. Unknown to him Cordy pulled a syringe out of her pocket and uncapped it. As William leaned down to check Dawn's breathing, he felt a sharp prick in his shoulder and something being injected into him. William gasped as his vision began to blur. He splayed his hands out on both sides of him to keep himself up.
To his surprise Dawn suddenly opened her eyes and began to back away from him.
"Dawn?" He asked in a slightly betrayed tone. Then he turned around to face Cordy, who was still holding the syringe.
"Why?" He asked and then collapsed as the world blacked out.
~~~
Buffy, Angel and the others came out of their hiding places. Buffy did a few tests to make sure William was unconscious, then she nodded to the others indicating that it was okay to move him into the room that they had prepared.
After they finally set his body in the middle of the floor in one of the rooms, Lucifer reappeared and watched them work. Dawn placed large red candles around William's prone figure; Anya used some magical blue dust and made a circle around him. Then Giles sat to the right of William and got ready to do the ceremony. During this time, Xander had gone out to drop Tommy off at Wesley's friend's house.
Buffy turned to Lucifer, "Okay, we purge this hell god out of Spike's body and you take it and leave."
Lucifer nodded, "Yeah, yeah. Just get on with it."
Xander returned soon enough, just as Giles took some feathers out of a leather bag and placed them around the bowl in front of him, then he sprinkled some ashes into the bowl and he muttered a few Latin words.
Suddenly, William's eyes snapped open. Fred screamed and jumped into Gunn's arms. Giles back up a little in fear.
"H-he can't do that, that sleeping potion was suppose to last for at least 24 hours. We just injected it into him 15 minutes ago." Giles told the group.
William's eyes were completely violet this time instead of a slight bluish- violet color tint that the others had seen before. He looked over at Giles with a wild look and spoke.
"You can't do this, you'll kill him."
Buffy yelled back, "You're the one that's killing him!"
"No, I'm the only thing keeping him safe. You'll destroy him, you don't understand!"
Angel glared at William, "We can't trust a YOU. Hurry Giles, finish the spell!"
"Wait! You can't handle him, what he's become! He's insane! He won't be able to handle it. You broke him! Don't do this! I beg you, don't do this! IT will kill him!"
Willow worriedly looked over at Buffy, "What do we do? What if we'll really hurt Spike?"
Buffy whispered back to Willow, "Anything is better than being possessed by a hell god." And then out loud she told Giles to finish the spell.
Giles poured some orange looking liquid into the bowl and then lit a match to set it on fire. Then he chanted some more Latin words and finished it with "I exorcise thee!" The smoke that came from the fire entered William's body and pulled out Michael's spirit.
Michael panicked as he was pulled out of William's body and could sense William's defenses immediately falling.
Lucifer was grinning happily at the unidentifiable white mass floating out of William, until it suddenly took form.
Lucifer's mouth dropped in surprise, "Michael?!"
Michael growled and held a dagger at Lucifer's throat. "I'm going to have a talk with YOU, you better have a good explanation for why you drew me out of William's body. Now, I can't enter his body until you find a spell that can undo the exorcism!"
Lucifer began to stutter, "I-I-I didn't know it was you! I thought it was one of my hell gods! I-I-I swear!"
Michael's eyes narrowed and then his hand lashed out at clamped down on Lucifer's ear, "Let's go have a talk."
"OW! Oooowwwww! Geez! Let go! That's hurts!" Lucifer yelped.
"You're going to hurt you even more when I'm through with you." Michael hissed at Lucifer as he magically turned his dagger into a sword.
Lucifer whimpered as he and Michael disappeared into thin air.
~~~~
The group gaped at the sight of Michael dragging Lucifer out the door by his ear until Xander cried out. Then they turned to Xander and looked down at where Xander was pointing. Wesley looked utterly confused, "Huh? Wait. didn't Lucifer say that the spirit was a hell god?"
"I think he messed up." Lorne said to no one in particular.
While the group looked onward, Xander glanced down at William and cried out. Then they turned to Xander and looked down at where Xander was pointing. William's eyes were closed, but his face winced like he was in horrible pain. Once Michael had left Spike's body, hundreds of scars and bruises appeared where they hadn't been before. There was a deep, X-shaped scar on his right cheek, the scattered scars on his face looked like he had plunged his face into a bucket of glass shrapnel. There were knife cuts all over his legs, torso and arms, but the most noticeable cuts were the multiple vertical ones on both wrists.
Buffy covered her mouth in horror, she knew that vertical cuts on the wrists weren't cuts to get attention, they were ones to make sure that the person committing suicide would be successful. Everyone else looked just as shocked and horrified as Buffy did. Dawn and Angel knelt down to examine Spike closer. Dawn lifted his wrist and looked at the strange spot and striped tattoos that weren't there before.
Angel shook Spike's shoulder, "Come on Spike, wakeup. Spike, Spike."
~~~
***Nemi winced as the entire mindscape shook like an earthquake and parts of the sky began to fall around them. He held Will even closer to him, Will whimpered, "What's happening? Why is this happening again?! Where's Michael?"
Nemi shook his head and cussed out the damn Archangel, "I think he left kiddo."
Will suddenly looked haunted, "No.. no, please no, not again. Don't let it get me Nemi. Oh god no."
Nemi stood up and began to run with Will in his arms, "Come on, we've got to get somewhere safe first."
Will shook his head, "No, we're never safe, it's everywhere. No matter where we run, it'll find us. It wants me Nemi."
"Shut up kid. I'm not letting you go without a fight. So don't even suggest something so stupid."
Will buried his head into Nemi's neck and whispered, "It's here." ***
~~~
Aoide gave a frustrated sigh as she entered the house when she realized that it was still silent. She put the food she bought on the counter and quietly set the dishes. Then she tiptoed over to William's room and lightly knocked on his door.
"William?" She asked. "Are you awake yet?"
Then she noticed the empty bed and the covers pushed away. She blinked a few times. 'Okay.he's up.'
"William!" She called out a few times and went off to search for him, but to no avail.
She began to pace around the living room, worried. "Koko!" she cried out as she thought of her cat that was sleeping in her room.
She ran into her room to get her cat and quickly shook him awake. "Hey you! Where's William?"
The cat mumbled groggily, "Huh? William?"
"Yeah! You were home the whole time, where did he go?!"
The cat shrugged, " I was asleep the whole time."
The scowled and tossed her lazy cat on the bed. " You're. you. why weren't you awake?! You're nocturnal!"
The cat pouted, "Sorrie."
Aoide sighed and put her head in her hands.
"Wait." Koko mumbled to himself, " I think I remember the phone ringing. I thought it was apart of my dreams, but now that I think of it, I think it was real."
"Okay." Aoide dragged out slowly, "Someone called William and he left. Maybe, it was just some company business. yeah, well, maybe he's all tied up right now."
~~~
***Will and Nemi screamed and cried out as these dark bluish-green worms came from underneath them and began to pull them into the ground. Nemi quickly leaped up, tried to stomp on the worms, and dashed off from the area as fast as he could with Will in his arms. However the worms were intelligent and created a wall that circled around them. Nemi skillfully kicked and destroyed any of the elongated worms that tried to grab hold of Will. But even as skillful as he was, he couldn't stop the creature from closing in. Eventually it covered the top, which kept Nemi from jumping out. Nemi ducked down and curled into a ball, trying to keep Will safely hidden in the confines of his jacket.
Then the worms caved in and wrapped itself around Will and Nemi. Nemiphoren howled in pain as they wrapped themselves around his neck, face, arms and legs. The slimy coating on the worms burned worse than holy water and the worms began to work themselves into and under his skin. Nemiphoren bit down another scream and drew blood from his lip. As hard as Nemiphoren tried, his efforts were futile. Eventually they pried Will from his grasp.
Will screamed as the worms dragged him away from the demon soul. He desperately tried to reach out, but the worms would start to cover his arms and he'd draw back in pain. The worm's residue burned into his delicate innocent skin, leaving brownish spots and tattoo all over his body. Will tried to squirm away, but was always pulled back. Ultimately, he stopped trying to walk over to Nemiphoren and he started to try to get the creatures off of him. Their poison quickly weakened his sick body and started to crawl under his skin.
Will screamed and howled as he tried to pull them out. He sobbed at the physical and mental pain these creatures started to corrupt him with. ***
~~~ Outside, in the real world
Spike screamed as he suddenly woke up and began to back away from Angel. He started to back away from the group and backed himself into a corner.
"Nooo." He gave a tortured whimper. Then he clutched his head, trying to shake whatever was in his mind.
Then he lashed out and shoved Buffy backwards as she tried to walked towards him. "Get away. get away, burns. It burns!"
He started to scratched at the scabs and scars on his arms and legs, he frantically tore off the lower portion of his pants and scraped his legs until they were raw. "They're all over me!" He cried out with fevered, frantic eyes. "They're in me! Get them out! It hurts. it hurts. it hurts."
Spike ranted and raved. Then he clutched his hair and screamed as he writhed on the ground. Then he stopped and looked at his arm, the brownish spots and striped tattoos seemed to move in front of his insane eyes. "It's here." He said to himself as he started at his wrist. "It started here. I can stop it, I can stop it, it'll stop if I get rid of where it started. right, and it'll all go away." Spike tried to convince himself.
Then he took his left wrist and bit down as hard as he could. He whimpered at the pain, but he tried to bite harder. Buffy screamed in horror at what he was doing. "Spike! Stop it, you're hurting yourself." Dawn whimpered and back away and hugged Giles as hard as she could.
Angel finally took hold of the situation and pulled Spike's wrist out of his mouth. He suddenly felt sick when he saw that a portion of Spike's wrist was gone and that Spike was bleeding profusely all over the ground. Spike began to choke and spit out the piece of his own flesh that he had bitten off.
At the gruesome site, Fred hurried to the bathroom and threw up.
Then Spike began to stare at the wound with utter fascination, which suddenly changed to angry disappointment, "It's still there!" He yelled out. Then Spike took his right hand and began to pull at the bleeding muscle and skin around the wound. "It's still there. Got to get rid of it. rid of it. rid of it."
Angel swore under his breath as he saw his grandchilde began to begin to worsen the wound. He quickly grabbed Spike's right wrist and pulled it away. It was now covered with Spike's warm blood. The demon within Angel screamed with pleasure, urging Angel to drink away Spike's blood.
Spike began to laugh madly as he watched Angel's inner turmoil. Suddenly he took his left wrist and smeared his blood all over Angel's mouth. "It smells sooo good doesn't it Angel? You want it. I want it. Kill me, please kill me. It hurts so much. You know you want it. So take it! Take it dammit!"
Spike was now shrieking at Angel, desperate to get his grandsire to stop the pain. It was burning him from the inside out, it ate away at his very being at the moment. This 'thing' sadistically tore away at his mindscape leaving him hollow. Angel viciously roared and shoved Spike away and quickly retreated to the bathroom to wipe away Spike's blood at his mouth. Thankfully, Lorne wasn't as stunned as the others and he quickly grabbed the first aid kit. He ordered Wesley and Giles to hold Spike down as he wrapped his wrists with gauze. During this whole time, Spike was really out of it. He looked around at the people surrounding him in a detached way. He swayed his head a little, like he was listened to some strange music in his head.
Then Buffy walked over and sat in front of him. "Spike" She said in a calm and soft tone. "Calm down, I'm not here to hurt you."
Spike looked straight into Buffy's eyes and straight into her soul. This caused her to blink a few times, trying to ward off his affects on her. She took a deep breath and resumed talking to him.
"Spike, you can trust me." He gave her a slightly confused look as he tilted his head a little. Then he there was a glimmer of hope behind his eyes and he smiled.
Buffy smiled back. "Yeah, that's it." She took her right hand and put it on his non-scarred cheek. He closed his eyes and smiled like he was in utter bliss, then he slowly opened his eyes again. He looked down and his hands cupped together, holding some imaginary object and he motioned for Buffy to also cup her hands. He delicately placed the imaginary object in her hands and smiled at her with immense happiness.
*** Will imagined was looking at Buffy again. She was being so kind to him and she told him to trust her, so he did. He looked down into his cupped hands and saw the glass heart with a few cracks in it and held it up to Buffy. She smiled at him and took his glass heart into her hands.***
Buffy looked down at her cupped hands, not sure what he had given her or what it mean to him symbolically. She look up at him and gave him a confused look; only to realize that his eyes were distant again.
*** Unknown to Will, at that moment, the creature in his body twisted the world around him. Will looked at Buffy again, she was smiling at his glass heart. It wasn't a kind smile, it was dark and malicious. He suddenly wanted to take his glass heart back. But, before he could, she complete crushed it in her hands.***
Spike gave a tortured scream as he as he looked at Buffy with betrayal in his eyes. He quickly scooped up whatever imaginary thing he had given her and took it back. Then he looked at his cupped and watched it slip through his fingers.
*** Will sobbed as the tiny glass shards that used to be his heart fell through his fingers and one by one fell to the floor.***
Spike was crying painfully now, his tears came pouring down his face and fell on the cold tile floor underneath him.
Buffy looked at Spike with much confusion. "What happened?"
Spike sobbed and backed away from her. "No..please noo.how could you? I trusted you."
He returned to his spot in the corner and sat in the pool of blood he had left earlier. He made a soft whimpering sound as he rocked back and forth.
~~~
Lorne worried his bottom lip as he studied Spike's behavior. 'he's absolutely insane. *sigh* we should have listen to Michael."
Then Lorne got an idea. He touched Buffy's shoulder, "I'm going to try to get him to sing something, and maybe I can read him."
Buffy nodded and allowed him to walk over to Spike.
"Spike?" Lorne said as he watched the rocking figure. Finally after a few long seconds, Spike's tear streaked face looked at Lorne.
Lorne sighed again and proceeded. "Spike, I want you sing something for me. I believe it can help tell us what's wrong. We can help you. Trust me."
Spike looked away and started at the wall with much interest and then he started to laugh.
Lorne raised and eyebrow, "Are you okay?"
Spike's laugh became higher pitched and finally he let out a blood-curdling scream. Lorne stumbled back while covering his ears, everyone else had done the same. Angel and Fred rushed out of the bathroom to see what happened. Dawn hugged Willow and whimpered.
Then Spike ceased his screaming and resumed his insane laughter. Soon, from his laughing came a few choked sobs. Every time someone approached him he would back away and start laughing again or he would try to bite and claw at them. But it got worse, soon, he started to take the objects closest him and throw them at the group. They hadn't expect him to throw the vase at anyone, but now, poor Gunn was unconscious and bleeding from the cut on his head.
Finally Giles couldn't take it anymore as he ducked one of the flying projectiles. "Cordy! Do you still have some of that sleeping potion?!"
"Yes!" Cordy yelled back.
"Hurry and inject him with some!"
Cordy filled another syringe with the sleeping potion and ducked a few of the flying objects, but Spike's dazed state hadn't allow him to realize what she was doing until he felt her stab the needle into his arm. Within seconds, the potion took effect and Spike was completely unconscious.
~~~
The group eventually walked out of the room, but kept the door open to keep an eye on Spike. Willow was the first to speak. "We need to find a way into his mind, so we can try to fix whatever is making him c-crazy."
Gile looked away guiltily, "I shouldn't have ever done that exorcism spell."
Anya patted Gile's back, "you would have never known that this would have happened."
Buffy cut in, "You guys, focus, we don't know when he'll wake up, so we have to move as fast as we can."
Wesley raised his hand.
"Yes?" Buffy inquired.
"I-I have a spell, it's in one of the books I keep, it allows people to enter a person's mind and see what's wrong with him. It was an old way that medicine men used to cure some of the mentally ill."
Willow clapped her hands together, "That's perfect. Lets get the ingredients! Come on, Hurry!"
The group nodded as they followed Wesley into his library.
The only people who didn't go were Buffy and Dawn.
Buffy quietly returned to the room that Spike was in and watched his sleeping figure on the cold ground. Dawn also came in behind Buffy and stood there looking at him. Finally, both snapped out of their trance and Buffy took the comforter from the bed and covered him with it. She sat on the ground near him with her back leaning on the side of the bed.
Dawn took a seat in a chair that was behind Buffy.
(flashback)
Buffy sniffled as she told Xander and Willow about her and Spike's 'unhealthy' relationship. It was about three hours go since she saw Spike at her doorstep. She had finally broken down and told her friend the real reason why Spike had gotten aggressive with her in the bathroom. She could feel a weight lifted off her shoulders as she told her friends how he made he feel alive and how she kept using him and making him think that she loved him back. Eventually, her sudden break-up with him made him unstable, which led to bathroom incident.
Eventually the conversation wound down to Willow asking her, "Are you in love with him? Do you hate him?"
Buffy shook her head. "I don't know. I don't hate him, it was partially my fault. I kept telling myself that I didn't love him. but after he left, god, it was so lonely. It still is. I don't know why. I can't love him."
Xander sighed and nodded. Buffy looked at him in surprise, " I thought you were totally against Spike."
Xander shook his head, "I have no idea anymore. I hate him for what he tried to do to you. But a part of me understands. And I've always had an inkling for the fact that you two were involved, I just didn't want to see it."
Willow gave him a strange look. "Wait, this is Spike you're talking about, you know, the guy that had sex with your ex-fiance. always made fun of you."
Xander shook his head. "Wills, you know that video we saw? I turns out that you accidentally hit the record button. I went back and. I found out they didn't do anything.They stopped, both of them. I mean, how else do you explain how they were all dressed and stuff when we got there? We only saw them starting to . make out when we left the house. It took us about 10 minutes to get to the Magic Box at the speed we were going. Knowing Anya from experience, she can't orgasm that fast, no matter how drunk or horny. you do the math."
"But why didn't they tell us?!" Buffy exclaimed.
"Seeing how mad we were, would we have believed them?"
Buffy looked down, suddenly feeling somewhat ashamed.
Willow smiled tentatively at Xander, "Geez Xan? How'd you get so smart?"
"When I realized that the only way for Anya and I to work out, I had to grow up." He said and then gave Willow a small tired smile.
Buffy stood up and put on her jacket.
"Where are you going Buffy?" Willow asked.
"To apologize." Buffy whispered. Willow and Xander nodded and she quickly left the house.
Buffy was walking before, but the excitement in her caused her to run as fast as she could towards Spike's crypt. She quickly flung the door open and called out to Spike. But all she found was poor old Clem, who almost got a heart-attack.
"Clem? Where's Spike?" Buffy asked, confused.
"Isn't he in Africa?"
"You mean he's not here?!"
Clem shook his head. If he'd back in town, I haven't seen him yet."
Buffy sighed and nodded. "Sorry about that. If he come back.can you tell him to see me? I need to talk to him."
Clem nodded. "Alright Slayer. I'll be sure to do that."
Buffy searched around Sunnydale for the rest of the night, but she never found Spike. For three weeks, she had searched every inch of Sunnydale, but there was no sign of him. No one had seen him except for her and Xander. Spike had left again. and probably permanently this time.
After that, she would fall asleep while clutching his leather duster that she never returned to him. The smell of him and his smokes were fading away after a year. Then she had put it in a box, in hopes to retain that smell. But eventually, she gave in to temptation and she would take out the duster again and fall asleep with it.
~~~
Buffy hadn't realized that she started to cry until Dawn placed a tissue box next to her. Then Buffy looked at Dawn, her eyes asking her younger sister to leave her for a second. Dawn nodded and left the room, knowing that Buffy needed to deal with this. Buffy ran her finger along Spike's X- shaped scar and then the smaller scars on his face.
She began to cry even harder as she did this, "Oh god," she whispered. "What have I done to him.?"
Cont.