Highway to the Hellmouth - Part 1
"Man, I love California."
A shiny, black '67 Impala sat idling at a stoplight, the sounds of classic rock wafted from the open windows. Dean Winchester sat in the drivers seat, bobbing his head along to the music and admiring the sunny, palm tree ridden surroundings. A less impressed Sam sat in the seat next to him, poring over a local newspaper and apparently ignoring his brothers' enthusiasm. Dean continued anyways,
"Warm air, the beach, Hollywood," he not so inconspicuously gawked at a blonde in a pink bikini and a pair of Daisy Dukes crossing the street in front of them, "fine pieces of a-"
"Could you concentrate on something other than chasing tail for ONE second, Dean?" Sam flourished his newspaper in a gesture of disapproval, although his eyes wandered for a second on the blonde.
"Come on, Sammy. You gotta lighten up. Maybe the fresh air will do you good." He glanced over to the newspaper held up to Sam's nose, then back to the newly green light. "Anything interesting?"
"Well, apparently where we're headed is like, the Mecca for all paranormal activity in this area. I mean, just look at this paper. Disappearances, strange and unexplained deaths."
"So it's like Woodstock for the supernatural"
"A lot less acid, a lot more vampires."
"I'm not sure which sounds more fun." Dean smirked, and turned onto a stretch of desert road, a sign in the distance the size of a postage stamp.
"This is serious business, Dean. We gotta keep our heads with this one."
"I know, I know. Jeez, Sammy. You talk like I haven't been doing this my whole life."
"I know you have Dean. It's just sometimes you get… reckless when you're excited."
"Reckless? I'm not reckless. I'm full of reck. You're reckless." Dean shot a smile and a glance at Sam, who still looked somber.
"Dean." The fresh air must be getting to his brother's head, Sam thought, as he caught sight the sign ahead. He squinted in the California sun that reflected off the expansive stretch of sand that surrounded them from all sides now.
"Yeah, yeah. But come on," Dean and Sam both gazed upwards at the now full sized sign in as they passed over the town border, "who could be afraid of a place called Sunnydale?"
Dean accelerated, the song on the radio ended, and the first few bars of Highway to Hell began to play.
{]º[}
The town was entirely too campy for the Winchesters; Mom and Pop stores on every corner, coffee shops with cutesy names and only one Starbucks. The only thing that caught their attention was an interesting little store called The Magic Box, which Sam made a mental note to check out later. They stood outside it, looking up at the gold lettering on the overhang and the constant ebb and flow of customers coming in and out.
'Busy, for an occult store." Sam observed, watching two young women walk out the front door, the younger one, a teenage girl with long brown hair talking animatedly with her hands, and bouncing along in step with the older, a mousy looking blonde who was holding a large pile of old, leather-bound books.
"Come on, Sam. They probably sell Harry Potter merchandise and crystal balls made of plexiglass. A few bundles of sage, a few gemstones. Make people feel like they know what they're doing." Dean laughed as Sam continued to watch the two girls.
The blonde, trying to balance the books and pay attention to the hyperactive teenager at the same time, lost her footing on the step down from the curb and her books spilled onto the road. The teenager squealed, and shouted apologies as the blonde began gathering her books back up. Sam and Dean sprinted over to the two girls, Dean bending over to pick up stray papers and Sam picking up a rather heavy and old looking volume.
"Hey, let me help." Sam said, looking down the book and then to the blonde, whose face had turned a bright red as she scrambled to pick up the last of the books.
"Oh, oh th-thank you!" she stammered, her voice airy and kind. Sam smiled warmly at her and placed the book on top of her pile. Dean had gathered the papers into a pile and turned to the teenager.
"Here." He smiled his best Dean smile, and winked at the girl. Her marble sized, bright blue eyes widened and a rose colour flushed across her freckled cheeks. She let out a small squeak and took the papers from him.
"That's a pretty intense looking book." Sam nodded to the large text he had placed on the pile. The blonde nodded and looked around, nervously. Sam tilted his head to the side, trying to read whether the girl was feeling guilty or just a very nervous person.
"I, uh, take a course. At UC Sunnydale. On the uh, the Oc-occult."
"That's pretty interesting," Dean sauntered over to her and checked the cover. "1000 Plants and Flowers and their Magikal Uses, eh? I didn't know the Occult had anything to do with botany."
"BAHAHAHAH." A loud and forced laugh erupted from the teenager, her eyes wide and set on Dean. When everyone turned to look at her, she occupied herself by fiddling with her peeling nail polish.
"Uhm…I'm Sam, this is Dean." Sam introduced himself, nodding at the blonde as Dean shook the brunette's hand.
"Dean…" the girl cooed, smiling at him with doe eyes. Dean raised his eyebrows, and she shook her head "I mean, Dawn. My name is Dawn."
"And I'm Tara," the blond chirped, and smiled "thank you for helping, but, uh, w-we have to get g-going. Come on, Dawnie."
Dawn looked dolefully at Dean and waved a little before bouncing off after Tara down the street. Sam smirked and nudged Dean in the ribs.
"Looks like someone's got an admirer."
"Just as long as she doesn't go all Misery on me, that's cool." Dean frowned a bit, and furrowed his brow. "You wondering what I'm wondering…"
"Whether or not UC Sunnydale actually has an Occult course or…"
"Or we may have found ourselves a witch or rwo."
Casting one last glance at the Magic Box, Sam and Dean went on their way once again.
{]º[}
"I feel like we're in a bad horror movie."
Dean and Sam had looked around town and to their disappointment, could not find anything of interest going on. Even after asking locals about the latest deaths or missing people, the residents of Sunnydale seemed altogether unphased by any strange happenings. In fact, they seemed to take it as a regular occurrence and showed no more worry about it than if Dean and Sam were to have asked them about the high school production of Oedipus The King. The only thing they had going for them was the information of a funeral happening that day, and the whisper of a rumour that the young boy had died from blood loss, and with a strange wound on his neck.
"This whole thing is just weird. I mean, if we're really dealing with vampires here, it's like, I dunno a whole different breed than what we're used to." Sam held a flashlight out before them, the ray of light bouncing off nearby headstones then falling away into the darkness with every step.
"Hold that thing steady, will ya? What was the name of the dead kid again?"
"Kevin Holburn. Not that it'll be hard to find, I mean how many fresh graves can there-" Sam stopped talking as the pair came across at least half a dozen fresh and open graves. Some had headstones, some didn't. Dean gave a sigh and smacked Sam on the arm.
"You frickin' jinxed it, asshat."
"So, what do we do? Do we dig him up, or do we just wait for him to come to us?"
"You wanna dig up all these fresh graves, you go right ahead Sammy boy." Dean nodded and plopped down onto a nearby stone bench, a large stone angel kneels behind him, it's face in it's hands. Sam looked over to his brother, and was about to say something about the angels wings being spread in such a way that they looked as if they were about to envelop Dean, when a sound coming from behind a giant mausoleum to their left caught their attention. They brothers didn't even look at one another and they both took off in a sprint.
Sams' long legs got him there first, where he found a young blonde girl laying on the ground, and some feet away a dirty looking young boy in a formal suit about to run full tilt at her. Dean appeared at his side, but before they could move again, the girl had flipped herself up into a standing position, and to the immense surprise of the Winchesters, ran at the (what they were assuming was) freshly unearthed vampire with unnerving speed and agility. They grappled for a moment, the girl showing no sign of injury or even slowing down every time the vampire landed a blow. She seemed to be dealing them out just as well as she was taking them. Dean leaned towards Sam, the two almost transfixed on the battle before them.
"Should we, uh, do something?"
'She looks like she's got it under control. Man, do you see this? She's got skills. You think, maybe, she's a hunter?"
Dean only had time to shrug before the girl had pulled something long and pointed out from her jacket and plunged it directly into the chest of the vampire. The vampire stood, frozen for a moment, then exploded into dust. The Winchesters stood, aghast, their mouths slightly open. The girl dusted the front of her jacket off and tucked her weapon away again. She shook her hair out, running her fingers through it before sweeping it across her shoulder. Dead swallowed hard.
"That was hot."
With catlike reflexes, the girl turned quickly towards them, into a fighting stance. The Winchesters took a step back simultaneously, Sam putting his hands up in front of him.
"Hey, hey it's okay. We're not here to hurt you."
"Oh, it's not me I'm worried about." The girl's voice was high and beautiful, but with an edge that made Dean look at his brother quickly in panic. Sam stood stock still, staring the girl down.
"What are you?"
"Capricorn on the cusp of Aquarius. Man, that's getting old." The girl frowned at herself, then took a step forward. "What are you?"
"Here to help." Dean replied, a slight crack to his voice. Sam nodded and the girl laughed an easy, incredulous laugh.
"Oh yeah, I knew I called in for some 'standing around' backup. So glad you guys made it in time."
"Was that a vampire?" Sam asked, mirroring the girl and taking a step towards her. Dean gave Sam a panicked glance and stayed where he was. The girl smiled and took another step as well.
"What are you?" she asked again, this time frowning deeply, a smoldering look coming over her eyes.
"I'm Sam Winchester, this is my brother Dean. We're hunters. We kill things like you just did."
"Oh, what like that?" the girl pointed up, above their heads. They boys only had time to turn before three vampires sprung from the top of the mausoleum they were standing beneath. The girl ran towards them, landing a kick square in the chest of the tallest vampire, knocking it backwards into the mausoleum and leaving a large crack in the heavy stone. Dean and Sam each took the other vampires, sparring with them as the blonde took out, what Sam could see more clearly, a wooden stake again and made to impale the vampire as she had done with the last one. She missed, and the large vampire grabbed her arm, twisting it behind her back. Sam attempted to aid her, but the vampire he was fighting was extremely strong, more than what he was used to. He glanced back at Dean, who was struggling with his own vampire. Sam was finally able to throw his to the ground, but was at a loss for a weapon to use. He wasn't used to having to bring stakes with him on a vamp job. His assailant was just about to gain the upper hand again when a swooshing sound and what looked like a large black bird jumped into the action and staked the vampire that was holding the girl. The two then turned and staked the other vampires; Sam's who was still on the ground and Dean's, who was distressingly close to taking a bite out of the older Winchester's neck.
When the dust cleared, Sam and Dean were face to face with a surly looking man, with dark, brooding eyes, a long black coat and hair that stuck straight up. He scowled at them, and turned to the blonde.
"Buffy, are you okay?" he put a large hand on her shoulder, a pained and worried expression on his face.
"I'm all sorts of good. Thanks, your timing is impeccable." Buffy smiled, then focused her gaze on the Winchesters. "To answer your question," she addressed them, as they stood and brushed themselves off, panting. "I'm the slayer….
…and you two have a lot of explaining to do as to why the hell you're in my town."
A/N: what I've learned: how to spell mausoleum.