"Xander," Buffy stared at the clearly human skin, she could make out what was the human's face, "Is there a Wesen that could do this?"
"Technically a Vulture Wesen could have, don't asked me to pronounce their Wesen name, it's a bit of a tongue twister. Like the vultures they resemble, they prefer to eat the dead. In their case, the bones of the dead. But they also don't like the making someone dead part. Which is why they can often be found on battlefields and in cities with homeless that often die on the street. Most Wesen regard them in a glass half empty kind of way. They eat the bones of the dead, gross, but they keep those same dead from just rotting away where they are and spreading disease. Besides, whatever did this, ate more than the bones. Something else did this and for the life of me, I don't remember any Wesen in Uncle Rory's archives that would do something like this. Any that might eat a human, eat the skin and muscles or just the bones like the vulture Wesen."
"So we're thinking demon? Really haven't been a lot of them in Sunnydale."
"No, there haven't, aside from vampires which are dead bodies controlled by a demon spirit of a sort. So I guess it's Giles' turn to research."
"He'll be happy."
"Yeah, I think he's been bored, you mostly just patrol and dust vampires. Who was he anyway?"
"I'm not sure, his face looks weird like that. Wait, is that a tattoo?"
"I think it's a fish, maybe a shark, yeah teeth, a shark."
"Dodd McAlvy." Buffy confirmed. "I saw it when we cheered the team, cheesy thing, a shark smoking a cigar. Pike has a couple of tattoos."
"Not info I need. It's possible this is an unknown Wesen. A number of water type Wesen are very comfortable in the water. It's possible there's some that just gradually stayed there and were forgotten over time."
"We should go see Giles and get him started on research. Dodd was an ass but he didn't deserve this."
"No more than Kyle did." Xander agreed and the two turned around and headed back to the others. Cordelia buried her face in his chest, trying to blot out the smell and then the group headed for their cars and Giles.
"There's very little to go on, but I'll see if I can find anything. You lot should go home, as much as you all have seen, this is something new and upsetting. You need time to deal."
"Yeah, I need to talk to Mom." Buffy agreed. "Not that I want Mom having those pictures in her head, but she can help me deal with having them in mine."
"And I need to report to Uncle Rory and get him brainstorming." Xander said. "I honestly don't know of any Wesen that would do this, but I don't know all of the Wesen out there and some are rare and getting rarer and some are believed to be extinct but might not be."
"I'll go with you." Cordelia told him. "Since I'm driving tonight anyway."
"Neat how that worked out." Xander grinned halfheartedly at her, trying to lighten the shell shocked look on her face. He wrapped his arm around her waist and led her out.
"Jesse took Amy and Tika home. None of them felt up to a party anymore." Buffy told Giles. "This went beyond, Giles, into gross. Less bloody than Kyle was, which is kind of weird now that I think about it. As in not much blood at all. If something is being skinned, shouldn't there be blood?"
"Unless it was cauterized somehow. Either with heat, a chemical or an enzyme. That helps actually, I'll start with any demons capable of using those methods. I'll let you know what I find, try to rest, Buffy."
She nodded and headed out.
"Unfortunately I found nothing that kills in an even remotely similar fashion." Giles informed the group the next day.
"Uncle Rory called me this morning to tell me the same thing." Xander reported. "Not even in the rare or believed extinct categories. Elements, yes. Bone eaters or entrails eaters, that kind of thing, but nothing that tears the skin off and eats everything else."
"Something new, previously unknown. Perhaps a portal to a demon dimension was briefly opened and something escaped."
"Let's just say it's little green men." Buffy said, really not liking Giles suggestion.
"No, they're on the believed extinct list." Xander said absently. Giles and Buffy turned to stare at him.
"Come again?" Buffy asked.
"Oh, a Wesen known as Gluhenvolk or glowing people. Lumenesant reptilian Wesen that resemble the little green men. Giles' suggestion about a portal to a demon dimension being briefly opened makes me wonder if someone summoned something."
Shaking his head to get the picture of a Gluhenvolk out of his head Giles said, "It's possible, regardless at this time the best I can say is to stay alert and perhaps you will run into it, hopefully before someone else dies."
Unfortunately not soon enough as that evening, not long after the swim team's practice ended the skin of another person was found. This time in the cafeteria of the High School itself.
"So whatever this is killed this guy while he was getting a snack in the cafeteria." Xander said. "I'm bringing my own lunch from now on."
"How did it get into the school?" Buffy asked.
"No one knows." Giles answered. "I was still in the school myself and was able to view the area immediately after the remains were found by another swim team member. I saw no footprints, no blood splatters, no evidence of Magic. A window in the cafeteria however was smashed and since the glass was on the grass, it looks like something jumped through it."
"So it might have been waiting there for him." Xander suggested. "Which suggests he was targeted. One swim team member it's possible it's just an easy opportunity, two suggests the whole swim team is being targeted. Cordy's going to be so pissed, her squad cheered so hard for them and they're on their way to the Championships. If something was summoned, I would not want to be the guy responsible once Cordy gets her hands on them."