**Beloved, gaze in thine own heart.
Gaze no more in the bitter glass
The demons, with their subtle guile.
Lift up before us when they pass,
Or only gaze a little while;
For there a fatal image grows
That the stormy night receives,
Roots half hidden under snows,
Broken boughs and blackened leaves.
For all things turn to barrenness
In the dim glass the demons hold,
The glass of outer weariness,
Made when God slept in times of old.
There, through the broken branches, go
The ravens of unresting thought;
Flying, crying, to and fro,
Cruel claw and hungry throat,
Or else they stand and sniff the wind,
And shake their ragged wings;alas.
Thy tender eyes grow all unkind:
Gaze no more in the bitter glass.**
The eternal cloak of night continued to linger, plunging the forest into even more of its eternal darkness as
the gray clouds above in the starry, midnight sky cloaked the silver kissed glow of
the full moon from radiating down its silver light onto the eerie, ominous forest where treacherous shadows
swayed against the soft breeze along with the lifeless trees that seem to radiate life once more.
Wisps of smoky air that billowed hauntingly around the forbidden forest
swirled deliciously around the ominous, black trees that radiated menacing shadows all around.
Rustled leaves swirled around the shadowed image of Buffy, struggling for
breath but only tiny wisps escaped from her lips before sparkling lights began to dance in front of her eyes.
She was beginning to lose consciousness to the coldness of the night that billowed around her.
How can the stars above continue to twinkle like hot white fire burning
brightly against the dark of night while I lay here unconscious?
The twinkled stars above the cloak of night only responded
by twinkling brightly as ever like hot fire against the midnight sky.
Darkness began to cloud Buffy’s mind as unexpected images of her mother began to form.
Images of that horrible day when she found her own mother dead with a pool of her own ruby blood still
haunted her to this day as she pressed her hazel eyes closed shut against the darkness.
Tears began to pool in her eyes, sparkling brightly under the
brightness of the stars before they trickled down her cheek slowly.
In spite of herself, why had her own images of her mother looming in her
mind when she hadn’t even glance a single thought of that
horrible day in over three years?
Why now?
A terrible feeling was growing slowly in the pit of her stomach as she
struggled to fight the darkness and the images that were billowing in her mind.
What frightened her the most chilled her fear instilling heart at
the haunting memory that would never go away until her last breath.
She never knew exactly what had caused her mother’s
death and the frightening thought chilled her to the bone.
But all she wanted to do now was to erase the horrible image from
her mind as terror began to fill her heart with the fear that lay instilled.
Her mind plunged into everlasting darkness.
Warm, strong hands caressed her flushed cheeks as Buffy lifted her
eyes open to the darkness above that was crackling with a image of lighting.
Cool, soft breeze caressed softly against her face like soft white feathers
as her eyes gazed those obsidian ones that stood out against the dark cloak of night.
The woods once again plunged into everlasting silence that seem to last for all of eternity.
Buffy quickly stood up, panting heavily for breath when those
same images of her mother haunted her mind once more.
Instinct told her that there was more behind her mother’s death, but Buffy didn’t want to acknowledge
the horrifying fact that her mother’s death could mean more that what the images had shone her.
The thought of it sent violent shivers down her arms and neck simultaneously
against the cool breeze that slapped her flushed cheeks softly once again.
“What…happened….to….the….tiger?” Buffy whispered, leaves and
branches crunching underneath the weight of her
slim form, tendrils of her hair billowing along with the breeze
that continued to sway the looming shadows that surrounded her.
“The tiger….was….only a shadow,” the girl that stood next to her only shivered against the soft cool
winds that swirled, cascading around her small form that was leaning
softly against a lifeless tree that was cloaked with white, airy mist ominously.
Hazel eyes widened at the girl, but she stayed silent under the dark shadows that still loomed around her.
“Are you ok?” Angel asked softly, looking as devilishly handsome under the faint silver glow of the moon.
Silence only escaped from Buffy’s own lips before she whispered quietly.
“I don’t know. When I lost consciousness, images of my mother’s death were haunting my mind.
“They were showing me that there was more going on that I don‘t know about.
“I’m afraid that I’m only gonna discover something even more horrifying than her death had been,” Buffy shivered against the
night air that was beginning to take on a ominous appearance to her
own eyes, glancing suspiciously through the darkened forest for any
dark presence that might be lurking in the gloomy shadows.
A crackle of lighting shattered the silence of the night, startling the trespassers out of their reverie.
Drops of rain began to pour down silently from the sky, splashing tear drops against Buffy’s flushed cheeks.
More lighting began to crackle.
The gloomy forest took on even more of a ominous appearance while the dark
shadows cascading all around the trespassers swayed eerily against the night breeze, hiding
eerily behind the airy white mists that were billowing around the countless lifeless trees.
Soft laughter began to echoe hauntingly throughout the eerie woods.
Another presence was lurking nearby, hiding in the trembling shadows.
Lighting crackled once again against the midnight sky, revealing the cloaked presence of the lurker.
Soft laughter echoed once more.
“Who’s doing….that?” the girl whispered fearfully, clutching Damon’s arm tightly.
“The Leader,” Angel whispered, standing before Buffy protectively.
Lighting crackled.
The cloaked presence appeared eerily before them and Buffy felt an
immediate wave of supreme power radiating off the slim form of the cloaked figure.
She glanced at the cloak figure fearlessly, curling her lips in a cruel snarl. She had enough of this.
The cloak figure looked directly at Damon with a low growl that echoed through the fierce darkness.
“You…..” the eerie voice echoed throughout the night, snarling at Damon with hatred in its eyes.
I *recognize* that voice somewhere before, Buffy thought with her eyes
wide shut against the darkness that radiated from the cloaked figure.
“*You* were supposed to be on my side. *My* side. The Darkness. The Night Ones. Instead, you betrayed us and went over to the side of Good.
“Your treachery will not be allowed. You will suffer inscrutiating consequences for your treachery and betrayal,” the cloaked figure continued to
snarl in whisper directly at Damon with seething hatred
and rage radiating from its supremely powerful dark aura.
Damon looked on at the cloak figure with fearlessness
in his eyes and a snarl curving his perfect lips.
“For your treachery, I will happily come to destroy the one thing that matters the most to you.
“Your brother,” the cloak figure sneered, its laughter echoing cruelly throughout the darkness.
“No!!” Damon screamed, breaking the night instilled silence.
“I will not let you destroy my brother,” Damon continued to snarl in challence, gazing
directly at the eyes of the cloaked figure that remained in half shadow that flickered endlessly.
“I will not allow you to do that brother,” Angel’s whispered
words echoed, staring at Damon with steely resolve.
“I will not let her destroy the one thing that matters the most to me brother,” Damon replied stubbornly, shadows flickering on his beautiful face.
“No! I will not let you sacrifice your own life to save mines. I cannot allow it,” Angel whisperd
stubbornly when a black crackling fireball was heading towards his direction.
Soft laughter continued to pierce through the everlasting darkness, and then chaos ensued.
“Angel, get out of the way!!” Buffy screamed, frozen still in place, tears pooling and spilling in her eyes.
“Now you will both die,” the cloaked figure sneered cruelly.
The crackling energy almost touched Angel before a figure pushed him out of the way.
It was Damon. The crackling fireball hit directly at his chest, sending
embers of Power throughout his body, destroying him.
Everything stopped, as if time were going in slow motion.
Tears trickled down Buffy’s flushed cheeks while she screamed helplessly, holding Angel back in her arms.
“No!! Damon!!” Angel screamed, but Buffy didn’t chance to release him from her grasp.
The slim figure of the girl stood behind Damon, frozen with tears spilling
down her cheeks, whimpering fiercely in the shadows that cloaked her.
“No!!” she whimpered against the night air.
The cloaked figure continued to sneer in pure pleasure at
the sight of Damon being destroyed once and for all for his treachery.
The crackling energy that encased Damon’s body disappeared into the night.
Damon’s lifeless body dropped to the forest floor, crunching
fallen branches, blood seeping from his beautiful face.
Fearlessness encased in Buffy’s features.
“You will pay for what you did,” she snarled at the cloaked figure in fearlessness.
Angel escaped from her slim arms, running desperately
towards his little brother that was lying almost lifeless on the branches.
For the first time, Buffy saw tears glistening in Angel’s obsidian eyes
and the sight broke Buffy’s heart completely, shattering into pieces.
She vowed silently that the cloaked figure was going to pay for what she did.
The cloaked figure disappeared into the night once more, laughter still echoing in the darkness tauntingly.
*Holding my last breath….
“Damon, how could you do this?” Angel continued to cry.
“I couldn’t…..let……her…..hurt you,” Damon whispered,blood dripping from his lips, trickling down his cheeks.
*Safe inside my self…..
Damon’s eyes turn to gaze at Buffy. “I’m….so…. sorry for what I did.
"Please forgive me,” he whispered, placing a soft kiss to Buffy’s slim hand.
*Are all my thoughts of you….
“Forgive me,” Damon whispered pleadingly to Angel, sadness filling
his brown eyes that shimmered with tears like drops of rain.
*Sweet raptured light, it ends here tonight…
*Say goodnight….Don’t be afraid….
*Holding my last breath…..
*Safe inside my self….
*Are all my thoughts of you…..
*Sweet raptured light, it ends here tonight….
With a last quick of breath, Damon fades into the light. Forever more…
*Sweet raptured light, it ends here tonight….
*Buildings burn, people die, but real love is forever…
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