Okay, so you have all the right in the world to be pissed at me for not
updating in such a long time, but real life has been kicking my ass for the
last couple of months. I had my end-of-highschool exams as well as my
university admissions exams which I'm happy to say ended well and I am now
a future jurnalism student :D From now on, I promise, there will be more
updates on this story as well as on "Dawn of the Slayer Age"...
Part 5
Walk like a man
Tic. Tic. Tic. Like the incomplete sound of a clock ticking. Tic, tic, tic. No tac. Right outside the windows. In the pitch black. Maybe it was a branch. But he knew it was a ridiculous idea because he had seen the exterior of the Hyperion and there were no trees outside it. Tic, tic, tic. Where was it coming from? He dared to open his eyes, but nothing seemed out of place in the room. The annoying ticking sound was suddenly replaced by a screeching noise. William stood up in his bed startled. He walked over to the window and peaked outside. Nothing. He turned around and contemplated turning on the lamp. He eventually decided against it, not wanting to give Liam another reason to mock him. He returned to bed.
The doorknob turned slowly and the door cracked open, just a few inches before slamming itself shut. William looked at it confused and said, out loud, for his own comfort:
"It's just drafty. The wind must have pushed it open."
He tried to laugh it off nervously, but when one of the windows broke, he practically jumped out of bed. Something grabbed him from behind and shoved him back down on the bed before he had a chance to react. That 'something' disappeared before he had a chance to see it. As he tried to rise again, a hand - just a hand! - grabbed him by the neck and kept him pinned on the bed. Another hand appeared above him, holding a knife, just as an eerie voice asked:
"Do you want to play doctor?"
William struggled to free himself, but the hand had an iron grip on his throat. He did the only thing he could do: he screamed.
"Au," Liam let out as Wesley joined him in front of the mirrors.
"What is it?" the watcher-in-training asked.
"There must be some pretty big mosquitos in these parts," Liam said touching his neck. When he drew back his hand, his fingers were covered in blood.
"Let me see," Wesley looked at his neck and saw he had two recently made small holes in it. "Are you sure this was an insect?"
"What else could it be?" Liam shrugged. As the two boys left the bathroom they didn't notice James stuck up on the ceiling doing his best not to fall down from it. Wesley had ruined his plan. Simply eating Liam was not an option, there would have to be some depth to it. Some real pain, not just physical.
"He's such a total ass!" Buffy said, as she paced in their room angrily under Willow's nervous gaze.
"Uh, this is making me sick," the redhead said referring to the fact that she was following her pacing. They suddenly heard a scream coming from the other room. Buffy and Willow shared a quick look. Willow jumped out of her bed and grabbed a lamp and then they both headed out of the room, leaving Dawn alone. The little girl stared into the darkness feeling uneasy.
"They left you all alone," a calm voice said startling her. "It's all right, you don't have to be frightened. I don't want to hurt you," Makhran assured her as he stepped out from the darkness so she could see him.
"You," she remembered seeing him in that odd place she had woken up in after her creation.
"Yes," Makhran smiled. "It's true your friends have all the reasons in the world to fear me, but you and I could be friends, little Dawn. Very good friends."
"No!" Dawn protested.
"There is a reason I took you out of your time when I did," he said moving calmly towards her in a very non-threatening way. "You see, those men, those monks that made you, didn't have a chance to finish their incantation so you're...incomplete. Stuck between this human form and your true one. In the original history they managed to make you whole, to send you to the slayer's home for protection, they purposely took away from you all your power, but now...all that greatness lies in those tiny little hands of yours," he sat down on the edge of the bed and took her hands in his. "Together we could make great things happen. I can make you real again."
"Real," Dawn said pulling her hands away and staring at the covers of the bed with an empty look in her eyes. "Buffy. Mom," a glimpse of something seemed to flash into her mind as she spoke those words. "Mom," she repeated with a smile.
"It's not real, Dawn," Makhran tried to convince her. "Nothing of it is. You're a stranger to them, but I know your true nature, your true self. I know you."
"Mom," she repeated again and her smile widened even more. "Bye-bye," she looked at Makhran and her eyes glowed for a moment and the demon began fading away.
"Dawn...," he said frowning. "Think about it! Think about how good friends we could be..." those were his last words before he faded away and found himself back into his atemporal cocoon.
"Mom?" Dawn asked standing up in her bed. No one answered. She got out of bed and left the room. "Mom?" she asked again when she was in the hallway. Again, no answer. She had to be there, she knew that. She headed down the hallway silently, occasionally calling out the name of the woman she had suddenly remembered when Makhran had been talking to her about greatness and her sense of reality.
Buffy and Willow pushed the door of the boys' room open and were greeted by a startling sight. William was being held down on the bed by a hand while another one, holding a knife, was cutting up his chest while the boy screamed in agony.
"What is that?" Willow asked distressed, hugging the lamp she had taken from their room to her chest.
"Maniacal hand from hell?" Buffy suggested as she rushed to William's side, grabbing the hand with the knife with both of her hands. The knife turned towards her and the murderous hand tried to stab her, but the slayer struggled to keep it at a safe distance from herself. "What do I do with it?" she asked as she leaned into a wall for better support.
"Uh, the closet!" Willow said running over to it, but the other hand grabbed her by the right foot, making her stumble and fall to the floor. Once she was down, the hand traveled up to her neck and proceeded to choke her. Willow tried to scratch it, hit it with the lamp, but nothing worked. Meanwhile Buffy made her way to the closet and shoved the hand along with its knife inside it. The hand stabbed the closet door several times, but luckily it was thick enough not to break. The slayer quickly made her way to Willow and pulled the other hand off her. She wanted to lock it in the closet with the other one, but it made a quick getaway into the hallway. It was gone before Buffy had a chance to catch it.
"Damn it!" she stomped back into the room annoyed. Willow was still on the floor trying to catch her breath. "Well, at least we got the one with the knife," she added looking towards the closet door that was beginning to rattle. "You okay?" she asked turning towards the redhead.
"Just...give me a mo...moment. I'll be...fine," Willow said taking in deep breaths. "William..." she looked meaningfully towards the bed.
"He doesn't look so good," Buffy said nearing him. The sheets were covered in blood and his chest was sliced up, but as far as she could tell, the wounds weren't deep. "William, can you hear me?" she asked gently as she put a comforting hand on his face.
"Love...love...is...," he mumbled, his eyes barely open.
"His trying to make poetry," she looked back at Willow, who had finally risen from the floor, smiling.
"Poor guy," the redhead said sympathetically.
"William," Buffy brushed some strands of hair from his face. "William...open your eyes..."
"Bu-buffy?" he asked weakly. "What...what happened?" he was confused.
"You were attacked by an evil hand," the slayer said with a smile. "But you survived."
"My...," he gestured towards his shredded shirt.
"It's okay," Buffy assured him. "We'll get you a new one. We have to clean him up," she added towards Willow. "What are the odds of us finding a first aid kit around here?"
"There should be a good chance," Willow said nodding. "Considering all the stuff we found. The covers, pillows, lamps...but it would probably be downstairs," she added fidgeting.
"Great," Buffy mumbled. "We can't leave him here alone."
"What happened?" Wesley asked as he and Liam entered their room and saw the bloody William.
"Killer hand," Willow said gesturing towards the closet.
"Just where the hell have you two been?" Buffy asked leaving William's side and looking at them crossly.
"I just needed to use the bathroom," Wesley explained.
"Oh and suddenly the only functional bathroom in this place is a mile away?" Buffy asked annoyed.
"Not exactly a mile, but at the other end of the hallway," Wesley corrected her. "I even had to use the ladies room because the men's room is in pieces."
"You shouldn't have left him alone," Buffy insisted.
"And what was I suppose to do with him?" Liam asked frowning and gesturing towards Wesley. "Leave him alone in those damn dark hallways?"
"You should've called me!" the slayer said.
"I suppose you'd like that, wouldn't you? Spending some time alone with him," Liam said mockingly. The slayer shot him an annoyed look.
"This isn't the time to argue," Wesley interfered. "Now what killer hand is she talking about and what's in that closet?"
"The hand's in the closet," Buffy said calmer now. "It's like...a detached hand from the wrist down. There were two, but I only managed to catch one and it still has a knife."
"We're talking about a hand?" Liam asked confused. "Just a hand?"
"Just a hand," Willow said nodding.
"Where did it come from?" Liam asked looking at the closed closet curious.
"We don't know," Buffy said. "We came in when we heard William screaming. The hands were already here and doing a hack job on him."
"We should make it stop," Willow suggested staring at the closet door. The tip of the knife was already visible as the hand stabbed away at the door.
"How? It's not like it has a heart or anything," Buffy pointed out. "Any ideas, head boy?" she looked at Wesley expectantly.
"Well, it's not the hand of a ghost," the watcher-in-training stated the obvious. "That means it belongs to somebody. We kill that somebody, we kill the hand."
"The hand looked totally human. And if you haven't checked the slayers' resume, we don't kill people," the slayer told him.
"Can't we simply butcher it?" Liam suggested.
"What if we cut it in two and we get two smaller killer hands?" Willow didn't like the idea.
"Who said we'd be cutting it in two?" Liam asked with a smile. "Just give me a hammer and I'll take care of the rest."
"Though that sounds nasty, I haven't heard a better plan so...," Buffy agreed with Liam.
"Wait, shouldn't we analyze it?" Wesley protested. "Shouldn't there be something left of it to analyze after we kill it?"
"You'll have your analysis, doc," Buffy assured him smiling. "But you're going to be analyzing hand mush. Any idea where we might find a hammer or something really really heavy?"
"Downstairs. I saw some tools scattered around in one of the back rooms," Wesley explained.
"Stay here, I'll be right back," the slayer prepared to venture downstairs by herself.
"And where do you think you're going by yourself?" Liam asked stopping her from advancing by grabbing her by the arm.
"It'll only take me a minute," Buffy said pulling her arm away from his grasp. "Now sit."
"Buffy, take him with you," Wesley agreed with Liam. "We can't risk someone else getting hurt."
"Fine," the slayer shrugged. "Come on, pony tail, we have a kit and a hammer to find," she told Liam as she headed out into the hallway.
"Kit?" Liam asked confused as he followed her out. "What is that? A cat?"
"Should we...I don't know, try to at least get that shirt off him?" Willow asked turning back towards the now unconscious William.
"Not until we have a clean bandage," Wesley thought it was a bad idea. "We'd only make the wounds where the blood already coagulated bleed more."
"So we wait," Willow said startling slightly when the hand in the closet stabbed the door harder than it had done before. "I hope they come back with that hammer soon."
"They will," Wesley assured her.
"Dawn," she suddenly remembered. "We left her alone. We just rushed in here and...we totally forgot about her," she panicked for a moment, before adding a bit more relieved: "But we didn't hear any screams. That's a good sign."
"Yes, unless of course someone smothered her to death," Wesley said worriedly.
"Oh, god!" Willow let out and they both rushed into the girls' room to find it empty. "Oh god, oh god, oh god," the redhead kept repeating.
"There's no trace of blood," the watcher- in-training tried to calm her and himself down.
"She wouldn't have wondered off by herself," Willow said desperately.
"You don't know that," Wesley pointed out. "We barely know what any of us are capable of doing. You heard what that demon said...Maybe she just went looking for you and got lost in the hotel."
"We have to find her," Willow said.
"Not until Liam and Buffy come back. We can't leave William alone again," Wesley reminded her. "Especially not now, when he's vulnerable and a killer hand with a knife might escape from that closet and another one is running loose around the hotel."
"But by the time they get back, it could be too late," Willow complained. "I could go...I could..."
"Don't talk nonsense, Willow, you're barely 13. At least in body. Anything that could kill Dawn could easily kill you as well," Wesley tried to reason with her.
"I should've stayed with her," Willow blamed herself for it. "It's not like I helped Buffy or anything..."
"I know it's frustrating we can't do anything about it," Wesley said. "But if it's of any comfort to you I don't think the demon that's after us means to kill Dawn. Use her to open up a hell dimension maybe, but not kill her. And whatever's in this hotel, he won't let it kill her because he needs her."
"I do remember something he said...," Willow was a bit calmer now.
"We should get back to our room. We'll leave the door open so we can hear if anyone's in the hallway," Wesley said and Willow nodded weakly.
"Back room," Buffy repeated as she stared into various dark empty rooms on the ground floor. "We should've asked for better directions."
"Are there no candles down here?" Liam asked feeling frustrated as he searched the dark like a blind man.
"I doubt it. The chandelier was collapsed somewhere and the light bulbs are all smashed so no light either. We'll just have to stick together and guess what's what," she said as something darted across the floor and she let out a small scream digging her nails into Liam's shoulder painfully.
"Damn, woman, what did you do that for?" Liam asked rubbing his shoulder after Buffy let go.
"Rat," she explained.
"Some things never do change. No matter what age of the world you're in," Liam noted with a smile.
"It just appeared out of nowhere, okay? It could've been the other hand just as easily," Buffy defended herself.
"Whatever you say, darling," Liam said chuckling.
"Don't you darling me," the slayer said frowning as she entered yet another dark room.
"It annoys you?" Liam asked and his voice sounded rather distant to Buffy.
"Liam?" she asked looking around and not seeing him.
"Then I won't stop until you stop calling me pony tail, darling," Liam sounded amused, but even further away.
"Liam? I think you entered the wrong room!" Buffy yelled so he could hear her.
"What?" he couldn't hear her very well either. "Where are you?"
"Just get out of whatever room you're in!" Buffy said looking around. She couldn't spot the door.
"I think I found the...aaah, kit. It's a box with a red cross on it...just like you said," he yelled.
"I can't hear you!!!" she screamed, as she felt the walls for a door, but found none.
She was walking down the hallway of the second floor when she heard noises coming from one of the rooms. She hurried towards it enthusiastically and asked as she pushed the door open:
"Mommy?" But it was not mommy. It was not what her fragmented memories had shown her. Inside the room there was a woman, but it was definitely not her...This woman was young, and tied up and bleeding from the head while a man stood a few feet away from her.
"Well, well, what do we have here?" Billy asked with a smile.
End Part 5
Part 5
Walk like a man
Tic. Tic. Tic. Like the incomplete sound of a clock ticking. Tic, tic, tic. No tac. Right outside the windows. In the pitch black. Maybe it was a branch. But he knew it was a ridiculous idea because he had seen the exterior of the Hyperion and there were no trees outside it. Tic, tic, tic. Where was it coming from? He dared to open his eyes, but nothing seemed out of place in the room. The annoying ticking sound was suddenly replaced by a screeching noise. William stood up in his bed startled. He walked over to the window and peaked outside. Nothing. He turned around and contemplated turning on the lamp. He eventually decided against it, not wanting to give Liam another reason to mock him. He returned to bed.
The doorknob turned slowly and the door cracked open, just a few inches before slamming itself shut. William looked at it confused and said, out loud, for his own comfort:
"It's just drafty. The wind must have pushed it open."
He tried to laugh it off nervously, but when one of the windows broke, he practically jumped out of bed. Something grabbed him from behind and shoved him back down on the bed before he had a chance to react. That 'something' disappeared before he had a chance to see it. As he tried to rise again, a hand - just a hand! - grabbed him by the neck and kept him pinned on the bed. Another hand appeared above him, holding a knife, just as an eerie voice asked:
"Do you want to play doctor?"
William struggled to free himself, but the hand had an iron grip on his throat. He did the only thing he could do: he screamed.
"Au," Liam let out as Wesley joined him in front of the mirrors.
"What is it?" the watcher-in-training asked.
"There must be some pretty big mosquitos in these parts," Liam said touching his neck. When he drew back his hand, his fingers were covered in blood.
"Let me see," Wesley looked at his neck and saw he had two recently made small holes in it. "Are you sure this was an insect?"
"What else could it be?" Liam shrugged. As the two boys left the bathroom they didn't notice James stuck up on the ceiling doing his best not to fall down from it. Wesley had ruined his plan. Simply eating Liam was not an option, there would have to be some depth to it. Some real pain, not just physical.
"He's such a total ass!" Buffy said, as she paced in their room angrily under Willow's nervous gaze.
"Uh, this is making me sick," the redhead said referring to the fact that she was following her pacing. They suddenly heard a scream coming from the other room. Buffy and Willow shared a quick look. Willow jumped out of her bed and grabbed a lamp and then they both headed out of the room, leaving Dawn alone. The little girl stared into the darkness feeling uneasy.
"They left you all alone," a calm voice said startling her. "It's all right, you don't have to be frightened. I don't want to hurt you," Makhran assured her as he stepped out from the darkness so she could see him.
"You," she remembered seeing him in that odd place she had woken up in after her creation.
"Yes," Makhran smiled. "It's true your friends have all the reasons in the world to fear me, but you and I could be friends, little Dawn. Very good friends."
"No!" Dawn protested.
"There is a reason I took you out of your time when I did," he said moving calmly towards her in a very non-threatening way. "You see, those men, those monks that made you, didn't have a chance to finish their incantation so you're...incomplete. Stuck between this human form and your true one. In the original history they managed to make you whole, to send you to the slayer's home for protection, they purposely took away from you all your power, but now...all that greatness lies in those tiny little hands of yours," he sat down on the edge of the bed and took her hands in his. "Together we could make great things happen. I can make you real again."
"Real," Dawn said pulling her hands away and staring at the covers of the bed with an empty look in her eyes. "Buffy. Mom," a glimpse of something seemed to flash into her mind as she spoke those words. "Mom," she repeated with a smile.
"It's not real, Dawn," Makhran tried to convince her. "Nothing of it is. You're a stranger to them, but I know your true nature, your true self. I know you."
"Mom," she repeated again and her smile widened even more. "Bye-bye," she looked at Makhran and her eyes glowed for a moment and the demon began fading away.
"Dawn...," he said frowning. "Think about it! Think about how good friends we could be..." those were his last words before he faded away and found himself back into his atemporal cocoon.
"Mom?" Dawn asked standing up in her bed. No one answered. She got out of bed and left the room. "Mom?" she asked again when she was in the hallway. Again, no answer. She had to be there, she knew that. She headed down the hallway silently, occasionally calling out the name of the woman she had suddenly remembered when Makhran had been talking to her about greatness and her sense of reality.
Buffy and Willow pushed the door of the boys' room open and were greeted by a startling sight. William was being held down on the bed by a hand while another one, holding a knife, was cutting up his chest while the boy screamed in agony.
"What is that?" Willow asked distressed, hugging the lamp she had taken from their room to her chest.
"Maniacal hand from hell?" Buffy suggested as she rushed to William's side, grabbing the hand with the knife with both of her hands. The knife turned towards her and the murderous hand tried to stab her, but the slayer struggled to keep it at a safe distance from herself. "What do I do with it?" she asked as she leaned into a wall for better support.
"Uh, the closet!" Willow said running over to it, but the other hand grabbed her by the right foot, making her stumble and fall to the floor. Once she was down, the hand traveled up to her neck and proceeded to choke her. Willow tried to scratch it, hit it with the lamp, but nothing worked. Meanwhile Buffy made her way to the closet and shoved the hand along with its knife inside it. The hand stabbed the closet door several times, but luckily it was thick enough not to break. The slayer quickly made her way to Willow and pulled the other hand off her. She wanted to lock it in the closet with the other one, but it made a quick getaway into the hallway. It was gone before Buffy had a chance to catch it.
"Damn it!" she stomped back into the room annoyed. Willow was still on the floor trying to catch her breath. "Well, at least we got the one with the knife," she added looking towards the closet door that was beginning to rattle. "You okay?" she asked turning towards the redhead.
"Just...give me a mo...moment. I'll be...fine," Willow said taking in deep breaths. "William..." she looked meaningfully towards the bed.
"He doesn't look so good," Buffy said nearing him. The sheets were covered in blood and his chest was sliced up, but as far as she could tell, the wounds weren't deep. "William, can you hear me?" she asked gently as she put a comforting hand on his face.
"Love...love...is...," he mumbled, his eyes barely open.
"His trying to make poetry," she looked back at Willow, who had finally risen from the floor, smiling.
"Poor guy," the redhead said sympathetically.
"William," Buffy brushed some strands of hair from his face. "William...open your eyes..."
"Bu-buffy?" he asked weakly. "What...what happened?" he was confused.
"You were attacked by an evil hand," the slayer said with a smile. "But you survived."
"My...," he gestured towards his shredded shirt.
"It's okay," Buffy assured him. "We'll get you a new one. We have to clean him up," she added towards Willow. "What are the odds of us finding a first aid kit around here?"
"There should be a good chance," Willow said nodding. "Considering all the stuff we found. The covers, pillows, lamps...but it would probably be downstairs," she added fidgeting.
"Great," Buffy mumbled. "We can't leave him here alone."
"What happened?" Wesley asked as he and Liam entered their room and saw the bloody William.
"Killer hand," Willow said gesturing towards the closet.
"Just where the hell have you two been?" Buffy asked leaving William's side and looking at them crossly.
"I just needed to use the bathroom," Wesley explained.
"Oh and suddenly the only functional bathroom in this place is a mile away?" Buffy asked annoyed.
"Not exactly a mile, but at the other end of the hallway," Wesley corrected her. "I even had to use the ladies room because the men's room is in pieces."
"You shouldn't have left him alone," Buffy insisted.
"And what was I suppose to do with him?" Liam asked frowning and gesturing towards Wesley. "Leave him alone in those damn dark hallways?"
"You should've called me!" the slayer said.
"I suppose you'd like that, wouldn't you? Spending some time alone with him," Liam said mockingly. The slayer shot him an annoyed look.
"This isn't the time to argue," Wesley interfered. "Now what killer hand is she talking about and what's in that closet?"
"The hand's in the closet," Buffy said calmer now. "It's like...a detached hand from the wrist down. There were two, but I only managed to catch one and it still has a knife."
"We're talking about a hand?" Liam asked confused. "Just a hand?"
"Just a hand," Willow said nodding.
"Where did it come from?" Liam asked looking at the closed closet curious.
"We don't know," Buffy said. "We came in when we heard William screaming. The hands were already here and doing a hack job on him."
"We should make it stop," Willow suggested staring at the closet door. The tip of the knife was already visible as the hand stabbed away at the door.
"How? It's not like it has a heart or anything," Buffy pointed out. "Any ideas, head boy?" she looked at Wesley expectantly.
"Well, it's not the hand of a ghost," the watcher-in-training stated the obvious. "That means it belongs to somebody. We kill that somebody, we kill the hand."
"The hand looked totally human. And if you haven't checked the slayers' resume, we don't kill people," the slayer told him.
"Can't we simply butcher it?" Liam suggested.
"What if we cut it in two and we get two smaller killer hands?" Willow didn't like the idea.
"Who said we'd be cutting it in two?" Liam asked with a smile. "Just give me a hammer and I'll take care of the rest."
"Though that sounds nasty, I haven't heard a better plan so...," Buffy agreed with Liam.
"Wait, shouldn't we analyze it?" Wesley protested. "Shouldn't there be something left of it to analyze after we kill it?"
"You'll have your analysis, doc," Buffy assured him smiling. "But you're going to be analyzing hand mush. Any idea where we might find a hammer or something really really heavy?"
"Downstairs. I saw some tools scattered around in one of the back rooms," Wesley explained.
"Stay here, I'll be right back," the slayer prepared to venture downstairs by herself.
"And where do you think you're going by yourself?" Liam asked stopping her from advancing by grabbing her by the arm.
"It'll only take me a minute," Buffy said pulling her arm away from his grasp. "Now sit."
"Buffy, take him with you," Wesley agreed with Liam. "We can't risk someone else getting hurt."
"Fine," the slayer shrugged. "Come on, pony tail, we have a kit and a hammer to find," she told Liam as she headed out into the hallway.
"Kit?" Liam asked confused as he followed her out. "What is that? A cat?"
"Should we...I don't know, try to at least get that shirt off him?" Willow asked turning back towards the now unconscious William.
"Not until we have a clean bandage," Wesley thought it was a bad idea. "We'd only make the wounds where the blood already coagulated bleed more."
"So we wait," Willow said startling slightly when the hand in the closet stabbed the door harder than it had done before. "I hope they come back with that hammer soon."
"They will," Wesley assured her.
"Dawn," she suddenly remembered. "We left her alone. We just rushed in here and...we totally forgot about her," she panicked for a moment, before adding a bit more relieved: "But we didn't hear any screams. That's a good sign."
"Yes, unless of course someone smothered her to death," Wesley said worriedly.
"Oh, god!" Willow let out and they both rushed into the girls' room to find it empty. "Oh god, oh god, oh god," the redhead kept repeating.
"There's no trace of blood," the watcher- in-training tried to calm her and himself down.
"She wouldn't have wondered off by herself," Willow said desperately.
"You don't know that," Wesley pointed out. "We barely know what any of us are capable of doing. You heard what that demon said...Maybe she just went looking for you and got lost in the hotel."
"We have to find her," Willow said.
"Not until Liam and Buffy come back. We can't leave William alone again," Wesley reminded her. "Especially not now, when he's vulnerable and a killer hand with a knife might escape from that closet and another one is running loose around the hotel."
"But by the time they get back, it could be too late," Willow complained. "I could go...I could..."
"Don't talk nonsense, Willow, you're barely 13. At least in body. Anything that could kill Dawn could easily kill you as well," Wesley tried to reason with her.
"I should've stayed with her," Willow blamed herself for it. "It's not like I helped Buffy or anything..."
"I know it's frustrating we can't do anything about it," Wesley said. "But if it's of any comfort to you I don't think the demon that's after us means to kill Dawn. Use her to open up a hell dimension maybe, but not kill her. And whatever's in this hotel, he won't let it kill her because he needs her."
"I do remember something he said...," Willow was a bit calmer now.
"We should get back to our room. We'll leave the door open so we can hear if anyone's in the hallway," Wesley said and Willow nodded weakly.
"Back room," Buffy repeated as she stared into various dark empty rooms on the ground floor. "We should've asked for better directions."
"Are there no candles down here?" Liam asked feeling frustrated as he searched the dark like a blind man.
"I doubt it. The chandelier was collapsed somewhere and the light bulbs are all smashed so no light either. We'll just have to stick together and guess what's what," she said as something darted across the floor and she let out a small scream digging her nails into Liam's shoulder painfully.
"Damn, woman, what did you do that for?" Liam asked rubbing his shoulder after Buffy let go.
"Rat," she explained.
"Some things never do change. No matter what age of the world you're in," Liam noted with a smile.
"It just appeared out of nowhere, okay? It could've been the other hand just as easily," Buffy defended herself.
"Whatever you say, darling," Liam said chuckling.
"Don't you darling me," the slayer said frowning as she entered yet another dark room.
"It annoys you?" Liam asked and his voice sounded rather distant to Buffy.
"Liam?" she asked looking around and not seeing him.
"Then I won't stop until you stop calling me pony tail, darling," Liam sounded amused, but even further away.
"Liam? I think you entered the wrong room!" Buffy yelled so he could hear her.
"What?" he couldn't hear her very well either. "Where are you?"
"Just get out of whatever room you're in!" Buffy said looking around. She couldn't spot the door.
"I think I found the...aaah, kit. It's a box with a red cross on it...just like you said," he yelled.
"I can't hear you!!!" she screamed, as she felt the walls for a door, but found none.
She was walking down the hallway of the second floor when she heard noises coming from one of the rooms. She hurried towards it enthusiastically and asked as she pushed the door open:
"Mommy?" But it was not mommy. It was not what her fragmented memories had shown her. Inside the room there was a woman, but it was definitely not her...This woman was young, and tied up and bleeding from the head while a man stood a few feet away from her.
"Well, well, what do we have here?" Billy asked with a smile.
End Part 5
