Energy (A Buffy fanfic)

Chapter 3: Baring

Buffy

I realise that I don't know where my history class actually is, given that I've skipped it almost every time I've had it. I think I was there the first day... Possibly. I'm not really sure. Anyway, I stick close to Cordelia, because she looks like she knows where she's going.

Oh, she's on to me! She turns and holds the door open to a classroom, and says, rather too jovially for my tastes, "You don't know where the class is, do you?" I shake my head forlornly, and she chuckles. This must be what Xander feels like all the time. She gestures for me to get in, which I reluctantly do so.

I sit down at a free table (I assume it's mine, seeing as how no one is telling me to move), and look at the questions. Unsurprisingly, I realise that I don't know the answers to any of the questions. I look around, and see everyone else getting busily on with it. Oh well, at least this is America, and I get a mark for writing my name. I know that. I look up at the clock, knowing I've got a whole lesson in which to write my name. 11:35. 55 minutes to go. May as well take my time. I rummage leisurely for a pencil, look up at the clock again. 12:00. Surprised, I begin to write, only to have my pencil crack before I can even write the first letter. Suddenly, the bell goes - what? I've heard of time flying, but this is ridiculous. Oh well, there's nothing I can do. With a feeling of dread at what Mom will say when she sees the grade, I leave.

Just outside the door, a see a young boy, no older than ten or eleven, dressed in some kind of white shift, looking at a girl (What's her name? It's on the tip of my tongue... Laura, that's it.) with a mournful expression on his face. He seems so familiar... Laura descends into a cellar, and the boy mutters something I don't quite catch. I walk up to him to ask who he is, but then there's an ear-splitting shriek from the cellar, which is abruptly cut off, leaving a deafening silence. And the boy is gone.

Regrettably, I'm not the first person down there, and by the time I am, the place is a mess. But not as much as Laura. She's been beaten to a pulp, and she's lucky to be unconscious and not dead. But there's no chance of me finding something in here, I'll just have to speak to her at the hospital after she wakes up. Now, all I can do is go and find the others, fill them in on what just happened. And tell them about the boy, the one I mysteriously managed to forget earlier. Just who is he, and what's his relationship to all of this?

Anyway, I'm off to the library for another round of Giles-informing, which seems to be something I do regularly. Although, it must be said that he does his fair share of Buffy-informing as well - which, hopefully, is exactly what he's going to be doing right now.

I pause just outside the door because I can hear voices coming from inside - something that very rarely happens. Unfortunately, they're speaking too quietly for me to identify them, or hear what they're saying, so I have no choice but to go on in. After all, I'm the Slayer here, so I should have priority. I push open the doors and stride in.

"- and how am I meant to do that, if she doesn't trust me?" says Theo to Giles in a low voice. I should've known he'd be here - he obviously doesn't care about skipping classes. Well, it's nice that I was able to surprise him, he doesn't even seem to notice I'm here until Giles mkaes some kind of gesture and he looks up. For a split second, a bunch of emootions flicker across his face before he smoothes them away - I see frustration, annoyance, anger, and several others that are gone too fast to identify. Then he glides across the floor (Technically, he's walking, but it's so smoothly that it may as well be gliding.) towards me. I fight down the sudden rising panic, because I know I couldn't take him in a straight fight. But he moves right past me, as if I'm not even there.

For a fraction of a second, some light seems to puddle around his hands, which, with an odd twisting motion, he throws at the library doors, causing them to burst open with a resounding crash which makes both Giles and I wince. Before either of us can recover, he's gone. Again.