William had locked the door. He didn’t know why he hadn’t thought of that before, maybe it had just seemed too easy. But now he was safe; Ethan wouldn’t be able to get inside, and therefor wouldn’t be able to hurt him. He would just have to remember to lock the door before he’d go to bed from now on, then everything would be okay.
As he was sitting in his bed, he could hear the familiar sound of footsteps coming up the stairs, stopping just outside the door. He saw the door handle move. Once. Twice. Then there was silence, and he held his breath. A moment later, he heard the steps again, but this time they were heading away from his room. He slumped back against the pillows with a sigh of relief. It had worked! Ethan had realized that he wouldn’t be able to get to him tonight, so he had given up and left.
He closed his eyes, relaxing for what felt like the first time in days, and tried to go to sleep. The bruises from the last beating had almost faded by now, which meant that he would be able to go to school again tomorrow. That was a relief; he had been gone for almost a week now and was starting to seriously fall behind. If he wouldn’t be able to catch up, his teacher would call his mother. She never laid a hand on him, but she would tell Ethan. And Ethan would punish him.
Just when he was about to fall asleep, he heard it. The sound of a screwdriver, or possibly a hair pin, furiously picking inside the simple lock. Then there was a loud, clicking sound as the lock gave in, which made him feel sick to his stomach. The door opened, slowly. Ethan was standing there, and the last thing William remembered from that night was the cruel grin on the man’s face. He didn’t go to school the next day after all. In fact, it took almost another week before he was able to walk again. And that was the one and only time he ever locked the door.
For the last couple of hours, Buffy had been tossing and turning on the couch, not able to find a comfortable position. It wasn’t because of the couch, the couch was just fine. It was just that every time she closed her eyes, she would see Angel’s face and hear him saying how he was going to fuck her. But she was safe now, Angel couldn’t hurt her here. In fact, he had hardly been able to hurt her at all, thanks to Spike. And after what Spike had done to him tonight, Angel would probably not even dare looking at her again. So she really didn’t have anything to worry about. But still, she couldn’t sleep.
She found herself thinking about Spike, realizing that she didn’t really know him at all. It was strange; most people in town were terrified of him, but being in his arms had made her feel more safe than she could remember ever being before. He had been so kind to her, all those rumors couldn’t possibly be true. Sure, he had done quite a number on Angel, but there was obviously a softer side to him as well. Not to mention the fact that he was absolutely gorgeous, although she couldn’t remember ever falling for the ‘bad boy’ image before. Maybe they could get to know each other, becoming friends even. She would like that.
Yawning, she closed her eyes again. Then she heard a cracking sound, and her eyes snapped open. What was that? Was there someone else in the apartment? She glanced over to the door, leading into Spike’s bedroom, wondering if she had fallen asleep after all and missed him getting up. But the door was closed. She let out the breath she had been holding. Maybe she had just been imagining things. She sighed and tried to relax. After listening closely for a couple of minutes, she once again closed her eyes.
'I don’t think so, sweetheart. You see, I’m gonna fuck you, and you’re just gonna shut up and enjoy my cock slamming into your sweet little pussy…'
Buffy jumped up from the couch with a strangled scream. She had heard Angel’s voice as clearly had he been right there in the same room. For a moment, she thought she heard something again. What if Angel hadn’t been scared off by Spike after all? Was it possible that he had followed them here, somehow managing to sneak inside, and had just been waiting for Spike to go to bed and leave her here, all alone and vulnerable on the couch? What if he had come here to finish what he had started?
Buffy usually didn’t scare easily. But what had happened earlier tonight had shaken her, badly, and she wasn’t thinking rationally. She considered calling out for Spike, but decided against it. She wasn’t completely pathetic after all. Sighing, she forced herself to lay back down on the couch. Of course Angel wasn’t here, that was just ridiculous. It was most likely that he wouldn’t even remember what happened when he woke up. Now she would go to sleep, and tomorrow things wouldn’t seem so…
This time she definitely heard a noise from the kitchen, almost as if someone was moving around in there. It couldn’t be Spike, because the door to his room was still closed and she would have heard if he had gotten up. It was a big house, lots of people living there, and whatever it was she had heard could easily have come from the apartment next door, or upstairs. But that thought never even occurred to her as she jumped up and fled towards Spike’s room.
TBC