The library was lovely. I felt at home as soon as I walked in. I didn't see the librarian right off the bat, I heard him rustling around behind another bookshelf across the way from me, however.

I eased one of the doors shut behind me, and stepped up the few steps to second level of the library, and then immediately made for the fiction section.

Why, you may ask? Well, I wanted to check out their selection, but also because it gave me a good vantage point to watch the entrance, as well as the side-room, and not be noticed myself from any of the aforementioned places, or the study tables down below.

Don't ask me how I knew something was going to happen in the library, I just did. I've been around a long time, remember. I've learned to act on my instinct. It's not always right, but it has had time to develop.

As I reached the back row of books, I let my fingers trail over the spines of familiar titles, as if I was greeting old friends. I'm a bit sentimental about books. I don't have many…or, any friends, really, except books. Books last longer than people.

Something interrupted my ceremonial greeting, however, when I inhaled to catch the pleasant, comforting scent of old and new books, I caught scent of yet another smell that seemed to be following me around today.

'Xander?' I thought, whipping my head around to where the scent was coming from. He was at the far end of the platform, behind another row of bookshelves. I had to avoid him.

I rethought this whole situation and nearly decided to leave. That was the paranoid part of me speaking. My first instinct in any potentially unpleasant situation is to flee, but the more I thought about it, the more it seemed a silly idea.

This was the school library, after all. I had every reason to be here.

Besides, it was too late to leave. Buffy came barging in. She didn't sound happy.

"All right." She called out.

"Sorry?" a British voice responded. That had to be the librarian.

"You heard about the dead guy, right?" Buffy continued, marching in. She sounded different. She sounded commanding, ready for a fight. She sounded fed up.

'That's a Slayer.' I thought, peering out around the shelf I was hiding behind. I saw my first look at the librarian: another tall man. Very tall, actually, to me at least. Dressed in tweed, which I could only find appropriate, with round glasses.

He looked bookish, and very smart.

I liked him.

"The dead guy in the locker?" Buffy said as she marched up to one of the study tables and set her bag down on it.

"Yes." The librarian said, coming forward. He held several books in each hand.

"'Cause, it's the weirdest thing," Buffy answered, coming up the stairs towards him, "he's got two little holes in his neck, and all his blood's been drained. Isn't that bizarre?"

The librarian frowned as he looked down at her.

"Aren't you just going: 'Ooh!'?" Buffy finished.

The librarian stared, when pale for a moment, and then got this resigned look on his face. He dipped his head.

"I was afraid of this." He said.

"Well, I wasn't." Buffy answered. "It's my first day, I was afraid that I was going to be behind in all my classes; that I wouldn't make any friends; that I would have last month's hair. I didn't think that there would be vampires on campus!"

Mercy but she sounded so very, very young when she said that.

"And I don't care." She said determinedly.

"Then why are you here?" The librarian asked.

Why was she here, anyway? Telling all of this to a librarian? Someone she didn't even know at that?

His question put her at a loss. She hesitated.

"T-To tell you that…I don't care. Which…I don't and…have now told you. So…bye."

She turned and started back down the stairs.

"Is he-" the librarian began, arresting her descent, "will he, rise again?"

"Who?"

"The boy."

"No." Buffy answered. "He's just dead."

"Can you be sure?"

"To make you a vampire they have to suck your blood, and then you have to suck some of their blood, it's like a whole big sucking thing. Mostly they're just going to kill you." She caught herself, "Why am I still talking to you?"

She started to leave again. This time she actually managed to make it back down the stairs.

"You really have no idea what's going here do you?" the librarian said. He sounded desperate. "You think it's coincidence, your being here? That boy was just the beginning."

Buffy turned.

"Why can't you people just leave me alone?"

"Because you are the Slayer," the librarian said softly, grimly, "And to each generation a Slayer is born, one girl in all the world, a chosen one, one born with the strength and-"

Buffy broke in, her voice sarcastic.

"-skill to hunt the vampires and stop the spread of their evil- blah, blah, blah. I've heard it, okay?"

The librarian sighed, exasperated.

"I really don't understand this attitude, you've accepted your duty, you've slain vampires before."

"Yeah, and I've both been there and done that and I'm moving on."

"What do you know about this town?" the librarian suddenly asked, moving off to the office, looking for something.

"It's two hours away from Neiman Marcus?" Buffy quipped.

"Dig a bit in the history of this place, you'll find a-a steady stream of fairly odd occurrences. I believe this whole area is a center of mystical energy; that things gravitate towards it, th-that you might not find elsewhere."

He emerged from the office, carrying several ancient looking volumes.

I felt an instant yearning to start poring over them. I was probably around when they were first bound, but I had a feeling I hadn't read those yet.

"Like vampires?" Buffy suggested. The librarian started handing her books from the stack.

"Like zombies," he answered, placing a volume in her hand with the listing of every subject, "werewolves, incubi, succubae-

"Exploding ducks?" I whispered as a suggestion.

"everything you've ever dreaded under your bed but told yourself it couldn't be by the light of day. They're all real."

"What? You sent away for the Time life series?" The librarian looked abashed.

"Uh..w-well, yes."

"Did you get the free phone?"

"The calendar."

"Cool. But, okay, first of all: I am a vampire Slayer, and secondly: I'm retired. Hey, I know! Why don't you kill them?"

The poor man, he looked so confused and distraught.

"I'm a Watcher," he said. Ah, yes, that explained it. I should have known. A Slayer has to have Watcher. I think I'm finally beginning to get dementia. It was only a matter of time, and heaven knows I've a lot of that.

"I-I haven't the skill-" he explained, but Buffy interrupted him.

"Oh, come on. A stake through the heart, a little sunlight, it's like falling off a log."

"A Slayer slays," he tried explaining, as though he was speaking to a child, and, to be fair she was acting like one. Because she was one. "A Watcher-"

"Watches?" Buffy finished for him.

"Yes-No!" he set the volumes she'd handed back to him down and tried again. It was like watching an episode of Fawlty Towers. I could just see his annoyance gauge rising with every passing minute and every jibe exchanged.

"He…he trains her, he…he prepares her."

"Prepares me for what?" Buffy demanded. "For getting kicked out of school? For losing all of my friends? For having to spend all of my time fighting for my life and never getting to tell anyone because I might endanger them? Go ahead: Prepare me."

That really took the librarian aback.

She just sighed at him, grabbed her bag, and marched away, leaving him speechless. He followed after her, and as they passed through the doors I heard Xander step out from around his hiding spot.

Of course. I'd forgotten he was there. He'd heard the whole thing.

I groaned inwardly and pressed my forehead against the books.

"What?" I heard him mutter to himself.

This was getting complicated.