He watched the children, teens, adults that entered his shop. Each and every costume they bought would help create chaos as he wanted it to be, but he was still waiting for 'THE' one. The one person, who was to wear his masterpiece. The bell over his door rang and he looked up, then shook his head. Again, there was not the right person. Ethan wasn't sure what he was looking for, he only knew it had to do something with the eyes of that person. They had to show a certain type of openess, something just like...
"Ah, my boy. I have waited the entire day for you to come here!"
"Me, but I... "
"You see, I have this one costume I really care about, and I want it displayed on the streets tonight. But none of my other customers have the right face to pull it of. So I would like to ask you to wear it tonight."
"But I don't have the money to afford it."
"Do you think I run this shop for money? No, you can't get rich selling costumes. I do if for the satisfaction of seeing people turned into what they want to be."
The boy was silent, thinking.
"Do you want to see it? It might be easier to decide if you know what kind of costume I am talking about."
A nod was his only answer and so Ethan guided the youth to the back of his shop.
"Here it is."
"Holy... I have seen the movie, but never thought someone could make a costume like this."
"It took a lot of time and patience. Do you understand why I want this to be seen?"
"Of course. Is it fully...?"
"Everything works like in the movie. Well, my boy?"
The youth nodded.
"Yes, I will wear it."
"Where is Xander?
"I don't know. Remember that costume store owner lead him into the back of the store. I think he said something about Xander having the right face for a special costume of his or so."
"He did? Well I hope he's in time or great costume or not Snyder will be more unpleasant then normally."
"Hi."
"What?! Huh? Xander! Is that you?"
"Yes. Well what do you think?"
"Wow. That is really something."
"Thanks, Buffy. And you Wills?"
"He was right, you do have the face for it."
"You utter BASTARD! What did you do to Xander?"
"Ouch, that hurt, you know. Who is Xander?"
"Alexander Harris. This tall, brown hair, brown eyes, came into your shop with a redhead and my Slayer. His costume hasn't turned back. That Xander!"
"Ohh, the boy with the perfect eyes. I gave him my masterpiece. You do remember my masterpieces, do you!"
"You, you asshole! How could you do something like that!"
"Why Ripper, I only wanted to preserve the innocence I felt inside of him. I am a chaos mage, remember. A bit of light here, a bit of darkness there, but never outright evil or good. The boy could only become what he did, because his own core resonated with the magics of my work. And now his core is visible for the world to see. Innocence, but of a flawed, unfinished type. He will never age, never die and never loose that innocence I felt in him, but he will also never be able to touch anyone without wounding that person or even be seen as a regular human being. He is my greatest work so far. I... "
The chaos mage was stopped abruptly, when Giles knocked him out.
On a bench, in an overgrown garden, behind an empty mansion, there sat a figure. He had a pale, scarred face and a mop of more than messy hair. His clothes were rather strange, mostly black leather with countless buckels and zippers.
His wide doelike eyes were looking down on the ground and every time he moved his hands there was a scratching, sliching sound.
Silently he stood up and ghosted back to the mansion that would become his home.