Author's note: If someone else completely missed the disclaimers: yes, this story gets messy. I go for the gross-out. Why? Because I can. Come over to the dark side, it's nice here. We have cookies. Though you might want to check the recipe before eating them. If you don't like some of the listed ingredients, just... y'know, no one's forcing you to eat. At least not cookies.
Left foot.
Buffy's dead.
Right foot.
Buffy's dead.
Left foot.
Buffy's dead.
Fall. Get up. Right foot. Left foot.
Buffy's dead.
Dawn ran for her life, not looking back, her head pounding with one single thought. The branches and brambles tore her clothes and scratched her arms, but she kept running. Buffy's dead. She didn't want to believe that. She wanted to turn back and check. Her sister was the Slayer, she'd beaten vampires, demons, werewolves, robots, the US government for Pete's sake; no way she could have been killed by a redneck with a chainsaw. No way.
And still she knew. That last scream of agony and horror, the way it had been cut off, the muffled chugga-chugga-chugga as the saw ate its way into... No. She couldn't have survived that. Buffy's dead. And it's my fault. Buffy had been killed, and what did she do? Run. She might not have been able to save Buffy, but she could at least have tried. She shouldn't have died alone. But that scream... it must have been incredibly painful. Dawn loved her sister, she couldn't imagine a life without her, but that was too much. She couldn't face that.
Buffy's dead.
Dawn kept running.
She ran until she hit the dirt road on the other side of the trees, and then she kept on running, the night air burning her lungs with every breath, her legs running on pure adrenaline, her eyes so itchy with tears that at first she didn't notice the headlights coming towards her. Not until she heard the brakes screeching did she realize that the van had almost run her down. "GILES!" She pounded on the driver's side door. "GILES! It's... We need to..."
The door flew open, knocking her flat on her back. "Why hi there, missy. Nice to see you again." Donnie jumped out from the driver's seat and kneeled over her. "Lost in the woods, are ya?"
"Please", Dawn sobbed. "You have to help me. PLEASE. Buffy is... there was a guy with a... a ch-chainsaw... he... and she... oh God... she's d-d-"
"Chainsaw, huh? Well that ain't right. Maybe you had better come with me up to the house and we'll sort this thing out." He opened the back door and Dawn barely had time to notice Giles lying unconscious inside before something hit her in the back of her head and she went out like a light. Donnie tossed her in with Giles and drove on, cursing his brother's sloppiness; if the girl had gotten away, they could have been in real trouble.
Tara woke with a start. She wasn't sure what had woken her up – some sort of loud noise that was over before she was conscious enough to know what it was. At first she was disoriented, but then the pain returned; both the physical pain and the knowledge that she was back in the house where she'd grown up and that her life was essentially over. For a few minutes, all she could do was stare into the darkness. Finally she switched on the light and winced when she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror; one eye completely shut, her lip swollen, blood caking under her nose... Oh well, she thought as she quickly turned the light off, It's not like anyone's going to care how I look anymore. And that set her off again. She buried her face in her pillow so her family wouldn't hear her and cried. She cried so hard it was several minutes before she noticed the tapping on the window.
When your room is on the second floor, you really don't expect to see people outside it. You especially don't expect to see a leg hanging down outside it, the boot at the end of said leg tapping anxiously on the window pane. Tara stared for a few seconds before she realized that she recognized that boot. But that was impossible. She jumped up, ran to the window and pulled it down. "Willow?"
"Hey. Little help here?" Her girlfriend was on the roof above her window, holding on to the ceiling tiles while dangling her leg off the roof looking for support.
"Why... h-h-how...?" Tara instinctively grabbed Willow's leg and guided it onto the top of the lower window half, then grabbed on to the other as Willow eased herself down off the roof.
"Spell went wonky. You got me?"
"I-I-I got you... careful..." As Tara held on and pulled - Don't fall. Don't fall. - more and more of Willow appeared in the window until she rather ungracefully tumbled into the room and Tara's arms.
Willow hugged her tight, covering her face with kisses. "I found you... I knew I would." When she noticed Tara wincing in pain, she took a step back and gasped as the moonlight fell on her lover's face. "Oh, baby, what did they do to you?"
Tara instinctively looked down, trying to hide behind her hair, ashamed of how weak she was and scared of what Willow would think of her. But Willow carefully put her hand to Tara's cheek and made her look up.
"Don't worry. I love you no matter what, Tara, and I'm not going to let those bastards hurt you again."
She leaned in and kissed Tara as gently as she could. Tara kissed her back, then suddenly froze and pushed her away with a horrified expression on her face. "No. You can't... w-why did you come here?"
"Um... I was sorta hoping the kiss gave it away?"
"No, Willow, you d-d-don't understand... you have to get out of here. Didn't you get my n-n-note?"
Willow couldn't help feeling hurt by the rejection. "Well, yeah. That's kinda how we knew where to look for you. I mean, you're not saying you LIKE living like this, do you?"
"No, but... Will, my family, they're... they're dangerous."
"Hey, fighting danger for four years now, remember?" Willow's look of concern shifted to one of determination and not just a little anger at Tara's family. "Besides, I can be pretty darn dangerous myself when someone hurts someone else and that someone is someone who means more to me than anyone else." She kissed Tara's forehead and took her hand. "Come on, let's..."
Just then the door to Tara's bedroom opened and Donnie walked in. "Hey, Tare, you'll never guess what me and Bubba found out in the-" He froze in the doorway, his grin widening. "Awww, ain't that cute? So she got in here somehow? HEY, PA, COME LOOK AT THIS!"
Willow turned to face him, her fists clenching. "I'm taking Tara out of here. Get out of our way, or..."
"Or what, li'l lady?" Donnie chuckled, demonstratively putting his hands on the doorframe, blocking their exit. "You shouldn't be so cocky without your friends to back you up, if you pardon my French. That's what gets little girls hurt."
Willow closed her eyes, ignoring Tara's attempt – No, Will – to dissuade her. "Hecate, Diana, Nyx, Make mine enemies retire; Let them feel your lashes' licks; Make them cower and perspire; Or drench them in the river Styx and burn them in eternal fire..." She looked up at Donnie, her eyes black. "Now MOVE!"
Nothing happened. Well, except for Donnie laughing. "That was kinda cute. Not my kind of poetry, I mean you're no Charlie Daniels, but still."
Willow looked to Tara, puzzled. "I don't get it, that was supposed to work...?"
"I think you'll find that magic is useless here ", Tara's father said as he stepped up behind Donnie, who let him pass into the room, "When you live with witches, one of the first thing you learn is how to make them defang themselves. I had my wife put up a protection spell on this place years ago. Now, Tara..." He turned to his daughter. "I don't know if you've been keeping up with your Bible studies, so here's a quiz. Complete the following sentence: Thou shalt not suffer a witch to...?"
"Please, Pa..." Tara tried to face him, tears in her eyes. "Let her go. I'll stay here, I promise, just don't hurt her."
"EEEEEE! Sorry, wrong answer." Donnie walked up to them, grabbing Willow and dragging her kicking and struggling from the room. Donnie wasn't a big guy, but he'd spent years in manual labor whereas Willow's strength had never been physical.
"NO!" Tara made to run after them, but her father stepped in her way and pushed her to the floor.
"Don't make me hurt you again, Tara. You've done quite enough to mess up the family business already, don't you think?" He walked out the door, turning back as he started closing it. "After all, a family is supposed to share fairly, don't you agree? It can't be right that you're the only one who gets to eat her." He locked the door behind him.