One ☥ Just A Girl
(Edited 03.27.2023)
The bold lettering of the Sunnydale sign greeted me as I entered the nearby town, duffel bag in the passenger seat. It was late now, and rain poured to the ground, beating on my busted-up car, but I was sure check-in time hadn't passed. I parked just outside the neon sign, rushing into the motel to escape the down poor. I was greeted with a ding of a bell above the door, and the forced smile of the employee at the desk.
"Good evening ma'am. Welcome to the Sunnydale Sweet Spot. Did you have a scheduled reservation or did you want to book a room?" The middle-aged woman asked, her gravelly voice matching the scene of cigarette smoke around the lobby.
"I called last night. One queen for Plant." I announced, whipping out my cash and fake I.D. to hand over to the woman. She glowered down at the fraudulent item, as if trying to determine if it was, in fact, real, before shrugging and inputting something into her small box computer.
"You're all checked in." She slid back the card and grabbed a set of keys hanging on the wall behind her, handing them to me, "Room 14, just around the hall."
I froze at the number, but forced a smile as I took the keys, thanked her briefly, and was on my way to the room. On arrival, I stared up at the brass numbers, avoiding a chill that crept through my spine. 14.
I unlocked the door and stepped into the room. It smelled much nicer than the lobby had. The single bed was more than enough for me alone and I immediately threw myself along with my stuff onto it.
I got to setting up, salting all the entrances—a method I wasn't yet sure whether if it would work or not, but had read about—and hung up some garlic around the same areas. Once I was finished, I sat down on the side of the bed, sliding a stake under the pillow just in case. You could never be too careful.
I reached into my bag, lifting out the wrinkled and faded photograph. There smiled me, Dad, and Mom. I lifted two fingers to my lips, placing a kiss down on the image with a small smile. It had already been almost ten years. Ten years since I'd seen my mother's smile in person, or heard her voice. Fourteen years since she was ripped away from our happy family.
"I'll find the monster who did this to you, Mom."
☥
"Can I go ahead and take your drink order?" The pretty young waitress asked in an all-too-preppy voice for 8 in the morning. Still, I smiled as I looked up from my newspaper.
"Do you guys have hot chocolate? Not really much of a coffee drinker." I expressed and she nodded, jotting the order down on her ticket pad.
"One hot chocolate coming right up!" She cheered, practically skipping away from the table. My smile instantly dropped as I returned to my paper. There had been another death last night. They had reported strange puncture marks in a girl's neck, as well as the lack of blood in her body. There were clearly only two possibilities. Serial killer or vampire.
My money was on vamp.
☥
Yep, those are vampire bites, I thought to myself as I examined the poor girl's neck. Definitely drained. Now all I needed was to know who she'd been around. Of course, plenty of vampires hunted randomly, but not all.
What if it's him?
I couldn't see much of the beast who'd murdered my mother, but I was sure I would recognize him on sight. The voice, the disgusting sounds, the dim moonlight, it was all seared into my brain. I'd never forgotten and would never be able to.
"Agent Plant, was it?" I spun on my heel to look at a tall dark-skinned police officer. I instantly shot him my friendliest smile, despite the suspicious glances. It was often people were suspicious of me based on my age.
"Sure was. Hi there, Officer..." I trailed off, waiting for the introduction.
"Morison. You're here about the attacks, right?" He inquired, to which I nodded.
"I am. Is there any information you can tell me about the victims?" I asked. He shrugged.
"The first time, it was a slaughterhouse at a party, filled with people, this time it's just one girl. The killers' pattern makes no sense."
"How can you be sure it's the same killer?" I asked, tilting my head slightly in confusion. There was nothing I had seen to suggest this would be the same vamp, but they may have thought so because of the recognizable bites.
"The markings on their necks, and these signs." He held up a clipboard with more photographs clipped to it. All of them were of victims, and each victim had a different symbol either carved into their body or written in blood around or on them. I furrowed my eyebrows as I looked at the photos. This was not usual for most vampires I'd encountered.
"You didn't mention this in the report." I acknowledged.
"Didn't want the public to freak out. You're clearly new here, but unexplainable things happen here frequently, and we like to keep a majority of it from the public eye. We maintain a reputation here in Sunnydale." he explained and I had to suppress the urge to grimace at the idea. I nodded instead, still looking over the gruesome photographs.
"Mind if I borrow the photos to help research it?" I questioned, noticing he carried a file with him, which he held out to me at the request.
"Help yourself."
☥
When it came to this gig, researching vampires and looking through the papers wasn't enough. You had to truly observe the area to find what needed to be found, or else one vampire could slip away without a sound, and the job would be lost. While wandering streets, asking about the victims to shop owners, or looking into their friends and families, one place continued to pop up. The Bronze.
It seemed to be a popular club, as by the time the sun had set, it was nearly impossible to step foot into the place, it was so packed. Walking around, I felt as though I could be suffocated by the number of people grinding on each other and knocking over drinks in their drunken states. Still, I had a mission. Stay on the job. Get the vamp, and get the hell out of dodge.
I sought out potential witnesses or future victims, trying to 'teenage' my way into conversations with them.
Future victim number one, the obnoxiously loud blonde directly in front of the stage who can't take a hint from her date and snort-laughs every time he says anything remotely humorous. Number two was the boy in the far back with his nose dug into a book instead of socializing with anyone around him or even acknowledging that his surroundings exist. And finally, number three was the shy redhead in the group in the middle who almost seemed too awkward to join her friend's conversation, but did so anyway.
I kept my eyes on the three potential victims as I asked some surrounding teenagers who may have gone to the same school as the newly deceased.
"Violet? I don't know that I've ever seen her with anyone, maybe apart from her boyfriend. Nobody really looks at the quiet girls; it's out of fashion." One girl shrugged at her own ruthless words.
"Her boyfriend?" I focused. There had been nothing about a boyfriend in any of my files.
"Matt? He's our school's quarterback. Actually, you should probably talk to him if you haven't. She and him really got into it in the locker room right after the homicide. It was intense." She explained, finally giving me some useful information. I thanked her before turning to head out in search of this Matt character.
I barely made it two steps before somebody stepped directly in my way and I bumped straight into them.
"Sorry!" I apologized quickly.
"Watch where you're going." The man grumbled in some foreign accent, continuing on his way.
"What crawled up his ass and died," I mumbled. Before I could get far I felt a pang in my teeth, wincing as my ears began to sting, and shook my head. I took one more glance at the potential victims, figuring if the possible vampire was Violet's boyfriend, they'd be safe for now. I needed to get out of here. Now.
As soon as I found them, I stepped out of the back doors, trying to avoid as many civilians as possible. The pain was gentle now, but I knew if I didn't change soon it would only get worse.
I wasn't able to get far before a low, amused growl echoed around me. I quickly kicked the stake up out of my boot, glancing around the alley I'd emerged into.
"Show yourself." I demanded, and to my request, a man stepped out of the dimly lit shadows, only it wasn't a man. "Just you? No buddies?" I asked, assuming this would be an easy fight. As if for comedic timing, two more vampires followed him. I let out a snort as I looked them all over. "Alright. Buddies." I could still take them, I was positive after the other night. That was until I bumped into a solid figure behind me, turning to see two more vampires. Is this town some sort of vampire breeding ground or something?
I instantly twisted around, extending my stake to stab the vampire behind me, only to be caught by a strong grip as he grinned down at me. The grip tightened as he twisted my wrist around, pain spreading through the area just enough for me to unconsciously drop the weapon. It clattered as it hit the dusty ground.
"So this is a famed hunter. We don't have much of your kind around here. As if the Slayer wasn't enough." The leader of the group spoke, deep, dark, and gravelly. I ignored the fact that I had no idea what the creature meant with his second sentence.
"Well, sounds like your town just got a whole lot more fun, then." I grinned, bashing my head against his. The pain was intense, but it caused him to let go of me long enough to drop down for my stake as the others lunged to attack.
I quickly ducked out of the way of an incoming swing, dropping once more and swinging my leg around the ankle of one of the group's legs, tripping the beast. It fell to the ground and I quickly ended its undead life with a stake to the heart. As that one melted to dust, I looked at the other four.
"By the way, before I kill you all, mind explaining what the hell a Slayer is?" I asked. Pain still spread through my body from me wanting to unleash it, but I did my best to control it.
Instead of an answer, one of the vamps jumped for me, hands outstretched to grab me, but I ran the stake through one as he let out a shout of pain, freezing long enough for me to pull out the stake and stab it once more in the heart. As if waiting his turn, another henchman aimed for a punch in the face, hurling past me as I sidestepped with inhumane speed, turning and grabbing it by the collar of its shirt and yanking it back just long enough to run the stake into its heart. I wiped my hand off on my jeans as they dusted below me, then turned back to the remaining undead creatures.
"And then there were two." I looked at the vampires left, who now looked more pissed off than before.
"I'm really going to have fun drinking you." The leader roared and I nodded, holding out my hand and gesturing for him to come at me. Without hesitation, the two ran at me together and I smirked, waiting until the time was right to jump over their heads, flipping upside down and reaching down, grabbing the sides of their heads and bashing them together before I landed swiftly on the ground behind them, standing and turning around to see the two trying to understand what just happened.
"You aren't human." The leader acknowledged, to which I raised my eyebrows in amusement.
"Really? I hadn't noticed." I teased, lunging to attack the two before something took a strong hold of my jacket, slinging me back into the brick wall behind me. Pain rippled through my skeleton as I landed on the ground with a thud and soft groan. A glass canon, I had been called before, and right now I definitely felt it. Liquid gurgled up my throat as I coughed up copious amounts of crimson liquid onto the pavement beside me, looking up at the new secret force with a glare. "Not fair." I coughed as he grinned, kneeling by me and reaching for my throat, its strong, cold hands cutting off any sort of air I may have been able to obtain. I clawed at the hand around me, nails growing out to a sharp talon-like feature, but it didn't seem to bother him as blood began to spill from his hands that didn't falter. I could see my vision start to darken as he chuckled deeply.
"I'm going to savor tearing you limb from limb." The creature spoke darkly, bearing the disgusting fangs I hated sharing with the awful creatures. The last thing I saw was the blur of yellow as the darkness overcame my vision completely.
☥
"Take this pink ribbon off my eyes
I'm exposed And it's no big surprise
Don't you think I know
Exactly where I stand
This world is forcing me
To hold your hand
'Cause I'm just a girl, little ol' me
Well don't let me out of your sight
Oh, I'm just a girl, all pretty and petite
So don't let me have any rights
Oh, I've had it up to here!"
-No Doubt
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