Following a late meeting for a group project in philosophy class, Buffy clutched her textbook and a handful of papers as she hurried back to her dorm room. She hadn't realized college would require quite so much outside-of-class work, but she'd found herself having to gather with her partners at an odd time to work on the assignment. She glanced at her watch and quickened her pace; she was supposed to meet Willow so they could go out on patrol together.
A gust of wind whipped up and stole the papers from her grip, scattering them on the ground. Buffy dropped down and attempted to collect the material before the wind could carry the pages any farther away.
"Here, let me help you." The young teaching assistant from her psychology course, Riley Finn, knelt beside her. Together, they successfully corralled all the loose sheets.
"Thanks." Buffy accepted the papers Riley handed her and added them to her own stack.
Riley's gaze settled on the large ring adorning Buffy's hand. "Pretty stone," he noted.
"Yeah, it is," Buffy agreed with a smile.
"Well." Riley stood. "I'd better let you get going."
"Right. Thanks again." As Buffy moved away, she could sense Riley's eyes following her. Now that she thought about it, he had been looking at her a lot lately during psych class. And he'd made a point of mentioning her ring. 'I wonder...' Buffy thought.
"Buffy, over here!" From down the sidewalk, Willow's voice interrupted her musings.
"Hey." Buffy joined her friend.
"You ready to go out on patrol?"
"Let me drop this stuff off first. I'm running a little late. And I'd better call Giles, too," Buffy remembered as they cut across the lawn toward her dorm.
"Oh, yeah? Anything wrong?"
"I don't think so, but you never know. It's just that I had this really creepy dream. When I say creepy, I mean like a demon putting a scorpion on me and pouring blood down my throat, then sucking some sort of light out of me. I have to tell Giles so he can check into it in case it's a prophetic dream."
"It could just be an ordinary old nightmare, right?" Willow suggested.
"Yeah, I hope so. But I've had it two nights in a row, so I ought to mention it anyway." Buffy led the way into her room, but stopped short just across the threshold. Her half of the place was devoid of her belongings. Even the bed was stripped bare.
Kathy looked up from her sprawled position across her own bed. "Buffy. I thought you were moving out. Your friends came and took all your things about an hour ago."
"My friends," Buffy repeated.
"Right, five of them."
"Did they say their names? What did they look like?"
"There was this blonde girl with really funky hair, and one of the guys was wearing a T-shirt with a skull on it. I love how they insisted I invite them into the room before they'd come inside."
"Oh, shit," Buffy muttered. "Did you see which way they went when they left?"
Kathy shrugged. "They turned right when they went out of the room. That's all I know. They're not *my* friends."
Buffy threw her armload of papers onto her bed and bolted out the door, with Willow in close pursuit.
"Hey!" Kathy yelled from behind them. "You got another present, too!"
"No time to worry about that," Buffy decided as she rushed down the stairs. "The vamp gang must have taken my stuff. I'm going to kill them!"
"Buffy, if they were here a whole hour ago, they could be anywhere by now," Willow pointed out.
Ignoring her, Buffy dashed down the remaining steps and burst out the door into the night air. She wildly looked around the campus, which was lit only by safety lights. She didn't see a group toting her belongings, but a girl was sitting on the dorm steps, reading a manual. Buffy tapped her on the shoulder. "Excuse me, have you been here a while? Did you see a group of people come by here carrying boxes about an hour ago?"
"Yeah, they went that way." The girl pointed.
"See?" Buffy said to Willow. "We have a general idea now. Maybe we can find them." The two hurried across the campus, following directions from a few more students who had also seen the pack. Soon, they ended up on the outskirts of the grounds, facing the woods. "They must have a lair nearby if they were carrying the stuff," Buffy decided.
"Buffy, maybe we should get some help or weapons or something," Willow suggested.
Buffy shook her head. "No time for that. I'm going to find them and get this over with. Pushing me around is one thing. Breaking into my room is another."
"In that case..." Willow nodded to the left. "Look over there. It's an old building."
Buffy peered through the shrubs. "It looks like a perfect vamp nest. Let's check it out." They cautiously approached the ramshackle building, which appeared to be deserted. Buffy stood very still for a moment. "I don't hear anything, but they could be sleeping. Let me go in first." She motioned for Willow to stay back while she crept into the building.
The place was quiet but lit by a few small lamps in the main room. They gave off more than enough light to reveal to Buffy that no vamps were present, but her prized possessions had been picked over by the gang. Even...
"Hey!" Buffy cried indignantly. "My diary!"
"What is it?" Willow called from outside.
"Come on in, it's safe for now!" Buffy yelled back. She began to pile her things back into boxes as Willow walked in. "I think those vamps were trying on my stuff," Buffy complained. "If they were here right now, I'd dust them." She thought for a second. "Okay, if they were here right now, I'd *try* to dust them. I haven't exactly been operating at my best lately."
Willow glanced around. "You know, it's not just your stuff in here. They must have been robbing a bunch of other people, too."
"I'll definitely have to come back later and put them out of business permanently," Buffy agreed. "Well, come back with some backup, of course. It shouldn't so hard now that we know where they're based. But for right now, I want to haul some of these things back to my room. I'll make another trip back for the rest later."
Together, Buffy and Willow sorted out the most important of the items, then piled them into boxes and toted them back to the dorm. They entered Buffy's room to find Kathy scowling at them.
"Buffy, I tried to tell you before you ran out before, but you got another present," her roommate greeted them. "And I guess you're not moving out after all. I don't like to complain, but if stuff like this is going to keep happening then the least you could do is warn me."
Buffy ignored her and retrieved the box from Kathy's bedside table. It bore simply the name "BUFFY" in block printing across the top. "Okay, nice gesture but a card would be helpful." She removed the plain wrapping and lifted the top off of the box.
"What is it this time?" Willow asked. "A necklace?"
"No." Buffy carefully pulled the item out of the box and displayed it to her friend. "It's a dagger. Now, isn't that a weird present?"