Impact

Buffy and Giles both jumped at the crash of the door to find Dawn standing there. They both glared. “Dawn!” Buffy yelled at her sister. “Don’t you know how to knock?”

“I’m sorry,” the girl muttered. “It’s just…I had a nightmare.”

Buffy jumped off the bed to console her sister, pulling her into a warm embrace. She kicked the door shut and pulled Dawn down onto a chair, holding her in her lap. “Do you want to tell me about it? I’m master of the nightmares you know. Digging out of my own coffin and all that?” Buffy smiled slightly at her, and Dawn snorted back at her in derision. “Seriously, Dawnie, you might feel better if you spill it.” Buffy glanced at Giles on the bed. He was looking at them intently, and smiled softly at her. He was concerned about Dawn too, but he knew she was in good hands with Buffy.

Dawn inhaled deeply, and hiccupped. She felt like a little baby instead of a young woman. She missed her mom too, and the thought that she would never even be able to visit her mom’s grave again made her cry some more. Buffy just held her and soothed her the best she could. Dawn would talk when she was all cried out.

Soon the words were pouring out of her like water from a tap. Dawn didn’t remember everything, just bits and pieces. She had been waiting in the school bus for Buffy, but Buffy never came. Wood had driven off without her sister! Dawn was furious, and strained to see out the windows to catch a glimpse of Buffy. That’s when she saw her running on the rooftops. Only in this nightmare version, things happened differently. Instead of watching Buffy jump from rooftop to crumbling rooftop, there were demons running on her heels. The First was right behind Buffy, and catching up to her with every second that passed. It would morph and change, never holding form. Sometimes it was an ubervamp, then Jenny Calendar, then Spike, then Buffy herself, and then some weird yellow demon that dripped venom from it’s claws. The yellow demom lashed out and clawed Buffy from behind. Blood spurted, and Buffy fell to her knees. The demon hovered over her, about to pounce, and that is when Dawn had awakened.

“I know it was just a dream, and it didn’t end that way, but it seemed so real.” She held her older sister tight. She couldn’t bear the thought of losing her again.

“Shh, it’s okay Dawnie. I’m here. It was just a nightmare. You know how it ended. We are all safe now.”

They held each other close for a bit, until Dawn decided she was a big girl and didn’t need to be so coddled. She stood up and stretched. “I think I’ll go back to my room now.” Dawn winked at her sister, and gave her a knowing look. She was sure that Buffy wanted to be alone with Giles, to perhaps finish whatever it was she had walked into. Her attitude about her sister and Giles truly proved that Dawn was growing up. No, “Ew, gross!” came from her mouth.

“Good idea.” Buffy smiled at her, and raised her eyebrows. The two sisters giggled, and Giles bore a hole into the ceiling with his eyes. He’d yell at them that he was in the room and to stop it if he could, but he had to suffer in silence.

Dawn opened the door and stepped out of the room, and then screamed again, only this time it was a small girlish scream. “Spider!” she yelled, and tried to step on it before running back into the room. She hated spiders!

Buffy rolled her eyes at her sister and looked around the room to find something to stomp the spider with. She wasn’t scared of spiders, but she didn’t want spider guts all over her bare foot either. She went to grab the Shanshu book off the side table, but stopped in mid reach from the glare on Giles’ face. It was a Ripper glare if she ever saw one. “Right, not the book then.” She smiled at him and finally grabbed a shoe that was lying on the floor.

Dawn was standing on the chair they had occupied earlier and Buffy would have laughed at her if she thought she could get away with it, but then turned her attention back to the floor. She didn’t see the offending pest. “Where’d it go?” Dawn frantically looked around, never moving off of the chair, and Buffy tentatively walked around the doorway and hall looking for it. Finally Dawn saw it. It was midway into the room now, between Buffy and the nightstand. “There it is! Smack it Buffy!” Dawn called out.

Buffy raised the shoe over the spider, but with lightning speed it occurred. The spider grew, and changed before their very eyes. Dawn screamed and Buffy jumped back startled. Before she could react, the spider had turned into a towering beast. It’s head grazed the ceiling, and it’s arms hung by jointed elbow until it’s knuckles almost grazed the floor. Buffy took a fighting stance, but before she could inflict any harm, the now yellow beast grabbed her by the waist and flung her across the room. She crashed into the wall and landed on the floor in a heap. Dawn screamed, but was frozen in place. It was the demon from her nightmare. And she didn’t know what to do.

The beast turned and looked at Giles. Giles was trying to claw his way off the bed on the opposite side of the demon. He wanted to get off the bed and get to Buffy. The beast flipped the bed over in a single motion, tossing Giles off of it. He too crashed into the wall, thankfully not getting pinned under the bed itself. His sore head banged into the wall, knocking him out momentarily. Dawn screamed again. The beast ignored her and grabbed for the book that was on the nightstand. While it’s back was turned to her, she fled. She ran down the hall into the lobby screaming at the top of her lungs. Wesley was already coming out of the office in his disheveled form after hearing the crashing from the room down the hall. Angel was also running towards them now, followed by Xander and Willow. The commotion had awakened them all. But was it too late?

The beast tucked the book under it’s arm and rumbled out the door, smashing everything and anything in it’s path. The gang had not grabbed any weapons as of yet. Angel ran and tried to jump the beast, meeting it’s chest with the bottom of his boots. It was as if he hit concrete. He crumpled to the floor. No one else approached the beast as it flung furniture out of it’s pathway and crashed out the front door. Wesley ran after it, but lost it. The demon seemed to just vanish once it reached the courtyard. How could it have done that?

Wesley never saw Drusilla hiding behind the hedges. She was there to take the book from the demon’s grasp. As she did, it morphed back into it’s spider shape and crawled down a manhole into the sewers. Drusilla stood there in all her glory, the moonlight cascading down her long dark hair, enhancing the sparkle in her dark eyes. She was smiling and crooning to herself. She held the book as if it were a child to her breast. “Daddy will be here soon. The stars are telling me it is so.” Then she turned and ran down the dark street, disappearing into the night.

Wesley gave up and returned into the hotel. Everyone was helping Angel up, and Dawn was pulling them down the hall. She was crying and urgent. They finally made their way into Buffy and Giles’ room. Giles was coming to, and saw Buffy still lying lifeless on the floor. Sweat was pouring off of him in buckets, and his broken ribs and arm were howling in pain, but he ignored it all to pull Buffy into his lap. “Buffy?” he whispered to her. She didn’t awaken, and in all their grief, no one noticed that Giles could speak.

TBC