Chapter 8

"About what?" Buffy asked. "Don't tell me that you believe in that show too?"

"I know... Buffy. Just come in." Giles said.

"I can't!" Buffy yelled. "Just... Eww. Spike's in there. And what if he thinks that I'll..." She shook her head.

"Buffy, just listen. I've read these books and this..." Giles tried to tell her.

"Books? And you believe them! I'm not gonna die!" Buffy cried. "I don't want to."

Dawn took her hand. "But you came back..."

"Let's go inside," Giles said and they went in.

Buffy sat on the couch. "And what are you staring at?" she asked Spike.

"I'm not staring at you! That bloody thing on tv! I mean, yuck," he said. "I'd never do that... Unless you... I mean, I hate you and... But if you..."

Star hugged him. "You know you belong to me!" she said happily.

"Sod off, you stupid kid," Spike growled. Star looked shocked and went to sit next to Willow and Tara.

"I read a book, once..." Giles started, but stopped when he noticed that Grace and Star were still in the room.

"Oh, I've read books too," Grace announced. "I like books!"

Anya flipped through her book. "How to say this in a polite way," she muttered. "Aha! Could you please leave!"

"Huh?" Star asked grimly.

"Well, uh, she's right. We've got some serious stuff to talk about," Willow said. "Contains spoilers. Lots of them."

"Ohh," Grace sighed. "I wouldn't want to hear spoilers, so..."

"But I do!" Star complained. "I wanna know what's gonna happen next!"

"Please go," Anya said, frustrated.

"No!" Star said. "I'm staying."

"I'm not gonna say this in a very polite way anymore," Anya yelled and stood up. "Go AWAY!!"

Star squeaked. "O-okay then."

"Could you leave the VCR and the cassettes here?" Giles asked.

"Oh, no problem. I don't know why you want them, though," Grace answered. "Don't you remember what happened without them?"

"No," everybody said at the same time.

"Fine, well, bye-bye!" Grace said and Star mumbled something. They left.

"Now," Giles said. "I can tell you about the book. It was about other universes."

"I-I've read about them," Tara said.

"Yes, but the interesting thing is that sometimes the universes somehow... Leak. Information of what's happened to someone passes to other universes," Giles explained. "And the knowledge seeks an owner."

"A-and it becomes an idea," Tara continued. "The person starts to write it down and creates a story. The same story t-that already happened or is going to happen in a-another universe."

"So," Dawn said. "You're telling me that all the stupid stories I made up when I was in third grade were actually... True?"

"Yeah, in some other universe," Tara answered. "And I-I think that some of our tv-shows can be actually true in here, but someone in our universe just made a tv-show about it. Just like our life is a tv-show i-in here."

"I don't believe that stuff," Buffy announced. "I'm not gonna sing, I'm not gonna die and I'm not gonna kiss Spike. Never ever. No way."

"I know someone who has a cousin, whose wife, who was a demon, somehow got into this universe where the Sesame Street characters lived," Anya told. "It was very freaky, but somehow she got divorced with her husband and married the Cookie Monster. But they kept it as a secret, it was never on the show."

"Did she get back?" Willow asked.

"Yeah, she eventually wanted to eat something else than cookies and ate Kermit. Then she returned."

"How?" Xander asked.

"I don't know. It didn't really seem interesting, so I didn't ask."

"But I don't still believe that that stupid tv-program was true!" Buffy said. "It must be made up."

Giles took one tape. "Buffy, season five," he read. "I think it's the season in our universe." He put the tape in the VCR.

Buffy saw exactly what she had done a week ago.