Back in the Day

I've lived a very long time. Some three hundred years. Three Hundred and Eleven to be exact. In all that time I've only ever loved one woman and her name was Buffy Summers.

I meet her in the late 1990s. She was a high school student and a slayer. Dangerous combination. We fought, hated and loved each other. But those details aren't important; it's what came after that is.

She destroyed the hellmouth in Sunnydale, California and from there left with her friends and family to Europe. I was turned to dust and stuck inside this amulet thing that was delivered to the one person I never wanted to see again in my long life, Angel.

There's a history with me and Angel that need not be discussed. What you do need to know is that I became a part of Angel's team to fight evil. I was vampire with a soul, just like Angel.

For years we fought side by side and then Buffy returned to L.A. to announce to Angel she was getting married. This is when we met again. The year was 2006 and a year of darkness and sadness.

Sure, Buffy was stunned, shocked, and angry at me for surviving Sunnydale and not telling her but she was even more angry at Angel for not passing that information along to her, since Angel knew of our history together.

The night before Buffy's wedding we shared an intimate night. A night of love making that told me that Buffy was stuck in a dark place, an unhappy place. Well naturally that wouldn't be such a huge difference until I became human.

It came only days after our little "encounter" when I woke up suddenly human and found that I had someone redeemed myself for all the evil I had done. It was the weirdest feeling to have my heart beat again after some hundred odd years of it not beating.

Buffy married her boyfriend and left town, without knowing I had become human, which was fine by me. Angel feel into depression at not being the "chosen one" and I begged any demon I could find to reverse time and make me a vampire again and given Angel humanity. Angel had been right, it's not what I expected or what I had wanted.

But no matter where I turned I would not be given such a reprieve. Sometime in the following year Buffy returned to L.A. and told me she had given birth to my child, and that's how she knew I had become human.

At the time I didn't understand, but I do now. The higher beings wanted an extremely powerful champion. A champion with the powers of both a vampire and a slayer. Joy, as Buffy named her, was beautiful but as we both quickly learned she was half vampire. At the time we didn't understand what half vampire meant and I'm sure neither do you, so I will explain. She had all the slayer skills and knowledge but also the power and evil of a vampire. She could walk in sunlight and touch crosses without smoking but she could also be turned to dust by fire and a stake through the heart. She also needed to drink blood. She also had a soul, but didn't care to use it.

This child was no champion. She was a demon. An awful demon. She is responsible for all the chaos that now surrounds me. She turned her mother into a vampire and forced dear Angel to put a stake in Buffy's heart. That's when he staked himself.

She in turn bore two children, with whom I kidnapped and took away with me. The powers finally granted me to be a vampire with a soul once more in order to save my grandchildren.

I raised and cared for them and taught them not to drink human blood. Their cravings for blood were much less than those of other vampire's thank god. However those that Joy sired also held her powers. The higher beings wanted a champion but what they found was destruction. Joy destroyed all that was right in the world, including her mother.

My grandchildren and their children and their children's children fought to save the world and returned it to the way it once was. I was once again turned to human and now am dying of a very old, old age.

I'm tired and wish to rest. Though I am under no delusions of going to heaven. I'm sure I will be sent straight to hell. Buffy may have had her soul taken from her but I wonder if she was sent back to heaven for all the good she had done or if she was sent straight to hell.

I'll soon find out. All of my friends are gone. Long since dead. All of my enemies gone. There are no more vampires, no more evil. It's a life of sunshine and happiness. Sure there are squabbles but not as horrid as they used to be.

After three hundred years I need to rest, whether or not it will be peace remains to be seen but I need to rest. I write this so future generations will know the truth about the past. So my semi odd numbered grandchild will know what the past is like. They think of me as just a guardian and have no idea who I really am. When they read this they will know.

I used to be known as Spike or William the Bloody but now I am known as just William. This was what happened to me.

Everybody knows the past up until the dark ages. A bloody bizarre Englishman named Rupert Giles created a library about the truth years ago, it's all public access. But what happened after is not. It pains me far too much to go into detail but the overall effects and repercussions are what is important.

And so ends the tale of William the Poet.

THE END