| "Introductions" |
| It was a cold, dark night. The kind of night that everyone hates. You know what I'm talking about. Cold, miserable, windy and raining just enough to make the night even worse. Bus #247 pulled into the Sunnydale Bus Depot at around 6:30pm. The door creaked open and a few people got out. One of the few people to exit the bus was a young girl who would appear to be about five or six years old. She had dark brown hair down to the middle of her back. Her dark brown eyes matched her hair perfectly. Her facial features were soft, however, one look into her eyes and you could see she was more than just a child. In her arms she held onto Patrick, her teddy bear, which she had owned since before she could remember. In the other arm she carried a brown colored bag that held everything she owned in it. She stepped off the bus and looked around at her surroundings...Empty. Not even enough people to count on one hand. She placed her bag on the ground and opened it up and dug around for something. Her stomach growled softly, she hadn't had anything to eat all day. 'hmm' she thought as she look at what she had pulled out of her bag. '$4.26' she counted and sighed. "not much" She put the money back in her bag, closed it up and |
| flung it over her shoulder. She stood back up and thought to herself while looking up, "I'd better find somewhere to stay, I really don't like the idea of sleeping in the rain" She proceeded to leave the bus depot, as she walked the only thing going through her mind was the only reason she was there...the reason she travelled so far from the place she called home for the past five years of her life. One word, only one word ran through her mind. With every step it clouded her mind even more. Over and over it repeated through her mind. It was a word that every child got the chance to use, every child except for her that is. It's crazy to think that one tiny, little word could mean so much, make you leave behind everything you had. A word that would change her life in ways she never knew possible. That one word...MOTHER... |
| "Ouch" Buffy said as she pulled the hot pan out of the oven and set it on top of the stove. "Dawn, time to eat!" She called up to her sister. Buffy carried the pan out into the dinning room and set it on the table. She smiled at how good it looked. It had been almost a year since her mother had died and her life was complete hell. But alot had changed since then. Dawn was going to school reguarly and doing very well in it. The house was being maintained and the slaying wasn't crazy as it use to be. Also, her and Dawn had formed a bond that sisters usually don't make,, well, actually Buffy stopped acting like a mother and started being a sister is more like it, Dawn just fell into place after that. Dawn came down the stairs and into the dinning room. "wow! it smells...safe.." Dawn said smiling while pulling out a chair to sit down. "your right, this dinner is perfectly safe, it won't reach up and grab you" Buffy stated, smiling back at her and taking a seat herself. Dawn piled a big spoonful of mashed potatoes on her plate. "I got a B+ on my math test today" Buffy looked at her. "see? I told you I still knew what the word study meant" "Thats a surprise" Dawn joked back. "No, the real surpirse is that I actually knew HOW to do it" Buffy said. Dawn laughed, "I'm glad you showed me how to do those problems without having to do all the work, it's good to know my sister was a big slacker in high school.", "I wasn't a slacker! I just had more important things to worry about..like...vampires and demons..and saving the world..you know. if it wasn't for me, there would be no Math. so it's a good thing that school work came after slaying" Buffy defended herself. "yea, the world getting in line to thank you for that one" Dawn said dimmly and started eating her dinner. They ate their dinner with conversations about what each other did during the day, how Dawn was doing in school, and other things they talked about every night when they sat down for their supper. It was a thing in the summers house now, dinner at 7:00 on the dot. Buffy sat back. "well that was good, I cooked it, you clean it!" Dawns face twisted in shock. "your evil, you know that!" Buffy smiled. "you better believe it" Dawn got up and started cleaning off the table, Buffy stood up and helped. "your lucky I like you" Buffy said as she carried the plates in the kitchen and helped clean up. |
| They cleaned up the kitchen in less than 15 minutes. After that Buffy pulled out some ice cream from the freezer. "Still hungry?" Dawn looked at her and smiled, "as much as I love chocolate ice cream, I'm full. Dinner filled me up for once." Buffy sighed and put the ice cream back in the freezer and closed the freezer door. "Party pooper!" Dawn picked up a pen from the counter and started tapping it on the counter."so are you going out patrolling tonight?" Buffy walked over and leaned on the counter across from Dawn."I'm not sure. I might make a few sweeps, just to make sure everything is good. why?" Dawn dropped the pen and looked up at her. "No reason, I was thinking maybe we could sit down and watch that freddy movie I rented" Buffy laughed. "No way! I told you I'm not going to watch some crispy guy walking around with knives for fingers, killing people, I see that enough in real life." Dawn looked at Buffy disappointed. "now who's being the party pooper?.... well I'm going to finish up my homework, and watch the movie all by myself" Dawn said, trying to make Buffy feel bad. "You go on and do that, I'm still not watching it." Dawn stuck out her tongue and walked back upstairs. Buffy turned off the kitchen light and went into the living room and turned on the tv. "..they found the body of 20 year old Ryan Sullivan in the cemetary, and no he wasn't already dead...his knee caps were shattered and his neck was broken. Police have no leads if you have any information please. ca..." She turned off the tv. "great..why can't vampire lay off for one night?"She got up and walked upstairs to change into her patrolling clothes. |
| The little girl continued walking until she found herself at the entrance of a graveyard. She just stared into the fog which covered the ground. She had never seen a graveyard in real life, just in movies and on Tv. "I wonder what it's like?" she thought to herself. She looked behind her, making sure there was no one there, then turned back towards the graveyard. "I'll just take a quick look then find a place for the night.." She told herself. She looked down at the ground forcing herself to take the first step onto the wet grass. She checked behind her one last time then took the step....nothing happened. She let out a huge sigh then continued walking deeper into the graveyard.. As she walked, she kept looking back just to see if anyone was there. She clutched Patrick close to her body. All of a sudden she heard a loud, 'CRACK!' She stopped moving except for her eyes, which moved frantically around trying to see, too afraid to move. She took in a deep breath and slowly turned around...noone was there. "Phew!" she thought and let out a sigh of relief and turned back around. She saw shirt buttons! She glanced up and saw a man then screamed and jumped back. "Calm down little one, I'm not going to bite you" the man said while looking down at her. "I'm sorry, you just scared me is all" she said still looking very pale. He kneeled down to her level, "What are you doing out here all by yourself?" She took another look at him, holding Patrick in a death grip to her chest. "Looking for my mommy" the man looked |
| around the looked back down at her. "you know, I just saw a woman out here saying she lost her little girl, just a couple minutes ago, what me to take you to her?" Her eyes got big, "Really?" He flashed her a warm smile. "I'm Ryan, what's your name?" She smiled back. "Hope". He stood up and puts his hand out for her to take. "well, it's nice to meet you Hope." She took his hand and started to follow him. They walked across the cemetary for about two or three minutes and then stopped infront of a crypt. "I told her to wait right in here." Hope glanced up to him, "in there? Are you sure?" He shook his head. "yup, I saw her myself" He smiled and gestured for her to enter. She let go of his hand and took a couple of steps toward the door and peered in. "it's really dark in there..." He walked up behind her, "I'm right behind you, don't worry." He reasured her. Hope looked up at him then smiled, then returned her attention back to inside the crypt. |