Inhuman Hearts

~*Inhuman
Hearts*~

A squeaking ring was heard as Buffy
opened the door to the Magic Shop. It had been closed for weeks now and there
were no news of Anya since the failed marriage experience.

Buffy ran her finger over the
counter. There was about half an inch of dust covering it. She sighed and
remembered the days when everything as normal. She pictured Giles dusting the
old books, Anya taking her place behind the cash register, Willow peacefully
skimming through a book without having to worry about the magic addiction, while
Tara sat by her side absentmindedly caressing her l’s b’s back. Dawn would
probably be desperately trying to hide from Xander, the Tickle-Master.

Buffy smiled at the memory. She
really missed the past, where everything and everyone was carefree, except for
Giles of course.

She tried to move in the shadows,
she didn’t want to turn on the lights. These days she took comfort in the dark
and tonight was one of the murkiest nights in years, with clouds concealing
practically all the faint light emanating from thll mll moon.  “Perfect night
for all the beasties…” Buffy wasn’t able to finish her thoughts as she heard
a noise coming from the back door. “Anya…?” she thought as she made her
way to where the sound came from. Hidden in the shadows, the slayer saw a dusky
figure coming towards her. As it moved between the various cupboards, Buffy
struggled to get a good look at it. One thing was for sure: it wasn’t human. Far
from it. Is shs short, couldn’t be more than twenty inches tall, and extremely
thin. Its long arms reached for a specific book and Buffy was able to tell that
it had only three very long fingers, and slime was dripping from them.

“Great! Why do they always have
to be slimy?” she thought to herself as she prepared to confront the demon.
She crawled her way toward it and when she thought she was close enough she
stood up and shouted:

“Hold it right there, buster!”

The strange creature turned to face
the Slayer, as it looked up she saw two large eyes staring at her. Then it gave
her a forced smile, revealing its total lack of teeth. Buffy frowned and just
stood there two feet away from it. Suddenly it started running away from her.
And boy did it run fast. Fortunately, it wasn’t very smart, either that or it
had a very bad sense of direction. It seemed to move completely at random,
making tight u turns, zigzagging all over the place, hitting everything that was
in its way as it frantically searched for a way out.

“Hey, put that book down or Anya is
gonna kill me!” Buffy shouted as she tried to get her hands on the damned thing.
“Stop moving, you idiot!” yelled.

Suddenly it stopped and stared at
her with a very serious face, huge eyes gawking at her in discontentment.

“Me no is idiot.” It squeaked with
a high pitched voice.

Buffy saw her opportunity and threw
herself at him. Tough it slipped away, she was able to grab the heavy book.

“Give it back!” she cried out at
the funny looking creature that still clung to the book as to dear life itself.

“No!” it squealed.

“Yes!”

“No!”

“Yes!”

“NO, no!”

“Yes, yes, yes!”

“No times infinity!” it finally
added as a silly grin spread over its mouth. “Me win!”

“What are you, 6?” Buffy frowned,
still lying on her stomach, her arms reaching upwards as she held onto the book.

It just stared back. It didn’t
understand what she had said.

“Give. IT. BACK!” she shouted off
the top of her lungs.

“NO!” iteakeeaked back “Master want
it for ritual.”

“Ritual?” Buffy asked. The creature
realised it had said too much, letting go of the book to cover his mouth with
both hands.

“Oh-oh!”

Buffy stood up and tried to grab
it, but it started running again and this time, after a few zigzags, it found sho shopping window breaking it as it hit it. Buffy made her way to the window
trying not to step on any shattered glass and looked out. In the middle of the
street lay the strange creature scratching its wounded head.

“Ouch!”

Buffy reached for the knob of the
door to open it, but when she came out of the shop it was gone.

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

“So let me get this straight: last
night a slimy, short Kate Moss version of ET tried to steal one of Giles’ books
for his master, who wants to perform a ritual?” Xander asked as he finished
patching up the big whole left by the broken window.

“That pretty much sums it up,
yeah.” Buffy agreed as she sat down next to Willow. “You ok with being here?”
she whispered to her best friend.

Willow glanced around, looking at
all the books and magic objects: “It’s hard but I’ll manage. I know you need my
help and sooner or later I would have to come to the Magic Shop. Plus it’s
easier with Tara here.” She finished as she smiled at her former lover who was
sitting across the table from her skimming through a book with Dawn looking over
shoulder.

“Is-is this it?” Tara asked handi Buf Buffy the large book in her hands.

“Yep, that’s our ET. What is it?”

“It’s a Khind’Ara. It says here
that it’s-it’s pretty harmless, not very bright. But it’s not very usual to find
him in this dimension… and it’s very big on-on serving other larger, stronger
demons ider der to survive. Not much more on this Khind’Ara demon.” Tara
explained.

“Well, that we already knew.
Anything on the book he tried to steal, Willow?" Buffy asked taking her place
next to her again.

“Not really. I’m still trying to
translate some interesting parts. It's written in Djaklan.” As she saw everyone
staring at her, she explained: “It’s a common demon language. Giles taught me a
few things.” She paused flipping the pages. “It has a very confusing past tense,
but I think I can translate it. I’ll have to take this home and check some
things on the net. It’ll take the rest of the day probably.”

“Well, I guess that’s it then.
I’ll take a walk around town, check out the usual haunts, try to see if I can
get something out of the low lives at Willie’s. Tara, can you go through the
latest newspapers and see if anything unusual has happen in the last few days?”

Tara nodded.

“Xander, can you take Dawn home? I
don’t want her out while some beastie is trying to perform some obscure ritual.”

“Sure thing, Buffy!”

“No, Buffy!” Dawn protested “Can’t
I stay here with Tara and go through the newspapers, please!?!” she begged.

“No. That thing might come back for
the book again.”

“What? Little ET? I think I can
take him.” Xander said with a bloated chest.

Buffy looked at him and couldn’t
help smiling. He looked so silly when he tried to play the strong leading man.

“Please, Buffy! At least lets set
up the centre of operations back home so I can help.” Dawn suggested.

Buffy sighed as she pondered the
issue.

“Fine! Xander, keep an eye on her.
Also, see if you can get something else on our jittery little friend.”

Xander nodded and Dawn sighed in
relief.