On The Subject of Faith Ellington

by Strange Bint

Summary: Part Two to Peace & Anarchy - William & Drusilla. Drusilla was escaped Angelus before he could Sire her, but not before he made her crazy. Now she has been married to William for 17 years in Victorian England. There daughter is growing up. Who is she? What will they tell her about Vampires? Why is a certain orginization following her on an outing with her father?

Rating: PG-13

Author Notes: Don't want to over talk this. Just thanks to the people that like this AU

Disclaimer: Not me, but I thought it would be a challange to give one of the most damned charcters a chance at being good.

Dear Sirs:

March 7, 1893

I am writing this report as you have requested to share with you what I experienced while observing the young Miss Divya Ellington, or "Faith" as she is called by her family. Again I wish to extend my deepest apologies for being seen on my observation. But, if I may be so bold as to say that my being discovered gives us information on Drusilla Drake Ellington's abilities as a seer. She was able to "see" me, and perhaps the other things she said to me, while bizarre, may be useful.

Alas, I will write this report in full detail as promised as I am blessed with a photographic memory. I will tell you all as I have seen and heard it, and it will be one hundred percent accurate. However, some of the things I've heard are rather scandalous, and I just want to inform you, so be warned.

So, I finally got a good look at William Ellington, the anarchist writer, as only some know a vampire Slayer, and a good sample of the queerness that is his wife, Drusilla Drake Ellington. The woman is as odd and enigmatic as they say. They leave out that despite that she is very beautiful and charming. She somehow stays this way even when she is angry with you, and speaking nonsense. The rumors could very well be true; they could demons of a sort. Her for her charming madness, and he for his complex behaviors that he is made up of. He had surprising strength for a man of his stature. He was defiantly a man in his prime, no longer a boy, but not yet aged in the slightest way. He was often boyish and jovial, but beware when he became troubled about something. Then, his face would have a look about it that only an aged person who has seen much of life's horrors could make. So, perhaps this is why the rumor of him being a demon began and perhaps it is evidence for it being true.

It is this observer's opinion that he is not a vampire as some rumors have suggested. Perhaps, the reason he can write "fiction" on vampires so accurately is due to the possible connection that his wife, Drusilla Drake, had with The Scourge of Europe. However, we know that she is not a vampire as we can often see her walking around in day light with "Faith", and due to hospital records we know she gave birth to the girl. I do believe, the rumor that William Ellington is not the child's real father, and therefore a vampire are most likely false. After the encounter I had with the man I can say that the girl is surely his.

However, the relationship "Faith" has with her father is very complex, and perhaps worthy of more study. If she does become the Slayer, the relationship that "Faith" has with both parents is going to be an obstacle for the Council, as you will see by the end of the report. But I digress, William and "Faith" Ellington's relationship seemed to constantly be shifting and changing before my eyes. I felt dizzy. I suppose this is what happens when two such volatile personalities are together. William Ellington is a man who lives on his wits and emotions, which he feels deeply, and his daughter does not fall far behind. I sometimes can see the gentle academic he once was recorded to be in him. But, then there is a man of such stubbornness and rage, even in his sensitivity. Something had to occur to create this transformation. It must have something to do with his odd wife, and it could very well be supernatural. With all of this written I will give you my description of the events.

The young Miss Ellington stalked out with her father at the ungodly hour of nine. While most girls her age are getting ready for bed "Faith" set out with her father with concealed weapons towards the East End. When I say stalk they indeed stalked like two hunters stomping with fierce faces. There was very little talking between the two of them as they moved swiftly, looking like brothers in battle more than father and daughter. Here is what was said:

"Are you ready?" He asked.

"My answer is going to keep being yes, so desist asking." She said.

Then they seemed to ease into themselves and speak as they got closer the retched neighborhood no young girl should ever be in. I was glad, as we long for information on these subjects. But, I must confess I sometimes wished them back into silence.

"We are going near the catacombs where there has been TB, so you may see some sick children." He said gently.

"Why are we going there? They won't want sick people's blood." Faith whined like a child, which I suppose she is.

"Yes, they will! They prey on the weak, and take any easy thing they can get. They are filthy animals." He sneered at the thought of the creatures.

"Not the ones with brains and cunning. They want to make a challenge of it. They won't be going here at all. Only the weak and stupid ones." She insisted

"Smart girl. Most of them are weak and stupid, but are physically stronger than we are...for now."

"When will I see a cunning ones? When will I see the scourge?"

"You are not ready for the scourge...besides The Scourge is gone." He said firmly.

Of course this caused great excitement for me. He mentioned the scourge. Furthermore, he said The Scourge was gone! For those new members of the Council I will give a brief summary. (Though, even if you are new, I would hope that you have SOME knowledge on this subject.) The scourge, or Angelus, the most vicious of vampires has not been seen for about thirteen years. But, it is dangerous to assume that this evil monster, who some say is the anti-Christ is dead. As the Council knows, it was assumed he was dead for three years when the reports of his horrid gruesome style of killing resurfaced. It was discovered that he was indeed alive. He seemed to kill quite a few people in a small California mining town. Oddly, this is where our current troublesome Slayer resides. Then, he traveled to London and for a month and did his usual carnage. Then he mysteriously vanished again. William and Drusilla Ellington have knowledge on Angelus, knowledge the Council does not have. It is evident with the conversation William Ellington had with his daughter. The rest of which went like this:

"He isn't really gone though, is he? I mean he is just sorry for what he did. I can't say I give a damn...Why don't we try to find him, Pop. After I get chosen." The girl said.

This family has the audacity to believe they know their daughter will be the chosen one!

"Promised you mother I wouldn't."

"Well, I made no such promise. And why?...You both never tell me why she would ask you to promise such a thing!"

"Maybe she wants me to spend more time with her than wasting my whole life on vengeance...That is a hard lesson to learn." He seemed to say the last part as a warning to the girl.

"But it is to be my job to kill vampires." Faith insisted. Again, as if she were ALREADY a Slayer.

"But not to kill innocents, and your mother sees Angelus as an innocent." William sighed, and then looked his age, whatever it may be.

"But, you don't, do you?" Faith demanded.

"It is not my place or yours to make that judgment, only your mothers." William Ellington told the girl.

"Maybe she can't make it right. Maybe Angelus made her too mad when it comes to the subject of him."

Of course, I continue to not understand any of this. They act as if The Scourge of Europe is hiding somewhere, and they say Drusilla Ellington thinks of him as an innocent! This is a beast with absolutely no fear or remorse. He may hide fortacticle reasons, but fear or guilt would not be among them. I am not sure what power Drusilla holds over Angelus's life. I can understand why the girl would say her mother is mad, as I have heard previous reports of it. It is believed Drusilla Ellington is the sole survivor of the great Saint Lady of Victory convent slaughter that was carried out by Angelus and his paramour, Darla.

However, the idea that Drusilla Ellington was mad made William Ellington snap at the child. Sadly, it was probably the soundest thing the girl said all evening.

"You're mother is not mad on any subject! Are you to be a sheep, one of them? That is going to see any unconventional behavior as madness? If you are then I don't know what I bother teaching you for. You can go off to boarding like all the other girls and learn to courtesy and how to hold a bloody tea cup!"

"I don't think that my suggestion means I'm conventional. Maybe all it means is that mother isn't always right, which I know is outlandish. How come you tell me to question everything but her?" The child said this with sarcasm beyond her years.

I figured Ellington would box her ears, but he did not.

"We can turn around right now and forget this hunt!" He roared.

"No! No! Pop, I'll forget it, okay...I promise I won't ever mention The Scourge again, lest he come up in an academic way...I'm sorry. I didn't mean to upset you." She seemed a poised young lady now, as her father grew sterner.

This shows that the child can be disciplined, though she rarely is. Still, it is a good thing for the counsel to know that "Faith" Ellington can be disciplined, if she does turn out to be chosen.

"But, you know very well that you also showed me how to hold a tea cup." The girl joked now.

"Well, you must be able to bag a rich man when I die to be able to buy your weapons and such." He said back. I do hope he was joking, and not telling his daughter to become a gold-digger.

"I-I just think that you can be blinded by love when it comes to Mum." The girl said carefully now.

I expected him to get snappy again. He is quite unpredictable. He smiled instead.

"May you have a man blinded by love for you." He said after a short silence, which at this point I welcomed.

I was tired of this pointless bickering. William Ellington was allowing the child to say whatever she pleased, even if it troubled him. I thought that this conversation would give me more information of what happened between Drusilla Drake and the scourge, but they seemed to just dance around it and not give me any information at all.

"Yuck!" She scowled. "I wouldn't want a blind man. I would want a strong uncompromising one, if any! Not bloody likely I'll have any."

"Why do you say such things?" William asked.

Again he surprised me. He was not angry. He seemed amused and concerned.

"What man would want a Slayer?"

Indeed, what man would want such a willful mouthy girl, regardless? I must say, again, the girl seemed the more sensible between the two of them on this subject.

"Many men would be happy to have a Slayer. A woman who could open up their eyes to new worlds they had no idea existed." This romantic idea must be left over from his days of poetry.

This romanticizing of the Slayer is more dangerous than bringing the girl to the East End. If it is impressed upon a Slayer it could compromise her duty.

"You wouldn't. You wouldn't want a strong woman. You can only love a woman like Mummy, a woman who needs shielding from this world... A woman who likes all your Heathcliff nonsense." The girl was referring to "Withering Heights."

I was surprised the girl had the skill to read such a book. I was surprised she was permitted to read it. Then I remembered the trashy novels her father writes on vampires.

"You're mother is a very strong woman! Do you think you and I would last with those visions scampering around in our brains?... And what do you mean by 'Heathcliff nonsense'...I am nothing like that bruiting Sod, and your mother is no Catherine. Your mother and I only love each other." William insisted.

There in no doubt that his wife indeed has visions, and is a seer.

"I am not stupid! Your disagreement may be infrequent, but when they do happen they can burn the manor down." Faith retorted.

I think she meant that metaphorically, as they only have a two-family house, not a manor. So, she has abstract intelligence that could be useful for a Slayer.

"People fight, Div...Especially married people, who love each other. When you are older you'll understand."

He called her "Div", which I assume is short for Divya, her real name. The two of them seemed to switch the names they called each other depending upon the mood.

"I suspect that most married people don't fight about the vampire scourge."

I do not know why a husband and wife would fight about this horrid vampire. Everyone agrees he is terrifying.

"That is because everyone else who has encountered The Scourge is dead." Mr. Ellington could be right.

No one has ever reported having some sort of relationship with Angelus. All our information is from eyewitness reports, or people he stayed with and did not kill because it would attract too much attention. The Scourge loves attention, but unlike human serial killers he does not want to be caught.

"Yes, and when I kill him your fights will stop."

"There is no more scourge, Divya."

"If he is truly dead I think mother wouldn't hear the ghosts of his victims in her head...You didn't think I knew about that did you? You've had to quiet her nightmares more than you've ever had to quiet mine...She needs you."

So, there is a great link between Drusilla Drake and the scourge. She has troubling visions of him, and yet wants him to live.

"And I need her.... Nothing wrong with a bit of needing." William Ellington had said.

"That is why there is no marrying for me. I must need no one. I am to be the Slayer...All the books that Auntie Willow has the Slayer is alone. Protecting normal people from horrors."

"That is a whole lot of non-sense. You need me and your mother now."

"I do, but when I am the real Slayer I won't."

"Bullocks! Look at you and your swelled head! There will always be more training."

"But, I will be stronger than you, a better fighter."

"Ah, ah, ah! Stronger doesn't mean you will be a better fighter...You can be strong and a horrid fighter if you have no knowledge of the fight, and I could still win."

"Yes, yes." She rolled her eyes impaceintly.

Though the girl wasn't interested, this was the one of the few times I was impressed with his working with her. Though, arguing with her that the Slayer NEEDED people was the worst thing anyone could have done. Then, I was led to false hope again on the subject of Angelus.

"Is that how you won against the scourge, Daddy? You were a better fighter even with his strength?"

I noticed the name change to "Daddy". Perhaps it was to help him not turn sour on the subject of Angelus. If it was it worked. He smiled.

"Yes and no. I would be lying if I said I was a better fighter than he was. He is an excellent fighter. I would say I understood him more than he understood me...I never underestimated him. He underestimated me...You have to know what fuels a big bad man like that fire, Faith."

"And what is that?" She asked.

He was silent.

"If it is about lust for Mummy don't think I can't understand that..because I can...a little."

This eleven-year-old girl was talking about lust!

"I wish it were that simple, Divya. Lust can be unhealthy, but it isn't evil, And he is evil."

He was not angry with the girl but teary. Please don't ask me why he was telling her lust wasn't evil. It is one of the seven deadly sins! Why does a girl that age even know of lust? Then the conversation took an even odder turn.

"You do seem to do quite fine by yourself keeping the home safe, and slaying the duller of vampires."

"Well, there is an odd compliment." He smirked.

"You don't need a Slayer really." She shook her head.

"The world would end with out a Slayer."

"Yes, but YOU don't need one. You need Mummy. She needs you. You fight Angelus and tell me nothing of it, as if it is a grown up cocktail party conversation! My parents need no Slayer."

"You are not our Slayer. You are our daughter."

"You need each other, and no Slayer. How can you need a daughter?" Before he could respond she grabbed him.

"Do you hear it?" She asked him.

I must admit I heard nothing, but that may only be because I was farther back.

"You will do as I say and stay behind me." He said firmly, and she did as they went running off into the alley.

By the time I caught them they were comforting a lady of the night, or should I say girl. Faith was a bit rough with the girl.

"Answer me!" She was demanding as a girl was bent over weeping.

"It's all right we won't hurt you." William was saying.

"Someone else might again if you don't answer me!" the child yelled at the girl.

"Yeah- yeah- He had big teeth he did, and an awful strange face...He said- he said I wahn't young enough! I'm only 16!" The girl was muttering what could pass for English.

She seemed insulted. A lady of the night no doubt, perhaps she just thought he rejected her services and not her life.

"Les go!" Faith demanded as Mr. Ellington seemed to want to say more to the dirty girl.

Faith seemed to pick up more of the street cockney accent as she walked through the East End, and so did her father. When they were out of the neighborhood there accents were typically Middle Class with an occasional slippage into Cockney. Here it was a lost cause as they could barley be distinguished from the natives themselves in their speak.

This next part is very troubling indeed. William grabs hold of his daughter's arm and they promenade calmly down the street.

"'Ey! Gov! Wanna go with the lil' girl for a bit!" He said to the leering man.

Faith smiled passively and looked at her shoes. I had no idea what was this was about. I was confused at her change in body language. Once I did figure it out I realized this father and daughter were playing at something no decent person should know.

"How much would you like?" The man said in a proper accent.

"Three pounds 'll do it!" Mr. Ellington smiled seedily.

It occurred to me what they were doing and I was appalled!

"Three pounds, my word! She probably has been up and down this street for less. I think that you are trying to--" While the man was talking William got out a stake and changed him.

This happened all so very fast. William was on the ground and he flipped the man. That was when Faith charged the man with a cross.

"-take advantage because you believe I am naive to this business, but I'm not. You see."

The man continued as her lifted the girl up and looked into her eyes. Of course, he was a vampire. He was in full face of the demon, and he did growl rather viciously. I could hear it well from where I was. The girl called him a rather vile name and burned his face with the cross. He yelled, but did not let go of the girl. But, he turned to dust making the girl drop to the ground with a grunt. William had staked him from behind. It was really quite an impressive clean staking.

"Ouch! My arse!...That was brilliant his meat hooks were gripping me so tight and then I could feel them turn to sand around me...Has that ever happened to you?" She giggled as if she had been ice-skating and fell!

"Bloody Hell, Faith!" William roared, "What have I told you about running at them when I am down?"

"No foul language?" She asked sheepishly.

"That is it! We're going!" He blustered.

"Aw, Pop! C'mon we killed it and the whole nine. You weren't supposed to change him yet either. You were supposed let me get first hit when he came up to me! You didn't follow the plan either. You were the one that bollixed it-- Not me!"

"You do as I say when I say it!"

"But, you weren't doing as you say when you say it - said it. You became a Grrr-man..and rushed things so, I did as well. It's all your fault really. The more I think of it the angrier I am at you. You could have gotten us both killed, you Sod!"

(Yes, she said 'a Grrr-man. I suppose that is some kind of code they have.)

"Listen! You are not the Slayer yet and I can still take you over my knee!"

Then the girl became distracted. "Look! There might be one up there!"

She charged a woman who was carrying a bundle, that bundle turned out to be a child.

"Get Away from us your dirty whore! You are probably the vermin that spread the sickness to my child!" The woman sobbed.

"What's wrong with her?" She asked meekly.

"Blind little bitch can't you see! She's dead!" The woman yelled.

"Don't talk to her like that! She's just concerned...Does she have any wounds on her neck?" William said.

"I can talk to your whore however I want! Concerned my bloody arse! Your tramp just wants to pick my pockets while I haven't got a free hand! Too busy carrying my dead child!"

"Listen, I'm not just a girl...We can help each other," Faith said.

"You mean you can help yourself! What do you want? My dead Vanessa's clothes?...So, you can tell me what bloody vile man YOU got all randied up so 'ee went and did this to her! You want MY bloody help!.. It's not my fault your parents didn't want you! They probably saw what sort of girl you was and that's why they threw her to your pimp there! I've seen the two 'a ya out here peddling her arse night after night!"

"You have-" William began furiously until his daughter grabbed his arm.

The woman kept walking and weeping. I guess these people just walk around in the streets with their dead. It would be tragic if she wasn't so vulgar.

"I am sorry, Dad." Faith said so lowly I had to move closer to hear.

"I am sorry if I disappointed you...It isn't your fault. It's mine. I know I'm no Slayer yet, and I shouldn't be actin' like one...I just want to help you so much I-" That was when William lifted the girl up, not like the vampire had, but he held her gently.

"Divya, you could never ever disappoint me! This is all for you, Pet. This isn't to help me get some bloody Yah yahs out to feel like a big man. This is all for you to get used to what you will have to face. Those other Slayer girls never did that. They never had a chance, but you do. You will be the best one...So, good you can tell my Grand children all about it...Now, give Daddy a kiss, Bit."

"I don't kiss crazy men! Didn't you hear I have no father...he threw me to you! Now put me down or they will really think you are a child peddler."

"Oh, bloody...Sweet 'Bit, is there no innocence left in you at all?" He actually seemed to tear.

"Not one drop."

"I don't believe that...Now give Daddy a kiss or I won't put you down at all. I'll carry you all the way home."

That was when he saw the woman. I knew she didn't belong there. She was too beautiful and clean and graceful for such streets. Yet, she walked in them liked she owned them, but not in a territorial aggressive way as Faith or William did. She walked with an ease of a child who had no cares. Yet, William looked extremely concerned at the sight of her. He was shaken in a way I had yet to see, which was odd considering all the prior events.

"Drusilla!" He exclaimed and dropped Faith on her feet. Faith glared at the woman.

"Drusilla, what in God's name are you doing here! Did you walk here by yourself? Alone?" He demanded putting his arm around the woman. She petted his head but never looked at him. She looked at Faith only with a sort of a bittersweet smile.

"I came because I saw eyes on my girl...And I wanted to see who eyes they were and what they wanted." She said in a bittersweet tone.

She smiled at the girl who scowled.

"Pet, if you see a vision just wait until we get home...If you feel ill after it go upstairs to Willa and she'll fix you something. This place isn't for you. It will upset you, Baby." He said gently, pleading as if he was at her mercy.

"Daddy is so silly, isn't he Faith? He doesn't realize how much more attracted unpleasant people are to girls, and how quickly we get used to their eyes and hands...But, NO HANDS will be on you! We cut them short at eyes." She was so odd. She had been giggling to the girl as if they shared a joke.

Then she became very rattled, and then by the end of her comments she was pleasant again.

"Mum, hands are on me all the time...Vamp hands. I have to fight them, remember? You will really be in the way if every time that occurs to you- you set out here and give Pop a heart attack and the whole nine."

"Faith, you show some respect! Your mother had a vision, and you know how troubling that can be." William yelled.

"They aren't always troubling. I saw you...a sweet boy crying on his poems...I saw our girl before she came standing here clear as day with that brassed-off look on her tender hearted face...They aren't always troubling at all."

"And they aren't always right...They could just be headaches."

"Faith! You better apologize for that right now, or you can be in bed by now for the next week."

"I am sorry, Mum. I know you can have visions that are right-sometimes."

"It's all right. You are not the same sort of girl as Mummy, few girls are, but the fact that we are both such odd girls makes us friends during the day...You just get cranky with Mummy at night. It's hard when you know something others don't and they think you are the ones hurting them." The woman said.

I had no idea what she was saying. She sounded and looked like no mother I've ever seen. Faith took her mother's arm in all her oddness.

"Did you buy the seeds at the market today? Can Sophia come to the house tomorrow and plant them with us?" Faith looked up at her mother suddenly asking her questions a well groomed girl might ask her sane mother.

Why her mood suddenly changed and she was no longer scowling and sour towards the woman is a mystery to me. Maybe she has inherited some of her mother's madness. The Council should be aware of this as a possibility. No one in the family seem to think this mood swing was odd, nor was discussing a girl's social gathering after she had just pretended to be a whore in order to catch merely one vampire.

Can we take a cab home, Mum?" Faith asked her mother, as if none of this had happened.

"Yes...We will see your friend and plant daisies...I think they will grow well this year, though there are some things I don't know... William, get us a cab... We will run from the eyes." She smiled.

I thought it would be too late to see any more of them. They were odd and troubling, but it is clear to me that the Council could learn much from them. So, I followed them to the house. I confess I really didn't know how I would look upon them when I got there. But, for in this instance their odd life paid off. There they all were out in front of the house. Their boarders were there too. One was a willowy sort of woman and the other a tall dark haired man. Faith was chasing a piece of paper with a sword that was blowing in the wind. She couldn't catch it.

"I'll get you Auntie Willa...I'll get you! Wait until I am the Slayer!" The girl kept saying to the thin woman as she chased the blowing paper.

I have no idea what this was about. I feared she would chase the paper into the street. She was so focused on it and the woman seemed to be thinking hard about something else.

William Ellington was still blustering about his wife going into the East end unescorted.

"I don't care what you saw! If you saw something dangerous what good is it throwing yourself into the danger, Dru?"

"I do it for the same reason you do it- for her and for you. I wouldn't deserve such gifts if I couldn't protect them."

"Dru..please! Promise me you won't do that again. What if something were to happen to you? I have my hands full with Divya. No, it's not Div. I have my hands full with the vile street pecking away at her. There are the ones that want to violate her, and the good God-bloody fearing people that blame her for being violated...and what it's doing to her! At least I got to kill that vampire, but what of the ones who aren't vampires? Can't she just be a child? Why can't she stay a child?" He was pleading.

"She is our child. Their Slayer, but our child." The woman said as if HE were a child and caressed his face.

I don't understand any of this at all! William seems to be encouraging his child to go into the streets and masquerade as a child of the streets, yet he is upset at the effects. Then why on earth is he bringing her there? He seems to feel that knowing of the street life is necessary for training. That is ludicrous! A Slayer should be a proper girl. She is only to know that she is slaying vampires under the instruction of her Watcher. Knowing of the life around the vampire will only distract her. She is a Slayer, an instrument for good. She is not to be a guttersnipe or an undercover detective in the seedy world of vampires! She is indeed just a child, and should be treated like one. I need not mention what an effective Slayer Huen Rong is now, and she knows nothing but how to fight and slay and the evils of demons. If she were to know her whole country is falling apart around her and the demons are taking advantage of that chaos it would only distract her as we have seen it distract Miss Ellington.

I did see Drusilla Drake walk over to her male border and put her arm around him and whisper something in his ear. It was odd. She had an affection for him, yet William didn't seem jealous. He just puffed on his cigarette and looked at his daughter, who was laughing and still chasing that blowing paper.

"Faith! Why don't you stay with us tonight? I have more stories I can tell you of America and my friend the vampire Slayer," the border said with an American accent

At this I became shocked! Americans! Friends with the rogue Slayer! This connects the Ellington's to The Scourge and the rogue Slayer and they have a Potential child! We must continue to watch them extremely carefully.

"Mate, you mind asking me first!" William snapped.

"Talk to your wife. It was her idea." He said.

Drusilla went over to her husband.

"We need to talk, my knight...About the eyes, alone. Also, you seem to need more comforting that she does. Children are resilient. You can bend them so far and they go right back. Why do you think I still sing, and have my dolls...Though I never did go right back, did I?"

"Dru, Dru...I love you for who you are through hell and the walk to Heaven, I would never want you to go back. I will never go back!"

And they kissed. Yes, yes right in the open air with their child right there. No shame. It was appalling. There mouths were open. As if it couldn't get worse SHE whispered something to HIM of her sexual desires for him. I thought this was going to continue and I was appalled. So, I looked over at the child who was with the border.

"Tell me the story where you got the Slayer the cannon! Tell me how the Slayer doesn't have to die for me to be called because she died for five moments already!" Faith said as if she were talking about the most pleasant of subjects.

I thought how beneficial hearing of the rogue Slayer would be for us, since she has cut off contact from us.

"And Joan is alive thanks to whom?" The American man asked slyly.

"You Uncle Alex!" Faith sang.

"Oh C'mon, Mate! You know you're a hero of circumstance. That bird forced her lungs to work again by threatening them from the grave! She will never die...too bloody stubborn." William laughed.

"That's beautiful, Will... Quite the little love poem, better than your usual. Write that down and send it to Joan." The man scoffed.

It is very clear that these people have a strong relationship to the Ellington's and the American Slayer. It is dire that the counsel keeps watch on all of them.

"I wonder if I will drowned when I'm the Slayer." Faith seemed to ponder this thought happily.

"Faith!" The willowy woman gasped.

"What? Then Uncle Alex can bring me back to life and there will be three Slayers!" She marveled.

This was the first time I saw her act as young as she truly was. I was expecting William to tell her to stop being so dangerously foolish. Yes, she was young, but if he truly wanted her to be a Slayer he would not allow her to be so naive about death. I was the fool to expect him to do anything proper, I suppose.

Instead of chiding her, William grabbed the girl up in his arms and she laughed. She said he was mad and cursed at him, using language my daughters will never even know of when they are women. But then, she quieted down and clung to him. I just don't understand their relationship. He treats her like a brother in arms, he exploits her and uses her as vampire bait, and then he is coddling her. This man is going to drive this child as mad as his wife!

"You're interrupting my story, Will. Do you need attention from your women every second!" The American man demanded jokingly.

"Shut-up! You're a dirty child snatcher taking her from me...All your stories of your dirty little country and that pig headed bird..." He said.

So, William finds the American Slayer "pig headed", which is interesting.

"Ah, you couldn't take your eyes off her! If I were Drusilla, and my marriage was for love and not just friendship, I wouldn't be pleased," The quiet woman said suddenly.

"Women! I was only fascinated by her fighting ability! I only have eyes for two girls. I never got that kiss, Bit." He was saying to the girl now, who he held like she was a much younger child now.

She kissed him, and I was relieved to see that it was innocent in its nature with all this talk of child snatching. I am afraid you can put nothing past people like this. You have to remember that although they seem to care for each other they don't have normal morals. They are anarchists. It is my opinion, that with all the inappropriate things going on with this "family" it is a miracle that the child remains chaste. But, what they are doing expressing all this affection in public and with a girl that is no longer a babe, I don't know. I was concentrating on her so much I did not see the woman approach me. She seemed to be more beautiful up close.

"I want you to know," she said, "That I spy you spying me, and you think we are dirty, but you are the one thinking up all the dirtiness... and I find it disgusting! I thought I was angry, but I think I just have sorrow for you, and your daughters."

I must say I was very startled. I was looking too closely at William and Faith and I didn't hear her approach. Of course, I am still trying to understand her remarks. Mad people are often paranoid and think people are thinking lascivious thoughts about them, and I think that this was the case here. But, where her madness ends and her seeing begins is so difficult to say.

"Drusilla! Who-what is it?" The quiet woman was the first to notice.

"These are the eyes. They look like they are only two, but there are many many more behind them." She called to them.

I was going to lie. I was going to say I didn't know what she was talking about and say that I was just passing by. But she was staring at me, and I noticed that her eyes were almost violet. I didn't know eyes could be violet. She asked me how long I had been watching, and I told her the truth! I said I had been watching since Faith and William left. I cannot tell you why I did that! I did not sense that she was using any witchcraft. I was just so distracted by her eyes.

"You stay away from my mother!" Faith said fiercely shoving me a little.

She was really very small- indeed a child of eleven up close.

"Who are you?" William demanded his hands were around my throat and just when he was about to squeeze his wife, Drusilla, commented:

"He is from the Watcher's Council. Indeed they want to watch us!" Drusilla said.

"Oh bloody hell! These Wankers!" He spat.

So, he is familiar with us as we are with him.

"I don't know they have some excellent archives in their library." The quiet girl said.

"I thought they were smart! How smart can you be if you thought my mother wouldn't sense you watching us?" The girl demanded.

She seemed so indignant of her mother's powers now, when she had discounted them before. But I thought it wasn't wise to bring that up, being that it would show how carefully I had been listening earlier.

"The Council only wants to help your daughter. We have her best interests at heart." I assured them or tried to.

"Oh really? Maybe the same thing could be said for other unwanted elements in our lives. Imagine, all these years I've been wrong and all those vampires and demons that were trailin' us were really guardian angels? Boy, is my face red, because they're all bloody dead! I should kick you're Nancy boy arse! You don't know how lucky you are that I wasn't the one that saw you."

William had my jacket, while his male border told him that the Council seemed "only harmful in how boring" we were. They are all familiar with us, and I couldn't figure out how, and then it occurred to me that they American Slayer must have told them horrible tales of us. This is very unfortunate.

"Maybe demons would not be elements in your life and your child's life if you did not seek them out...It's so interesting.." I said, "You walk, talk, and move like a man of the street, Mr. Ellington, and yet I know you are not one. You're an Oxford man of '76, right? Literature, I believe?"

Due to all my training I refused to be rattled.

"How the hell do you-" He was shaking me. I remained calm because there had never been reports of him killing a human man. I tried to put the reports of him pounding them out of my mind. His wife had the sense to grab his arm and interrupt him.

"My king of cups has many chalices. He just needed them shined." Drusilla laughed.

"Thank you, Poodle." He smiled at his wife now letting go of me.

"What does that-mean?" I had to ask.

My asking was in vane.

" You mean you egg heads didn't make a Drusilla to English dictionary yet? Ah, it's easy for you all to get the goods on William, but Dru is a little bit of a puzzle, huh?" The American male said.

I think it was some sort of an insult.

"Alex, take Faith upstairs with you." Drusilla said.

"No! I need to stay here. Why does he know where Daddy went to university? What if he's bad?" She whined now.

"Faith, a girl's life should be as simple as possible. You'll make your own way, but for now the one path is smooth, and your mother is the sand...No go!" I was still so very confused, but I understood she was being firm with the girl.

The girl did too and she left with the man and the quiet woman.

"William go with our girl." She commanded. Her voice sounded different. Lower.

"If you think I am leaving you alone with Mr. Bloody Holmes here, you're insane. Just because he looks like a Nancy doesn't mean he's harmless. I heard about these Wankers. They probably want to know how your seeing powers work. They'll hook you up to electrodes or something." He spat.

Indeed the American had told him some outlandish tale of the Council. Before I could argue Drusilla spoke.

"I wish it was me they wanted. We will come to an agreement tonight." She said to me.

"Dru what-" William began, but she merely looked at him and he stopped talking.

"You cannot have her anymore than you do! She's our daughter, not your Slayer! You men violated her! So, we teach her to fight off the future monsters that will try violate her." Drusilla screamed at me now tearfully.

"Madame! I have no idea what you are talking about! We do not violate girls! We teach them everything of the hidden world of fighting demons. We ready them, in case they are to become chosen." I was outraged at whatever her accusations were.

"Ready them indeed! You men started this all! You injected a girl with a bit of a disease, and told her it was an immunity to it...Perhaps you are right. Perhaps the only cure is a bit of a disease. Many of us girl's have a bit of the disease in us. You want to take my daughter to your school- you're infirmary." She glared at me with those eyes. She wasn't angry with me anymore.

She seemed to find her own prattle tragically amusing. I searched for some sense in what she was saying.

"Well..W-well...We have a school. It's very nice and she would get a proper education. The finest education that a girl could receive..and..and she would be with other girls...girls like her..girls that have the potential to-to..." She had reduced me to stammering. I knew I wasn't there to talk about the school. This was hardly the time or place to convince them of the importance of the girl boarding with us.

"No! Your violation of her is over. You won't teach her with blinders." She said firmly now.

"Madame, I really must insist that you stop making these mad accusations. The Council does not control who is a potential or who is chosen! If anyone is violating the girl it is you...and what you are allowing your husband here to do. Your training methods are crude! A girl that age should know nothing of the streets let alone the immortals of them- poverty and prostitution! You're ruining her! Why-why-why she talks like she's in the bloody Navy. I pray that she DOES NOT become the Slayer now. But, if we were to school her she would have a chance at becoming a decent Slayer. She would have a better life with us!"

"You bloody pompous gits! You university Nancys don't want to know of the street because it's all too unpleasant! Well, you know who does know of the street? The man who cleans your chimneys! The woman who shines your floors! You think only those you exploit will suffer while you stand idly by and study it all! Well, you know who else could get quite the street education? Your bloody kid or your wife or your daughter, while they are riding home from their Nana's house- or going to confession at a bloody church- something or someone can

--(He clapped his hands in front of my face.)—

just grab them and they are gone- Gone from you and into the street- if they're lucky. They are gone- Taken by the things you want to teach my daughter so much about...But, you know nothing about them, and what they can do-really."

He was the one that seemed pompous to me, and arrogant.

"That was a very quaint little proletariat speech, William! The Council knows things that would shake you to the core. We are not the ones standing idly by- we are the ones saving the bloody world! You should be in jail with what he is exposing the child to. If anyone is exploiting here it's you using that little girl to fit in with rough necks like that Yank-" That is when he hit me, which explains my eye today.

"You buggering clueless Wanker! Get the hell out of here now, or I'll show you what a roughneck is! You think a Slayer fights in the schoolhouse! She fights in the street...and up until now she died there...Died there too early...most of them still children! You don't care when they die; you just have a new one to tinker with! You have all your pretty little maids in a row! You teach them nothing of the real fight you sodding mother fu-" He was utterly out of his gourd.

He was going to hit me again.

"My Lamb..Shhhh.. Settle. Don't throw the baby out with the children's drowning water. Ours will have the best of both worlds." His wife said quietly. She was holding his fist, which was a very dangerous thing to grab.

I have no idea how he didn't end up accidentally hitting her.

"What happened to you, Mr. Ellington? I know that you are an intellectual man. I know that you WERE a gentleman. I am shocked that you would not want to work with us being that you know the truth of the demon world. What on earth happened to you that made you into this pig-headed barbarian?" I demanded.

"What happened to me? What happened to me?" He gave a sort of high-pitched insane laugh while his wife was whipping tears from his face.

"Nothing happened to ME! It is all other Men. Men like you, trying to take and bend the women I love into something that would kill them! Men like you, who torment me with what they will do to them, and tell me it is my fault...So; I did what any gentlemen would do in that situation. I learned what crept inside the other men's heads. I learned where it was flawed, so I could protect the girls. I am still very much the gentleman Mr. "

"Wyndam."

"---Mr. Wyndam. I devote myself to the protection of my ladies. I just finally found love is all, and beauty." He was smiling now. I would say it was a mad smile, like his wife's, but it wasn't. It was as if there was a big joke that I didn't understand.

"I assure we only want to help your daughter...And we are only curious about your wife due to her... interesting...history and abilities." I said.

"What he really wants to know is what happened to me." Drusilla smiled.

"Well..Well that would be nice." I confessed

"Don't tell him a thing! Drusilla, I don't want to have to worry about these sods too, Love...Enough people will want Faith...and you." William glared at me, as he spoke to his wife.

"I assure, Pet, the help that they will bring us will out do any harm they bring us. They have so many books about our daughter's sisters, and her enemies. We'll need them, even though you already have a whole library in your beautiful head. Sometimes, to survive one must have strange bed fellows." Drusilla said in his ear and smiled at me as if I were an idiot.

"I should know better than to question you." He said to her.

"Go ahead. Ask me something. Ask me one question." Drusilla looked deep into my eyes again and commanded me as if I were her lovesick William. "...Then I want a watcher to visit with us with books...like a school tutor would...There will be no more talk of her going to school with you, and there will be no more insults of my husband, and we will continue to give her our own training in Lu of yours. Is this understood?" She said this to me and I merely nodded.

"Her name. Her name is Divya why do you call her Faith?" I found myself asking her.

"I named her what she is- Devine and brilliant.. I call her what she needs to survive." The woman smiled arrogantly now.

The last thing I saw was Faith running out of the house to embrace her parents. She had probably been watching out the window waiting for me to go. She hugged her father as if he had been the one in danger of me!

"Don't worry, Bit... You and I can handle the monsters that we can see, and your mother will handle the ones that we can't... You are the safest girl in London," He told the girl.

"I know!" She said indignantly. "I can't wait to be the Slayer, so you and Mummy will the safest parents."

There are so many reasons to keep watch on this family; I don't even know where to begin. We must meet and discuss how to get closer to this family. This does seem to be a difficult task. However, it seems that the mad seer is willing to have a watcher as a tutor for her daughter. I believe we need to send someone that appears to be young and non-threatening to William Ellington, as he is the most volatile. Drusilla also seems to be easily charmed by handsome young men other than her husband. So, I purpose that we send a young soft-spoken gentleman to tutor the girl. He can attempt to build an alliance with the girl subtly. It is dire that we do this as soon as possible as the girl already had warped ideas about us. I suggest that we send my son, who has just graduated out of the academy. Percy is very charming and he can subtly study Drusilla Drake as he tries to tame her brat. Our biggest challenge in the way of this is going to be Mr. William Ellington of course. With out the man I do believe that his wife and daughter would become dependant on the Council, as women, even one's with power cannot survive on their own. If Divya "Faith" Ellington does become the chosen one I recommend that the Council then discuss a new plan of how to contain Mr. Ellington. However, I believe presently we should try to gain their trust.

Sincerely,

Mr. Lawrence Wyndam, Esq.

Head Council Liaison

End On The Subject of Faith Ellington by Strange Bint: