SCENE 13
EXT TO INT. MARIA'S HOUSE. DREAMTIME.
We establish on the outside of the Vasquese residence. There is the sound of an argument from inside. As we close on the kitchen window we
see Buffy/Maria and Carmalitta in that weird static pose that happens when
parents and kids argue. Once again Buffy is wearing the found bracelet.
Neither one moves they simply stand there and let the tension build as
their voices get higher and higher. Parts of the argument will be in Spanish
as their tempers flare.
CARMALITTA
How many times have I told you, no boys until I've met them first?
BUFFY/MARIA
Why can't you let me be like other kids?!
CARMALITTA
I just want to know who your friends are.
BUFFY/MARIA
After they meet you I wouldn't have any friends!
CARMALITTA
Oh, so I'm not good enough for your friends?!
BUFFY/MARIA
You're creepy, mom. With all your crosses and holy water and wafers.
You've got occult books all over the house! You think people don't notice?
they explode into motion and the argument begins to flow through
house. The camera is close and constantly moving as though it were a participant
in the argument.
CARMALITTA
How dare you?! If your father were here to hear you tal-
BUFFY/MARIA
But he's not, is he?! He left you because of all this (motions
to the crosses and other paraphernalia with the hand that wears the bracelet.
It twinkles a little) this junk! You even make me wear it.
CARMALITTA
He didn't leave us! He died!
BUFFY/MARIA
That's what you tell me but you're lying. I know it! You drove
him away with your insistence that he be perfect. Just like you're doing
to me.
CARMALITTA
I'm not insisting you be perfect, Maria. My - our life is complicated.
I need to be more protective than other parents!
they've circulated back to the kitchen.
BUFFY/MARIA
Your life is complicated?! I guess it must be what with moving
to a new town every three years and sneaking out at midnight every night.
I'm old enough to notice these things now. How long did you think I wouldn't
notice?!
CARMALITTA
Maria, calm down. Let me talk to you.
BUFFY/MARIA
(on the verge of tears) I don't want to talk!! I want a normal
life!
Carmalitta reaches for her. Buffy/Maria pulls away and her hand goes
through the window of the kitchen door. She looks at the massive gash in
her hand. We get her POV and when we CUT TO -
SCENE 14
INT. BUFFY'S ROOM. NIGHT.
...Buffy's face, she is sitting in bed holding her bleeding hand. She
looks around her room to be sure that it isn't a dream anymore, at the
clock which reads 2:13, then back at her hand. Then she looks very afraid.
SCENE 15
INT. BUFFY'S ROOM. DAWN.
Buffy sits in her window holding her gauze wrapped hand as a time lapsed
sun rises. The cross on her bracelet winks a few times in the sunrise,
then we close on her face. Now she definitely looks tired. She leaves the
room. Her alarm goes off.
SCENE 16
INT. SUMMERS KITCHEN. MORNING.
Buffy is dressed and making coffee when Joyce enters. Buffy is careful
to keep her hand hidden.
JOYCE
You're up early.
BUFFY
Early bird does something the other birds don't. Coffee?
JOYCE
What!? Thanks. When did you start drinking coffee?
BUFFY
(downs a very large mug of the stuff and winces) I didn't.
JOYCE
You look a little pale.
BUFFY
I'm blonde. Remember?
JOYCE
No, seriously, do you feel okay?
BUFFY
Gotta go. Bye!
with a sweater draped over her hand she leaves. Joyce is confused but
still sleepy and shrugs it off.
SCENE 17
INT. LIBRARY. MORNING.
Giles is just getting in and setting his briefcase down and Willow
is saying
WILLOW
...so we really should bar code all the books so it's easier for you
to reference them.
GILES
All the books are bar coded.
WILLOW
No, I mean your books. The diaries or codex or whatever else you
have.
GILES
Oh ah
Buffy storms in with a sweater draped over her bandaged hand as though
she were carrying it.
GILES
Buffy.
BUFFY
Who is she, Giles, and why is she doing this to me?
GILES
Doing what to-
BUFFY
This! (shows her hand) I had another dream last night and woke
up with this! How is that possible, Giles? How can a dream hurt me? I know
you know who she is because I saw it in your eyes yesterday. She's the
slayer isn't she!? And I don't mean Maria I mean her mother,
Carmalitta.
GILES
Was.
BUFFY
How? She has a daughter. How can you have a family when you're
the slayer!? What happens when the 2 a.m. feeding arrives all crying and
needy and mom's out killing demons? What happened to them? I know Carmalitta's
dead but what happened to Maria?
WILLOW
Not necessarily.
BUFFY
Yes, necessarily! We all die, Willow (she means slayers). I'm the
slayer because when I was fifteen some girl I didn't know died a horrible
death and I want to know what happened to Maria and her mother because
(shows her hand again) it's going to happen to me, Giles!! (she's on the
verge of tears again)
GILES
You're very upset.
BUFFY
Of course I'm upset! I'm not in control at all again! I didn't
sleep last night. I had a huge fight with my mother.
WILLOW
About what?
BUFFY
(There's silence while she separates her thoughts from dreams)
I didn't mean me, I. I meant Maria, I. Maria had a fight
with my her mother last night.
WILLOW
In your dream, as Maria, you had a fight with her mother?
BUFFY
Yes.
GILES
Perhaps you should sit. (she does)
BUFFY
I don't want to sit, Giles. (looks down) But I am. You can see
my problem here.
GILES
More clearly than I'd like.
BUFFY
Tell me a story.
GILES
Carmalitta Ruiz, was chosen as slayer in 1940. As anachronistic
as it may sound she was from a very wealthy Mexican family and had strong
ties to family tradition. These particular qualities, her dedication to
the past, a strong Catholic upbringing, the ease with which she placed
herself second to that which she was expected to be made her an astonishing
slayer.
BUFFY
Nothing like me, huh?
GILES
They also lead to a great deal of trouble. Her family had betrothed
her to the son of the Vasquese family, Hector Alesandro, when she was six.
A contract she had every intention of keeping despite nearly three years
experience as the slayer. Her watcher, as is so often the case, had become
attached to her, emotionally involved.
WILLOW
So he wanted her?
GILES
No! He championed her cause on the grounds that. Ah
BUFFY
Say it. I'm not stupid, Giles, I figured it out awhile ago.
GILES
He championed her cause on the grounds that slayers don't live
long and she should be allowed to do this thing for her family. For the
sake of continuity.
WILLOW
What?!
BUFFY
Oh, come on, Will, that big brain of yours never thought about
the odds. Most of us probably don't make it to 30. (to Giles) Carmalitta
must have been something else.
GILES
She is singular in the lore of slayers.
BUFFY
So she married Hector.
GILES
Yes. I reread it last night just to be certain. They had a large
two family wedding with flowergirls, pinyattas (sp?), a feast and dancing
for nearly one hundred people. Later that night, after the bride and groom
had retired for the evening the local brood of vampires showed up at the
reception and.
BUFFY
(softly. almost as though she's remembering) Oh, god. All of them?
GILES
Down to the last flowergirl. Needless to say she became obsessed.
She hunted them down and destroyed them all. Thirteen in total. But not
before they killed her husband.
WILLOW
So she comes to the States to have Maria so she'll be an American
citizen.
GILES
On the advice of her watcher, yes. Then, as the suburbs start to
grow and little towns like Sunnydale gain a population vampire activity
around the Hell Mouth becomes noticeable.
WILLOW
Like a black hole. You can't see it but you can see its effects.
BUFFY
So she moves here to fight the good fight. Then what happened to
her?
GILES
I don't know, exactly. The watcher's diary describes that he hadn't
seen her for two days, one night, when he found a pair of brown eyes and
a heart on his door step.
BUFFY
I'd say that's pretty exact, Giles. Not much room for imagination
there. What about Maria?
GILES
She disappeared the same time as her mother.
BUFFY
So the heart and eyes could have been Carmalitta's or Maria's.
GILES
Yes.
BUFFY
I'm not gonna do it, Giles. I am not going to die again. You're
going to find out why this is happening to me and make it stop. Are we
clear on that?
GILES
Crystal. I started looking last night and I don't think it's anything
either of them did intentionally. Possibly some latent energy amplified
by the Hell Mouth.
BUFFY
(tired) Whatever... I can't sleep until we figure this out, Giles.
WILLOW
Hey, I'm here too you know.
BUFFY
Thanks, Will. I know you are.
WILLOW
You can stay over at my place tonight. I always wanted to have
a sleep-over. It'll be just like those sleep-overs you always see on
TV but never have. Except for the sleeping part. There won't be any
of that.
Xander enters
XANDER
Well you're all here bright and early. Did I miss anything?
SCENE 18
EXT. SCHOOL. AFTERNOON.
Buffy, Willow and Xander are leaving for the day.
BUFFY
I'll see you after dinner. Say seven-thirty?
WILLOW
Sounds good.
XANDER
What, I don't get to help?
BUFFY
Don't take this the wrong way but I have no interest in knowing
what you scratch in your sleep, Xander.
XANDER
All right, that's fair. But if I can't be there, here. (hands her
a small bottle)
BUFFY
NoDoze?
XANDER
Hey, I study.
BUFFY
Thanks.
WILLOW
My dad's making dinner tonight. I'm sure if you had some of that
you'd stay awake all night. Who'd've thought an Ira Rosenberg from Kricklewood
could be so brutal at Mexican food?
BUFFY
I'll see you tonight.
she starts to leave and suddenly stops. Her nails literally dig into
a wooden post. The camera pans to reveal what she's seeing. A bunch of
cheerleaders in fifties garb.
BUFFY
ngnh
XANDER
They're real. It's okay, relax.
BUFFY
I'm fine. Really I am.
her hand comes stiffly away from the post and we see the little half-moons
left by her nails in the wood. She walks away. Xander and Willow examine
the post.
XANDER
Bad kitty.
SCENE 19
INT. WILLOWS BEDROOM. NIGHT.
Buffy is on the bed and Willow is on the computer.
WILLOW
We could cruise through the public library's periodicals archives
on-line and see if we can find anything-
BUFFY
I don't want to think about it, Will.
WILLOW
Okay. So what do we do to stay awake all night?
CUT TO: Willow sound asleep on the bed. We pan over and see Buffy
hunt and peck typing at the computer. Willow stirs
WILLOW
Oh, sorry I fell asleep.
she looks at the clock which reads 6:58 a.m.
BUFFY
S'okay. I've been chatting with someone called Julia all night.
WILLOW
Oh?
BUFFY
Yeah, right now were debating the finer points of Scoobi-doo vs.
Goober and the ghost Chasers.
WILLOW
Oh, I love those shows. I used to watch them all the time until-
(suddenly shuts up)
BUFFY
Until? (Willow is silent) Me. (Willow gives an ashamed nod) Until
I showed up and you learned the real horrors of demons inhabiting human
flesh.
WILLOW
You make it sound worse than it is. I have to go pee.
Willow exits. Buffy grabs the bottle of NoDoze and takes another
one. The bottle is no where near as full as it was.
SCENE 20
INT. LIBRARY. MORNING.
Buffy looks like a zombie in cool shades as she shuffle/paces back
and forth to stay awake. Xander and Willow are listening to Giles. Willow
is also plowing through old yearbooks.
GILES
The journals of her watcher show no indication that she or Maria
practiced sorcery of any sort. Even if they had why would they cast such
a spell and why would it be affecting you now? There's usually a medium
of communication or storage for magics that happen this long after... Have
you come into contact with any unusual objects lately? Something that might
carry negative energy or a curse?
BUFFY
(far too tired to think) No.
GILES
Well.. maybe it's our first idea then. A cluster of experience preserved
and amplified by the Hell Mouth manifesting as dreams because you're the
first slayer close enough since the incident to be affected.
WILLOW
Okay, so how do we stop it?
XANDER
I'm more interested in how we stop her. (to Buffy) Could you ease
up on the pacing there a bit, slugger? You're makin' me nervous.
BUFFY
Shut up.
XANDER
Woah, all right.
WILLOW
She hasn't been sleeping much.
BUFFY
I haven't been sleeping at all and even when I am asleep I'm not.
GILES
Prolonged sleep deprivation-
BUFFY
I don't wanna know what prolonged sleep deprivation is gonna to
do to me, Giles. (she leans back in the corner of the banister) I want
a solution.
GILES
It's already doing it to you. You're irritable, you're hyper-focused
but can't concentrate and your grasp of reality is slipping as is evidenced
by your paranoia. Why are you so sure that these dreams will lead to...
Buffy?
XANDER
Buffy?
Giles pulls Buffy's shades off and she's sound asleep where she stands.
SCENE 21
EXT. THE PARK. DREAMTIME / NIGHT.
Buffy/Maria sits with blank face on a bench, her hand crudely wrapped
in cloth. It's only been a few hours since the fight with her mother. Cordelia/Jessie
walks up behind her.
CORDELIA/JESSIE
I thought it was you. What are doing?
BUFFY/MARIA
I had a fight with my mother. Again.
CORDELIA/JESSIE
Gee, that's tough. Was it bad?
BUFFY/MARIA
Permanent.
CORDELIA/JESSIE
You need to smile. I'm heading to the hop, wanna come?
Buffy just stares because she knows no matter what she thinks, Maria
is going to say yes.
SCENE 22
INT. LIBRARY. MORNING.
Xander and Giles are looking at Buffy. Willow is reading old yearbooks.
No time has passed.
XANDER
We should wake her up, right?
GILES
Buffy? Wake up.
Xander dips his fingers in the water jug on the table and flicks her
face.
XANDER
Well so much for that.
WILLOW
I found her!
XANDER
What?
WILLOW
Maria Vasquese. I found her.
XANDER
Great, Will, now help us wake Buffy up before she starts dreaming
again.
WILLOW
She had Buffy's locker or... She and Buffy have the same locker.
SCENE 23
INT. SOC-HOP. NIGHT.
Everyone is there. It's bright and happy, nothing like The Bronze. Cordelia/Jessie
and Buffy/Maria are at a table. Vamp#1 in black leather jacket, jeans and
motorcycle boots approaches them and does his best James Dean. His collars
are up, he sits and broods a few seconds then leans forward to be a little
more intense.
VAMP#1
I was talking to this guy the other night. This supply-side, laisez
faire, capitalist, guy, and he was saying how the world needed more stuff.
I mean it's all out there, right? We're in charge so it's all there for us.
To use. And he was saying there's money to made by doing it I don't know
about the money so much and the idea that the world needs more stuff
seems outlandish considering that we don't know what to do with most of
the stuff we've got already. Then I got to thinking about the idea of it.
Everything is just out there, for us to use, to consume. We can take everything
in the world and turn it into something else, something new, something
different and then I thought, maybe he had something there.
he pauses for effect. Cordelia/Jessie thinks he's the coolest. Suddenly
he drums on the table and extends his hand to her.
VAMP#1
Wanna dance?
she nearly squeals in delight and goes to dance.
BUFFY/MARIA
Don't do it, he's a vampire.
CORDELIA/JESSIE
(not listening) Watch my sweater for me?
BUFFY
Nothing I say is going to make a difference to you, is it? This
has already happened. (Cordelia/Jessie leaves) Don't new vampires know
that turning their collars up is so transparent?.. I wonder what happens
if you go to sleep in a dream?
we watch Cordelia/Jessie dance for a bit and then slow dissolve back
to Buffy/Maria who is trying to fall asleep in the booth. She's miserable
and looks like she hasn't slept since God said, "Let there be light." The
wound on her hand is still seeping but nobody notices any of this. She's
got her chin on her hand and is slumping over but it's no good, no matter
how tiered she is she can't sleep. She rolls her head to the side to watch
the dancers and the found bracelet snags in her hair.
BUFFY/MARIA
Maybe if I just staked him now- (notices the bracelet caught in
her hair)
she works to get the knot of gold and hair undone but it's fruitless.
She decides to undo the bracelet and figure out the knot later but the
bracelet won't come undone. No mater how hard she tries. Cordelia/Jessie
and Vamp#1 head to the back door. Buffy/Maria catches this out of the corner
of her eye and just rips the hair involved in the knot out. She looks up
to see the door to the alley close and she goes after Cordelia/Jessie.
The camera slowly closes on Cordelia/Jessie's sweater left in the booth.
The juke is playing "In the Still of the Night" by The Five Tops.
SCENE 24
EXT. ALLEY. DREAMTIME / NIGHT.
Buffy/Maria bursts into the alley and sees Vamp#1 and Cordelia/Jessie
getting close.
BUFFY/MARIA
Back off, Romeo! (she moves in for the kill)
CORDELIA/JESSIE
Maria, it's okay. We were just -
She sees the vampire's true face and screams like an air-raid siren.
Buffy goes for a center of mass strike to put him off balance but she's
not Buffy, she's Maria. Vamp#1 just laughs at her and grabs both of them
by the hair.
VAMP#1
(to Cordelia/Jessie) And thus with a kiss, you die. (bites out
her throat then turns to Buffy with a bloody smile and like "The Big Bopper"
says) Oh, baby you know what I like!
Buffy frenzies to no useful end. She's just not the slayer.
VAMP#1
Feisty. Think you're your mother, do ya? Sorry, that sort of talent
doesn't run in families. (hears people coming) Time to make like a tree
and leave.
he intentionally smears his toe in Cordelia/Jessie blood and then
runs away leaving bloody foot prints with Buffy/Maria in tow.
SCENE 25
INT. LIBRARY. MORNING.
Once again no time has passed.
GILES
The same locker? Perhaps that's the source of this whatever this
is.
WILLOW
You think? It isn't very personal. Fifty kids might have had it
in between.
GILES
Quite right but we must -
XANDER
Is spontaneous hair loss a bad sign? (picks a clump of hair off
Buffy shoulder. It's the same one that Buffy/Maria just tore to free the
bracelet.) I'm willing to bet it's not a good one.
SCENE 26
EXT. STREET. DREAMTIME / NIGHT.
We start on barely visible bloody foot prints. Only one foot is leaving
them and there isn't much blood left. PAN UP to see Buffy/Maria being dragged
towards a culvert. Vamp#1 notices that his tracks are getting thin.
VAMP#1
Can't have mother loosing our trail, now can we?
he rips a piece of Buffy/Maria clothing and hangs it on the grating
as they pass through.
BUFFY/MARIA
(realizing where they're going) The master. Oh my god.
she kicks him in the stomach and tries to claw his eyes.
VAMP#1
I told you Don't (slams her head off the wall of the sewer) struggle!
SCENE 27
INT. LIBRARY. MORNING.
Giles is looking at Buffy's closed eyes.
GILES
She's in R.E.M. sleep. She could be dreaming.
A bruise spontaneously forms on her temple.
XANDER
Buffy, wake up!!
Xander shakes her violently to no effect. Suddenly both he and Buffy
are soaked as Giles throws the entire pitcher of water in her face. Xander
gives a "what the fuck" look.
WILLOW
(still on her previous train of thought) Maybe she found something
in the locker.
XANDER
After forty years? Our custodial services are bad but -
GILES
A cursed object might not want to be found except by the right
person.
SCENE 28
INT. THE MASTERS LAIR. DREAMTIME.
Vamp#1 drags a mostly unconscious Buffy/Maria in and drops her on the
floor.
MASTER
Ah, good.
Buffy rolls over and looks at him.
BUFFY/MARIA
I kill you in the future, you know. (looks around the room) If
it's already happened to you, but it was in the future, is that still considered
deja vu?
MASTER
My my, but we have developed a philosophical bent haven't we Ms.
Summers.
BUFFY/MARIA
What?
VAMP#1
I left a trail so that her mother could follow. She'll come of her
own will just as you said, Master.
MASTER
(totally disinterested) Yes yes, fine.
BUFFY/MARIA
What did you just call me?
MASTER
Oh you're surprised. (mimicking her possible reaction) But, but
this is all a dream, just a dream Aunty Em and I was there and she was
there and now you're here too.
BUFFY/MARIA
But -
MASTER
You try spending a hundred years trapped in the veil that separates
the realms and tell me what you think of dreams then, girl.
BUFFY/MARIA
This is real?
MASTER
That's right. Only this time it's going to be happiness, happiness,
and death afterwards.
BUFFY/MARIA
(false bravado)The first time you killed me it made me stronger.
MASTER
You can't defend yourself. I have you trapped here as Maria except
your blood is still yours and it will still set me free. Before you were
even born.
BUFFY/MARIA
(stalling for time) What happened to Carmalitta the first time
this happened? (realizes what the bracelet is and starts pulling at it)
MASTER
(totally assured of his victory) It won't come off. Not in the dream.
SCENE 29
INT. LIBRARY. MORNING.
WILLOW
What kind of cursed object?
GILES
It would have to be something that she would keep on her person.
WILLOW
(looking at the year book) Like a piece of Maria's jewelry?
GILES
Yes.
SCENE 30
INT. THE MASTERS LAIR. DREAMTIME.
MASTER
....and then things went to pieces completely. The roof fell
in, Carmalitta was trapped and crushed, out of my reach and by the time
these useless henchmen dug her out she was dead and therefore no longer
the slayer and her blood was no good to me. You have no idea how frustrating
it was to succeed with you only to have it snatched away so quickly.
BUFFY/MARIA
How Bond of you to fill me in.
MASTER
I'm bored. Needed somebody to talk to but one shouldn't play with
one's food too long.
a sudden explosion of action as Buffy tries to get passed the barrier
and out of reach but Vamp#1 is there. She hits him and he just pushes her
back towards the Master. Who lifts her by the back of the neck with one
arm.
BUFFY
You are not going to kill me again!!
MASTER
Oh yes I am.
SCENE 31
INT. LIBRARY. MORNING.
XANDER
She started wearing that crucifix bracelet a few days ago.
WILLOW
It's Maria's. She's wearing it in her yearbook picture.
GILES
Well take it off.
inter-cut slow-motion of Xander undoing the bracelet and Buffy real-time
flailing against the Master. The Master's teeth are very near when Xander
removes the bracelet and at the same time it falls from her wrist in the
dream. Her next blow surprises the Master with it's strength and he drops
her.
SCENE 32
INT. THE MASTERS LAIR. DREAMTIME.
BUFFY
(in response to "Oh yes I am.") Not in my dream you soulless bastard.
she does back handsprings towards the barrier and safety. Vamp#1
gets in the way so she turns the last handspring into a roundoff and without
pause headbutts him using her momentum to carry both of them through the
barrier which the Master smashes against. He howls at her.
BUFFY
Would now be a badtime to say Nah Nah-Nah, Nah-Nah Nah! You still
have freshie mouth.
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