Title: Darkness Consumes the Best of Friends
Author: Pagan Pylea Princess
Characters: Harmony, Spike
Summary: Harmony wakes up after the battle with The Mayor.
Disclaimer: You know the drill. Not mine, never will be, Joss is the amazing King of the Buffyverse. I am a lowly Princess…
Feedback: I love it, lots please!
****
When Harmony Kendall awoke it was to the sound of muted cries and mutterings. Smoke billowed out around her and she could smell the blood of a thousand people – or so it seemed. She heard a distant “whoop-whoop” noise come closer as an ambulance – or maybe a fire engine judging by the smoke – roared into the compound and came to a stop nearby.
She turned from her back, using her arms to push herself into a kind of sitting position, with her legs curled around her.
The ground was saturated with foam and water, and Harmony was drenched from head to toe. Her hair was knotted in a tangled mess, and she was sure her mascara was running down her face. But she barely noticed, she didn’t feel like being the bitchy girl she’d been before, the way she’d built up her reputation, as she stared around her across the school grounds.
Bodies littered the floor in front of her; all it seemed had died in the middle of some mass siege. Debris plagued the floor, bits of concrete and stray bricks, long forgotten weaponry, bits of rubble and planks of wood from the fence. Everyone, including herself, was covered with a fine layer of dust from the explosion.
She looked around horrified at what she once saw everyday as the happy, bustling high school she attended.
Nancy Cleder, who’d helped her with Spanish class, lay beside her, arms outstretched, face pale and twisted in horror and pain, eyes wide and white. Larry, who sat in front of her in Math, lay sprawled out in the distance, a discarded flamethrower just out of his reach, the fuel cylinder still strapped to his back. Amanda Cloymeister, a girl who she’d barely known but remembered teasing every now and then, lay out on her back with a wooden stake embedded in her chest, staring at the night sky in a gaze that would last eternally.
In terror, Harmony pulled her knees in tightly and wrapped her arms around them, trying to get as far from the bodies as she could. But as she shuffled back a little, she bumped into Harrison Davies, a guy who had been on the school football team and who her friend Aura had once dated, his face was twisted and his eyes wide and Harmony screamed, shuffling herself back to her previous position beside Nancy.
Shaking, Harmony looked up at the school building she once knew, now a twisted, blackened mess, an empty carcass. A shell. On the ground around her were discarded yearbooks and maroon hats and gowns, some were ripped to shreds, others bloodstained and drenched, their yellow tassels and ties were now a muddy browny-red.
Harmony began to sob in fright. She couldn’t remember what had happened to her, what she’d been doing before. Where she’d been. Why she was there.
Then it hit her. Her eyes went wide at the memories flooding into her mind. She remembered.
Xander Harris had approached her and the other Cordettes, during an intensely serious discussion about Divina Taylor’s extreme fashion faux pas.
I mean, who wears lime green and sky blue anyway? And then with the Maroon? Yuck!
“Harmony.” He’d said friendly, but out of breath and hurried,” “listen, I need to talk to you a sec.”
“You mean… in front of other people?” she’d asked horrified. Now however, she kind of hoped to see Xander Harris come up the path toward her and help her up. She desperately wanted to see a friendly face that wasn’t – y’know – dead. But she knew more than any one else that she didn’t deserve to be helped.
Xander had talked to her and explained how demons and vampires and scary things were all real. Sure, she was a little afraid, but she had to admit, it made a lot of things make sense, cause, hey, this was Sunnydale. Home of the weird. Then he’d explained how Buffy – of all people she had thought – was a Slayer, chosen to fight the demons, and how her friends all helped, including Cordy.
Before she could protest, he’d told her the Mayor – Sleezeball – was going to turn into some gross demon thing and eat every one. That had gotten her so mad – On my big day! No way! – So she’d agreed to help. He’d handed her a series of weapons; a crossbow, a sword, one cross and a stake, then told her there would be a meeting for everyone in the gym in five minutes where Buffy would discuss tactics and how to use the weaponry. He’d patted her on the shoulder and wished her luck, then apologised that he couldn’t be more specific and hurried off.
Bewildered she’d thought it was all some big prank by the “I-wanna-be-popular” brigade, before noticing Percy West attaching his weaponry under his graduation gown, and she’d quickly done the same.
All in all the battle had gone well. The students were only supposed to hold up the demon and distract the vampires until Buffy could lead the demon away. No one had expected a great giant snake however, and even though everyone had hated their Principal, Snyder, they didn’t find it at all funny when he got eaten. If anything it spurred them on so they wouldn’t be next.
When Xander had shouted “everybody, hand to hand!” she’d done so quickly, removing her gown and taking a simple stake, making a run for it.
Go for the heart; go for the heart…She’d muttered as a mantra, going over what Buffy had told her.
En-masse, they’d outnumbered the vampires easily and pushed them back. Harmony had spotted Buffy running off inside the school, Xander leaping from the wall to run with the crowd, Willow up ahead with Oz nearby, that glowery guy Angel fighting for all he was worth and that new British librarian intern Mr Pryce lying on the ground – was he dead?
Then she’d seen Jonathon helping up Cordy. Cordelia....
Suddenly, something grabbed her from behind, gripping her upper arms so tight she couldn’t wriggle free. She’d screamed, half in terror and half as an SOS, but it quickly gurgled out. And then she’d felt a sharp pain in her neck; blood ran down her front, staining her blouse. She heard a loud explosion as she collapsed to the floor, saw the demon that bit her leaning over with a cupped hand full of blood, looked around for Cordelia but……
Harmony shuddered. She felt hot tears running down her cheeks, but no one would have noticed, she was soaked to the skin already. She shivered with the cold. She saw red lights flashing on the flickering surface of the wet ground. She looked around, begging for the ambulance men to come and help her. She opened her mouth but she couldn’t make any sound audible enough, only a deep desperate sobbing. She merely stuttered over words, and wept, so afraid.
It was like being stuck in a nightmare and not being able to wake up. She couldn’t take her eyes from Nancy’s gaping wide eyes and horrified countenance, staring ahead for eternity. At nothing.
She hadn’t cared about the girl before, but now Harmony wished more than ever that the girl would wake up too and tell her it would all be ok, and Harmony would say sorry for all the mean things she ever said. If she could’ve taken them back, she would have done.
But Nancy didn’t wake. Harmony couldn’t understand why she was still alive, how she’d survived. She lay back down on the floor across one outstretched hand, and cried. She couldn’t help sobbing like a little girl who’d lost her mother in the supermarket, terrified and all alone.
“Please, let me wake up.” She choked through her sobs.
“Well, well. What have we got here?”
Harmony felt a pair of strong hands grip her upper arms and pull her to her feet. She realised then that her shirt sleeve was torn, because she felt his cold hand on her flesh.
She was expecting a cute fireman to take her in his arms and cry out “My god! She’s alive! There’s a survivor!”
But when she looked up, it was simply a guy. Granted a very cute guy, but needless, a guy she’d never seen before in her life. She looked into his blue eyes - really nice eyes she thought - and grabbed his arm frantically.
“Please. Help me.” She choked in a whisper. And as she did so, she noticed a hunger in his look that she’d never seen in anyone before.
He frowned at her and narrowed his eyes. Then let her go and took a cautionary step back.
“Oh. You’re a…. I thought you were…” he stopped and then looked around at the disaster area behind him.
“What happened here then, pet?” He asked.
A little bewildered that he’d stepped away from her, and that he didn’t seem at all fazed by the mass amount of bodies and chaos around him, she gulped and tried to speak up, but her voice was croaky.
“Y’know. War.”
He frowned and she tried to clear up, “The Mayor turned into a great big snake and tried to eat us.”
The guy nodded, still a little confused, but he appeared to shrug it off. “Looks like the guy got the job done.” He looked up at the charred remains of Sunnydale High, where he remembered making his first big debut in Sunny D.
“He was blown up.” She said, relaxing a little. She suddenly felt guilty. Having a reasonable conversation with a guy she didn’t know among the bodies of her dead classmates who’d died in a war they didn’t even have to fight.
No, not guilty. Not anymore. I used to feel guilty. But not now. Why is that?
The guy turned and walked another few steps, wandering among the bodies. Every so often he’d lean over and touch one, then frown and mutter something under his breath.
“So, Miss Buffy “slay-a lot” Summers just threw you all into the line of fire? With consequences.” He tut-tutted, “must admit, doesn’t sound like Blondie’s style. Mustn’t be thinking straight seen as her Angel-cake’s all LA-bound.”
He touched Amanda and frowned again. Harmony heard his mutter this time.
“Cold.” He tutted. She frowned, unsure what he was doing.
At the sudden mention of Buffy, Harm wondered if her “friends” had made it…
So I can snap their necks, starting with that Willow chick…
Before she realised what she was thinking, the guy cut her thoughts off.
“Maybe he’s evil again. Always makes her crazy. Much more fun when he was Angelus.” It was a mutter, not really directed at her.
“You know Buffy?” she asked, disregarding his last comment. She was startled when he growled a little in the back of his throat. He didn’t look at her.
“Unfortunately.”
Harmony frowned, intrigued at what had caused him to growl in that way, but shrugged it off.
“Do you know if they made it? Buffy and… Willow and y’know. Everyone?” She asked hopefully. She wasn’t sure why she cared.
The guy looked up suddenly. His blonde hair gleamed in the moonlight. She realised at this moment that it was in fact night now and not just the crazy eclipse the Mayor had caused.
How long have I been lying down here? She thought.
The guy grinned, and something in the way he did it made her shiver.
“Would you care?” He asked. Then he shrugged it off and resumed his task, “I wouldn’t.”
She frowned and looked at him, still going through the pile of victims, touching them and then frowning and moving on.
Harmony, who’d now grown impatient with this monotonous chore, put her hands on her hips in a “spill-it-or-die-I’m-playing-no-games” sort of way.
“What are you doing?” she asked, irritated.
“Checkin for live ‘uns.” He said, almost straight away as though he’d been expecting her to ask. Then he looked up maliciously, grinning wickedly, his eyes gleaming.
“So I can kill them.”
A shudder of delight went through her for an instant. Then horror took over and she dropped her hands slowly to her sides.
He watched her for a moment, then went back to his task.
“So what’s your name then love?” He asked off-handedly as if he’d met her in the park or the supermarket or something. Not amongst the dead in a field of battle.
She paused before saying anything. “Harmony.” She answered, though something in her tone seemed to question why he wanted to know.
“Spike” He replied, not looking up. “Great, we both know each other,” he didn’t seem too charmed at the prospect.
“Mmhmm.” Harmony tried to sound cheerful and normal as she slowly crouched down, keeping her eyes on Spike as he crouched and turned his back to her. She fumbled carefully through the debris and found half a brick buried within it. She straightened up again slowly and stepped toward Spike’s turned back carefully, with the brick raised, aiming for his head, careful where she stepped….
Suddenly, he was up and turned around, grabbing her arm in mid-air. Harmony screamed in terror as she heard a deep growl and looked up into his face, which had twisted into a demonic visage, with dripping fangs and yellow eyes.
She dropped her brick in shock. He hit her hard in the face -
He hit me the jerk!
- and she stumbled backward, using the low brick wall nearby to stop herself from falling flat on her face. As his fist connected, she’d felt the same low growl he’d used in her throat and felt her face change – the most bizarre experience she’d ever had.
“I’d think twice before trying that, love.” He barked angrily.
Harmony began to whimper and choke back tears, looking a little like a lost puppy.
“I don’t understand!” she shouted through tears, “Why I’m here! How I survived!” then miserably she added, “why they just left me behind.”
Then she looked up, face full of fury, “So what are you gonna do?! Huh? Kill me?!”
She raced toward him, letting out a scream of torment, and began to hit him frustratedly, not really aware of what she was doing. He grabbed her as though she were a feather, and threw her back to the ground.
“Bit late for that love,” he said, anger lessening from his voice a little, “you’re already dead.”
She froze for a moment at his words – how could he say that!??
She got to her feet angrily, “Liar!” she shouted, “I’m not dead! How can I be dead when I’m stood right here?!” she wiped blood from her split lip.
“You’re a vampire.” He said sternly. “Like me.” He raised an eyebrow as if it should all make sense to her.
She remembered that person, grabbing her tightly, the pain in her neck, the blood…
“I’m a… a… vam…”
“Vampire. Yeah.”
She wanted to scream and shout and beg him to help her turn back – she didn’t want to be a vampire! But she froze to the spot, unable to move or even speak. She suddenly remembered what Xander had called Buffy when he described what the world was really like.
Buffy, the Vampire Slayer.
What if Buffy started hunting her? Oh god, she could picture all Buffy’s friends. What would they do to her?
She looked at Spike pleadingly for a moment, and watched his face shift back into his human countenance, looking as if he was a little sorry for her.
“So, you got bit huh?” he asked as a couple of tears squeezed out and rolled down her cheek.
“I guess.” She whispered, staring back down at the ground.
He nodded, and then suddenly they both became aware of a tiny whimpering behind him. With a grin he switched his face back and looked up at her maliciously,
“Guess you’re hungry then.”
He turned swiftly and grabbed hold of the girl who was sobbing and trying to crawl away from the two demons. She reminded Harmony of how she had woken up in the exact same way. Terrified.
“Knew there was a live one somewhere!” he called, dragging her by the hair and making her scream.
“I’m willing to share?” he said expectantly.
Harmony’s eyes went a little wide and she gulped. “I… I don’t…. I can’t….”
“Oh, right, sorry,” he backed up, “forgot my manners, you haven’t done this before have you?”
She looked up innocently and shook her head, then looked back at the girl, Tessa Jones, she remembered.
“Oh, I remember my first” he said with a sigh, and looking far off and distant as though revelling in some great memory. Then he lifted the girl to her feet. She continued to scream and wriggle. Spike frowned, disappointed at the girl and clamped a hand round her mouth. He nodded for Harmony to step forward and take hold of her. She grabbed Tessa and turned her so the girl faced Spike. She couldn’t bear to look into the girl’s face if she had to do it.
Then she smelt it. The intoxicating scent of her neck just below her mouth. She heard a pounding in her ears that clouded her thoughts. She realised it wasn’t her own heartbeat. No, she didn’t have one. It was Tessa’s.
It thudded fast with the girl’s fright, until Harmony almost couldn’t hold back. She felt the desire, the urge, to plunge her teeth right into the girl’s flesh and feel the life slip away from her. It was a desire that freaked her out a little bit. But at the same time she felt a craving and a longing to do it, like she’d never felt before.
She saw Spike grinning at her. “Go on. Don’t be afraid. Once it’s done you’ll feel…” he seemed as if he didn’t know how to explain it, “incredible.”
She looked down at the girl’s neck. Tessa continued to thrash and struggle, but Harmony knew she was growing tired. She could smell the girl’s fear, the girl’s terror. She could smell it.
Harmony felt the excitement rush through her. Part of her wanted to hold back but she resisted it. The temptation was incredible and she raised her fangs.
“That’s it.” Spike whispered. Suddenly she realised the vampire was behind her. He leant over her own neck, and whispered softly into her ear. She shut her eyes, overcome with so many feelings. He seemed to realise this, and read her.
“They’ll all go away soon, all the voices telling you to do such bad things.”
He ran one hand down her bare arm and she shivered.
“Go on. See how good it feels.”
She looked down, felt the girl’s pulse thudding, heard the girl’s heavy breathing and muted cries, felt the girl’s tears on her hand, heard the pain, the suffering. The fear.
Then she did it.
She bit deep into the girl’s throat, felt the flesh slice between her teeth, and suddenly – oh it was incredible – The sudden rush of the hot, flowing blood rushing into her mouth, it’s sweet taste caressing her, the most amazing sensation running down her throat. The more she took, the better it felt. She felt Spike nearby, and how he enjoyed watching her drink and kill the human.
Those human’s will pay.
She thought.
And just as soon as it had started, it stopped. She dropped the body to the ground. There was no pounding pulse, no rich, warm human blood, no voices in Harmony’s head. Tessa was dead.
Harmony’s vision cleared up a little. The tantalising taste still on her tongue and lips.
She felt her face change back and turned back to Spike with a grin.
He was right behind her.
“You’re right.” She said as he ran a hand through her loose blonde hair. It was matted and dirty, but it felt good for him to be near her.
“What’s that.” He whispered completely caught up in the sudden tension between them.
“It did feel… incredible.”
Then suddenly, she was kissing him. But whereas before, Harmony would have pulled back, slapped him and sauntered off, now she embraced him and felt the passion build up.
He pulled back abruptly with a grin and looked down at her.
“We can go do it again. I have a few ideas of where to start.”
She grinned back. The idea of killing again no longer felt strange, she wasn’t scared or afraid. The bodies around her were now merely bodies, no longer people she cared about, and all she wanted to do was slaughter more. Feel their bones crack and the blood on her fingers.
“Ok.” She whispered.
And together, they stepped over the bodies as though they were rubble, and he led her from the school she had spent so much time in, and adored. To start a new life.
Who knows, maybe she’d even run into some… old friends.
Because darkness consumes even the best of friends.
|
|
|
|
Rave
Barbie Girl (Becca)
biscuit07
Filmtheory (Jim)
Malice (Jess)
MebbtheScribe (MichaelB)
Reset (Allie)
Shay (Marrisa)
somnambulist29 (Shea)
Stephanie Loss
Wendyness (Wendy)
Questions?Contact Us
|
|
All stories on this site have been archived with the authors' consent. Do not copy these stories for your own uses without the express consent of the author themselves. Buffy the Vampire Slayer TM and Angel TM are © UPN, WB, Fox and its related entities. All photos on the site are © UPN, Fox, Warner Bros, and/or their respective owners. No profits are being made by use of these images.
Powered with the assitance of eFiction.
|
|
|
