You rise, I fall, I leave with nothing... nothin' at all.

[last_to_believe]

"Stupid luggage." I muttered, to myself, as I pulled the large Louis Vuitton trunk out from under the four poster bed I'd been sleeping on while staying with Kaci this summer. It wasn't the luggage's fault that my flight was already booked and I was finally leaving in a few days to go back to Shreveport. And that I didn't want to go. But inanimate

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[last_to_believe]

"No telling anyone," I insisted. "Even if you're not completely crazy, I want nothin' to do with this whole thing. I'm a 17 year old girl. I shop at Nordstrom and Bloomie's. If this is real, then someone out there has made a huge mistake."

Besides, I didn't want to talk to a stranger about something like this. That's what I had Jude for. Lexi was my person, like they say on Grey's Anatomy. Not that I was worried about any of this anyway because look at what the Hell she's talking about. Vampires.

Lexi drove like a maniac, which is how Lexi always drives, and I just sat there with my perma frown, waitin' on the worst. Like I said, vampires. Though, I don't know, maybe this makes sense in some really weird way. Jude kept skatin' around the whole magic bubbles issue. But they were real. I saw them. Could vampires be that far removed?

I guess we were about to see.

Followin' her in to the bar, I froze when she just up and announced to the entire place that I was a vampire slayer and that she needed someone to prove me right. What?! Anyone who wasn't already starin' at me sure was now.

"Me," said some biker-lookin' guy who stood up. His face got all scrunchy and misshapen as he lunged for me, while a few others got to their feet. I didn't think it'd do me too much good, standin' with my back against the bar. So I moved. Kickin' him hard in the shin, I ducked under his grasp as I ran toward... the pool table. Grabbin' a cue, I took a running leap onto the green felt surface.

I held the long wooden stick with both my hands just a few inches apart in the center of it. I struck out, smashing one of them in the face with the thicker end of it, before spinnin' toward something I felt loomin' behind me. I shoved the thinner side into its neck before bringing my leg up and swinging my foot to the side of another one's disfigured face. I was feeling pretty confident. I even broke the pool stick in two, makin' a make shift stake out of it. It wouldn't up any tent, but hopefully it'd work.

So, vampire. Stab it in the... heart. It was worth a try, so I smashed the ragged end into the chest of the same one who'd been the first volunteer. He exploded in a cloud of dust-like stuff and I froze. I just stood there, on top of the pool table, with a splintered cue stick in my hand. Which was so stupid of me, 'cause the minute I stopped, even for just a minute, a pair of rough hands grabbed me from behind and pulled me off the table and into the madness.

"LEXI!" I screamed as I kicked at the monsters crowdin' in around me.

[osborn_heiress]

Whoa. She actually didn't do too bad with her first one, I was even surprised. It was all instinct and to be honest I never even really expected her to be able to land on her feet when she fell either. I thought she would land on her ass but that she wouldn't die and that would be good enough. Some stupid vampire grabbed me by the arm too like it wanted to bite me but I just shoved it away from me.

"Not me, stupid. Her." I shook my head at him. Duh! Why were all vampires who weren't my dad or Sophia totally retarded? I liked Spike okay but he was wicked dumb too.

After Lacey was done with the first vampire she got a little too ahead of herself and suddenly the entire mob was trying to overtake her. I just watched for a second to see how she would handle herself but when she screamed my name I burst into action. I didn't really think about it too much. I kicked one of the vampires away and went after the next who had her pinned to the floor when an arm went around my waist and a hand clamping over my mouth. I bucked hard against the vampire trying to hold me and eventually managed to use so much force to knock us both to the floor.

Still crouched down I kicked out hard and managed to get rid of the vampire trying to eat me. Reaching out I grabbed Lacey's hand and pulled her up from the floor. Spinning around I kicked out hard again and looked at her. Was she scared? Did she wanna go home or did she seem exhilarated like most slayers did after a kill? We might as well kill them all and honestly I'd never felt closer to my mother than I did in that moment.

I tossed part of the broken pool cue to Lacey before taking the other end of it and slamming it hard into a chest and watching as the vampire went poof into a cloud of smoke.

[last_to_believe]

I was going to kill Lexi. If the vampires didn't kill her first. Or me, for that matter. There were so many of them, crowding around me like a bunch of hungry animals that hadn't been fed in weeks. Grabbin' at me like I was the latest kill. And sure, I'd kicked that first one's ass, and gave them all a run for their money. But there were too many of them now. I'd kick one off just to have another in its place before my eyes even adjusted.

Brilliant plan, Alexia.

Thankfully she took me serious when I screamed for her and wasted no time throwin' herself into the fray. Which took some of the attention off of me, but not much. I was takin' punches just to land them, and I honestly didn't know how long I could keep up before they overtook me. But before I knew it, she was pulling me to my feet. This was a freakin' nightmare. Strangely, I wasn't scared. Just kinda overwhelmed.

But I also had the overpowering urge to kill every single last one of them, and all their brothers and sisters. They'd pissed me off, tryin' to kill me and whatnot. Now, they were gonna pay. All of them. And every single one I could find after that. Stupid vampires. Screw them for existin'.

I caught half of the broken cue with one hand and wasted no time slammin' it hard into the chest of the nearest vampire. Another one came at me and I presented him with a calf length boot-clad foot to his solar plexus, which sent him back at least a few feet. Raisin' my elbow, another one of them, a girl this time, caught it right to the face before I unceremoniously staked the Hell out of her. My boy who got the stomach kick was ready for round two and surprisingly, so was I. Runnin' full force at him, I jumped so that when I tackled him to the ground and we landed, my knees were pinning his thighs.

Holding the splintered cue with both hands, I raised it over my head before plunging it down into the stupid thing's heart, collapsing into the cloud of dust that followed. Quickly, I got back to my feet, noticin' that all the vampires that hadn't been killed by me or Lexi had ran for the hills. Okay, so maybe they weren't all stupid.

"You suck," I said to Lexi as I walked by her, handin' her the broken stick right before I walked out the door of the demon dive bar she'd dragged me to.

[osborn_heiress]

"What? No drink?" I called after Lacey when she stormed out of the bar. God, what was her problem? At least I was honest with her which was a whole lot more than anyone ever did for me. Maybe I'm not good at breaking the news gently but Lacey was born to be strong, she just needed someone to show her.

Walking out of the bar I followed her outside but she wasn't even heading towards my car. "Wait, Lacey." I said to her, grabbing her by her elbow and turning her around to look at me. Maybe I sucked at this because I didn't understand what it was like to be normal and then all of a sudden not be. I've pretty much always been a freak. I'm a freak, I come from a family of freaks and the only people I really know are freaks. Even Jude and Caleb weren't normal. How could she not have noticed all of the weird things that happen around us?

"Don't get mad at me. I'm not the one who made you a vampire slayer. It's like a destiny thing. I thought you would want to know. I could tell what you are because you move like a slayer and I've grown up around them." I explained to her. This was good news! It meant that she was gonna have to stay in town cause duh slayer school was here. This was like the Slayer Mecca of the world.

Would she rather I didn't tell her and she could keep being normal? "Trust me. It's better to have superpowers in this world. Maybe you never noticed before but the world is crawling with vampires and demons and things that pretty much wanna kill you." Not to mention my ex-girlfriend who would love to get her fangs on you. "I just want you to be able to protect yourself."

[last_to_believe]

What now? I frowned, wondering if maybe there was another vampire gathering nearby that she could throw me at. When I told her to show me a vampire, I didn't mean a whole bar full of them! And I definitely didn't mean to announce that I was a friggin' Slayer either. Could've done without that part.

And I knew, I knew that it wasn't her fault that I was what I apparently am. Though destiny was a sad excuse too. I mean, what was destiny anyway? I'd always thought it was some stupid thing people got all hung up on or sounded good in song lyrics. You couldn't explain it any more than you could explain God or whatever.

"I'm not mad at you because I'm a Slayer, Lexi." I said, folding my arms across my chest. "I'm mad that you just threw me to the wolves back there. Vampires. Whatever."

I couldn't help but soften though, when she said she just wanted me to be able to protect myself. I was the complete opposite of comforted when she said there were all these creepy crawly things out there that wanted to kill me. But she was kinda right about the whole silver lining part of it. At least I had superpowers to fight these things.

"So... what now?" I asked. "I can't exactly tell my parents that I have to stay here because I need to learn how to slay vampires, so I still might not be able to stay here. And even if they somehow let me, no offense, but I still don't want anything to do with your Aunt Kennedy. I've heard all the horror stories about her." And honestly, I still didn't know if I wanted to be a Slayer just because I was one. Protectin' myself was one thing. But the rest of it? Something else entirely.

[osborn_heiress]

"Oh please. I wouldn't let them really hurt you. Besides I had to make you believe me. When they were hitting you, you hardly felt it, huh? You don't have a scratch or a bruise on you, Lacey. You're built for this kinda stuff. It's cake." I shrugged. She still didn't look that convinced. "Sorry. I guess I grew up around it. I knew I was special from the day I was born. I didn't know how to break the news gently or whatever. It's no big deal."

Why couldn't she tell her parents she was a slayer? They should be proud that their daughter was chosen by like, destiny or whatever. I knew my mom would be. But Lacey's mom probably isn't a slayer so I guess it's different or whatever. "We could bring them here and show them that vampires are real?" I offered her but I didn't think that was gonna fly either. Oops?

"Kennedy isn't so bad." I said, feeling a little more than defensive of her. She was my mom's best friend and with my mom gone Kennedy was a little something to hold onto. Sometimes she reminded me of her, only like way more mad all the time. It also occured to me that Kennedy was a lot nicer to me and Tyler than she was to the other slayers. "She just trains the slayers hard so they don't die in battle. She'll make you a better fighter. You don't have to like her."

I held my hands up. "Or you can just not meet her. If you want I can introduce you to Buffy. She was like the first slayer or something. She's like Queen of the Slayers and not nearly as harsh as Kennedy is. But she's kind of a ditz."

[last_to_believe]

"It's not cake." I argued. "Maybe I'm built for it, but my life was hard enough without the added complication of having some stupid destiny to fulfill or answer to." I know, poor little rich girl. To most people, my life probably didn't seem that complicated or hard. But then again, most people hadn't met parents. So they had no idea just how much money couldn't buy. Including happiness. Especially happiness.

I just gave her a withering look when she suggested bringin' my parents out here and throwing them at some vampires too. Oh yeah, that'd go over really well. Until they dragged me back to Shreveport by my hair and put me in a mental institution somewhere. No thanks.

"Look, nothin' against her. Or any of the other veteran Slayers or whatever you wanna call them. I just don't want this. I'm glad to know that there's all these monsters out there, so I'm not walking around all unwittingly. And it's good to know I can kill them if I need to." I admitted.

"But none of that means I'm ready to just join the squad. Or that I would even want to. I don't need a mentor. I need this last little year I have left before my age catches up with my level of privilege and I have no choice but to be responsible. Until then? I don't want to be responsible for anything but my homework and having a good time." And that was pretty much it. I wasn't about to be convinced any other way. Screw this whole thing. It was terrifying and shocking and had pretty much ruined my life.

"Besides," I added. "I saw you back there. I think if there's anything I need to know, you can teach me."