Chapter Eight
After Connor and Dawn made two pumpkins each and Will and I made one, we moved on to pin the tail on the black cat. Will had made prizes for the twins for whoever got the closest to where the tail should actually go. Then it was off to bob for apples and feeling the various parts of the human body. We were all having a very fun time, laughing and joking and stuffing ourselves with chocolate. At 8:30, Will decided it was story time.
Will led the three of us over to the area set up for the story telling. He took a seat in the chair and lit the three candles in the candelabra. Dawn, Connor and I sat down on the mattress in front of him. The twins stretched out on their stomachs with their heads held in their hands looking up at Will with wide eyes. I sat back a little Indian style so I could see both the twins reactions and Will at the same time. Will turned on the tape of scary music and earned a snicker when he took out his fangs before starting the story.
“Buffy…” Both Connor and Dawn burst into giggles at the name, while turning to look at me. I shook my head and rolled my eyes, annoyed that William would use the nickname.
“Do you want to hear the story or not?” William asked the twins, a little annoyed at their outburst himself.
“Yeah, yeah, go on. It’s just that Buffy is a funny name.” Dawn replied getting her giggles under control and lightly slapping Connor to get him to stop too. Once there was quiet, William began again.
“Buffy followed the sound of a little girl singing through the dark hallways. Though she walked through a maze of walls, the voice never seemed to get closer but continued its eerie chant.
“Can't even shout
Can't even cry
The Gentlemen are coming by
Looking in windows
Knocking on doors
They need to take seven
And they might take yours
Can't call to mom
Can't say a word
You're gonna die screaming but you won't be heard
“At the end of the verse, Buffy turned a corner and saw a little blonde girl, still humming the tune, standing with a delicately carved box in her hands. The little girl’s face turned gruesome and pale with an evil smile full of teeth as the box started to open.
“Before the box could open completely to reveal what lie hidden inside, Buffy awoke to find herself alone in her room. It was only a dream, but Buffy knew it wasn’t an ordinary dream. For Buffy was the Vampire Slayer. In every generation a slayer is born. She was the one girl chosen in all the world, born with the strength and skill to hunt the vampires, to stop the spread of evil. She knew that this dream was prophetic.”
Connor whispered over to me during William’s dramatic pause. “What’s prophetic mean?”
I laughed a little and looked at Will who was the one to roll his eyes this time. “It’s sort of like a vision of something to come in the future.”
Connor nodded his head and then turned back to William. “Sorry,” he whispered. William began the story again.
“Since it was almost time for school anyway, Buffy got up and planned to go see her Watcher before class to discuss her dream. Her Watcher’s name was Merrick and he was the school librarian. A Watcher was like a trainer, he helped the slayer with her fighting skills as well as researching information about the current monster she was facing.
“Merrick repeated the lines from the dream back to her. ‘Can't even shout, can’t even cry. The Gentlemen are coming by. Hmm, it sounds vaguely familiar. You're sure it's nothing you heard when you were a child?’
‘No, I don’t think so. It didn’t sound familiar.’ Buffy replied.
‘Well it could definitely be one of your slayer dreams or it could just be the eternal mystery that is your brain. But I'll check it out and let you know if I find something.’ Merrick dismissed Buffy to her classes and went to work researching in his books. ‘They need to take seven... take seven what?’ he mused.
“Once school was over, Buffy checked in with Merrick who hadn’t gotten anywhere on finding out who the Gentlemen were. She decided to go ask the one demon she was on speaking terms with.
“William the Bloody, also known as Spike for his fondness of killing people by driving railroad spikes through their skulls, was an evil vampire who had tried to kill Buffy in the past. Spike had already killed two slayers in his one hundred plus year lifetime and had come to the town of Sunnydale looking to make Buffy his third; however, she proved a worthy adversary and though they fought often, neither could kill the other.
“Reluctantly, he started to help the slayer after she took down the government organization that captured him and put a behavior modification chip in his head, which left him unable to hurt humans. Now, Spike helped Buffy in order to keep some sort of violence in his life as the chip was never removed from his brain. The way Spike saw it, fighting was fighting; he didn’t care if his opponent was human or demon. He just wanted to get in the action.
‘Have you heard of a group called The Gentlemen?’ Buffy asked Spike when she entered the crypt he called home.
‘Dunno.’
‘You certain?’
‘No. I’m out of wheat thins. Go to the store and get me some more. It’s still light out.’
‘I thought vampires were supposed to eat blood.’
‘Yeah, well sometimes I like to crumble up the wheat thins in the blood - gives it a little texture.’
‘That’s disgusting. I’m not getting you wheat thins for that. Keep your ears open for anything about The Gentleman. I may need your help later.’
‘Sure thing, Slayer. Though my ears may be more open if I had some wheat thins.’
‘Whatever.’ Buffy said to the annoying vampire before closing the door and heading back out through the cemetery.”
I laughed inwardly at this whole exchange. It was clear that Buffy and Spike were based on me and Will, considering this bit of teasing was similar to our own bantering. Also in typical Will fashion, he made Spike full of contradictions – I loved how the vampire was evil but turned to good because he would miss the violence, just as I loved that Will was a poetry-writing geek with a penchant for punk music.
“The clock tower in the middle of town struck midnight. Inside the tower, pale grayish hands opened an ornate box among a cluster of whispers. When the box opened, people all around Sunnydale opened their mouths and a white mist escaped from their bodies out their windows.
“The mist traveled over the town to the clock tower and entered the ornate box, which the pale hand closed in a smooth fluid motion. The hand belonged to one of The Gentleman. His face was grayish white with silver teeth, which were fixed in a horrid perpetual grin. His white eyes were drawn back into tight skin over a bald skull with a hooked nose. It was the same face that appeared in Buffy's dream.”
William paused dramatically to let this new development in the story sink in for the twins. I could tell that they were both enjoying it by the looks on their faces. I watched as Dawn wrinkled her nose and Connor gritted his teeth at the gruesome description of what the Gentleman looked like.
Letting Will’s voice lull me to contentment, I listened as Will described the town’s reaction to being speechless when they woke the next day, the introduction of Cordelia as the slayer’s cheerleader friend and Buffy and Spike keeping order among the silent streets. Will shifted forward a little as he began to tell of the sordid activities that his imaginative monsters were up to.
“The clock tower read 1:50am when six Gentlemen dressed in black suits glided out the door. Without moving their legs, they floated gracefully through the air about four inches off the ground. The Gentleman split into three pairs, each pair followed by henchmen wearing untied straight-jackets and bandages wrapped around their pinkish heads. One pair waved goodbye with slow, barely perceptible hand movements to walk toward the Sunnydale University campus.
“In the dorms, the Gentlemen floated passed room 217, then 215. One waggled his long bony finger and shook his head just enough to let his companion know they hadn’t found their victim yet. They passed rooms 214, 212 but it still wasn’t right. Arriving at room 208, one of the demons looked to his companion with the evil grin still plastered on his face and nodded. This was the room they wanted so their lackeys knocked on the door.
“Inside the room, a sleeping college student awakened to the knock and opened the door. He was immediately grabbed by the two henchmen and held down on his bed as he struggled against them. He tried to scream for help again and again, but his voice had been taken. No one could hear his cries for help as one of the Gentlemen removed a scalpel from the inside of his suit jacket and lowered it to the boy’s chest right above his heart. The boy’s eyes bulged against the pain and his mouth opened in a silent scream as the scalpel drew blood when it cut into his flesh.”
Upon hearing about this ghastly execution, I wondered what Will was thinking when he wrote this. The twins would never be able to sleep tonight with this image in their head, which meant we wouldn’t get any sleep either. Hell, it might even last a few nights with Dawn and Connor’s overactive imagination, leaving us to check under the beds every five minutes.
Will explained how Spike had seen one of the Gentlemen and it reminded Merrick of something from a fairy tale. The music began a dizzying beat which brought to mind witches and demons dancing around a bonfire during a full moon and I wondered if he planned it since it was perfect for the scene Will described next.
“Buffy, Spike and Cordelia sat around the library where Merrick was setting up an overhead projector. He cracked his knuckles right before he started the slideshow.
‘Who are The Gentlemen?’
‘They are fairy tale monsters.’
‘What do they want?’
‘Hearts.’
‘They come to a town.’
‘They steal all the voices so no one can scream.’
‘Then…’
“Merrick held up his index finger. The next transparency showed a picture of one of the Gentlemen over a person in bed. He was holding a knife, the person's chest was red as if stained with blood and there was more dripping onto floor.
“Merrick switched to the next picture. It showed The Gentlemen holding a heart over the person in bed. An enormous amount of blood was on the boy’s chest, bed and floor. Buffy and Cordelia exchanged disturbed looks.
‘They need seven hearts, they have at least two.’
“Spike held up a piece of paper. ‘How do we kill them?’
‘In the tales, no sword can kill them,’
‘But the princess screamed once... and they all died.’
“Cordelia dug a CD out of her purse and held it up, then put her hands over her ears and acted out a painful death scene. She smiled. Merrick shook his head and changed the transparency.
‘Only a real human voice can kill them.’
“Buffy held up her hand and wrote: ‘How do I get my voice back?’
“Merrick threw his hands out to his sides. He didn’t know”
Will finished up the story with a big fight scene between Buffy, Spike and the henchman in the clock tower. His face was animated as he described the spinning kicks and punches the heroes were throwing at the bad guys. I could tell he was having as much fun with this as the twins. Connor’s body was weaving as if he was the one in the fight, while Dawn clutched at the sheets on the mattress out of anticipation.
“Buffy saw the table with the canning jars containing the bloodied hearts and noticed the box from her dreams in the middle of the jars. Only two jars were empty. Distracted by this site, two henchmen grabbed her, while a Gentleman floated up to stab her with a scalpel from behind. Smelling her blood, Spike turned to see Buffy in trouble, but he knew she was resilient.
“Smashing the back of her head into the Gentleman behind her and kicking out her legs to take down the two henchmen at her sides, Buffy broke free. She waved at Spike and eyed the box. Following her gaze, Spike smashed a jar of blue liquid on the table. Once done, he looked up at her smiling. She rolled her eyes while shaking her head, using her hands to mimic opening and closing the box. Understanding her meaning, Spike picked up the box, and smashed it on the table.
“Streams of white mist were released from the box, two of which entered Buffy and Spike’s throats. As soon as she saw the mist return to her body, Buffy screamed as loud as she could. At the sound of her voice, the Gentlemen’s bodies stiffened and they brought their hands to their ears to block out the sound, but it was useless. As Buffy continued to scream, the Gentlemen’s heads exploded like crushed watermelon. A gooey splat sound was heard as parts of the creatures’ heads fell to the floor and stuck to the walls, a split second before the thud of their bodies.
‘Nice going slayer. Now I have demon brains on my boots.’ Spike said.
‘Shut up, Spike.’ Buffy said wiping green gook from her face.
The End.” William said and closed his writing book.
The twins seemed to be in shock, mouths agape, saying nothing, so I began clapping. My applause brought Connor out of his stupor. “That was really gross.”
“Then my work here is done.” William smiled and put his fangs back in his mouth.
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Author's Chapter Notes:
Thanks to all who have reviewed, especially Whitelighter who has reviewed every chapter...it means alot. Thanks to Jess, my beta too! This chapter contains words taken from 'Hush' written by the great Joss Whedon and thanks to buffy-vs-angel.com for the transcripts. Enjoy and Happy Halloween!