Chapter 6

Martin frantically unscrewed the top to the bottle. There were only a few pills left. After that, he was on his own. What the hell am I gonna do? he thought, holding the last two pills in his hand. I can't stay awake forever, and I can't even warn my friends. Two were already dead. And by tomorrow he knew he would probably be as well. And there was absolutely nothing he could do.

"Martin!" Xander let his hand fall on his friend's shoulder.

"Aaaahhh!" Martin jumped, it seemed at least ten feet in the air and dropped the last two pills.

Xander screamed as well, startled by this unexpected reaction to his sudden presence. "Woah there! Down boy! Me friend! Calm, soothing thoughts, deep breath." Then he caught sight of the pills Martin had dropped. "Hey what's this?"

Martin bent quickly to grab the pills but Xander beat him to it. Xander scrutinized the pills for a moment and then his eyes widened with recognition. "Martin, this is speed!"

Despite his predicament and imminent horrible death, Martin was surprised at Xander's recognition. "Xander how do you know what speed looks like?"

"Uhhhh, well," Xander stammered, "Look, this isn't about me. I mean, Jeez, I knew you were on edge recently but this? Well actually I guess this explains a lot."

"Xander," Martin said with forced calmness. "Give me the pills. Please."

"No." Xander said. "No I don't think that's gonna happen. You're my friend Martin and I'm not gonna let you make a horrible mistake." He threw the pills on the floor and stomped on them, grinding them into dust.

"Xander you have no idea what you've just done." Martin whispered, his only chance to postpone the inevitable disappearing before his eyes.

"Sure I do." Xander insisted. "It's called intervention. It happens all the time. Now look man, I know it's gonna be hard but the withdrawal won't kill you."

"You don't understand!" Martin said. "I can't go to sleep or I'll die!"

"What? You can't do anything the regular way can you?"

Martin fought the urge to simply scream and go kill himself before Freddy could. "I wish to god I could tell you." he said. "But I can't."

"Why not?" Xander pressed him. "If not me than who?"

"I can't tell you because h...because hhhhhh..."

Xander's eyes widened. Martin was stuttering just like Giles had said.

Then Martin's eyes fixed on something down the hall. Amy had just closed her eyes.

"Oh God no." Martin said to himself. "Amy!" he shouted, rushing past Xander.

"Okay what just happened?" Xander asked in confusion. He turned to see Martin rush down the hall towards Amy.

Amy opened her locker to get her books for her next class. And much to her surprise, she found the cheerleading trophy that was usually in the Trophy case on the top shelf.

Amy sighed in frustration. It was obviously a prank pulled by one of the cheerleaders. They just didn't seem to want to let her forget the fact that she'd been bumped from the squad.

"When are they going to get it through their heads that I don't care?"

"Oh of course you don't care!" The trophy said. Amy looked at it in surprise. "Mom?"

"Yes it's me you worthless little klutz!" her mother's voice emanated from the trophy.

Amy backed up, her face filling with fear. "No." she whispered. "No you can't be here."

"But I am." now her mother was behind her, no longer trapped in the trophy. "You're still wasting your youth." her mother said. "And now you're going to pay!" Suddenly it was no longer her mother, but a man who was one big burn scar. He raised one clawed hand and swung.

"No!" Amy snapped awake, Martin shaking her by the shoulders.

"Amy wake up!" he shouted.

"Oh, God Martin!" she shook her head, hoping to wipe away the image of her nightmare. "It was just a dream."

"No Amy," Martin said sadly, "No it wasn't."

"All right," Xander said, catching up. "What is going on? I am really getting tired of saying that, so please, fill me in."

"I can't tell you Xander." Martin said apologetically. "And I can't tell you why either. But Amy can."

"She can?" Xander asked.

"I can?" Amy asked. "But I don't know what's going on!"

"Just tell him what just happened."

"I fell asleep standing up, I had a bad dream and you woke me up."

"That's what's going on?" Xander said disbelievingly. "Okay I think I know who we need to talk to. C'mon maybe Giles can figure this out."

"Well what can you tell me?" Giles asked in exasperation. He'd tried several different questions to try to get information out of Martin, but what ever was keeping him silent was doing a very thorough job.

"Nothing." Martin said miserably. "I'm sorry Giles, but I simply cannot tell you. I want to but every time I try to tell anyone, it just, won't come."

Giles sat thinking for a moment, then turned to Amy. "Martin says that your nightmare will at least give us an idea of what's going on. If you could, please describe it."

"Well," Amy said, "I don't know what good it'll do you but okay. I was opening my locker..." Amy went on to describe, in detail, the dream she had had. When she reached the part about the burnt man, Willow interrupted.

"With a red and green striped sweater?" she asked.

"And, a brown fedora?" Xander added.

"And a glove with knives on the fingers on his right hand." Buffy concluded softly.

Giles was astounded. This was bad, this was very, very bad. "You all dreamed of this man?" he asked. "Every one of you?"

"Uh huh," Willow said, fear seeping into her voice. "And not just us, Michelle, the girl I was baby sitting had a dream about a burnt man who was trying to kill her. I never thought twice about it though, I thought it was just a dream."

"Unfortunately, judging by Derk's disappearance and Joan's death, it most certainly was not, just a dream." Giles turned to Martin, who was scratching his shoulder. "Martin what are you picking at?"

"Another thing I'm not allowed to tell you." Martin grumbled. He did however, show them. He pulled the collar of his t-shirt revealing the bandage on his shoulder.

"Good heavens," Giles exclaimed, "This is definitely serious."

"So how are we going to figure out what's going on?" Buffy asked. "Martin can't tell us, and all we know is that there's some creepy guy trying to kill us in our dreams."

"That sounds familiar." Xander said, recalling the Nightmare incident of two weeks ago.

"A suggestion planted in a person's subconscious is virtually unbreakable." Giles said. "It's very like hypnosis."

"So how do we break it?" Willow asked him, her eyes wide with fear.

"Quite simply," Giles explained. "The only way to remove the suggestion is to put him under hypnosis and try to remove it then."

"Hello," Martin said, breaking in, "You can stop talking around me, I'm still here."

"Oh," Giles said a tad sheepishly, "Yes of course."

Alice walked hurriedly towards the Library, figuring that was where she was most likely to find Martin. She burst in the door, and saw Martin sitting in a chair, surrounded by his friends. At first she didn't realize what was going on, then she saw that Martin's eyes were closed. She caught her breath and ran towards him.

"Wake him up!" she shouted. "Now!"

Startled, Giles jumped up. "What? Alice what are you talking about, he's not asleep, he's just under hypnosis. And how do you know what's going on?"

"I'll answer you later." Alice said. "But we have to wake him up before-"

"NO!" Martin shouted suddenly. He leaped from the chair he'd been sitting in and backed away. "Get away from me!"

"Oh my God we're too late!" Alice said. She closed her eyes, preparing to enter his dream.

At the same time Amy ran to Martin and grabbed his shoulder. At that moment, while Amy was touching him, Martin screamed something unintelligible, and vanished, taking Amy with him.

Alice's eyes snapped open. She stared disbelievingly at the spot where the two had stood. "No." she whispered.

"Ms. Walker," Giles said softly, likewise staring where Martin had been. As were Xander, Willow and Buffy. "If you know anything about what's going on, tell us."

To Be Continued…