F-Xander was pacing in front of the van, hands shoved tightly in his pockets, His jaw was set and his teeth clenched so tightly that his jaw line was beginning to quiver. His eyes had narrowed into slits, and he was trying as hard as he could not to explode into the violent version of his father that he always turned into in front of Buffy. He was trying really, really hard. And God, was he the hypocrite. Telling F-Faith and F-Willow to be careful, to remember that they could go psycho in the past and reveal the future...he'd read books on this stuff one day in the library...he saw the entire 'Back to the Future' trilogy over and over again...but now at the sight of Buffy and her veiled comments just made him want to throw his words to the wind. And maybe Buffy with them.
"Xander?' It was F-Cordelia. F-Xander noted how she had kept her calm. She felt no anger towards Buffy, not even after what she had done to her. F-Xander thought that was a great maturity on her part. Too bad that meant him channeling the anger for the both of him. F-Oz once commented that F-Xander was in his fourth childhood, and F-Xander often thought it true.
F-Xander turned around and F-Cordelia grabbed him in hug. He unsheathed his hands and hugged her back tightly. He looked up from where he had been looking at how the moonlight reflected off her chocolate-colored hair and noticed F-Willow and F-Oz hurrying at a fast-enough past towards the van. Behind them, he could see F-Buffy in the distance. He did not want to deal with her now. And there, just about the rising crest of the tiny hill that marked the driveway of the dilapidated mansion was the younger generation. F-Xander wondered how much of a fool he had made of himself in front of everyone else.
"Xander, remember your own words," F-Cordelia was mumbling into his shoulder. He placed his hands on her shoulders and she backed away. "I mean, ya gotta control your anger and all that junk. I mean, this is like, time. Major stuff that we don't wanna mess with. And the past is im, uh, im..."
"...impressionable?" F-Xander finished for her, and F-Cordelia nodded her head. "Yeah, I agree. But that's like asking Buffy to grow a backbone. It just can't be done."
"Okay, we're getting nasty here again," F-Cordelia warned, and on a silly impulse, F-Xander kissed the center of her forehead. She smiled. "That was nice. What for?"
"'Cause I love you," F-Xander explained. "And by some strange feat of the cosmos, you're actually being my reasonable side...in a way."
"Yup, the cosmos are way scary," F-Cordelia agreed, and she kissed him on the nose.
F-Willow and F-Oz had caught up with them and they both looked a little more than worried. F-Oz's eyes were flicking nervously from side to side, and all the hair on his head was mondo spiky. His lips were drawn in a thin line, and he had a very canine appearance all about it. Sometimes it could be extremely creepy, the fact that F-Oz could control his human/werewolf self at such an experienced level.
"What's the matter with Fido?" F-Xander asked, jerking his head towards F-Oz. F-Oz, in a calm state, would have looked at F-Xander, shaked his head, and they would smile at each other and exchanged some more easy banter. But this time F-Oz just rested his eyes momentarily on F-Xander, and he noticed that his eyes were no longer and lukewarm green but a faint yellow tinge, like he had hepatitis.
"Christ, Oz, what's wrong?" F-Cordelia asked, spooked.
F-Oz turned sharply to his left. "I dunno..." he trailed off. Then he looked at F-Willow. She turned to where he was staring and peered into the dark thicket of bushes. She tilted her head as thought she were listening to something far, far away. She had goosebumps on her arms. "Do you hear that?" he whispered to her softly.
"Yeah...but there's so much of it. I just can't place it...either it's awfully big or..." F-Willow trailed off and looked back at F-Oz, who made a contemplative little grunted and changed so his eyes were back to their mellow green. "We gotta get out of here soon. There's something about this place, it just seems *wrong*, you know..."
"Evil wrong or...other wrong?" F-Willow and F-Oz turned around to see F-Buffy standing there, a sort of sheepish and apologetic grimace on her face. "Sorry, that was a stupid question, Hellmouth and all." She tugged on her T-shirt, and long strands of dirty blond hair slinked out from over her shoulder and fell across her front, hiding the drawing of a great, sprawling leaf on the right of the words pressed on to her shirt. "But we ought to get of here, definitely."
"Definitely," F-Oz echoed hollowly, and then his head snapped to attention. F-Willow cast him a worried look, and F-Oz shrugged. "Dammit, I can't place where this feeling is coming from. Maybe it's just 'cause I'm sensing my younger self and all, and the werewolf in me is going crazy trying to figure out the two senses."
F-Xander was going to point out that he had not been effected in the van, in extremely close quarters with Oz, when the Scooby Gang caught up on them. "Hey, you could wait for us!" accused Xander in a good-natured, very nervous voice. You could tell they had run up here, because they had the faint twinge of the scent of sweat that you did not need preternatural scent to detect. F-Xander noticed how cute Willow looked when the edges of her hair were just tinted with sweat. Then he creased his eyebrows in frustration at old feelings that hadn't haunted him since that night in the factory, when he'd lost both of his best girls.
F-Xander's mind was drifting off, and barely listening to the conversation at hand. Everyone was politely arguing about the fact that there was no room in the van for the lot of them. F-Xander didn't touch back down to earth until he heard F-Buffy say ".. maybe we could tie Xander to the back fender and drag his body along for the ride."
F-Xander glared at her, and he could feel F-Cordelia's grip tighten on his arm. "If I throw a stick at you, will you leave?" F-Xander asked, receiving an icy glare from the Slayer. F-Xander just shrugged and offered a casual smirk.
"Okay, enough bickering," Buffy cut in, stepping in between the distance that separated F-Xander from F-Buffy. "We need to-"
"Oh-oh," F-Oz said suddenly, standing straight up, Now everybody turned to look at him, and F-Oz barely had time to swallow. "Duck," he said in a firm voice.
They did just that as the twelve vampires fell from the absolutely nowhere out of the sky and onto their designated target.
So caught unawares, everyone fell to the group except Buffy, who was quickly back on her feet and pounding the vampire into itty bitty vamp pieces because-curses!-she'd left her stake in the mansion. Dammit, she was becoming forgetful, and that was not a virtue in the slaying game. She noted this as the vampire suddenly got back up again, and she kicked him in the face and sent him back a few steps.
Next to her, F-Buffy was having a little more trouble. It had been awhile before she was in actual hand-to-hand combat with an experienced vamp. Usually stupid ones came calling on her, and when she had her slaying tools already. No, this one was strong, almost as strong as Buffy's was, and F-Buffy was doing her best to shake the stars from her eyes as the vampire forcefully pushed her behind the van with his berating fists.
F-Xander had been pounced by a rather puny-like vamp, and F-Xander quickly knocked out the vampire. As it was shaking itself away, he managed to stand protectively in front of F-Cordelia, who had been backed up against the van. The two vampires circled them, their eyes revealing the bloodlust. They looked like they hadn't eaten in days, and F-Cordelia dug her fingernails into F-Xander's back in fear.
Three vampires all fell around Xander, Willow, and Oz, and they were pushed into the center, Oz and Xander pushing the little lady in between them. The vampire seemed content just circling them, a never-ending game of cat and mouse, and Xander and Oz weren't about to press their luck by picking a fight.
F-Oz was knocked down by what looked to be a dead wrestling champ and hell, who knew if it were true? The vampire was big, brawny, and strong. He picked the wrong werewolf to mess with, though. F-Oz wasn't the best fighter out of all of them, but he was ok and he knew when to give in to his other half's animal instincts. With an suppressed roar of outrage, and quickly raked out at the vampire, rolled him over on to his back, and while keeping the vamp at bay he looked around frantically for anything that might be a stake.
F-Willow wasn't so lucky. With her it was like David vs. Goliath, but unfortunately, she didn't have a slingshot or a stake. As the vampire grabbed her by the arms, she kicked at his shins and beat at his chest with her fists, only getting her hands and feet aching because it was like kicking and beating rock. The vampire growled happily and spun her around, grabbing a good hold around her chest and putting one strong hand over her mouth. She tried to struggle, but he just shoved her around and she felt her left arm dislocate. She cried out in pain but it was muffled by the hand. She started to cry and whimper as he dragged her behind the van and made to shove her in it by means of the driver's side door.
Back to Buffy. She had looked down at the floor and realized it was littered with twigs, some of reasonable stake strength. She bent over quickly to grab one, and was kicked to the floor by her vampire assailant. She quickly rolled and jumped back up, only to have the vampire in her face. Something-she didn't know what-made her stop from staking him at that very instant.
"I have a message for you," the vampire leered, and for a moment Buffy realized that this vampire looked her age, and if he was a normal kid, she just might have a crush on him. "Someone send you their love, and..."
"What?" Buffy said sharply, but her voice quavered just a bit. Love? Perhaps...Spike? He was her only enemy who that string of words could be attached to. Of course, there was also Angel's evil half, but he was long gone.
"Soon it'll all be over," said the vampire, grinning. Then, without a word, he fell towards Buffy and threw her to the ground with his weight, falling right on her makeshift stake and dissolving to dust before she connected with terra firma.
As Buffy's attacker was dusted in vampire Hell, the vampires around Xander, Oz, and Willow turned on their hills and fled. F-Xander's vampire did the same, and Buffy's attacker took the moment to spit by her feet before he took of with the rest of them. She stopped shaking and managed to gather her thoughts with just enough time to run back to where everyone else was, not even noticing Willow's kicking legs and the vampire shoved her into the back of the van. F-Oz had seen the twig-slaying technique and finished off his vampire just in time, and then rolled on to his back, chest heaving.
"Gotta love that Hellmouth," Xander commented.
F-Oz silently agreed and climbed to his feet, shaking himself off. He quickly turned around and check if he hadn't completely reverted into Mad Dog, as F-Xander liked to call it. He hadn't. Good. And then...he smelled it.
Fear. Fear...and his Willow.
"Willow?" F-Oz asked, and then looked around. No one else saw her. Suddenly, Oz bolted around to the other side of the van as the engine revved up.
As everyone else stood on the other side, they were startled as F-Willow's back suddenly slammed into the passenger-side window, clouding all view. There was the vampire's roar, then the roar of another animal, and then a slashing sound and the van rocked for one terrible moment. Then there was a strangled gasp that came from F-Willow, and then the engine started to really turn on. F-Willow's back suddenly disappeared from the window, and the vampire's greasy, dirty face appeared instead. He smiled, revealing an empty black hole, and gave a little wave as the van roared off. Lying on the sidewalk in the wake of the van were F-Oz and F-Willow, F-Oz looking a bit dazed and F-Willow crying and holding her left arm, which was limp at her side.
F-Oz stood up and then quickly turned over to F-Willow as everyone came cautiously up behind him. He helped her up and then looked at her arm, which hung of its own accord vy her side. "It's dislocated," Buffy said simply, recognizing it because it had happened many a time to her. F-Oz turned to her a shot her such a look full of venom that's he quickly clamped her mouth shut. Oz and Willow were looking at the couple with a mixed amount of fear and curiosity.
"Here," F-Oz said, reaching out to steady her. The tears had stopped, but a few recent ones made the lonely trek down her pale cheek, and F-Oz wished he could do anything and everything to made her tears disappear. He hated when she hurt and he couldn't make what was hurting her go away. He experience that a lot.
"What're you going to do?" F-Willow asked with wide eyes and she noticed F-Oz reaching for her arm. She got it. "Is it going to hurt?" she asked in a small voice.
"If I lied and said no, would that make you feel any better?" F-Oz asked.
"No, but, uh, yeah, it'll make me feel better."
"Ok, it's not going to hurt, then." F-Oz then squinted as though he regretted what he was going to do, and then quickly followed the careful instructions his ex-girlfriend, Robyn, a pre-med, had taught him.
"Ow!" F-Willow exclaimed, reaching for her arm, which was once again attached to its socket. She rubbed it gently, and then looked at F-Oz, who's expression was of guilty relief. She pulled him into a hug and tried her best not to cry into his shoulder, but just murmured that it didn't hurt that much at all, that she was just an exaggerator.
"I feel better now," F-Oz whispered back. F-Willow smiled; they both knew she was lying. She sent him soothing energy, and he received it and sent her a bit of his own.
There was sound of someone clearing his throat. The both of them turned their faces up to look at the gang.
"Um...," Oz started, not quite sure what to day. "I hate to interrupt the moment, but my van...the wheels are gone. How 're we going to get back to the library."
Everyone looked at where the van had driven off, each silently cursing the gods in their own way.
"I hate Sunnydale," F-Cordelia said through clenched teethed.
"You said it," F-Xander agreed.
"Nicky, where are we?"
Julie's voice was small and hallow was it echoed in the tight hallway they had been dumped in after sliding out of the blue-light-thingy. Her quiet words of fear ricocheted off the decaying walls covered in peeling, burnt wallpaper, light spots where pictures had once hanged. The place smelled of dust and decay. It smelled icky.
"I dunno," Nicky said in a voice as quiet as Julie's had been. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Josh put a comforting arm around Julie's shoulder. She didn't move away. Annie had surgically attached herself to his leg, and it was beginning to go numb.
"How do we figgur where we are?" Josh asked. He wasn't as scared as the girls were, and he traded looked with Nicky. Nicky shrugged. "We're staying here till somebody comes?" Josh suggested.
"I dunno," Nicky said again. I rarely ever said those words, and twice was quite out of the norm. That set Josh on edge, and they looked around.
It wasn't really a hallway, more like a corridor, because it was very narrow. The ground below their feet was and old and splintered wood, yellow with age and not at all like the wooden floor of the Harris house. All of them were barefoot, and the first thing that flashed through Nicky's mind was that they were going to get splinters. And then they were going to get the splinters taken *out*. They'd better walk extra careful.
Annie made some sounds that sounded like a donkey trying to speak while being strangled. Nicky patted her on the shoulder. "Everything's ok," he promised. "We're gonna get right back to Ms. Natalie's. We just gotta..."
He trailed off at the sudden soft sound of pitter-pattering slippers. The sounds were far away, but they were quickly coming nearer. Nicky and Josh shoved the girls behind their back and Nicky tried to shove Josh back to, but Josh would have none of it and just glared at him, throwing his arm away. Nicky did *not* want to start an argument with him, because Josh could be awfully loud, and if this thing that was walking towards them was trouble, then Josh would get them into it.
Then, in front of them, out of the shadows of the deeper part of the corridor, a figure began to emerge. A tall figure, and already you could see the contrast between the shadows and her pale white skin. She wore a long, shimmering gown-thingy, but it didn't shimmer in the corridor because there was no light. As she walked towards them, Nicky and Josh stepped up their nerve.
The figure stopped before them, just a few paces away.
"Hello?" Elisabeth Sarah Daly asked in a small, soft voice. Nicky and Josh did not answer, and she clasped her hands in front of her and began to nervously wring them. "A-are you lost t-too?"
Nicky looked the petite brown-haired, green-eyed girl up and down. "Are you lost?" Nicky asked.
"Yes."
"We could take her," Josh said confidently into his ear. Nicky nodded. Guess they'd have to trust this girl, find out where she came from, if she knew a way out and was trying to get there.
"What's your name?" Nicky asked casually.
"Pardon?" inquired the girl, leaning closer to him. She hadn't heard what Nicky was saying, so Josh screamed it out for her.
"What's your name?!" he asked her, and then flinched as the sound echoed down the corridor. It was loud, louder then Julie's voice had been. Everyone glared at him, everyone but es, that it.
"It's Elisabeth Sarah," she whispered, "but call me Es. It's shorter, and it's what my parents call me."
"Daddy, Cordy..." Julie whimpered. She was so off-center that she didn't even smack Josh for announcing their presence. "Nicky, can we please go home?" Nicky gave her a look that said "I'm workin' on it" and then looked down at Annie. Her bottom lip was trembling.
"Well, ok, Es," Nicky said calmly, "we have got to find a way out of here and back home. Where did you come from."
"My house, 'f course," Es told him. She stopped wringing her hands. "I was, you know, sleeping, and then I'm here, and then I heard people talking, so...I came to see. And found you guys."
"Oh," Nicky said, and stopped to think. He looked down at Annie, who still looked like she was about to cry. "Um, well, where we you...before you came over here."
"O'er there." She pointed down the corridor. "Are we...gonna go there?"
"Why not?" Nicky shrugged. Es nodded, and they followed her as she led them to where she had been dumped off.
Julie was so glad she had a twin, someone who was there for her. As Josh's arm settled comfortably around her shoulder, she felt protected. But she didn't know how much Josh could protect her from that...blue thingy.
One second they were reveling in the joy of Nicky actually being spooked and then there was this big, whirling bunch of blue lights that turned into this big gaping mouth-thing that stood behind Nicky and Annie. And they were totally oblivious. The hole looked like something out of Star Trek, and Julie and Josh had been stunned. Then, when Nicky and Annie turned around, and mouth of light washed over them and then it wasn't a mouth, it was a hole, and then there was a tunnel, and they were sliding and sliding and sliding...and then here.
Just knowing Josh was in this mess with her made her feel a little bit comfortable. Knowing Nicky was in this mess made her very, very secure. Nicky would take care of stuff. Gosh, he was seven. He was, like, almost a grown-up.
"You know," Julie said as they walked down the hall, "this place kinda 'minds me of a cave."
"Yeah, me too," Josh agreed. Nicky nodded his head, and Annie followed in course. Es didn't do anything, because she had never been in a cave before. She had just seen one from the outside when her Mommy brought her to a shoot in Arizona.
"Katie's been in a cave before," Julie continued.
"Katie? Who's Katie?" Josh asked suspiciously, looking over at his sister.
"My bestest friend," Julie said matter-of-factly, bracing herself for what Josh was gonna do. 'Cause she *knew* what he was gonna do.
"Your *bestest friend*?!" Josh exploded, whipping his arm off of Julie's shoulder. "Katie can't be your best friend," he said frantically. "*I'm* your bestest friend."
"Katie's my bestest friend too," Julie said stubbornly, tilting her head up and crossing her arms. She wrinkled her nose in distaste. She had seen Cordy do this when she knew she was right and wanted everyone else to know it to, and it worked. For Cordy, anyway.
"No, *I'm* your bestest friend, and *nobody* else can be your bestest friend 'cause...'cause...'cause *I said so*!"
"I don't need to lis'en to you! You're not the boss of me!"
"Ju-li-a!"
"Jo-shu-a!"
That was their little code to be quiet. When they tired of the argument, they would end it by calling out each other's names. Usually it didn't take them long to end the argument, and they always ended peacefully, so that's why Daddy and Cordy let them argue until their anger dissipated.
Now they both crossed their arms and stared angrily at each other. Right about now, Nicky had thrown being quiet to the wind. He looked over at Es and explained, "They do this a lot."
"Oh," Es said. "Well, I haven't any brothers or sister, so I don't know too much about arguing and stuff." Her face, which he noticed was dirt-streaked, brightened. "I do have a dog, though." Nicky looked interested, so Es continued. "His name is Giles, and he's a Goldy Retriever, and he has shaggy blond hair and brown eyes and he can't fetch but that's ok 'cause we hardly ever play. Do you have a pet dog, too?"
Nicky shook his head. "Nope, but my Mommy has a cat. She's really tiny, like a kitten, but not. She's kinda solitaire, so we don't get to play with her a lot." He stopped to think. "I've heard that name before," he said slowly. "Xander...knows your dog, I guess."
"Xander?" Es asked. Nicky nodded. "My Mommy knows a Xander. She doesn't like him." Es wrinkled her nose in distaste, in a decidedly Buffy fashion.
"Well, then it can't be my step-dad," Nicky quipped. "Everybody likes my step-dad. And he likes everybody, too."
"Oh," Es said. Then she looked up ahead. "We're here."
"Here" was very much "nowhere." It looked just like the rest of the hall. Nothing different.
"So we walked down here for nothing?" Josh asked bluntly. Nicky shrugged. "That was a waste," Josh grumbled, and slammed back into the wall brooding over being stuck here and dealing with Julie's Katie. As he connected with the wall, there was a hallow thumping sound.
Instantly, a memory of their last trip-to-somewhere echoed through Nicky's mind. Xander had taken the whole fam to Ruby Falls, a place in a state that Nicky thought started with a k-at least, he thought so. He wasn't too sure, 'cause he'd slept through the whole plane ride when Xander was explaining the place to Mommy and Julie and Josh and Annie and didn't think to ask later. But anyway, Ruby Falls was a waterfall-a really beautiful waterfall-that was underground in a whole bunch of caves. The sight was really amazing, and afterwards Nicky had been dazed the whole trip to the surface. Xander had noticed and at first thought that Nicky was sick. Nicky said no, he just thought the whole experience was really cool. Xander'd nodded, and asked if he wanted to see something else cool. Nicky had said sure.
So, as they were walking up and Mommy was making sure nobody feel and scrapped their knee or broke anything, Xander told Nicky to start tapping alongside the cave walls. Nicky did just that, and was rewarded by thick thudding sounds. Just as his hand was beginning to hurt, there was a thunking sound instead of a thudding sound. Xander explained that while there was a bunch of cave-rock behind all the rock he'd been thudding on, there was only a thin piece here. Meaning that there was nothing behind it. Nicky had said cool, and then said his hand ached a bit. Xander apologized and bought everybody ice creams at the next food place.
So, hallow...maybe a hidden door? 'Like in the books Mrs. O'Brien reads to us' his mind said excitedly, thinking of his first-grade teacher. Nicky nodded to himself, and Julie noticed. "What?" she asked. Annie tugged on his hand in her form of asking him the same thing.
"Nothing, just..." Nicky let go of Annie's hand and went over to where Josh was slouching. "Get up." Josh was about to object, but Nicky gave him a Look and Josh got up and backed away to where Annie now stood, minus her big brother's hand.
"What're you gonna do?" Julie asked, as Nicky looked all around the place where Josh had banged against and found it hallow. The wallpaper was peeling and in a tremendous need of repair. It smelled old 'n' musky 'n' icky. "Nicky, pay at*ten*tion to me," Julie complained, stamping her foot.
Nicky complete ignored her, but instead let out a little squeak of delight. He carefully ripped back a piece of wallpaper to reveal the line of a doorjamb. He dug his fingers into that line, and after several failed attempts, managed to get a good grip and tugged hard, pulling back the door and ripping the rest of the wallpaper. Voila, a secret hallway.
"Wow," Es said, admiration evident in her voice. "You're...you're just like Indiana Jones."
"She's right, Nicky," Julie said sincerely. Josh rolled his eyes. Julie poked him in the ribs, and Josh poked her right back. Then they just glared at each other.
"Well..." Nicky trailed off. He couldn't see much more than a foot into the hallway, which was wide enough to fit three of them side-by-side and tall enough so that Nicky and Es could stand and there'd still be some room above their heads. "Are we gonna go in?"
Everyone just stared blankly at him. Nicky sighed.
"Ok...me and Es go in first. Then Annie. Then Julie and Josh. Ok? Everyone...look for each other and don't get lost. Ok?"
Everyone shook their heads. Then Es decided to say something.
"You know what, everyone?" They turned to look at her. "All of this is very weird."
"Weird. This is weird. This is very, very...strange."
For come unknown reason, Jonah just could not sleep tonight. Usually he was like a rock, or a log, or whatever the hell people used as a simile for totally konking out. But not tonight, for some reason. Tonight he kept waking up for brief moments in a state of half-awareness, and then fall right back to sleep. The only thing he noticed during these brief periods of consciousness was that outside of the house, there was one hell of a rainstorm.
Now he had once again woken up, very hungry, in fact. As he tried to bring complete awareness to his clouded mind, he felt Buffy's warm body slide next his. Screw awareness. He was filled with warmth and an intense desire he still felt for her all these years. Too bad that he was so tired he felt like lead. He tried to muster up some strength to roll over and give her a kiss on the cheek, tell her he loved her, but he couldn't. he just stared at the alarm clock and hoped he had set it for the right time. There would be shooting today.
Besides, he could already hear the deep, even breaths that signaled Buffy was fast asleep. Funny. She had never fallen asleep that fast before. She's fallen asleep almost as fast as he and Es. Maybe it was rubbing off on her, after seven or so years.
Jonah mustered a smile and then let himself relax. He felt his now-tensed muscles melt into puddles. He loved to sleep, and as a writer/director, not to count being a stunt coordinator for several of his action movies, he barely got any shut-eye. He drifted off...
...and came back again as suddenly, the warmth of Buffy's body was gone. Jonah rolled his head over and saw she wasn't there. Hmm. Jonah rolled his head on over to the other side, where there was a digital alarm clock. Hell, it was still the same exact minute when he had felt Buffy next to him! He looked back. There was the slightest indent in the mattress, the scent of the shampoo in her hair, and the lipstick on the pillow that showed that she indeed had been here. He hadn't just dreamed it. Why dream it when you can have the real thing?
Whatever. Jonah was awake now, and his stomach was rumbling, faintly. It was embarrassing. With a sigh, Jonah rolled out of bed and sat on the edge, collecting himself and trying to push the uneasiness out of his mind. He had dreamed it, he had to have dreamt it. Buffy couldn't just disappear into thin air. It wasn't possible. And that was that.
Jonah stood up, all those annoying muscles and bones making popping and creaking sounds as he opened the door to the master bedroom and started down the hall. He looked groggily around him as he reached the stair case. Yawning, he descended the steps, ruffling his hair in an attempt to wake up.
He stopped in the living room before he entered the kitchen. There was a half-empty mug of brown liquid siting on the table, and the TV Guide and remote were in complete disarray, not in their usual neat spot. The couch, also, was full of creases. "Buffy slept down here," Jonah noted. "For a moment. Hmm. Hungry. I...am...hungry." Alright, awake enough. Jonah stumbled into the kitchen, grabbed a Nutri-Grain bar from one of the cupboards, wolfed it down, and then looked at the microoven's clock.
"Christ, Butch'll already be out there," Jonah mumbled. "Maybe...well, I'm awake already. Should go over there. Butch'll need help...the old oaf." Jonah smiled. That was the complete opposite of what Butch was: that's why he'd hired him.
Still, he'd ought to get over there. No matter how good he was, Butch was still new to this game. Butch was his protégé, and Jonah should drag his ass over to the studio lot and act as his mentor.
"Man, your work rocks," Butch had told them when they had first met at a fundraiser to collect money for the poor in Honduras. "I just love it all. I totally want to follow in your footsteps."
"Well, don't follow too closely," Jonah had joked. "I've run into a lot of walls on the way." That had started off the friendship.
Jonah closed the cupboard, turned off the kitchen light, and made his way through the living room and up the stairs. He headed towards the master bedroom, but then stopped and turned on his heel. Buffy had just done the wash, and that meant that the clothes he wanted to wear were in the hall closet. Damn, he'd better move 'em so he wouldn't have to pace up and down the hallway. Too big a house (mansion? He never knew what to call it?) to be doing that.
He hummed to himself as he opened the closet door and started to look for his clothes. It was a song from the soundtrack of his latest released movie, the one that had played during the credits. A band had sung it...Hellmouth, he thought. Yes, Hellmouth: Buffy had all of their CDs, and considering there were about five, that was a lot. Although the song they were using was off their first album, Jonah wanted a new version of it so Hellmouth was going to gather in the studio recording room and sing the new version of "Silent Cries." Jonah had asked if Buffy wanted to come along, but for some strange reason, she had said no. Jonah had pressed for a moment or two, but after a blunt rebuttal he just gave up and went without her.
He had, though, caught her listening to that CD later, fingering the case and humming to herself. She had been all alone in the living room, except for Giles snuggled up to her feet. The setting looked awfully endearing, so Jonah had left them alone and waited until Buffy came upstairs. They'd watched a movie or two, and then kissed each other goodnight. Jonah could not help but notice that something was wrong, but he had not pressed because she had not brought it up, and the mood had dissipated by the next day.
Now, Jonah found himself worrying about Buffy's whereabouts again. He looked down the right of the hall, where Es' bedroom was. The door was slightly open, and light spilled into the hallway. Maybe Es was having trouble sleeping, and Buffy had gone there? He would have to check. Grabbing the clothes from the closet, he quickly pulled them on. Comfortable clothes. Old jeans, and one of those corny shirts that had the name of his dad's old alma matter across the front, the letter now since faded into a blurry oblivion.
Jonah reached up to the top of the closet where he had thrown his watch last night along with the bath towel, and did not feel like retrieving it. His hand felt for it, but it only bumped into the soft fabric of the bath towels. "Damn, it's in the bedroom," he spoke softly, just to hear the sound of his voice. The only sound was of the storm, and it was a bit eerie. Jonah cleared his throat and looked down at his bare feet as he closed the closet door. Then, with a tired sigh, he turned to go to the bedroom.
And fell into a black hole.
Well, it was more like a *blue* hole, really, because as he fell through the pudding-like gloop, it flashes of light that swirled thickly around him were the color of the sky on a clear day. Jonah only noticed, though, that he was falling, falling in blue, and it felt like he had been dumped in a vat of pudding.
And then he was staring up at the night sky, dotted with glistening little lights of stars. Through his ratty old shirt, he felt the hard pebbles of gravel. Through his limited line of vision, he saw the tops of houses. Houses, houses...where the hell was he?
Then he heard the footsteps behind him, and quickly scrambled to his feet. He was in a crouching position when the young woman's body suddenly soared over his head and met with a thud on the concrete. Her body spun out of control and then came to halt in a few feet in front of him, splayed out in unnatural directions. The young woman's back arched up like a cat, but then fell back down in defeat. Jonah looked at the girl for one stunned moment, and then shook his head and stood up and around to see where the woman had come from.
And looked right into the face-the very deformed face-of a very angry...creature.
"Wrong place, right time," the creature growled, grinning and showing a mouth full of long, sharp teeth, and the lunged for him.
Jonah was no chicken-shit. This guy was going to get what he gave. As the creature lunged forward, Jonah hit him square in the stomach-it was like hitting rock, but the creature did bend over for a moment in pain. Jonah took that moment to step on the creature's foot and then hit it on the back of it's next with his hand karate-style, making the creature slump towards the ground.
Not to test his luck any further, Jonah gave the creature one last look and then hurried over to where the young woman was. He went over to her other side and pushed the hair away from her face. It was a young woman, yes, who had a nasty cut on her forehead that seemed not to be bleeding that much. "A-are you ok?" he asked, glancing up at the creature. He was getting back up on his feet.
"Christ," the woman groaned, and then settled her eyes on him. She pushed something towards him with her foot. "Stake. Stake through the heart."
Jonah's eyes widened. "What?" He looked back at the creature. It was swaying unsteadily on its feet. "We have to get out of here," he told the woman frantically, who rolled her eyes.
"Dammit! Men are so incompetent!" the woman exclaimed, and with some miracle, got back to her feet just as the creature was headed towards them. Jonah watched as she whirled around and blocked the creature's left hook expertly. *Nice* said the director in him. But this wasn't some movie that he was directing. This was real life.
Right? He didn't know anymore.
He instantly believed he was in some kind of fantasy world when the girl took the stake she had insisted he hold and shoved it into the creature's heart. The creature gave a shoke of surprise, reached for his heart, and then turned into dust.
If Jonah were a lesser man, he would have fainted from shock right then and there.
The creature dusted, the woman turned towards him. She raised her eyebrows and blew back the air that was hanging in her face. "Fun, huh?" she asked him, and then breezed right by and continued down the road. "Thanks!" she called over her shoulder.
Jonah stood there for a moment, all his confusing emotions bottling up into him until it exploded. "Hey!" he said, turning around to see Faith was just going off. "Come back here! What do you mean..." he shook, trying to gather his thoughts, "thanks! What was that! Who are *you*?"
The woman sighed, rolled her eyes up to sky, and turned around haughtily. She put on hand on her hips and waved the hand with the stake around. "My name is Faith, the Vampire Slayer. I slay vampires. What just attacked both you and me was a vampire. And I slayed him. My work here is done." Faith turned around then started off again, her heels making clicking sounds on the gravel.
"No, wait!" Jonah cried, hurrying up behind her. Faith sighed lout enough to here and stopped until he came up behind her. She crossed her arms and waited for him to explain himself, looking off into another direction. "What do you mean, *vampires*. A-and, what the hell am I even doing here?" He have a nervous chuckle and spread his arms, gesturing around him. "What is *here*?"
Faith wasn't moved. She looked at him and then let her hands fall to her sides. "Look, whoever you are," she started, but Jonah interrupted.
"Jonah. My name's Jonah."
"That's nice, Jonah. Mind letting me finish?" Jonah nodded. "Alright, you are in Sunnydale. Vampires are real. An-" she cut herself off, peering closer at him. "Okay, now I have questions for you. Where the hell did *you* come from. You just appeared outta nowhere."
"I know," Jonah said. "I'm hoping to find out why."
Faith raised an eyebrow. "You have experience with the supernatural, Jonah?" He shook his head no. "Well, than, we'd better get somewhere where you'd be educated." She spun on her heel and started down the other direction of the road. Jonah hurried to catch up with her.
"Where are we going?" he asked.
"Library," Faith said matter-of-factly.
"Xander?' It was F-Cordelia. F-Xander noted how she had kept her calm. She felt no anger towards Buffy, not even after what she had done to her. F-Xander thought that was a great maturity on her part. Too bad that meant him channeling the anger for the both of him. F-Oz once commented that F-Xander was in his fourth childhood, and F-Xander often thought it true.
F-Xander turned around and F-Cordelia grabbed him in hug. He unsheathed his hands and hugged her back tightly. He looked up from where he had been looking at how the moonlight reflected off her chocolate-colored hair and noticed F-Willow and F-Oz hurrying at a fast-enough past towards the van. Behind them, he could see F-Buffy in the distance. He did not want to deal with her now. And there, just about the rising crest of the tiny hill that marked the driveway of the dilapidated mansion was the younger generation. F-Xander wondered how much of a fool he had made of himself in front of everyone else.
"Xander, remember your own words," F-Cordelia was mumbling into his shoulder. He placed his hands on her shoulders and she backed away. "I mean, ya gotta control your anger and all that junk. I mean, this is like, time. Major stuff that we don't wanna mess with. And the past is im, uh, im..."
"...impressionable?" F-Xander finished for her, and F-Cordelia nodded her head. "Yeah, I agree. But that's like asking Buffy to grow a backbone. It just can't be done."
"Okay, we're getting nasty here again," F-Cordelia warned, and on a silly impulse, F-Xander kissed the center of her forehead. She smiled. "That was nice. What for?"
"'Cause I love you," F-Xander explained. "And by some strange feat of the cosmos, you're actually being my reasonable side...in a way."
"Yup, the cosmos are way scary," F-Cordelia agreed, and she kissed him on the nose.
F-Willow and F-Oz had caught up with them and they both looked a little more than worried. F-Oz's eyes were flicking nervously from side to side, and all the hair on his head was mondo spiky. His lips were drawn in a thin line, and he had a very canine appearance all about it. Sometimes it could be extremely creepy, the fact that F-Oz could control his human/werewolf self at such an experienced level.
"What's the matter with Fido?" F-Xander asked, jerking his head towards F-Oz. F-Oz, in a calm state, would have looked at F-Xander, shaked his head, and they would smile at each other and exchanged some more easy banter. But this time F-Oz just rested his eyes momentarily on F-Xander, and he noticed that his eyes were no longer and lukewarm green but a faint yellow tinge, like he had hepatitis.
"Christ, Oz, what's wrong?" F-Cordelia asked, spooked.
F-Oz turned sharply to his left. "I dunno..." he trailed off. Then he looked at F-Willow. She turned to where he was staring and peered into the dark thicket of bushes. She tilted her head as thought she were listening to something far, far away. She had goosebumps on her arms. "Do you hear that?" he whispered to her softly.
"Yeah...but there's so much of it. I just can't place it...either it's awfully big or..." F-Willow trailed off and looked back at F-Oz, who made a contemplative little grunted and changed so his eyes were back to their mellow green. "We gotta get out of here soon. There's something about this place, it just seems *wrong*, you know..."
"Evil wrong or...other wrong?" F-Willow and F-Oz turned around to see F-Buffy standing there, a sort of sheepish and apologetic grimace on her face. "Sorry, that was a stupid question, Hellmouth and all." She tugged on her T-shirt, and long strands of dirty blond hair slinked out from over her shoulder and fell across her front, hiding the drawing of a great, sprawling leaf on the right of the words pressed on to her shirt. "But we ought to get of here, definitely."
"Definitely," F-Oz echoed hollowly, and then his head snapped to attention. F-Willow cast him a worried look, and F-Oz shrugged. "Dammit, I can't place where this feeling is coming from. Maybe it's just 'cause I'm sensing my younger self and all, and the werewolf in me is going crazy trying to figure out the two senses."
F-Xander was going to point out that he had not been effected in the van, in extremely close quarters with Oz, when the Scooby Gang caught up on them. "Hey, you could wait for us!" accused Xander in a good-natured, very nervous voice. You could tell they had run up here, because they had the faint twinge of the scent of sweat that you did not need preternatural scent to detect. F-Xander noticed how cute Willow looked when the edges of her hair were just tinted with sweat. Then he creased his eyebrows in frustration at old feelings that hadn't haunted him since that night in the factory, when he'd lost both of his best girls.
F-Xander's mind was drifting off, and barely listening to the conversation at hand. Everyone was politely arguing about the fact that there was no room in the van for the lot of them. F-Xander didn't touch back down to earth until he heard F-Buffy say ".. maybe we could tie Xander to the back fender and drag his body along for the ride."
F-Xander glared at her, and he could feel F-Cordelia's grip tighten on his arm. "If I throw a stick at you, will you leave?" F-Xander asked, receiving an icy glare from the Slayer. F-Xander just shrugged and offered a casual smirk.
"Okay, enough bickering," Buffy cut in, stepping in between the distance that separated F-Xander from F-Buffy. "We need to-"
"Oh-oh," F-Oz said suddenly, standing straight up, Now everybody turned to look at him, and F-Oz barely had time to swallow. "Duck," he said in a firm voice.
They did just that as the twelve vampires fell from the absolutely nowhere out of the sky and onto their designated target.
So caught unawares, everyone fell to the group except Buffy, who was quickly back on her feet and pounding the vampire into itty bitty vamp pieces because-curses!-she'd left her stake in the mansion. Dammit, she was becoming forgetful, and that was not a virtue in the slaying game. She noted this as the vampire suddenly got back up again, and she kicked him in the face and sent him back a few steps.
Next to her, F-Buffy was having a little more trouble. It had been awhile before she was in actual hand-to-hand combat with an experienced vamp. Usually stupid ones came calling on her, and when she had her slaying tools already. No, this one was strong, almost as strong as Buffy's was, and F-Buffy was doing her best to shake the stars from her eyes as the vampire forcefully pushed her behind the van with his berating fists.
F-Xander had been pounced by a rather puny-like vamp, and F-Xander quickly knocked out the vampire. As it was shaking itself away, he managed to stand protectively in front of F-Cordelia, who had been backed up against the van. The two vampires circled them, their eyes revealing the bloodlust. They looked like they hadn't eaten in days, and F-Cordelia dug her fingernails into F-Xander's back in fear.
Three vampires all fell around Xander, Willow, and Oz, and they were pushed into the center, Oz and Xander pushing the little lady in between them. The vampire seemed content just circling them, a never-ending game of cat and mouse, and Xander and Oz weren't about to press their luck by picking a fight.
F-Oz was knocked down by what looked to be a dead wrestling champ and hell, who knew if it were true? The vampire was big, brawny, and strong. He picked the wrong werewolf to mess with, though. F-Oz wasn't the best fighter out of all of them, but he was ok and he knew when to give in to his other half's animal instincts. With an suppressed roar of outrage, and quickly raked out at the vampire, rolled him over on to his back, and while keeping the vamp at bay he looked around frantically for anything that might be a stake.
F-Willow wasn't so lucky. With her it was like David vs. Goliath, but unfortunately, she didn't have a slingshot or a stake. As the vampire grabbed her by the arms, she kicked at his shins and beat at his chest with her fists, only getting her hands and feet aching because it was like kicking and beating rock. The vampire growled happily and spun her around, grabbing a good hold around her chest and putting one strong hand over her mouth. She tried to struggle, but he just shoved her around and she felt her left arm dislocate. She cried out in pain but it was muffled by the hand. She started to cry and whimper as he dragged her behind the van and made to shove her in it by means of the driver's side door.
Back to Buffy. She had looked down at the floor and realized it was littered with twigs, some of reasonable stake strength. She bent over quickly to grab one, and was kicked to the floor by her vampire assailant. She quickly rolled and jumped back up, only to have the vampire in her face. Something-she didn't know what-made her stop from staking him at that very instant.
"I have a message for you," the vampire leered, and for a moment Buffy realized that this vampire looked her age, and if he was a normal kid, she just might have a crush on him. "Someone send you their love, and..."
"What?" Buffy said sharply, but her voice quavered just a bit. Love? Perhaps...Spike? He was her only enemy who that string of words could be attached to. Of course, there was also Angel's evil half, but he was long gone.
"Soon it'll all be over," said the vampire, grinning. Then, without a word, he fell towards Buffy and threw her to the ground with his weight, falling right on her makeshift stake and dissolving to dust before she connected with terra firma.
As Buffy's attacker was dusted in vampire Hell, the vampires around Xander, Oz, and Willow turned on their hills and fled. F-Xander's vampire did the same, and Buffy's attacker took the moment to spit by her feet before he took of with the rest of them. She stopped shaking and managed to gather her thoughts with just enough time to run back to where everyone else was, not even noticing Willow's kicking legs and the vampire shoved her into the back of the van. F-Oz had seen the twig-slaying technique and finished off his vampire just in time, and then rolled on to his back, chest heaving.
"Gotta love that Hellmouth," Xander commented.
F-Oz silently agreed and climbed to his feet, shaking himself off. He quickly turned around and check if he hadn't completely reverted into Mad Dog, as F-Xander liked to call it. He hadn't. Good. And then...he smelled it.
Fear. Fear...and his Willow.
"Willow?" F-Oz asked, and then looked around. No one else saw her. Suddenly, Oz bolted around to the other side of the van as the engine revved up.
As everyone else stood on the other side, they were startled as F-Willow's back suddenly slammed into the passenger-side window, clouding all view. There was the vampire's roar, then the roar of another animal, and then a slashing sound and the van rocked for one terrible moment. Then there was a strangled gasp that came from F-Willow, and then the engine started to really turn on. F-Willow's back suddenly disappeared from the window, and the vampire's greasy, dirty face appeared instead. He smiled, revealing an empty black hole, and gave a little wave as the van roared off. Lying on the sidewalk in the wake of the van were F-Oz and F-Willow, F-Oz looking a bit dazed and F-Willow crying and holding her left arm, which was limp at her side.
F-Oz stood up and then quickly turned over to F-Willow as everyone came cautiously up behind him. He helped her up and then looked at her arm, which hung of its own accord vy her side. "It's dislocated," Buffy said simply, recognizing it because it had happened many a time to her. F-Oz turned to her a shot her such a look full of venom that's he quickly clamped her mouth shut. Oz and Willow were looking at the couple with a mixed amount of fear and curiosity.
"Here," F-Oz said, reaching out to steady her. The tears had stopped, but a few recent ones made the lonely trek down her pale cheek, and F-Oz wished he could do anything and everything to made her tears disappear. He hated when she hurt and he couldn't make what was hurting her go away. He experience that a lot.
"What're you going to do?" F-Willow asked with wide eyes and she noticed F-Oz reaching for her arm. She got it. "Is it going to hurt?" she asked in a small voice.
"If I lied and said no, would that make you feel any better?" F-Oz asked.
"No, but, uh, yeah, it'll make me feel better."
"Ok, it's not going to hurt, then." F-Oz then squinted as though he regretted what he was going to do, and then quickly followed the careful instructions his ex-girlfriend, Robyn, a pre-med, had taught him.
"Ow!" F-Willow exclaimed, reaching for her arm, which was once again attached to its socket. She rubbed it gently, and then looked at F-Oz, who's expression was of guilty relief. She pulled him into a hug and tried her best not to cry into his shoulder, but just murmured that it didn't hurt that much at all, that she was just an exaggerator.
"I feel better now," F-Oz whispered back. F-Willow smiled; they both knew she was lying. She sent him soothing energy, and he received it and sent her a bit of his own.
There was sound of someone clearing his throat. The both of them turned their faces up to look at the gang.
"Um...," Oz started, not quite sure what to day. "I hate to interrupt the moment, but my van...the wheels are gone. How 're we going to get back to the library."
Everyone looked at where the van had driven off, each silently cursing the gods in their own way.
"I hate Sunnydale," F-Cordelia said through clenched teethed.
"You said it," F-Xander agreed.
"Nicky, where are we?"
Julie's voice was small and hallow was it echoed in the tight hallway they had been dumped in after sliding out of the blue-light-thingy. Her quiet words of fear ricocheted off the decaying walls covered in peeling, burnt wallpaper, light spots where pictures had once hanged. The place smelled of dust and decay. It smelled icky.
"I dunno," Nicky said in a voice as quiet as Julie's had been. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Josh put a comforting arm around Julie's shoulder. She didn't move away. Annie had surgically attached herself to his leg, and it was beginning to go numb.
"How do we figgur where we are?" Josh asked. He wasn't as scared as the girls were, and he traded looked with Nicky. Nicky shrugged. "We're staying here till somebody comes?" Josh suggested.
"I dunno," Nicky said again. I rarely ever said those words, and twice was quite out of the norm. That set Josh on edge, and they looked around.
It wasn't really a hallway, more like a corridor, because it was very narrow. The ground below their feet was and old and splintered wood, yellow with age and not at all like the wooden floor of the Harris house. All of them were barefoot, and the first thing that flashed through Nicky's mind was that they were going to get splinters. And then they were going to get the splinters taken *out*. They'd better walk extra careful.
Annie made some sounds that sounded like a donkey trying to speak while being strangled. Nicky patted her on the shoulder. "Everything's ok," he promised. "We're gonna get right back to Ms. Natalie's. We just gotta..."
He trailed off at the sudden soft sound of pitter-pattering slippers. The sounds were far away, but they were quickly coming nearer. Nicky and Josh shoved the girls behind their back and Nicky tried to shove Josh back to, but Josh would have none of it and just glared at him, throwing his arm away. Nicky did *not* want to start an argument with him, because Josh could be awfully loud, and if this thing that was walking towards them was trouble, then Josh would get them into it.
Then, in front of them, out of the shadows of the deeper part of the corridor, a figure began to emerge. A tall figure, and already you could see the contrast between the shadows and her pale white skin. She wore a long, shimmering gown-thingy, but it didn't shimmer in the corridor because there was no light. As she walked towards them, Nicky and Josh stepped up their nerve.
The figure stopped before them, just a few paces away.
"Hello?" Elisabeth Sarah Daly asked in a small, soft voice. Nicky and Josh did not answer, and she clasped her hands in front of her and began to nervously wring them. "A-are you lost t-too?"
Nicky looked the petite brown-haired, green-eyed girl up and down. "Are you lost?" Nicky asked.
"Yes."
"We could take her," Josh said confidently into his ear. Nicky nodded. Guess they'd have to trust this girl, find out where she came from, if she knew a way out and was trying to get there.
"What's your name?" Nicky asked casually.
"Pardon?" inquired the girl, leaning closer to him. She hadn't heard what Nicky was saying, so Josh screamed it out for her.
"What's your name?!" he asked her, and then flinched as the sound echoed down the corridor. It was loud, louder then Julie's voice had been. Everyone glared at him, everyone but es, that it.
"It's Elisabeth Sarah," she whispered, "but call me Es. It's shorter, and it's what my parents call me."
"Daddy, Cordy..." Julie whimpered. She was so off-center that she didn't even smack Josh for announcing their presence. "Nicky, can we please go home?" Nicky gave her a look that said "I'm workin' on it" and then looked down at Annie. Her bottom lip was trembling.
"Well, ok, Es," Nicky said calmly, "we have got to find a way out of here and back home. Where did you come from."
"My house, 'f course," Es told him. She stopped wringing her hands. "I was, you know, sleeping, and then I'm here, and then I heard people talking, so...I came to see. And found you guys."
"Oh," Nicky said, and stopped to think. He looked down at Annie, who still looked like she was about to cry. "Um, well, where we you...before you came over here."
"O'er there." She pointed down the corridor. "Are we...gonna go there?"
"Why not?" Nicky shrugged. Es nodded, and they followed her as she led them to where she had been dumped off.
Julie was so glad she had a twin, someone who was there for her. As Josh's arm settled comfortably around her shoulder, she felt protected. But she didn't know how much Josh could protect her from that...blue thingy.
One second they were reveling in the joy of Nicky actually being spooked and then there was this big, whirling bunch of blue lights that turned into this big gaping mouth-thing that stood behind Nicky and Annie. And they were totally oblivious. The hole looked like something out of Star Trek, and Julie and Josh had been stunned. Then, when Nicky and Annie turned around, and mouth of light washed over them and then it wasn't a mouth, it was a hole, and then there was a tunnel, and they were sliding and sliding and sliding...and then here.
Just knowing Josh was in this mess with her made her feel a little bit comfortable. Knowing Nicky was in this mess made her very, very secure. Nicky would take care of stuff. Gosh, he was seven. He was, like, almost a grown-up.
"You know," Julie said as they walked down the hall, "this place kinda 'minds me of a cave."
"Yeah, me too," Josh agreed. Nicky nodded his head, and Annie followed in course. Es didn't do anything, because she had never been in a cave before. She had just seen one from the outside when her Mommy brought her to a shoot in Arizona.
"Katie's been in a cave before," Julie continued.
"Katie? Who's Katie?" Josh asked suspiciously, looking over at his sister.
"My bestest friend," Julie said matter-of-factly, bracing herself for what Josh was gonna do. 'Cause she *knew* what he was gonna do.
"Your *bestest friend*?!" Josh exploded, whipping his arm off of Julie's shoulder. "Katie can't be your best friend," he said frantically. "*I'm* your bestest friend."
"Katie's my bestest friend too," Julie said stubbornly, tilting her head up and crossing her arms. She wrinkled her nose in distaste. She had seen Cordy do this when she knew she was right and wanted everyone else to know it to, and it worked. For Cordy, anyway.
"No, *I'm* your bestest friend, and *nobody* else can be your bestest friend 'cause...'cause...'cause *I said so*!"
"I don't need to lis'en to you! You're not the boss of me!"
"Ju-li-a!"
"Jo-shu-a!"
That was their little code to be quiet. When they tired of the argument, they would end it by calling out each other's names. Usually it didn't take them long to end the argument, and they always ended peacefully, so that's why Daddy and Cordy let them argue until their anger dissipated.
Now they both crossed their arms and stared angrily at each other. Right about now, Nicky had thrown being quiet to the wind. He looked over at Es and explained, "They do this a lot."
"Oh," Es said. "Well, I haven't any brothers or sister, so I don't know too much about arguing and stuff." Her face, which he noticed was dirt-streaked, brightened. "I do have a dog, though." Nicky looked interested, so Es continued. "His name is Giles, and he's a Goldy Retriever, and he has shaggy blond hair and brown eyes and he can't fetch but that's ok 'cause we hardly ever play. Do you have a pet dog, too?"
Nicky shook his head. "Nope, but my Mommy has a cat. She's really tiny, like a kitten, but not. She's kinda solitaire, so we don't get to play with her a lot." He stopped to think. "I've heard that name before," he said slowly. "Xander...knows your dog, I guess."
"Xander?" Es asked. Nicky nodded. "My Mommy knows a Xander. She doesn't like him." Es wrinkled her nose in distaste, in a decidedly Buffy fashion.
"Well, then it can't be my step-dad," Nicky quipped. "Everybody likes my step-dad. And he likes everybody, too."
"Oh," Es said. Then she looked up ahead. "We're here."
"Here" was very much "nowhere." It looked just like the rest of the hall. Nothing different.
"So we walked down here for nothing?" Josh asked bluntly. Nicky shrugged. "That was a waste," Josh grumbled, and slammed back into the wall brooding over being stuck here and dealing with Julie's Katie. As he connected with the wall, there was a hallow thumping sound.
Instantly, a memory of their last trip-to-somewhere echoed through Nicky's mind. Xander had taken the whole fam to Ruby Falls, a place in a state that Nicky thought started with a k-at least, he thought so. He wasn't too sure, 'cause he'd slept through the whole plane ride when Xander was explaining the place to Mommy and Julie and Josh and Annie and didn't think to ask later. But anyway, Ruby Falls was a waterfall-a really beautiful waterfall-that was underground in a whole bunch of caves. The sight was really amazing, and afterwards Nicky had been dazed the whole trip to the surface. Xander had noticed and at first thought that Nicky was sick. Nicky said no, he just thought the whole experience was really cool. Xander'd nodded, and asked if he wanted to see something else cool. Nicky had said sure.
So, as they were walking up and Mommy was making sure nobody feel and scrapped their knee or broke anything, Xander told Nicky to start tapping alongside the cave walls. Nicky did just that, and was rewarded by thick thudding sounds. Just as his hand was beginning to hurt, there was a thunking sound instead of a thudding sound. Xander explained that while there was a bunch of cave-rock behind all the rock he'd been thudding on, there was only a thin piece here. Meaning that there was nothing behind it. Nicky had said cool, and then said his hand ached a bit. Xander apologized and bought everybody ice creams at the next food place.
So, hallow...maybe a hidden door? 'Like in the books Mrs. O'Brien reads to us' his mind said excitedly, thinking of his first-grade teacher. Nicky nodded to himself, and Julie noticed. "What?" she asked. Annie tugged on his hand in her form of asking him the same thing.
"Nothing, just..." Nicky let go of Annie's hand and went over to where Josh was slouching. "Get up." Josh was about to object, but Nicky gave him a Look and Josh got up and backed away to where Annie now stood, minus her big brother's hand.
"What're you gonna do?" Julie asked, as Nicky looked all around the place where Josh had banged against and found it hallow. The wallpaper was peeling and in a tremendous need of repair. It smelled old 'n' musky 'n' icky. "Nicky, pay at*ten*tion to me," Julie complained, stamping her foot.
Nicky complete ignored her, but instead let out a little squeak of delight. He carefully ripped back a piece of wallpaper to reveal the line of a doorjamb. He dug his fingers into that line, and after several failed attempts, managed to get a good grip and tugged hard, pulling back the door and ripping the rest of the wallpaper. Voila, a secret hallway.
"Wow," Es said, admiration evident in her voice. "You're...you're just like Indiana Jones."
"She's right, Nicky," Julie said sincerely. Josh rolled his eyes. Julie poked him in the ribs, and Josh poked her right back. Then they just glared at each other.
"Well..." Nicky trailed off. He couldn't see much more than a foot into the hallway, which was wide enough to fit three of them side-by-side and tall enough so that Nicky and Es could stand and there'd still be some room above their heads. "Are we gonna go in?"
Everyone just stared blankly at him. Nicky sighed.
"Ok...me and Es go in first. Then Annie. Then Julie and Josh. Ok? Everyone...look for each other and don't get lost. Ok?"
Everyone shook their heads. Then Es decided to say something.
"You know what, everyone?" They turned to look at her. "All of this is very weird."
"Weird. This is weird. This is very, very...strange."
For come unknown reason, Jonah just could not sleep tonight. Usually he was like a rock, or a log, or whatever the hell people used as a simile for totally konking out. But not tonight, for some reason. Tonight he kept waking up for brief moments in a state of half-awareness, and then fall right back to sleep. The only thing he noticed during these brief periods of consciousness was that outside of the house, there was one hell of a rainstorm.
Now he had once again woken up, very hungry, in fact. As he tried to bring complete awareness to his clouded mind, he felt Buffy's warm body slide next his. Screw awareness. He was filled with warmth and an intense desire he still felt for her all these years. Too bad that he was so tired he felt like lead. He tried to muster up some strength to roll over and give her a kiss on the cheek, tell her he loved her, but he couldn't. he just stared at the alarm clock and hoped he had set it for the right time. There would be shooting today.
Besides, he could already hear the deep, even breaths that signaled Buffy was fast asleep. Funny. She had never fallen asleep that fast before. She's fallen asleep almost as fast as he and Es. Maybe it was rubbing off on her, after seven or so years.
Jonah mustered a smile and then let himself relax. He felt his now-tensed muscles melt into puddles. He loved to sleep, and as a writer/director, not to count being a stunt coordinator for several of his action movies, he barely got any shut-eye. He drifted off...
...and came back again as suddenly, the warmth of Buffy's body was gone. Jonah rolled his head over and saw she wasn't there. Hmm. Jonah rolled his head on over to the other side, where there was a digital alarm clock. Hell, it was still the same exact minute when he had felt Buffy next to him! He looked back. There was the slightest indent in the mattress, the scent of the shampoo in her hair, and the lipstick on the pillow that showed that she indeed had been here. He hadn't just dreamed it. Why dream it when you can have the real thing?
Whatever. Jonah was awake now, and his stomach was rumbling, faintly. It was embarrassing. With a sigh, Jonah rolled out of bed and sat on the edge, collecting himself and trying to push the uneasiness out of his mind. He had dreamed it, he had to have dreamt it. Buffy couldn't just disappear into thin air. It wasn't possible. And that was that.
Jonah stood up, all those annoying muscles and bones making popping and creaking sounds as he opened the door to the master bedroom and started down the hall. He looked groggily around him as he reached the stair case. Yawning, he descended the steps, ruffling his hair in an attempt to wake up.
He stopped in the living room before he entered the kitchen. There was a half-empty mug of brown liquid siting on the table, and the TV Guide and remote were in complete disarray, not in their usual neat spot. The couch, also, was full of creases. "Buffy slept down here," Jonah noted. "For a moment. Hmm. Hungry. I...am...hungry." Alright, awake enough. Jonah stumbled into the kitchen, grabbed a Nutri-Grain bar from one of the cupboards, wolfed it down, and then looked at the microoven's clock.
"Christ, Butch'll already be out there," Jonah mumbled. "Maybe...well, I'm awake already. Should go over there. Butch'll need help...the old oaf." Jonah smiled. That was the complete opposite of what Butch was: that's why he'd hired him.
Still, he'd ought to get over there. No matter how good he was, Butch was still new to this game. Butch was his protégé, and Jonah should drag his ass over to the studio lot and act as his mentor.
"Man, your work rocks," Butch had told them when they had first met at a fundraiser to collect money for the poor in Honduras. "I just love it all. I totally want to follow in your footsteps."
"Well, don't follow too closely," Jonah had joked. "I've run into a lot of walls on the way." That had started off the friendship.
Jonah closed the cupboard, turned off the kitchen light, and made his way through the living room and up the stairs. He headed towards the master bedroom, but then stopped and turned on his heel. Buffy had just done the wash, and that meant that the clothes he wanted to wear were in the hall closet. Damn, he'd better move 'em so he wouldn't have to pace up and down the hallway. Too big a house (mansion? He never knew what to call it?) to be doing that.
He hummed to himself as he opened the closet door and started to look for his clothes. It was a song from the soundtrack of his latest released movie, the one that had played during the credits. A band had sung it...Hellmouth, he thought. Yes, Hellmouth: Buffy had all of their CDs, and considering there were about five, that was a lot. Although the song they were using was off their first album, Jonah wanted a new version of it so Hellmouth was going to gather in the studio recording room and sing the new version of "Silent Cries." Jonah had asked if Buffy wanted to come along, but for some strange reason, she had said no. Jonah had pressed for a moment or two, but after a blunt rebuttal he just gave up and went without her.
He had, though, caught her listening to that CD later, fingering the case and humming to herself. She had been all alone in the living room, except for Giles snuggled up to her feet. The setting looked awfully endearing, so Jonah had left them alone and waited until Buffy came upstairs. They'd watched a movie or two, and then kissed each other goodnight. Jonah could not help but notice that something was wrong, but he had not pressed because she had not brought it up, and the mood had dissipated by the next day.
Now, Jonah found himself worrying about Buffy's whereabouts again. He looked down the right of the hall, where Es' bedroom was. The door was slightly open, and light spilled into the hallway. Maybe Es was having trouble sleeping, and Buffy had gone there? He would have to check. Grabbing the clothes from the closet, he quickly pulled them on. Comfortable clothes. Old jeans, and one of those corny shirts that had the name of his dad's old alma matter across the front, the letter now since faded into a blurry oblivion.
Jonah reached up to the top of the closet where he had thrown his watch last night along with the bath towel, and did not feel like retrieving it. His hand felt for it, but it only bumped into the soft fabric of the bath towels. "Damn, it's in the bedroom," he spoke softly, just to hear the sound of his voice. The only sound was of the storm, and it was a bit eerie. Jonah cleared his throat and looked down at his bare feet as he closed the closet door. Then, with a tired sigh, he turned to go to the bedroom.
And fell into a black hole.
Well, it was more like a *blue* hole, really, because as he fell through the pudding-like gloop, it flashes of light that swirled thickly around him were the color of the sky on a clear day. Jonah only noticed, though, that he was falling, falling in blue, and it felt like he had been dumped in a vat of pudding.
And then he was staring up at the night sky, dotted with glistening little lights of stars. Through his ratty old shirt, he felt the hard pebbles of gravel. Through his limited line of vision, he saw the tops of houses. Houses, houses...where the hell was he?
Then he heard the footsteps behind him, and quickly scrambled to his feet. He was in a crouching position when the young woman's body suddenly soared over his head and met with a thud on the concrete. Her body spun out of control and then came to halt in a few feet in front of him, splayed out in unnatural directions. The young woman's back arched up like a cat, but then fell back down in defeat. Jonah looked at the girl for one stunned moment, and then shook his head and stood up and around to see where the woman had come from.
And looked right into the face-the very deformed face-of a very angry...creature.
"Wrong place, right time," the creature growled, grinning and showing a mouth full of long, sharp teeth, and the lunged for him.
Jonah was no chicken-shit. This guy was going to get what he gave. As the creature lunged forward, Jonah hit him square in the stomach-it was like hitting rock, but the creature did bend over for a moment in pain. Jonah took that moment to step on the creature's foot and then hit it on the back of it's next with his hand karate-style, making the creature slump towards the ground.
Not to test his luck any further, Jonah gave the creature one last look and then hurried over to where the young woman was. He went over to her other side and pushed the hair away from her face. It was a young woman, yes, who had a nasty cut on her forehead that seemed not to be bleeding that much. "A-are you ok?" he asked, glancing up at the creature. He was getting back up on his feet.
"Christ," the woman groaned, and then settled her eyes on him. She pushed something towards him with her foot. "Stake. Stake through the heart."
Jonah's eyes widened. "What?" He looked back at the creature. It was swaying unsteadily on its feet. "We have to get out of here," he told the woman frantically, who rolled her eyes.
"Dammit! Men are so incompetent!" the woman exclaimed, and with some miracle, got back to her feet just as the creature was headed towards them. Jonah watched as she whirled around and blocked the creature's left hook expertly. *Nice* said the director in him. But this wasn't some movie that he was directing. This was real life.
Right? He didn't know anymore.
He instantly believed he was in some kind of fantasy world when the girl took the stake she had insisted he hold and shoved it into the creature's heart. The creature gave a shoke of surprise, reached for his heart, and then turned into dust.
If Jonah were a lesser man, he would have fainted from shock right then and there.
The creature dusted, the woman turned towards him. She raised her eyebrows and blew back the air that was hanging in her face. "Fun, huh?" she asked him, and then breezed right by and continued down the road. "Thanks!" she called over her shoulder.
Jonah stood there for a moment, all his confusing emotions bottling up into him until it exploded. "Hey!" he said, turning around to see Faith was just going off. "Come back here! What do you mean..." he shook, trying to gather his thoughts, "thanks! What was that! Who are *you*?"
The woman sighed, rolled her eyes up to sky, and turned around haughtily. She put on hand on her hips and waved the hand with the stake around. "My name is Faith, the Vampire Slayer. I slay vampires. What just attacked both you and me was a vampire. And I slayed him. My work here is done." Faith turned around then started off again, her heels making clicking sounds on the gravel.
"No, wait!" Jonah cried, hurrying up behind her. Faith sighed lout enough to here and stopped until he came up behind her. She crossed her arms and waited for him to explain himself, looking off into another direction. "What do you mean, *vampires*. A-and, what the hell am I even doing here?" He have a nervous chuckle and spread his arms, gesturing around him. "What is *here*?"
Faith wasn't moved. She looked at him and then let her hands fall to her sides. "Look, whoever you are," she started, but Jonah interrupted.
"Jonah. My name's Jonah."
"That's nice, Jonah. Mind letting me finish?" Jonah nodded. "Alright, you are in Sunnydale. Vampires are real. An-" she cut herself off, peering closer at him. "Okay, now I have questions for you. Where the hell did *you* come from. You just appeared outta nowhere."
"I know," Jonah said. "I'm hoping to find out why."
Faith raised an eyebrow. "You have experience with the supernatural, Jonah?" He shook his head no. "Well, than, we'd better get somewhere where you'd be educated." She spun on her heel and started down the other direction of the road. Jonah hurried to catch up with her.
"Where are we going?" he asked.
"Library," Faith said matter-of-factly.