LTVS: Dancing the Night Away

*Do not read beyond **this point** if you want to avoid being **spoiled!***

***Layla the Vampire Slayer* episode**

Image by Ilse

RandomTuesday

Bentham

**Dancing the Night Away** is the fifth episode of Layla the Vampire Slayer. This transcription was performed by Blacksun388.

## Synopsis

Robert and Barnaby get back in from the competition and step off the bus to the sound of clapping and cheering. Imogen and Layla go over to see what the commotion is about and Imogen questions what went on but Layla dissuades her questions for now. Barnaby wants to sleep and gives Imogen the tupperware he captured the Scarab in. The Scarab skitters and struggles in the tupperwear as they talk. Robert and Barnaby begin to mention the cause of the explosion was in fact a gas pipe but something else happened. He requests Layla and Imogen help James and later they agree to meet.

Imogen and Layla sneak into Barnaby’s room and Imogen sets up a ritual demanding Barnaby sit in the circle and starts chanting. Robert begins to go into detail about what happened noting it was a gas pipe explosion but the cause was not what the official story told. Barnaby chimes in that they and the Greater Rosewater Comprehensive students helped them blow it up to destroy the flood of scarabs. Imogen is now infatuated with the Scarab and wants to find out everything about it. Robert explains how the bugs latch onto the back of the head and eats the brain. Imogen tries to cast the spell but then her distracted mind slips and something happens to the potion she was making. Barnaby drinks the potion and somehow regurgitates the haribo candy he had on the way back to school. With that Barnaby lies back and continues the conversation. Imogen isn’t certain the scarab could reverse the effects but she’ll try.

With that the two go back to their dorm and go about their individual works. Robert tries to brainstorm uses for his newly found Scarab sand and Layla and Imogen study magic together. They don’t make much headway but decide to carry on. Layla one night has nightmares that wake her and notices Barnaby doing… Something. She shimmies down the drainpipe and calls out for Barnaby. Barnaby admits he snuck out to see a girl he likes from Greater Rosewater. Layla is caught off guard and asks who it is to which he says it’s Jane and not to tell anyone. Layla then asks if he has a crush on Imogen to which Barnaby has no clear answer.

Imogen continues her research and finds the creature is an Ammit Scarab and finds out about The Alexandria Center and the history of the Library of Alexandria. The creatures eat facts from brains or the internet and later that they can die to fire. She pries open her dark ritual book and finds more information about Ammit as a destroyer soul eating deity and eventually finds a ritual to help James. Layla comes back and Imogen tells her the news of finding a ritual. She then gossips with Layla about Barnaby’s new crush and theorize about why he’s trying to be secretive about it. They move on to what Layla is here for and why they sent Barnaby instead of Imogen. They also note how the problems of the school followed them over.

Barnaby goes over and has a brief chat with his teammates and after giving them gifts Ned mentions Janet hasn’t seen him and leaves after a bit of banter. As he goes to leave he notes Janet and Violet appear and they greet him. He suggests going in to meet the two and they seem reluctant to. He then asks if they are going to *The Basement* nightclub which they seem to agree to. Later on Imogen asks Barnaby for his participation in the ritual to restore James’ knowlege and she quickly straps it onto his head to try and perform the ritual. She almost loses focus but manages to maintain the spell long enough and focused enough to complete it. Barnaby suddenly feels like a small fireworks display as facts now burst into his mind. As the bug is drained it turns to sand and all its knowledge is uploaded to his brain. Barnaby is now flush with knowledge and Imogen goes to make notes.

As the week rolls on Layla skips class and tries to help Robert with his newest creation. She tries to get him to skip and after a while of trying to persuade him to call in sick he relents. Robert unveils a magical detector and suggests that the Hellmouth might be an ideal place to test out the detector.

Imogen and Barnaby go to Biology as normal and notes that, strangely, the blinds are shut and there is low light. In walks Mr. Miller and he notes Layla and Robert are absent. Imogen tries to cover for them but is found out rather quickly. Imogen tries to open the blinds with her telekinesis. She gets them open and Miller withdraws from the sun. He calls Imogen to the front of the class and the class to open their books. Imogen continues her focus and manages to open the blinds. Miller calls her forward and tells her that he opened the gas manes in the science labs. If he bursts into flames it will ignite the gas and explode. She seems defiant in the face of her own death and to make an example he calls Janet to the front to stand outside. Imogen continues to defy him and calls Janet back in. He tells Imogen to pass out bunsen burners. After this Miller runs out the door and the two try to get the class to leave. Miller returns as quick as he left and tries to get the class settled. He tries to make Imogen recite a passage and Barnaby with his new knowledge interrupts. He gives Imogen and Barnaby detention for interrupting and failing to read. Barnaby takes the opportunity to try and use the bunsen burners to plug the gas valves but it doesn’t work.

Barnaby tries to get Miller to go to the light and tells Imogen to do it. She sasses him back and forth and the class notices that something is amiss. He orders her to the office and she refuses so he sends some other students to the office in her stead. He tries to teach a lesson about blood and Barnaby interrupts again prompting Miller to leave. Barnaby goes to open all the blinds and afterwards helps Imogen to remove the blinds from the windows. They make plans to tell Layla and Robert (after considering setting the explosion to destroy the school) and banter back and forth with their light headedness from the gas setting in.

Imogen goes to the girls lavatory and notes on the stall door the word “Imogen” and looks under the stall. She sees 5 sets of feet and sees five bodies, their chests pierced with metal rods and stapled to their hands small notes that read, in order, “YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS”. Three of the students are the ones sent to the office. Imogen is enraged at Miller now and starts having a crises suffering feelings of sadistic rage. She wants nothing more than to make Miller suffer dearly.

Layla and Robert go to the Hellmouth and test out his new invention. He puts on his magic detecting tech glasses and sees a flowing spectrum of color. Layla asks if he could make more (and make them more stylish) and then asks Layla if the energy flowing from the Hellmouth is safe. She admits that she doesn’t know and the two talk back and forth about practical applications of the glasses. They look at the furnace where they burned the demons and Robert sees magic effused into the essence of the furnace. He notes the burnt orange color and let’s Layla see. Turning back to his own self he brings out the magnet gloves and sees nothing.

They talk a while longer and see something drop on Robert’s head. They see a cracked pipe that starts dripping blood. They imagine Barnaby and Imogen are in danger and Layla sprints off to the bathroom. Inside Imogen takes her knife and scratches her name off the wall. Layla, after initially misunderstanding the situation, sees the students impaled on the wall. Imogen is furiously scratching the wall and goes on a rant of what she wants to do before Layla calms her down. She then comes to her senses and decides to deal with Miller themselves. Robert comes in and Barnaby fills him in on the situation and tries to go in to talk but gets no further than the door. Passing back to the boarding house Robert looks at his project with the prototype car but finds nothing. They meet in Layla and Imogen’s room and brainstorm what to do.
Imogen is frustrated and buries herself in a book and the others try to come up with Miller’s motivations and how they can defend themselves. Barnaby seems eager to fight Miller now but Layla wants to plan. They decide to have Robert get their stories straight and change school records to reflect it. Imogen looks furiously in her books for vampire maiming implements and methods. She finds a bevy of information including the idea for a ritual of returning a soul to a vampire to torture it. The rest of the group seem interested in killing Miller but she is deadset on making him suffer.

Outside Robert runs into Violet and she asks if he and the others will go to the basement. He says he’ll think of it and returns to the room with his Magnetic Rail Crossbow and an explosive napalm bomb. The group continue their research and debate going to the Basement Club….

At first Imogen is against the idea of going to the Basement club and takes some goading from Layla to go out. She changes with the help of Layla and Robert and Barnaby go change as well. They meet up at the common room and decides to go at 8:30. They gear up with Layla taking stakes in her purse and holy water in a perfume bottle. Layla brings out a hidden bottle of gin and passes it around for pre-drinking and head off.

They get to the club and get stopped at the door by the bouncer who asks for IDs. Imogen tries to cast an enchantment on the bouncer that gets him to accept the fake IDs as legitimate. They go to the bar and order malibu and coke and three rum and cokes. Imogen proposes a sarcastic toast to Mr. Miller and they start drinking. As the night goes on they see more familiar faces appear in the club. Brian and Ned come over and they note he is hanging out with Layla and friends more. Violet and Janet join later on with a gaggle of girls and Violet goes up to Barnaby trying to flirt with him. Layla and Imogen scoops up James and Robert to let them be alone. He talks about what happened after the explosion and eventually they decide to get up and dance. Imogen is busy trying to keep James away from Robert’s rum and tries to find a guy to introduce James to. However she finds none and attracts unwanted attention of a middle aged man.

On the dance floor Violet gets worn and goes for a drink. Barnaby stays on the dance floor and Violet sets her handbag with Imogen and asks if she’s intruding to which Imogen encourages her to go for it. Imogen then tries to look through Violet’s bag and spills its contents on the floor. Layla tries to stuff all the stuff into the bag. James meanwhile drapes over Robert and whispers sweet nothings into his ear drunkenly. James then asks if everyone is having fun and they all say so. Imogen is having surprisingly more fun than she thought. Layla takes Robert to the dance floor and Barnaby shakes it where he is with Violet. Imogen elects to stay off the dance floor and watches everyone (except for Robert) dance pretty well on the floor.

After a while Violet asks Barnaby if he would like to stop dancing and he agrees saying he needs to check on his friend. Violet goes to the restroom and Barnaby talks to Imogen about her anger earlier in the day. Barnaby offers to look after the table and allow Imogen to dance. She tries, and fails, to make a mark on the dance floor with Layla and Robert. Violet comes over and says she had better go soon and Barnaby decides that he wants to escort her back to the bus stop. He links arms with her and walks to the bus station and she tells him she had a great time and leans in to kiss him. She then gets on the bus and leaves.

Barnaby returns to the group and they dance into the night. Robert sits down after a while and looks around but notices nothing but the fact that it’s midnight. Later he brings out the magic specs and sees some faded magic but nothing that catches his interest. Barnaby and Layla notice something strange about the clocks. Barnaby noted that he left Violet at midnight. When he looked up he sees the clocks are still stuck on midnight. They’ve been that way since an hour ago. Barnaby tries to place it. Layla admits it’s strange and Barnaby suggests maybe he’s just drunk. However he still pushes on with the clocks being weird. He goes over and talks to the bartender who notes that they should have been closer to closing than midnight. He decides to close the bar and try to usher everyone out.

The group convene and try to figure out why the clocks have stopped. Imogen decides to go see if the town clock has stopped or if only the clocks in the Basement are affected. Seeing the clock in the distance it is also stuck at 12 AM. Barnaby tries the talking clock on a payphone and it too says 12AM is the current time. Robert notes the moon is exactly at the 12AM position and he swears that time has passed. Everyone is confused as hell about the strange occurrences taking place. The group see a man with a gold chain watch and brown sweater noting tonight is “interesting” and Layla immediately notices he’s a vampire. She tries to take off her heels and chase after the man as he flees. After losing some ground she forces through effort to her legs and surges forward to try and throw a shoe at him. The stiletto heel pierces the his heart and turns him to ashes. The others catch up and while they try to argue the benefits of torture vs. murder they try to find out something about their predicament.

Suddenly Barnaby gets a blast of memory. He heard “as you wish”, followed by a faint boom. He tries to remember and thinks it was a feminine voice. Imogen asks if she said anything like “I wish this night would never end” and James suddenly chimes in apparently remembering something. Robert tries to remember something someone said. Finally James says he wished the night could go on forever. That means that somehow the night will not go past midnight. James tries to take advantage of the situation and make Barnaby kiss him, to which Barnaby grudgingly acquiesces. They then go to the subject of Violet’s bag and Layla remembers something strange about the necklace. The fact that is wasn’t there.

They turn to James and ask if he took the necklace and James says that a man took the necklace off the floor. After James’ pitiful explanation of the culprit Imogen tries to whittle down the suspects in her demon pocket book. They decide to start with the bar staff to look for clues to the mysterious stranger who took the necklace.

### Next time on Layla the Vampire Slayer….

The group decide to try and find the necklace and break the magic holding the night still. They leave to go find the people from the bar so they can find the man who stole it when suddenly they hear the sounds of chaos in the distance. Broken glass, screams, screeching tires, and crunching metal. Shouts of anarchy and fear. Riots and looting breaking out. The town, it seems, is going mad in the face of this eternal darkness….