Liaisons - Act 1
Hanna stared down at her lunch tray. String beans and fish sticks. Probably fish sticks. You could never really be sure until you tried them. She wasn’t really looking at the pseudo-food, but past it to that nether world of thoughts and possibilities.
Matt let a little grin slip past. “Earth to Hanna, come in Hanna,” she immediately looked up and blushed. “It’s not going to become edible just by looking at it,” he warned.
“If only,” she agreed. “I was just thinking... about stuff.”
“Toothy and nocturnal stuff?” He bravely swallowed a mouthful of what was possibly fish.
Hanna closed her eyes. Why did he have to believe her? It wasn’t a game, she realized. This wasn’t something she could use to her advantage – that thing that had kidnaped her could have just as easily taken Kirsty or Matt or anyone else... and they didn’t have a dad like she did. No, it was too dangerous to be believed.
“Matt,” she said, opening her eyes again... And he was still there. Thick mop of blond hair, hanging over his brow, partially concealing his gorgeous, bright blue eyes. He was looking at her that way again. “Matt,” she pressed before his gaze could swallow her up, “I hope you didn’t believe any of that stuff– uh– that stuff about vampires... you know they don’t really exist.” She looked down to break away from his piercing eyes. “It’s all just made up.”
Matt cocked his head. “You don’t have to pretend,” he said quietly. He got quiet whenever he was talking especially to her, as if a real conversation between them was a secretive thing. “I know the truth. I’ve known for a long time.”
But his words weren’t penetrating. The bell rang and she stood, not meeting his eyes. “It’s all made up,” she insisted, clearing away her unfinished lunch. “I... I made it all up to be popular.”
“And the cuts on your arm?” Matt was still sitting. “You did that yourself?”
Hanna frowned. “No!” She turned on him and immediately he had her in his gaze again. “I– I mean, it wasn’t vampires... it was... um...”
“Hey,” he said quietly, standing and coming around the table. He put his hand on her elbow and she looked down again. She felt like she was being scolded. After all, it was a lie. And only to Matt did the lie sound less likely than the truth. When she finally looked up at him, the cafeteria was nearly empty. He had something hard behind his eyes.
A large part of his mind was urging him to leave. If she couldn’t deal with the truth, then she wasn’t who he thought she was. But his hand couldn’t seem to relinquish her elbow.
“There are scarier things than the truth,” he said at last. “Believe me, I know.”
She looked up, convinced she could withstand his eyes long enough to get her point across. “But what if—” she was caught off guard when he planted a soft kiss on the corner of her lips. Her mind raced. She wasn’t quite sure what to do, but she didn’t care at the moment. She hadn’t actually thought of what her first kiss would entail, but with her eyes closed and a cute guy delivering it, it seemed perfect. Suddenly the truth was trivial.
Addison lifted the Smith & Wesson semiautomatic and took careful aim. Behind his safety glasses, his target appeared to be a sitting duck. Through the earmuffs he could still hear the gun discharge as he let her have it.
With a splintering of wooden crates, each bullet missed. He tracked her, firing at random intervals, shattering more crates. Finally, as the clip was nearing empty, he took aim at a caste iron engine block and fired some shots which ricocheted off towards his target. Each one missed.
With his last shot, the Watcher took out the chain of a hanging light fixture but, with a risky back flip, his target avoided this too.
Addison smiled, removing the ear protection and replacing his safety glasses with his bifocals. “Well done,” he grinned, walking forward to congratulate the crouching Slayer.
“What?” Niki shouted over the ringing in her own ears. Then she laughed. “Just kidding.”
Addison surveyed the damage his bullets had done to the inside of the warehouse, then noticed the damage he had done to her. “Oh dear. It’s looks like I got you.”
Niki frowned. “What?” She looked down as he fed his finger through the bullet hole in her black leather jacket. “Oh, dammit! This thing’s taking a beating.” She shrugged off the scarred, torn and now bullet riddled jacket. “You didn’t get me though,” she argued, noting the lack of bloody wounds as evidenced by her pristine white T-shirt. “And you say you’ve had some experience with that thing?”
The old Watcher tilted his head. “More than any vampire Goth, I can assure you.”
Niki nodded, satisfied. “Well, eventually I’d like to move up to automatic weapons, but first I think I need a break.”
“You’re not getting tired, are you?” he asked, a little suspiciously.
“No, no,” Niki said easily, “I’ve just been up the last few nights, catching up on some slaying and I can’t seem to sleep in the daytime anymore.”
“I’ve got some sleeping pills, if you think they would help,” Addison offered, following her to the crate where a water bottle, a towel and a small bucket full of clips was located.
“Nice” she picked up the water bottle from where it lay on its side, a wide hole in each side where one of the ricocheting bullets had struck it. She emptied the last of the water into her mouth out one of the holes and sat down on the crate, closing her eyes for a moment.
When she opened them again, the warehouse was illuminated in an eerie yellow glow. Addison was gone. With slowly widening eyes, Niki watched as a silhouetted figure emerged from the darkness and took the form of her father.
For several heartbeats, there was silence as the one observed the other. Finally, Joshua Valtaine spoke, his voice cold and emotionless. “He will betray us,” he said simply. After a short moment, he turned and began to walk into the gloom.
“Dad!” she called out, but her eyes shot open and she found herself laying on her back on the warehouse floor. Addison was staring down at her with a frown.
“Are you alright?” he asked, taking her elbow and helping her into a sitting position. “You seem to have fainted.”
Niki stared at him, unsure for a moment what had happened. She had never had a vision in the middle of the day before. Maybe her all-nighters were screwing things up. Unlike a normal dream, her vision stayed with her a bit longer. He will betray us, dad had said. Who will betray us?
Her eyes met Addison’s. No. Never. Of course it was not as though there were that many other “he’s” in her life right now. She stood and shook off the eerie feeling which followed from the dreamworld.
“Yeah, I’m fine. I think I sat down too fast or something.” She blinked rapidly. “I think I’ll take you up on those sleeping pills.”
Logan stared down at his latest case file. This one wasn’t even trying to disguise himself. Some sort of shaman was accused of sacrificing thirteen virgins and drinking their blood. The prosecution’s case was a little sketchy without the actual bodies, but the defendant was tight lipped and his comments seemed to be limited to uttering curses and incantations.
He didn’t see her enter until the file came down on his desk. “When you have a minute,” Emily, the prosecutor from across the hall, said distantly. “Oh, and Tawnie wants to see you. She sounded pissed.”
Logan sighed and stood, dropping his case file and leaving his office for the elevator. He didn’t get that far; Tawnie was waiting for him in the elevator lobby.
“Are you narcoleptic?” she asked suddenly as they stood facing each other in front of the wide mirror facing the elevator doors.
“Uh... what?” Logan frowned.
“Do you find yourself falling into a deep sleep suddenly, at inopportune moments?” She sounded like she was going somewhere with this, but Logan wasn’t sure where.
“No, not really,” he replied uncertainly.
“Then could you explain to me how a vampire slayer managed to walk in and kill your client while you just stood there?” She raised her eyebrows. “Are you a conjurer or aren’t you?”
“I... uh... froze up,” he said with a frown. “The whole situation sort of... caught me off guard.”
“Don’t make a habit of it,” she said fiercely, stepping into the elevator as its doors opened. “We kept you afloat when all the others were drowning. Don’t make us regret it.” The doors closed and Logan was left staring at his infinite reflection between the stainless steel doors and the mirror facing them.
What an unpleasant person.
|
|
|
|
Rave
Barbie Girl (Becca)
biscuit07
Filmtheory (Jim)
Malice (Jess)
MebbtheScribe (MichaelB)
Reset (Allie)
Shay (Marrisa)
somnambulist29 (Shea)
Stephanie Loss
Wendyness (Wendy)
Questions?Contact Us
|
|
All stories on this site have been archived with the authors' consent. Do not copy these stories for your own uses without the express consent of the author themselves. Buffy the Vampire Slayer TM and Angel TM are © UPN, WB, Fox and its related entities. All photos on the site are © UPN, Fox, Warner Bros, and/or their respective owners. No profits are being made by use of these images.
Powered with the assitance of eFiction.
|
|
|
