Chapter 83 - Targets

Two nights later, they found a dead girl with a railroad spike through her chest.

She had been strategically left, half hidden in the bushes at the park.

Besides the general awfulness, Buffy was shaken on a different level. This was actually the first dead person she had come across. She’d known it was going to happen sooner or later, and she had already realized that there were people she couldn’t save, people who were in the wrong place at the wrong time. But seeing it was different.

And this was also something else. This wasn’t some stray victim; this was purposeful. She was lying with her arms by her sides and her legs straight in front of her. She had been left drained and mutilated for them to see. There were jagged tears on her neck and the thing stuck through her heart. In her hand, she held a cross, obviously placed there after her death.

“It was him,” she said.

“Yeah,” Spike said.

Buffy stood in the lamp lit darkness in silence. She looked at the spike. Finally, she said:

“Is that supposed to make me think you did it?”

“It’s supposed to mess with you.”

“Well, it’s working.” Buffy looked back at the girl. She was probably in high school. “He killed her because of me,” she said.

Spike turned to her, pulling her arm to make her look at him. “Look here. He killed her because he kills people. He killed her like that because—”

“He wants to get my attention.”

“I’d say he wants to get our attention, or he wouldn’t have done it like that.”

Buffy looked at him.

“I took a page from his book when I did Darla,” Spike said. “He’s returning the favor.”

“You’re so not helping,” she said. Buffy shifted. She ran her fingers through her hair and sighed. “Look, can you—would you just watch her? I’m going to call the police. I don’t want anything to…drag her off.”

Spike shrugged and nodded, and Buffy went to a nearby payphone and pretended to be a ditzy and freaked out coed who had just discovered a body in the park. They assured her they would send someone right over. The woman sounded like this sort of thing happened a lot, Buffy thought.

She and Spike watched from a distance until the authorities arrived.

Then they left, walking in the other direction.

“Are you all right?” he asked after a moment.

“How can you even ask me that?”

Spike didn’t seem particularly fazed by it all. But then, he wouldn’t be, would he? Death and dead people didn’t bother him. Innocent girls murdered in the park didn’t really bother him, except that it bothered her.

“Are you going to be all right?”

“Later,” she said. “I’ll be better later.”

Neither one spoke as they finished patrol.

-----

Buffy called Giles the next morning and told him about the girl. She described how she’d been laid out and what had been done to her.

“You’re sure it wasn’t some other vampire’s victim?” he asked.

“It was definitely Angelus. Who else would want to get my attention like that?”

“You said there was a spike?”

Yeah, she probably shouldn’t have mentioned that part. But she had just blurted it out. Finding bodies messed with a person.

“Uh-huh.”

But Giles didn’t say anything else beyond the usual about being careful and keeping an eye out.

That night, they had barely started patrol before they found a girl in the back of the cemetery.

She was tied to the trunk of a large tree with a rope biting into the flesh of her neck. Her arms were tied behind her around the tree. There was a stake through her heart, a cross necklace dangling just above it.

Spike noticed the differences on this one. She hadn’t been drained, or even been drunk from. The rope had been tied to keep her in place while she’d been alive; now her dead weight sagged from it, leaning against the trunk. From the amount of blood staining her clothing, the stake was what killed her, not strangulation.

He wasn’t going to mention that bit to Buffy. What he did think Buffy needed to know was the pattern. He was about to say it, but she spoke first, breaking the silence.

“He’s killing me. She’s blonde and small. So was the other one. He’s killing me.”

“Yeah,” he said quietly.

“Get her down.”

“No.”

“We can’t just leave her like this! We have to get her down!”

Spike caught her arms in his as she stepped forward. “As spectacularly ineffective as I think the Sunnyhell P.D. are, the last thing we need is you tampering with a crime scene.” His voice softened. “You can’t help her, pet.”

Buffy swallowed. “Fine,” she whispered. “But I’m still calling the police.”

“All right.”

Buffy called from a payphone again, reporting what she’d found. The emergency operator took down the location, and then asked, “Are you the girl who reported the incident last night?”

For a moment Buffy wondered if Spike was right, and if even calling had been a bad idea. But she answered anyway, feeling that she shouldn’t lie to the police. “Yes,” she said quietly, wondering if they were going to think she had something to do with it.

But the woman on the other end of the phone just sighed. “Miss, perhaps you shouldn’t go out at night anymore. You’ve seen the problems we’ve been having, and we’re concerned for all our citizens’ safety.”

Buffy quickly assured the woman that she would stay indoors after dark from now on.

They watched from the other end of the cemetery until the police cars pulled up. Then she and Spike disappeared into the night.

“This ends now,” Buffy said.

-----

Going by her mother’s house for a few hours should have been a welcome distraction. But as soon as she and Spike walked in the door, Joyce said:

“Oh, Buffy. There was just a phone call for you, someone asking if you got his invitations.”

Buffy felt a chill. “Who?”

“He didn’t say. I asked him if he wanted to leave a number where you could call him back, but he said he could always drop the next one by the house. Is someone from one of your classes having a party?”

Buffy started in a rush. “If someone comes to the house after dark, don’t open the door. In fact, don’t open the door at all unless you know who it is. In fact, don’t even go outside after dark. Be home by sunset!”

“Buffy, what is going on?”

“There’s a vampire. A really bad vampire. And he’s sort of after us.”

Her mother started to say something.

“But we’re going to get rid of him,” Buffy quickly continued. “Just be really careful until then.”

“Honey, this sounds dangerous.”

“Slayer, Mom. And I’ve got Spike, remember? It’s what we do.”

Joyce sighed. “I still don’t like this, Buffy.”

“This what?”

“This…you having to do dangerous things.”

“I know. I’m not totally crazy about it. But I have to. If I don’t, he’s going to keep killing people, and he’s going to keep coming. And I really need to call Giles right now and tell him.”

Her mother didn’t look convinced.

“Everything will be fine,” Buffy forced out, trying to sound positive. Then she changed the subject. “Hey, didn’t you want to ask Spike some things about merry old England?”

Spike looked surprised at suddenly being the topic of conversation.

“I did have a few questions,” Joyce said. “If you don’t mind?”

He shifted. “Guess not.”

“I could make you something to drink? Coffee? Tea?”

“Yeah, all right.”

Joyce went into the kitchen, and Spike lingered for a moment. He suddenly looked almost sulky.

“Oh, it won’t hurt you,” Buffy said.

“Guess not.”

“She would have brought it up on her own sometime anyway. But it’s a good distraction right now.” Buffy lowered her voice. “We’ve got to take care of Angelus soon. Because as wrong as everything else is, the last thing I need is him leaving a dead body on my mother’s front porch.”

Spike nodded. Then he turned and went into the kitchen.

Buffy dialed Giles’s number.

“We found another one,” she said when he answered.

“Ah.”

“In the cemetery.”

“With a railroad spike?” Giles asked.

“No, it was a stake this time.”

“That is—slightly different.”

“They look like me. He’s leaving them for me to find.”

“Perhaps.” Giles paused. “But I have reason to believe William the Bloody may be in town.”

Buffy felt a strange sense of foreboding.

“Um. Why?” Cause he is. Right now he’s in the kitchen, probably having coffee with my mother.

“The railroad spike was his signature for a period of time.”

She knew she shouldn’t have mentioned the spike. “Yeah, but the girl tonight had a stake.”

“He does have a history with Slayers. It bears consideration that you may have another opponent, working with or independently of Angelus.”

“Yeah. Um. I’ll consider it. We should talk. I’ll come by tomorrow?”

Giles paused again. “Buffy, is something wrong?”

“What isn’t wrong? Look, I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Very well. We can discuss it then.”

Buffy said goodbye and hung up the phone. She took a deep breath.

Then she went into the kitchen. “I’ve got to tell him,” she blurted, interrupting. “We’ve got to tell him tomorrow.”

“Buffy? Tell who what?” Joyce asked.

Spike just looked at her and nodded in acknowledgement. She wondered if he’d heard her conversation.

“Buffy?”

“Giles,” she said to Joyce. “Never mind.” Buffy sighed. “I’m going to go take a bath.” Then she smiled. “But you two should definitely finish your talk.”

-----

Late afternoon the next day, Buffy and Spike were walking to Giles’s.

“I’ve just…gotta say it,” she said. “Just tell him. Maybe he won’t totally flip out.”

“Seems pretty level headed.”

“On the other hand, he thinks you’re the one killing girls and leaving them around town. And why should he believe me anyway? I’ve been lying since I got here.”

“There’s also that.”

“Not helping.” Buffy slowed down her pace as they approached Giles’s street. “Maybe we could go kill Angelus and then tell him. Cause that would look really good.”

“Tryin’ to make me look good?”

“When he didn’t know who you were, Giles liked you. At first. Well, he didn’t dislike you.” She paused. “Actually, he was concerned that I was dating a dangerous man.”

“You are.”

Buffy glared. “Well, I’m sure he doesn’t like you now, after that stunt you pulled. So now, he doesn’t like you that he knows, or vampire you that he’s read about.”

They were in the courtyard now. Buffy sighed as she knocked on the door and opened it a crack. “Giles?”

“Do come in,” she heard him call.

Buffy swung open the door and stepped inside. And she sort of froze for a moment.

Giles wasn’t alone. Everyone was here. Bad, bad, bad.

So much for her planned approach. But maybe Willow could help somehow. Maybe there was still a way to do this smoothly and diplomatically without causing a major scene.

Unfortunately, Anya spoke first.

“Why is there a vampire here?”