LeatherQueen...I was hoping you were going to tell me it would take a good long time....err..the scritching I mean....
thheaven....Just wait till you see what's in store for our girls...this next update may throw y'all for a loop...but bear witht he troll...he'd never steer you wrong....he says he has something really weird in store...and I'm prone to believe him when he rants....
Sass...you know...you don't have to...uh...get up if you don't want....You're welcome to stay right here on the ol lap...
Would that be too much for you...or should I go get my 35mm camera...your choice... (wink)
Enough thoughts of the unruly nature...and on with the show...This one is a troll special if there ever was one... I personally think he's making fun of me....
Chapter 160: Whatever Happened to Alice??? Cuz I Don’t Think She Lives Here Any More….They say every story must come full circle.
This one seems to be threaded out in a long and tedious line.
They also say that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line…
Anyone who has had a glimpse into our lives of late will know that to be complete malarkey.
So I’m sitting here trying to figure out where this all went wrong.
Was it when I accepted that ride from Spike? Was that it?
Was it when I walked into the Magic Box instead of spinning around and demanding that he get back on that bike of his and take me home?
Or was it waaaay before then…
I can’t even think back that far…to that OTHER Tara…that other life before this one…so I’ll just blame Spike.
It seems I’ve done my share of waking up. The first time it was in another body…this time…it is in another….well…another….
situation…
“This is all your fault.” I say to Spike…who is still lying unconscious on the floor. Head turned to one side…leg twitching as he chases little dream bunnies in his sleep.
Not that he’d hear me anyway.
I crouch beside the still-sleeping form of Willow. I reach out to brush a lock of her fiery red hair out of her face…and I pause before touching her….
Oh yes…the last time you tried that one you almost needed to check into a mental ward…because you can’t seem to touch her…can you….???“ This is all HER fault, Tare.” Buffy says to me. Still trying her best to keep herself together after she had woken up about a half an hour ago into a classic episode of the Twilight Zone... Where WE are in some other plane of existence…unable to touch…or be heard by the rest of the world…
Pru sits on the floor of the crypt…next to the untouchable sleeping form of Her Own Tara…the sweet one…with the doey-eyes…
She wipes defiantly at a tear rolling down her cheek and glares at Buffy…
“ You want to put blame somewhere…what about YOU…with the grabby hands??? Weren’t you taught not to grab in like…kindergarten or something?”
“ Fighting isn’t going to fix this.” I say…actually having NO idea what WAS going to fix this…
“ No…but kicking Punbelly’s ASS here will make me feel a hell of a lot better…” Buffy says.
I bury my head in my hands for a moment…trying to gather some semblance of non-panic.
I can’t fix this….
I can’t even grab the amulet…
It’s not on our SIDE….
“ Can we please be a little productive?” I beg softly, rubbing at my temples.
“ Like how?” Buffy asks…
“ Like figuring out how we got here…and then figuring out how to FIX it…” I suggest wearily.
“ She’s a Slayer…If she can’t kick its ass…then she’s basically useless. “ Pru says bitterly.
“ Well lucky for me YOU are on THIS side of the looking glass, Alice…cuz I’m going to rip you a new one...” Buffy says.
So far…they have been all talk…back and forth…like an old …particularly mean-mouthed married couple…and I’m sort of wishing they were on whatever side I’m NOT on… I look at the others lying willy-nilly around the crypt floor…
“ Why aren’t they awake yet…it’s been over an hour…?” I say.
And then…as if on some cosmic sitcom…a cue is taken….
“ What is going on…you guys have been gone for over two HOURS???” Xander says…coming into the crypt with Anya and Dawn hot on his heels…trying to get out of the rain…
Xander looks around the crypt. His gaze fall on me, and his face lights up….
“ You’re okay! You’re not hurt! You’re really okay!” He says, hugging me close.
“ You…you can see me???” I sputter…not only from shock, but from the rain water coming off him in rivers.
“ Of course I can see you. You’re right here…all in one piece…” Anya says. “ Not that I was expecting you to be in…other pieces…I like you the way you are…full of pieces…piece-full…I’ll shut up now…”
“ Where is everyone…I thought they would have found you by now….” Dawn says…and I turn to look at her…but not before….
“ I thought I told you to stay at the house!” Buffy turns her frustration from Pru to Dawn.
Dawn ignore her sister’s tirade and peels off her slicker.
“ Don’t you ignore me, Dawn!” Buffy says…reaching out and taking her little sister’s upper arm…
Or at least tries to…
Her hand whips right through Dawn’s arms, and Buffy staggers…
“ What the…!!!???”
“ Oh my…God………Dawnie…?” I say gingerly.
“ Hmm?” Dawn says casually…coming over to hug me as though that was what I was about to ask her to do…
“ Can you….can you SEE your sister???” I ask.
She pulls back from me and wrinkles her brow, a puzzled smile on her face.
“ Have I seen her?”
“ CAN you see her…?” I reiterate.
“ N-no? Has she gone all invisible again??” She says, panic edging its way into her voice.
“ Can you see ANYONE besides me in here?” I ask…appalled by the thought crossing my mind…. that maybe…just maybe…
I’m the only one here that is in the REAL world …out of everyone …“ Oh my God…she can’t see me?” Buffy says numbly.
I now do something I failed to do when I had come to… I try to touch Buffy.
My hand meets only air….it goes right through her… She stares down at my hand passing through her middle….then back up at me.
“ Holy Crap.” Buffy says flatly.
“ I…I can see ALL of you…” I say.
“ Okayyyyy…you are going to have to explain this to me…because right now…I am sooooo about the confusion.” Xander says.
“ We have to wait….” I say.
“ We have to wait until everyone is awake….” I…sit down heavily on the floor….making sure not to sit through one of the sleeping Others all around me. “ I don’t want to have to explain this twice…”
TBC…
" I mock you with my Monkey Pants!" - OZ
" You're NOT the source of me" - Buffy
" Tremble!" - Gacknar
Edited by: wiccachica
at: 5/11/02 7:27:05 pm