The Necromancer: Part Twenty-Two
by J Jericho Born
"Rupert," gently addressed Miss Calender after a lengthy amount of still silence.

Giles had stared at various furnishings in his living room and they had all gave him the same reply. Currently the endless expanse that was the sky outside his window gave his eyes a place to hide from his confusion.

He spoke while still staring, "You gave me quite a start this morning. When everything was still foggy you appeared at my front door. I think I've been in shock all day. But, now I'm beginning to become aware."

"I can't believe I'm here either. It's hard for me to feel like I'm anywhere after having been...," Miss Calender's sentence trailed off.

"You know even though we're in the same room I don't feel like we're together again," she added.

"Perhaps...perhaps it's because we haven't shared more than a few words," Giles said while still emotionally drained.

Sparsely punctuated quiet followed for a few more moments.

"I keep getting this tugging sensation that you're supposed to come with me somewhere," commented Miss Calender.

Finally Giles broke from his trance and ran his hands through his unkempt hair.

"You're not real. You're not real," He said in animated contrast to his former state of mind.

"What are you saying, Rupert?" inquired a befuddled Jenny Calender.

"All this time I've felt it. It's made me sick to me stomach to know deep down in my heart that you're not here in front of me even as I want to believe you are," Giles said with a quick winded pace.

"Look at me," Jenny said as she closed quarters with Giles.

"I'm right here. Look at me with your own eyes. Don't you hear my voice? I'm right in front of you," she said in desperate attempt to convince the unbelieving.

Giles scrunched his face up as tight as he could make it. Even with his eyes closed he could still see her. It pained him as reality finally set in.

"Rupert! Rupert!" called out Jenny as she gripped him by the arms.

Giles' turned beet red with anguish and reached toward the coffee table. As the unwanted weapon seated itself into his hand he turned his head as far away as he could and thrusted the dagger in front of him.

Quickly what was Miss Calender degraded to its actual state of decay and fell to the floor. No cry of pain was let out or any struggle for survival endured. That did little to comfort Giles however. All that was left for him to do was to bury his head in his own arms and let out bursts of weeping through his choked face.

This perpetual agony went undisturbed for a period of time that was too great to measure in minutes. Eventually a wary Xander peered through the unlocked front door. He surveyed the scene inside with bittersweet relief.

"What's going on?" whispered Cordelia from behind him.

Xander tried to think of what eloquent words he could burst in and be the hero with, but nothing came to mind. He finally decided to let Giles be and turned back to Cordelia.

"Let's go," he said quietly.


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