3rd Person's POV

Willow and the Vampire Boy walk along, alone in the dark. She is clearly nervous, though not for the reason she should be.

"Sure is dark..."

"It's night." The boy replies.

"That's a dark time. Night. Traditionally."

They walk a bit more.

"I still can't believe I've never seen you at school. Do you have Mr. Chomsky for History."

He doesn't answer.

"The ice cream bar's down this way– it's past Hamilton street."

She stops making him take her hand.

"I know a shortcut."

He leads her into the dark of wood.

Buffy comes from around the back of the Bronze, looking around. Xander comes up to her, carrying his skateboard.

"You're leaving already?"

"Xander, have you seen Willow?"

"Not tonight."

"I need to find her. She left with a guy."

"We are talking about Willow, right?"

He stops talking let's it sink in as he says impressed, "Scoring at the Bronze. Work it, girlfriend."

"Where would they go?"

"Why, you know something about Mr. Goodbar that she doesn't? Oh! Hey. I hope he's not a vampire. 'Cause then you'd have to slay him."

She turns back to him, surprised and miffed.

"Was there a school bulletin? Was it in the news? Is there anybody in this town who doesn't know I'm a slayer?"

"I only know that you think you're a slayer, and I only know that 'cause I was in the library today."

"Yeah you guys are not very good at checking the place before you speak about certain deadly things."

Buffy and Xander turn around to see Laney walking up to them as she pulls on her furry red vest.

"Is she actually speaking to us?" Xander says sarcastically.

"Shut up Alex-"

"Uh wait pause. Cut the scoreboard you cannot call me that. My mom calls me that."

"Oh please she calls you Alexander. I called you Alex. It's your name."

"My name is Xander. Why are you here anyways? It's not like you actually do care about Willow."

Laney frowns, "She's my sister dummy. Just because I don't talk to her at school, doesn't mean I want her head served on a platter."

Xander shrugs saying true. Buffy frowns and groans as she stands in between the two.

"Look if we don't find her, there's gonna be another dead body in the morning."

Silence fills the air as the two look at her. Seeing she isn't kidding, they look at each other and nod.

Willow is still walking with Vampire Boy, but getting increasingly creeped out.

"Okay, this is nice and... scary. Are you sure this is faster?"

He says nothing. She keeps walking beside him, uncertain. He stops at a small mausoleum. The entrance is a well of black.

"Hey. You ever been in one of these?"

Willow frowns, "No... thank you."

He moves in close, holding her intimately, "Come on. What are you afraid of?"

He pushes her into the blackness of the entrance. Willow stumbles in. She looks about her frightenedly, adjusting to the increased dark.

The place is small, with carved stone walls. A large tomb takes up much of the middle, the stone figure of a man lying atop it. Behind her is the doorway she came in, ahead, a much smaller, iron door, locked shut.

She spins all the way round to see the boy filling the entrance.

"That wasn't funny."

No response. He steps closer, his face in shadow. She circles away from him, moving closer to the doorway.

"I think I'm gonna go."

"Is that what you think?" The boy jokes humorlessly.

All the playfulness has drained out of his voice. She takes a step back, another, turns and moves WHAM– right into Darla. Emitting something between a scream and a squeak, Willow steps back. Darla looks at her, at the boy.

"Is this the best you could do?"

The boy shrugs, "She's fresh."

"Hardly enough to share." Darla scoffs.

"Why didn't you bring your own?"

"I did." She smirks as she indicates the doorway behind her. Jesse stumbles dazed from the darkness.

"Hey, wait up..."

"Jesse!" Willow goes over to him, relieved. He is clutching his neck.

Jesse looks over at Darla dazed, "I think you gave me a hickey..."

He takes his hand away. There is blood all over his neck. Willow looks over at the other two, eyes wide.

"I got hungry on the way."

Willow tries to help Jesse stand, "Jesse, let's get out of here."

"You're not going anywhere."

"Leave us alone."

"You're not going anywhere until we've fed!"

And on the last word she brings her face right up to Willow's and it changes, snaps right before our eyes into the grotesque demon-face we saw before. Willow screams as she takes a stumbled step back and falls. The boy laughs, circling, and his face has changed as well.

"Well, this is nice."

She steps in, Xander and Laney following her. Everybody stops.

"A little bare, but a dash of paint, a few throw pillows– call it home."

"Who the hell are you?" Darla frowns.

"Wow, you mean there's actually somebody around here who doesn't know already? That's a relief. I'm telling you, having a secret identity in this town is a job of work."

She walks around, moving between the two Vampires, who loosen their grip on their respective victims.

"Buffy, we bail now, right?" Xander says with a gulp.

"Not yet." The vampire boy smirks.

"Okay, first of all, what's with this outfit? Live in the now, okay? You look like DeBarge." Buffy laughs.

She turns to Darla, "Now, we can do this the hard way, or... well, actually, there's just the hard way."

"Fine with me."

"You sure? It's not gonna be pretty. We're talking violence, strong language, adult content."

As she speaks, the Boy Vampire rushes her from behind, charging at her with incredible speed and momentum– Buffy whips a stake out from her jacket and in one graceful motion sticks it out behind her, letting the boy impale himself on it. He stops, eyes wide, and falls back. Buffy never even faces him. He hits the ground, his body crumbles to dust.

Laney gasps as she looks at the ground, "Alright did everyone see that? His body literally just just poofed. Like that guy just turned to dust."

Willow and Xander nod with wide eyes.

"See what happens when you roughhouse?"

Xander, Laney, and Willow are still speechless, staring at the ground where a body used to be. Darla is wide eyed, exceedingly wary. But not cowed. She moves slowly around, preparing to fight herself.

"He was young. And stupid."

"Xander, go."

"Don't go far." Darla smiles.

She lunges at Buffy, who parries her blows with martial arts precision.

Xander herds the others out.

The four kids run out of the mausoleum, Willow and Xander supporting Jesse, Laney trying to keep up in her heels. All four are totally freaked– Jesse the least so, since he's still weak and dazed.

They are making pretty good time, despite having to support Jesse.

Willow looks at Jesse with a frown, "We'll get the police– it's just a few blocks up-"

On que they all stop and stare, despair creeping onto their faces.

Three Vampires stand waiting for them.