Buffy The Vampire Slayer Fan Fiction ❯ Old Friends ❯ Interlude: The Early Days ( Chapter 11 )

 

 

Interlude: The Early Days

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June 24, 1991—six months later

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Father wasn't a cruel man. William would have to give him that one. But he was a cold man. Always locked up in his office, he was a perfectionist and a workaholic, an arrogant, demanding, and anal-retentive wanker who was almost obsessively tidy and punctual. Just everything about him was irritating.

Ever since his mother's death, the two of them had been in a battle of wills. William would do something Father considered annoying or illicit and Father would impose a new rule. William would find new ways of getting around or ignoring said rule and Father would impose yet another rule. It was an unending cycle and things kept getting worse.

William just couldn't bow down and let his father win even once. He always had to have a smart comeback, always had to have some plan to thwart his father's punishments. It was just what he had to do. He couldn't let Father think he'd won, now could he?

This had the unfortunate result, though, of William having to spend a lot of his time grounded and alone, sometimes even in pain when his father decided to use the belt. He would come home from boarding school during the winter and summer breaks only to be left alone in the mansion for days on end with his only human contact being the hired help. Father was always off on business trips or locked up in his office. Not that William would actually spend time with the old bastard even if he was available.

And it was always the same. Whether because he was being punished yet again for being “disorderly” at school or because Father was just an anal-retentive bastard, William was always strictly prohibited from going outside any further than their grounds, which, while big, held nothing of any interest to him anymore.

When he had been little, the garden and surrounding woods had been his play place. He had explored them for hours, pretending he was a famous explorer on an expedition to Africa or some out of the way Amazon rainforest. Now that he was older though, these games held were too childish for him and so the backyard was useless.

And where he could usually escape into his books, he couldn't any more. By 13 he'd basically read everything he could get his hands on and the novelty was beginning to wear off. Now that he was 14, he wanted to be able to see the places described in those books, to go on adventures and have actual friends that would stick by him through thick or thin. He wanted freedom. But instead he was cooped up in the house all day, left to rot in extreme boredom.

So every time he could he would sneak out of the house and make his way into the heart of London where things were actually interesting. Father's rules would still be there when he got back, and he would probably be punished yet again, but he didn't really care. What was one more punishment? Being in London was worth it. The people, the noise, the disorder, the shops and entertainment - he loved it. This was freedom.

Smiling and at peace, William looked up at the early evening sun, just beginning its descent. The sky lightly clouded and the air warm but not too warm, it had been the perfect day. Peaceful and without complications.

Sneaking out of the house and into London early that day, William had spent the morning people-watching in Hyde Park, grabbing some lunch from one of the street vendors and then going to a movie he had been wanting to see later on in the day. He was just walking out of the theatre now and thinking about going home.

He didn't want the day to end, really. But he needed to get back home before he was called for dinner and Father could realize he was gone. Dinnertime may have been a frustratingly silent and formal affair but it was one that Father took very seriously. And, while William may have not cared about the rules all that much, there was really no reason why he should have to sit and listen to his father lecture when he could easily avoid it.

Steadily pushing his way through the crowds of rush-hour pedestrian traffic, everyone trying to come home from work, William tried to avoid stepping on anyone's feet as he made his way to the nearest metro. The crowds getting too annoying, he decided to cut through a nearby alleyway.

“Naughty, naughty, Ms. Edith. You shouldn't say such things.”

Just entering the alley, William looked over and found a girl, with long dark hair and about his age, seated not a few feet away on the dirty pavement. Her face smudged with dirt and her clothes wrinkled and somewhat ragged, from what he could see she was still rather pretty and looked almost childish as she talked to the tattered doll she held in her hand.

“You need to be punished,” she told the doll and William smiled at the picture of this girl talking to her doll so seriously.

“What?” She appeared to be listening to the doll closely. After a moment, she looked up and over at him, her eyes catching his.

Seeing this, William tried to smile and gave her a little wave, embarrassed to have been caught watching. “S - Sorry,” he said and could feel his face heating up a little. He still wasn't over his shyness around strangers, especially girls. “I didn't mean to intrude.”

The girl merely tilted her head childishly and looked curious, apparently not at all bothered. “Are you a prince?”

William stopped and blinked, not having expected that to be his answer. “I'm - I'm sorry?” he asked, confused.

Climbing to her feet, the girl approached him, swaying as she walked. Coming up rather close to him, she grabbed his arm, maybe to steady herself, and looked him in the eyes. She had really pretty eyes he couldn't help but notice.

“You're like Daddy,” she said after a moment, looking at him in wonder.

William blinked again, drawing back a little. She was getting really into his personal space. “P - pardon me?” he asked. Like Daddy? That didn't sound . . . right.

“But Daddy doesn't bleed,” she said and stepped in even closer, looking down at his chest hungrily. “Your heart drips red and falls to the floor.”

“Um . . .” William trailed off, not sure how to answer a statement like that. What exactly did that mean? It was a little creepy. Finally he just said, somewhat hesitantly, “Okay . . .?”

“Will you take care of me?” she asked, innocent again, tilting her head at him childishly.

“I . . . I, ah . . . sure,” William said hesitatingly, confused but willing to go along with it. He needed to get going and if agreeing was what it took to get her off of him, then he'd do it. “That is, if you want me to.”

The girl smiled and swayed in place, leaning even closer. “My name's Drusilla,” she whispered as though it were some type of secret.

William smiled in return, somewhat nervously. “Mine's William. Hello.”