Chapter 2

One Month Later

Loud pounding startled Angel out of his peaceful slumber, causing him to sit upright in bed. He blinked his eyes sleepily as he tried to figure out what was going on. Running a hand through his hair, he cocked his head to the side, listening to hear the noise again. After a few minutes, the banging started for a second time. Just as he was about to leap out of bed to find out who was in his house, he remembered that the contractors were starting to renovate the upstairs this morning.

With a loud groan, Angel flopped back down onto his bed. It was obvious that he was never going to get back to sleep with all the noise coming from the next room. Why on earth did the renovators have to start so damn early in the morning? Didn't they understand that some people actually liked to sleep? At least when they had been working downstairs, the noise had been somewhat muffled, but now they were in the room right next door to his.

For the past month, the house he'd bought had been undergoing almost constant work. It hadn't been lived in for quite a few years so there were a lot of repairs and updating needed. Before he had moved in the pipes had been replaced, the electrical wiring had been inspected and repaired where needed, and a new heating/air conditioning system was installed.

After moving in, the workers had quickly begun work on the downstairs of the house. The kitchen had received new appliances and countertops; the living room, dining room, and the bathroom had needed drywall repairs and repainting. New carpets were laid, and where there wasn't carpet, the hardwood floors had been sanded and sealed. The bathroom had been retiled and all the fixtures replaced. The remaining room on the first floor had also been redone. From what Angel could tell, it appeared as though the room had once been a children's playroom because of the youthful wall paper and doodles on the walls and floor. Having no use for a children's room, it had been converted into an office for him to use.

Angel sighed as he thought about the original intention of the room. He wanted to have children someday. His job had kept him far too busy for the last five years for him to have any serious relationships, let alone think about starting a family. He tended to have one-night stands, and even those were few and far between, and the women had always understood that he had no desire for a long-term commitment, and honestly, he had yet to meet someone he could envision spending the rest of his life with. But, hopefully now that he was settling in somewhere, he could actually start dating.

So the playroom had been turned into a workspace for him, and now the contractors were working on the upstairs. All of the bedrooms as well as the bathrooms were being repaired where needed, and painted. The work would likely take a few weeks, which meant he would be facing the same wake-up call each morning. Rather than lying in bed listening to hammering and sanding, Angel climbed out of bed and headed for the shower.

Much later that day, Angel finally managed to return home. He had only planned to stop by his office for a few minutes, but that hadn't worked out as planned. He'd only been working for the historical magazine owned by Rupert Giles for a few weeks, and so far he was still getting used to the change of employment. He had more responsibilities now than he was used to. As head of the photo department, he not only had his own projects to work on, but he was in charge of approving all other submissions. He wasn't quite yet used to working from a desk the majority of the time instead of in the field.

So he'd ended up in his office for longer than he'd planned. There'd been a slight problem with an upcoming photo shoot he had scheduled. The magazine was doing a feature on the local college's collection of Chumash Indian artifacts and he was to go over and photograph them all. Compared to what he used to photograph, it was a rather simple task, but after all of the traveling he'd done in the previous years, Angel really didn't mind.

After ironing out some of the logistical problems he faced with his new job, he'd finally been able to see to the errands he'd needed to run. By then, it had been late afternoon, and he'd had to skip going to the post office. At least by the time he'd gotten home, the contractors were done for the day and his headache wouldn't get any worse than it already was. Maybe he would make a sandwich and then head to bed early for once. The phone, though, had other ideas as its shrill ringing loudly echoed throughout the house.

Angel shook his head, already knowing who would be calling him. "Hello?"

"Hey Angel!" Fred chirped happily through the phone to him.

"Calling to check up on me?" Angel teased lightly.

"What? No! I'd never...," she trailed off and then sighed loudly. "I just worry about you being there all by yourself.

"I'm fine, Fred," Angel reassured his sister. "Besides, this is Sunnydale. What bad could possibly happen here?"

Fred laughed at his brotherly poke at her. "I know, I know...well, actually, isn't it usually the case that small towns aren't as innocent as they seem?"

"Fred!" he chastised her with a chuckle. Sometimes her imagination seemed to work in complete overdrive.

"You're sure you're fine?" she repeated, her worry betraying the fact that her brother was quite capable of taking care of himself.

"Yes, everything's great. Well, other than all the noise waking me up in the morning," he groused, still annoyed over his early morning wake-up.

"Noise? What noise?" Fred jumped in, instantly concerned that something was wrong and that Angel was just protecting her.

"Oh, just the renovators. They started on the upstairs this morning," he explained to her while walking toward his office.

"Oh, yeah, right! I forgot about them," Fred laughed at her earlier jump to conclusions.

Angel spent another hour on the phone with his sister. She'd insisted that he tell her everything that had occurred since their last conversation almost a week earlier. So he told her about the progress on the house renovations and his adjustments to his new job. His wonderful, but always worrying, sister still didn't understand why he had left his old job. So for what he thought was probably the hundredth time, he explained it to her again.

A half hour after getting off the phone with his sister, Angel was standing in his newly renovated office with a perplexed look on his face. He had searched the entire room for his Day Planner, but the damn thing seemed to have disappeared. Of course, he could always use the shiny, new PDA his sister had bought him for his birthday, but honestly, the thing freaked him out more than just a little. He preferred using good old paper and pencil. Maybe it was still in one of the boxes that had gotten stored in the attic during the move and renovation. With a shrug, Angel got out of his chair and walked towards the mahogany staircase in the center of the house that led to the second and third floors.

Ascending the two flights of stairs, he reached the attic. Actually, it wasn't really an attic. It was more like another floor, entirely livable if fixed up properly. But since he had no need for more bedrooms, the space would just be used for storage. Angel shook his head and chuckled at himself when he saw a box sitting near the top of the stairs labeled 'Office.' He must have forgotten to bring it down after the workers had finished on his office.

Angel sorted through the box for a few moments before triumphantly pulling out his missing planner. He set the little book aside and began putting the other items back in the box. Once everything was packaged again, he stood and began to walk towards the stairs when the window on the far side of the room caught his eye. His brow furrowed as he tried to remember if that was the one that was really a door that opened up to a small balcony. He thought so, but he wasn't sure.

Setting his planner on the top of the box, Angel wandered over to the opposite side of the room. His fingers swiped at the cobwebs and dust motes that had built up around what he could now tell was in fact the door to the balcony. Wiping away some of the dirt that had coated the old glass, he peered out into the dark night sky. Deciding to check out the view from the balcony, he reached down to root for the knob or latch that he knew had to be present. Successfully finding one, he gave the handle a swift tug and felt the door pull open. The rusty hinges creaked loudly as he stepped back and opened the door fully.

For a moment, he only stood and stared out into the midnight blue sky. He took several hesitant steps out onto the balcony, the old wood under his feet groaning from the weight of his body. He wandered to the edge and leaned lightly on the chipped white railing, unsure of its sturdiness. The nearby waves crashing on the beach drew his attention and he gazed out over the rippling ocean water. Nearly full, the moon reflected brightly off the water and cast a luminescent glow to all it touched.

The peaceful atmosphere soothed his tired mind and body, which he thought, was rather ironic considering the nature of balconies such as these. He'd read the stories behind the Widow's Walk. It was said that the wives of sailors whose husbands never returned from sea would walk the balconies, staring out at the ocean, in hopes that their husbands would come home to them. They usually never did, and the ritual pacing in wait became the Widow's Walk of denial. So Angel found it odd that standing on this balcony was soothing to his soul. Maybe it was because he wasn't searching for a lost love, or maybe it was because he'd lived in the noisy city for so long that the mere presence of the serene ocean sounds were calming. Whatever it was, he didn't know. There was just something here pulling at the edges of his soul.

Angel had no idea how long he had stood there, gently reclining on his elbows against the rail. It seemed like it had only been fifteen minutes or so, but when he glanced at his watch, he saw that it was nearly midnight and he'd been standing there for over a half hour. He cursed lightly under his breath, knowing that it would take him at least an hour to shower, get ready for bed and fall asleep, and then he would be joyfully awakened at seven a.m. by his ever conscientious contractors. Maybe if he offered them some extra money they'd change their hours a little. It's not like he couldn't afford it.

Sighing, he started to turn away from the railing to head back inside when something caught his eye off in the distance. He squinted in an attempt to find whatever it was that had flickered in his vision. Seeing nothing, he again went to leave when he saw a flash of white near the woods bordering the beach. He leaned slightly over the railing and squinted his eyes again. This time, he made out the shape of a person who appeared to be sitting on a rock. He wasn't sure, but it looked to be a female from her small physical stature and the long blonde hair trailing down her back.

Angel could barely make out the small form of what he was now sure was a woman off in the distance, but he couldn't help but be curious. After all, it was past midnight and there was some woman just sitting on a rock. There seemed to be a sort of ethereal glow around her that drew his eyes in. Unable to look elsewhere, Angel stood and stared at the luminous white form.

Laughing slightly at his curiosity, he leaned back from the railing and muttered to himself under his breath. For all he knew the white shape could be a stray dog wandering the beach. No, Angel was sure it was a person, a female person. Who was she? And what was she doing there this late at night? It was probably just one of his neighbors who suffered from insomnia and decided to go for a walk. Since he was still awake himself, he figured he might as well walk down and introduce himself. It might be nice to make a friend in his new town. So Angel stepped back into the attic and headed downstairs.

Exiting through the front door of the house, his eyes scanned the area where he'd seem the woman, but there was nothing. He took a few steps and then stopped. Maybe he was so tired that he'd imagined it all, or maybe it was just the moon reflecting off of something. No...there had been someone there. Hadn't there? Suddenly, he saw a flash of white a little further beyond where it had earlier been.

He walked unhurriedly onto the sand, hoping to shed some light over the enigmatic person. His eyes followed her as she moved farther from him. The light, fluid movements of her steps made it look almost as if she was floating across the sand. Angel knew he was being utterly ridiculous, but he had a strange desire to find out who this woman was. Of course, he had to catch up with her first. And he may have been able to do that if he hadn't suddenly found himself sprawling face first into the sand.

Out of breath from the impact of his fall, and momentarily stunned, Angel could only lay there, hoping he wouldn't inhale the sand on his face. When the pain in his chest began to subside, he pulled his body up and realized his shoelace had gotten caught on a piece of driftwood. It figured he would have that kind of luck. Untangling the stuck shoelace, he stood up and brushed the sand off his body.

Remembering the woman, he lifted his eyes, but found her gone. Dismayed, he swiftly scanned the surrounding area but found nothing. His brow furrowed at her disappearance. How could she have gotten away that quickly? Jogging over to where he'd last seen her, Angel looked over the area. There was nothing to show that there had been anything at all there.

"Hello?" he called out before he could stop himself and think better of his decision.

"Hello? Is anyone there?" he yelled loudly after receiving no response to his first shout.

Again, no one answered him. Frowning, Angel walked along the edge of the woods bordering the beach in hopes of finding some evidence that his over-tired imagination hadn't been playing tricks on him. But there was absolutely nothing.

Sighing deeply, Angel shook his head at his silly actions. He had to have been seeing things. After all, he had been up for almost nineteen hours now. Pushing aside thoughts of the peculiar, and probably nonexistent, woman, Angel slowly walked back to his house. It was definitely time for him to get some sleep.

TBC