Disclaimer: I don't own BTVS, Joss the master Whedon does.
The Master Planner.
Jessica got up early to prepare for school this morning. She washes her face, brushes her teeth and as she brushes her hair, she notices the bite mark on her neck for the first time since her attack. She lifts her hand and gently rubs her scar and the visions start. Images of a man, no a monster dressed in leather with a horribly deformed face and he is sitting on a thrown looking as if he hasn't a care in the world. He suddenly looks up at her and smiles and she shivers.
"I'm coming for you Jessica," The Master speaks to her from within her thoughts.
Jessica drops her hairbrush and steps away from the bathroom mirror in fright, believing that the hideous creature she saw might step out of it. Jessica takes some deep calming breaths and looks around the bathroom hoping nothing will jump out to get her. She laughs to herself thinking that this town was really doing a number on her mental capacity. She finishes her daily routine and heads down stairs to have breakfast with her father.
Jessica gazes at her father as she eats her pancakes; he has not said one word to her since she sat to have breakfast with him. He just continues to read the newspaper as she glares at him. She finishes her breakfast and starts to head off for school when her father finally speaks.
"Jessica I want you to come home right after school, we still need to have that little talk." Joseph looks over the top of the newspaper at his daughter.
Jessica sighs knowing that the situation was inevitable and that she has no chance of escaping her fate. "Okay dad, but I will be a little late. I have cheerleading practice and Principal Flutie wants to break me in as the new school mascot."
Jessica notices the smirk on her dad's face and rolls her eyes. She hopes that her dad of all people will not make fun of her mascot duties. "Okay Jess, but as soon as you finish come straight home young lady."
"Yes dad," Jessica said in a downtrodden voice.
~%~
Jessica went through the motions not paying attention in her classes. Her mind is elsewhere and she keeps hearing this maniacal evil laughter in her thoughts. Someone behind her tapes her on the shoulder and she turns and looks right into the face of the monster that's been haunting her.
"After I torture you, you will take her place at my side," the Master reaches up and gouges her eyes out.
Jessica jumps from her chair screaming and rubbing at her eyes. She opens the eyes that were still there and everyone is looking at her, some in petrified horror others in mocking humor, wondering what the hell is the matter with Jessica Trish Cine, spaze extraordinaire.
The teacher rushes over to Jessica to ask what is wrong and Jessica said that she just had an eye spasm and needs to go to the rest room for a moment. The teacher happily lets her go to calm herself.
Jessica dabs a wet paper napkin across her face and shivers trying to keep her fear at bay. What is going on in her mind? She thought to herself. She really needed to talk to someone about this before she completely lost it and the only ones she could think of at the moment is the ones that have constantly been at the center of all the madness. Her dad will be highly upset about not coming home when she was suppose to, but she needs to tell someone about the things she's been seeing and hope to the higher powers that they would not put her in a padded cell.
~%~
After Jessica first full fledged cheerleading practice as Mascot Hornsby, (Flutie so inappropriately names her) Jessica sought out the school librarian. She reaches the doors and peeps in to see Giles and Angel talking. She tries to wait until they were done talking to enter but then Angel suddenly turns his head towards her as if he sensed her there.
Jessica hurries and moves her head from the window and gulps. "Now that's just plain creepy."
The library doors open and Giles look at her. "May I help you Miss Cine?"
"Uhm, well, I." Jessica glances down at her feet and almost burst into tears. "I need to talk to someone about," she looks around to make sure no one is listening. "Things I've been seeing and hearing since that thing bit me."
Giles looks fretful and intrigued at the same time and steps aside to let Jessica in. "Come in Miss Cine, we have been talking about just that, as a matter of fact."
Jessica came into the library a little wary of Angel, as he could not take his eyes off her. She thought that he looked a little hungry but that could just be her overactive imagination. Then she takes her eyes off Angel, notices that the trio is present, and accounted for right here in their favorite place to be, she should have known.
Jessica sat in the library staring intently at the five of them, she did not know where to start and she had a sneaky suspicion that they might have the same problem she was having at the moment. She sighs and starts to say something only to close her mouth and bring her gaze to the one that she really wanted to ask the majority of her questions. She notices that he continually averted his eyes and refuses to look at her now. That only made her all the more curious about him.
"So you're a vampire right?" Jessica decided to go right to the heart of the matter.
Angel's angst ridden face looks up at her and it almost breaks her heart, she had to swallow her heart and look away from him before she could continue. "Is there anything else that you guys need to tell me? I mean I knew you kept secrets, but this was not what I was expecting at all."
"What were you expecting exactly?" Buffy asked.
"Oh, I don't know maybe normal 90210 stuff like I stole my best friend's boyfriend, or I experimented with drugs, maybe even I once got expelled from my old school for trying to burn it down. I wasn't expecting vampires and things that go bump in the night," Jessica said as she threw her hands in the air.
Buffy laughed as she thought about what Jess said. "Well I was expelled from my old school for that exact reason, but I only did it because it was infested with vampires and that was the only way I could think off to get rid of them all.
Jessica laughs aloud thinking that Buffy was joking and then she sobers quickly when she realizes she was not. "Oh this is... this is, too much. Vampires really exist," she said this as she rubs the scar on her neck and stares intently at a brooding vampire who tries to avoid her gaze.
Giles interrupted her interrogation knowing that this was just half of what she wants to discuss. "Jessica I don't mean to hurry you along but you came here for a reason. Would you mind telling us why?"
Jessica got nervous. How could she tell them what's been happening to her without sounding bonkers? She just dives right into what's been going on.
"Every since I was bitten, I've been having visions of a horrible creature sitting on a throne. He's been telling me that he is coming after me and that after he finishes torturing me that I will replace her and sit at his right hand. I believe he calls himself the Master," Jessica gulps and closes her eyes preparing herself for the inevitable laughter, when no one laughs she opens her eyes and everyone in the room is so tense you could bounce pennies of them. Angel actually seems afraid for her and that made her more than uneasy.
"Okay, please someone tell me that I'm just being crazy or that I am just in shock from the attack and that there is not some master vampire out for my blood," Jessica said in panic.
Their silence gave her the answer that she did not want and Jessica politely got up and ran from the library,
"Jessica wait," Willow calls out but Jessica did not listen and she ran all the way home and right into a situation that she was neither in the mood or prepared for.
~%~
Jessica came into the house out of breathe and crying. She starts to go up to her room but her father intercepts her and he is quite angry with her.
"Your late Jessica, I thought I told you to come home as soon as possible," her father said.
"I'm sorry dad I lost track of time with the cheerleading practice. What is it you wanted to talk about?" Jessica asks as she hides her tears.
"Not yet Jess, go change and come to the dining room, I have dinner waiting," Joseph walked back into the kitchen as Jessica heads upstairs.
A few minutes pass and Jessica comes into the dining room to find that her father is not alone and she stands their aghast at the presence of Buffy's mom Joyce Summers and her boyfriend Jonathan Levinson.
"Come and sit Jessica we have a lot to discuss," Her father smiles as she slowly sits and curses under her breath about how her dad stole her idea from under her nose.
There was a knock at the door and Jessica starts to run to get it but her father tells her to sit and he goes to answer the door. When he returns he has a wide-eyed guest in tow.
Jessica turns to the guest and mouths three heartfelt words. "I'm sorry Buffy."
"Oh Buffy, good you made it. Have a seat there is something I and Joseph wish to discuss with you girls. But first let's have dinner," Both her and Joseph dove into the meal as Buffy, Jessica and Jonathan all stare at them in unbelief and loss of appetite because of the looming doom the three thought is sure to come.