Author: Tiffany
Send Feedback To: Tsparkle14@aol.com
Disclaimer:
Some of these characters (Willow, Xander, Giles, Spike, Anya, Buffy, etc) are
property of Joss Whedon, I don't own them, blah, blah, blah. The occasional demons
come products my whacked out imagination. The other characters are people who have
foolishly allowed me to use their name and manipulate them in my fic however I choose.
Hahaha…
Everyone examined the room carefully. It looked like it had once been a magic
shop, or something to that affect. It had obviously been abandoned a long time ago.
The shelves were bare and everything was charred black. There must have been a pretty
major fire. Dust hung in the air and Maggie brushed away a cobweb.
"Maybe
we should-" Jordy began.
"Sh… Did you hear that?" Tiffany whispered.
Everyone
was silent and on full alert. There it was again. A soft thump from the floor boards
a few feet in front of them. They all tiptoed to the spot the noise had come from.
Maggie ran her hands over the wood and noticed 2 small metal rings protruding from
a particularly long and thick slab of wood. She pointed and Tiffany and Rachel each
grabbed a ring. Quiller held up 3 fingers, then 2, then one and Rachel and Tiffany
pulled up on the rings. Sure enough the panel came right up and below it, lying in
a shallow ditch, obviously made for hiding, lay a shocked vampire covering the mouth
of a terrified girl.
Grace grabbed the girl and pulled her away to safety.
Before the vampire had a chance to do anything Josh plunged a stake through his heart
and he burst into dust.
Everyone focused now on the girl who was clinging
to Grace for dear life.
"Is it gone?" she asked.
"Yeah
it… uh… ran away," Jordy answered,
"But I thought he just staked
it," the girl said, nodding towards Josh.
Rachel looked startled. "So
you know about-"
"Vampires? Yeah," she answered. "They've
been after me for years."
Nobody really knew what to say.
"By
the way," she added, holding out her hand to shake, "I'm Paige."
*****
The
group introduced themselves one at a time. They all had questions for Paige, but
they realized she had been through a lot and it was getting late. They decided to
go back and grab their bags and then head for the hotel with Paige.
Twenty
minutes later they arrived at the motel. "Bill's Motel" the sign said.
And the place looked awful.
"I don't recall anybody saying we'd be sleeping
at the city dump," Lisa said.
"It's… not so bad," Josh replied,
trying to be optimistic.
"Josh, face facts, it stinks," Quiller
said.
"Literally," Jordy added, wrinkling her nose.
"Maybe
they're infested with crickets," Maggie said hopefully, as they opened the door
to the lobby and stepped inside.
They looked around and saw nobody. Jordy
stepped up to the counter and rang the bell. Still nobody.
"Looks like
nobody's home," Grace said, backing towards the door, "Time to go!"
"I
second that. This place gives me the wiggens." Rachel added with a shiver.
Just
then, a heavy set, bald man opened a door behind the front desk and lumbered up to
the counter front counter.
"Oh goody. There he is now," Grace muttered
in complete monotone.
"Can I help you?" The owner of the motel asked,
glaring at them.
"Yeah," Josh said, "We need three rooms,"
"That'll
be ninety," The owner said.
"Dollars?" Rachel asked
"No,
doggy biscuits," he replied, sarcastically.
"But your ad said $20
a room!" Jordy said.
"Yeah, for one room. Three rooms is ninety,"
He replied simply, as if it made perfect sense.
Josh sighed. He pulled out
the money they had saved up, and handed a good hunk of it over to the owner.
The
owner smiled and they saw that one of his front teeth was missing. "Nice doin'
business with you," He said, counting out the money and tossing three room keys
across the counter at them. Jordy muttered something under her breath and took the
keys.
"That was rude," Paige said quietly, as they exited the lobby
and headed for the room numbers on the keys, 8, 9, and 10.
Maggie nodded at
Paige's comment. "Why did we just take that?" Maggie asked, irritated.
"Why didn't we just go somewhere else?"
"Because there's a
very important reason why we're staying here," Rachel replied, though she too
was irritated.
Maggie frowned. "I know, we need to conserve our money,
and this place was supposed to be cheap, but-"
"More important than
that," Rachel interrupted.
"Then why?" Maggie asked.
"Because
it's the only motel left in Sunnydale," Quiller supplied. Rachel nodded.
"Couldn't
we have used a little magic," Grace asked, with a sly grin.
"I didn't
want to risk it," Josh explained.
"You shoulda let me show him a
thing or two," Rachel said jokingly, cracking her knuckles. Josh smiled at that.
They
arrived at room 8 and Josh unlocked and opened the door. They filed into the room
and Lisa turned on the light… only to find a room full of vampires.
Quiller grabbed Paige and pulled her as far away from the vamps as she could.
The rest of them stared down the vampires and pulled out their stakes. Josh took
a second to make a quick headcount. There were 7 of them. Quiller was protecting
Paige, so that would make this a fair fight.
One of the vampires growled,
and lunged. Then the room erupted into chaos. Each person took a vamp, except for
Quiller who kept Paige out of harm's way. The room was pretty small, so with every
kick and shove, something was damaged.
Josh pushed his vampire into the nightstand
between the 2 beds and the lamp on the nightstand crashed to the floor and broke
into pieces. Josh winced, but kept fighting.
One of the stronger vampires
pushed Lisa into the wall and leapt at Quiller and Paige. Quiller pushed Paige behind
her and kicked the vamp in the stomach. He reeled back, right into Lisa, who started
kicking him.
Jordy's vampire had her cornered and he leaned in to bite her.
Grace, who had just staked her vampire, saw this and rushed over touching the vampire's
shoulder. He froze. Jordy sighed in relief and escaped from his grasp. She smiled
at Grace. Grace smiled back.
"I love my power," Grace said with
a grin, as she turned to help someone else.
The time freeze on Jordy's vampire
wore off and he unfroze, unaware of what had just happened. He leaned the rest of
the way in and bumped his head against the wall. Startled, he looked right and left,
completely confused. Jordy tapped him on the shoulder, smiled, and punched him in
the nose.
Rachel shoved her female vampire away and pointed her finger at
him. A burst of fire shot from her finger and landed on the vampire's hair, catching
it all on fire. The girl vamp freaked out and started swatting at her hair, trying
to put it out. She only succeeded in feeding to the flame.
"Oh, I'm so
sorry!" Rachel exclaimed. "Let me help!" She pulled out a small bottle
of holy water and splashed it on the vampire's hair. The fire went out, but now there
was a hissing noise coming from the vamp as her flesh burned away. She shrieked and
clawed at her face. Rachel giggled and kicked the vamp a few times before staking
her.
Tiffany saw this and rolled her eyes. Her opponent swung his fist at
her face. She turned back to him, just in time to see his fist coming, and ducked.
She swung around, so she was at his side, then she kicked the back of his knees and
he fell to the floor.
One by one all of the vamps were staked, except Maggie's.
The group watched as she continued to pummel her vampire that was too slow to fight
back.
Josh coughed. Maggie looked at them.
"Oh, sorry," She
said, easily staking the last vampire.
The group looked around the room. It
was a disaster. There were holes in the walls, the beds had been torn apart, the
dresser and nightstand had been overturned.
"Stupid vampires make a
mess and don't even stick around to help clean it up," Lisa grumbled.
Quiller
picked up the pieces of the ruined lamp. "How did they even get in here?"
She asked.
Maggie shrugged, pulled a cricket out of her pouch, and munched
on it.
"Maybe the owner invited them in," Grace suggested.
"That's
a possibility," Quiller said.
"Or maybe the last guy who rented
this place invited them," Grace added.
"I guess," Quiller nodded.
"Or
there could be a welcome sign," Grace put in.
"Yeah," Quiller
said, ready to move on.
"Or maybe-"
"I get the point,"
Quiller interrupted.
"The question is… Why did they come here?"
Tiffany said. "Did they know we'd come here? Do they know who we are?"
"That's
three questions," Grace pointed out.
Everybody ignored that last comment.
"Let's
hope not," Josh said. "Right now we have something else to deal with."
They
all looked at Paige.
A few minutes later they had all settled down. Maggie, Lisa, Rachel, and Tiffany
all sat on one of the ruined beds. Josh, Quiller, and Jordy sat on the other. Grace
and Paige had settled on the floor. Since the lamp in the room was broken, Rachel
had pulled out a few candles and used her power to light them. They all waited for
someone to begin.
"So," Maggie said, "to cut to the chase,
why are the bad guys so interested in you?"
"I don't know,"
Paige answered, shaking her head.
"Okay then… tell us what you do know,"
Josh said, gently.
"They've been after me since I turned nine,"
Paige said, almost in a whisper.
"Nine?" Rachel asked. Paige nodded.
"Wow… that's young."
Paige nodded again. "They killed my family
when I was ten and I've been running from them alone ever since," she said.
"How
old are you now?" Tiffany asked, wishing they could do something.
"Almost
fourteen," Paige replied.
"And you have no idea why they're doing
this?" Lisa asked again. "You don't have any powers, any magical objects…
anything?"
"Not that I know of," Paige responded.
"That's
rare, isn't it?" Maggie asked. "For a bunch of demons to be so concerned
with one person?"
Quiller nodded. "You must be special in some way
if they've been after you like this."
"I wish I wasn't" Paige
said quietly.
"I know how you feel," Grace said.
They were
all silent for a moment.
"Do you have any idea who might be after you?"
Josh asked suddenly. "Have the demons you've been running from mentioned a name?"
Paige
looked up sharply and her eyes filled with fear.
"What? What is it?"
Jordy asked, concerned.
"They did mention a name," Paige whispered.
"They
call it Queen Riley
"Maybe we should do some research tonight" Josh suggested. "You
know… find out a little about this 'Queen Riley'."
Lisa yawned, Jordy
rubbed her eyes.
Quiller saw this and noticed how exhausted they all were.
"Tomorrow," she said. "When we see Giles,"
Everybody agreed
and they decided to get some sleep.
Grace turned to Paige, "You can
stay with me and Jordy," she offered as the three of them stood up.
"Rachel
and I are taking the next room," Maggie said, jumping up and heading for the
door.
"I'll join you guys," Quiller added, following them out and
leaving Josh, Lisa, and Tiffany with the ruined room. Lisa sighed.
"I'll
take the floor," Josh offered.
Tiffany and Lisa protested, but Josh took
a blanket and pillow and settled down on the floor. They were too tired to argue.
Minutes later Tiffany had blown out the candles and they had all fallen asleep.
Next
door to them, Quiller climbed into bed and had just started drifting off to sleep
when she was startled awake by the blaring of the TV. She sat up in bed and saw that
Maggie had just finished switching channels on the old TV. Voyager was on.
"Can't
you guys turn that off?" she asked.
"It's an all new episode,"
Rachel said simply, without looking away from the TV.
"And a marathon
after that," Maggie added with a nod.
Quiller sighed, fell back into
bed, pulled the covers over her head, and covered her ears with the lumpy pillow.
By
now, in room 10, Jordy and Grace had fallen fast asleep. Paige, on the other hand,
remained wide-awake. She was terrified. She closed her eyes and drifted into an uneasy
sleep…
At first all she heard was the shouting. Screaming, crying… Then came
the flashes of light and blurred figures, but nothing she could make out. She heard
the sounds of fighting. Punching, kicking, thumps, a breaking noise. It was terrifying
and she cried out for it to stop. Then there was a scream and… nothing. No flashes,
no crying, no blurred figures. Just blackness and silence. Until she heard a quiet
voice. It said two words that echoed in her head…
"She's dead."
Paige
bolted upright in bed, gasping for air, her heart beating wildly. She slowly calmed
down as she surveyed the plain, dark room, seeing nobody but Jordy asleep on the
floor and Grace asleep on the other bed. Her heart beat steadily again and her breathing
returned to normal… but the two words echoed over and over in her head.
[Page 1]
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