And Then There Were Three: "...But You Want to Die a Hero."
by DiabloVixen
Paige felt the cold floor beneath her. She felt groggy and her head was throbbing. She lifted her hand to feel her head. *Rattling.* She tried to lift her hand again. *Rattling.* She forced her eyes opened and studied the metal brace around her wrist. She looked to the other side, another brace. She looked around, everything looked blurry. She could clearly hear rain drops above her head; she had to be in a building. She listened to the rain drops again, it sounded like the roof was metal.

Paige searched through her mind for the memory of what happened. Patrolling with Willow, Xander and Dawn, She remembered that. Something had to have gone wrong. The three vampires, she remembered the picture of them in her head, they were huddled in a group near a tree, and it looked like they were talking. She snuck up behind one… It’s face! It looked like… No it was her mom. Then Xander screamed to her and she fell to the ground… That’s all she could remember. It had to be a dream; her mom is dead, attacked… Something interrupted her though process. Something cold and wet touched the gash on her forehead. She could see a body kneeling in front of her, her vision was clearing up. She looked up. It was her mom’s face. *No, It can’t be.* She struggled to stand up.

“Stay down, dear.” The body whispered.

“It can’t be. No way it’s a trick, you’re not her.” She shouted as she stood up. The shouting and sudden rush of standing made her head scream in pain.

“Just relax, dear. Look how many fingers do you see?” She asked still in her calm whisper.

“I don’t know. What’s 3 times 36?” She snarled. “Who are you?!?!”

“You know who I am.” She answered once again in that whisper. She began rubbing all the dried blood from Paige’s face.

Her vision was almost completely back to normal. She looked across to see Willow, Xander and Dawn begin to rise to their feet. Paige saw they had chains on their wrists too.

“Your friends are beginning to rise as well, better get the others.” She said disappearing out of sight.

*Others?* Paige thought getting worried, she began pull her chains, she couldn’t get them loose. She looked over to see Xander helping Dawn up.

“You guys alright?” Paige said.

“Yeah, we’re fine over here, a little constricted, but otherwise okay.” Xander replied trying to hide his fear with humor.

At least they were okay. *For now, anyway.* She tried to think of a plan, she looked around for anything to use. Her mind wasn’t working fast enough. Her mom walked back out. She walked over to Paige.

“You’ll be so happy to see them.” She whispered in her ear as four more people walked over to her.

She couldn’t believe what she was seeing. She frantically pulled at her chains.

“Hey, honey.” He dad said standing in front of her.

Paige looked at the end of the group, she saw a vampire standing there smirking. She could never forget that vampire’s face. He was the ringleader of the group that attacked her family. He mocked her as she stood there, frozen in fear as they feasted on her family and friends.

“You!” She screamed as her eye filled with tears. “You did this! What did you do?”

The ringleader chuckled. “You saw what I did. As a matter of fact, you stood there and watched what I did. Now you see the fruits of my labor.”

“What did you do to them?”

“He gave us eternal life.” A teenage girl said standing in the middle of the group. She step forward and hugged Paige. “I missed you so much.”

“I’m so sorry Lauren. I’m sorry. So sorry.” Paige rambled embracing Lauren.

“It’s okay.” Lauren said stepping back.

“We’re happier this way.” Said a teenage boy stepping up next to Lauren.

“Jason?” Paige said overwhelmed, tears were flowing down her face.

“We want you to be with us, forever.” Her mom said wiping away her tears. Paige pulled her face away.

“You’re not my mom.”

“How can you say that?”

“You’re a vampire, you may walk and talk like her but you’re not.”

“We were always there for you Paige. Always. Every time you needed a ride…”

“Every Soccer, Basketball and Softball game. We were there for you.” Her Dad added.

“Every time you were sick.” Jason said.

“Every time you needed someone to talk to.” Lauren said. “But that one time. The one time, when we needed you the most, you weren’t there.”

“I’m sorry.” Paige yelled in tears.

“You let us die, Paige.” Her mother said in her calm whisper tone. “And the one thing we want is to be with you in eternity and you won’t even give us that.”

Paige looked across to Dawn. “What about them?” She asked.

“What about them?” Her dad asked.

“What will happen to them?”

“Do you care?” Her mom said.

“They’ve done so much for me.”

“They don’t really care about you, Paige.” Jason said. “They’re using you for your strength. Do you really think they would have taken you in if you weren’t a slayer?”

“They are going to use you to fight their enemies and them they are going to leave you to rot.” Lauren added.

“We would never do that.” Dawn shouted. They all turned and smiled at her.

“Even if you do stay with them.” Her Dad began. “Do you think they’ll ever trust you, after what you did? You let your family and closest friends die. Do you really think they’ll trust you to protest strangers you barely know?”

“Vampires can smell blood from miles away, we can sense fear. We can detect other emotions too. We can sense your pain.” The ringleader said. “We can hear the screaming inside your head. I bet you wake up every morning, after a long night of nightmares, wishing today was the day you finally died. Wishing to be with your family and friends again. We can accomplish that all in one fell swoop.”

He was right she did wake up every morning wishing it could all stop. She wished the guilt would go away. She wished she woke up one day like it was all a huge nightmare, she wished she found herself in her own bed, in her own house. She wanted her family back. If they weren’t going to come back she wanted to go to them.

“I know you Paige.” Her mom said. “You’re too brave and proud to kill yourself, you want to die fighting. You may not be… but you want to die a hero.”

“I can’t, it’s not fair…” She looked down avoiding everyone’s eyes.

“Not fair? To who? Them?” Her mom continued. “They don’t care whether you live or die; you would make their lives easier, one less mouth to feed, one less person to worry about.” She walked over to Paige and touched her face. Paige jerked her head aside and started at the stake on the floor trying not to listen.

“You could make all this pain stop, Paige.” Jason said walking over as her mom stepped aside. “We’re your friends, your family we want what’s best for you. We want you to be happy. Don’t you want to be happy?”

She shook her head up and down.

“Then let me help you.” He said moving her head over to the side and positioning his head above her neck.

“Don’t Stop!” Willow screamed. “Don’t let them do this!”

Jason laughed as he got his game face on and sunk in his teeth. Paige eyes widened and she groaned in pain as she felt his teeth pierce her skin, she felt her warm blood run down her shoulder.


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