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Chapter 31: Swallowed Up


Spike walked in between two armed vamps, one holding a stake in hand and the other holding a gun. As they walked into Angelus’s casino all eyes turned to the bleached blonde in custody and stared. A few vampires and demons started to whisper and mumble to each other while pointing at Spike as if he was a freak from the carnival.

“I’m guessing you’ve all heard of me?” Spike muttered loud enough for only the armed vamps to hear. However, his eyes never lost contact with the crowd that gawked at him.

“You kidding? You’re number two on Angelus’s most wanted list.” The vampire grinned.

“And I suppose number one is…”

”The Slayer.” The vampire growled and licked his lips.

Spike narrowed his eyes at the vamp and eyed the weapon in its hand; wondering if could make an easy snatch at it and bash the guy’s brains in. ‘Just let it go…play it cool…’ Spike thought to himself and tried to calm down at the harsh words made about Buffy.

“Let’s go.” The other vampire pushed Spike forward.

They traveled through the lobby of the casino and around many vampire spectators. Once they reached the elevator the doors slid open automatically on cue upon there arrival. Spike then glanced up and caught sight of…’him’…lounging against back elevator wall casually.

“Angelus sir, we brought you—“ the vampire started to speak up properly to his boss but was cut off.

“Spike…” Angelus said and stepped in the just at the edge of elevator doors.

The two vampire lackeys could feel the sudden tension that pasted through the air. It frighten them quit a bit that they had to step away from the two old vampires and leaving Spike’s side.

Spike didn’t say anything. He just stood there…taking in his grandsire’s stance…memorizing the man he was going to kill before the nights end.

“Believe we have some…business…to discuss.” Angelus smiled and gestured for Spike to join him in the elevator.

Spike was hesitant. But when he thought of how every minute wasted may be causing Buffy pain in some way he quickly stepped into the elevator just in time for the doors to shut behind him.

The two armed vampires glanced from the closed elevator doors that carried the highly famous vampires up to each other.

”What do you think?” One asked the other.

The other vampire looked back at the elevator and shook his head, “Death and mayhem are just around the corner…I can feel it.”


*~*~*~*~*~*


When Buffy opened her eyes she saw she was back in the darkness of her coffin again. However, her aching body suddenly felt recharged from the experience she had just gone through.

‘I believe in you…’ the echo of the words still lingered in the back of her mind.

Buffy let in a deep breath and punched her leg up on the lid and in two trusts she felt the lid start to loosen. However, as soon as she felt like she was out of the woods she felt the box start to shift around her.

“Oh shit…” she muttered to herself as she felt her body toss to the side.

She kicked her leg up again and again, hoping to be successful with each try. And with her last hard kick Buffy felt the box shift again and the sensation of free falling suddenly came over her entire body.

”Ahhh!” Buffy screamed and tried to grab onto something to hold onto but all she could grab was the side walls of the box.

…
…..
……
*Bang*
And after a few moments it was all over. The box slammed onto something hard and Buffy hit the back of her head with a hard slam; the contact of the wood against the back of her head made her wince in pain and feel extremely dizzy.

The Slayer sat in the box breathing heavily, trying to recover from her ordeal that she thought she was going to die in.

“What’s that?” a whisper that was almost undetectable came from outside the box.

Buffy held her breath when she heard people and perked her ears up.

The whispering became louder and louder and then all of a sudden Buffy yelled out in desperation, “Help me!”

The whispering stopped for just a moment and was replaced with scratching on top of the coffin lid.

”Get it open Lewis!” a voice of a woman was detected from the outside.

‘People…humans?’ Buffy instantly thought when the voices became clearer. The thought of seeing normal human beings again sent a wash of relief over Buffy’s entire body.

And then in two hard yanks Buffy’s torture chamber was broken and the lid was lifted away from her. The Slayer closed her eyes and let out a little cry for joy. She just stood there lying in the crate basking in her freedom for a few seconds and trying to make heart stop beating so rapidly.

“It’s a lady.” A child’s voice said.

Buffy flashed her eyes open at the sound of a child’s tiny voice. Automatically her eyes caught sight of two children and a man standing above her in the crate…looking down at her in curiosity.

“What is she?” a whisper came from somewhere in the room that Buffy inhabited.

Buffy grasped the top of the crate and lifted herself up immediately to get a better look at where she was. However, the Slayer must have moved too fast because her actions caused the children and men to gasp in fear and take large steps away from her.

Once Buffy’s head popped out of the box she noticed her surroundings and more gleaming eyes.

“What are you?” the man stuttered…the one that was being called Lewis before.

Buffy turned to him and saw he was dressed in dark dirty rags that could pass as being homeless clothes. It was then that she noticed that not just Lewis was wearing the filthy rags, but everyone was—both children and adults alike.

“If she’s a demon kill it Lewis!” a woman whispered from behind him.

“I’m not a demon…” Buffy reassured the skeptical crowd before her as she got to her feet and moved out of the box.

Once again everyone took a step back away from Buffy—neither believing that she was a demon nor trusting that she was safe.

“Prove that you’re not a monster.” Lewis said and tossed a chained necklace he had in his hand of the holy cross at Buffy.

She caught it with ease and held it tightly in her hand. Buffy’s eyes darted around to the inhabitants closest to her…a woman, a man, the Lewis man, and two children. “I’m not a demon…” she firmly said and tossed the cross back to Lewis.

“Then what are you?” one of the children, a little girl that couldn’t be much older than six asked.

“I’m Buffy…Buffy Summers…” she told them, “And I guess…I’m here to help you.” Buffy glanced around at the metal bars surrounding the perimeter. ‘It’s a cage…’ she instantly thought.

“And what makes you so special..?” a woman asked.

“Where are we?” Buffy ignored the lady for the moment and stepped closer to the bars that caged all of them together.

“Hell…I guess you can say.” Lewis muttered.

”Angelus’s placed us here…way into the ground where not one speck of light could reach us…I guess you can say we’re his own private stash…his ‘secret garden’ as he likes to say.” One man stated.

Buffy placed her hands on the cold steel bars and caught sight of the long hallway of cages filled with other people. The hallway seemed to go on forever. Buffy could hear the moans and cries of the hurts ones where she stood echo through the chamber.

“I guess you could say…we were forgotten to the world.” Lewis whispered.

”Not in my book you aren’t.” Buffy said without turning away from the cages full of humans.

”Are you going to get us out of here?” the little six year old girl asked, “You said you can help us.”

Buffy turned around to the little girl who whore a green ripped dress that had mud stains everywhere on it. The little one had hope in her eyes and seemed to be depending on every word that Buffy uttered.

The Slayer sighed, “Ya…I’m going to get you all out…”

The little girl’s questionable face turned into a smile.



*~*~*~*~*



An hour later the two children in the cell were being kept busy by the woman as Lewis and the other man talked with Buffy.

”I wish didn’t say that to Noelle earlier about getting us out.” Lewis whispered to Buffy.

Buffy glanced up at him and then back at the little six year old that went by Noelle.

“Why?”

”Look, you’re new here and I’m sorry to tell you this but we are not getting out of here…this place as been here forever and will be here long after we all die…what ever Angelus’s plans are for the future don’t involve us staying alive….” Lewis explained, “So please don’t give Noelle hope when there is none…”

”How long have you been here?” Buffy asked.

“Too long…particularly a year.” he said.

Buffy couldn’t imagine staying a day in this dark damp chamber let alone a year. Her eyes darted over to the children who speaking with one of the young woman of the group.

”And everyone else?”

“Practically the same…some more, some less…” Lewis said and turned to look at Noelle and the child, a boy who was a bit older than Noelle. “The children, Noelle came in alone when she captured…arrived about two weeks ago…the boy, Christopher, arrived a few days after her.”

”How many people do you figure are held down here?” Buffy asked.

“Hundreds…many a thousand…being assigned to one cell doesn’t really give me insight to everyone else but I’ve heard counts…seems someone somewhere is keeping tally.” Lewis shrugged.

”And I’m the latest one…” Buffy muttered to herself and then snapped her head up at him when she thought of something that brought panic into her eyes, “When does Angelus’s bring new ones in?”

”He hasn’t been here in a while…a few days…he seems to come once a week. But he never brings the victims in himself…usually there is some vampire lackey that comes every other day to throw us food scrapings or bring a new body.”

”And is that day today?” Buffy asked.

Lewis thought for a moment and then looked up at Buffy, “Why do you want to know?”

”Cause I have an idea.”



TBC...





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