- Dream Weaver
Chapter 3: Confession
After a brief awkward silence, the mystery girl introduced herself. "My name is Elisabeth Emilie Williams and I'm a Canadian vampire" and Buffy replied," a little far off from home are you and I'm Buffy the Vampire Slayer and you're toast". At that, Elisabeth's face transformed from a quite human to a bestial form. Buffy's eyes pierced, her nostrils flared, her lips pressed and her fists clenched as she drew out her stake. Elisabeth's face had her fangs showing and her eyes glowed yellow when she took off her shades.
The vampiress snarled as she lunged towards Buffy and Buffy swiftly moved aside like a bullfighter from a raging bull. Buffy then swung a back kick and hit the vampire girl in her face. Elisabeth quickly gained her composure being a vampire and all. She quickly did a somersault over Buffy and gave Buffy a midair kick, knocking Buffy off her feet. Buffy quickly sprung back, each one trading blows. We all just stood back and observed every move, each one more carefully timed. Buffy gave Elisabeth a blow that would've knocked the wind out of a normal human being as she flew backward and broke a tombstone in the process.
Just then in the distance, lights began to appear and I could hear dogs barking. The fighting ceased abruptly and we were surrounded by lights dancing from all directions and there was nowhere to run. The lights drew closer and silhouettes began emerging from the fog of men and dogs. There was radio chatter and badges were shining. Before long, we were all surrounded by the Sunnydale Police.
Elisabeth's face was back to normal and the flashlights were blinding, with dogs snarling and barking at us. An elderly man with horn-rimmed glasses and a lantern emerged by the police throng. "Buffy is that you again?" the old man asked as he approached Buffy. "What are you all doing here so late at night?", He asked. Elisabeth to everybody's astonishment cut in. "Oh Buffy and I were practicing our martial arts over here in anticipation of a martial arts tournament coming up!". Buffy, the Scoobies and I turned to look to Elisabeth in astonishment that left us all bewildered.
As Elisabeth turned to look at us, she noticed Angel and her jaw dropped, "Angel what are you doing here?". "Do you know here?", Buffy asked ."Well we go a long way back!", Angel replied. The old man turned again to Buffy and said, "Listen Buffy it's OK that I cut you some slack because I know you and your friends", he continued, "I have the duty as a groundskeeper that people don't come and do mischief and wind up hurting themselves". He turned his attention to Giles and said, "You, Mister, make sure you keep these kids out of trouble". "I sure will", Giles said.
The police were called off and moments later the cemetery was silent again upon the withdrawal of the police and the groundskeeper. Buffy said, "Now what was that all about? Why did you cover up for me?". "Because she's a vampire with a soul like me", Angel said. "Since I figured out you'd be hungry catch!" at that Angel produced a bottle of blood out of his trench coat and tossed it at Emilie, which Angel preferred to call her by her middle name.
"So what are you doing in Sunnydale?", Emilie asked. Angel replied, "Starting over". "Oh really?", Emilie said ."How about you?", Angel asked. "Just passing through" ,Emilie replied. Angel then had a flashback. It was Newfoundland back in 1896,Angelus had stopped briefly in that part of the world with Darla, Spike and Drusilla. Emilie was just a peasant girl who was recently broken hearted after her ex-lover left her for another woman. A strange new girl had approached her, who was from Scandinavia and her name was Anyanka. Emilie was so angry and bitter that she wished for her ex- boyfriend and his new love to be shipwrecked and drowned. Anyanka made her wish come true as befits a true vengeance demon.
When news arrived to Emilie that her ex-boyfriend and his new girlfriend died in a shipwreck. Her grief was coupled with guilt to the point she wanted to take her own life. So Emilie found herself alone at the beach bathed by the light of the full moon and the sparkle of the stars above. All what could be heard were her sobs amid the crashing waves for she contemplated lover's leap.
And then Angelus arrived to ask why she was so sad, she retold the story to Angelus. She expressed her desire to die by saying," I'm so broken hearted I can't live no longer without my love nor can I live with the guilt that I was the cause of his death, I just wished I died", then Angelus turned to Emilie with his face transformed into it's bestial vampire form and said,"Your wish is my command!" and immediately turned to bite her neck and suck her blood.
"Angel, are you alright?", Buffy asked. "Yeah", Angel replied, "to think it's been a century since I first met Emilie". "OK", Buffy said, "I know you got you soul as a result from a Gypsy curse but how did she---?"."Same deal", Emilie interrupted. "Care to share your story with us?"I asked. "Sure", Emilie said."Are you sure you're comfortable with this?", Angel asked. "They have to know this!" Emilie said. "Who are you?", Emilie asked me. "Alejandro Reyes, II", I replied. Buffy turned to introduce the Scoobies to Emilie as well.
After we passed introductions, Emilie sat down on a gravestone to tell us what happened. "It was 1940 in Europe, World War II was raging and the Nazis had cut a deadly swath throughout much of Europe", she said. "France had just fallen and I was pretty much in the middle of everything, Hitler's Waffen-SS were recruiting volunteers" ,she continued, "and what better way for me to get human blood was in the front lines of battle". Emilie went on, "I was with Hitler's Storm Troopers rounding up Jews and Gypsies, heck I didn't find until five years later the truth about the holocaust".
"Well anyway", she continued, "I drank the blood of many Jews and Gypsies, and the surviving Gypsies cursed me with a soul". "So that explains the tattoo on your neck!" Buffy said. "Exactly", Emilie said. Willow being of Jewish heritage herself. She looked at Emilie with a blend of horror and disgust. Willow asked, "Why didn't they just slay you?" "I guess the Gypsies felt that slaying me was too kind, like doing me a favor. So they cursed me with a soul". Emilie replied. "Since then I switched sides, decided to fight for the Allies and the French Resistance and started drinking German blood instead". Emilie said.
"After the war, I decided to get my blood supply by stealing from blood banks as well as butcher shops", she said. "Wow, you're like a walking history book!", I said, "and the best thing is that you lived it!" ."I know", she said, "but when you live with 100 years of guilt, it can be overbearing". Emilie sighed. "What time is it?" Buffy asked. I immediately glanced at my watch. "Whoa!" I said, "it's six o'clock in the morning!" "Daybreak is coming!", Buffy said. "May I go or shall we wait for sunrise?" Emilie asked. Buffy looked to Angel and angel nodded to Buffy, motioning to her to let Emilie go.
Buffy said, "You're free to go". "Until we meet again", Emilie said. At that Emilie got up and headed westward to avoid meeting the sun while we all stood watching her disappear amid the tombstones in the early morning mist. Angel said, "I'll too must be on my way, we'll talk, OK Buffy?". "Sure", Buffy said with nod. Angel nodded along; the rest of us looked on. Angel took a different direction through the cemetery also heading away from the very first signs of daybreak.
I felt as though I had worked another graveyard shift back in Florida doing security, complete with cops and incidents. Good thing I didn't have to fill out an incident report. I started yawning and stretching; Buffy looked at me and asked, "Tired, huh?" I yawned, "Yeah-uh!" Buffy said, "I better get back home before Mom wakes up and finds me home!" Xander also looked beat and Willow was pretty much ready to call it a night.
Everybody dispersed while I went with Giles, We had breakfast upon arriving and we fell fast asleep. As I slept, I dreamed. It was a dream worth remembering and telling.