Buffy the Bachelorette

Week 7--Part 3

Location: A small villa on the beach

Buffy slowly approaches the door of the villa and knocks.

Merlin opens it and his eyes light up. "Buffy!" He sees the stern look on her face and his smile fades. "What's wrong?"

"This isn't going to work."

Merlin leans forward like the wind was just knocked out of him. After a few seconds of silence, he says, "Okay. Can I ask why?"

Buffy raises her hand, holding the spell book Merlin left with Willow. "Dark magic? Really? You are literally the least likely person I would ever think would touch this stuff, yet here it is, simple enough to just pass onto my friend who you know is still recovering from what she went through. It would be one thing if you were doing it, but to give it to her? That's like giving heroin to a recovering drug addict!"

"What?" Merlin exclaims, confusion spreading across his face. "But I di—"

"There was a time in my life when I would have excused this type of thing, look the other way. But the people I care about have been too hurt by this shit. I'm sorry, Merlin, but I can't have you be a part of my life." She shoves the book into his chest.

Merlin looks down at it. "Wait, Buffy, no! This isn't—I gave Willow a book of simple cantrips, that's all. Nothing like—like this. I've never seen this book before in my life! You have to trust me!"

"I'm sorry, Merlin. But I don't."

Buffy turns and walks away, leaving Merlin staring after her in disbelief.

Location: The blue house where Willow, Zander, and Giles are staying

Buffy opens the door to the house and finds Willow sitting on the couch.

"Did you do it?"

Buffy nods, and her face crumples. Willow rushes forward and wraps her arms around Buffy, leading her to the couch. She strokes her hair in a calming gesture.

"I'm so sorry, Buffy. I know you were really growing to care for him. I liked him, too. Sometimes these things just sneak up on us."

"It's just not fair," Buffy sniffles. "Things just keep happening with these guys that I care about, and it's really taking its toll."

"It'll be okay. And you still have Wash, right? You like him."

"Yeah, but none of you like him except Zander and his opinion's stuuupi-i-i-id," Buffy sobs. "And really, even after all this I don't know if Wash and I would work out long-term. Which is so scary to say, because I've come on this scary show and gone through this whole stupid process and I really want it to work. But I don't know if it will."

Willow hugs her tighter. "Maybe it will, and maybe it won't. But if it doesn't, just remember that that's okay, too."

Location: Merlin's villa

Merlin is packing his things in an almost robotic fashion, muttering to himself.

"The book. How did--? Who could--? Why--?"

"We're hoping you can answer a few of those questions for us," comes a voice from outside the room.

Merlin jumps up and turns around. "Chuck? What are you doing here? And who are all these people?"

Standing beside Chuck are Sarah, Morgan, and Casey. As the camera focuses in on Casey it jolts and starts to pan out. Casey grunts. "Relax. You can keep your cameras on. For now."

Chuck steps forward. "Merlin, these are few of my, well, associates. We have reason to believe that Buffy may be in danger and need you to answer a few questions."

"What?! In danger from who?"

"That's what we're trying to find out. We've been able to eliminate suspects as the weeks have gone and different men have gone home, but we still think there's still some sort of threat."

"Thought it was you for a while," Casey interjects. "I don't trust that mumbo-jumbo magic business. But I've been watching you like a hawk and never saw you touch the dark stuff. Leaving a dark magic book with the redhead would be too sloppy if you were our guy."

Merlin picks up the book from where it is lying on his bed and throws it back down. "This book. I've honestly never seen it before. It looks similar enough to the book I meant to give Willow, so I guess that's how I handed it to her, but I have no idea how it got in my jacket."

"Merlin, who has access to your belongings?" Sarah asks.

"Well, just the crew, I guess."

The view of the camera pans over to show another camera man pointed directly back at it. Both quickly turn away.

"Probably not one of the camera crew," Casey says. "They don't have the guts to pull off this kind of thing."

"Wait!" Morgan snaps his fingers. "I've got it. Were you wearing that jacket last night?"

"Yes."

"And did you go anywhere...?"

"Well, yes, actually. I went out to the beach to light a small fire. We're mostly supposed to stay in our rooms, but I just wanted to clear my head before meeting Buffy's friends. I was alone, though...well, until Wash showed up."

"Wash joined you on the beach?" Sarah asks.

"Yeah, and he even brought a few beers. He said he saw me from his own villa and felt like company. We may have had a little too much to drink."

"And there it is!" Morgan exclaims. "The classic move, found in many a cinematic masterpiece. The supposed frenemy plies the competition with booze, then pulls some shenanigans while they're incapacitated to ensure victory. In this case, swapping Merlin's spell book for the dark magic book while he was too drunk to notice."

Merlin shakes his head in frustration. "He definitely could have done it. He had his arm around me at one point, talking about our apparent comradery... That snake!"

"Okay," Sarah says. "So, we know it was probably Wash who switched the spell book. That could just be to remove you from the running, though, it doesn't prove that he's the threat we've been looking for."

"I could definitely see him being competitive enough to pull that kind of stunt just to tear me down. You never fully saw what he was like, Chuck, but I lived with him. He has a huge ego, always talking himself up and calling himself the 'alpha'—"

Chuck suddenly seizes up for several seconds.

"What? Is he okay?" Merlin cries out.

Chuck blinks his eyes a few times and exhales.

"Chuck, what did you flash on?" Sarah asks intently.

"Oh my God," Chuckbreathes. "We need to get to Buffy. Now."