~Interlude made for Halloween - not nessasary, needs revision~
 

***"I hate you! We are over - and through! I can't believe you!"***
 

Willow walked into the library, and almost stopped dead when she saw Xander sitting at the table. "Hey," he said weakly from the table, "I thought you'd like some help doing the researching thing."
 

"Oh. Yeah, help." She said as she walked to the table, silently cursing her bad luck. Of all the nights for Xander to feel helpful… she sat down on the table, her bare legs touching the cold wood. It reminded her briefly about Spike's hands… Spike's face… Spike's chest… Spike's - "Well, study buddy before we do the whole research thing I say we get some munchies. What do you want?" Willow's head snapped back into reality to look at Xander as she felt a small shiver run down her spine. Spike was near, and he was coming for her. She gulped, wanting Xander to be as far away as possible.
 

"Um… anything. Just now, and a soda!" she said quickly, feeling Spike draw nearer. Xander frowned in confusion but nodded anyway, getting up out of the chair. "Alrighty." As soon as Xander left, she felt Spike come into the library through the stacks.
 

"Hello, love. Ready to go?" Spike's sexy voice called to her as he walked over to her. In the shadows she saw his "buddy" waiting, resting casually against the stacks. His long black hair feel past his shoulders but was tied back around his shoulders; his blue eyes pierced through her much like the eyes of Spike.
 

"Uh… I can't." She said as he drew closer, scooting farther away on the table. "See… Xander is…" Spike stopped right at her legs and leaned forward. "Xander decided to help me tonight…" she wiped sweaty palms on her skirt, wondering why tonight she was so afraid of him…
 

Spike moved his lips to her ear and traced them lovingly with his lips. "And…? I say, I hit him over the head, pet, and kidnap you."
 

She laughed, and pushed him away. "I don't think so." When he pushed back against her, she slunk back more. "Stop, Spike. I said…" she trailed off and he could smell her fear rolling off of her in waves. His demon inside was roaring with triumph and Willow whimpered when his game face appeared. Then she did the worst thing she could ever do - she ran.
 

Willow managed to jump off the table and pushed a chair into Spike, hard enough to knock him down and away from her. With one look behind her she ran out of the library - something coursing through her veins. She ran out of the library when she spotted Xander in the hall. "Xander!" she breathed. "Xander, we have to go! Now!" She grabbed his hand. Letting the soda and snacks fall to the ground, she ran with him outside, looking frantically for some place to go where he couldn't follow.
 

She knocked off her shoes, running barefoot down the street. Xander followed close behind her, not asking any questions. Her eyes fell upon her house and she wracked her brain, had she ever invited Spike inside…?
 

She felt the shiver run down her spine and knew he was coming near. Breathing heavily she grabbed the key under the mat and opened the door. She closed the door hurriedly behind them and Xander turned around to look at her. "What the hell just happened, Wills?"
 

Her green eyes darted back and forth, her hand tightening on her stake. "Well… nothing. Yeah, nothing! Just a random attack of vampires and creepy crawlies…"
 

"Ah, all right. The motto for Sunnydale 'We got our own creepy crawlies' strikes again! You got snacks, Wills? I'm so hungry…" Xander, with 14 years of practice walked into the kitchen with ease and picked out his favorite snack. Bringing the chips to the couch, he sat down and situated himself, like he had done so many times before.
 

Willow blinked away unexpected tears, and sat down next to Xander. Just being with him in her house, seeing him so at ease… like they were pre-Buffy. "Oh, Xander. I've been keeping an awful secret…"
 

Xander looked at her, worry written all over his face, as tears rolled down her face. "Oh, Wills…" he reached out to hug her, and Willow only cried harder.
 

Willow sobbed as he hugged her to him, and she fisted her hands in his shirt like she has done so many times before, and Xander sighed. Xander only wondered how she could carry such secret on her shoulder. His Willow was too innocent to keep anything from them… especially him and Buffy…
 

"I've… I've… I've been seeing Spike for a month or maybe a little less." She whispered so that Xander had to strain to hear. He jumped up from the couch, and looked down at her. "Willow! How could you! Our enemy!"
 

"Xander, he's Buffy's enemy - not mine! Please, Xander let me explain -"
 

"A spell!" Xander interrupted. "He's got you under some kind of spell… When did he come back? Oh god, where's the phone. Buffy, Buffy, Buffy…" he said frantically.
 

"Xander!" Willow said, trying to get his attention.
 

His brown eyes locked back with her own green orbs and he hugged her to him fiercely. "Oh Wills. Don't worry - I'll take you away from him. How dare he pick on you! I mean getting at Buffy through -"
 

Willow angrily pushed away from him, tears of hurt running down her face. "Xander!" Her fists balled, but she fought to keep herself from hitting him. "He isn't using me to get at Buffy. He's my friend." Her voice was laced with anger, her emerald eyes as dark as verdant.
 

"Willow. He has no soul - he has no friends. Only toys. And he's a vampire, Wills. You know 'The Big Bad'?"
 

"Xander!" Her voice stared to break from the anger she was holding in. "You don't know anything. Shut up! He does like me -whether you choose to believe it or not."
 

"Oh god Wills." His eyes were wide and sorrowful. "You fell in love with him."
 

"I did not! He's only a friend -"
 

"Then why were we running Willow? Huh? Why were we in danger from your 'friend'?"
 

Willow bit the inside of her cheek from crying at that - wondering why she was feeling so irregular tonight. Why had she been afraid of Spike? Why had Spike been acting all… possessive like that? Why was Xander still hooked up on that whole 'Buffy Summers is my god - I worship her' kick?
 

She looked at Xander, before hitting him over the head, with one fist, promptly knocking him out with a helpful little bit to memory relapse magic. Her face was stormy as she left her house, and she pounded away on the pavement, her eyes searching for something… anything, that seemed out of the norm. And there!
 

A dark gloomy house sat upon the hill, bats flying all around it. She stopped and stared for a moment, wondering how something could be so… cliched. She by passed several trick or treater's on her way to the house, and she opened the iron gate to step onto the property. She had the stake firmly in her hand as she moved her way up to the house, her eyes watching all around her, and every once in a while turning back for a glimpse behind her. The next time she looked back she didn't expect to walk into another person.
 

"Excuse me!" A frightened voice said, and Willow looked down. "Where are we, ma'am?"
 

Willow face turned into a grimace at ma'am. "I don't know. Where's your mommy?" Her voice was strained, and she could of sworn she just saw a light flicker in the window.
 

"I donna't know!" The little girl wailed, and Willow hushed her quickly. "Sh!"
 

The little girl held on tightly to her little bucket of candy, her cute dress dirty and wrinkled. "How long have you been here?" Willow said as she took the girl's hand.
 

"I donna't know. A while." The girl said amiably, as Willow began to lead her to the edge of the property. She was just about to land on flat ground when the road doubled to the end. Willow frowned and began to walk faster. Just as she reached the path the way elongated again. "Oh, bloody hell!" She cursed, and began to take the girl back up to the house.
 

"Pwease!" The girl began dragging her feet, "Donna't make me a gos back in a dere!"
 

Willow sighed impatiently and began to walk on her own. "Then stay here." Just as she reached the doorknob, the little girl attached herself onto her waist. Willow entered the house, pushing the little girl behind her. She saw the dust and cobwebs all over the house, and wondered if creepy music would suddenly spring up and a abnormal squeaking would begin.
 

She reached the banister to go up the stairs and stopped as she looked up the stairs. Floating there was a small ghost, dramatically saying in a voice not well proportioned for it's small body, "Go back! This place will be your demise!"
 

She sighed and rolled her eyes, walking up the stairs, then walking around the ghost, she stuck her tongue out on him. As if on some cue, the creepy music started up and she sighed. "For the love of the Goddess!"
Walking down the hall, she noticed that all the room were bare, and the staircase at the end led seemingly back to downstairs.
 

"What a waste of time!" She crowed, making sure the little girl kept pace with her. She took the stairs down two at a time, and landed down at the bottom with a nice thump. She began to walk angrily through the bare and empty rooms, leading up to the final doors. The music seemed to becoming from in there and she kicked opened the door, dramatically.
 

In the middle of the dance floor stood about a hundred guards all armed and pointed sword at the two of them. "Oh damn!" she cried as they began to circle in on them.
 

She found herself using some of her magic, her attack spells taking out 5 a swipe, knowing how draining it will be for her. The again one hundred to one odds… she quickly gave up due to exhaustion and pointlessness. She lost all sight when one came crashing down upon her head.
 

* End Interlude One (1/3)
 

***"Saving the damsel in distress? Most disturbing, my boy. Most."***
 

Spike saw Willow fall to the ground in the middle of the ball room and roared angrily. He began to take them all on with his fists, figuring the odds just about even. He didn't notice when the sword appeared in his out, and he didn't notice when he started to use it. He drank, killed, slaughtered and left the whole room in dismemberment by the time he was done with half. He took unheeded breaths and then he felt a sword come crashing down upon his head. Where had Dathan gone? He fell onto something soft and as his sight faded he realized where his childe was.
 

*
 

"Dungeon. Bring me the red headed girl. We shall do experiments on that one."
 

*
 

Willow groggily woke up and sighed as she felt her throbbing head, lifting up a hand to ease the tension she found her hands shackled down to a table. As a matter of fact, she noticed brightly as she opened her eyes, she was fully chained down to a table.
 

"Wha-?" She said, her blurry eyes focusing on people in the room. She noticed that she was in a laboratory of some kind, it's bleak room and instruments alerting her to the silent menace. There was the little girl - unconscious and thrown uncaringly in the corner, and over her was a grinning face and a rather handsome dazed one. "Angel?" she gasped, looking at the dazed face hanging over her. "Angel! I thought you were in hell!"
 

"Ah, I see you've finally awakened!" The grinning face aka the Mad Scientist said, grinning like a… mad man? "It's high time too, my dear! Shall we start up the tests?" Angel made no notice of her, and just flipped a switch, and she felt something buzz around her. "Whoa, whoa, whoa! Tests? What tests? Let me out of here!" She looked over at Angel pleadingly, finding him wearing a white lab coat.
 

The Mad Scientist grinned over at her, and she realized quickly that he was the villain in this horrible cliched nightmare, and she had something she could rely on for all these stupid campy cliches... "At least… tell me your plans first. Any self respecting mad man and shady person would do such a thing to the person who's about to get fried!"
 

He considered it and nodded once to Angel. She felt the buzz around her go away and half listened to the man talk. "I suppose it couldn't hurt! I want to see what's making you tick, Willow Rosenberg! And to do that I must make some experiments…" He was about to nod at Angel again and she grimaced. What to do? What to do?
 

Angel pushed the Red Button, and Willow gulped. What the hell had they done with the switch?
 

The table shook, motors coming to life as the carefully instructed system began to startup. A green light traced Willow's body, sizing up exactly where to start probing. "H... hey!" Willow said, feeling all of the sudden not so sure of these stupid B movies. Where and who was her stupid hero, huh huh? No she had to think her way out of this… but how? She wiggled and struggled as it began to move up her body at an antagonizing speed. "How do you expect me to get out of this?"
 

"I don't," Mad Scientist said. "Why would I?"
 

"I'm the heroine! I HAVE to get out of the deathtrap! If you're going to be one of these stupid movies, follow the plot, twit!"
 

"Not in MY story, dear," Mad Scientist smirked. "My pursuit of science and the vanquishing of my enemies makes me the heroic figure of the day! You are simply a witch coming to oppress the spirit of invention and progress, which I will get some usefulness out of. Your friends will provide similar needs, once I fish them out of the dungeon." Friends? What? Buffy was here? She repressed the urge to gag and listened to him continue… "…for now, I must bid adieu; plenty of experiments to attend to. Angel, I trust you'll keep an eye on her and stun her into submission if she attempts anything unusual?"
 

Angel said nothing, but nodded politely in his direction, his eyes riveted on the machine.
 

"Angel!" Willow almost whined. "How can you just stand there and let him get away with this? Spooky music? Annoying ghosts carrying over-used lines? Rooms with absolutely no purposes other to annoy and confuse the heroine? HE'S the villain, not me! Snap out of it or I'm going to be carved like a turkey for a holiday I don't even celebrate!"
 

Angel said nothing his eyes riveted on the machine, her words not penetrating his thick skull.
 

"Why won't you let me go? I'm friends with the slayer! She'll hunt you down and hack you into nothingness!" Willow threatened to the back of the retreating scientist. "And it's obvious you don't know how to stick to decent plot lines! Or else… or else you wouldn't need Angel - who's obviously under some spell to help you!"
 

Mad Scientist sighed. "You know nothing of how to make a PROPER story. Especially of you kids today… True tales of fantastic deeds are told with more style, more LIFE! People in those stories know their roles. And to make sure you play your role, I think I'll have to expend a bit more effort..."
 

Willow opened her mouth to ask what he was going on about, but only saw a brief moment of gold, and... and...
 

Was scared!
 

"AAAAAAAAA!!!" she cried, mind clouded with passivity and feminine helplessness. "Whatever am I going to do?! HELP! HEEEEELP!!"
 

"Considerably better!" Mad Scientist grinned, laughing maniacally. "The Damsel in Distress would never be able to escape on her own. My work here is complete. Ta ta, all."
 

Lord what fools these mortals be… As Mad Scientist left, his final mistake unknowing to his own devious scheming.
 

*
 

Dungeons were usually dark, mopey, creepy, and disgustingly dirty. In other word, stick Angel in here, and he would be happy. Dathan had never been in a dungeon before - or at least not so one as well guarded as this. The silence except for the heavy boots upon the stone floor, penetrated Dathan's brain making him almost go slowly mad. He had no conception of how much time had passed while he had sat there, he had no idea where his sire was, for the walls kept in everything, and sent it back a hundred-fold - or at least that was what happen when he did a brief skim magic-wise.
 

Dathan sighed, wondering silently what to do. He had no idea where Spike was and how this place was making him act, but for some odd reason Dathan felt an urge to break down and cry. He stubbornly ignored it, not wanting to make a fool of himself.
 

Dathan scowled, wondering silently what was up with this house. Everyone was acting weird, and he felt so… lost, foolish, afraid…
 

He didn't even notice that tears dripped off his face until he saw them splatter on the floor. What the-?
 

"Prithee, what dost you weep for?" A soft, accented voice came from right next to him.
 

"Sire?" Dathan asked, a flicker of hope rekindling. "Is that you?"
 

"The blackhearted dogs swarmed me," William grumbled. It sounded like he had taken a bad blow to the head. "My head rings like the gongs of heaven themselves. Tell me, is the fair fiery sorceress with you?"
 

"No.. no, I don't know where she is… She could be in his dungeon, asleep. If she was awake, she'd be yelling her head off, probably..."
 

And then, Mad Scientist's fatal mistake was known.
 

"Hark! Dost thine ears hear what mine hear??" William's voice cried, and Dathan looked at the Wall, where he though it sire to be.
 

"What? I don't hear a thing, sire."
 

"A call... a cry for help! The fair damsel... she is in DANGER! I must take leave of this place, and rescue her, or all is for naught!"
 

"Sire… I don't understand -"
 

"I must save her, good sir! Does thou have any way, any way at all to leave this wretched hovel?"
 

Dathan looked over at the two guards, playing a randy game of cards. An idea popped up in his head, and he silently thought about all they had seen. Stupid horror movie cliches of "scary" lighting, creaking floor boards, deathtraps, and William had even fell into a hole. If this was what he thought it was…
 

"Act sick!" He whispered to his Sire, and rose his voice to a nice falsetto. "Guards! Guards! This man is sick!"
 

"Good plan, lad!" William whispered as he sunk down on all knees, and held onto his stomach.
 

"What is all of the ruckus over here?" the guard asked, suddenly grouchy.
 

He opened William's cell, and everything fell according to plan from there.
 

* End Part Two
 

***"Dumb twit… I really really REALLY dislike this holiday. I wonder why I bother to go out at all…"***
 

I was a scared. I had just been trick or treating with my Mama when all of the sudden I saw my hat fall into this yard. I hurried to go get it before anyone noticed I was a gone, and when I tried to leave - poof! It kept on going farther and farther away. I ran, and ran, and ran, and ran until I gots a too tired to move. I ruined my pretty dress! Mama really liked this one, said it made me look just like a princess! Then I saw pretty lady, and pretty lady was so brave goin' in the house all by herself!
 

Then, pretty lady got angry. She took me all around, leading me into rooms with nothin' in them! Mama always say that a bad habit - but now I seen pretty lady do it - I don't care!
 

When we went into the big room, she held them at bay with sumethin' - I dunno wut that sumethin' was but it sure was!
 

Then, I wake up and she is like being poked at with these thingies! They're largey, and pointy, and shiny - they look just like Mama's nails except Mama's nails donna come to a point at the end and they brown not silver.
 

Then, her prince comes to save her! He looks kinda angry and old, but I won't a hole these things against 'im. Her face lights up and she looked even more a pretty than before. He fought the weirdo who was holding her a captive! Sunk like a brick!
 

Then, the pretty lady followed him in and hugged the Mad Scientist to 'er. He dropped to a the gwund after, so I guess 'e was a pretty shocked. And then they said a things that Mama read a to me in a book…
 

"Oh, Spike!" Pretty lady sighed happ'ly, stars in her eyes. "You came back for me!"
 

"Of course, my lady," Prince smiled, booing her - I dink that was wut a Mama say. "I could not leave you in that cur's hands. For it is my quest to protect thee! And just as well, for I..."
 

"Yes? Yes?"
 

"I..."
 

"Yes?" Pretty lady asked. I heard a this strange music - it sounded pwetty.
 

"I LOVE thee, my lady!" Prince declared, and swept her up into a kiss that the music just ADORED...
 

I was a pretty shocked when all of a sudden we were out-a-side on the grass. The two broke 'part and pretty lady blushed. That's all I can a remember.
 

"I swear Mommy! That's a wut happyened!"
 

"Of course, dear."
 

"It was!"
 

"Okay."
 

"Oh, phooie."
 

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