Ch. 4
Hailern
"Hey, Giles. What's up?" Buffy asked, walking into the library the next day.
"Quite a lot, I'm afraid," Giles responded, glancing up at her from one of his books.
"I don't like the way you said that," Buffy grimaced, and sat down at the table. "What's going on?"
"Last night I was reading one of the books the Council sent me on rare demons and I stumbled upon this." Giles handed Buffy the book opened to a page with a picture of a demon on it.
"Doesn't look so bad. Some demons are really gross. Oh, like that one demon who destroyed the coffee shop! He was so--"
Giles took the book back. "Can we stay on task, please?"
"Sorry, my bad. So, demon guy. What's he do?"
"He's called Hailern, a very old demon, first documented over a thousand years ago."
"What's he do?"
"H–He picks a victim and tortures them in a way until they're dead so he can take their soul to feed on it, to survive."
"And he's in Sunnydale?" Buffy asked.
"Yes, I believe so. This morning more than five bodies were found in the alleys. All were badly bruised and some of their bones crushed. I could be wrong, but it fits Hailern's description."
"So, he crushes their bones, not to make his bread, but to suck up their souls so he won't die? Wow, nice guy. Where do I find him?"
"In alleys, most likely."
"Easy victims, usually. Okay, I'll patrol the alleys tonight. How do I kill this guy if I find him?"
"Um...use something sharp. A knife would probably be best," Giles told her.
"Yay! Something different. Now I just have to keep Spike from finding out about it," Buffy added, more to herself than Giles. "Bye." She got up and left.
"Be careful!" Giles called after her.
"Buffy, what's up?" Xander asked as she walked toward them at lunchtime.
Buffy sat down at the table. "Where's Spike?"she asked, noticing his absence.
"He said he had to go get something out of his locker. Why?" Willow asked.
"I need to tell you guys something."
Buffy quickly told them about the new demon in town.
"Darn, and we were gonna party it up at the Bronze," Xander sighed.
"We do that every night," Buffy pointed out.
"Yes, but tonight we were going to party extra hardy," Xander grinned.
"Do you want us to patrol with you, Buffy? This demon sounds really serious. You could use some backup," Willow offered.
"Yeah, we could distract him so you can pound him or something," Oz suggested.
"Thanks, but I don't want you guys to get hurt."
"There has to be something we can do, though," Tara said.
"Not really. Just a search and slay mission. I find him, I kill him, we party."
"Here, here!" Xander cheered.
"Just be careful, Buffy," Willow warned.
"Always am," Buffy smiled.
That night Buffy was walking down an alley not too far from the Bronze, which she figured would be a more likely hangout for Hailern with all the people around and all. She'd been through almost every alley, though, and still no sign of any demon whatsoever.
"Well, this is getting frustrating," Buffy said to herself. "They can never just come out and say 'Over here, over here! Come kill me.' Always have to make it interesting."
Just then, Buffy heard footsteps behind her and a familiar voice.
"Buffy?"
Buffy spun around to find Spike standing in front of her.
"Spike, what are you doing here?"
"I was just heading home from the Bronze. This is the quickest route."
'Figures,' Buffy thought.
"I think the real question is what are you doing here? Thought you were busy."
"I am, actually. I'm–" Buffy saw a vampire coming up behind Spike. "Move!"
Buffy pushed Spike out of the way, making him fall to the ground on his side, and faced the vampire.
Spike looked up and watched her fighting the...whatever it was, totally confused. It looked like a vampire, but vampires aren't real. And Buffy. Since when did she know how to fight like that? And she was obviously way stronger than she looked. 'She must be some kind of...superhero,' he thought. 'This is just getting too weird.'
Buffy finally pinned the vamp against a wall and dusted him, which was quite a shock to Spike. Buffy went over and helped him up.
"That guy just...went 'poof'."
"Yeah, and he's wasn't really an actual 'guy'," Buffy said, and Spike looked at her, his eyes full of confusion. "I guess I have some explaining to do."
"Yeah, I'd say you do, pet."
"Maybe we should go to my house. I can explain everything on the way. My mom wants to meet you, anyway."
Spike and Buffy headed towards her house and Buffy explained everything as well as she could.
"So much for moving to a normal town," Spike sighed.
"It is normal." Spike looked at Buffy. "It's normal to person who doesn't know about the un-norm...and who's completely stupid."
"I always kind of knew there were other things in the world. Supernatural things. I never thought my best friend would be a part of them, though."
Buffy looked at the ground and smiled. "I didn't know either, until Giles moved to Sunnydale two years ago and said, 'You're the Slayer. The Chosen One. One girl in all the world, blah, blah, blah,'" Buffy explained, imitating Giles.
"Does anyone else know you're the Slayer?"
"The whole gang. My mom and sister, Dawn, found out about a year ago. Other than that, no one else." The Summers' house came upon them, and they stopped in front of the walk leading up to the house. "Well, here we are. Want to come inside?"
"Sure. Meet you mum and sis and all that."
They made their way up the path, onto the porch, and through the door. Buffy closed the door and called, "Mom, I'm home!"
Joyce came down the hallway from the kitchen with Dawn following behind. "Buffy, you're home early."
"Yeah, I ran into Spike, who was attacked by a vampire, who I slayed and then I had to explain the whole slayer thing."
"Oh, are you both all right?" Joyce asked, concerned.
"We're fine, Mom. Oh, and this Spike."
"Oh, hello. I'm Joyce." She held out her hand and Spike shook it.
"Nice to meet you," Spike replied and noticed Dawn. "And you're Dawn."
"Yeah, that's me," Dawn smiled shyly.
"Yes, well, it's getting late," Buffy said quickly and looked at Spike. "You should probably get home."
"Yeah, I should. Mum'll be worryin'. See you tomorrow." Spike nodded at Joyce and left.
"Nice young man, isn't he? Not at all what I was expecting," Joyce smiled.
"Mm-hmm. A regular angel," Buffy said sarcastically.
"Close to it," Dawn agreed and Buffy gave her an annoyed look.
"Are you two dating?"
"What! Spike's my friend, Mom." Why was everyone asking that question?
"You two would make a great couple."
"Last night you didn't even trust Spike and now I'm supposed to date him?"
"I'm only saying something, dear. It's totally up to you who you date. Within reason."
Buffy rolled her eyes and went up to her room with a 'Night' to her younger sister and Joyce.
END OF CHAPTER 4
Please comment! I'm not sure if this chapter's really very good or not.
