Joss Whedon's the genius, not me.

Written for 15minuteficlet LJ community's challenge #85, the word "painful."

Ascension
by Zzilly14

I was with her until the very end. I held her hand, stroked her hair...

She told me that there was a way. A way to cure her. I asked her how, and she said... to kill her. Make her a vampire. She was delirious. The poison, it was messing with her head...

I never left her side. I wouldn't... I couldn't. She eventually closed her eyes and breathed one last time...

It's painful... almost unbearable. But we have to go on. The Mayor is going to ascend, unless we stop him. It's what Buffy would want us to do.