A Dark Future Chapter 7
By: The Bearded One

Disclaimer: The original characters belong to me. The characters from the excellent television show Buffy the Vampire Slayer belong to Joss Wedon.

*** 7:30 p.m. behind The Bronze ***

With a whirl Catherine kicked the oncoming vampire hard in the stomach. As the vampire bent down she quickly staked it and turned to fight the oncoming vampire. Catherine spun and hit the vampire in the head at the same time as she kicked a third vampire. As both vampires came at each other again Catherine quickly dodged one who promptly hit the brick wall that was behind her and staked the other one. Before the vampire who had hit the wall had recovered she had promptly staked him as well.

< Well either I really improved or that vampire yesterday was really strong. > Catherine thought to herself with an involuntary shudder at the thought of what happened to her yesterday night. < I can't think about that now. It was probably a bit of both. I had better check the cemetery as that is a regular part of the "rounds" that David suggested I check. I am also going to find out why he lied to me about who this Buffy Summers person is. > with that thought Catherine left The Bronze area to check the cemetery.

*** at 10:30 P.M. in a in house just outside Sunnydale ***

"Hello," the heavyset man said nervously leaning in the open door to the house he had been told to meet at. "Are you there?"

He had definitely heard noises coming from further inside but he hadn't wanted to check. < Oh why did I do this? I mean my salary from the university wasn't that much but still is money worth this. > This thought caused him to pause for a moment to think about that, < OH Hell YES IT WAS! for the money they promised me it sure was coming out here after stealing this from the university research team.>

"Mr. Peter Jacobs, you can come in now." said a man who had appeared in the door frame while he had been debating with himself. The voice was the same one on the phone that had offered him the money to steal that ancient book from the university and the person himself was a younger man in his mid-20s with dark hair.

Peter Jacobs went into the house not quite as nervous as he had before. "Well you said to meet you out here but what with those noises and the open door I was thinking about leaving. Thank goodness you promised me as much money as you did."

"Yes, well where is the book?" The man asked with his voice tinged with annoyance.

"Oh! Whoops, let me go back to the car to get sorry about forgetting it." said Peter as he jogged back to his car and got it out of the back seat.

"Here's the book that you wanted. Can I see my money." Jacobs said with a hint of greed in his voice.

"Is there any reason for the university to connect the missing book with you?" the still unnamed man asked.

"No not at all, I was careful." Jacobs answered. "Now where's my money?"

"Here's your money." the man said handing him a suitcase as he walked him toward the door.

"Wait a minute I haven't checked the case yet." Jacobs said as he was being walked toward the door. With an effort he stopped near a closet by the front door and opened the case. The top level was as it appeared but the second level was just newspaper. "HEY! What are you trying to pull here! Where's the rest of my money?"

"Okay, Willow now's the time." The man said fairly loudly.

"What the heck? Where's my money!" the man said as suddenly a red haired young woman came out of the closet and tackled him. He landed with a thud as the wind was knocked out of him. Once he was down the woman promptly changed position while twisting his ankle with an audible snap.

< Well that went easier then I thought it would. > Angelous thought to himself as Willow dragged the unfortunate Peter Jacobs down to the basement for a probable six hours of torture. < It's a shame that Willow was so disappointed about not killing the slayer last night that Buffy promised her the chance to kill that fat worm instead of allowing me to do it myself. Ah well, what's in this book will more then make up for this. >

***outside the closed down martial arts school 3:30 a.m.***

< Well this is it. > thought Cat to herself suppressing a yawn. < Since, David won't tell me who Buffy Summers is I'm going to have to check out his books to see if I can find out for myself .>

Fortunately Catherine had decided to "borrow" a spare key when she had checked in with David earlier so getting in was no problem. < I seriously doubt that Buffy Summers is the name of a demon. So I guess I will start with the slayer diaries that David has in the back. Not that that is a better choice as there are so many diaries back there. >

Over the next 45 minutes Catherine proceeded to check through about 10 diaries which only covered about half of the slayers from the past 35 years. < What's the use! > Catherine thought to herself. < I might as well head home and get some sleep. Thank goodness Dad's on that business trip to Portland this weekend. >

The combination of Cat's tiredness and her thoughts led to her bumping into a stack of diaries that David had stacked into a pile near the door and knocking them over. As they fell over one of the middle diaries fell open as it dropped off the stack.

As Cat bent down to retrieve the diaries she had knocked over she noticed that the one that fell open had opened to a picture. The picture, which was set outside the same "Sunnydale Public High School" sign that was there today, included the two vampires that she had met behind The Bronze last night. As she picked it up to examine it she saw that the picture included more people than Buffy and Willow.

There where two high school guys, two guys in their twenties, and one older man who seemed to be in his forties in the picture. One of the high school guys was very short as guys went. He had redish blond hair and a quiet look about him as he held Willow's hand. The other high school guy had black hair and was what Cat would describe as boyishly handsome. One of the guys in his twenties had a look of broding about him, also had black hair, and was wearing all black clothing. He also seemed to be standing off from the group. The other guy in his twenties had glasses, had his black hair slicked back, and looked very stuffy in his more formal clothing. The last man in picture was older than the others, about forty-five, had hair that was starting to gray, had glasses, and seemed to be wearing tweed.

There where only two other women in the picture besides Buffy and Willow. One was tall, had shoulder length black hair, and seemed to Cat to be very beautiful. She was also standing on the exact opposite side of the group from the stuffy looking guy with the glasses. The other girl had blond hair that was cut shorter than Buffy's. She seemed shorter than Buffy and was seated next to the dark haired high school guy. Buffy Summers was seated in the middle of the picture surrounded by all of the people in the picture and she was the only one besides the guy who did not seem to be smiling. < I've already run into two people from this picture. I wonder how many more of these people I am going to run into before I'm done with this. >

As she turned the picture over Catherine read the label on the back "Me, my friends, and Angel after stopping the ascension. May 1999". Cat decided that she was going to take the diary as well as the ones in front of and behind it. < Since I'm not going to meet with David until 12:30 tomorrow I have time to read these. I have to decide how much these "watchers" are lying to me and tomorrow I'm going to find out. >

End of part 7

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