Running Would Be Good
Thinking was never my strong suit. I've avoided doing it for years. Made my life easier. Lately I've spent too much time thinking in my opinion. However I don't think I'm done yet.
I've been feeling awkward for years also and I've got a feeling that I'm not going to leave those moments behind either.
"So." I said shuffling my feet. It was nine o'clock and I was doing my damndest to save the world. Meaning I'd showed up to patrol the few deader than most cemeteries that Buffy and Giles felt comfortable letting Willow and me do our bumbling best. We mostly get in Buffy's way and unless she is really in the need of backup, or someone to gossip with, the two of them try and keep us from risking our necks. But a whole town is a lot of area for one person, no matter how fast or destined, to cover. At least that's one of our arguments. Logic makes Giles do that rub-y thing with his glasses.
Then there's the trouble that comes with the number of night hours in a day, and our inability to go without sleep. We patrol mostly the happy hour of vamp activity around the year. That changes with the different sunset times as the seasons turn. Even then that leaves a lot of hours when we just can't be on patrol. Giles never exactly laid it out for us, he just said this was how it was done, but I figure we strike in the middle hours because by then the vamps and demons alike are *eating* their victims instead of picking them or basking in the afterglow. Every so often we rotate the hours but mostly we stick to happy hour.
All that reckoning of mine was well and good but in the end it boiled down to me standing a few feet from said Willow a couple hours after sunset as she fidgeted. Feeling like I'd just confessed to killing her dog, which was ridiculous because she'd never been allowed to own a pet in her life despite all the pleading and begging hours we'd put into it as a kids.
"So." Willow echoed me and I had a brief flash back to when we were kids and play 'So what do you wantta do?' 'I don't know what do you wantta do?' Furtively she glanced at me then at the woods behind me. Falling Pines cemetery was aptly named, for once, cause of its surrounding pine trees. Only about a hundred graves filled its lot. I remember that it opened when I was around five because one of my neighbors, Mr. Terju, was the first to be buried here.
Frustration filled me. ^She's my best friend for heaven's sake!^ I braced myself and looked right at Willow. "I don't know about you but I wanna find something and kill it."
Willow snorted and smacked my left arm. "You are such a guy." Her smile was teasing and I felt my shoulders straighten as the weirdness between us evaporated.
"Glad you think so. I was starting to worry with all the femme fatales hanging around me." I shot back hoping silently that she could continue her verbal assaults. Because if we could still tease each other than we were still friends, she never could make even mock swipes at people that she didn't feel comfortable with.
She frowned slightly in consideration. "What about Giles?" She started walking towards the center of the graveyard, probably remembering why we were actually here. I trotted to catch up to her.
"Giles so doesn't count." I called shaking my head. When I was at her side I slowed to match her leisurely walk.
She gave me a shocked look then smiled again. "I'm going to tell him you said that." She hit my arm again.
I flinched in fake terror and raised my arms as if to ward her off still walking at her side. "Oh no, anything but that!" I smiled and bumped her hip. Willow stumbled slightly after she regained her balance she turned and glared at me. Then her eyes bugged out and her mouth dropped open. ^That's the oldest- *Crap*.^ I snapped around and gulped. There were five very pissed, very hungry, looking vampires looking at us like they were aging seniors and we were the meals on wheels. They were scraggly, longhaired, and dirty. I'd never seen such desperate looking vamps. They were all guys and dimly from deep inside I realized what they were. They were a rogue bachelor band, thrown out of their group because of scarcity of prey or because change in leadership led to their disfavor, starving and with nothing left to lose they would attack anything that looked like food.
"Willow." I whispered out of the side of my mouth and reached my hand back. Hers slipped into mine feeling damp and small. "Run."
Three seconds wasted turning around. Two seconds lost getting up momentum. A howl spilt the air at six and I stopped keeping a mental tally and put a little more speed into my running. The hunt was on. Part of me was happy with my accurate analysis of the situation but the rest of me wanted to stay in one piece and didn't give a damn that I knew the pride hierarchy that was going to cause my ingestion.
Falling Pines is basically a big open field with headstones sticking up like knee knockers, not the best place to try and outrun a pack of slobbering vampires who can almost pace a car as it is. When the hand on the back of my jacket dragged me away from Willow and threw me to the ground I discovered another disadvantage as my head connected with a stone. Loving daughter flashed before my eyes. Slightly dazed and tasting dirt I grabbed the stake from the small of my back. Laying down on this after school job was not good for life expectancy. I rolled so I was face up again surprising the vampire- a pale hollow cheeked shaggy haired blonde who hadn't seen the right end of a toothbrush in far too long judging by his yellow teeth- that had decided I looked nummy and didn't want to share.
I blinked and coughed trying to get the dust out of my lungs. ^That was* really* cliché.^ I shook off my shock and completed the roll to my feet. Ex-Mr. Eternal Life's buddy was immediately on me and I went back to the ground. There was a burst of pain from the hip on my right side and the wind was knocked out of me. The vamp half got off me, smirked, then started raining blows on my torso. Judging by muscle mass, the look of sheer brainlessness, and remnants of a military style haircut my current opponent was a football player before his death. ^Definitely fights like one.^
I gasped as a particularly nasty blow made ended with a crunch and a sharp stinging pain on my side joined the rest of the throbbing pain of my injuries. However I smirked when the Jock from Hell shrieked in pain and clutched his bubbling hand. Stiffly but with ease that I still found slightly disturbing I thrust the stake that I had made sure not to drop during our scuffle into his chest.
Wheezing I sat up. "That'll teach you to play with your food." I told the dust barely showing on my red shirt. Then reached into it to remove the remains of holy water bottle from my now soggy pocket wincing a little as one of pieces came out of me as well leaving a fairly good-sized hole in the fabric. "Damn and I liked this shirt." Looking up I scrambled to my feet at the sight of Willow holding off two vamps with a cross.
Thinking was never my strong suit. I've avoided doing it for years. Made my life easier. Lately I've spent too much time thinking in my opinion. However I don't think I'm done yet.
I've been feeling awkward for years also and I've got a feeling that I'm not going to leave those moments behind either.
"So." I said shuffling my feet. It was nine o'clock and I was doing my damndest to save the world. Meaning I'd showed up to patrol the few deader than most cemeteries that Buffy and Giles felt comfortable letting Willow and me do our bumbling best. We mostly get in Buffy's way and unless she is really in the need of backup, or someone to gossip with, the two of them try and keep us from risking our necks. But a whole town is a lot of area for one person, no matter how fast or destined, to cover. At least that's one of our arguments. Logic makes Giles do that rub-y thing with his glasses.
Then there's the trouble that comes with the number of night hours in a day, and our inability to go without sleep. We patrol mostly the happy hour of vamp activity around the year. That changes with the different sunset times as the seasons turn. Even then that leaves a lot of hours when we just can't be on patrol. Giles never exactly laid it out for us, he just said this was how it was done, but I figure we strike in the middle hours because by then the vamps and demons alike are *eating* their victims instead of picking them or basking in the afterglow. Every so often we rotate the hours but mostly we stick to happy hour.
All that reckoning of mine was well and good but in the end it boiled down to me standing a few feet from said Willow a couple hours after sunset as she fidgeted. Feeling like I'd just confessed to killing her dog, which was ridiculous because she'd never been allowed to own a pet in her life despite all the pleading and begging hours we'd put into it as a kids.
"So." Willow echoed me and I had a brief flash back to when we were kids and play 'So what do you wantta do?' 'I don't know what do you wantta do?' Furtively she glanced at me then at the woods behind me. Falling Pines cemetery was aptly named, for once, cause of its surrounding pine trees. Only about a hundred graves filled its lot. I remember that it opened when I was around five because one of my neighbors, Mr. Terju, was the first to be buried here.
Frustration filled me. ^She's my best friend for heaven's sake!^ I braced myself and looked right at Willow. "I don't know about you but I wanna find something and kill it."
Willow snorted and smacked my left arm. "You are such a guy." Her smile was teasing and I felt my shoulders straighten as the weirdness between us evaporated.
"Glad you think so. I was starting to worry with all the femme fatales hanging around me." I shot back hoping silently that she could continue her verbal assaults. Because if we could still tease each other than we were still friends, she never could make even mock swipes at people that she didn't feel comfortable with.
She frowned slightly in consideration. "What about Giles?" She started walking towards the center of the graveyard, probably remembering why we were actually here. I trotted to catch up to her.
"Giles so doesn't count." I called shaking my head. When I was at her side I slowed to match her leisurely walk.
She gave me a shocked look then smiled again. "I'm going to tell him you said that." She hit my arm again.
I flinched in fake terror and raised my arms as if to ward her off still walking at her side. "Oh no, anything but that!" I smiled and bumped her hip. Willow stumbled slightly after she regained her balance she turned and glared at me. Then her eyes bugged out and her mouth dropped open. ^That's the oldest- *Crap*.^ I snapped around and gulped. There were five very pissed, very hungry, looking vampires looking at us like they were aging seniors and we were the meals on wheels. They were scraggly, longhaired, and dirty. I'd never seen such desperate looking vamps. They were all guys and dimly from deep inside I realized what they were. They were a rogue bachelor band, thrown out of their group because of scarcity of prey or because change in leadership led to their disfavor, starving and with nothing left to lose they would attack anything that looked like food.
"Willow." I whispered out of the side of my mouth and reached my hand back. Hers slipped into mine feeling damp and small. "Run."
Three seconds wasted turning around. Two seconds lost getting up momentum. A howl spilt the air at six and I stopped keeping a mental tally and put a little more speed into my running. The hunt was on. Part of me was happy with my accurate analysis of the situation but the rest of me wanted to stay in one piece and didn't give a damn that I knew the pride hierarchy that was going to cause my ingestion.
Falling Pines is basically a big open field with headstones sticking up like knee knockers, not the best place to try and outrun a pack of slobbering vampires who can almost pace a car as it is. When the hand on the back of my jacket dragged me away from Willow and threw me to the ground I discovered another disadvantage as my head connected with a stone. Loving daughter flashed before my eyes. Slightly dazed and tasting dirt I grabbed the stake from the small of my back. Laying down on this after school job was not good for life expectancy. I rolled so I was face up again surprising the vampire- a pale hollow cheeked shaggy haired blonde who hadn't seen the right end of a toothbrush in far too long judging by his yellow teeth- that had decided I looked nummy and didn't want to share.
I blinked and coughed trying to get the dust out of my lungs. ^That was* really* cliché.^ I shook off my shock and completed the roll to my feet. Ex-Mr. Eternal Life's buddy was immediately on me and I went back to the ground. There was a burst of pain from the hip on my right side and the wind was knocked out of me. The vamp half got off me, smirked, then started raining blows on my torso. Judging by muscle mass, the look of sheer brainlessness, and remnants of a military style haircut my current opponent was a football player before his death. ^Definitely fights like one.^
I gasped as a particularly nasty blow made ended with a crunch and a sharp stinging pain on my side joined the rest of the throbbing pain of my injuries. However I smirked when the Jock from Hell shrieked in pain and clutched his bubbling hand. Stiffly but with ease that I still found slightly disturbing I thrust the stake that I had made sure not to drop during our scuffle into his chest.
Wheezing I sat up. "That'll teach you to play with your food." I told the dust barely showing on my red shirt. Then reached into it to remove the remains of holy water bottle from my now soggy pocket wincing a little as one of pieces came out of me as well leaving a fairly good-sized hole in the fabric. "Damn and I liked this shirt." Looking up I scrambled to my feet at the sight of Willow holding off two vamps with a cross.