Summary: In between his own atrocities, Spike always considered the theory that an evil nature could be inherited to be a complete load of rubbish. What did it matter to the victims, anyway? Then one night, Spike encountered a psychopathic child...
In her bright yellow rain slicker, Rhoda Penmark determinedly strode through the town's deserted streets sometime after midnight. The little girl had just sneaked out of the local hospital where her foster mother and this adopted child had been taken to after the despairing older woman attempted an unsuccessful murder/suicide for them both. These horrific events had as their cause the dreadful information learned over the past few days by a distraught Christine Penmark that Rhoda was not only the natural daughter of an executed female serial killer, but also the innocent-seeming youngster had already murdered three people in cold blood.
Not that her gruesome crimes bothered Rhoda the slightest. Far more important to this pigtailed girl than all the tiresome fuss about to be made by the grown-ups was the penmanship medal unfairly given to one of her summer schoolmates instead of a furious Rhoda. Well, Claude didn't get to enjoy his medal for long, not when Rhoda made sure of this by drowning that boy in a city park lake and stealing the award.
Traveling along the night-time sidewalks, Rhoda regretfully considered her mistakes. Oh, no, not killing Claude. He deserved it! That medal was hers! But when she'd taken this prize off the body of her latest fatality, the wisest thing to do would've been to hide it a bit better from her mother. Christine's discovery of the penmanship medal had eventually ended with the exposure of Rhoda's first murder at their previous home, another murder committed just yesterday of their apartment building's janitor when he'd guessed what happened to Claude, and then the now-unbalanced mother's failure to make amends for what her homicidal child had done.
Crossing a street, Rhoda huffed angrily to herself. Mama had no right to take away the medal, and even worse, throw it in the lake right at the spot where Claude drowned! Now she needed to go look for it in the middle of the night, with a big thunderstorm coming in. Well, at least the bad weather would keep anyone from seeing her in this search.
Nodding in approval at viewing the small lake which was her goal just a block or so ahead, Rhoda picked up the pace a little. She was utterly obsessed with her plans for regaining the treasured medal. So much, in fact, that this blonde girl missed entirely the fact a man with hair the same pale shade as hers was casually strolling along a few hundred feet behind on the sidewalk.
Licking his lips to catch the last stray drop of blood on these, Spike tossed away the drained medical bottle into a handy bush. The demon underground had been spot-on about the hospital back there. Come in at the right instance by the correct basement door, pay up as you went, and the whole bloomin' blood bank was open for business, just in time to settle a vampire's empty stomach. Of course, with one appetite satisfied, another was demanding it be swiftly fulfilled by the scrumptious little morsel up ahead.
He had no idea why this kiddy was wandering outside tonight when it looked about to rain buckets at any moment. Nor did Spike particularly care, either. All it mattered was the upcoming storm with lightning already flickering several miles away was sure to cover up the terrified screams of William the Bloody's next kill.
Continuing to follow after his latest prey, Spike in due course stopped to lean against the trunk of a lakeside tree while he bemusedly observed the little girl poke around at the wharf she'd ventured onto a moment before. Hidden in the shadows cast by the canopy of leaves above him, the vampire kept on watching for a minute or two while that kiddy then picked up a boathook lying atop the dock floor and started to use it to thoroughly probe below the surface of the park lake.
At length growing bored, Spike stepped away from the tree and advanced towards the wharf. He glanced up at the inky clouds about to let loose in full their entire load of rain, to next bring down his gaze to study where the kiddy still hadn't noticed him while busy in her strange task. The vampire mentally smirked, *Right, see if you can get up close enough to grab her unawares, then show little miss why she should've stayed snug in her bed tonight.*
It wasn't until Spike reached the foot of the wharf and next actually marched onto it, that Rhoda caught sight out of the corner of her eye the presence of another person close by. Snapping her head around while still crouched upon her knees on the dock, the young murderess stared in genuine surprise at who'd just joined Rhoda.
It was a guy she'd never seen before, standing there in a long jacket and a bare head with short blond hair being ruffled by the growing wind. He clearly knew she was regarding him, but the man didn't say anything right away. Instead, this stranger just gave her a really big, nasty smile-
A split second later, his face then turned into an authentic monster mask of warped features, glowing yellow eyes, and long fangs.
Her entire body freezing in primal fear, Rhoda couldn't do anything but stay crouched down while she speechlessly watched this thing from her worse nightmares take a nonchalant step forward to block any possible chance of escape past him.
Inwardly gloating, Spike sauntered to where the petrified kiddy was awaiting him. Just another moment more and it wouldn't matter if she came to her senses by making a last-second try in escaping her doom by jumping into the lake away from the vampire. He was already near enough so that a quick grab would-
Far too swiftly for even Spike with his demonic reflexes to effectively react, all of his skin prickled with energy, every strand of hair on his head stood straight up, and the whole world went white.
Spike came to lying on his back, his ears reverberating with the last echoes of the tremendous thunderclap booming over the lake. Blinking past the fading black spots in his vision, he painfully lifted his upper body by his elbows. Spike then gaped ahead in sheer disbelief over his burned torso at the smoking crater blasted in the wood dock, along with the other results there of the recent massive lightning strike.
Painfully rolling over and then staggering onto his feet, a nearly scorched-bald Spike got off the wharf and headed with a lurching gait towards the shelter of the shoreline trees from the curtain of heavy rain already approaching across the lake. He didn't bother looking back since there really wasn't any point. Furthermore, Spike had never cared very much for fried food.
Author's Note: Yes, that's really how the 1956 movie ends, albeit without Spike's presence. Apparently, despite how the original novel and Broadway play had a categorically differing conclusion (Rhoda lives and Christine dies), it was felt by the Hays Office in charge of movie censorship at the time that 'crime shouldn't pay', so the Warner Brothers studio who made the movie had to come up with the proper punishment from on high. Even more bizarre is the very last part of The Bad Seed, which you just have to see for yourself.
P.S.: That specific date for Spike's latest fiasco was chosen as a minor in-joke having to do with the movie. There's a free, completely imaginary, electronic chocolate chip cookie for the first reviewer to correctly guess the reason. Have fun!