Chapter 1: Gravedigger
‘Today really isn’t our day’, Xander thought as he traveled the forest with Willow in his arms.
Demons came right in the middle of the Scoobies resurrection spell and now everything that they had planned for 2 months seemed to blow up right in front of their face. For the last two months there was nothing but talk between them about this night and how it would be so wonderful for them to see Buffy alive again, but at the moment Xander forgot all about the spell and feared for his and the girl in his arms life.
Xander couldn’t walk anymore. He came to a tree and looked around to see if any demons spotted them and then sat down with Willow in his arms.
“Xan…Xander, where…where?” Willow finally opened her eyes and looked around.
“Shh!!” Xander shushed Willow, “We’re using our quiet voice, Will.”
”Where…where’s Tara?” Willow whispered.
”Off running.” Xander panted, “Like we should be. We need to keep moving.”
“Oh...right” Willow finally remembered about all the chaos around her, “Demons…on bikes.”
“That’s right, we got trouble. Right here in Hellmouth City. And our very own robo-Buffy led them right to us.” Xander said.
Willow’s eyes grew, “Buffy! The ritual…we have to go back!” Willow started to get up but Xander pushed her slightly back down.
”Will. I told you.” Xander tried to reason with his stubborn witch friend.
“We have to try again.” She said in her most determining voice.
“No, we can't.” Xander said.
“We have to, Xander! I - she - she's waiting! She's counting on us, on, on me! I can't leave her there any more, I won't. We have to finish.” Willow said and shook her head; she didn’t want anyone to stop her.
” Shh!” Xander hushed her again.
In the distance bikes were roaring loud and the sound of laughter could be heard. Xander began to speak again just as the bike sounds died down.
“Will...the urn of cirrhosis...” Xander began.
”Osiris?” Willow asked.
“Yeah. It got kind of...” Xander trailed off not wanting to break his friend’s heart.
“Broken. It's broken. I remember.” Willow said with the saddest tone in her voice. She knew what outcome this meant.
“So we'll find another one. Better made. Anya and I will jump back on the web-“, Xander gave Willow some hope.
“There is not other one.” Willow stated and closed her eyes. Something deep down inside of her started to hurt; it was a familiar pain that she hasn’t felt since Buffy’s funeral.
“Okay, we'll fix this one… a little tape, a dab of Crazy Glue….” Xander said.
“No. It's no use.” Willow’s eyes started to get teary, “The urn's defiled. It's gone. Nothing, it was all for nothing. Buffy's gone. She's really gone.” Willow started breathing heavily and letting tears come down.
Xander pulled his friend into his chest and hugged her. ‘She’s really gone.’ Willow’s voice echoed in Xander’s head.
~*~*~*~*~*~*
SUNNYDALE 2082
The cemetery was dead quiet that November night. The graves looked untended and the grass was high. The area is a disaster, and in the distance a sound of a woman screaming and smashing windows could be heard.
The streets of Sunnydale were littered with trash and barrels with fire were blazing on almost every street. Each house looked deserted and torn apart. Bullet holes were imprinted on front doors while furniture was thrown onto front lawns.
The main store shops, which once were inhabited with Sunnydale citizens, had no customers and some of the buildings were barely standing. Cars parked on the street were flipped over and rusted. The building that was once The Magic Box didn’t look like a building anymore. The letters ‘G’ and ‘I’ from the shop sign were missing and all that was left was ‘The Ma c Box’.
A group of demons walked into the main street and acted as if they were the boss of the town; kings of Sunnydale. They’re laughter was loud and made clear from anyone in a miles radius.
Back in the quiet graveyard a small sound was heard under the ground. Then there was a moment of silence and then all of sudden the sound started again, but this time it was louder. In a few minutes the sound came to the surface of the ground and the sound of someone gasping was heard. The gravedigger crawled away from the hole she created in the ground and looked around in fear. Her hair, her clothes, and her body were dirty. She started to stand and look around and noticed her surroundings. She turned around and came in contact with her own grave, ‘Buffy Anne Summers’.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
As she walked out of the cemetery Buffy had trouble keeping her shoes on, every step she took she stumbled. She had the sense as if she didn’t use her legs in years, which in fact was the truth; Buffy was like a baby learning to walk all over again.
Buffy walked the neighborhood streets of Sunnydale and saw the barrels of fire and damaged homes and one thought kept playing in her head, ‘This must be hell.’ The thought of her being in hell took her deeper in her state of shock than she was in from coming out of the ground.
She stopped walking and looked around at her surroundings slowly. Buffy became startled when she heard the sound of harsh laughter echo Sunnydale. So upset by the situation, Buffy began to run off the street and in between houses. As she continued to run she lost her shoes in the grass, but for some reason she didn’t stop to retrieve them.
When she finally began to slow down she was panting loudly and her feet hurt. She quickly looked around and in a moment her breath stopped. Buffy looked up and saw the street sign that was in the ground but lying at a forty five degree angle, ‘Rivelo Drive’. Buffy looked down the street and began to walk in a daze again.
Buffy was hesitant when coming upon 1630 Rivelo. She didn’t even recognize her own home. The house was dark, boards of the porch floor were missing, the living room window was broken, and the room that was Dawn’s had three big wooden boards covering the windows.
Buffy slowly walked towards the ghost house and became cautious to where she stepped. Once she got through the front door she noticed the dirty floor that was covered with old brown leafs. The banister of the staircase was half broken off.
She turned her head and looked into the living room and noticed the glass of the broken window on the floor the hard way; Buffy stepped on a piece of glass in her bare feet and suddenly jumped and staggered away, moaning in agony. She stumbled to the ground and grabbed her foot and noticed the blood beginning to come from her skin. Then for the first time her knuckles, they were bloody and in some places she could see her bone. In her mind she had a flash of the memory just a few hours ago of her crawling out of the grave and her hands ripping at the coffin lid and screaming but hearing nothing could come from her voice. Then as quickly as she had the flashback the memory ended.
Buffy slowly got up on her feet, ignoring all the pain that she had from her wounded body and traveled back into the hallway. She looked up the stairs and started to travel slowly up the stairs as if there was someone pushing her to see what was on the second floor. The floor boards creaked with every step Buffy took.
The second floor seemed smaller than Buffy remembered. All of the doors were completely shut. Buffy looked at her old room’s door and started to become apprehensive, she didn’t know if she should go inside because she was no longer welcome. Ever since she laid her eyes on the house she didn’t feel welcome. Her abandoned home had the feel of a motel, like many people had been through the rooms and took all personal feeling out the house.
Buffy turned the knob to her room and saw nothing in it but a mattress lying on the ground. She quickly shut the door; she thought there was no reason for her to stay in the room longer; all it did was upset her.
Outside a motorcycle roared down the street and Buffy seemed to quake in fear. ‘What happened?’ She thought to herself. ‘Where is everyone? Where’s Dawn? Am I in hell? Is this what hell is like?’
Buffy traveled back down the stairs and collided into a box. She stopped in motion to see what she bummed into and then she noticed it was something she was familiar with, her weapons chest. She lifted the chest and saw nothing inside, whoever had been in the house last seemed to take all the weapons. However, Buffy knew she had secret hatch. Buffy lifted a lid off the inside of the top of the weapons chest and saw a knife. Buffy grabbed the knife and stared at it…and remembered.
“Shallow cuts, shallow…cuts…let the blood flow free.” The small crazy man with the knife mumbled as Buffy got to the top of the tower.
“Dawn!” Buffy yelled.
“Buffy!” Dawn shouted in pleaded.
“Dawn…” Buffy said softly as she remembered.
“Well, well, well…looks like Goldilocks is in the three bears home.” A voice came from the door. Buffy quickly turned with the knife in her hand and saw three vampires in game face.
A/N: I know there wasn’t a lot of talking in this chapter but there will be some more in the next. Also for you Spuffy people Spike will be discussed soon. I promise. I hope your enjoying the story.
squawks
05/18/17 04:16 am
pj! I remember wishing one of your stories would be finished seriously about a decade ago. Amazing. I just tried an old password I used to use and amazingly got in too. Memories!
pj
03/20/17 01:20 am
10 yrs later, i finally rem my username and password. Pari, you rock. Hope you are well.
Rabbit_moon1
12/23/16 01:12 pm
I donate every month. Please donate to keep this site up!
AudryDaluz1
10/06/16 08:34 am
Great post.
Chrissel
08/31/16 03:45 pm
And anyone else who loves this site, it's worth mentioning there's a nifty little "Donate" option just below the shout box here! ;)
Chrissel
08/31/16 03:43 pm
Just wanted to take a moment to thank Pari and all the mods for maintaining such a great site!
05/18/17 04:16 am
pj! I remember wishing one of your stories would be finished seriously about a decade ago. Amazing. I just tried an old password I used to use and amazingly got in too. Memories!
pj
03/20/17 01:20 am
10 yrs later, i finally rem my username and password. Pari, you rock. Hope you are well.
Rabbit_moon1
12/23/16 01:12 pm
I donate every month. Please donate to keep this site up!
AudryDaluz1
10/06/16 08:34 am
Great post.
Chrissel
08/31/16 03:45 pm
And anyone else who loves this site, it's worth mentioning there's a nifty little "Donate" option just below the shout box here! ;)
Chrissel
08/31/16 03:43 pm
Just wanted to take a moment to thank Pari and all the mods for maintaining such a great site!