SLAYER, SLEW, SLAIN
By Niels van Eekelen
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www.TelltaleProductions.tk
That night shortly after sunset, when we were sitting in the cemetery, watching a fresh grave, I decided that I had spent the past few hours in the presence, actually listening to, a total and complete freaking nutcase.
"This is a load of BS," I said, getting up. I tossed aside the pointed wooden stick Maria had given me. To tell you the truth, I felt rather disappointed in the woman. I liked her, somehow, and now she turned out to be this lying weirdo.
Of course, I shouldn't have said that bit about the BS.
A hand suddenly reached up out of the earth of the fresh grave, and I barely had time to say, "What the fuck?" before the late, not so great, Donny Altman jumped on top of me. "Get the hell off of me!" I screamed. OK, so I panicked. At least I packed the punches to back up my frantic demand. I flung Donny-boy through the air, and he landed--very painfully, it looked like--with his back on a tombstone. He fell to the ground. Then he got up again. "What the f--" I didn't get to the witty repartee part until later. So sue me. I doubt many Slayers did much better with their first vamp. Frantically, I searched around for some kind of--any kind of--weapon.
"Faith!" Maria called. She'd found the stake I'd thought that I wouldn't need, and threw it at me. "Into the heart!"
I caught the stake just as the vamp reached me again. With a skill I hadn't known I possessed, I rolled backwards, thrusting the stake up into the dead body and kicking out my legs to flip him off of me in one fluid movement. Only, as soon as I staked the vamp, there was no more weight to throw off of me, and I lost my balance. When I gasped, I breathed in half the dustcloud the vamp had left behind.
Pretty soon, I would become addicted to the adrenalin, the rush of facing death and kicking it back into the hell it came from. That first time, I was just freaked. I didn't even object when Maria helped me back to my feet. I just stood there, slightly wide-eyed, coughing. "What the fuck was that?" I asked.
"That," Maria replied, "was a vampire. And you have to admit I was right when I thought you wouldn't believe me if I just told you." That was my Watcher. Always right, and always eager to say 'I told you so.'
"Hell yes," I agreed wholeheartedly. Without speaking, we agreed that the the graveyard was hardly the place for the necessary explanations, so Maria drove us to her hotel in her car. She had this totally awesome car, a night-black convertible. The ride gave me some time to process things, too, and I had managed to accept the fact that vampires existed by the time we entered her room.
"What exactly is it I'm chosen for?" I wondered. While Maria closed the door and prepared herself for the infamous speech, I took in the hotel room. I decided that this 'Watcher Council' was a gig I could get into. It wasn't the Hilton, but at the time that room seemed almost extravagantly luxurious for a place people just passed through, with a TV and everything--even one of those bars with booze in'em.
"Into each generation, a Slayer is born. One girl in all the world, a Chosen One, one born with the strength and skill to hunt the vampires, to stop the spread of their evil, and to guard the world from the creatures of the night. She is you."
I reckon my response to the greatest revelation in my life was pretty standard Slayer issue. "Right," I said. But I had already discovered that vampires were real, so I couldn't just dismiss this idea because it was crazy. Didn't mean I was exactly eager to accept such a duty. "Destiny, huh? I don't really believe in all that fate crap."
Maria just smiled. "You don't, do you? I must admit I wasn't too accepting of that particular reality either, in the beginning, but I discovered that it doesn't really matter in the end, whether what you do was determined in advance or not. You still have to make the same decisions to make it happen. Tell me, do you at least agree that you must have got those new powers for a reason--no, let me rephrase that--that something must have given them to you?"
I mulled that over. "I guess," I said. Maria must have noticed me eyeing the door, so she made sure I sat down before I could bolt.
"You could decide that you weren't chosen for anything," she continued. "Not be the Chosen One. Be no one." I gave her a reallydirty look at those words, because they stung, but I didn't phase Maria. I rarely ever could. She was always one step ahead of me. "It won't stop the vampires from killing. They are always lying in wait, and when they find out the Slayer decided she wasn't the Slayer, they'll rise, and the killing will increase. If they aren't stopped, their numbers will grow and no one will be safe. Chosen or not, Faith, dear, you are the one with the power to stop them. There's nobody else." That turned out to be not entirely true, but I don't blame Maria for that little white lie. I know I've told my share of those.
"So what am I supposed to do?" I asked. "Sit on graveyards all night and stake whoever comes out?"
Maria chuckled merrily. It was probably then that she knew she had convinced me. "There's a bit more to it then that. Take this path, and I doubt there'll be a dull day in your life." She shrugged. "Or rather, a dull night." She got up and walked over to the bar. "I could use a drink," she said.
"Me, too," I agreed.
"You're under age," Maria disagreed.
"So?" I asked. I was honestly surprised that something like that mattered to Maria, considering the wackiness of her world.
She looked at me and sighed. "I suppose that you did have quite a shocker today."
We talked for hours that night. Maria explained what the deal with the Watcher Council was. I asked her ears of about all the things in vampire movies, and whether they were true. For some reason, I was terribly disappointed when Maria told me Dracula was just a fairy tale. Maria even 'fessed up about my life expectancy, but I'd never given growing old much thought, so I could deal with it.
Around one o'clock, Maria decided it was time to take me home. I was very comfy, and exhausted after my long day, so I didn't want to get up. "If it's all the same to you, I can sleep right here on the couch," I suggested.
"But... what about your parents? Won't they worry?" This from the woman who had already slyly suggested that it would be best if I got away from my parents. She had no quarrel with doing what she had to as a Watcher, but she did care.
I snorted. "Right. As if they'll even notice I'm gone. Mom's probably staying with my dad in the hospital, anyway. It was nice and comfortable there."
Maria was smart enough not to argue any further. "I can borrow you a nightgown, but I doubt it'll fit," she offered.
"I'm fine," I said, but I liked that she'd thought to offer.
So that was the first night I spent at my Watcher's place. It would become a habit. I just kicked off my shoes, fell asleep, and dreamt of grand adventures.
Story written by Niels van Eekelen. © Copyright 2004 Telltale Productions.
In a perfect world, I would own the series 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' and 'Angel'. Alas, it is not, and I bow my head to Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy. Ah, well. It's probably for the best, me not having a contract to put the show on the air and all.
A special thanks to Paul Leone and Teresa Owens, from whose story 'The Deliverer' I nicked the name of Faith's Watcher, though not the character.