Everything was dark, they were dreaming and they feared something that was felt by all of them. A presence of evil and yet it continued to disappear into calmness. Neither of them was absolutely sure that what they felt screaming of their senses, was that of the god that had brought them together under bad terms of business, or even if it was a supernatural force at all.

Pitch black was what their eyes told them but their brains were receiving other signals. They were well lit to one another, as if they stood directly under the sun's light. But from what they saw and from the little facts they knew, they were in a dream.

In a flash, before they were able to question one another about their surrounding, Caela disappeared from the line of four, leaving the remaining three in panic of her whereabouts. None of them seemed to talk; possibly feeling no necessity to. Their minds were on the same wave length.

And finally, just as unexpected as she had vanished, Caela reappeared, but not back with the group, she was standing in front of a man, whose arms were around her; a hand gripped and ready at her neck.

None of the participants spoke. Not even the sound of Caela's obvious terror caused gasps were made audible. Dead and deafening silence.

Angel and Buffy looked at each other, fear for Caela's life in their eyes made them widen but neither one of them made a move to help her. Something in them told them that it was not their place, nor was it their responsibility to do so. Breaking this painful silence and stillness, Orin screamed out in demand, "NOOO!!!" and ran in pursuit of the man.

Once he was close enough the man threw Caela on the floor, where she immediately disappeared and reappeared in the horizontal line where Angel and Buffy stood, and grabbed Orin's throat, lifting the boy over a foot off of, what they assumed was, the ground.

The same thing that held Buffy and Angel back from helping her now ran through Caela, as well as the other two, about Orin.

The Greek looking, toga wearing man gave a devilish smile towards the rest of them, keeping his grip tight around Orin's neck, and looked back into his eyes.

"And they call you 'The Buach.'"

They all woke up at the same time, no memory what so ever of their dream and it's contains. They just knew that a dream they had had disturbed their sleep and they returned to a calm state.

Orin discovered that he had, apparently, fallen asleep on the porch and moved himself inside. It was still early, his watch read that it was only 8PM. He had only been asleep for an hour, at the most. He could hear that the TV was on and tried the door. He was successful, they had left it unlocked.

"Hey! Orin Man!" Xander greeted him the moment he stepped into the living room. "Come! Mingle with the Scoobies!" He gestured to everyone else in the room.

Orin was rubbing the back of his neck and gave a half smile. Before he had a chance to oblige to the suggestion, another being entered his mind, speaking to him "confidentially."

*Come ta me. Sleep wit me, I don't want ta be alone.* It was a soft whispering tone, but Caela's voice was urgent and seemed scared.

Orin took a few seconds, with a cocked head and very confused look on his face, to figure out what was going on.

Finally, he gave a weak and non enthused smile. "Uhm...Thats ok, I'm going to..." He was about to tell them exactly where he had intended on going and why but thought better of it. "Uh...yeah." He didn't know what to say and just walked on past them and upstairs.

She smiled and took his hand, easing him onto the bed, where he kicked off his shoes and removed his top shirt and wrapped his arms around her waist, cupping her body as if it were natural, to be near her and to touch her that way. He kissed the back of her head and smiled as he took a deep breath and relaxed behind her. Everything seemed right at that moment. In that bed, in that room. With her. Everything...

Part Seventeen

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