In the Mouth of Hell
“Slayers... every one of us. Make your choice. Are you ready to be strong?”
The words flashed clearly through Amanda’s mind as if they had been spoken at this very moment, and not yesterday afternoon. “I want to be strong…” Amanda thought, while viciously staking another Turok-Han. She spun, hearing another coming up behind her, waving a rusted, but still quite sharp, curved blade toward her. She swapped her wooden pole to her left hand and brought her right up to catch the monsters sword hand, holding it in place while she twisted the pole into its gut. It fell backwards, screaming in pain.
“Stupid… Bobby… Tompkins! ” She ripped the pole out of the belly and than drove it into the Turok-Han’s chest. “Make me have to hurt you…” She twirled the pole around her; three more “ubervamps” were in front of her. “Take stupid Melanie Crystal…” She kicked one down, and turned toward the other two. “… to the Christmas dance instead of me!” She ducked the first blow, skipped out of the way of a knife, and staked the Vampire who had just gotten up. “Pick on me all year long…” One of the Vamps took a piece out of her shoulder; she let out a yelp of pain, but it didn’t faze her enough to stop her. Amanda smashed the dull side of her stake-pole into the Turok-Han’s chest with such force, that it broke the tough-as-steel chest plate and dusted him instantly. “...And I beat you up afterwards…” She delivered a powerful punch to the final Turok-Han, followed by a kick to its midsection, causing the ubervampire to bend over, clutching its chest. As a loud crack filled her ears, Amanda quickly drove the stake-pole through its back and into its heart, sending it to hell.
“…lousy no-good…” She stopped suddenly and looked around. The battle seemed to be going well for her side. None of the girls had been killed as far as Amanda could see. And dozens of Turok-Han had been dusted. Though with this unending army running toward her, she still didn’t know how they could possibly win.
She saw Buffy was now standing still, giving out orders near the front of the line. A Turok-Han was running up behind Buffy! “Hold the line. Drive them to the edge! We can’t…” Amanda rushed forward but it was too late, a Turok-Han had stabbed Buffy from behind. Amanda let out a battle cry and ran toward the Beast who had stabbed Buffy, but Vi was already on it, delivering some powerful punishment onto the ubervamp who had wounded their leader. Buffy fell flat on the ground.
Amanda knew Buffy was still alive. She had to be! No way could she have gone this long, only to be killed by these stupid… ubervamps! Amanda rushed over to her, but was met by another Turok-Han. She fought valiantly against the vampire, delivering severe damage before dusting it as she pushed it off the cliff facing the pit of hell.
She felt something brush her side. To her left another ubervamp stood, grinning and holding an axe. It was bloody. She looked down at her side. Blood. She gritted her teeth as the pain finally caught up to her and she spun to knock back the vampire who had wounded her. He was tough, one of the better warriors down here, she could tell. He fought her back, until she was behind Buffy, who was still moving slowly in agony. Amanda spun her weapon around to try to beat the vampire back with the blunt side of the pole. She got one good hit into its head before it grasped her weapon, and shoved it back into her. “Into me?!” Her mind screamed. She grabbed the pole, tearing it out of her belly as the monster let go. She grimaced at the pain. She weakly tried to turn it around to stake the Turok-Han but the ubervamp grabbed her by her neck, pulling her towards itself, and slapped her across the face, its large claws digging into her skull, and threw her onto the ground, her weapon falling with her and hitting the ground before her, covered with her own blood. Her eyes were wide open, and the last thing she saw before blacking out was Buffy looking into her own eyes, a saddened expression on her face, as she began to stand, rushing back into battle.
“So beautiful…. So beautiful…. So beautiful….” Amanda sang, her mouth opened wide, capturing every note, every chord. She was standing in front of a huge audience, tens of thousands. Yet somehow, she was in the High School gym. “How did they fit this many people in the High School gym?” she wondered, as she continued singing. She didn’t know how she was doing this. She was terrified! But she was standing, not shaking, alone! In front of this many people! Never messing a beat!
She had joined Swing Choir at the insistence of her parents, her teachers, and her counselors, who had all claimed she had a beautiful voice, but was far too shy. They had hoped that this would help her “break out of your” shell, as they called it. Although she enjoyed swing choir, and the friends that she had made there, she was still terrified every time she got up to sing in front of people. She always stood off to the side of the choir group when they sung at Christmas pageants, or for old folks, or even churches.
Obviously that was Swing Choir, but now here she was, alone, on stage, doing a solo. No jazz or instruments, no loud music, not even singing what they usually sang, just her standing on a stage, surrounded by thousands upon thousands of people. This was no Swing Choir. And she was doing it. She was really doing it! She thought she could never get up on stage, especially after discovering she was a “potential slayer.” “Potential? Slayer??” The thought tore into her mind, making her mess up her song, much to her audience’s disappointment.
They thought she had finished, and had stood in unison, screaming and cheering. She noticed that, up front, grown men whom she didn’t even know had tears in their eyes. But two words stood out in her mind: “Potential Slayer.” It all came back to her. She was in the middle of a battle! She was wounded… Amanda reached down to her belly, covered by the light blue dress she was wearing on stage, and looked at her hand. It was covered in blood. She was hurt! She had to get out of here! Suddenly, she was in her clothes she had worn down into the Hellmouth, still on stage, people still cheering. She shook her head, trying to concentrate. The ground started to rumble violently.
The ground was still rumbling. Amanda opened her eyes to see the entire cave shake. Great beams of yellow light were piercing every corner of the battlefield. She pushed down hard and brought herself up into a sitting position. She wiped blood out of her eyes and only than realized that the pain was gone! She was still covered in her own blood but her wounds had healed! She truly was a Slayer.
The fact that everything was beginning to fall down was not lost on her. She got to her feet and ran to the exit. She passed the bodies of a few Poten- no, they were Slayers now. These girls had been her friends. They had gossiped about boys together, done makeovers on each other together, had trained, and worried and studied and fought together. She tried to push the thoughts of sorrow from her mind as she made her way back up the steps of the seal, and into the school.
Amanda began to run toward the bus, but the way had already caved in! She turned and ran the opposite direction, everything coming down in pieces all around her. She sprinted down the hallway to the back exit with the collapsing Hellmouth following her every step. She crashed through the double doors at the end of the hall and ran into the parking lot.
She took off through the parking lot, avoiding broken cars and a few motorcycles, some with remains of their riders still attached to them. “If the riders died while starting up the bikes, there still might be keys with them!” She ran to the nearest one. The remains of one of the gym teachers were still attached to it, but the keys were still inside! Her Uncle Trevor had taught her to ride, using his old bike, when she was twelve. It had been a little while, but she thought she could remember enough to ride just a little ways out of town.
She shoved the remains off of the bike. “Sorry Mr. Phelps.” she said, recognizing the man. She twisted the keys and…. Immediately stalled. “Oh, right.” She said remembering to use the clutch in conjunction with the gas. The ground was caving in just inches from her! She gave it one more try, felt the bike surge into action, and drove out of the parking lot as fast as she could. “Uncle Trevor always told me never to start off this fast… but I guess I have no choice.” She said to no one in particular and sped off to the city’s southern exit.
The city crumbled in her wake, only inches from her wheels. Amanda sped faster than she had ever gone before on Uncle Trevor’s motorcycle. He usually came around several times a year and Amanda would ride for a while with the little training she had through him. It had still been a few years since she had seen him last. Though at those times she was always wearing a helmet… and not escaping a collapsing town… and not going nearly this fast. She had grown up in this small town and she pushed back tears as it collapsed behind her.
She twisted the handle back, letting the throttle out a bit as she heard the rumbling getting farther and farther away. She was outside the city limit now. She swerved and screeched to a stop, watching Sunnydale collapse into a massive sinkhole only a few yards ahead of her. She watched until she saw the final sign collapse on the outskirts. It was only then that she lowered her head and wept.
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