Plus ca Change: Part 1e
by Tom MacCarrol
See Part 1a for disclaimer info. Things are going to start getting a little interesting from here on. Text set between ++++++++'s is a dream sequence.


They limped back to the tube entrance, Gerrard helping to hold her up, allowing the girl to use him as a physical crutch as well. By the time they descended to the station level she seemed to be recovering on all fronts.

Getting a look at her on the comparatively well lit platform, Br. Gerrard suggested, "Perhaps it would be best if you ducked into the Ladie's fresher and attempted to repair your appearance before we reach a more populated area. You look like you've gone through a war, and we really don't need to attract attention to ourselves."

Anne quickly hobbled into the washroom, and was shocked at what the mirror revealed. The vampire dust had coated her face and hands, as well as her clothes, not to mention grave dirt that had rubbed off during the struggle. It looked as if she been made up for a minstral show, and then gone for a roll in a coal mine instead. Her hair, well a cheap fright wig would have been a marked improvement. Her jacket had an assortment of tears, the right sleeve was splotched with bile, and one of her shirt buttons was missing, along with a hunk of cloth. But the absolute worst was her pants. The right leg was so badly tattered that in many places it was missing altogether. The cloth that remained was mostly soaked with drying blood. There was even a chunk missing from the heel of her sneaker.

She leaned out the door and told Gerrard, "You weren't kidding. I'll do what I can to get cleaned up, but if anyone comes along, for God's sake don't let them come in here. Tell 'em the pipes are broken or something. I'll be as fast as I can, but..."

Br. Gerrard planted himself in front of the closed door, to stoicly wait. Inside, Anne peeled off her outer clothes and then swabbed herself with handfulls of disposable towels soaked in the sinks. Her hairbrush had been lost in the scramble for the stake, so she made do with a quick sink rinse and finger comb. The results were slightly less gastly than at the start. Oddly enough, once the dried blood was washed away, her leg looked fine. It took a very close search to find any evidence of the cuts at all. Shrugging, Anne switched attention from herself to her clothes. With more towels, first dry, then wet and then dry again, she cleaned as much of the dust, ash, and blood off her stuff as she could. The small sewing kit she usually carried had eloped along with her brush, so she was left with a few discovered pins to try to deal with the damaged garments.

One pin managed to substitute for the missing button, and after getting dressed again, she used the rest to sort of re-assemble the remains of the pant leg. It still looked mangled, but much less conspicuous. It would do to get past strangers on the trains, especially at this hour, but she just hoped she'd be able to get in the house and get changed before Mom got a decent look.

Even though usage was light at this hour, after boarding the first tube capsule, there were always at least a few other people around them. They rode in silence untill getting on the Mag-Lev train for River Valley. There they had one of the two cars all to themselves.

"I'm lousy at this 'Slayer' business. I froze up, nearly got us both killed. Then I botched staking it about a zillion times, and on top of that lost half my stuff, ruined my clothes, and even forgot to hang on to the damned stake. Maybe I'd better just quit, and you can get someone else, somebody who'll do a better job at it."

"Anne, this was your first time. Of course there were rough spots, things will go much better later with training and more experience. And while I'll admit things became more exciting than I'd have liked, in the final tally, you *did* slay the vampire, neither of us was seriously hurt, and the material losses were minor and can be made good quickly enough."

"In fact, here, take one of mine.", Br. Gerrard said, handing over another stake from his pouch. "Never leave your house without at least one. Vampires cannot enter a private home without a specific invitation, but you could encounter one in any open area after dark, or in a public building at any time. It's a familiar trick for them to enter after dark and remain during the day, catching victims off guard. Also, many larger buildings are connected by sheltered ways; sewer systems, maintenance tunnels, cable raceways, even pedestrian viaducts. If even one of these buildings or connecting ways are co-opted by the vampires, all of the connections and connected buildings are compromised."

This time she grabbed hold of the offered stake as if it were made of gold, and slid it into her bag almost reluctantly. Even after closing it inside, she unconsciously kept checking on it's position.

"As to you 'quitting', this is a sacred duty, not an optional activity. You 'are' the Slayer, and will be as long as you live. This is nothing you can start or stop, you can't hand the responsibility off to someone else, any more than Strephon can give over being Emperor if he has an off day. It will take some time to get used to the idea. I'll help you all I can, especially during this transition period. If only we'd found you sooner, there would have been time to take this in smaller, easier stages. But the universe is as it is, not as we wish it were. We'll just have to muddle through as best we can."

She said nothing, just looked at him, while feeling more than a little lost.

"Unless chance offers an easy kill,"; he went on, "I think we ought to simply spend the next few months in intensive training. At least several weeks worth before we even consider having you start supervised patrols. You have so much to learn about them, and about your own powers."

They were the only passengers getting off at the River Valley stop. Anne declined the offer of escort home, "My best chance of getting past Mom without 200 questions is to slip in alone and act like it's been a normal night. Having you, someone your age, whom she's never met before around will blow this up into a major incident. If she sees the condition of my clothes, I just hope she buys the really lame 'dog bite' story I've been working on. I'll get back to you about training later when the coast is clear."

Br. Gerrard jotted something on the back of her ticket, "This is the address and comm code of the place I'm staying in. It's voice only, and if I have the computer on line when you call, please wait a moment while I unplug everything and call you back."

Anne almost made it undetected. Her Mom was in bed, awake and probably reading when she picked up on some noise Anne made in the hall. "Honey, is that you?", she called out, not getting up.

"Who else? The burglars only work on Tuesdays in this town."

"You're cutting it a little late, aren't you? You do have to be up early for school tomorrow, and if you get up through the night again, you'll be in sorry shape come morning."

"I know. I'm sorry, but I was studying with Liz, and it got really late while we weren't looking. I'll sleep fast to make up for it."

"Not funny. Anyway, you'll be the one with the dragging fanny, not me. Good night dear. Just try not to make this a habit. You need your rest."

Anne got to her room unseen, and changed for bed quickly, in case her Mom did pop in for an in-person good night. She stuffed her ruined clothes in the bottom of the laundry bin, promising herself to remember to dispose of them tomorrow before her Mom came back from her job at the bookstore.

She rushed through the bathroom rituals, taking a dose of the sleeping aid that she'd bought when the nightmares first started, and then flopped into bed. Sleep came quickly, and so did the dreams.

+


* * *
She was standing at the edge of the grave, grappling with the vampire, fighting it and resurgent terror at he same time. In this particular re-run, there was no arm in the way- the creature's fang-rimmed mouth descended inexorably toward her neck, despite her strongest efforts to hold it back. This time, she felt the sharp points pricking at her skin before the broken stump of stake she still held caused the vampire to explode into noxious powder. For the unnumbered time she pitched forward to begin vomiting up her entrails, when the motion blended seamlessly into the original 'hand-on-her-leg' trip-up and the entire sequence re-started. However, this time instead of the ground, she thumped against a desk.


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