After an hour of driving, and Cordelia’s hysterical laughter after seeing Xander’s costume, the van finally stopped on the side of a dark, deserted road. Xander spoke up. "Hey, uh, Oz, I know this might be a bad time but, um, where are we?"

"I don’t know," he said, purely calm.

"So, what do we do now? And why can I hear ticking?"

"Don’t know, and the van is cooling down."

"And why might that be? No, I mean… why have we stopped?"

"Because we’re out of gas."

"Oh. Why?"

"Because we didn’t stop at a gas station."

"Yes. Right. So, what now? Should we tell the others?"

"Yeah. I think… maybe. We could always say we start here."

"Oh, and the van would be doing what while we’re gone?"

"Well, it won’t drive off. I think it’d be safe."

"Okay, so, don’t tell the others we’re gas-less and the fun starts here. Let’s do it." They both simultaneously got out of their doors and headed for the van’s side door. With one quick action it was open.

"We’re here," Xander said.

"And here would be…?" Cordelia asked as she took one step out of the van.

"Where we start," Oz added.

"Aren’t we supposed to start where there are houses? I mean, unless we have possessed trees that give out candy," Buffy said with a sarcastic tone. She hadn’t been able to keep her eyes off Spike the whole trip, except for the occasional glance she’d give Willow or one of the others.

"Right, ha, ha, possessed trees. Next thing you’ll be telling me there’s going to be a…" A flash of lightning lit up a three story house behind Xander as he spoke, "…haunted house. What’s everyone staring at?" He turned around and saw. "Oh, this is fun," he added, dripping with sarcasm.

"Why are we here? Really. Tell me the truth," Amy said, standing beside the other girls.

"We ran out of gas," Oz said plainly. "We didn’t stop because Cordelia wanted to get this over and done with quickly so we didn’t have time," he added.

"Oh great! So blame this all on me then!" Cordelia shouted and started walking towards the house.

"Where are you going?" Angel asked her, walking up beside her.

"I’m going in to ask if they have a phone. Why? Think I’m going to get attacked by a monster? I think not," she said dryly, then continued her way up the long path towards the house… make that… mansion.

"This can’t be good. Now we have to follow her," Amy said.

"We don’t have to. We could always let her get eaten by whatever’s in there. That would be a fun sight," Xander commented with a smile on his face.

"Xander!" Willow said sternly. "We have to look out for her. She might get hurt. As much as I want to see that happen, I don’t think her parents or Giles would be very happy that we just let her go alone."

"Yeah. Besides… it looks like it’s about to rain and we should get shelter other than the van. We could be stuck here for a while by the looks of that storm," Buffy said, pointing to the dark, gray clouds above them.

Spike sighed. "Yay, now I can spend my night in a gloomy house with you lot. I’d say the fun is just beginning." He trudged off in front of the others, and they followed closely behind him, up the path to the dark, gloomy relic.