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Chapter 14
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The awkward silence that greeted Buffy’s question caused her to frown in concern. Her Watcher, her boyfriend and Jenny Calendar all looked as if they wished to be anywhere but there facing her innocent question.

Spike was overwhelmed with an emotion he was not supposed to be able to feel, according to all the experts. Guilt--pure, mind-numbing guilt -- roiled over him like waves from an ocean of regret. His dark princess, the fragile creature who had made him and been his constant companion for a century was nothing but dust now and it was due to him.

The lucid moments when Dru had seemed to appreciate and even love him a little replayed across his memory like a soft melody. Memories of the two of them comforting each other and tending each other’s hurts stung in sharp relief, discordant notes in the song. Now the song had ended and Spike hadn’t even been there to hear the final notes. He, who had vowed to always care for her, had sent destruction to her without a thought or worry.

Now another guilty accusation joined the millions he had over what happened to Dru. Buffy was still so trusting and innocent, yet he was holding back the most important information about himself. She deserved to know the truth. If he did love her, he needed to be honest with her and let her make her choice to accept or reject him as he was. Spike felt himself drowning in guilt and sorrow and grief, and if he didn’t leave right then, he was likely to make a complete git of himself.

Buffy looked hurt and puzzled as Spike sped past her and down the hall without a word. "Okay, why do I get the feeling that I just walked in at the most important part of a movie but missed the rest?"

Jenny had a good idea why Spike left as he did. Perhaps Giles would have a harder time denying the vampire’s ability to feel after witnessing that display. "There was a discussion, an argument between Spike and Angel. I’m sure Spike will tell you ALL about it very soon, Buffy. Those two have a complicated history."

Buffy thought about what Jenny said and decided to let Spike have time to cool down. She knew he’d turn up later, full of apologies and kisses, and then they could talk. ‘Mmm, make-up kissage is of the good,’ she thought. ‘Haven’t had any of that from Spike yet.’

Giles placed the Codex out of view in his top drawer. No sense in alarming Buffy over the news that the Anointed One was still living, or undead. He had too much research yet to do on prophecies involving this ascension and the Master.

"Weirdness abounds everywhere today, I guess," Buffy shared. "My last class was like something out of Arachnophobia! Ms. Tishler was going on and on about listening and suddenly Wendell had all these tarantulas crawling out of his book and all over the room. Even the jocks were screaming like girls!"

"Spiders, did you say?" Giles jotted a note to check on portents involving arachnids. ‘And just this past week it was invisible students. It’s a wonder any education takes place in this school at all,’ he thought.

"Nope, tarantulas. The big, hairy kind." Buffy smiled sweetly at Giles before she could get sidetracked again. She had a reason for her quick trip to the school library and walking in on the scene as she did had nearly made her forget it. "Giles…I sorta need the WHOLE weekend off patrol. I know you said it was okay to skip it on Friday because of the big ‘introduce boyfriend to mother’ dinner, but my dad suddenly remembered he has a daughter and is coming to pick me up on Saturday for a weekend visit."

"Yes, well, I suppose I can work out a way to cover for your absence. Naturally, you deserve time with your father." Giles was surprised to feel jealous of the absent parent who had more legal rights in Buffy’s life than Giles ever would.

"That is, if he DOES show. He’s made promises before and cancelled." Buffy frowned, not noticing the exchange of looks between Giles and Jenny. Too often they saw this sort of neglect, but it wasn’t easy to accept, no matter how common. "Promise if he does ditch me, I’ll do my patrols like a good little Slayer. Might even enjoy taking out a few more nests than usual, actually."

~~~

After school Buffy and Giles headed to the hospital to check on a girl named Laura who had been attacked in the school’s basement. Despite all the unusual activity that seemed to be spelling an apocalypse, Giles hoped that this would turn out to be a run-of-the-mill assault with no supernatural overtones.

The girl was battered and dazed, but seemed lucid enough to answer some questions. Buffy brought Laura a potted plant and smiled at her previously unknown classmate as she asked, "Can you tell us what happened?"

Laura was silent for a moment as she reran the attack through her mind. "I was in the basement. I went down for a smoke." The girl gave a nervous smile to the school librarian who had surprised her with this visit. She hoped he wasn’t going to rat her out to Snyder. "Someone was there already."

"Was is someone you knew?" Buffy half hoped to hear it was an ex-boyfriend or your standard axe murderer. Buffy really had enough on her hands with the Master and his gang plotting who knows what.

"NO. I’ve never seen anything like it." Laura shuddered at the memory of the monstrous looking man who had beaten her so badly. She didn’t notice the look that passed between Giles and Buffy at the word ‘it’.

With trepidation, Giles asked, "Can you describe it?"

Suddenly, Laura became quite agitated and didn’t seem able or willing to talk about the attack anymore. Buffy felt sorry for the girl. She remembered the first time she had encountered something from out of a nightmare only to find it painfully real. "Hey, that’s okay. Don’t worry about it. Just rest for now."

A nurse entered then and started to shoo them out of the room. "This miss needs her rest. Come back and visit later."

As Giles and Buffy were leaving the girl’s room, Laura muttered, "Lucky nineteen."

Giles turned back to the girl in the bed and said, "I’m sorry?"

"It’s what he said…right before…he said ‘lucky nineteen.’ That’s weird, right?"

The pain medication was beginning to work and Laura’s eyes closed as Giles and Buffy left her room. They stopped in the hall outside the door and spotted a doctor checking charts.

"Is this young lady going to be all right?" Giles asked.

"Are you family?" The physician asked in return.

Buffy said, "Friends," as Giles answered, "We’re from her school. I’m on staff there, in fact."

The doctor looked the two over closely and decided to give a bit more information than usual to non-family. "She’ll recover. She has a couple of fractured bones and some internal bleeding. She got off pretty easy."

Buffy was horrified. "Easy?"

"Well, the other one’s still in a coma." The doctor stopped in front of another patient’s room.

"Other what?" Buffy didn’t like the sound of this.

"The other victim." The doctor peered into the room. "They found him a week ago. Same M.O. as your friend, only he’s in worse shape. If he doesn’t wake up soon….."

Two victims! Surely this had to be hellmouthy action. Giles looked like he wanted to take notes.

The doctor looked angry as he said, "Somebody’s gotta stop this guy."

Buffy looked into the room and saw a small boy
hooked to machines. "That’s him!"

Giles was startled at the expression on Buffy’s face. "Who?"

"The kid I’ve been seeing around school!" Buffy stared at the child in amazement.

"You’ve seen this child around school?" Giles was puzzled, trying to put it all in context. "The other victim of this brute was at the school? When did you see the boy?"

The doctor caught part of the conversation and
said, "Unless you’re talking about a couple of weeks ago, you are mistaken. Billy Palmer was found beaten and unconscious after his little league game a week ago Saturday. He’s been in a coma, in critical condition, since he was admitted."

Giles ushered Buffy away from prying ears and asked again, "When did you see this Billy?"

"Well, the first time was when Wendell had the spider attack. I saw him again when my brain went to oatmealy mush for my history test." She ignored the ‘so what’s new’ look on Giles face. "I thought it was weird seeing such a young kid just hanging around, but he didn’t have any bumpies, so I didn’t spaz."

Giles muttered to himself, "The boy’s been in a coma for a week. How can this be possible?"

"Um, Giles…Hellmouth, remember? Seeing a little kid at the high school doesn’t rank up there on the weirdness factor. Besides, am I Knowledge Girl now? Explanations are your terrain."

Giles was trying to think of an explanation for
Buffy’s sightings. "Well, there is astral projection." He saw Buffy’s confused expression and explained further. "The theory that while one sleeps, one has another body--an astral body--which can travel through time and space."

Buffy thought about it, then replied. "Billy’s in a
coma. That’s like sleep, right?" At Giles’ nod, she continued, "Could I have been seeing Billy’s asteroid body?"

Giles cringed at Buffy’s malapropism. "Astral body…and I don’t know. I suppose it is possible. The question I have is why though. Why you?"

"I kinda am a weirdness magnet. Maybe that’s why." Buffy thought about what Laura had said and repeated the phrase, "Lucky nineteen…wonder what that means?"

~~~

And still the weirdness continued. Xander appeared in the school hallway clad in just his underwear just after the class goth had a visit from his overly affectionate mom, who kept referring to him as her ‘pookie’.

Giles suddenly found himself unable to read in any of the five languages in which he was ordinarily quite fluent. It was all just gibberish on the printed page. Jenny found herself continually being logged out of her websites, although that turned out to be due to ‘maintenance’ on the server.

The most heartrending event, however, was the
unexpected early arrival of Hank Summers. He had Buffy pulled from class for an important discussion.

Buffy was startled to see her dad, especially several days early. "Dad! What are you doing here? I didn’t expect you until Saturday. Is something wrong?" Hank had hardly been an attentive father since her parents’ divorce and Buffy had half longed for and half feared this weekend’s planned visit. For him to show up early could mean many things, most not of the good.

Hank looked a bit sheepish. "Well, I needed to talk to you."

"And this is important enough to pull me from class?" Buffy’s eyes grew wide in fear. "Something IS wrong! Is it Mom?"

"No, no, it’s not your mom. She’s fine, at least I
think she is. I haven’t seen her." Hank drew Buffy towards the sunny courtyard. "Could I speak with you a moment? Privately?"

Buffy was getting goosebumps and the feeling that something big was about to happen. ‘Maybe Dad’s gonna tell me he’s marrying that ho secretary he’s been living with,’ she thought with a shudder. Just what Buffy wanted, a stepmom only a handful of years older than she was with the personality of Cordelia! Buffy
had met her the woman once and that had been quite enough.

"I came early because there’s something I’ve needed to tell you. It’s about your mother and me and why we split up," Hank began.

‘Damn! Bet Fluffy didn’t remember the birth control,’ Buffy thought as she waited for the inevitable.

"I know we always said it was because we’d grown too far apart, but you’re old enough now to know the truth." Hank sat down next to Buffy at the picnic bench.

Hank drew in a deep breath and looked Buffy in the eye. "It was you."

Buffy let out a tiny squeak of horror. "Me?" Like all kids of divorce, she had secretly feared this was the case, but to actually hear it was unexpected, to say the least. Adults usually kept stuff like that from their kids.

Hank continued on, ignoring the devastation he could see on his daughter’s face. "Having you. Raising you. Seeing you every day. I mean, do you have ANY idea what that’s like?"

Buffy muttered a quiet, "What?" She thought parents were supposed to enjoy those things.

Hank continued rubbing salt into the wound. "Gosh, you don’t even see what’s right in front of your face, do you? Well, big surprise there, all you ever think about is yourself." He didn’t stop, even when tears began to slip from Buffy’s eyes and down her bright red cheeks. "You get in trouble, you embarrass us with all the crazy stunts you pull…I mean you burned down the gym at your last school! Do I have to go on?"

Buffy begged, "No, please don’t," but he went on
heedlessly.

"You’re sullen and rude. You’re not nearly as bright as I thought you were going to be. I don’t know where you got your genes for THAT; your mom and I are both intelligent!" Hank stood and looked down at his little girl. "Hey, Buffy, let’s be honest. Could you stand to live in the same house with a daughter like that?"

Buffy was cold and in shock. "Why are you saying these things?" She was crying in earnest now.

"Because they’re true. I think that’s the least we
owe one another." Finally, he noticed her sobs and sighed in disgust. "You know, I don’t think it’s very mature of you to get blubbery when I’m just trying to be honest. Speaking of which, I don’t really get anything out of these weekends with you. Why do you think I’ve put them off? What do you say we just don’t pretend anymore. I think we can both find better things to do with our time. I sure thought you’d turn out differently. Thought I could be proud one day."

Hank turned to go after a quick pat on Buffy’s head. She watched her father walk out of her life without a backward glance. As Buffy watched him leave, she spotted Billy Palmer looking at her and then turning to leave as well.

~~~

Giles was listening to the children discuss all the
odd events that had been plaguing the school for two weeks. When Xander mentioned that his being in the hallway was like a nightmare to him, Willow suddenly got a "eureka!" look on her face. "Hey, I think I may be onto something here."
Giles and Xander looked at the girl in interest.

"You lived your nightmare just like Wendell!" Willow raised her eyebrows as if to indicate the answer was elementary.

"And I was unable to decipher words on a page, became lost in the stacks…of course!" Giles leapt on the idea readily.

Xander was a little slower to follow but did get there eventually. "Are you saying that our dreams are coming true? And if so, why am I not having hot sex with half the cheerleading squad?" At Willow’s glare, he muttered, "Just forget that last part, okay? I’m seventeen--it’s what we do!"

"No, not dreams, Xander. Nightmares. Our nightmares are coming true. Those very things we fear the most are happening." Giles looked almost relieved.

Xander raised his hand, "I know this is the Hellmouth and all, but…um, why?"

"Billy!" Giles exclaimed, startling both teens with his unexpected answer.

Willow asked, "Who’s Billy?"

"The boy," Giles began to explain, "The lad in the coma that Buffy and I saw yesterday while visiting Laura. He was beaten and is in a coma. Somehow, I think, he’s crossed over from the nightmare world he is in into the real world we dwell in."

"And he brought the nightmare world with him. Nice kid," snarked Xander. "Someone has to stop him."

"Indeed," Giles agreed. "Or soon everyone in
Sunnydale will be facing their own worst nightmares."

As Giles finished his prediction, Cordy came dashing into the library, her hair frizzed beyond repair. "I don’t understand! How can this be happening? I was just at the salon." She patted her head in a frenzy. "Oh my GOD, I can’t let anyone see me like this!"

Just then two members of the chess club reached in and grabbed Cordy, dragging her to their meeting room. "No! No! Let me go, you geeks!"

"You can be the white queen," said the president of the club.

Willow couldn’t help but smile at the sight of her old nemesis in all her unstylish glory being dragged into the very pit of geekdom.

~~~

Buffy, still reeling from her father’s visit, was
headed to the gym for a private cry when she noticed Billy again. He was sitting in the stands and Buffy headed over to join him, hoping the boy wouldn’t disappear again.

"You’re Billy Palmer, right?" The boy nodded. "Why are you here? Did something bad happen to you after your game?"

The boy turned fearful eyes on her. "You know about the game?" Buffy nodded in reply. "I play second base." The boy loooked ashamed for some reason.

"Are you ‘lucky nineteen’, Billy?" Buffy was working on a hunch here.

The boy cringed before answering. "That’s what HE calls me."

Buffy frowned. "Who?"

"The Ugly Man. He wants to kill me. He hurt that girl too.

Before Buffy could ask why anyone would want to kill a sweet kid like Billy, the boy whitened and drew back with a horrified cry. "He’s here!"

She didn’t have time to duck as the Ugly Man clubbed her with his deformed arm, knocking her off the bleachers. He connected a second time before Buffy was able to get up from the floor. She landed a high kick to his jaw, but he wasn’t fazed in the least.

The Ugly Man had a club and he was swinging it with precision at Buffy. She was fighting well, but he kept knocking her legs from under her. Deciding that retreat was in her best interest, Buffy rolled to one side and leapt up, following Billy in a limping run from the gym.

Buffy called out to the terrified boy, but he didn’t want to stop even after Buffy jammed the gym door, trapping the Ugly Man inside.

"I’m sorry, I can’t help it!" the boy whimpered.

"Who is he?" Buffy asked. "He’s too strong. I can’t fight him. We have to find my friends. They can help us.

Billy’s eyes rounded in fear. "We have to hide!"

Buffy tried to reason with the boy. "No, he’ll find
us."

"Yes, but we have to hide. That’s how it happens. We hide and then he comes," the boy said fatalistically.

Buffy led the boy in the direction of the library only to find themselves outside watching a couple of kids playing ball on the other side of a fence. Buffy saw Billy grow even more tense and tried to reassure him. "They’re just playing. What is it? What’s bothering you?"

The boy shuddered. "Baseball. When you lose, it’s bad."

Buffy smiled at the serious tone used for just a kid’s game. "Did you lose your game last week?"

Billy nodded. "It was my fault. I missed a ball and I should have caught it."

Buffy rolled her eyes. "You missed ONE ball and the whole game was YOUR fault? What, you were the only one playing? There weren’t eight other players?" Honestly, and her father had just said SHE was self-absorbed!

Billy looked at her, his eyes solemn. "He said it was my fault."

Buffy felt a chill of understanding. If she were right, she knew one human that was about to meet the Slayer in a not-so-friendly way! "Who said? Billy, did he hurt you after the game?"

Billy was becoming more and more uncomfortable and he begged, "Can we go find your friends now?" They headed toward the cafeteria, but the Ugly Man was coming their way, punching students as he stalked towards them. Buffy grabbed Billy by the arm and changed direction. "Bad idea. Um, come on, this way!" She pushed Billy ahead of her and they ran through some bushes. When they got to the other side of the foliage, Buffy noticed that it was suddenly night and they were in the cemetery. ‘What just happened?’ she wondered.

"Where are your friends? Is this where they are?" Billy looked completely confused.

"No, it’s really not," she replied. "I don’t see the
Ugly Man. I also don’t see where the sun and the rest of the world went either."

Billy tugged at Buffy’s arm. "Look at this." He was pointing to a freshly dug grave with an open pine coffin inside. "I guess we’re gonna bury someone. I wonder who died?"

Much to Buffy’s horror, she heard a voice taunting in tone. "Nobody died. What’s the fun of burying someone if they’re already dead?" It was the Master. "So this is the Slayer. You’re prettier than the last one."

"You!" Buffy gasped. "This isn’t real. You can’t be free!"

"Silly girl. You still don’t understand, do you? I’m free because you fear it. Because you fear it, the world is crumbling. Your nightmares are made flesh. You have little Billy to thank for that."

Buffy looked around, but Billy Palmer was gone,
vanished along with the rest of the normal world.
"This is a dream," she reminded herself.

"A dream is a wish your heart makes," the Master said, parodying the Disney song as he grabbed Buffy by the neck. "This is real life. Come on, Slayer, what are YOU afraid of?" He growled and bared his teeth but didn’t bite before throwing her into the coffin at the bottom of the grave.

"NO!" cried Buffy as the lid slammed shut. "Help me!"

"How about being buried alive?" The Master laughed and began to shovel soil into the grave. Dirt began to fall through the cracks in the coffin as Buffy felt herself slide into panic.

~~~

Willow and Xander had been having their own worst nightmares at the same time. Willow had been thrust onstage to sing opera only to be the victim of thrown tomatoes, while Xander had his own close encounter with the clowns of doom -- his worst nightmare ever.

They came together while on the run from their respective nightmares and finally met up with Giles, who was soon face-to-face with one of Xander’s knife-wielding clowns. As terrifying as the grease-painted John Wayne Gacy wannabe was, all Giles could think was to ask, "Where’s Buffy?"

As the trio hit a dead end and the clown drew nearer, Xander faced his fears at last. He bravely punched his red-nosed assailant in the face and said, "You are a lousy clown! Your balloon animals are pathetic. Anyone can make a giraffe!" With that, the passage opened and they were free. The clown was no longer there to pursue them .

"I feel good, liberated," Xander exulted. "Saved a
bundle on future trips to the shrink too."

People were running and screaming all around them as the situation seemed to go from bad to worse.

Giles puffed, "You seem to be the only one. It’s
getting worse. In a few hours, reality will fold
completely into the realm of nightmares."

Willow looked terrified at the thought. "What can we do?"

"The only thing I can think of is to waken Billy."
Giles gazed towards the hospital.

"Shouldn’t we find Buffy first?" Xander may have felt free, but that didn’t mean he was ready to just let things continue.

Willow looked up and noticed the dark area between where they were standing and the hospital. "Excuse me, but when did they put a cemetery over there?" She pointed into the darkness.

Xander added, "And when did it get to be night in some places?"


They cautiously approached the mystery cemetery and came upon a freshly covered grave. As they watched in growing horror, a hand reached up through the dirt as someone clawed their way out. All three leapt back and began to search for something to turn into an emergency stake as Buffy pulled herself the rest of the way from her grave.

"I thought I was dead," she said as her friends backed away from her.

"Your face," cried Willow.

Buffy felt the newly created ridges and the sharp
points of her fangs and looked at her Watcher warily. "I’m getting hungry."

"She is kidding, isn’t she?" Xander practically
begged Giles for a positive response. "How did she get turned? She wasn’t gone all that long."

"SPIKE! I knew a vampire couldn’t be trusted," Giles spat.

"Spike’s a vampire?" Buffy looked shocked and
horrified at the same time. "No, he’d never lie to me like that!"