Inside the mansion, another scream sounded. Buffy took off at once, taking the stairs three at a time and leaving Willow alone in the darkness. She followed the rickety staircase to the corridor and paused at the top, trying to get her bearings.
"Hello?" She called out, swiftly beginning the walk down the corridor. Coming to the first door on her left, Buffy took a deep breath and reached for the doorknob. With a quick movement she flung it open, revealing what looked to be the bedroom of a young boy. She let the door hang open and continued on.
Moving further down the hall, Buffy positioned herself at another door, this one being on her right. With the same antics as she had used previously, she opened it. Another bedroom was exposed; this one appearing to be a guest room – pale wallpaper, a double bed with cream sheets, a bedside table with a bleeping alarm clock set to the wrong time and a cupboard with a heavy padlock securing it completed the room's contents.
Buffy frowned and left hastily to check the remaining rooms down the corridor. Room after room, she found nothing. The absence of the 'victim' was somewhat unsettling and she was sure that she had missed something. She was certain that the scream hadcome from the upper storey…
Buffy went back and rechecked all of the rooms going over the smallest of details and finding as little as she had the first time, before the thought suddenly occurred to her that maybe, just maybe, she was wrong. Maybe the screaming hadn't come from upstairs. Maybe it had come from downstairs.
Suddenly overcome by an avid fear for her best friend who was alone on the lower floor, Buffy raced towards the stairs and pummelled down them as fast as they would allow, jumping the last five or so steps and landing heavily, feet first on the wooden floorboards.
"Willow?" She called out, her eyes scanning the entryway, anxiously. "Hello?" Letting her eyes adjust to the dimness of the room, she looked around again, hoping that she just hadn't seen Willow yet because of how dark it was.
Everything became clearer and more focused within about thirty seconds and the Slayer was able to make out her surroundings with more ease.
She was disappointed by the fact that she couldn't see her friend.