The Dawnmeister Chronicles - "Helpless"

Title: The Dawnmeister Chronicles – “Helpless”
Author: firefly124
Beta: Many thanks, ubiquirk!
Rating: PG
Word count: 1026
Character: Dawn Summers
Summary: Dawn hears an interesting rumor about Buffy and wonders if her life might finally become more normal.



January 19, 1999

Buffy is just sooooo full of herself. I could’ve told her that Dad would blow off her birthday. Did she not notice the lameness of mine? At least he sent her tickets so she could still go to her stupid ice show anyway. (And what’s up with her still being into ice shows? She’s a senior for God’s sake!) All I got was a stupid stuffed animal. Dad apparently thinks I’m still five.

And it's sooooo typical that she’s going around starting trouble. I heard from Melinda, who heard from Karla, who heard from her big brother Todd that Buffy got herself into a fight today with some jock. Like that’s not obvious. “Oh, I can’t do anything about Dad being a jerk, so I’ll just try and beat on some other guy.” Only she couldn’t even do that right! According to Melinda, Cordelia had to bail her out. Cordelia!!! How lame is that??? What, did she lose all her super Slayer powers because she turned 18 or something? Because, actually, that’d be kind of cool. No more super-sister being a super pain in my ass. She could just be a normal pain in my ass like anybody else’s sister.

Seriously. If it weren’t for her stupid Slayer stuff, I’ll bet Dad wouldn’t even have left. We definitely wouldn’t have had to leave LA and come to this stupid town with its stupid Hellmouth. She couldn’t come up with anything better than BURNING DOWN THE GYM?!?!?!?!?! If she wasn’t the Slayer, I’ll bet even she wouldn’t have been messed up enough to do something like that. I’d still have my old friends, we’d still be in our old house, and we’d be a normal, happy family. She’d still be a pain in my butt, but I just know it would be better.

Huh. That was a weird noise. Maybe no-longer-super Buffy is home.

Later. Much later. Like, oh, my God, I can’t believe everything that’s happened later!

Oh. My. God! I don’t even believe what happened. First of all, Buffy really did lose her powers. And she didn’t tell anyone! Oh, she probably told her friends. But did she tell me and Mom? No!!! And who’d the psycho vamp come after? Of course!!!

Mom said the vamp was hiding on the porch under Buffy’s coat. As if she would have fallen for that if she knew Buffy didn’t have her powers! We thought she was out patrolling or something, but if Mom knew, she’d have picked her up from school and she’d have been home instead of … wherever. I’m kind of surprised Mom didn’t insist on picking her up anyway. She’s being all clingy since the whole “burn the bad girls” thing last week. Maybe the guilt’s finally wearing off or something.

Buffy still won’t say where she was. I’ll bet she was with Angel. Great. Oh, look, more with the crazy vampires! Because that worked so well the last time. She should just join a convent or something.

And this vamp was seriously crazy. When I stuck my head out the door to see what was keeping Mom, he just stared at me and said something about how I was all shiny and green. Hello? My shirt was pink! And so not shiny. I don’t know what else he said, because I was kind of busy with the screaming until he hit me. What? I’m not the one with the mega-powers. I’m allowed to freak out!

Oh. Right. But she only didn’t have them today or something. She’s used to not freaking out about vampires. It’s a whole different thing. I’m normal. Normal people freak out when they see a vampire. It's what we do.

When I woke up, he had me and Mom tied up in a couple of chairs, back to back. And he was taking pictures of us, the sicko!!! Mostly Mom. He said weird stuff about his mother. Said he was going to turn Buffy into a vamp and make her eat us. Well, Mom. He kept going on (and on, and on) about how shiny I was. And I guess I bit my lip when he hit me ‘cause it was bleeding, and he freaking tasted it. Ew!!!! And then he said he might save me for some beast. I’m totally glad I didn’t get to find out what he meant by that.

So, Buffy saved the day. Eventually. Don’t ask me how, considering she couldn’t even freaking untie us until Giles got there and helped! He even dusted one of the vamps for her! I felt kind of bad for him. I think that guy used to be one of his Watcher buddies, if the crazy vamp wasn’t just lying. But it’s like I said: even without her stupid Slayer powers, she’s used to facing off with the big scaries. It’s totally not impressive at all. Except it was actually kind of good to see her.

I still don’t understand why she lost her powers, but supposedly, it’s temporary. She was all mad about it, of course. She talks aaaaaaaall the time about how she wants to be a normal teenager, but she totally doesn’t. Because if she was, she’d just be boring like me. No weird powers. No mystical destiny. Just a boring, everyday kid.

That would’ve been cool. Because her not-normal life is what makes my life not normal. You think I’d have been kidnapped by the crazy vampire if my sister wasn’t the Slayer? Obviously not!

I should probably tell Buffy that thing the crazy vamp said about that beast. Maybe it’s still locked up in there or something. She should probably kill it before it gets out and hurts someone. I bet she doesn’t even believe me when I tell her. Serve her right if it’s just in there getting hungrier and hungrier and breaks out, and then she has to hunt it down and kill it anyway instead of having it all chained up or caged or whatever. Maybe I won’t tell her. Not like she’d listen anyway.