Spike was heading back up to his room, when he heard a loud thump outside of the front door.
Sighing to himself, Spike headed back down the stairs. ‘What the buggering hell is she doing now?…that chit has gone absolutely insane…’
He opened the door, and saw Buffy lying on the porch, unconscious. A flash of concern swept through his eyes – he hesitated before stepping outside and slowly crouching down beside her. Suddenly, that little bothersome thought crept back into his mind – the one where he always thought Buffy was gorgeous – but he stopped before letting himself get beyond that thought. Spike got back to the issue at hand.
“Hey goldilocks, wake up.” He lightly slapped her cheek to see if she would come to.
----------
Buffy felt like crap. Her eyes began to open at the feel of someone touching her face and the sound of someone talking, but not before realizing she had a major bump on her head that hurt like hell. She was on the porch, but instead of being alone, Spike was hovering above her, saying something to her.
“Spike?” Buffy croaked out in a hoarse whisper.
“Finally - I’ve been trying to wake you up from la-la land for the past 10 minutes. What happened? Don’t tell me you got all dainty on me and just fainted?” Spike’s expression looked amused, but Buffy could have sworn he looked a bit worried – or maybe she was imagining it. He stood up and helped her up by the arm.
It suddenly all came back to her. The crypt, the barrier at the door, and her sense of three vampires in the house. Anger and fear bubbled up inside her, and she didn’t know where to begin.
Spike starred at her curiously, gauging her reaction. To his ultimate surprise, he saw tears well up in her eyes, with anger burning bright behind the unshed tears. He was completely confused – at himself. He felt sympathy for her: he had been very harsh in his rejection of her recent announcement of her feelings for him a few days ago – and now apparently, she had gone insane or something, standing here before him, with confused anger and sorrow. On the outside, he appeared indifferent and looked at her with fake annoyance.
“What the hell happened? What did you do? Cast a spell to take my place in life?” Buffy said with her jaw tight, and her hands fisted at her side as she struggled to hold back the tears.
“Listen you crazy bint, I have absolutely no fucking idea what you are talking about. You just showed up here, ranting and screaming like a bloody bitch, but what else is new.”
As with all of her reactions toward Spike, Buffy stepped forward and punched him in the nose hard. As her fist connected with his nose, a searing pain exploded in her head. She fell to the ground with a scream, as her head continued to ring in blinding pain. She could feel the tears spilling out as she clutched her head.
“Bloody Bitch! What the hell do you think you’re doing!?!?” Spike began to yell as he brought his hand up to check if there was blood. But as the pain subsided and he looked over at Buffy, he saw her curled on the ground clutching her head with tears spilling out of her closed eyes.
At the sight of her vulnerability, sympathy came flooding back to him again. “C’mon now, you knew the rules. Are you suicidal? You know you have the chip. ” Spike helped her up, as Buffy grasped his arms to keep herself stable.
‘Chip? How is that possible? What is going on????’ All of her thoughts further pulled her into despair. She was oblivious to the fact that she was now leaning on Spike’s chest for support. Her face was burrowed into his chest as he ran his hands down her arms and settled at the small of her back.
Spike tensed and quickly let her go when he realized what they were doing. He shoved his hands into his pockets and stepped back. Buffy had a slight pout at the loss of contact, followed by a wave of confusion over what she was just doing in Spike’s arms.
Mustering up his previous indignation at her punch, he added, “I should kick your ass for that hit but I won’t since you obviously went insane...” Letting out a sigh, Spike began, “Maybe Giles can try to find out what’s wrong with you....”
Buffy’s ears perked up at that. “Giles? Yes, we should find him…” Buffy said with a hopeful and pathetic tone.
‘Giles will help me. I just need to calm down and figure this out. There must be a way to break this dream or spell or whatever it is.’
Buffy was about to start walking, when she realized Spike wasn’t following. “Aren’t you coming?” Buffy inquired with a pleading look. She didn’t know why she sounded so pathetic all of a sudden. Or why she had enjoyed that embrace.
“No. I’ve wasted enough time dealing with you.” He didn’t want to keep giving her mixed signals.
She wasn’t use to this. Spike had always taken every opportunity to be by her side. And now he kept implying that SHE was the one that had feelings for HIM. It bothered her, and it bothered her that his remark hurt so much.
She tried to look like she didn’t care. “Fine.” And with that, she turned and walked away.
Sighing to himself as he ran his hands through his hair, Spike thought ‘This would be a lot easier if she were the least bit ugly.’
The walk to the Magic Box gave her some time to think, or rather ramble.
‘Ok. So Spike stole my life and now I have his. Wonderful. Calm down Buffy…. find out more information since no one else will believe a word you’re saying….... I could pretend I have amnesia! I’ll get Giles to explain everything about this world. Maybe Willow cast a spell! I’ll have her do some spell reversal-thingy.’ Buffy continued to walk towards the Magic Box while rambling on in her mind as the absurdity of it all kept her reeling with confusion.
------------------
She opened the Magic Box door, and saw Giles behind the counter and the rest of the Scooby gang at the table. Rushing in, she didn’t stop to think about what she was sensing.
“Guys! I need your help! Something has happened to me! It’s unbelieva-“ Buffy get didn’t to finish her sentence. She realized her senses. They were all vampires.
“Buffy. What makes you think we would help you? We’re not your friends.” Giles said behind a cold stare.
Her eyes went wide. She should have known, but she didn’t think it out. Giles’ remark hurt her, even though she knew they really WERE her friends. But finally, an alarming thought came to her. If they were all vampires, doesn’t that mean that at any moment now they should be getting all fang-y and lunging towards her? But this was the gang! She could stop them if they attacked…
It occurred to her: the chip! …. she panicked inside. She was defenseless and the pain would be too much to put up any sort of fight. She stepped back cautiously.
“You’re vampires…” Buffy both stated and questioned slowly.
“And you are an evil human. What’s with the game of State-the-Obvious?” Xander said with hateful sarcasm.
“I…um…um…lost my memory I think. I can’t remember everything. Spike suggested I come and see if Giles knew anything,” Buffy covered up her shock as best as she could. She needed answers, and it would get her nowhere to yell and scream, especially since they could attack her at any second.
“I’m not complaining, but why exactly are you guys not attacking me if you’re vampires?”
Xander interjected with hateful humor, “I ask myself that everyday. But the others seem to have some annoying protest against it – something about morals and how you have a chip and are defenseless. But I say you’re like a serial killer in prison. Why wait until you get out?”
“You have amnesia?” Giles stepped in with his curiosity. “How did that happen?”
“Well if I knew that, I might not be here confused out of my mind…standing in a room of…vampires…wanting to… kill me.” ‘I can’t believe this – This must be my worst nightmare.’ Buffy was trying to remain calm on the outside.
“Buffy, we aren’t going to kill you. You know, ok well maybe you don’t know since you have amnesia, but we only kill humans when they try to kill us,” Willow piped up. Xander threw her an annoyed glare so she added, “But if you don’t stay out of Spike’s life, then one of us just might…might eat you for dinner!”
This was beyond weird. They were vampires. They had morals. Willow just made an offer to eat her for dinner.
“Ooookkk then. But um, don’t you guys get… hungry around me?” Buffy hoped she wasn’t setting up her own death. The question seemed so bizarre to be said aloud.
“Well Buffy, frankly, you’re not very good. Humans taste like cheap fast food. We’d much rather eat something of the non-human blood variety,” Anya said with chirpiness.
‘Wow, that’s a twist. I’m use to being the one that has the tasty blood,’ Buffy thought comically. Buffy relaxed a bit. Hopefully none of them were starving right now.
“How come you can remember us if you have amnesia?” Willow asked suspiciously. Giles seemed perplexed by the whole thing and kept cleaning his glasses in the corner.
Buffy was debating whether or not to tell them that they were all not really vampires, or whether she should feign amnesia and get more questions answered. She decided she wanted to ask more questions.
“I’m not sure really. I woke up in Spike’s…I mean MY crypt and I just know you guys but I don’t remember anything else. Wait a minute. Why do I live in a crypt and not in a house? That doesn’t make sense and is REALLY gross…” Buffy scrunched her forehead in confusion and disgust.
“Well I guess you could live in a house, but humans are a bit outnumbered, which means we get the houses. Humans bad, humans hide,” Xander felt like he was talking to a 10-year old.
‘That doesn’t really make sense…? Why don’t I live in a nice clean house? Who the hell created this world? What a doof’ Buffy thought.
A light bulb went off in her head. “What about the vam- I mean um, what about Angel and…and,” Buffy tried to think of another vamp, “ Drusilla?” She paused again before adding, “Oh and Riley?”
“Drusilla is human, Buffy. She’s Spike’s ex. She’s somewhere across the world now. Something about how she left for Spike’s own good,” Giles commented.
‘Gee why does that remind me of someone? This is way too creepy.’ Buffy didn’t comment because she was too busy thinking about all they were telling her.
“Who the heck is Riley?” Anya jumped in.
At that moment, Spike had walked into the Magic Shop. In the end, curiosity had won out and he wanted to know how the gang would react to Buffy’s new state of crazy. He eyed Buffy and avoided her gaze quickly and went to stand far away from her. Buffy all of a sudden seemed nervous that Spike was here. She fidgeted with the bottom of her sweater and just focused on looking at the rest of the gang.
“Riley? Who’s that? Sounds like a poncy name,” Spike commented with light humor, as he light up a cigarette.
“Um never mind I guess.” Buffy stammered. ‘He doesn’t exist here? One point for this world.’
“Well what about Angel?” Buffy inquired, trying not to turn her gaze to Spike, who suddenly looked very hot standing there smoking. She waited for the gang to reply and saw Willow was about to say something.
Willow looked concerned. “He was human, you don’t remember him either?” She looked nervous and worried.
“Angel is dead, Buffy.”
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Recap of chapter 1 and 2: Spike (of Season 5) wished that Buffy knew how it felt (this vague wording is purposeful). Buffy wakes up in Spike’s crypt. The world is reversed. All her friends and family are vamps and are now Spike’s friends and family. Vamps are the norm. Humans are the ones who try to kill them. Vamps kill humans only if they are attacked because they don’t taste that great. Humans are evil. Dru and Angel were humans, but Angel is dead. – I truly hope no one is just reading the summary because doesn’t it sound ridiculous this way?
squawks
05/18/17 04:16 am
pj! I remember wishing one of your stories would be finished seriously about a decade ago. Amazing. I just tried an old password I used to use and amazingly got in too. Memories!
pj
03/20/17 01:20 am
10 yrs later, i finally rem my username and password. Pari, you rock. Hope you are well.
Rabbit_moon1
12/23/16 01:12 pm
I donate every month. Please donate to keep this site up!
AudryDaluz1
10/06/16 08:34 am
Great post.
Chrissel
08/31/16 03:45 pm
And anyone else who loves this site, it's worth mentioning there's a nifty little "Donate" option just below the shout box here! ;)
Chrissel
08/31/16 03:43 pm
Just wanted to take a moment to thank Pari and all the mods for maintaining such a great site!
05/18/17 04:16 am
pj! I remember wishing one of your stories would be finished seriously about a decade ago. Amazing. I just tried an old password I used to use and amazingly got in too. Memories!
pj
03/20/17 01:20 am
10 yrs later, i finally rem my username and password. Pari, you rock. Hope you are well.
Rabbit_moon1
12/23/16 01:12 pm
I donate every month. Please donate to keep this site up!
AudryDaluz1
10/06/16 08:34 am
Great post.
Chrissel
08/31/16 03:45 pm
And anyone else who loves this site, it's worth mentioning there's a nifty little "Donate" option just below the shout box here! ;)
Chrissel
08/31/16 03:43 pm
Just wanted to take a moment to thank Pari and all the mods for maintaining such a great site!