A Night At The Movies
Willow lied down lazily on the bed, staring at the ceiling. It was Friday night and she'd finished her homework. She had nothing to do to occupy herself for the rest of the night. She was bored, bored, bored!
Finally she'd decided to go to the movies. She hoped she had enough money to pay for the ticket. She whipped the local newspaper out from under her bed. She opened to the movie section and scrolled down. Her finger rested on something.
"Aha!" She exclaimed. Even though she did not like horror movies very much—in fact, she'd had enough of horror in her life already! When was the last time she'd seen a horror movie? it was pretty a long time ago, that much was a given but now Willow was in a mood for a good fun film to just be plainly scared of without having to be in real life-threatening danger for once.
So she dialed Xander Harris' phone number and a familiar voice came on at the other end of the line. "Yo, X-man here!"
Willow grinned. "Xander, l was wondering if we could go to the movies tonight?"
"What? Oh no, not that movie about the talking pig again." Xander's familiar voice moaned. "That pig was so annoying that I felt like kicking it all the way to the North Pole, where he can just starve in the freezing conditions and die in a pitiful way."
"Xander! That's cruelty to animals. RSPCA is not going to be happy about this."
"Oh come on that wasn't fair. I only came to see it because you forced me to."
Pause.
Then Xander added, "By giving me a lot of M&Ms chocolate goodness, by the way."
"No I did not!" Willow started to argue. Then just for argument's sake, she changed her mind and said, "No not that, I totally and truly promise in the name of the Wicca God. Have you seen Stab?"
Buffy Summers picked up the phone. "Hello?"
"Hi Buffy! It's me. Do you want to go to the movies with Xander and me?"
"Sure!" was Buffy' automatic reply. She'd been bored, too. She didn't have to do patrolling that night; there had been a lack of vampire activity or hellmouth-y related lately.
"We're going to see Stab".
"Will, I thought you wig out every time you see blood. I mean, we get enough of that in real life!" Buffy paused, scrunching up her nose. "Actually not that kind of blood but--"
"Well, I've been staring the ceiling for two hours. Don't want to spend the rest of the night staring at it. It got dull real fast. Time for a change of scenery tonight."
"Alright, meet you there. See you." Buffy allowed herself a small grin and hung up.
The phone rang at Oz's house. Willow let it ring for about seven, eight times before she replaced the hook. No answer. Damn, she thought miserably. She'd forgotten. Oz was still out of town. He had gone with his band to do some important gig or something. He said he would be back in a few days or so. Willow hoped the gig went fine.
Well she was not going to let Oz's absence ruin the night. She started to get prepared for the movies.
"Wow! The excitement is certainly in the Sunnydale air. I feel as if we're in a Red Peppers concert. Minus the band of course." That was Xander. He pointed to a long, long line of people at the entrance. Lights were dancing around, illuminating the parking lot. At the entrance the glowing sign flashed: SNEAK PREVIEW OF STAB. OPENING TONIGHT.
The three friends were at the movies.
"That's Red Chili Peppers, Xander." Willow pointed out.
"Oh. Whatever." Xander shrugged. "Well, a friend told me that it was huge."
The two girls looked at each other and grinned. They just couldn't help it. Xander always made a fool of himself and his personality often rubbed off Willow and Buffy. It was lame but who cared?
"Willow, I still can't believe that you want to see such a movie like that." Buffy did the scrunched-up nose thing again.
"Well, what can I say? Boredom makes you do the wacky." Willow replied.
"Uh, where have I heard it before? Another one of great Willow-isms".
She just laughed.
"Hey, it seems that the attraction tonight is pretty popular. The line goes for nearly two whole street. Look at heaps of guys with dates." Xander observed.
"Ohh... there's a book based on the Woodsboro murders right? I haven't read it but seems like it's pretty hot stuff in town at the moment," Buffy remarked.
"Yeah, really fascinating stuff. I mean, not fascinating in a bad way. In a good way, of course. Anyway, you know that girl, Sidney what's-her-last-name? Apparently, she was the main victim of these Woodsboro murders and actually survived. She was stalked by those two crazy psychos and she managed to fend them off in the end. True story, by the way."
"Oh that poor girl." Willow said sympathetically. "That must be hard."
Buffy rolled her eyes. "Hey, it's nothing compared to what I have been through. These guys were probably vampires or demons."
"Nope," Xander gave her an acknowledging look and drawled, "Knives were their form of weapon not fangs. A sharp, long knife."
They were approaching the line now. They slipped in line and a they waited, Xander continued his trademark blabber-ness.
"So I mean, almost all of that girl's friends died right? Sidney had no one left in the end, except her dad. Her mum died a couple of years ago, I think she was murdered by some guy named Cotton Weary."
"Wait, Cotton Weary?" Buffy barked out a laugh. "That guy was named after some lolly? Somehow, parents of this world are getting weirder every minute."
"Yeah. And especially your mum." Xander muttered under his breath. The red head giggled.
"I heard that, Xand-er!" Buffy slapped him on the arm, admonished.
The queue was getting shorter but a lot of people were still ahead. The movie was going to begin in 15 minutes. Plenty of time though.
He kept going about the murders. "Cotton was out of jail recently and everyone especially Sidney thought he was behind the killings. Irony is, it was actually one of Sidney's friends and her boyfriend!"
"Shows that you can't trust your friends," He said, glancing at Buffy. He meant Angel of course. It was a long time ago that Buffy's boyfriend became Angelus, the Dr Jeykll version of Angel. Willow was sure he said it mainly out of spite.
Willow was slightly worried by Buffy's reaction. Of course Buffy had—she should have gotten over it by now but that did not ease the sensitive redhead's concern. It only had been several months since Angel was sent to hell so it was hard on all of them, much less with Xander. But Buffy just stared straight ahead, arms around her jacket which she had put on as if a chill passed through her.
Xander acted though as if nothing happened and proceeded. "All these murders were supposed to be some kind of weird game that Sidney's boyfriend and her friend performed. Revenge was the main motive I think but I'm not really sure."
"I think I'm in sick mode." Willow said disgustedly. "How could someone do that?"
They were near the entrance now. The movie was starting in 10 minutes. Suddenly, Xander bumped into a brunette girl at the front. Long blue dress that just stopped above her knees. The girl whirled around and said angrily, "Hey watch where you're going, you left two-feet idiot! You just ruined my make-up!"
It was Cordelia!
"Small world." Buffy muttered dryly.
"Oh, hey it's you three stooges-and-a-half." Cordelia plastered a fake smile on her face though her eyes were cold.
Xander stepped back and raised his arms, "Hey! Sorry if I just accidentally bumped into you and ruin your makeup. Oops, my bad. Things can't be helped."
"Excuse me you dumb dog, I'm not going to let you bring about destruction upon this night with my boyfriend and he's in a football team. He's in the toilet right now and you'd better save up money for surgery because compared to him, you're a Chihuahua."
"Compared to me, you're a Persian cat." That brought a snicker from Willow although it wasn't probably very funny, it was just the idea that Xander and Cordelia would always keep up this banter whenever they see each other that she found amusing.
He stopped short when a tall, very tall man stepped beside Cordelia and snarled, "Cordelia, was he hassling you?" He cracked his knuckles.
Xander gulped and hid behind Buffy. "Go get him! I don't care what it takes, just rip his guts out!"
Buffy turned around and said, "Can't. Slayer instincts tell me that he's not Mr. Vampire Guy. Sorry, can't help you there."
Luckily just then, Cordelia and her big-knuckled boyfriend were at the booth and paid tickets, and went inside. Xander breathed a sigh of relief. He scooped out the money from his jeans pocket to pay the guy at the booth that he had gotten from his friends.
As they went inside the crowded theatre, Xander pointed to a big poster on one side screaming out a ghost face twisted with features of horror holding a big knife and the title STAB leaped out in big green words. "Oh man!" Xander exulted. "That is one wicked poster! I wonder if they give away free posters?"
There were lots of STAB paraphernalia scattered around, stuck on walls and ceiling. It was everywhere.
"Hey suddenly I think I have a bad feeling about this..." Buffy frowned.
Xander stopped, took the mask off and came between his two friends, draping his arms over their shoulders. "Pffft. Where's your sense of fun? That is the whole point of coming to a theatre on a Friday night and be normal for once, enjoying yourselves, no waiting. Chill, man." He grinned. It would have made Willow's heart flutter, only that she was deep in thought thinking about how she should have stayed at home...
"No, not what I meant. I mean, like something bad WILL happen... oh ignore me, I'm a bit out of the whack at the moment, maybe it's just the pre-horror movie jitters." Buffy tried to convince herself but was still tense.
The three friends came to a stop in front of a door that led to an auditorium where Stab was going to be shown. They peered inside. It was so crowded, crammed full of people. Oh my god, Willow thought, how would we find seats?
"Hey. My bladder is busting, so you guys go ahead. I'm also going to buy my favorite food, popcorn. Want some?" Xander hurried off down the hallway. Before he was out of sight, he yelled, "Save a seat for me, will ya?!"
Xander pushed open the door of the mens' room. He went into one of the stalls and unzipped his pants. As his bladder was unfilling, he heard a noise. The source was in the next stall. It sounded like something--or someone scrapping against the linoleum floor. He leaned against the wall and listened for a moment.
Silence.
Xander shrugged and regarded it as nothing. After the bladder had been emptied, he pushed the stall open and went to the opposite side to wash his hands at the sink. He was a bit surprised to find a man standing there next to him. His face was covered by a dark cloth. When he turned, Xander was facing a ghost face! He almost yelped and stood back a step. He realized that it was a man in costume. Boy, was he feeling paranoid tonight.
"Hi—heh, heh, nice mask" Xander complimented the ghost-faced man. No reply. He felt a creepy feeling crawling up his back. Something about the guy reflected an uneasy presence.
"Um, what's that in your hand?" A flicker glowed in the man's hand and it was gone. Xander realized that there was some kind of red water stirring in the man's sink. Blood! He thought with shock. Or maybe that could have been his imagination. Then again this was Hellmouth after all. You don't get away with not-so-normal things like that.
Either the teenager was brave or stupid but he attempted to muster up the last bit of courage that he had. "Is that blood in the water?"
For the first time, the man replied with a distorted tone in his voice, "Hurt myself". The man has his mask on, that's probably why, Xander thought.
Xander was intimidated by the guy in the mask now and washed his hands quickly and left the room.
The man back there looked on lingeringly at the door to where Xander had exited.
Willow and Buffy felt choked by the crowd as they made their way to the available seats found in the middle of the theatre. They were nervous because the people had their ghost masks on and were running around with fake green knifes, stabbing at the air and chasing people. The noise was deafening. Boy, Willow thought, are they really in the mood.
Why oh why did I came here in the first place? she moaned to herself. Because you didn't want to stay home and stare at the ceiling, came the prompt answer.
They sat down and waited patiently for Xander. Willow was telling Buffy how Xander likes popcorn and lives for it. Willow said that he loves the way salt crinkled at his mouth, melting the tongue. Xander claimed it was turning him on. Buffy laughed at all this and was about to tell Willow something when something jumped at them!
"AAAAAHH!" They screamed. A ghost face peered intently at them. "Gotcha." A familiar voice said from under the mask. Xander pulled the mask off and laughed his butt off. "HAHAHA! You should have seen your faces! Especially you Buffy! You'd think that you would be prepared, since you're the Slayer but I got you big time!"
Willow and Buffy began slapping him and Xander nearly fell over. "You-you!" Buffy sputtered. "You scared us!"
"Yeah," Xander howled. "My plan exactly."
After he withstood about 56 hits on his body he plopped down on the seat next to Willow. "Well you like my mask? A hot chick gave it to me at the entrance. For free. I can't believe how I could miss that."
As he handed a big bag of popcorn around, the lights dimmed and the curtains opened revealing a very big screen. "Yes... it's starting." Xander rubbed his hands in anticipation.
The audience seemed to quiet down and people went back to their seats but there were still some people running around stabbing at the air. Since the movie was only a sneak preview, there was no previews for upcoming movies so the movie began straight away. The title STAB flashed across the screen and the words Based on "The Woodsboro Murders" by Gale Weathers appeared next.
Xander whispered to Willow, "Yep that's her, the woman who wrote the book."
The movie opened with a blonde girl in her white robe in the bathroom. She stared at the mirror. Then she turned on the shower and took her bathrobe off. Her boobs were slightly vague on the screen but it was enough for Xander to exclaim, "Oh my god! Gale didn't say....!"
The hormonal teenager hushed down as the girl on the screen heard a phone ringing. The girl picked up the robe and put it back on as she headed toward the ringing phone. Just then, a face popped up at the window behind her. Ghost face!
Some people screamed.
Willow was certain that she heard Xander mutter something like, "Damn."
The girl picked up the phone and demanded, "Hello?"
A voice boomed through the audience as it said, "Hello Cassie. What is your favorite movie?"
"What-what... Showgirls, yeah. Who are you?"
"You tell me."
"Listen if that's you Rod on the other end, I'll swear--
"No it's not."
"Well who is it?"
"Again you tell me."
"Is this some kind of a sick joke?"
"Hmm. Depends on your point of view. But to me, it's a game."
The girl looked a bit frightened. "You bastard!" And she slammed down the phone, hanging up.
Somewhere in the house, a piece of easy-to-use dinner on an oven cracked, burned up and caught on fire!
Meanwhile, in the audience some people were evidently on a high, running around like mad and threw some popcorn all over the place. Willow was not calmed by the audience's noises. She leaned closer to Xander who slipped an arm around her. It felt nice, keeping Willow more safe from the horrors that await them on the screen. Buffy just seemed to sit there, watching at what would happen next.
The frightened girl on the screen just paced around the house, unsure of what to do. The phone rang again. Hesitantly she picked up the phone.
"Why'd you hung up?" That voice again.
"Well because I think you're some kind of psycho!"
"Babes, is that the way to greet an old friend?"
"Wha--I don't know anyone!" The girl's voice trembled and she was definitely terrified now.
Gripping the phone to her ear, she went into the kitchen and pulled a knife from its holder on the counter just in case—in case of what?
"Now you do." The voice rasped in the girl's ear.
"What the hell do you want?!"
"Here's the thing. I'm somewhere outside your house. I can see you. I can see you holding a black phone right now."
The heart seemed to leap in her mouth. The girl whispered, "No." She ran to the front door, to make sure it was locked and went to the back to check the back door again. She turned off all the lights so whoever was on the other end of the line wouldn't see her.
She was about to lock one of the windows in the kitchen when she saw a blur of black whizzing past in the living room. She gasped in horror. She instinctively ran to the living room where her only escape was waiting for her. She fumbled to open the glass doors in the living room but a dark figure leaped out at her, shattering the glass! She screamed. A knife was swiping at her.
The audience was roaring now. Willow and her friends were trying to block out the noise in order to see what was happening. Willow was all wigging now and she clawed her nails in Xander's shirt so hard that he winced and had to let go of the nails. But he was grinning widely, loving every single moment and joined in the roars of the audience. Somewhere, Cordelia just sat there looking bored. "This is boring. I've seen better things. Let's go." She tugged at her boyfriend and they left.
The anticipactory sound built up as the girl on screen struggled out of the figure's grip and got up just in time. She ran out to the back of the house, unlocking the back door and stumbled out. She crouched down in order to make her invisible to the killer from sight.
In the audience, the Slayer was just as scared as Willow because of the loud music playing and that of the way the killer was chasing that girl. Buffy should not be scared; she was the Slayer but she had not seen a horror movie in a long time. She was getting into it now--doing what all girls do, screaming and hiding your eyes. Without knowing she was leaning against Willow too.
They both screamed when the knife-wielded killer jumped at the glass doors again, tackling the girl outside to the ground. Suspense boomed as the girl--still gripping the phone tried to slash the figure with her knife but he flung it away somewhere.
The girl managed to kick the killer in the leg and scrambled away. She began to run for her life. But no longer had she covered a few metres than when she felt a hand clasping her mouth. She tried to scream but no sound came out. The knife was thrust inside her chest and was slicing her repeatedly.
People in the theatre were crawling all over the place, ghost face masks visible in the dark, hollering and screaming like maniacs.
But somewhere amidst the roaring, Buffy's sense tingled. Oh no, she thought. Something bad is happening. Something wrong. This is not good. I don't know what it is...
But then her question was answered. Even though there were people standing up and scattered around, she saw one particular figure stumbling as she walked up to the stage. She's bleeding! Buffy realized. She jumped up from her seat and focused on the bleeding woman.
She had a bit of a hard time getting through and around people, but her eyes were on the woman all the time.
The black woman finally stood up on stage and let out a howl that echoed through the theatre. The audience finally realized what was going on and calmed down. They no longer were running and screaming but just standing, mesmerized by the image of a black woman bleeding in her stomach.
Willow stood up and she gasped, hands on her mouth. "Oh my god." Xander just looked at the woman in surprise.
Meanwhile, the screen was still playing and the image of ghost face filled up the screen as he yet buried the knife inside his helpless victim.
But no one cared anymore, and all their eyes were stuck on the woman in front. The sobbing woman fell down and let out another howl, more louder and it shook the audience. Some people tried to shut out the sound because it was too terrifying.
Now, Buffy had fought demons and vampires before and experienced situations that would have any sane person running for cover and whimpering. But this woman before her, she had never seen anything like this. It was so sad, so haunting, so melancholy. The image of a howling woman would stick in Buffy's head forever like Super-Glue.
Buffy finally made her way through the crowd and sprang on stage. She gently put the woman in her arms. The blood was on her hands but she did not care. "Are you okay? Are you fine?" But all she got was the woman's lifeless stare of her eyes.
She looked at the audience and yelled, "Get the ambulance! Dial 911! NOW!" Some people bolted out of the door in a flash.
Buffy scanned the audience, in the hope that she could find the bastard who killed the woman. But there were too many ghost face masks and it was virtually impossible to distinguish that person.
However as she searched, her eyes fell on one person who was by the door. That person was wearing a ghost face costume. For one moment, the person met Buffy's gaze although it was hard to tell since he was covered by the mask. But she knew--without knowing why, knew that it was that guy who killed his victim.
Buffy yelled, "Make way! I've got to do something!" Even as she said these words she leaped into the audience and was out the door before anyone could react.
She spotted a black figure heading out into the parking lot. She ran as if her whole life depended on it, in order to catch the killer. Her anger just made her go faster. She knew if she could not get the killer in time, he would disappear. And by god, if he disappear there would be more murders. More innocent victims falling.
The Slayer could not let that happen, she felt somehow responsible if she let the killer get away, although that was stupid.
In two seconds' flat she was out in the parking lot. The killer was gone. Damn! She silently cursed herself. No! No! He can't disappear! She looked around, in all directions and the killer was still not in sight. He was gone. Gone. GONE! She felt like screaming.
She leaned down hands on knees, panting hard. For a moment she was uncertain of what to do. But finally she realized that she had to go back and help that woman.
She heard sirens filling up the air. Wow, that fast huh? she thought. The hospital was only three blocks away fortunately. As she went back inside she vowed that this would be a hell of a battle and it would be one she would not lose.
Meanwhile somewhere in the woods on the hill, a figure stood outlined against a tree. The ghost face killer stared down thoughtfully at Buffy returning to the theatre. The blade flashed at the moon. Already his mind was in full mode, working as he plotted his next move, his next attack, his next victim....
THE END (OR IS IT?)