Fight to the Finish (BTVS, Book Seven)

chapter 2 - Beneath You

There were these dreams that I had been having, that were so vivid, that they had to have been prophecy, Slayer dreams.

I saw a nightclub somewhere out of the country, and the bright blue neon sign pointing to the club read: Tatoo Nachtlocal, and another sign was pointing to the parking garage of the nightclub, and this sign said: Parkplatz. A car was driving toward the building.

In the parking garage, a girl was running, looking scared. She had hot pink hair with black bangs at her forehead, a nose ring, and a metal collar. She was wearing all black, with a skeleton shirt, long pants, a leather jacket and boots. She went through an interior door, jumping down to the next level. Two people were chasing her, but I couldn't tell what they were or what they looked like because they were wearing long robes with hoods over their heads. The girl ran out through an exterior door, proceeding to scale down the building. She thought she was safe when she went through a doorway to the outside near the crowd of club patrons, but she was pushed back inside by her pursuers. They closed the door behind them, starting to beat her. The girl couldn't really fight back, knocked to the ground, lying on her back. One of the robes people pulled out a curved silver dagger, trying to stab the girl. The girl raised her arm to stop him. The other robed person also had a dagger, managing to stab the girl in the stomach and chest, making her wince in pain as she started to die. The men resheathed their daggers, walking away, leaving her to die.

The girl appeared to be dead, turning her head slightly, opening her eyes, speaking in a low resonant voice. "From beneath you, it devours."

~~~~~~~

I ended up screaming myself awake in my room at night, accidentally waking my Mom and Dawn up.

Mom was sitting next to me, moving me lightly to wake me up. "Zoey. Zoey, Zoey."

I sat up, looking at Mom in confusion, seeing that Dawn was standing behind her. "I heard screaming."

"That was you," Dawn told me.

"There was a girl," I told them.

"That would be me," Dawn told me.

I shook my head. "Uh, no. It was..."

"Just a dream," Mom told me. "It was just a dream, right?"

"From beneath you, it devours," I told them. "That's what she said, and then they... Mom, there's more like her. Out there somewhere, Dawn." I stood, walking over to the window, looking outside, frowning sadly. Dawn and Mom came to stand next to me in concern. "And they're gonna die."

~~~~~~~

The next morning, Buffy was driving Dawn and me up to the school again. Xander was with us this time, though.

Dawn looked at me. "You seriously hate this school more than I do. And yet you continue to make it a point to help drop me off here every day."

"Yeah, and you know why," I told her. "Or do I have to bring up the first day again?"

"No," Dawn answered.

"Okay, good," I told her. "Just don't go off alone, hang out with your new friends, stick together, and maybe you'll stay safe."

"Maybe," Xander repeated. "Don't take our word for it, because Buffy, Willow, Zoey and I were always hanging out in high school, and we still got attacked and hurt quite a bit.

Buffy sighed. "And I still have yet to even half-understand my fuzzy job description."

"It's not fuzzy," I told her. "You're, what, dealing with troubled kids at a new Hellmouth High. Please. Outside of drugs and violence and the unwanted pregnancy, and, uh, unleashing the hordes of Armageddon that comes pouring out of the school's foundation every now and then, what trouble could these kids have?"