[Reviews - 32]
-
Table of Contents [Report This]
Microsoft Word Chapter or Story | ePub eBook Chapter or Story | Printer Chapter or Story

Has been viewed 2462 times

- Text Size +




Author's Chapter Notes:
Thanks for the lovely reviews! Two chapters tonight, since I'm feeling generous.
Life 5 – Nobody’s Home

Her feelings she hides
Her dreams she can’t find
She’s losing her mind
She’s falling behind
She can’t find her place
She’s losing her faith
She’s fallen from grace
She’s all over the place

She wants to go home but nobody’s home
That’s where she lies, broken inside
There’s no place to go, no place to go
To dry her eyes, broken inside

She’s lost inside, lost inside
She’s lost inside, lost inside, oh oh

$@$@$@$@$@$@$@$@$@$@$@$@$@$@$

I woke up the next morning with another weight on me, and again found Ted, but I must have woken before he got to anything because he was just settling in to try. I glared at him and shoved him backwards, the strength of the other day returning as he sat there with a smug smile that suggested he had complete control and I had no way to stop him. “Fuck off, you bastard, and go to your wife. Or better yet some whore that you can impregnate and then run off with.” His glare earned him a smirk from me and I shoved a little harder.

Then he grabbed my arm, his nails clawing their way into my skin until rivulets of blood flowed down my arm. His face was barely inches from mine as he hissed at me, “Look you little bitch, you will succumb and even if you don’t, I will fucking well have you. Stop acting like a goddamn frigid bitch and spread ‘em sweetheart.”

I puked a little in my mouth and used my one free arm to slap him soundly across the face. He leaned a little forward, and like the vampire he was, bit me so hard on the throat he drew blood. “I said give it up,” his menacing voice was slurred slightly from my blood in his mouth. The entire display was grotesque and I gagged back the vomit that wanted to escape. “Just a warning,” he added, letting my arm go and getting up. He wiped at his mouth as he disappeared and soon I could hear the telltale running of water.

Shaking slightly I walked to the mirror and noticed the sizeable chunk taken out of my neck, but the position allowed me to wear a sweater, without wearing the obvious turtleneck. A scarf might be needed though, which was fashionable, cute, and a quick cover-up to vampire bites.

“Nice scarf,” Willow said shyly, wondering if my everlasting bad mood had worn off, or if I was going to bitch her out again. Her squeamishness made me wince as I realized how horrible I had been the past two days.

“I’m sorry, Wills. And thanks.” I reached forward and hugged her, which she accepted with a huge smile. “Ted’s moved to a new form of punishment. Or, rather, an old form but a new target.”

She looked at me for a moment, and then nodded in understanding. “I figured something bad was going on. Wanna talk?” We were headed to the library and as we entered I let everything go.

“Willow, it’s so horrible. But, I’m glad for it at the same time. If he’s choosing to molest me now, than he’s not doing it to Dawn and that’s a good thing. Or he’s molesting both of us, but I don’t think so since Dawn hasn’t complained about it in almost a week, since that time about two weeks ago when I was late. So that’s a plus. But oh god. Waking up with him on top of me, and touching me, it’s like the worst feeling in the world. It’s not right; Willow, I can’t handle it. I don’t know how Dawn went through it all these years without cracking up or killing herself. I’d be all over the gun if I had to deal with it that long.” I intentionally left out the fact that suicide was on my mind a lot lately, especially since the dance, and that the pills I had hidden in my room, despite promising Dawn I wouldn’t, were becoming more and more prominent in my thought stream, and increasingly more invitingly. I hadn’t told Dawn about the new form of fun Ted has bestowed on me, because she would think it was her fault, and try and take the beatings back unto herself.

Willow had a few tears running down her face, which Oz noticed right away as he entered the library a second later. “What’s wrong?” he asked, sitting close to his girlfriend with a worried expression on his face. That was an odd thing in itself, since any facial expression at all was unusual.

Willow smiled and shook her head. “It’s nothing, just my best friend being almost raped by her step father.” I hugged her and Oz looked at me kind of expecting to know what was up.

“As I told Willow, nothing. I’m handling it.” Which was so not what I told Willow, but she nodded, and I knew she would fill Oz in on the details later, whether I actually wanted her to or not.

To add to his maximum one hundred words a day, Oz said, “I think you really need to get some help, Buffy. He won’t stop.”

I laughed hollowly, “You sound like Spike.”

“And I’m right, princess, you know I am.” Spike sat down beside me, a hickey clearly noticeable on his neck, but he didn’t seem to see the way I blanched at it and tears almost filled my eyes.

“It’s nothing, Spike.”

“Like hell it’s nothing. What’s with the scarf?”

I shook my head, but he grabbed at it before I could stop him and then the growl that emitted from him could have rivaled that of a grown male bear. “What the fuck is that, Buffy!?!” He yelled, staring at the chunk of skin missing from my neck. “What the fuck did that prick do to you?”

At that Giles and Jenny were drawn from the office and everyone glared at me, as if it were my fault that a piece of my skin was gone. In a small, squeaky voice, I replied, “He tried to rape me, then he bite me as a warning.”

Spike looked about ready to kill, and Giles’ face wasn’t much different. They both looked like the next person to walk through that door was about to die a painful death. Hurriedly I put the scarf back around my neck, and left to go to first class, hearing Spike’s hissed, “I’ll kill him with my bare hands,” as I let the tears fall that I had been repressing.

That night, after many, many, phone calls from every one of friends, a Social Worker, and two cops, I lay on my bed. Giles had finally given up and called the cops, and social services, but I had said that nothing was out of place. I think they thought I was lying though, and if they showed up here, Ted was sure to kill me for real. Chop me up real good, I bet.

The phone rang, then, and I groaned, since I had a private line and knew it had to be for me and no one else. Answering, begrudgingly might I add, I heard an unexpected, and totally unwanted voice on the other line. “Hello, Buffy,” Angel O’Connor said. “I trust you’ve rethought my proposition from yesterday?”

I laughed. Who cares how he got my number, it was still funny to think that Angel O’Connor still wanted to date me, even as a plan to get his skank back. “No, Angel. Actually I pushed it out of my mind, far out of my mind, never to rear its ugly head again. Or so I hoped.”

I could hear him counting to ten, and the steam coming out of his ears made a nice whistle. “Look, Summers, I know all about your little home situation, so if you don’t fucking help me out here, I’m going to tell everyone about the bite mark on your neck.” I gasped, how did he know? As if I said it out loud, Angel laughed. “Yeah, I do know. I was in the stacks looking for a history book when I heard Spikey’s little outburst. He rapes you, huh? That’ll look good in a nice article. I figured out that’s why you wear all those baggy ass clothes, and miss so much time, because you’re scared the bruises will show. Not so subtle, were you, Summers?”

I was staring at the door, scared that Ted had somehow heard the conversation and was going to come kill me at any moment. “Angel, I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m not doing some stupid prank to get your skank back, and you better not repeat anything you just said to me. You’ve got it all wrong anyway.” I hung up and brought my knees to my chest, scared shitless that someone would somehow find out and I’d be even more of a freak, or dead, either way.

Crying shaky ragged tears, I fell into an uneasy sleep still in my clothes and shoes from that day.

At school on Thursday I was walking to my locker, which was passed the cafeteria, and glancing in absently seen Spike sitting with his friends, and Drusilla hovering around in the background like usual, with Spike paying her more attention than the drugged up whore deserved. I shook my head and walked away, wondering again what Spike saw in her. She wasn’t even that pretty, unless you liked the mysterious, slightly crazy chick. Which apparently Spike did.

In history that day, Angel caught my eye and passed me a note that said, “Accept or everyone will know about that black eye you’re currently sporting.” I had thought concealer covered it up, but guess not. That morning Ted had been eating in the kitchen when I came in and got in his light, so he couldn’t read his newspaper so he punched me in the eye.

I glared back at him but knew my patience was dwindling. Maybe if I agreed he’d back off, and I might even get Spike out of the deal. Though I didn’t want him out of false pretences. I never wanted to trick him into dating me, I wanted him to date me because he wanted to date me. It’s not like I was desperate.

After school that day I noticed Angel was the only one left in the parking lot, leaning against his car as I came out. He pushed off and walked over to me, smirking, as he knew I was giving up.

“Fine,” I grumbled. “Just here are the rules: we do it gradually. No one will believe it if we turn up to school one day and be moony eyed. Two: no overly drastic stuff. Handholding, if I have to, hugging I guess, but only regular kissing. I am so not tonguing you I don’t care what anyone says about how good you are. And finally three: you are never ever going to be seen at my house, by anyone at school, and especially not by Ted. I want to survive till next week, got it?”

He smiled, the rules acceptable by him, and then we shook hands to seal the deal.

As I walked home that day I wondered what the hell I was thinking, and what the hell my friends would be thinking, because his only rule was no one, not even Willow, gets to know about the plan. “Well, Buffy,” I said to myself walking down the road, “You’ve really gone and stuck yourself in it this time, genius.” Yep, this would be interesting.





You must login (register) to review.