Mirror mirror (2/6)
PART 5
"But don't you think it's still kinda strange? We've been out there for four hours straight, and the only one we've encountered who could be considered even slightly scary was mister Moulton, the cemetery's caretaker. Where did all the vampires and demons go? Are they on strike or something?"
They were heading home, driving through a deserted Mainstreet just after midnight when Dawn's discontent about the lack of action on their latest patrolling stroll manifested itself in a series of whiny complaints. It made Xander wonder if today's teenagers were indeed that different of the teenagers they were half a decade ago, in the way that they had what it seemed an unsatisfiable appetite for unnecessary life-threathening danger. It might, of cours,e just be something that was specific to the Summers women. Personally, he was everything but ungrateful for tonight's lack of fangs, talons and vampire dust. Call him a boring old grownup, but a night without scary monsters trying to dig their teeth into his neck was a good night on the Xander meter of fun.
"Dawnie! How many times did I tell you, don't jinx it! If our past wacky adventures have taught us anything at all, it must be that you shouldn't tempt the higher powers by asking for troubles that we surely cannot handle. If there are no bloodsuckers wrecking havoc or demons trying to end the world tonight, then let it be. The less we have to fight, the smaller our chances of actually getting ourselves killed are."
"But it's so unfair! Buffy is getting better and better, and I bet she'll be in shape pretty soon to go out slaying again. And then there will be no more patrolling for me, at least not by myself. I'll be lucky if she even lets me get near a vampire when I have to go out slaying with her."
"First of all, young lady, you didn't patrol on your own while Buffy was recovering. Giles or Willow or me were there every time, remember? And secondly, if you want to keep your sister in bed for another week, just unleash some of that frustrated teenage anger of yours on her, and I guarantee that you'll be giving her a major headache that can keep her out of service for days."
"I was just trying to say that I expected at least some fledglings crawling out of the graves. I could have been happy with staking a couple of those."
Xander sighed deeply.
"Just let it go sweetie. Just let it go"
"Yeah, but -"
The teenager's nagging was suddenly interrupted as a woman in a flaming red dress appeared completely out of the blue from the left side of the road, taking Xander by surprise.
"Holy shit!"
He clenched his hands firmly on the wheel, and made a sharp turn to the opposite direction. The tires of his car screamed in disapproval as the world outside transformed into a crazed out whirlwind of comet tailed lights and blurry images. The anxious face of the woman swept by, lit up a ghostly pale as she was caught in the headlights. Then there were sidewalks and the shops with their bright neon signs that disappeared again out of his vision at deadly frightening speed. Dawn had just started to scream in frantic fear as the beam of the headlights revealed a patch of dark green foliage, appearing straight ahead of them. Xander had just about enough time to wonder what that big and sturdy looking oak tree was doing in the middle of the freaking road before his 96'Buick smashed into the tree trunk. Dawn and him were lifted out of their seats and thrown forward till their safety belts yanked them back with a painful jolt.
Before Xander could speak again, he had to make sure that the spinning of his vehicle and the spinning in his head had stopped and that he was indeed still alive.
"Oh God. Are you OK Dawn?" His chest was hurting, and he could hear his heartbeat drumming in his ears. He released the wheel that he had so desperately tried to control, leaving dark damp patches behind on the black plastic.
Dawn stared bewildered at him.
"Y-Yes. I guess so. B-but that woman. Did we hit her?"
"I don't know. I tried to get out of her way but she appeared so damn fast." Xander gazed through the side mirror of his car, although he really rather would rather not. There was a huddled form sitting on the asphalt, but she was too far away for him to see if she was injured.
"You stay here. I'll go and see if she's hurt."
He jumped out of the car, and ran over to her, praying to God almighty in his head that she was still okay. Sunnydale's mortality rate had always been well above the nation's average, but oh boy did he not need to be part of the killing guard that thinned out the small town's population.
"Are you all right miss?" He blurted out as soon as he came near enough for her to hear. "Are you hur- Oh Shit."
The woman sitting in front of him was very obviously not all right. Her dress wasn't supposed to be this violently red. It was only made to appear so by the blood that was soaked into the fabric. It seemed to be everywhere. On her arms and legs and all over her face. She gazed up at him, eyes wide in utter shock and rimmed by black runny mascara. She looked like a nightmare version of one of those creepy weeping piccolo dolls that his mother collected.
Her hand shot out and grabbed him by his coat, giving him another unpleasant surprise.
"Help me! Please!! Help me."
"What's going on? D-Did my car hit you?" He asked with panic vibrating in his voice. No, it wasn't the car. Her clothes were already stained like this when she crossed the road like a frightened little rabbit. Something is wrong here. Seriously wrong.
She shook her head. Her blond locks swirling around frantically.
"It's not my blood. Not all of it."
'Okay, listen. You're confusing and creeping me out here. Whose blood is it?"
"It's blood from other people. Some of it came from my friend's. I was hanging out at the bar when the music suddenly stopped and there was this screaming. There was this man standing in the middle of the dance floor. He was holding another guy by his throat and he was choking him. He - he choked so hard that - that there was blood coming out of that other man's ears. And a girl was screaming and laughing. I think she was his girlfriend."
She was hyperventilating while Xander squatted down beside her.
"Where were you?"
"A-at the Bronze. I was at the Bronze. They killed everybody in there. The guests, the waitresses, the bartenders. They tortured them before they ripped out their throats. He didn't allow them to kill the band members though. He kept them alive and made them play the same damn song over and over and over again."
Guess that kinda answers Dawn's question of where all the evil bloodsucking fiends went for tonight. Vampires on a rampage at the Bronze. This was really serious. Most of them don't have to guts to pull this off in a town where the Slayer ruled with her wooden pointy sticks. This has to be one dumb demon or a wicked and powerful nasty, perhaps, something in the order of the new big bad. For the sake of what was left of the Bronze's regulars, he hoped that it was the first.
The girl was shivering in shock and Xander felt pity for her. He took off his coat and draped it over her slender shoulders. She didn't reacted to his kind gesture and just kept staring at the red taillights of his wrecked car.
"She must have told him that she really liked their music."
Xander wrapped his arms around the woman and urged her gently to get up.
"It's okay. They can't hurt you now. You're safe with us."
He led her back to his car, where Dawn was already standing next to an opened backseat door. She had been watching them from a distance, but they had been too far away for her to be able to follow their conversation. The teenager's eyes grew wide as they came close enough for her to realize that the redness in the dress wasn't merely the color of the fabric.
"Xander, what happened?"
"I'm not sure, but I think she's attacked by vampires. We have to get her to the hospital. And we have to get to the Bronze."
"What?" Dawn helped her into the backseat while she looked at him as if he had lost his mind. "The Bronze, why?"
"Because there are vampires there." He quickly took place behind the wheel and tried the engine. To his own amazement, the car didn't struggle and came right back into life.
TBC
PART 5
"But don't you think it's still kinda strange? We've been out there for four hours straight, and the only one we've encountered who could be considered even slightly scary was mister Moulton, the cemetery's caretaker. Where did all the vampires and demons go? Are they on strike or something?"
They were heading home, driving through a deserted Mainstreet just after midnight when Dawn's discontent about the lack of action on their latest patrolling stroll manifested itself in a series of whiny complaints. It made Xander wonder if today's teenagers were indeed that different of the teenagers they were half a decade ago, in the way that they had what it seemed an unsatisfiable appetite for unnecessary life-threathening danger. It might, of cours,e just be something that was specific to the Summers women. Personally, he was everything but ungrateful for tonight's lack of fangs, talons and vampire dust. Call him a boring old grownup, but a night without scary monsters trying to dig their teeth into his neck was a good night on the Xander meter of fun.
"Dawnie! How many times did I tell you, don't jinx it! If our past wacky adventures have taught us anything at all, it must be that you shouldn't tempt the higher powers by asking for troubles that we surely cannot handle. If there are no bloodsuckers wrecking havoc or demons trying to end the world tonight, then let it be. The less we have to fight, the smaller our chances of actually getting ourselves killed are."
"But it's so unfair! Buffy is getting better and better, and I bet she'll be in shape pretty soon to go out slaying again. And then there will be no more patrolling for me, at least not by myself. I'll be lucky if she even lets me get near a vampire when I have to go out slaying with her."
"First of all, young lady, you didn't patrol on your own while Buffy was recovering. Giles or Willow or me were there every time, remember? And secondly, if you want to keep your sister in bed for another week, just unleash some of that frustrated teenage anger of yours on her, and I guarantee that you'll be giving her a major headache that can keep her out of service for days."
"I was just trying to say that I expected at least some fledglings crawling out of the graves. I could have been happy with staking a couple of those."
Xander sighed deeply.
"Just let it go sweetie. Just let it go"
"Yeah, but -"
The teenager's nagging was suddenly interrupted as a woman in a flaming red dress appeared completely out of the blue from the left side of the road, taking Xander by surprise.
"Holy shit!"
He clenched his hands firmly on the wheel, and made a sharp turn to the opposite direction. The tires of his car screamed in disapproval as the world outside transformed into a crazed out whirlwind of comet tailed lights and blurry images. The anxious face of the woman swept by, lit up a ghostly pale as she was caught in the headlights. Then there were sidewalks and the shops with their bright neon signs that disappeared again out of his vision at deadly frightening speed. Dawn had just started to scream in frantic fear as the beam of the headlights revealed a patch of dark green foliage, appearing straight ahead of them. Xander had just about enough time to wonder what that big and sturdy looking oak tree was doing in the middle of the freaking road before his 96'Buick smashed into the tree trunk. Dawn and him were lifted out of their seats and thrown forward till their safety belts yanked them back with a painful jolt.
Before Xander could speak again, he had to make sure that the spinning of his vehicle and the spinning in his head had stopped and that he was indeed still alive.
"Oh God. Are you OK Dawn?" His chest was hurting, and he could hear his heartbeat drumming in his ears. He released the wheel that he had so desperately tried to control, leaving dark damp patches behind on the black plastic.
Dawn stared bewildered at him.
"Y-Yes. I guess so. B-but that woman. Did we hit her?"
"I don't know. I tried to get out of her way but she appeared so damn fast." Xander gazed through the side mirror of his car, although he really rather would rather not. There was a huddled form sitting on the asphalt, but she was too far away for him to see if she was injured.
"You stay here. I'll go and see if she's hurt."
He jumped out of the car, and ran over to her, praying to God almighty in his head that she was still okay. Sunnydale's mortality rate had always been well above the nation's average, but oh boy did he not need to be part of the killing guard that thinned out the small town's population.
"Are you all right miss?" He blurted out as soon as he came near enough for her to hear. "Are you hur- Oh Shit."
The woman sitting in front of him was very obviously not all right. Her dress wasn't supposed to be this violently red. It was only made to appear so by the blood that was soaked into the fabric. It seemed to be everywhere. On her arms and legs and all over her face. She gazed up at him, eyes wide in utter shock and rimmed by black runny mascara. She looked like a nightmare version of one of those creepy weeping piccolo dolls that his mother collected.
Her hand shot out and grabbed him by his coat, giving him another unpleasant surprise.
"Help me! Please!! Help me."
"What's going on? D-Did my car hit you?" He asked with panic vibrating in his voice. No, it wasn't the car. Her clothes were already stained like this when she crossed the road like a frightened little rabbit. Something is wrong here. Seriously wrong.
She shook her head. Her blond locks swirling around frantically.
"It's not my blood. Not all of it."
'Okay, listen. You're confusing and creeping me out here. Whose blood is it?"
"It's blood from other people. Some of it came from my friend's. I was hanging out at the bar when the music suddenly stopped and there was this screaming. There was this man standing in the middle of the dance floor. He was holding another guy by his throat and he was choking him. He - he choked so hard that - that there was blood coming out of that other man's ears. And a girl was screaming and laughing. I think she was his girlfriend."
She was hyperventilating while Xander squatted down beside her.
"Where were you?"
"A-at the Bronze. I was at the Bronze. They killed everybody in there. The guests, the waitresses, the bartenders. They tortured them before they ripped out their throats. He didn't allow them to kill the band members though. He kept them alive and made them play the same damn song over and over and over again."
Guess that kinda answers Dawn's question of where all the evil bloodsucking fiends went for tonight. Vampires on a rampage at the Bronze. This was really serious. Most of them don't have to guts to pull this off in a town where the Slayer ruled with her wooden pointy sticks. This has to be one dumb demon or a wicked and powerful nasty, perhaps, something in the order of the new big bad. For the sake of what was left of the Bronze's regulars, he hoped that it was the first.
The girl was shivering in shock and Xander felt pity for her. He took off his coat and draped it over her slender shoulders. She didn't reacted to his kind gesture and just kept staring at the red taillights of his wrecked car.
"She must have told him that she really liked their music."
Xander wrapped his arms around the woman and urged her gently to get up.
"It's okay. They can't hurt you now. You're safe with us."
He led her back to his car, where Dawn was already standing next to an opened backseat door. She had been watching them from a distance, but they had been too far away for her to be able to follow their conversation. The teenager's eyes grew wide as they came close enough for her to realize that the redness in the dress wasn't merely the color of the fabric.
"Xander, what happened?"
"I'm not sure, but I think she's attacked by vampires. We have to get her to the hospital. And we have to get to the Bronze."
"What?" Dawn helped her into the backseat while she looked at him as if he had lost his mind. "The Bronze, why?"
"Because there are vampires there." He quickly took place behind the wheel and tried the engine. To his own amazement, the car didn't struggle and came right back into life.
TBC