In the past. . .
Willow crowded up against the far wall of her parents living room, her breath coming in cutting gasps. Glass and dust settled in her fine red hair and made tiny cuts in her cheeks.
<oh, Goddess, what have we done?> she moaned to herself
Angel grunted from the foot of the stairs, where he landed when...well, all Hell broke loose.
"Angel?" she whispered catatonically, only she made no actual sound.
He stood and shook himself, walked to the center of the room on shaky legs
"Buffy?" he called hoarsly. He fell to his knees in the scorched center of what used to be Willow's living room. Still panting hysterically, she crawled out of her hiding space and back into the open.
It was terrible: the room itself was a burnt shell that was still smoking, and Willow felt the aura of whatever evil had broken through clinging to everything. But in the center of the protection circle where they had been chanting, with the main candles burning, lay her world...dead.
Buffy and Xander were still clinging to eachother, as they had been when the circle broke. The details were blindingly clear in Willow's mind , though she knew they woud fade very quickly. She remembered doing the binding on the portal of the hellmouth that they had just discovered under her living room floorboards, when...something came out. She could still feel its evil's seering presence in her mind and she clearly saw it reaching out for Buffy's face....and Xander, breaking the circle by letting go of Willow's hand and throwing his arms around Buffy to save her. . .That was all her mind would show her, but she knew she hadn't blacked out. She could feel the memories hovering just beyond the surface of sanity.
"Angel?" she sobbed out painfully. He was pulling Buffy's broken body away from Xander's bleeding arms
"Oh, God" he whispered as he ran his hands through the sticky mess that had once been a beautiful fall of blonde hair. "oh, God, Buffy!" he screamed as he buried his face in her rapidly cooling neck.
"Angel," she said more frantically, shaking his arm. His head flew up from his lover's cold embrace, but for a minute his eyes couldn't see anything. Eventually, they cleared, though, and he stared disbelivingly at his friend's face.
"Oh, Willow," he cried, releasing Buffy's body and grasping her's tightly. She gratefully burrowed her face into his black-clad shoulder, seeking any comfort she could. "You're bleeding," he said desparatly, holding up her crimson hands.
"I know, she said, almost laughing. "I just don't know if its mine or yours, or--" she looked at Buffy's sprawled limbs and Xander's unfocused, milky eyes "or theirs," she finished. Darkness started swirling in front of her vision.
"I have to get you out of here," Angel said, holding her fiercly
"No!" she screamed, struggling weakly in his strong arms. "We can't leave them! Oh, God, help me"
Hysterical sobs took her and her last feeling was being
lifted away from the sickly sweet smell of her best friends' blood
At the library. . .
"Well, that went swimmingly," Wesley said as he helped Cordelia back to her feet. She clung to him for a few seconds to. . .get her balance.
"Yeah, it WAS pretty easy. As Hellmouth portal bindings go," Oz said. Giles nodded his head
"Indeed. Let's hope the others were as fortunate. Tea,
anyone?"
At City Hall. . .
Faith stared at the ruins of Mayor Wilkin's office with
diallated eyes. Her beautiful raven hair had turned completly white. Various
papers, zoning permits and incantations of darkness, fluttered to the
ground around her.
<It came out of the ground and took him....it took
him....it took him> that dijointed thought was the only thing running through
her broken mind. . .