The First Summoned One

The large school was now dark and silent and shadows where spread on every available surface. The corridors were now deprived from all its sounds: kids yelling and fooling around, the bell ring for classes, the sound of footsteps running... The tall book filled oak shelves looked even taller now, frightening even, to the oblivious ones that dared to venture on the school's library this night or in any other night. But in spite of all the darkness and heavy silence that filled the place, a weak light flicked at one of the corners.

For no reason Rupert Giles looked at the candle right beside him when it flickered and the flame extinguished itself, leaving him immersed in a partial darkness. He still was all over a big thick old book, covered in dust. Giles felt like ice had covered his stomach and he closed the book slowly, leaving his hands rest on it. His eyes got tear-filled behind his thin glasses.

He knew.

That new slayer had been even more undisciplined than Buffy... maybe a bit more lazy and carefree than Buffy but both had been unique on their own way. Feeling heavy and slow, Giles rose, rubbing his eyes. He also felt guilty. He had not been with her that night, on her patrol... The same had happened with Buffy. He took the phone under the desk and dialled a number.

"We lost her." He said simply. "Summon the next one."

-- --- --

For no reason Faye woke up from her sleep feeling a funny itch on a dark big mole she had on her left shoulder blade. Her blond hair was fluffy and pointing to all directions as she scratched it with the tips of her fingers. She sat on the middle of the bed, looking at nowhere on the darkness. She had just wakened up from a dream, a strange dream with a girl, a young kid and lots and lots of vampires. Was that normal? No! Normal teenagers don't dream about vampires! They might dream about Orlando Bloom or Brad Pitt, but they do not dream about vampires!

She slipped off her comfy and warm bed and went to the window, like she was sleepwalking. It was still dark outside, quiet and silent as always. Stars shinning, crickets singing on the grass, one or two owls flying around looking for dinner... but she was restless. Something inside her was telling her she had a place to go... but at 3 AM in the morning? Again she felt an itchy feeling one her mole.

"Stupid thing..." she whispered in the darkness still looking outside, scratching the mole. She wanted to go out into the night... it was like she was being called by the darkness. She had had weird dreams before, where she saw things from other girls' eyes, some of them occurred on ancient times. But all of those dreams had something in common: all girls were always killing evil creatures. This new one had been different though, it was a normal girl, only a couple of years older than her and she was fighting... and died. Faye could almost swear she knew the place of her dream.

Taking off her pyjamas and dressing the jeans and the t-shirt she had left on a chair, she took her bag and started taking everything out of it. She had just arrived England two weeks ago with her parents. She was supposed to change schools, leaving the United States to enrol in a boarding school. Yay for that!..., she thought sarcastically. She snorted at the simple thought of it. Again Faye felt her mole itch. That really wasn't normal, and to add to all that, she felt like she was being observed.

From the bottom of the bag she found and took out an old looking book. Its cover was thick and worn, made of dark red leather. Inside, its pages were yellow and smelled like something wet that had died long ago. Faye didn't mind, she loved that book, she could almost repeat all the sentences on it without even looking. That book, that diary, had been on her family for ages. Had belonged to her great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandmother's sister or something like that, and had been passed to all the girls in the family. She sat on the floor among the silence and the darkness and using the silvery moonlight Faye opened it and read the first entry of the diary.

"20th June, year of the Lord of 1349

Finely, at the age of 28, my time has arrived, the time to fulfil my place in destiny, for what I've been trained for. Father MacGreggor sent for me last night, I was at the monastery's chapel praying. These are dark times and darker ones are yet to come, he told me.

The black plague is spreading throughout Europe, taking lives and spreading suffering on every big city, every village, every lonesome cottage, leaving a trail of death. The corpses form piles everywhere, infecting the few ones that still are healthy. The scholars say the disease came from a boat filled with corpses and that it was spread by fleas and rats. Others say it's the wrath of god. As for us, we know it was something else, something more evil. A boat full of corpses doesn't appear out of the blue for no reason... We know it was them. This is their way of telling us: We Are Coming.

News came that the Chosen One died on the Scottish Mountains, an evil being took her body and spirit. I never knew the girl... I shall pray for her soul. We have now to search the new Chosen One, messengers have already been sent to the four corners of the known world.

Father MacGreggor called me apart after the arrival of the troubling news to the Council. He told me that from all the novices, I'm the one most prepared for the mission, to guide the Chosen One. The Council might not agree, I'm a woman, they'll say. No matter what they might say, I am prepared.

Tonight I'll receive a young girl under my protection... the Chosen One, the Slayer.

Tonight, I'll become a Guardian."

Faye smiled on her privet delight. How she loved that book... She sighed with a dreamy look on her face. How she wished that everything on that book could be real... the vampires and the demons, the slayers and the guardians... she sighed again. It would be so great! She identified herself so much with all that. Like the slayer described by her guardian on that book, she also had a weird mole and weird dreams.

"It would be so cool..." she whispered.

"Faye? You're still up?" Faye looked at the door of her room, partially closed. She could see the light that came from the bathroom next door through it.

"No mom, I'm sleeping!" she answered quite sarcastically. The light went out and steps going away were heard.

"Go to bed young lady!" a woman's voice said. "You'll have to wake up early tomorrow!" after the sound of a door being closed, silence reigned again.

Faye sighed and put the diary back on her backpack and went again to the window. Why she was having that feeling, that urge about going outside? She frowned as the shadows danced outside, pushed by the slight breeze. Like someone was controlling her body, Faye found herself walking towards the window, opening it, her hair being brushed by the breeze. "Blythburg" she mumbled and then snaped. "Blythburg?! But that's in Suffolk! Wait! How the hell do I know that?!"

Faye frowned even more and felt a cold chill run down her spine because she knew she had to go to Blythburg... now! She knew it was very far away from where she was, a mildly developed small city called Livingstone Valley, named in honour of a great English explorer – David Livingstone – almost two hours away from London. Nothing ever happened there, but that night it was reaching the highest scales of weirdness.

Again, before Faye noticed, her leg was already out the window, her backpack on one shoulder. She got pale realising she was about to jump from a second floor window of a Victorian style-looking-like house. It was high, way to high to jump, but again, like someone or something was controlling her body, with a slight impulse and she was falling to the darkened grass under her window.

Faye didn't even have time or the courage to scream.

She hit the floor and rolled over herself, ending up sat on the moist grass. "What tha...?!" she whispered looking up to the window. She thought she would, at least, break a leg or an arm due to the fall, but she was perfectly ok!

"Freaky... way to freaky!" she mumbled getting up, cleaning the bits and pieces of grass that were glued to her jeans and looked around. Suddenly everything had gone silent, a heavy unnatural silence. Something on the back of her head, a tiny voice was telling her that something was there, in the darkness. Something dangerous. With a cold goosebump on her skin, Faye made her way to the front door.

She almost ran to the door like she had saw the devil itself, cold goosebumps and a freaky itching feeling on her mole almost driving her insane. She hopped it all was being a dream... besides, she was feeling cramps on her muscles, like an alarm or a warning.

The silvery moon got covered by a large cloud, making everything go dark.

She had already turned the corner of the house, now standing a few feet from the front porch when she hit the floor, a strange weight sat on her back forcing her down.

"It's like they say" a cold evil voice whispered at her ear, making the hair on her neck rise "if you have a problem, cut it by its roots before it grows..."

Inwardly, Faye knew she should be silent and act quickly, to get rid of that strange weight, though she on the verge of tears and scared like hell. What happened next was fast and confused. Faye was gathering all her strengths to scream like a five-year-old on a roller coaster when her arms reached back, grabbing the head of whoever that person was and while pulling her knees up, she made it fly above her and hit the ground a few feet away, as she quickly got up, shaking like a leaf.

She searched the darkness for whoever had attacked her, wondering how she had done that. She used to be agile, but not THAT agile... or strong! She looked to her left, seeing something crouching on the stairs that lead to the front door. It seemed like a man wearing a black cloak or long coat.

"Very good..." that evil voice came to her again, again making her hair rise in a very uncomfortable way. It, somehow, sounded American. "Very good... but not good enough Slayer". The man rose.

"Slayer?! What tha fuck?" Faye spat feeling confused and scared.

The cloud, pushed by the wind, moved away and the moonlight lit everything again.

It was then that Faye's blue eyes grew bigger in her eye-sockets. That man... he was walking towards her. He indeed wore a long coat, very matrix-ish looking, bright wavy orange hair, vicious vivid green eyes, pale blue-ish grey face and big pointy white sharp fangs on his smile... besides he was drooling.

"Eeewww!!!" Faye made a sickened face before the image lit up a light bulb on her brain and she went as pale as he was. "VAMPIRE!!!" she tried to speak but her voice was caught somewhere on her throat. She seemed to be frozen on the place where she was standing.

"What? Are you shocked already?" he asked amused. "And about if I look like this?" his face twitched and moved, morphing into the mask of a demon, horrible and totally inhuman. Faye grew paler, if that was possible. "Hey, don't piss your pants because of this... way worse is yet to come!" and laughed. "Oh you rookie Slayer wannabes kill me every time... oh wait! I'm already dead!" and laughed again.

Faye felt like she was about to pass out. It was a nice time to pass out, knowing that a real vampire was now standing in front of her, but instead of that, she looked to the ground and spotted little stick. In a fast movement, Faye kicked the stick making it fly to her hands and threw it like a dart, without even realising what she was doing. When she finely blinked, she realised the stick was now deeply buried in that guys chest. He was bent, gasping and salivating, looking at it with wide-open eyes. Faye backed away from him, shaking even more.

"Aaww shit... Rookies suck!" he said before he exploded in a cloud of dust with a soft puff sound.

"It was a vampire! A real one! The diary was right they DO exist!" Faye thought thrilled and scared at the same time, feeling the tasty flush of adrenaline travelling on her veins and she smiled. She had done it! Killed her first vampire! She was a Slayer, like he had said! She really was! She was powerful, she was fast, she was strong, she was a menace... she was fucked!

"Poor Reggie, I knew it was a waste of time to turn him into one of us..." Another cold voice came to her and she turned around. On her right side the trees were dark and full of moving shadows... live ones. Faye got scared again when she spotted at least six pairs of glowing eyes among the trees. Reaching down, she grabbed a long and thick branch of a tree, breaking it so it would get pointy waving it at them.

"G-g-go away!" she yelled.

"Oh what a menace! A girlie with a stick!" Faye looked back when a soft thud got her attention. A vampire had just landed on the roof above the front porch. A twenty four year old woman.

"Go away?" We just arrived!" said another one, landing on the place where lay the aches of the deceased vampire, kicking them away. He moved slowly, in an almost numb but strangely seductive way. It was a boy that must be her age, smiling at her, showing his glittery white teeth. He walked around her slowly, making Faye grow nervous with his predator face. She looked around. She had no where to go and was slowly being surrounded and cornered. She couldn't call her parents, no way she would put them in danger.

Her hands tightened the grip on the stick. Six vampires, possibly more, against a fifteen-year-old girl armed with a stick. Yes, she was pretty muck fucked. The vampire woman, a bombshell blond, let out an animal-like groan and approached her, her face morphing like Faye had already seen previously, smiling.

"You're not going to run away from us or something?" she asked with a fake sensible voice. "This is no fun, it's being too easy Bryus!" she complained to the big vampire that had spoken before, the first one. He left the darkness, showing all his real size. It was a man around its 30 years old, had long black hair to his middle back, his eyes were dark and deep like an dark abyss, wearing dark clothing and a long leather coat, very Matrix-ish looking. His hands where large and powerful, just like his fangs that where now showing in a smile from is perfect lips.

"Don't question Bryus, Ellene." The younger vampire mocked, his until now pleasant face morphing into a grotesque mask of evil. "He knows what he's doing."

"Shut up Tai." She retorted. "I didn't make you a question, did I?"

The young boy smirked and turned again his gaze to the pale and terrified Faye, who was till holding the branch as a weapon.

"Even though I have to agree with her Bryus." He said walking around Faye just to make her nervous, unaware that she was already feeling terrified. "The other one was a tough one to kill, she was a professional after all, but this one... she wasn't even called yet. She isn't aware of her role on this. She doesn't worth the strength we lost on her."

"Do I sense some pity in you, my dear protege?" Bryus said with an accented voice and a soft laugh looking at Tai's young face, also approaching Faye. She was now circled by Tai, Bryus and Ellene. The others awaited but far way from them. In spite of her fear, Faye understood that those three were the leaders.

"I only say that she doesn't worth all this. She's small, skinny and all." Tai eyed Faye closely. "The thrill of the hunt is over for me." He moaned at last with disappointment.

"Bryus, your little boy is refusing a meal! Could it be love?" Ellene laughed evilly and approached Faye with a sexy cat-like walking and took her face on her bony white hand. "She isn't all that pretty... You already fed on girls way better looking than this one on your 200 years of existence, Tai."

Bryus looked a Tai waiting for his reply to Ellene's words. Though he knew the girl was supposed to be dead minutes ago, he was amused with all that. It was not like she was going anywhere anyway.

The only one that was feeling a bit left out from all that was Faye. In a second she had passed from a predator to a prey and she wasn't liking it at all. If they were about to kill her, in a strange way she wished they did it quickly because all that suspense was killing her. Besides, she was already growing a deep hatred for the blond vampire, Ellene. Ok, she never considered herself as a top model, but she was pretty! Her fingers tightened the grip on the stick, trying to feel confident. She had already killed one vampire, why couldn't she kill six or seven more? A bit of self-confidence was always welcome...

"Look" Faye tried "That guy there is right, I don't worth it. I don't even know who you are or what you are or why are you here. Can't we all just give a big hug and be friends?" she made a weak smile.

All the vampires looked at her in silence, like she was an alien or a very rare freak of nature. Tai glanced incredulous at her but a slight smile crossed his thin lips. Ellene looked at her totally horrified, like Faye had said the worst sin possible. Bryus only laughed. Cold evil giggles that crossed and echoed on the sill air.

"You have to give it to her, my dear Ellene. This was the best joke I've heard in 400 years!" Bryus stated and laughed a bit more.

"This is already taking too long." A vampire from the rear said with a shaking voice. "Dawn is coming but the Guardians will be here before that. We must now feed Bryus."

"Sshh..." Bryus held his hand up to silence anyone who still wanted to speak. "I know Jon, I know. But I hate when so many people are right. Tai is right, Ellene is right... even the Slayer is right. She doesn't worth it." Bryus moved his big but agile body to his right, opening as escape rout to Faye. "Go on."

Faye looked at him perplexed.

"Go on." Bryus said again before everyone's astonished glances. "Go! You're free to go. You don't worth it at all, not even as a possible meal."

Faye didn't take too much time thinking about the odds and the possibilities. Without a second thought and still holding the stick, she ran away from them as fast as she could into the dark grass fields. Her breathing soon became fast and heavy, the oxygen not getting to her lungs properly giving her the strange sensation of drowning as she ran. She didn't know where she was going to, tripping, slipping and jumping in the darkness.

With the darkness surrounding her and the cold and wet branches and leafs hitting her face as she ran, Faye had lost her track and her sense of time. Had she been running for seconds... or minutes? Hours maybe? No, not hours. If she had been running for hours she had to be on London for sure. Faye coughed for air, only now realising how cold it was outside as her breathing left her lips in white clouds of vapour. She dared to look over her shoulder as she ran, but no one was following her, nothing was moving, as far as she could see at least. That thought made her smile and--

!!!PLOF!!!

With a soft thud Faye hit the floor, her nose touching the moist earth and she quickly rose her face looking around. Only then she realised that her foot was trapped in a large root. With an annoyed groan she sat up quickly and freed her foot rubbing it. She didn't know where she was and looking to the sky, she let out a relieved sigh as she realised that dawn was coming soon. The dark damp sky was turning into a soft baby blue and pink. Soon the nightmare – it could only be a nightmare, it had to – would be over.

With a new smile and feeling a new flush of energy, she rose and turned to run, only to hit against something that looked like a wall.

"Shit!" she whispered when she fell heavily again, this time on her butt. She looked up slowly, trying to adjust her sight to the darkness, feeling again that odd itchy feeling on her mole and some quite painful cramps on her muscles.

"You can run but you can't hide..." said a cold voice coming from the solid shadow she was facing and her blood froze on her veins.

"She did offer us quite a hunt! She almost eluded us." said other voice, this time a woman's. Mocking, sarcastic... dangerous.

"With the proper training, with the proper guidance, she could have been a great one..." whispered softly another voice, a young one. Faye couldn't see him and in the frenzy that surrounded all the vampires, no one seemed to have heard him either... except her.

"Now, you made it worth it."

A dead calm and evil voice whispered near her ear. A sharp pain spread all over her body starting from her neck... and Bryus's face was the last thing she saw.