Forever and a Day

Chp 20 Her decision

In the depths of The Devil’s Punchbowl in the heart of the English countryside, Buffy stood shoulder to shoulder between Spike and Willow, never taking her gaze from where the blood red light glowed around the edges of the boulder they had placed across the entrance to the underground tunnels.

She could feel her lover’s cold fingers wrapped tightly round her own, skin to skin, flesh to flesh. Once mystical flames had licked between their hands, fusing their owners together in a way she didn’t fully understand. All she did know was that since she’d discovered he was still alive, no matter how dire and dreadful the shocks were that the world threw at them, she was joyfully happy.

Buffy could feel the thud of the monster heartbeat – if that was what it was - shuddering through the earth beneath her feet. She had no idea what could possibly live in that filthy red-hot muck that had oozed out of the pit, but whatever it was, it had fed well on the mist and was now wide awake and anxious to be up and doing whatever –

“Willow – exactly what does this Thing want to do?”

The redhead cast an anxious glance in her direction. She’d been trying desperately to think of a holding spell strong enough to stop what was coming, but she knew all she could do was slow it down, not stop it.
“What do you mean, Buffy? It’s an evil – thingy. What do they ever want?”

Spike grinned, not taking his eyes off the boulder Giles had somehow managed to roll across the entrance. Bloody hell! The mist had a lot to answer for. Vamps were indestructible and Giles – why had it given him such strength and not changed him from adult to child? “Even evil thingys as you call them usually have a plan, Red.”

“Yes, that’s what I mean,” Buffy said swiftly. “We’ve fought too many demons and monsters over the past few years not to know that. I mean, jeez, why’s it coming here? We’re standing at the bottom of a huge muddy hollow in rural England. I mean, we’re not even in London. Is it going to – I don’t know – ooze its way up to the road and start killing motorists? Lurch into town and have lunch? It’s gone to a lot of bother over centuries and centuries to do - what? ”

“Buffy, it probably doesn’t think like we do. It probably doesn’t even think. It just – exists. Maybe it’s a sort of killing machine,” Willow said.

Spike glanced at Buffy. There was a streak of mud adorning one cheek and a scratch across the other that was oozing blood just enough to make his mouth automatically water. The blonde hair he loved to feel on his face and other parts of his anatomy was tangled and dirty. She was frowning. He knew that frown. He had the feeling that this was one of those Slayer moments he loved her for, when she stood back from the problem and looked at it from a completely different point of view. “What are you trying to figure out, pet?”

Buffy shook her head, dropped his hand then turned and walked a few yards away from the crimson-rimmed boulder.

“Where are you going?” Willow almost squeaked with alarm. “Buffy – don’t leave me to fight it on my own. Not good with the hands on part, you know.”

“I don’t think it’s meant to be coming to the surface here in the Devil’s Punchbowl,” Buffy said slowly. “It doesn’t make sense. There’s nothing here but mud and trees and bushes.”

“Then why is it – ” Spike stopped suddenly. “Sod it! You think we woke it up!”

Buffy shook her head. “No, it was already awake, waiting for the mist – it needed to feed. But when we invaded its space, I think it sensed us and decided to attack. Listen, Spike, when we followed the mist down there and first saw the Blobby thing, it was what - forty, thirty feet down the crevasse? Then, remembe,r suddenly, as we arrived, it began surging upwards.”

Spike walked backwards to join her. “You think it was attracted to us? That it didn’t mean to leave its nice little hell hole right now, but the thought of some nice tender vampire and slayer steaks made its journey worthwhile?”

“But Buffy, you can’t know that?” Willow said earnestly. “We can hear that heartbeat – something’s down there and coming closer every minute. It doesn’t matter why. We’ve got to stand and fight it!”

Buffy shook her head. “No, we don’t! That’s the whole point. Willow, walk away. Come over here. We’re going to move up the slope. No talking, no noise at all.”

“Buffy! Let me do some type of barrier spell. I know it won’t do much good, but at least – ”

“No! Trust me on this, Will. The battle isn’t here and now. I’m certain of that.”

There was a long pause as Willow struggled with her desire to use what magic she had left against her belief in her friend’s instincts. She stared at the couple standing there, hands linked, bodies touching. Spike was so strong now, she could sense that. And Buffy – there was a change in her, too, but whether it was all good, Willow didn’t know. She sighed. They were a powerful combination; she was sure that even with magic on her side she didn’t think she could stop them doing what they wanted to do.

But if they were wrong….

She walked softly up the muddy path and together the three of them edged backwards, not speaking, being careful not to tread on twigs or branches, to make as little noise as possible.

Twenty yards up the path, Buffy stopped. She glanced at her companions and silently pointed back to where the huge boulder sat across the entrance to the cave system. The bright red light that had been pulsing around the rock had gone and at the same moment, Willow realised that the pounding heartbeat under her feet had vanished.

“It’s gone!” she whispered. “Buffy – you were right!”

Spike grinned and hugged the Slayer, licking the cut across her cheek with a swift lap of his tongue, enjoying the shudder that ran through her at his touch. “I’ve told you before and I’ll tell you again, Summers, you’re a hell of a woman!”

Buffy sighed. She sensed that they thought this was the end of the problem, but she knew it wasn’t. It was the first battle – not the war. She gave herself two long seconds, letting Spike hold her close, feeling the steel of his body against hers, then reluctantly pulled herself away.

“We haven’t defeated it. Only tricked it into going back to doing whatever it was doing before we arrived on the scene,” she said wearily.

Willow sat down abruptly on the muddy path, as if her legs could no longer carry her. “So – what do we do next?”

Buffy snapped a twig off a bush and stood, pinching off the leaves. She was so tired of being the one who had to make all the decisions. It would have been wonderful if Willow had come up with a plan, an idea, something. If only Giles was here. But not the new, creepy version of Giles, whatever that was, but the old one, the one who planned and did research and helped.

But that Giles was no longer part of her life. She glanced at Spike and the warmth of his expression lifted her heart as she realised with a sense of relief that this decision wasn’t just hers alone – the vampire had already worked out what she was going to say.

“We don’t have any choice, do we, pet?” he said softly.

Buffy shook her head and gazed down at Willow’s confused face. “We have to follow it, Will. Go back into the caves, find out what it is and where it’s heading. Then I kill it.”

To be continued