Timing: Sometime after "Lover's Walk." This has elements of "The Wish" in it, but this isn't a re-write of that episode. Don’t ask me why I'm writing season three this way. I just am. Writing in a Hellmouth for a city that I'm very familiar with is a lot harder than it looks.

Spoilers and Timing: Spoilers are for all of season three but more specifically "Lover's Walk" and "The Wish" along with season two episodes "What's My Line, Part One" and "What's My Line, Part Two." This story takes place after the events in "Lover's Walk" and is what "The Wish" would have been like in my universe.

Note: This is #2 in the series that has no name yet. The first story was "Bienvenue à la Bouche de l'Enfer".

Summary: How "The Wish" would go if the scoobies lived in Lafayette, Louisiana, and Cordelia's wish hadn't been targeted at Buffy.

-----

Bayou = a slow-moving body of water

There were many parts of Lafayette that could be considered definitive and unlike the other parts. There was what Buffy called the shopping district, for instance. Half of Johnston street was crowded with stores – department stores like Academy and Albertson’s, small shopping centers that housed private businesses, and many restaurants, both fast food and not.

Then, on the west end of Lafayette, was Ambassador Caffery where it intersected with Johnston. Its more southern part was crowded on both sides with more establishments such as Target, another Albertson’s, Durrel’s Pet Shop, a number of fast food restaurants, Hobby Lobby, Lowe’s, Office Depot, Food 1 Imports, Acadiana Lanes, and set back from the street and out of sight from Amb. Caffery was the Acadiana Mall.

Buffy noted all of these things as she drove on passed them. Yes, that’s right, she was driving. She was enjoying it and hating it at the same time. It was her second out of three driving instruction days. Her instructor was a nice woman, although every time she stepped on the break pedal installed in the passenger side, Buffy felt like screaming from nerves.

They left the parking lot Southwest Safety Training shared with several other businesses and, after waiting ten minutes for an opening in the traffic on Johnston St., Buffy turned right onto the five-lane road and drove in the direction of Amb. Caffery.

Buffy really didn’t like the way her instructor was gripping the door handle like that. She wasn’t that bad, was she?

She switched lanes, swerving jerkily from the right to the left lane. Behind her, a car’s driver let loose on his horn.

Buffy winced when she saw the woman write something on a sheet. There was no way Buffy would be allowed to get a license, let alone a permit.

Her fears were confirmed when, instead of driving the entire two hours, her instructive told Buffy to pull into a gas station on Amb. Caffery. After getting gas, the woman took the wheel and drove them back to the office. Only thirty minutes had gone by in that time. Buffy sighed. She’d have to depend on the bus system for a little longer.

-----

"So how’d it go?" Xander asked when he picked Buffy up in his convertible. She did not look happy.

"Bad. Way, way bad," Buffy told him. She groaned. "Just drop me off at the USL campus, Xand, on ___. I promised Giles I’d check out a possible vampire-infested dorm over there."

Xander tried to remember which dorm house was on that street. "The ___ ___ ___ house or the ____?"

"The frat house."

"Huh. I always thought there was somethin’ weird about those guys."

Buffy gave him a look. "How would you know?"

"Cordy and I went to a few parties there," Xander said, regret in his voice. Buffy winced in sympathy. After Xander and Willow’s affair had been revealed, Cordelia and Oz hadn’t taken it very well. Xand and Will had yet to regain their partners’ trusts, and everything was awkward between the four of them.

The rest of the ride was spent in silence. Buffy watched the shops rush by. She tried to see if she could read all of them, but that was near impossible.

Ten to fifteen minutes later, they crossed the intersection with S. College, and after Albertson’s the stores ended and the intersections with residential streets began. Two blocks down from Albertson’s was the Blackham Coliseum, which stood on the corner of Johnston and Cajundome Blvd.

As they passed by Cajundome Blvd., Buffy’s Slayer Sense suddenly went crazy. "Turn around," she told Xander.

He looked at her in curiosity but turned on to one of the side streets before making a U-Turn. "Somethin' wrong?" he asked her as he stopped the car at the intersection, waiting for a break in traffic to merge back onto Johnston.

"I’m not sure."

Once they'd gotten back onto Johnston, she instructed him to turn onto the boulevard. As they drove down the street passed the large, round, Blackham Coliseum, Buffy realized that the feeling wasn't coming from there, but from further down the street.

The car drove around a bend and suddenly they could see the Cajundome's roof stretching up in the sky to the right, set back from the road by its parking lot. To the left of the street was the parking lot of Cajun Field and its football stadium.

In between the two parking lots, the road wound up a man-made overpass before coming back down at the intersection with Congress St. The overpass went over a footpath that connected the two parking lots. It allowed easy access for those going to the Cajundome, a football game, and events at certain times every year such as the Cajun Heartland State Fair and the Mardi Gras Fair.

The parking lots were empty for the most part; no events were going on at either place that day. However, Buffy did see a small group of cars parked on either side of the entrance to the underpass. The cars appeared to be empty.

Xander had spotted it to. "Somehow I doubt they're there to fly kites," he commented.

He parked the car on the other side of the stadium, and then the two of them made their way over as stealthily as possible to the underpass.

They stopped just outside of it, out of sight of whoever was in it. They could hear voices, a man's and a woman's.

"Ms. Doucet-" one of the men began.

The woman cut him off. "Mrs. Doucet," she corrected him.

"Of course. Mrs. Doucet, while your offer is very generous, I'm afraid it still isn't enough. You see, that box is a very important part of what I plan to accomplish. I won't accept anything more or anything less. I'm sure we can both come to an agreement."

"He sounds familiar-" Xander muttered. Buffy shushed him. They could talk later; that moment was for listening.

"I don't think you understand what you're asking," Mrs. Doucet interjected. "You want me to hand over the Box of Gavroc to you, one of the most sought-after black arts artifacts on the market. I'm not talkin' about some Voodoo magic, either - that's for the commoners and amateurs. The Box of Gavroc is meant only for the professionals, Mr. Mayor."

Buffy and Xander both started when she said that. The two friends exchanged an astonished look, neither of them believing what they had just heard.

Buffy risked a glanced into the underpass. The woman she'd heard had her back to Buffy, but the man did not. Although the light was dim in the short tunnel, Buffy easily made out the features of a man she'd seen on television and in the paper countless times. With blonde hair on a slowly balding head, and a height of over six feet, there was no mistaking Mayor Richard Wilkins III of Lafayette, Louisiana.

Mayor Wilkins looked like he was running out of patience. "I assure you, ma'am, that I not an amateur." He looked like he meant it.

Buffy pulled her head back, turned around, and started pushing Xander away, back along the indirect route they'd taken to get there. "Was it him?" Xander questioned.

She nodded. "It was the mayor, all right. Whatever they were talking about, they didn't have with them. We need to get to Giles', see if he knows anything about this Box of Garek or whatever it was called."

"I'm with ya there, Buff."

Buffy nodded. "As soon as we check out the frat house, we're going to Giles'."

-----

The next day, at school, Willow paced by Oz's locker. She'd stopped there every chance she could get, including on the way to and from classes, the entire lunch period, and her only free period. Now, as it was approaching the end of the day and she hadn't yet caught Oz visiting his locker, Willow was more worried than ever. She hadn't seen him all day. Deep down, she hadn't really been expecting to, although she had hoped for it. He was probably avoiding her. It was understand, really. If she had been in his place, she would have been avoiding her, too. She'd cheated on him. Who wouldn't have avoided her?

As she paced, she saw Cordelia walk in from outside. The new girl, Anya, was walking with her. The two of them appeared to be deep in conversation. Well, conversation wasn't really the right word for it. Cordelia was doing most of the talking, while Anya was listening.

Willow froze as the two of them approached. Guilt filled her, doubling when she heard Cordelia mention Xander's name. Now there was another person who knew about what Willow and Xander had done. Anya and Cordelia both gave her scathing looks as they passed, making Willow wish she could disappear into the floor.

-----

"Things would have been so much better if I'd never dated Xander," Cordelia told Anya. The two of them pushed open a door and stepped back outside, this time headed for the stands on the other side of the football field. A chilly breeze was blowing and, upon looking up, Cordelia could see rain clouds gathering on the horizon. If Comeaux High's Spartans hadn't been practicing, Cordelia would have gone back inside. She figured that if she showed some interest in the players - particularly one John Lee - they might consider overlooking the whole being-cheated-on-by-looser-Xander-Harris thing and want to go out with her.

She was getting desperate; not that she let anyone know this. As they walked around the field, Cordelia continued her rant. "No, scratch that. Everything would have been great if I'd never even kissed him that one time with the worm guy-the, uh, guy who liked worms."

Anya nodded. "He does sound like quite a bastard. Don't you just wish-"

"It's not like it's my fault that he was a time-timin' asshole, right?" Cordelia asked before plowing on without pause. "It's not even my fault that we started datin', really. We were always runnin' for our lives - which I never would have had to do if Xander and his little friends hadn't dragged me into their loser group in the first place. Yeah, it's all Buffy's fault. Buffy and Xander. If they'd never drug me on those stupid missions of theirs, I never would have remotely considered Xander attractive."

At this point, the two of them had reached the bleachers. They climbed up the stairs. Cordelia winced as she sat down, grabbing her side. She must have pulled some stitches.

"Are you okay?" Anya asked her.

"Oh, fine," Cordelia dismissed her, although she was still wincing.

Anya said, "Well, can I just say…men."

Cordelia nodded in agreement. "Second it."

"Apart from being without class, the guy's obviously blind to even consider cheating on you. He deserves whatever he gets."

Cordelia's side still hurt; she hadn't moved her hands away from it. Anya reached around to the back of her throat and undid the clasp of her necklace. Then she handed it out to Cordelia. "Here. I think you need this more than I do right now."

Cordelia took the necklace and studied the pendant hanging from the chain. It had a silver frame around a odd-colored green stone. "Is this Gucci?" she asked Anya, interested.

"Um, no. It's sort of a good luck charm my dad gave me. Here, let me."

Anya took the necklace back and placed it around the other girl's neck. "Too bad I didn't have one of these pre-Xander," Cordelia commented. "Would have saved me a lot of wasted time."

For a minute, they sat in silence. Cordelia stared at the players, but she wasn't really paying attention. She was too caught up in fantasies of getting back at Xander Harris. "You know what I wish?"

Anya perked up considerably, although Cordelia didn't notice. "What?"

Cordelia paused, considering what she about to say. She didn't want to leave anything out.

After she'd spoken her wish, Anyanka grinned. The mortal's wish had been a long yet interesting one. Anyanka was looking forward to its results.

Her face morphed into her demon visage. Cordelia gasped when she saw it. Anya's face was now full of hard, bony, red ridges that covered her entire features.

When she spoke again, her voice had become deeper and thicker.

"Done."

-----

One minute, Xander was walking through the halls of Comeaux High in the direction of the library. He was supposed to meet Buffy, Willow, Giles, and possibly Cordelia and Oz there, assuming Cordy had gotten his message. It would have been hard for her not to, considering that he left at least thirty on her answering machine, each containing messages like "I'm sorry" or "please call me back and we can talk." The meeting had been called to discuss what Buffy and Xander had overheard the day before in Cajun Field, and to see if Giles had learned anything since they'd told him about it the night before.

The next minute, however, he wasn't anywhere near the library, or Comeaux, or the neighborhood Comeaux was located in. In fact, he wasn't even in Lafayette, and he was nowhere near Lafayette Parish.

He was lying face down in mud. He felt sore all over. The sun was beating down on his back, which he realized was bare. He also realized that was the source of the soreness - his back was sunburned. Really, really sunburned.

(take out impale wound)

As he tried to move, he realized that his right side also hurt like hell. He reached down and felt the spot.

When he lifted his hand back up to his face, it was covered in blood.

"What the hell?" he screeched out. His voice came out extremely raspy and he licked his lips. He felt so stiff that it took him several minutes to sit up. When he finally managed it, he checked his wound.

Surprisingly enough, it was dressed. Xander frowned down at the covered wound; it looked familiar. It resembled the wound Cordelia had gotten when she'd been impaled by one of the vampire Spike's torture toys.

He looked around and realized he was in the middle of nowhere. He was also half-naked and he had a headache. The headache was nothing compared to the rest of his aches and pains, however. He lay on a muddy patch of ground where it had obvious rained recently. Glancing up, he saw more gray clouds above him and knew he could expect even more. Unfortunately, none of the clouds blocked out the sun's rays.

Looking around him, he saw a treeline or evergreens, both oak and Spanish Moss, beginning not far away on either side of him, while the clearing stretching for quite a ways in front and behind him.

He had no idea where he was, but if there was Spanish Moss there, then he was either in Louisiana, Mississippi, or near the Texas-Louisiana border.

Wincing the entire time, Xander slowly got to his feet. He turned to his right and walked in the direction of that treeline, subconsciously slapping at a misquito that tried to suck some blood out of his arm.

Before he reached the trees, however, he had reached the edge of the clearing. He realized that the clearing wasn't really a clearing, but a levy. The levy slopped down to the edge of sparking, muddy water.

For several feet, the water was more or less clear except for a few dead tree stumps sticking out of it. Then, at least fifty yards away, the trees began, growing out of the water amid bits of fallen moss and floating, green-colored algae.

Xander's eyes widened as he realized exactly where he was. He felt sure that this was the Etchafalaya Basin, a swamp intersected by several rivers that took up most of the space between Lafayette and Baton Rouge. He'd been on enough trips across the basin on school trips to recognize it for what it was. The problem was, Xander couldn't see the bridge anywhere. He had no idea which direction to take and which one would get him to a town, fishermen parked along the levy, or the bridge crossing the basin.

One thing he did know for sure was that his sun-burnt back was killing him as much as his side. He stared longingly down at the water. Sure, if he went down there he was bound to get bitten by a snake or attacked by an alligator, assuming there were alligators in the Basin. Xander didn't know. Not to mention that the water wasn't exactly clean; there was a reason why Louisiana water always appeared muddy-brown.

Eventually, the soreness won out and he made his way down to the water's edge. He got on his knees and hungrily splashed his face, back, front, and neck with water before taking a few sips.

He heard something splash.

Xander jerked his head up and pulled his hands away from the water before scanning its surface. Tale-tell ripples marked the place where whatever it was had jumped in or out of the water, which was only a few meters to his right.

He didn't see any alligators, although that log that was a few meters in the other direction looked awfully suspicious.

He heard another splash, and this one was louder, not to mention closer. He was certain he caught something flying out of the water only to re-submerge once gravity took hold. "Please let that be a flying fish," Xander said, standing and taking a few cautious steps back.

Up above, the sound of a car engine suddenly came into hearing range. Xander glanced up, trying to spot the source.

As he turned his head, something huge and with four rows of teeth jumped out of the water directly in front of him, snarling as it soared through the air straight at him. It opened its jaws wide; blue saliva dripped between large, sharp, pointy teeth.

Xander screamed. He hastily tried to sidestep out of the way, losing his balance when he mistepped. He avoided losing a great chunk of himself to the demonic fish by mere inches.

Xander quickly stood up and started running down the bank. He glanced over his shoulder when he head a snarl. It appeared that the fish or whatever it was had feet and was making pursuit. In fact, the thing was gaining on him.

Xander was suddenly aware of the car engine again. Glancing up, he saw a truck driving up the levy. It drew level with Xander and his pursuer. Xander realized there was a big guy in the truck bed. He was holding a riffle and was taking aim, Xander hoped, at the fish and not at him.

"Get out of there, boy!" the driver yelled down at him. It was all the answer he needed; they wanted to hit the fish and not him, but the driver didn't have enough confidence in his friend to hit the fish on the first try. Xander hastily put on a burst of speed, hoping to give the fisherman guy with the gun as much room for mistakes as possible; he so did not want to get hit by a stray bullet.

The guy with the riffle fired. Xander glanced back. The fish was still moving. The gun went off again, and this time the demonic fish let out a howl of pain. After a third shot, the demon turned quiet.

Xander glanced back and saw the demon lying on its side, half out of the water. He slowed to a stop.

"Give up here already, kid! That thing might have cousins!"

"Right," Xander said. He ran up the levy. The truck pulled to a stop in front of him.

"You all right?" the guy in back asked Xander as he jumped out of the truck, still holding the riffle.

Xander, who was out of breath, only nodded. After several gulps of air, he said, "Thanks."

"No problem," the driver told him as he stepped out of the truck.

Both of them wore T-shirts filled with holes and naturally faded jeans. The driver wore a cowboy hat while his friend wore a baseball hat, and both of them wore sneakers. Xander noticed fishing gear in the truck bed and figured that the two men had been parked under the bridge; they'd probably left their boat over there.

"Thanks," Xander repeated. "What was that thing?"

"The Guys call 'em chasers," the cowboy answered. "They love to chase you, and when you're really tired they'll wait until you've fallen asleep before they take a bit out of you. The worse part is, they won't kill you; they'll just take enough so you'll slowly bleed to death."

Xander paled. "Okay, that was so much more than I ever wanted ta know."

The two of them chuckled. "I'm Rob Cunnings," the cowboy told him. "This is my brother, James."

"Xander Harris." The three of them shook hands.

"How'd you get out here?" James asked him.

"Trust me, y'all wouldn't believe me if I told you."

James and Rob pffted at that. "Try us. After what's been goin' on over in Lafayette over the past few years, we could believe anything."

"What's been goin' on in Lafayette?" Xander asked. Was it something the gang had done in the past, something supernatural and involving the killing of lots of bad guys? Had it got more attention than he and the others had thought?

"You must be from out of state if ya haven't heard." Rob reached inside the truck and tossed a plaid shirt and a water canteen at Xander, who accepted both gratefully.

"Haven't heard about what?" Xander asked.

"We'll give you a ride into Baton Rouge. We'll tell you all about it on the way."

"Thanks. I'd appreciate that. It sure beats getting eaten by another chaser."

The three of them climbed into the truck. It was a bit of a squeeze, but they managed it.

"How'd you guys find me, anyway?" he asked them as Rob did a K-turn and headed back the way they came.

Rob pointed to a device hanging from the rear-view mirror. Xander hadn't even noticed it before. He took a closer look only to see that it was some sort of electronic device. It looked like a tracker, only not.

"What's that?"

"Human and demon tracker," James answered. "Some voodoo magic or somethin' makes it tell us when either is in the vicinity. We use it to make sure we're out of range of chasers most of the time, but occasionally it's told us when someone else was in trouble. It started beepin' like crazy when it picked you and that chaser up."

"One time when we were drivin' through Opelousas it picked up a pack of vamps, too, right before the vamps attacked our truck," Rob added. "Scared the shit out of us, I'll tell you. 'Course, that was not long before it all start, when very few people had even heard of vampires. Nowadays, everyone knows better than to go anywhere near Opelousas, let alone Lafayette."

Xander was confused and alarmed by what Rob was saying. James watched him while his brother talked. "You have no idea what we're talkin' about, do you?" James asked him.

"Sorry, no," Xander answered.

"Jeez, are you from north Louisiana or somethin'? I was pretty sure everyone down here knew about it. Everyone west of the Pontchatrain, I mean."

"Yeah, I’m from north Louisiana," Xander lied. He wasn't sure what would happen if he told them he was from Lafayette, which sounded like a taboo place according to his saviors. "So, what happened?"

So they told them. By the time they were deep into their tale, Xander was too stunned for words.

Over two and a half years ago, around the time that Buffy moved to Lafayette Parish from California, things started happening in this universe's Lafayette that were very different to his own. Xander was certain that he had to be in an alternate universe; there was no way that this could be his own.

In his universe, in May 1999, when the Master rose and drowned Buffy, his rising caused a huge flood all throughout southern Louisiana from Lake Charles to New Orleans. The flood occurred because of tropical rainstorms that went on during the entire time the Master was free from his cave. After Buffy staked him, the rains stopped. However, proceeding rainstorms that occurred because of vaporization kept the flood going for over a week before everything dried up enough for life to continue. Many homes had been ruined, but that was about all the damage the flood did. It did cause Buffy and her mom to move from their soaked Broussard home to a house in Lafayette located on higher ground.

The Master was dead, the Annointed One was killed three months later, and everything returned back to normal.

In this universe, the Master never rose. Instead, something much worse happened.

Around the time Buffy moved to Lafayette in his universe, everything began to fall apart in this one. The highways leading away from Lafayette were suddenly crowded with fleeing families. As the months went by, tens of thousands of people had left Lafayette. A few months later, they began to leave the entirety of Lafayette Parish. Crowds of people booked hotels in Alexandria, Shreveport, Baton Rouge, New Orleans, and Lake Charles. Usually, such a large crowd of people would be a forecast of a hurricane about to strike south Louisiana, but not this time. It wasn't even hurricane season.

No one wanted to be in Lafayette anymore. When questioned, many of them didn't even know why. They just knew that they had felt afraid and had known that Lafayette wasn't safe for them, their friends, and their families anymore.

Others, of course, did know. They'd seen their friends and family members murdered before their eyes by hideous, fang-faced people. Only a few of these acknowledged that these fang-faced people were actually vampires.

People all over the south part of the state heard these tales. Many of them dismissed it as superstitious nonsense. Despite this, there was a considerable increase in both church and other religious service attendees and in voodoo practitioners. A significant amount of people turned to witchcraft as well.

Rob and James hadn't believed any of the stories about vampires until they'd been in Opelousas, a town not far north from Lafayette, to visit their aunt. They had been attacked by vampires and had barely escaped and gotten to their aunt's house only to discover her lying dead in the living room with two little holes in her neck.

Since then, the two brothers had stayed clear of Lafayette. They didn't like vampires or demons much, but they knew they were no match for them. Now that they knew what to look out for, however, they weren't going to just turn a blind eye and hope for the best. Instead, they went to one of the finest magic shops in Baton Rouge, got the magic trackers, and learned how to kill vamps and other demons. When the chasers started showing up, they were the only fishermen that were ready for them. Soon, however, they'd taught all of their friends how to kill the chasers and any other water-dwelling demons they might come across.

Two and a half years had passed since the whole mess had begun. The government hadn't done a thing about it. The governor's mansion in Baton Rouge was now heavily fortified against rioters, and it was believed that the governor, Louisiana's reps in Congress, and the President were all living in a state of denial, hoping it would all go away. Sure, the military had tried to settle the situation in the beginning; unfortunately, their efforts were quickly stopped. By who exactly, no one knew.

In all of that time, more and more people, demons, and others had left Lafayette Parish. Some people were still believed to live there, but they numbered in the tens of thousands. Originally, Lafayette had a population of over 105,219. Now, most of those people had either left town, were killed, or had been turned into vampires.

Everything Rob and James Cunnings told Xander was too unbelievable. Xander couldn't believe everything had gotten so bad in this world. He couldn't understand how they could have.

Rob and James told him everything as they hooked their boat back up to their truck and took a side road that, after an hour or less, entered directly into the west bank portion of Baton Rouge. Then they got onto the highway and drove over the bridge. They drove over the Mississippi River and into the greater part of the state capitol. After a confusing succession of exit ramps that wound over and under and around each other, the truck left the highway and entered into a quiet neighborhood. As they drove down the exit ramp, Xander caught sight of a bulletin board stand on a building rooftop. The add displayed a bigger-than-life size picture of none other than Buffy Summers.

Next to her picture were the words: 'WANTED. If you see this woman, call 1-800-235-7789.'

"Buffy," Xander blurted aloud.

"Well, I guess north Louisiana isn't completely clueless about what's been goin' on after all," James commented to Rob. "At least you recognize her, huh?"

"You could say that," Xander replied. "What's she wanted for?"

Rob snorted. "What have we been tellin' ya about? Who do you think is responsible for the city of Lafayette becomin' a town?"

"The governor likes to pretend that she's just a crook, but we know she's a vampire. Pretty powerful one, too."

"A vampire?" Xander repeated, incredulous. He stared up at the board, too shocked for words. No. This was a nightmare. No way was Buffy a vampire in this reality. No way had she caused the deaths of thousands of people and caused thousands of others to be displaced from their own homes. This had to be a dream.

Xander pinched himself and closed his eyes. When he opened them again, he was still sitting in the truck, driving down a random street in Baton Rouge.

He needed to figure out how to get back to his universe, not to mention how he wound up in the middle of the Etchafalaya Basin without a shirt on and then almost getting eaten by a demon fish.

-----

They stopped at Rob and James' house to unload the boat. The two brothers hadn't caught anything that day; the chasers had been too active that day and they'd scared off all the fish. They had helped put an end to the chaser's reign of terror by killing around ten of them including the one that chased Xander, but chaser meat was poisonous to humans. The two men and other fisherman gave the carcasses to one of the other fishermen who used the chaser bodies in stoke the fire in his chimney; dead chaser bodies gave off an odor that no one else could stand but the guy.

"So, where are we headed now?" Xander asked his saviors as the three of them settled down on stools around the island counter in the Cunnings' kitchen. Rob and James had offered Xander lunch, and now the three of them were hungrily digging into microwaved TV dinners.

"We figured from the way you described it that you were the subject of a spell or somethin'," James told him.

Xander nodded. "That's what I thought, too."

James nodded back. "We thought we'd take you to Gerald's."

"Who?" Xander asked.

"It's a magic shop," Rob answered. "The owner's name is Benny, though, never really asked why."

"If he doesn't know anything, all we have to do is go next door to The Voodoo Corner."

"A magic shop next to a voodoo shop," Xander speculated. "That's something I only thought I'd hear about happenin' in New Orleans. Sure, Baton Rouge is the next best thing, but still."

Rob and James chuckled. "We never expected to see it happen, either," James confided.

They got back in their truck and headed across town to an out-of-the-way street in the downtown area. The street was sandwiched between a four-story museum and a fenced off high-price neighborhood. Both landmarks tended to draw the eye, and if a person wasn't looking for the street, they would just pass by it without giving it much thought.

The back wall of the museum took up one side of the street while the other held four buildings. The first was a half-destroyed abandoned building. The second was a tattoo parlor while the third and fourth were Gerald's and The Voodoo Corner which, appropriately enough, sat on the curb.

They pulled up to the sidewalk and parked in front of Gerald's. When they walked into the magic shop, the sight and the scent of a strange combination of herbs and scented candles overwhelmed Xander.