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Chapter 16: School Hard (Part 2 of 3)

Drusilla picked up one of her dolls and turned it so that it faced the wall of the room she and Angelus had settled into.

"Miss Edith speaks out of turn. She's a bad example, and will have no cakes today. Shhhh."

Angelus entered the room, dragging a bound and gagged girl behind him.

"I brought you something to eat," he said.

"I'm not hungry. I miss Prague," she pouted.

"Ye nearly died in Prague. But this town, well, it's got potential. We get rid of the Slayer and then the Hellmouth will restore ye, put color in yer cheeks, metaphorically speaking, and in a few week's time..."

"The stars will align, and smile down on us." Suddenly her eyes went wide.

"What do ye see, Dru?"

"He's coming back. Soon, no waiting. He's come to save her. No waiting for St. Vigeous. You must strike now."

"Well, now. I hadn't planned on that, but that idiot did gave away our plans. Aye, an earlier attack is the way to go."

************************

Buffy and Willow hovered nervously around the parent teacher night punch bowl. Despite Willow's best efforts, Principle Snyder and Buffy's mom had met. Now all Buffy could do was wait for her impending doom.

After what seemed an eternity, her mom and Principle Snyder returned to the lounge.

"In the car, now," her angry mother said.

Willow gave her a concerned look. With no other choice, Buffy followed her mom. She turned to look back at Snyder, who was going around turning off the lights. Her mother waited for Buffy to join her, and they walked out of the room.

Suddenly Buffy heard a crashing from behind her. She turned to look back into the room, and saw that two vampires had come crashing through the windows. Several more vampires followed, and they stormed into the room. The people began to panic.

Forgetting her mom, Buffy ran back into the room. Just in time to see their leader calmly step through a window.

"I don't think we've been properly introduced," he said. "I'm Angelus, and ye're dead."

Then he attacked. Buffy grabbed a chair and threw it at him, tripping him up. 'Mom!' she thought, and ran out of the room to grab her mother's hand. Several other parents followed her. She pulled her stunned mother down the hall and around to the right, but more vampires were coming in that way, so she ran in the other direction, her mom in tow.

Behind her she could hear the man ordering the other vampires. "Nobody gets out! Especially the girl!"

"Everybody, this way! C'mon! C'mon!" Buffy yelled.

Snyder and several others ran past her as she shoved a cleaning cart into two vampires who were chasing them. Willow and Cordelia came out of the lounge nearly tripping over them, then they ran the other way.

They turned into the hall outside the library, just as Giles, Ms. Calendar and Xander came running out.

"What the hell?" Giles asked.

"Angelus and an army! Look out!" Buffy warned them.

They looked behind them and saw a vampire. Ms. Calendar screamed.

"Back!" Giles ordered as the three of them ran back into the library and held the door shut.

Hoping that those three could take care of themselves, Buffy opened the door to the science classroom and gestured for the people with her to follow.

"In here! Now!" she told them.

The people all ran into the room. Buffy followed them in and closed the door just as the two vampires came running into the hall. They began to bang on the door. Snyder and another man maneuvered a storage cabinet in front of the door. Buffy ran over to the other door and closed and locked it. Just then the power went out.

"Who are those people, and what do they want?" asked the man who'd helped Snyder.

"I didn't get much of a look, but is there something wrong with their faces? I..." Buffy's mom said.

"Yes! PCP! It's a gang on PCP! We've gotta get out of here," Snyder insisted.

He grabbed a desk, set it in front of a window and started climbing.

"You can't go outside! They'll kill you!" Buffy insisted.

"You don't tell me! I tell you!" said the now panicked Snyder.

Buffy pulled him down off the desk. "They will kill everybody in this room. Nobody goes out, nobody comes in until I say so. Do you hear me?"

"Who do you think you are?" the Principle demanded.

"I'm the one that knows how to stop them," Buffy said sighing. At times like this a secret identity was a real pain.

She looked up and walked across the room, trying to find a way into the ceiling. Now that her mother and the others were safely locked in, she needed a way out. She didn't think that the door to the science room would hold until sunrise. Besides, who knew how many other people were still in the school.

Her mother grabbed her by the shoulders. "Buffy, are you crazy? Look, I know you've been accused of fighting and other things, but those guys are serious. You can't go out there."

"I know. That's why I'm going up there," she said pointing at the celling.

She grabbed a stool, set it on a lab table, climbed up and pushed a ceiling panel aside. She looked down at her mom.

"Don't worry, Mom."

She lifted herself up into the ceiling.

As she began to make her way through the duct work, she could hear Angelus calling her. "Now what kind of Slayer runs and hides and leaves the innocents to die? Come out, come out where ever ye are."

She could hear a crashing sound as he kicked a door in.

"Angelus. Listen..." said one of the other vampires.

"It looks like we have a vermin problem," he said.

Buffy cringed, but as long as they were focused on her, her mother and the others were safer. She made her way through the ducts to the library. She broke through the celling and dropped to the library floor.

Giles lifted his axe. "Buffy!" He lowered the weapon. "You're all right!"

"How are the others?" Ms. Calendar asked.

"Principal Snyder, my mother and four others are locked in the science room across the hall. Willow and Cordelia ran the other way. I don't know if they're..."

Ms. Calendar started to help Buffy put crosses and stakes into a bag.

"I'm gonna take the vamps out in the hall," she told them. "After that you get my mother and the others out the same way."

"Let me help you," Giles offered.

"Giles, my mother's in that room. If I don't make it out of here, I know you'll make sure she does."

"Bloody right, I will. Fair enough. What's your plan?"

"Well, they split up to hold us here, so I'm gonna take 'em one on one. Set 'em up and knock 'em down."

She grabbed a stool and positioned it under the hole in the ceiling. She got up on the stool and pulled herself back up.

"Watch your back," Giles called after her.

Buffy began crawling back through the ceiling toward the hallway in front of the science room.

Below her she could hear chopping sounds. Then one vampire told another, "Hey! Guard the door! I'm almost finished!"

Buffy broke through the ceiling to end up behind the vampire chopping down the door. Before he had a chance to turn around, Buffy had a stake in him.

She looked in through the hole he had chopped in the door.

Her mother called out, "Buffy! Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, mom," she tried to reassure her.

"Buffy, look, uh, get out of here, okay? We'll be alright," her mom insisted.

"Look, just hang on for one more minute until I tell you to open the door."

Quietly Buffy made her way to the other hall, stake in hand. She peeked around the corner and saw the other vampire standing there with his back to her. Then she heard a noise behind her and looked.

"Sheila! Where've you been?" she asked the other teenager. It was bad enough that Buffy had had to worry about vampires and getting expelled. It would have been nice if the other trouble student had actually helped her with parent teacher night, instead of disappearing.

"Sorry I'm late. There's some really weird guys outside."

"Shh! Yeah, I know. They're trying to kill us," Buffy told the girl.

Sheila picked up the axe the vampire had used to chop the door and smiled. "This should be fun."

Buffy slowly headed back to the other hall.

As she and Sheila were about to round the corner, she whispered, "Stay behind me."

She went into the other hall and quietly made her way to the vampire, holding her stake up and ready.

Then Giles, who was looking out the library window cried, "Buffy! Look out!"

She spun around and grabbed the axe from Sheila in mid-swing. Seeing Sheila's vamped face, she decided that maybe the other girl had a good excuse for bailing on her. Being dead.

She swung the axe around and hit Sheila in the jaw with the butt of the handle. The other vampire that she'd been about to stake, attacked. He ducked as Buffy swung the axe at him. The axe was buried in the wall.

The vampire smiled as he straightened back up, thinking he had avoided her blow. Then he looked down at the stake protruding from his chest. He collapsed to the floor and burst into ashes.

Her feign having worked, Buffy looked over at Sheila and watched her run from the hall, then Buffy rushed back to the classroom door.

"Mom, now!" she yelled.

Her mother opened the door and called to the others. "Okay, come on, let's go!"

Everyone rushed out of the classroom and into the library.

"C'mon! Hurry!" Joyce urged them on.

Buffy turned to Giles who was holding the door open. "Get them out."

"You're coming too!" her mother insisted.

"In a minute! Go!" she said as she rushed off back into the school halls.

"Buffy!" her mother called behind her.

Buffy went back to retrieve the axe. Then she went in the direction that she last knew Angelus to be. If he was the leader, getting rid of him might get the others to leave.

She saw him standing alone down one of the school hallways.

"There ye are. I was beginning to think that this town didn't have a Slayer after all."

"You shouldn'ta come here," she told him.

"Is that so? I'm thinking you're the one who doesn't belong."

At that moment several other vampires appeared both in front of and behind Buffy. Inwardly she gulped. This was not good. She cautiously glanced over her shoulder, wondering if she could break through the undead there. Even if she couldn't stake them - if she could get past them - at least she wouldn't be surrounded.

All of a sudden, one of the minions burst into dust. His companion turned, confused. At the far end of the hall stood a young black man, reloading his crossbow.

The man had a shaved head. He wore jeans, a white t-shirt, and a leather biker's jacket.

"I see ye brought friends. What's the matter Slayer, afraid to fight vampires on yer own?" Angelus taunted her.

"Actually, no idea who he is. But you know. Really not complaining."

The two vampires next to Angelus, leapt at her, while the one behind her turned on the man with the crossbow.

Buffy swung her axe, trying to keep the vampires from closing with her. She was worried about the strange guy, whoever he was, but she had enough to deal with on her own. After only a moment, Angelus joined his minions in attacking her.

Buffy ducked a punch he sent her way, then she butted one of the minions with the axe. He fell to the floor, but the other one grabbed the handle of the axe, and she found herself struggling against him. Angelus used that to blind side her.

She went sprawling to the floor and lost her grip on the axe. The vampire who'd fought her for it, stumbled back a step. But he regained his footing sooner than she did. He raised the axe above his head and Buffy prepared to roll out of the way of his blow.

Except it never came. Instead she heard a roar, and the vampire with the axe went sprawling to the floor a leather clad bleach blond figure on top of him.

Buffy got to her feet. Inside her stomach was doing somersaults. Spike! He was back. He was here, and really timely too. But she didn't have the luxury to think about that. There were still two other vampires to worry about.

From behind her she heard an unfamiliar voice yell, "Duck!"

Not one to question, she did so. A crossbow bolt flew over her head straight for Angelus' heart. To her dismay he caught it in his bare hands. Still, it gave her a chance to sweep his feet out from under him, before the other vampire tried to tackle her.

Angelus hit the floor hard.

"Ye know, this was a private party, and I'm sure all of ye were not on the invite list. I'll send Dru yer regards," he said, as he took off down the hall.

The vampire she was fighting noticed his leader's retreat, and paused, unsure of what to do. That moment was all she needed to stake him.

When the dust had cleared, Buffy found herself completely alone in the school hall. There was no sign of Spike, or the strange young man who had shown up.





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