He lay for a few minutes, regaining his composure and feeling completely drained, and then he forced himself to sit up.
"Let's see," he said.
He was in a dust filled room with boarded up windows; the last, red embers of the day seeping through the gaps of the boards, highlighting the dense clouds of dust he'd kicked up from dropping onto the ground. There was a large dressing table next to one wall, a wall of cupboards on another and a small table in the middle of the room. Other than that, there was nothing except a solitary door as an exit.
"Right…"
He walked towards the door and twisted the knob. The hinges creaked loudly as he pulled the door open and he stepped outside, a floorboard groaned as he shifted his weight onto it.
The hallway was just as decrepit as the room – dust billowed around through the small amount of light the boarded up windows allowed through.
"Let's find the others then," suggested Wes to no-one in particular, and headed further down the corridor.
Gunn shook Fred gently awake. She'd passed out somewhere during the journey from the school to wherever they were now.
"Charles…?" she asked groggily.
"Yeah," he said, and smiled.
"Uhn…remind me never to take a portal ride again."
"I will."
She closed her eyes and passed unconscious again. He blinked slowly, and then shook his head, trying to clear the cobwebs.
Connor stalked through the corridor like a cat, listening for any sounds that might alert him to where he or the others were.
Katie crunched along behind him. "You don't have to do that, you know."
His shoulders slumped in defeat. "Okay, fine. Just…try to listen for any of the others, okay?"
"I'm already doing that."
"Oh…of course you are."
"So why are we all separated?"
Connor shrugged. "I dunno. It's probably something to do with the spell; I've found that magic's always unstable."
"But why did we appear together?"
"Uhm…I'm not sure. Maybe we just happened to arrive at the same time?"
"Do you think that maybe…because we were touching it made a difference?"
Connor spun around. "We weren't touching."
"No, I know, but say we had been, I mean…"
"We were touching?"
"Well, I think so."
"You're sure?"
"Uhm…I guess."
"Well, if we were touching, then maybe it would affect the spell."
"Yeah, I figured that too."
"But we might not have been touching."
"No."
"Right?"
"No. I mean, yeah."
"What do you mean, no?"
"I didn't mean no, I meant yeah."
"Right."
"Okay."
They stood awkwardly in the corridor.
"Uhm…we should probably…" Connor jerked his head back, indicating they should carry on.
Katie's eyes boggled. "You mean…?"
Connor matched her expression. "Oh, no, I mean, we should…carry on, you know."
"Oh."
"It's not that…you know, I wouldn't want to, but…I mean, with everything that's going on, and you probably wouldn't want…anyway."
"Oh, no, it's not that, I mean, I'd…you know. But, obviously, wrong time, and you wouldn't…with me, and…"
They were completely flustered, and Connor tried to speak again, but thought better of it. He just nodded awkwardly and carried on down the hall, Katie, embarrassed, tagging along behind.
Faith slammed the door open, pissed off. She was too tired to deal with this crap.
"Wesley!" she shouted, hearing her voice echo once off the walls.
There was no reply other than silence.
"Dammit," she whispered, and carried on down the corridor.
Wes opened another door and popped his head into the room. Surprisingly, there was a figure lying in the centre.
"Kennedy," he said. She didn't stir.
He walked over and kneeled down next to her. He rolled her over and saw why she hadn't replied. An ugly gash ran across her forehead, the blood only just beginning to solidify.
"Great," he muttered, checking her pulse. She was fine, other than the cut. He slung the shotgun across his back and then grabbed her shoulder and her waist. He lifted her up onto his shoulders and then carried her out of the room.
Gunn had found a large dining room and set Fred down on the table, waiting for her to come around on her own rather than rousing her by force.
A floorboard creaked outside.
"Hello?" he called instantly, hands going for the axe he'd brought through.
There was no reply.
He waited for a few seconds before calling again. "Anybody there?"
He picked up the axe and walked slowly to the door closest to the noise.
"Last warnin', next time I'm gonna bust your head with this axe!"
"Gunn?" called Wes as he opened the door.
Gunn spun around, watching as Wes walked in from across the hall.
"Hang on, there's a weird noise comin' from this door."
Wes set Kennedy down next to Fred and then drew his shotgun, stalking across the hall and standing next to Gunn. He nodded and threw open the door, pointing the gun before him and throwing himself into the corridor beyond.
It was empty.
Gunn looked sheepish. "I could've sworn I heard somethin'…"
Wes smiled reassuringly. "You probably did – old houses like this often make noises by themselves."
"Yeah, I guess." Gunn looked unconvinced however.
"What happened to Fred?"
Gunn walked back to the table, explaining what had transpired.
However, if they had been paying attention, they would have seen the billowing clouds of dust from the recently disturbed floor of the corridor.
Connor led the way into the dining room, sure of himself, and grinned when he saw the others huddled around the table.
"I told you I could track them," he said to Katie, who just nodded and gave a small smile.
"Have you come across Faith or Xander?" asked Wes, standing up.
Connor shook his head. "I didn't catch their scents either."
"This could pose a problem then…"
"Hey, do not fear," said a voice from across the room. "Xander is here."
Gunn waved him over and sat him down. "Now we just need to find Faith."
The Slayer in question was walking down yet another corridor when a whisper of movement warned of a presence behind her.
She whirled around, ready for a fight, but nothing was there. She started walking backwards slowly, looking for any sort of movement, when she walked into something.
She turned around and gasped.
Everyone bolted up and ran in the direction of the woman's scream when they heard it.
"Ugh, dammit," said Gunn and stopped it his tracks.
Wes twisted around. "What is it?"
"Go, I'll stay and keep an eye on the Sleeping Beauties."
"Oh…okay."
He turned and followed the others out of the hall.
Soon they came across Faith, slumped against the corridor wall.
Connor leant down and took the woman's pulse.
"She's okay – unconscious but okay," he said.
"Then why…?" asked Wes, then his eyes widened just before Gunn's shout floated back down the hallway. "Dammit!"
They sprinted back, Katie and Connor lifting Faith along with them.
"Gunn!" called Wes as they burst back into the dining room.
But Gunn was unconscious.
And an empty space now lay next to Fred.
"We need to find her."
"I know. Connor, you can track Kennedy?"
"Yeah."
"You're the logical one to lead the search party then. Take one of the radios, and switch it to channel seven. Try to remain in constant contact. Take Katie with you."
"Hey, what are you gonna do?"
"I'll stay here and keep an eye on the others."
"Well, I'm not entirely comfortable with this plan."
"Fine, you stay here, I'll go with Connor."
"Uhm…okay."
He tossed her the radio and walked over to Connor. "Shall we?"
Connor gave a strange look and then walked towards one of the doors.
"Take care, you guys," called Xander.
They didn't reply.
The two men walked side by side along the dust filled corridor.
"So Connor, why did you choose to come with me?"
"I told you, it's because I didn't want to sit around doing nothing."
"No, it's not. That's Gunn's reason and you stole it."
He didn't say anything back, so Wes pressed on.
"It's because you have a desire to hunt, isn't it?"
"…Yeah."
"It's all right, Connor. All the new Slayers are going through the same thing right now."
"But…they didn't…what I did…"
"I know. But that's all okay, because you've been forgiven…just like me."
Connor gave him a sidelong glance, seeing through the façade all of a sudden. He was still hurting beneath his indifferent exterior, it's just, unlike Connor, he didn't let it affect him. Anything but, in fact – the hurting Wes was ruthless and uncompromising, a trait which had pulled everyone through the events of the year.
They continued on in silence, then they rounded a corner and saw Kennedy's unconscious form lying across the corridor.
"Stay alert – it might be a trap," cautioned Wes and Connor silently nodded in agreement.
He waved Connor back and he crept forward, covering as much of the corridor as he could with the shotgun.
Then, slowly, inexorably, a misty presence pushed its way through the wall of the room nearest to Kennedy. It was huge – it took up most of the hallway space. It had two long, scything talons which jutted with pitted spikes along their edges. Its body had no legs; instead, it floated just above the ground with a flowing cloak as a lower body. Its head was the worst however. It was very small compared to the size of its body, yet its eyes gleamed blue, like the rest of its body, with an unholy hunger.
Wes could just gape as it slowly floated towards Kennedy's inert body, then he gasped with surprise as it lunged forward and stabbed a scythe through her torso.
A misty form raised from Kennedy's body and was sucked towards the creature.
Then it was gone.
The creature, however, remained.
It lunged forward at Wes and embedded a talon in his chest.
Everything was colour – yet everything was grey. There seemed to be nothing around except foggy swirls of matter, yet the world appeared unchanged. Everything was sound, yet there was silence.
Wes regarded this world with surprise. He had anticipated some kind of pain from the creature's attack, however within a blink of an eye it was gone. Connor no longer stood behind him. Kennedy's body was no longer eight feet in front of him. Yet he remained in the mansion corridor.
He got to his feet slowly. He felt weightless, but at the same time like normal. He felt as if his feet hovered two inches from the floor, or that there was no floor and he simply was.
"Strange…" he managed to sum up.
Right, I've read through a couple of old reviews and have noticed what
seems to be putting a lot of people off is the length of the chapters, so this
was going to be a gargantuan – I really like that word, and I rarely
have an opportunity to use it in a sentence ;) – chapter but instead
it's been cut in half. It probably won't do much good in the long
run because I'll probably upload the next one really soon, but what the
hey. Review please :)
Also, check out www.nisus.cjb.net and have a look at the images, tell me what
you think – they're under 'extras'.