Remembrance
Disclaimer: Of course, characters and settings from Buffy the Vampire Slayer are...from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. And therefore not mine. I am only borrowing them from Joss, Fox, ME, and whomever else, and I promise to give them back. Any characters or places appearing not from the show are mine, unless specifically credited otherwise.
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This school business really involves way to much work, Buffy decided, staring glumly at a page filled with complicated calculus formulas in, she was dismayed to notice, extremely small font. Her gaze momentarily slid to the left, falling on her notebook, where her name and the date were boldly displayed across the top of a piece of paper. Unfortunately for her, it looked like the answers to her math homework weren't going to appear no matter how hard she stared at the paper, and she would, in fact, have to write them down herself.
Beside her, Xander hummed thoughtfully. With words selected a little too carefully, he addressed seemingly no one. "This is interesting. I'm just looking over this poem, right? And I get this feeling that there's some metaphorical point Poe's making. I bet I'd find it so much more fulfilling and enlightening if I knew what it was." A pause, and heavy sigh, and then, quickly, "What do you think, Willow?"
"I think I dimly recall telling you yesterday that I wasn't going to answer any of your homework questions this week." Willow lowered the book blocking view of her face momentarily, displaying a mock-contemplative expression that was barely concealing a grin. "...Yes...I think I did."
"I think that's the fastest shut out you've gotten all week, Xand," Buffy observed, concentrating very hard on balancing her pencil across her fingertip.
"Yeah. I was kinda hopin' I'd sneak that one past her." sighed Xander, regretfully returning to his textbook.
Willow was definitely smiling now, Buffy could hear it in her voice. "You got your freebie in Chem."
Buffy's attention slowly drifted from her pencil, across the faces of her friends, the walls of the library, the stacks, to the open window; through it she could see one of the saplings planted around the school in memory of a deceased student. The wind rustling the leaves fascinated her, and though she was dimly aware that she was seriously spacing out, she didn't bother to look away.
She soon noticed that, right before her eyes, the tree seemed to be...growing. Entranced, she stared as the library and her friends' voices faded out around her into darkness, and the tree changed before her, shooting upwards into a full grown oak tree, the leaves just beginning to bud. Drops of cool water fell upon her face, and with a gasp, Buffy shook herself from her trance, looking all around. She found herself on a dark, suburban street; the pavement shone from the light drizzle falling from the sky.
Buffy suspected it was very late. Save for a one or two houses, the windows up and down the street were all dark. She didn't remember falling asleep, but barring the library having developed new reality altering powers, she was certainly dreaming.
Again, she grumbled inwardly.
An obstinate little voice in the back of her mind protested that whatever it was she was here to dream had better just come to her this time, and Buffy found herself agreeing, settling herself down on a curb with a sigh. Not that her homework had been all that fascinating, but she couldn't bring herself to be all that enthused about taking a mental field trip two times in the same day.
Though, she couldn't help but admit, with a small smile, it was kind of relaxing. Even knowing she could handle pretty much anything that came down the street, Buffy didn't dare to simply sit outside and enjoy the night air very often. Being outside usually meant being on patrol, and after the initial annoyance, she found the cool drizzle and breeze almost relaxing.
For about thirty seconds.
A slam snapped her out of her thoughts, and she looked quickly to her left, then right, looking for the source of the noise.
Several houses away, a figure came striding out of one of the few houses still lit up, posture angry and steps quick. A moment later, the front door was flung open, and another figure appeared in the frame, calling after the first. Buffy stood and started to move closer, curious.
"...dare you walk away from me when I'm talking to you? Come back here at once!"
The man in the doorway, and the cultured, accented voice left no doubt that it was a man, hurried down the porch steps, leaving the front door open. He ran down the front walk, stopping as he reached the first figure, who, in the light streaming out of the open doorway, was revealed to be a young girl. Buffy jogged a few paces, squinting to make out the features of the pair, and stopped dead in her tracks, instant recognition dawning.
It's the same girl, again!
There was no mistaking it; it was definitely the girl from her previous dreams. As Buffy began to draw closer again, she could pick out the same features she had seen twice before: the same short, light hair, the same pixie-like profile, now contorted with anger.
"Here's an idea," she snapped, jabbing the man in the chest with her finger, "Why don't you leave me the hell alone and stop bossing me around."
The man sputtered, clearly furious and at a loss for words.
"If you think I'm just going to let you leave -"
"Spare me," the girl cut him off, arms folding across her chest. "It's not like you can stop me."
"I most certainly can," he stuttered back, reaching out and grabbing her elbow. "You cannot just decide to go. I forbid it!"
With a quick shake, the girl freed her arm from his grip, turning on her heel abruptly and beginning to stomp away. "Watch me!" She challenged, shoving her hands into her pockets. In a low mutter, she added, "That's what your good at."
There was no question in Buffy's mind as to who to follow. She turned as well and quickly fell into step beside the girl. She did look over her shoulder several times to see if the man was following them, but he did not move from his spot at the end of the walkway, staring after them, appalled. By the time she and the girl had reached the end of the block, he had returned to the house, slamming the door behind him.
Buffy's attention focused solely on the girl, who's eyes were fixed on some distant point straight ahead. Despite the stoic look on her face, Buffy could see angry tears welling in her eyes, and guessed that the hands in the pockets of the girl's coat were probably balled into fists. Jogging forward a few steps, Buffy turned around and planted herself directly in front of the girl, walking backwards and studying the face before her. Despite searching hard and racking her memory, she couldn't figure out for the life of her who this girl was, or how Buffy knew her - as some part of her felt that she did. Nor could she put her finger on what, exactly, she was supposed to be seeing in this girl. At this point, Buffy thought it unlikely she was dreaming up these snippets of conversations for no reason.
After several long minutes, Buffy sighed and stopped walking, letting the girl pass through her. She took a moment to look up and down the street in frustration, looking for something - anything - that would make even a little bit of sense. Finding nothing, she turned around again, moved to catch up with the girl, and then stopped. In the minute or two Buffy had been standing still, the girl had put quite a bit of distance between them, and about midway, on the other side of the street, Buffy noticed a dark figure remove itself from the shadows of a house and slip silently towards the street. Buffy quickly looked to the girl, searching for any sign that she also saw the figure, and found none.
The figure - a man, Buffy guessed - crossed the street without making a sound, and the hair on the back of Buffy's neck stood up. He wasn't moving like Buffy would expect someone to cross the street. He was moving like a predator. Again, with a growing apprehension, Buffy looked to see if the girl noticed the man. Nothing.
The man fell into step between Buffy and the girl, rapidly closing the distance between him and his prey just as fast as Buffy closed the distance between herself and him. A jolt of fear ran through her as the man let out a low growl Buffy had heard countless variations of as he lunged at the girl's back.
Buffy cried out, trying to warn the girl, and then clenched her eyes shut as color and light suddenly flooded her vision.
"Buffy?"
When she opened them again, she was back in the library. Xander and Willow sat before her, just as they were, staring at her with expressions somewhere between concern and amusement.
"Are you ok? You were shouting for us to look out." Willow leaned forward, setting her book down and gesturing around, "But there's nothing here."
"Except the books, which I, personally, do think look kinda shifty." Even though Xander was grinning at her, Buffy could see that he was just as wigged as Willow.
She shook her head a little. "It's nothing. I just must have drifted off."
"And to think," Xander teased, "I just spent a whole four dollars on Mountain Dew."
