Chapter Three
Why did there have to be an unexpected twist? Buffy hated twists. Just as soon as you became close to figuring out the warped mind of a demon, you always uncovered new parts to their demented brain.
"How could we be part of this crazy Evil's plan?" Dawn looked from Willow to Buffy. "I thought it had to do with TV characters, not three-dimensional people."
"Who knows?" Buffy sighed. "Ever since this so-called Entertainer revealed himself to us, he's been all show and no tell. we don't know all we need to know"
"When did this bloody beast first appear?" Spike asked. "And why now?"
"It was after a doozy of a double-date Buffy and I went on a few weeks back," Willow explained.
"Why didn't I hear about this double-date?" Dawn raised a brow. "I just broke up with my cheating boyfriend and needed to hear about someone else's pathetic love life."
"Well, uh, a warlock from my coven had been after Buffy for a long time and she finally gave in to the poor guy, dragging me along, sticking me with his drunk sister who went pukey all over me. It's not something you'd like to relive."
"Like now," Buffy added pointedly to Willow.
"You like witches now, Slayer?" Spike raised both of his brows.
"He's a warlock." Buffy countered, taking some satisfaction in his sarcasm. No, she hadn't waited around and turned into a lesbian in Spike's absence. "And he was nice."
"He was nice?" Spike echoed. "What happened?"
"Nothing worth discussing now." Buffy sighed, dodging more of his questions by getting back to the matter at hand. "Anyway, moving on, The Entertainer popped up through the TV like a poltergeist looking for a little attention and trouble."
They had been vegging watching chick flickswhen his Academy Award golden skin and fashionable tux had appeared on the screen, interrupting Sally's Field's emotional cemetery scene in Steel Magnolias.
"Hello ladies, "His turquoise eyes had twinkled, his lips slithering up like a snake seeking a tasty prey. "What sad faces. Your love lives are pathetic. Don't you know by now that drowning your sorrows in tearjerkers is cold comfort? I could help, though. I could bring the women of the quaint little Louisiana beauty shop out to you. You could relish in their southern charm and advice. I just need your permission. A simple 'okay' will do."
Buffy's initial reaction had been one of amused confusion. When she and Willow had refused his request, he'd vanished as quickly as he'd appeared, leaving them a new demon to research. What was he? This guy hadn't wanted to grant any type of wish per se, so they had checked "vengeance demon" off the short list.
At first, the news of this demon hadn't been taken too seriously. There had been no hurry to get answers, but the annoying little pissant had eventually become a nightly uninvited visitor, rudely interrupting Buffy's teeny amount of TV watching after long hours of teaching at the Academy. It was always the same spiel.
"How would you like to meet Jack and Rose and save Jack from unnecessarily death from hyperthermia…Don't you miss Ross and Rachel and the gang…How would you like to be a part of the medical drama of Seattle Grace?"
As Buffy continued to refuse to take the bait. the demon had gotten increasingly agitated and angered like a petulant child being refused a Stickers in the checkout line. Finally, in an outburst, he'd let his intentions slip.
"Fine, be that way," he sneered. "I will not need your assistance. The day will come forth soon when the portal will open and two worlds will be colliding into bright lights by The Great White Way, and you will not be part of this glorious triumph." He'd then faded from the screen one last time.
With help from Giles and their own set of researchers at the Academy—mainly Willow and Xander and a few members of the council—they'd discovered newer documentation found in the rubble from the blast that wiped out the old council. It turned out The Entertainer was part of a small group who were distant cousins of vengeance demons known as indulgence demons. They didn't have to grant other people's wishes to cause mayhem and bloodshed; they only needed other people's help to grant their own.
"Unfortunately, or fortunately, I should say, a few years back The Entertainer was cursed by a scorned lover and sent into TV land for all of eternity." Buffy told Spike. "Supposedly she'd gotten fed up with his lack of interest in her and his overwhelming interest in Leave it to Beaver and Perry Mason."
Spike's forehead furrowed. "No Twilight Zone? What a sad bloke."
Buffy ignored him. "It seems that one way for the curse to be broken is for another scorned lover to grant his request for him to be set free. The problem is that the make-belief dimension will come with him."
"And another way is for him to wait for the portal to open on its own between the two dimensions." Willow added. "It won't be pretty."
"And the portal is somewhere on 'The Great White Way'" Spike guessed, referring to Broadway in Manhattan.
Buffy nodded, "That's the theory. What better place to bring characters to life than in the most famous theater district that brings characters to life every day, so to speak? We just haven't found it yet and the location isn't documented." She sighed. "It now looks like we have another piece to this puzzle to solve." She turned to her friend. "Will, what exactly happened when you did the spell?"
"Well, you know, locater spells gave us nada." Willow sat down on the sofa. "I started thinking that if the portal's hidden, it might just shimmy and shine under the tirer la couverture spell, but all that shimmied was me."
"Maybe this baddie's playing mind games?" Dawn speculated, taking a seat across from Willow. "Or maybe he did something to our memories?"
Spike nodded. "Like the monks did—." He trailed off looking at Dawn as if he'd done the unforgiveable.
"It's okay. When they made me who I am," she finished the thought without hesitation.
Buffy shook her head. "I think it's more than that. We should do the spell, here, with all of us. Will, can you gather all the supplies?"
The redhead stood and went over to her bags by the door. After taking out incense candles, assortment of powder pouches, and other knick-knacks, she turned back to the group. "All set."
A few minutes later, the four of them sat Indian-style in a circle in the middle of Dawn's tiny living room floor. The glow of the lit incense cast shadows on everyone's face as Willow sprinkled the powders around.
"Fun reunion, innit?" Spike said dryly to Buffy who was seated next to him.
"Oh, it's a blast." Buffy bit her tongue before saying more. It would be so easy to swing back into their cozy repartee. It already was, but she was still angry at him. Remember the anger, Buffy told herself.
"Ready," Willow said when all the pouches were empty and a rainbow powder ring decorated the floor. "Remember to relax and take a deep breath."
"Well, I'll just relax." Spike murmured.
"This is usually a loner spell, but since we are quadruplets here," Willow half-smiled at her own wittiness, "we should hold hands, so that the energy force will pass through us as one." She grabbed Dawn's hand on one side and Buffy's on the other. Dawn grabbed one of Spike's hands.
Buffy held out her other hand to Spike. He glanced into her eyes and gently took it into his cool palm.
They all shut their eyes.
After a moment, a feather-like mist blew across Buffy's face, propelling her eyes open. Her gaze took on the familiar sharp tint with an added severe queasiness that flowed over her like the molecules of her body were being squeezed together and pulled apart all at once. She looked from the wide-eyed faces of Willow, Dawn, and Spike. Their existence shifted in and out of the dim room into a black void.
They sure weren't in Kansas anymore
…..
After midnight, light shimmered through the window from skyscrapers and the flickering from the telly set the living room in a soft, blue glow. The girls had gone into the bedroom to try to call London and do some online research, leaving Spike with his own scrambled thoughts
At least he had his favorite teen drama The Creek to keep him company.
It was the repeat episode from season three where Colby confronted Petey and Sam about their relationship. Spike had always felt a kinship with poor, sarcastic sidekick Petey. Always thinking you weren't good enough for your girl didn't exactly boost your bleeding confidence.
But the episode felt odd and unfamiliar.
And the characters seemed not quite right.
It must have been the alternate state of consciousness that they'd just experienced, one of the strangest out-of-body experiences that had happened to him in the last century, well, short of being burned to ash and then resurrected. His stomach hadn't sodding rolled over in that manner since his first taste of human blood after being sired.
After they'd all snapped out of the magic induced high, Buffy had been the first to conclude that they were in a different dimension. How? Why? When? That was still a bloody blank. The Entertainer must have found a way to gain the upper hand by playing with their memories and sending them to some sort of parallel universe. They were the ones who didn't belong here.
Wherever here was.
What did the stupid nit do to then?
"Will's still trying to get hold of Giles or Xander."
Spike jerked his head to his side.
Buffy plopped down next to him on the sofa. "But no such luck. Those guys probably lucked out not being a part of our little adventure to this new land," she finished dryly.
"Bloody hell." Spike muttered. "We ought to find that evil bastard and kill his telly obsessed ass."
"Not tonight." Buffy sighed resting her head against the back-sofa cushion. "We first need to find out what that ass did to us. I thought he wanted to be freed, not zap us into another dimension." Her forehead winkled.
"Slayer, what is it? What else is it?
Her troubled eyes met his. "I can't help but think this is my fault."
"What? How do you figure?"
"I've been mulling over what could have happened and I think I know." She looked away and then back at him. "You."
Was she accusing him of something? Spike wondered. It was difficult to tell. Her eyes were soft yet sad. Instead of asking, though, he waited for her to continue.
"My last clear memory was the night of my birthday party when Andrew told me you were alive. After that, everything becomes fuzzy until I stepped into this city." Buffy revealed. "Dawn and Willow don't remember much of that night, either."
"My memory's sort of foggy, more like a blank until Dawn called to tell me my secret was out."
"I think I know what happened." Buffy turned toward the television. "I'm like Colby there. Never really been a fan of the wannabe filmmaker with the big vocabulary and idealist perspective, especially when it came to his relationships with Sam and Petey, you know, but I get Colby now."
"Slayer, uh, what does that—."
She pointed to the screen. "Here, Colby felt like a scorned lover being betrayed by his best friend and his ex-soulmate getting involved. A bit over the top reaction to say the least —not life and death—but I get him"
It clicked. "And you think you're the scorned lover who broke the big baddie's curse 'cause of me." Spike surmised. His gut twisted into a killer knot. This insanity wasn't her fault. It was his bloody doing. If he had come to her sooner, they would not be in this situation. "Great, something else for you to hate me for."
"No, I have plenty to hate you for." Buffy smiled. "But not for this." She reached for his hand.
Spike looked down at their joined hands and back up to her lips. All he had to do was lean over and—
"Oh Pacey, you blind idiot. Can't you see she doesn't love you?"
His own voice from long ago reverberated through his mind.
Spike squeezed his eyes shut.
"I'm marrying her now…I realized that in order for us both to be happy, I had to let her off the hook completely, once and for all, even if meant going our separate ways. Thank God, Jo wouldn't have my selfless overture."
Spike jumped back.
Buffy's eyes widened. "What?"
"Bollocks, I remember, I remember something." His head snapped toward the telly. "This show is a bloody fake. It's, it's a show within the true show Dawson's Creek and I spoke to one of the characters tonight. I spoke to the real flesh and blood Petey tonight."