A/N : Thanx for all the birthday wishes - I had an awesome day! And now on with the story, moving from 'Reptile Boy' to 'Halloween'.
(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)
Chapter 8 - Haven't We Met?
"I can't believe Snyder has us taking kids trick-or-treating" Buffy sighed as she, Willow, and Xander entered Ethan's costume shop, "I mean, come on, Halloween is my one night a year that I don't have to fight the big evil and instead he has me collecting candy with costumed, sugar high, annoyances"
"Maybe it won't be so bad" Willow told her friend, putting her hand on her shoulder comfortingly, "Beside the kids have to be back at the school by six, you could head home after that and veg if you wanted"
"Or we could party" Xander suggested, "The Bronze is having a Halloween bash and we'll already be dressed for it"
"Maybe" Buffy considered as they looked at various costumes, none of them really impressing any of the three, "I mean it could be cool, especially if William was there" she smiled as she thought of him, but the grin soon slid from her lips, "Although I'm starting to wonder if he's avoiding me" she admitted.
"But you guys kissed" Willow chimed in, "and it was all beautiful and stuff, you talked about it constantly for three days" she giggled.
"I know" Buffy blushed as she recalled doing that a few days ago, "But he had to leave so fast after that and I haven't seen him since"
"Well then maybe he's not a suitable guy for you to be day-dreaming about" Xander said, sounding a little parental, "I'm telling you, Buff, these mysterious strangers who know about your Slayerness are just no good"
Buffy and Willow rolled their eyes in unison and their friend was soon distracted by toy guns. He disappeared amongst the crowd of other shoppers, leaving the girls alone.
"You really like this William guy, dont'cha?" Willow said with a smile.
"Really, really do" Buffy admitted with a sigh, "He's just so... oh God Will there aren't words" she enthused, "and when he kissed me, it was like nothing else I ever experienced. I swear I floated all the way to my house" she grinned.
"Oh, I wish I had that" the red-head sighed.
"Me too" Buffy told her, "I mean, all the time, proper dateage and everything, but I don't even know this guys last name. Maybe he doesn't like me as much as I like him or something, maybe he just wanted to get to know me cos he fights demons and I'm the Slayer and stuff"
"So find out" Willow urged her, "Wasn't it you telling me Halloween is the perfect night to be wild?" she reminded her friend, "We just have to get you some stunning costume that'll blow him away, then we'll head to the Bronze and hope he's there"
"It's a possible plan" Buffy considered, "But what'll I wear?" she said, looking around.
"Well... it should be something not you but still totally you" Willow advised badly, "I mean, maybe something inner Buffy-ish, like who you'd like to be"
"Oh God" the Slayer gasped suddenly as she spotted a costume on a mannequin across the room. She grabbed Willow's hand and ran across the store, dragging the red-head behind her, "Look at it" she said as they stood in front of a beautiful dress, worthy of a princess.
"It's gorgeous" Willow agreed, picking up the tag that was attached to it, "Seventeenth Century Noblewoman" she read aloud, "That's what you want to be?" she asked Buffy who nodded.
"It'd be like being a princess" she enthused, "I just wish I could afford it" she sighed heavily when she realised it was way out of her price range.
"Perhaps you can" said an English voice, making Buffy jump, mostly because, for just a split second, she thought it might be William. She realised her big mistake when an older man came into view, grinning like a Cheshire Cat.
The girls guessed he must be Ethan who owned the store, as he took the dress from the mannequin and held it up in front of Buffy, pointing her towards the mirror.
"Perfect" he smiled as she did the same, "Perhaps we could come to some arrangement on the price, say a fifty percent discount?" he suggested.
Buffy's grin threatened to split her face in two as she stared at herself in the mirror and nodded her head.
"Spike!" his head minion called as he entered the factory, "We lost Lucius last night, boss" he told the bleached blond who cursed, throwing the candlestick in his hand across the room.
"Are all of you so bloody thick!" he asked angrily, "Won't be any of us left you keep getting yourselves caught in the sun and what all" he complained, pacing the floor. Of course his real problem wasn't the death of another minion, they were easy enough to recruit, especially when you had a reputation like Spike's own. His real problem was Buffy, and in more ways the one.
"It wasn't the sun" the minion, Marcus, told him, "The Slayer got to him. She almost got me too, I was trapped in a warehouse across town til the sun went down"
"The Slayer!" Spike yelled, "Bloody pain in the ass she is" he muttered, hating the fact he'd ever started this plan to get close to her in order to make killing her more easy. All he'd done was make things more complicated, even ended up falling for the silly chit.
"Isn't it time we killed her, boss?" Marcus urged the bleached blond, "I mean, the night of St Vigeous was ruined by your plan, it must be time for a new one" he reasoned. He didn't like Spike, but he respected his reputation, at least he had before. Now he was starting to wonder if the stories about his Slayer killing were true, since he seemed to be having so much trouble with Buffy Summers.
"I decide when we have a new plan" Spike told the younger vamp, suddenly spinning around and throwing a lump of wood at him. It turned end over end before hitting Marcus square in the chest, piercing his heart and turning him to ash.
"He talks of the Slayer" Dru said in a soft voice as she appeared from the shadows, looking forlornly at the dust and ashes of the minion.
"He talked a load of bollocks pet" Spike corrected her "'S why he's dust"
Dru was smiling slightly as she approached her childe. She came to stand in front of him, made him look at her and then started swaying, her hands moving around his head but not touching him.
"Playing pretty games with your head she is, poor William" she pouted, knowing she was losing her darling boy one piece at a time.
"Nobody's playing games with me, Dru" Spike sighed, knowing it was an out and out lie as he reached for her, but she stepped away "'cept you of course" he complained. She'd been teasing him and talking riddles for days.
"Can't touch, bad dog" she scolded him from a few feet away before coming towards him again, looking close to tears "You're all covered with her Spike, she makes merry music all around you in her pretty pink dress, and you dance to her tune" she said nastily, hating that the Slayer had bewitched him.
"What are you goin' on about, Dru?" he asked, though he had a good idea that she was picking up on his want and possible love for Buffy.
She shook her head and turned away from him, leaving his question unanswered for now. Her hands went to her head and when she spoke again her voice sounded strange - she was having a vision.
"Someone's come to change things, tonight" she said, sounding almost afraid of her own words. Spike shook his head.
"Tonight's Halloween, luv" he remind her, "Nothing's going to happen"
"Insides out and outsides in, and hearts bursting out all red and pink" she sang as if it were a nursery rhyme, making Spike look at her strangely.
"Who'd be messin' with the rules on All Hallows Eve then?" he wanted to know but Drusilla shook her head.
"The man that comes to change it all" was all she would tell him before she disappeared, still singing her little rhyme.
"Well then" Spike said to himself, "Looks like I'm off to see a man about a change"
"You almost ready, Will?" Buffy called to her friend who was just on the other side of the door in the spare room changing into her Halloween costume. Buffy herself was in front of the full length mirror in her own room, admiring the splendour of her pink old-fashioned noblewoman's dress. She had a brown wig in the right style to match her outfit and was very pleased with how pretty and princess-like she looked.
"Er, Buffy, I'm not so sure about this" Willow said nervously as she inched into the bedroom, arms folded first across her midriff and then her half-exposed chest as she tried to decide which part was more in need of coverage.
"What are you talking about?" Buffy said, stunned by the change in her friend, but loving it all the same, "You look gorgeous" she enthused, "I can't wait to see the boys go all non-verbal when they see you"
"But it's not me" Willow whined as she tugged on her short skirt hoping cover a bit more leg with it and finding she only made the gap between the skirt and tight-fitting top bigger, and that didn't help at all!
"It's Halloween, Will" Buffy reminded her, "The night when not you is you, only not you but... well, you know what I mean" she sighed as she heard a knock at the front door, "Ooh, that'll be Xander, come on" she said, grabbing Willow's hand and pelting down the stairs as fast as her outfit would allow.
The red-head grabbed the white sheet she'd bought as her original costume of a ghost as her friend pulled her down towards the front door where they presumed Xander would be waiting. They both got a surprise when it was a shorter young man with dyed black hair.
"Oz" Willow said without thinking, her hand clamping over her mouth a second later as she realised she'd thought aloud.
"Hey" he frowned slightly as he glanced between the red-head and the girl in the dress and wig, "Uh, I think I have the wrong house, I was looking for a friend of mine but..." he stopped as he stared at Willow who moved to pull her sheet around her body, "Willow?" he checked but she shook her head before running away out of sight.
Buffy wondered vaguely if this had been the guy Will was staring at so hard last week, she would definitely have to ask her about that. She shook her head to clear her thoughts and concentrate on the boy on her doorstep. They soon found out his friend lived down the street at 1530 Revello Drive, and a badly written message was to blame for the error.
Buffy had barely closed the door when there was a second knock and this time it was Xander, dressed in old army fatigues and with a toy gun in his hand. Apparently a soldier was the cheapest and easiest costume he could come up with.
With Willow firmly hidden under her sheet, despite Buffy's protests, the three set off for the school to pick up a bunch of kids each for trick-or-treating. None of them were expecting it to be a very eventful night, at least not until they went to the Bronze later to party. They had no idea just how weird the evening would get, as Ethan Rayne knelt in the back of his costume shop, by a statue of Janus, chanting a spell.
"Okay kids, one more house then I really have to get you back to... to the, er..." a strange feeling came over Buffy, her mind going blank as she attempted to form the end of her simple sentence. Her hand went to her chest as all the air seemed to be knocked out of hers lungs, and she stood back against a tree. The kids she'd been walking with ran off in all directions, some growling like monsters, others shrieking with fear.
"What is...?" Buffy began again before her world finally went black.
She never saw Spike who was just a little further down the street, loving the sight that met his eyes. Complete and utter mayhem as the kids who had been dressed as demons and monsters became just that, terrorising those with less frightening alter egos and making little old ladies handing out candy run screaming from their own homes. This was evil, twisted, sick, and to Spike's mind, just really neat.
He was vamped out and grinning as he moved down the road, watching the chaos spread and enjoying himself immensely until a certain familiar scent reached his sensitive nose.
"Slayer?" he said softly to himself, wondering how and why he could smell so much fear mixed in with the aroma of the powerful young woman he hated himself for falling for. It was then he spotted the girl, all dark hair and fancy frock, cowering at the base of tree, scared half to death.
"Buffy?" he said as he approached her, game face hidden firmly away now as he approached her.
The poor girls fear level rose to out of control as she tried to hide herself behind the tree trunk but failed miserably.
"I... I would ask you to leave me alone, sir" she said in a fancy yet girlish tone, "I have no purse that you might steal and I beg you would not take advantage of the situation I find myself in" she said, practically in tears as he approached her and knelt down to her level.
"Buffy, luv, it's me" he said, frowning, "You remember me? I'm William" he tried but she shook her head.
"I'm sure we have never met, sir" she told him, body shaking along with her voice, "I would remember such irregularity as that in your hair and strange clothing" she told him and Spike finally thought he understood what was happening as he glanced behind them at the demon kids, as well as others who had become their costumes. Little soldiers with real guns now instead of plastic ones that fired water, fairies with real wings capable of flight, and pirates with genuine hooks for hands.
"In any case, my name is not Buffy as you seem to think" she was saying when he glanced at her again, "I'm sure it is not, and yet..."
"And yet, you don't remember what your name really is, do you pet?" he checked and she regretfully shook her head in the negative.
With a sigh Spike reached out a hand to her arm and was a little surprised when she moved away so fast.
"You will not touch me" she said firmly, scrambling to my feet, "I... I am a lady, I should not be here with you, I... I am certain someone is worried about me. I must go" she rambled as she ran away from him, right into the path of an oncoming car.
"Oh bollocks!" Spike cursed as he tore after her, grabbing her just in time and flinging her to the ground as the car sped past, driver honking his horn in annoyance at the idiots that had been messing around in the road.
Buffy was breathing heavily from the shock and from the fact she was lying on the ground, wrapped in Spike's arms. They were incredibly close and she was sure it was terribly improper, and yet she made no moves to get up.
"Not so pissed at me for touching you now, eh pet?" Spike smirked, "Might've been killed if not for me playin' hero and saving your life" he said softly, pushing her strangely dark hair from her face.
"I am grateful to you, sir" she breathed unevenly, "The demon would surely have killed me" she agreed.
Spike was wondering whether he should grab her, snog her, and have his wicked way with her right here and now, it wasn't as if anyone would care with all the chaos going on around them. Hell he might even have a taste of her whilst he was at it, she wouldn't know what was happening til it was too late. Still, there was something that made him stop and think more clearly. The innocence in her eyes overwhelmed him, the trust she suddenly seemed to have for him, gratitude because he'd saved her. He couldn't hurt her, as insane as it was he was just a little bit in love with her and killing her, even taking advantage of her, was impossible.
With a little sound of aggravation escaping his throat, Spike scrambled to his feet and pulled her up too. She smiled at him, before looking towards the road just as a second car sped past, followed by a pair of larger kids, one a horned demon now, and the other a zombie.
Buffy screamed and threw herself into Spike's arms, burying her face in his chest. She was petrified and now seemed to believe he would protect her. Not one to let a chance to play hero to the damsel in distress pass by, Spike wrapped his arms around her and soothed her.
"Ssh, pet, 's alright" he whispered into her hair, "Nobody and nothin' is gonna hurt you, not on my watch" he promised her.
"You will protect me from the demons?" she checked with a sniff as she looked up at him through long lashes.
"Always, luv" he assured her, as Buffy managed a smile.
"Take me away from here, William" she begged of him, "Where the demons cannot find me. Until I regain some memory of where I belong I am afraid to be left alone here" she said worriedly, daring a quick glance at the chaotic scenes erupting all around.
"Come on then, luv" Spike said as he grasped her hand in his, "Let's get out of here"
To Be Continued...