"Hello, Heather! How may I help you?" Mrs. Lenz said upon opening her door.
"I need you ask you a favor"
"Anything!"
"Can you watch over Maria for a little bit?" Heather asked.
"That's hardly a favor. You know I love watching over her" The 37 year old woman smiled kindly to Maria standing in front of her mother, "I was just about to make cookies for my fifth-graders"
"I will only be gone for no more than two and a half hours" Heather said in a rushed voice, "I promise to come back as soon as I can"
"Heather, take your time" Mrs. Lenz told her, "You don't need to rush when you know she's in safe hands"
Heather gave the woman a smile before kneeling down and being face to face with her daughter. Maria gazed at her and gave her a smile, completely oblivious to what was really going on. Heather took a hold of her daughter's hands and gave them a gentle squeeze, like she normally would do before sending her off to school. She tried to hide the urgency and fear in her eyes as she continued to gaze into her daughter's loving stare.
"I will come back as soon as I can"
Maria only nodded in understanding and hugged her mother in a tight hug. Heather couldn't help but smile into the hug.
Heather kissed the top of her daughters head and watched as she ran into Mrs. Lenz home to get comfortable. Heather couldn't help but laugh at her little daughter before gazing at Mrs. Lenz. She let out a chuckle and nodded towards Heather in response. The young witch then told then young teacher that she was going to go to the hospital to visit a friend.
"Just call when you're on your way back"
Heather gave a sheepish smile and nodded at the woman. She gazed over her shoulder and noticed her daughter had already made herself at home on the couch.
She just shook her head at Maria as the little girl completely forgot about her mother outside the door. Heather turned to Mrs. Lenz and smiled before taking a small step back.
"Make sure she doesn't eat too many sweets, Sam" Heather smiled, "I do have to put her in bed by 9"
"Heather, I'm a teacher"
"That didn't stop you last time. She stayed up until 1:30 in the morning because of you"
"That was an honest mistake"
Heather drove through the dark streets with her phone to her ear, "Hey, it's me again. I was just wondering if you were going to be home tonight"
"I'm actually going to be heading over there soon. I just got a little bit of a mix up right now. Why are you heading over right now?"
Heather opened her mouth but no words seem to have come out. It was then that she realized that she was terrified of the truth.
"I just wanted to come over to talk. Is that okay, Josh?"
"Heather, what's wrong? You sound upset. Did something happen to Maria?"
Heather let out a sigh of relief as she thought of her daughter safe and sound. Then she stiffened as she heard a female voice in the background.
"Who is that?"
Josh looked over to his sister Emily who glared at her brother and crossed her arms over her chest. Josh stared at his sister with the greatest amount of sympathy. When Emily had popped up into town, he didn't expect to go to the strip club with her, Aidan, and Kenny. Then again, he wasn't planning on having a vampire killed in front of his sister either.
Now, out of the blue, Heather was coming over to his house when he wasn't even around. The only one home right now was a flesh-eating zombie who has been waiting for a meal for days now.
"That was just my sister" Josh finally said, "I'm kind of in a mix up right now. Could you probably drive around town until I come home?"
"I could wait at your house" Heather suggested.
"No!" Josh let out.
Heather pulled into Josh's street, "I'm here already. If Sally or Aidan is home I'm sure they'll let me in"
"Sally hasn't been feeling very good"
"Josh, is she alright?" Heather asked, remembering her duty, "I could probably help. Maybe go to the store and buy a couple of things"
"Actually, that sounds like a great idea. Buy her chicken noodle soup, cold medication, and a blanket" Josh let out.
Heather was about to put her car in reverse when she looked out of the corner of her eye over to Josh's house. She clearly saw Aidan had gone into the alleyway near their house. That wasn't the thing that made her heart stop though. She noticed a hooded man had walked into the alley with him; he looked double the size of Aidan and much stronger.
Without thinking, Heather disconnected the line with which she was talking to Josh with and got out of her car. She wasn't even half way across the street when she heard a huge bang against metal. This made her gasp as she stopped and took a step back. Her hands shook as she wanted to turn around and run back to the safety of her car.
But then she heard Aidan's groan as another crash sounded from the alleyway. She turned back around as she feared for the young man. Heather quickly ran over to the small entrance and peeked through to see Aidan was on the ground as the man kicked him to the other side of the alley. Heather felt scared but stood still as the hooded figure advanced over to Aidan who was struggling to get up.
Just before the man could pick up Aidan again, Heather reached out her hand over to Aidan as if something was controlling her. All of a sudden, the force field that had helped her with Donna appeared over Aidan, making the man punch into it like a brick wall. He let out a yell of rage, frustration, and pain as he gripped onto his hand. Heather dropped hers to the side as she realized that her powers must be growing.
The man turned to her and snarled, making Heather let out a little yelp but still couldn't move. He turned his attention on her and started too advanced towards her with great speed.
"Heather! No!"
Heather yelled out, "Aidan!"
The man let out another yell and picked up his huge fists to slam down onto her head. Heather brought her hands up to shield her face but before she could let out a scream, the pink bubble formed around her once again. The force that broke down onto the shield was so strong that it made Heather drop down to the ground once it disappeared. She gasped and looked back up as she felt around her to find the closest thing to defend herself with.
"Leave her alone!" Aidan yelled out.
Aidan ran over and grabbed the man and threw him over to the other side of the alley. Heather propped up onto her elbows and watched as the two began to fist fight each other. She gasped as she noticed that when the hooded man had dodged and Aidan's fist went into the old car next to them, he didn't let out a scream. He just left a huge dent in the car and continued to fight the other man to the ground.
"Aidan! Watch out!" she yelled.
But it was too late, the man had grabbed onto her side, making Aidan let out a scream of pain. Heather turned and noticed a wooden plank was in her hand. She got the will to finally get up to her feet as her legs continued to shake all over. She noticed that Aidan and the creature were sliding down to the ground as Josh's best friend was losing his fight.
Aidan yelled out, "Stab him in the heart!"
Heather didn't have time to think, but she just charged at them. She let out a scream before thrusting the wooden plank into the middle of his back.
The creature suddenly went still as he stopped fighting. Heather kept her grip on the stake and wondered if she should twist it or not.
That was when the man slowly started to crinkle and turn into ash. Heather let out a gasp as she took a step back. The ash fell like snow around Aidan and hers feet. She didn't know what to think as of that moment as she continued to stare at the black ground.
"Heather"
"Is he-"
"You killed him"
"I thought that-"
"It was the right thing to do"
"Aidan, what was that? He wasn't-"
"Human" Aidan let out.
Heather dropped the wooden plank as she felt the pain and splinters in her fingers. She drew out a couple of shaky breaths as she finally looked up to Aidan.
"Aidan" Heather let out, "Neither are you. Am I right?"
Aidan struggled with his composure on the ground as he looked up to the woman standing over him. She didn't look like the kind of girl who would go Buffy the Vampire Slayer onto him. She looked like the kind of girl that had no idea about this kind of world. Not until she saved him from dying.
His mind flashed back to just seconds before she had arrived. A mysterious form had come around him, preventing that man from killing Aidan the first time. Aidan remembered seeing that same shield come up in command when he had tried to come after Heather. He looked up to the New York Woman as he gripped onto his wound.
Whatever she was, he owed her his life. She wouldn't have saved him to kill himself off by her hands.
Actually, that has happened more than once in his life span. He shouldn't be so quick to trust her as of right now.
As if reading his thoughts, Heather bent down to Aidan and slowly lifted up his shirt to reveal Sally's bite mark. Heather noticed that half of the bandages were ripped off as his wound as now freshly bleeding off of him. Heather dropped down his shirt and slowly brought his arm over her shoulder and picked him up off of the ground. Aidan let out a groan as he picked himself up and tried to keep the weight off of Heather.
She opened the front door and staggered over to the couch and gently placed Aidan there. Without a word, she went over and started to open up cabinets to get out the first aid kit. Aidan watched her as she gathered up the stuff she needed before opening up the refrigerator. Heather stiffened as she noticed blood bags were just lying there old fashionably with everything else.
With shaky hands, she picked it up and stared at it as she felt it just swimming around in the bag. She remembered the punch into the car didn't faze Aidan at all. The creature he was fighting was stabbed in the heart and turned to dust. Could Aidan be a vampire?
Heather turned around and looked over to Aidan who was staring at her intently. It had to be true, but why wasn't he attacking her? Weren't vampire's vicious demons? Didn't they just want to suck the warm blood out of everything that walks?
She reached behind her and took the first aid-kit into her hands and walked over to the couch and sat down right next to Aidan. Heather looked at the man, still too weak to do anything but stare at her. She then dropped the blood bag onto his knee and waited for him to move. Heather wanted to see him eat.
Heather knew it sounded crazy in her mind but she had to trust Aidan. She knew that Josh was a cautious and conservative guy and wouldn't trust just anyone. Plus, if he wanted to kill her, he would've done it in the alleyway. Instead, he saved her life from that vicious beast that was out to kill him in the first place.
Aidan picked up the bag and bit into it, trying his best not to puke it out. Normally, he didn't like cold blood straight from the refrigerator but he had to make a point. He had to show Heather that he wasn't harm to anyone. He had to show her that she shouldn't be afraid of him.
Heather took in a sharp breath as she noticed that Aidan's eyes had turned black as night. She tried to regain her composure as he let out a groan. Aidan dropped the empty back onto the counter, took off his shirt, and his bandages to reveal the wound. He looked down the bite wounds and wasn't surprised to see that they hadn't faded.
"Why aren't you healing?" Heather finally asked.
"Because it wasn't fresh blood" Aidan let out, "It will be gone by the morning"
"So you're a vampire" Heather let out, "And Sally is a resurrected corpse"
"You know about that?"
"I've known for a while" Heather told him, "I just didn't want to believe it. I just wanted to believe that all of you were humans"
"Then what are you?" Aidan asked.
"I'm what they call a spirit witch" Heather huffed, "Someone that Josh should've come up to before trusting that damn blood witch, Donna"
Aidan let out a croak that seemed to have sounded like a laugh. Heather couldn't help but smile at him as she looked down to her hands.
Heather let out a sigh and picked up the bandages as she started to do her work. She turned and was about to give him Advil but then stopped. Aidan just smiled and shook her head to her before she set it back down. He watched as he noticed that she had brought over some fruits from the kitchen.
"What are you doing?" Aidan asked.
"Aidan… I'm trying to heal you" Heather told him, "It's a flesh wound that I can heal. You don't know how many times I've done this with Maria's scrapes"
"Does she know?" Aidan asked, "About you being a witch and all?"
"I prefer that she won't know until she's much older" Heather confided as Aidan nodded in understanding.