It was 3:00, and Buffy was having a nervous breakdown. Her nerves were shot all over because she kept remembering what had happened just a few hours ago. She couldn't believe that they thought . . . and she tried her best to think, to know, that they were wrong.
On the other end of the telephone line, a sleepy Willow was listening to Buffy's laments with only half her brain. "But you have to go to school," she said, yawning. She stretched her arms, wondering if she was going to get back to sleep.
"But how can I face them? Xander, Giles . . . they're hurt so bad. A-and I don't know what to do." She knew perfectly well what to do, but every single fiber of her being compelled her not to.
"You have to accept that they are going through difficult times," Willow said. She had just spent an entire hour and half listening to Xander over the telephone at the police station, and for some reason, she was a little bit more sympathetic towards him . . . never mind, she knew why. "They've been hurt pretty bad Buffy . . . they're not gonna get over this easily. This is going to take a lot of time, and they might never get over it."
Ah, Willow. Buffy had thought she could give her a pick-me-up; instead, Willow was just digging her deeper. "I guess I'll just avoid then both," Buffy concluded dejected, letting the phone go slack in her hand. "No matter how hard that would be."
Willow yawned loudly into the phone. "For the best," she mumbled. Then, "Are you going to get some sleep?"
"Yeah, and you should get some too." Willow hadn't mentioned that she had just gotten a brief 15 minutes of rest in between her two best friends' agony. "I'll see you tomorrow." With that, Buffy hung up.
Willow placed the phone back in the receiver and groaned. "Whatever happened to 'Dear Abby'?" she wondered as she slid back into bed, pulling the covers contently over her small body. She snuggled into her pillow and prayed to God that Giles didn't suddenly have the hankering to call on her so that he could unload his remorse.
"Goodnight, Cow," she said, patting the beanie baby that slept on the side of her pillow. Then she closed her eyes.
The phone rang.
Willow said a very nasty word she heard her father say one morning not too long ago and threw off her covers. She stomped out of bed and yanked the phone out of the receiver. How was she going to be able to wake up for school tomorrow if she got no sleep?
"Giles?" Willow asked sweetly, keeping her annoyance somewhat in check.
"No, it's me, Xander." Willow's face went sympathetic and she sat down tiredly on her bed. "I don't think I'm going to school tomorrow after all."
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Although his Aunt Janie and Uncle Todd had offered to take him in before they could locate his father, Xander had asked them and the officials if he could stay home for just a few more days, to be alone in the place that he would probably never see again. They had agreed: they were nice like that. But now, he wanted to be alone.
He had gone straight to sleep as soon as he had gone home, flopping on the couch and only waking up to talk to Willow and tell her what had happened. Then he had stared at the unplugged TV, remembering how his mother had hated it, because it never worked. Only the one in his room had worked, and since nobody wanted to move it, Xander would have to put up with her in his room constantly, watching LIFE and talking to all her girlfriends and clients from work. It was one of his memories of her, one of the millions, but only one of the few that he actually didn't mind.
Now, the large digital clock sitting atop the TV blinked "12:00" in large, glaring numbers. Xander's stomach rumbled hungrily, but nothing on earth could make him ever go to that kitchen again. So instead, he reached for his backpack, unzipped the front pack and began to munch the snacks he always kept there.
He was happily munching on an Oreo when he realized that it was rather bland. He picked up the bag that it had come from and turned it over to read the date. Still fresh, he thought. Weird. He gobbled the rest of the Oreo up anyway, and wiped off the mess on his chin. Probably Nabisco had gotten something screwed up along the way, leaving him with stale cookies.
"Oh well, chocolate always has a taste," he sighed, grabbing a half-eaten Hershey bar and peeling off the silver wrapping. He took a large bite of this chocolatey goodness, and let the candy stuff do magick with his mouth.
Nothing happened. It was like drinking water-just no taste. Xander frowned and checked the date on the Hershey bar-not stale, and not even close to the expiration date. Groaning, Xander got up and hobbled to the bathroom.
Dutifully, he dressed his toothbrush and slowly and methodically brushed his teeth hard. Then he used Scope three times and scraped his tongue, just wanting to get rid of whatever was crapping up his junk food lunch, not even caring that he was hygienically taking care of himself, an action unheard of with teenage boys.
Xander leaned over the sink and spit out the remaining Scope he had in his mouth, remembering this time not to swallow it. Since the water was already there, he splashed his face a little bit to wake himself up. Then, out of habit, he looked up to the mirror to check out his reflection.
And didn't see it.
For just a moment, Xander went to turn off the faucet, but then he was so shocked he turned it on to the highest power. He looked back up to mirror, his heart leaping to his throat. To his great relief, his reflection was indeed there.
"See, Xander, your reflection's not disappearing. You're not a, not a . . ." He couldn't say the word, but he felt an immense feeling of relief. For a moment there he had been scared, but now-
And then, right before his witnessing eyes, his reflection flickered, and then faded altogether.
Xander stood gaping in front of the mirror for quite some time, and then his mouth just dropped five feet to the floor. He stumbled out the bathroom, unable to keep his eyes off the mirror until it was out of his sight.
"Shit," he whispered softly.
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"So then he said 'It's purple, not blue', so Jake got so pissed off he ran out with Maria just five seconds later against her will. This can be big."
Willow was seated at the computer with Buffy, the two females reading the synopses of their favorite soap operas at the official web sites. Of course, Giles thought they were searching for demon-oriented sites on the Internet, but girls would be girls.
"Well, it is already big, but if Geoffrey would stop lying about this whole thing than Maria could finally get together with Tim," Buffy observed. She tapped the computer screen. "Next soap."
Willow let go of the mouse and was typing in the Internet address of All My Children when the doors to the library burst open. Xander stormed in, and Buffy flinched reflexively, moving behind the computer for safety.
Willow stood up and started with "Xander-" but he cut her off with a wave of his hand.
"I can't see my reflection anymore!"
Willow and Buffy were stunned, and Giles made his appearance at the top of the stairs. "What?" they all asked.
"I-can't-see-my-reflection," Xander spit out rapidly, starting to pace back and forth, hands clasped tightly behind his back. "You all know what he, I, did, and I can't see my reflection, so am I demon or what?" His voice was rising. "I'm not in the mirror and I can't taste food! OK! What, do I grow fangs next?!"
Giles mouth was the first to start working again. "Xander, are you on medication?" he asked tentatively, afraid Xander was going to blow up at him.
"NO!" Xander yelled, throwing his arms up in the air. He stopped pacing for a moment. "Well, yes, but that has nothing to do with this! I was not in the mirror. You don't imagine that."
"Xander," Giles continued, his voice warm. "Have you seen anything else strange that might have been the cause due to your medication?"
Xander thought about this for a moment. "Well, I kept hearing voices telling me to eat Cap'n Crunch-but that's not the point! This is the real thing!"
"Maybe Giles is right, Xander," Willow said gently. "You could be hallucinating that your reflection has disappeared. And maybe the medication did something to your tongue, or you're sick with something else. You were very weak, and you could've caught anything-"
"Is anybody listening to me?" Xander yelled, exasperated. He marched up the stairs and passed Giles, till he stood in front of the mirror. He pointed at it and then stared at the three other people in the library. "Come see for yourselves!"
Willow, Buffy, and Giles hesitantly came up behind him. They stared into the mirror.
Three out of the four people standing there were reflected in the glass.
"Oh dear," Giles said.