Crazy Face (PG)
This was my Halloween fic for last year. It was also submitted for a challenge. The Challenge was called the Clive Barker Title Challenge. I picked a title and did the fic based off of it.
There are no specific spoilers, but it was written with Season 7 in mind.
Enjoy!
*~*~*~*
"So what's on the agenda tonight? Demons? Vampires? Chainsaw murderers?" Xander smiled as he popped a full handful of popcorn into his mouth.
Buffy smiled a little. "It's Halloween, remember? We get the night off."
"Oh yeah, when did that ever happen?" Xander scoffed.
The doorbell stopped Buffy from retorting as she opened up the door wide.
"Trick or treat!" the three kids yelled. One was dressed as a vampire, one a demon with horns, and the other had a hockey mask on and a bloody fake knife. Buffy pasted a smile on her face.
"Not a word, Xander," she said, not even bothering to look at him as she passed candy out to the kids.
"Hey, point's been made. No need to belittle it with pointless chatter." He chuckled and headed into the living room, plopping down in front of the television.
When Buffy shut the door she looked up as she heard someone coming down the stairs. Her long hair fluffed out and haphazardly strewn about her head, her make up exceedingly glittery, and the small but cute sparkly wings on her back made Dawn the perfect fairy princess. She smiled at her sister. Buffy's eyes traveled downwards to her sister's glittery corset-styled top and flounce-y short skirt. Her legs were clad in sparkly tights and her heeled slippers had glitter all over them. The outfit was.sparse.
"No, uh-uh," Buffy said, smile gone from her face.
"Buffy, don't do this now. You wouldn't let me wear any of the costumes I picked out. You said no to the cat-girl. You said no to the she-devil. You specifically said I could go Disney. I said fairy princess? You said done. This is fairy princess." She said as she twirled, her skirt rising with the motion.
"Well, if you want prince charming to still have lips enough to kiss you goodnight, you better put more gown on the princess!" Buffy crossed her arms.
"I think she looks good," Xander said from the couch.
"Thank you, Xander," Dawn smiled.
"I think you should shut up," Buffy said, turning to look at him.
Dawn rolled her eyes. With a few tugs at the skirt, more material slipped out from under the corset-styled top. The skirt hung farther down, covering more of her slim legs than before. Begrudgingly Buffy nodded, still frowning. Dawn smiled big and kissed Buffy on the cheek.
"Thank you! I'll be home at midnight!"
"Just behave." She watched Dawn walk towards the sidewalk. "And no vampire boyfriends!" She called after her. Dawn just shook her head and smiled as she met up with her friends. Buffy watched them until they got to the end of the street and turned. She shut the door and went to sit by Xander.
"She's growing up too fast."
"And growing out."
"Xander!" Buffy's eyes widened and she grabbed a pillow, hitting him in the head with it.
"Ow!" He rubbed his head. "I'm a guy, I notice these things."
"Well notice them on someone else."
Xander looked at Buffy. "Do you ever smile? You know.that crazy facial expression where you're mouth is turned upwards? Come on. It's Halloween. Smile a little."
"I haven't really had that much to smile about, lately."
Xander rolled his eyes and put the popcorn down on the table. "No body around here feels like smiling. Well, I'm fed up!"
Willow headed down the stairs, hearing Xander's raised voice. "What's going on?"
"I want everyone to be happy. At least pretend to be happy for the night."
Willow looked at Buffy with a worried look. "I-I'm happy," Willow said.
"Uh huh.well you'd never know it from my end. You've got this whole, tortured soul thing going right now and you," he said, turning to Buffy, "you've gone all sour puss on me. I just wish you guys could smile the rest of the night!"
Buffy and Willow's eyes widened. "Xander.you said wish."
Xander stopped in his tirade for a moment and mentally traced over the things he said. When his mind stumbled onto wish, his eyes widened. He looked at Buffy and Willow. "I think I got carried away." He smiled sheepishly.
Buffy and Willow looked at each other a moment.
"Maybe I ought to get you something cold to drink," Willow said as she moved to the kitchen.
Xander smiled. "Thanks, Will!"
The doorbell interrupted Buffy as she stared at Xander a moment. Shaking her head, she went to the door to tend to the kids.
Xander sat back down in front of the television, grabbing his bowl of popcorn in the process. He popped another handful into his mouth. Over his chewing he heard Buffy start to chuckle.
"What was it? Another adaptation of Snoopy? I bet they can't do the Snoopy Dance." He smiled as he looked towards her. When his eyes connected with her he screamed, throwing the popcorn off of him and standing, crunching popcorn into the carpet.
Buffy, now dressed from head to toe like a clown was staring at him with a maniacal grin, still chuckling. Her blonde hair stuck out in all directions, curled tightly. Her pants ballooned out and her shoes were kind of big for her feet. Her face was white and her eyes had big blue circles painted around them. She had a big red smile painted at her lips. She slowly walked towards him as he backed up. He'd had clown fear for a long time, but he had been able to stand up to it until now. Suddenly seeing Buffy as a clown made his blood run cold.
"Ha-ha, Buffy," he said, his hands shaking. "You've had you're fun. I see you're smiling." When she didn't seem to slow in her efforts to get close to him, he did the only thing he could do.
"Willow!" he screamed.
He heard Willow laughing as she entered the room, her red hair frizzed out in some hellish fashion, her face painted white, and her nose red. She wore the same look as Buffy did. He swallowed hard against the lump in his throat. He dashed to the left trying to get to the back way, but Buffy hadn't lost her quickness. She was in front of him in a moment, her arms reaching for him. Xander screamed and dodged to his right, nearly falling into Willow's grasping hands. Falling backwards he scooted across the floor as the two girls giggled and laughed as they closed in on him. They seemed to like to watch him squirm. Quickly, in a moment of sheer terror, Xander shot up off of the floor and ran out the front door. All he heard was their laughter rise.
He looked back, seeing them behind him, gaining on him. Buffy was going to catch him if he didn't do something soon. Thinking quickly, he ducked in between some of the houses and ran through the back yards. He ducked back out in front of the houses, careful to make sure Buffy and Willow weren't in front, and kept weaving around houses. As soon as he could find an opening, he crossed over into the other side of the street and started to make his way toward the magic shop.
When he got there, he threw open the door, quickly shutting it and looking out the window in the door. He didn't see anything, but he knew that didn't mean they weren't out there.
Suddenly someone grabbed his shoulder from behind him and with a girlish scream, Xander swung about, nearly knocking over a surprised Anya.
"What the devil are you doing, Xander Harris? Why did you come barging in here and what is all the screaming about?" She seemed flustered and he quickly checked her over for signs of being a clown. When he didn't see any, he looked back out the door, seeing nothing.
"Very funny, Anya. You've had your laugh. Now turn them back!" he accused.
"Back? Them? What is this about?" she looked confused.
"You. I wished that." he stopped himself. "I said something about Buffy and Willow smiling and suddenly they became clowns. Clowns that want to kill me!"
He turned to look out the door and saw them standing in the window, smiling. The image sent chills down his spine. He heard their laughter and quickly he locked the door.
"Anya, turn them back!"
"But I didn't do this!"
"Well, if you didn't grant a wish, who did?"
"How should I know?"
"Well, aren't you the vengeance gal?"
"Yeah but that doesn't mean I keep track of all of them. And maybe it isn't a vengeance thing. Did you ever think of that?"
He heard the door start to splinter as Buffy kicked at it. Anya's eyes got big. "You're going to have to pay for that!" She yelled at Buffy. Suddenly the door gave and Anya gave a small shriek. Xander took her hand and pulled her towards the back, scrambling to get out.
When they were free of the building they ran. They ran and ran, not really caring where they went to, just as long as they were away from Buffy and Willow. They tried going to the school to find Spike, but quickly Xander squelched that idea. They thought about going to Dawn, but Xander didn't want to put her in danger, since Buffy and Willow seemed to only be going after him. Finally, hours later and very exhausted, they found an abandoned building and hid in there.
"Xander, what is going on?" she whispered to him as they huddled into the corner of the dark building.
"I-I wished them to smile. I just wanted them to smile." He said, panic in his voice. Anya remembered that Xander had a fear of clowns. He told her once about a birthday party where a clown chased him. She remembered laughing at him until he brought up her rabbit fear.
"What exactly did you say?" she asked.
Xander thought a moment. "I said I wanted them to smile for the rest of the night."
"Well then that settles it. She looked at her wristwatch. "We only have an hour left until midnight. We'll just wait it out in here."
A loud booming noise echoed throughout the building as the door to the building was slammed open.
"I don't think that's going to be an option."
The two peered out of their hiding places long enough to see Willow and Buffy, searching for them. They heard their giggling echoing throughout the empty place.
"Two can play at this game," Xander whispered quietly. Anya just looked at him strangely.
"I wish-" he stopped when he heard something close by. The bins they were hiding behind were suddenly moved and Buffy and Willow had them cornered. They laughed gleefully as they saw Xander.
"I wish this place was swarming with frogs!" Xander yelled.
Anya didn't know what he meant, but she didn't question. He wanted revenge for this trick played on him, and she was the person to give it. Her face changed as she morphed into her demon visage. The echo of frog croaks could be heard around the building. Willow started to laugh harder, and although she smiled, she started to look around at the noise. Buffy grabbed Xander and picked him up, holding him above her head.
"Buff.when I was yelling.what I really meant to say was I'm sorry. Yeah. I'm sorry for whatever I did to make you angry. Ok?" Buffy's eyes narrowed and she laughed some more as she threw him across the room. Xander's back hit a wall as he slid down it with a grunt. He looked up to see Buffy heading towards him again.
He looked around and saw that all around, frogs started hopping towards Willow and she started to skittishly dance around, trying to get away from the frogs. Buffy, unphased by the frogs, started to head towards Xander. Anya stepped in her way.
"Buffy, you're not yourself. You should go lay down. Take Willow with you." Anya said, still as her demon self. Buffy tried to push her aside, but Anya took her arm and flipped her onto her back, starting their fight as Xander crawled away.
Willow was totally absorbed with the presence of the frogs. Although she kept looking over at Xander, driven by something to attack him, she couldn't shake the fear she was feeling as frogs started leaping towards her. She skipped and jumped around, trying to get away from her, but more kept coming. The more frightened she got, the louder her laughter got. Xander watched her with mixed feelings. He was glad she wasn't coming after him, but he felt bad for sicking frogs on his friend. He got the idea she couldn't help what was happening tonight.
Buffy and Anya fought on, throwing each other around the room. Buffy jumped up, swinging around, her foot catching Anya in the head. Anya flipped off the ground, grabbing Buffy's other foot as she tried to kick her again and pulled her off her feet. Buffy jumped up before her balance was lost and twisted around, hitting Anya with the foot not being held. She laughed as she fought, and it was starting to throw Anya off her game. The whole clown-Buffy freaked her out. She pushed her arms out, throwing Buffy away from her. Buffy quickly got up and cart-wheeled for her, punching her in the gut when she came to stand in front of Anya. Anya kicked upwards, catching Buffy in the knee. Buffy went down and Anya grabbed her shirt, flinging her against the wall Xander had hit.
Willow looked over at Anya and her eyes narrowed. She giggled a little and light came from her fingertips. Suddenly the frogs were joined by big fluffy rabbits. Anya screamed as she saw a rabbit hop up to her. She turned and fled towards Xander, who grabbed her hand.
"Let's get out of here!" They hopped over frogs and rabbits, trying to make their way out of the building, but it was no use. Buffy gained on them quickly and Xander felt himself being lifted up and then quickly head toward the wall, hitting it and sliding down. He started to feel dizzy as his head hit the wall too hard. He heard his name being called, but he couldn't focus on the voice.
"Xander!"
He jumped up off of the couch and looked around. His eyes were wide with fright as he looked around the house he was in, slowly recognizing Buffy's living room. Popcorn was spread out all over the place and he turned to look at Buffy, who was normal again.
"Are you alright?" she said, looking concerned. Xander looked at a clock and saw that it said 10 o'clock. He knew that couldn't be right because Anya had told him they only had an hour to go until midnight.
"Xander?" Buffy asked again, putting her hand on his. He quickly jerked back, his attention brought back to her. He seemed to look at her carefully, as if checking for something. Finally he began to relax.
"It was just a dream," she said, and smiled a little.
"Is he awake?" he heard Willow say and turned to look at her in the hallway.
"Yeah, he's awake."
Willow smiled at him, her smile making chills run down his spine.
"What are you smiling for? Stop smiling!"
Willow looked shocked. Before you fell asleep you wanted us to smile more. What's wrong with you?"
He was shaking a little bit but he was visibly calmer now.
"It's nothing. Just a dream," he said, repeating Buffy.
Willow grinned. "A dream about what?"
His mind searched for a moment. "Frogs."
Her eyes widened and Buffy looked confused.
"Frogs?" Buffy asked. "You had a dream about frogs?"
Xander nodded. "Yeah, frogs." Willow looked paler and she backed towards the stairs.
"I'll be upstairs if anyone needs me."
Buffy nodded as she scampered up the stares. She looked at Xander, still worried about him. "You sure you're alright?"
"Yeah. Fine." He smiled at her as he gathered his coat. "I think I'll just go. Leave the straggling Trick-or-Treaters up to you."
She rolled her eyes. "What would be the difference.you've been asleep on the couch all night."
Xander smiled sheepishly before he left. When the door closed behind him he heard Buffy laugh. The laugh sent a feeling of dread through him, and to be on the safe side, he ran home.
~The End
This was my Halloween fic for last year. It was also submitted for a challenge. The Challenge was called the Clive Barker Title Challenge. I picked a title and did the fic based off of it.
There are no specific spoilers, but it was written with Season 7 in mind.
Enjoy!
*~*~*~*
"So what's on the agenda tonight? Demons? Vampires? Chainsaw murderers?" Xander smiled as he popped a full handful of popcorn into his mouth.
Buffy smiled a little. "It's Halloween, remember? We get the night off."
"Oh yeah, when did that ever happen?" Xander scoffed.
The doorbell stopped Buffy from retorting as she opened up the door wide.
"Trick or treat!" the three kids yelled. One was dressed as a vampire, one a demon with horns, and the other had a hockey mask on and a bloody fake knife. Buffy pasted a smile on her face.
"Not a word, Xander," she said, not even bothering to look at him as she passed candy out to the kids.
"Hey, point's been made. No need to belittle it with pointless chatter." He chuckled and headed into the living room, plopping down in front of the television.
When Buffy shut the door she looked up as she heard someone coming down the stairs. Her long hair fluffed out and haphazardly strewn about her head, her make up exceedingly glittery, and the small but cute sparkly wings on her back made Dawn the perfect fairy princess. She smiled at her sister. Buffy's eyes traveled downwards to her sister's glittery corset-styled top and flounce-y short skirt. Her legs were clad in sparkly tights and her heeled slippers had glitter all over them. The outfit was.sparse.
"No, uh-uh," Buffy said, smile gone from her face.
"Buffy, don't do this now. You wouldn't let me wear any of the costumes I picked out. You said no to the cat-girl. You said no to the she-devil. You specifically said I could go Disney. I said fairy princess? You said done. This is fairy princess." She said as she twirled, her skirt rising with the motion.
"Well, if you want prince charming to still have lips enough to kiss you goodnight, you better put more gown on the princess!" Buffy crossed her arms.
"I think she looks good," Xander said from the couch.
"Thank you, Xander," Dawn smiled.
"I think you should shut up," Buffy said, turning to look at him.
Dawn rolled her eyes. With a few tugs at the skirt, more material slipped out from under the corset-styled top. The skirt hung farther down, covering more of her slim legs than before. Begrudgingly Buffy nodded, still frowning. Dawn smiled big and kissed Buffy on the cheek.
"Thank you! I'll be home at midnight!"
"Just behave." She watched Dawn walk towards the sidewalk. "And no vampire boyfriends!" She called after her. Dawn just shook her head and smiled as she met up with her friends. Buffy watched them until they got to the end of the street and turned. She shut the door and went to sit by Xander.
"She's growing up too fast."
"And growing out."
"Xander!" Buffy's eyes widened and she grabbed a pillow, hitting him in the head with it.
"Ow!" He rubbed his head. "I'm a guy, I notice these things."
"Well notice them on someone else."
Xander looked at Buffy. "Do you ever smile? You know.that crazy facial expression where you're mouth is turned upwards? Come on. It's Halloween. Smile a little."
"I haven't really had that much to smile about, lately."
Xander rolled his eyes and put the popcorn down on the table. "No body around here feels like smiling. Well, I'm fed up!"
Willow headed down the stairs, hearing Xander's raised voice. "What's going on?"
"I want everyone to be happy. At least pretend to be happy for the night."
Willow looked at Buffy with a worried look. "I-I'm happy," Willow said.
"Uh huh.well you'd never know it from my end. You've got this whole, tortured soul thing going right now and you," he said, turning to Buffy, "you've gone all sour puss on me. I just wish you guys could smile the rest of the night!"
Buffy and Willow's eyes widened. "Xander.you said wish."
Xander stopped in his tirade for a moment and mentally traced over the things he said. When his mind stumbled onto wish, his eyes widened. He looked at Buffy and Willow. "I think I got carried away." He smiled sheepishly.
Buffy and Willow looked at each other a moment.
"Maybe I ought to get you something cold to drink," Willow said as she moved to the kitchen.
Xander smiled. "Thanks, Will!"
The doorbell interrupted Buffy as she stared at Xander a moment. Shaking her head, she went to the door to tend to the kids.
Xander sat back down in front of the television, grabbing his bowl of popcorn in the process. He popped another handful into his mouth. Over his chewing he heard Buffy start to chuckle.
"What was it? Another adaptation of Snoopy? I bet they can't do the Snoopy Dance." He smiled as he looked towards her. When his eyes connected with her he screamed, throwing the popcorn off of him and standing, crunching popcorn into the carpet.
Buffy, now dressed from head to toe like a clown was staring at him with a maniacal grin, still chuckling. Her blonde hair stuck out in all directions, curled tightly. Her pants ballooned out and her shoes were kind of big for her feet. Her face was white and her eyes had big blue circles painted around them. She had a big red smile painted at her lips. She slowly walked towards him as he backed up. He'd had clown fear for a long time, but he had been able to stand up to it until now. Suddenly seeing Buffy as a clown made his blood run cold.
"Ha-ha, Buffy," he said, his hands shaking. "You've had you're fun. I see you're smiling." When she didn't seem to slow in her efforts to get close to him, he did the only thing he could do.
"Willow!" he screamed.
He heard Willow laughing as she entered the room, her red hair frizzed out in some hellish fashion, her face painted white, and her nose red. She wore the same look as Buffy did. He swallowed hard against the lump in his throat. He dashed to the left trying to get to the back way, but Buffy hadn't lost her quickness. She was in front of him in a moment, her arms reaching for him. Xander screamed and dodged to his right, nearly falling into Willow's grasping hands. Falling backwards he scooted across the floor as the two girls giggled and laughed as they closed in on him. They seemed to like to watch him squirm. Quickly, in a moment of sheer terror, Xander shot up off of the floor and ran out the front door. All he heard was their laughter rise.
He looked back, seeing them behind him, gaining on him. Buffy was going to catch him if he didn't do something soon. Thinking quickly, he ducked in between some of the houses and ran through the back yards. He ducked back out in front of the houses, careful to make sure Buffy and Willow weren't in front, and kept weaving around houses. As soon as he could find an opening, he crossed over into the other side of the street and started to make his way toward the magic shop.
When he got there, he threw open the door, quickly shutting it and looking out the window in the door. He didn't see anything, but he knew that didn't mean they weren't out there.
Suddenly someone grabbed his shoulder from behind him and with a girlish scream, Xander swung about, nearly knocking over a surprised Anya.
"What the devil are you doing, Xander Harris? Why did you come barging in here and what is all the screaming about?" She seemed flustered and he quickly checked her over for signs of being a clown. When he didn't see any, he looked back out the door, seeing nothing.
"Very funny, Anya. You've had your laugh. Now turn them back!" he accused.
"Back? Them? What is this about?" she looked confused.
"You. I wished that." he stopped himself. "I said something about Buffy and Willow smiling and suddenly they became clowns. Clowns that want to kill me!"
He turned to look out the door and saw them standing in the window, smiling. The image sent chills down his spine. He heard their laughter and quickly he locked the door.
"Anya, turn them back!"
"But I didn't do this!"
"Well, if you didn't grant a wish, who did?"
"How should I know?"
"Well, aren't you the vengeance gal?"
"Yeah but that doesn't mean I keep track of all of them. And maybe it isn't a vengeance thing. Did you ever think of that?"
He heard the door start to splinter as Buffy kicked at it. Anya's eyes got big. "You're going to have to pay for that!" She yelled at Buffy. Suddenly the door gave and Anya gave a small shriek. Xander took her hand and pulled her towards the back, scrambling to get out.
When they were free of the building they ran. They ran and ran, not really caring where they went to, just as long as they were away from Buffy and Willow. They tried going to the school to find Spike, but quickly Xander squelched that idea. They thought about going to Dawn, but Xander didn't want to put her in danger, since Buffy and Willow seemed to only be going after him. Finally, hours later and very exhausted, they found an abandoned building and hid in there.
"Xander, what is going on?" she whispered to him as they huddled into the corner of the dark building.
"I-I wished them to smile. I just wanted them to smile." He said, panic in his voice. Anya remembered that Xander had a fear of clowns. He told her once about a birthday party where a clown chased him. She remembered laughing at him until he brought up her rabbit fear.
"What exactly did you say?" she asked.
Xander thought a moment. "I said I wanted them to smile for the rest of the night."
"Well then that settles it. She looked at her wristwatch. "We only have an hour left until midnight. We'll just wait it out in here."
A loud booming noise echoed throughout the building as the door to the building was slammed open.
"I don't think that's going to be an option."
The two peered out of their hiding places long enough to see Willow and Buffy, searching for them. They heard their giggling echoing throughout the empty place.
"Two can play at this game," Xander whispered quietly. Anya just looked at him strangely.
"I wish-" he stopped when he heard something close by. The bins they were hiding behind were suddenly moved and Buffy and Willow had them cornered. They laughed gleefully as they saw Xander.
"I wish this place was swarming with frogs!" Xander yelled.
Anya didn't know what he meant, but she didn't question. He wanted revenge for this trick played on him, and she was the person to give it. Her face changed as she morphed into her demon visage. The echo of frog croaks could be heard around the building. Willow started to laugh harder, and although she smiled, she started to look around at the noise. Buffy grabbed Xander and picked him up, holding him above her head.
"Buff.when I was yelling.what I really meant to say was I'm sorry. Yeah. I'm sorry for whatever I did to make you angry. Ok?" Buffy's eyes narrowed and she laughed some more as she threw him across the room. Xander's back hit a wall as he slid down it with a grunt. He looked up to see Buffy heading towards him again.
He looked around and saw that all around, frogs started hopping towards Willow and she started to skittishly dance around, trying to get away from the frogs. Buffy, unphased by the frogs, started to head towards Xander. Anya stepped in her way.
"Buffy, you're not yourself. You should go lay down. Take Willow with you." Anya said, still as her demon self. Buffy tried to push her aside, but Anya took her arm and flipped her onto her back, starting their fight as Xander crawled away.
Willow was totally absorbed with the presence of the frogs. Although she kept looking over at Xander, driven by something to attack him, she couldn't shake the fear she was feeling as frogs started leaping towards her. She skipped and jumped around, trying to get away from her, but more kept coming. The more frightened she got, the louder her laughter got. Xander watched her with mixed feelings. He was glad she wasn't coming after him, but he felt bad for sicking frogs on his friend. He got the idea she couldn't help what was happening tonight.
Buffy and Anya fought on, throwing each other around the room. Buffy jumped up, swinging around, her foot catching Anya in the head. Anya flipped off the ground, grabbing Buffy's other foot as she tried to kick her again and pulled her off her feet. Buffy jumped up before her balance was lost and twisted around, hitting Anya with the foot not being held. She laughed as she fought, and it was starting to throw Anya off her game. The whole clown-Buffy freaked her out. She pushed her arms out, throwing Buffy away from her. Buffy quickly got up and cart-wheeled for her, punching her in the gut when she came to stand in front of Anya. Anya kicked upwards, catching Buffy in the knee. Buffy went down and Anya grabbed her shirt, flinging her against the wall Xander had hit.
Willow looked over at Anya and her eyes narrowed. She giggled a little and light came from her fingertips. Suddenly the frogs were joined by big fluffy rabbits. Anya screamed as she saw a rabbit hop up to her. She turned and fled towards Xander, who grabbed her hand.
"Let's get out of here!" They hopped over frogs and rabbits, trying to make their way out of the building, but it was no use. Buffy gained on them quickly and Xander felt himself being lifted up and then quickly head toward the wall, hitting it and sliding down. He started to feel dizzy as his head hit the wall too hard. He heard his name being called, but he couldn't focus on the voice.
"Xander!"
He jumped up off of the couch and looked around. His eyes were wide with fright as he looked around the house he was in, slowly recognizing Buffy's living room. Popcorn was spread out all over the place and he turned to look at Buffy, who was normal again.
"Are you alright?" she said, looking concerned. Xander looked at a clock and saw that it said 10 o'clock. He knew that couldn't be right because Anya had told him they only had an hour to go until midnight.
"Xander?" Buffy asked again, putting her hand on his. He quickly jerked back, his attention brought back to her. He seemed to look at her carefully, as if checking for something. Finally he began to relax.
"It was just a dream," she said, and smiled a little.
"Is he awake?" he heard Willow say and turned to look at her in the hallway.
"Yeah, he's awake."
Willow smiled at him, her smile making chills run down his spine.
"What are you smiling for? Stop smiling!"
Willow looked shocked. Before you fell asleep you wanted us to smile more. What's wrong with you?"
He was shaking a little bit but he was visibly calmer now.
"It's nothing. Just a dream," he said, repeating Buffy.
Willow grinned. "A dream about what?"
His mind searched for a moment. "Frogs."
Her eyes widened and Buffy looked confused.
"Frogs?" Buffy asked. "You had a dream about frogs?"
Xander nodded. "Yeah, frogs." Willow looked paler and she backed towards the stairs.
"I'll be upstairs if anyone needs me."
Buffy nodded as she scampered up the stares. She looked at Xander, still worried about him. "You sure you're alright?"
"Yeah. Fine." He smiled at her as he gathered his coat. "I think I'll just go. Leave the straggling Trick-or-Treaters up to you."
She rolled her eyes. "What would be the difference.you've been asleep on the couch all night."
Xander smiled sheepishly before he left. When the door closed behind him he heard Buffy laugh. The laugh sent a feeling of dread through him, and to be on the safe side, he ran home.
~The End