Chapter XV - Dream A Little Nightmare

May 1, 1997

1:15 PM

SHS Library

The four inch thick book slammed onto the table with a loud crash, shaking the normally sturdy oak table under its impact. Xander and Willow were startled from their tasks by the resounding interruption, and even Giles emerged from his office to investigate the racket that had arisen.

They glared at Jesse for his unwelcome intrusion. "And with that," he referred to the discarded volume he'd tossed on the table. "We have reached the perfect score of zero for a gazillion."

"So you decided to celebrate by killing the table?" Xander asked.

"Well, I considered throwing myself off a cliff, but seeing as how I dreamed of doing that sometime last year, it'll probably happen soon enough," Jesse dropped himself into his seat, cradling his face in his hands. "Lousy 'Roadrunner' reruns!" he moaned. Amy walked up behind him with her own book and patted her boyfriend on the back.

"There, there," she ineffectively comforted.

"Yes, take heart, Jesse," Giles added, stepping completely out of his domicile of solitude and snapping closed the book in his hands. "From what little we've been able to learn, it appears that nightmares with more, er, personal connotations w-will be brought to life. Such as the one Buffy is apparently dealing with at the moment," Giles motioned to the library doors, where the Slayer and her 'father' had left through a few minutes ago.

"And the worms in my cereal this morning?" Amy commented with a shudder.

"And losing an hour in the middle of an important surprise test?" Jesse added glumly, recalling the nightmarish experience he and Buffy had gone through in history class before lunch.

"Yes, um, fairly harmless occurrences."

Willow picked up the explanation. "At least until nightmare land completely merges with our world. Then, all bets are off."

"Great. So I'll only get killed in a really personal way. Thanks loads guys," Jesse let his head fall out of his hands until it collided with the table top. "Owwwwww. Why couldn't my great-uncle that I've met twice in my life *actually* die?"

Xander stared at the book in front of him, trying not to look too guilty. When the topic of what everyone's nightmares were going to be came up, Xander had been utterly unprepared when Jesse asked about what was in store for him. And Amy and Oz for that matter. They weren't exactly around when that had happened in his time. So, impulsively and on the spot, Xander wove a pack of lies that he thought was very impressive, in addition to being very wrong. He'd picked a relative of Jesse's he knew his friend didn't know well, said they croaked and that the funeral was in Fresno. And, well, Amy would of course go with her boyfriend to said relative's funeral wouldn't she? And Oz could have been out of town on band-related business, couldn't he? Apparently they all thought so, as his falsehoods went unnoticed. It helped that Buffy had spoken up and changed the subject. God bless her - she knew how awkward it would be to relate to Jesse the story of his death.

"So," Xander spoke up, again to divert attention from the untruths he'd fed the gang. "Any progress on the invisible girl front, Mr. Watcher Man?"

Giles frowned, and Xander knew the answer. As prepared as the Watcher was for most supernatural phenomena, unpopularity-induced invisibility was 'somewhat beyond the pale,' as Giles had described it.

They had, of course, gone looking for Marcie, but the loft above the music hall where she lived had been deserted. Only one thing gave away the fact that she had been there at all: carved in the floor had been the word 'Cordelia', though the printing was barely discernable since it was marred by countless nicks and chipped off bits of wood. It would have been pretty funny in its stereotypical expression of petty hatred if it hadn't been just as disturbing.

With that avenue of investigation leading to a dead end, Xander had decided to approach Cordelia herself. He might as well have tried convincing a deaf mute. It had taken a couple minutes just to ride out the domineering cheerleader's obligatory opening string of insults. Then, when he tried to ease into the subject of the weirdness that was Sunnydale, she kept brushing off his explanations, like so much lint clinging to his polyester sweater which Cordy was unkind enough to deride in the middle of her other derisions. Following similar attempts by Willow, Amy and Buffy, which fell just as flat, the group's focus returned to preempting Marcie. Accordingly, they hit the books, searching for a remedy to the invisible girl's problem. Her physical problem, in any case.

They might have found a solution, in time, if they didn't have the impending 'nightmares' dilemma to worry about, and take up much of their researching time. It was the general consensus that Marcie had planned it that way, and that she would use the chaos and distraction the nightmares caused to exact her revenge on Cordelia and her covey. Not a terrible plan, for someone whacked out of their gourd

"Oz is watching Cordy and co?" Jesse asked. Despite Cordy's disagreeable attitude, it wasn't as if they could just leave her to Marcie's not-so-tender mercies. Currently, Oz was on Cordelia-watching duty. He didn't have any problems with the May Queen ripping into him for following her around, since she barely knew him and his mere existence was probably a mystery to her.

"Yes," Giles responded. "And judging by your experiences this morning, it appears events are beginning to converge. If-if-if Marcie is planning to take advantage of the situation, she'll strike ... soon," the Watcher said the last word after a confused pause. The teenagers in the room watched as Giles squinted at the cover of the book in his hands. He moved it closer to his face, then pushed it away. "I-I..." He whipped his spectacles off and rubbed at his eyes with the back of his fist.

"I think it's safe to say that Giles can't read anymore," Xander observed.

"How's that for a converging event, G-Man?" Jesse asked with a smirk.

"Huh. That's kinda funny," Willow said, but withered under Giles glare. "Y'know, with the-the talking about it and then it, y'know, happening? Ironic?" she substituted. Still with the glaring. Willow shook her head. "No. No, not funny, or, or ironic." Sighing, Giles stomped, in a remarkably dignified manner, up to the stacks.

"So to summarize," Jesse said. "Giles is suddenly illiterate, Amy's munching worms, Buffy's getting disowned, Oz is living the nightmare that is looking after Cordy, Willow's babbling, Xander's clueless, and I'm looking forward to two or three grisly deaths today. And, and, we still have half a day of school left. This couldn't possibly be any worse."

"Did Giles just go up into the stacks?" Amy asked, apparently remembering something that Xander had said.

Xander snapped his head around to the bookshelves. "Giles?" There was no answer. "G-Man?" Still nothing.

Willow groaned. "Did he actually just get lost up there?"

Xander didn't answer. He was too busy ripping a piece of paper off the large note pad the gang had been using all morning to jot down relevant information. It had gotten precious little use.

"It's all right, though, cuz he'll find his way out ... eventually, right?" Amy asked.

Xander balled up the paper and turned on Jesse, chucking it at his shame-faced friend. The ball pinged off Jesse's forehead, and he crossed his eyes in an attempt to look at the point of impact. "You think if I punched you, your eyes would stay like that?" Xander asked, frustratedly.

As Jesse corrected his line of sight, Amy said, "Could you not? I don't wanna be dating the school freak show."

Xander and Willow didn't say anything after that, deciding to keep the obvious retort to themselves.

* * * * *

SHS Quad

"I came by early," Hank Summers said to his frowning daughter as they walked across the freshly cut grass covering the spacious courtyard in front of Sunnydale High School. "because there's something I've needed to tell you. About your mother and me. Why we split up."

The Slayer felt something between apprehension and anger as she listened to what Xander assured her was a doppelganger of her father broach a subject she had obsessed over ever since her parents' divorce. Sure, they hadn't exactly been the model of marital bliss prior to the day she discovered her evil-fighting destiny. But, Buffy suspected that her parents' marriage had been dealt its death blow by her gym-fire-related expulsion. After that, their fights, once merely unpleasant, turned down right venomous. And the rest, as they say, was history.

"Honey? Honey, are you even listening?" Hank pestered her.

Buffy looked up at her not-father, and couldn't think of a single thing to say. Xander had told her to just let the nightmare run its course, and come back to the library where they could regroup with the rest of the gang.

"Buffy," the man before her said again, in a restrained tone, the one she recognized as his 'quiet anger' one. Why does this ... thing have to be so much like him? "Sit down, Buffy."

She did, smiling faintly when she recognized the bench she perched herself on as the one Xander had asked her out from. All her good humor vanished as she listened to her father.

"You see, this is what I'm talking about, honey. You're the reason your mother and I had to get divorced. Raising you, trying to bring you up right ... it was just too much for us to stand."

"How can you say that?" Buffy asked, feeling her heart breaking, despite her knowledge that this was as fake as Harmony's hair color. She knew it was futile, but she had to fight back somehow, and she couldn't very well punch this facsimile of her father out.

"Because it's true," he answered, matter-of-factly. "I feel like I owe it to you to be honest, after lying to you all this time."

Buffy fought her closely-guarded insecurities, trying to logically assail this person's words and keep herself from giving him the satisfaction of seeing her cry. She shook her head, at the same time denying his claims and trying to dry the tears collecting in the corner of her eyes.

The thing ignored her pain. "Well, geez, honey, how blind can you be? It would be obvious if you weren't so self-absorbed. You were always getting in trouble, embarrassing your mother and I to no end. I'm just glad I convinced your mother to take you in the settlement."

Buffy had to bite her bottom lip to keep from sobbing out loud. She couldn't lift her head to look at him. She knew she'd see that he was being completely sincere, and she didn't think she could handle that.

"Oh, come on, now, can't you stand a little constructive criticism? Remember, 'honesty is the best policy'? Or did that sail right over your head too? Gosh, y'know, it's sad that that doesn't surprise me."

Buffy hung her head further, sniffing back tears as she wiped at the ones already spilling down her cheeks.

The imposter sitting next to her abruptly stood up. "Well, look, Buffy, I don't have the time to sit here and watch you sulk. I scheduled a meeting that I don't want to be late for. Oh, and before I forget, these little weekends - they're pretty meaningless, don't you think? So, I won't be coming around anymore," Buffy remained seated while her father scooped his jacket up in the crook of his arm and walked behind her. She flinched when he laid a hand on her shoulder, but was slightly reassured he just squeezed it gently. He used to do that as a sort of 'good bye', after he'd comforted her when she was sad. Her relief was short-lived. "I really thought you'd turn out better." The hand on her seemed to become as ice cold and uncaring as the words had been. Buffy willed the hand to remove itself and sighed in relief when it did. She looked up and behind her, and witnessed her father walking away for her, never to come back to her...

Buffy wiped angrily at her tears, and stifled another sob. She was mostly upset with herself, for letting the stupid nightmare get the best of her. But it was so real. What if a little part of him actually feels that way? she wondered despairingly.

She received a much needed distraction when she caught sight of a familiar face across the courtyard. Buffy blinked away her tears and saw that her first impression was correct. A chestnut brown-haired boy wearing a despondent expression stood stock-still, mindless of the students zig-zagging around him. Buffy had first seen him a couple days ago, and as far as she knew, Billy Palmer was still lying in a coma at the hospital.

Buffy blinked in surprise. Here she was, stewing in her self-pity and despair, and the remedy for her situation just appeared before her eyes. Maybe the Hellmouth was finally working for her.

As she sprang to her feet, Billy turned sullenly and started walking away. "Billy, wait!" The Slayer's view of the boy was obscured for a moment by a student nearly bumping into her. When the obstacle dodged out of her way, Billy was nowhere to be seen.

Buffy stopped in her tracks as her eyes searched the plaza. Nothing. The boy had vanished.

Suddenly she felt very depressed. Her not-father's callous words ... this latest near-miss ... the certainty that worse was to come ... it was all too much.

Buffy headed for the school, trying to keep her slump out of her shoulders. She knew who could help her with that.

* * * * *

2:10 PM

2nd Floor Balcony, SHS

Oz really hated some people.

Well, maybe not hate. That was a fairly strong word to use for someone he barely knew. And it wasn't like old Mr. Oldcastle was ever at fault, it was just...

Who names their twin pit bulls 'Petunia' and 'Daisy'? Sometimes, irony went too far.

When Oz had been seven, he'd had a very bad experience with that dangerous duo. The two dogs had broken out of their wholly inadequate pen and chased him for three blocks, until he'd made it home, just in time to avoid their jaws, snapping at his heels.

This morning, on the way to school, which, to his dismay, he'd decided to walk to today, the supposed-to-have-been-put-down-ten-years-ago pair ran again. After him. Thank God he had longer legs now.

Oz leaned forward on the railing, trying to look casual as he listened to Cordelia and her friends talk about what he suspected was another student experiencing their worst nightmare.

"... so she was all like, 'omigod, omigod!' and she just ran right out of class," Aura related to her companions with disgust.

"Well, duh!" Cordelia Chase exclaimed. "I mean first, could anyone miss the World Class zit on her nose? It looked like the lights in the mall before Christmas, except without the green. And that skirt she had on? That last person I saw with that combination of pleats and plaid was getting off the bus from kindergarten - and even that little girl didn't have it hemmed to such an unflattering length."

"That length and flats made her legs look like tree stumps," Aura agreed.

"It was the baggy polyester sweater that did it for me," Harmony sniffed. "She looked like she'd been raiding Jesse McCormick's closet, and it added twenty pounds, easy. Not like she could afford that..."

Oz closed his eyes so that noone could see him roll them. Yup he thought. I really hate some people

The scream caused his eyes to pop open.

Oz immediately turned to the commotion, in time to see Harmony hit the ground about twenty feet below the balcony. His jaw dropped as he saw the terrible angle the impact jarred the blond's neck to.

Cordelia and her remaining associates screamed in horror as some of them scurried down the adjacent stairway to the ground below, Cordy included, while the rest ran back into the school, arms fluttering about in a bizarre show of panic.

The amateur musician made a move toward the stairs as well, but found himself surprised by a sudden force being applied to his upper body. If he didn't know any better, he could have sworn they were the palms of someone's hands. Oz put two and two together as he reeled back, and his body tipped over the railing as well.

Just as Oz was about to fall irretrievably into a very painful liaison with the grassy ground, he managed to grab onto a baluster, straightening and momentarily stopping his descent. When his plunging weight ripped his tenuous grip free, Oz fell straight down, landing feet first. He rolled forward as he landed, minimizing the potential for pain.

When he stopped his roll, Oz was flat on his back, heart pounding from the unexpected scare. When he lolled his head to the side, he got another fright.

He was looking right at Harmony's face, staring unseeingly back at him. Her ear was touching the front of her shoulder blade.

Oz made a horrified wheeze as he scrambled away from the unmoving body, feeling like he'd been dunked in a pool of filth from just looking at the horrible sight.

As Cordelia and her pals reached Harmony, Oz felt himself being lifted to his feet. He was about to thank his unknown helper when he was spun around and hoisted up off the ground by the scruff of his shirt. When he looked down at the person manhandling him, he saw the pissed off face of the football team's nose tackle, Grant Greenwich.

"What the hell did you do to her, you little prick!?" he yelled, shaking Oz easily. Sometimes being small really bites Oz thought as he tried to process this new escalation in his worsening situation. Uh oh Grant was Harmony's boyfriend, and there was obviously an emotionally-charged misunderstanding in progress.

"Dude," one of Grant's more level-headed friends ran up. "What are you doin'?"

"He pushed Harm off the balcony!" he answered, turning his head to his friend for a second. Oz used that opportunity to take advantage of the one good thing about his shortness at this second. His knee was lined up just about perfectly with...

Grant howled with a man's pain and he dropped Oz as he bent over at the waist. Oz landed on his hands and knees, catching his breath. He heard a couple of Grant's friends hauling the pained big man away, which he was thankful for.

"Hey, you OK man?" Grant's friend asked Oz, helping him up. Oz nodded, still not able to speak without any labored breathing. "Didja see who pushed you guys?"

Oz shook his head. "No," he answered honestly. "Didn't see anyone," he added glancing up at the balcony, wondering if Marcie was still watching.

* * * * *

2:20 PM

SHS Library

Oz was still smarting somewhat when he arrived at the library. Slipping away from the growing crowd had been fairly simple, as everyone that gathered was inevitably drawn to the massive freak-out Cordelia and her friends had been going through. Though he wished he could have brought her back with him, where she would be safer from Marcie with people who were aware of the threat, everyone's attention was focused on her even more than usual. Besides, even Marcie wouldn't be likely to attack when she was surrounded by so many people.

Everyone was sitting around the table when he entered, except for Jesse, who seemed to be even more restless than usual. He was hopping off the circulation desk as Oz pushed open the doors. Willow was sitting still, but Oz could see her hands clasped together and fidgeting under the table. Oz mentally added that little mannerism to his long list of Willow's endearing features. I am so pathetic he scolded himself. If it hadn't happened yet, it wasn't very likely to at all. Buffy and Xander were scrunched together in side by side chairs, and Buffy seemed to be almost leaning on him for dear life. Something 'nightmarish' must have happened to her. The fact that the Slayer seemed so shaken up was unsettling for Oz.

All eyes turned to the musician when he walked in. Jesse was the first to open his mouth, as was the case on many an occasion. "It's Oz! Oz is here!" he declared excitedly. "Whatcha up to Oz-man? How's the Cordy detail from hell goin'?"

Oz flicked his eyes over to the table's occupants, who were shaking their heads at Jesse's nervous energy. "Could be better. I just fell off a balcony, and Marcie killed Harmony, but otherwise..."

Everyone blinked. Then they blinked again, as they realized he wasn't joking. Then, the room was filled with voices as everyone tried to put their two cents in.

"Harmony's dead?" from Xander, with shock.

"Where is she?" from Buffy, with determination.

"I'm gonna die!" from Jesse, almost blubbering.

"She killed her?" from Amy.

"Are you OK?" from Willow, with worry. Oz almost felt himself smile. She wants to know if I'm OK! he thought with uncharacteristic exuberance.

"This isn't supposed to happen," Xander said when the first wave of exclamations died down.

"Y'know, maybe you should get that tattooed on your forehead, and save the precious air you use up when you say that all the time!" Jesse shouted, his nerves getting seriously frayed.

Buffy shot up from her seat. "We need to do something. Us just sitting here is getting people killed!"

"What about Giles?" Amy asked.

"We could leave him a note," Willow suggested.

"We do seem to be running low on time,"Xander admitted sullenly.

Where *is* Giles? Oz wondered, and then asked out loud.

"He ... got lost," Xander said, tiredly.

"In the bookcases," Jesse added.

"And he hasn't found his way out yet," Buffy finished.

"Librarians have the weirdest dreams," Amy commented.

At least books aren't liable to maul you Oz thought.

"So, what do we do? Do we need to run great distances, cuz I'm all keyed up for that," Jesse said, practically bouncing on the balls of his feet.

"We need a division of labor here," Xander proposed, calling on an apt comparison with his old and future carpentry work.

"Someone needs to get Cordy," Willow put in.

"Someone needs to find Marcie," Oz added, rubbing the back of his neck, where a dull pain was developing from his previous tumble.

"No," Buffy shook her head. "Where Cordy goes, Marcie goes. We just need to protect her, until we get rid of these stupid nightmares."

"Which is the other thing we need to do," Xander said. "We need to get Billy the astral spirit to Billy the coma patient and ... get everything all squared away there."

"How exactly do we do that, oh fearless leader?" Jesse wanted to know.

Xander stood up and turned to his girlfriend, placing his hands on his hips.

"I've gotta beat up Billy's boogeyman," Buffy said, frowning as she stared up at Xander.

Xander sighed. "And I've gotta protect Cordy."

"Oh God," Jesse groaned. "And circumstances once again tear our star-crossed lovers apart. Can I just say..." Jesse started a little play with his fingers, walking his right hand off an imaginary cliff, and then dropping it with an exaggerated slowness accompanied by a bomb-whistle until it landed with a Wile E. Coyote-esque splat in his other hand. Buffy and Xander just rolled their eyes at their friend.

"All right my fellow sidekicks," Xander announced. "Let's split up."

"Giles!" Willow exclaimed, and everyone turned their attention to the library's upper level, where the Watcher was standing, looking quite disoriented.

"Made it through the labyrinth, Theseus?" Amy asked the librarian. "He's Greek," she added quietly to Jesse, before he had a chance to be confused.

"More like geek," he muttered to himself, and received an feminine elbow in the ribs for his ribbing.

Giles looked back at the small number of bookshelves that filled his library. "That was quite possibly the single most ridiculous experience of my life."

"That's what you get for running with teenagers, Giles," Buffy remarked.

"Great timing Giles," said Jesse. "What's your poison: invisible chick or nightmares kid?"

The Watcher stared in confusion at Jesse. "Giles can come with me," Xander said. "I think our super-heroine can handle herself, right?"

"Don't worry, Xander," Jesse spoke up. "I'll watch her back."

Xander glanced at Jesse before turning back to his girlfriend. "So you can handle yourself alone, right?"

"You better mean that metaphorically," Amy whispered to her boyfriend, and he smirked as he wiggled his eyebrows at her playful menace. "I think I better keep an eye on you."

"Oz, you good to go?" Xander asked.

"As ever," the musician said simply, though he was privately chomping at the bit to get back at Marcie. Strange. I don't usually hold grudges

"Great. Wills, you'll come with us, kay?" Xander asked, though to Oz's ears it sounded strangely like an order.

Everyone else was heading for the door already when Willow mumbled to herself, "Stuck with you, more like it."

Only Oz was in earshot. He found himself thankful he didn't have a tranquilizer gun this time.

* * * * *

2:30 PM

Sunnydale High School

"Does anyone else have a feeling of horrible impending doom?" Jesse asked. He, Buffy and Amy were approaching the entry/exit of Sunnydale High, on their way to locate little Billy Palmer's astral body.

"Would you quit it already!" Amy demanded in irritation. "You've been whining and complaining all day! What happened to your testosterone overload? You don't see me acting like such a wuss, do you?"

"Oh no!" Jesse shouted, stopping in his tracks. "It's a nightmare! I'm turning into a sissy girly man!"

"On second thought..." Amy started, but was immediately cut off by Jesse.

"Don't even say it!"

"Guys!" Buffy interrupted, without turning around or stopping. Amy and Jesse saw they were falling behind the Slayer, so they picked up their pace. "Normally, I'd jump in and say something to poke fun at Jess, but for some reason, I'm not in the mood. We need to get this done before the crap really hits-"

Suddenly, Buffy was herself interrupted by a loud clanging noise from above her head. The little group looked up to see the vent hatch servicing this tributary of the main hallway rattling in its frame.

"-the vent?" the Slayer finished her previous utterance as the hatch shook with more and more violence, until it was finally knocked off its hinges. Jesse and Amy had to scramble backwards to avoid the falling piece of equipment.

For a long moment, the trio stood still, staring up at the newly opened hole in the wall, tensely awaiting whatever was about to emerge.

The small green being that came careening out of the vent with a screech took the three teens by surprise. When it landed on the vent cover, they had to look down to get a good look at it.

The creature stood barely a foot and a half tall, though its arms were at least as a foot long themselves. It was covered in green scales, from its clawed toes to its taloned, three fingered hands. A pair of proportionally-oversized, wing-shaped ears jutted out of the side of its scalp, lower than human ears would be. The creature's most noticeable and memorable feature, however lay on top of its head, stationed between those protruding ears. A tuft of sheer white hair, stretching from its forehead to the back of its head, created a truly bizarre visage.

Buffy had heard a lot of screams in her young life, ranging from the 'domestic disturbance' variety to the 'getting killed by an real, live demon' type. But she knew with utter confidence that the noise that came from Amy was something she had never heard before. It was like she gasped, shrieked and inhaled simultaneously.

"It's-it's-it's-" Amy stuttered.

"A gremlin?" Jesse asked curiously. He turned to Amy while keeping and eye on the little monster. "You fed him after midnight? What were you thinking?"

Amy ignored Jesse's comment as she quickly backed herself against the wall opposite the gremlin, which had been watching her ever since it had hopped out of the vent. Abruptly, it broke out into a razor-sharp-toothy smile and, with a tittering that sounded a lot like laughter, leapt through the air, directly at Amy.

Amy let out another scream, more full-throated this time. The gremlin's claws slashed through the air-

-and Buffy snatched the little monster out of the air, grabbing it by its mohawk, and hurled it back the way it came. The gremlin smacked into the wall and bounced onto the floor. Before the creature could recover, the Slayer flipped the vent cover on top of it and proceeded to jump up and down several times on the metal blanketed gremlin. Jesse gleefully added his weight to the effort, squashing the gremlin until its squeals of anger and pain finally ended.

"That was fun," Jesse said, "but since when did Slayer training include death by squishing?"

"Well, I ... I mean, there wasn't ... do-do I tell you how to do your job?" Buffy finally settled on that miffed retort.

"Aims," Jesse turned to his girlfriend. "You-"

He didn't finish, as he noticed Amy still had that terrified look on her face, and her eyes were focused above their heads. Buffy and Jesse looked up.

Jesse's height forced him to duck when he saw a pair of nasty looking clawed feet swinging at his head. Buffy tried to bat the gremlin out of the air, but it continued its swing out of her grasp.

"How the heck?" Buffy wondered as she followed the gremlin with her eyes, making sure to keep her head down. The creature was traveling along the ceiling. It had its clawed fingers dug into the ceiling tiles, until it swung its legs up and then it to sink those talons into the ceiling, allowing it to hang upside down, like a wingless bat.

"Buffy, behind you!" Jesse warned, pointing above and behind her. The Slayer spun around, and her eyes widened as she saw a horde of little gremlins hopping out of the vent. The movie monsters screeched and laughed in their high pitched tonalities when Buffy saw them. Then their irritating vocal emissions became the least of Buffy's worries, because the gremlins started to swarm around her. Jesse ran up and kicked one into the wall, but four more took its snapping, snarling place.

Forgotten by Buffy and Jesse, the gremlin hanging from the ceiling quickly swang its way over to Amy, who remained rooted to the floor in terror. With a screech, it dropped from its perch right onto the horrified girl's head.

Jesse's head snapped around at Amy's shriek. He jaw dropped in shock and fear at the sight of the gremlin clinging ineffectually to Amy's hair, ultimately being shaken off by the girl's frantic movements. But, even then, the green horror didn't give up, hopping to its feet and menacing her again. Amy finally gave up on showing courage and fled, running away down the hallway waving her hands over her head, as if she expected the gremlin to start scalp dancing on her again.

"Amy!" Jesse yelled. She was running away from him and Buffy, though considering the constant stream of gremlins flowing out of the vent, that was probably the best direction to go. A wet thwack arose from a Buffy-propelled gremlin hitting the wall. Jesse himself was preoccupied just keeping out of reach of the little nightmares.

And just when things couldn't get any worse, they did.

The bell rang. Buffy and Jesse stared at each other in alarm.

Grade school students, while procrastinators almost by nature, are unnaturally prompt when it comes to remaining in a classroom any more than absolutely necessary.

Barely three seconds after the siren rang out, doors on both sides of the hallway opened, and students started spilling out of classes. The normal chatter that usually accompanied such a mass exodus lasted as long as it took for several of the gremlins to turn their ire on the newly forming crowd. With that, the crowd became a mob, panic spreading faster than through a spooked herd of cattle. The doorways quickly became clogged with people pushing to get into the rooms and others trying the close the doors on the mini-menaces.

Buffy knew at once that things had spiraled completely out of control. There was no way to round up all the monsters now that they were tearing around after the terrorized students. Better cut them off at the source Buffy just hoped that *everything* got reversed when the nightmares ended. The stampede seemed likely to turn into a massacre at any moment.

"Jesse! Amy!" She called, as several students tried to turn her into part of the floor. They definitely got the worst of that encounter, as the girl with super strength simply shrugged them off. She shoved and pushed her way through the throng of teens in the last direction she saw Jesse, making sure to wipe the disturbing smiles off the faces of the gremlins she came upon. It was a good thing she'd worn her running shoes today.

After a minute, Buffy came to the periphery of the gathering, which had settled into a kind of ordered chaos moving in the opposite direction. The Slayer frantically scanned the hallway for her friends, and, that failing, turned to see if they would yet emerge from the crowd.

They didn't.

"Did you hear that?" Willow asked.

Xander, Oz and Giles stopped with the redhead and listened. The screams emanating from the other end of the school carried clearly to their ears. Several unnatural screeches were similarly heard.

Buffy was the first thought Xander had, and felt guilty almost immediately, since of all the people who were apparently in danger, she was the best suited to handle it. But this sounded like it was, once again, some new twist on what he'd expected to happen. "Buffy doesn't need any help, right?" he asked the area in general.

"I shouldn't think so," Giles answered.

"She is super-girl," Oz added.

"And it was your idea to split up," Willow put in.

All good reasons. Lousy logic He sighed. "You guys are right," they started walking again, heading for the second-floor classroom Cordelia was supposed to be attending next. Chances were that she wasn't there, since she'd just witnessed the death of Harmony, but it was worth a shot. "Sometimes I get all ... hyper protective when it comes to Buff. First," he said, effecting a Mexican inflection. "You get de women, den, you get de worry, den-" Another feminine scream, louder this time, rang through the hallway, "you get-a goin'," he said, and then turned and dashed off away from his friends. "Cafeteria! Meet there!" he called as he ran by the wall of lockers and turned the corner.

"Xander, wait up!" Willow blurted, surprising Giles and Oz when she scurried off after their departing friend.

Giles didn't utter a word while Xander and Willow made their exits, stunned by their sudden departure from the agreed-upon plan. He sighed in frustration. Oz, meanwhile, was frowning as mightily as he ever had. Willow had gone chasing after Xander, who had gone chasing after Buffy. If a microcosm of their life was ever needed, there it was.

Oz let his gaze linger on the empty space Willow had just occupied before turning back to...

Noone.

Oz froze, startled, and then whirled around. Nothing.

Giles was gone.

"Huh."

TBC ... Next time, the nightmares. Really!

Oh, and ... I have no idea who owns the Gremlins. They're not mine, though.