Backdated prompt for the month of July at JUSTPROMPTS.
[This prompt is set in early season three of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.]
Cracked door.
She never used to find herself having to adjust her eyes to the lighting of the house when coming back in from patrol. The house had always been just as dark on the inside as it had been on the outside whenever she came back.
This isn't the case anymore.
There's a light on when she comes home now.
A light from her mother's bedroom.
Standing at the top of the landing, her eyes squint for a few brief moments as they let the light shining from behind the door come into focus. She doesn't care how far away she is from the light, because she can feel it warming her chilled bones from the rain still pouring outside. And as she stands there, she finds herself remembering what her mother had told her when she first noticed the light being left on and asked about it.
It was an answer which would always stick with Buffy; especially on the hardest of nights.
"I would leave the light on when you were... gone this summer. Hoping for when you would come home, you'd see it and know someone was here waiting for you. Waiting up to make sure you were safe and sound. And I still do it to let you know I'm waiting, Buffy. Always."
Buffy waits until after her eyes adjust to the light before turning the other way to head to her room. She'll leave the light on tonight; in case the nightmares wake her up in the middle of night and she needs to remember she's safe again.
Cracked door.
She never used to find herself having to adjust her eyes to the lighting of the house when coming back in from patrol. The house had always been just as dark on the inside as it had been on the outside whenever she came back.
This isn't the case anymore.
There's a light on when she comes home now.
A light from her mother's bedroom.
Standing at the top of the landing, her eyes squint for a few brief moments as they let the light shining from behind the door come into focus. She doesn't care how far away she is from the light, because she can feel it warming her chilled bones from the rain still pouring outside. And as she stands there, she finds herself remembering what her mother had told her when she first noticed the light being left on and asked about it.
It was an answer which would always stick with Buffy; especially on the hardest of nights.
"I would leave the light on when you were... gone this summer. Hoping for when you would come home, you'd see it and know someone was here waiting for you. Waiting up to make sure you were safe and sound. And I still do it to let you know I'm waiting, Buffy. Always."
Buffy waits until after her eyes adjust to the light before turning the other way to head to her room. She'll leave the light on tonight; in case the nightmares wake her up in the middle of night and she needs to remember she's safe again.