Monster Of The Fic: The Maid's Tale

Chapter 13

The meat cleaver was stuck into Berta's giant eye. It stayed there for a moment without anything happening. Then a low, pained noise got Buffy's attention. Buffy turned. The Yulig demon was behind her.

"See what happens when you let someone borrow your one and only eye," Buffy told the demon.

It blindly hit her hard on the side of the neck. Buffy staggered. Regaining her footing, she punched it in its middle. The low, keening noise got louder. The demon struck her again. Buffy felt like her head was going to be knocked off. Buffy didn't recover fast enough from nearly having her head separated from her shoulders, and the demon hit her again. Buffy fell, and its next blind swing missed.

At the front door, Xander tried to get up, but he could only crawl. Breath only squeaked through his throat. He went over and made sure Alexa was all right. She was still unresponsive but not hurt.

Willow looked after the demon that had left them so abruptly. Cordelia did too. Cordelia went after it unsteadily. Willow followed.

Cordelia wobbled into the kitchen. She saw Berta standing still with a meat cleaver sticking out of that inhuman eye that had replaced her face. The Yulig demon was flailing around blindly. Buffy was getting up from the floor just in time to run face first into the demon's fist.

"Get the meat cleaver," Willow yelled from behind Cordelia.

Cordy went over to Berta and pulled out the meat cleaver. Demon eye goo spilled out. Willow turned away. Buffy thought she would throw up. Cordelia did.

Berta collapsed and so did the Yulig demon. Buffy grabbed the meat cleaver from Cordy's limp hand and heaved it into the demon's giant, empty eye socket. The prone demon didn't even twitch.

The kitchen was a disaster. Pieces of the broken door, table, a cutting board, a cooking pot and some kind of stew that used to be in it littered the floor. Also there was vomit. Buffy examined the demon to make sure it was dead by kicking it a few times. Willow slapped Liza lightly and got her to say a few things in Hungarian. Then she took her to Alexa.

Cordelia was doubled over where the kitchen table used to be. She felt sick. It wasn't just the eye goo. That was Berta lying in that mess. Her bad die job, her liver-spotted hands. Dead for hours. Her face gone. Cordy retched again.

Cordelia was rinsing off her mouth in the bathroom. Willow was with Giles in the torn-apart living room asking him how many fingers he was seeing, and what day it was, and who was president.

In Liza's bedroom, everything looked almost normal. Not a knickknack out of place. The bed made. A few drawers were left open, but there were no signs that anything was wrong. Except Alexa was sitting on the bed with only one shoe on, staring ahead blankly. The tape that used to be over her mouth and the weird necklace were gone. Aunt Liza was humming and brushing Alexa's hair back with her hand in a way that didn't look soothing - too fast and nervous. Liza's forearm was badly burned.

Xander was sitting right outside the bedroom door in a chair that was still intact. They weren't going to stick around long. There was an ambulance on the way and maybe the cops if the neighbors around there were worth anything.

Buffy was busy dragging the demon's dead body into the back yard. She stashed it in some bushes. She trusted the Sunnydale cops not to get too inquisitive.

Before leaving, Giles told Liza what to say so she wouldn't get sent to the loony bin. It boiled down to "I got knocked out, and I don't know what happened".

"Leave it to the Sunnydale authorities to make up their own unlikely scenario," Giles said as he patted her on the arm that wasn't burned. She nodded, but she had the blank stare of someone in shock.

Cordelia looked back toward the kitchen. They had left Berta's body there. Her death would be recorded as some kind of one in a million kitchen accident no doubt.

Cordelia still looked kind of green and upset as they walked her home. Willow had the urge to put her arm around her, but she didn't think that Cordelia would appreciate the nerd cooties.

"I guess I was kind of hoping we would save her," Cordelia said in a softer voice than anyone had ever heard her use.

"We did save Alexa," Buffy pointed out.

"And that's good," Xander agreed, sounding hoarse from the choking.

Giles nodded.

They were in front of Cordelia's big house. She just stared at it for a second, then turned back to them.

"Sorry about Berta," Xander told her in his croaky voice. "I'd give you a hug, but you'd probably slug me."

"And get my self deloused," Cordelia added automatically. Xander gave her a crooked smile.

Cordelia started to go then stopped again. Her house seemed too big when she looked at it. The three losers and the librarian were waiting for something.

"I hope you don't expect to get paid. Or thanked," Codelia said, and she walked off.

"Now that's how you bounce back, people," Xander said pointing after Cordelia with awe.

"I am impressed," Buffy said.

"I'm relieved. A maudlin Cordelia is like Giles in shorts," Willow agreed.

"Willow, how could you?" Buffy gasped. She covered her eyes so she couldn't see Giles even in the corner of her eye.

"That is uncalled for," Giles protested.

"Buffy, kill her, she is evil," Xander told Buffy. His outstretched hand was pointing at Willow.

"I would, but I'm never opening my eyes ever again," Buffy said, still covering her eyes.

"I'll be your seeing eye dog, Buff," Xander said as he hooked his arm with Buffy's.

"Sorry guys. I didn't mean to traumatize you," Willow said as she followed them.

"Ungrateful American brats," Giles muttered to himself as he trailed too far behind to hear anything more they might say.

The End