A SLAYER'S DEATH
By Janet Jongebloed

Tara came home from baby-sitting and dropped her bag on her orange bedroom floor. She turned on the computer and hoped someone answered her question. She desperately needed advice, her friend was driving her nuts.

She came to a familiar screen and moved the mouse over the United Online icon. She typed in her password and went online. Once online she went to the advice column.

She saw her question printed at the top of the advice column in bold letter. The screen read:


"The Question:

Q. My friend is insane. She goes around thinking that she is the slayer. I tried to tell her that there is only one slayer, but she won't listen. She attacks people in the night because she thinks they are vampires. Please, how do I get her to stop being so delusion before she hurts someone?

--Someone who wants to help her friend"

And as she looked down below the question on the screen her face lit up. Someone had actually answered back. Maybe they could help her deal with Stacy. She read down the screen and it said:

"The Answers:

Dear Wants to help a friend,

It is no fun being the slayer, but it's the chosen one's job to fight the evil and protect the innocent. I mean, you don't have a lot of time to do normal teenage stuff. I mean, you can't very well have sleepovers because you have to patrol the streets for vampires. Being the slayer is also a very hard thing. Slayers have to go through a lot of hard training to be good at it. It's not easy. This is all I can tell you to do. Hopefully, this will help your friend change her mind about wanting to be the slayer. Also, you can not just BE the slayer, you have to be chosen to be the slayer.

~Sarah

She may have a point. What if the old slayer is now gone she may be the one to take her place. Does she hang around an older gentleman who says things like. In Each generation there is a slayer yadda yadda? She may get bored and give up the whole slayer thing, but try and talk to her. Tell her being a slayer is not what is what it is cracked up to be. The poor slayer can't even have a normal night of just hanging out or going to the movies. Ask her why she wants to be a slayer, sometimes if you sit down and just talk things out it may sink in that attacking others is not cool. Stay on her and keep talking to her.

~Nicolas

Your friend thinks that she's the Slayer?! That's a good one. I can fix that problem for you. One look at a real vampire, and she'll know she's not the real Slayer. Of course, you can do the usual, send her to councilors and shrinks, maybe even one of those yuppies that call themselves "Watchers," but that would take longer. Just pray that she doesn't run into me, first.

~Your sadistic neighborhood demon,

This is a serious problem. Have you tried talking to her? You have to find some way to prove to her that she is not the Slayer. If you must, take her to a doctor or a councilor. You may even want to seek the help of a Watcher in your area, or someone else versed in the occult. Until you can convince her that she is not the Slayer, keep her off of the streets at night. One day, her luck will run out, and a real vampire will find her. Good luck.

~Angela

Dear "someone",

Well, I suppose, a possession incantation could possibly work. Your friend could possibly think she is the slayer because she, she, she, has been exposed to the nosferatu. Has she ever had a run in with a vampire? She could possibly have had trauma and now has revenge tactics to-to-to, rid the earth of these vile creatures. I suppose you could hypnotize her, and convince her that there are NO vampires on the earth, and, and, then have her take up a gentler hobby. Yes, that's what she needs, a gentler hobby. And then some therapy... I hear that therapy has worked for young beings such as yourself.

Sincerely,

Richard"


She sighed to herself, she was going to have to do something, even if she didn't know what to do. She shut off her computer and dialed the number to her best friend, Stacy's house. Stacy picked up the phone and greeted the person on the other end.

"Hey, Stace, what are you doing tonight?"

"I thought I might go do some hunting"

Tara sighed to herself. Stacy was going vampire hunting, again. Tara curled a piece of her blond hair around her finger. She straightened out her red shirt and twirled in her computer chair. "Will you come here tonight? I have to talk to you."

"Tara, you know I have slayer responsibilities. I am the chosen one after all."

"Please?" Tara begged.

"Fine" Stacy said finally. "Bye" She said as she hung up the phone.

Tara left her bedroom and walked into the living room. She turned on the television and prepared to wait for her friend. It would take about ten minutes for Stacy to walk to Tara's house.

About an hour later, Tara was still sitting on her brown living room chair waiting for Stacy to arrive.

The door bell rang and Tara walked over to it. "Who is it?" She asked first.

"Stacy."

Tara opened the door slightly "You're late." She said disappointedly. She looked at her best friend.

Stacy's brown shoulder length hair was messed up a little. Her striped shirt had dirt stains on it and her lavender pants had a rip at the knee. In her hand she held a wooden stake. "Sorry" She said as she wrinkled her nose "There was a vampire, or at least I thought it was a vampire."

Tara shook her head and let her friend in "Did you at least apologize?"

"Yeah, I mean it was only holy water I spilled on them. It was an honest mistake. But once I find my watcher…"

"Stacy," Tara stopped her in mid-sentence. She grabbed Stacy by the shoulder and looked into her eyes trying to get her point across. "Listen to me very carefully. You are not a slayer. There is only one vampire slayer in the whole world. The chosen one" She emphasized the word "One, and you are not it."

Stacy stepped back a little. "You don't believe me. You're my best friend, and you don't believe me!" She ran out of the small house with Tara following behind.

Stacy darted down Tara's street and across the main road, into Sayville Park. Tara unfortunately got there too late and had to wait for the light to turn red, so she could cross.

Stacy heard a bunch of footsteps behind her. The leaves rustled, and it seemed to get a little darker. She turned around but no one was there. Then she turned back and continued running until she hit a guy. With all the excitement she had run straight into him.

She looked up at his face in horror. "So Stacy, how does it feel to know we are real?" The man was suddenly surrounded by another man and two girls.

"How did you know my name?" She whispered, barely audible.

"All of us children of the night know about you Stacy. You're the girl who thinks she is the slayer." The other three laughed and slowly circled Stacy, predatorily . "The girl who thinks she has what it takes to kill us." There was more laughing.

Stacy tried to think about what to do. She remembered dropping the stake at Tara's house. She dropped to her knees and started crying. "Tara was right. Tara was right."

"Oh, don't worry about her. She's already dead." The leader told Stacy as he prepared to dine on human blood.

The End