Buffy didn't go back to sleep that night, instead she stared at the shadow trying to catch what ever it was that was making it appear there. She didn't have any luck. When the sunlight began to pour through the window it faded out completely.

Buffy stumbled down the stairs to find Dawn at the computer. "What are you doing?" Buffy asked her. She sat down across the table from Dawn, and laid her head on the table. She hadn't gotten any sleep, and she was feeling it big time.

"Oh. I'm researching demons that are hard to see, and that stalk - but doesn't attack."

Buffy raised her head just enough to where she could give her sister a look. "You're what?"

"I was bored okay. You won't let me patrol, so research is all I have. You can't take that away from me."

Buffy smiled. "Wanna bet?"

Dawn huffed. "All right, I get it. The search was just as pointless as it sounded anyway."

Buffy pulled her gray robe around her tightly. "Good. Try looking up six foot tall shadows that watch you while you sleep, but disappear once you try to investigate them."

Dawn looked confused. "You were being watched by a shadowy peeping- tom? They have everything in Sunnydale, don't they?"

Buffy got up and went to the kitchen. "Are we out of Frosted Flakes?"

Dawn, busily typing, yelled to her "They're on top of the refrigerator."

Dawn listened to the sound of cereal being poured into a bowl. Buffy came back into the room with a bowl full of Frosted Flakes.

Dawn found something.

"Um, Buffy?"

"Yeah?" Buffy said through a mouth full of cereal.

"Could you see the shadow when the sun started coming up?"

"No. It's a shadow. Light kills shadows." "

Well, did you, I don't know, try to gain knowledge of the world and lock a bunch of creatures in a closet, that got loose, and now want to kill you?" Dawn asked.

"No. A world chock full of no. What are you getting at?"

Dawn hesitated, and explained, "Shadow Men. Not to be confused with the ancient Sumerian Shadow Men who created the first Slayer. They come from the mythological world of Niflheim. They are said to be an all male race, extremely handsome, and, um, they kidnap people and take them into their world: The Shadow World. They can be summoned for knowledge or power but in turn they must be given something in return, and what they want is usually something the person can't afford ­ such as, let's say ­ their life."

Buffy blinked. "And don't you think I would have told you if I had summoned up some Shadow Whosits for knowledge of some sort?"

"Sometimes the debt can be fulfilled by being given someone else in their place." Dawn said, "So maybe someone else did, and they didn't want to die, so they thought of the first person to come to mind, you, and now they are waiting for the best time to snag you."

Buffy had finished her cereal. "You think somebody offered me to the boogey men? Why would they think of me? Who would be dumb enough to summon these things anyway? Hey, you didn't make any wishes when watching your movie last night did you. Remember the wish you made to keep people from leaving you which got everyone trapped in our house?"

"No. I thought the movie was romantic... But I so do not use the "W" word anymore, especially since Anya is, you know, granting wishes of late. As for who would be stupid enough, I don't know. Maybe… Andrew, or Jonathan." Dawn suggested.

"They are long gone by now. Besides, I was probably imagining it all anyway. This all sounds too out there to be what is going on."

Dawn's eyes got wide. "You know that it will be now because you just said that, right?"

Buffy frowned and pouted. "Yes... Why do I even open my mouth sometimes?"

Dawn quipped, "Because you desperately enjoy the sound of your voice telling other what to do and how things are."

Buffy shot a glance at her, "Remember the talk about the non- research having?"

Dawn zipped back to the computer screen. "I'll research to myself."

Buffy stood up to go get dressed; She was still wearing her yummy sushi pajamas, that still fit and she still loved. "Please do."