Freestorm was a fairly small town about an hours drive north of St. Louis. It had once been a coalmining town but the mines had long ago shut down. Most of the townspeople now worked in the city, making the commute everyday by the train that ran through town. There was a small motel about a block away from Main Street and the watcher and her slayer had gotten a room for the night.

"Are you sure you're ready for this Faith?" Patsy paced back and forth down the narrow isle between the twin beds and the television set. She stopped and looked at Faith who was seated on the bed nearest the window idly, flipping through the pages of one of those teen fashion magazines.

"Yes mother," she said sarcastically as she looked up at the watcher.

"This is serious business; please don't take it lightly. It is all right if you don't go through with this. Think hard before you leave here tonight."

"Patsy." Faith put the magazine down and looked straight into her watcher's eyes. "You been great to me. Really, you done more for me than anyone ever has in my whole life. You turned me into somebody. You don't want me going out there tonight. I get that. But I got a job to do. You gotta trust that I can do what you trained me to do." Faith looked away. She picked up her magazine and started fidgeting with it, rolling and unrolling it, flipping through pages. "God, look at me, all sentimental and shit."

"You're an amazing girl Faith. If only you could see that you had more to offer this world than just death.

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She was walking through the darkness. She didn't know where she was going; she didn't have to. She would wind up in the right spot eventually. Her instincts were sharper than any animal's, all she had to do was follow them.

There was the faintest hint of light up ahead. Not house lights, they were getting closer. Cop car, probably in search of curfew breakers like herself. She ducked around a corner until they had passed.

She walked some more. The buildings were getting fewer and farther between and she knew she was getting closer. The buildings she did come across had long ago fallen into disrepair. She was almost out of town but not quite. It was still close enough that a tasty morsel might come driving by, perhaps have some car trouble, like maybe a horde of vampire's attacking it. And if no one did drive by it wasn't a far walk to that local demon take out haunt called Main Street. She knew this was it, she felt it, she felt him, and she was scared.

"It's Patsy, it's like she's here right now yappin' about what a bad idea this is. She's in my head. I gotta keep it straight, gotta do my job, can't let her distract me," Faith squeezed her eyes shut and felt the cool night air wash over her skin. The hair on her arms prickled up and a shiver went down her spine. She inhaled the crisp night air and let it fill her lungs. As she exhaled she opened her eyes.

She turned her head slowly to the right and then back to the left and then she stopped. Abandoned mine. Faith didn't know much about abandoned mines but it didn't take a genius or even a 5 year old to know that when mines have big wooden two by fours and a large sign that reads "KEEP OUT," that those wooden beams should probably be intact. There was no reason to suspect that it was anything more than some meddlesome kids, no reason except that she knew a particularly nasty vamp was hiding out in this town and she could feel his presence as though it were something tangible, wrapping itself around her, constricting her. She pushed through it and walked towards the mine.

"Here goes nothing," she mumbled to herself. She picked up one of the large wooden beams and cracked it in half over her knee. She had brought stakes of her own with her of course but it never hurt to have a few extra. She set down the gym bag she had been carrying over her shoulder and unzipped it. She threw one half of the broken beam inside and kept the other piece out. She pulled out a cross and stuffed it securely in that small nook between the waistband of her pants and the small of her back. She stood back up and tossed the bag back over her shoulder. She left it unzipped so that when the time came she could easily get to her weapons and then she stepped one foot into the mine.

"Have an extra stake for me?" came the voice from behind her.

"You shouldn't be here."

"I know I shouldn't, but you also know that I couldn't stay away."

Faith reached into her bag and pulled out a stake. She extended her arm out behind her without even turning to look at Patsy. "Stay far away from the action. I fully expect to get my favorite stake back in one piece at the end of this. You're back up, get the weaker vamps, thin the heard a bit, don't take on more than you can handle."

"Here goes nothing." The watcher echoed her charges words and the two women descended into the cold, abysmal dark of the mine.