The bright sun crept over the horizon, and the sleepy town of Sunnydale began to wake up. The warm rays touched the ground and the houses and the school and the parks and it was day. Everything was happy and light and the people stirred. The sun was brilliant and every inch of Sunnydale was coming alive. Well, almost every inch. Below ground, it was dark and dank. The deep caverns weren’t aware of the sun. There it was forever night. The dark was expansive and heavy, weighing down on all who lived it.

The assembled crowd was odd. The kind of people gathered weren’t the kind that were seen together. Three of the people stood at the front of the cavern, sweat pouring down their faces by the gallon, facing the same wall as the others in the cavern.

“Master, I don’t know what I did! I gave the slayer the balloon! She took it!” one of them ventured, stammering.

“I know you did, little lost one. Poor thing. You’ve been so good to me. It really is a shame. All three of you. I know you did well. But I’m so hungry.” The voice reached out, gently moving about them, stroking his cheek and caressing her hair. It was strangely comforting. Their muscles relaxed. “I’m so hungry. I never had a mother to cook for me. I was always hungry. I’m so hungry. Hungry for my mother’s cooking.” The one who had spoken breathed in with relief, and suddenly the gentle whisper in his ear became an iron clasp, tightening on his throat--screaming the high screech of unoiled hinges. The man didn’t have the liberty to scream.

He slumped to the ground. The other two at the front cowered together. The voice chuckled.

“But I’ll make due with what I have. Don’t worry. Let him be a warning to you. No more tonight. I’m full for now. He should have lost weight.” A loud sucking noise signaled that the presence had left. Another sucking noise, and the other two at the front of the room gasped and crumpled to the floor. The voice chuckled again, the time louder.

“I lied.”


Harmony smiled at her. She had just walked by, they hadn’t talked or anything, but they had passed in the hallway. So many times they had passed before, but all those times she received a snicker, or a comment on her clothing, or nothing at all. This time though, Harmony had smiled at Willow. A friendly “hey there” smile that carried no traces of the sarcasm Willow expected. Willow had always told herself it didn’t matter. She didn’t care what they thought of her. Let them laugh. She knew she was better. Long ago she had decided she would never cry. She would be polite and try not to let it get to her. It really didn’t matter. All those sentiments crumbled with that one smile. Willow realized that the fact that Harmony had actually been civil meant a lot. It WAS important. Willow walked through the library doors, if not by need, then by habit. The library looked like a regular library. Giles was behind his desk, doing something with a pile of books. Everything was in its place--there were no dusty, deteriorating ancient texts on the table, and the only noise was the flipping of pages as Giles opened and shut the books. He looked up as she entered, acknowledging her presence with a nod and a smile before going back to the books. She stood across from the desk, not knowing whether she should sit down if there was nothing to sit down for.

“So...anything happening?” she asked.

“Not in the least bit.”

“Oh.” The silence between them was heavy. It wasn’t awkward, but it was very empty. Neither of them had anything at all to say, but neither of them had any reason to leave. Willow turned her feet in so she was resting on the outer sides of her shoes. Giles pushed his glasses farther up his nose than they wanted to go, causing them to slip further down than they had been before.

“So...nice weather we’ve been having, huh?” Willow filled the space.

“Yes. Very nice. Spring is in the air.”

The library doors swung open and Buffy walked into the room. She smiled at them.

“Hiya. Word on the street says...actually, it says there is no word. Did that make sense?”

“I think it did. I think the word’s right. No word.” Willow answered.

“I don’t think that was English.” Giles didn’t look up from his books.

“You’re so picky Giles. Let us talk our own English. You’ll have to catch up if you want to be in the English club. You have to go speak a different language if you don’t want to speak English.” Buffy said.

“Can I speak English instead?”

“Of course! See, now we’re getting somewhere. I’ll translate. We were just saying that not much is happening. Does that work in your English?”

“I don’t know. You manage to continue to baffle me, Buffy. We’re speaking the same language, yet I don’t understand you at all. Are you mocking me? Or are you just talking to me? Or is there absolutely no meaning behind the words coming out of your mouth?”

“False.” Buffy turned her head a little to the side, obviously making fun of Giles now. Willow couldn’t help but laughed.

“I think you need to leave the room before you contaminate the books.” Giles smiled, jokingly, in a good mood too. The girls waved and turned around. They walked out of the library giggling, Willow swinging her bag happily out of rhythm with her step. Giles watched them go. The room was a little stuffy, so he propped open the door to his office. The window was open in there, and hopefully the air would come through. The breeze did come directly into the window. It ruffled the papers on his desk and the single daffodil on his desk that he didn’t remember putting there, and passed into the library. He turned back to the books. A book on Demonology was open on the desk, but he didn’t know what he was doing with it.

Something strange was going on. It wasn’t a bad strange, just a strange strange. The Bronze was louder than usual that night, but it wasn’t the kind of noise that bothers you. Everybody was laughing, dancing, and joking with their friends, but also with people that weren’t normally their friends. The music went in time with the laughter. The band that was playing had a reputation of being bad, but there hadn’t been a single sour chord since they started playing. It was happening all over, even at the very table where Oz sat. He had been sitting with Xander, not really talking about anything, and waiting for Willow and Buffy to show up. Xander had just started up about something Oz didn’t really care about when Oz had first noticed that Devon was making his way towards them. It was probably about missing some practice or something. Oz could swear there hadn’t been a practice last night, but if there had been, it was too late to do anything about. But instead of doing what he normally did and coming around to Oz without even looking at anyone else, talking, and then moving away, this time Devon sat down between Oz and Xander.

“Hey.” he said. The look he received from Xander was as if he had just sprouted a third arm. “How’s it going?”

“Um, fine. Are you okay?” Xander asked, incredulously.

“Never felt better. Why? Do I look okay? Is there something wrong?” Oz was happy just to watch Devon and Xander talk. They were oddly similar, yet different enough to be entertaining. The fact that the Devon Oz thought he knew would never strike up a conversation with Xander Harris made it all the more amusing. Oz looked towards the door to see if the girls were coming. When he looked back, Devon and Xander were deep into some long joke. They looked as if they had been best friends forever.

Oz didn’t even notice when Willow and Buffy came in. He was lost in conversation with the two other people at the table. He only looked up when Willow sat down next to him and kissed him on the cheek. Xander stopped whatever he had been saying to say hello. Buffy replied, but Willow and Oz were smiling at each other and she didn’t notice Xander’s greeting. They broke out of their gaze just in time for Oz to catch Buffy’s “what’s-HE-doing-sitting-here?” look at Xander, and also to catch Xander’s shrug.

“Hey Willow.” Devon said. Devon hadn’t even known her name. Now he was actually being nice to her! It was definitely a good thing, but still, Oz was surprised. Well, it was a night of firsts.

“Hey.” she said, obviously surprised.

The five of them sat there quietly for a little bit. Oz wasn’t one to start up a conversation, but he felt obligated to. After all, he was the only one who could be considered friends with everyone else there. He was contemplating what he could say that everyone would be interested in and understand, when Buffy spoke.

“Okay, question over here.” Buffy raised her hand a bit, as if she was in class. She looked at Devon, “No offense or anything, but what are you doing here? It’s way awkward, and I don’t want you to leave or anything, but I just thought it would be less weird if we got this out in the open.”

“Well, I thought I’d be friendly. I mean, Oz is one of my best friends and you guys are his friends now, and I just figured it was the right thing to do to know my friend’s friends. Better late than never.”

Oz had never asked Devon to do this. He hadn’t even hinted at it. He had thought about it a bit, but never thought it possible. They were all getting along great. Cordelia came over and sat down next to Xander. She looked at him the way she had looked at him before. It was like nothing had happened at all. He put his arm around her waist without stopping his conversation for a second. It took a few minutes for it to register that this was a gesture that wasn’t familiar anymore. Xander quickly pulled his arm away from her. She almost looked disappointed. The others were thinking of whether they should comment on what had happened when Cordelia’s cell phone rang.

“Hello?” Cordelia looked annoyed as she listened to whoever it was. She sighed, exasperated, and turned to Buffy. “Why don’t you get a phone, Buffy? Whenever anybody needs to reach you they call me and then I have to find you and it bothers me.”

“Who is it?” Buffy looked a little worried. Who would need to reach her so urgently?

“Giles.” Cordelia passed the phone over to Buffy.

“Hello?” Buffy answered. Maybe this was the end of the lack of hellmouth activity.

Buffy talked for a few seconds, shut the phone, and passed it back to Cordelia.

“What was it?” Willow asked. She too had obviously been worried about the content of the call.

“Oh...um, nothing really.” Buffy glanced at Devon a bit and then continued, watching what she said. “He said we could check it out tomorrow.” Willow was looking at her hard, trying to figure out if that was true. So she confirmed it, “Really. It’s nothing.”

They waited for Devon’s comment on the fact that they spent so much time with the librarian, ready to tell him that Giles tutored Buffy. But instead Devon stood up. “It was great. You guys are really cool. I gotta go though, I’ll see you tomorrow. I’m driving, does anyone want a ride?”

“I should be getting home too. I’ll take you up on your offer.” Buffy stood and picked up her sweater, before following Devon out.

“I guess I should follow the homeward trend then.” Willow said. She looked at Oz, silently asking him to drive her home.

“Bye Xander, Cordelia.” Oz said. He took Willow hand and they left.

“So...” Xander said, looking at Cordelia, then turning away to look at the stage.

“So...”

“This it?” The area around the manhole had been roped off, but it didn’t look like the police had even gone down.

“Yes. The police report is of three dead bodies in a cavern below the city, reachable by this manhole. The cause of death is unknown. Go ahead down. I’ll follow.”

Buffy ducked under the police tape and disappeared down into the sewer. Giles followed her, a little slower. They walked, letting the sound of their footsteps echo through the pipes. Buffy turned into a pipes that ran perpendicular to the main pipe. She put her hand on a clean spot on the wall and pressed. The wall swung open easily.

“How did you know that was there?” Giles came around the corner.

“It wasn’t grimy, so I touched, and ‘hello cave.’”

They steped through the door into the cavern. It was deep, dank, really dark, and incredibly stinky. Buffy pinched her nose and walked deeper into the room. It was empty, and it looked like it had been that way for a long time.

“Someone forgot to let the skunk out.” Buffy said, walking up the ancient steps that led to the platform at the front of the room. In the middle of the flat slab of stone that was lifted above the rest of the room a few feet, were three bodies. Buffy recognized one of them. She didn’t know where from though. “Giles! Here they are!”

Giles steped carefully up to the bodies. There were no bite marks and the bodies were preserved perfectly, as if they were frozen the second they had died. The stench was obviously not from the bodies, but rather it seemed to come from the wall. The two of them stood looking at the bodies without talking. The only sound was the dripping of water from the ceiling. Then, suddenly, the wasn’t the only sound. Music, music Buffy hadn’t heard in a long time, wafted down through the pipes.

“Mr. Softee...” Buffy said, looking up to where the sound was coming from.

“Would you like an ice cream, Buffy?” Giles asked. She nodded happily, and they left the cavern without looking back. Mr. Softee ice cream was just what they needed.

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Continues
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