The next day, I had the worst headache I had had in a long time. I had stayed up all night again, and the bright sun was hammering at my eyes behind my sunglasses, even though I had pulled my hood up and kept my eyes half closed.

The night before, I had even decided that what I was needing was a fresh kill. After all, it had been at least a year or two since I had actually gone out and hunted and stalked prey. I thought perhaps the thrill of the hunt, chase, and kill would bring me back to my senses and make these phantom pains stop.

Of course, nothing could ever be that easy.

After I'd finished draining an unfortunate coyote, I could tell that hadn't worked. The pain had alleviated, certainly, but only now it was a dulled ache, and when the morning came and I stepped out into the sunlight, it all started throbbing again, and now my back was stinging as well.

I was so tired. I could barely find the will to go to school, but I knew I had to, if for nothing more than to find out what on earth had happened with Wendell.

'Don't fall asleep, don't fall asleep, don't fall sleep.' Was the mantra I repeated in my head constantly, even over the jabbering advice of the Essence.

Make us whole, make us whole, make us whole

Between the two of us my head was a jumbled mess of arguing voices clashing together.

Before I even realized it, I somehow found myself inside the school.

I didn't even remember walking onto the grounds.

Frowning, I looked about in confusion, but didn't take my sunglasses off.

It's an odd sensation, suddenly finding yourself somewhere and not remembering at all how you got there or when you arrived.

I glanced up at a clock on the wall in the corridor. I wasn't late, in fact I was right on time, so that was one small relief. I supposed I had just been moving mechanically, out of habit. I was so tired I was surprised I hadn't ended up back at home.

"Margery!" I winced at the added noise and turned as Willow came towards me, smiling in greeting, with Xander in tow.

"Hey, Marge." Xander waved.

"Willow, Xander." I nodded. My voice sounded odd. It sounded raspy and distant. I cleared my throat and forced a smile on my face.

"Are you feeling okay?" Willow asked, her smile slipping, "you look…kind of pale."

I smirked.

"Having no pulse will do that to you." I answered, forcing a chuckle.

"Plus the whole sunglasses thing is kind of a tip off." Xander added, gesturing at his face. I reached up and pulled them off, stuffing them into my pocket afterward. When I pulled them off, however, I saw Xander's eyes widen and Willow gave a little sound of surprise.

"What?" I asked, looking between them, "What's wrong?"

"Your eyes," Willow said, "you have really dark circles under your eyes."

"Yeah, like, black circles." Xander said with a wince. "And…I thought your eyes were blue?"

"They are, as far as I know." I answered with a shrug, "Why?"

"They're…sort of…brown looking, only darker." Willow answered. "Are…are you sure you feel okay?"

I frowned, panic seizing me. My eyes were changing color? And the circles under my eyes, they should have been eradicated after my last meal. In fact they should have been gone even if I'd had a blood-pack.

This was not good. Not good at all.

I needed to talk to Giles about this. I had to tell someone what was going on, this was not normal.

"Just a…headache." I mumbled. They both frowned and looked at each other, but didn't ask anything further, bless them.

Thankfully we were interrupted at that point when Buffy walked in.

"Oh, Buffy!" Willow said, rushing to her while Xander and I followed, "We've been looking for you!"

"We…have?" Xander repeated.

"About the spiders," Willow continued, "did you talk to Giles about them?"

Xander chuckled.

"Ah, the spiders," he said, smirking, "Willow's been kind of, oh, what's the word I'm looking for?" he paused, that gleeful look still in his eyes, "Insane," he continued, "about what happened yesterday."

I rolled my eyes.

"Spiders appeared from nowhere and half scared the poor boy to death," I said, "of course there's no reason to be worried about that whatsoever."

"I don't like spiders, okay?" Willow said, "Their furry bodies, their sticky webs, and what do they need all those legs for, anyway? I'll tell you why, for crawling across your face in the middle of the night!" she shuddered while I tried to hide a laugh threatening to spill out.

She turned and frowned at Xander.

"Why do they not bother you?" she demanded.

"I'm sorry," he shrugged, "I'm unruffled by spiders. I mean, if there were a bunch of Nazis crawling across my face, then…" he trailed off while we stared at him.

"Well, it was pretty intense." Buffy nodded.

"Thank you." Willow said, then looked at me.

I shrugged.

"If they move very quickly I don't like them." I said.

"Well, you know, Hellmouth," Xander said, "supernatural monsters and all that…been there."

"Very brave of you, Xander." I commented.

"I'm just saying, there's something bad out there, we find, you slay, we'll party."

Buffy just laughed and turned towards the library door.

"Thanks for having confidence in me." She quipped.

"You da man, Buff." Xander said.

I found myself automatically looking for Giles. The possibility of actually having to tell him what was happening to me, confessing that something was amiss, it was more than a little frightening, I must say.

"We're still caring about the spiders here, though," Willow insisted, "let's not forget the spiders."

"I know, Giles said he was going to look it up," Buffy said, looking around, "Giles?" she called.

"Maybe he's in the faculty room?" Willow wondered when he didn't immediately arrive.

I heard footfalls headed our way and turned towards the sound.

He emerged from the back room and looked about him, looking a bit confused, or at least caught off guard.

"Hey Giles," Buffy said, smiling jokingly, "wakey wakey."

He smiled bashfully.

"I, uh, was…in the stacks." He said, motioning behind him, "Got lost…"

I frowned. He didn't sound like himself, and…his heart-rate was elevated.

"Did you find any theories on spiders coming out of books in there?" Xander asked, "Big, hairy, crawly-" he reached up and tapped his fingers like spider's legs on Willow's shoulders. She jumped, then slapped his chest with an indignant squeak.

Xander looked taken aback by the slap.

"It's funny if you're me." He insisted.

"I couldn't find anything," Giles said, "particularly…illuminating…I think you'd best have a talk with Wendell himself."

Buffy nodded.

"Okay…if he can still talk."

She gave Giles a suspicious look. So she noticed it too, then. Giles wasn't acting right. I was half tempted to stay and see what was wrong, but my courage was slipping about telling him about my nightmares.

Instead, I decided to accompany the children. After all, I did want to see if Wendell had any light to shed on the matter.

We found Wendell in the courtyard, seated on a table. He looked rather forlorn, and small wonder about that.

"Hey, Wendell, how are you?" Buffy asked as we approached. He looked up, and he looked as though we'd just woken him up.

"Huh?" he asked.

"You okay?" Buffy asked. He stared, then dropped his head and swallowed.

"Well, good talking to you, man." He patted him on the shoulder and started to walk off again. I reached up and pushed his shoulder as he tried to pass by me, making him stay in place.

"Did you guys want something?" Wendell asked meekly.

"We just thought you might want to talk about what happened." Buffy said.

"You know, yesterday? With the spiders?" Willow tried.

"I-I don't know what to say about that." Wendell said.

"You don't have to say anything," Xander said, "you got swarmed with two hundred insects-"

"Arachnids." I corrected quietly.

"-and you gonzoed. Anybody would have."

Wendell pointed to me.

"What she said." He said. Xander looked confused.

"What?" he asked, looking at me.

"They're not insects, they're arachnids." Wendell said. He almost sounded angry.

"From the Middle East?" Xander asked.

I looked at Buffy and Willow. They both looked as bewildered as I did.

"Spiders are arachnids," Wendell explained, "they have eight legs, insects only have six." He looked around, "Why does everyone make that mistake?" he demanded. He had grown more and more angry during his speech.

"I-I don't know." Buffy said.

"It's like everyone calling Ukraine the Ukraine, when it's just one word. Like Russia, not the Russia." I spoke up, I shrugged when they looked at me, "A common mistake repeated often." I finished in a mumble.

"Has, anything like that ever happened before?" Buffy asked Wendell. He was quiet for a minute, and then nodded.

"When?" Buffy asked. He laughed.

"Lots of times." He said.

"Ugh," Willow shivered, "you must hate spiders more than me."

He shook his head.

"I don't hate spiders," he said, "I love them. They hate me."

"Hope you studied for the history test." Cordelia suddenly interrupted. We hadn't seen her approach, and she was, as usual, and unwelcome surprise.

"What history test?" Buffy asked.

"The one we're having in fourth period right now." She answered.

"There's a history test?" Buffy demanded as Cordelia started walking away, "No one told me there was a history test! I haven't-" she broke off, looking around at us wildly, "I'll see you guys later. Marge," she grabbed my arm, dragging me with her, and away from Wendell, "start telling me what all happened in the eighteenth century."

"War for Independence, lots of battles, the French Revolution, amongst other things." I rattled off.

"War for Independence," she said, squeezing my arm, "battles, dates, important figures, lay it on me, now."

"You do realize I was in France for half of it?" I asked her.

"So was Benjamin Franklin," she answered. I grinned.

"Very good! You remembered something." I told her. She rolled her eyes at me.

"No jokes, just info, spill!"

I've never been much of a teacher, but I crammed as much information as I could into ten minutes, and then sent her on her way.

By that time, the corridors had emptied as everyone went to class, which left me alone.

I looked at the library doors.

It felt strange, to be afraid of entering the place that I regarded as my sanctuary, to be afraid of talking to someone I would consider my best friend.

I'd never been in this situation before, and I had no idea what to do about it.

I took a deep breath and walked towards the library doors.

When I went in, it was quiet. So quiet in fact I thought perhaps Giles had stepped out for a bit, and I was just about to turn around and leave when I heard movement in his office, and he emerged, blinking tiredly.

"Oh, Margery," he said, smiling and coming towards me, "I thought I heard someone come in. How are you?" he stopped short and frowned, evidently noticing the changes in my face.

I hurriedly picked up a book and flipped it open, lowering my face to gaze at it.

"Fine, I'm fine, Giles." I cleared my throat to try and cover up how shaky it sounded, "And yourself?"

"Uh, f-fine." He said, slowly coming towards me. "Fine, I think." He paused and regarded me thoughtfully.

"Is…is everything all right, Margery?" he asked, his tone dropping, "You've been acting...out of character for you. Has anything happened? Has anyone said anything?"

I shook my head.

"I'm all right," I said, "I've just…not been feeling myself lately."

"Any reason?" He asked.

I looked up and met his eyes. Immediately, the image of him dead in a pool of blood, with me kneeling over him, filled my mind and I looked away again. He must have seen something change in my countenance because I felt him shifting towards me.

"Margery," he said, "I…I like to think we've come to know each other well enough to, I don't know, share personal information with each other. If there's anything you need to tell me, anything at all-"

"Well," I said, quietly, "there, there has been something happening that…I think you should know about. For your own safety…"

"Yes?" Giles murmured.

I looked at him again, steeling myself, but just as I started to tell him everything, but then the screaming started.