Anger. Rage. Murder. Blood. Flesh. Hunger.
So many strange and invading thoughts and feelings rushed through Eris' head as she dreamt. Visions of things she had never seen before, feelings that she never had were forcing their way into her mind and scrambling whatever control it tried to keep.
Biting. Clawing. Scratching. Growling. She could not wake, yet she was lucid in her dreaming, why was this happening?
Then the screaming began. Harsh and monstrous screaming that sounded as if it came from her own throat. There was something inside her, it felt wrong, like a parasite clawing its way through her blood. Her mind begged to wake up, to return to her normal self instead of whatever was happening.
"Eris, Eris! ERIS WAKE UP!" she heard Buffy screaming back at her, and soon she felt her body being shaken. Yes, finally, she was waking up. The bestial wrath started to fade – though not completely – and soon she was able to gain the strength to open her eyes and be in the waking world. "Eris, my god, are you ok?"
She looked around frantically, as if looking for whatever was causing her horrible nightmare, "I'm…I think I am, I think I had a nightmare," she absentmindedly scratched the skin around the patch on her cheek, feeling a never-ending itch.
Buffy spared a short glance at her mother who was standing at the door, watching her niece with immense worry, "You were screaming, and, well, it didn't sound normal."
"Didn't sound normal? What do you mean?"
The Slayer grabbed her cousin's hand so she would stop trying to scratch the wound on her face, "It was you screaming, but there was the sound of an animal in it as well, its hard to explain."
"Animal…." Eris let the nightmare replay over in her mind. Anger. Hunger. Rage. Those things are what a lot of animals feel, baser instincts and wants. And it certainly felt like animalistic feelings to her, "My nightmare was like I was feeling beastly feelings, i don't know how to describe it…"
Buffy furrowed her brows, not liking Eris' words, "that may be a sign of possession."
"Possession?" Joyce spoke up finally, "how can she be possessed?"
"She may not be, its just a hunch," Buffy replied to her mother, "we can have Giles and Willow look it over tomorrow when they wake up. For now, we should go back to sleep."
Eris shook her head vehemently, "I can't go back to sleep, not if that nightmare happens again."
"It's not a good idea to stay up all night."
The raven-haired woman took a quick look at her clock, "its 3 in the morning, I got enough sleep."
Buffy looked over her cousin, staring at her intently, "Fine, but wake me up if anything happens," Eris agreed and watched the Slayer head back to her room.
For the rest of the night, she remained awake, with only the memories of her nightmare to keep her company.
Giles and Willow were called the moment the sun rose as the Slayer did not want to wait any longer than she had to. If this was possession, then she did not want her cousin to suffer it. Xander, Riley, Tara and Anya had also come along, which was the norm for anything supernatural related.
She had been standing behind the two as Willow got out various things to detect possession. Herbs, vials, spells. They weren't taking any chances. "Do you feel like you're not yourself? Or that there is something in you that is not yourself?"
Eris rolled her eyes at his words, not wanting to deal with their stares or pokes, "No, I'm fine, completely myself."
Giles raised an eyebrow, silently noting her irritation but choosing not to speak up, "I'm not picking up any note of possession."
"Glad you figured that out."
"Eris!" Willow said in surprise at Eris' behaviour. But then realisation hit her, and without another word she reached up and pulled off the patch to reveal the wound.
"Holy shit," They heard Xander comment, but no one looked at him. Instead they were staring at the scratch mark.
"What? Why are you all staring at me like that?" Eris asked, irritation increasing with every second.
The wound on her cheek had festered, it was no longer pus and blood but black ichor and darkened veins that stretched out from the wound, like it was slowly creeping out like blackened vines from a plant. It seemed to have begun closing, not healing itself but making sure nothing could escape, "That's a demonic infection."
Everyone finally turned away from Eris and instead looked at Anya who was sporting an uneased look, "Demonic infection? What do you mean?" Buffy asked, not liking the sound of those words at all.
"Some demons have the ability to infect humans, either to kill them or to change them," Anya cautiously walked closer to Eris, as if moving closer to an angry lion, "it acts fast and can be incredibly dangerous."
"Can everyone back up!" Eris snapped as she got up off her chair and moved away from the group, "seriously like, have some personal space!"
"It's ok Eris, we will give you space," Joyce said calmly and in her most motherly tone she could muster, her niece was sent here to be safe and kept away from all the supernatural, yet now here she was, becoming supernatural, "how do we fix this?"
"I'm not sure," Giles replied as he grabbed some books out, "it will depend heavily on what demon has infected her," he looked at Anya who shook her head, she did not know what it was.
"Only way to find out is to watch her behaviour," was the ex-demon's reply.
"Wait, you mean let her get further infected?" Buffy snapped angrily, though more out of frustration than anger towards Anya.
"Come on Buff, we don't know what else to do," Xander chimed in, wanting to defend his partner as always.
"We'll watch her and if she gets worse we will try some dampening spells, something to slow the infection," Willow moved away from the table that held all her items and walked over to Tara, "we'll go back to our dorm and grab a few things, we won't take long."
"I'll keep watch over Eris, keep her company," Riley offered, which earned him a growl from Eris which made everyone look at her in worry.
The group nodded and separated to do various things. Xander and Anya went into the kitchen with Joyce to help her make some breakfast for everyone. Giles dived headfirst into the books he brought to find anything about demonic infection and any specifics that could lead them to a cure. Willow and Tara had left as the ginger which said, and Riley remained beside Buffy to watch Eris who had moved herself to the other side of the loungeroom, away from anyone who would cause more involuntary reactions.
It only got worse as the day progressed, now that she knew it was an infection her mind felt as if it could feel it spreading. It felt like snakes slithering under her skin, following the direction of her blood flow and infecting ever part of her body.
Every minute of every hour felt like her body was burning, but not from a flame. It was like the fire of rage, pure anger settling deep into her bones. She hated the feeling, which only made the anger worse as it melded with her.
Buffy and Riley had asked her if she was ok every so often throughout the day and at first she did her best to answer and explain her feelings. But every time the question was asked her answers became less responsive. Words began to have harshness to it, growls began to sneak their way in, and when the sun went down, she was reduced to pure silence. She found it easier to keep everything within her, silence meant no outburst.
By the time the moon had come up no one had made any progress to finding a cure, "we could do a strong cure spell, just as a general precaution?" Willow asked as she looked at a thick book of spells.
"Sometimes a cure spell can do more harm than good if you don't know what exactly you are curing," Giles shot back with a deep sigh, he had taken off his glasses to rub at his tired eyes. Many hours had been spent reading any lines of text he could get his hands on, and yet it yielded no results.
"How? It's a cure spell, wouldn't it just work?"
Giles looked at Xander in exasperation, "no, Xander, it would not just work. You could end up curing the natural bacteria within a person's body, which at this moment is helping to slow the infection just as it would do a natural one. Curing that would make the infection run rampart."
"Oh, never mind then," Xander looked down in embarrassment.
"Sitting and reading isn't helping, we need to do something else," Buffy stood from the spot on the couch, "I've watched her the entire day, and she has gotten worse, she doesn't even talk anymore," she motioned to Eris who spared a small glance at Buffy before returning to look at the corner of the room.
"We are trying, Buffy-"
"Not hard enough, Giles!"
Riley quickly shot up on his feet when his girlfriend yelled, "its alright Buffy, just calm down," he placed a hand on her shoulder which made her relax.
"Sorry."
"We'll figure it out, I promise," Willow said sweetly to her long time friend.
Whilst everyone continues to converse, Eris was getting more and more agitated by the sound of their voices. It made it hard to concentrate on keeping her mind intact. It was futile, and instead her mind started to scream about getting away from all the noise and going somewhere safer...or at least somewhere to calm herself.
She got up from the chair she was sitting on which made everyone immediately stop and look at her. Sighing in agitation, all she said was, "I need to pee."
Buffy nodded and moved over to her, "I'll come with you, make sure you're ok."
Eris knew what that meant, Buffy wanted to watch her in case she got worse. Like babysitting a child, "fine."
The slayer followed her upstairs and stood outside in the hall as Eris went in the bathroom to pee. However, her plan was much more different than coming upstairs to urinate. With everyone distracted downstairs and Buffy waiting in the hall, she quickly moved to the bathroom window and forced it open. It was difficult to squeeze herself out of the small opening, but she managed to do it with only a small amount of pain and discomfort.
Now she could finally get the fuck away from all the stress.
"Eris? You're taking a while, are you ok?" Buffy asked but was met with silence, "…Eris?" realising something was wrong, the Slayer slammed open the door and saw that the room was empty, and her cousin was gone. "Shit."