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"Elizabeth, it's gonna be okay, honey. They're going to fix you up, Lizzy. Then you can come home. I love you sweetie." Joyce smiled sadly as her daughter was strapped down to a gurney. As tears bubbled up from god knows where, she grabbed hold of her husband's hand and squeezed.
"No! Mommy! Mommy, I saw it! Please believe me, I saw..." the little girl's voice faded out as she was rolled down the hallway and into a white room. She felt a poking in her arm, then blackness.
"Condition?" came a voice.
"Schizophrenia," came another.
The girl opened her eyes, curiosity winning over fear of what she'd see. "Where..."
"Your mommy and daddy just want you to get better. We're going to help you get better," said the man in the white coat. He wore glasses, and seemed to be about forty. "Now, tell me why you're here."
"I saw something. I-it wasn't human. I don't know what it was, but they say it wasn't real. But it felt," she couldn't finish.
"It's not real. Sometimes, when children bump their heads, they hallucinate. They see things, but they don't really exist. Just a figment of their imagination. Do you understand?" The man peered down at the girl.
She was silent at first, and then nodded.
"Good, tell me what you remember. It'll help you see that it's a hallucinogen. Nothing more."
"I was walking...down my front steps...and I tripped..."
"Do you remember why you tripped?"
"I'm a big girl, just like Mommy, all grown up." She finished smearing the lipstick on her face and looked in the mirror. She saw an adult, ready to face the world, get married, have kids, and live like her mommy and daddy.
In reality, she was wearing rouge on her eyelids. Lip liner was on her cheek in faint scribbly lines, from trying to color her cheeks pink and then smudging it with a tissue to soften the lines. At least some of the lipstick was on her lips. The rest landed somewhere under her nose and on her chin. Close enough. The smell of something burnt hung in the room, from Elizabeth trying to curl her hair. It ended up as a frizzy mess. She put a few necklaces around her neck and slipped on her mother's pumps and walked outside.
The babysitter's snores could still be heard even with the front door closed. She tentatively tried to walk down the steps. It was very hard with the shoes being many sizes too big and she'd never been out of the house without a grown up before. She misjudged the step and fell, hitting her head on the cement. Before she could get up, she heard a woman's voice. Mommy? No, this was different. It sounded strange.
"Look at the lady trapped inside a little girl's body. The grass is singing for her to dance, but she's too small to play. No fear, I will take her and she can play with Miss Edith. She's not too small to play with her. Unless the flowers protest. They know her better than the moon knows the sun, for they're never out at the same time. Only when the day is night, and the night is day...but that's so rare, I'm sure the moon forgets. Mummyy will turn her for Princess, won't he?"
At this point, the girl had looked up and was in shock. There stood a woman in a long red dress. She had pale skin and black hair that flowed down her back. Her eyes sparkled, but they seemed far away. A man with a black coat and white hair had his arm around her waist. Next to him was another couple, only they didn't have faces like the other two. Their eyes were yellow, and their foreheads were bumpy. The blonde-haired woman opened her mouth to reveal sharp teeth.
"Of course Mummy will. She can be our...whipping girl." The scary woman was almost upon her when the man in black stopped her. He had the funny voice too.
"Don't you bloody read, you fat cow? Anne Rice--Interview With a Vampire. Bunch of rot, but there's one thing true in there. The little ones turn on you for not growing up. She'll be more trouble than help."
"'Besides, she's already rebellious. Trying to be big and buff in mother's clothes. It's pathetic. Spike's right, Darla. Let's just get out of here."
"I can hear the fresh blood calling me..." The lady in the red dress started drifting toward Mrs. Turnip's house.
"Goodbye big and buffy girl," the light-haired man said before following the lady he had his arm around before. The other man pulled the blonde lady away and headed over to where the other two were.
"Goodbye big and buffy girl," she concluded.
The man wore a skeptical expression. Yes, it was elaborate, but children have extraordinary imaginations. "I see. Well, it was all in your head. It's best to forget about it, make your parents happy by forgetting that little image you had."
"Okay." It was no use trying to explain to these people. They don't get it, it was real. As long as she knew, it was fine with her. Plus, not talking about it would make Mommy and Daddy happy. They needed to be happy, because lately they yelled and weren't happy. "I'll forget." Not.
"Oh, baby!" Joyce and Hank ran up and hugged their daughter. "We were worried you were sick, but the doctor says you're all better now. Oh Lizzy, I'm so glad."
"I'm not Lizzy anymore, Mommy."
"Not Lizzy?" The woman feared her little girl hadn't gotten better, that she'd forgotten who she was, along with the hallucination.
"Nope, I'm a buffy girl. I'm Buffy, Mommy."
"Alright, sweetie....Buffy. Whatever you say. Let's go home."
As the threesome walked out the clinic doors, Buffy saw the same man who'd called her a buffy girl. He winked before disappearing into the shadows.
"See you around, Buffy."
-fin-
A/N: I know that was really lame. What can I say? Muse not being kind. It wasn't supposed to be something special, anyways. Just an idea.