Sophie McDonald - FanFic

The sharp pain she felt dig into her neck was like no other. She realised that this was the end. There was nothing she could do. What was Spike doing? He was ruining her. Did he know this? Did he know what he was doing?

14 hours earlier

Buffy rolled over to her right and put the deafening alarm on snooze, she stretched her arms to either side of her bed and unwillingly opened her eyes. It was 7:10am; she had class in an hour that she was already dreading.  She hopped out of bed and checked her phone.

1 New Message

“Hey Buf, you are probably asleep but just wanted to let you know that I can’t wait to see you tonight! – Spike”

Her smile stretched ear to ear, she couldn’t wait to see Spike either. They had only been dating for a couple of months but Buffy knew that whenever she was with him she felt content. They had been through a lot and the fact that Spike was a vampire, the one thing that Buffy hated, had been hard for them but they were managing.

Buffy quickly had a shower, made some toast with jam, got dressed and left for her first class of the day. She was lucky she lived in the dorms at UC-Sunnydale; it made the trip to class much easier than catching a bus or walking. She sat down in a seat in the middle of the class and waited for Willow; Willow was one of Buffy’s best friends, they had been friends since Buffy moved to Sunnydale.

“Good morning will, how are you going?”

Willow sat down in her seat, organising her books. She flicked her auburn hair behind her ears and turned to Buffy.

“Oh hey! I’m good, a little stressed for the assignment coming up. How about you?”

“Me too! Haha, what are yo-”

The conversation was cut short as the professor walked into the lecture hall. He started to explain what the class had to do for the assignment and end of year exam, his voice was boring Buffy couldn’t help by doze off.

After all of her classes for the day she headed back to her dorm to freshen up. She looked down at her watch, 8:30pm; she was running late for Spike. She pulled her long ash blonde hair into a ponytail, enhanced her ocean blue eyes with some mascara, chucked on the closest jumper to her and walked out of the door.

She walked down the street to get to Spikes house, the only lighting were the dim streetlights leading to his driveway. She reached the door and rang the bell, something about this did not feel right. Normally Spike would pick her up from her dorm and they would walk together, like a normal couple but tonight he wasn’t there. No one answered the door so Buffy just walked inside; all the lights were off apart and it seemed like no one was home.

“Spike? I’m here… Did you forget about our plans?”

Silence. He didn’t answer her. Buffy continued to walk down the hall and into the kitchen. Once she was in there she noticed the basement door wide open and light coming from down there.

Walking down the stairs one by one, the creaks did not make Buffy feel any more secure.

“Spike if you are hiding from me this isn’t funny. Where are you?” her voice was uneasy

Suddenly all the lights in the basement went off. Buffy had been put in this situation multiple times only when she was there was always a vampire to fight. It had been about 30 seconds when she felt breathing along the nape of her neck; it was warm against her chilling skin.

The sharp pain she felt dig into her neck was like no other. She realised that this was the end. There was nothing she could do. Her life had changed forever. Everything and anything she was, was gone.

“Why?” her voice cried out, she was weak, almost unconscious. Spike stood over her laughing and wiping her blood off the corners of his mouth.

*                       *                       *

Beep. Beep. Beep.

Buffy rolled over and put her alarm on snooze yet again. She got out of bed, stumbled towards the bathroom and started to brush her teeth. Her mouth was sore, what had happened last night, she thought to herself. She glanced up to the mirror and that when she saw them. She was speechless, what was she doing to do? She had a set of fangs in her mouth and she was the vampire slayer.

Still in pj’s, she ran outside her room and headed towards Willows’. Smashing her fist on the door as hard as she could Willow finally opened up.

“Buffy, what are you doing here this early?”

“Look!” Buffy pointed to her teeth

“Are those what I think they are?”

“Yup”

“How?”

“I don’t know. All I know is my memory from last night is a blur”

“You were with Spike last night. Did he do this to you?”

“No! He couldn’t” Buffy was sure he didn’t do this, he couldn’t have. “Anyway I have to go. We’ll talk later”

Buffy ran out of Willow’s room and back into her own, how was she supposed to fight these vampires when she was one herself. This was not want she needed to deal with right now, especially with her midterms coming up.

Buffy grabbed out her phone and started to dial Spike’s number.

“Answer. Answer the stupid phone you idiot”

“Hi, you have reached Spike’s voicemail. Sorry I can’t answer the phone at the moment, leave a message and I’ll get back to you.”

Buffy rang his phone again and still got the same reply.

‘If he did do this then I would be dodging my calls as well… but if he didn’t he could be in trouble”

Buffy’s mind was fighting with itself; she didn’t know what to do. All she knew was that she needed to find Spike and if being a vampire, the one thing she hates the most in the world, was going to help her do it then she would let it.

 Commentary

For my fanfiction I decided to write about Buffy the Vampire Slayer, a text that we studied for cult television. I thought that it would be a good idea to approach the text in Buffy’s point of view and developing a relationship, as well as introducing conflict. I focused on aspects of the original series, keeping the character the same. The good thing about a TV series is that every episode is a different storyline, and that is the approach I was thinking while writing this piece. I wanted to include a major plot twist that would change the whole series and that is why Spike turned her into a vampire. I wanted Buffy to be faced with the conflict of the unknown, this is shown through her trusting Spike or not. Even though the original TV series is dark, it always has a happy ending and for my fanfiction I wanted to not have that happy ending, I wanted the reader to be left feeling “what next?”

The main theme I wanted to portray is the love and lost in relationships, mainly the lost. I explored this through Buffy and Spike’s relationship, with the lost of trust and the unknown between them.

I used Vogler’s (1998) character archetypes of Shadow and Shapeshifter, that being Spike, and Hero, for Buffy. “The shadow is the opposite of light and provides he tension of anxiety and fear in the story. The Shadow often opposes the hero and is typically the main antagonist”, the reader knows that Spike is the antagonist in the fanfiction but Buffy doesn’t which leads him to also portray the character archetype of a Shapeshifter. “The Shapeshifter represents uncertainty and change, reminding us that not all is as it seems”, the shapeshifter archetype is more how Buffy feels about Spike, she always has this gut feeling of uncertainty. Is he good or is he bad? She doesn’t know, but we see Spike as the Shadow, the definite antagonist in the fanfiction.

Buffy on the other hand is the Hero, “the hero or heroine is the classic protagonist of the story with whom we associate most. They embody our most aspirational values”. Buffy does this by caring more about finding Spike rather than looking after herself. She is selfless and this attribute makes the reader want to associate themselves with her character.

 My fanfiction was able to follow somewhat of the structure of Vogler’s (1998) mythic narrative structure. The first act of the Hero’s journey is the ordinary world – where the hero is seen in their everyday life, we see that with buffy going through her daily routine in the beginning. My fanfiction mainly focuses on Act 1, as I wanted to end the fanfiction with the problem/sense of uncertainty so that the reader could decide what happens next. Volger continues on to explain a “call to adventure”, sometime that the hero is presented with that they cannot refuse to resolve. In my piece the conflict as such is Buffy getting turned into a vampire although that main conflict I wanted to focus on was the sense of uncertainty between Buffy and Spike.

My fanfiction mainly follows Volger’s (1998) character archetypes other than his mythic narrative structure although it does focus on aspects of it.

References:

Vogler, C. 1998. The writer’s journey: Mythic structure for writers. Studio City, CA: Michael Wiese Productions.

BuffyWorld -- A complete guide to all of the "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Angel" episodes. (n.d.). Retrieved October 15, 2014, from http://www.buffyworld.com/

Whedon, J. (Writer). (2000, February 8). The I in Team - Season 4 Episode 13 [Television series episode]. In Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Whedon, J. (Writer). (2000, February 15). Goodbye Iowa - Season 4 Episode 14 [Television series episode]. In Buffy the Vampire Slayer.