(Edited 03.30.2023)

Once I'd replaced my folded contacts with a brand new pair, I decided to head to the boyfriend's house and stake it out. I'd been there for about three hours and cringed the entire time. He didn't exactly seem like a killer, nor did he seem happy about his newly dead girlfriend, as all he'd done the entire time I'd been watching was eat mint chocolate chip ice cream while watching depressing rom-coms and sobbing the entire time. Just as I determined this lead was a dud and turned to leave, I heard an ear-piercing scream echo out of the house. Finally, some action.

Without hesitation, I took a hold of my stake and turned back to the house, running to the door and kicking the handle with all my force. It took a couple of tries, but the handle finally clattered to the ground as the door swung open and I rushed in. I took in the scene before me, Matt's lifeless body underneath a repulsive feeding vampire, one who was much bigger than the star quarterback. At the sound of me, the vampire glared up at me, blood running down his chin.

"Who the hell are you?" It asked, almost in disgust at the thought that somebody would interrupt its feeding time. I simply grinned at the question.

"Somebody who's really itching to kill something." I answered, readying the stake in my grip as I ran toward the creature. I jumped up, attempting to catch it off guard as I had so many before it as I dived for right over its head, only to be stopped when a force took a hold of my ankle and threw me back in the direction I'd just run from.

As soon as I hit the wooden flooring, the stake flew from my hand and slid across the floor, but I wasn't out of commission just yet. I hopped back up, anger and adrenaline pulsing through my veins. Buffy wouldn't be here this time to save my ass if I messed up. The vampire stalked closer, fangs bared and ready to sink into my skin. The rancid breath hit my face the closer he got. His wrinkled face smirked as he got even closer, cornering me by putting his hands against the wall beside my head, giving me just the opportunity I needed.

"Are you gonna kill me or kiss me?" I questioned, catching him off guard.

"What?" Was the response.

"Are you gonna kill me," I repeated, swiftly bringing my fist up and bending one of his arms up in a direction no arm should ever be seen in as he let out a yelp of pain, "or kiss me?" My eyebrows knit together in a feigned concern as he glared down at me. In an instant I felt a cold sting stick to my cheek, my head turned to the door.

This bitch slapped me.

Slowly, a smile pulled on my lips as I began to laugh, finally losing any sense of control as the pain spread through my body. I looked back to the vampire, knowing based on the senses around me that I no longer looked an ounce of human, and watched its face twist in worry.

"What are you?" It stuttered, backing away from me and holding onto its broken arm.

"You really shouldn't have hit me." I said, reaching up and jabbing my clawed fingers directly into any piece of the hideous face I could get them in, one of which found its way into the monsters eye. It screamed in pain as blood began to pour down its face and into my palms. I pushed it back away from me, pulling my talons out as I did so, and watched it stumble back to the floor. Without a second to hesitate, I ran to the stake on the floor, swooping down to grab it before sprinting back to the beast who'd already given me too much trouble. Time to end this.

Only, even with a missing eye, he saw my attack coming, holding out his hand directly where my stake was aimed. It ran straight through and he let out another yelp of pain, but quickly recovered enough to take a hold of my wrist and throw me to the floor behind him. I felt the crack in the wooden floor on my back before I felt it on the floor. The air in my lungs immediately escaped me as I gasped for another breath, still not fast enough to get up before him.

"I don't even want to eat you anymore." He said, standing over me and shutting me up with a kick to the abdomen, the force so strong it sent me into the tv stand behind me. I gasped once again while the stand wobbled and anything on it fell over onto me. I could feel the crack in my already bruised ribs that felt like it was piercing my lungs. "I just wanna kill you now."

Each time I managed to move, trying to sit up and continue the fight, I felt another pang in my stomach, back, and chest, that sent me back to the floor. The vampire crept closer, victory clear in his expression. That was until I heard my saviors—a very familiar bunch of voices.

"I swear, this is the next place he was going to attack. He went after the girl, so why not her boyfriend?" Who was that? I knew I recognized it, but the aching in my head was too much to remember. The vampire turned at the sounds before glaring at me and ducking out of the room. Coward.

"Uh, Buff, I think he's already been here." Buff. Buffy! Buffy would rescue me again after all!

"Alex?" The redhead noticed and made her way to me.

"Don't let me hold you up. He went that way." I pointed in the direction of the vampire with a wince. Something was definitely broken.

"Don't take this the wrong way, Al, but you look like crap." Xander said, stepping up to me as the rest of them followed. Only Buffy left to catch up to the vampire, which I wouldn't fault her for. I'd gank the son of a bitch if I could move.

"I think you need to go to a hospital." Willow said and I shook my head, turning onto my back and putting my weight on my elbow to try and sit up. I could, but not without a lot of pain. At least I wasn't paralyzed.

"I'm good." I replied simply. "Probably just a fracture." I lied through my teeth. Anya sat by us and poked me in the rib without any hesitation or thought behind it, and I let out a hiss of pain.

"Definitely broken. You need a hospital." She inferred.

"I'll be okay. Seriously guys. This isn't my first rodeo." I glared at the group. Xander and Willow nodded at each other before they both helped me to my feet, each holding one arm on either side.

"Come on." Xander spoke simply as they walked me out of the house. As much as I hated the feeling of people touching me, I wasn't exactly in the position to decline. They positioned me in a nearby car, Xander hopping in the drivers seat as Willow sat in the back with me, Anya next to her boyfriend up front. It didn't take long for me to realize where we were going.

Sunnydale Memorial, the signs read.

"Do not take me in that place or so help me..." I trailed off, not exactly sure what I'd do if they did commit me into the place.

"What's got you so wigged about hospitals?" Xander asked, and the memories flooded my sight.

☥

"When can I see my mom? She looked really hurt." I asked the nurse bringing me a tray of food. The green jello jiggled on the plate as the nurse let out a melancholic sigh.

"I don't think you'll be able to see your mom anytime soon, sweetheart." She said.

"Please?" I asked, my heart thumping loudly in my chest, but she simply turned to leave the room. I kicked the tray up and off of me as I jumped out of the uncomfortable hospital bed. "I need to see her! I need to see my mom! Let me see her!" I screamed, completely pulling the painful IV out of my wrist as I ran to the door. The nurse caught me in her arms as I struggled against her. "I need my mom!" I screamed, over and over again, my voice sure to go hoarse. I noticed a few more similarly dressed men and women running down the hallway at us. "She needs me! I need my mom! I need-" I stopped when they took a hold of me, dragging me back to the bed. I felt a jab in my side and it wasn't much longer before the spinning room went completely black.

☥

"I don't like the needles." I mumbled, though it had been a minute since his question.

"Well, like it or not, Giles doesn't have enough in his tiny, tiny house to fix broken ribs, so a hospital is your only choice." Anya said matter-of-factly. I sighed, knowing they were correct, but I was still allowed to hate it.

"All right." I muttered. "Let's just get it over with."

☥

"So, what exactly is a slayer?" My voice was hoarse and monotone as I stared out the large tinted window that overlooked the parking lot. I'd had an emergency surgery on my ribs and had just come out from the anesthesia a few hours before the group arrived to check on me. In my time in this god-forsaken room, I'd lost the ability to feel. I felt nothing. No pain. No happiness. No sadness. Just nothing.

I felt empty.

"You fight vampires, but you're not a hunter." I turned to Buffy, who leaned against the pale wall with her arms crossed as she looked me over. I knew I looked a mess. A concussion, broken ribs, fractured ankle and wrist, and internal bleeding. They had told the doctors I was mugged, therefore that I didn't have my I.D. On me so they couldn't find my fake ones.

"In every generation, there is a chosen one. She alone will stand against the vampires, the demons, and the forces of darkness. She is the Slayer... I am the Slayer." She explained after a moment. I hummed in acknowledgment, turning back to look out the window.

"I guess that makes us similar." I replied. Only we weren't. We were two very different people, different species entirely.

"No." She answered, like venom piercing my already mangled body. "We are nothing alike." She continued. I nodded, not giving her another glance.

"Why do you think?" I asked after a moment.

"Alex-" Giles spoke with a soft, concerned warning tone and I glanced at him.

"No, she thinks we're complete opposites, I want to know why. We use the same weapons, kill the same monsters, what makes us so different from each other?" I asked, wondering if she'd seen my talons the other night. Perhaps she knew I wasn't entirely human. The answer, however, threw me off even more.

"You chose this life. I didn't. I wanted to be normal." The words stung as I snapped my head in her direction. My eyes felt empty. My body felt empty.

"You think I didn't?" I questioned. We'd only known each other a few days and she already assumed she had my life completely pegged down. However, the more I thought, the less empty I felt. The more I thought, the more rage consumed my entire being as I gripped onto the hospital sheets.

"That's exactly what I think." She said in a matter-of-fact tone. "I think you had the opportunity to have a perfectly normal life. In fact, I'm sure you could've won Prom Queen if you didn't, but you gave it up for a life that I was forced into against my will. I was told I was the Slayer. That's it. There were no options for me." At the end of her words, I stood from the bed, not worried about the IV pulling out, nor the monitor heartbeat going flat. I was very much alive. I felt no pain in my chest, back, or stomach as I stepped closer. Surprisingly, she didn't back down, in fact, she held strong, glaring up at me.

"Do you have a family, Buffy? A mother, a father? Maybe a sibling?" I questioned. Her lack of an answer was all the response I needed to continue. "Have you watched the life drain from your mothers eyes while you sat by, unable to move—to do anything to help, all the while she's screaming for anyone—any human—to save her. But you can't. Because you're weak. And powerless. And no amount of killing the things that killed her or fighting or training will ever be able to convince you that you're not because you let her die? Have you ever experienced that, Slayer?" The words slipped out like butter, and I watched her throat move with a gulp. Good, I thought, regret what you said. "I am sorry you were forced into a life you didn't want, but you weren't the only one who wanted to be fucking Prom Queen, Princess."

And then it was over. It was gone. The anger had been released, and I no longer had the energy to continue. Instead, I stalked back to the bed, waiting for the nurses to burst in at any moment to make certain I was still alive.

The group didn't have to be told to leave the room.

☥

"What if all the world's inside of your head.
Just creations of your own? Your devils and your gods. All the living and the deadAnd you're really all alone?"
-NIN