More Than Who We Are: Part Five
by Calie Johnston
Part Five
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Laile Public Library
9:35 AM
If there was one thing Buffy hated, it was research.
Research was boring. Slow. Time-consuming.
She didn't have near enough time.
Not if she wanted to save Angel.
Buffy shut her eyes briefly, wondering what was happening to him.
What was happening while she sat, fidgeting, in front of the computer screen.
Ahh, computers. Buffy had decided long ago that the evil little machines were Hell-spawns - one of the few things she and Giles agreed upon. < I wish Willow was here, > she thought suddenly. The young hacker was capable of finding virtually anything and anyone on the vast information source known as the internet. Buffy, however, was not.
Which was becoming increasingly evident. Buffy glared at the computer, silently challenging it to a battle of wills - if the computer blinked first, it would *have* to let her on the internet.
she told herself, irritated, after that last thought crossed her mind.
The Slayer pounded on the keys, frustrated, and standing up, shoved the chair back behind the desk.
One of the librarians, a somewhat exotic-looking brown-haired and -eyed woman that looked to be about Giles's age, glanced up from the book shelf she was alphabetizing. "D'ya need any help?" she questioned Buffy, amused by the girl's dilemma.
Buffy blushed. "Am I that obvious?"
The woman walked over towards the now-abandoned computer. "Let's see. What are you looking for?"
"Um, I'm doing this report, thing, and I was wondering if there was like an online thingy for the Los Angeles Times." Buffy took a closer look at the woman, and was struck by how familiar she looked and sounded.
"Yeah, there is." She typed in a web address, her fingers flying over the keys with amazing speed. "Here ya go."
Buffy froze. That woman...she looked almost like...*Jenny*. Seeing the woman was gone, Buffy spun around to thank her.
She was gone.
Buffy stared at the entrance - glass doors that weren't moving at all - they should be, they should be! - for a few moments, and shocked, went back to the computer.
Search results for the words 'Vibes', 'Attack', and the last month were showing on the screen.
* * *
Willow grasped Oz's hand tightly, willing him to wake up. Her face was streaked with tears as she screamed in her mind, and cried to any gods that would listen not to let him die. This wasn't fair! This wasn't supposed to happen to her, she was a good girl, and bad things were only s'posed to happen to bad people and oh, God... part of her mind questioned. Willow wondered if this was what was coming to her. She'd been lucky too long.
She and Oz had both been lucky too long.
"Please..." she whispered, almost inaudibly.
Oz blinked.
Willow squeezed his hand even tighter, leaning over his body. "Oz?!" she whispered excitedly. "Oz!"
Oz lifted his head just barely off the retro-style couch, wearily looking around the wreckage of the Bronze. "Whoa," he said, verbally assessing the damage with one word.
Willow wrapped her arms around him, hugging him tightly. Her tears spilled onto his shirt, soaking him through. "I was so worried! I thought - I...well, you passed out, and I couldn't hear you breathing..."
Oz held her tighter, and asked, "What happened?"
Willow's lip was trembling with fear and worry. "I don't know...one minute it was all busy and we were sitting here talking and then it's almost like a bomb went off except I know that one didn't-"
He put one finger to her mouth to silence her. He looked around uneasily and sniffed at the air. "We need to get out of here."
"What is it?"
Oz shook his head, painfully standing up. He grabbed Willow's hand and ran out of the Bronze.
The bomb went off, and fire chased the couple blocks away. Fueled by the bodies of everyone who had been unconscious.
Willow stared in wide-eyed horror at the demolished building.
* * *
Buffy sighed and stuffed dimes into the printer. What a rip. Ten cents for one stupid sheet of information. Or, in her case, sixty cents.
It was worth it, though, if she found this vampire.
Buffy paged through the papers, stopping at a police sketch of a murder suspect.
It was Aurélie. The eyes of the picture were a little different, more almond-shape than the vampire's were, but there was no mistaking the likeness.
Underneath the sketch was an article on the crime committed.
*32-year-old Los Angeles resident Katherine Gasper was found in a coma outside of Vibes Nightclub early June 19th. Gasper died four hours later in Mercy Hospital, from causes unknown. The only witness described the attack as follows: "...it's like [Gasper] just fell down...she didn't like hit her head or anything, I don't know what knocked her out..." The witness described the suspect as pictured above. Approximate height is 5'5", weight 120 lbs. Please contact the Los Angeles Police Department with any information.*
At the very bottom of the paper, in small print, was a list of other related articles. And on both sides of the remaining five sheets were the articles. They dated back to August 1996 - < I was still here, > Buffy realized - and all looked pretty much identical. The victim was always found in a coma, outside of various LA nightclubs - most recently, Vibes - and died four hours later, 'unknown causes'. And Aurélie apparently didn't care too much about being caught, either - there were almost always witnesses.
The computer started beeping at her. Buffy glanced over at it, and an alert message popped up on the screen. it read.
Curious, Buffy put two more dimes into the printer. Two final pages printed out.
Obituaries and follow-up articles, on top, the ones for Katherine Gasper.
*Katherine Gasper, a murder victim who died June 19th, was found alive the morning of June 23rd, at Hartmann Funeral Home, by owner Julius Keefe.*
So. Aurélie didn't kill her victims. She just...what? Buffy continued reading. An interview with the woman's recently-divorced husband, and her daughter.
*Gasper's daughter, Carolyn Roberts, considers her mother's apparent resurrection "a miracle", but also says her mother has been acting "strangely" since Gasper moved in with her daughter.*
* * *
Vibes Nightclub - Los Angeles 5:00 PM
Jordan had taken a bus over to the nightclub as soon as he got off of work. Randy had hassled him, given him some shit, "You meetin' that hottie blonde from yesterday? She fast?", at which Randy had received a not-quite-playful slap from Julie. Jordan sighed. He was surprised Julie had stuck by her boyfriend this long - Randy was the type that would run off with the first hot girl he saw - well, assuming they'd actually take a look at him. Which, Jordan supposed, was why Randy and Julie had ended up together. As much as they fought, they were an honest-to-God case of 'opposites attract'. Randy lived in his own little world a lot of the time, daydreaming - probably about porn stars. Randy had redefined careless. Julie, on the other hand, was someone that Jordan both admired and pitied. She had moved to the City of Angels in hope of making a name for herself in the movie business - and found the task far easier said than done. And it wasn't like Julie had no talent - she was better than most of the teen actresses that filled the business - she just wasn't as fake-looking as most of them. Julie looked like the girl next door, not a 'sexy', silicon and six-inch-waist supermodel. And so she had ended up in a nowhere job in a nowhere town next to what should be renamed Los Diablos - City of Devils.
You'd never find an angel here.
Jordan thought, spotting Nicole from across the room. The girl seemed to walk in her own personal spotlight, no matter how depressed, how world-weary she looked to everyone.
He waved her over, and she made her way to his table.
Jordan, being a relatively polite guy, would have started the conversation with at least a simple 'hello', but she cut to the quick.
"Have you made a decision?"
Jordan met her large, painful brown eyes, then glanced around the rest of the room. Looking for the answer. Finding it nowhere except in himself. Nicole's gaze captured his again, and he nodded slowly. "Yeah. And, yeah. I'm going to help you. I can deal with consequence. And I can't let you do this by yourself. Hell, I don't even know what you're here for, and I already feel like I'm in too deep. I'm not gonna let this go down without helping."
Nicole nodded almost imperceptibly, never breaking his gaze. Her eyes seemed a little bit lighter than they had a moment ago, a light shining out behind them he had only seen in flashes before. But at the same time, she seemed weighted down, like she felt she had pressured him into this.
Almost reading her mind, Jordan shook his head. "No. You didn't make me do this. This is my decision, understand? I met you for a reason. I want to know what it is."
The corners of Nicole's mouth turned slightly upwards. "Thank you."
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