Sarah Michelle Gellar pays tribute to late “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” costar Michelle Trachtenberg: 'I will always love you'

From one sister to another: Sarah Michelle Gellar is honoring her Buffy the Vampire Slayer costar Michelle Trachtenberg after she died at 39 on Wednesday.

“Michelle, listen to me,” she wrote on Instagram. “Listen. I love you. I will always love you. The hardest thing in this world, is to live in it. I will be brave. I will live… for you.” 

Gellar’s tribute loosely echoes a monologue that her character Buffy delivers to her little sister Dawn Summers (Trachtenberg) during the supernatural drama’s season 5 finale. In the emotional scene, Buffy decides to sacrifice herself by jumping into an interdimensional portal to save Dawn, their friends, and the world.

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Alongside her note, Gellar included several broken-heart and key emojis — the latter of which was another nod to Trachtenberg’s character, who was originally a mystical force known as the Key before being transformed into Buffy’s younger sister. 

She also shared several snapshots from both onscreen and off, and, on her Instagram Story, Gellar also reposted a photoset from Buffy that featured the pair hugging with the quote: “It doesn’t matter where you came from or how you got here… you are my sister.”

Trachtenberg joined the cast of Buffy as Dawn/the Key during the immensely popular show’s fifth season in 2000, but her friendship with Gellar spans back to when the pair starred on All My Children as teens in the early ‘90s. She remained a central cast member on Buffy alongside Gellar until the show came to a close in 2003. 

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On Wednesday morning, Trachtenberg was discovered “unconscious and unresponsive” in her New York City apartment and was later pronounced dead at the scene, the New York Police Department told Entertainment Weekly. An investigation is ongoing, but criminality is not suspected in her death, per police.

"It is with great sadness to confirm that Michelle Trachtenberg has passed away," her representative said in a statement to EW. "The family requests privacy for their loss. There are no further details at this time.”

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