Three Stones

Spike carefully laid the three stones on the ground at the edge of the crater. He ran his fingers over each, tracing the words carved into them.

“Sorry I couldn’t do better than these, ladies.” He sighed deeply. “You deserve more than these.”

The star filled sky was getting lighter and lighter. It’d taken him far longer than he’d intended to pick the right spot to lay the stones down. It needed to be somewhere right. Somewhere they wouldn’t get disturbed. Now he needed to leave to avoid the ever rising sun that would be peeking over the horizon very soon.

Spike took one last long lingering look at the stones, and then walked away back to his car.

As he sped away from the sunrise the first rays began to break across the crater illuminating the simply carved lettering on the stones till they glowed as if the words were inlaid with gold.

Anya. Tara. Joyce.