For days Eris had stayed far away from Giles' house, and from Spike, even Willow to an extent. She had cheated on Graham, even if it was magic, she betrayed him and she felt absolutely awful. Every day she went to her classes but then stayed attached to Graham every other moment until she had to go to sleep.

Willow kept apologising, feeling terrible about what she did, but Eris was not ready to forgive her, which made the witch feel worse. Buffy tried to help, but her cousin was stubborn when she wanted to be. Despite that, the Slayer was determined to help Eris with her feelings, which was why she found herself outside her cousin's dorm.

After knocking and waiting for a few moments, her cousin opened the door and looked blankly at Buffy, "everything ok?"

"I'm fine, but you definitely aren't," Eris sighed in frustration and walked away from the door.

"I don't want to talk about it Buff."

"Its not helping you at all, I know this isn't eas-"

"No you don't know!" Eris snapped before closing her eyes and trying to calm herself down.

Buffy closed the door and walked to her cousin, laying a hand on her shoulder, "talk to me Eris, please."

There was a moment of silence before Eris spoke, "she made me love him, I was completely and utterly in love with Spike," she moved away from Buffy and sat on her bed, "I kissed him, held him, flirted with him! I cheated on Graham because Willow couldn't get her shit together!"

Buffy watched as tears starting streaming down her cousins cheeks, "you didn't cheat on Graham, Eris, it wasn't your fault."

"Even then, I touched Spike, I said I would never do it again…and even though I was under a spell I knew I liked it…"

Buffy moved to sit next to Eris and pull her into a hug, "I'm so sorry, Eris. Please don't think like this, you don't like Spike, you like affection, that's always been something you like."

"I should never like it from him."

"Then look at it this way, don't let him win, don't let this ruin you," the Slayer leant back slightly and got Eris to look at her, "rise above this, you have an amazing boyfriend who cares for you a lot, and you care for him back. You think you can move past this for me?"

Eris sniffled a little and wiped the tears out of her eyes, "I can, or at least I'll try to," she took a moment to gather herself a little better before continuing, "has Spike said anything about what happened?"

"Honestly not really, seems like his mind has been trying to process what happened, which is great because it means he's a lot more quiet when he's deep in thought."

Eris raised a brow at that, "weird, I guess he didn't like having his feelings warped as well," she stood from the ground and helped her cousin up, "thank you Buff, you're always helping me out when I need it most."

"That's what cousins are for!" Buffy replied chipperly, "now, are you ready to forgive Willow? She's feeling terrible."

Eris let out a long, drawn out sigh, "I will, its been enough time of me moping around. Where is she now?"

"Should be in our dorm soon, she went to a Wiccan gathering earlier today."

Eris had finally had a talk with Willow to explain the pain the witch caused and how she had been feeling about the entire…engagement. The witch had cried and shown how remorseful she was and eventually Eris caved and forgave her, unable to stand seeing the tears.

To help the friendship, the two women and Buffy decided to have a girls night inside Buffy and Willow's dorm. Filled with lots of gossip and candy, the girls were able to move past the traumatizing magic moments and hopefully continue as they once were.

And that was where Eris was now, lying on the ground between the two beds in a sleeping bag, content with last nights events and the silence around her. It was the first time she had slept in the dorms without it being loud and bustling with people chatting and getting ready for the day. She had wanted to stay asleep and enjoy this rare moment of silence, but the sudden rapid shaking of her body had other plans.

She was going to moan and gripe about her rude wake up call but all she did was open her mouth and produce air. No sound, no voice, just…silence. Dread filled her as she looked to Buffy and Willow who both looked panicked. They also tried to speak but nothing came out, it wasn't just her that was affected.

It was looking worse and worse as they left the room to go to Giles, every person they walked past was unable to speak, and the blind panic it created only made it worse. It seemed to only affect people, as you could hear birds chirping and dogs barking. Stores started to shut down and sirens could be heard all over the city. The only good thing the three women saw was someone selling message boards which they each grabbed one.

They arrived at Giles' home and saw everyone inside all sharing worried faces as they looked to the women. The older man explained as best as he could without words that he was unable to find what caused this silence. It was definitely supernatural, as it only affected Sunnydale, the tv showing a women talking about the issue in Sunnydale was further evidence of such.

It was decided that Buffy would go out and lessen the chaos as much as she could whilst the others researched for a solution. It was only after a couple of hours that Eris became restless and decided she needed to go out and find Graham.

She wandered around town after not finding him at the university or his dorm. The people around her were in complete shambles. They were either walking around aimlessly, robbing shops or fighting each other. It was utter chaos and yet it was so silent, like choas wrapped in a peaceful lie.

The black haired women was about to give up and return home but as she turned the corner she was grabbed by a strong pair of arms and dragged into an alleyway. She couldn't scream or even shout in alarm, all she could do was wiggle and fight against the hold on her. She felt hot air on her neck from the being behind her, and from the heavy sniffing she could guess it was a vampire.

She tried to make whimpering noises as she felt scared for her possible demise, this vampire had caught her unaware and held her in such a way that she could not break free. She thought she was done for when she felt the pin pricks of fangs starting to sink into her flesh but the sound of a metal clang behind her head and the arms suddenly falling away from her body changed her mind.

Turning around, prepared to fight whatever or whoever was behind her, she froze when she saw it was Graham, holding a metal pipe that was covered in blood and panting like he had run a marathon. He had swung the pipe as hard as he could into the vampire's head and shattered its skull. It wasn't dead, he didn't decapitate it., even with his face no longer attached to its shattered skull it still stood up and prepared to attack.

Without another thought, she sprang into action and pulled out a stake, and using speed to swoop in she shoved her stake right into his chest, turning him to ash.

Now the two stood across from each other, sharing shocked looks and both realising the other knew about vampires. Eris opened her mouth to explain but the silence reminded her why they couldn't.

Graham could see the immense stress she was feeling, and knowing that there was no way she could explain and that he had a job to do, he walked over to her and cupped her cheek. She looked up at him quizzically, but he simply kissed her on the lips and walked past her to continue his patrol.

She looked after him, confusion running rampart through every part of her brain, but there wasn't anything she could do. So with a deep sigh, she ran away from the alley and over to Buffy's dorm for safety