Chapter Six: The Gooey Mess

(Mwa ha ha ha. I loved the ending of the last chapter. Don't ask why. Please keep reviewing. Thanks for all the support.)


"Ahhhhhhh!" Kennedy let out a piercing scream.

"Whoa, Willow! Get off 'er," Spike seized vampire Willow by the shoulders, but she shoved him off. He was flung back, crashing into the coffee table.

Anya gasped, "Spike! What's happening?"

"Willow gone a li'l bit wonky," he replied, scrambling to his feet and going after her again.

Kennedy was fading fast. Her head was buzzing and her eyeballs felt warm, as it she had a fever, but she was cold from the waist down."Willow stop before you drain her!" Giles shouted. Willow pushed him away into the wall. Something must have gotten through though, because Willow hesitated long enough for Spike for grab her and throw her to the ground. Kennedy fell hard and passed out.

Willow flew at Spike with her new abilities, slamming him into the wall. Pictures and plaster fell around them. "I don't... want... t'hurt you, Willow," Spike grunted holding her flailing arms back as Willow tore at his skin and clothes.

She threw her head back and laughed. "Please, Spike. You couldn't if you tried. You have a soul now," she mocked him.

"Grr... right," he backhanded her across the face and rammed her into the opposite wall. She dropped to the floor, out cold. "I 'ave a soul, but I could still 'urt you," he wiped the blood from his mouth. He picked her up and tied her in a chair.

"Kennedy's all right," Giles said. He rubbed the back of his head where he connected it with the wall. "I put her upstairs."

"Why is Willow a vampire?" Dawn asked.

Giles, Anya and Xander looked at Spike. He threw his hands up. "Got me."

"Well, someone must've sired her right now," Giles said. "How could she have become a vampire so suddenly?"

"What if this (cough) has something to do with (cough cough) why Dawn's a shiny ball of light, or why Buffy's (cough) out of service?" Xander asked. "And why I've been impaled by a (cough) invisible sword?"

"Xander may be on to something," Giles paced back and forth. "If only we could reach Buffy somehow," he tapped his chin thoughtfully. "I need to go and get a book. Anya, will you be able to watch things here?"

Anya nodded, worriedly looking at Xander who groaned, "Hurry. Xander may not make it. Not that I care."

"Thanks, An," Xander grumbled.

Giles nodded and left. "Spike, could you watch Xander while I get some more herbs?" Anya asked.

Spike agreed and sat across from Xander. "Don't expect me to get all Florence Nightingale on you, wanker. I need to make sure that Li'l miss vampire doesn't try to eat you."

"Wouldn't want (cough) that to (cough cough) happen," Xander murmured incoherently.

"No, not 'fore I 'ave the chance to," Spike joked trying to make Xander a little more at ease. Xander attempted to laugh but coughed up some blood instead. 'C'mon slayer,' Spike thought. 'Where are you?'

'Buffy?' Buffy's head snapped up at the sound of Willow's voice. She had been curled up, crying after she saw her best friend become a vampire. Of course, Buffy had to dust her. But her moment of pity had been interrupted. "Willow?" She called out.

'Buffy, where are you?' Willow's voice asked.

"I'm right here, Willow, with Tara," Buffy answered to the voice. She gazed up at the sky, searching for Willow. "Willow?"

'Buffy? Buffy? Buffy?' Willow's voice echoed away. Buffy looked at Tara, who had tears welling in her eyes. She too had heard Willow's voice. "You heard her too, didn't you?" Buffy got to her feet and walked over to her. "Tara, listen to me. Something's wrong, Willow needs me. I need to get out of here."

Tara squeezed her eyes shut and then looked into Buffy's eyes. "Are you ready yet?"

"Ready? Ready for what, Tara?" Buffy asked wildly.

"For your next challenge."


Spike had just closed his eyes when one of the potentials burst through the room. Amanda? Began to wave wildly at Spike. "Spike, there's a demon in the basement!"

"Bloody hell," Spike grumbled. He and the girl raced downstairs, where the rest of th SITs were huddled together, cornered by a massive blob on the floor. The goo oozed towards the girls who screamed with every move.

"Spike, what is it?" Dawn asked.

Spike shrugged, "Not sure, bit. 'Kay, girls, one at a time, jump ov'r the blob an' to me." The girls looked at each other, but knew to trust Spike because Buffy did. With slayer strength, a pretty blond one hurled over first. Then Chao-An, and Vi, Molly next, Rona hesitated and almost fell face first into the sticky mess, but Spike grabbed her before. But the blob popped up and latched onto Spike. He threw Rona back.

"Upstairs," he barked. "Now!"

"Spike, what can I do?" Dawn asked worriedly flitting above him. The vampire struggled as the blob drew him in closer.

"Just..." Spike grunted. "get... someone."

"Right," Dawn flew upstairs and hollered for anyone. Anya was the first to come. "Spike needs help in the basement," Dawn explained frantically. Giles and Anya followed Dawn.

"Ew!" Anya exclaimed when she saw Spike knee deep in the pinkish-purple slime.

"Well, don't just stand there like twits, help me," Spike smart-mouthed.

Giles grabbed a shovel, gave Spike one end and held the other as he tugged to get him out. "Stop, struggling, Spike," Giles said pulling with al his might.

"I ain't," Spike replied. All the grunting and pulling didn't do anything except that now Spike was waist deep in the muck. "Where the hell d' this all come from any way?" He had given up trying to get out. It seemed like a slower death if he wasn't trying to free himself.


" 'The Blob' definitely freaked me out when I was a kid," Buffy told Tara. They were walking through Buffy's old high school, before the mayor had destroyed it. It was night time, and Buffy still couldn't shake that feeling of being on high alert. Nothing could happen to her or Tara. She sighed. Old habits die hard.

Tara nodded in agreement. "Definitely don't like those old, science fiction movies."

"Yeah, as hokey as they are, they're still pretty scary."

"I always hated E.T." Tara said quietly.

Buffy laughed. "E.T.? But he was so cute."

"Mmm, no," Tara shivered, uncomfortable.

"I was so afraid of going into the basement and The Blob being there, waiting to eat me up. Getting stuck in it and suffocating." Buffy wrinkled her nose. "It always weirded me out, the idea of drowning or suffocating."

"How did you get over it?"

"What?"

"Your fear of the basement."

"Oh," Buffy checked the hallway they entered. All clear. "Well, after I nightmare I had about The Blob eating me. I went into the basement to see if it was real. I crept down and saw something moving on the floor. I didn't scream though. Instead I threw a cup of ice on the ground and ran back to my room and covered myself up with my blanket." Buffy laughed at her memory.

Tara laughed too. "Why'd you throw ice?"
Buffy rolled her eyes. "That's how Steve McQueen killed it in the movie. By freezing it. So you know, ice, freezing? I wasn't and inventive child."

Tara laughed again and they continued their patrol around the school.

'Bloody bag of shit', Spike thought. 'So, this is how I'll go out. No cannons booming, fireworks bursting, trumpets sounding. Without Buffy knowing...'

"Y'know," Spike spoke up. "I didn't expect to die with half my ass stuck in a pile of goo."

"Would you have preferred to be dusted? Like was originally intended for you?" Giles replied from his sitting position on the stairs.

"Cheeky, old man," Spike smirked. He felt his body slip deeper into the muck. 'Ho hum,' he thought.

"Would anyone care for some sun brewed tea?" Andrew's annoying voice called out from the top of the stairs.

"No!" was the general reply.

Andrew pouted. "Fine." He walked down a few steps the halted. "Holy smokin' rubber, Batman. What is Spike caught in?"

"It's some sort of gooey sand trap," Dawn explained. "The potentials were cornered by it until Spike came to save them, but got caught himself."

"Why don't you just freeze it?"

"What?" Giles, Dawn, and Spike all looked up at him.

Andrew inclined his head, studying the pinkish blob that had engulfed nearly three-quarters of Spike. "Yeah. In the 1958 movie with the ultra-se..." He stopped when he got a few raised eyebrows. "Uh, ultra-cool Steve McQueen he freezes The Blob and everyone's happy."

"Uh, yes. Andrew go quickly and fetch the fire extinguisher from the kitchen," Giles said and Andrew left. He returned with the red canister in hand and proceeded to spray it over Spike and the blob. He lost control and Giles yanked it away from him. "Now," he said to Spike after the foam had froze the goo. "Break free."

Using all his vampire strength, Spike shattered the hard goo. It disappeared on the floor. "Odd," Spike said. "Wonder where it came from?"