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Chapter 17: Like a Cat

“Can’t we just say we had a late night?” Dawn tried hopefully.

They hadn’t even made it to Dawn’s room, where the two sleeping bags were assembled on either side of the bed. Instead, Cassandra and Dawn had fallen asleep together on the couch facing the television, while Daniel had finally surrendered to night’s call in the comfortable old armchair. Bleary eyed and half-awake, Dawn was pleading for their very lives.

“I mean, people like Janice do it all the time,” Dawn continued. “And the teachers let them!”

“Except you lot are not Janice, and I am most definitely not Janice’s mother,” Joyce rationalized. “Come on. Up to school. You’ve got twenty minutes before Xander comes.”

“Xander’s coming?” Daniel queried. “I thought… ah… he might not have gotten over his little experience.”

Dawn snickered and Cassandra giggled, remembering Spike’s view on the thrall Dracula had held over Xander, and the insect-eating madman he’d been reduced to. To say the least, his description had been rather colourful. Although, Cassandra had noticed, there seemed to be some sort of begrudging respect in Spike’s tone whenever he talked about ‘the Whelp’ now, that she’d never heard before when he was on screen. She’d already pieced together why.
The spell.

It all came down to the enjoining spell.

“Yes, Xander’s coming,” Joyce bustled around in the kitchen. “And he’ll be here soon! So come on, into your uniforms.”

With many a groan, Cassandra, Dawn and Daniel stumbled upstairs to Dawn’s room, ferreting around in the mess they had made the previous day. Daniel surveyed the room with a wry smile.

“Hey, looks like a cyclone came through.”

“Wait… and how is that different from the way everything normally is?” Dawn laughed.

As they finally threw everything together, and trooped downstairs, they heard voices from below.

“And this here’s for you, Mrs. Summers,” Xander said grandly. There seemed to be a new lilt to his voice, and Cassandra recognized it immediately.

Confidence. Power. Assurance.

“Why thank you, Xander,” Joyce sounded genuinely delighted. “This is so sweet of you! What’s the occasion?”

“As if I need an occasion to thank the mother of my best friend of all of the good care that she’s ever given us,” they could almost hear him wink.

“Thank-you,” Joyce repeated, beaming. “And I think it’s wonderful that you and Anya have such a beautiful place to live in now.”

“Hey,” the Slayer herself stood on the stairway, smiling. “Had a good night last night?”

They grinned back. “It was awesome,” Dawn enthused. “Movie marathon!”

“On a school night,” Buffy rolled her eyes. “But then, I can’t say anything, I guess. So… what movies did you watch?”

“Mean Girls, Mona Lisa Smile, and Legally Blonde,” Daniel groaned.

“My God,” Xander laughed as he appeared at the foot of the staircase. “How did you survive?”

“I don’t know,” Daniel replied honestly. “I think all feeling left my body half an hour in.”

They had to giggle at that, while Dawn playfully shoved him against the banister. “You didn’t seem to have too many problems with them while we were watching.”

“Appearances can be deceiving.”

“Hey,” Xander interrupted smoothly. “I hate to have to break off this conversation, but as I’m head of the School Express, I decree that you have five minutes to eat your breakfast before you’re off.”

“Five minutes?” Cassandra asked. “But we usually have to go straightaway when you’re here.”

Something seemed awake in her mind, and a startling image jumped into her mind of a demon with glowing lava seeping from below cracks in his skin.

Xander winked at her. “That’s why I came early to accommodate the movie-fest.”

The mental messages flying around the room almost made the air thicken as everyone silently gaped at each other. Xander never comes early.

“Okay, another apocalypse is on the way,” Buffy leaned against the banister as she reached the only conclusion possible.

8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8

Sunnydale Junior was a medium affair, cloaked in sandstone and granite that belied the brick and wood within the solid walls. The library was nowhere near as large as the one that used to reside in Sunnydale High, but at least there was one. Cassandra had already spent several hours browsing through the books there, joyfully devouring them despite the nasty snickers behind her back about how much of a geek or a nerd she was. Their locker area coincided nicely with the corridor leading to the archive of books, making her, if possible, even happier.

Corridors interlinked the many standard classrooms, the buzzing of fluorescent lights accompanied by the click-clacking of high heels as secretaries, parents, and teachers ran around in a haphazard race to reach their next destination. Outside, the lawn stretched past a sports field, various leaning greenery lending gentle shade on crafted wooden benches. Brick finished off the outside in tessellated paths bordering concrete that snaked their way from the gym to the Science Block on the other side of the school.

However, there was no difference in the classes. Led by the same boring teachers that had once officiated at Sunnydale High and who recovered from the traumatisation several events had imposed on them, they were reduced to sleeping off the long lectures about safety interspersed by Mathematics, English, and Science.

They liked everything else. Really they did. Daniel and Dawn both enjoyed Maths, even though Cassandra loathed it. That was the only subject that they were divided on. But today, their normal Maths teacher Miss. Elliott was away. And the substitute was mangling the art of numbers.

“And so, if the parabola is upwards, it means that the equation must be positive. If the parabola is downwards, it means that the coefficient of the squared ‘x’ must be negative. Does everyone understand?”

When no one answered because half of them were asleep, Mr. Braxton assumed that they all understood and continued. As boredom seeped into students and turned off their brains, Daniel instead felt restless.
He didn’t want to admit it, but last night, between the movies, when Cassandra and Dawn had talked about common events on the Hellmouth, he had felt a chill creep down his spine, accompanied quickly by a rush of anticipatory terror. He hadn’t even seen Spike go into game-face yet, so he had no idea what they were talking about. And he’d seen ‘Kraggy’, but in the dark light of Spike’s crypt. And then, he’d been concentrating more on instinctively protecting Cassandra. Other than that, the only time he’d even seen a demon was the first day when they had clumsily avoided the demon and followed Buffy, Spike and Xander as they decimated the demon horde to save the soldiers. And then, he was still too busy being in a state of shock to really notice how strong, how powerful and how agile most demons were. And he’d never even glimpsed at the many plots groups of demons, it seemed, were hatching every day to end the world. Or this dimension, at least.

He looked around now. Dawn and Cassandra were swinging their legs beside him, leaning on their elbows. An identical look of pure boredom mixed with tiredness were plastered on both of their faces. He sighed, and wished for the bell to ring soon, even though the minute hand almost seemed to slow down to an inconceivable crawl the second he made the wish. Giving up, he slumped in his chair and closed his eyes.

If the three hadn’t been so out of it, they might have seen when a girl in their class turned around to study them. But more importantly, they would have seen her eyes dilating as her irises flushed pure onyx with eldritch flame.

8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8

At first, Buffy never knew why she sometimes stepped out of the hectic frenzy of her life and into the cool hospital room to see its silent occupant. At first, she wondered if it was regret on her part. There were so many things she could have done differently. So many other paths she could have taken. But now, she knew that it wasn’t anything about regret. Okay, fine. Maybe a little. But mostly, it was about… realization. Connection.
Buffy sat on the empty chair next to Faith’s bed. The same chair that she always sat in. It saddened her somewhat to realize that she was Faith’s only visitor. Slayers. Always alone.

Except for when there are two of us, Buffy added silently in her head. But even then… so much can go wrong…

“Hey Faith,” Buffy spoke aloud to the prone body. She gathered the lifeless hand in her own warm ones, absentmindedly arranging Faith’s hair as she did so. She didn’t know why. “You know Adam? That crazy Frankenstein guy I told you about last time? Well… we beat him. First time I ever saw surprise on that sewn-together face of his. It felt really good. I mean, after all, we thought he was like, indestructible. You would have loved to faze him. He was… what did Giles describe him as? Ah yes. Unflappable. If anyone could have fazed him, it would have been you, you know. You would have had fun kicking his ass.”

Buffy paused, reliving the spell, before she continued. “We beat him using a spell this time. You know Willow. She’s getting better at magic now. It’s great. She’s got Tara to help her. She’ll be so powerful when she’s trained up. I guess she already is. And most surprising of all? Spike helped us. I couldn’t believe it. The memories that surfaced… afterwards, we accused him of lying. I think he was slightly hysterical by that point from exhaustion. He just got us together and showed us his entire human life. The thing was, Faith, we felt it all. We felt concerned and worried and helpless and afraid for his Mum. She was really sick, see? And we even felt Drusilla’s fangs piercing our… his neck. It was way out. Unbelievable.”

Buffy closed her eyes as she remembered William’s reaction to Cecily, and her heart ached. “Unbelievable,” she repeated.

She continued her way back to the present, as the clock counted passed half-an-hour, telling her sister Slayer everything that had happened. She finally found herself talking about Riley.

“I don’t know, Faith. Lately he’s been kinda distant. Ever since the Dracula incident two days ago. We explained everything about Dracula’s thrall. Spike even went so far as to detail Dracula’s favourite little games, but Riley punched him once and then stomped away. I wasn’t sure whether to follow him or not, and the most puzzling thing was why Spike seemed to be defending me. And they’ve both been patrolling as well. I don’t mind so much when Spike fights with me. I know he’s capable of taking care of himself, and lately, he’s even stopped a couple of stray hits that would have probably landed on me. But Riley? I know that I’m probably insulting his manhood, but I just don’t want him to get hurt. He’s still a human, no matter what crap the Initiative pumped into him.
You know, Faith, it used to be great when we went patrolling by ourselves, together. I loved the power of it. The feeling. I think you did too, didn’t you?”

Buffy looked at Faith’s face. Her eyes flickered in REM, and Buffy knew that somewhere, Faith was dreaming. Yet, she also knew that somewhere, Faith was also listening. Hanging on to her every word.

“I mean, our friendship didn’t mean that little to you, did it?” Buffy whispered. “I know I was harsh at the start. But I was more confused. There was like… this connection between us. We’re both Slayers, and besides Kendra, I’d never felt that same tingle. It was like you knew about the power inside of me that no-one had ever explained. And we just clicked. Patrolling was almost fun. But then you went away. I know that things were getting bad and you were confused because you killed that man… and I shouldn’t have pushed you so much about it. I talked with Giles afterwards, and he said that that was just your way of dealing with it…”

Buffy’s eyes suddenly caught the clock, and she gasped. It was quarter to three, and she’d promised her Mum that she would meet Dawn, Cassandra, and Daniel from School and then be picked up by Giles to go to the Magic Box.

“Damn it,” she cursed. “I’m sorry, Faith, but I gotta go. I’ll come back when I can, though. You know… coming here, talking to you. It grounds me. But… I know you’ll wake up.”

Buffy stood, and looked sombrely at Faith’s still form. “After all, I know something that the doctors don’t. And that is that you’re a Slayer. And a damned strong one. But before you were a Slayer, you were Faith. And you won’t give up. You’ll wake up soon, you know. And when you do?”

Buffy sighed, and then leaned over and kissed Faith’s forehead. She walked over to the door, and stared back.
“I hope you won’t be as confused anymore.”

8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8

The shop was dark and silent. As Buffy entered, a shivery feeling ran up her back, and she instantly tensed. Slayer instincts. She’d ignored them before, and paid the price.

“Well, I think ‘odd’ just got upped to ‘bad.’”

”Hello? Anyone here?” Giles called out.

”Mr. Bogarty?”

They all looked at Tara, and she immediately looked down. “T-the owner,” she stuttered. “I-I come in here a lot.”

Willow advanced further into the store, looking around carefully. “Well, maybe this happened ... really late at night when nobody was... “ she tripped with a squeal.

“Will?”

“I'm fine,” Willow sat up. “I-I just tripped over... “

She rolled over and saw. And gulped. “Mr. Bogarty.”

Dawn gasped and moved forwards. “Is he okay?”

Buffy pushed her backwards firmly, sudden fear in her eyes. “It’s nothing you need to see. Nothing all three of you need to see. Dawn, Cass, Daniel… wait outside.”

“But…” Dawn protested, indignant at being excluded.

“Wait outside,” Buffy’s voice took a dangerous lilt.
As the Magic Box’s door closed behind them, Dawn swallowed. Silence seemed to hang around them as the shock settled in.

“He’s… he’s dead, isn’t he?” Dawn said, even though she knew that the others hadn’t seen him. “He’s… dead.”

“Yeah,” Cassandra replied quietly. “He is.”

“She always does that,” Dawn shook her head, a trembling in her voice. “She always shuts me out. But you know, I get more scared just…”

“Whatcha doin'?”

The three of them turned around with a gasp. A man stood behind them, unshaven and his tie loose. Something about the way he carried himself made them step instinctively backwards.

His eyes were insane.

“What are you doing here?” he demanded, advancing
on them. “You kids can’t loiter. There's no loitering.”

He moved even closer, backing them up against a white van. The three of them physically started as they felt the cool metal behind their backs.

“That's why I'm a cat,” he explained, that same mad glint in his eyes. “Quiet. See, cat's in the cupboard…” he made a scratching gesture with his hands. “But they find you there anyway, and it hurts…”

Suddenly, he began sobbing noisily. “Please, make it stop! Make it stop…”

Before their shocked eyes, he turned, and terror lined his face as he began shrieking at himself. “Shut up! Shut up! They'll hear you!”

Dawn moistened her dry lips with her tongue. “Buff…” she shrieked as the guy put his finger on her lips. Cassandra reached out and grabbed Dawn’s shirtsleeve, pulling her onto the sidewalk again while Daniel remained frozen. Unmoving.

The guy wasn’t fazed. He moved even closer towards them, until a sudden realization lit in his eyes.

“I know you,” he exclaimed. “Curds and whey. I know what you are.”

He pushed Cassandra away onto the concrete and grasped Dawn by the collar. “You ... don't ... belong ... here.”

“No…” Dawn shook her head, tears starting to pool in her eyes. “Go… go…”

Daniel finally moved. He yanked the man off and pushed him away, extending his hand to Cassandra in one smooth move. He pulled her up, and then stood defiantly in front of Dawn and Cassandra, glaring.

“Get out of here,” he hissed.

The man shook his head violently. “None… none of you…”

For a long time after he vanished, the three stood there like that. Dawn in tears, Cassandra staring, stunned, and Daniel smouldering. Smouldering like fire and ice.

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