Faith decided the diner had a funky aura. It was so dark and lifeless in there that it almost seemed to be without colour. There were only a couple of other people in there beside the Slayers and Taz and Maya, most people were listening to the radio.
"Let me guess, four coffees, black with plenty of sugar." The waitress said, then glared at Taz and Maya. "And if you pull that 'come on baby light my fire' shit again you're out."
Taz shot her the finger and Maya apologised profusely.
"Light my fire?" Faith asked as the waitress retreated without waiting for anyone to confirm her guess.
Taz shrugged moodily. Maya sighed. "Accident with a lighter."
"That's the second 'accident' you've mentioned since we met." Buffy noted.
Taz snorted. "Oh, there's lots of accidents around here. People falling asleep with lit cigarettes and getting toasted, girls accidentally strangling themselves with their bed sheets, guys falling asleep at the wheel… Except…" She tailed off as the waitress slammed the drinks down on the table.
She gave Taz a final warning look before stomping off again.
"Service with a smile, that's what I like." Faith commented with a grin.
Taz and Maya eagerly reached for their coffee, dumping huge amounts of sugar into it.
"You think she'd get me some milk?" Buffy asked. "I don't like black coffee."
"The blacker the better. Pure caffeine." Maya replied, reaching in her bag. She brought out a jar of coffee granules and spooned a load into her mouth, wincing as she washed it down with her coffee. She handed the jar to Taz who repeated the process.
Buffy glanced at Faith, wondering if all her friends were so strange, and if this was one of those crazy rituals that gangs have, only on a small scale? Like a tiny-tot version of jumping off a high cliff into the sea, or driving cars at each other to see who pulls away first?
"Do you guys want?" Taz offered the jar.
Buffy winced. "Um, no thanks."
Maya rolled her eyes. "Tomorrow they'll understand." She said to Taz.
"Understand what?" Faith asked, looking as honestly baffled as Buffy felt.
"You'll think we're nuts." Taz grinned, but it didn't reach her eyes. "Besides, what's your interest in this?"
Buffy glanced at Faith, wondering if they should tell them the truth. Taz and Maya seemed to want to tell them, but were very defensive, as if they were worried what their reactions would be. Buffy raised her eyebrows, Faith nodded slightly.
Buffy smiled at them. "This is where you think we're nuts. We're Slayers."
Maya looked baffled. "That's like a girl gang or something?"
"Hardly." Faith replied. "It means we kill bad things. Our home town is full of nasties, demons, it's our job to kill 'em."
"So what are you doing here?" Taz asked, looking interested, and possibly hopeful.
"The people we work for realised that something bad was happening here and told us to come here and stop it." Buffy replied. "And I gotta say, you're taking this news very calmly. Most people start laughing if you throw the word 'demon' into everyday conversation."
"So why don't you tell us what's going on here, and we'll stop it?" Faith added. "Please. Because we're gonna stay here until it's dead, so you giving us a heads up would help no end."
Taz got out a pack of cigarettes and lit one, waving cheerily at the waitress. Maya quickly helped herself to one too.
"Weren't you anti-smoking when I last saw you? You said you'd rather die than smoke." Faith commented.
"Turns out I'd rather smoke than die." Taz responded. "Two years ago my Dad got insomnia, the doctor told him to stop smoking because nicotine is a stimulant. Hence mine and Maya's new habit. I envy anyone with insomnia."
"So what is it that is killing everyone?" Buffy asked in a low voice. "Is it some kind of demon that only comes out at night? Vampires?"
Maya laughed mirthlessly. "Vampires? I wish, there's millions of books and films about them, if it was vampires we could deal."
"Plus, they need an invitation to get in." Faith added. "So what is it?"
Taz rolled up her shirtsleeve and showed a badly-dressed wound. The same one that bled all over Faith. Four shallow slashes. "I dreamt this."
"So something is making your dreams come true… well, your nightmares?" Buffy asked. "Did you make a wish? Or is there a kid in a coma somewhere?"
Maya turned, her back facing Buffy and Faith, and Taz helped her lift up her shirt. She too had four gashes on her back, they look a few days old.
"I don't get it." Faith said, Buffy murmured much the same sentiments.
Maya straightened her shirt and turned to face them, reaching out to take Taz's hand. "There's this guy in our dreams. He has four razors on his right hand, like Edward Scissorhands only less cuddly. Whatever he does to you in your dream happens in real life too."
"So dreams are coming true?" Buffy asked.
"No. Yes. Urgh. No." Taz inhaled deeply on her cigarette. "Last night I fell asleep. It had been four days since I slept. He chased me through the boiler room, and eventually he caught me, I woke up, but not before he slashed my arm." She pointed to her forearm. "Right here. The pain woke me up."
"Same with my back." Maya added. "I was…" She tailed off, holding up one finger to indicate that all present should shut up. She tilted her head, listening to the radio in the background.
"…rash of deaths in Springwood has escalated. Two more teen suicides have rocked the already fraught community. Once more, Charlotte James and Michael Biggs passed away last night. Our thoughts and prayers are with their families. With us we have teen psychologist Samantha Loomis to give us insight into…"
"Sharlie…" Taz gripped Maya's hand tightly as their eyes filled with tears. "That fucker got Sharlie."
"We gotta find Annie."
Buffy and Faith stared at them in shock, not understanding a single thing that was going on, but knowing that not only was it bad, but it had just got worse.
*~*~*~*
Buffy and Faith followed the girls, not really sure if they should be going with them or not. This seemed like a time when strangers shouldn't be welcome. They had just lost a friend. But Taz told them to come back to her house where they could talk freely.
"This is Annie's house." Maya explained as they reached a huge house that seemed to be roughly the size of Sunnydale High. "About her parents, don't speak unless spoken to. Be as polite but short as possible."
"Got it." Buffy replied, while Faith stared wordlessly at the grand house.
On the doorstep Taz rubbed her face, straightened her hair and made sure that her wounded arm was covered, then she pushed the bell.
It opened almost five minutes later. A stern, formal looking woman stared down at Taz. "Yes?"
"Hi Mrs James. We've come to see Annie, we heard about Sharlie… uh, Charlotte. I'm really sorry. I think Annie might need us." Taz said, visibly trembling.
The stern woman glared at Taz. "She's already at your house, or so she said. Not that I approve, believe me Ms McDonald, I will be having words with your father."
"Right." Taz adlibbed. "Annie's at mine. Forgot. See, I had to go collect my friends, they're visiting from, uh, out of town and then I couldn't remember…"
"Stern words, Taryn." Mrs James closed the door in their faces.
"Jesus," Maya muttered. "The woman loses her niece and still the only thing she can do is threaten to whinge to our parents."
"Uh, what just happened there?" Buffy asked, losing patience with the girls. While they may have lost a friend, she and Faith were no closer to finding out what killed her or how to stop it. "In fact, what's happening full stop. I'm still missing a lot of back story here."
"That's Annie's mum. Sharlie is Annie's cousin, if the news report was anything to go by Sharlie died last night. She was killed by the same thing that gave me and Maya our lovely slashes. He's killing us one by one. And it really gets his rocks off to scare us nearly to death before he ends it. We've all been trying to stay awake, but we slip every now and then. I guess Sharlie didn't wake up in time." Taz said in a flat matter-of-face voice, but she had to wipe her eyes when she finished speaking. "Because I was the first of our group to have nightmares Annie's mum blames me. She's convinced herself that I'm on drugs and passing them on to everyone else. I think she used the phrase 'group psychosis'."
"Let's get to Taz's. You'll get more story there. Besides, we have to see if Annie's ok." Maya said firmly.
*~*~*~*
Taz lead them to the basement door. "We can talk in here."
They followed her downstairs to a converted art studio with sagging couches and faded bean bags at one end, wondering if they would ever get a straight answer out of Taz or Maya.
Maya stopped dead, staring at a blonde crying on the shoulder of a redhead.
"Maybe we shouldn't be here." Buffy said softly.
"No, stay." Maya instructed. "If you're planning on staying in this town it's best you know what you're up against."
Taz turned to the blonde. "Annie, are you ok? … Urgh, stupid question."
The redhead answered. "Annie threw a complete shit attack. Went nuts, her Mom was two seconds away from calling the doctor to sedate her." Her eye fell on the Slayers. "Who the fuck are they?"
"Faith Winter and Buffy Summers." Faith replied. "Hi."
"Winter and Summers. Cute." The redhead sneered.
"Marie, be nice. They said they're here to help." Maya cautioned.
"Really? Great. Do you have a way that we can all stay awake for the rest of our lives? Because if you don't, you're no help. In fact, you'll just end up dead, just like Sharlie. Just like all of us." Marie snapped, getting to her feet. "We're fucked, no two ways about it."
"We'll stop this." Buffy assured her. "It's what we do."
Marie snorted, but added no further comment.
"Of course," Faith continued. "It will be a lot easier to stop if we know what we're dealing with. So far all we've been told is that someone's trying to kill you in your dreams. Now I understand that someone has died, and that you're not in the mood to share, so maybe we should just go and –"
The blonde stood up. "You wanna know what killed my cousin? Fine, it's a man who died back in the seventies. Child killer. The parents of the kids he killed roasted him to a crispy critter. And now he's just a little bit pissed off about it. He's hunting us all down in his dreams. How about I give you his MO? He's got four straight razors attached to a glove he wears on his right hand. Blood really gets his juices pumping. I saw Sharlie die last night, he slashed her throat and threw her out of an upstairs window in this old house that he takes us to. Except her parents and the news report say that Sharlie threw herself through a glass shower screen. He likes to make it look like suicide." She snorted. "As if Sharlie would have killed herself. If her parents gave a rat's ass about her they would have known that."
Marie reached out and took her hand. "You saw? You didn't tell me."
Annie shrugged, then seemed to run out of steam and crumpled back on the couch.
"And this has been going on since the eighties?" Buffy asked. "Why does he keep needing a time out?"
"Glad to see you've done a bit of homework." Marie sneered.
"Shut up, Marie." Maya said tonelessly. "It's not their fault."
"And it's not my fault that Krueger died." Marie retorted. "My parents didn't toast him, but still he's trying to kill us, so excuse me for not caring where the blame lies."
"Krueger?" I repeat.
"Freddy Krueger." Taz expanded, speaking up for the first time. "I don't remember exactly when he died, since the nightmares and all the kids crying 'Freddy' every time there's a death all archives have been pulled. It's all been covered up. I guess they thought if people didn't know or remember him he would disappear."
"Ah, the see no evil, hear no evil approach." Buffy replied. "Marvellous idea."
"We should tell Wes." Faith said decisively. "He's at the library, this might save him a lot of time, if he knows what's doing this it will make it easier for him to find a way to kill it."
"Tell Wes?" Buffy snorted. "I don't think so, I say we call Willow and Giles and ask them to research."
"Who exactly is Wes?" Marie asked in an acid tone.
"He's… a friend." Faith said finally, remembering her vow of being nice about him. "He's the brains–" another snort from Buffy, she ignored it. "–of the operation. We hunt demons, he tells us how."
"That would actually be Giles." Buffy corrected. "Wes tends to scream like a girl."
"Jesus, B. Give the guy a break. He's here, he's researching. I'm calling him, you can call your little Scoobies if you have to, but just so you know, they're gonna worry. You want that? Them a million miles away, worrying about you when they should be worrying about themselves on an unguarded Hellmouth?"
"Nobody's calling anyone." Marie said firmly, turning to look at her friends. "I've told you all before, telling people just makes them think you're crazy. Look at all your parents. They all think you're nuts, every time you have a nightmare they get a little closer to calling the men with white coats and big doses of sedatives. Mine are cheerfully oblivious and I intend to keep it that way."
"Look, Marie, we're here to help, and the only way we can help is to tell Wes. He'll research, Buffy and I will kill this Krueger guy and you can all sleep easy in your beds."
Marie stared at Faith levelly. "Don't tell me fairy stories, they make me sleepy."