Chapter 4 (5 Pages)
Losing Ones Head
A week had passed since Buffy or Xander had seen their reaper friend, and Angel was starting to get bored with following a teenage boy who seemed to be doing very little with his life. Watch the boy get up, get dressed, go to school early for his new workout routine. After school he'd do detention (usually) before going to the library. After the library he'd go home. Fridays they went to the bronze for an hour. Saturday was spent wandering around town while his parents fought. Sunday, Wednesday and Thursday were regular patrol days. A single full moon passed by where he spent the night watching Oz.
On occasion he would study with Willow.
It was boring, insulting, and a waste of his time. And on another level it was almost awe inspiring. The relaxing lifestyle this boy was able to live. The fact that he was enjoying life, in its simplicity.
Angel was jealous.
While he watched from overhanging trees and sewer entrances, the boy strolled with a coffee in hand and a book bag hanging off his shoulder. When a pretty girl passed by he would give her a long look. On occasion he used his skateboard.
Lucky little punk with his average little life.
And then (finally) it happened. Willow was off tutoring some jock from school while Buffy and Wesley did their research thing. It was bright out- a hot kind of day that made Angel feel like he had some body heat of his own. He should have been asleep right now, really, but with the pigs blood pooled in his stomach he'd felt too ill to really make the most of the day.
The boy had been wandering down the street, calm as you please, eating a chocolate bar of all things.
CRASH!
Garbage bins were thrown as if a bomb had gone off behind them- people scattered. Ran. It was the thing that sane people did. Xander, apparently, wasn't so sane. Chewed a couple more times. Swallowed hard. Started running towards the commotion. And while the Vampire didn't know why exactly there was a demon after Xander of all people, he'd made a promise to the Watcher.
And Buffy would be so upset if the little upstart died.
The boy was running into the alleyway like an idiot, and Angel had to give the block a good search to find a way he could even get across the street in the hot sun without leaving his hiding spot.
It would have to be the sewers. Not that there were any nearby that headed in that direction.
Damn it, Angel thought to himself sullenly as he ran through the muck, he hated day time jobs.
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Trash cans rolled out of shadows, and Xander nearly jumped out of his skin when a rat brushed past his feet in its own attempt to escape. The dark alley was silent now- it's contrast to the sounds before making the quiet all too noticeably. He wasn't entirely sure of why he had run into a fight situation without any backup or weapons...
Red eyes from the shadows.
Shit!
He jerked backwards just as a fist reached out to grab at his shirt- it missed and he ducked, the feeling of wind brushing past his hair showing how close those claws had come to his very necessary head. "What is your problem?!" Xander nearly shouted out, grabbing at one of the fallen tin lids, using is as a shield as the demon... the Wesen punched out. Huh. He remembered a thing. Cool. "You have nothing better to do with your time?!"
It grunted in response and grabbed out again, this time catching one strap of his backpack- Xander found himself thrown through the air, crashing into a brick wall with such sudden shock that he could have just laid there for an age.
If it weren't for the two very hard kicks suddenly aimed at his abdomen.
Which really, really hurt.
He rolled again, this time spitting blood. The bad puns and fighting conversations probably weren't what he should have been focusing on after all... and instead Xander grabbed again at his fallen lid.
CLANG!
He was pushed backwards, further into the alleyway. Feet pulling against the concrete as Xander tried desperately to hold his ground. The lid was hardly much of a shield at all, but it protected his face- if it hadn't of been enraging the demon so much, it would have probably have been even better.
BANG!
Another hard hit to his little shield; the trash can lid was starting to look like a pot now. It wouldn't be good for much longer.
CRACK!
The demon howled in anger as Xander blocked a particularly hard hit- but it did little good as the teens back was now literally against the wall. Another blocked fist and KER-CLANG! His trash can lid was taken apart now, literally cracked in half and not nearly as useful. The handle and half a sliver of sharp metal as long as his arm- all that was left.
The monster grinned, and Xander felt a moment of terror. Trapped, cornered, and nobody about to save him.
He was going to die if he didn't do something right now.
Closing his eyes tightly and pressing his own back further against the wall as if that would help, the monster pulled one fist back in what would surely be a fight ending punch; Xander finally lashed out with what was left of his tin lid.
And no punch came.
He waited a moment.
And still no death.
Opened one eye and blinked.
The Wesen stood there, its own eyes shocked. The sharp edge of his garbage can lid firmly embedded in its neck.
Blood.
A lot of blood.
Spurting out all over the place while it made quiet gasping noises.
But it wasn't dead yet, and was starting to get a look like he was going to take Xander out if it was the last thing it did.
Anger.
With his last chance in front of him Xander lashed out, punching with a complete lack of style or grace- but the creature was finding itself propelled backwards now- just as it had done to Xander only moments (could it have been seconds ago?) before.
Its own back against the wall- still flailing. Still so easy for it to take out a teenage boy, Xander let anger and a desire to survive take over. He couldn't end a fight the way this creature did- but could hardly let it go. But the wound was already there...
And so in between punches that felt as though they would have otherwise been completely ineffective if the creature hadn't already been dying, he pushed out to the creatures neck where the metal was still embedded.
Pushed it further in with a jerk of his hand.
Felt it pass through something hard. Bone.
And its head just kind of... fell off.
Which was funny.
...And not.
Huh.
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Angel ran from the end of the alley, certain that the boy was dead for how long it had taken him to do something as simple as cross the street. There was blood- a thick smell that came on so impossibly strong that he had to be dead.
Buffy would be heart broken. Willow and Giles too.
Certain that he had failed in this duty Angel stood, his eyes adjusting to the darkness and dust...
Xander.
Standing.
"Are you alright?" The words came out rushed, and Angel felt like he might have been breathing hard if he had breathed at all. "Xander- where is it?"
The boy pointed downwards, into the shadows.
A corpse.
The corpse.
...And a head.
"Oh," Angel would admit he'd seen some gruesome things. Done horribly things. But a random daytime beheading wasn't really what one expected when waking up on a fairly average day. "You... oh."
"...I didn't mean to."
The boy sounded confused. Looked confused. He held a large piece of metal in one hand. "...It was sharp and... I didn't mean to do that." He was soaked through, and shock was setting in.
"Adrenalin," Angel frowned, watching the boy carefully. "It's alright Xander. He was trying to kill you.
The boy blinked.
Dropped his weapon with a clanging sound.
Didn't say a word.
"Go back to the library, Xander. It'll be alright."
The boy left, somehow looking steady and shaky at the same time, while Angel cleaned up the evidence.
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When Angel entered the library an hour later, it was to quiet voices and a frowning Giles. The old man shot across the library like a bat out of hell when he saw the Vampire. "Where the hell were you?" His whispered anger thick. "What happened to Xander?"
"He didn't tell you?"
"The boy hasn't said a word! Just walks in, covered in blood! Walked half way across town looking like a psycho path, from what I can tell! If that damn reaper isn't dead-"
"He'd dead."
Giles deflated at the words, his anger dissipating quickly and turning instead into concern. "I've never seen him react like this. Silence- acting as if nothing happened at all! They fight vampires all the time... I know it can be a lot for a child to handle, seeing a fight like that, but I wouldn't have expected this reaction from Xander."
"He didn't... watch," Angel admitted, his own face deeply concerned. "Giles. I got there too late. By the time I got to him, Xander had killed the reaper on his own."
"...What? That's... I mean to say, a reaper is-"
"An incredibly skilled fighter. I wont say it was luck- I don't know. But Giles, Xander chopped off his head. I don't know how the fight went down, but there was a corpse, there was a head, and they sure as hell weren't attached. What are you teaching the boy that he would go around decapitating people when he's in a fight?!"
"Teaching?! He's what, sixteen? Of course I'm not teaching him to decapitate-"
"Sorry," the words came from a very sudden appearance of Xander, standing behind Giles. "I just... sorry."
"There's nothing to be sorry about," Giles removed his glasses with a shudder, wiping them clean as he looked down on the boy. The argument in his head turning completely around when he looked at the young man in front of him, still shivering. "You were protecting yourself."
"But I didn't mean to-"
"It's a good thing," Giles put his glasses back on, "Honestly, Xander. I know this is... disconcerting for you. I understand. But when you have a fight like this, so suddenly, with no time to research... really, removing the head, as grotesque as it seems, really is the best course of action."
Xander looked at him with confusion.
"You never know where certain organs are, or what his allergies happen to be. Silver... religious artifact... You don't know if they have some sort of magic protecting them. But one thing almost all creatures have in common is that they need their head. You did well."
"...How does Buffy do this, Giles? Against demons that aren't... that don't just dust? It was... his was twitching and I think he was trying to say something. I mean, I've staked before- fine, you know? Almost like... I don't know. Like it's not a big deal. The Vampires are all dead already, really. They're already mourned and not missed and... What if that thing had a life? Like, a real life?"
"You can't think about that Xander. Just remember that you do. And it tried to take that away from you."
"I feel sick, Giles."
Xander did look particularly green in that moment, and Giles found it strangely comforting. "I'd be more concerned if you didn't."
And as Xander walked back to the library table, Angel and Giles looking on at his blood covered shirt, Giles made a point of stomping down that pit of shock and horror that grew in his stomach. Beheading really had been the smart course of action, after all.
But it was all so terrifyingly on point for a Grimm who didn't really know what Grimms did.