Dream Hunters 
by Jessica Hanson

Eberts tucked the files away in their respective 
spots. Some papers fluttered to the ground, he bent to 
pick them up and placed them back to where they 
belonged. He began working on his filing once more. He 
thought he heard some strange noise from behind him. 
He turned to check, his mind wondering if it could 
have been Xander. He didn’t normal think such things 
about people but Xander had brought….trouble. He and 
the bleached vampire had brought a whole new world 
crashing down upon him unknowingly. 

Nothing lied behind him in wait. His paranoia had 
nothing to feed from. He went back to his work. A file 
was missing. He knew just at a glance. His mind had 
kept everything in ridged order. He flipped through 
the files quickly, fingers nimbly jumping from the 
thick papers. 

There! It was the noise again! He whirled around only 
to come face to face with Xander’s possessive 
boyfriend. Spike was staring around the dimly lit 
record room with distaste. 

“Is there something you want, William?” To Eberts, 
Spike was not Spike. He was William. Before he was 
William the Bloody but still dangerous. 

“What?” Spike looked kind of surprised, “Oh yeah, the 
fat man wants you. Don’t ask me why.” Eberts nodded 
and began walking, the file forgotten. “Hey, you have 
*everyone’s* records down here? What about mine?” 

“We have all our agents’ records on file.” 

“Well that didn’t answer my question.” 

“You are our agent.” 

“What?! I didn’t agree to be an agent!” 

“Most don’t normally plan on it but they are.” 

“How did you get two centuries into a folder? And how 
did you *find* those two centuries?! Eberts?! Eberts, 
answer me!” 

Eberts took the stairs with a calm pace while Spike 
flittered about him, demanding answers. He jogged up 
the stairs, poking Eberts’ shoulder. Spike slammed the 
door behind them as they entered The Official’s 
office. 

“I’m not going to be an agent for you!” Spike spat at 
the Official. 

“You don’t have much of a choice.” The Official said 
half-paying attention to the vampire. He handed a few 
papers to Eberts. 

“I have two; agree or not. And I don’t.” Spike crossed 
his arms and glared. 

“Fine by me, but seeing as how Hobbes and Fawkes are 
all ready partners…Alexander will have to work on his 
own.” 

“What?!” 

“You are…were Alexander’s partner but since you’ve 
chosen not to be a member of the agency he’ll have to 
wait until another arrives.” 

Spike looked about ready to comment but then shut his 
mouth. Again, he readied himself to shout but once 
more he fell silent. “God I hate you,” he finally 
snarled. The Official just raised an eyebrow at him. 

Spike stalked out of the room, grabbing Xander’s hand 
as the warlock was entering. “Hi? Where we going?” 

“Home,” Spike growled. Xander cast a look out to the 
two people in the room but didn’t argue. He didn’t ask 
until they were safely inside their building. “Those 
wankers blackmailed me!” 

“How did they do that?” Xander was full of concern. 

Spike ran a hand through his hair. “They said you 
would be out there with someone who isn’t me!” 

Xander raised an eyebrow. “Those bastards.” 

“I’m glad you agree with me!” Xander rolled his eyes 
and turned on the TV as he flopped onto the bed. The 
theme to Ren & Stimpy swooped through the bedroom. 
Spike crawled to lay half on top of him. “What do you 
see in this show?” 

“What do you see in Passions?” Xander countered. Spike 
shook his head and nuzzled his face into Xander’s 
neck. 

“One and a half bonus! Merry Yak Mas!” Stimpy 
exclaimed as he held fudge sticks in his hand. 

*** 

Darien tried to roll onto his side as he slept but he 
couldn’t. He didn’t open his eyes but he tugged to 
roll over. His arms were strapped down. This time his 
eyes did open and he looked around wildly. “Darien? 
Darien, are you feeling any better?” His eyes shot to 
Kevin, he was smiling gently and looking oh so alive. 

“Kev…Kevin?” Darien stared in shock at his brother. 
Kevin laughed softly, unhooking the restraints. “Was 
it all a dream?” 

“Probably, you’ve been suffering from QuickSilver 
Madness for a few days. Arnaud was starting to get 
worried, so was I.” Kevin helped him sit up. Darien 
rubbed his forehead, dragging it down his face. 

“It was the freakiest thing…you died and Arnaud turned 
out to be evil.” He gave a short bark of a laugh. “It 
was just…very weird. And I…I…” The hand on his 
shoulder was melding together and becoming much 
hairier. Darien stared at it, mouth opening and 
closing. “Well…that’s something you do not see every 
day…” 

Slowly he allowed his eyes to travel up the arm. His 
heart stopped beating as his breath hitched. Instead 
of his brother being with him it was a giant spider. 
Darien gagged and swatted the hand away. The spider 
gave a high-pitched squeal and came forward. 

“Crap, crap, crap!” Darien cried as he tried to run 
from the room. Spiders were crawling down the walls 
and crawling towards him. He shook with fear and took 
a deep breath, trying to control himself. “It’s just a 
dream, only a dream.” He closed his eyes, repeating 
the phrase to himself. Suddenly, something wet and 
heavy landed in his lap. 

“Oh if it only were, brother.” Darien stared down at 
the decapitated head in his lap. His brother’s head 
had spoken and it was smiling at him. “But it’s not…” 
The giant spider swallowed the head whole and began to 
stalk towards Darien. 

Darien sat up in bed, scream on his lips, sweat on his 
forehead. He hit the lamp near his bed and light 
flooded the room. He looked around from the safety of 
his bed. Only when he was sure there was nothing that 
could hurt him, he lowered his head onto his knees and 
began to cry. 

*** 

Hobbes hurried up the stairs to the apartment. Only 
Fawkes would not show up the whole day without giving 
warning. He hoped that the kid wasn’t kidnapped again. 
That had brought in the whole mess of demons. What was 
next on the evolution chart, Hobbes did not want to 
know. 

He knocked on the door rapidly. Waited a few minutes, 
then pounded louder. “Fawkes? Hey, Fawkes, don’t tell 
you have another nephew in there this time!” He tried 
the door and found it unlocked. “You need to learn the 
meaning of locks, Fawkes…” 

He looked around the room. “Yo, Fawkes? Come out, come 
out where ever you are…” He paused as he heard a 
muffled sigh. He walked into the room where he heard 
it found Darien looking very pathetic on the bed. His 
eyes were super puffy and red strikes lined his 
cheeks. “Hey, Darien, what’s wrong?” 

“bobby?” Darien’s voice sounded so small. Hobbes got 
closer to the bed and he was dragged into a hug. 
Darien lay his head on Bobby’s chest and fresh tears 
ran down his cheeks. He choked on his sobs. 

Hobbes awkwardly patted Darien’s back. “Fawkes, what’s 
wrong?” 

“Oh god…oh god…” was all Darien whispered. 

Hobbes pushed him back slightly, “What’s wrong?” 

“I-I had a nightmare.” 

Bobby stared at him in disbelief. “A nightmare?! You 
didn’t show up for a day of work because of a 
nightmare?!” 

Darien shook his head, “You don’t understand…Kevin was 
there and then…oh god.” He ran from the bed and to the 
bathroom where he promptly retched everything in his 
stomach. 

“This has really you freaked, doesn’t it?” Hobbes’ 
voice now was full of concern. 

“You have no idea.” Neither noticed the dark, stated 
eyes that hovered feet away. 

*** 

Spike felt the warm body pressed against and sighed 
happily. Maybe he had been a little rash about the 
whole thing. He’d have to admit he was wrong. But not 
out loud, never out loud. 

He nuzzled his face into Xander’s hair but pulled back 
at the cold touch. He looked down at his lover and 
pulled back in shock. Xander was a decaying body, 
completely unrecognizable. The bony fingers clutched 
at him. “You killed me…” the voice wasn’t Xander’s. 

Spike scrambled from the bed, running right into 
something else. He turned to find a body trying to 
keep its decapitated head in place. “Holy…!” Spike 
started as a door slammed open. He gagged at the 
terrible smell of the corpse. 

“You killed us all, William,” a body hissed. 

“You stole our souls…!” another wailed in heartbroken 
agony. 

“We’re going to make you pay for it, William. A pound 
of your flesh for everyone you killed. It’ll take a 
while,” came the cruel laughter. A gleaming knife 
lowered down to Spike’s delicate wrist. 

As it bit into him, he sat up swiftly in bed. So 
swiftly, Xander grunted as his head fell onto the bed. 
Spike grabbed Xander’s chin and turned Xander’s face 
up. “Spike?” he asked sleepily, “Spike, what is it?” 

“Nothing, pet, nothing to worry about.” Spike assured, 
rubbing the boy’s jaw. 

Xander yawned long and hard, “If it was nothing you 
wouldn’t have that worried look on your face.” 

“It was just a nightmare.” 

“Would you like to talk about it?” 

“It was just a nightmare, go back to sleep.” Spike 
guided Xander’s head to the pillow and kissed his 
forehead. Xander stared at Spike a few more seconds 
before his eyes drooped closed. Spike sighed, “Just a 
nightmare…” 

*** 

“You guys look like shit,” Xander commented to Darien 
and Spike. 

“Nightmares,” they both answered. They slowly turned 
their heads to look at each other before lying their 
heads on their arms. 

Hobbes stood next to Xander. “What did Fangs dream 
about?” 

“He wouldn’t tell me,” Xander sighed, “Darien?” 

“Spiders,” Hobbes saw the shudder creep up the boy’s 
spine and thought a fear of spiders must be a family 
thing. “Fawkes didn’t get much sleep after that I 
don’t think and he missed a day of work.” 

“I don’t think Spike got any more sleep either…” 

“Stop talking about us as if we’re not here,” Darien 
grumbled, feeling edgy. “Why are all four of us here 
any way?” 

“We need you all to go out on a case.” Eberts suddenly 
appeared. 

Spike jumped, “Could you not do that?!” 

But the Official’s lackey didn’t react except for a 
tightening of his lips. “William and Alexander-“ 

“Could you not call me that?!” Spike and Xander 
demanded angrily. 

“Are needed to bring down what we believe from the 
reports is a demon.” Eberts continued, raising an 
eyebrow. Obviously he was used to being interrupted. 
“Hobbes and Fawkes need to go because the reports also 
state he is a drug dealer. The Official wants him 
found.” 

“Want, want, want.” Xander groused, “Can’t he GIVE 
once and awhile? I’ll shut up now.” He ducked his head 
as everyone looked at him. 

“Let’s go so we can get it over with,” Spike groaned 
softly, stretching his back before sitting up. Darien 
had to agree and what could Hobbes and Xander say? 

They arrived at the location with speed but entered 
with caution. The plan was simple; Fawkes’ goes in 
doing the invisible thing while Xander cast an easy 
spell. Hobbes and Spike could have played it without 
getting their hands dirty. But they forgot Xander had 
only been a warlock for a month and didn’t know 
*everything*. Spike blamed himself for that, he did. 

What happened was Xander caused a light next to 
explode and come crashing down. It sent him into the 
arms of one of the dealer’s henchmen. Darien had been 
hit by a shard of glass, causing him to fade into 
sight. Another henchman, a big troll like creature, 
grabbed him by the scruff of his neck. 

“Oh crap,” Hobbes muttered and grabbed Spike’s arm 
before he ran into the fray. “Don’t try it, not yet. 
We need a plan.” 

Darien and Xander were taken to the drug dealer. “What 
were you two doing here?” he demanded. 

Darien and Xander exchanged looks, “So not spying?” 
they guessed. 

The man snorted, “Throw them into the Hellmouth once 
we open it.” 

“Hellmouth?! But that’s in Sunnydale!” Xander cried. 

Dealer-Man laughed loudly, “Little boy, there are many 
Hellmouths around the world. You just knew the most 
widely used one.” Darien and Xander were dragged away 
and tied up. Darien squirmed, Xander jerked forward. 

tbc