Not that long ago I saw a photo of a cast reunion and a paragraph saying there was going to be a new Buffy Series. Sadly no series was planned after all, but the idea inspired me to write a tribute to the Joy of Buffy, one of the best tv shows ever. Please may she one day return!
So this story is set after the events of series 7, in modern day London. After all the potentials in the world were made slayers, there was a huge leap in the slayer population. But also there were a lot of slayers killed in the final battle and beyond, and because there were no potentials left at that time, those slayers were not replaced. That meant the numbers dwindled back down to twenty or so.
Now there are potentials of the right age again, when a slayer is killed she is replaced.
The new Watchers Council is now in America, with Giles at its head. There were many Watchers and Watchers in training around the world who cast off the old ways and joined the new Council. They now carry out their work with the new Slayers and Potentials under Giles guidance.
Mina the Vampire Slayer – The Watcher Diaries
Episode 1 – An Introduction to Donuts
Where Mina discovers that she is the Slayer, the Chosen One, the one girl in all London who can defeat evil; Sydney has a vision of the greatest evil known to Chelsea (boiler suits) and Officer Murphy gets dragged through a hedge backwards.
Cast:
Mina Milian - school girl and fashion influencer
Sydney Carpenter - school girl and fashion influencer
Officer Murphy - does what it says on the tin
Oxton-Jones - a Watcher
Guest Stars: Alessandro Milian - student, layabout and brother to Mina
The story.….
Mina Milian and her best friend Sydney Carpenter were enjoying the summer holidays. To appear any other way was unthinkable. Appearance was everything after all.
And the pair looked so perfect together. Sydney was a petite blonde with super straight blonde hair and Mina a petite brunette with super straight brunette hair. They were both slim and athletic and wearing the absolute height of fashion, their make-up and hair immaculate even at the end of a long day.
It was one of those wonderful Saturdays where they didn't have a thing to do. Well, apart from to patronise every boutique and department store worth being seen at, across what felt like the whole of London. They had snapped each other throughout the day posting on instagram what a wonderful time they were having and which cute autumn trends they were favouring (in August). Everything was perfect.
Exhausted, but feeling that they had done their civic duty and endorsed all the 'in' stores of the moment, as tradition dictated, they ended the day with a visit to their favourite coffee shop: Uncle PopaPapaCheeto's.
It was the one shop in their lives that wasn't 'on trend' and that they didn't constantly post snaps of on line - but it was the store with the hottest baristas and the best coffee – and their one private place they didn't want to share with the rest of the world. The place they could be slightly less than perfect if they wanted to.
Sydney ordered a dry one shot supermassive skinny mocha extra hot with extra chocolate sprinkles for herself and a wet one shot supermassive skinny sugar-free vanilla latte cooled down for her best friend and threw herself gracefully into one of the velvet sofas.
Mina had kicked off her stilettoes and was inspecting her perfectly painted turquoise toes. 'Wow I think we walked the London marathon today'.
'Yeah, and we had shopping bags to carry'.
'Hey yeah! I hadn't thought of that.' Conversation exhausted, the girls sipped their drinks in silence for a moment or two watching the world, and those baristas, pass by.
Eventually Mina sighed. 'I'd better go, Alessandro could have wrecked the whole apartment by now. I don't want the olds to have an actual heart attack when they get home'.
Sydney nodded wisely; Mina had spent a fair amount of the day complaining about her brother's activities while their parents were away at some boring medical conference somewhere. It was just the two of them alone in the large old house til Monday. Or they would have been alone - if Aly hadn't brought home a couple of sk8er loser friends, smoked a lot of strange substances and passed out in the living room last night.
Still, Mina made no move to head home, but sipped her drink and chatted idly with her BFF. They reviewed their shopping, wondered what teachers they would have in the new school year – which was depressingly close now - and planned their activities for the following day. But eventually Mina could put it off no longer, and the pair went their separate ways and headed home.
Sydney felt tired, not something she had wanted to admit to Mina, who had seemed quite wired. The short walk home seemed to take for ever, and she was so exhausted she sat on the floor of the lift to ride up to the penthouse. Yes, the actual floor where people's feet had been. She considered burning her shorts when she took them off but had decided by the time she reached the penthouse that they were just too chi-chi to get rid of before the end of the season. She would instruct Wanda, the maid, to wash them extra hard or something.
Once in the apartment she yelled 'hi' but received no response from either of her parents – who may or may not have been in – or Wanda – who was dusting the hall and scowling as was so often her way. So Syd dumped her bags in a corner of her room and lay down on her king size bed with the door firmly shut against any sounds of endeavour on Wanda's part. She sent out a few posts to confirm to her friends and many followers that she had arrived home safe and sound, but her heart wasn't really in it. She had Wanda bring her dinner in her room, showered and went to bed remarkably early. She just felt so incredibly tired she didn't even surf the net but lay her head on her silken pillow and fell immediately asleep.
Almost straight away she began to have strange dreams, fleeting and uneasy. She seemed to be racing down corridors, chasing after someone that she couldn't catch up to. She would run and run, only to catch a glimpse of dark hair disappearing round a corner. So she would try and run faster, but as she turned the corner, she would only get a glimpse of the dark tip of a pony tail disappearing around the next turn. She was sure it was Mina, but though she called her name, the person ahead always remained just out of sight. Eventually Sydney realised she was going to have to stop, she couldn't keep running for ever. But to her horror, as she came to a halt and bent over to catch her breath she realised she was wearing a boiler suit! An actual blue-grey shapeless utilitarian boiler suit. Sydney let out an almighty scream and shot bolt upright in bed. The digital read out on her clock blinked 9:47 – but there were no boiler suits on her bed, she was still clad in her sleeping shorts and tee. She settled nervously back down, but she couldn't get rid of the sense of dread for a long time. It was several hours before she drifted back off into a troubled sleep.
Mina had enjoyed her day with Sydney but was looking forward to settling down with a face mask, watching the latest teen movie release and resting her feet. When she got home though, Aly was finally conscious and playing some video game on the huge screen in the living room with his friends. She could see they were settled for the weekend and she didn't want to watch a film on her own in her room, so she reluctantly dropped her bags onto her bed, got a hot shower and changed into some comfortable PJs.
She felt bored and restless instead of shattered. She cast about trying to think of something to do. Finally she decided to make some supper for herself - perhaps a fat-free cracker or a tub of chocolate brownie Ben & Jerry's? It was hard to decide.
It was as she was peering thoughtfully into the freezer that Aly wandered into the kitchen, scooped up the tub of Ben and Jerrys and a spoon and wandered out. Mina stamped her foot, but his fleeting form didn't even register her protest and she felt so discombobulated she didn't storm after him and make a scene.
She wondered if she was coming down with something, she just couldn't shake off the weird feeling – and it's was not the fumes emanating from the living room either.
She checked her phone, it was 9:47.
Knowing she felt too disturbed and disorientated and just – well – energetic - to sleep she decided to go for a walk in Kyoto Park. She had heard fresh air was good for helping one sleep and the park was the nearest she was likely to get to fresh air. Still a long long way from fresh, but containing trees and grass and therefore nearer. She had never in her life before felt so restless she needed to go for a walk, but hey, she would go with it.
She dressed sensibly in floaty trousers, cute flat strappy sandals and a form fitting little prada jacket; and headed out the front door where she was astonished to see the new school librarian arguing with the next door neighbour, the uptight Mr Fotheringay.
The librarian had only started towards the end of the last term, where he had been introduced in the school assembly as the replacement for old Miss Hodges who had met an unfortunate, but unknown end.
As Mina made a point of never ever ever going to the school library – which contained books other, unknown people had touched after all – they had never been formally introduced. But she recognised him alright, he was the only human being she had ever seen wear head to toe tweed. He was, in fact, doing it right now.
When Mr Oxton-Jones caught sight of her, he gesticulated wildly, his glasses slightly askew, and she suddenly realised that he was looking for her!
She froze, unable to escape him, without being rude to a teacher.
'Mina! Can I have a moment of your time please?'
Erm... stranger danger and all that.? 'Are you sure that's wise Sir? I have most definitely never borrowed a book in my life'
'Er, no of course not.' She watched with curiosity as the strange man floundered about. 'I am not here about overdue books of course.'
'Well good, it is a Saturday evening. In the summer holidays'
'Yes, er quite.'
Pause.
'So, you want to speak to me about?'
'Oh yes, that, well er, well, it's a charity – related – er – thing. As er - you were on your way out, I can walk with you and explain the purpose of my - ah – visit?'
Mina took a moment to disentangle the sentence, and then took another moment to consider the impact on her street cred if she was seen with a librarian of all things. A librarian in tweed for heaven's sake. Who knew that it was even a thing anymore? But it was nearly dark and her friends would all be online showing off their perfect lives by now, so she decided it was probably low risk.
'OK. You can walk me to the park and back if you like. Mr Fotheringay is my witness if you are thinking of murdering me or anything.'
'Oh, ha ha, a joke of course, yes' Oxton-Jones stammered straightening his tie and wondering how he had gotten himself into this. And more pertinently, how he was going to get himself out of it without being arrested. And then summarily dismissed. Or 'fired' as they said on that apprentice show.
Mina put her bang on trend new pastel straw handbag firmly over her arm and between them, and together they walked out into the warm evening air.
They had reached the park itself and still the librarian hadn't found the words.
'So?' prodded Mina as she turned onto the path.
'Are you sure we should go in here in the dark?' questioned her flustered companion.
'Well it's not actually dark is it, just dusky, nearly dark.'
'Um'
'Can you just tell me what this is about? I know the Headmaster is keen for us all to do some charity work to enhance our CVs, but I can't see how libraries are the next big trend in philanthropy?'
'Ah – ahaha – er yes. No. This is a different kind of – er – philanthropy. You see, I am a representative for a very – um – philanthropic - organisation. You see, this organisation, well that is to say, there are special girls who are chosen, that is to say, Chosen, with the potential to be Slayers and you are one of these Chosen girls with this potential and I moved here to make contact with you to start your training, but what I am actually trying to say is that due to some unfortunate circumstances in Peru, ahem, you are, in fact, now a fully-fledged Slayer, and I am in fact your Watcher and I am here to train you, so you don't need to worry in any way, that is to say that it is a very dangerous job, and it does involve vampires and – er – other creatures, I have to be completely direct and honest with you, but with the proper tuition and technique you will be able to handle whatever gets thrown at you – not literally of course, well not usually literally thrown, that is to say, it's not the norm, I can assure you, so er, yes that's it in a nutshell. Any questions?
Mina tried and failed to disentangle any of the librarian's babbling. 'Huh?'
'Well, to put it in a more traditional way, there was one girl in all the world Chosen to 'slay' the monsters of the night. Only due to what is actually quite a long story, there is now more than one - but still not that many. And Mina, you are one of those girls who have been Chosen. It is now your duty to protect the citizens of London from-'
Mina was about to inform the insane librarian that he was barking up the wrong designer clothes-horse, when she became aware that they were deep into the park and it had indeed become very dark under the trees. And furthermore, there was something very large rustling in the bushes. Very large.
The next moment the very large thing turned out to be a policeman being thrown through an ornamental hedge backwards, landing on his back on the path in front of them.
This was closely followed by a dark figure leaping from the bushes and landing astride the beleaguered officer. For a second the dark figure turned to look at Mina and she got a glimpse of evil yellow eyes and a forehead like one of those clangon things from star trek the nerd generation.
From Oxton-Jones hysterical reaction, Mina somehow managed to process that a) this is a VAMPIRE and b) this IS NOT A DRILL. The uptight man, far from leaping in to the fray to save a damsel in distress suddenly thrust a pointy wooden 'stake' at said damsel and explained rather breathlessly, that one should push this through a vampire's heart to destroy it.
For a second Mina was too astonished to react, but then some primal instinct took over and somehow, she knew that the police officer was going to die if she didn't do something to save him. The savagery and strength of the dark creature was immediately apparent, and it was all too clear that the officer was losing the battle to keep its teeth and claws at bay.
She leapt forward, stake grasped firmly and tried to figure out what she should do – the two figures were now tussling together and rolling round on the floor. Mina quickly realised that she wasn't going to be able to stake the creature through its chest because it wasn't letting go of its prey any time soon.
However, biology was one of her favourite school subject's so she tried to conjure up a vision of where someone's heart would be from the back. She just about had it figured (she hoped), but she needed them to hold still for a second so she could aim – but that wasn't happening either. They continued to roll around shouting and growling, but she could see the police officer was weakening and there was blood on the path – he wasn't going to be able to hold the clangon off for much longer. It was getting darker and darker, but she found she could still see them just fine.
She knew she needed to act and besides, patience had never been her strong suit. With a yell she stamped onto the creatures back as hard as she could, crushing him down on to the officer and for one moment having him right where she wanted. She didn't hesitate but rammed the stake through his back as hard as she could – and watched with disbelief as it vanished in a cloud of cloying dust.
This blatant abuse of her Prada jacket was enough to bring her immediately to her senses – and the realisation that, with a pointy stick pressed against his chest, and her sandal firmly on his chest she was up close and personal with one very uptight Officer of the law.
They stared into each others eyes for a moment, and then Mina had the presence of mind to hide the stake behind her back and extend her other hand to help the officer to his feet.
He looked scratched, battered and bruised, and there was some blood oozing through a graze at his throat, but no permanent damage seemed to have been done. Oxton-Jones chose that moment to clear his throat and step forward, hand extended.
Mina and the Officer regarded him dubiously.
'Oxton-Jones' announced the librarian helpfully.
'Officer Murphy of the Metropolitan Police'
There was a substantial pause while a lot of furious thinking went on in three brains.
'What the heck was that?
'Ah, Officer, that was just some punk, he ran off into the bushes when he realised he was outnumbered. We should be off, glad to be of service' announced Oxton-Jones firmly.
'Not so fast. That was not a punk. That was a …. Creature. And you knew what it was. So we can discuss what it is here or you can both come down to the station.'
The librarian had the good grace to look surprised that the officer hadn't taken his word for what had just transpired, but he recovered quickly enough. 'May I make an alternative suggestion, let us leave this place and find somewhere a lot less secluded to sit and discuss this - that isn't the station?'
Office Murphy considered what had just happened. Some weirdo with superhuman strength and a funny face (and not in a ha-ha way either) had just nearly killed him. Meanwhile this petite young girl had taken it out with a piece of pointy wood while an uptight gentleman stood and watched. This was odd. Even he knew that. He wanted to get to the bottom of it and he knew instinctively that if he took them to the station they would stick to the punk story. And he couldn't help but agree that staying here was not a sensible decision.
He wanted the truth and he knew just the place, his favourite donut shop.
And that's where the donuts come in…
They walked in silence and Mina looking at the shabby librarian and battered policeman sat them down in a quiet corner of the Krispy Creme and went to order a large selection of donuts, a latte, a black coffee and a tea. She suddenly felt and grown up.
'How did you know-? began Oxton-Jones grabbing the tea and a donut from the tray before she could ask what he wanted. Mina merely raised an eyebrow as the officer grabbed the black coffee and two donuts. She sat down and lifted her latte. 'Because you are both such cliches'
'Right – I want to know who you are and what that was – and don't lie to me – you obviously knew what you were doing'. Despite his battered and grass-stained appearance Officer Murphy sounded authoritive and in charge. But rather spoiled the effect when he removed a piece of hedge from behind his ear.
Mina looked expectantly at the librarian. She wanted an explanation herself. Despite herself she reached for a donut. She was so hungry now she had ….staked…. her first vampire.
'Well, this is Mina and I am her Watcher' Mina opened her mouth to protest but he wasn't the dithering idiot he had been a few minutes ago, he suddenly seemed sure of himself – he really did know what that was all about. She closed her mouth and listened. Hard.
As you just witnessed, Officer –'
'- call me Murphy'
'Murphy, there are vampires in the world. They are evil demons and they are killers. Most people have no idea they exist and that is because their numbers are kept down by the work of the Slayers. Mina is a Slayer. It is her duty to protect the public from vampires. I am her Watcher, it is my duty to train her, educate her and guide her. Most people don't survive a vampire attack – somehow you did. Most survivors are more than willing to pass the attack off as some thug on pcp, but you are not. There isn't really any precedent I am aware of for the Watchers Council to work with the law. But I feel like now we have made this connection it could work for both of us?'
Murphy nodded thoughtfully. Mina was beginning to realise that under the dirt, blood and bruising and bits of hedge, he might actually be quite handsome.
'There has been an increase in attacks on the public these last few months. And we haven't managed to catch anyone, or even get any leads. You think there might be more of these creatures about or was that it?'
Oxton -Jones sighed heavily. 'You see, Slayers don't just turn up anywhere – they are called. They appear where the need is greatest. It's how these things work. If Mina has become the next Slayer tonight, then it is because in all the world, the need is greatest here in London right now. So, to answer your question. Oh yes. There are more alright. Something is coming. Something big…..
Next Episode: The Scooby gang continues to assemble when Aoifa and Nathan discover the secret. Mina and Sydney realise that there are some sacrifices that should never be made (boiler suits), and Officer Murphy gets himself a new partner.