A Slayer's greatest weapon- Book One- BTVS

Nightmares- 2

Xander, Willow and I were waiting on Buffy in the hallway, when she finally came around the corner.

"Oh, Buffy! We've been looking for you."

"We have?"

"Oh, about the spider, did you talk to Giles about..."

"Oh, the spiders! Willow's been kind of, um, what's the word I'm looking for? Insane about what happened yesterday."

"I don't like spiders, okay? Their furry bodies, and their sticky webs. And what do they need all those legs for anyway? I'll tell you: for crawling across your face in the middle of the night. Ew! How do they not ruffle you two?"

"I'm sorry! I'm unruffled by spiders. Now, if a bunch of Nazis crawled all over my face..."

"I don't really fear things. Things fear me." I shrugged, as Willow looked at me in awe.

"Mm, it was pretty intense."

"Thank you."

"Well, the Hellmouth, the centre of mystical convergence, supernatural monsters... Been there."

"A little blasé there, aren't you?"

"I'm not worried. If there's something bad out there Lucy will see, we'll find, you'll slay, we'll party!"

"Thanks for having confidence in me." Buffy smiled as we walked into the library.

"You da man, Buff!"

"Okay, but we're still caring about the spiders here. Let's not forget the spiders."

"Well, Giles said he was going to look it up. Giles?"

"Maybe he's in the faculty room."

"Nah, Giles does his best to avoid every other teacher in this school." I denied. At that moment, Giles ran out of the stacks, looking very confused.

"Hey, Giles! Wakey, wakey!"

"I was, uh, in the stacks. I got lost."

"Did you find any theories on spiders coming out of books?" Xander asked, nudging me as we both started creeping our hands onto Willow's shoulders. "Big, hairy, crawly..." Willow turned around to hit both of us in the arms. "It's funny if you're us."

"I couldn't find anything, uh... particularly illuminating. Um, I think perhaps you'd best have a chat with Wendell himself."

"Okay. If he can still talk."

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We found Wendell sat on one of the benches outside.

"Hey, Wendell. How are you?"

"Huh?"

"You okay?"

"Good talking to you, man." Xander said after a beat of silence, trying to walk away, but I pulled him back.

"Did you guys want something?"

"We just thought you might want to talk about what happened."

"You know, yesterday? With the spiders?"

"I don't know what to say about that."

"There's nothing to say. You saw 200 insects. You gonzoed. Anybody would have."

"They're not insects. They're arachnids."

"They're from the Middle East?" Xander asked. Don't worry. I slapped him on the back of the head.

"Spiders are arachnids. They have eight legs. Insects only have six. Why does everyone make that mistake?" We all shrugged, confused about why he was getting so annoyed.

"Don't know. Has anything like this ever happened before?" Wendell nodded.

"When?"

"Lots of times."

"Ew! You must hate spiders more than I do."

"I don't hate spiders." Wendell laughed. "I love them. They hate me."

"Did... they tell you that?" I asked, checking how crazy this guy was. Cordelia interrupted, grabbing Buffy's attention.

"I hope you studied for the history test."

"What history test?"

"The one we're having in fourth period right now."

"There's a history test? Nobody told me there was a history test! I haven't... I... Okay, I will catch up with you guys later." Buffy told us, before running to class. I rubbed my eyes as they started to sting, before continuing the conversation with Wendell.

"What do you mean, you love spiders?"

"It is platonic, right?"

"I had the best collection in the tri-county area. Browns and tarantulas and black widows... Then my folks shipped me off to wilderness camp. All my brother had to do was maintain their habitats. Instead he left their heat lamp on for a week. When I came home they were all dead. That's when the nightmares started."

"The nightmares?"

"It's always the same. I'm sitting in the classroom, teacher asks me to read something, I open up my book and then there they are. They're coming after me. God, can you blame them after what I did?"

"And that's how it happens? Every time?"

"Yesterday in class I thought I'd just nodded of again. But then everyone else started screaming, too."

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Later that day, I had a vision of some big figure beating on a girl in the basement. When I arrived there was nothing there except for a girl beaten bloody on the floor. I ran to check if she still had a pulse, and when I found it, I ran back up shouting for someone to call an ambulance.

I told Buffy about it, but explained I couldn't see what attacked. The vision only allowed me to get to her before she bled out.