All Hallows Eve
by Kyllikki (kyllikki8@hotmail.com)
Rating: PG-13 for a smartass attitude toward the deaths of innocents.
Spoilers for "Halloween"
Archive: anywhere, but please ask.
I just couldn't get this out of my head; a response to Wiseacress's
scary Halloween stories challenge.
Summary: We know the monks put her in their memories, but what if they actually put her there?
***
Summoning all the righteous indignation in her power, Dawn seethed at her mother across the breakfast table, stealing occasional glances up through her bangs. Drat. The seething wasn't having any effect. Nor, apparently, had the month-long assault of alternately whining, cajoling, pleading, crying, begging and generally making herself as annoying as possible. So now she seethed. At least she was learning new words. She liked to think of her seething silence as "stormy" -- and wasn't there a fancy word for all those repeated "s" sounds, too? -- but since her mom and Buffy were ignoring her and chatting about Buffy's Halloween costume ideas, the seething clearly wasn't working.
"Willow was just telling me about a new costume store," Buffy said. ""Evan's" or something like that. They're having a sale!"
Dawn rolled her eyes and began stabbing at the soggy Frosted Flakes in her bowl. Of course Buffy would get to have a fancy rented costume, and she'd be stuck with the cheap Party Town crap because she was "too young" for such things. So unfair.
She glanced up from her cereal slayage in time to see her mom smiling as Buffy bubbled about the fancy noblewoman costume she wanted. Indulgent, Dawn thought. That was another word she knew. Always, always Buffy's word.
Giving up on seething for the moment, she switched to a put-upon sigh.
Her mom turned to look at her. "Dawn, can you--"
She dropped her spoon in to the cereal bowl, where it landed with a satisfying clatter. "I'm not going trick-or-treating as a cat, Mom! I've been a cat every year since I was eight!"
Her mom's shoulders sunk a little bit. Well, that was some progress, anyway. "Actually, I was going to ask you to pass the orange juice. But honey, you make such a nice cat."
"I. want. a. costume," Dawn said. "A real one. Not one of those plastic things from Party Town."
Dawn heard Buffy mutter "whatever," but ignored her and focused on her mom, who was sitting there frowning at her. For once, though, it was her thoughtful frown, not her "you're going to be in so much trouble if you keep this up" frown. "What kind of costume, Dawnie?" she finally said.
Uh-oh. She had spent all these weeks trying to figure out ways to get her mom to say yes but she hadn't figured out what costume she wanted. Something scary. Something scary that was also not a cat, and ... inspiration struck.
"A vampire," she said.
"No!"
The yelp had come from Buffy's side of the table, and Dawn turned to find her sister glaring at her. Bonus. She raised her eyebrows and gave Buffy her most innocent look. "Yep, a vampire. I wanna be super-scary. Arrrh!"
"Mom--" Buffy began, but she was cut off.
"Now, Buffy, I don't see why Dawn can't go with you to Evan's to get some vampire teeth and a cape," her mom said.
Their reaction was instantaneous and uniform: "Why does she have to go with me?" "Why do I have to go with her?"
Her mom frowned again, and this time Dawn recognized the stern face. "Dawn, you can have a vampire costume this year if you go with Buffy to pick it out and if you go with the trick-or-treating program."
"But Mo-om..." she said. Go trick-or-treating with little kids? Annoying little kids? All for the sake of a costume? Ugh.
"No buts, Dawn, those are the conditions. If you don't want to live with them, then you and I will go pick out a costume at Party Town and can go door-to-door with Janice whenever you want. So, what's it going to be?"
She was nearly ready to give up the costume for the freedom of trick-or-treating with Janice until she saw Buffy's smirk. Buffy, she was quite certain, thought there was no way Dawn would pick the costume, which meant that she'd be off the hook. Well, that made the choice a whole lot easier.
"I'll take the costume," she said.
Later, when her mom got up to put the dishes in the sink, Dawn stuck her tongue out at Buffy, who just glared at her.
Oh yeah. Definitely the right choice.
***
Later that afternoon, vampire teeth and cape in hand, she remembered the one reason tagging along with Buffy and her friends wasn't all bad: Xander.
Not that she didn't like Willow. Willow was great. More than great. But sometimes she made Dawn feel a like an adorable puppy, and that was a little bit weird.
Xander, on the other hand, entertained her by pretending to shoot things with his newly-purchased fake gun and took her across the street for ice cream while Buffy was in the fitting room trying on her "perfect" fancy dress. He even let her get sprinkles, something no amount of whining would get Buffy to agree to. Of course, she didn't have to whine with Xander; her innocent look worked really well on him.
"So, why did you want to be a vampire this year?" Xander asked. Actually, it came out sounding like "whf dah yuf warrnvampr isear," since he was asking while trying to keep his lopsided rocky road cone from falling apart, but she knew what he meant.
"Knew it would make Buffy mad," she said, noticing that his eyebrows shot up when she said it, though it might have been the giant lump of ice cream he had just swallowed.
"Did it work?"
She shrugged, licked her cone, and smiled in a way that she hoped could be called "enigmatic," though she wasn't entirely certain she knew what that meant. It sounded good, though.
"I have to go with the school program," she said around a mouthful of cherry vanilla. "It was the only way mom would let me get my costume here. Little kids are annoying."
Xander must have been pretty good at deciphering ice-cream speak, because he nodded. "But, hey, not all bad," he said, cracking a smile. "Buffy and Will and I are in charge of three of the groups, so maybe you'll get to go with one of us."
Trick-or-treating with Xander. Not exactly the worst idea in the world. Dawn grinned and returned to her ice cream.
***
"Absolutely not," the smallish bald man said. His voice grated on her ears, and even from across the room, he gave Dawn the wiggins.
"But Principal Snyder--" Xander sounded pretty mad. Or maybe afraid. Whatever emotion made him all high-pitched and squeaky.
"There is no way I'm putting the Summers girl in your group. Who knows what kind of horror the two of you would lead these innocent children into. She's going with Carla."
Xander caught her eye and shrugged his apology. Dawn sighed. Buffy had barely looked at her costume when they got dressed, and now she was going to be stuck with a bunch of snotty little kids and some high school girl she didn't know. Maybe the vampire thing wasn't such a great idea after all.
***
Carla, dressed as the tooth fairy, proved to be a total simpering ninny. Dawn bet kids would want to read more if they knew they could learn fun words like "simpering ninny." Not these kids, though. She was the oldest by at least five years, and they were whiny. The plastic vampire teeth kept her from eating any of the candy she collected, and without Buffy around to annoy or Janice around to keep her company, the whole thing wasn't nearly as much fun as it had seemed. She lagged behind the group, unable to find any enthusiasm for the last couple of houses on the route. Especially because Simpering Ninny Carla was so darn happy about everything. She heard Carla telling her to hurry up and not to fall behind, and then everything went black.
***
She picked herself up off the ground gingerly, legs still unsteady beneath her. A quick glance around revealed only an empty street in a residential neighborhood, with the soothing background music of terrified screams a block or so over. What had happened? She searched her memory, trying to figure out why everything had been black and ... nothing.
It wasn't until her stomach growled that she realized she couldn't remember her last meal. No wonder she'd blacked out - must have been suffering from some sort of acute starvation.
Not for long, though. Running her tongue over her fangs in anticipation, Dawn set off toward the screams. Screams usually meant food.
And oh, was she hungry.
***
Dawn loved children. It wasn't a popular preference -- they were difficult to catch and made for such small servings -- but their tender, sweet taste had always seemed worth the extra effort to her. Small children were a food that rewarded patience and diligence. Like crab legs.
She nearly clapped in delight to find so many unattended on the street. Halfway through her third, though, she felt a rough hand on her shoulder and she was spun around. "Hey!" she yelped. The hand was attached to an arm, and indeed, a body. A nice body, if you went in for the Billy Idol look. Black leather. Cigarette. Bad manners.
Great.
"What are you doing here?" Billy Idol asked, his hand still clamped tightly on her shoulder. "Who turned you?"
Dawn rolled her eyes. "What are you, some kind of vampire telemarketer? If you want one, go get your own -- there are plenty running around tonight. Besides, it's rude to interrupt someone in the middle of dinner." She turned back to her unfinished meal -- or tried to, anyway, but Billy Idol's clampy hand was still doing its clampy thing.
"Do you imind/i?" she said, shaking him off with some effort. "Eating, here."
Billy Idol laughed. "Oh no, pet, I think you're gonna come with me. I've got someone who would love to meet you."
She sighed. The real Billy Idol was probably way cooler than this guy. The real Billy Idol probably took 'no' for an answer. And because she was lost in her comparative analysis of the real Billy Idol versus the Billy Idol lookalike, she never saw the punch coming. For the second time in an hour, everything went black.
***
This time, she awoke to the sound of singing. Her brow is like the snowdrift, her nape is like the swan... Creepy singing, like something from a horror movie. Lifting her head, she peered around, but she couldn't see anything. She tried to move her legs and realized she was tied to a chair. In a crypt. Oh, this evening was getting better all the time. The Billy Idol wannabe probably didn't even bring the child along as a doggy bag, and her stomach was growling again.
The disconnected singing continued, and she could finally make out a female figure in the shadows. Long dark hair, long dress, wide eyes that gleamed in the dark. And a really creepy singing voice. Gave me her promise true, that ne'er forgot shall be... Dawn frowned. Clearly a vampire, but ... off, somehow. The woman stepped closer, close enough to touch her.
"Such a pretty toy," the woman said absently, stroking her fingers through Dawn's hair. Like everything else about her, the woman's accent seemed slightly off-kilter. The crazy talk helped, too.
"I'm not a toy," Dawn said. "I was just having some dinner. I'd like to get back to it."
The woman smiled at her, but her eyes remained empty. "My darling Spike brought me such a pretty toy! A pretty new toy, and just in time for the party!" The woman bounced with glee.
Dawn perked up. "There's going to be a party?" A party meant there might be someone she could convince to untie her.
The woman shook her head, looking sad. "No. No parties. They always leave me, you know. Miss Edith doesn't like parties anymore. Everything slips away under the ground... And her face, it is the fairest that e'er the sun shone on..."
The woman turned away and continued singing softly. Great. Tied to a chair with a crazy vampire. Dawn wondered what else could go wrong tonight.
As if reading her mind, the woman spun on her heel and returned to where Dawn was sitting. "What are you doing here?" When Dawn said nothing, the woman leaned in close and whispered in Dawn's ear in a half-singing, half-speaking singsong. "You're not supposed to be here yet. Not human."
Jerking her head away, Dawn rolled her eyes. "Duh. Vampire. Kinda not human by definition?"
The woman came close again, sniffing the air. "All shiny and green, not ripe yet, you pretty shiny green thing."
"Whatever," Dawn said, tugging at her bonds. "Can you just, y'know, let me out of here? I was in the middle of a nice meal when Billy Idol interrupted me, and I'd like to get back before the best ones are gone."
The woman ignored her, retreating to a corner of the room and picking up a doll. "Our Spike will be back soon, Miss Edith. And can you keep a secret? He's going to bring the Slayer, and then we'll have tea and crumpets."
Dawn felt an inexplicable glimmer of hope at the mention of the Slayer, which made no sense at all, but it wasn't not like tonight was all logic-filled anyway, so she just went with it.
The woman looked up at her. "Tell Miss Edith what you are. Tell, tell, or she'll be angry and the sky will turn a lovely shade of purple."
Dawn snorted. "I'm not going to talk to a doll. Grew out of that a few years ago, thanks."
The woman was across the room faster than Dawn thought possible. "Then talk to ime/i," she said menacingly.
Dawn rolled her eyes with a wisecracking attitude borne of ... what? How had she learned to be annoying? She couldn't remember, but figured it must go along with the whole vampire thing. "I'm not scared of you," she said. "Whatever your name is, whatever your stupid doll's name is, I don't care. I just want to leave."
"Drusilla," the woman said, still sing-songing. "And soon you'll be a part of my name too, from the insides. I think I'll like your insides, all shiny and new in me."
For the first time, Dawn began to feel a little prickle of worry, like if she didn't get out of here now she'd never see the outside world again. Maybe being sweet would get her where her attitude wouldn't. So she gritted her teeth, smiled, and tried to make nice with the crazy vampire. "Drusilla? That's a pretty name."
"It's my name," the woman -- Drusilla -- sang, cooing at the doll. "My name, but not your name. You don't have a name. You're too shiny."
"I do too have a name!" Dawn cringed at her knee-jerk reaction. Clearly the years of attitude couldn't be outdone by one feeble attempt at the social niceties.
"No name, no sister ... what is it like not to be real? Is it like being a bird?"
Dawn was just about to answer when a sort of ... shudder ... went through her. Shaking her head to clear her disorientation, she looked around ... and realized she now knew the meaning of "unmitigated disaster."
***
Dawn bit back a gasp and fought the rising swell of panic in her stomach. Guess this wasn't just a super creepy dream after all. It would be fine, though, she told herself. Buffy would come and save her and then they'd go home and laugh about it while eating Dawn's candy. Experimentally, Dawn tried to move her arms. Still bound. And now ... not a vampire anymore. Just a tied-up human girl whose sister happened to be the Slayer.
Not good.
Drusilla must have sensed that something had changed, because suddenly she was there, peering at Dawn with her crazy empty eyes. Vacant, her mind supplied. That was a very good word. Then Dawn did the only sensible thing she could think of.
"BUFFY! HELP! HELP ME!"
Dawn's shriek echoed through the crypt, but Drusilla just clucked her tongue and smiled at her. "No one to call, shiny thing. No one will come. Just you and me, and Daddy will be home soon."
-end-
__________________
Note: Dru is
singing "Annie Laurie," a traditional Scottish folk song. You can find the lyrics at www(dot)exclassics(dot)com(slash)ballads(slash)laurie.htm.