Disclaimer: Buffy The Vampire Slayer and related characters are owned by Joss Whedon, WB and Mutant Enemy. I can only take credit for the new main characters I have created and various other vampire minions which may wander into my stories. I created them, so they are mine. Don't sue as this is just pure fanfic.
*****Chapter Three – Four Still Standing*****
Two days had passed and Cordelia hadn’t been seen. There was a notice put up around the campus about a mugging that had occurred, where a girl had been slashed in the face with a knife. Buffy knew that they were talking about Courtney, but she couldn’t quite believe she’d lied about how she’d gotten the cut.
Willow had spent a large part of her time researching the sorority house and its residents. While Buffy had tried to find the janitor. Apparently he’d been in the Sunnydale mental hospital for almost fifty years, and they had very limited visiting hours. Plus, she wasn’t a relative…so it was even harder to get in. But today was the day, 12.00 noon, she’d go and try to get some information out of the crazy old guy.
She was shown into his room by a large, butch nurse who seemed to be scowling for some reason…maybe working with the Sunnydale crazies could do that to you.
“Frank.” She said, tapping the shoulder of a frail looking white haired old man. “Visitor.” She nodded at Buffy, then turned to walk out of the room. “You got ten minutes.”
“Thanks. Er, Hi. Frank? My names Buffy…I just wanted to ask you some questions.”
The old man was sitting on his bed in a white bathrobe and blue striped pyjamas, staring blankly at the wall. As Buffy spoke he seemed to wake up a little and turned to look at her.
“Betty?” he asked.
“Buffy.” She extended her hand and a pale, wrinkled hand shook it then patted the bed beside him. She sat down obediently.
“You used to work at UC Sunnydale didn’t you Frank?” She asked tentatively.
“Used to…work at UC…yes…” There seemed to be a slightly lifeless quality to his voice, like he was there but at the same time, not there. He reached into the pocket of his robe and pulled out a brown paper bag and offered it to Buffy. “Toffee?” Buffy took one and unwrapped it.
“Thanks. So, can I ask why you stopped working there Frank?”
“The girls.” He said, a little more lively now. “The dead girls. Two of ‘em. Said they were lovers…said they were witches…but I know…two dead girls.” He started rocking back and forth slightly, Buffy felt she was losing him rapidly.
“Frank…what do you know about the girls? The Sorority house right?”
“No…bad place…bad, bad place. Said I can’t go there…two dead girls…bad girls there…two dead…had to hide, had to tell what I saw…put me away…two dead girls.”
“Frank, please, anything specific you can remember…” Buffy felt the need to back away as he continued to babble; saying the same thing over and over again…two dead girls, two dead girls. Then he grabbed her arm and stared earnestly into her eyes.
“I saw them Betty…”
“Buffy…”
“Saw them I did. That night…new students, new girls. Pretty girls…lively, lovely, curly haired girls. In the house…I was fixing the pipes…heard a scream…went to help and saw…two dead girls…and them.”
“Who Frank…who did you see, with the dead girls?” He tightened his grip on her arm and his eyes grew wider.
“Things…evil things…scales and teeth…claws…screaming…lots of screaming…two dead girls.” There were almost tears in his eyes now as he carried on, Buffy’s arm was starting to hurt where he held it so tight, but he didn’t let go. “I told them…told them what I saw…they put me in here…said I was wrong, up here.” He tapped the side of his head with his free hand. “Said I liked to watch the girls too much…said it drove me mad. I did watch the girls…I watched those things hang them…evil things…bad things…poor, lovely, dead girls…”
He released her arm and stood up, opening the drawer in his nightstand. Inside there was a pile of sketches and paintings. All looking remarkably demony…tall, thin, scaly grey demons. They had long claws, sharp teeth in big gaping mouths…no nose that she could see, and deep black eyes. He handed her the pile and she flipped through them one at a time. They were all pretty much the same, some drawn a little more shakily than others.
“I draw them at night” he said. “I have dreams…about what I saw. Wakes me up and I draw.”
“Can I take one of these Frank?” Buffy asked. He stared at her blankly for a long time then nodded.
As she tucked the picture in her pocket and put the rest back in the drawer she noticed him staring out the window.
“I don’t get many visitors.” He said. He seemed calmer now, and more sane. “Never leave this room anymore. Haven’t been on a walk in the gardens for so long…” Buffy felt sorry for him, watching him look out at the trees and grass, wishing that anyone would believe he wasn’t crazy…wishing that someone still cared enough to wonder if he was.
“Frank” She said, taking his attention away from the window. “I know you’re not crazy. I’ve seen things like this too. They’re real, all kinds of them…all shapes, all sizes…and pretty much all evil. But I know how to stop them. I will stop them Frank.” She took his hand. “No more dead girls, I promise.”
********
Willow sat on her bed in their room, Oz by her side. They were searching the internet for information on the house. School records, ex-residents addresses, grades…anything. But what they found was…
“Nothing.” Willow sighed for the third time. “I mean, didn’t any of them do anything before or after college?”
“Fairly odd I agree.” Oz laid back on the bed, his eyes tired from looking. “Try looking in the police records, see if theirs anything more about the two girls who died 50 yeas ago.”
“Ok.” Willow looked through a few more files, searching for information on girls hanged in the dorms. “Whoah…hey, whoah…” She pointed excitedly at the screen and Oz sat up.
“Theres more…much more. Not just fifty years ago. About every ten years, two girls died in there. Forty years ago one slit her wrists in the bath, and the other took an overdose of painkillers…thirty years ago another hanging and an overdose…twenty years ago more slit wrists and a gun related suicide. They were all so different that they never saw them as a strange double suicide…so they never got the press coverage the first two girls did.”
“First?”
“Yeah…I can’t find anything going further back than fifty years. Before that there was nothing. It’s all starting to look a little demony.”
“I hear ya. So I’m some kind of ritual loving demon…I kill two girls for your average demon high-jinx…but it draws too much attention. Next ritual I get wise and make it look more natural.”
“Just your average college suicides. And if my timings right here it looks like one of the new pledges might be next. We need to call Buffy.”
“Agreed.” Oz reached for the phone, he’d barely lifted the receiver when Buffy burst in.
“Got our demons…sort of.”
“Us too…I mean, what?”
“Frank drew this.” She tossed the picture onto the bed beside Willow, who glared at it doubtfully.
“Crazy Frank the janitor?”
“Not so crazy. He saw what killed those girls Will, fifty years ago. He was there the night they died. That’s what he saw, but no-one believed him so they locked him up.”
“Poor guy.” Oz said taking the picture from Willow and sizing up the demon. “So what is it?”
“Hey, I got the picture…I’m not so much about the book work.”
“I guess we’d better get this to Giles. With the stuff we got it all adds up to some pretty nasty demon clan…or cult…or something.”
**********
Buffy paced up and down Giles’ apartment, itching to slay something, while Willow, Oz and Giles hit the books. Three hours, five cups of tea and two batches of doughnuts later they hit the jackpot.
“This is our demon.” Willow said triumphantly laying the open book on the coffee table.
“Khark-who?” Buffy asked, glaring at the pages.
“Khark-shash demons. They’re a type of demon that feeds off fear. Not that common in this dimension really, they usually stick to their own home dimension as their powers are limited outside of it. But from what Willow has found it seems they’ve found a way in.”
“Great, demons without a green-card.” Buffy quipped, but Giles ignored her and pressed on.
“I’d wager they’d found a way to feed off the fear of these girls that they can generate during freshers week, and every few years they must offer some sort of sacrifice to the higher demons in their own dimension…a sort of trade off for being allowed to remain here.”
“But freshers week is just…well, a week.” Willow sounded confused. “I mean, how do they get their kicks the other 51 weeks?”
“Well…that’s where I’m a little stumped. But sacrificing two girls every ten years is quite a hefty price to pay just to remain here…and if it’s not worth it, if there’s no fear to feed off…”
“Then they ought to be going home. Will, can you get back on the net and look into the current house residents. Family backgrounds, previous schooling, that kind of thing.”
“Sure.”
“I just need to know what we’re missing here.”
Buffy threw aside the book she was leafing through and picked up a demon index. She started flipping through the pages looking at various pictures, some she’d seen before, some she’d slain and others she be happy never to see.
Twenty minutes later they had a list of house members. And a list of previous schools, home addresses, parents current jobs, medical records…
“What about these other names. Paige, Tiffany, Ebony and Channel?”
“Nothing…no previous records. Not even SAT scores. It’s like they didn’t exist before they came here.”
“Then its them, it has to be…just those four.”
“What about the other girls? And last years pledges that got in…they didn’t die, and they’re not demons. So maybe they know something?”
“Guess I should go find out. Can you pull me up a class schedule for one of them, I don’t think I can get to them inside the house.”
Willow punched a few things into the keyboard and pulled up a name and a schedule.
“Ok, Catherine Hopps. She pledged last year, one of the two who got in. She’s in Art History right now, but that’s due to finish in ten minutes.”
“Thanks Will!” Buffy said as she ran out of the apartment.
**********
As the students spilled out of the Art History lecture hall Buffy caught sight of a girl with mousy curls wearing a tee-shirt with the Beta-Zeta-Pie lettering on.
“Catherine?” She called. The girl turned round and approached Buffy, clutching her books tightly.
“Can I help you?”
“Not me, but maybe you can help a friend of mine. She’s a pledge, at your sorority…I’m worried about her.” Catherine’s face relaxed slightly and she smiled.
“Look, I know the pledges get it kind of hard, but trust me, it’ll be ok. I mean, I survived it. You’re friend will be fine, excuse me.” She turned to walk away and Buffy noticed a scar down the side of her face, just next to her ear.
“Is that a token you got from pledging?” Catherine pulled her hair over the scar and made another move to walk away but Buffy grabbed her arm, guiding her back inside the lecture hall and shutting the door.
“Look, you’re loyalty is admirable, really…but I need your help to save someone.”
“Ok.”
“So how did you get that scar.”
“It was just a pledge thing, I screwed up. I was lucky to get in ok. There were three of us left, and the other two had a much better chance than me. Then the day we got called in to find out Erica went upstairs…we told her to just wait with us, that they’d be down soon. But she just went up there.”
“Did they do something to Erica?”
“No...I don’t think so. I mean, there was a scream and she came running back down. She was babbling about seeing something awful up there, then she left. I got picked in her place, and she bailed out of school the next day. Paige said it was just a sorority prank, one last test…but she didn’t say exactly what happened.”
“What about when you moved in, what was it like then?”
“It was ok I guess. A little weird at first, after being a pledge and being pushed around…then you’re a sister. It feels kinda awkward, but I guess all pledges feel like that when they get in. It’s just, the house is kinda creepy.”
“Creep how?”
“Look, I shouldn’t even be talking to you…you’re not even a pledge…” Buffy held her arm across the door, blocking Catherine’s path and glaring at her.
“Just tell me.”
“I don’t know…I just get the feeling that the house is weird, it’s always cold in my room, and there are noises at night, sometimes during the day too. Odd creaking, weird scratching sounds…maybe we’re haunted or something.” She smiled slightly and shrugged. “Old houses I guess. Can I go now?”
“Sure…” Buffy stepped aside and let her leave, and then ran straight into the hall and grabbed the payphone. It rang twice and Giles answered.
“Giles! If the ghosts of the dead girls were still in the house, and still afraid, would that be enough to keep the demons going?” There was along silence and the sound of Giles riffling threw a few books could be heard, then he finally answered.
“Well…perhaps…I mean, if they were trapped there mystically. I doubt there’d be reason for them to stay. But still, it might not be quite enough to hold on to their human form for their entire time here.”
“OK, but what if the other sisters in the house were scared too? After pledging…sacred to move in, of the ghosts, of the other sisters?”
“Well, it certainly seems like something that could happen. If they kept the fear generating for the time in the house, and kept somehow adding to the ghost collection every ten years… I’m sure this freshers week must be an extraordinary high for them.”
“Yeah, I’m guessing that.”
There was a commotion outside and some screaming. A student ran past and Buffy grabbed his arm.
“What happened?”
“A girl just took a dive off the library roof…” Buffy let go as he ran on down the corridor.
“Sorry Giles, got to go.” She hung up the phone and ran outside. The library was right next to them, a two minute walk.
There was a crowd gathered on its front steps and Buffy pushed her way to the front. The girl lying dead on the steps was Catherine. Her eyes were still open and staring straight up, and her books and papers were strewn across the steps, some flying off in the breeze. There were gasps and muffled voices in the crowd, some were whispering about suicide.
“Why would she have kept hold of her book if it was a suicide.” Buffy muttered to herself. She looked up at the top of the library building; the sun flashed in her eyes and made it hard to see. But just for a moment she thought she saw someone up there.
**********
“Giles!” Buffy burst into the Sunnydale High Library, which at the time was unusually busy with students. But she didn’t care. “Giles!”
“Buffy…what is it?” Giles asked, dropping his pile of book and rushing towards her. She was breathing heavily from running all the way there. He took her arm and led her into his office before she could speak.
“It’s the girl I spoke to today. She told me she’d heard noises in the house…and she had a scar on her face, form pledging. She didn’t say how, but I’m sure Paige did it…”
“Paige?”
“Head bitch at Beta-Zeta_Pie. But Giles, they killed her! Like, just now. Threw her off the roof of the library!”
Giles frowned as if the thought of using the library for such dark activities as murder was inconceivable.
“Don’t worry Giles, its not like she bled all over the books or anything…books are still good.”
“Buffy, theres no need to be terse..”
“There is! There so is need to be terse…what’s terse?” She pulled a face and started pacing his office. “Ok, we need to round up the gang, get weapons, maybe a few good spells and take those demons on. Do you have you car?”
Before Giles could raise a hand in protest they were in his car on the way to Buffy’s dorm. When they arrived Willow was instructed to grab a few magical items…candles, sand, stinky herbs. Giles dug out a few of Buffy’s choicest weapons form her chest, while Buffy called Xander and Oz.
**********
Buffy explained the bulk of her plan as they were all in Buffy and Willow’s dorm room. Xander and Oz where there for backup purposes and to get Cordelia and the other pledges out only. Willow and Giles were in charge of the magic, and Buffy was left with the killing. She relly liked that part of the plan.
They arrived at the front steps of the house just after sun-down. They had taken a quick look into the side window on their way and seen that Cordelia and the remaining pledges were in the house once again, standing in a line in front of Paige, like naughty schoolgirls.
“Ok, on my signal then? Giles, Will, you reday?”
Giles and Willow nodded as Buffy readied her chosen weapon, a large double headed axe, and headed up the front steps. As she knocked on the door Giles and Willow lit the candles that they had placed around the edge of the sand circle. Willow also lit a few herbs that were mixed in a bowel in the centre of the circle. She whispered a silent wish that Eve could be there to help them, and she knew that Giles was feeling the same. An experienced, 200 year old witch would be good about now. But they hadn’t had time to get in touch with the others, and it was only just getting dark. As Buffy knocked on the door Giles opened his book and began to chant quietly.
“Hi.” Buffy said brightly to the blond who answered the door. She had the axe behind her back. “Am I late?”
The blonde narrowed her eyes. “If you’re who I think you are, you’re not welcome at all.”
“That’s a shame, I was hoping to pledge. Oh well.” Buffy kicked her hard in the stomach and sent her flying back into the dark entry hall. She stepped inside the door and held her axe for all to see.
“Tiff?” came a voice from the living room. “What the hell was that?”
“Just your average party crasher.” Buffy said as she entered the room. “Oh, I’m sorry, were you in the middle of something?”
In front of her one of the pledges, a girl she recognised as Halley, was on her knees before Paige clutching the side of her face. Blood was seeping through her fingers and Buffy thought she could hear her crying.
Before she could say anything else Paige screamed and ran at her. She held the handle of the axe up in defence, and for a few moments they both struggled to get a grip on it. Then all hell broke loose. The pledges started screaming, the girl known as Saffron grabbed a weeping Halley by the shoulder and tried to pull her towards the door. It was then that Ebony threw herself at them with such force that they both het the floor with a thud and rolled into Cordelia’s legs, knocking her to the ground with them.
Outside Xander and Oz grabbed their weapons and ran into the house, the scream had been their signal. Before they made it more than two steps into the hallway Tiff stood in front of them, barring their path. Xander waved his sword at her and glared, hoping she would back down. Instead the slim, preppy blonde turned into a grey, scaly and extremely ugly demon in need of serious dental care. With a scream she flew at Xander. Oz jumped behind her and started slashing at her with his sword.
Cordelia had recovered from being knocked over and had been watching the whole thing with a glazed expression on her face. She could see Buffy locked in a battle with Paige…or at least she thought it was Paige. It was grey and gross, just like the other two things in the room. She was sure that moments ago they’d been Ebony and Channel. Ebony was standing over a screaming Saffron and a violently sobbing Halley, while Channel was advancing on Buffy. It was then that Corelia’s eyes cleared a little and she realised what was going on.
Her Sorority were demons. Big, butt-ugly, growling, slobbering demons! And right now Buffy was about to get beat down, hard. Within seconds she was on her feet, grabbing a heavy looking vase from the mantelpiece. She ran at Channel and smashed it into the back of her head. It didn’t have much affect, but it bought Buffy enough time to get the upper-hand with Paige, and kick her across the room, straight into Ebony.
“Cordy, gets these girls out of here!” She commanded as she turned to lunge at Channel. Cordy grabbed one of Halley’s arms while Saffron grabbed the other. Together they lifted her and dragged her into the hallway. They could see that Xander and Oz had managed to back Tiff into the wall, where they were both attempting to behead her without much success. They burst out the front door and ran down the steps to where Willow and Giles were waiting.
“Whats happeneing in there?” Willow asked as she reached into her bag for some bandages.
“Buffy…demons…fighting…” Was all Cordy could manage. “I have to go back in.” She grabbed a sword from the bag of weapons beside Willow and turned to go back into the house. Meanwhile Giles’ chanting was getting more and more intense. The Latin words sounded harsh and dark as he repeated them over and over. There was a thick black smoke rising from the bowl in the centre of the sand circle as he chanted. Then he changed his speech from Latin to English.
“I command you, release! Release! RELEASE!” He practically screamed the last word as the bowl exploded and released the smoke, which flew straight into the front door of the house. The house started to shake and Cordelia had to steady herself on the front steps. The smoke inside filled the rooms al over the house and there was a terrible grumbling. Like the sound of great pressure building up before and explosion. And then there was an explosion, of sorts. It started with a dull bang, and then a series of eerie screams and whispers. From every wall shiny white spirits poured out and swirled around the house, frantically howling and hissing. Inside it was like a controlled tornado, things flying about everywhere with the spirits. The demons were screaming and covering what we can only assume where their ears as the spirits whipped the atmosphere into an almost electric frenzy
Then as fast as it had started, it all stopped. The spirits burst out through every available window and door and instantly disappeared. An odd calm descended on the house and Cordelia once again made for the door.
Inside Buffy was smiling, standing in front of Channel, Ebony and Paige. The demons seemed to be in a state of shock, and they could hardly stand. There was a nasty growl and a spluttering sound form the hallway where Tiff had just been hacked to pieces at last by Xander and Oz. She had left the two of them covered in icky grey demon blood.
“Not so tough now are we?” Buffy said, she gave her axe an exploratory swing and the demons cowered before her. Channel and Ebony looked genuinely frightened, but Paige still managed to look haughty and defiant. She growled something which Buffy assumed was probably an “Oh yeah” or a “Whatever”. Then she lunged at her.
There was a flurry of movement to Buffy’s left as she crouched to avoid the oncoming attack, then she felt herself splattered with demon goo as Paige’s demon head rolled across the wood-panelled floor in front of her. She looked up to see Cordy standing beside her, still holding the sword up from where she had swung it at Paige. She looked a little shocked, and pissed off…and covered in the same demon goo as Buffy.
“Cordy, you can put that down now.” Buffy said as she stood.
Cordy gave a little laugh of shock and dropped the sword. She was desperately searching for a cutting remark to mark Paige’s defeat, but she was so tired and a little traumatised that all she could do was blink and allow a small cough to escape.
Xander and Oz helped her out of the house as Buffy did the clean-up. Two swift blows with the axe removed the heads of Channel and Ebony. Satisfied that they had won Buffy wandered outside. Willow and Giles had finished bandaging Halley and Saffron, and were turning their attention to Cordelia while Oz and Xander collected the weapons, candles and books. As they began to walk away Buffy took one last look at the house. It didn’t look so oppressive now, not quite so dead. Even though it was empty it looked more alive now than she’d ever imagined it could.
She made a mental note to visit Frank again, a proper visit this time, to tell him her tale of defeating the demons and rescuing the girls. But mostly to tell him that he wasn’t crazy. The thought of that made her smile.
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