Disclaimer: I own nothing but the story.
A/N: Thanks for reviewing! I'm sorry it took a while to update, but I have exams coming up. Thanks even if you just read and didn't review, but please do! Reviews are great! They help a lot. There'll be more character interaction in the next chapter, this is a 'slower' one.
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'Hi lover. Long time no see. When are you gonna come looking for me? When I kill yet another one of your useless little friends?'
'Oh God no. Please no! Oh God, oh God, oh Go-'
'Will you stop that before I gag you? He's really not gonna help, you know. I know it's a bit of a letdown, but hey, that guy's got a lot of work to do, before stopping me from breaking your lovely little neck.'
'Oh God, please don't do this! I'll give you whatever you want, all the money I've got. My father, he's rich. Please don't. Angel, pl-'
A frustrated growl.
A scream.
A slap.
Sobs.
'Ah, you guys really have to learn not to call me that. Oh, and you really shouldn't scream. Wait. Actually, please do! I like girls who scream. Pity you never did that, Buff. Really makes things slightly more exciting. Oh well, I guess I should kill her now.'
Another scream. A crack. Then, silence.
'Oh, before I forget. It's really not your fault, Buffy.'
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[Extract from the Watchers' Diaries – Rupert Giles
Slayer: Buffy Anne Summers]
April 2nd, 1998
Reading about Angelus' history is certainly not enough to prepare anyone for the amount of cruelty this vampire is capable of. He has killed another friend of Buffy's yesterday, just one day after murdering Miss Rosenberg, and I do not know how much more Buffy can take of this. He is indeed succeeding in rendering my charge unable to fight him, although the reasons for his obsession for her are obscure. Before he lost his soul, Angelus and Buffy were on friendly terms, so there is no apparent logic behind his actions. If I hadn't known about his previous state and just saw him as a soulless monster, I would have never believed them to be the same creature.
Fortunately, I was at Buffy's side this time when she found the tape. It is clear that Angelus intercepted Cordelia Chase at the Sunnydale bus station, and his method remains unvaried from Miss Rosenberg's murder. If possible, Buffy is even more upset than she was before. She still hasn't let herself cry, not even at Miss Chase's funeral. She hardly seems to be aware of anything but her friends' deaths and I still have to patrol in her place. This is of course an incredibly hard time for all of us, and I honestly hope we will in some way manage to stop Angelus. Of course, we are trying as hard as we can to keep risks at a minimum, but again, even having Buffy escort us wherever we go hardly seems a solution, as she seems to need more help than we do.
[End of extract]
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Giles closed the diary and sighed. There was just so much more that he couldn't write in there. There was his pain at having lost two people he loved and one person he was in love with. There was the devastating memory of seeing Xander cry like a child at Cordelia's funeral. There was a father's pain for a daughter every time he looked at Buffy and saw that her grief and guilt and hurt were beyond words. There was the knowledge that there was something much worse than logic behind Angelus' actions; there was love, and there was hate. And that he'd never stop killing until he had utterly destroyed the Slayer, and that she was in some way responsible for it all. And there was the absolute and chilling certainty that nothing would ever be the same again.
But whatever Angelus threw at the Scooby Gang, the rest of the world kept inexorably turning. Buffy, Xander and Oz all had to go to school, and Giles was still the Sunnydale High librarian. The Razorbacks still had to play and lessons had to go on. Death was everyday business in Sunnydale.
They had to take tests without Willow to copy from. They had to go to IT classes without Jenny to teach them. They had to talk to Jonathan without Cordelia to tease him. Even on the worst day of their lives.
TBC…