set in season two's Passion (spoilers).
As I'm towel-drying my chlorine scented hair in the locker room, I hear a deafening crash from somewhere outside. It's late. Too late for anyone to be messing around in school. I don't usually train this late, but the threat of Spike, Angelus and Drusilla won't stop me from winning the swim meet next week. On second thoughts, maybe it was unwise to be here alone. Still, nobody knew I'd be here...
Another bang, only a few seconds later. I wait, frozen.
Another crash - a door being flung open? - breaks the silence and I start to panic. Something is going down.
Cautiously, I peek my head out of the locker room. All I see is an expanse of dark, empty hallway. Then, pounding footsteps start, just out of sight but I can tell they're coming closer.
"Hello?" I call, the footsteps running closer still. Just as I'm about to go back to grab a stake from my gym bag, Ms Calendar appears around the corner. I can see the terror in her eyes from here.
"Ms Calendar? What's going on?"
I step out into the corridor and she stops, grabbing my arms with such force that I try to pull away.
"It's Angelus. Get out." I've never seen someone so petrified in my life. And I've seen my share of pure fear living in Sunnydale all my life. I have felt it plenty myself. "Go! Don't let him see you -"
Before the words have left her lips, I see Angelus at the other end of the corridor. He pushes through the double doors as if they weigh nothing.
He looks right at me.
"Ooh. Dessert."
Ms Calendar thrusts me back into the locker room, causing me to stagger back and fall against a wooden bench. I spring up, fuelled by adrenaline, and rush to my gym bag for a stake. It's my best bet.
But Angelus doesn't knock down the door like expected. I hear him march right past. My heart breaks at what that must mean.
Still, I retrieve a stake and holy water, stuffing the bottle in my bra and I clutch the stake so hard it hurts. Everything hurts. My heart feels like it's going to explode and my arms have angry crescent nail marks, from Ms Calendar, embedded into the flesh.
With the time I have - which is rapidly depleting - I dial Buffy's number. She doesn't pick up.
"Buffy. Angel is trying to kill me and Jenny. He's not kidding around. Come to the school now. If I don't... I- I love you, Buff. Hurry."
If I leave the school tonight in a body-bag, I need her to remember how much I love her. I don't say it enough, but she's my closest friend. If nothing else, she'll know the severity of the situation as I rarely express affection so directly.
The emergency exit in the locker room won't budge, so I have no choice but to make a run for it.
Out in the corridor, the LED lights crackle to life as I set their sensors off, charging towards the closest exit. Locked. Again. Tears cloud my vision as an unwelcome hopelessness starts to set in. I shake my head, my thoughts whirring.
I should hide.
I punch the door's glass in frustration but it doesn't even crack. It only leaves my knuckles throbbing as I run towards the library. I hurtle around the corner and smack into Angelus's solid, terrifying frame. My mouth is too dry for me to even scream.
"What's the rush?"
He doesn't hold onto me. He lets me escape, lets me run and play chase for a little while longer. I need Buffy.
I'm sprinting as fast as I can, but it still feels like I'm wading through treacle. What's worse, somehow, is that Angelus isn't running. He's walking. Walking so casually, with the swagger of a vampire who is a thousand percent sure he's going to kill me tonight. He's walking and I'm running so hard I can't breathe.
"Jenny's death was just business," he says, his menacing voice bouncing off the walls. "But yours? Oh, yours will be for fun."
I want to puke because I can sense the smile in his voice.
I never liked Angel that much, but now I want him back more than anything.
I skid as I enter the library but I don't fall. I barricade the door with the heaviest thing I can move on my own and scan the room for an escape. I would be stupid to believe I could take on Angelus in a fight, but the only way out seems to be the tiny windows that are too high up. My choices are running out, my hope of survival is running out.
I put my hand on my chest as I try to regulate my breathing, but have to take it away because the thumping of my heart is making my head spin. I need a drink, but the only thing on me is holy water. It'll have to do. I unscrew the lid and down the entire bottle.
Angelus bangs on the door.
I run into the library's cage and search for a better weapon. A crossbow? I've never used one. A sword? It could help keep the vampire at a distance, but it'll be too heavy to control.
"I'd go for the axe."
Angelus. He's leaning against the library desk. It suddenly occurs to me that I shouldn't have drank the holy water.
"It's a bit cliche, I know, but effective."
I grit my teeth as he pushes himself off the desk and stalks closer like a lion. I slam the door of the cage shut.
He comes right up to the cage with a wicked grin plastered on his face. For a fleeting second, I think I might have got him.
But he grips around the bars and yanks, pulling the door off its hinges and leaving me totally vulnerable. He tosses it to the side with a clatter, and I have no choice but to use the sword that's still in my sweaty, shaking hand. I raise it.
"Ok... the sword's a new look on you. Kinda like it. Gives the illusion that you have half a chance." he says approvingly, making my stomach knot.
"What happened to you?" I ask, amazed at how I can even form words at this point.
"What happened to you? Where are all your little friends now? I wonder which one's gonna find your body..."
I jab the sword forward but he dodges with ease, not even acknowledging it as he continues.
"I hope it's Buffy. But, then again, I want to test my hypothesis that Willow's an ugly crier." His slash of a smile cuts right through me, as if it was the heavy sword that I'm about to drop. "Oh, I know..." he takes a step forward and I flinch. He puts him hands up in surrender. "I want it to be Dawn. Or... what do you call her... Dawnie? Yeah, she's a pretty thing, shame she -"
"You're disgusting." I interrupt. Although maybe unwise, I don't want to hear whatever obscene threat he's about to make to Dawn. A new sense of resolution fills me as I involuntarily imagine Dawn finding my limp, bloodstained body. Or worse, a limp, bloodstained body that opens her eyes and attacks with fangs and yellow eyes.
He lunges at me and I thrust the sword forward. But, he manoeuvres the weapon from me with ease, discarding it on the library floor with a clank.
"What do you think I should do with Jenny Calendar's body?"
My eyes sting and horror horror horror is all I can feel.
He tilts his head to the side, dark eyes trained on my neck. "What should I do with yours?"
Before I know it, Angelus has his hands on my shoulders, keeping me in place.
"No." I scream, kicking, squirming, thrashing, "No!"
I could die tonight not having had my first kiss. I could die never knowing how to drive a car. I could die right now without saying goodbye. I'm not ready.
I bet Ms Calendar wasn't ready.
"Oh, I like the ones who scream."
He bites.
I hear a squelch.
I feel a sharp prick in my neck.
And then the monster springs away, howling.
He's coughing and spluttering.
I should run.
"Blerg!" he spits scarlet onto the floor. "What did you do?"
I clutch my neck and make a run for it. The pain grows as I make it out of the library and down the hall but I feel giddy for being able to feel the pain. I'm alive. I finally find a door that's unlocked and I run all the way to Buffy's house without stopping once.
I pound on the door with fists that are covered in blood from my neck.
As I wait for the door to open, I can't stop thinking about Angelus being repelled by my blood... The holy water. Wow. It's not like I drank a gallon of it... Amazing.
I stop pounding as my arms cramp up and my head spins. There is so much blood.
Willow opens the door and I collapse in the hallway.
ty 4 reading. remember to comment/follow/vote :))