As fast as Faith came, she went.
A drifter among many names I remember her by but even though it had been years since this encounter, Faith's disappearance still left an after taste in my mouth – A mere lingering feeling. The girls looked at me with young and amateur stares, trying to pry into my head and my thoughts to figure what was going on. Only if they knew that what they wish they can do, I have succeeded in training. But their faces spoke truth, they didn't need brain power to understand. Something was wrong. Watching Faith flee before their eyes was a red flag to them. They didn't know that this was what Faith was known for. This was her signature.
They spoke among themselves as Jordan tried to speak to me. He knows knows the secret I keep to myself. He knows about the pain my mind goes under when I'm stressed. He knows that I've tried to control the sensitive part of my mind. The echo of their thoughts coming out of their mouths before it even does. The bouncing of their words, jumping of one wall into my head out to the next and back into my mind. No one should have to do this. No one should hear anyone's thoughts. EVER.
"What do you think is happening," Amy tried to discretely asked another girl named Astrid. They gathered in a corner speaking as only high school girls do. The pale skinned girl crossed her arms against her body, unsure. She impatiently let them drop to play with the string on her sweatpants. You could see the lines on her face become more visible. It didn't take much but a profiler to know her thoughts were growing rapidly about death.
"I don't know, but if that slayer left, I'm thinking it's pretty horrible," Astride said. She bit her cuticles of her fingernails trying to trim them down.
The conversation skipped a beat. The echoes of their thoughts surrounded them, swelling my brain with foreign information I didn't need at all. I clenched my jaw trying to suppress the pain I was encountering.
"Do you think another apocalypse is happening? Should we go hunting for vampires now?"
"It's daylight Amy, there aren't any vampires out here. But I don't think an apocalypse is happening, she wouldn't have trained us if there were."
"Astrid, what if she just found out! What if she's training us to kill it?" I moved my eyes almost an inch from the starting point to I could see their faces again. Her eyebrows moving closer together and away from her hairline. Her eyes became glossy and more bewildered as she tried to control her breathing. She medium length blonde hair back as she exhaled roughly.
"Who is she anyway," Astride said annoyed with the thought of me and what I was bringing them into. "I bet she's not a slayer. Faith was strong and Dawn isn't. She could be a Vampire, she never leaves here. At least I don't think she does."
"Shut up Astride," a girl said. I think her name was Jean. She was a tough one, she reminded me of Buffy and Cordelia mixed into one, some how. "You don't even know her. I know girls like you. You just like to gossip."
"I'm not gossiping, Jean," Astride replied with a pout on her face. Astrid seemed articulate for a girl her age. "I'm just saying with the way she holds herself, she looks like she doesn't get sleep. There's bags underneath her eyes, and she looks like a mess. It's not gossiping, It's making an observation."
The girls continued to bicker with each other, reminding me of the potentials that were my age. I tried to avoid listening to more, but it seemed inevitable. Jordan snapped his fingers in my face one more time. He finally caught my attention.
Thank god.
Filled with apprehension, he delicately said my name. I batted my eyes to retrieve me out of the trance that I found myself in. My eyes met his, and saw them dilate slowly. They started to slowly change from one tone of brown to a lighter one. "What are we going to do?"
In one beat I looked at them and then to Jordan, not wanting to leave them the way I was going to. My opinion was that it's for the best. I placed one hand on my hip and the other on my head as I tried to sort out the facts in my mind.
I closed my eyes and let out one frustrated grunt. "We're going to have to head up to Cleveland in a couple of days. That's only if they haven't found us yet. You need to start packing tonight. Pack everything – all the electronics. Take whatever hard drives you need and crash everything else. You're going to have to live out of your laptop for the next week or two. I told Faith we'd be there in a month, but things seem wrong. Something doesn't feel right."
I opened my eyes when he nodded in agreement, ready to take action. His eyes snapped to the group of girls and reluctantly met mine once again. "What about the girls? What are we going to do?"
I looked over my shoulder one more time. Just to look at them because I wanted to. I parted my lips and slowly I said, "Leave them. I just hope they'll be fine. I can't let them know where I'm going. This is for the best. To protect them."
"I understand," he replied sternly.
I walked away from and changed my face, pretending things were okay. I stepped inside of the ring and clapped my hands together. They attempted to walk into a lined formation when I put my hand up. "Stop. You don't have to do that anymore." They all looked at each other.
If they didn't know that something was wrong, then they knew now.
"Dawn," Jean said. She took one step forward from the girls and put a brave face. "We know something is wrong. What is it?"
I smiled faintly, "Don't worry. It's nothing that you should be worried about." They looked at me as if I told them a lie.
They're smart girls. I was lying.
"Today's lesson is over. Tomorrow you come in and I'll teach you some meditation and fighting procedures."
The rest of the girls walked to the corner of the ring to grab their things but Amy didn't. She looked at me like a little kid watching one of their parents walking out on them would. I clenched my jaw once again, trying not to let any sort of emotion seep through my eyes or mouth. Her eyes locked with mine, and like she did some sort of magick spell on me, I couldn't look away. "You promise?"
I couldn't promise. I didn't know what was going to happen, but I knew it would be soon. I couldn't let tragedy and death devour these girls as it once did for my sister and I. I couldn't look her in the eye and promise things that I had no control over. My face didn't move, though I wanted to tell them everything, I didn't. "I'll see you tomorrow, Girls."
Amy was the last one to grab her things. I looked at her as she did. One corner of her mouth raised up as she left the warehouse, closing the door behind her.
The door clicked closed.
I let out a long awaited exhaled knowing that I was alone. I looked around the warehouse and examined the emptiness of the place. I walked around the ring in a circle swinging my arms back and forth. My cheeks puffed out as I blew air out of them. I stopped in the middle of the ring and and sat down in an Indian position. I moved around in my place trying to find comfort as I brushed my hair back and closed my eyes.
I raised my chin a little bit and tried to meditate. I opened my eyes one more time to view the dark orange color of the sun going down. I cleared my throat and closed my eyes once again trying to find my minds eye.
Five years ago, when I bought this warehouse I thought it held mysterious powers. I saw things in my sleep, which eventually prevented me from sleeping. Sometimes it would be the past, and how things happened. I would remember people that I normally wouldn't remember consciously. This... thing that happened to me would allow me to see things at the same time, in a different place but only from a small mile radius. Sometimes when I do get to sleep I would see Giles, getting older and saying things to me as if he were really here.
I thought that out of the scooby gang, I was the only normal one but when I was forced to be alone, I became a bigger freak than ever.
It's hard sometimes. Sometimes I forget to breathe, I forget that my life isn't dark and I have to open my eyes to see the light. But this time, when I opened my eyes it was in fact dark. I saw the shine of a flashlight moving from left to right.
"Dawn," Jordan screamed. His voice echoed as he was the one moving the flashlight back and forth.
When I looked around myself I realized that it was in fact dark. Inside and outside. I stood up and patted the back of my pants from the dirt. "I'm in the ring," I announced.
He walked into the ring and shines the light onto me, making sure it was me. "Where the hell have you been? I've been calling you for like an hour"
I placed my hands in my back pockets insecurely like I would when Buffy scolded me. "Don't be dramatic, Jordan. I didn't even hear you call my name." I grabbed the flashlight and shined it around the area. "Why are the lights out?"
"I don't know," he said evenly. "I checked the light box. Dawn, the wires were chewed out."
My heart dropped.
They were here.
They knew where we were and I didn't even feel them come. I closed my eyes and tried to concentrate. Pass Jordan breathing, I heard steps like a little child trying to see his presents on Christmas day. They reminded me of inconsistent water drops falling from a leaky faucet. I heard them all around the warehouse. I knew there wasn't only one.
I grabbed Jordan by his collar and whispered hard in his ear, "Get your shit and meet me at the bus station. If you don't see me by the time the next bus gets there, go to Cleveland and find them. Take the back way."
With no words he ran out of the ring and to the room. I heard the door slam shut. Then as I tried to concentrate on the intruder, I realized the footsteps had stopped. I tried to feel around me, trying to feel the draft of the air change. But there was no change.
Suddenly, the lights above me started to turn on. I looked up looking at the flickering light, and wondered how it was doing that. I can feel my eyebrows moving away from my hair line and being pissed off second by second.
A familiar deep demonic laugh surfaced in front of the ring. I can feel my forehead relax and frantically, I walked to the edge of the ring, holding the ropes.
A black blur began to fade into my sight. His appearance began to become more clear. He stood just as tall as me with a velvet red robe draped around him. His horns seemed curved into some golden spiral.
If I didn't know any better, he looked like...
"Dawn Summers," he belted out. "It has been a while. I am so glad to see you."
"Yeah," I said sarcastically. "I wish I could say the same."
He laughed again, like a monarch to a kingdom. "Now, I wouldn't say that to the man who will soon be killing you."
"I wouldn't say you are anything equivalent to what a man would be."
"There's been word that you have met my minions," he said coldly after a a beat of silence passed.
"Yes, well they were easy to beat. I figure this will be an easy task."
He chuckled loudly while I did nothing but stare at this blurred vision of him. "That's because you have only fought a prototype. Remember, the prophecy is near. They will become more stronger and deadlier as the days come by."
"Are you trying to kill me," I asked with a stern look painted over my face hiding a heart of fear. I grabbed the ropes a little tighter.
He paused. It seemed like he was thinking about my question. Or thinking of ways to torture me.
"No." he simply responded.
I let my grip go.
"Consider this a game. Though I know that I will indeed win, I want to play. I'll think of you as my little lab rat in a cage." He smiled at me but my face didn't move. "I'll be in touch with you. When you and your colony of people will die, you will know. Just remember that the prophecy is indeed in affect."
Before I could part my lips to ask questions the blurred vision of the monster disappeared. Like if he were some kind of glitch in the matrix. Moments after he disappeared the warehouse lights started to turn on one by one. I tucked hair behind my ear and ran into the back room.
Buffy taught me one thing: When you know you're going to be killed, you run. No matter how far it is, you run. That's exactly what I planned on doing.
I tore that room apart grabbing everything I could. I grabbed the two duffel bags that I had underneath my couch and packed them until I couldn't anymore. One with books and one with clothes. I didn't have much so I took what I needed.
I ran to the war room to grab any weapons that I could. The smaller and more portable, the better. I can feel my heart beating out my chest as water started to form in the corners of my eyes. My breathing became uneven and my body began to shake. I didn't know what I was doing, and to be honest I never did. The anger inside built up like a fire burning. I grabbed a chair and threw it at the wall, watching it break into pieces.
I stared at the wall saying and doing nothing.
It was quiet.
For once the place was quiet inside my mind and outside of myself. I grabbed my supplies and put them on the table near me. I inhaled as calmly as I could, but before I could exhale I collapsed on the floor crying as much as I could. Savagely I moved my hair out of my face and rocked back and forth.
I needed Buffy more than I led on. She was my support system. Buffy knew more than I could ever in my lifetime. I couldn't become her. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't be the person I wanted to be. Because she died. And I was nothing but some loser that didn't know what she was getting herself into. I wanted to run to my mother and Buffy but I couldn't. I was the only one left. I promised I would live for them both, but I never knew how hard living would be.
As I laid on the floor with my eyes closed I heard a voice in my head. This time something different. I felt someone give me strength. I heard them tell me as clear as day that I could do this. I could do this for my sister and my mother. I suddenly didn't need to cry anymore. I wiped my eyes and sniffled as I stood up. I took a deep breath and grabbed the bags of weapons.
I grabbed my green army jacket and the other two bags I had. I felt what I hadn't felt in so long...
...Strong.
It was time to fuck shit up.
XX
When I reached the bus station, the bus to Cleveland had just left. I smiled, knowing that Jordan was safe, but as the bus departed from its station I threw my words away. He sat there like a little lonely boy on a bench that I knew he was. Staring at the ground as people walked passed him. I smiled and walked casually to him.
"Hey stranger," I said slyly. He looked up at me and smiled the brightest smile I ever saw him smile. "I thought I told you to get on this bus that just passed?"
He looked at me with nothing but ease in his eyes. He spoke with sincerity, "I thought it was time someone waited for you."
With no words I smiled at him. I sat on the bench next to him and waited for the next bus.
XX
A couple of hours and a few movies later we arrived in Cleveland. I hailed a cab and pulled out an old Christmas card of Giles I had. I gave the driver this address hoping he still lived there. When the driver pulled up I knew that he indeed did live here.
The cab left when Jordan and I pulled everything out.
"How do you know he still lives here," Jordan asked carrying as much as he did for the front door.
"Because," I said putting down my bags. Jordan walked toward me with a curious look on his face. I walked to his mailbox and pointed to the latin inscription on it. "He's the only librarian I know that would do that. It means 'All kindred spirits welcomed.'"
His mouth formed an O shape as I picked up my bags and move them to the front door. "Should we knock," Jordan asked.
I chuckled and started to look around me. If that demon man found me, I had to take precautions to make sure they didn't find them. I found a fake rock that Giles had even when he lived in Sunnydale. I opened it up and took the key out and opened the door. I walked in, leaving my things outside with Jordan watching my things.
I creeped around the house looking at the things he had, but more for him. It was just like Giles to have an extensive collection of Latin books in his living room. His house had the feel of a cottage.
Warm and cozy.
It felt like... home.
I closed my eyes and tried to concentrate to hear anything possible. I heard closely an echo of faiths voice. I followed it to their small kitchen.
"What do you mean the prophecy is near," he asked her with his agitated voice that only Giles could perfect. They stood near a table with red and white checkered table cloth on it which Faith leaned on as she looked at him uninterestedly.
"Yeah. That's what they'll always say when the moon is full. They turn into mega vamps and I can't kill them with a stake."
"Well Faith, that would have been a sodding good thing to tell me last month."
I stepped forward, making myself known. Faith parted her lips to speak to Giles when she noticed me. She straightened up her posture and held a smile. "D," she said with a surprised tone. She walked toward me and gave me a tight hug.
As she walked toward me, I saw Giles slowly turn to me. She embraced me in a tight hug and let go in seconds. She placed her arm around me as I stared into Giles' eyes. He took his glasses off and gave me a welcoming smile.
"Hello Dawn," he said in a low tone. It was like I was finally being welcomed home after being in the service.
I looked up to this man. He was the father I never had. I felt the corner of my mouth raise uncontrollably. I let a soft breath out.
"Hello Giles."