Faith, Books and Suspicion
Cleveland, the world without shrimp 2022
Faith looked up from her coffee. There was a ring forming on the table in front of her, she'd never been taught to use a coaster so there the ring was, setting into the wood like a stain. She shifted a little in her seat and lifted the book she was pretending to skim a little closer to her nose. The cover said it was about the history of horticulture but she wasn't reading it. She watched carefully as her suspect moved through the stacks, he shuffled awkwardly and tried to avoid her staring gaze.
She didn't know he knew she was watching him. He thought he was just shifty because that's what daywalkers were. Always shifty around sunlight anyway, and it was - sunlight - broad daylight to be exact. Not the midnight haunts Faith usually frequents on her patrols, but then again she and Buffy used to train in a library. Faith took another sip of her coffee, the mug's heat smudging her Burgundy lipstick, imprinting her shade onto the side of the china.
She stood up, dropping the book to the table abruptly and taking four loud steps before tackling the vampire to the ground. He squealed in her arms and wriggled to get free, the locals held tourists back as Faith was a regular they knew it was her job to slay the demons. She'd been saving their town for years now, she was the guardian of the Hellmouth, she'd found a place to slay that was her own, that wasn't somehow Buffy's first. Whatever residual feelings she had for Buffy, Faith was glad she had her own space, a place where Buffy's name hardly ever graced the papers.
If anything, Faith was glad she was finally settled, she had her own slayer organisation working all throughout Ohio, and an elite training program for the midwest that was second only to the watcher's council - well the new one anyway. Faith was set in her ways, she had a cat that really belonged to her downstairs neighbour, but the guy was away so often she fed him most days. She had accrued several mugs which now lined her cupboards, and she had a regular guy who she called in the middle of the night who'd come over and see to it that she got her energies out, if you know what I mean. In the past she'd had regular girls too but this one was the one that stuck.
The vampire currently beneath her was staring upwards at her, his eyes red as he felt her heart beating wildly. He could smell the blood inside her, he could feel the stake she was pressing into his chest. With a final noise of umph she plunged the stake deep inside his chest and felt her limbs crunch against the floor as she landed in a heap on the pile of dust. She picked herself up, brushed herself off and waved to the nice lady on the till as she whipped her sunglasses out of her pocket.