"Yeah. Tell me about it. Everything either hurts, or doesn't work, or both. And this is the second ruined outfit in the last two days. At this rate, by next month I'll be going to class wearing just a layer of body paint. Oh well..." She had intended to add 'you should see the other guy' but stopped herself in time. No need to direct more attention to what had attacked them.
Anne succeeded for about forty seconds. While changing into the offered nightshirt, Liz saw the multi-colored display where she'd been kicked by the vampire. While accepting her friend's sympathy, Anne let slip, "Yeah. That's the same leg that got cut up in the graveyard last night. I hope it heals just as fast this time."
"Cut? Graveyard?? What the Sam Hill were you doing in a graveyard? What's going on?"
"Pretty much the same thing as happened tonight, except that I was the hunter." She saw Liz staring wide-eyed, and pre-empted the next burst of questions, "Look. We're both pretty strung out from what happened. Let's just get some rest now, and first thing in the morning we can go see someone who has a lot better answers than I do. 'Cause god knows I'm not the font of wisdom on this stuff, *I* still have problems with it."
They were interrupted by a knock at the door. It was Bass again. He held out a paperboard box, "I raided these from the medicine closet, they're left from when Daddy hurt his back last year. Looked like you could really use 'em. Either of you want to tell me what's what?"
"Would if I could", Anne said, shaking her head slowly, taking the box. "I'll tell you everything, soon as I figure it out myself. Promise. You could do me a favor in the mean time though..."
"If it involves dismembering the lowlife that did this to you, absolutely- goes without asking."
"Oh, he got what was coming to him, that creep will never cause anyone anymore trouble. No, what I need now is to find out about this thing." Anne held up the box taken from the dead vampire. "Somehow it frotzed Liz's PET. I've never heard of any such thing, but you're into electronic stuff a lot more than me. Maybe you could look it over, figure out what it does, where it came from..."
"Hmmm. Looks home-made, black market kinda stuff. I really don't want to fool with it, sometimes the dealers booby-trap these things. Best person to talk to might be Corny." At the resulting blank look Bass explained, "Cornwall Dayberry. She's sortta the leader of 'Goddess'; plays keyboards, sings lead, and is the best techie I know. I mean, even her day-job is as an avionics tech." He tossed the device onto his sister's bed, "Stop by the garage tomorrow evening. We'll probably break for food sometime between six and seven or so. If you show then, especially if you bring munchies and something with caffeine in it, I'm sure you can talk her into checking it out for you."
Bass gave Anne a kiss goodnight on her forehead, the only place he was sure wasn't damaged, and allowed Liz to throw him out of the room. The box he left contained a half-dozen self adhesive patches that dispensed a powerful painkiller when applied to the skin. Liz stuck one on Anne's hip just above where she'd been kicked, and another midway down her friend's arm, where a mass of purple flesh pointed out another vampire impact point.
The girls got into their beds and stretched out. A few moments later Liz, replaying the events in her mind, said, "Anne, you stabbed him. That guy, you stabbed him with your pointed stick- thing. Then he disappeared, like a magic trick. What really happened? What was wrong with his *face*? Why did he try to BITE me?...."
"Whoboy. Liz, like I told you, I'll get you all the answers in the morning. For right now, just try not to think about it too much, get some rest. I'm starting to feel groggy from the pain patches, maybe you should try one yourself- it might be the only way you get any sleep. I should know, I had a rough time last night, when I ran into it for the first time." Anne passed the box across the narrow gap between the beds, "Here, stick one of them on you, and try to relax- as much as you can."
As the drug flooded her, Anne felt the darkened room grow dimmer yet, and she slid away from consciousness.
* * *
Anne felt herself flying from the force of the blow, her mouth filling with blood where her teeth had cut the inside of her lips. By curling up hard, at least she managed to avoid having her head smash the ground when she landed.
By great good luck, her bag hadn't parted company from her. Anne pulled out her stake and got to her feet as quickly as she could. She'd definitely stopped it from attacking Liz, only problem was now it was coming to kill her. Gerrard was nowhere around, and Liz would be no help. She was going to have to do this all alone.
The creature took a single step toward her, then exploded into a cloud of dust. Stunned, Anne dropped the stake. It fell unnoticed from her hand, vanishing before it hit the ground. Standing behind where the vampire had been was an old woman.
The woman really was old. Not just adult old, more like her memories of Gram. The stranger's hair, pulled up in a loose topknot, was an even mix of blonde and grey. She was wearing a mish-mash of exercise clothes, picked for comfort not style, with a heavy, badly worn and stained, black leather jacket on top. Seen up close, her face was friendly, but also somehow sad. The lines and creases were as much from weariness as age. She slid a particularly vicious-looking stake up the sleeve of her jacket and turned away, beckoning Anne to follow. She walked out of the alley without looking to see if Anne was coming or not.
Anne did follow, curious and mystified. She was pain-free and un-injured, not even the cut lip that that blow had actually given her. She followed the strange woman to the end of the alleyway. Instead of the street, the alley now emptied into the courtyard of a once-grand home. It was a serious ruin now, crumbled by time and neglect, it's stones marred by at least one fire at some time in it's past.
Seated on the steps leading to the second floor was a second old lady, keying nimbly on an archaic-looking laptop computer. She looked up when they entered the courtyard, gave a brief finger- wave, and went back to her work. She seemed vaguely familiar, and Anne wasn't sure which of them she'd been greeting.
The first woman shucked off her jacket, tossing it onto a dried- up fountain, then faced Anne- bowing slightly. Anne felt the hint of ceremony and returned the gesture, more awkwardly.
Puzzled, Anne stood still while the stranger moved quickly to stand directly behind her. Age notwithstanding, she moved well- no hint of joint problems or weakness. In fact, she had the bounding energy of someone much younger.
Taking Anne's wrists in her hands, she began guiding Anne's arms and upper body through a series of movements that seemed a weird combination of shadowboxing and a dance. Soundlessly, tirelessly, she put Anne through the motions again and again. Footwork was added much later. It was partly obvious, the rest guided by nudges from the old woman's knees and toes.
After what seemed like several weeks of repetition, they stopped. The other woman closed up her computer and came down to where they were standing. She gave the same sort of ceremonial bow to each of them, then braced into a fighting stance. A moment later she sent her right hand at Anne's head in a slow-motion punch. Still holding Anne's wrists, the first old lady guided her in a now-familiar movement.
Anne felt her arm make contact, then deflect the 'punch' harmlessly away. The very next motion was now seen as a counter- blow. The three of them went through this *many* times, dealing with right and left punches to the head, chest, and belly; then starting over with right and left kicks to the ankles, knees, and hips/groin.
Again and again: contact, deflect, and reply; contact, deflect, and reply. After a while the first old woman moved out from behind Anne, to where she could see and correct her from many different angles. The three of them kept on in this fashion, working in total silence, for what seemed like forever. The woman who'd been 'attacking' Anne seemed to tire, the two old ladies changed places. Seeing her up close now, Anne knew why the second woman seemed familiar. She was either the computer- class girl's great grandmother, or (bizarre thought) what the girl herself would look like more than half a century later on.
The first woman picked up the pace, the kicks and punches coming in faster, and every once in a while, in simple combinations. The computer-gal's relative was even more exacting about getting Anne into using the proper forms than the other one had been. The session went on for what seemed like the best part of a year. Contact, deflect, reply. Contact. Deflect. Reply.
The silent sparring ended as the first rays of daylight began to leak into the courtyard. They exchanged bows, and the women and the mansion dissolved equally into a featureless fog.
|
|
|
|
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.
|
|
|
