Turning the Tables

Chapter 11

MANSION

            Willow was draped over a reclining chair, deep into one of the blood-stained spell books Charlie had given her as "graduation present".  She smiled as she turned the yellowing pages, ignoring the screams of pain coming from the other room.

            "There's a lot of very interesting stuff in here," she remarked to Spike, who was playing with the tie on his duster.

            "Really?  What kind of interesting?"
            "Blood magic interesting," she said with a wicked grin.  There was another heart-wrenching, blood-curdling, soul-tearing shriek from the other room.  "Would you keep it down?" she shouted.  Honestly, she was trying to tell Spike about the new evil majicks she was finding.  It was the least Buffy could do to keep the torture down.  There was a ripping sound and the shrieking was stifled to muffled whimpers.  Better.

LIBRARY

            Giles blocked a kick with his oversized padding and spun around, knocking Faith off her feet with his quarterstaff.  He held out a hand to help her up and she took it grumpily.

            "Don't know why I have to bother with this," she grumbled, "Not like I'll ever be fighting a vamp with one of those stupid sticks."

            "You never know what kind of weaponry a situation may call for," Giles stated, drawing up to his full height, like he always did when he was getting into full Watcher-mode, "In many instances vampires do use weaponry.  Such as the thankfully disbanded vampire cult "El Eliminati" which-"

            "Yeah, yeah, whatever G."

            Giles opened his mouth, not quite sure himself whether to scold her for brushing off his lesson or for calling him "G", but closed it resignedly.  Faith wouldn't listen.  Buffy would have.  She would have pretended not to, but he knew that she always at least half-listened to whatever her was saying. Faith didn't even bother acting like she was paying the slightest attention to him.  He missed Buffy.

That really wasn't the only classification of his feelings though.  He more than missed her.  Part of him, his staunch Watcher training, felt failure.  Everyone knew that the Slayer would die, most likely sooner rather than later.  But he had never understood the grief and the sense of guilt.  It was his fault his Slayer died.  He should have prepared her better, or researched more thoroughly.  The rational part of his mind knew that this wasn't true, but it was only a small part struggling against the irrational portion.

He knew now why so many of the Watchers who actually had the chance to Watch the Slayer left the Council, drew into seclusion, or even went mad.  Probably the only reason he was still hanging on was for Xander, Cordelia, Oz and Joyce's sakes.  Without them to tie him down, he was sure he would have broken when he heard of Buffy's death and vampire resurrection.  Briefly, he wondered what ever had happened to the Watcher who was supposed to come assist them.  But he shook his head and concentrated on the sparring again.  These were too dark thoughts to be thinking of.  Not now.  Not when the world needed him.

SUNNY HEIGHTS (High Scale Apartment Complex)

            "It's really a lovely view of the beach, plus necro-tempered glass, to protect you from those nasty UV rays!" Bonnie Northrup, real-estate agent, told the happy young couple in the apartment with a toothy smile. 

            "Oh, Jim…isn't it lovely?" Kathy Thompson asked, rubbing her husband's arm excitedly.  This was just perfect beyond perfect.  It was the sweetest apartment, not too expensive, in a wonderful neighborhood.  It was strange.  In all the other towns they had looked at, an apartment like this would have cost them at least twice as much.  A sixth story view, friendly neighbors according to Bonnie…it was all they could have asked for.

            "It sure is sweetheart," Jim replied, grinning back at his wife.  A fine place to live, fine indeed.

            "Would you like me to get the paperwork?" Bonnie asked hopefully, smile never dimming.  With any luck, she could make a sale and be out of here for lunch.

            "Yes…" Jim said, squeezing Kathy's hand in excitement, "yes, I think that's an excellent idea."

CRYPT

            Wesley was counting how many stones there were in the ceiling when there was clattering from downstairs.  He froze, totally losing count, and stared worriedly at the stairwell.  What evil might erupt from the horrible abyss of the underworld?  He was distracted from his terror for a moment, congratulating himself on the poetic description he had given when the evil erupted from the horrible abyss.

            A girl, with bright red hair and mostly nonexistent clothing.  She walked over and pulled the chains binding his hands out of the ceiling.  Wrapping them around one of her own hands she yanked him towards the stairs…towards the sewer tunnels.

            "Come on Watcher…we're going on a trip."

SUNNY HEIGHTS

            Kathy snuggled closer to Jim and sighed contentedly.  It was theirs.  The beautiful apartment was all theirs.  She took a handful of popcorn out of the bowl on the coffee table and glanced at the television.  Jim was watching some kind of Western movie.  Uninteresting…but he was watching it on the TV in their new apartment.  It was so exciting!  There was a knock on the door and she frowned, rising and heading over.  Who would it be at this hour?  They didn't even know anyone in Sunnydale yet.  She opened the door to reveal five people.  A man with white-blonde hair with his arm around a pretty blonde; a red-head who was tightly holding the hand of a sorrowful looking dark-haired man; and another man who had his hands behind his back and was twitching slightly.

            "Yes?" She asked cautiously.

            "Hi there," the first man stepped forward with a large smile that showed many gleaming white teeth, "We're the Summers family, these are the Rosenbergs and Mr. Wyndam-Pryce.  We all live on this floor, and we just popped over for a bit of a welcome to the building get-together.  Sorry it's so late, but Wes was working late today."

            "Oh, that's so very sweet! Come in, all of you, come in!" She beckoned them all inside.  The two blondes and the redhead grinned very widely, and the other two men became even more unhappy looking.  But they all walked in, the single man pushed through first, followed by the red-head, Mrs. Rosenberg, dragging her husband forcefully.

            "Jim, honey, we have guests!" She turned to smile at her husband.  She was still smiling when she fell, unconscious from the sharp blow "Mrs. Rosenberg" had delivered to the back of her head.  "Mr. Summers" closed the door quickly, before Jim's shouts could carry into the hall.  He didn't shout for long.

Pretty short, but it's all I had time for…RR!