Okay, here's the last chapter! Thanks to everyone who took the time to read this!
Velociraptors, continued.
Without warning, Xander barreled, head first, into him and they all three fell sideways.
Willow found herself on the bottom with the man's thick, leather coat stuffed against her face. The next moment, she was free and she pulled herself up by the bed, hand automatically touching the little spot of blood on her neck.
Xander was still on top of the attacker. He tried to throw a punch but wound up with his elbow mashing the other's face in. "Will, run!"
"Bu' you said -"
"GO!"
Without thinking, she turned on her heal and fled.
Willow felt she'd never run so fast in her life and wasn't sure how to stop. By the time she did, she was nearly to the top of the stairs again.
Her mind spun through every possible hiding place. What if the other man was still downstairs? The doors were all locked… light!
She ran into the bedroom adjacent to the stairs again. There it was, the little pool of light. But where was it coming from?
Her eyes scanned the walls and ceiling. There! A small rippled window, six feet up the wall. A little orange light from the setting sun made it through the thick distortion of glass.
Willow thought she could fit, but Xander… she looked over her shoulder at the dark hall. Where was he?
Suddenly, she heard a shout from down the hall. It was followed by a crash, but Willow was already running at top speed.
What'd she been thinking? There was another crash and cry of pain. Panic caught in her chest like an air bubble, expanding it till she exploded, "XANDER!"
But no sooner had the word left her mouth than she slammed into something tall and immovable. She bounced back, a bug off a windshield, and fell flat on her back.
"Oh, good," said the deep, throaty voice above her. "One more for the road."
She stumbled to her feet and backed into the bedroom. The second man followed at a leisurely pace, stepping around the patch of light.
"Leave me alone," Willow said, trembling.
The dark figure shrugged. "Alright, then." He turned slowly towards the doorway, then whipped back around and lunged at her.
Willow leapt back, startled, and collided with the brass lamp stand. She flinched as pain spiraled across her shoulder blades. The man was now right in her face, grinning maliciously. He made a grab for her throat and she ducked away, snatching the lamp stand.
He laughed at that. "What are you gonna do, Sugar? Clock me one good?"
Willow was tired of dodging. There was no way out until she fought back. So she did the most instinctive thing and swung the stand over her shoulder, propelling it at his head with all her might.
"All her might" wasn't particularly impressive, but the adrenaline packed just enough force to throw him off balance.
He fell.
The sharp, wooden post at the corner of the bed was waiting for him.
Willow fell, too, and the lamp stand clattered to the floor with her. For a moment, she didn't get up, expecting to feel hands locked on her arms, or perhaps something sharp in her back. But there was nothing.
She raised her head just slightly. The man had vanished.
For a few moments, she stayed, motionless, on the floor, without looking around. Perhaps if she had, she'd have noticed the new layer of dust, powdered across the top of the bed.
Once her breath had half returned, she got slowly to her feet and picked up the lamp stand again
With her last bit of fear-sick energy, she wielded it at the high window.
Smack!
It didn't make a dent, so she swung again.
"You'd better fit, Xander." She smacked the glass with every statement. "Because I am not," a crack formed. "Leaving," it spider-webbed across the window. "Without you!"
There was a crash followed by the tinkling of shattered glass. Willow dropped the lamp and covered her head with both arms. When she looked up, there was orange sunlight streaming through the window frame.
And right at that moment, Xander fell backwards through the doorway.
"Xander!"
At the same time, he spun and shouted, "Willow!"
The oily-voiced man suddenly rushed into the room, charging toward Xander.
Then, three things happened so fast, it was impossible to know which happened first.
Xander shot to his feet and backed up, Willow's shoes rolled over the window glass, and she stumbled onto the dusty bed, and the killer ran into the spotlight of sun and, without any reason or warning, burst into flame.
For a moment, Willow saw his face, twisted and unnatural.
But the dazzling blaze burned only a few seconds before it vanished as soon as it had come. The children had only a moment to process this before the smoke alarms suddenly went off and the sprinklers began spinning, dumping down cold water.
The man with the oily voice had disappeared.
A recording started playing through the ceiling speakers. "Danger! Fire! All park visitors please proceed calmly and with caution to one of the marked exit doors. Danger! Fire!" and on and on.
Willow felt Xander's hand in hers. She stood up and followed him to the back wall.
"Step up!" He shouted over the din and laced his fingers together.
Willow stuck one foot in his hands and jumped for the window ledge. At the last moment, she thought to rest her sleeve-protected arms on the sill instead of her hands, as the sill was still littered with sparkling chunks of glass.
Xander boosted her up till she was able to get her waist through. Outside was a ledge, set into the side of the Mansion, about eight feet up. It was for decoration only, but deep enough to kneel on.
Willow reached back through the window frame and held out a hand to Xander. He took it, grabbed the edge with his other hand, and jumped. She pulled and he pushed his head and arms through, got stuck for a moment around his waist, but scraped and slid till he was dragging his legs out.
Willow then scooted several feet down the ledge and sat with her knees tucked under her chin. Xander followed and collapsed next to her, his feet dangling in midair.
The noise and confusion were so muffled now that they could hear their own panting.
The orange sunlight made long shadows of all the people below. The carousel ran on and parents waved at their seven-year-olds as if nothing had happened.
"Rats," Xander spoke up. "Looks like they've closed the bumper cars." He looked at her with a little teasing smile. "Next year?"
Willow sniffed. She tried and failed to return the smile and it flopped into a trembling jaw. "C'mere," she heard Xander murmur, and she leaned into his one-armed-hug, just barely managing not to outright cry.
His sweater was as sopping as hers and there were little bits of glass stuck in the cotton. She absently picked a larger piece out and listened to his shoes drip water off the edge.
"That wasn't fun," she said.
Xander actually laughed. "Well, you gotta give the place props for an authentic thrill show. Course I think we could have left out all the screaming and the blood, and… hey, what was with the guy spontaneously catching fire, anyway?"
In the fading sunset, Willow realized that the better half of Xander's face was swollen, and a patch just below his eye was already turning a yellowish black. Blood oozed slowly from his bottom lip as well as a gash on his forehead.
Willow's hand went to her own little wound, crusted and sticky on her neck. "You saved my life, Xander," she said softly.
"Eah…" he shrugged a shoulder.
"You got hurt and lost your penlight and…" she grabbed some loose threads on his sweater. "Look, they ripped your favorite shirt!" her face fell. "Does it hurt a lot?"
"Nah," Xander grinned. "It wasn't even a real fight, I was just showing him the finer points of effectively wiping the floor with a human carcass. He did well for his first time."
Willow glanced at the window frame. "Do you think they're still in there?"
Seemingly in answer to her question, they heard sirens from the other side of the house, and a bang as the entrance door was kicked in.
They exchanged looks and carefully stood up on the ledge. They edged along till they got to the second floor emergency exit and stepped carefully down the rusty catwalk.
When they reached the ground level, Xander jumped off the bottom step and gave Willow a hand down. The Mansion was quickly being surrounded by police, firemen, and panicked parents.
Xander made his way towards the entrance and Willow, still holding onto his hand, followed.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It must have rained while they were inside, because the pavement was wet and smelled sweet. Since the sun had now fully set, most of the light came from the fire-truck and ambulances.
Willow sat on an ambulance bumper, wrapped in a scratchy, blue blanket. Xander was next to her, flinching away from a flustered paramedic who was trying to bandage his head.
"Ow, ow, ow!" Xander spluttered.
"Just hold still, son, please!"
"You know, we could leave it. I'm good with the whole 'bleeding to death' concept -Ah!"
"There." The paramedic stood back to admire his work. "Come to Sunnydale General in a week or so, and we'll check on those stitches, alrighty?"
"Yeah… thanks," Xander smiled briefly and touched the white bandage gingerly.
The paramedic nodded to Willow and then ran across the wet pavement to the second ambulance. Two other doctors were loading a gurney into the back.
It was then that Willow saw Jesse and Amy racing towards them. Amy got there first and flung her arms around Willow's neck.
"Hey, you guys are okay…" Willow murmured and tried very hard not to hit the crash cart behind her.
Over top of her, Amy cried, "You're alright!" She stepped back and Jesse came up next to her.
"We - we weren't sure if…" he shook his head and thumped Xander on the back. "Still kickn' though. I told Amy but she -"
"Oh my gosh, when you guys didn't come out with the rest of us, we tried to get back inside but the doors were all locked. So we went to the security office and…" she trailed off and looked down at her shoes. Jesse just stuck his hand in his pockets. Amy went on quietly, "All the guards were dead. It was just…"
Jesse decided to take over. "We went to the phone to call 911, but they weren't working. So Amy ran to the box office and I went to find the park manager."
"The box office was empty, too," said Amy. "I was just running to find Jesse when I heard people screaming by the Farris Wheel. Someone like, sabotaged the motor! It was stuck with all the people on it, that's why no one knew about what was going on in the Mansion," she glanced between Xander and Willow. "I think it was an inside job. Someone from the park broke the motor as a distraction."
"Anyway," Jesse broke in. "I found the manager and she called the police. They were just getting here when the fire alarms went off! Was there a fire inside? How many guys -"
"Did everyone make it out?" Xander interrupted.
Willow didn't look up.
Amy nodded. "Almost everyone. Mara Black was unconscious when they brought her out, but I thought I heard one of the nurses say she'd be okay."
"What about Andrew?" Willow asked of the pavement.
"He uh…"
To emphasize the tension, the ambulance doors slammed shut twelve feet from them. "He didn't make it," Jesse finished dully.
Willow finally looked up at Xander.
"You know we couldn't have -" he started.
"I know," Willow took a deep breath and smiled a little. "I'm okay."
Xander only nodded.
Amy just looked confused and went on, "Well… anyhow, the police said they couldn't find any sign of the guys who did it. The two in the security office were long gone, and I guess the three inside found a way out. By the way, Xander, we called your mom, she's already on her way." She sighed. "I'm just so relieved you guys are alright! What happened in there?"
They both opened their mouths with no idea where they'd begin.
There was no need, however, because just as Xander was making the first preparatory noises ("uh… right, well… see, um…" and so on) Mrs. Harris' car pulled in a few feet away and she leapt out, ranting.
Between Xander's attempts to inform her he was alright, Willow caught phrases such as "Got a call on root 15, turned around in traffic" and "Manager should be ashamed" and "How could you make me worry like that, Xander?"
Amy and Jesse timidly excused themselves, with a quick "See you guys Monday." Amy whispered "Leave nothing out," in Willow's ear, then they rushed off to find their own parents.
Mrs. Harris finally climbed in the drivers seat, muttering "When Alan hears about this…"
Xander opened Willow's door, then ran around the car to his own. Barely dry and very sore, the two sat in silence while Mrs. Harris went on muttering.
Within the first five minutes of driving they were both fast asleep, Willow with her feet up on the seat, Xander slouched so far, his legs sprawled all over the foot space.
While she slept, Willow found herself in a dream. But this time there were no clowns. Instead there were snake-like dinosaurs which chased her down an endless hallway, cackling loudly, "Where you going, Sweetheart? Slow down, Sugar!"
She tripped and fell on her knees. Whenever she tried to get up, something seemed to pull her down. So she crawled, so slow she was sure there must be two feet of quicksand under her.
The two Velociraptors came rushing at her impossibly fast, bloody teeth bared.
Willow almost screamed, but suddenly Xander was there, kneeling on the floor in front of her. He looked her in the eyes said firmly, "Nothing's going to happen to us, Will. Okay?"
Then everything went orange and gold and she heard his voice a long way off. "I won't let anything near you."
Nothing's going to happen to us, Will. Nothing.
The nightmare dissipated, and something random and silly about peaches and Sandra's homecoming dress flipped through her mind, and in the background, someone was whistling "Come Fly With Me".
THE END
Thanks again!
*Incidentally, the movie The Lost World: Jurassic Park, was not released until about nine months after this fic takes place. However, if this bugs anybody, the novel by Michael Crichton on which this movie was published seven years before. Just thought I'd throw that in for accuracy's sake. ;)