Chapter Ten

Always Trust the Sassy British Girl

Emma flipped through the translated prophecy book. She remembered something from her ordeal about "The Arm must be severed." She somehow knew that they weren't actually talking about someone's arm. But, she couldn't be sure. The same nagging feeling also prompted her to write down what she could remember. But, when she finished all it said over and over again was. "The Inanna! The Empty One, Everlasting Hunger. The Arm must be severed!" Over and over again through out an entire notebook. She fought to put together the fragments from her violent experience.

"Goddamn comic book!" She mumbled to herself. "Why the hell couldn't they just have his some books in their sock drawer like normal parents?"

"Because they weren't normal parents. They had seceded from the Watcher's Council. Probably, because you were a potential slayer, and they knew what that would mean if you were ever called. And probably also because, a slayer had never had a twin! They knew what that would mean for the two of you. Research and testing, the Council very well may have intended to take you from your parents 'for the greater good' of course." Interjected Layla. She hobbled towards Emma who sat Indian style on the floor of the living room. "And being that they left the Council with a potential slayer and her twin brother, whom had a mystical connection, they would have been sought after by the other Watcher's and would have wanted to stay as hidden as possible. Therefore, the extreme lengths they took in hiding their family knowledge."

Emma furrowed her brows and contemplated the idea. It made sense. Perfect sense actually. They wanted a happy, normal family.

"But, why this way? I mean it almost killed us! Shouldn't it be 'rigged' to know who we were?" Emma posed.

"That's true, but what you are forgetting is the volume of information here. It only opened when you both touch the book and the key, so it 'knew' who you were. What I believe your missing is, you two were never meant to have all of that in your heads."

"Yeah, you said that before you passed out. What do you mean by that?"

"There are two options here that we need to look into. One, maybe your entire family is supposed to present to 'share' the load. But, since they are obviously not around, it was too much for the two of you to handle. Or option number two. This is what I would do, and what I think your parents thought of incase of a situation just like this; there could be a sort of template around here that the information could be transferred to. That way it would be accessible only to you, but it also wouldn't be punching a bleeding hole in your noggins." Layla explained.

Suddenly, a crash came from the bathroom down the hall followed by a thud. The girls perked up and looked in that direction.

"Are you ok in there?" Emma asked.

"Yeah fine." Jimmy answered back in a cracking voice.

"Are you sure? Did you break anything? I swear if you broke my jewelry dish…!"

"PLEASE, JUST DON'T TALK TO ME RIGHT NOW!" He yelled stuttering.

Emma and Layla looked back at each other and shrugged. Layla continued.

"Do you see what I am saying? Think, do you remember anything in your parents wills, anything at all that could be associated with this?"

Emma stared off into space and thought hard. She closed her eyes and tried to picture the words themselves. Nothing.

"No, the only things I can remember were the house and estate, and the book shop." They stared at each other thoughtfully from across the room. Layla leaned back on the flowered couch and Emma rested back on her haunches on the cushy blue carpet.

"Emma, what's the name of your book shop? I don't believe I ever caught it. Even when I was there, I didn't bother to read the sign."

"Oh it's stupid really. It's not exactly the kind of name that really makes you think, 'hey, this must be a book store'. 'Hogan's Vault'." Emma raised her hands in the air as she announced the name.

"Yeah, the only people we get anymore are ones who think that we're some sort of storage facility." Jimmy walked casually in the room and sat in the brown corduroy easy chair next to the kitchen doorway. He smiled at Layla and she starred back at him with eyes wide.

"Blow me!" She exclaimed.

"What?" He asked awkwardly, hoping she didn't realize what he had been doing. "I think you've got that backwards!"

"What? No." Said Layla shaking her head. She whipped back around and looked back at Emma. "We need to get to that shop!" She exclaimed.

"If you just tell me what book you need I can go get it for you, you should probably stay off of your leg for a while." Jimmy offered.

"No, I think the WHOLE shop could be the template!" Layla justified.

"Oh my god! Yes! Hogan's VAULT! Why didn't I think of that?" Proclaimed Emma. Jimmy and Layla both rolled their heads towards her and raised their brows.

"Like I said before, Slayer no read good, Slayer like hit!" Layla grumbled mockingly. This received a snort and a chuckle from Jimmy. Emma flashed a menacing glare, letting him know she was not amused.

"You take yourself too seriously woman." Jimmy turned and headed for the basement. "I'll go get the comic book and the key; you wanna help her into the truck?"

"Oh, I'll be fine; I just didn't have the strength earlier to heal myself. I think I can manage now." The twins were once again astonished by the ever surprising Layla.

"You can honestly do that?" Emma asked dumbfounded.

"Well, yeah. Any witch can if they have been practicing long enough."

"Can you heal other people?" The question came from Jimmy who had stopped in the door way to the basement.

Layla rolled her eyes. "Of course I can, if I can heal myself obviously I can heal others, it's just not easy though. It takes a great deal of energy and concentration. So, do you mind, you two get what you need and I need a few minutes to meditate. By the way", she started as she realized she was only in her shirt and cotton underwear, "where's my skirt?"

An hour later, the group pulled up to the shop in Jimmy's truck. After Jimmy got out, he chivalrously lifted her down from the high perch of the cab. Meanwhile on the other side of the truck, Emma lost her footing attempting to lower herself, slipped on the curb and dropped to the sidewalk unseen by the other two. She directly jumped back to her feet and commenced to scold her brother for his choice in vehicles.

"Jimmy, why in the hell do you have to have such a huge ass truck? It's not even practical to have something so freakin' high off of the ground!" He just shook his head and walked passed her.

The sun was high and bright. People occupied the sidewalks of downtown Walnut Grove. They passed from dress shops to cafes to the bargain stores and drug store. A happy young couple walked arm and arm out of the First State Bank and into the local children's consignment clothing store. Everywhere Emma spied happiness and contentment. Even her brother and the new addition to their household seemed to sparking some new romance. "Not me." She thought to herself. "Never me." It was something she would never admit to anyone, even her brother. Everyday she tortured herself with thought of rejection and loneliness. She felt that even if she did meet someone who accepted her physical appearance, namely her fabulous plastic accessory, she would still question their moral code in whether or not they had some sick amputee fetish they looked to fulfill with her. Or, maybe they would just be so desperate that would have to screw the crippled chick. "And if that doesn't scare off the guys, my freakish, underground super hero life will!" Even her brother was uncomfortable with her Slayer abilities and felt completely emasculated by it. Always alone. She was destined to lead an empty existence. There was no one else to share it with other than her brother, who, although she teased him regularly otherwise, was destined to make some lucky girl very happy and leave his tortured soul sister all alone to her vices. And, by the looks of it, he may have already begun to head down that road with the lovely, but, feisty Layla. She felt her heart skip and beat and then sink. "Everyone but me. Alone in the crowd. That's it, forever alone in a crowd." She let everyone around think she was so strong, that she was so brave and tough. When the reality was, she felt broken inside, like her colors were fading and had been ever since the night she lost the majority of her family and her foot. Normality had been lost to her forever that night. The only thing that helped was the slaying. It was a release of all of her anger and frustration at the hand fate had dealt to her. Every kick, every jab, every vamp that erupted into a cloud of dust was every bit as therapeutic as an hour long session with a shrink. But, the problem was, when the job was done and the vamp was dust, there was nothing left to punch or hurt but herself. That's why she took the pills every night. To quiet the evil little voices in her head that tore her apart inside. She knew that eventually she wouldn't be able to take it anymore, and she would explode all over everyone. "Like soda." She thought. "Like a shaken can of soda, I'll open up and spill over everywhere."

She had been standing there a while starring off into the busy street, shaking her hand and chewing on her lip. Jimmy had seen her do this many times. He had tried to pick her brain when she went into her silent revelry, but, she had put up a wall; hiding whatever she was thinking from the only person in the world she ever even spoke more than a sentence to.

"Em, you coming in or do you want me to bring you a chair?" She looked up sharply as if she hadn't even realized that any time had passed at all.

"Uh yeah, bring me a chair and I will keep watch at the door, you know make sure no one comes in!"

"Yeah, like we have any problems with people actually coming in here!" Jimmy joked. She smiled back at him. He could tell she had done so to appease him. So he would ask what she was thinking about. He smiled back to let her know he wouldn't bother her about it this time. She entered the store and walked passed him to the office where Layla had disappeared too. He lingered by the shelves of books; slowly running his index finger down the spine of every other book. Memories of him and his sisters playing hide and seek and chasing each other around the shelves passed through his mind. He missed that. He missed Shea. She would be seventeen now if she were alive. "No use thinking on that now." He spoke to himself. "If we don't stop what is coming, there will be many more kids who won't see seventeen."

"Jimmy, come here! We need you for this!" It was Layla. He would fly if he could just to get there sooner. Whatever it took to get to her, that's what he would do. He had never met anyone like this girl. She was smart, funny, lively, not to mention Powerful, and damn gorgeous too! And the best of it all, she pretty much has waved the go signal in Jim's direction! If Emma hadn't walked in the room, she would planted one right on him! That was ok though. The anticipation and suspense of what was going to happen next and when that might be was intoxicating! It was like Christmas! The waiting and waiting for Christmas day, the staying up all night imagining what would be under the tree in the morning and desperately trying make time speed up so you could open them now! That's what it was like for him. The waiting was Christmas and she was the present. He stopped and pondered the idea of Layla being a gift, and that led to her being a wrapped gift and of course that led to her wearing nothing but a large bow, and then that obviously led to the Unwrapping and a nude Layla. It seemed another bathroom break was imminent, when once again she called for him to make himself present, but this time it was not so pleasant.

"Stop fanny around and get your arse in here!"

Jimmy moved himself from his spontaneous day dream and hurried to the office behind the cash counter.

"Did you get lost Jimbo? Or did you spuriously decide to catch up on some light reading?" She teased.

"Well, won't be taking that bathroom break now." He mumbled.

"What was that?" She asked. Emma had heard it, and, slack jawed, snorted and covered her mouth in attempt to stop her laughter. Jimmy looked at her sternly.

"You two are barmy. You know that?" Layla tried to accuse, but, to no avail; the twins had no idea what she was saying. Layla placed the Wonder Woman comic on the large desk in front of her and the silver Watcher key next to it. "Ok Wonder Twins activate!" She commanded. The siblings looked at her in dismayed confusion.

"Wonder what what?" Emma asked.

"You know the super hero brother and sister twins, with the rings and the 'Wonder Twins Activate' and then there was morphing. Oh come on! You two prats can yammer on about Star Trek and various other geeky prerequisites, but, I can't make one comment about an actually popular children's Saturday morning serial? And you two don't even know what I am talking about?"

"Layla, we NEVER know what you are talking about!" Emma clarified.

"It's not my fault you people don't understand proper English in this country! Now, belt up so we can suss this out."

Emma plopped down in the over sized leather desk chair and looked down at the comic.

"Ok, we touched the key to it and then we both were touching the book right?" Emma asked aloud. Jimmy reached for it just as she was holding it she quickly yanked her hands away. "Alright can we wait until we know exactly what to do, because I really don't want my head to implode this time?" Jimmy retrieved his hand as well and they both looked at Layla.

"Well I'm not going to touch it." Layla pondered for a moment. "Normally, when working with templates, it already has the information stored; it's just a matter of calling it up. But this is very different. Hmm, maybe, maybe when you two opened it earlier, it simply had no where else to go, so it tried to transfer to you directly. And the reason you were able to spit out facts about this Blood Goddess is because that is what was on your mind when you opened it. So this time, when you open it, it should be able to automatically transfer to it's original destination." Layla folder her arms pleased with herself.

"Well, that's just great Layla. Very astute. But, where exactly are we to FIND the original destination?" Emma sassed.

Layla rolled her eyes. "I swear, Slayers! Don't you remember? I said that the whole shop could be the template! You could very well pick up any book and be able to call up what ever it is you are looking for!"

"Alright, then lets give this another try. If my head goes wonky again, than you better be sure that you can get your ass back to the other side of the pond, cause I'll kill you!" Emma threatened.

Layla rolled her eyes.

Jimmy squatted near his sister and together they placed their hands on the comic and held the key in the other. They all three braced themselves, but this time the book simply glowed and then returned to normal. Jimmy slowly opened one of his clenched eyes and peeked around. Emma did the same and then just opened them completely and relaxed.

"Did it work?" She asked

"I don't know." Answered Layla as she took looked around. "It's your shop, so you see anything different?" Jimmy stood up and walked into the main shop.

"Well, you said that we should be able to just grab a book." He walked over to the first shelf and selected a copy of The Odyssey and opened it. "The Slayer Legacy." He commanded. "That's simple enough, right?" He asked the on looking girls. Nothing happened. He shut the book and held it up.

"It didn't work." He grumbled. "What am I supposed to say, PLEASE!" Emma walked over to him, took the book and inspected it. Jimmy looked to his left in frustration, when something caught his eye. Way in the back of the store, he saw a cabinet. He had never seen this cabinet before.

"Emma, look. What's that?" He pointed at tall mahogany armoire. She looked up and squinted her eyes.

"I don't know. I've never seen that before." The all three walked to the back and stood before the new furniture piece.

"Open it dammit! I hate suspense!" Layla had clenched her fists and was absolutely alive with anticipation.

Emma was the first to try it out. She reached forward and turned the tarnished metal knobs and the doors creaked open. There, by itself, was a large leather bound book. It looked as if it were four inches thick at least! Emma had to use both hands to lift it out of the shelf. She opened it and allowed it to lie across her forearms. All the pages were pure, pristine, white, and completely blank.

"Now what?" Emma asked Layla.

"Ask for something!" She instructed anxiously.

"Inanna, the Blood Goddess." Emma spoke the words clearly and precisely. Immediately, the pages began to fill, line after line. The twins' eyes grew with amazement. Layla simply smile.

"I told you! There is your template!"