With her elbow leant on the edge of the door, her head nonchalantly rested on her hand and her gaze staring at the road in front of her, it would have been easy to think that Faith had fallen asleep. But her eyes were opened wide. And the car was going its road straight.
A strident beep shattered the deep silence and the gauge pointing out a next lack of gas switched on. Faith abruptly sat up to consider the state of the gauge, then turned to Tara. She had not moved at all.
Faith's attention returned to the indicators in front of her and she winced.
"Looks like I'm gonna have to find a gas station" she grumbled for herself.
She tried to remember when she had seen a road sign pointing out the next petrol station for the last time and regretted to have spent the last hour too much absorbed in her own world to pay attention to the one scrolling under her absent gaze.
She was about to curse this endless road and the arid view as far as the eye can see which encircled her when her protests died on her lips when she saw in the distance the characteristic lights of a gas station.
Faith let out a sigh of relief and relaxed in her seat once again, the time for the car to cross the last kilometers separating her from her goal.
Save for the luminous sign hung above the road that Faith had seen in the distance, the petrol station was plunged into complete darkness. It was tiny, composed only of two gasoline pumps and an unequal soiled small parking.
Faith stopped the car in front of one of the pumps and switched the engine off. She opened the door and enjoyed the evening's air she inspired at the top of her lungs. Faith dragged herself out from the vehicle and stretched herself outside. After spending the last hours sat in the car, the Slayer found this break particularly welcome. She walked some steps to stretch her tightened legs and the parking lot gravels squeaked under her feet.
After several minutes of stretching exercises and comings and goings in the only light of the moon and stars, Faith came back towards the car and by-passed it. She found her credit card in the pocket of her blue jeans and put it in the machine and composed her code. Then she opened the tank and was going to seize the pistol when she was surprised to notice through the passenger window that Tara's eyes were wide-opened. Faith's hand moved from the handle of the pistol to the door's one and she opened without warning.
"You should get out to get some fresh air, Blondie" She said in a monotonous tone she tried to sound cheerful. "It'll do you some good to move a little. I bet you feel pain everywhere after being so curled up all this time"
Faith tried to add a frank smile on her face but her nice try met hardly a reaction: Tara just blankly looked at her. Faith sighed with boredom but however insisted.
"Tara, you should get out and go around the time I take some gas."
Tara answered nothing at first and wrapped her arms around herself in a gesture of protection. Then she turned half to the outside and put her feet down on the ground. But she did not move more. Faith waited some seconds and seeing that the witch still did not get up, she sighed deeply and seized boldly one of Tara's arms to put her standing. The witch allowed her to do so, and once out of the car, freed herself from the Slayer's grip.
"Where… where are we?" She asked in a halting tone as her eyes traveled on her surroundings.
Faith shrugged to show she didn't know and took back the pistol she planted in the tank of the car.
"Don't know" she answered simply. "In a lost gas station, on a lost road"
Tara nodded her head gravely, obviously contenting herself with this answer and moved away from the dark-haired Slayer who looked at her for an instant, before pressing firmly on the handle of the pistol.
"Well, go for a walk" She grumbled while turning to the digits unwinding on the pump. « Don't go too far" she added more loudly to the witch.
Tara did not turn around, nor answered and nothing could tell Faith if the young woman had recorded her advice. The Slayer sighed once again and undertook to alternate to watch after the filling of the tank and to the witch.
When price and number of distributed gallons shown on the screen of the pump told her that she had just filled nearly half of the tank, Faith stopped the distribution and put the pistol back in place.
"20 dollars " She grumbled in a low voice. « Well, will be ok for the time being. A Slayer has to eat » she commented for herself.
Faith put the credit card back in her pocket then closed again the tank, before her eyes returned on Tara, which had frozen some feet farther and seemed to look up at the stars in the sky, while her arms were wrapped around her chest. Faith watched the immobile witch. Her clothes were too big, her hair too long, too wild, and everything in the way she looked seemed as many indications pointing out that the young woman was coming back from far away and had not really found her place in the world. Faith turned her head around her and her eyes traveled on the uninhabited wasteland around them. She could feel that there was not a sign of life in kilometers around. She wondered where they were. She had lost track of time and distance since their last stop. They could as well have run two hours or ten, and Faith was sure that she would not have seen the difference at all.
A deaf roar in her belly denied this last thought. Faith put her hand on her stomach she felt writhe and protest heavily about the treatment it was inflicted on.
"And, we'll have to find a place to have a snack" Faith concluded.
She turned to Tara who hadn't moved and called her loudly:
"Tara, we're leaving!"
The witch didn't react at all, which tore off a sigh of discontentment from the dark-haired Slayer. She considered for a second not to lose a second and go to grab Tara immediately. But she changed her mind and called her again, in a more pressing tone this time:
"Tara, we're going!"
Tara did not move more, obviously still concentrated on the stars, the sky, or whatever the Slayer didn't care about. If Faith had learnt a thing about Tara, it was that the witch could be particularly boring when she was lost in any contemplation as it was the case right now. And Faith wasn't particularly patient.
"Tara!"
The impatience in the sound of her voice was without ambiguity this time. Seeing the witch still without reaction, she was about to take a step towards her when this one looked finally down and turned to the car. Faith nodded her head as a sign of contentment and waited for the young woman to join her and settle in her place without saying a word. Then she climbed in the car in her turn and started the engine.
The car was now running quicker than before. Faith's stomach growled more and more and the Slayer had decided to quicken the pace, which allowed her to concentrate on something else than her growing hunger.
Silence was again established between the girls but Tara wasn't sleeping anymore. She was deeply sunk in her seat with her arms crossed over her chest and her wide-opened eyes settled on the road in front of her. But she didn't look like more present than before.
Faith cast her a glance from time to time to check if the blonde had fallen asleep again. But she always found her strictly in the same position as the previous time.
Faith sighed deeply when she still noticed no reaction at all after her 20th glance.
But if the blonde was awake, it was at least better for one thing she remembered. The Slayer stretched her hand to the auto radio, which still played music so low that Faith hardly heard it. She turned generously the volume button until 'Cigarettes' from the Wreckers filled the car and brought a light satisfied smile to Faith's lips.
But her smile transformed almost immediately in surprise when Tara's voice hit her ears.
"It's loud" The witch protested in a disgruntled tone.
"So, you're still alive" Faith joked but didn't make any gesture toward the radio.
"It's really loud" Tara insisted in a sweeter tone this time.
Faith just shrugged.
"I forced this thing to play silent for hours for you not be waken. Now that you came back in the land of the living, well the land of the awaken I mean" Faith corrected herself quickly when she saw Tara frown heavily. "Now I can have some fun"
The Slayer cast a glance to Tara who was looking at her without answering. Satisfied with herself, Faith allowed a smile to come to her lips and her eyes returned to the road in front of her. Just a few meters later, her head turned abruptly to Tara again when the witch lower the volume without warning.
"Hey!" The Slayer yelled almost with brutality.
"It was too loud" Tara explained in a casual tone.
Faith stared at her for a moment, shared between surprise and anger. Then, she repeated Tara's gesture to rise up the sound even louder than before. Then she cast a dark glance to her companion, clearly daring her to repeat what she had just done.
"It's too loud" Tara said again.
Faith hissed between her teeth and let escape a bored sigh.
"Okay, Blondie, listen to this: it's a thing that I'm okay to get you with me but don't think you'll be the one to rule here. You don't talk? Okay. It's not like I want to anyway. You sleep most of the time? Okay. I'm all nice and let you sleep. But the rest of the time, I do whatever I want. If you want us to be friend, you gotta remember that"
Faith looked again at Tara and saw with satisfaction that the witch had given up to protest. The witch shrugged, crossed her arms again before turning to the window and concluding without looking at Faith:
"We're not friends"
Faith rolled her eyes again and looked away from Tara to the road in front of her. After a few minutes while they didn't exchange a word and as the deafening music even drowned the motor's noise, Faith stretched her hand toward the radio. But she interrupted her gesture when she felt the car backfired. The Slayer frowned and looked to the dashboard's warning lights. None was switched on. Tara turned again to Faith and looked at her with a questioning look but said nothing.
"Don't know what's wrong" Faith grumbled nevertheless as the blonde had actually questioned her.
Then she switched off the radio abruptly. This time, she quickly heard the car backfiring and decided to stop on the side of the road.
As soon as the car had stopped, Faith jumped out of it after switching the engine off. Faith went round the car, searching any clue telling her what was going on. After her quick inspection, she had to face the facts: whatever was wrong wasn't obviously visible.
She sighed with boredom and grumbled some incomprehensible words for herself then opened her door again. She pulled on the handle to free the hood then lifted it. Faith inspected the motor quickly at first before bending forward to look more closely. The Slayer lifted carefully every cable up and looked with as much precision as she could to everything she was able to see.
If everything didn't seem in the bestest state, Faith considered it normal considering the age of the car. After ten minutes to look for something wrong, she had to admit she found nothing.
She went round the car again, bent to see underneath, inspected each wheel, opened the trunk and finally went back to her seat after slamming her door more forcefully than she had intended.
"Nothing's wrong Blondie" she mumbled more for herself than for Tara who hadn't move in the slightest during all this time.
Faith looked at her and sighed again in front of her lack of reaction.
"We've just gotta hope that shitty car will go till the next civilized place that road crosses " Faith concluded and switched the engine on again.
The Slayer got carefully the car back on the road and noticed the car didn't backfire anymore. Faith drove carefully again for the next kilometers. After the time she though was enough to consider everything was back to normal, she settled the car to its previous pace before switching the radio on under Tara's annoyed glance. However, she was careful to put the volume at a reasonable level and said in an almost happy tone:
"Looks like it was just a false alarm!"
Almost an hour after that incident, Faith and Tara were still driving in their old Renault without having crossed a single restaurant. If Tara didn't care at all, it wasn't Faith's case. Her stomach growled with displeasure more and more insistently as kilometers and minutes passed by." Faith exclaimed after a moment.
"I'm starting to wonder if we haven't reached a hellish dimension where I'm condemned to drive for ever with you on that deserted road without finding any damn restaurant to grab a snack!"
Tara didn't answer and barely turned to her. Faith didn't pay attention. She hadn't expected anything else than the silence as an answer.
"You know that Slayers have a really good appetite?" She went on in a casual tone. "And right now, I'm really hungry. I think I can eat just anything. Maybe you can hunt a rabbit? Or well, if you were edible, I'm so hungry I could even eat you …"
This time, Tara's head turned abruptly to her and to the questioning look on the witch's face, Faith realized what she had just said and backpedaled as she could.
"Well, I didn't really mean it Blondie…At all. Sometimes, I'm telling shit, you shouldn't pay attention…"
Faith cast a glance to Tara whose expression didn't change and the Slayer simply sighed before turning to the road again. And being pulled out of embarrassment and wait when she caught a glimpse of lights in the distance.
"Hey! I think we've got a restaurant right ahead!" She exclaimed.
Tara looked where Faith pointed. And she was right. They both could see growing an old luminous sign showing 'Chris' Dinner' where several letters weren't lighted anymore. Faith quickened the car's pace to get to the restaurant as quickly as possible.
She couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief when she got the car in the parking adjoining an old building poorly lighten alongside the road. But if the restaurant wasn't really engaging, at least it was opened. Faith could some activity inside through the wide windows. And it was all that mattered to her : it was open and ready to serve a big plate of anything to her.
"We finally find it" Faith specified when the car was parked as close as possible to the restaurant's entrance. "Not a three stars" she added with a grin. "But that will do nicely"
Saying this, the Slayer got out the car and stretched herself, waiting for Tara to follow her. The witch got out in her turn and went round the car to stand beside Faith. As soon as she had reached her, Faith resolutely entered the restaurant.
The restaurant was shabby. Rectangular plastic tables where still shone fat stains and old torn and faded skaied booth were the main furniture. Time and lack of care had turned the walls yellow and a thin layer of dust covered the ground. Even the manageress behind the bar seemed worn out to Faith.
But as soon as the girls had been sitting in the corner of the room with her plates filled, the dark-haired Slayer immediately forgot the restaurant off-putting first sight.
The Slayer had ordered a triple-cheeseburger with a big plate of fries and as she was beginning greedily the second half of her plate, Faith decided that the food wasn't that bad and much better than expected. Between two abundantly covered with mayonnaise fries, Faith cast a glance to Tara across from her. The witch had barely touched to her salad.
"You don't eat?" She asked.
Tara looked up slightly and looked at her without saying a word for a moment before planting her fork again in her salad. Faith watched her put a half-leaf of salad and a dice of cheese in her mouth and resumed:
"You have to eat. The barmaid told me we have two more hours to drive before finding a hotel to spend the night and a new place to eat"
Faith punctuated her sentence by serving herself a new full-fries fork.
"Beside" she went on. "Money Giles gave me won't last for ever and it's not with my own savings I'll be able to feed two people – including me – for long. So you should make the most of that all filled plate"
And the Slayer applied her own advice by pouring a new good spoon of mayonnaise on her fries. Tara first looked at her doing so with an absent look then a light of horror passed in her eyes when Faith seized the ketchup jar and poured a generous amount of it on her already covered with mayonnaise fries. The witch put back her fork on the table and plunged her hand into one of her oversized jeans' pockets in search of something. After a few seconds during whom Faith looked at her with curiosity, Tara put some bills on the table in front of her. Faith took them and counted 200 dollars. She looked up to Tara and frowned.
"Gi…Giles" The blonde simply answered.
Faith nodded.
"I guess Giles gave us all his change. "Will be useful"
And Faith returned to her last piece of cheeseburger while Tara leant back in her chair.
"Shouldn't prevent you from finishing your meal Blondie. You didn't eat anything since this morning. And don't even tell me this three salad leaves were enough"
Tara slightly shrugged and didn't answer which didn't prevent Faith from going on after she swallowed a new mouthful of fries covered in mayonnaise and ketchup.
"Don't know how you're doing. After my coma, I could have devoured lots and lots of stuff. And I was full of energy after all. I certainly didn't want to sleep all day like you. And…"
Faith suspended her sentence when she saw Tara's appalled glance on her. She tried to smile and to give her composure.
"And I guess it's totally different" she finished in a breath just before eating the last remaining fries in her plate.
The Slayer remained silent for some seconds. Embarrassed, she tried to find her plate really interesting and took pains to wipe her plate with the bread she hadn't already eaten. She eventually looked up again to Tara who hadn't moved in the slightest.
"Do you remember something…about when you were dead?"
Tara didn't answer but Faith could see her swallowing hard and clenching her jaw. She regretted her question and backpedaled immediately.
"Okay. None of my business anyway"
Faith pushed her plate away and took the last piece of bread in the basket in front of her. Then she leant in her chair as Tara had done previously.
"So, how do you find the trip?" She asked in the most casual tone as she could.
Tara vaguely shrugged and her eyes looked away to the window on her left to look outside.
"Good" she answered simply and looked again at Faith.
"Good. And?" Faith insisted.
Again, Tara shrugged and looked outside.
"Good" She repeated.
"What about the car?" Faith asked again. "Old but seems to be ok. And rather comfortable, right?"
Tara nodded simply and cast a quick glance to the Slayer before looking down to her hands on the edge of the table. Faith looked at her for a moment, stared at the bent shouldersn at the long blonde hair covering half of Tara's face, at the hands playing nervously with the dirty plastic of the table, at the half-full plate in front of her. She finally sighed and shurgged in her turn.
"Don't wanna finish?" She asked and stretched her hand to her companion's plate.
Tara said no with her head and Faith let escape a bored growl.
"B didn't tell me you were so fucking mute." She commented dryly as she took the witch's plate.
And without adding a word, Faith attacked Tara's meal leftovers while the witch looked absent-mindedly at the night outside.