[Reviews - 210]
-
Table of Contents [Report This]
Microsoft Word Chapter or Story | ePub eBook Chapter or Story | Printer Chapter or Story

Has been viewed 3832 times

- Text Size +




Chapter 2: The Garden

They led the prisoners through a maze of hallways and corridors moving farther down staircases or ramps all the time, until Spike finally gave up trying to keep track of what direction they were headed in. He would never remember all these twists and turns, he knew.

He glanced at the Slayer being led ahead of him. She had finally stopped struggling with her captors when the reached the first steep staircase, not wanting to have her neck broken. The fire of hatred was still burning brightly in her eyes, however.

Spike couldn’t help but admire her again. He didn’t know of any other being, human, vampire or Slayer that would be able to stand before a room full of their sworn enemies, be sentenced to death and wet themselves in fear. Yet this girl, not only didn’t cower, she still had the fight left in her. The chit either didn’t have the smarts to realize she was already beaten or she had some pretty hardy stones.

“So what’s up with Garden thing?” She asked the guards. “I hate to say this, but I’m allergic to a lot of different flowers.” She smirked when they ignored her. “What’s the matter? Big Bad vamps afraid of little old me?” She taunted them sweetly.

The guards stopped and one of Spike’s caretakers stepped up and hit her across the face, hard. “Shut up, Slayer.” He told her. “If I had my way, you’d already be dead.” Buffy’s head had fallen back from the blow, when she lifted it to face her attacker; she met Spike’s eyes directly. It took only an instant, but Spike got the plan.

“So why don’t you go for it then, Mate?” Spike spoke up, causing the vampire to glare at him. “Wot? I’ve already taken out two myself, its quite a rush. Gotta let her go, though, its so much better when they fight back.”

“You shut up, too. You traitor. I’m not stupid enough to unchain her.”

“Don’t have the stones to face her, do you?” Spike persisted.

“Yeah, where can I go in a fortress full of Master Vampires?” Buffy questioned.

“ENOUGH!!!” The large vampire in charge roared. He let go of the pole he had been leading Buffy by and approached Spike menacingly. “No one is letting either of you loose, so just be quiet.” Spike looked over at Buffy; he saw in her eyes that she agreed with him, this might be their best shot. They both knew that even if they managed to free themselves the most they could hope for was to take a few of the bastards down with them and go out fighting.

The large one grabbed Spike by his throat. “I heard a rumor Drusilla left you.” He said evilly. “A nut job like that throws you out, what does that say about you?” Spike only glared at him, waiting for just the right moment to attack.

“Pillock.” He managed to squeeze out of his throat that was almost squeezed shut.

The vampire turned away. “The Slayer of Slayers. What a joke.” He turned to his friends. “Hey guys, you believe this young punk actually took out two Slayers. Seems like the only thing he can do is entertain the insane and kill child-vamps.” They all laughed and that was when Spike struck. He kneed the vampire holding him in the crotch who dropped Spike and let out a cry of pain.

Buffy, meanwhile, used the other vampires’ shock to yank herself in the direction that the large vampire should have been at. She managed to break loose from two of her captors. She grabbed the chain that led to one of the poles and twirled around hitting her last handler in the face and knocking him down.

Spike in the rolled away from his other captor and was preparing to send a kick towards the one who had hit Buffy, unfortunately the large vampire recovered much more quickly than he anticipated and grabbed him and yanked him back before he could get too far. Buffy ran into similar trouble when the vamps she had gotten the poles away from ran forward and managed to grab them again. Even though it was obvious their attempt failed they both continued to struggle making sure to make things as difficult as possible.

“What is going on here?” Spike looked up at the female voice that rang across the hallway. It was the vampiress who had smiled at him upstairs.

The large vampire stood up straight. “They attempted to free themselves, Sire.”

“Really?” She said. “It looks like they could have succeeded. Should I tell our Master what you almost allowed to happen again?” She asked quietly.

“No, please!” The vampire sounded almost frantic.

“I want to see the traitor.” Ipwet said.

The guards looked at each other nervously. “You think I can’t handle myself with a vampire who is little more than a fledgling to me?” She asked amused.

Everything about her set Buffy’s teeth on edge, and the way she kept eyeing up Spike like he was an entrée made her stomach turn. She was also surprised to find herself angry at the appraising looks Spike was sending back to her.

Ipwet walked up to Spike and almost pressed herself against him. Buffy resisted the urge to growl at the woman.

“We met once before. Do you remember?” Ipwet asked him. “My name is Ipwet.”

Spike searched his brain frantically. He didn’t want to tell her no. No woman he ever met reacted well to not being remembered, yet he didn’t want to lie.

“I must have been drunk when we met. Under normal circumstances, I’m sure I would remember a woman as beautiful as you. Wanna help a fella out here?” That sounded as good as anything else he supposed.

Buffy rolled her eyes at his flirting, while Ipwet answered him.

“It was in New York. You had just killed the Slayer there and you and Drusilla attended a massacre the next night.”

Spike vaguely remembered that night. There was blood flowing freely from several Studio 54 patrons that had wandered away from the night club and had been picked up by the vampires. Most all of them had several different drugs in their system, which accounted for Spike’s vague recollection of the night.

“I propositioned you and you turned me down.” She continued “You didn’t want to cheat on your ‘Dark Princess’ you told me.” She moved in even closer and Spike felt his body respond to her.

“It’s a curse, but I’ve always been a faithful guy.” He told her. She ran a fingernail across his cheek.

“Believe me, it was your loss.” She purred. She circled her hips against his. “And unfortunately you’ve missed your chance.” She laughed and stepped back from him. “Such a shame.” Spike was confused, he thought she just put something in the front pocket of his over shirt, but he couldn’t be sure.

Ipwet turned and walked back the way she came, having delivered the item she wanted to. Now she just hoped he noticed it and no one else did. “You can take them away now.” She waved behind her dismissively.

“All right, let’s get this over with.” The large vampire resumed his position near Buffy and once again the party began to move.

They didn’t travel that much farther before they went through a door way that held another stairway behind it. This one led to a dungeon area by the looks of things, but when the reached the bottom there was just a hole in the ground with a mist running above it.

“Welcome to the entrance of The Garden.”

“Newsflash, moron, gardens are usually located outside with lots of pretty plants or veggies you can eat.”

“Not this one. This one is a maze of tunnels and caverns that the Master keeps his pets in. There is now way out other than this hole, even if there were the Guardian won’t ever let you leave.”

“Guardian?” Spike had to ask.

He gaped as the mist rolling over the hole seemed to take the shape of a face and began speaking.
“I guard the Garden.” It hissed.

“Killer steam, nice.” Buffy said.

“So you see, your lives end here.” The large vampire said.

The three other vampires released the poles that were attached to her, but before Buffy could do anything the big one shoved her forward until the only thing keeping her from falling down was the collar around her neck. “I hope your death is slow and painful Slayer.” Then he released her collar as well. Spike heard her scream echoing through the chamber as she fell. They shoved him forward next and dangled him over the deep pit, by the chains holding his arms.

“As for you, traitor, maybe I’ll look up your crazy one, see if there’s any more to her.” Spike growled at him, but it lost its effect as they released him from his bonds and he too fell down into the dark hole.



The first thing Spike became aware of was an eerie glow. It reminded him of fluorescent light bulbs, the kind that flickered all the time and gave off a yellowish or pinkish light. The ones that caused people to go into seizures from prolonged exposure.

The next thing he noticed was the rancid odor, it was enough to make his stomach turn.

The last thing he became aware of was someone shaking him and yelling at him.
“Get up you worthless, undead piece of…” A blow to the face followed that. That woke him up completely.

Spike let a fist fly as he fully opened his eyes and saw the Slayer tumble back off of him. He could tell immediately the smell was coming from her.

”Back off Slayer.” He growled. That’s when he noticed the other creatures that surrounded them and he suddenly remembered where he was and why.

There were three large insect looking demons studying them closely. “What the hell are they?”

“I don’t know.” Buffy said through gritted teeth. “But silly me thought you would like to be awake to at least get a punch in.” She stood up to face the threat. Spike got up and stood next to her. He was glad he didn’t have to breath; otherwise her stench would have been enough to knock him out.

“So another truce then?” He asked her.

“Unless you think you can do better on your own.” She answered. One of the creatures started to move forward and extended a clawed appendage towards Buffy, she kicked it away, but yelled out as she did so.

“OW!! These guys have a heavy armor protecting them.” She looked at the around quickly. “Do you see anything we can use as a weapon?” She asked him.

“No.” Spike said, looking around and seeing nothing but large boulders lying on the ground. “Wait. Yeah, I do.” He ran to one of the boulders and hoisted it up over his shoulder, almost falling backwards in the process.

“What are you doing?” She asked him exasperated. “Are you planning on dropping that on your own head to end this?”

“Shut up and help me.” He yelled.

One of the bugs shot a stream of liquid at Buffy just as she moved to help Spike. “Hey now, spitting is SO not cool.” She helped him get the boulder steady. “Now what?” She asked.

Spike rolled his eyes. “On the count of three we throw the big rock at the big bug’s head and the big bug goes SPLAT!!”

“Oh goody, a Spike plan.” Buffy muttered.

“I don’t see you with the brilliant ideas.” He snapped. “One…two…three.” With a groan they let go of the boulder and watched as it flew threw the air and did indeed hit one of the bugs in the head, it didn’t exactly go splat, but it did go crunch and the bug fell to the ground. The other two made noises that sounded like a high pitch chitter and attacked as one.

“Ok now what?” Buffy demanded.

“Now I suggest you get your arse in gear and fight.” He yelled as he dodged one of their claws.

Buffy ducked out of the way of another on, grabbed its arm behind the claw and pulled it so it fully extended. “Spike.” She yelled.

He turned and saw her holding the arm outstretched and with a loud growl he brought his arm down on it breaking the arm in half. The creature howled and began to retreat. Buffy held up the claw and grinned.

“Thanks for the hand.” She said.

Spike rolled his eyes.
“DUCK!” She yelled and he hit the ground without a thought.

He heard several swings above him, then a loud thud behind him. When he looked up Buffy was standing over the last creature beating it with the claw.

“Well at least we have some kind of weapon now.” Spike said as he stood up.

Buffy looked around wearily. “Do you know what kind of demons those were?”

“Never seen 'em before.” Spike started looking more closely at their surroundings. They were in a cave that wasn’t very large. The walls were covered with a fuzzy mold that grew in several pastel colors, water dripped from it in some spots. The light seemed to come from the rocks themselves and was colored according to the color of moss growing on it. The mist ran along the length of the ceiling occasionally Spike could see eyes or faces forming the gray matter.

Buffy also looked around at the walls and up the hole they had fallen down through. “How are we ever going to get out of here?” She asked.

“There’s got to be a way.” Spike insisted as he began to search his pockets for a cigarette. If there’s a way in then there’s got to be a way out.”

“No, duh, but if the only way out is by climbing up that, I don’t see how we’ll be able to do that.”

“We have more important things to worry about right now.” Spike told her. He finally found his cigarettes, pulled one out and lit it. He inhaled deeply enjoying the aroma and flavor of the tobacco.

“What is more important than getting out of here?” She asked him.

“Figuring out what we are going to live on until we get out of here.” He answered her. He began exploring out, away from where they landed. Several different tunnels ran off from this cavern, each looked as unremarkable as the next.

“Oh.” Buffy followed suit and began looking down the different tunnels.

“Plus we are going to have to find you some way to wash up, because while the smell could be used as a weapon, on the rare occasion I do breath, I would like to do so without wanting to throw up.”

Buffy didn’t answer him and Spike turned to make sure she was still behind him. He was amazed at what he saw. The girl who just faced the most terrifying vampires in the world was now staring at him with tears in her eyes and a sad, pouting face. He had no idea what had happened to make her look like that. He also had no idea why he suddenly felt bad for her.

“I really do smell that bad?” She asked tearfully. “It isn’t just me that smells it?”

Spike could only stand there and stare at her stupefied.





You must login (register) to review.