"William?" came her muffled voice.
“Buffy,” he said, choking back a sob.
Her eyes opened slowly, her expression telling him she was in pain. “Did you see it?”
“See what, luv?”
“Did you hear it?”
“Hear what?”
“Did you see her?”
“See who?”
She tried to sit up with a grumble, and William helped her as best he could. “Luv, take it easy. You’re hurt.”
“Is Midnight hurt?”
“Midnight is fine you daft bint!”
“Why are you yelling at me?” she demanded. “I didn’t do it, I didn’t do anything!”
“You scared the living daylights out of me! I come out here to see you flying through the air and you’re rambling on about seeing something, and then about the damn horse, when I don’t give a flying fuck about either of those things!”
“I’m fine! Now please help me stand for crying out loud.”
Her back hurt, namely her tail bone. She was sure it was bruised. Wouldn’t be the first time she’d done something like that. “Man, I feel like I just fell off a horse.”
He glared at her, “You did just fall off a horse.”
“Unclench, William, it was a joke.”
“What hurts the most?”
“My tailbone. I bet I bruised it.”
“Let’s get you to the emergency room,” he said, and wrapped an arm around her to try and guide her to his car.
She dug in her heels. “Wait.”
“Now what?” he asked incredulously.
She pulled herself free from him and gingerly stepped forward, wincing as a sharp pain shot up her back. William, seeming to sense her discomfort, was there in a flash, supporting her.
“What do you want to see?”
“Just…” she trailed off, not talking until she was where she’d seen the black cloud/ghost/giant demon. Peering out the window, she saw nothing. No trace of anyone.
“I know I saw her,” she muttered to herself, “Why would I make that up?”
“Buffy, what is going on?”
“I’ll tell you on the way to the emergency room.”
“Wow, you’re actually going to let me take you?”
“I’m stubborn, William, not stupid. I just got thrown off a horse for Christ’s sakes.”
Under normal circumstances, William might have laughed at the dry humor, but at that moment, he wasn’t in a particularly jovial mood.
William seemed to have slipped into a catatonic state after Buffy relayed to him what she saw and what had happened. His mouth hit the floor, and his eyes were wide.
“Will,” Buffy said calmly as they sat in the emergency room parking lot. “I don’t mean to be a pain, but I need some help.”
He snapped into action, shaking his head as if clearing what she’d just told him from his mind. Silently, he helped her out of the car and into the emergency room.
“Do you believe me?” she asked after she’d filled out the needed forms and was waiting patiently for someone to see her.
“Did you think I wouldn’t?”
“You’ve been quiet.”
“I’m in shock.”
“Okay, but I need you to not be in shock anymore. You have to help me figure this out. Two heads are better than one, after all.”
“You say you think you saw Edina?”
“Yes. It had to be her, Will, why would my mind conjure her up as I was on my way to the ground?”
He winced at that, seeing that image in his mind replaying over and over. “I don’t have an answer to that.”
“Yeah, neither do I, that’s the problem.”
“You think she’s connected to the ghost you saw?”
“That gigantic phantasm that roared me right off Midnight’s saddle? Yeah, I’m thinking she had something to do with it. Why else would I have seen her? What other reason would she have to be there? And if she saw me fall, why didn’t she come and help?”
“Because she saw me coming?”
“I yelled at her before I went out to ride.”
“Buffy, this is a large accusation here; even for the things I’ve heard and seen myself. I mean…what is it exactly that you’re accusing Edina of?”
“I’m not sure yet,” she said, thoughtfully, gnawing on her bottom lip. “All I know is that when I add it all up in my head, the weird stuff started to happen when I told her that I wanted to turn that house into a Bed & Breakfast. First she was all helpful with wanting me to talk to Tara, and then she and Tara had a falling out that same day. The very next day when I came home and Darla had been there, I felt nothing, remember? I told you I no longer felt their presence.”
“I remember.”
“That night, the candle kept blowing out and the plate got smashed. Then the chair flew against the wall the next night, and then the samples get shredded. And how is it that all of a sudden Tara is missing and her shop is gone? I talked to a woman that day who told me her shop was always busy.”
“That’s one woman out of a hundred, Buffy.”
“Not the point, William! You’re an attorney, add up the facts. That thing was meant to scare me. It was meant to hurt me. Who knows what would have happened if you hadn’t been coming. Midnight could have trampled me to death—“
“Buffy, shut up,” William barked.
“My gut was telling me not tell Edina that I was looking for her niece. And lo and behold, her niece is missing. What more do you need?”
“I need to know what she’s doing!”
“Well, that’s what we’re gonna find out.”
“How?”
“That is a brilliant question. I have no flipping clue.”
“How do you know it’s not the house ghosts that all just got together like that?”
Buffy shook her head, “It wasn’t them. It hasn’t been them. I thought it was at first… I think I just wanted to think that they were pissed at me, but that they’d get over it and we’d work together. But it’s not them. They wouldn’t have done any of this. They don’t feel like that thing did. It was evil. Malevolent. I believe what Tara said, my ghosts weren’t out to hurt me. This thing though, it was. The question is why?”
“Well…” William mused, “If I were to slip into Edina’s shoes and see things from her perspective after adding it all up,” he said pointedly, giving her a look, “I’d say it was to get you out of that house. To stop you from turning it into a B&B and to run you out so she could have that place to herself.”
“Well if that’s the case,” Buffy said resolutely, “That bitch just got the fight of her life on her hands.”