XANDER: (re magic orb) What is it?

OLD MAN: It's magic. Very powerful. Look at it. You'll see what I've seen. Feel what I've felt.

(Vision scene 1)

XANDER: (calls) Anya. Anya!

CHILD SARAH: (shrieks) Get the hell away from me! Dad, Josh is teasing me.

CHILD JOSH: Sarah's a weirdo! Sarah's a weirdo!

ANYA: (to Xander) What?

XANDER: You going out again?

ANYA: I'm doing a make-over party.

XANDER: I thought you hated those.

ANYA: Well, one of us has to make some money.

XANDER: (angry) Well, what do you want me to do, Anya? Huh? I can't work. My back is shot.

ANYA: And whose fault is that?

XANDER: Oh, no no no. Not the Buffy thing again.

ANYA: You had no business fighting demons with her.

XANDER: Buffy needed me. I had to help.

ANYA: (bitterly) Well, it didn't save her, did it? All it did was ruin our lives. I'll be late. (slams out)

XANDER: (yells) I hope you crash in your stupid pink car!

(Vision scene 2)

XANDER: What?

TEEN SARAH: I hate this place. You guys know I don't eat wheat.

TEEN JOSH: You don't eat anything, freak.

TEEN SARAH: At least I'm not a mama's boy.

TEEN JOSH: At least I'm not a demonic freak.

TEEN SARAH: Dad, make him cut it!

XANDER: Maybe you should talk to your mother about that.

ANYA: You've had too much wine.

XANDER: Have I? (angry) I'm just saying maybe you should talk to your daughter!

TEEN SARAH: Ohh, I hate you guys! And I know that you're not my real dad, and I hate you, I hate you both! I wish you'd die! (Storms off)

TEEN JOSH: This sucks.

(Vision scene 3)

XANDER: If you were so unhappy, why didn't you just leave?

ANYA: I wanted to. I should have!

XANDER: Yeah, you should have. 'Cause then maybe I would have gotten some touch in the past twenty years.

ANYA: I wasn't the one who stopped touching!

XANDER: Oh! Maybe, but you weren't touching me!

ANYA: What did you expect me to do? You wouldn't come near me after Buffy-

XANDER: (shouts) Don't bring her into this!

ANYA: Fine. Forget her. Maybe you were just born to be a bitter, angry old man.

XANDER: (quietly, very angry) Shut up.

ANYA: No! (tearfully) I want my life back! If I hadn't married you I wouldn't have had to hate myself for the last THIRTY YEARS!

(Xander grabs a frying pan off the stove and lunges toward Anya, screaming.)

XANDER: SHUT UP!

(back to reality)

OLD MAN: I'm so sorry. I didn't want to show you.

XANDER: What happened? What was that?

OLD MAN: A glimpse of your future. Harnessed ... by magic.

XANDER: Is she okay? (panicky) Is she okay, what did I do?!

OLD MAN: Listen. I don't have long here. The spell that brought me back, it won't last. (Xander still looking shell-shocked) But you can change things. It doesn't have to go like this. But you can't marry Anya.

XANDER: But-

OLD MAN: You'll hurt her less today than you will later. Believe me. Sometimes, two people ... all they bring each other ... is pain.

• Xander & Anya

written by: Rebecca Kirshner; transcribed by Joan the English Chick (pisces@englishchick.com). action descriptions edited by me. . Full transcript at:
http://www.studiesinwords.de/116hellsbells.html