Witch's Revenge
Prologue and Chapter One
Author's Note: Published in fanzine, The Return of the Sunnydale Slayers, c.1998.
Summary: Catherine Madison is free and she's wanting a bit of revenge on the people that trapped her...
Prologue
A sleepy Buffy Summers yawned as she met her best friend Willow Rosenberg and her boyfriend Oz in front of the Sunnydale High Trophy case. "Hey, Will! Oz! What's up?"
"Hey, Buffy! Nothing much," Willow greeted as Oz just nodded. Willow looked closely at her best friend. "Looking a bit tired there, Buffy. Long night in hunting? Lotsa vamps slain?"
Leaning against the trophy case, Buffy yawned again before she answered. "Yes and no. Hunting was a short night on account a lack of vamps, but long because of Mom wanting to have a bonding session. One that she planned two weeks ago. And one that was nearly canceled, until she ensured it by pressuring Giles who pressured Wussy."
"Sounds like one determined Mom," Oz commented as Buffy nodded sleepily. "So what'd she have planned? She didn't try and go hunting with you again, did she?"
"No, thank Heavens. It all consisted about questioning about my love life, my slaying life, my school life, watching old movies and trying to teach me how to cook," Buffy yawned as she moved away from the trophy case. "But I think that after burning the third batch of non-canned soup, she finally gave up and allowed me to just watch her cook. Or she's just waiting for a free weekend to give me a more thorough lesson."
Willow grinned as she started to walk with her friend. "She must have used a lot pressure on Giles and Wesley to get that short hunting night."
Buffy grinned sleepily as she rubbed her eyes. "Think Mom threatened Giles though he denies it. But he did admit that he implied to Wussy that Mom is a Force of Nature if she doesn't get any bonding time. Wouldn't have been so bad, if she hadn't also made sure that Angel brought me home an hour after hunting. Thank God she’s working late tonight for the new showing. She’s working on some ‘Special Creations Presents’ series thing. So, any luck in making the Amy-Rat back into Amy the Girl?"
Willow shook her head as she walked away with Buffy and Oz. "Nope, not yet. I'm still working on it with Michael."
As the trio walked away, they never noticed the statue whose eyes were following them with burning hatred.
It was late in the afternoon when Principal Snyder pointed at the trophy case to the two custodians. “That case has to be cleaned for the inspection on Friday. Make sure that all the trophies are spotless. And this place will be mobbed by cookie eating teens tomorrow because of that Senior Bake Sale, so the floors will have to be cleaned up again tomorrow. Students are like mice, leaving little crumbs all around.”
When Snyder turned his back, one custodian watched as the other stuck out his tongue. ”So what you want to do, the trophy case or the floors?”
“I’ll do the case,” said the one that stuck out his tongue as he got out his dust rag. ”You can do the floors.”
The other shrugged as he left his co-worker. ”Have fun.”
“Yeah, right,” the custodian snorted as he opened the case and started emptying it. ”Have fun my ass. Dusting these damn trophies. Who need them anyway?”
He picked up the cheerleading trophy and squinted at it. ”Huh, trophy for cheerleading, who needs it. Girls with their sassy little skirts and noses up in the air. And you, missy, was the worst of the lot.”
He shook the trophy, not noticing the statue’s eyes glaring at him. ”Didn’t think that your old classmate Cal Perkins would remember you, did you? Well, I do, and I remember how you embarrassed me in front of Nancy Lanier. Bitch. Well, here’s a little payback, though you won’t know anything about it.”
Cal then took the trophy and flipped and twirled it from hand to the other as he grinned. ”Round and round she goes. Where it stops, no one knows. Ooops! ”
He grinned as the trophy dropped hard on the floor. He smirked at it. ”Guess I have sloppy hands, don’t I, Cathy the Great? What’s this?”
Cal looked closer at the hand that was holding a pompom and then poked at it. When the hand snapped off, Cal frowned. ”Oh, hell. Now, Principal Midget will really have a hissy fit. Always knew you could spoil my fun again, Cath. Better get some glue.”
As Cal placed the trophy on to the floor and walked away, the trophy started to shake, then wobble. A small stream of black smoke came out of the broken hand. The smoke curled, then swirled as it gathered in the hallway. When the smoke congealed into a tight coil, a dark-haired female figure stepped out from it. ”Well, free at last.”
“Here’s the glue. Better get that...what the hell?” Cal said as he looked at the naked woman in from of him. The woman looked at him and smiled so coldly that his heart froze. ”Who are you? What the hell is going on?”
“Hey, Cal. Still slow on the uptake, I see. Didn’t you know that seeing a woman naked could make you go blind?” snarled the woman as she pointed her hands at him. ”Darkness, hear my plea. He will not see!”
Suddenly, feeling a searing pain, Cal clutched at his eyes and started screaming, ”My eyes! My eyes! I can’t see!”
Then he heard her voice.”And Nancy would never have dated you anyway. Loser.”
Cal cringed as he heard her walk away.
Chapter One
Buffy winced as she looked into the phone, then she rolled her eyes. "Yes, I know that this a bit of a late notice, Mom, but there's been a scheduling snafu."
Oz watched with his patent look as Willow giggled when Xander Harris, her fellow Slayerette, aped Buffy's eye rolls from behind her back. The Watchers, Wesley Wyndham-Pryce and Rupert Giles walked into the library from the office and shot a questioning look at the teenagers at the table.
Buffy glared at the phone. "Mom, how hard can it be? You just pop over to the store and you get some more flour, chocolate chips, raisins and extra cookie sheet. Then bake about three dozen chocolate chip and oatmeal raisin cookies. All for me, your favorite daughter."
"What's going on?" Wesley asked, and was immediately shushed by Xander and Willow. Giles cocked his eyebrow at this.
Oz looked at the confused Watchers and explained in his own patented way. "Snyder ordered her to bake some goodies for the Senior Bake sale tomorrow. And he told her five minutes ago. So she's doing what any other girl in trouble would do."
"Make her mother buy cookies at the grocery store?" Giles asked. ”Or stop by the bakery?”
Xander shook his head. "Buzz, wrong answer. She's begging her mom to bake some. Only Mrs. S isn't too keen on baking something at eight in the evening when she has work to do. And there's a shortage of supplies. Oh, wait, here’s where the bet starts paying off."
“What bet?” Wesley demanded. And then was promptly shushed by the three teens.
Buffy frowned at the phone. "Mom, I’m your favorite daughter.” Then there was a pause. “But that doesn’t mean that I’m not your favorite. Yes, I know that you could have traded me in for a Monet. And that you could have gotten at least two of them if I was only housebroken."
Giles lifted his eyebrow at this, then looked at the avid little faces of his students and the astonished face of Wesley.
“That’s one,” Xander counted, then he looked at Giles. ”Want to place a bet? I’m counting on three childhood moments, Will’s got four and Oz is counting on six before the Buffster goes into the begging mode.”
Buffy frowned into the receiver. ”Mom, they never should have advertised fresh fish. Those fish deserved to be free. And that was when I was six.”
Wesley was a bit nonplused as Giles's eye quirked at that last statement, as Willow tried to hold in her snort of laughter. Buffy turned and glared at her best friend. Then at the phone.
“That’s two,” Oz counted. Giles sighed as he placed a dollar on the table.
“Put me down for five moments,” he said as he sat on the edge of the library table.
Wesley scowled at him. ”Really, Mr.Giles...”
Buffy sniffed at the phone. ”I promised to never do that again. It was just a pig. He needed to be rescued, they were about to make bacon out of him.”
Willow looked at Xander. ”A pig? What happened with a pig?”
“Shush,” Xander commanded as he looked at Buffy. ”Come on Buff. Go to begging mode already.”
“Mom, I really don’t think that needing you to bake some cookies has any relevance in the time of my life when I wanted to get the Ewok as a present,” Buffy said as she rolled her eyes. Then she glared at the phone, then at Xander who was, for some reason groaning.
Willow’s eyes rounded. ”Mrs.S must really be on a roll. How many we up to now?”
Oz looked at her. “Four. Come on, Mrs. S. No offense, Will, but you won the last time.”
Willow nodded at him. ”None, taken. Come on Buffy, start begging mode.”
“It won’t be long now. She’ll start her, ah, begging mode just about now,” Giles commented. Wesley and the other Slayerettes looked at him suspiciously. He saw this and shrugged. ”Here it comes now.”
"Mom, breaking that vase wasn't my fault. I told you that it was the cat that broke it. Yes, I know it was a Ming, but Mom, that was a lifetime ago. Alright, five years ago," Buffy protested into the phone. "Mom, please? Or else Snyder’s gonna make my life hell tomorrow. Please, Mom?”
“Nuts, she stopped at five,” Xander groused. He glared at Giles as the students passed him their dollar bills. ”How’d you know that Buffy would’ve started begging at five?”
Giles allowed himself a small smug smile. ”A Watcher always knows his Slayer. Besides, when she starts getting desperate, her voice starts getting smaller.”
”Never bet against a Watcher, you people ruin the pool,” Xander snorted as he sat back in his chair. ”Hey, Buff, what’s the word? She baking?”
Buffy sighed as she sat in her chair and pouted. ”Yeah, but I have to help her clean the kitchen after patrolling tonight, then clean my room tomorrow and help her weed the garden on Saturday as well as have cooking lessons again.”
“Such is the life of a Slayer and her Mother,” Giles tisked as he sat at the table. ”Such a tragedy.”
Buffy made a face at him, then flopped her head on the library table. Wesley cleared his throat and everyone looked at him.”Well, enough of this. It seems that we have a witch in our midst. The custodian Cal Perkins was blinded not less than an hour ago.”
“Oh, yay! Another witch like Amy’s mom. At least she’s so gone,” Buffy groaned as her head lifted. ”And we know that it isn’t Amy or Willow. By the way, Will, is there a spell that can clean my room? Or at least magically weed a garden?”
“If there was, don’t you think she would have done my room first with an extra detergent spell?” Xander joked. ”I think they found Hoffa under my bed. Who ever he is.”
“Xander, they probably could find the lost city of Atlantis under your bed,” Buffy groused back.
“Can we get on with this?” Wesley demanded as he looked at everyone. When he saw the mulish looks, he added. ”Please?”
Nodding with agreement, Buffy looked at her comrades in school and slaying. ”So what do we know about the custodian?”
The newly freed Catherine Madison smiled coldly at the people who passed her by as she walked down the streets of Sunnydale. Nothing had changed in the miserable town since she had been imprisoned by her own spell. That was a good thing, in her opinion. Because it would make killing what mattered most to the blasted girl all the more easy. And all the more enjoyable. Especially since she knew all the secrets of the school, especially those of the Slayer.
Then the plan just hit her. Catherine smiled as recalled the conversation the girl had with the redheaded bitch. She would destroy the girl piece by piece, or rather, person by person. First, it would be the Slayer's mother. Then her Watcher. Then her friends. And the Slayer would be last. She was going to have the most delicious dish of revenge, and the Slayer would know it was Catherine Madison serving it up.
Her dark eyes brightened, then turned black when reached her destination. Special Creations.
In the smoke filled bar, a pale hand reached for the pay phone. He sighed as his fingered pressed the buttons on the dial and he wondered why he continually did something as stupid and insane as this.
It made absolutely no sense to him. Except that it made him absurdly happy when he heard her pep talks. And her concern for him made absolutely no sense, especially when she knew who he was. He really should, he thought, get a grip on this stupid affection for the lady. After all, he didn't want anyone thinking that he had gone soft.
As he blew out the cigarette smoke from his dead lungs and listened to the ringing, he thought, This is bloody embarrassing, damn it! I’m William the Bloody, damn it! Spike the Master Slayer! I should hang up, I bloody should. Bloody shameful, that’s what it is.
But still he waited impatiently until the phone picked up on the other end. And smiled stupidly when he heard her voice.
"Hello? Special Creations. Joyce Summers speaking."
“Hello, Mum. It’s me.”
“Liam! How are you? Where are you?” Spike heard the pleasure in her voice, and he smiled broadly as he cradled the phone closer to his ear. ”What are you doing?”
“Oh, I’m fine, Mum. In southern Mexico right now, near Guatemala, actually. Rest stop for food and fun.”
“Sounds nice. I hope that you’re not with Drucilla.”
Spike chuckled. ”Nope. Not yet. Lost her trail in Brazil, but I do know that she’s headed back to the States.”
“Does that mean that you’ll come and visit?”
“I dunno, Mum. Maybe if she loops back the way of Sunnyhell. Don’t know if I want to meet up with that gel of yours, no offense. So how’s things?”
“Oh, just peachy. We have another Slayer to replace the one that Drucilla killed.”
“Oh, joy. Just what we need, another blasted Slayer. No offense, Mum.”
“None taken, Liam. And other than the usual weird things that happen in this town that everyone sees but ignores, nothing much is going on. But then again, Buffy’s been pretty much a clam when telling me what’s going on. Except when telling me she needs three dozen cookies by tomorrow morning because a little troll wants her to make them. Anyway, Buffy ought to be ashamed of herself, keeping things from her mother.”
“Yeah, that sounds like her. Fancy her never telling you that I was a vampire. So have you told her that you been sending me care packages?”
Spike heard her chuckle as she admonished him gently. “Don’t start with me, Liam. So did you get my last one?”
“Are you taking about the one with the toffee, cupcakes, cookies and new jeans or the one with the chocolate mix, marshmallows, shoes and new shirts? I just got both. How’d you like the paintings?”
“The watercolors are just lovely, and selling like little hotcakes. Can you get anymore?”
“I can try. Think I scared him when I tried to feed on him.”
“Oh, Liam! Tell me that you haven’t eaten him.”
“Uh, didn’t get a chance to, Mum. He ran when I saw his little paintings,” Spike coughed as he crossed his fingers behind his back. Which wasn’t an entire lie, the little bugger did run, then became a tasty meal. Now he’s a painting vampire. ”So he’s sort of out there. Somewhere.”
“Good. Did you get an Email address yet? It’d be a lot cheaper to keep in contact with you if you had one.”
“Still working on that, Mum. Give me time,” Spike replied as he thought, And a rich meal that won’t mind me relieving him of his baubles and gewgaws.
”So, tell me how you’re doing. Have you met any nice vampire girls that you like? Ones that are pretty but not bent on world destruction?”
Spike chuckled at the hopeful tone in her voice. ”No, not yet. But then, you know me. Wasn’t really looking.”
“Oh, well, then that Drucilla of yours had better appreciate the effort you’re doing looking for her-Excuse me, Liam.”
Spike waited as he heard her put the phone down and head away from her desk. ”You aren’t supposed to be back-” Then he heard her scream.
Not knowing that his game face was out, Spike clutched the phone. “Mum?”
By the time Joyce’s second scream was heard, Spike was already in his car. Heading towards Sunnydale, USA.
