The Scooby group silently made its way to the crypt
that used to be the residence to the vampire they had
all known. They all filed into the crypt and lighted
all the torches and candles in the crypt.
The slayer Buffy Summers wanted to remember the
vampire who for many years had been her fellow
adversary but because he had the chip and had help
her when her mother was in the hospital they had form
an alliance. She still couldn't believe that Spike was
really dead. She was also angry that he had not died
honorably in a fight but was stabbed in the back by
Riley, but above all else she felt guilty because she
had been standing right in front of him when it
happened, she never saw Riley with the wooden stake
until it was to late. She still remembered the look of
surprise on Spike's face before he turned to dust.
Riley had left her alone when she didn't say anything
and had just kept staring at the dust of what used to
be Spike. By the time she had gotten over the shock
and gone and told the others what had happened, Riley
had already left town. The only thing she had found
was a note saying
that he was never coming back.
Willow and Tara were there as well. Tara
was there offering willow support by holding her hand,
she had not hated Spike she hadn't known him very well
to hate him. She did feel some gratitude towards him;
he did help her when her family had shown up. Willow
had cried earlier. She couldn't help but feel sad,
Spike had insulted her, but lately it had seemed like
playful teasing. And even though he had always said
that he was going to kill them when he got the chip
out, she knew that he had plans on turning her. She
kept telling herself that
she had to be strong for her friends.
Anya was silently holding Xander's hand. She knew
that in some way she will miss Spike. He had been the
only one to really listen to her when she talked about
her past while she had been a vengeance demon. Plus
he did buy her beer once. She glances
at Xander, of the group he had seemed to take Spikes
death worst of all, but like always the rest of the
group hadn't notice the fresh tears stains on his
cheeks. She knew that although he and spike had traded
insults every time they had been in the same room she
knew they had both seem to look forward to it. There
had been no real hatred behind the insults. She also
suspected that there was something more, but she never
said anything to him about it.
Xander couldn't believe Spike was actually dead. < Oh
God I think I'm going to cry again. Shit, get a hold
of yourself Xander you don't see the girls
getting all emotional do you. > He felt Anya watching
him and that sort of helped.He could still smell the
scent of leather, bleach, and menthol cigarettes
in the air that he always associated the blond vampire
with. The part of himself that still remembered when
he was a soldier and a hyena wanted to go find Riley
and torture him for a while before killing him. A
little voice in his head said < And you know the real
reason Why? Don't you? And it's not about friendship.
> He ignored the voice it wasn't the time to
question his reasons. To keep his mind occupied he
looked around the crypt and noticed a steamer trunk
next to the stone coffin. < He probably got
it at the junkyard. > Out loud he said, "I wonder
what's in there." Everyone looks to where he is
pointing. He lets go of Anya's hand and goes to open
the trunk, everyone follows and crowds around him to
see what is in it.
He kneels down and opens the trunk. He first pulls
out a dummy's head with a blonde wig on it. Everyone
looks at it and sort of shakes their
head as to why Spike would have something like that.
The next things he pulled out were two bottles of
beer, these he places on the floor next to him.
There was also a carton of cigarettes; he put them
next to the beer. The only thing left in the trunk was
an old brown leather book.
< Now why would Spike have a book? > He turns around
and sits down leaning against the trunk and opens the
book to the first page, and begins to read out loud.
" To William on your 23 birthday I give you this
journal to help you in your writing abilities and to
fuel your imagination, Always your loving mother."
He looks up and sees everyone with a shock look on
their faces, well everyone but Anya,although she did
look interested. He looks back down and flips to the
first entry.
Xander reads out loud the first entry while everyone
else sits close by to listen.
The year is dated 1880
" Mother gave me this journal for my birthday while
my father was out of the house on business. She is one
of the few people who really understand me. I don't
know what I will do without her." "I saw Cecily
yesterday at the park, she looked so beautiful, so
delicate, and so full of life.""I was invited to a
party for next week by her cousin Miss Sarah Blake,
Cecily would surely make an appearance." " I think I
will tell her how feel about her, by giving her a poem
I wrote for her."
< Cecily I think I remember Spike mentioning a girl
by that name, when I asked him how he killed two
slayers. > Buffy wasn't surprised about spike acting
like that about a girl he liked, one had only to
look how he acted with Drusilla. Something about that
didn't seem right though. < I though that Giles said
that when the demon took over there was no trace of
humanity left over. I'm going to have a serious talk
with him later. >
Xander flips to the next page. It is dated several
days later.
" Today is the day I tell Cecily how I feel about
her." " This time I would not lose my courage." " I
have yet to finish the poem for her, there are just
not enough words to describe how I feel about her,
I'll try and finish it before she shows up tonight."
"My mother is not hear to give me advice on the
matter, her and father are out of town at the moment
to visit a sick relative." " It was only by
mother intervening that father allowed be to stay
behind to attend the party."" I must get ready now and
dress in my best clothes. I do not wish to give a bad
impression, tonight must be perfect." " Hopefully the
next time I write it is because she returned my
affections. I cannot think that she will react in any
other way."
Xander flips the page to the next entry date and
notices it is dated several weeks later.
"Well a lot has happened since I last wrote, so much
that I don't know where to begin, so I'll start from
the beginning." " I was at the party trying to
figure out what rhymes with Effulgent, when Cecily
walked in." "I tried to catch her attention, but she
was looking the other way." "One of the other men
there took away my poem and read it out loud they had
the nerve to laugh about it, and called me
William the Bloody, because they think my poetry is
bloody awful." "What do they Know about real poetry,
its not the words that make a poem but the emotion
behind it.""I saw the Cecily leave and followed, and
like a sap that I am I though I will finally
have a chance to talk to her." "I will not go into
what she said, except she rejected me by telling me
that I was beneath her." "Like a child I ran and ended
up in an alley."" A moment later a beautiful woman
with dark hair came up to me, and said a lot
of things that sounded like poetry to me, but at the
same time it sounded like utter madness." " The rest
is all a blur." "The next thing I knew I was
waking up." "A dark haired man with a slight Irish
accent stood in front of me and told me that the woman
I had met last night was named Drusilla and that she
had sired me." "He introduce himself as Angelus my
grandsire, and that the blond haired woman who stood
next to him was Darla my great-grandsire.
"It was in this manner that I was told I had become a
vampire." "Angelus explained Drusilla's condition, and
that she will be unable to teach me how to behave
as vampire, and that therefore he would have to teach
me." "He took me out to hunt for my first meal that
night, I knew exactly who hunt for first."
After a moment Xander looked up when he felt a hand
touch his shoulder,It was willow, " Maybe we should
take this and read it at Giles place it's getting
late."Everyone nodded in agreement and started to get
up to turn off the lights. Anya grabbed the beer
bottles and put the carton of cigarettes in her jacket
pocket." They all leave the crypt, Xander takes one
quick look of the crypt before closing the door, he is
holding the journal tightly in his hands close to his
chest.
They had all reached Giles place and had told him what
they had found, and had told him what they had read so
far. As usual he took of his glasses and wiped them
with a cloth several times. After the slayer had
finished talking he was finally able to say something.
"I can't believe this, if the council ever hears
about this they will surely send someone down hear to
investigate and probably take the journal away from
us, this sort of thing is priceless."
"I don't think there's anything quite like this, we
have journals of slayers, but never a vampire." "This
is really quite remarkable, the journal of William the
Bloody, the half of the scourge of Europe."
"There is hardly anything written about him and
anything that is there has always been full of
contradictions, I mean the watchers who wrote about
him never knew who was his real sire."
The gang looks at each other, and realizes that Giles
will probably continue talking if they don't do
something quick.Silently they all looked at Buffy for
her to say something and interrupt Giles before he
goes into a long winded speech about vampires.
"Giles I hate to interrupt, but can we finish reading
the journal? "Buffy asks while sitting next to Tara,
and Willow on the large couch.
Xander was sitting in the chair that was usually
occupied by spike and Anya was sitting cross-legged in
front and to the side of him on the floor. Xander was
still clutching the journal tightly in his
hands and didn't seem to be letting go of it anytime
soon.
"Oh, quite right, sorry." He sat in one of the table
chairs.
Xander opened up the journal to where they had left
off.
The next entry date was dated a month or two later
than the last one.
"Angelus has been teaching me how to hunt, but he
mostly
leaves me alone to take care of Drusilla while he goes
off with
Darla to attend some aristocratic party, I always try
to make up some
excuse not to attend." "I went to those parties when I
was human and
I found them very boring, so why I should I go now
when I don't have to."
"Darla seems to like that, she hadn't seem to like me
in the beginning,
but now that she gets to have her precious childe
Angelus all to herself
without Drusilla constantly trying to get his
attention away from her,
she helps me convince Angelus to let me and Drusilla
stay behind."
"Darla still doesn't like me, but I'm not in danger of
being dusted
by her anymore." " I been spending my time learning
how to fight,
first with some strong human sailors and ones that are
suppose to be street
fighters, but after a while it stopped being
interesting, but I did learn
some great moves from those men." "I started testing
my new skills
in fighting with some lesser demons." "My sire
Drusilla usually stands
nearby to watch the fight, she says she likes to hear
the blood splatter
on the ground, and usually talks to her favorite doll
at the moment about it."
"One time however, she disappeared while I was
fighting, and I didn't notice
until after the fight was over and I had won." "I had
turned to where she had
been standing to find that spot empty." "For twenty
minutes I looked
frantically for her, I searched all over the city for
her." "All I kept
thinking was that if anything had happened to her I
would stake myself,
and even if I didn't, I knew that Angelus would do the
job for me, I seen
him stake one of his minions before for just spilling
blood on the carpet, I
could only imagine how he would react if he found out
I had let
Drusilla wander off by herself and she had gotten
hurt." "When I found
her I was so relieved for her sake and for mine." "She
kept saying that
the stars told her to go look for a present for me."
"When I asked what it was,
she gave me a rail-road spike, and said that it called
to her." "I didn't
know what to say until she said, Spikey don't you like
your prezzie?"
"Spike, I liked it, it's a better name than William,
maybe now the demon
community will stop making fun of me, and since I have
a new name I
guess I should start talking differently to match it."
<Wow spike was laughed at, no wonder he had such an
attitude
problem, it also explains how much he hated to be
called weak. >
Buffy felt even more terrible, she knew that if she
had known that bit of
information before, she would have made even more fun
of him.
Xander continues to read.
"On the way back to the house I remembered a comment a
man
had said about rather having a spike through his head
before ever
wanting to hear my poetry ever again, well lets just
say I fulfilled
his wish." "Tomorrow we are to leave London and travel
on
to Yorkshire, I will finally leave my past behind me."
Xander has continued to read.
"Darla and Angelus are quite mad at me,
so a mob is after us and now we must hide in some
of the coal mines here in Yorkshire before we are
able to leave, who cares, I have never had so much
fun."
"One good thing about this is that I found out about
the
slayer." "Imagine that, one girl in all the world who
is
strong enough to kill us and there's only one chosen."
"When one dies another one is called." " I must get
strong and fight one of them someday, maybe then
I would get some respect from Angelus and Darla,
they treat me like Drusilla's pet." "I'll show them
one of these days, I can be a master vampire like
them."
The next entry is dated 1898
"It has been a long time since I have written anything
down,
a lot has happened." "We had only been in Romania for
a
short while when something happened. Darla had wanted
to
have a celebration with Angelus alone so I took
Drusilla to
walk around the town and find someone to eat." "Things
were
going great until Drusilla started acting all upset
and mumbling
something about her Daddy." "It turns out Darla did
something
very stupid she had kidnapped a gypsy girl and given
her to
Angelus to feed on, well to get even with him for
killing the girl
the gypsies cursed him by giving him his freaking soul
back."
"Drusilla and I had a good time that night feeding and
killing
all the people we could find in the gypsy camp."
"Darla
has told us to treat Angelus like nothing has
happened,
but things have changed he hunts alone now and does
not let
anybody follow him, how long this charade will last I
do not know."
The next entry is dated 1900
"We have arrived in China in time for the Boxer
Rebellion,
uprisings in cities are always a good place to feed on
people."
"The best thing about China is I finally killed a
slayer, I
should be more excited but I'm not." "The only reason
I was able
to kill her was because she got distracted during the
fight by an
explosion, also I do not think she had been the slayer
for very long."
"Angelus didn't tell me they were young, I thought
they would be
much older, the one I killed looked so very young."
"Angelus is no
longer with us, it seems Darla and him got into a
fight over
his eating habits." "I for one am glad he is gone, now
I have Drusilla
all to myself, it wont be long now before Darla gets
tired of us and
leaves."
(And now to save time and space we will skip ahead.)
Xander continues to read and nothing seems interesting
until
the entry of 1977.
"I have finally killed my second slayer, this one
was much older than the first one I killed and she
also had
a better fighting style." "It was a great fight, I
have never
fought with anybody quite like her before." "She was
very
resourceful, there are not many fighters like that who
are able
to use anything around them as a weapon." " We fought
in a moving subway car here in one of the tunnels of
New
York City." "After it was over I decided to take the
leather
jacket she was wearing as a souvenir and also because
I think it will look great on me, it makes me look
even more
dangerous." "Dru my dark princess was real proud of
me,
we celebrated for many nights, there hasn't been this
much
blood shed since Woodstock." "The only regret that I
have
is that the fight was over to quickly." "I should have
found a
way to prolong the fight." "No, that's not the only
regret I have
I should have asked what her name was." "She didn't
beg for
her life, she died just like a warrior should." "I
made her death
quick, it was the least I could do for an enemy."
(Again we will skip ahead.)
Xander continues to read until he reaches an entry
that
everyone notes as the year most of the ones in the
room
first met Spike.
The entry date is 1997
"My dark princess has gotten hurt, I knew we
should've never gone to Prague." "She was attacked by
a mob after she was caught in an orphanage about to
drain a child." "By the time I found and rescued her
she was harmed beyond repair." "Now she is barely half
the vampire she was before." "She barley eats and when
she does I have to hunt for her." "I already dusted
some
minions who were stupid enough to make a comment
that I should just dust her and find another women,
but
since then no one has dared make a comment like that
again,
mostly because I made sure to torture them before I
dusted
them, I reminded them all why I'm called Spike." "No
one
talks about my Dru like that." "The only minion of
mine
that I trust to be in her presence right now is
Dalton."
"There is hope for my Dru though, I have talked with
some
witches and other demons and they all have said that
I will
have better luck at restoring Dru's health and
finding the
cure by going to the hellmouth." "So to Sunnydale,
California
we are going the current location of the hellmouth."
"While I was securing passages for the over-sea voyage
for Dru, a few of my most trusted minions, and me I
have
decided to take with me, I received news that the
Master
had been killed by the slayer." "We are currently in
Texas,
I stole a car in New York to travel in, I spray
painted the
windows black so we could travel during the day as
well."
"We were half way through New Mexico, when we
started to hear the rumors about Darla's death."
"I didn't pay much attention until I heard that
Angelus is
rumored to be the one that killed her, I made sure
that Dru
didn't hear any of these rumors, I didn't want her to
become upset."
The next entry is dated a week later.
"We have already arrived in Sunnydale." "We have met
the Anointed One, he is nothing but a child, but I
will humor
him for now, for Dru's sake." "The slayer's name is
Buffy
Summers." "What kind of name is Buffy? "This one is
different than
the last two slayers I killed, this one has friends."
"She does remind
me of my second slayer this one has style, I will take
great pleasure
in killing her." "The rumor about Angelus killing
Darla proved
to be true, but he now calls himself Angel and is
currently
helping the current slayer." "Oh how the mighty have
fallen."
"I have killed the Anointed one, he actually believed
that I was going to be a willing follower, now that's
a laugh."
"However, killing the slayer is proving harder than I
expected,
I can't believe her mom protected her by threatening
me
with an ax." "Angelus tried to trick me that he didn't
have his soul anymore by presenting one the of the
slayer's
friend as a meal for me, it was the whelp who had
brought
her the stake the first time I saw the slayer fight."
"What kind of idiot does Angelus take me for?"
"He obviously still thinks of me as that fledgling he
knew so long ago, well I'm not, I'm a master in my own
right."
The next entry is dated a month later
"I have succeed in restoring Drusilla's health, but in
the
process the bloody slayer has put me in a damn
wheelchair,
she was mad that I had kidnapped the pouf Angel."
"Drusilla has begun plans to have the judge
assembled."
"I don't like it but I cannot do anything about it
until I have
regained my health and able to walk again."
The next entry is dated 1998
"The judge has been assembled, and one of the first
things he did
was kill Dalton, and I couldn't do anything to stop
him." "I can't
believe that Dalton is gone, he was the only minion
that I liked
and tolerated, he was the only one that I could have a
decent
conversation with and as much as I love Dru she can't
really
hold a conversation for very long." "And if things
were not
already bad, Angelus has come back to us, it seems the
pouf
and the slayer spent one night together, and something
about having one moment of true happiness has broken
the curse."
"There is something wrong with him though, the soul
must have
messed up his sanity, because he doesn't act like the
Angelus
I remember."
The next entry is dated a few days later.
"The slayer has killed the judge and I for one am
happy to see
that guy gone." "I have been exercising in secrete and
building
up my strength, I don't like the way Angelus looks at
Dru."
"Dru has been mine for the last hundred years, and if
he thinks
that he can just waltz in and take her away from me
without a
fight, then he really has lost his marbles."
The next entry s dated a few months later.
"I must hurry my plans, Angelus has stolen Acathla,
and is planning on bringing hell on Earth." "I might
be a demon but even I know that it's the most idiotic
idea ever." "Right now we vampires are on top of the
food
chain, but if Angelus succeeds we will become nothing
more but lackeys." "Has the thought of what will
happen to us
if our food supply is wiped out even occur to him."
"I have decided to ally myself with the slayer, and
even though the very idea makes me sick, I am not
about to have my world literally sucked into hell."
"I will help her stop Angelus, I only want for me
and Dru to leave the hellmouth without being staked in
the
process."
Xander continues to read.
The next entry is dated 1999
"The alliance with the slayer work and I
got my dark princess to safety, but boy was she pissed
that I dared to hurt her daddy." "To make a long story
short
she hates me." "After I had gone back to Sunnydale and
I kidnapped the whelp and the redheaded witch so she
could work some of her mojo on Dru, so she could love
me
again, I changed my mind when I had gone to get
supplies for her
and ended up walking back with the slayer and Angel."
"I can't
believe that pouf is still around, and the way those
two were
looking at each other makes me sick." "They act like
nothing has
happened." "They kept saying that they were only
friends, yeah
right and I'm the pope." "Well I went back to Dru, but
it just
didn't work out, she kept saying I gone soft." "I
spent
a lot of months in some Mexican bars drinking away my
sorrows."
"I saw the insides of lots of Tequila bottles." " I
finally sobered up
one night when I overheard some demons talking about
the
Gem of Amara." "The Gem allows vampires to sunlight,
and
cannot be harmed by holy water and stakes." "The Gem
is
rumored to be somewhere in California" "I have
researched
and have narrowed the location down to somewhere in
Sunnydale."
The last entry date is dated 2000.
"Well my life has turn to shit." "I never should have
return
to the damn hellmouth, it has caused me nothing but
trouble."
"I did find the Gem of Amara but the bloody slayer
took it away from
me and sent it to the pouf in L.A where he is working
as detective,
helping the hopeless." "I did have some fun trying to
get it back from
him." "But I guess all good things come to end because
when I came
back to sunnydale to fight with the slayer again, I
was caught
and experimented on by what turns out to be a military
group."
"I escaped but I soon realized that they had put a
damn chip in
my head that stops me from hunting and feeding from
humans."
"I had to turn to the slayer and her friends for
help."
"I either stayed at the watchers house chained me up
in the bathtub,
but he eventually let me go and allowed me to wander
around the
house." "For a while I had to live with the whelp in
his basement
it wasn't so bad, at least he still treats me like the
Big Bad, and
to prove it he will tie me to the chair." "I guess no
one told him
that ropes can't hold me, because of vampire
supernatural strength,
but it was the thought that counted. " "He was the
only one not
surprised that I had betrayed them to Adam." "I told
them I would."
"I was looking out for number one, me." "I only did it
because
he promised to get the chip out." "I did finally end
up helping
them later in the fight when it turned out Adam lied
to me and had
only been using me to hurt the slayer." "He actually
tried to cut
off my freaking head, I'm glad that the slayer was
able to kill him."
"Now I'm living in one of sunnydale's crypts with of
all people
that air-head Harmony." "We worked out an agreement
between the two of us, I keep the slayer away from
her, and in
exchange we have sex." "It's the perfect arrangement."
"One of the few people that I actually like in this
town
is in the hospital with a tumor, I'm talking about the
slayers
mom Joyce." "I liked her since the first time she made
me
hot cocoa with little marshmallows, she actually
listened
to what I had to say about Dru." "Joyce reminds me so
much
like my own mum." "I wonder if the slayer knows
that I have often visited her mum while she was still
living in the
dorm or when she was to busy with her boyfriend Riley
Finn."
"Something is wrong with commando boy Finn and I'm
going to
find out what."
Xander closes the book; no one says anything for
a while. Until Buffy got up and started to pace and
ranting out loud.
"Angel never told me he stayed with Darla after he
got his
soul, I can't believe he never told me this."
Tara and Willow she kept holding hands and watched
Buffy
pace all over the room.
Giles was also looking at Buffy, but he also was
thinking
about every thing he heard while he took off his
glances and kept
cleaning them with a cloth.
Anya was looking at Buffy, but she was also thinking
about strangling her. < It's just like her to over
react about any
new information she finds out about her precious
Angel. >
The only one not paying attention was Xander.
He kept thinking about the time he shared his basement
with
the bleach vampire. Especially when said vampire had
accidentally
shrunk his clothes and had to borrow some of his to
wear. He
could still picture the vampire in that bright
Hawaiian shirt.
He looked up when he heard Giles clear his throat,
that's
when he noticed that Buffy, Tara, and Willow had
already left.
Xander grudgingly gave the journal to Giles to be put
in a safe place.
Anya waited for him at the door she was holding the
beer bottles in
her hand.
"Lets go back to your place Xander and drink these, I
think
spike would have wanted us to."
Xander nods in agreement and follows her out the
door.
The End
