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CHAPTER 5: Lean on me, part 1
He couldn’t think. Couldn’t close his eyes for a second. Because every time he did, he would see it again. Buffy’s broken body on a pile of concrete. Sometimes, the image was replaced with her drained body, lying lifeless at Angelus’ feet. Or tortured to death, every bones in her body broken, her beautiful eyes staring blankly at him in accusation. No, he couldn’t think. While he was keeping himself busy, figuring out where Angelus could hide her, calling Dawn for updates, calling the others to make sure they didn’t find anything, making plans, he didn’t have time to imagine things like that. He knew pretty well that if he stopped for a second, he would break down and wouldn’t get up again. Then he’d be useless to her. So he let the rage replace the dread and fear in his heart, and he kept searching for her, thinking of what he would do to Angelus when he’d find them.
She had been gone for twelve hours now. Twelve hours of searching without any result. Spike was now going through the sewers, waiting for the sun to set. He knew he wouldn’t find her there, but he hoped to stumble across some lonely demon he could beat to a bloody pulp to get information.
So far, he had raided the old mansion and found nothing but dust and spider webs. Faith’s apartment had been cleared out completely. They had been there, he could smell the human presence, but they were long gone now. Same shit at the old factory. And the Bronze had been a complete waste of time. Then, the sun had came up and he had to duck into the nearest sewer entrance. Around noon, he had called the others and told them to go get a few hours of sleep. They wouldn’t be of any help if they’d pass out from exhaustion. While they were sleeping, Red was going to try a few more locator spells after the first one failed miserably.
Spike almost jumped out of his skin when the cellphone rang, splashing dirty water everywhere. He swore under his breath.
His voice was tensed when he answered. “Yes.”
“Spike, it’s Willow.”
“What is it Red.”
“I just wanted to let you know that I tried every locator spells I know, and some I don’t know, and there is no use. There seems to be magic involved. It’s blocking all me efforts. Even if… even if s-something happened to her, I-I should still be able to locate her.”
“It’s fine. Thanks for trying. But if you can, try to find what kind of spell is blocking you and see if you can work around it, or find out where it’s coming from.”
“Yeah, I can do that. Of course.”
“And could you wake the wankers? They’ve been sleeping for almost four hours now. We need them. I’m still stuck down here for another two hours and obviously, it’s not getting me anywhere near finding Buffy.”
“Sure…”
“And one last thing. Try to find anything you can about mind control. I have good reasons to think Angelus and Faith have a few guys who can pull off that kind of mojo in their league. We need to protect ourselves against that if we want to be able to fight what’s coming.”
“Sure. I’m on it.”
“…”
“Spike?.. Hello?”
The redhead shook her head sadly and turned the cellphone off.
* Please Goddess, let him find her soon, and alive, before he breaks down *
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“I’m so disappointed in you Buff!” Angelus grabbed the face of the beaten up girl roughly with one hand to force her to look up. “You’ve been out for at least twenty minutes after the last round.” He snickered with contempt. “And she calls herself a Slayer.”
He slowly licked the blood dripping on the side of her face from a head injury. “Funny. I was expecting you to black out after the hot poker piercing through your guts, not after a broken knee. Broken knee?! You’re so pathetic Buff. I thought you were much tougher than that.” He gave her a nasty smile. “Let’s toughen you up a little, shall we.”
He took a swing at her and smashed his fist into her jaw. Her head snapped back with the impact, but no sounds of pain came out of her. She spat blood in his face and just smiled.
Angelus wiped the blood from his face furiously, then took a good look at the girl.
“Jesus fucking Christ! You still think he will come to rescue you, don’t you! Buffy, we are in the middle of fucking nowhere. No one will come for you here. Neither your friends, nor your soulful Superman with fangs. There is no option for you little girl. That is all there is, pain, followed by death. That is the story of your future, and of your ending. There is nothing else to it. No: “And they lived happily ever after”. That’s for fairytales. The end of your book is much different. It sounds more like: “And she died lonely and in pain.” Now that’s a book I would read!”
Buffy tried to speak, and Angelus had to get closer to hear what she was saying, her voice low and cut with ragged, painful, breath. “Are you… ever.. tired of… hearing yourself talking?”
He just looked at her straight in the eyes, then pulled the poker out of her body, making her howl in pain.
“No. Never.”
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Eleven O’clock. In less than four hours, it would be twenty-four hours. Spike knew that the more hours passed, the less chances he had to find Buffy alive. Yes, Angelus loved to play with his preys, but how long would he keep her alive?
The blond vampire left the dock area empty-handed. He had been through every hangar, but found nothing. Another waste of his precious time. Now he’d had it. He walked quickly through the familiar streets of Sunnydale, his steps echoing into the empty night. He was heading to an equally familiar place.
Sure, Giles had said he got everything possible out of Willie, but Spike decided that maybe the old man hadn’t been convincing enough.
Going through the alley, Spike opened the back door and went straight for the bartender. Grabbing Willie by the throat, he dragged the short man to the back room and threw him into one of those industrial size refrigerators. He had to be careful not to hurt him to avoid setting off the chip. Spike walked right to him in a threatening way and the little man tried to protect himself from the attack by raising his arms to his head, forgetting that Spike couldn’t really hurt him.
“Have you completely lost your mind?! I don’t know anything! Leave me alone!”
Ignoring Willie’s pleas, Spike grabbed Willie by the throat again, and lifted him off the floor, almost choking him. The chip gave a warning, but Spike ignored it.
“I want to know everything you know about the Slayer’s disappearance. And if you don’t know anything, I would suggest you to come up with something fast before I kill you. And it won’t be a quick death. Believe me, I’m mentally prepared to endure the pain in my brain. I’m planning on chopping you into little pieces and…”
“Arhmeemhuhhhggrlll”
“What’s that?”
Willie motioned to his throat.
“Oh. Yeah, right. Sorry mate, guess you need air to talk.”
“I don’t know anything. But those two guys sitting at the bar? They do. I know you won’t believe me, but I was about to call Giles to let him know. Believe what you want, but I do like that little Slayer and I have a thing or two against Angelus. There was no need for violence.” Willie added, massaging his painful throat. “Those guys, I heard them mentioning Angelus and controlling the Slayer.”
Spike turned to leave. “Thanks mate, sorry bout that.”
“Spike! Wait!”
He stopped at the back room door and turned to Willie.
“Those guys are mind controllers. That’s their thing. They are a half-breed, like vampires, so they look human but they have that power to play with your brain and make you do whatever they want. You have to be careful and take them by surprise. And if they talk, let your mind go blank. They can only do their mojo if you are unaware.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
Leaving Willie behind, Spike walked straight to where the two guys were sitting at the bar. Without a moment of hesitation, Spike grabbed both their heads and knocked them together, effectively rending them unconscious. Taking one of the two guys under his arms, he dragged him out under the curious looks of Willie’s customers.
“Night everyone, hope you enjoy your evening!”
When Spike judged that they were far enough, he dropped the guy to the ground and kicked him in the ribs.
“Wake up nasty little bugger, time to spill the beans and tell uncle Spike what you did with his girlfriend.”
The man groaned in pain than slowly turned himself on his back to look at Spike. When his eyes started glowing, Spike blocked any thoughts from his mind. Grabbing the axe he was carrying on his back, he swung it at the man’s wrist. The man screamed in pain, holding his bloody limb to his chest.
“Every time you try to use you’re hocus pocus on me mate, you lose a piece. Understood?”
The guy nodded and cast his eyes down.
“What’s you’re name wanker?”
“Why does it matter?”
Spike crouched in front of him, and punched him in the face. “I’m the one asking questions. And it bloody matters because I usually like to know the name of the people I’m torturing for information. Just a formality, really.”
“I’m Larriorus.”
“Good. Now Larry, you and I are gonna get along just fine if you tell me in details what you did last night between two and three am.”
“Was watching TV…”
Spike slammed the head of the axe in Larry’s stomach and he doubled in pain.
“Wrong answer mate.” He grabbed Larry by his shirt and made him stand up, slamming his back against the brick wall. “But then again, maybe my question wasn’t specific enough. What the fuck did you do with my Slayer? If you want to keep your other hand, you should think twice about giving me some smart-ass answer. And remember, I can keep you alive for a very long time. Angelus is the one who taught me the art of torture.”
Larry, despite being half demon, was not a very courageous one. Shaking in fear, scared to use his power and lose another limb… maybe something more important than a hand, he gave in.
“In the woods!! She’s in the woods with Angelus and the other Slayer! Now let me go, please, let me go…”
“Whoa, not so fast mate. Where in the woods?”
“When… when you go to the end of St Peter’s park, you can enter the woods there. You walk about four miles north, and you should find an old abandoned house. That’s where he keeps her. But… she’s probably dead by now buddy.”
“I’d pray for her to be alive if I were you my friend. Cause if she isn’t, You die too. Let’s go.”
“What? But I told you what I know! You’re supposed to leave me alone now. Why aren’t you leaving me alone?”
“Because I’m not as thick as you seem to think I am. If the information you gave me is wrong, if Buffy is not there, you will beg me to kill you, believe me. Let’s go, we don’t have time to waste.” He grabbed Larry’s jacket and pulled him along with him.
“And don’t you try anything funny. Or you will find out why they call me William the Bloody.”
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Dawn and Cordelia were sitting in the kitchen, facing each other. Neither of them was talking. They glanced at the clock regularly, then at the phone. It was midnight, and the waiting was getting to be too much for their nerves.
Hearing the kettle whistling, Cordelia jumped to her feet, glad to finally find something to do with herself. She prepared a tea for herself, and a hot chocolate for Dawn. But she dropped both cups when she was hit by a vision.
Startled, Dawn shrieked. “Cordelia! Are you ok? What’s going on?”
Slowly coming back, Cordelia’s eyes filled up with tears. “Oh God… Buffy.”
Panicked about her sister’s fate, Dawn shook Cordelia roughly. “What? What did you see?! Is she alive? Cordelia! Answer! Is she alive?”
Wiping the tears from her face, Cordy took a deep breath. “Yes. She’s still alive. I don’t know for how long though. She’s… not in the best of shape. She looked pretty bad. They have to find her now.”
Dawn started crying for her sister. Cordelia pulled her into her arms. “Shh honey, it’s gonna be alright. Spike will find her. I’m sure he will. He’ll get her back for you.”
“What… what else did you see?”
“Just feelings honey. Nothing concrete. Just that the fate of the world depends on a vampire in love, and the decision of a very fragile and unstable girl. At the last minute, it will all come down to that. Which side she chooses.”
“You mean… Faith?”
“Yeah.”
Dawn hung her head low. “We’re so screwed.”
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