I know I haven't updated in a long time, but I have these HUGE exams that will be ocupying my free time until the beginning of July. I wrote this part only because I was feeling too sick to actually study :D I also want to point out the fact that this story isn't dominated by a precise relationship (namely B/S or B/A), it will differ from one part of the story to the next.

Part 4
Things that go bump in the night

Room 132

Willow was huddled in Buffy's bed with the covers wrapped around her tightly as she looked around the dark creepy room uneasy. The slayer thought, amused, that she looked like a cocoon. The redhead had been too frightened to sleep alone, so Buffy had decided to share her bed with her. However, it still didn't seem to help Willow get over her fear. Dawn, on the other hand - the slayer's eyes wondered towards the bed in the other side of the room - didn't seem to have any problems with the darkness and general eerie feeling of the Hyperion Hotel. As for Buffy herself, she had gotten way too used to being up half the night to be able to sleep until the wee hours of the morning. She was sitting in an old armchair flipping through the Hyperion's registry book, under the dim light of a lamp. A thump was heard from the room just next to theirs and Willow startled.

"Did you hear that?" she asked frightened.

"It's probably just one of the guys," Buffy assured her.

"What if it's some.... thing that-that...wants to kill us?" Willow asked bringing the covers up to her ears.

"Nah," Buffy shook her head.

"How can you be so sure?" Willow asked looking over at the slayer.

"Cause there probably would've been more sounds after that thump. Fighting, screaming, stuff like that...," Buffy explained. "Besides, even if it were some...thing that's after us, I'd so kill it or, you know, die trying."

"That's...a comforting thought," Willow said obviously feeling even more uneasy now.

"So which one do you think is cuter?" Buffy suddenly asked after a pause, smiling and looking up from the registry.

"Huh?" Willow asked confused.

"The guys obviously," Buffy continued to smile. "William, Liam or Wesley?"

"I don't know," Willow pulled the covers down from her face, thinking about her question. "I mean Wesley's...I don't know James Bondish, William's like one of those melancholic poetic types..."

"But cute melancholic poetic types," Buffy interrupted her.

"Yeah," Willow agreed smiling. "And Liam...he's..."

"Winner of the caveman of the year award?" the slayer suggested chuckling.

"Sorta, but he has this bad boy thing about him. It's not really anything I'd go for, like ever, but a lot of girls love that. I bet he's a real ladies' man back in his time," Willow said and put her head down on the pillow.

"Yeah, I guess...," she suddenly smiled. "You know I saw him naked..."

"No way," Willow stood up again. "When? Where?"

"Yesterday, in the store. While he was changing. And I was right. He never heard of underwear for men," she chuckled.

"So which one do you like best?" Willow asked curious.

"William," Buffy said positive. "Wesley's really not my type and Liam's like an animal."

"You sure?" Willow looked at her suspiciously. "Cause I thought you and Liam..."

"Eww no," Buffy refused to even consider it.

Room 134

Liam paced around the room, staring at all the things surrounding him with a tempered rage. To Wesley he seemed like a tiger in a cage. William was sleeping in his bed peacefully. They had barely managed to convince Dawn to sleep in the other room, William eventually having the final word in it, not considering it proper for a young lady such as Dawn to sleep in the same room with three men.

"Look at him! How can he sleep like this?" Liam eventually blurted out settling his angry gaze on William's sleeping form.

"Like what?" Wesley arched an eyebrow from his place in the armchair where he had been reading some book he had found in the room they were occupying. "Truth be told, I thought you'd be the one sleeping tightly tonight."

"Can't you feel it too? The illness of this place?" Liam whipped around to stare at Wesley.

"Illness?" Wesley put his book down. "The time change must be affecting you. It's natural to feel everything is out of place when you're in unfamiliar surroundings."

"It isn't that," Liam shrugged it off. "Something just feels awfully wrong."

"It'll get better once you get used to it," Wesley assured him.

"Oh, for Pete's sake," he marched towards William's bed and yanking the covers from under him threw the boy on the floor.

"Au!" William let out sleepily as he got up from the floor. "What is your problem?"

"You're my bloody problem," Liam said defiantly.

"I don't want to fight you," William sat back down on the bed.

"Coward," Liam let out.

"I don't believe problems solve themselves through violence," William said putting his head back down on his pillow.

"Why you little..." Liam was about to attack William when Wesley interfered putting himself between the two.

"That's enough," the watcher-in-training told Liam. "Something's obviously bothering you and it isn't William. Whatever it is it's no use to pour out your anger on him."

"Fine," Liam resumed his pacing and after a few moments asked Wesley: "If everything is as fine as you claim it is, then why aren't you sleeping?"

"I'm too excited to sleep," Wesley said. "This whole situation is absolutely fascinating."

"That's your reason for being awake?" Liam asked mockingly.

"At least I don't feel illness," Wesley mumbled reopening his book.

Room 152, right above room 132

"Can we kill them now?" doctor Miltser asked bored as he threw a knife in Dana's direction. The slayer was sitting helplessly next to a wall, bound and gagged. Billy had thought it fit to take the precaution in order to avoid any more incidents in the future. The knife embedded itself into the wall, a few inches away from Dana's head. "I need to work on my throwing, don't you think?" he was addressing James.

"A quick kill will just not do," James said. "They need to suffer for what they did to us."

"True," Billy agreed as he took the knife Ronald had thrown out of the wall.

"Oh, you boys are so melodramatic," Halfrek interfered shaking her head. "Revenge is suppose to be fun. I mean here I am, providing you with the easiest way to do just that and you're all hack and torture."

"Hack and torture. Sounds like a plan to me," Ronald gave his opinion as he watched Billy throwing his knife and embedding it in Dana's hair.

"Would you stop that?" Hallie looked at Billy disgusted. "We need her alive, not crippled or worse, bleeding to death."

"See, now you're no fun," Ronald said disappointed he had to abandon the game.

"You're lucky she's not free or she'd probably detach both your arms, permanently," Halfrek brushed him off.

"You give her too much credit," Billy said taking Dana's chin in his hand. "There's not a sane thought in that empty little mind of hers. If you play enough with it you can make her kill anyone and convince her to never lay a finger on you."

"I'd like to see you say that when you're trapped between four walls alone with her free," Halfrek wasn't convinced. "But as I was saying, we should be having fun, not getting bored. I think it's time to scare the little kids out of bed," she said with a devilish smile.

Room 132

"Find anything interesting?" Willow asked gesturing towards the Hyperion's registry.

"Nothing much. Except," she chuckled. "Can you believe there was a guy actually named Angel that stayed here? He was up in room 217."

"Angel? Like a last name?" Willow asked confused.

"No, just Angel. Like Madonna," Buffy said smiling.

"And he was a guy?" the redhead asked frowning.

"Yeah, it's in brackets. Male," the slayer looked down at the registry.

"Maybe he was a drag queen or something," Willow suggested.

"In the 50s?" Buffy didn't buy it. "Maybe he was like a real angel. Guarding someone incognito..."

"Sounds like the beginning of a Hollywood blockbuster," Willow said smiling. Dawn suddenly opened her eyes and stared at the ceiling.

"Dawn, is something wrong?" Buffy asked coming to her side.

"Bad," the little girl said only managing to confuse the slayer. Before Buffy had a chance to say anything they heard a noise coming from outside their room.

"What was that?" Willow asked staring at the door, fear suddenly gripping every inch of her.

"Just stay calm. I'm sure it's nothing," Buffy said scanning the room for something heavy that she could use as a weapon in case there was something out there after all.

"Bad, bad, bad," Dawn mumbled frightened.

"Shhh," the slayer tried to silence her as she picked up an iron lamp and neared the door. The same sound was heard again. Like someone jumping around on the corridor. Then the sound of footsteps nearing. Buffy held her ground, while Willow sat paralyzed in bed and Dawn hid under the covers. The sound of footsteps grew closer and closer and closer until...a heavy hand banged against their door. Buffy startled for a moment, but quickly regained her composure and put an unsteady hand on the doorknob. She slowly turned it and cracked the door open. There was no one there. She opened the door wider, until, convinced there was no one waiting to jump at her any second, she went out on the corridor, her hand still clutching the doorknob. She looked down the hallway, in both directions, to see if anyone was there. The corridor was empty. She frowned, not understanding what had happened, until realization hit her.

"That son of a....Oh, when I get my hands on him!" she marched towards the guys' room furious and slammed the door open, startling those inside. Wesley fell out of his armchair - where he had fallen asleep - on the floor with a thump, while William only opened his eyes sleepily as Buffy pointed at Liam threateningly and said: "It was you, wasn't it?"

"What are you talking about?" Liam asked, genuinely surprised. He still hadn't been able to fall asleep, but he had been way too lost in his own thoughts to hear the sounds coming from the corridor.

"Don't play dumb with me, you're the only one here who could pull a stupid stunt like that," the slayer said.

"You better take your accusations elsewhere before I really get angry," Liam said dead serious and Buffy immediately felt sorry for lashing out at him like that.

"It wasn't you," the slayer sighed and ran a hand across her tired face.

"What happened?" Wesley asked standing up from the floor.

"We heard footsteps, someone knocked on our door. When I opened it, there was no one there. I figured...," she looked at Liam.

"That I did it?" Liam scoffed.

"You do seem like the type. Immature and all," Buffy pointed out.

"I'm very mature," Liam stared at the slayer hard in a way that made Buffy's face, for some reason, turn red. Whatever he had meant by mature, it was definitely not what Buffy had previously referred to.

"Okay, sorry, then," Buffy said and quickly retrieved from the room. Liam smiled.

"What was that all about?" William asked confused as to why the slayer had left the room in such a hurry.

"Liam was just being his charming self," Wesley said shaking his head exasperated.

As Buffy reentered room 132, she didn't notice the hand gripping the chandelier or the pair of shoes, that weren't there before, leaned against the wall. As soon as the door of room 132 slammed shut behind the slayer, Halfrek snickered.

"I could do this all night," she said smiling.

"This is childish," James interfered annoyed.

"Well, make your own fun, James darling," Halfrek suggested as Ronald concentrated and his feet, along with his shoes began walking down the corridor very noisily again. The shoes immediately stopped when Liam opened the door to the boys' room and stared out into the dark corridor. The hand lowered itself from the chandelier and tapped Liam on the shoulder lightly, hiding in the darkness when the boy turned around startled.

"You think spirits be haunting this place?" Liam asked Wesley when the watcher-in-training joined him in the hallway at his request.

"I suppose it's a possibility. Especially if it's been abandoned for a longer period of time," Wesley said eyeing the corridor with a frown. He startled when he came across a pair of eyes shining in the darkness, but when he blinked, they were gone. "I must be getting really tired," he said rubbing his eyes.

"Why? What did you see?" Liam scanned the darkness again.

"Nothing, it was just my eyes playing tricks on me," Wesley assured him. "I need to go to the bathroom. You can go back inside."

"You're not going anywhere alone," Liam said. "We can't risk anything bad happening. Whatever these things are, they might attack only when one of us is alone. We just have to make sure that doesn't happen."

"Fine, but just for the record I don't need anyone holding my hand," Wesley agreed to let him come along. "What about William?"

"He isn't wondering down dark hallways, now is he?" Liam pointed out. "Besides, if something does happen, he can scream and Buffy'll hear him."

"You do have a point," Wesley sighed and walked down the hallway with Liam close behind.

"I think I will make my own fun," James told Halfrek smiling before following the two teenagers towards the bathroom.

"Good for you," Halfrek said and turned towards what was left of Ronald's body: "How about we try and choke one in his sleep?"

"The one that's alone?" Ronald asked as his eyes returned in their sockets. "Billy won't be very happy about that."

"Yeah...," Halfrek thought about it for a moment before saying, cheerfully: "Well, we don't have to kill him..."

"What do you have in mind?" Ronald asked intrigued.

"Ever heard of the term 'urban legend'?" Halfrek asked smiling.

Liam stood in the bathroom, outside the individual toilet booths, waiting for Wesley and looking at himself in the mirror. His hair really looked out of place with this strange outfit he had picked out for himself, but cutting it short seemed even stranger to him. He heard a sound, like a whoosh, behind him. He turned around, but nothing was there. He sighed and looked back at the mirror. This place was beginning to get to him. What he could not see in the mirror however was James, in game face, lunging over his shoulder.

End Part 4