DISCLAIMER: I do not own Buffy or any of the characters associated with the television show. I do, however, own everyone else!
I sat across from my mother in our library and gaped. Had I heard right, I wondered. Did my mother really just say we were going to California?
"Your dad heard of his little town called Sunnydale that seems to have a nice golf resort in it."
I laughed. "Sunnydale? There really is a town there called that?"
My mother grinned at me, knowing that I meant the one from the Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the hit TV show. My sister and I had watched it religiously until it went off the air after its seventh season.
"Better get packing, Cookiepie. We're leaving in a couple of days." She said, using my childhood nickname.
I got up out of the large green leather chair that I had been sitting in.
Before I went upstairs, I couldn't resist adding, "Maybe we'll run into Buffy."
My mom laughed and shook her head at me. I only smirked.
Sarah was floored when I told her. "I thought that was a fictional place."
"Me too. It should be interesting to see what the real life version looks like."
My sister nodded her agreement. Together, we packed our bags for the trip.
Two days later, we all piled into our stuffy minivan and set off. As usual, I claimed my seat behind the driver and Sarah claimed the seat next to me. Shelley took the back seat behind me.
I immediately dug into my "activity bag" as my parents like to call them, and brought out my CD player. I popped in a disc and sat back to listen to it.
It was only when the fourth song was playing that I noticed the "Welcome to Sunnydale" sign.
"What the hell? We've only been in the car for." I checked my watch, "20 minutes!"
Sarah looked up when I spoke. "What?" I pointed out the window.
"What the hell?" my sister echoed my exclamation, "How did we get here so fast?"
"I don't know." I answered honestly.
We drew my parent's and Shelley's attention to it and they all let out gasps.
"Maybe it's closer than we thought."
"No," my father answered, "it's supposed to be near this place," he pointed to a town on the map, "and that's at least 400 kilometres away."
I asked the inevitable question: "should we check it out?"
"I suppose." My father said. And with that, we all got out to check this place out. Maybe, I thought, we just passed a sign for it and confused this town for Sunnydale. That could happen. Unfortunately, the odd feeling in my stomach which insisted this wasn't right wouldn't go away.
I looked around, scanning the town. I was shocked to see that it looked exactly like the Sunnydale from TV show, Buffy. If that wasn't weird, I didn't know what was.
I stood in front of the mysterious sign we had seen from the highway. Yup, it was really there.
Just then, to everyone's shock, a black Desoto crashed through the Sunnydale sign that I had been standing in front of only a couple minutes ago. The car door opened and a person fell out.
I just about fainted when I heard the person utter in a thick English accent, "Home, sweet home." And then, pass out.
My sister and I looked at each other then ventured towards the person.
"Did that sound like who I thought it did?" Sarah asked me.
"Yes. It sounded exactly like," It was too fantastical to believe, "Spike!"
Sure enough, it was him or rather James Marsters. Spike was just a fictional character.
"James?" I said, hoping he would wake up. When he didn't, I frowned.
I bent over him to see if he was breathing. The cross necklace I was wearing rested against his cheek. Immediately, it began to sizzle against his skin. I drew back as I heard him shout "Bloody Hell!"
This wasn't happening. All of the Buffyverse was not real!
He swaggered and clutched his head, clearly in pain.
"Spike, is that you?" I ventured, not entirely sure why I said that.
"Yeah, who wants to know?" he said and groaned.
"I-I did."
Before he could say anything, my mom came up to him and checked him out. "Are you okay? We saw you crash into the sign."
"I'll be fine in a minute." Before our eyes, Spike slipped into game face and went for my mother's throat.
"NO!" I said, pushed him away from her. Thankfully, he wasn't completely over his headache, so I had no trouble.
"What was that?" My mother asked, horrified.
"That," I explained, "If my sources are correct, is Spike." Lord, I couldn't believe those words had just come out of my mouth. "Only," I continued, "this is the beginning of season three when Spike was still evil."
"What? Season three?"
"Spike crashes through the sign on only two occasions: when he first arrived in season 2, and then in season 3. Only in that season, he was drunk as he is now it seems."
My mom looked at me like I should be carted off to the loony bin and locked up for the rest of my life. At this rate, she was probably right.
"Mom, this may be hard to believe, but I think we are in Sunnydale. Not the real one, but the Buffy version."
Spike stood before us, heaving and growling. It looked as though his headache, thanks to vampire healing, was going away.
"Now," he said, "I don't know how the bloody hell you knew my name you daft woman, but I don't care. I'll just kill each and every one of you and go on my way."