Chapter II

Mandy hadn't spoken in what seemed to be hours, though it had really been only a few minutes at the most. The man before her claimed to be a Watcher, although it was common knowledge that it took years and years to train for such a job, but something about this fellow told her that he was wise beyond his few years. His hair was neatly trimmed and spiked with mousse on his head, and his dark green eyes pierced with honesty. She managed a heavy sigh.
"So, tell me the story again. What are you doing in my town?"
He pulled the corners of his lips back into a polite smile.
"My name is William Hearst. The Watcher's Council has appointed me as your new Watcher."
"You're obviously a fraud," she snapped. "The Watcher's Council crumbled along with this country about three years ago. They don't send Watchers out anymore-it's like girls are supposed to obey the calling of the Slayer on your own."
"Ma'am, I thought you'd heard of Buffy Summers?"
"Buffy Summers?"
"Buffy Summers, formerly a resident of the fallen Sunnydale, California. As you know, all girls obey their calling at the most opportune time. There's no longer the chosen 'One', but the chosen several. You're one of many girls that the Council is scrambling to get support for."
"It's not like we don't know what we're doing, buddy."
"Ma'am, we've not only lost many Slayers worldwide, we've also seen the departure of many Watchers. Now, we don't claim to have a healthy expiration date, but even I must admit we've lost an unusual number. Vampires and demons are abounding, Mandy."
"So? It doesn't mean that I have to deal with this stupid stuff. There's Slayers all over the place."
"And demons in even more places."
She sighed heavily in defeat.
"Fine, you win. You know, if it weren't for your stupid Watcher's Council in the first place, I wouldn't be here to deal with all of this stupid stuff."
"If it weren't for you, Mandy, pray tell what would have happened to the remainder of the people in this world! You've saved countless of lives. We received your previous Watcher's last reports about your work."
Mandy shook her head. "No, that's not what I mean. You don't get it, do you? I don't care if I save anyone's life. You know, maybe if day after day I wasn't killing things, I wouldn't have had to drop out of school, and maybe I would've been given the opportunity to find myself."
"You've plenty of free time."
"Plenty of free time, oh, excuse me, between practice? Study? Trips to the weirdo shop on the corner for holy water, stakes, spellbooks? We're supposed to be living in the modern world, Billy. We're not supposed to have adversities, or hardships, or starvation, or pain, or war, or-anything bad that we're seeing now."
William grinned.
"We'll soon see the end of it, Miss Sterling. We're seeing the end of the original evil."
"Original evil? God, don't go all preachy on me. I'm sick of hearing the church-going weirdo's standing on the corner preaching that there's salvation."
"Don't mind me if I'm rude, Mandy, but you've seen demons, spirits, vampires, the whole nine yards of demonic and supernatural forces. What about this makes it so hard for you to believe?"
She closed her eyes. Her parents had never been strongly religious people, but neither had they out-and-out rejected what they believed to be the truth. There was nothing more to trust. She knew, however, that she didn't want to return to her rickety old apartment, which would surely be all boarded up now. Sighing heavily, she lifted her gaze to her new watcher.
"I'm not sure yet if we're to set sail for England under the dangerous circumstances. The Watcher's Council is expected to depart for Canada, where we feel it's much, much safer. The goal now is to gather as many Slayers as we can and disperse them in groups worldwide to maintain order."
"So? So, how many Slayers do you think there are?"
She could see him fidgeting under his coat.
"How many? Millions? Thousands?"
"Hundreds."
"Hundreds?" she asked. Her blood ran cold in her bones. There were approximately four-and-a-half billion people left on the planet and millions more vampires and demons running amuck on the streets. How were two hundred girls-the size of a metropolitan police force-expected to take the entire world into their hands?
"I know this sounds futile," he whispered. "But trust me, Mandy. We can make this work-"
"Make it work? And how do you figure so? We're all on the time-to-die list, and here we are, making jovial conversation. I'd rather lie down and die."
"I don't think you'll have to wait very long."
Her eyes burned onto him, wanted to see his skin burst into boils and seared flesh. And then she felt the razors bury into her shoulder like a thousand stabbing knives. Letting out a shriek, she flung her arm back at the vampire's face. Hearst had tossed a stake to her.
"Hurry, Mandy-stake it!"
With lightning speed, she was able to rip her arm back and plunge the wooden shard into the beast's chest. It recoiled, let out a cry, and sank back as its fleshy figure transformed into a puddle of dust in the air. Breathing heavily, she turned to William. A grin had formed on his lips.
"Excellent maneuvering, though I must admit that you panicked slightly. That's something quite dangerous in the business of vampire slaying.
"Yeah, well, whatever. What do we do now?"
He bit his lip.
"Well, I suppose we could try to schedule a flight to Ontario tomorrow morning. We'll stay at a hotel, very low-key. The Watcher's Council has given us everything we need-passports especially. The Slayers are perhaps the most at stake."
"Why?"
It didn't take long for the growl to echo behind her. As she turned on her heels, she could feel the crushing blow against her skull as she lost consciousness, and then the words that came as she fell to the carpet.

"New orders. Every Slayer's to be executed."