It being the beginning of November, classes let out at three and sunset was at five with cheerleading practice in-between. Catherine stuffed Red in the trunk of her car before leaving for school and much to the vampire's discomfort and annoyance, left her stewing in the trunk all day. Which, of course, put her in a foul mood. Cheerleading practice, the last before the Homecoming Game and Dance, finished at five thirty and since the sun had set by then, Catherine was able to let Red out of the trunk.
"She's in the gym with Harris and McNally, waiting for that self centered brat to get cleaned up after practice. Chase takes forever and is always the last one out of the locker room." Catherine told her. "What's your sensing range?"
"I have no idea, I've never been around one before. You know, given their extreme rarity and me having been a prisoner almost since I was made and all." Red answered with a snarl, still pissed over having been confined to a car trunk for hours.
"Watch yourself, vampire, a sphere of infinite agonies only takes a few minutes to create and I could whip one up right here in this parking lot real easily. Also remember that you can't act against me because I took the time to put all those spells on you."
"The ones that end with your death, yes, I well remember each time I tried to test them. So far I haven't found a hole a mouse could get though in your Magic, but like I said, I dream about your death."
"And dreaming's all you can do, vampire. I plan things out carefully before I act, you think I switched bodies with my daughter on a whim? It took years to make it happen and working a lot of spells to prepare the way. I don't like unexpected surprises and the Slayer and her baby are exactly that. Find out if that girl is the Slayer! If you have a chance to kill her, go ahead and take it! And if you want to inflict some psychological torture on Harris and McNally, go right ahead, I don't care. If you fail to kill her today, then the mind games will only help make it easier for me to kill her myself. Just find out if that girl's the Slayer! That's the important part."
"Yes, oh Lord and Master." Red muttered sarcastically and using Willow Rosenberg's memories made her way to the gym, avoiding eye contact with anyone. She wished Catherine had given her something more appealing to wear than Amy's old cast offs. Willow Rosenberg might not have much of a figure, but what she did have Red wanted to flaunt. She knew before she reached the door of the gym that there was indeed a Slayer in there, she could feel her. She paused at the door of the gym and smiled slightly, this was going to be so much fun. She eased open the door and walked in.
"Xander? Xander, help me." She didn't give the boy who barely matched Willow Rosenberg's memories, time to react. He'd grown in height and musculature since January, when Willow had been taken. Red threw herself at him, sobbing. He gripped her for a moment and then flung her away from him.
Xander looked up at the sound of his name and froze when he saw Willow rushing towards him. She looked exactly same as the last time he saw her, the same day Darla lured him and tried to take a chunk out of his neck. She ran straight into his arms and he reflexively hugged her to him, only to just as reflexively push her away from him as he felt her cold skin and something clicked in his mind and screamed vampire! at him.
Jesse looked up as he too heard Xander's name and stared at the girl who flung herself at Xander and tried to cling to him. Horrified, Jesse also saw Xander shove Willow away and was about to protest when Ceridian spoke in his head. 'Jesse, wait! That's a vampire! Your own instincts should tell you that! Look, really look at her! Use your head, not your heart!' Jesse froze into place himself and assessed the girl who appeared to be sobbing on the floor. The girl with no tears running down her cheeks, no reddening eyes, no harsh breathing...looking and sounding nothing like Willow Rosenberg did when she cried.
Faith looked up when her danger sense kicked in and she registered the smell of eau de vampire and gagged and nearly threw up as the smell hit her. Then she heard Xander's name and saw a girl throw herself into his arms and blinked when Xander shoved the girl away from himself and she flopped onto her butt and started ugly crying. Then she connected her danger sense to the girl's presence.
"Xander? What's wrong, Xander, did you forget about me? We've been friends since we were two! How could you just forget about me?" The girl/vampire demanded.
"I'll never forget Willow, she was family." Xander answered flatly, desperately trying to calm down, he did not need to be tapping into the seed of Magic inside himself right now! "You're not Willow, cut the act, vampire, you don't do it very well."
"Vampire? I don't - I don't know what you mean." Red tried a trembling voice and watched the boy's reaction. "There's no such -."
A rumbling noise made the bleachers groan. "You're not Willow! Stop pretending!" Xander growled, fighting for control. "You'll never be Willow! You're the thing that killed her!"