AN: I wanted to say thank you to all of you (here at who left feedback on the last chapter! You guys are awesome, and I really appreciate the reviews and feedback on the chapter!

About this chapter...the stuff in italics are flashbacks...just thought I should mention that. Also, the chapter is a little dark...not in the overly descriptive, 'warning-you-may-not-like-this' sense...just darker themed.

okay, that's all...happy reading!

Chapter 5

Finding the room mentioned in the note took Angel only a few minutes. The library was rather small so there were only so many places to look. He'd eventually come across it in the back corner of the building. Instead of entering right away, though, he stood a few feet away for a minute while he gathered his thoughts.

The door to the room was open, but he couldn't hear any voices from inside. Angel was guessing that whoever had slipped him the note was waiting for him, and that he or she had something to tell him. What had the person meant when they'd said he wouldn't find what he was looking for? How did they know what he was looking for anyway? Hell, Angel wasn't even sure what he was trying to find.

He contemplated turning and walking away, leaving this mystery behind him. What was he doing? He was just a photographer; a simple guy wanting some peace and quiet after years of traveling. Now, all of the sudden he was seeing strange women on the beach, making enemies of the locals, and sitting in a library for hours trying to find answers when he didn't even know what the questions were. And now this, some strange person leaving him notes and wanting to talk to him. If he were smart, he would forget about all this and go about his business. It was too late for that, though. Whatever was going on had reeled him in. Perhaps if he hadn't been treated so rudely at the coffee shop hours early, he would have been able to ignore it all, but now he wanted to find out the answers, and the questions.

Taking a deep breath, Angel stepped toward the room and then into the open doorway. Inside, he saw two people standing there, watching him anxiously. One was a female in her early twenties with shoulder length red hair. Angel assumed she was the one who had tossed the note at him. The other was a man that looked slightly older than the female. He was of medium build and had strikingly odd bleached blonde hair.

Neither of them spoke so Angel decided to take the initiative. "Someone wanna tell me what the hell is going on?"

"Shhh!" the redhead hushed him, a panicked look crossing her face.

"For pete's sake, mate," the blonde snapped quietly, rushing over to Angel and pulling him further into the room. "Why don't you yell a little louder? And close the bloody door!"

Stunned, Angel watched as the man stuck his head out of the room quickly and then pulled it back. He closed the door before turning back to the female. "I don't think anybody heard him."

"Good," she sighed in relief, sinking down onto one of the four chairs that sat around a small circular table.

"I'm confused," Angel finally said when he'd shaken off the shock of their actions. "You wanted to talk to me and now you're telling me to shut up?"

"No, it's just...," she trailed off, looking to her companion for help.

"Ya see, no one can know we're talking to you," he explained vaguely.

"Me? What did I do?" a confused Angel asked.

"It's not like that, but people are already talking about how you were asking questions today and it would be better if they didn't know you were getting answers," the redhead continued.

"Um, okay," Angel drawled, still not really understanding.

"I know it's confusing. There's just more to this than you could possibly imagine and people get kinda...unhappy if it's brought up," she told him sadly.

"If we talk to you," the man said, looking at Angel sternly. "You have to keep this conversation to yourself. We could get in trouble."

Once again, the temptation to flee hit Angel. Something was telling him that whatever these two people knew was not going to be good and that maybe he was better off not knowing. He just couldn't seem to make himself leave though.

"Sure. I won't say anything," Angel agreed to their request.

"Good," she nodded. "Why don't you sit down?"

After he'd taken a seat, the female again looked to her friend before focusing on Angel. She sighed deeply, her hands twisting in her lap. Finally, she looked directly at Angel.

"I guess I should introduce myself. My name is Willow and this is my fiancé William." At the blonde's mumbled cough, she rolled her eyes. "He likes to be called Spike for whatever reason."

"It's, uh, nice to meet you. I'm Angel," he introduced himself.

"We know who you are, mate. The whole town is talking about you and your questions," the man, Spike, said.

"Why? I mean, all I did was ask a simple question," Angel replied, again confused by the uproar he'd apparently caused.

"It's the question you asked. We were there," Willow explained. "Spike and I co-own the coffee shop so we were there and saw what happened."

"Oh," Angel mumbled. "So why is asking about a woman walking on the beach near my house on the big list of things not to mention around here?"

"It's a long story," Willow answered, her voice trembling slightly. Before she spoke again, she reached into her purse and pulled something out. Her eyes watered as she stared at the object, but she quickly shook them off and slid it over to Angel. "Look familiar?"

Gazing down, Angel saw that it was a photograph. What caught his attention, though, was the beautiful blonde portrayed on the paper. She was absolutely stunning with long hair and big green eyes. Picking up the picture, Angel's mind flashed back to the woman he'd seen on the beach a few night's earlier. He hadn't seen her up close, but what he had seen of her matched the photo now in his hands.

"It looks like the woman I saw," he answered softly, still staring at the picture. There was something about her. He couldn't take his eyes off the sad smile that should have been bigger or the dulled eyes that he thought should have sparkled.

"I was afraid of that," Spike said with a sigh.

"What's her name?" Angel asked, sparing a glance at the two sitting across from him.

"Her name was Buffy," Willow supplied, a single tear slipping down her cheek.

"Was? I don't understand," Angel murmured, his full attention shifting to Willow and Spike.

"If you've seen her," Spike started, taking a hold of Willow's left hand. "Then you've seen Sunnydale's much loathed ghost."

"Ghost?" Angel gasped. "There's-."

"No such thing as ghosts?" Spike finished for him. "Whether there are or aren't, that's what people around here think she is."

"She's dead?" whispered Angel, eyes dropping down to the photo once again. His heart lurched at the thought of the beautiful woman in the picture being dead. He didn't even know her, but it bothered him to think she was dead.

"It's a long story," Willow answered, swiping at another tear that had begun to fall. "It's probably best if we start from the beginning."

"Okay," Angel agreed, tearing his eyes from the picture.

Willow took a deep breath, squeezing Spike's hand a bit harder before she started the story that would forever haunt her.

"We were juniors in High School, me, Buffy and the rest of our friends, when this all started. Well, Spike was a senior, but the rest of us were juniors. The school year was about halfway over and Buffy's seventeenth birthday was coming up so we decided to throw a surprise party for her," she began, her mind drifting back to that horrible time. "It was on a Tuesday, her birthday. We had school that day, but the party was going to be early that night. We...we..."

"How are we gonna keep her out of the house until the party?" Faith Walker asked once she was sure that Buffy was no where around.

"Don't worry, we've got that covered," Willow answered, hopping up on one of the desks in the empty classroom. "Spike has detention today and she agreed to stay and help him with his chemistry project while he was stuck there."

"Detention," Spike snorted, still pissed off at getting in trouble for driving his motorcycle down the hallway before school one morning.

Willow rolled her eyes and held back a laugh. Typical Spike. "So that should keep her busy until we've got everything set up. Spike will get her to her house after his detention is over."

"What happened?" Angel questioned when both hesitated to go on. He knew without them saying, though, that it was something horrible.

Spike's shoulders slumped and Willow choked back a sob. Seeing that his fiancé wouldn't be able to speak, Spike told the next part.

"Damnit!" Spike cursed, storming out of the library. He was going to be in a load of trouble. Buffy had never shown up for their study session which meant she likely went home and found out about the party. The others were going to kill him.

Stomping down the hall to the front door, he exited the building. He was almost to his motorcycle when he noticed Buffy's car parked a few feet away. Maybe he was saved. But if she was still in the school why hadn't she shown up? Deciding to find her, after all he still had to get her to the party, Spike turned and headed back to the building.

Thirty minutes, and a quick search of the school, later, Spike was growing worried. He hadn't found Buffy anywhere, and his mind kept telling him it wasn't like her to not show up when they had plans.

A noise to his left startled him and he saw the Principle rounding the corner. Not wanting to be accosted by the obnoxious man, Spike ducked into the nearest door, which happened to be to the girl's locker room. Amused by his luck, he took a few steps into the room, eyeing the place few men got to go in.

Seeing nothing particularly interesting, after all school was over for the day and no half-naked females were prancing about, he was about to leave when he thought he heard something coming from the back. He took several steps in that direction when he heard it again. It sounded like a quiet cry, and for reasons he couldn't explain, it made his stomach twists in knots.

Before he knew what he was doing, Spike was dashing through the rows of lockers to the back of the room. What he found when he rounded the last corner was something he would never forget.

"Oh God, Buffy!" he screamed at the sight of her beaten, trembling body. The torn shirt and hiked up skirt told him enough, but it was the dried blood on her thighs that confirmed what he already suspected.

"She'd been raped," Spike whispered tearfully, the image still burned in his memory.

"No," Angel rasped, eyes shooting to the picture as he now knew what caused the sad look on her beautiful face.

This time it was Spike who couldn't seem to go on explaining. Willow bowed her head for a moment before she continued the story.

"She had stayed after school and planned to meet Spike like she was supposed to, but first she decided to check out the swim meet," Willow said, a harsh laugh following. "She'd had a huge crush on the star of the swim team so she'd wanted to at least catch the end of the match."

"She never made it to detention," Spike filled in the already known detail.

"What happened? Did they catch who did it?" Angel asked, hoping that the bastard who had hurt her had been punished.

"Cameron Walker," Willow spat out the name.

"The captain of the swim team," Spike added in an equally hateful tone.

"What?" Angel gasped, putting together the pieces of what they'd said.

"Yeah. He'd decided to use her crush to his advantage, only when she said 'no' he didn't stop," she stated angrily.

"They caught him, right? I mean you said you know who did it," Angel questioned, needing to know more of the twisted tale.

"That's the funny thing," Willow laughed though there was no amusement in the sound. "When your daddy is the police chief it seems you can get away with anything, even rape."

"He got away with it?" repeated Angel in shock. How was something like that possible? Well, he knew it was. Stuff like that happened everyday. Still...

"He did, barely even blemished his image," Spike confirmed harshly.

"That was only the beginning of it all," Willow said, glancing at the picture of her friend resting on the table in front of Angel. "It only got worse after that."

TBC