Fanfiction: Requiem
The highly-trained shopping trio of Buffy, Dawn, and Willow were in the midst of deciding what stores to visit next. In a scenario that completely defied the laws of time, they’d already gone to three stores, each picking out an assortment of clothes, shoes, and accessories, at least enough to fill the entire back portion of the van. This amazingly rapid advance was due to two things: first, all three knew how to move around any mall, no matter if they’d been there before or not, and secondly, the mall had been steadily emptying since they arrived. Buffy was especially concerned about the latter; it was unusual for a mall to be so empty, and from the time on Willow’s watch, there was still an hour to go before closing. Strange. In the past thirty minutes or so, she’d only noticed a dozen or so other shoppers, but she kept her suspicions to herself, not wanting to spread her paranoia around. Although, she knew that paranoia only applied when fears were unfounded…
“I say we go to the GAP,” Dawn said, voice muffled because her head was virtually inside one of her bags as she rooted through her new collection. She came up holding a pair of small, pink earrings in the shape of stars, giving them a quick once-over before tossing them back inside. “What do you guys think?”
“Ooh, the GAP.” Willow was excited just to be in a mall. The stores were simply added bonuses. “I like the GAP. It’s so…GAP-like.”
“That’s fine,” Buffy chimed in, but her attention was elsewhere. A mall security guard, in a black outfit with matching hat, walked past the girls. He stared at them a little too intently for Buffy’s liking, and she turned around so she could follow his movements. She watched as he waved across the empty expanse between the right and left sides of the second floor to another guard, who responded in turn. They took out their walkie-talkies and began conversing animatedly. Buffy, despite her misgivings, couldn’t find anything outright evil about the guards, so she turned back to Dawn and Willow, just missing as one of the guards pointed in her direction, nodding his head as he did so. “Let’s get going. This place gives me a wiggins.”
“I think it’s a nice mall,” Dawn argued, lugging her bags along as the trio started walking towards the GAP.
“I have to agree with Dawn, Buffy,” the Wicca responded. “Nice stores, good selection, and it’s almost empty, which is nice. Why are you freaked by it?”
“I’ve been having a weird day,” the Slayer said, as the group rounded a corner and came within sight of their target. “It’s probably nothing. Just the old Spider-sense thing acting up, you know?”
Willow made a conciliatory “mm-hm” sound as she followed Dawn into the GAP. Buffy was about to do the same when she got the unmistakable feeling that someone, or something, was watching her. She called out to her sister and her best friend that she’d be right back, and she left her bag at the entrance, unconcerned about thieves in this unpopulated place. She glanced left, then right, but when she saw nothing, she stepped forward a few feet and looked over the waist-high railing down to the lower floor. And there, hovering in a particularly dark space between the gentle lights was the blurry apparition, the one that wouldn’t leave her alone. Buffy had a sinking feeling that she was somehow privy to seeing him when no one else could; it was as if he appeared for her, and her alone, and she was absolutely certain that he was from a completely different dimension, because she’d seen his face?
“Hey!” she called, leaning precariously over the railing. When there was no response, she tried again, but still no luck. The blurry apparition hovered in place a moment more, then it slowly floated down a dim hallway towards an emergency exit. Cursing under her breath, Buffy made sure no one was looking-especially those creepy security guards-then she vaulted over the railing and fell a good fifteen feet straight down to the floor. Landing with a dull thud, her legs absorbed the shock of impact perfectly, and then she was up and running towards the blurry vision that taunted and tempted her at every turn. Her Slayer powers propelled her down the hall, but just before she was about to reach out and make a grab for what she knew was intangible, the vision vanished through a wall, leaving Buffy alone in the hallway. The sparse lights flickered on and off, a strobe effect that cast the entire space in a demonic playground of shifting light and nightmare shadows. Buffy hesitantly made her way forward, trying to locate the exact space where the blurry man had disappeared.
Running her hand along with wall, she came upon a door, apparently a bathroom if its sign was to be believed. She tried the handle. Locked. She jiggled it harder, somehow feeling that the answers she needed were inside, but it wouldn’t give. Buffy took a deep breath and applied more pressure, and the handle simply broke off in her hand. She let it drop to the floor, where it was lost amongst the hallway’s ocean of darkness. A bit of a push made the door swing open, and Buffy quickly stepped inside, closing it behind her. The only sound she could make out was her own breathing. There was no light at all; the bathroom was absolutely dark, and though Slayers had excellent eyesight, their vision was not designed as a vampire’s was-to see in a total absence of natural light.
Frightened in spite of her supernatural strength, Buffy did the only thing that she could and ran her hands along the walls, hoping to come across some kind of switch that would turn on the lights. Not finding one, she moved slightly to the right and tried again, this time coming in contact with a switch.
She flicked it up. The dim lights came on. And Buffy found herself face to face with Spike.
Andrew tugged on Xander’s shirt.
“Have you noticed that no one else has been in here for over a half hour?” he asked, taking in the store’s abandoned aisles.
Xander didn’t look up from the comic he was flipping through. “Comic book stores are never the most popular places. It’s not a big deal, trust me.”
“But…um,” Andrew continued, “even the clerk left.” This got Xander’s attention, and he put the comic back. “We’re completely alone.”
“I take it back; this is pretty weird.”
They listened for a moment, trying to detect any of the sounds that a normal mall would make: crowds of people talking, music from overhead speakers, shoes squeaking on the floor, but all they could make out was absolute silence.
“I have a bad feeling about this,” Xander said.
“Just like in The Empire Strikes Back when the Millennium Falcon lands on that huge asteroid that turns out to be a space slug and Princess Leia says-“
“Not a good time, Andrew,” Xander interrupted. Besides, he knew the story already. “We really need to find Buffy. Or Faith. They’ll probably know what’s going on. So let’s go.”
“Can’t we take some comics with us?” Andrew asked, eyeing the empty clerk’s desk.
“No. The mystery of the freakishly empty mall is more important right now. Come on.”
As they walked out of Comics or Death, Xander’s attention was drawn to a solitary security guard across the walkway. The guard openly stared back, and Xander was forced to look away. Taking out his walkie-talkie, the guard said a few words into it and started to follow Xander and Andrew. His mouth formed an inhumanly large smile.
“I didn’t know you liked antiques,” Giles said, perusing the aisles of the antique store.
Faith forced herself to smile. “Oh, yeah, I love ‘em. Can never get enough of random shit from half a century ago, y’know?” When Giles nodded politely and went back to picking up old baubles, Faith ducked around a corner so she could be by herself for a few minutes. It was nice of Giles to look out for her, but she wasn’t used to so much constant attention. It was scary. Someone watching your every move, listening to every word you say, always thinking you’re on the brink of some catastrophic breakdown…
Well, Giles is probably right about the breakdown part.
She sighed and wrapped her arms around herself, a subconscious plea for protection and care. As she walked through the collection of antiques, her eyes lazily examined the items for sale. Old toys, furniture, and clothes held little to no interest for Faith. Never one to get sentimental about material things, she didn’t see the purpose of wasting money on old stuff when you could buy it new instead. But at least she didn’t have to think about Robin when her mind was occupied with criticizing peoples’ strange taste for American nostalgia. She passed a few more items until she stopped at a small dresser with a silver necklace dangling off the end. Crouching down to get a better look at it, she noticed that it depicted a heart being stabbed with a knife. Broken heart? Unrequited love? Complete hatred? Faith didn’t know what the necklace was trying to convey, but she liked its sad, bitter display and raw emotion. Without a second thought, she picked it up and shoved it in her pocket, not wanting Giles to have to pay for it, and she sure as hell wasn’t going to buy it herself.
This can be my bad luck token. It’ll stand for my little failures in life. And screw it, I’m putting it on.
The necklace was removed from her pocket and around her neck within a matter of seconds. Faith appreciated its antiquity, the fact that someone so long ago had shared her own experiences with life and love. She tucked it within her shirt so it would be out of view. No use getting caught for shoplifting, or of letting anyone else know she’d found something special to wear.
They’d probably just make fun of me anyway.
“Find anything you like?” Giles came around the corner, disturbing Faith’s internal monologue. He had something clutched in his left hand, but she couldn’t make out what it was. “It’s on me, remember?”
“Thanks, Giles,” Faith replied, again wrapping her arms around herself, “but I didn’t find anything. I appreciate the offer, though.”
Giles’s smile turned into a slight frown, but it was immediately replaced a moment later by an even wider smile. “Be that as it may, I may have found something you’ll appreciate.” He handed Faith the object that he’d been holding.
“What is it?”
“A picture. Of someone from your past.”
“Huh? I don’t-”
Oh, god. It’s Mayor Wilkins.
Faith instinctively brought the picture closer to her face for a better inspection. And there, right in the middle of a picture so old that it had turned completely brown, was Richard Wilkins III. After the First had attempted to use Faith’s lingering memories of the mayor against her, Faith found it hard to accept the picture as truth and not simply an illusion.
“Where-where did you find this?” she asked, barely able to get the words out.
Giles pointed to a general area of the store, but Faith’s attention was still riveted on the picture. She could accept that Mayor Wilkins had been evil and intent on murdering every man, woman, and child in Sunnydale, but he was still one of the only people to ever treat Faith with respect and compassion, and she continued to feel indebted to him for that.
“Why is he in this picture?” she asked, this time paying attention to Giles’s response.
“Well, as far as I can tell, Mayor Wilkins made allies of the surrounding cities when he first built Sunnydale. This event in the picture appears to be some kind of christening of the town that we are now standing in, and that would explain all the other people in the picture.” Giles scratched his head. “I think.”
Faith, her eyes moist, reached up and hugged Giles, the picture firmly in her grip. When she let go, she sniffled a bit and returned to her new picture. Giles put his arm around her shoulders and started to lead her to the cash register, glad that he’d made a difference in Faith’s day. But when they got to the front of the store, the old lady whom they’d seen behind the register upon entering was nowhere to be found.
“Where’s the bloody teller?” Giles asked no one in particular.
They waited for a few minutes, but no one came. Giles began ushering Faith out of the store, not caring whether or not he’d paid for the picture. Just before they were about to step back into the main area of the mall, a black-clad security guard came walking up. He smiled. Giles smiled. Faith made a face, holding the picture to her chest, daring the guard to try and take it from her. But the guard just smiled some more and strode into the empty antiques store, disappearing into its nostalgic depths. Faith grinned triumphantly, but she noticed something strange a moment later.
“Giles, where is everyone?”
The former Watcher appeared flustered as he searched one way, then the other for any sign of life. He spotted another security guard, who also vanished into a store, but no one else.
“That’s a good question,” he answered, scratching his head again.
“Maybe we should find the others,” Faith said. “Is the mall closing?”
Giles checked his watch. “Almost, but that doesn’t explain the total absence of customers. Something’s not right. Let’s go find Buffy.”
And with that, Giles, Faith, a picture, and a secret necklace wandered away from the antiques store, where the guard they’d seen disappear was standing in plain view. Watching. Waiting.