On the fifth day of Christmas...(2/2)
Fandom: Malory Towers/Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 2606
Summary: Vampires are not the only monsters rising from the grave, and the undead are far from Alicia's only problems.
“Use the sledgehammer”, Marie sounded almost concerned - or perhaps Alicia had imagined it - as the skeleton got up again and continued its slow pursuit. A single skeleton alone would have been of little concern, the problem was that behind that skeleton were a further three or four that Alicia hadn’t even laid a hand on yet.
She ducked underneath the swipe of one of the broadswords that all of the skeletons appeared to be carrying and swept the legs of the closest skeleton out from under it, grateful to hear the sound of bones clattering together. She heaved up the sledgehammer from where it had fall near a tombstone, swung in a downward arc and winced as bones shattered beneath it.
“The skull Alicia”, and she rolled her eyes, she was absolutely about to do that. She crushed the skull of the first skeleton and swung the hammer into the temple of the second approaching skeleton. The skull shattered upon contact into hundreds of pieces. Alicia staggered to keep control of the sledgehammer, her arm muscles almost screaming with the exertion as she forced herself to wield the hammer again and again until all that was left of her former foes were piles of shattered bone and dust. She let the hammer fall to the floor and leant against a nearby tombstone to catch her breath.
“It’s not entirely respectful to be leaning on a grave marker”, Marie commented and Alicia made a very pointed glance between her Watcher and the empty hole in front of the gravestone.
“Well if…”, and she leant forward to read the gravestone, “Sir Walter Bannersworth had been decent enough to stay dead and not try to kill me then I would be in a much more respectful mood.” Marie simply raised an eyebrow, although the twitch at the corner of her lips betrayed her amusement.
“I’ve gotten used to the fresh ones getting back up to kill me, but at this rate I’ll have killed everyone in this graveyard for the second time in their lives”, Alicia commented, “I wasn’t warned about skeletons”.
“You mean they didn’t mention it in your Slayer Weekly?”, and Marie began to walk back towards Malory Towers, leaving Alicia to roll her eyes and run after her.
***
“Skeletons?”, and Darrell looked quite confused, although that was a common expression for her these days during conversation with Alicia, “How do they stay together?”
“I don’t know, magic?”, Alicia leant back against the tree, “Did you miss the part about them trying to kill me?”
“Doesn't everything try to kill you? You’re the Slayer”, Darrell replied.
“Look at you being so unaffected by my near death experience”, Alicia smirked, “I’ll remember this”.
“Is it strange that skeletons are rising?”, Darrell asked, wrapping her arms around her knees, “Is it any stranger than vampires?” Alicia paused and considered Darrell’s question. After all, Alicia might be acting like she was old-hand at this Slayer business but she had only been “called” for little over a month or so. She didn’t really have a measure for “stranger than usual” yet.
“I don’t know - Marie looks worried...”, Alicia tapped her heels gently against the ground, “I don’t think it’s common”.
“Do they bite like vampires?”
“No - they carry giant swords and try to cut you up. Although that might be an individual preference rather than a general skeleton rule”, Alicia laughed at the look Darrell gave her, and felt a flash of hurt as her friend stood up, “I take it my time is up then”
“You want me to behave as normally as possible”, Darrell said, “You’re quite welcome to come with me and play tennis but…”, Alicia waved Darrell’s offer away.
“Come hunting with me tonight?”, Alicia asked.
“What would I do? Hold your spare stakes and try not to get eaten or cut in half?”, Darrell asked.
“Something like that, I’ll wake you just after midnight?”, Alicia jumped up to her feet in a single movement.
“Do I get a say in this?”, Darrell asked.
“Like you’re not curious”, Alicia called over her shoulder as she walked away, “Don’t wear yourself out too much playing tennis, you’ll need your strength”.
Alicia set out to find Betty, conscious that she hadn’t been spending much time with her of late and feeling quite guilty about it. A poke of her head into the West Tower fifth form common room was fruitless and she found herself wandering the gardens quite aimlessly, wondering where Betty might have gone. Eventually she heard a giggle and altered her route, where she found Betty, Winnie, and another girl whose name she couldn’t remember crowded around something whispering. They heard her approach and quickly tried to hide the something, only relaxing when they realised who it was.
“See you later Betty”, and Winnie and the other girl disappeared before Alicia could say a word. The silence that was left between her and Betty was curiously uncomfortable.
“I’ve been looking for you everywhere”, Alicia said eventually.
“Well I thought you were off with Darrell again”, Betty said, and if Alicia wasn’t mistaken (and she usually wasn’t) there was a sharp edge to Betty’s words that meant Alicia should choose her own carefully, “You usually go off with her whenever Sally’s busy these days”.
“Just had something I needed her help with”, Alicia said.
“Awful lot of something I should say”, Betty shrugged, “At first I thought it was part of some plan of yours to wind up Darrell or Sally, wondered why you weren’t letting me in on it”.
“It’s not…”
“No, I get that now”, Betty shrugged, “So I decided if you’re off with her then there’s no harm in me spending time with other people”.
“Are you jealous?”, Alicia could hardly believe her ears, was it actually Betty behaving like this? With the same kind of cold jealousy that they had teased Sally Hope for so many times over the years. Alicia half expected a grin to break out over Betty’s face at any moment, with a “Gotcha” that would reveal it all a joke at Alicia’s expense.
Except there was no smile in sight.
“Fed up”, Betty brushed aside the accusation, but the blush gave her away, “I kept looking for you and you were always off with her, so why should I hang around waiting for when you decide you’ve got time for me?”
“But...I…”, Alicia couldn’t seem to get her mouth or brain to work in tandem with one another and everything she desperately wanted to say got lost.
“Anyway, I was busy before you interrupted me so I’ll see you later”, and Betty - her best friend - actually turned her back on her and walked away, leaving Alicia standing like a complete fool in the corner of the gardens. Her chest was tight and her throat felt like it had a lump in it as feelings Alicia wasn’t accustomed to built up inside her…
She started to pace, telling herself over and over that she wasn’t going to cry. Crying was for silly little babies, and Alicia was certainly not a baby. But the feeling kept coming back up, threatening to overwhelm her until another - more powerful emotion - took over.
Anger.
Alicia didn’t remember losing her temper - but since she was staring at the remains of what had once been a picnic table it was quite obvious she had - and she didn’t feel any better for it. She wondered if this was the kind of thing that Darrell had spent years trying to fight against, and she felt a burst of empathy for her friend. Of course Darrell hadn’t ever been left with a pile of wood and metal that desperately needed hiding away…
***
“You’re not telling Alicia?”, Rupert asked as Marie packed a few necessities - stakes, holy water, daggers and the like - into her satchel.
“No - and neither are you”, Marie replied, “I shouldn’t be more than forty-eight hours. She would only want to come with me”.
“It might not be a bad idea if she did”, Rupert sat on Marie’s desk, ignoring the look she gave him as she did. After a moment she seemed to decide that there were far more important matters at hand and instead pushed the ashtray towards him.
“Cheers”, Rupert said as he lit up his cigarette, “Your colleagues will think you’ve taken up the habit”
“Thanks to your lack of subtlety, my colleagues are well aware that it’s your cigarette smoke they can smell in this office”, Marie zipped up her satchel.
“Oh aye, rumours are there?”, Rupert grinned and winked at Marie, chuckling when she shook her head in despair, “So why are you leaving Alicia here then?”
“How do you think real life works Rupert?”, Marie asked, “What possible reason would I be able to come up with for why I am taking a student off of school grounds for the weekend?”
“Alright, alright”, Rupert held up his hands in defeat, “I’ll keep an eye on her then I suppose - keep her out of trouble”.
“That has certainly not worked out so far has it?”, Marie said as she did one last glance around the room. Then her expression softened and she looked back at Rupert,
“I’m trusting you Rupert. Not just with her - with all of them”, and there was a solemnity to her voice that was almost alarming.
“I know I’ve been a bit of a useless sod recently but I’m not going to let anything happen to them”, Rupert said, and was relieved to see something almost like a smile on Marie’s face.
“I’ll see you by Sunday then”, Marie said.
***
“You seem upset”, Darrell said from where she was sat on top of the wall that ran around the graveyard. Alicia had just finished pummeling a newly risen vampire into unconsciousness and then finally staking him out of his misery.
“How insightful”, Alicia said, leaning against the wall beside Darrell and catching her breath, “Anymore great observations for me?”
“You’re very grumpy when you’re in a bad mood”, Darrell said, “Like a toddler. I remember Felicity used to pull that exact same face when she was little”.
“Beginning to wish I’d left you at Malory Towers”, Alicia shoved her hands into the pockets of her coat.
“Where did Miss Potts go earlier?”, Darrell asked in the least subtle change of subject imaginable.
“You can call her Marie you know”, Alicia must have said that four or five times since Darrell had found out about the slaying, “I don’t know - what are you talking about?”
“She left school in her car earlier, it wasn’t parked outside when we left either so she’s gone somewhere”, Darrell said, “That grave’s moving by the way”, and she pointed to their left. Alicia squinted at the headstone.
“It’s an old one”, she groaned, “Another skeleton”
Darrell dutifully handed her the hammer and Alicia took off towards the grave, getting to the graveside just as the skeleton broke through the soil. It didn’t even make it out of the grave before she crushed it’s skull into a thousand pieces.
“Behind you”, Darrell called and Alicia turned just in time to avoid a second skeleton relieving her of her head.
“Bit more warning next time”, Alicia shouted back as she vaulted over one of the gravestones to give herself a bit of space to think.
“There’s more”, and Darrell sounded worried now. Alicia looked up and watched as another two skeletons dragged themselves out of graves. Alicia was suddenly horribly aware of just how stupid it was to bring Darrell along; Marie was right, Darrell couldn’t defend herself against the undead.
“Darrell?”, and Alicia did a double take as she realised that Darrell had moved from her position on the wall.
“I’m fine”, but she couldn’t work out where the voice came from and neither did she have time to locate it as one of the skeletons lumbered within range of her. She kicked out it’s lower legs - quite literally - and used it as a step, leaping over the heads of the two that were staggering in behind him. Before they had a chance to turn around, she had smashed in one of their skulls.
The sound of bone smashing behind her made her jump, although she relaxed when she realised it was Rupert with his own weapon - a cricket bat.
“You don’t make it bloody easy to keep an eye on you”, Rupert muttered as he stepped past her and took off the next skeleton’s head with a single blow, sending it rattling across the graveyard until it came to a rest next to the wall. Alicia ducked around him and delivered an upper cut with the hammer to the jaw of another skeleton, teeth clattered and smashed as the head popped off.
“Give you practice - not much good at the watching side of your job are you?”, Alicia asked, slamming the hammer into the sternum of yet another skeleton and knocking it off balance so she could bring the hammer down on it’s temple.
“I’m more of a man of action”, Rupert replied, splitting the skull of the last skeleton in two and turning to face her, “Where’s your friend - I know you both snuck out”.
“Here”, and Alicia looked around as Darrell carefully jumped out of one of the trees dotted around the graveyard, Alicia had to commend her for her quick thinking - skeletons probably couldn’t climb trees. The skull that Rupert had knocked off earlier began snapping as it noticed Darrell, and Darrell jumped away from it. Alicia grinned at the look on her face - somewhere between disgust and disbelief and then laugh out loud as Darrell carefully approached it and stamped on it, shattering the skull beneath her walking boot.
“I think I want to go back to school”, Darrell said.
“I think that’s the best place for both of you”, Rupert agreed, “and this time stay put would you?”
“Where’s Marie gone?”, Alicia asked as they started walking back towards Malory Towers.
“Business with the Watcher’s Council”, Rupert said, “She’ll explain when she gets back”.
“You in charge then?”, Alicia grinned.
“Damn right”, Rupert said, “So the two of you can get your backsides back to school and into bed whilst I come back out and clear away the bones - last thing we need is an investigation into who’s been smashing up the graveyard”.
They walked back to school in silence and just as they arrived outside, Rupert took hold of Alicia’s arm,
“Give us a moment yeah kid?”, he called to Darrell, who didn’t look altogether pleased at being called ‘kid’ but went inside nonetheless.
“You don’t take her out like that again you hear?”, Rupert said, pointing at the door Darrell had just gone through, “Not unless you want to get her killed”.
“Alright…”, Alicia shook off his hand.
“No - I’m serious this time”, and he did look rather solemn so Alicia stopped protesting, “You don’t want the death of anyone on your conscience - never mind someone you care about. I know it’s exciting to show off but I’m telling you it’s not bloody worth it alright?”
“Okay, it won’t happen again”, there was something in Rupert’s voice, something in his eyes, that told Alicia this was not up for debate.
“Good - now get to bed”, Rupert said.
“You going to come and check on us? Make sure we’re all tucked in?”, Alicia asked, prompting a snort from Rupert.
“I’ll bloody well lock the two of you in if I have to, now go”, and Rupert turned around and started walking back towards the graveyard.