It had felt like months had passed as Tina curled up in the downstairs bathroom of Santana Lopez's house, sitting on the closed toilet lid with her head between her knees, wishing that she was anywhere but here. Her stomach was in knots just thinking about everything that was going on outside. She didn't mean to be so anti-social or anti-party. In fact, she liked parties, when they were between friends, and not between random, drunken, hormonal strangers. Tina wished that she could be more like Buffy. Beautiful, athletic, bubbly and the object of every guy's affection.
At least I have Mike, she thought to herself. She breathed in deep, her eyes closed tight, and thought to herself how glad she is to have Mike. Sometimes, he was the only thing in her life that made her feel special. She sighed again, working up the courage to leave and end the lonely pity party. She lifted her head from her knees and blinked. Something was different. Where once she had a white sheet draped over her body to make her look like a traditional Halloween ghost, the sheet was now gone. All that Tina wore was Brittany Pierce's awkwardly fitted Cheerios uniform.
Tina gasped, surprised to find herself back in the red and white aerobics fabric.
"Where is my costume?" she whispered to herself, barely able to hear her own voice above the booming sound of loud music and merriment that came from the other side of the bathroom door.
Tina's brown eyes trailed along the floor of the bathroom, but her ghost costume wasn't strewn or crumpled anywhere in the room. Wouldn't I have noticed if it fell of? Tina wondered to herself, dumbfounded. She stood up in the Cheerios uniform and walked over to the bathroom sink, looking at herself in the mirror. She screwed up her face distastefully at herself in a cheerleading uniform.
"God, I look like..." Tina racked her brain, trying to think of who she reminded herself of, "...Morgan Ru."
She shook her head, confused and displeased, and reached for the bathroom door. To her immense surprise, her hand didn't grip on to anything when she tried to grab the stainless silver door handle. Instead, her fingers seemed to float right through, matterless. She blinked, taken aback, and tried again. She watched, terrified, as her hand passed right through the door handle, like she was a... a ghost.
Tina shuddered with fear. Did someone slip something into her drink? Was she passed out, dreaming an all too realistic dream? No, she knew what was happening. It was the Hellmouth. It always was.
xxx
Kurt blinked in the shadowy corner of the alcove in the upstairs landing on Santana Lopez's house, his head going fuzzy and his vision becoming blurred for just a moment. When he blinked again, he felt a little better. Buffy was still beside him in her dazzling princess gown and Blaine was, for all they knew, still downstairs getting a couple cups of spiked fruit punch.
When he looked over at his blond friend, she was blinking, too, and frowning, as if she was disoriented.
"Buffy, are you alright?" he asked, loosening his gold and maroon Gryffindor tie around his neck.
She looked up at him as if only just noticing his presence, looking bewildered.
"What?"
"Are you okay, Buffy? You look..." he trailed off, not knowing how to put it that she looked positively frightened.
Before they had an opportunity to say anything more, a figure came bounding up the stairs, his face gnarled and twisted and scary like a demon's. Kurt looked on, figuring it was only some guy in a costume, until the demon got closer, his face looking meaner.
"Oh God," Kurt's jaw dropped open, "Buffy, what do we do?"
Buffy stared, slack jawed, and her eyes rolled back as she slumped forward.
"Buffy!" cried Kurt, shocked, and looked up in fear as the demon loomed forward. His heart racing wildly, Kurt gripped on to the plastic wand tucked into the sleeve of his gray cardigan and pulled it out, yelling the first thing that came to his mind.
"Wingardium leviosa!"
Kurt gripped his eyes tight, and when he heard only silence, he opened them again, one by one. His heart stopped as he saw the demon suspended in the air with a confounded expression on his face. Kurt breathed out, in shock. He definitely had not expected that to work. He'd said it on the off chance that something would save the day in the nick of time. At the very least, he would die with the comfort of knowing he was witty, but there it was, a two hundred pound demon suspended in the air because of the force of... wizardry?
"This can not be happening," Kurt sighed, looking down at the wand in his hand. To his surprise, it was no longer plastic, but real cherrywood. He licked his lips in concentration and tried to think of other spells he'd encountered in the movies.
"Um," he said, pointing his wand at the mid-air demon, "Sectumsempra?"
Kurt's breath was taken away as a bloody slash was gouged into the demon arm, and the monster dropped to the floor as Kurt pulled his wand away, his thick, opaque blood oozing out onto the landing carpet.
"Oh my God," he sighed, his stomach churning at the sight of the wounded demon. He turned his head down to see Buffy, still unconscious. "What is going on?"
Before he could get his bearings again, Kurt heard a choking, frightened scream coming from the upstairs bathroom and ran towards it, his wand at the ready with a newfound sense of uncertain power. He shoved the bathroom door open and stared at the figure on the floor.
"...Rachel," Kurt breathed, startled.
He'd received all the texts about her little mermaid outfit, but this was not what he had been expecting. She lay on the ground, a terrified expression stricken on her face, her fire engine red hair sprawled on the tiled floor and her scaly, gray bottom half flopped violently on the floor.
"What's going on? Who are you?" she demanded, frightened, trying to sit up.
"It's me, Kurt," he blinked, "Rachel, something weird is happening!"
"Rachel?" she raised an eyebrow in defiance, "I'm Ariel, the daughter of Triton!"
"...What?"
"Where is my father, and my sisters? Where's Sebastian, and why am I on land?" she demanded, her voice getting more and more shrill, "I can't live on land!"
Kurt opened his mouth, unable to say a word. He took a deep breath and turned to the bath tub, running lukewarm water.
"Get in here," he said, kneeling down to lift Rachel's mermaid body, and settling her into the bath.
"Please, tell me what happened," she pleaded.
"Listen, Ra- Ariel. Something strange is happening, and when I figure out what it is, we're gonna get you back to Atlantis or whatever."
"Did Ursilla do this?" she sighed, as she wriggled in comfort in the rising bath water.
"We'll see," sighed Kurt, stopping the faucet, "Stay here, okay? I'm gonna go see what's going on."
xxx
Leaning off the edge of her bed, Santana pulled over her slinky gown - a part of her vampire costume; not that she needed one. Her stomach churned and her shoulders tensed with the familiar feeling of self-loathing as she heard Finn panting at the other side of the bed as he hitched his heavy jeans up over his legs.
"So that was-"
"Don't say anything," she quickly cut him off.
She didn't want to hear anything out of his mouth. What she had just done made her feel even worse than she did before. All she had been seeking was one moment of careless relief or... satisfaction. All she wanted was to not think about Brittany for one second, but clearly her plan had failed miserably, because Brittany was all she could think about right now, and Santana hated this one sided guilt. Why should she have to feel guilty about her escapades when Brittany was going off, having just as much fun with Cripple Pants McGee? It wasn't fair, and yet this logic didn't help Santana, even a little. She still felt like a worthless nobody who just slept with her best friend's ex-boyfriend. She was, in her mind, pathetic.
"Are you hungry?"
"God, Frankenteen, shut your flabby mouth!" Santana snapped angrily, "Can't you see I'm trying to have a reflective moment here?"
She kept her back against him, not even wanting to look at his stupid, mopey face.
"Well, maybe I am, too, okay?"
Santana rolled her eyes and snorted, turning around to see Finn Hudson standing there with a vulnerable look on his face.
"I mean, I just lost my virginity," he shrugged, his eyes flitting across the carpet of the bedroom, "To... to someone who's not my girlfriend."
Santana wrinkled her brow in disgust. "And, what, you want my sympathy because you cheated on your girlfriend?"
"No, I just... You were apart of this too, okay?"
"Rachel's not my girlfriend, Finnessa, she's not even my friend. You wanna know why I slept with you? I was bored! And now I'm really regretting the decision because as it turns out, sleeping with you is like getting smothered by a sweaty sack of potatoes."
Finn's mouth opened, speechless and stung. "Whatever," he finally said, his shoulders drooping, "It didn't mean anything to me, either."
"I'm sure it won't matter to your girlfriend," she spat, and laced up her shoes, "Now, just go."
Finn wasted no time in storming out of the bedroom, but as soon as he did, he stopped stock-still in the landing.
"Oh my God," he sighed, "Santana, come here."
Santana rolled her eyes and stormed into the hallway, stopping just as suddenly as Finn had when she saw the figure of demon writhing weakly on the carpeted floor, his twisted face screwed up in pain and thick blood dribbling out of his arm and into a thick, wide puddle on the floor. Santana gasped.
"What happened?" she wondered to herself, when she heard a loud crash and a scuffle coming from downstairs.
Santana and Finn wasted no time rushing down the staircase, and standing in the hall was Kurt, dressed up like a Hogwarts wizard, carrying a limp and unconscious Buffy in his arms, dressed in her heavily layered ball gown.
"Kurt, what's going on?" Finn asked urgently, eyeing Buffy.
"I have no idea," Kurt said, looking stressed, "I think... Well, I think it's our costumes."
"What?" Santana shook her head, confused, before she heard another crash coming from outside.
The three, with Buffy still limp in Kurt's arms, rushed through the house to the backyard, where two of the party patrons seemed to be in a heated fight. Santana rushed to the side of the Lopez's outdoor swimming pool and with little effort, lifted one of the fighting boys by their collar and threw them a few feet away into a rose bush. She turned to the other and took in a sharp breath as she saw the wrinkled brow and the gnarled features of a vampire in full form. She didn't stay idle for long, reaching for a stake that she kept duct taped to the inside of her gown. She brandished her weapon and swung it hard in the direction of the vampire's chest
"No!" someone screamed, and Santana accidentally lodged the stake into the vampire's shoulder.
"Damn," she sighed, and pulled it back out, leaving the vampire to scurry away, wounded and frightened, as Tina approached, "Tina, what the hell?"
"You can't hurt them. They're just... they're classmates."
"What are you talking about?" Santana shook her head, bewildered. She had missed so much and she wasn't sure how to take it. Her party had been practically abandoned, with only a few party-goers wandering around. Not to mention the demon upstairs, and... was Tina Cohen-Chang in a Cheerios uniform?
"Well, see, I came as a ghost, and now, I guess, I am a ghost," shrugged Tina, "And other people are becoming their own costumes."
"Tina, that's insane."
"It's the truth," said Tina, and waved her weightless arms through Santana's body as proof, giving Santana a solemn chill.
"Don't do that!" she said quickly and backed away, "Okay... I believe you."
"Where are the others?" asked Tina.
"Kurt has Buffy just inside," said Santana, and the girls walked back through the slide doors at the back of the house.
Kurt had rested Buffy's body on the long island counter, the frills of her ball gown spilling over the sides. Finn stood nearby, nervously biting his lips. Santana's eyes darted over them, wondering worriedly where Brittany was, until an ethereal light started to approach from the hallway.
"What the..." Santana started to say, as the others turned their heads to look at the brightening light. Approaching from the hallway was Quinn, dressed in a long, white gown, her body enveloped in a heavenly glow.
"Oh my God, Quinn..." said Finn, his jaw dropping.
She looked sheepish, even scared, in her celestial body.
"Can someone please explain what's going on?" she asked under the angelic glow of her halo, spinning slowly over her head like a ring of Saturn.
"I can," Tina said softly, blinking Quinn's enthralling glow out of her eyes, "I think. Something happened and... everyone became their Halloween costumes."
"Okay, that's what it seems like," sighed Santana, "But that just doesn't make sense."
"No, it doesn't, but how else can you explain it?" asked Tina, "I came as a ghost, and now, I'm a ghost. I mean, you've always been a vampire, so that doesn't affect you, but look at Quinn! She's literally an angel."
Santana sighed, and looked over at Kurt in his preppy Gryffindor tie. "So, what, you're Harry Potter now?"
"I don't think so," said Kurt, "I feel like me, like Kurt Hummel. Likes boys, listens to Lady Gaga... not really a British wizard. But, okay, something happened upstairs. With this..."
Out of his pocket, Kurt took out a wizard's wand carved from wood.
"Is that a real wand?" asked Tina, thoroughly impressed.
"I cast a spell, I guess. The ones I remembered from the movies, which isn't a wide variety. I'm more of a Twilight person."
"I'm going to ignore that," said Tina, "What happened to Buffy?"
"She fainted," shrugged Kurt, "A demon came upstairs and I thought she was going to fight it, but she just blacked out."
"Of course," Tina nodded, "She dressed up as a mid-century princess, so now, she is one. She's not a slayer anymore."
"Great. So now we have a world of chaos and no slayer to fix it," Santana shook her head.
"We're going to have to figure this one out by ourselves," said Tina, "When do you think she'll wake up?"
"Let me see her," said Quinn, almost floating over to Buffy side and pressing one pale finger on the slayer's temple. A hot glow rose around Buffy's head, and suddenly, her eyes flitted open and she gasped under the stare of the small crowd.
"It's okay, Buffy," said Quinn, her voice surreally soothing.
"Am I dead?" asked Buffy, her eyes locked onto the angel.
"No, Buffy, you're alive. Are you alright?" asked Tina, as Buffy sat up on the island counter, flabbergasted.
"What?" she asked, disoriented.
"Are you hurt?" asked Santana, but Buffy simply blinked at her, frightened.
"Buffy, are you hurt?" Tina asked a second time.
"Buffy?"
"Right," Tina sighed, "She's not Buffy. What year is this?"
"1775, I do believe," Buffy said, very properly, holding her posture impeccably straight, "I don't understand. Who are you?"
"We're friends," Tina smiled encouragingly.
"Friends of whom?" asked Buffy, her head darting around the kitchen as she knitted her eyebrows together, "Your clothes... Everything is strange. How did I come to be here?"
"Breath, Buffy, you're going to faint again," said Kurt, and sighed, frustrated, "I'm sorry, Tina, but how are we supposed to get through this without the slayer?"
"What is a slayer?" asked Buffy, "And why do you insist on calling me Buffy?"
"We'll figure something out, okay? We don't have any other choice," said Tina.
"Where's Rachel?" Finn suddenly wondered.
"She's, um, upstairs. In the bath," said Kurt.
"The bath?"
"Yeah, she came as the little mermaid, so..."
"Oh, God," said Finn, and rushed out into the hallway.
"Finn, wait!" Tina called behind him, but he didn't listen, and bounded up the staircase with his long legs and through the landing, into the bathroom.
"Oh my God," he said, his breath taken away as he saw Rachel, laying back in a bathtub of cool water with a scaly fish tale rested limply."
"Who are you?" she asked, her eyes wide and naive and her hair an impossible red.
Finn sighed, his mouth pulled down in a guilty frown as he kneeled beside the bathtub and reached for Rachel's damp hand, holding it tightly.
"I'm sorry," were the only words he could choke out.
xxx
Back downstairs, the others were interrupted by the distant sound of a familiar scream.
"Brittany," Santana said under her breath, and shoved past the others to run through her front hallway, throwing open her front door and scoping Lima Heights for a familiar head of blond hair and cat ears.
"Santana, wait!" someone called after her as she ran out into the street, but Santana didn't listen as she spotted her best friend running in her direction and fleeing from approaching demons.
"Brittany!" Santana yelled, and ran to her friend, lifting her off of her feet and carrying her back to the foyer of the Lopez house, threshold style, and meeting the others who waited anxiously in the hall.
She set Brittany down, and steadied her, her eyes wide open with worry.
"What's going on?" Brittany asked, frightened and disoriented.
Santana put her hands on the sides of the blonde's head. "Listen to me. You're name is Brittany, and you're not a cat. You're a girl. You're in high school, and... I'm your best friend. I love you. You're not a cat, Brittany, you're the girl I love."
Brittany wrinkled her brow. "Santana, what are you talking about?"
"You know me?"
"Of course I do, San. And I know I'm not a cat. I never will be. It's a harsh reality we all inevitably face."
"So... Brittany's not affected by the spell?" Quinn raised a gossamer eyebrow.
"Listen," Tina said, "We don't know what's going on, so Kurt and I are going to go find help. If anything comes into the house, Santana, fight it off, okay?"
Santana nodded stoically.
"It's not our place to fight," Buffy pouted, "Surely some men will protect us."
Santana's lip curled in disgust.
"Come on," Tina said to Kurt, and walked out of the front door.
Santana folded her arms and led the others back into the kitchen.
"Who died and made her the boss?" she muttered to herself, as Finn bounded down the stairs.
"What's going on now?" he asked Santana as the others huddled in the kitchen.
"Lance Bass and Girl Chang went to get help. Tina told us to stay here," she replied, avoiding eye contact, "How's your girlfriend?"
Finn blushed red with guilt at the question. "We should barricade."
"Surely there's somewhere we can go," Buffy said, approaching them with wide Disney eyes, "A safe haven?"
"Tina said to stay put," Finn shrugged, helping Santana pick up kitchen chairs to barricade the front door with.
"You would take orders from a woman? Are you feeble in some way?" Buffy sneered.
"Can it, Princess Slayer," Santana rolled her eyes, picking up a chair, "We're not going anywhere. It's chaos out there."
Suddenly, the power went out and the house was succumbed in darkness, and Santana dropped her chair as everyone gasped quietly.
"Okay, listen, I'll barricade the front door. Quinn and Brittany, make sure upstairs is locked up, and Finn... Stay with your girlfriend. She's probably scared," said Santana.
"Where shall I go?" Buffy asked timidly.
Santana groaned. "Stay with me."
xxx
Will sat back on his sofa with a cold beer rested on the coffee table. He'd opened it with a plan to make the best of the night, but he hadn't even taken a sip yet. He wasn't much in the spirit. He had papers to grade and a marathon of zombie movies to watch. The night didn't seem like it was going anywhere exciting, until Tina Cohen-Chang stepped through his wall.
Will gasped and jumped in his seat, his heart racing. "Tina!" he said, wide-eyed.
Tina grinned sheepishly. "Hi," she said, and there was a light knock at the door. She walked over and opened it for Kurt, dressed in a Hogwarts uniform.
"Um, Kurt," Will said, his eyebrows raising in confusion as he stood up to greet the teenagers, "What's going on?"
xxx
Santana hauled a chair out into the hall with a pile of furniture she had ready for barricading, while Princess Buffy stood idly by feeling sorry for herself. She hauled in the coffee table when she noticed the front door cracked open, letting the moonlight stream in.
"That wasn't open before," she said softly to herself, and cautiously inched over to close the door.
As her fingers touched the polished wood, the door burst open and a demon ran in, his wild face full of horns and short tentacles. Santana fought it back, pinning the thick figure on the ground and racking her brain for a weapon that would be in the house.
"Stake!" she called.
"What?" Buffy wrinkled her brow.
"Get me a stake!"
Buffy's eyes scanned through the dark hall, and she pulled open a drawer on the hall armoire and found a sharp, wooden stake. She turned to hand it to Santana, when Santana turned around, her face wrinkled and her sharp fangs were bared. Buffy screamed, terrified, and hobbled out of the front door in her little heels.
"Buffy, no!" Santana called.
xxx
Tina, Kurt and Will sat on his couch, hunched over books on the occult that he'd hauled out from his bedroom to the coffee table.
"I don't even know what we're looking for," Kurt shook his head at the books, frustrated, and loosening his tie.
"And I can't turn the page," Tina sighed, staring at the same passage on how to cure warts and boils.
"Okay, let's go back," said Will, closing his eyes in concentration, "Everybody became their costumes."
"Right," Tina nodded, "Rachel was a mermaid and Buffy was an 18th century girl."
"And you were... a Cheerio?" Will asked.
"No," Tina wrinkled her nose, "I'm a ghost."
Will stared at her micro mini skirt. "The ghost of... cheer?"
Tina rolled her eyes and blushed. "This... This is nothing. You should have seen what Brittany was wearing. It was just a unitard with cat things and... ears and stuff."
"Oh my God. Brittany became an actual cat?"
Tina blinked. "...No. She was the same old Brittany."
"Just in a cat costume," said Kurt.
"She didn't change?" asked Will.
"No," Tina shook her head in thought, "Hold on. Amazon. She got her costume from Amazon."
"And everybody who changed, they got their costumes where?" asked Will.
"We all got ours at a new place," said Kurt, "Bryan's."
Will frowned gravely. "Bryan Ryan's?"
"Yeah, the guy at school, auditing glee club," nodded Tina, "Isn't that weird?"
xxx
The Duchess wandered the streets, flinching at every dangerous sound she heard in this frightening, dystopian future. Goosebumps were raised all over her skin and she trembled, wanting nothing more than to go home to her father's manor and be away from this horrible land. She shivered as she walked down the street. Her legs were tired from running away from that monstrous vixen back at the house, and she decided to walk, keeping on the sidewalks so she wouldn't be stolen away in a dark alley. She heard the many stories of beautiful women being whisked away in the night by evil men who forced their hand in marriage. She didn't want that to happen. She had dreams of marrying someone kind and handsome, who would protect her and bless her with several handsome sons. Just thinking about it cheered her up some during that dreadful night.
As she walked down the rows and rows of squat houses, a figure started to approach, and her stomach knotted anxiously. She shrunk back, intent on running away, but the closer the figure got, the more she could make out what he looked like. Tall, broad shouldered and blonde in a dashing outfit of gold lace and red velvet, with a sword on his belt and a crown on his head. A crown, marveled Buffy, He must be royalty.
"Fair maiden," the handsome blonde royal exclaimed when he neared her, "Why are you walking alone and unprotected in this monstrous wasteland?"
The Duchess blushed, liking the way this young, royal man spoke.
"I don't know what happened," she said, her voice still shaky, "I want to get back to my family manor, though, and I'm scared of all these demons and I'm afraid I am in some form of Lucifer's Hell."
"Fear not, m'lady," he said, taking out his sword and raising the silver beauty to the sky, "I, Prince Samuel Evans of Pandora, am a valiant knight who has sworn to protect all good creatures who inhabit my kingdom."
The Duchess swooned slightly. "A prince?" she sighed, "And this is your kingdom?"
"Well, no, I don't know what this is or how to get back to my castle," Prince Samuel shrugged and put his sword back into its holster, "But I will fight the forces of evil wherever I go!"
"That's so brave of you," smiled Buffy, "It's unfortunate that I have come to find myself all alone, with no protection."
Prince Samuel smiled. "Never fear, my beautiful maiden. I will protect you with the blade of my sword, and once we find our way out of this land of ghouls, we shall return to my kingdom and you will join me in my palace and I will take your hand in marriage."
The Duchess grinned widely at this pleasant turn of events. "I would like nothing more, my prince," she sighed, batting her eyelashes, and let Prince Samuel embrace her in a breathtaking kiss.
xxx
Will walked through the costume shop, getting the feeling of stomach acid bubbling in his body, like he did whenever he was faced with one of Bryan Ryan's antics.
"Hello?" Will called.
It looked like a regular costume shop, but of course, no such luck. Bryan must have cursed the costumes, or put some hex in order. Whatever he did needed to be stopped. Tina and Kurt walked around behind him, surveying the place. To them it looked just like before, only without the foot traffic. Something caught Tina's eye, though.
"Mr. Schuester," she called to him, walking forward towards a back room, where someone, or something, had rustled the curtains that closed it off.
Will stepped forward and cautiously led the way in, the room eerily quiet. He stepped forward, when suddenly, Bryan Ryan jumped out from behind a pile of discarded costumes, and attempted to attack the tall watcher. Will flipped around and hit Bryan on the side of the head, making a booming sound fill his ears. Will had Bryan pinned against the wall, sneering distastefully.
"I knew you were up to no good when you came to McKinley," Will shook his head, "Kurt, Tina, get out of here now."
"But-"
"Now!"
Kurt and Tina turned back and reluctantly left the shop.
"You didn't have to go and send away my audience," Bryan joked, his head still sore, "You know how much I love the spotlight."
xxx
The Duchess and Prince Samuel navigated through the streets, until the prince heard the noise of approaching footsteps and stood tall, his arm protectively in front of his betrothed.
"Never fear, fair maiden, I am here to protect you," Prince Samuel said bravely as three figures approached.
He blinked, flabbergasted as he registered the three women. One demonic Jezebel, one strange feline creature and one gloriously beautiful angel of the Lord.
"My God," he said to himself, and his true love stifled a scream as they approached.
"That one is dangerous!" she screamed, pointing to the raven haired fiend, "She is a monster!"
They ran towards them, breathless.
"Buffy, thank God," sighed the red-lipped parasite.
"Sam?" the cat woman raised a blonde eyebrow.
"Back, wenches!" he cried, pointing his sword at the three vixens.
"Stop it, we're here to help," said Santana.
"Back I say! Ye are nothing but a trinity of unholy thatchgallows!" he declared.
"Thatchgallows?" Santana raised her eyebrow, amused.
"Sam, please, listen," Quinn sighed, "I... The Lord sent me here, to tell you that... you have to follow us if you want to be safe and get back to your... kingdom."
Sam raised an eyebrow, briefly skeptical, before nodding. "I shall trust an angel of the Lord to guide me and my betrothed."
"Betrothed?" repeated Santana.
"But she... She is a vampire!" exclaimed Buffy, pointing at Santana with a delicate hand.
"It's okay," said Quinn, "Santana is a good vampire."
Buffy nodded at Quinn, convinced, and enthralled by her shining halo. "Really?" she asked.
"Absolutely. She's our friend," said Quinn.
"Behind you!" Sam exclaimed, and the others turned around to see Tina and Kurt running towards them.
"We have to find somewhere safe," Tina demanded between panting.
Santana looked around. "Okay, we're out of the suburbs, so we'll find an open warehouse. There must be a ton of abandoned ones around here. Lima doesn't attract a lot of business. Let's go."
xxx
"What? Aren't you happy to see your old buddy, Billy," Bryan grinned, with Will still pinning him to the wall.
"Don't call me that, Bryan," Will grimaced, "I'm not a kid anymore."
"No, you're not, are you? You're a big bad watcher with a feisty little slayer to take care of, huh?"
"So is that it? You're jealous that the Watcher's Council fired you?"
"Jealous?" Bryan laughed, "Of you? No, no, William, I'm not. I've seen your future."
"Oh yeah?"
"Yeah. An unassuming guy like you always repeats history. Ends up just like his parents."
Will frowned, his memory flickering back to visits to parents in the country. Those visits were never pleasant. His dad was always quietly discontent and his mom never let go of her booze. They were haunted by the past.
"I'm not gonna end up like my parents," said Will.
"You so sure about that, Billy? You never get a little uncertain that you're gonna be just like old Mr. Schuester. Unfulfilled. Unsatisfied. Forever."
Will frowned and didn't reply, clenching his jaw.
"Probably not. Now that you have a slayer, you're probably more scared that you'll end up like your old lady. In constant grief about the precious life you weren't able to save-"
Will clenched his fist and punched Bryan square in the face, splitting his lip.
"What happened to my mother's slayer will not happen to Buffy, because... Because I'm not afraid to kill for her."
Bryan split blood out of his mouth and glared at Will. "So it seems. You really are different than you were in high school."
"You bet. Now, you're gonna leave this place and you won't come back."
"Why should I?" Bryan scoffed, "What's in it for me?"
"You get to live."
Bryan rolled his eyes. "Very scary, Billy," he said, before Will punched him again, his full force put into it, a puffy bruise starting to form on Bryan's left eyes.
He kneed him in the stomach and threw him to the wall, gripping his head back to look into his smarmy face. Will's stomach boiled with rage and Bryan could see from the fury in his eyes that he wasn't messing around.
"Billy the Kid is long gone," Bryan groaned.
"End this."
"I can't. The only one who can reverse the spell is the one who cast it."
"Who is it?"
Bryan spat a mouthful of blood before taking a breath. "Terri."
xxx
Santana closed the sliding door to an open warehouse downtown, nothing but the cold clinging to packing crates.
"Find out if there are any other ways in," Santana called to whoever was listening, before she grabbed Sam's arm, "Help me barricade."
She and Sam hauled crates and wooden beams in front of the warehouse entrance, as they began to hear the sound of vampires and demons pounding against the metal door. It didn't seem to be enough as the crates rocked the more the vampires threw themselves against the entrance, and Santana yelled, "Go!" to the others. They all ran out of the way as vampires burst in, and sure enough, they were led by the bleach blonde, leather clad fiend that was Spike.
Santana and the others tried to fight back, but there were too many. Spike must have rounded up every vampire in town for this event.
"Quinn!" Santana shouted, "Set him on fire!"
Quinn tried to bring the flames to her hands, but she couldn't.
"I'm not a witch, Santana," she said glumly, vampires grasping at her either side, "I can't hurt, I can only heal."
Santana rolled her eyes and groaned in frustration, she and all the others held down by vampires and demons as Spike walked toward the trembling Buffy.
"Look at you," he said, looking her up and down with morbid delight, "You're shaking. Terrified. Alone. Lost little lamb."
He struck her hard with the back of his hand, and Sam writhed in his captivity, trying to kick against the vampires holding him.
"You leave her be, fiend!" he yelled.
Tears dripped down Buffy's cheeks as Spike gripped her throat with one hand and caressed her hair with the other.
xxx
"I don't know what you two are doing. I don't know why you're conspiring against me and Buffy or what else you have planned, but you will stop this, now," Will clenched his jaw.
Terri folded her arms and pouted. "Or what, Will? I know you're not gonna kill anyone. You couldn't."
"Watch me," he said in the back room of the costume shop, and gripped Bryan's left hand, slamming it against the wall and breaking it swiftly.
He cried out in pain. "Terri... Just do what he says!"
Terri put her hands on her hips and sighed. "And then what Will? I am not leaving town, you can't make me."
Will breathed through his nose. "You'll... go on with your life. Staying out of my way. Staying away from Buffy."
"I don't know, Will. I'm in hot water with my superior already. Reversing a wish isn't going to be good for me."
Will stepped on Bryan's broken hand, earning him a wail of pain. "Damn it, Terri, just do it!" Bryan cried.
"Fine, fine," she said, and snapped her fingers.
xxx
Spike loomed forward, his fangs bared and about to sink into the slayer's creamy skin. He shivered in anticipation of the rich elixir of her blood, when he heard something. A young voice, saying, "Where are we?" Spike turned around to see most of his crew were once again children, dressed in plastic horns and fake fangs, fleeing away back to their homes.
Spike turned back to the slayer to see that she was slipping off her dark brown wig, her blond hair falling over her eyes.
"Hi, honey. I'm home," she quipped before punching Spike square in the stomach as the children ran off. She sent a flying kick to his face, and knocked him down with a blow to his abdomen before he could pick up a weapon.
"You know what? It's good to be me," she said, before punching him in his jaw.
He rolled over, defeated, and fled before she could do any real damage. Buffy sighed, relieved that the chaos was over, and turned to her friend. Tina, Brittany, Quinn and Kurt just looked relieved, and Santana looked somewhat proud. Buffy's heart sped up when her eyes landed on Sam. He looked disoriented, disheveled and very confused. Oh boy, thought Buffy, This is going to take some explaining.
The others dispersed out of the warehouse, standing around and basking in the return of normality, as Buffy sidled to Sam.
"I guess the jig is up," she sighed.
He blinked at her, his mouth hanging open. "I don't understand what happened..."
"I don't either quite yet, but stuff like this tends to happen a lot."
She walked Sam out of the warehouse and looked up at the starry sky.
"I don't get it. Were we under a spell?"
"Probably."
"And... are you a superhero?"
Buffy smirked. "For all intents and purposes."
He shook his head. "Did somebody spike my punch?"
"I know this is a lot to take in, but you're not the only one who knows about my secret identity."
"Secret identity?"
"I'm a slayer. I work with things that have a... supernatural element. Like vampires."
"Vampires?" Sam repeated, knitting his brows.
"I know," Buffy shook her head, "You might not believe it, because it sounds like I'm insane, but almost everyone in glee club knows, except Puck, and Piper. Even Morgan Ru knows."
Sam sighed. "How do they all deal with that information?"
Buffy shrugged. "Most of the guys deal with it by knowing as little as possible. Knowing less means there's less to deal with, I guess, so they like to be kept in the dark. Listen, I totally get it if this is way too freaky for you and you don't want to ever see me again," she shook her head sadly.
Sam blinked, raising an eyebrow down at Buffy. "Buffy, what are you talking about? I don't want to avoid you, if anything..." he trailed off.
"What?" Buffy asked, curiously.
"Before, I thought you were perfect. You're beautiful, and funny, and kind... and now I find out that you're a superhero, too?"
"Well, slayer."
"Whatever. If anything, I want to be apart of your life now more than ever."
Buffy blushed. "You're really something, Sam."
"You know, I remember."
"Remember what?"
"Being the costume. Being Prince Samuel of Pandora."
Buffy giggled. "Yeah?"
"Yeah. I remember... I remember kissing you."
Buffy looked up at his sincere blue eyes. "Yeah?"
"Yeah."
Without warning, he bent down, closed his eyes and locked his lips on Buffy's, kissing her gently, his soft lips warm. He pulled away, a blithe smile on his face and a dreamy look in his eyes. Buffy was blushing, the pit of her stomach alive with the movement of butterflies.
"And I want to know everything," he said.
"Everything?" Buffy raised an eyebrow, "A lot of messed up stuff happens on the Hellmouth."
"See, like that. You have to tell me what Hellmouth means. And why you decided to be a slayer."
"I wouldn't say decided," Buffy's eyes swivelled to her friends, "Can I get a rain check? Tomorrow, at The Lima Bean. I'll explain everything."
"I'll hold you to it, Princess," Sam smirked, as Buffy skipped over to Tina, her ballgown bouncing jovially.
"Tina!" she called to her friend who was freezing in just a Cheerios uniform.
"Hi, Buffy," she smiled warmly, "Welcome back. I just called Mike. He's gonna pick me up. Apparantly he's been rampaging Lima as a pirate."
Buffy chuckled. "So, just another Tuesday. Listen, Tina, I wanted to say that... I'm proud."
"Proud? Of... me?"
"Yeah. I mean, this whole time I've been trying to get you to come out of your shell by being like the other girls at school, but when you took the lead today it's like you showed off this confidence I've never seen."
Tina smiled shyly, blushing wildly. "I guess I was just thinking... What would Buffy do?"
"Well, you don't need to. You did just fine on your own," said Buffy, before adding, "You'd make a great watcher."