If I still had my slayer strength… Buffy thought angrily to herself. Those guys would be so broken nosed by now. She glared over her shoulder at the men behind her, who taunted and harassed her. Just keep walking. She told herself. Why hadn't she let Angel walk her home? Because she could take care of herself. That's why. Yes, Buffy the vampire slayer could very easily take care of herself, and cruelly punish those pigs called men for their absolutely disgusting personalities. But Buffy the normal average girl with no slayer powers had to mentally kick herself for not allowing Angel to walk her. Sure, she could have let him walk her. Sure, that would have been a smarter option. But that would make her seem not stubborn.
She made her way across the road feeling slightly panicked that she couldn't defend herself from those men if they decided that they weren't going to take 'no' for an answer. The sidewalk didn't feel any safer to her than the road had. She missed her extreme strength and quick maneuvering skills. If her wish to be a normal girl had come true, she desperately prayed for the Powers that Be to take it back. A warning as old as time itself bustled her thoughts; be careful what you wish for. Yeah, yeah. Some of the street lamps along the road were out; giving the place a much eerier look than her already paranoid mind gave it.
"Where you going little girl?" A deep, jeering voice stopped her in her tracks. A hungry looking vampire took his place in front of her and sniggered heinously.
Buffy tried her hardest to slip around the predator, but he wasn't going to have any of that. He sidestepped, blocking her way with a hideous grin. He moved to grab her but she stole her arm back and turned to run, screaming pleas of help out to the silent night. The creature was after her, fangs frontward, and running. He was faster than her of course.
"Somebody help me! Please, help me!" She screamed louder than she knew she could, and tugged away from him once again.
A car was coming up from the street ahead, and Buffy jumped in front of it, hands up begging for the car to stop.
"Stop!" She shouted, but the car swerved around her and continued on it's way. "Someone help me!"
He was on her again. This time, there was no escape. His arms were around her chest in seconds, constricting and squeezing the air from her lungs. He threw his head back, and then sunk his teeth into her soft flesh, sucking and licking away at the blood. Buffy was getting weaker, she could feel it. All the blood was leaving her body; she was going to die a snack. A snack for this son of a bitch from hell. It wasn't exactly how she planned to go out of the world, but she didn't have many options at this point. When her legs finally gave way, she embraced the coming darkness welcomingly. She was ready, she didn't want to die, but she wanted the pain to end. Then pain from a thousand breaths of agony, having all of your life force being sucked away, being sucked dry, ended. Her eyes grew heavy, and she let them close.
"Oh bite me." The vampire said like a bully would to his victim. He tore his wrist open with his teeth, and let the blood drip into her mouth.
All that Buffy felt, was the thick salty syrup sliding down her throat, and her body growing weaker and weaker. Goodbye everyone. She thought to her friends, to her mother and Giles, to Angel. Angel… The rest of the world disappeared, turned black inside her death.
"Buffy!" Was the last thing she heard before slipping away, she assumed it was herself, her inner slayer trying to stay alive. But to no prevail. The picture of Angel inside her mind disappeared, and it too was replaced with darkness.
A war cry broke the vampire's concentration on Buffy, and he dropped her to the ground. A tall man with glasses was running from his car, door left open, towards the vampire with a stake raised. Giles effortlessly dusted the vampire, too shocked to defend itself, then turned to his slayer.
Buffy wasn't breathing, she wasn't moving in the slightest, and her eyes were tiny slits that stared off into space. Giles fell to the floor at her side, hands not knowing where to go. He hovered above her for a second before placing two shaking fingers on her throat, searching for a pulse. Nothing. A strangled sob choked it's way from his mouth when he realized what he'd done. He'd killed his slayer. He'd given her the needle, the one that would take away her powers, so that she could do that damned council's test, and it had cost her her life.
"Oh Buffy, I'm so sorry." He whispered taking her hand. "I'm so sorry." Tears of guilt and desperate sadness crept down his face.
A snarl from behind him told him that another vampire had been waiting. With one fluid motion he grabbed the stake from the ground beside him and threw it into the vampire's heart.
He had to get Buffy to her mother; he had to deal with this. Of course, it wasn't the first time a slayer had died. Most slayers never got to the age that she had so readily passed. But all the same, his slayer hadn't died. She was never gone. He had never been the reason for a human's death, and knowing that it was her death, was too much. He loved Buffy. Loved her like a father loves his daughter.
He lifted her into his arms, and stumbled down the road, forgetting his waiting car.
Joyce Summers opened the door before Giles had reached it. He hadn't realized he'd gotten that far. It seemed like no time had passed at all since he'd lifted her limp body from the ground, but somehow he'd numbly found his way along the roads to the front gate, and then up to the door.
Buffy's mother was lost for words. She stared at Buffy's pale face and blue lips with blood smudged on her neck. A gasped "oh" escaped her lips, and she couldn't breath. Buffy, my Buffy. She thought to herself. The room started to spin, and she sat down on the floor in front of the couch where Giles had laid her.
"I'm so sorry." He whispered to her. To which lady his words were meant for he didn't know. Perhaps it was for both of them. His heart was clenching itself, and he found he was as lost for breath as Joyce. When she erupted into heavy sobs, Giles could only stand and stare at his poor slayer. He wanted to die, what purpose had he without her? She wasn't just his slayer, she had somehow become more than that. She'd become his family, like his daughter. His little girl. And now…
He had a phone call to make. He went into the Summers' kitchen and picked up the phone from the receiver dialing quickly. The council was going to get quite an earful that evening. "Yes this is Rupert Giles." He spat into the phone when it was answered.
"What is it now Rupert?" The voice on the other end said with thick annoyance floating in his words.
"She's dead." Giles was seething. He was talking to the man who'd made him kill his slayer.
"What are you talking about Rupert, who's dead?"
"Buffy. She couldn't defend herself, and she got attacked by a vampire, and he killed her." His voice trembled, and whether it was from his absolute fury, or his peeking sadness that caused it he didn't know. "Your little test killed her."
After the very angry phone call ended, Giles picked up the receiver that he'd slammed down again, and made another call. The coroner. He hadn't wanted to call yet, he wasn't ready. But he couldn't think of anything else to do.
After the call ended, he returned to the room where Joyce was still crying uncontrollably. He put his hand on her shoulder, and kneeled down beside her.
"What happened?" She sobbed, not peeling her eyes away from her daughter for a second.
A deep breath, and then he explained. "See these marks?" He asked quietly, moving her hair away from her neck to reveal where the vamp had bitten her. Joyce' gasp was a mixture of shock and pain. My poor baby, she thought miserably. "She was attacked," he explained quietly still. "I got there just in time to see the thing kill- I was too late. I could have saved her if I had been just a little sooner… She could still have been alive." He put his hand over his eyes. "Oh Joyce I'm so sorry."