Chapter 21: Little Box of Horrors Part 2

In the Transamerica Pyramid in San Francisco, Paige stood with a man and a woman in an elevator as the doors opened. A young girl, Wendy, stepped in and turned to look at her father.

"Are you sure you don't want me to go down there with you?" the father asked.

"I'm fine, dad," Wendy replied.

"Now, remember, go straight to mommy, okay? She's waiting for you in the lobby."

"Dad ..."

The elevator doors started to close as a man in a business suit, Trey, came running out from the hallway heading toward the elevator. "Hey, hold the doors!" he said as he stuck his briefcase into the elevator stopping the doors form closing completely and when they opened again he stepped inside. "Thanks a lot." He reached over and pressed one of the buttons on the elevator's control panel.

Wendy looked at Paige. "I saw you on my way up, like an hour ago."

"Yeah. I've been looking for someone," Paige said as the elevator rattle and the number panel fluctuated between 17 and 18.

And then the elevator lights went out and then back on as the elevator itself jerked and rattled.

Wendy and Paige grabbed each other.

"What's happening?" said the woman, Linda, as the elevator lights go out again and the elevator stops completely.

"Oh, you've gotta be kidding me," Trey said as the lights came back on.

Linda turned and glared at the man, Roger.

"What?" Roger asked. "You're going to blame me for this, too?"

"How dare you even imply that's part of my agenda?" Linda asked.

"I'm not having anything to do with your agenda."

"I'm just standing here! I had nothing to do with it."

"I'm scared," Wendy said as she clung to Paige.

"It's okay," Paige said and then she noticed the whining she had been hearing all day had stopped. "Oh, my god, the ringing stopped. That means ..." She looked at the others and they stared back at her. "It's one of you. It –You—It stopped."

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

At the Summers residence Piper paced the living room as she listened to Leo on the phone. "You're sure there is nothing?"

"I'm sorry, Piper," Leo said. "I've checked the book twice. There is nothing on a demon called Katya."

Piper sighed. "Okay, hang by the phone in case we need you," she said as she hung up. She looked to Phoebe, Buffy, Joyce, Dawn and Giles. "We know nothing. Katya is not in our book."

"Well, maybe we should try magic school," Phoebe suggested.

Suddenly Wyatt orbed into the middle of the living room, his teddy bear clutched in his arms.

"Hey, little brother," Buffy said as she knelt down next to Wyatt. She looked over her shoulder at Piper. "I thought you were trying to get him not to …"

"He's not supposed to," Piper said with a sigh. "Wyatt, you better orb back to daddy before he gets mad."

"Bye little bro," Buffy said as Wyatt orbed out. She looked at everyone and sighed. "This is too much. A demon out for the box I could handle. Being the next Guardian, I can't handle.

"Buffy," Phoebe sighed. "There's nothing that I can say that's going to make this any better. But this like everything else makes you who you are."

Just then the phone rang as Piper handed it to Joyce.

"Hello," Joyce said, "Willow, what's …"

"Phone," Buffy said as the phone orbed into her hand and she held it to her ear. "Willow?"

"Help," was all Willow said before the line went dead.

Buffy turned and headed for the door.

"Where are you going?" Piper asked.

"To find Willow. She sounded scared," Buffy said.

"Buffy, wait," Phoebe said as she started to follow Buffy.

"No!" Buffy said as she turned around and a powerful telekinetic blast emanated from her hands, hitting Phoebe square in the chest and pushing her backward into the wall.

"Ohh ..." Buffy said as she looked down at her hands and then orbed out.

Giles moved over and helped Phoebe to stand. "Are you alright?"

"Phoebe?" Piper said drolly. "You okay?"

"God, aren't you tired of asking me that?" Phoebe said. She looked to Giles. "I'm fine, thanks."

Piper smiled. "It does get a little repetitive. We've got to go get her somehow."

Phoebe shook her head. "It's okay. We can't force her to be okay with this. Look at us; you and Prue weren't okay with this at first. Even Buffy was not okay with being the Slayer at first. To find out in the course of only a few weeks that she is not only a Slayer, but part-Whitelighter, that Leo is her birth father, and that she is a witch. I can see why the Elders said they had been holding off on putting too much on Buffy's plate. She's not ready for this, not yet."

"What are we going to do?" Joyce asked.

"May I make a suggestion," Giles said. "Get the box before Katya can open it. I will head back to the library and see if I can find anything on how to deal with her in my books."

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

At the Transamerica Pyramid Linda argued with a voice on the other end of the elevator emergency call box. "How are we supposed to stay calm? We're stuck!"

"Linda, please," Roger said.

"Ma'am, all I can say is we're doing everything we can," said a woman through the call box.

"Well, it's not good enough," Linda replied.

Paige turned back to her own phone conversation. "No, I said I'm trapped," she said as Wendy watched her. "There's people all around."

"What did you say?" asked Leo from the phone. "I can't hear you."

"I said, I'm trapped in an elevator," Paige repeated. "I can't just up and go. Besides, I don't want this ringing in my ears to come back"

"Wait, it stopped? When?" Leo asked shocked the whining had stopped.

"Right when we got stuck," Paige said.

"All right, then never mind. You need to stay there."

"No, wait, what about, Buffy and the box?" Paige asked.

"Piper and Phoebe can handle the box and help Buffy. And you need to help whoever is there that you need to help."

"Okay. Who am I supposed to help?" Paige wondered and then suddenly she heard nothing but the dial tone. "Leo! Leo? Ohh! Damn these phones."

"Yeah, mine's dead, too," Trey sighed. "Looks like we're going to be here for a while, huh?"

"Are you still there?" Linda said as she spoke to the call box. "Hello?! Answer me!"

"Honey, why don't you just let them do their job?" Roger asked.

"Don't honey me. If it weren't for you, we wouldn't even be here."

"Oh, so now this is my fault?" Roger asked.

Trey rolled his eyes and moved over beside Paige and Wendy.

"You know, you were the one who wanted to go into counseling, not me," Roger stated.

"I think the natives are getting restless, huh?" Trey asked.

"Hmm. Yeah. Looks like," Paige said as Wendy huddled closer to her.

"So, what's your name?"

"I'm Paige," Paige said and the muttered to herself. "Please don't let this be the person I have to help."

Trey gave Paige a strange look and took a step away from her. "Oh, all right."

Paige looked at Wendy. "It's kind of nuts we're being stuck here like this, right?"

"I want my mommy," Wendy replied as Linda stopped arguing with Roger to listen.

"Oh, sweetheart, I know you do, but you know what? We're going to be just fine, I promise," Paige said.

"How do you know?"

"Well, because I know things like that."

Trey looked at the elevator ceiling, looking for a way out. He rolled his eyes at her response to Wendy's question.

"Honey, y-you okay?" Paige asked as Wendy started coughing.

"I have asthma," Wendy told her.

Paige sighed. "Fantastic. But I bet you have an inhaler in that pretty little purse of yours, right?"

Wendy shook her head. "My mommy has it."

"Of course she does."

Trey started climbing up the elevator to check the elevator roof.

"What are you doing?" Paige asked when she noticed what Trey was doing.

"I'm trying to get us the hell out of here," Trey told her as he started hitting the ceiling to see if it'll give way.

"Brilliant idea," Paige scoffed.

"Well, at least it's an idea."

Roger shook his head. "No, she's right, you know. You could get hurt."

"At least he's doing something, Roger," Linda said as she and Roger began arguing again.

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"You're acting like a little girl, Roger."

Wendy huddled still closer to Paige.

"I am not acting like a little girl," Roger replied.

"We're stuck in this elevator, and what are we supposed to do?" Linda asked. "Do you need your mother, Roger?"

"Good luck. You'll have better luck with her, you know?"

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

At the Rosenberg home, Buffy orbed into Willow's room. "Willow?"

"Mm-hmm. "

Buffy spun at the sound of the voice and found Katya behind her.

"Interesting I didn't expect you to be a Whitelighter to boot. You know these wonderful devices," Katya said as she motioned toward Willow's desk phone. "It makes luring someone into a trap so ... twentieth century."

"Where's Willow?" Buffy asked.

"Oh ..." Katya said as she reached out to touch Buffy's hair. Buffy took a quick step back out of her reach. "If you want to see her again, you will do what I say." Buffy let out a sigh. "First off, no orbing. Second …" She took a step toward Buffy and put her hand on Buffy's shoulder and they disappeared in a flutter of particles.

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

Giles let out a sigh as he looked at the stacks of books on the table of the Sunnydale High Library. He looked at Piper and Phoebe who had just returned from Magic School and had found nothing. They were like him going through the books on the table.

"You'd think there'd be something about Pandora's Box somewhere," Phoebe said.

Piper nodded. "Leo's been reorganizing Magic School, but maybe Rupert will have something?"

"We can only hope," Giles replied.

"Maybe we should have gotten Leo to help us while we were there?" Phoebe said as she opened yet another book.

"No, he's busy," Piper said.

"Busy doing what? What could be more important than this?" Phoebe asked.

"Globally, nothing," Piper replied. "Personally, I need him to wrangle Wyatt for a day so he can see what I'm talking about. Besides having to deal with Wyatt will get his mind off Buffy."

"You told him?" Giles asked.

"Of course," Piper said to Giles. "He is her father after all." She looked back at Phoebe. "You know, you have been much more optimistic lately."

"Yeah, I guess I have hope," Phoebe said.

"I found something," Giles interrupted. "About the demon. It seems she's a shape …"

"What?" Piper and Phoebe asked when they noticed his hesitation.

"She's a shape-shifter, which we knew. But think for a second, Joyce got a call from Willow just before …"

"You think it was a trap?" Joyce asked as she and Dawn walked through the library doors.

"It may very well have been," Giles said. "I think someone should call Willow's house."

"I'll do it," Dawn said as she moved toward Giles' office and the phone.

"While Dawn is doing that," Joyce said as she moved to the map and scrying crystal that Phoebe and Piper had brought from her house. "I'm going to scry for this demon."

"Even if we find her, we have no way of getting there. We're short an orber," Piper said.

"I believe there may be some teleportation spells in some of my private books," Giles said as he headed into the book cage.

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

Buffy stared at the box on the table as Katya smiled at her, trying to charm her into opening the box.

"I won't hurt you, Buffy. I promise,' Katya said. "I know you're new to all this, including being a Slayer and a Whitelighter and I know all this can be very scary."

"Where's Willow?" Buffy asked. "She's not a part of this."

"Isn't she? I mean, she's merely a pawn in all this, a pawn like you are. I know everything you've become has been a lot to handle. Being the Slayer, a witch, and a Whitelighter, and now your step-mother tells you that you're meant to watch after Pandora's Box?"

Buffy let out a sigh. "I don't even know what it really is."

"You shouldn't have to know. You didn't ask for this. You don't want it. It's unfair."

"I just want my life back, I want to no longer be the Slayer, no longer be a witch, I just want my life back."

Katya smiled. "And I can help you get it back. All you have to do is help me. Open the box and you'll be free from it ... forever."

"But won't that –" Buffy started.

"End all this craziness?" Katya interrupted. "Well, that's what you want, isn't it? To go home ... with your friend? Go ahead. Open the box."

The box started whispering to Buffy as Katya stepped away from her. She reached out and picked up the box as she made her decision. "No ... I can't. I won't."

"Fine. I tried asking you nicely. Now I'll have to make you do it," Katya said. "Lucius!"

Lucius appeared in the doorway holding Willow who struggled in his arms.

"Will!" Buffy said.

"I'm scared!" Willow replied.

Lucius pulled Willow back with him and they disappear down the hall.

"Don't hurt her," Buffy said.

"You know what I want," Katya replied.

Buffy looked at the box.