Title: Grains of the Golden Sand
Author: alliterator
Summary: "All that we see or seem/Is but a dream within a dream." E. A. Poe,
Dream Within A Dream. Post-Grave, Restless-style.
Spoilers: Spoilers for Season 7 (or at least foreshadowing).
Disclaimer: If I owned Buffy, do you think I'd be writing fanfiction?
Feedback: You think I'm going to say no?
Dawn's Dream
Dawn was in her bed, enveloped in her sheets. They were so white and soft that she never wanted to get out of bed for fear that they might go away. Her pillow was underneath her head and it was so quiet that if she listened softly she could hear the sound of her own heartbeat.
"Dawn, walk up!" Buffy burst into her room. "You are very, very late. I can't believe how late you are."
"What are you talking about?" Dawn didn't want to get up from her bed so she pulled the clock on her nightstand towards her. "It's only..." The clock read 7:30.
"Don't bother with that clock," Buffy reached over and snatched the clock from her. "It's for me and it's too slow. You have to get up."
Dawn yawned. "Why?" she asked.
"Because, sleepy, I'm going to show you the world."
"Show it to me later."
"Later it might not be there."
Dawn lifted her head from her pillow. Buffy had already shattered all hope of sleep.
"Alright," she said rising from her bed, "you can show me the world. After breakfast."
"Okay," Buffy took Dawn by the hand and pulled her towards the kitchen. "For breakfast, we're having pancakes with peanut butter."
"Ewww," Dawn squeezed her nose. "It smells nasty. On second thought, I think I'll skip breakfast. What's first to show me about the world?"
"High school," Buffy said. Dawn was disappointed. She had already seen high school.
"Can't we go somewhere else?"
"No," Buffy was stubborn, "the high school is where I will show you the world, except I'm can't really show you, and you can't really see the world from high school, but I'm going to do it anyway."
"Was that a run-on sentence?"
"Don't be a smarty trousers."
Dawn sighed. It was time to go to high school.
--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
The high school was big and empty. Buffy and Dawn walked side by side down one of the hallways. Dawn took the opportunity to notice how taller she was than Buffy. Maybe Buffy hadn't matured yet?
"The high school's stupid," Dawn whined. "Can't we go to a cooler place, like maybe a different high school?"
"No," Buffy was adamant, "this is the high school where I grew up and this is the high school where I will show you the world. Now, I have to leave." She turned around.
"Leave," Dawn stopped, "but I thought you were going to show me the world?"
"Yes," Buffy face Dawn again, "but I have to find the world myself before I can show it too you. You understand, right?"
"Sure I do," Dawn rolled her eyes, "you're insane."
"Correct. I want you to go to your classes first."
"But I don't know where my classes are," Dawn complained.
Buffy pointed towards a man coming down the hallway. "Get a schedule from him." Then she left.
Dawn walked towards the man. He was sort of chubby. Portly, Dawn thought, I think it's called portly. Dawn stopped when she came up to him. "My sister said you would have my schedule."
"Well, young lady, what's your name?" he pulled out a stack of schedules from his jacket pocket and flipped through them.
"Dawn."
"Dawn, Dawn, Dawn," the man repeated. "Is it short for anything?"
"Nothing," Dawn answered.
"Here it is," the man pulled out a schedule that was bright pink and gave it to her. On the top of the schedule was her name: NOTHING SUMMERS. Instead of classes, all that was written on the rest of the schedule was the word "death."
"There's no room numbers," Dawn said to the man.
"Don't worry," he said, "it's in every classroom."
Suddenly, Dawn heard another voice. "Principal Flutie, I'd like to have a word with you." Dawn saw another portly man coming from the end of the hallway.
"Principal Snyder, it's good to see you," Principal Flutie said.
"Don't give me that 'good to see you' crap. I know it was you who was responsible. Your woolly-headed, liberal thinking led to me being eaten." Principal Snyder started to raise his finger and point it at Principal Flutie.
"Now, now, gentlemen, I think we can settle this outside." Another man was coming up from the hallway. He wasn't portly like the other two, but slim. His skin was a dark brown and he wore suit with a button that had the letters HM on it.
"Who are you?" Dawn asked.
"I'm the Hall Monitor and I'd like to see your hall passes," he said.
"I was eaten by a giant snake that used to be the Mayor," Principal Snyder said.
"I was eaten by a pack of kids that were possessed by hyenas," Principal Flutie said.
The Hall Monitor looked at Dawn. "I wasn't eaten by anything," Dawn said.
"Are you sure?" the Hall Monitor looked at her with questioning eyes. "What's your name?"
"It says here I'm Nothing Summers, but my name's Dawn," Dawn said.
"Dawn Summers," the Hall Monitor put his hand to his chin. "Alright, I'll let you stay, but only because of circumstances. Next time you have to have a hall pass."
"Okay," Dawn said, "I just want to get to me classes."
"I thought you wanted to be shown the world?" the Hall Monitor puzzled. "Oh well. To get to your class, just go through that door." He pointed towards a door that said 'classes this way.' Dawn wondered why she hadn't seen that before.
"Thanks," she said as she opened the door and walked through it.
Inside the classroom everyone stared at her. It was a big classroom, sort of like a college lecture hall, and kids sat in almost every seat. Dawn could see some that she knew, but most were unfamiliar.
"Class, listen up," Giles stood in the front of the classroom holding a metal pointer, "we have a new student. Nothing, would you come here."
Dawn come towards Giles. "My name's Dawn."
"Oh how cute, a nickname," he said. "You can sit over there," he pointed with his pointer to an empty seat, "next to that one kid who was a zombie and that other kid who was a ghost."
"Okay," Dawn went and sat down.
"Can I borrow a pencil?" the kid to the right of her asked.
"Sorry," she replied, "I don't have any."
"Here, here class," Giles said, "we here today to learn about demonology. Up on the black board, I have written some types of demons." On the black board was written BUFFY, KENDRA, FAITH, LARGE AND SMALL BONE EATERS. There's a demon named Buffy? Dawn thought. How weird. "Now, in celebration of our new student, we have a new type of demon to study," Giles moved the black board and behind it sat Spike. He looked the same as when Dawn had seen him last, his hair bleached and he was wearing his duster and had a cigarette in his mouth. "I call him spikus bloodicus, part of the genus of vampirus."
Spike took the cigarette out of his mouth and blew smoke up in the air. "What're you looking at, Little Bit o' Nothing?" he said, his eyes locked on Dawn.
Dawn raised her hand. "Can I go to the bathroom?" she asked Giles.
"Alright," Giles sighed. "Just don't fall in, or else you'll miss the second half of my lecture, 'How Humans Are Related to Demons.'"
Out in the hallway, Dawn felt nervous. "That class in just too weird," she said to herself.
"You're telling me," Dawn turned around and saw Spike. "Just came out to see how you were doing."
"Fine," Dawn lied. "I just need to go to the bathroom."
Spike blew some more smoke in the air. "You don't want to go there. Go to the restroom instead."
"Restroom, bathroom, whatever," Dawn shrugged, "just show me where it is."
Spike motioned with his cigarette at a doorway. Dawn went up to it and the there was a sign on it that said 'all trespassers will be shot.' "Are you sure?" Dawn said, but Spike was gone. "Here goes Nothing," she said and pushed the door open.
The restroom looked surprisingly like the Bronze. Everywhere people were dancing and on stage a band played. Dawn couldn't see who the band was, but she did see that Willow and Xander were among the crowd. Dawn walked over to them and tapped Willow's shoulder.
"Oh hey, Dawnie," Willow said. She was wearing the same clothes as when she had turned evil, but her face was not unusually pale, but cheerful, and her hair wasn't black, but red.
"That nickname is so middle school," Dawn said.
"Oh, right, I heard you were in high school now," Xander said. He looked the same as he always did. "Maybe we should call you by you're real name."
"I don't want to," Willow said, "I want to just call her Dawn."
Dawn ignored her. "So, who's the band?"
"It used to be Dingoes Ate My Baby, but they changed their name," Willow said.
"I hear it's Hyenas Ate The Principal now," Xander said. "Hey, look here comes Oz. He knows stuff. Hey, Oz, what's the band called?"
Oz approached them. "We just changed it. Now, it's called Slayer Ate Her Sister," he said.
"What's it supposed to mean?" Dawn asked him. Oz looked at her quizzically. Suddenly, Dawn saw Buffy in the crowd and waved her over.
"Dawn," Buffy asked excitedly, "did you see the world?"
"I don't know?" Dawn answered, "is the world just Giles talking about demons in a lecture hall?"
"You know," Buffy said to her, "I think I once saw the world. Maybe I can take you to the same place where I saw it."
"That would be neat," Dawn replied. "When can we go?"
"Right now," Buffy said. Then she raised her hand and grabbed Dawn's mouth, holding it shut. Dawn struggled, but Buffy was stronger and soon Dawn was too weak to struggle. Dawn was being deprived of air and if she didn't get any soon, she would die. Slowly, Dawn felt herself going unconscious and she knew that was the point of no return. In Buffy's arms, Dawn went limp.
