Blowing off the dust
I met her in a seedy dive below a New York sky scraper. I had followed some vamps dressed as prostitutes into the place's female bathroom. I dusted them in front of yellow mirrors and their dust was added to other dust already on my clothing.
She stepped out of a stall then and I started in surprise.
"Faith!"
"My name is not Faith." She said a knowing smile on her face. It left replaced with a look of insecurity. She was bolstering her purpose.
I stepped toward her and walked a full circle around her, looking her up and down thrice.
Satisfied, "No you are not."I agreed with her. "But what's a good girl like you doing in a place like this." I affected a drawl. I can't stop making jokes. If I ever did, I think it would be time to die. And she did not belong here. Her cutely cut t-shirt and form fitting pants were all right for clubbing, but she was better than this club.
"I was waiting for you."
"Oh." My surprise was somehow less than it should have been.
"Come with me."
"I followed willingly enough, I was willing do just about anything that night. Stake vampires or not stake vampires, I was staking vampires right now because patrolling all these years had made me an insomniac. Or perhaps becoming a slayer had made me an insomniac. Either way, it was all the same. Slaying was patrolling, patrolling was killing, killing saved people, saving lives was killing dead people. So, I killed dead people that good people with souls and without them could sleep safe and not fear the apocalypse too badly. But I could have not killed dead people just as well.
Outside the smoky dive, the better twin of Faith shrugged on a wind breaker. She did not speak, did not seem to expect me to. We walked that way, side by side, strangers but somehow not, for about two blocks before I heard a scream. Reflex found a stake in my hand. I couldn't even recall, looking at it, where I had brought it from.
The woman took the stake from my unresisting fingers and exchanged it with her hand.
"It is a mugging, "She said, "By the time we get their, the victim will be dead."
That was the first time I realized she was more than she seemed, although I should have guessed before, but my world-weary heart had refused to see. I welcomed any reprieve from my calling.
We had stopped before a ritzy hotel, bright and clean amongst the night-stained streets. At the tug of her hand, I followed her past the night crew, to the elevator, and up. As we rose, she brought me close and encouraged me to lean against her taller frame. Faith had never been so kind.
Her room key was 4231. I remember because they were the first four digits, and also because that was the combination to my high school locker.
She led me inside and led me to her bed, where with touches she encouraged me to lay down. As she began taking off my dust covered clothes I thought to myself, Of course. When you are this tired, you don't question much at all.
The first time she made me come, I cried out Angle! and the second time I shouted out Faith! She looked at me intensely at that moment and I wondered, only half aware again, who she was.
At that point, I asked her, "Why?"
"To save your life."
Undone I lay back and slept for a few hours. When I awoke, not-Faith was sleeping on my shoulder. Gently I rolled her over and began licking her shoulder, and then her pulse on her neck, where I had always wanted to bite Faith. She did not cry anyone's name, but the sound of her sighs and moans breathed new life into a soul turned to dust by overexposure to the world's cruel winds.
When I awoke, the bed beside me was still warm, although the room was empty. She had left a note in the bathroom mirror. It said:
Slayer: Live so that others may live.
Live so that good may prevail
Live so that some 15 year old girl does not wake to a too heavy destiny.
But above all, live in the light.
I got up that day. I rented a car. I drove out of the city and into the mountains. I heard the birds singing songs in honor of the sun.
I lived that day, and would continue to live some for some time yet, because a kind woman told me to and I had yet to pass on her gift to the world.
I met her in a seedy dive below a New York sky scraper. I had followed some vamps dressed as prostitutes into the place's female bathroom. I dusted them in front of yellow mirrors and their dust was added to other dust already on my clothing.
She stepped out of a stall then and I started in surprise.
"Faith!"
"My name is not Faith." She said a knowing smile on her face. It left replaced with a look of insecurity. She was bolstering her purpose.
I stepped toward her and walked a full circle around her, looking her up and down thrice.
Satisfied, "No you are not."I agreed with her. "But what's a good girl like you doing in a place like this." I affected a drawl. I can't stop making jokes. If I ever did, I think it would be time to die. And she did not belong here. Her cutely cut t-shirt and form fitting pants were all right for clubbing, but she was better than this club.
"I was waiting for you."
"Oh." My surprise was somehow less than it should have been.
"Come with me."
"I followed willingly enough, I was willing do just about anything that night. Stake vampires or not stake vampires, I was staking vampires right now because patrolling all these years had made me an insomniac. Or perhaps becoming a slayer had made me an insomniac. Either way, it was all the same. Slaying was patrolling, patrolling was killing, killing saved people, saving lives was killing dead people. So, I killed dead people that good people with souls and without them could sleep safe and not fear the apocalypse too badly. But I could have not killed dead people just as well.
Outside the smoky dive, the better twin of Faith shrugged on a wind breaker. She did not speak, did not seem to expect me to. We walked that way, side by side, strangers but somehow not, for about two blocks before I heard a scream. Reflex found a stake in my hand. I couldn't even recall, looking at it, where I had brought it from.
The woman took the stake from my unresisting fingers and exchanged it with her hand.
"It is a mugging, "She said, "By the time we get their, the victim will be dead."
That was the first time I realized she was more than she seemed, although I should have guessed before, but my world-weary heart had refused to see. I welcomed any reprieve from my calling.
We had stopped before a ritzy hotel, bright and clean amongst the night-stained streets. At the tug of her hand, I followed her past the night crew, to the elevator, and up. As we rose, she brought me close and encouraged me to lean against her taller frame. Faith had never been so kind.
Her room key was 4231. I remember because they were the first four digits, and also because that was the combination to my high school locker.
She led me inside and led me to her bed, where with touches she encouraged me to lay down. As she began taking off my dust covered clothes I thought to myself, Of course. When you are this tired, you don't question much at all.
The first time she made me come, I cried out Angle! and the second time I shouted out Faith! She looked at me intensely at that moment and I wondered, only half aware again, who she was.
At that point, I asked her, "Why?"
"To save your life."
Undone I lay back and slept for a few hours. When I awoke, not-Faith was sleeping on my shoulder. Gently I rolled her over and began licking her shoulder, and then her pulse on her neck, where I had always wanted to bite Faith. She did not cry anyone's name, but the sound of her sighs and moans breathed new life into a soul turned to dust by overexposure to the world's cruel winds.
When I awoke, the bed beside me was still warm, although the room was empty. She had left a note in the bathroom mirror. It said:
Slayer: Live so that others may live.
Live so that good may prevail
Live so that some 15 year old girl does not wake to a too heavy destiny.
But above all, live in the light.
I got up that day. I rented a car. I drove out of the city and into the mountains. I heard the birds singing songs in honor of the sun.
I lived that day, and would continue to live some for some time yet, because a kind woman told me to and I had yet to pass on her gift to the world.
