CHAPTER TWO:
Walnut Grove and Layla Fellows
PRESENT DAY
They let go of each other took a step back.
"I'm sorry too. You were there and heard everything!"
"Yeah good thing you were being a bitch that night! You may not have been there in the morning to help me." They both scoffed. They turned and continued to walk down the street, passed the liquor store and the thrift shops and down by building that used to be the beauty school. Now it was just an empty building. Jimmy and Emma stood there for a moment and looked up at it. It was just a flat, one story, brick building with boards on the broken windows. They had to start doing that to places now. Teenagers, who have nothing else to do in this town, get drunk and walk around looking for windows to smash so they have a place to party. Just then a couple of kids came running and bumped into them on there way.
"Hey!" Jimmy yelled. "I hope I never have kids!"
"I hope you never have kids either! You're enough for the world! Like this place needs anymore reasons to suck."
"Like I need a lecture on coolness from the girl who once dressed up as Wilson the volleyball from Castaway for Halloween!"
"Oh come on! That was awesome! No one else thought of that!"
"Yes I know. And there is a reason for that!"
Emma pierced her lips together and looked down. She mumbled under her breath, "trekkie".
"Trekker! Trekker! For the last time, it's trekker! Trekkies actually believe they are IN Star Trek! I am just a fan! Therefore, TREKKER!" Jimmy instructed.
"Whatever, it's all GEEK to me."
They both smirked and looked in one of the broken away boards to see if they could make anything out.
"Well, this were the news said those kids were last seen. You ready?"
"What else am I gonna do on a Friday night in Walnut Grove, Missouri?"
"When you say it you make it sound so boring so……" Jimmy searched for the word that best described their home town in middle MO.
"So 'Retirement Community'?"
"Yes! That's it! Like a big old folks home!"
"And we must be in the basement." Emma frowned. She looked around to make sure no one was around. Jimmy reached forward and tried the door.
"Locked from the inside."
"Well, I guess we'll have to knock!" Emma took a step back, raised her right leg and kicked the door open. The twins stepped into the old salon. Jimmy kicked aside the bits of broken ply wood and broken metal from the lock.
"Maybe we should have rang the doorbell?" He snickered.
"Nah, I wanted to be discreet." Emma shuffled around in the large room. There were still mirrors hung consecutively on the apposing walls. Still a counter here and there. There was even a derelict hair drying chair off in one of the corners. It was dark and smelled like rat feces and mildew.
"Maybe they're not back yet, maybe they left and moved on." Jimmy suggested.
"No. They're here. They're hiding." Emma slowly laid here bag down and walked casually across the floor. Her ears perked. She looked over in the back right corner at a metal door that was shut. The handle turned. Her and Jimmy looked at each and she grabbed the dagger from her left boot. Jimmy dropped his bag and produced a stake from the inside of his coat. They stalked closer to the door, preparing for the worst. The door slung open. There stood a young vamp of medium build in bagging, ripped up jeans, a Warrant t-shirt, and holding a beer. He was laughing as he turned back into the door way to say:
"Uh huh, yeah, that's what she said!" He turned back around and froze. "Uh, did Rudy send you?"
Emma turned and looked at Jimmy and they both shrugged in agreement to go with it. Emma responded:
"Yeah, I was supposed to ask for…. Oh darn! I forgot your name again!"
"Huhuh, Crusher!"
"Yeah! That's it! Crusher! You know, I would have taken you for a Steve."
"You know I get that a lot. So, dude, are you like, her manager or pimp or something, because we told Rudy that we only wanted chicks man."
Jimmy and Emma look at each other again and tried not to laugh.
"Um, I'm her bodyguard. You know, in case people get too friendly, ya know?" Jimmy quickly clammered.
"Wait a minute!" The vamp halted. "Where's your stereo? We told Rudy that you had to bring one!"
Emma felt around her chest. "Oops! I must have left it in my other bra!" And threw her dagger across the room so that it stuck into the vamp's neck and pinned him to the wall behind him. She sashayed across the floor until she reached the vamp bleeding on the wall and trying to pull out the dagger. Emma stood infront of him and danced a little sultry and then turned around, bent over and slapped her behind.
"Hey where's my tip?" She demanded. "That's ok, I'll give you one. Warrant? Wasn't cool then, defiantly not cool now. And I guarantee you NO ONE is buying the name "Crusher"!" And with that she pulled a stake out of her sleeve and dusted him. Jimmy came up from behind her, yanked the dagger out of the wall and wiped it clean for her.
"Seriously, I REALLY didn't need to see that. That was just wrong. I thought the slayer dreams were bad, I am really gonna have nightmares tonight!" Jimmy complained.
"Oh please! I have real talent. Admit it! I could have a brilliant future as a featured stripper!"
"Oh yeah!" Jimmy agreed. "I can hear your stage name now! 'And now, get your big bills out for PEGGY THE PIRATE!'" He then erupted into laughter. Emma slapped his chest and shushed him. There was a noise of scooting chairs coming from the room behind the metal door.
"Way to go stupid! Peggy the Pirate? You've put some thought into that one haven't you?"
Jimmy hung his head in shame. "Yeah, I've been waiting for the set up."
"How long?"
"A couple of months now"
"Ahh, not bad, really. Clever."
The door opened and another stood there looking confused and wearing a Linkin Park shirt.
"Oh my God! Your taste in music is actually worse than that guys!" Emma proclaimed as she referenced the pile o dust on the floor to her left.
"Hey!" The gruff looking vamp interjected.
"I mean c'mon now! Has the music industry really produced anything half way decent since 1992?"
The pissed of vamp punched Emma in the face.
"Hey! No need to resort to physical violence now! I'm sure we can resolve our musical differences with adult conversation. But, wearing Linkin Park? Really? It's like you WANT people to know that you have no taste!" The vamp swung at her again and she blocked his punch and gripped his fist tight.
"Geez, even you fighting skills aren't original! Let me make it simple for you. You can't keep doing the same thing over and over again. Like this!" Emma twisted his arm behind him and kicked him in his rear and he slid across the room into the wall. Then she ran over and picked him up by his hair and slammed his face into the concrete floor. "See what I did there. I did two different thing consecutively. That means in a row." She took a step back to allow him to get up. He stood and cleared the blood from his eyes.
"You talk too much little girl." He grunted.
"Ya see, I keep telling her that but, she never listens too me. I guess it's because she talks too much." Jimmy remarked as he stood back watching.
"Just like a woman. Too much talk." The bloody faced vamp scoffed along with Jimmy.
"Really? Cause, I was thinking that, you haven't been around many women in your ahem 'lifetime'!" Emma teased as she thrust her hips making a sexual reference. This really ticked him off. He took off running for her and stuck her arm out and yelled "Olay!" as her missed her and ran passed. He yelled and ran at her again and this time he tackled her.
"Oh yeah? I'll show you how much practice I get!" Emma clicked her right heel and the wooden dagger came jutting out and she shoved it into the vamps groin. He howled in agony and flipped him off of her.
"Oh, I'm sorry! I didn't think that would hurt! Didn't know anything was there!"
"You BITCH!" The vamp managed to sputter out. Emma pulled out her stake flipped it in the air and stabbed it into his chest. He burst into dust.
"You have issues. Serious ones." Jimmy scolded. "You play around too much."
"Oh c'mon Jim! Why can't I work out some aggression while I am working? The women at the DMV get too!"
They walked to the back room and looked around to make sure they had gotten all they came for and they had. A typical vampire nest. Filthy and smelly. An old broken tv, a cooler with warm beer, and a couple ratty mattresses on the floor. Jimmy knocked over some boxes and glanced half heartedly. Emma lifted one of the filthy mattresses disgustedly with her thumb and forefinger and quickly dropped it. Jimmy darted around to her direction.
"You find something?"
"Yeah. The reason why the invention of the flushable toilet was so important." Emma gagged. They stopped and looked at each other. A soft sound came from the closet in the back corner. They nodded at each other in agreement that they both heard it. Then another sound came from the closet. This time it was more of a whimper. They turned and walked softly over to the closet. Jimmy almost tripped over a wadded up blanket when Emma grabbed his sleeve. She pointed to the hand sticking out from underneath it. She squatted down and lifted a corner of the tattered, green army looking blanket.
"Oh my God." She gasped as she stared down at the mutilated corpse of a young man. He's eyes we open, dried and had lost their color. He didn't even look like a real person anymore.
"He looks like wax." Jimmy blurted. The young man was cover in bites and his face was severely beaten. Closer inspection of his hands showed that they were both broken and so were all of his fingers. They were all twisted and bent out of shape.
"Looks like we were at least a day or two late." Emma said as she became choked up. Then there was the whimper again and Jimmy and Emma were snapped back into the world, remembering the reason why they were headed in this direction in the first place. The slowly stood up and stepped over to the door. Emma placed an ear to the door and waited patiently for another sound. When the soft sob and thud came again, Jimmy stood against the wall as Emma cautiously opened the door. There in the dark, a young woman shuffled back against the wall and covered her eyes with her arm.
"Please." She pleaded softly. " Please, don't hurt me anymore. Please let me go. I won't tell anyone. I swear! Where's Bobby? Please. Please." Her face and arms were bruised and cut. Her blonde hair was stringy and greasy. She huddled there trembling in nothing but her bra and panties. Emma kneeled down and reached her hand out for arm.
"Hey. It's ok, their gone. I got rid of them you can come out." She slowly dropped her arm and looked up. She smiled quickly and then began to cry.
"They were horrible. I, I, I think the one was gay."
"What makes you say that?" Emma questioned.
"Well, he was wearing a Warrant t-shirt." Jimmy removed his coat and wrapped it around the girl. But, when he moved, it gave the young girl a clear view of the boy on the floor in the blanket. Her eyes grew wide with horror.
"Bobby!" She screamed. Jimmy quickly jumped around and recovered the body.
"Come on. Let's get you to a hospital." Emma lifted her up and ushered her out of the building.
That night, after they returned from dropping the girl off at the hospital, they stayed up, cracked open a twelve pack, and reminisced over some old family albums that they had kept in a closet these past two years. It felt good to talk about happy memories again. With photo album open and empty beer cans on the floor, Emma passed out on Jimmy's shoulder. Jimmy didn't have the heart to move her. For once she looked peaceful, and he could sacrifice a couple hours of comfort for that. He stared at a picture of him and his father standing in front of the book store; arms around each other and smiling big. He touched the image of his father and the tears welled up.
"I'm sorry Pop. You were a better man than I could ever hope to be." He bowed his head and closed his eyes tight. He didn't want to allow himself to cry. He felt a firm hand grip his right shoulder. He stopped and looked up. There stood his father, smiling down brightly at him.
"It's ok son. Are you going to get that?" With that Jimmy awoke with a start. He sat straight up on the couch and looked around bewildered. Emma sat up from the other side of the couch with blood shot eyes looking confused.
"Hey, did we sleep down here all night?"
Jimmy looked out the window that Emma had escaped out of two years ago and realized that it was daylight.
"It was a dream?" He questioned himself out loud.
"What?" Emma asked. Just then the door bell rang. They both looked at each other.
"You saw dad!" Emma proclaimed. They both jumped up and ran upstairs for the door. Emma looked out of the peephole of the front door and saw that a girl was standing there impatiently. She was short and looked as if she was of eastern Indian descent. Her hair was long and she wore it loose down her back. Emma thought to herself that she looked kinda like a hippie with her long red gauze skirt and off white cotton peasant shirt. The girl tapped her black mesh slippered foot. She stopped and looked up at the peep hole and snapped in a British accent.
"Are you going to stare at me all day or are you going to let me in?"
Emma jumped back and looked at Jimmy shocked.
"Who is it?"
Emma shook her head from side to side to answer.
"Well come on. It's bloody freezing out here! If you let me in I can tell you who I am. But, first you have to turn the handle and pull the door towards you. This will create an opening where I am able to pass across the thresh hold into your home. I have not yet mastered the art of walking through walls." The girl demanded. Emma stepped back and opened the door. The girl stepped inside and looked up at Jimmy. "Well you're a tall one aren't you? You going to get those bags or do I have to drag them in h
ere myself?" The twins looked behind her and saw two large duffle bags and a trunk on their front porch. Then they back at each other utterly bewildered.
"Uh, you did say that you would tell us who you were." Emma stammered.
"Layla. Layla Fellows. Now, you slayer, you think you could use some of that super strength to carry those bad boys in here?"
The twins were dumb struck! How the hell did she know that! Jimmy couldn't help it. He couldn't get the song Layla out of his head.
"Yes, yes, very original. No one has ever made that connection before." Layla blurted sarcastically. "Father was a Clapton fan. Go figure." She moved passed them and plopped down on the couch and sneezed. "Sorry, I'm allergic to tacky."
"Hey!" Emma defended.
"How did you do that?" Jimmy asked as he stepped in front of the beautiful yet sharp tongued intruder. "And what makes you think you are staying here?" Layla sat upright and looked back and forth at the two a little confused.
"You mean you didn't know I was coming? He didn't tell you?" They twins yet again looked at each other in confusion.
"Who?" Prodded Emma. Layla huffed and rolled her eyes.
"Lord. Your father! I told him to tell you I was coming! I told him to make sure you were home. I swear."
Jimmy and Emma's mouths dropped open slack.
"How could you have possibly spoken to him? Our FATHER has been dead for two years!" Emma shouted.
"Yes! I know! I'm not stupid! In fact it was right over there." Layla pointed to the fireplace. "And I did speak to him just last night, that's what I do. I'm a medium, or a witch or whatever you like." She smiled and then whispered. "I see dead people!" She erupted into laughter. "It kills me everytime! I love it! Good movie too."
"You're a lunatic!" Emma blurted. Jimmy stood there a aghast. He almost couldn't believe what was happening. He recalled the "dream" he had that night. His father standing there holding his shoulder asking him "are you going to get that?"
"Emma. No. She's not crazy. Remember when we woke up. You knew that I had seen Pop. I thought it was real, then I thought it was a dream. Now, I know he was really there. He may have been in my dream, but, he was really there! He told me that it was ok and to get the door." Emma stared at him with a questioning look on her face.
"You've got to be joking."
"How many times do we have crazy dreams! The slayer dreams even! Suddenly I have one where I see Pop and I'm crazy!"
"You do realize that this is a complete stranger that we are just airing all of our laundry out in front of? Let's just put an ad in the paper! 'Vampire problem? Then call The Hogan's! We'll bust n' dust those pests for a low, low rate!'"
"Emma! She read my mind! That thing about Clapton? I had that song stuck in my head! And she talked to dad!"
"I will not!" Layla suddenly objected. The twins stopped arguing and looked at her.
"Excuse me?" Emma asked. Layla was looking off into the kitchen. Jimmy and Emma looked in that direction also, but, saw nothing.
"You're daft if you think I'm doing that!" Layla continued. She looked back at the twins and rolled her eyes. "This bloke here," as she pointed to the kitchen, "wants me to go tell his girlfriend that he will never leave her and never stop loving her!" She then turned and faced the kitchen. "You're DEAD! Do you not get that? She's alive and your not! Then if you're never going to leave her what in the bloody hell are you doing here following these two around?"
"Uh Layla", Emma interjected, "there's no one there."
"Are you completely mental? Or do you not remember that not five minutes ago I told you I see dead people? I wasn't just reciting a popular line from a hit movie you know. And for the record your mother cannot believe how much you have torn up the walls in your room missy! Very, very upset, and she says you need to lay off the muscle relaxers." Jimmy chuckled. "And you sir, she says she knows what you have been doing in the book shop when no ones around!" She looked over to her left and grinned. "Duran Duran? Really?" Jimmy stood up straighter and cleared his throat.
"Why exactly do you think you are going to be staying with us?" He asked.
"Well, I don't think I know. And I'm moving in not just staying here. Your sister said I could have her old room. She's very sweet really. "
"What!" Emma yelled. "I don't know you! I don't know why you are here! Why would just let you move in and especially to me baby sister's old room!"
"Because. I am here to help you. I have some answers you have been looking for. And if you don't stop whining, your sister has authorized me to tell Jimmy about you and Brian Kelley!" Layla stood up, brushed herself off, and folded her arms across her chest.
Emma faced turned red and she quickly ran out the front door and collected Layla's things lugging them back into Shea's old room.
"What!" Jimmy yelled in amazement.
"It's a good thing I came when I did too! The dark forces are definitely at work in this hole in the ground you call a town."
"Really! Have you seen something? Some message?"
"No love it's more like what I haven't seen! Do you know that this place doesn't have one Krispy Kreme? And there's a Tractor Supply next door to a Fashion Bug! What in the bloody hell is a Fashion Bug! Does it look like a lady bug? How can you live here!" Layla stood up and wandered around the living room looking at nick nacks and blowing dust off of pictures. Every once in a while she would mutter to her self. Emma returned to the room and announced to Layla that her things were placed in Shea's room and that it was down the hall second on the right.
"I know where it is. You think the girl would give me her room without telling me about it?" She walked down the hall and disappeared.
Emma quickly jogged over to Jimmy and stood close to him.
"What in the hell is going on here? And why are we just letting her stay here?"
"Emma, she knows all that stuff! She says that she's here to help. That she has some answers for us! And besides, she's way hot!"
"Oh there we go! There is a chance that Jimmy might get laid so let's make her at home as quickly as possible!"
"By the way, Saint Emma, what about Brian Kelley?" Emma's face promptly turned red again.
"Nothing," she said," Tell her you like her shoes, chicks love that." Emma turned and walked to her room.
Jimmy scoffed and went downstairs to clean up the mess from earlier.
The shower felt rejuvenating. The hot water beating down on her face and shoulders and running down her back was a welcome pleasure. She could taste the steam as it rose from the tub and her body. Her senses started to come awake from the drunken stupor she put herself into last night. The fog was beginning to lift from her mind and she remembered looking at the pictures with Jimmy. How they laughed as they looked at pictures from Halloween. How they cried when they spoke about how much they missed those things. And then blackness.
"Guess I passed out." Emma said to herself. She opened her shampoo and began to lather her hair. It smelled of roses.
"Roses." She pondered. "I remember something about roses last night." She closed her eyes in an attempt to better focus the memory. Then she saw it, The White Woman again.
"Another dream, I had another dream. A new one?"
As she relaxed into the image more pieces came together. The white woman was very close to her. She held her index finger to her lips and shushed her. She turned and this time curled her finger to tell her to follow. They stood in a desert. Barren, completely. She stretched out her right arm and pointed off in the distance; they saw a rose spring from the sand. It was the most beautiful rose she had ever seen! And it smelled so sweet; she could smell from all the way over where she was! Emma wanted to walk over to it to touch it but the woman stopped her. She told that it wasn't her time. They continued to stand there, as they did the rose wilted. Emma felt so sad; she wanted to touch it so badly. But as soon as that rose wilted another shot up in its place! This happened several times. A rose would wilt, another would spring up. After a while, Emma noticed that each time a new rose sprang up from the scorching sand, she would be that much closer to it. The White Woman clasped Emma's hand.
"Look!" She prodded. Emma looked and saw that as one rose wilted another came up, but, the other rose had not disappeared! It remained and in fact, became radiant again. Emma smiled in awe of the two roses sharing the plot of sand.
The horizon became darker. The darkness came closer and closer, but, the roses were as radiant as ever. The darkness kept coming. Emma was afraid. She looked towards the White Woman begging her to help. But, she simply held her finger up to her lips, shushed and smiled. Emma turned back to the roses and blinked. There was a flash of light and then the desert was filled with roses! The smell was overwhelming. They were beautiful! And with that the darkness receded. The White Woman took her hand again and this time led her thru the field. She stopped after a while and stooped down. She pulled Emma with her and put her hand on one of the roses. She felt the petals; they were so soft and delicate. She reached down to pull it up and the thorns stuck her fingers. She yanked her hand back and nursed her bleeding fingers. The White Woman reached forward and wrapped Emma's hand in her skirts.
"It hurts I know. It is a difficult task. Best we leave it here and not uproot it; let it continue to bloom. After all, it is not alone anymore."
Emma came back to her senses. Doing so, she lost her balance on her left leg and fell in the tub. Soap ran into her eyes and stung.
"What does that mean?" She asked out loud. She remembered what Jimmy had said about Layla earlier. "She is her to help us. She has some answers." Would she know about this? Emma finished rinsing her hair and decided to find out for herself.
Emma put on a t-shirt and jeans and wrapped her hair up in a towel. She looked for Layla in, now her, room. She wasn't there. She walked down stairs and discovered her and Jimmy going thru some of the books dad had in that closet.
"Did you know that Layla's parents were watchers?" Jimmy asked excitedly.
"Of course I don't! I don't anything about her remember?" Emma replied. Jimmy rolled his eyes and gave her an exhausted look.
"My parents were watchers for the watcher's council in London. Unfortunately, the council was blown up two years ago. Both of my parents were there at the time. Neither one survived. I was raised on the Legacy of the Slayer, and demons and evil, blah, blah, blah. I have always had the power I have now. Luckily, my parents were who they were and knew how to help me cultivate my abilities. I had been in Cleveland assisting in setting up a new watchers association there when I got a message to come here and see you."
"A message," Emma questioned, "from who?" Layla smiled.
"You know who." She cooed. "The Guardian, or as you two call her, The White Woman." Emma and Jimmy were stunned, but, they were beginning to expect it from Layla.
"The Guardian?" Jimmy asked, "The Guardian of what?"
"Of whom you mean." Layla corrected. "She is the guardian of the Legacy; the guardian of the slayer. They looked at each other perplexed. "Have seat darlings I have something I need to show you." Layla jaunted up the stairs and the twins sat on the couch.
"Do you think this chick is for real?" Jimmy asked Emma.
"Oh now you're the one asking me this! And yes, I believe she is. I had a dream last night. A new one. I was with the White Woman, or Guardian, or what ever, and we were standing in.."
"A desert." Layla interjected. "It is very common for a slayer to meet with her, or the First Slayer in the desert. Symbolizes the harshness of this world and of the task at hand."
"Yes, it was a desert." Emma replied. She went on to describe the dream to them. Jimmy looked at her sort of hurt.
"Why didn't you tell me? I didn't have that dream!"
"It wasn't for you to have big boy. You are only meant to see what you are meant to see." Layla schooled.
"Do you know what it means?" Emma asked Layla.
"Yes I do, and I think you know too, you just haven't let yourself know it yet."
"Do you get off in speaking like super mysterious? I thought you were so blunt that you said whatever crossed your lips." Jimmy teased.
"Shut up you git or I will make sure you forget how to speak, and you will spend the rest of your life trapped in your own mind." He took it that Layla was not exaggerating.
Emma now looked at him exhaustedly. She looked back at Layla and said: " I think it means that the rose represents the slayer, but I thought there could be only in every generation. Why was there two then many, and what does it mean that it's not alone anymore?"
Layla half smiled.
"Loop holes love! A slayer did die ten years ago. But, she got better. A friend resuscitated her. But, it didn't stop the next slayer from being activated. Then that one died, but, she stayed that way. Anyway, then there was another slayer and she went bonkers! Let me tell you! Mother and Father were all a tizzy about 'The Rogue Slayer'! Then she got better! With the help of a vampire with a soul that the other slayer had boffed. Oh, but, that didn't go so well, he got himself a little happy and that was apparently too much, and he fell of the wagon and lost his soul! But, luckily his girlfriend's friend was a wicked Wicca and re ensouled him. So after the crazy one got better, she went back to help the other one avert the apocalypse, well that time anyway. So, she goes and helps the other slayer and her friend, the Wicca, take the weapon of the slayer, the scythe and uses it to make all the girls around the world who could be slayers, slayers. Therefore creating an army of slayers to fight the first evil and close the hell mouth." Layla took a deep breath and a drink of her soda. "Good Lord, don't you people have anything other than diet? This isn't even real soda!"
The twins sat there blinking trying to take everything in.
"Huh?" Emma muttered. "Rogue Slayer, vampire with a soul?"
"The vampire boffed the dead slayer? Or the one that came back to life or the crazy one?" Jimmy begged.
"And just how many apocalypses, apocalypsia, or whatever has there been?"
"What in the hell is a mouth? Do we have one? How do you get one?"
"Ok kiddies, let's not forget you have about fifty freaking dead people in here also asking me a jillion questions. You are going to make my cute little head explode. One at a time, please. OK. First. I believed you asked about the rogue slayer and the vampire with the soul. Yes a vampire has a soul. Two infact."
"The vampire has two souls?" Jimmy asked meekly.
"No you ninny! There are two vampires with souls!" the twins nodded theirs heads in understanding and then went right back to confusion. "Ok back in the late 1800's a vampire by the name of Angelus, killed a gypsy girl and was subsequently cursed with his soul. This was done so that he could feel pain for all the torturous acts he had committed. There was a loop hole though."
"I'm sensing a pattern." Emma observed.
"As well you should. Because, there is. Magic is full of them. Or full of it. Probably both, anyway, don't interrupt me again. If Angelus, now going by Angel, experienced one moment of happiness he loses that soul."
"So I take it that happened." Said Emma.
"Right my little poppet, who says slayers are stupid! Anyway, Angel meets and falls in love with the slayer of the moment Buffy Summers." The twins started to laugh.
"Now I know you're full of shit, cause who would name their kid Buffy!" Emma laughed.
"No really, her name is Buffy, it's beyond why she hasn't changed by now."
"I bet she was a cheerleader." Emma scoffed.
" Ok, quit that I need to stay focused!" Layla whipped around and pointed to the air, "And you shut up too! I don't care about your rubber ducky! So, they fall in love, they do the nasty and Angel has his "moment of happiness!"
Jimmy nodded and chuckled. He raised his hand for someone to slap it. When they ignored him he slowly and sheepishly lowered it.
"He went viscous again and then Buffy's friend cursed him with his soul again. But then Buffy had to kill him, that's another story. Anyway, then there was the crazy one. Her name was Faith. Long story short, she had issues, she was jealous, she had terrible taste in eye make-up and then she killed people and tried to help a mayor destroy humanity. But then Angel helped her find her inner fluff and she put herself into jail. She got out and helped Angel and then went to help Buffy."
"I thought you said that there were two vampires with souls?" Jimmy asked.
"Oh yeah, Spike. AKA William the Bloody. He was sired by Drusilla who was sired by Angelus. Spike fought against Buffy for years, but then some government agency put a muzzle on him and he had to help Buffy. Then SPIKE fell in love with Buffy! HA! Anyway, they had lots of hot sex, but, Buffy dumped him. He loved her so much that he traveled to Africa to go through the Demon Trial and won back his soul. So then he came back and he help Faith and Buffy close the hell mouth, dying in the process."
"I thought you said that there were STILL two vampires with souls walking around?" Emma questioned.
"There are Chatty Cathy! Let me finish! Anyway, Some how, the amulet showed up on Angel's desk and Spike came out of it! Poof there he was! Alive! So to speak! Anyway, he helped Angel with his apocalypse and that was that."
"I'm confused." Jimmy remarked.
"Good, then I have said it all correctly!" Layla proudly stated.
"There was another apocalypse?" Asked Emma.
"Oh yeah! For a while there it was like there was one every spring!" Layla mused.
"So what's a Hell Mouth? And where was it?" Jimmy asked .
Layla grabbed a chip and put it in her mouth. "Well, the one I speaking of was in California. Sunnydale to be precise. However there is another. Cleveland. That's why I was up there. That place is really a mess. Demons everywhere!"
"That explains a lot!" He said.
"A hell mouth is literally that. A mouth to hell. Or one of the hell dimensions. There are several. I here shrimp hell is the worst."
"Shrimp hell?" Emma said confused.
"Oh yeah, everything is shrimp! Kinda smells funny. And you can never get it out of your clothes!"
"So what you were saying earlier, is that there are thousands of slayers in the world now?" Jimmy posed.
"Yes. Buffy had her friend Willow, use the power of the scythe to make all of the 'potentials' actual slayers. So now, the slayer is never a lone warrior."
"Well, how come this is the first I have heard of this? I mean if it happened two years ago, shouldn't have someone contacted me?" Emma asked.
"Well, ya see, the states got a bit missed. Buffy and her gang are all over the globe looking for and training new slayers. I guess they kinda forgot about back here."
"I don't get it. You said you had something to show us." Emma eagerly asked.
"Oh yeah! A little something I brought with me from Cleveland and London." Layla reached down and produced a thick accordion file folder. "This contains some of the documentation on the people I just told you about." Layla opened the folder and pulled out a large photo. "This is a picture of Buffy and her friends, it's a couple of years old, but, nothing has changed much." She pulled out another one. "This is a photo of a sighting of Angel and Spike in Los Angeles."
"Wait a minute", Emma stopped Layla, "They're vampires right? I thought they cast no reflection."
"You really are slow aren't you? Loop holes! How many times do I have to say it! There is ALWAYS a loop hole. In this case it's something about the photo not being a reflection but a captured image. I don't know, there's some technical explanation for it."
Emma took hold of the picture of the slayer and her friends. "Eh, She doesn't look like much." Then she took the picture of the ensouled vampires. "Damn! He's hot! I can see why she her threw credibility out the window for him! I give it up to him!" She exclaimed.
"Which one love?" Layla asked.
"Both! Especially the dark one! He's all buff and broody. I seem to be attracted to ones with issues."
"Really? That one is Angel. I seem to like Spike a bit more. I think it's the hair. Trust me, he has plenty of issues, I should tell you about his mother sometime."
"Ladies please! Your killing me! I don't want to hear about my sister lusting over some undead, evil," He then looked at the picture. "Oh yeah, I can see it." Emma handed him the picture of Buffy.
"Hey! Very nice! I bet she's a," Jimmy stopped himself and looked at the two women staring at him sternly. "an incredible credit to the slayer line! Way to go! Good job. And I'm going up stairs." Jimmy proceeded to get up and head for the stairs. Layla reached up and took his arm.
"Uh Jimmy, you don't mind if I get that picture back do you?"
"Ooo. Sorry. Here ya go. Musy have slipped my mind!"
"I BET!" Teased his sister. He continued to go upstairs, a little embarrassed.
"Anyway Emma, this folder contains some bio's and other vital information about what has happened to you. Basically it gives you the information on why Buffy decided that it was time for a change in the Legacy. When you get an opportunity, this is yours." Layla handed the folder over to Emma. She ran her hand over it briefly. It hadn't all quite set in yet. Thousands of slayers? It was a relief to know that she was not the only one going through this. But, then something started to eat at her. Why couldn't have she had this great epiphany a day earlier? A year earlier? Her family would still be alive! She could probably still have her right foot!
"Oh Bloody hell! You are the most depressing person I have ever been around! You are the freaking James Bond of slayers! And Jimmy's your Q! Don't you see that? You are the only one with this limb! The only one who has all of these kick ass gadgets! Why doesn't that make you happy? I mean come on! You get half price off for pedicures! That would be enough for me right there!" Layla preached. "I'm going to take a bubble bath. Those right bastard spooks will probably follow me in there, so please, if I start yelling and cursing it's not at you or your brother. Unless I catch him peeping, then you may have to pump him full of those muscle relaxers you like so much." Layla walked off leaving Emma alone in the basement. She looked down at the file. She was curious, but, for some reason she couldn't bring herself to read through. Too much like nosing through someone else's life. She took the towel off of her head and laid back on the couch.
"An army of Slayers!" She mused "Bond, Jane Bond!" Emma laughed. She kind of liked this gig after all.
That afternoon Layla insisted on getting to know her new surroundings better. And apparently, to her this meant scouting for perspective merchants of inexpensive footwear.
The newly formed trio wandered slowly down the sidewalk of the L shaped outdoor mall.
"I know you said that this place was small, but this is quite possibly the most pathetic mall I have ever seen." Layla said sipping a soda from "Sammy's Subs".
They passed the town's one and only brand name department store and then the local discount chic clothing store. They stopped and looked in at the large picture windows to see the many clothing racks, circular and linear, full of a prism of bright colors. Jimmy looked in as well and spied a pretty sales clerk with pretty blonde hair falling around her shoulders in large ringlets. In her tight pink blouse and denim skirt she adjusted the window display right in front of him. He smoothed his hand through his hair and straightened his jacket. She felt someone staring so she looked up at him. Jimmy jerked and mustered his most suave smile and winked. The girl rolled her eyes, laughed and turned away from the window.
"I'm never getting laid again." He sighed and jogged to catch up to the girls who had continued on without him.
"I mean how do you stay sane in a place like this? You don't even have a club here do you?" Layla complained.
"What do you expect; it's the retirement capitol of Missouri. You want a good time you have to drive an hour and a half north to St. Louis." Jimmy answered.
"We may not have a club but there's a pool hall and a …." Emma trailed off. She noticed in front of the record store a group of middle school aged kids hung out. Three boys in baggy pants and dark t-shirts and a couple of girls with black make up and fishnet fingerless gloves. The boy with the shaven head played around on a skate board bumping into people with the one in with the Mohawk and the other boy with long greasy hair smoked cigarettes and laughed. The girl with short bottle blonde hair pointed out Emma to the dark headed girl and they stared intently. They caught the attention of the boys and they all studied her. Mohawk and shaved head looked at each other and shared a laugh while they pointed and continued to stare.
Emma looked down and remembered she was wearing a dark denim skirt and flip flops revealing her shiny fiberglass prosthetic. She could hear them comment how the plastic looking leg portion's coloring didn't match up with the rubber foot which over time had become stained with black marks and slowly began to yellow from wear. Emma became agitated with the attention her not so fabulous accessory was drawing. She looked down again at the limb and more and more imperfections began to catch her eye. Several red and black scuff marks around the bulbous ankle, a tiny chip no more than a fraction of an inch in size and few scrapes and scratches up the front on the shin. Jimmy, Emma and Layla got closer to the group she could hear the boys make pirate jokes and the girls scold her choice in wearing a skirt with such a disadvantage. The tops of Emma's ears burned. She could feel her blood boiling and her face turning red. She hated these kids. She wished she could just go over there, pull their pants down and spank them all in front of the world. Maybe a little humiliation would teach them a lesson. But, since she couldn't do that she would just tell them what she thought.
"WHAT! You never saw a girl with a fake leg before? How about I just take a picture so you can show it to all of your friends and that way you wouldn't have to watch TV anymore! You could just up with more and more funny little comments to make it!" She yelled as she got closer to the one with the shaven head and pointed a finger in his face.
"Careful Ted she might take her leg off and beat you with it!" The one with the Mohawk said. Ted then turned and they all laughed and celebrated his comment.
Emma fumed and rolled her eyes. She then snapped back sarcastically. "Oh, Ha ha ha! Like I haven't heard that one before! Get some class!"
"Grow a leg!" The blonde girl yelled.
"Grow a personality!" Emma spat back. Jimmy grabbed her arm and started to drag her away. The kids pointed and laughed as Jimmy and Layla pulled her into the Chinese food place.
"Let go of me!" She grabbed his hand and forced it backward.
"Hey! Remember we set ground rules about that after you broke my hand last year! Why are you arguing with a bunch of kids!" Jimmy asked rubbing his hand.
"They started it! They shouldn't have been staring like that!" Emma yelled. The older couple seated in the back of the restaurant looked up and began to say excuse me when Layla cut them off.
"Oh go back to your kung pao you old codgers; we'll be done in a minute!"
"Maybe they haven't ever seen a fake limb before; they handled it badly yes, they just means they have shitty parents! You're the adult Emma it's your responsibility to act like one! Maybe what they really wanted was to know more about it!"
"Oh yeah Jim that's it! Why? So I can tell them my sob story and they can pity me? Tell me what a brave little trooper I am?" She could feel the tears welling up in her green eyes intensifying their color. She wanted to reach up and wipe them but, that would just be admitting that the tears were there.
Layla grew weary with Emma's display. "No dear, I don't think there's anymore room left in your pity party, it's already full of you." She said flatly with her hands on her hips.
"That's real easy for you to say Ms. No-Assembly-Required!" With that, Emma flung open the door and stormed off down the sidewalk.
Maybe a little shopping would take her mind off the previous encounter she thought. Ironically shoe shopping always seemed to make her feel better. She walked into the Shoe Emporium and began searching through the rows and rows hunting for the perfect pair like she hunted down vampires. She inspected each one from the toe to the stitching. Finally, she found the perfect pair of black leather boots with a slender heel and pointed toe. Her excitement mounted as she kicked off her flip flops and sat on the stool to try on the boots. However, when she sat and looked down to start pulling on the boots, she realized what she had forgotten and her heart sank deep in her chest making her lose her breath momentarily. She had her flat foot on today. Her high heeled one had been torn up and Jimmy hadn't finished fixing the one her had been working on yet. Her frustration grew again. She gripped the boot by the foot and squeezed harder and harder until its arch snapped. Realizing what she had done she threw it to the floor, grabbed her flip flops and stormed out of the store. She stood out on the sidewalk barefoot with the world swirling around her faster and faster. People walking by happily with bags full of their purchases continued on. How nice for them that they didn't have to worry about these things that filled her mind. Too many thoughts whirled around her head making her feel unsteady on her feet. Wasn't her family's sufferings and death enough? Why did she have to a freak on top of that? Not just the missing foot with its unattractive plastic replacement, but what man wants a woman who's ten times stronger than him? Even her brother felt castrated by her abilities.
She slapped her forehead punishing her weakness for crying and took off in a sprint for the gas station across the street. She flew in and went straight to the back and locked herself in the bathroom. There she allowed herself to cry and feel the pain that the kids' words and stares had caused. She let her thoughts linger on their comments and her wallowing depression turned into rage. She spun around with her fists clenched so tight that she began to draw blood. Without thought she flung both of her arms over her head and brought them back down again on the condom and tampon dispenser mounted on the wall. It crumpled like foil making a pathetic metallic groan. She stared at what she had done and rushed out of the bathroom. She continued out of the gas station and walked home.
Luckily, Walnut Grove being the town it was, it didn't take long to get to and from anywhere. Emma walked into the house and went straight to her room. It would be dark soon and she was definitely in the mood for some violence.