Disclaimer: I own most of the characters with the rest belonging to Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy.
CHAPTER 2-ON THE RUN AND SURPRISES
"I thought you said that she was your friend, and why didn't you notice that she was a vampire when you hugged her," Maria demanded breathlessly as she pressed herself back up against the brick wall, being only slightly comforted by the heat that radiated out of it.
"Hey lay off, I'm new at this," Katy shot back with a frantic look on her face as she struggled to calm her breathing down from the insane pace that it had been on as a result of the two running from Chucky and his gang. They had tried their best to stand and fight, figuring that the vampiress that was trying to kill them was no real threat but they had only managed to get back to the door of the club when Alice had walked out, wearing a full and bloody game face, that they knew that they were in real trouble.
"We're about two seconds away from getting overrun by a gang of biker vampires, one of whom is your former friend, and you want me to take it easy," Maria exclaimed with a skeptical expression on her face as she scowled over at Katy as she wiped a bead of sweat off of her forehead.
"Okay I'll admit, we're probably screwed, although…we could always do the last thing that they'll expect," Katy replied with a nervous and hurried look on her face as she looked around at their surroundings, hoping that something would spark an idea.
"And that would be," Maria started to ask with a very sarcastic and skeptical tone to her voice before Katy made up her mind and dashed forward. "Where are you," Maria started to shout with a completely surprised look on her face and tone to her voice before Katy covered up her face and barreled through a sliding glass door, sending a shower of glass everywhere, before she fell into the couch, cut and bleeding. "Katy," Maria screamed in fear as she momentarily forgot about the gang of vampires chasing them and rushed into the house through the broken sliding door.
"I'm fine…okay maybe not," Katy started to say with a confident look on her face before she looked down and saw her injuries.
"Are you…oh man, stay there I'll be right back," Maria started to ask with a worried tone to her voice before Katy sat up and she saw all of the blood.
"It's official, this was not one of my better ideas," Katy mumbled ruefully to herself as she bit her bottom lip to keep it from quivering.
"We're lucky that no one's home, otherwise this might be a tad hard to explain," Maria said with a hurried look on her face as she tore into the bathroom, flipped the light on, and then quickly gathered up some supplies and raced back to Katy.
"What's that for," Katy asked with a pained grimace on her face as her gaze fell on a brown bottle that Maria set down on the coffee table.
"Hydrogen peroxide, it'll sting like hell but it'll make sure that your wounds are clean," Maria answered with a very serious and concerned look on her face as she finished setting things up.
"When did you become Florence Nightingale," Katy asked with an unsure look on her face as she watched a bit of blood drop from her arm and down onto the floor below.
"I did a lot of volunteer work with my mother, and I used to work part time at a hospital, you learn a lot about first aid watching the doctors and nurses work," Maria replied with a nervous tone to her voice as she dipped a washcloth into a small cup of water and turned back to Katy.
"This is going to hurt isn't it," Katy asked with a nervous and impatient look on her face as she set her jaw and waited.
"Probably…but we can't take to long, Chucky and that bitch from hell will be coming and…," Maria started to reply with a very nervous and cautious look on her face as she dabbed one of Katy's wounds with the wet washcloth.
"Who cares…they can't get us in here, this may not be our house but unlike the vampires we don't need an invitation, we can stay here until morning and then…uh then," Katy answered, at first with a flippant shrug of her shoulders that caused Maria to almost spill the cup of water, before her idea ran its course and her train of thought went off into nothingness.
"We can return to the club and hopefully get our stuff back, or at least help those people in the club," Maria said with a sad pout on her face as she unscrewed the top to the bottle of hydrogen peroxide and dabbed a little on a cotton ball.
"It'll only be a waste of time, Chucky will kill everyone in there, if we go back there tomorrow the only thing that we'll find is a crime scene, and that's if we're lucky," Katy started to reply sadly with an unfortunate frown on her face before she yelped when Maria touched one of her cuts with the cotton ball.
"I had all of my traveler's checks…I have to go back, we'll just wait for the person who lives here to come home and," Maria started to argue with an unhappy expression on her face before Katy butted in.
"They won't be coming home anytime soon, look they've got a pile of mail by the front door, they must be on vacation or something, just our luck huh," Katy interjected with a relieved tone to her voice as she leaned back in her seat and then hissed as Maria touched another one of her cuts with the cotton ball.
"Yeah, though I doubt that the neighbors will miss the broken sliding door, how do you expect to explain that, the police won't listen to us," Maria said with a very concerned look on her face as she finished dabbing at one cut with the cotton ball before she was relieved to see that some of the cuts were starting to heal on their own.
"We could always hope that the police don't notice, as for the neighbors we could patch the door up with a big piece of cardboard until we leave, hopefully by the time that anyone figured out that something was wrong we'd be long gone," Katy said with a deep in though look on her face as she went over a possible plan in her head.
"That stands about as much of a chance of succeeding as," Maria started to say back with a very skeptical tone to her voice before she caught sight of something out of the corner of her eye and lunged for the light switch, flipping it off just as a small group of vampires rounded the corner of the house next door.
"Don't make a sound," Katy whispered harshly through clenched teeth as she scooted down off of the couch and ducked behind a chair, not taking the time to worry about scratching one of her cuts up against the coarse rug. In response Maria pressed her back firmly up against the wall underneath the light switch and held her breath until the vampires walked out of sight.
Dawn came early the next morning to find both Katy and Maria sound asleep in much the same position as they had been the night before. Maria was still stationed underneath the light switch, although sometime during the night she had fallen over onto her side and was at dawn sleeping peacefully, softly snoring. Katy had fallen asleep on the rug directly in front of the couch after trying her best to stay up all night if need be. That plan had only worked for almost an hour before sleep had overtaken her. By the time that Maria would wake up Katy had been up for almost two hours, though due mostly to her nerves and her curious nature. Letting Maria sleep Katy had stiffly pushed herself up to her feet and nearly wretched at the sight of her blood stained and ripped clothes. Feeling a strong need for a shower, and the need to not look like she was a mass murderer Katy pulled off her bloody clothes until she was left standing in the hallway in her underwear, checking each of the rooms to see which one was the bathroom and if there was anything that she could wear. On the wall leading to the bathroom she found pictures of the owner of the house, a woman that looked to be in her mid twenties and quite the mousy type, reminding her greatly of Michelle. She stopped when she got to the bedroom and flipped the light on. The room was annoyingly clean and pink. Fighting back the urge to make a joke Katy walked over to the closet and pulled it open. Inside she found what she expected, a number of modest dresses and blouses with a few coats hung up at each end. Smiling to herself Katy was about to close the door and turn away when she saw what looked like a door hidden in the back of the closet. She shrugged her shoulders with a what have I got to lose look on her face before she pushed the door open and stepped through, being forced to fumble for a light switch as the room was completely dark. When she finally found the switch and flipped it on it took her several moments to take in her surroundings. The medium sized room looked a lot like some of the private rooms that Katy had seen at several of the clubs that she had danced in while on the road with Holly and Jamie. Part of the room looked like a club stage complete with pole, flashing lights, and several chairs. The rest of the room looked like it was set up to restrain someone, with chains and handcuffs strewn about.
"It's always the quiet ones," Katy mumbled to herself with an impressed smirk on her face before she noticed a set of drawers set into the wall. When she pulled the first two open she discovered that they were filled with costumes, much the same that she had worn back at The Orange Crush. The third drawer contained all sorts of swimsuits, most of which leaving little to the imagination. The last drawer in that row was full of lingerie, much of which was like what Katy was used to wearing. After checking the sizes Katy smiled to herself, gathered up what she needed, and headed off into the bathroom.
"There you are Katy I…what are you doing, those aren't your clothes," Maria started to ask with a sleepy look on her face, after having gotten up only a few moments earlier, before her eyes adjusted to the low amount of light in the house and she saw what Katy was wearing. On top she wore a simple white tank top with spaghetti straps that did their best to cover up the dark crimson and black shades of her bra underneath. Hung low at her waist Katy had pulled on a pair of very short cut off jean shorts, leaving them low enough to show off the thong that she had found to go with them and accentuating her long legs. She topped it all off with a pair of sunglasses that although not looking expensive completed the look perfectly. Her hair was still very damp from the shower and the cuts that she had received from crashing through the sliding door were almost completely healed, with only a few light purple bruises remaining.
"Calm down, my clothes were ripped and all bloody, I needed a shower, I'm only going to borrow these until we can get our stuff back if Chucky didn't take it with him last night, when we get our stuff I'll return all of this I swear," Katy said with a skittish and nervous tone to her voice as she walked into the living room and sat down in one of the chairs, crossing her legs and leaning back, staring up at the ceiling and yawning deeply.
"That's just…just," Maria stammered out with an overwhelmed expression on her face as she shook her head and tried to remain calm before Katy interjected.
"Not what we had planned…I know, but it's what we got, so unless you're thinking about walking around looking like that you should take a shower while you have the chance and find something to wear, with any luck we'll be back here in an hour and leave a little money for the window before heading to campus," Katy interrupted with a bored tone to her voice as she slid the sunglasses down on her nose a bit until she could look over at Maria without having to look through the sunglasses.
"I…fine, but I just want it on record that I do not agree with any of this," Maria said softly as she started to argue but then though what would be the use and threw up her hands in defeat before heading off to the bathroom. While Maria took her shower and got ready Katy got bored and flipped on the television. She hoped not to see anything about the attack at the club the night before and breathed a large sigh of relief when all of the local morning news shows said nothing about it. She was looking for more news shows when she happened upon a movie channel and stopped immediately when she realized that the movie that was playing was Ghost, one of her favorite movies. She soon became lost in the story, letting a few tears slip out during the death scene and then nearly shoving her fist through the screen when the murderer snuck into the apartment. She was nearly to her favorite part when Maria reentered the room, dressed much more conservatively than Katy. She wore a light blue shirt that used to have something emblazoned across the chest but it had long since been worn away with a pair of knee length jeans that looked to be about a size to small and only semi comfortable. Topping it all off was a pair of cheap sandals that Maria had found in the corner of the closet.
"About time, I was beginning to think that you'd fallen asleep in there," Katy said with a sarcastic smile on her face as she quickly shut the television off and stood up.
"I still don't like this, but I have to admit that the shower felt so good, now can we get our stuff back before we get into trouble," Maria stated with at first a relieved smile on her face before her look changed to one of impatience.
"Well luckily it isn't to far so we can walk there and the club won't open again until tonight if at all so there shouldn't be anyone there, that is unless Chucky and that slutty bitch are waiting for us," Katy said with a resolved tone to her voice at first before it grew bitter towards the end as she and Maria made their way out of the house.
"I just hope that the stench isn't to bad, I hate the smell of dead bodies," Maria said back with a slightly sickly look on her face as she and Katy ducked behind a fence and made their way to an alley behind the houses before they made their way back to the club.
They lay there haphazardly all over the club, patrons and dancers alike. Chucky and his clan hadn't left anyone alive. The walls of the club were bathed in blood and guts, creating a smell that would remain with Katy for the rest of her life. More than once Maria had to step outside to keep from throwing up and by the time that she had finally been able to steel her stomach well enough Katy had made her way back into the dressing room, carefully picking her way through the clutter as each and every one of the mirrors had been shattered and sharp shards of glass were everywhere.
"Found our stuff yet," Maria asked with a sour look on her face as she carefully stepped back into the dressing room and looked over at Katy, who was crouching down on the ground beside one of the obviously dead dancers, two bite marks clearly visible on the side of her neck.
"Look at this, she can't be more than what…eighteen, she should have been home…or at school, not here, not last night," Katy said very softly with a very sad and guilty look on her face before she wiped away a few tears.
"This wasn't our fault Katy, as horrible as it was we did not cause this, we were just in the wrong place at the wrong time," Maria said with a very firm and clear tone to her voice as she made her way across the room towards Katy.
"Maybe, but how many of these people didn't have to die, how many could we have saved if I had been able to tell that Alice was a vampire, or Chucky for that matter," Katy sadly said back with a defeated look in her eyes as she reached down and as gently as possible closed the young dead woman's eyes forever.
"Who knows, we all make mistakes Katy, we either learn from them or are consumed by them, and I for one think that you're far to strong to be consumed by this, you're destined for bigger and brighter things than this," Maria said with a hopefully supportive tone to her voice as she bent over slightly and laid a hand on Katy's shoulder.
"You sure about that, you sure that I'm not just supposed to be," Katy started to argue with an unhappy scowl on her face before she noticed something bright and shiny amongst one of the piles of dust under the young woman's body.
"You're not supposed to be what," Maria asked with a confused look on her face after several moments of silence while she waited for Katy to complete her question.
"Guess they really got rowdy last night look, they must have started staking each other…wonder what this is," Katy said with a concerned look on her face as she fished out the shiny object out from under the woman's body and noticed that it was a necklace with an odd shaped pendant hanging from it.
"Looks like a necklace," Maria said with a curious look on her face as she squatted down beside Katy and stared intently at the necklace.
"I can see that, I don't recognize this symbol though, wonder whose it is," Katy grumbled with a slightly angry scowl on her face as she laid the pendant flat in her hand and was surprised when it felt warm to the touch with almost an electric current running through it that was only strong enough to make the part of Katy's palm that it touched go numb after a few moments of holding it.
"Maybe we should check around and see if we can find any more necklaces similar to this one, maybe even find our luggage to," Maria said with a helpful look on her face as she started to stand up before both young women were nearly startled to death by a loud scream that split the air.
END OF CHAPTER 2
P.S.-Just a quick question, in this story should I have Katy continue to dance, and should Maria end up getting into the act(solo or along with Katy).