"Bronnie's the what?"

I asked feeling the blood fading away from my cheeks.

"She's the slayer."

"And what is that exactly?"

I had heard Angelus talking of slayers before now but I had not really paid that much attention.

"The slayer is the one girl chosen in each generation to protect the world from evil, she is a defender of the righteous who strikes down the evils of the world. Killing the demons who walk among us."

I turned to look at Bronnie she looked so upset, turning to look at the clock I saw how late it was I said to Esther,

"Please take her upstairs, I won't be long but the two of you don't need to deal with this now. None of us do."

I watched as Esther carefully wrapped her arm around Bronnie and led her upstairs. Waiting until they were out of sight before standing up and moving to stand in front of Mr Orland, I was pulsating with anger at this point. How dare this man enter into my home while I was not home and upset my family? He had not right. No right at all.

It was he, who started speaking after the girls had left the room,

"Miss Bann I realise that this must be a great shock to you but there is simply nothing that you can do about it. Bronnie has been called, she is the slayer now until she dies."

"What if I refuse to let her be this... slayer? What if I refuse to let her hunt evil? To let you near her?"

He pulled a document out of his bag and said,

"Then I'm afraid that I will be forced to remove Bronnie from here and take her back to London with me."

White with rage now I bent down over him my face barely inches away from his as I spat out,

"Do you really think that I would let you take my sister away from me? Do you really think that I would let you leave this house with her? Then you are a bigger fool then you look and I would ask you to leave this instant."

I moved away from him and walked to the door holding it open for him. He stood up pulled his jacked on and grabbed his bag saying before he left,

"I will return tomorrow evening at dusk to continue this conversation with you, Good night Miss Bann"

And with that he left. I slammed the door him bolting it quickly, I hadn't realised that I was crying until I saw a dear drop from my cheek and onto my dress. I gave myself a minute to pull myself together before I went upstairs.

Walking quietly past Thomas' room, knowing that it was foolish hope to believe that he would still be asleep. And I was right, for when I entered into Bronnie's room there he was sitting on her bed next to her stroking her back as Esther held her while she cried.

I knelt in front of her and put my hands on her knees and said

"Hey."

She turned her head round on Esther's shoulder so she was looking at me and said,

"Hey."

I knelt up and wrapped my arms round her saying,

"It's ok Bronnie, it's ok. You don't have to worry. I promise you that if you don't want to do anything that you don't want to."

"He said he'd take me away if I didn't"

I swallowed very hard. I couldn't believe that he had told her that. That man deserved death for this how could he do this to an innocent young woman? She was barely thirteen. How could he?

"I promise you, you won't have to go any where. He can't take you I won't let him. You know that I wouldn't."

"Really?"

She hiccupped at me smiling,

"Really, now it's late we don't need to deal with this until morning I think that we should all go to bed and get some sleep."

I lay in my bed cursing Harold Orland's soul to the deepest craters of hell watching the night move into the dawn of another new day.