Chapter One: Welcome to Hell, Buffy!
There was a flash of light and Buffy landed on the ground. She tried to sit up but a wave of vertigo hit her so bad that her head slammed back into the ground beneath her. Her limbs felt like jelly and she was sore from the top of her head to the soles of her feet. The air around her was dry and humid; it was almost painfully for her to breathe it in. She slowly opened her eyes, and saw that the world was blurry shades of black and gray. "Where am I," she thought as her eyesight finally came into focus. The sky overhead was dark with trees. She couldn't hear any sounds around her at all. She placed a hand on her forehead to try to keep the world from spinning around her as she sat up. Buffy's eyes widened in horror as she took in the scene around her. "I'm in hell," she thought.
She was on the ground at the base of a giant tree that looked like it reached all the way to the sky. She dropped her hand from her head and looked behind her. In the distance over the vast forest that she landed in she could see mountains. She pushed herself off the ground and felt her legs give out on her and felt tears blur her eyes. She pushed her hands to her eyes and willed the tears to stop mentally and physically. She took a deep breath and opened her eyes again. The scene had not changed like she wanted it to and she knew that it never was going to. She pushed herself up onto her feet again and stood there for a few moments before her legs stopped shaking. She turned herself around a few times trying to decide which way to go and finally settled on walking towards the mountains, the other direction had a feeling of pure evil to it that she didn't want to explore. Her feet felt numb and her hands were shaking. Her white sweater was covered in patches of black dirt, and her sleeve on her left arm was torn and covered in her blood. She felt a dull throb in her arm and her head as well, but pushed it to the back of her mind. She could worry about injuries later. Right now she had to find someplace safe, she thought.
She walked around for what felt like days, but in truth was no more then a few hours. She had fallen a couple of times when she first started out and now she had a tear in her pants on her right knee. She was tried and thirsty. She just wanted to lie down and cry. But something in her wouldn't let her stop moving. It was like something was telling her she had to keep moving or she was going to die. Then she heard the sound and stopped dead in her tracks as her blood turned to ice in her veins. Her slayer senses went haywire and she dropped behind the closest tree she could find and made herself as small as she could. Then she waited for what felt like eternity.
Then she smelled them, it came rolling over her in waves. They smelled like rotting dead bodies that had been baking in the sun. Her stomach heaved trying to force out whatever it held. She covered her mouth with her hand and squeezed back the tears that formed in the corner of her eyes. When she opened them again she saw what looked like demons. It was a small group of six and where dressed in black clothes that looked to be some sort of armor. They varied in shades of grays and greens and looked almost slimy with greasy black hair and pointed ears. They carried bows and quivers of arrows on their backs and nasty looking swords that hung from their hips. And that's was when things went from bad to worst and the wind shifted and blow over her straight towards them. They stopped and started to turn around in a small circle.
"I smell man-flesh, and it's fresh," said the biggest, slimiest demon.
Buffy took a gulp of air and knew what was going to come next. As the demons moved closer to her hiding place she stepped out in a fighters stance. They looked her over and started to move around her in a tight circle. Buffy mentally judged the best way to take them out. As the biggest one stood by and watched as one of them raised his sword and another one behind her started forward. She kicked her leg out and the sword went flying to the ground, she then swung her leg around and caught the one behind her in the head. He went down, but only for a moment. But Buffy had already moved on to the next target. She balled her hand into a fist and punched the first in the mouth. At the same time her fist made contact with the demons flesh she screamed out in pain and dropped to her knees. Her mind assaulted with images from the demon. What's happening to me, she thought as she felt one of the demons grab her around the waist. The demon had touched the skin on her stomach with one of his slimy arms and she screamed again.
Her mind filled with images that even disturbed the slayer. In her mind she saw the demons hands ripping the flesh off another demon and eating it. She could smell the black blood and felt how hungry it was. The image changed and she saw the demons hands beating and killing humans, and then eating them. She felt her stomach churn and what little she had in it came back up as she vomited on the ground. The vision was so overpowering. It felt like it was her doing those horrible things. Buffy vaguely felt her body being punched and kicked as tears welled in her eyes. Another punch landed on her face and she heard the breaking of the bones in her jaw and she head the most horrible screamed that she had ever heard not even realizing that it was her own. Buffy was lost in the visions that warred around each other for her attention. In the back of her mind she realize that she was going to be beating to death but she could force her mind to let go of the visions. Her mind was assaulted with more images then she could keep track of, but she could feel the hate and the anger in each and every one. She stomach kept heaving and her eyes burned with unshed tears as finally everything went black.
Buffy opened her eyes and looked at the trees above her. It was beautiful here she thought idly as she pushed herself onto her feet. She could hear the trees singing as she felt a great sense of peace come over her. Nobody could hurt her here. She started humming to the music that she heard as the wandered around the woods. She could hear water close by and chose to go in that direction. Buffy slipped of her sandals and stepped into the cool water at the bank of the river. She was so lost in what she was doing that she never heard someone come up behind her.
"What are you doing here?"
Buffy turned around so fast that she lost her balance and landed on her rump in the water with a small squeal of surprise as water rushed over her head. She felt strong arms pull her out and looked up at the man who had caused her to fall in, in the first place. He was beautiful. He glowed from within and was tall. Buffy let out a small sigh as she looked into his clear blue eyes. She could tell that they were old eyes, eyes that had seen an eternity. She pulled her gaze out of the dept of his and saw his long blonde hair and ears that ended in points. Buffy didn't think too much of it as this was a dream after all. As they reached the dry land of the bank she pulled her arm out of grasp.
"What am I doing here, what are you doing here, buster? This is my dream go find your own. I want to enjoy this before they come back," Buffy said with a small whimper.
"Whose they?" he asked.
"The demons," Buffy whisper as if saying it would make them appear.
His brow shot up a little with this confession and Buffy felt her heart give a little jump. She stepped back from him a little and titled her head to the side.
"They're trying to kill me, but I'm the slayer. And I'm going to kick their asses. "
"You're a slayer, what is that?"
"Buffy, the Vampire Slayer."
Then Buffy felt the darkness coming to claim her. She looked past the man and saw the mountains and the dark trees pushing their way into the beautiful woods.
"I have to go, they're coming back."
"Where are you at?"
"I'm in hell."
"Where?"
Buffy grabbed his arm and turned him around to face the dark scene behind him. "There," she said before the darkness closed around them and she could no longer see the strangely beautiful man again.
Buffy swam back to conciseness slowly, her body felt like it had been hit by a Mack truck. Her left arm throbbed and it was hard for her to breath. She could tell that her arm, jaw and a couple of ribs were broken. Her face was sticky with blood and she could tell that it had been cut open somehow. She couldn't tell how bad the damage was thou. She tried to move her right hand but found that it wouldn't move. Then the memories came slamming back to the front of her mind of the demons, the images, feelings and the beating as well. She slowly cracked her eyes open and looked out from under her lashes. Her hands were tied together and she was propped up against a tree. The group of demons were a few feet away arguing about who was going to get what body part. She suppressed a shudder when she realized it was her body they were talking about. I have to get out of here and fast, she thought. She tested the rope that held her hands. At first it wouldn't give, but the more that she worked at it the more she felt it give as she fought the pain that surged up her broken arm. She finally pulled her hands out of the rope while keeping her eyes on the demons. She took one last deep breath to steady her nerves and her legs and pushed herself off the ground. Her eyes darted over to the demons and the slayer ran for her life. She had gotten a few hundred yards when they noticed that she was no longer where they left her. She could hear one of them say, "Shoot her down," but she kept on running.
Her slayer sense kicked in and told her to move to the left, but it was a second to late, and the arrow slammed into her right shoulder and almost drove her to her knees. She didn't bother to try and pull the arrow out she just kept on running, knowing that if she stopped she was going to die. She felt another arrow coming her way and drove her forward and to the right. She felt it slice thru her pants and cut into her leg before continuing on its course. She pushed herself to continue through the trees, maybe she could get to the mountains before any serious harm came her way. She could hear them shouting and running behind her. Buffy ran around trees going right then left and right again as fast as she could using the slayer strength within to help her. Soon their shouts had died down on the wind and she stopped long enough to look behind her. They were lumbering up the hill and shooting more arrows at her. Buffy dove to the ground and felt the pain slice up and down her broken arm as she landed on it. She pushed herself up and started to run again, her body felt every move and threaten to revolt against her but she just keep pushing herself harder and harder. The will to live suddenly so strong in her when just hours ago she jumped off a tower to her death. She didn't bother trying to look and see how far away the demons were, she just kept at it, hoping against everything that she would survive this. As the hours dragged on and on she could see the sky darkening.
She reached the top of the small hill and almost cried when she got there. All she could see for as far as she could was more trees, the mountains were still to far in the distance to do her any good here. Alright, I need to get the jump on these things and fast. I don't know what the hell happened last time, but I won't make the same mistake touching them again, she thought. She ran the a short distance more to other fairly large tree and slide her bag onto the ground were the demons were sure to see it, then she circled back around so that her bag was in front of her and a little to the left. She pulled out one of her draggers with her good arm and waited till they came up the small hill.
And she didn't have to wait long, the first three, Stinky, Icky, and Moe she dubbed them spotted her bag and rushed over to it, and she let them. She needed to take out the leader of this group and fast. The last three, Meaty, Beefy and just plain Gross crested the hill and she wait just a moment before she stepped out and sung her dragger straight at the Gross' neck and felt it slice through the bones like a hot knife through butter, she thought. As the demons body slide lifeless to the ground the other five noticed her and what she had just done. They grunted and rushed her. She let the closet one, Beefy's momentum carry it past her as she stepped out of its way a second before he hit her. Buffy stabbed her dragger into Meaty's stomach and pulled it out with a sicken sound, she kicked her right leg out and hit Stinky in the chest and made it fall into Icky and they both crashed to the ground. She twirled around and dropped to one knee and spun on the ground taking Beefy's feet out from under it as it came lumbering up the hill again. Buffy slid her dragger into Beefy's side as she spun around again and came to her feet just as Moe came barreling towards her and knocked her onto her back. Buffy heard the wood from the arrow snap from her body weight and winced in pain as it pushed itself further through her shoulder. As Moe's leg came out to kick her in the stomach she grabbed it and gave it a vicious twist hearing bones brake under the pressure. As Moe fell to the ground Buffy flipped herself back onto her feet and to face Stinky and Icky. She twirled the knife in her hand and sent it flying into Icky's head right between the eyes. As soon as the knife left her hand Buffy did a roundhouse kick and connected with Skinky's face, she followed by slamming her fist into it backs and then pulled out her second knife with her good arm and stabbed it in the back as it was trying to pull itself up again.
Buffy did a quick check to make sure they were all still out for the count and pulled her dragger out of Icky's head.
"Ugh, that's just gross, black blood, ugh," she said as she wiped the blood on the demons clothes.
She looked around just once more before taking off, she reached down and grabbed her bag on the way out of the battle field.
I have hours and hours of climbing and I can't waste any time on pity she thought. Buffy's slayer sense could still tell that the demons were behind her somewhere and she pushed herself onward and up into the hills. As the night wore on her senses finally stopped shouting at her and she climbed on till she found a good place to rest and hide for a little while. She pulled her pack off her back and opened it up. She pulled out what looked like a blanket to her and set it on the ground, she dug further in and pulled out of pair of gloves with the fingers cut off. That's weird she thought as she continued to look through the contents of the back. She soon found some food and a canteen of water. As well as a change of clothes, but the clothes looked nothing like she was use to they looked like they came out of the middle ages. This is just great Buffy thought. I'm lost in the wilderness, with no sign of civilization anywhere. This day just keeps getting better and better she thought dryly.
Buffy shoved the items back into the pack and looked up into the night sky. The stars looked like any star you might see on earth but they were all wrong to her eyes, kinda not in the right place and too bright she thought. Buffy tilted her head back to look at the arrow in her shoulder. There was no way that she would be able to pull it thru with her broken arm, plus I have no way to stop the blood flow either, she thought. It will just have to wait. She ran her fingers up to the seam of her sweater and pulled down, hearing a satisfying rip as the sleeve came off. She bit down on the sleeve and ripped it again and again so that she had two long pieces. Using her good hand and her teeth Buffy tied both ends together and slipped it over her head. She then placed her broken arm into the makeshift sling. She took a moment and strained her senses and came up with nothing. She was safe for the moment. Buffy stood up and yanked her pack back on and looked around one more time before she started to walk towards the mountains again.
It wasn't long before her slayer sense kicked in alerting to her to the fact that she was no longer alone in the woods. There was something out there. Her eyes swept over the ground then move to the trees. What the hell is that, she thought when she caught movement above her. Oh…shit.
Buffy barley dived out of the way as the giant creature landed in the spot Buffy was just standing in. I'm never calling it my spider sense again she thought as she took in the biggest spider she had even seen.
TBC…