BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER: INTO THE DARK
An original story based on the hit television series created by Joss Whedon
by Johnny B. Johnson
DISCLAIMER: I do not own the rights to, nor am I affiliated with anyone involved in, Buffy the Vampire Slayer. This is an original story based on the characters created by Joss Whedon.
NOTE: "Into the Dark" takes place during Season 2.
PROLOGUE
Katie sighed as she lay in the dark. A breeze blew in through her open bed room window, and she closed her eyes, trying to will sleep to come. It didn't. It had just been such a long day. First Mr. Winters had surprised every one in English class with a pop quiz over the assigned reading, and of course she hadn't read it. Then that reject Xander Harris had attempted - yet again - to ask her out. You would think after getting turned down time and again, he would learn and just move on. Maybe ask out that nerdy Willow girl. Yeah, that would be absolutely perfect. The two were made for each other. Mr. and Mrs. Loser. She had overheard the two of them talking one day when she had made one of her infrequent trips to the library. She had been in the stacks, when Xander and Willow had walked in, followed by the semi-hot librarian and a girl named Buffy Summers. Cordelia had told her before that Buffy was a weirdo, but she had ignored it. Cordelia had a way of making up mean stories about people she didn't like, and unfortunately Buffy had made that list. At least she had thought that they were only stories. Until she heard what the group began to discuss.
"The vamps are laying it on heavy this week, Giles." This was Buffy talking, a mile a minute. "I'm not kidding. It's been vampire overload the past couple of nights."
"Do you think they're up to something?" Xander this time. "Maybe scheduling a town-wide suck-a-pa-looza? You know how much we love those in good old Sunnydale!"
"Does Angel know anything?," Willow asked quietly. She seemed almost afraid to speak up and interrupt her friends.
Katie snuck quietly out of the back entrance, leaving the group to discuss their fairy tales. Vampires? In Sunnydale? Cordelia might've been right. Buffy and her friends were freaks.
Her bedroom lights suddenly flickered to life before dimming again. Katie sat up in bed, forgetting all about her English test and Xander Harris. "That was strange," she thought. Although strange did seem to be the norm in Sunnydale, CA. Other people might ignore everything that went on, but she didn't. She wasn't blind and she definitely wasn't stupid. She wasn't quite sure how to explain everything: the disappearances, the strange sounds at night, the weird things going on - like her lights, which continued to flicker on and off now. No, she didn't know what was happening in the small town of Sunnydale. She only knew that people ignored it. "Maybe it's the vampires," she said half-jokingly to herself. She laughed at her little joke. "Maybe I should call Xander to come save me." Again, she laughed.
A surge of energy, so strong you could hear it - it was a high-pitched squeal - radiated through the room. The lights were brighter than ever. Suddenly, they burst and the room was thrown into total darkness.
Katie looked around her room, her eyes slowly adjusting to the sudden darkness. She was alone. At least she thought she was alone. When the lights blazed, she was the only occupant. Now she was beginning to have doubts. A presence was there, she could feel it. Someone else was in the room with her. Or something. "Stop it, Katie," she said to herself angrily. "Just stop." But the image of the infamous Sunnydale Vamps wouldn't leave her mind.
She got up and crosses over to the window. Everything looked calm. She was pleased to note that all of the lights on the block were out. "Just a power outage," she said, almost relieved. The boogeyman might exist in Sunnydale, but she was certain he wasn't coming for her tonight.
She turned around, preparing to head back to bed - and stopped dead in her tracks. The cross above her bed ... it was hanging upside down. Katie was not a religious person. In fact, she would have taken the cross down from her wall, had her mother not insisted it stay put. Still, the sacrilegious image was enough to send icy chills down her spine. She crept closer to her bed, her eyes fixed on the cross.
The room felt colder now, much colder. "It's just me," she thought. "I'm scaring myself." But, no, this wasn't in her head. She could see her breath as she exhaled, forming in front of her in icy puffs. As she stood staring at the wall, the temperature must've dropped nearly thirty degrees! Her teeth chattered as she lifted her leg to climb into bed.
Someone else was in the room now. The feeling she had earlier only intensified, propelled by the sound of heavy, dry breathing. "It's still only me. It's my breathing I hear." But it wasn't. It was a wheezing sort of sound, as if the person doing it was having an asthma attack. The wheezing sound was followed shortly by the smallest, eeriest of giggles.
"Hello?" Katie felt like a walking cliché. Calling out to whatever was in her room seemed to come out straight out of a horror movie. She herself hated to watch movies like that, not because she was afraid of them, but because the heroines almost always made the same mistake she was making now. Leave, she thought. Get out of the room. Wake up mom and dad, call the police, go for a coffee - anything! Just get the hell out of this room! "Is anyone there?," she heard herself ask shakily.
"Yes," a cruel voice whispered back, breaking through the darkness.
Katie moved towards the bedroom door crookedly - she couldn't believe her fear had paralyzed her like this. It was hard to move. In fact, almost impossible. It was as if her right foot was pinned to the floor. She looked down - and saw that her foot was entirely capable of moving. It was just held in place by a decaying, decrepit hand sticking out from under her bed.
As she opened her mouth to scream, she was jerked to the floor. In almost slow motion, Katie was pulled under the bed. The last sound she heard was raspy wheezing, followed by a near silent giggle. As Katie disappeared into nowhere, the lights in Sunnydale came back to life.