It happened that night. Anya came back from her vengeance trip, bringing with her a thin, white box. It was kind of glossy. "I know how we can get rid of this Shadow Man guy."

Dawn looked at the box. "How exactly are we supposed to do that?"

"We play a game with him." Anya said cheerfully.

"Yeah, and then we can invite him over for tea, and just hand Buffy over to him." Xander said, unenthused.

"No, no. I'm serious. I met a guy down in Peru ­ he was a very sexy man at that ­ well, he was a demonologist and he knew about Shadow Men. It is a shame he only studies them literary wise."

"You were checking out the demonologist?" Buffy asked. "Well, he reminded me a little of Spike, with the hair color and the all black clothing. But his eyes were this intense color blue, like nothing I've ever seen before. His hair was a little longer in the front and back, and it almost fell into his eyes. He had a snake tattooed on his wrist, and I think he had a matching earring. I think I spent a good ten minutes just staring at him. There may have been drool." Anya said, off in thought. "If I didn't feel I had to come back to help you after I was done cursing this guy who dumped his girlfriend because he said she was too fat for him…"

"And about the game? Why do we have to play a game with the Shadow Man?" Buffy asked.

"Oh, Shadow Men love to play games. They love riddles and puzzles and any kind of gamble. The have power through the rune Perthro ­ the rune of gamesmanship ­ to be good at game playing."

"So they are good at games, but you want us to play against him anyway. Was the demonologist evil?" Dawn asked.

"Well, if I understand correctly, we play this game and only one of us has to make it to the finish for all of us to come back, so with Buffy's Slayer skills I figure we could do this. If we win the Shadow Man is forced to go back to Shadow World and never bother us again."

"Whoa! Come back from where?" Buffy asked.

"An in-between place. It will be in the Shadow World, but where the other Shadow Men can not interfere." Anya said.

"That's too dangerous." Xander said. "He could trick us and then we'd all be trapped there forever."

"If so, make another gamble. Shadow Men can't refuse a good gamble." Anya said. She took the box into the dinning room and opened it. "Xander you build things; I need you to construct this cardboard house thingy."

"You want me to build a dollhouse?" Xander said.

"This house will be the in-between place. Make sure it is sturdy. Dawn, do you want to put the furniture in when he finishes building?"

"Sure; even though I was never big on dollhouses." Dawn mumbled.

"All right, now all we have to do is shuffle the cards. Let me." Anya said taking the cards off of the table and shuffling them.

The paper house had been constructed. A three story, Victorian style house with a turret, open on one side, stood on the table in front of them. The interior design was exotic, with art and tapestries, screens, and rugs. The furniture was gothic style, and very pretty ­ yet sinister beyond belief. Anya finished shuffling the card deck and placed it on the table in front of the house. Buffy had the box lid and was reading the written instructions. She was uneasy about the shiny red rune, shaped like an upside down, jagged 'U' in the middle of the box lid. Anya identified it as 'Uruz" the rune that breaks the veil between dimensional worlds. They had drawn their likenesses on the paper dolls. Dawn's doll looked the most realistic; Xander's was the least realistic. They had drawn their nightmares on a slip of paper and placed them inside the various rooms face down. Nobody showed anybody else their nightmares, but Buffy was pretty sure everyone knew that Anya had drawn bunnies and was probably the only one who drew their actual worst nightmare.

Buffy put the lid down. Do we have the pieces for The Shadow Man, The Creeper, and The Lurker?"

Anya rummaged through the paper doll cut outs and produced a wolf and a serpent. Underneath the wolf the crimson red text read "The Creeper," and under the serpent, "The Lurker."

"There's no Shadow Man piece. I'm sure it doesn't matter. He doesn't want his appearance to be known yet. The dreamy demonologist guy said that Shadow Men like the element of surprise." Anya explained calmly, but looking a little unsure about something.

"All right, the oath thing." Anya took a deep breath. "I swear that the game is real and that I am putting my life in peril."

Buffy looked at Anya. "Yeah, me too." She looked at the box lid in front of her. "What she said."

Dawn started to make her oath when Buffy stopped her. "I really don't think you should do this."

Dawn rolled her eyes. "I already told you, if I don't go with you now, I'll just wait until you go and do it anyway." Her arms were crossed and she glared at her sister.

Buffy sighed. "Fine, but if you get killed you're dead… well, apparently you would already know that."

Dawn swore that she understood that the game was hazardous to her life. Xander reluctantly did the same.

Anya reached out and drew a card. "You have all sworn that you know that the game is real."

Xander looked at Anya. "You shuffled the cards. I saw you shuffling; how did that card still make it on top?"

Anya sighed. "It is mystical. Whatever the cards want read will be read. The cards will read the same no matter how you shuffle them."

Dawn picked up the next card. "You are all alone in the house and you hear footsteps upstairs." The four listened to the heavy thumps moving above them.

"Cute." Buffy said drawing the next card. "You try to run, but there is no way out." She looked up. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"We're locked in. We can't leave until the game is won by us." Anya said.

Xander picked up his card. "The clock strikes nine."

Buffy laughed. "It's 7:30, how is the clock going to strike nine?"

Suddenly a clock began to chime.

One. Two. Three.

"Buffy, when did we get a clock that chimes?" Dawn asked.

Four. Five. Six.

Buffy held Dawn's hand.

Seven. Eight. Nine.

Everything went black.