Hello again! Thank you for the favourites and alerts you guys gave Ex Abyssus. I would like to thank nurjen08 and xxdawnbreakerxx for taking the time to review since it gives a writer a lot of encouragement and as a (lazy on my part) prize I shall give you each an virtual Angel plushie.

Now this chapter will be covering the events of "Dead Man's Party" which means you guys will have to wait a bit for Angel-goodness. Please be patient and try to stick with me because as you know, Angel doesn't come back from the Hell Dimension until the end of "Faith, Hope & Trick" which will be covered in the next chapter. This chapter is a bit shorter than the first, but as the story develops, hopefully the chapters will too. (Oh and if you've read this far through my rant, I congratulate you.)

Disclaimer: I wish I owned Buffy, but sadly I don't. I am merely a teenager that has too much free time on her hands.

She stepped off the bus and clutched her bag tighter at the thought of seeing her mom and friends again. What would they think of her? With some trepidation, she walked down the familiar streets towards her home.

When she finally reached 1630 Revello Drive, she expected the house to be completely different than what it had been the last time she had seen it three months ago. But no, it was exactly the same, down to the seat placed on the front porch. Buffy walked silently to the front porch and stared at the front door. She raised a shaky hand to knock but found that she couldn't bring herself to rap her knuckles on the wood.

She couldn't do this. Childish fears rose to the surface of her thoughts, her mom would probably tell her to go away and never come back. Buffy shook her head and told herself to get a grip and before she could think of more reasons to leave hop right back on the next bus, she knocked on the door and waited. After what felt like an age, Joyce Summers opened the door.

"Buffy?"

"Uh, hi," said Buffy feebly. They stared at each other for a moment in silence.

"Mom—" Buffy began to apologize, but was cut off by her mother's embrace.

"My baby," she heard her mom whisper into her shoulder, "You're here; you're home."

Before she could suppress it, tears began to leak out of her eyes, "I missed you."

She held her mother tighter to her, and everything felt better.

†

Being back in her old room still didn't have any effect on the nightmares. In fact they seemed to be getting worse.

Even when she wasn't asleep, she still felt the pain of Angel. Every time she remembered what Whistler told her, it felt as though a knife had been twisted in her gut. 'The pain he's going through, is real. The monster is real. '

It didn't make things better that Xander, Willow and to a lesser extent, Giles resented her absence and pretended everything was peachy. They even threw, what Oz had dubbed, a 'hootenanny'

But living in Sunnydale, nothing quite got people to reconcile like the way the Hellmouth did. This time it had been a zombie attack on her house that had been caused by the ancient tribal mask that her mom had hung up in her bedroom for decoration. She was also informed that the police had cleared her of all charges.

That was only one of the loose ends that had been left hanging when Buffy had skipped town. There was still the matter of fact that she had been expelled from school, and Principal Snyder wasn't exactly concealing his delight that she wouldn't be able to get back into school

"You have no right to keep her out!" exclaimed Joyce, staring incredulously at the Principal who heavily resembled a troll.

"I can and I will," Snyder replied, not bothering to cover up his smile now.

In her mind, Buffy was imagining what it would be like to squish the little troll under her foot. Murder wasn't always illegal, was it? As she watched her mother and him argue further, she concluded that the law had to make exceptions for this kind of thing. Besides who would miss him any way?

She was broken out of her daydream by her mother's voice.

"I will take this all the way to the mayor if I have to!" said Joyce, rising out of her chair. Buffy followed suit and she too, stood up.

The troll's response was an ugly smile, "I'd love to see how that plays out."

As they walked out of the room, Buffy voiced the thoughts that had been going through her mind while in the office. Joyce suppressed a laugh and shook her head.

"You only just cleared your name Buffy, you don't want to go drag it through the mud again, besides," Joyce glanced back in the direction of Snyder's office and then looked back to Buffy, "I was rather hoping to kill him myself."

She was afraid to sleep. The dark circles under her eyes could attest to that. Buffy gazed at her waxy reflection in the bathroom mirror. Her moss coloured eyes were freed from their previous innocence to be replaced by a haunted, dead look. As much as she tried to act like her old self, she knew that she couldn't fool anyone. The slayer sighed and washed her face, before returning to her bedroom.

As she lay under the covers, she fought to stay awake. She had to stay awake…

†

The heat was even worse than before, if that was possible. The rack was now gone but it took merely a moment for her eyes to find him. His arms raised above his head, tied by a thick chain – the only thing keeping him upright as his legs looked like they couldn't hold his own weight.

The monster was already there, circling her angel like a vulture. His red gaze looked on with a sadistic glee as he did so.

"You long for what you cannot have, Angelus."

Her Angel remained, as always, unmoving.

"When you did get what you wanted, it took away a part of you. It took away your soul."

"I have seen what you have done, Angelus. I know your sins," a knowing smile crossed the monster's face. "That slayer of yours, she seems like one hell of a gal. I've always liked a bit of fire in a woman."

A growl rumbled around the room. Angel's brow becoming ridged, eyes yellow, fangs descending. The vampire struggled against his bonds, trying to get at the monster.

"Interesting," the monster observed, not phased by Angel's newfound ferocity, "very interesting indeed."

Angel continued to snap and snarl, pure bloodlust in his yellow eyes. She flinched followed by a sharp intake of breath. Both heads snapped in her direction, pairs of yellow and red eyes gazing as though they could actually see her.

…Could they?

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-Isabella-