GHOST TOWN: Part Four
by Phoenixflame
Disclaimer: Disclaimer: I do not own Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It is owned by Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy. The songs in this fic are not mine unless they are marked by *.
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Part Four
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Buffy's dreams were full of fire, and demons. Angelus taunted her, and she fought him.
*So tired... Just go away. I wanna go to sleep....*
Then the dreams evaporated, and a darkness whirled around her. A dark, clinging evil was all around her, sucking at her.
it hissed at her. Buffy twisted, trying to get away.
Screamed Buffy in her mind. A picture of Angel, with his eyes full of betrayal and hate filled her mind. he said to her. Buffy cried out, and ran away. She was confronted by Merrick, a stake through his heart. he said to her.
Hands were around her wrists now, she screamed, and sat up, flipping the person onto their back with an knife to their throat.
"Buffy! Buffy!" Buffy was in a haze of red. *I'll destroy you. I'll rend you limb from limb! Get out of my mind!*
"ANNE!"
Buffy froze. Her vision cleared. She held a knife to Maddy's throat. Letting out her breath, she stood up, letting Maddy get up.
"Geez. Bad dream?"
Buffy shook her head vigorously. "Not a dream." she said. She felt inexplicably tired, and sat with an audible thud. "The demon." she said aloud. "It had to have been."
"He was in your dreams?" asked Maddy, tying her hair up in a ponytail.
"Yeah."
Buffy pulled her hair into a bun. "I think that we won't get any more sleep. Besides, the sun's coming up."
Maddy nodded, and the two folded the blankets neatly on the hassocks.
Buffy left the crosses up as they ate a meager breakfast. Maddy finished eating first, and read some more of the book. "So, we focus will into action." she mused. "Sounds too easy."
Buffy shrugged. "Let's try." she said. Maddy pulled a pencil out of a cup in the middle of the table and placed it on the table. Both girls stared at it for about five minutes. Nothing happened.
Buffy sighed, and put her hand on Maddy's shoulder. "We'll find another way." she told Maddy with a resigned expression on her face.
All of a sudden, the pencil levitated about a foot above the table! Buffy jerked her hand away from Maddy, and the pencil started to wobble, then dropped back onto the table.
The two stared at the pencil for a long moment. Then Buffy looked over at Maddy quizzicaly. "Focus?" she said, raising an eyebrow.
***
The two were scrounging food in the diner. The waitress was still wiping the counter up front with a mechanical motion over and over again.
"Grease, spoiled fries, or five types of moldy fruit?" Buffy quipped as the two sorted through the kitchen. A rat scurried under foot. Glancing down, Buffy noticed that half its face was gone. With a shudder, she turned her attention back to searching for food.
"Buffy?" called out Maddy. Her voice sounded strangled and rather scared.
"Yeah?" answered Buffy. "What's going on?"
"The lettuce is talking to me." said Maddy.
Buffy chuckled. "Good one, Maddy." she said.
"No! It's really talking! So is the tomato!"
Buffy rushed back to where Maddy was to find an extremely unlikely looking scene. Several vegetables were clustered around Maddy, and the lettuce was talking. The tomato made a sarcastic remark.
"Now I've seen everything." muttered the Slayer. Walking over to Maddy, she grabbed her by the arm. "Let's go, Maddy." she told the wide-eyed girl.
The two slowly backed away from the vegetables. Then they turned and ran out of the diner.
Once they were outside, Buffy turned to Maddy. "Now that was wierd." she said to Maddy. Maddy nodded in agreement, still trying to catch her breath.
"Let's see what we have in the matter of canned goods." said Buffy.
Maddy made a face. "Eww, sardines."
"It may be all we have to eat for a while." said Buffy, staring at a zombie who was sweeping the sidewalk.
Maddy sighed, and hauled herself up. "Well, sardinewards we go." she said.
***
Buffy watched Maddy nibble at the sardine with barely concealed amusement.
"We could risk eating the lettuce." she remarked. Maddy turned green.
"I can't believe you brought that up." she said. Buffy merely shrugged and said "Just keeping things in perspective."
Maddy threw a sardine at the amused Slayer. "You eat it. I'm not going within twenty feet of that thing."
Buffy chuckled. "There's always the tomato."
Maddy gave her a look. "Enough with the sentient vegetables. Let's eat these sardines before they end up cracking jokes and dancing the can can."
Buffy picked up a sardine, and ate it in one gulp, quickly following it with a glass of water. Maddy gave her an amazed look. "You ate it with a straight face. I don't believe it!"
"I ate it so fast I couldn't taste it. The water ensures that it doesn't come back up." replied the Slayer.
Maddy tried it. She ended up with water coming out of her nose.
"Hmmm." said Buffy. "Good swallow, but the water was all wrong. Seven point five."
"Oh, shut up." Maddy said, mopping up the water on the table. Buffy leaned back, and nabbed another sardine. "You're lucky the sardine didn't talk to you." she told the wet girl.
Maddy gave her a disgusted look. "Just when I got that out of my head."
"Sorry."
"Anyway, how do you think that happened?"
Buffy shrugged. "I wouldn't know. I'm more of a fighter than a walking library."
Maddy sighed. "More reading?"
Buffy resealed the package of sardines. "Either that, or throwing rocks at zombies." she said. The two moved to the pile of books. Buffy pulled out "Mental Magic", and Maddy grabbed "Seances". The two lay down on the hassocks, and began to read.
* * *
Buffy had fallen asleep again. The demon was there again, taunting her with images and scenes of Angel being tortured. She ran through the darkness as it laughed.
Buffy forced herself out of the dream. Rolling over with a groan, she walked over to the stairs to the second level of the library, and stared out of the huge picture window.
Then she noticed. The zombies were moving towards them in a large group!
Running down the steps, she shook Maddy awake. "Maddy! The zombies are coming to kill us!"
Maddy snapped awake instantly. "Oh god. What do we do?"
"We can't hide from the demon! He's everywhere in this town! We have to fight him where he attacks us. You stay awake. I'm going to go to sleep and put this dream demon back in his place!"
Maddy nodded. The sound of zombie feet coming nearer and nearer in the streets was getting louder.
Buffy lay down on the hassock, and rolled around, trying to get asleep.
"This isn't working." she said.
Maddy looked panicked. "But we have to fight him! The zombies will be here any second!"
"I know! Dammit..."
Buffy's voice trailed off as she noticed something that Maddy had stolen out of the drug store.
"Laxatives! They'll get me to sleep!" she said.
Maddy grabbed the bottle. "Non-addictive Ex-Lax." she said. Buffy took the bottle from her, twisted it open, and took one pill out. Swallowing it, she lay back on the hassock, and drifted off into sleep.
* * *
Buffy walked in a swirling darkness. "Show yourself, demon." she called out. A hiss sounded, but nothing more.
An image of Merrick began to form again. "None of this crap." said Buffy. "I know you're out there."
The demon formed in back of her. Buffy dove away. "So, the little girl has come to challenge me." he hissed.
"That's right." said Buffy. "Time to put your lights out!"
Buffy dove at the demon, fist drawn back. She went straight through it!
The demon laughed. "Oh really?" it hissed. It swung at her, and knocked her down. Buffy got back up. "Oh, really." she said.
Buffy focused hard. Then she dove at the demon again.
This time, her blow connected! The demon rocked back, and batted at her. Buffy ducked under it, and kicked. Rolling away, she saw anger, and not a bit of fear.
"You..." it hissed. Suddenly, constricting clouds of darkness entrapped her!
Grief! Horror! Utter despair that permeated even her soul!
Buffy struggled weakly against it. Then she saw a bright light. Kendra stood there!
"Kendra?" whispered Buffy.
"I don't understand."
Kendra told her.
The light faded away slowly.
* * *
Buffy was drifting in grey. She saw Angel smiling at her as they hunted vampires side by side. Xander with Twinkie all around his mouth. Giles in tweed, while Ms. Calender leaned over his shoulder to point out something in a book he was reading.
And then she was free.
With startling clarity, she saw what she could do.
The demon screamed his rage at her. Fear was in it's eyes now. It threw darkness at her.
Buffy raised one hand. A shimmering wall of light formed around her, repelling the darkness. The demon pulled back, trying to escape.
Buffy raised her hands. A brilliant matrix of colors formed between them. Buffy let go of it, and it streamed towards the demon.
The matrix hit the demon. With a soundless explosion, the demon was blown into nonexistance. Buffy smiled. It was finally gone.
* * *
She woke, her vision hazy. She blinked, and the room she was in came into focus.
"It's gone?" asked Maddy
Buffy nodded. Sitting up, she noticed people sitting around the library. She recognized one of them as the waitress from the diner. "Who are they?"
"They were the people under the demon's spell. Now they've been released."
A man wearing a business suit came forwards. "I am the mayor here. If there is anything we can do for you, name it."
Buffy thought. "A drivers license would be nice." she said.
"That's all?" said a richly dressed woman towards the back. "You will need money. I will give you a thousand dollars for you to survive on, and a car."
"Thank you." said Buffy. The woman smiled warmly. "Thank you. You are welcome here anytime."
* * *
The next day, Buffy stood by the dark blue van she had picked out. Maddy came down the steps. "You ready to go?" Buffy asked her.
Maddy nodded. "Where to now?" she asked Buffy.
Buffy got into the drivers side of the van. "Anywhere we want, Maddy. Anywhere we want."
* * *
Will kill off Faith for feedback.
The End-Or maybe the beginning...
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