Chapter nineteen – Slayer Challenge
The night seemed to go forever and around the camp no noise could be heard except the sound of construction, hammering, drilling and sawing. Because of all this noise going on it was very difficult for anyone to get to sleep.
Buffy sat in her room silent and was continually thinking about the past few days of camp and what had happened and how she was tricked into their evil plan. She sat in the dark in one of the corners crying.
Faith was thinking of how she could escape this room. All afternoon she had been banging on the door screaming, and now as the night drifted on, she began to feel tired and weak.
The sun came up at 6:00am but the two girls still thought it was the middle of the night because all they could see was darkness; there were no windows in the rooms.
The construction had slowly died down during the night and the last drilling and hammering could be heard till 8:00.
Faith had fallen asleep but not for long because she was woken up by more hammering. Buffy didn't fall asleep at all, she had just been crying all night.
When the 9:00 bell rang a loud cheer could be heard all around. The doors of the rooms Faith and Buffy were in started to slowly open. Light started to pour into the rooms and the loud cheering and yelling could be heard.
A Watcher appeared at the door of each their rooms and told them that their award waited outside. Buffy had no choice but to walk through the door. The door slammed behind her. Buffy looked around and found herself in the middle of a huge stadium. She was alone standing there, until Faith walked outside to where Buffy was.
"Bring out the other contestants!" yelled a familiar voice. Buffy and Faith looked at each other with fear but at least they still were full of hope.
Another door opened and out came Kat and Alyssa who stood next to Faith like they were best friends or something.
"Now for the rules! The Potential on the right must fight alone for the appropriate amount of time, no help allowed. The Potential who came from the left must and will fight in a team. If the two main Potentials disobey the rules more demons will be let out, in other words, if you disobey you will be committing suicide. Understand? Good! Let the Slayer Challenge begin!" said the same familiar voice.
Yet another door opened and three demons came out, no weapons were around, all they had was themselves. Both girls were weak and had no choice but to obey their orders.
Faith looked at Kat and Alyssa and joined in with them fighting while Buffy attacked her first demon ever, alone. They kept fighting until weapons started falling from the sky and Buffy caught an axe while Faith caught a sword. Faith and Buffy did not interact while fighting even though they would have liked to fight side by side as a team.
Buffy defeated the demon with the axe and then straight away another demon appeared in front of her and the fight continued. The demon Faith was fighting was a tricky one, it somehow knew basic gymnastics so Faith cut its head off with the sword as it jumped through the air and it was dead by the time it landed on the ground. Hundreds of Potentials saw this as great entertainment and really got into it and kept cheering.
Faith and Buffy kept their distance and kept fighting demon after demon after demon. They would have fought around twelve each when the demons stopped appearing.
"Well done Potentials. You have done quite well. The real challenge is about to come. The time will change and darkness will come to you. Say the following words and greet your worst nightmare. 'Darkest creature of the night, come to me and we will fight.' Say that line three times," said that same familiar but implacable voice.
The four of them chanted the line three times and above them the sky changed, it was no longer daytime, night had arrived. The time on Buffy's watch was 7:00pm.
Doors 2, 3 and 4 opened and six creatures from the night appeared in front of them.
The four of them searched in the dark for stakes and they all found one except Buffy. The rest of them started fighting and hesitated to go help Buffy but she would be committing suicide if she did. Buffy didn't panic; she kept searching for a stake while three vampires walked closer to Buffy. As they came closer Buffy's heart beat faster and faster and Faith couldn't help because it would be suicide, three more vampires were released even though not even one had been dusted yet. It was a trap for Buffy and Faith but also an evil test.
The speaker on the microphone announced the challenge was up to a stage where no spectators were allowed and everyone had to leave. After all the spectators had left, so did Kat and Alyssa. Buffy and Faith were now alone with nine vampires. Faith went to stake a vampire and missed the heart. She screamed and ran over to one of the doors and started banging on it for help.
Buffy finally found a stake in the dark and took a risk and went for the heart. She got the heart and she felt the power within her and a bright light appeared around her. Faith was amazed by what had just happened with Buffy and nearly got herself killed but Buffy came over and staked the vamp. Faith got up and they started to fight side by side as a team. Before they knew it there were only two vampires left in the stadium. One seemed keen for a fight and the other not so keen.
Faith ran over to the keen one and yelled to Buffy that she would get this one. Buffy walked over to the other vampire and realized there was something different about this one. She stared at it and it stared back at her. Faith staked her vamp and started watching what was happening between Buffy and the vamp. Faith was about to yell out to Buffy and ask what was going on when one of the doors burst open.
"I'm here to save you!" yelled Giles.
The vampire ran out the door into the night.
Faith ran over to Giles and gave him a hug. Buffy just stood there shocked, too much was happening at once for Buffy.