Discover.
Skye woke and covered her eyes.
A sliver of sunlight shone through the one gap in the curtains.
Somehow, that one tiny beam always managed to find her face.
Her silk, silver pillowcases reflected the light and sparkled.
Skye' bedroom was small.
The bed was in the corner of the room, with a single nightstand next to it, on which sat her laptop.
The only other thing in her room was a dresser with a mirror on it.
Not wanting to start the day just yet, Skye sat up and leaned against the wall, letting out a load exhale.
She reached for her laptop, folded her knees over and opened it.
The last thing she left open on her computer was a news website.
She refreshed it and while she waited for her not-to-fast Internet to load she reached bask to a nightstand and got a glass of water she kept there.
She leant back and took a sip as she began to scroll thought the news site.
The water went down the wrong way and she practically coughed up her lungs when she saw a picture of a big hole in the ground and two words: SUNNYDALE DESTROYED!
It was an American town and Skye lived in Australia, but Skye still though a town that was reasonably big town could be reduced to a crater.
Skye got out of bed and noticed that he had a spring in her step.
She walked out of her room and turned the corner into the lounge room.
Her mother sat gross legged on the couch, on her laptop scrolling through social media.
She looked up and was surprised to see that Skye wasn't dragging herself out looking like a zombie.
That was Skye's usual routine: drag herself out of bed early afternoon, do not much and go to bed.
Skye felt unusually energetic.
She felt empowered.
She felt… Strong.
And that's when the phone rang.
It was her friend Abigail on the other end.
"Hey Skye. Its Abby."
"Hey Abby, what's wrong?"
"Why do you always assume something is wrong?"
"Sorry Abby, what can I help you with?"
"We haven't gone to the mall is year! You wanna come with me and the girls?"
"You know what? I think I might, I'm feeling surprisingly up beat today."
Earlier that year Skye had been in an incident.
There were men in cloaks who didn't have and eyes.
Skye had managed to get to a police station but she came out of the ordeal with a rather-large scar on her cheese where one of the crazy guys slashed at her.
Sky saying yes got an excited squeal and she made the arrangements.
Skye heard the dial tone, she was going out.
The last time she had left the house (almost 3 months ago now) she had been attacked.
This was a big step for her.
Her boyfriend had broken up with her.
She couldn't blame Aden, he hadn't seen her for a month.
She stayed in her room, refused to go to school and never went out with friends.
Her room was smelly and she had started to think she was going to die from sheer loneliness, though she did nothing about it.
Skye was just finishing her make-up in her room when her mother came to the doorway.
"So you're really going out, hun?"
"Yeah, I just feel ready."
"Do you want me to drive you, because if it makes you feel better I can?"
"No thanks mum."
Skye left and made good time to get to the mall, she reveled in the taste of a crappy meal at the food court while she waited for her friends.
She dropped her plastic plate in the bin and dawdled to the decided meeting place.
She looked in all the shops she hadn't seen in what felt like an age and even went into some newer places that had popped up while she had been away.
Abby was the first one to see her wandering over.
She ran at full pace and leaped into Skye's open arms.
The next four hours were a blur for Skye.
Shop after shop as she blew through all the money her mother had given her.
She said goodbye to her friends and walked home.
She was halfway home when it started to get dark.
She started to feel the strangest feeling.
She felt uneasy but at the same time she felt as if she was in her element.
Then she heard the footsteps.
It was quiet but intimidating.
She shot a quick glance backwards and under the very dim light of the moon she saw a man.
He was tall and donned a black hoodie with the hood up but the thing that would forever stick with Skye was eyes of the man.
They glowed yellow, side-by-side.
She pushed aside the normal urge to run.
She kept walking at a normal pace.
She heard the footsteps speed up and she felt that he was very close.
The he heard a long growl.
She felt herself ducking; she saw the fist swing over her head.
What the hell what happening, she didn't feel in control.
She fought back.
She turned around and punched him in the stomach.
Then she ran, faster than she had ever ran before, all the way home.
She heard footsteps for a while, and then she stopped hearing them and heard her heartbeat.
She got home and went to bed, not knowing what was going on.
In the morning, a few days after her encounter, her mother came into her room with a grim look on her face.
"Skye, sweetheart. Can I talk to you for a moment?"
"Yeah Mum, what's up?"
"Its Abby, she-" She chocked back tears. "They just found her body."
That day was filled with running around and meeting people.
Skye was Abby's best friend so her phone was contently filled with messages from classmates.
It was just getting dark and Skye sat alone on her couch with her eyes on the door.
She knew it would never happen again but she was waiting for Abby to knock at the door.
When she did see a man at the door she knew that it wasn't Abby.
It was the silhouette on glass of a man, what seemed like a skinny man.
He looked as if he had a cape.
The jingle of her doorbell rang through the house.
She got up and walked towards the door.
She paused with her hand on the door handle.
She was starting to get worried.
After the attack last night she was a bit shaken.
This coupled with the fact that she was home alone…
She swung the door open to see a man.
He had bleached blonde hair and wore a long black leather jacket that stopped just above his ankles.
He was pale with very prominent cheek bones and had a small smile on his face.
"Skye, I take it?"
"Who's asking?" Skye said this weakly and as she did she wondered where the courage to say such a thing to a grown up had come from.
"The names Spike."
"Well you already know who I am, but hi."
"Hey, I know this sounds a little off, but could I come in and have a chat?"
Who the hell was this guy?
Wandering in here and asking to come in for a chat.
"Yeah, come on in." Where the hell did that come from?
"Thank you, is there somewhere where we can sit, this might take a while. We have a lot to talk about."
"…Then I fought against the senior partners and we won. After that we reconvened with Buffy and joined her crusade. I'm a recruiter."
This was the daftest story Skye had ever heard, but somehow she believed it.
She had noticed that she was stronger than she had been.
She had noticed her increased energy.
And the stories, although being unbelievable, made sense.
"So what do you do?"
"Well, I got sent to the Australian division. I travel the continent in search of new slayers. I brought a witch to help me with locator spells. Then I train them individually. It's a hard job, but there are a lot of others so it shouldn't take more than a couple of years."
"So, are you going to take me away? Do I have a choice?"
"I'm going to take you away, yes. Only if you want to though."
"Well I want to."
"Really? The last one had a lot more objection. She didn't end up coming."
"From what you say it seems like this will give me a purpose, something to do."
"Glad you see it that way."
"Can I see it, your face? Your vampire face?"
Spike's face morphed into the demon that he really was.
Wrinkly, with yellow eyes. That was when they heard another knock at the door.
"Go answer it." Spike said to Skye, who did so. She walked to the door, opened it. There stood Abby.
"Hey Skye. Did you miss me?"
Her face was morphed into the face of a vampire and her voice had a lisp-like sound.
Skye backed away in disgust and Abby started to walk in but was stopped by the barrier of the threshold.
They stared into each other's eyes.
Then there was a piece of wood sticking out of her chest.
She turned to dust right in front of Skye's eyes and that's when she knew Spikes story was true.
She turned around and saw Spike walking towards the door, he bent down, picked up the stake and put it into his jacket.
"Sorry about your friend, pet." Spike said with a tone that was comforting but rushed. "Would you mind going to your room and packing a bag?"
"We're leaving now?"
"Yeah. Sorry about this."
"But what about my mum?"
"You're 18, right?"
"Yes."
"Well then you can send her a letter."
