Fanfiction: Origin - Part Two
EMPTY APARTMENT
“Faith, open the door.”
“I don’t want to.”
“Don’t make me ask again, Faith.”
With an irresolute sigh, the child reached out and opened the door. She did not look up at the towering figure standing in the doorway, preferring to turn her eyes towards the floor, willing herself to become invisible for the millionth time. The man started forward, and Faith barely restrained herself from shrinking back into the corner. Secretly pleased when Chris didn’t bother to greet her, Faith put on a neutral expression and watched as he strode forward to hug Jesse.
Slightly more than two years had passed since Chris had first shattered Faith’s world, and yet he was still a lingering presence in her life. For reasons Faith could never comprehend, her mother had chosen to continue to see Chris, despite the repeated alcohol-fueled fights and beatings. Nearly ten years old, Faith knew enough of the world to realize that Chris’s most violent tendencies only exhibited themselves when he got carried away with drinking, but that was starting to happen more and more frequently. Luckily, he only showed up about once a month when he got leave from his duties at the base, but Faith wanted him to stop coming altogether. Sometimes he made an attempt to befriend her, but she was understandably wary of the man who had consistently been a source of pain and suffering for her.
Even worse, Faith felt betrayed by her mother’s decision. Chris was not a good man, and he had proved as much on numerous occasions, but Jesse still allowed him into the apartment despite the danger he posed. Faith sensed that Jesse’s decision had something to do with the fact that Chris was a reliable source of income, albeit a violently alcoholic one. Whatever the reason, Faith could never forget—or forgive—that first night when Chris had attacked her, and she knew that nothing beneficial was going to come of his relationship with Jesse.
Trying to block out her own thoughts, Faith went to sit on the couch, hoping to immerse herself in some television. Winter break from school was only one day away, and that was a reason to be happy in itself, mostly because of a special event that happened every year on December 14th: Faith’s birthday. She would be turning ten this time, finally entering the double digits after nine years of waiting. Also, if there was no school, then she could spend more time with her mom, but Jesse had been slowly growing more and more distant as the months passed. Long gone was the mother who had taken Faith to the store on that autumn night; lately Jesse had become distant towards Faith, even callous. There were nights when Faith went to bed not knowing where her mom was; she frequently had to fix herself dinner and go dejectedly to sleep without the comfort of Jesse’s presence. Faith was still working hard in school, but Jesse no longer encouraged the good grades and intense studying that Faith had become accustomed to, yet another painful reminder that the relationship they’d once had could never be regained, no matter how many nights Faith cried herself to sleep in her little room, or how much she wished that Chris had never been born. She now relied on Kelly more than ever, for the little blonde girl had become the only constant source of contentment in Faith’s otherwise unhappy existence, and Faith had made sure to ask Kelly for her phone number so that the two of them could still meet over the long break.
Unable to continue watching Chris and her mother pour each other drinks, Faith flipped off the TV and started to get ready for bed. There was no reason for her to stay up, because neither adult was going to pay her any attention. After brushing her teeth and washing her face, she came out of the bathroom and stood unnoticed for a minute before speaking.
“Good night, mom,” she said in a tiny voice, immediately turning to go into her room.
“Faith!” Jesse called, preventing her daughter from closing the door. She didn’t sound mad, at least. “Tell Chris what you want for your birthday.”
Faith didn’t want to tell Chris what she wanted. She didn’t want to tell him anything at all. But she was still that obedient girl from years past, so she answered the question as politely as she could.
“I…I want a puppy.”
“Isn’t that just the cutest thing?” Jesse asked Chris, who nodded in response before taking a sip of his drink.
Feeling slightly reassured, Faith decided to continue speaking. “Mom, tomorrow is Friday…could you take me and Kelly to the park after school, please?” More than ever, Faith needed to use “please”, or Jesse got angry at her daughter for being “impolite”.
Jesse scrunched up her face in a look of near-confusion. “Uh, yeah, sure.”
“Thank you.”
With that, Faith closed her door, turned out the light, and crawled under the covers. The apartment had no heat, and with winter snow outside, Jesse had purchased a little sweat suit for Faith to sleep in. The thin walls did little to mask the conversation coming from the kitchen, and despite Faith’s best attempts to drown it out, she couldn’t sleep with all the noise, so she was forced to listen instead as she stared up at the dark ceiling.
“So are you actually going to get her a puppy?” Chris was asking. “They’re a lot of work, you know.”
“I know, I know,” Jesse replied, sounding somewhat irritated. “But I feel bad because I think I’ve been sort of, well, neglecting her lately.”
“You have things to do. You can’t here for her all the time.”
“But I haven’t been here for her at all lately, Chris. She’s a smart little girl, and I’m pretty sure that she’s feeling a little lonely right now,” Jesse said. “I haven’t taken her to the park, or picked her up from school, or even been home to make her dinner recently. Does that sound like I’m being a good mother?”
Chris was silent for a moment before responding. “That’s not my choice to make. I’m not her father. I think you worry about her too much, to be totally honest. If she’s as smart as you claim, she shouldn’t have trouble taking care of herself.”
“Maybe,” Jesse said, sounding disheartened.
The conversation turned to a different subject. The voices got louder and louder as Jesse and Chris continued to drink, and Faith tried desperately to will herself to sleep. She had to be up early for school tomorrow morning. After another hour or so, the voices disappeared altogether, and Faith knew that they had gone into her mom’s room. Finally alone with the silence of the apartment, yet continually haunted by her thoughts, Faith watched snowflakes drift slowly by her window, and gradually fell into a fitful sleep.
The alarm clock woke her up at six the next morning. Yawning, she pushed her covers aside and rubbed her eyes as she walked towards the window, to see what the weather was like outside. The entire block was covered in absolute whiteness; there was no inch of ground that didn’t seem to be coated with at least a half-foot of fresh snow. Faith couldn’t decide whether she was pleased or not. On the one hand, snow was fun, and she and Kelly had recently started to have some enjoyable snowball fights, but on the other hand, snow was hard to walk in, and Faith would have to leave even earlier than usual in order to make it to school on time. Gathering up her clothes for the day—underwear and socks, a plain white t-shirt, her blue snow jacket, faded black pants, and her little snow boots—she made her way into the bathroom, ran the shower for several minutes until the water was warm enough, and then stepped inside.
Twenty minutes later, she’d finished her shower, combed her hair, dried it, brushed her teeth, and gotten dressed. Before going to get cereal from the cupboard, she neatly folded her sweat suit and placed it back in her dresser. Barely even registering the fact that Jesse’s door was still shut, Faith busied herself with making breakfast, gathering a bowl, cereal, milk, and a spoon. The apartment was deathly silent on mornings like this; Faith couldn’t turn on the TV or the cheap stereo she’d received last year for Christmas, lest she wake Jesse—or Chris—and have to face the consequences. So she ate her cereal in complete silence, wondering what the day would hold for her at school. It was the last day before winter break, after all, and that usually meant fun in some form or another.
After she had finished breakfast and cleaned up after herself, Faith checked the time to make sure that she was still on schedule, and then prepared herself a completely mundane meal of a sandwich and some crackers for lunch. She also found one last, forlorn juice box in the fridge, and she shoved it into the brown paper bag, too. Taking the bag lunch to her room, she placed it inside her backpack, the very same one from second grade. It was degenerating into a loosely-assembled collection of fibers and zipper parts, but Jesse kept saying that it was still good. Faith didn’t mind the backpack; what she really wanted was that puppy. Hopefully her mom wouldn’t forget.
Throwing her backpack over her shoulder, Faith grabbed her little blue beanie in order to keep her head warm outside in the cold, checked the time once more, then locked the front door on her way out. The only other person she saw on her way down the rickety stairs—which creaked even worse when the temperature dropped—was an old man struggling to climb to the fourth floor. Faith passed him without incident, preferring to keep to herself instead of offering a greeting of any kind.
Finally stepping outside into the perfectly white, smooth street, Faith was immediately glad that she had brought the beanie along, because it was freezing. Sticking her hands into the jacket, she watched with childish fascination as her breath came out in little clouds, sailing up into the air and dissipating back into nothingness. Stepping slowly along, sinking down into the snow with every step, she was enraptured with the serenity of everything around her. She spotted a few other people trudging along, but there were no cars on the streets. Everything was still.
Even the city itself didn’t look so bad this morning. The dirt- and graffiti-lined walls seemed brighter, more cheerful; the tired buildings, usually appearing to sag under the weight of time gone by, today appeared to stand a little taller; all the litter on the streets had been completely obscured when the snow had covered everything. Maybe things will start to get better now, Faith thought to herself. School’s done after today, mom said she’d take me and Kelly to the park, my birthday is almost here, and best of all, Chris shouldn’t be there to ruin it.
Smiling at these unusually positive thoughts, Faith’s dark hazel eyes sparkled as she continued onward, reflecting the light that was shining everywhere around here. Amazingly, there were no clouds in the sky despite the storm that had occurred last night, and even though Faith wasn’t generally one to have hope anymore, she felt that the cloudless, sun-filled sky and the pretty snow could surely only be a good omen. Content and secure with the world for the first time in months, Faith walked hopefully towards South Boston Elementary, which had just come into view. The school, too, was covered in snow, and would make a perfect winter playground at recess and lunch. Entering the front gates, Faith looked around hopefully for Kelly, intending to talk to her best friend for at least a minute before she had to get to class. Wandering over the playground in her jacket and beanie as other similarly-dressed children went to their rooms, Faith eventually found Kelly sitting down on the snow, building some sort of castle with a bored look on her face.
“Hey, Kelly!” Faith said excitedly, flashing a cute smile and setting down her backpack. It would probably get soaked sitting on the snow, but it was heavy, especially with all the big clothes she was wearing this morning, and she didn’t feel like carrying it anymore. “Whatcha makin’?”
Kelly squinted upward at her friend, trying to block the sun from her eyes. Her blonde hair tumbled down out of a beanie similar to Faith’s. “It’s a snow-castle. I was bored. What’s up with you?”
“Not much. Are you glad that school’s almost over?” Faith sat down next to Kelly and started adding her own interpretations to the miniscule castle. She had no gloves, though, and her hands quickly got too cold to continue. She wished her mom would buy her some nice ones like Kelly had.
“I don’t know,” Kelly said, her attention focused on her work. “I guess I’m happy that school’s done, but my grades were sort of bad this time…I think my parents are going to be mad at me.”
“What kind of grades did you get?” Faith asked. “I think I got all A’s again.”
“Don’t make fun, okay?” Kelly said, gazing at Faith with her blue eyes. “I got mostly C’s.”
“Why? You know the homework all the time,” Faith said, confused.
“I do know the homework. I can do it pretty fast, too, but this semester I’ve been really bored with my class. My teacher goes through the lessons too slowly, and I don’t like him. None of the other kids seem to mind, but I just couldn’t make myself care for some reason.”
“Oh,” was all Faith could offer in reply. She had never thought of it that way before. Was her class too easy, as well? Faith had always been encouraged to get good grades, and she just hadn’t considered that anything else but A’s could be possible. Jesse had stopped pushing her to excel, though, so maybe there was something to Kelly’s point of view. “That sucks. But anyways, my mom said she’d take us to the park near my place after school. You wanna go?”
“Sure,” Kelly said, sounding a little bit more upbeat. “I’m not really looking forward to going home with my grades, so I’d rather hang out with you.”
“All right, cool. Talk to you at recess, then?”
“Yep.”
Still in a good mood, Faith picked up her backpack and walked off to class, leaving Kelly to work at her castle for a few more minutes before the bell rang. On the way, she waved to Mrs. Matthews, who was still her favorite teacher. Faith remembered things; just as she could never forgive Chris because she remembered that first night, she also remembered the kindness that Mrs. Matthews had exhibited throughout her second grade year. The teacher waved back, a smile on her face. Faith returned the smile and then entered her own class, hoping that there wouldn’t be any real work to complete.
Luckily, the only work for the day consisted of watching a Christmas movie and coloring, both of which were rather enjoyable. The time moved quickly. Class, recess, and lunch blurred together, and before Faith was even aware of it, the school day was over, ushering in a full two weeks away from any academic concerns. All the kids rushed through the doors as soon as the final bell rang, some of whom forgot put on their jackets and immediately regretted it when they fell face-first into the gradually melting snow. As Faith put on her beanie and stepped outside, she noticed that the sky was starting to turn overcast again. Either the previous night’s storm was returning, or this was an entirely new one. But it didn’t matter, because school was out!
Kelly’s spirits seemed high when Faith caught up to her by the front gate, and the two laughed together as they began walking towards Faith’s apartment, eager to get to the park and have a snowball fight. The bright sunshine had ruined some of the better snow, causing it to run in watery rivulets all along the streets and into gutters, but there was still enough to have a decent snow war.
“So what do you want for your birthday?” Kelly asked, kicking some snow from the curb and into the street.
“I’m asking for a puppy,” Faith said with a grin. “I hope I get it.”
“What kind of puppy?”
“I don’t really care, any kind would be awesome. I think my mom has enough money this year to afford one, too.” Faith had wanted a puppy for a while, but this was the first year she had ever blatantly asked to have one. A puppy would never abandon her, or hurt her feelings; it would just always be her friend and furry companion.
Kelly thought for a moment before replying. “Are you having a party?” She’d known Faith for a little over two years now, and realized that Faith’s mom never let her have parties, but she always thought it polite to ask, just in case.
“I don’t think so. My mom didn’t say I could have one.” Faith wasn’t upset by the lack of parties, mostly because she’d never had one, and therefore couldn’t understand what all the fuss was about. Kelly always had a tiny party with her parents for her birthday, and Faith thought that those were nice, especially since she was invited to attend, but she didn’t feel any real desire to have a bunch of strange kids over to the apartment. “It’s not important, anyways. I just want my puppy. What do you want for Christmas?”
“I haven’t thought about it, actually,” Kelly said, shrugging. “It’s weird, because I usually have a list written up in November, but I’ve been thinking about my grades, I guess.”
Faith frowned a little. “That sucks.”
“Nah, it’s fine. I’ll think of something soon.”
The two friends reached Faith’s apartment a short time later, as the sky became totally obscured by dark gray clouds. It would be perfect at the park if the sky started sending down brand new snowflakes, and the possibility excited both girls. They literally ran up the stairs to the third floor, racing each other in a friendly competition. Faith won, naturally, but she had climbed the stairs countless times before, and so had a rather unfair advantage over Kelly, who only trailed by a few steps. When they got to the end of the hallway, Faith took out her key and opened the door.
“Mom?” she called, letting Kelly inside before closing and locking the door. There was no immediate answer, so Faith asked again. “Mom?”
Wandering over towards Jesse’s room, Faith saw that the door was wide open, so she poked her head inside. Not seeing Jesse anywhere, hoping that her mom hadn’t forgotten the promise about the park, Faith timidly entered the room, something she hadn’t been allowed to do in over a year. Everywhere she saw empty bottles, and some that were still half-full. Some of them were even tipped over sideways, their contents slowly dripping onto the carpet. There were unclean clothes in crumpled piles in almost every corner; the room stank of something that Faith couldn’t identify for certain, but it smelled…dirty. Not able to stand the sight of so much disorganization, or the knowledge of how her mom lived from day to day, Faith unconsciously moved backwards out of the room, somehow unable to take her eyes from the scene.
“Faith? Are you okay?” This from Kelly, still standing by the door, hands in her pockets.
“Uh…I…my mom isn’t here,” Faith finally said, tearing her gaze back to her friend and away from the disheveled mess of Jesse’s private life. “She promised to take us to the park…but she’s not here. I’m sorry, Kelly.”
“Hey, it’s okay.” Kelly moved closer to Faith, who looked to be on the verge of tears. “It’s no big deal, Faith. Really.”
Faith’s brown eyes reluctantly glanced sadly up at her friend, and then shamefully back towards the ground an instant later. A single tear had barely escaped down her face before she quickly wiped it away, sniffling and trying to forget the promise, forget what she had just seen, forget how this day was supposed to have been a good one. She had asked nothing of her mom recently. She had her good grades in her backpack. She had made every attempt to be the perfect daughter for an imperfect mother, and yet Jesse couldn’t even be there to fulfill a single promise. There was no note of apology anywhere to be seen; Jesse had completely forgotten about making her daughter’s day brighter.
“Sorry,” Faith offered once more, wiping at her eyes again.
“It’s all right,” Kelly said, feeling awkward. Her parents might get down on her for bad grades this semester, but she never doubted that they would be waiting for her when she came home. She had seen that Faith’s mom was never reliable, always putting her own interests before her daughter’s, and it had only been getting worse recently. Faith’s demeanor had changed as she got older, changed from one of youthful innocence to one of jadedness. Jaded already, and not even ten years old. “Hey, I have an idea. What do you say we go to the park by ourselves?”
“What?” Faith responded, slightly taken aback by the suggestion.
“We can go have our snowball fight by ourselves,” Kelly repeated, trying to get Faith’s mind on something other than her home life. “It’s only a short walk from here, right?”
“Yeah,” Faith slowly answered, “but I don’t think my mom would like it if I was outside alone. She says the park is dangerous.”
“You wouldn’t be alone, silly. You’d be with me!” Kelly put on her most charming grin, intending to coerce Faith into going along with her plan. “We can get there, have our snowball fight, and be back in an hour.”
“I don’t know, Kelly.” Faith’s mind struggled to consider the situation from all angles. If they could be back before sunset, then Jesse probably wouldn’t be mad, but going to the park alone was against the rules, and that meant punishment. She had never directly disobeyed one of her mother’s rules before, and the prospect rather frightened her. But Jesse had neglected to fulfill her promise, and Faith could still feel the lingering disappointment and anger within herself, and those emotions cried out for a release of some kind. She let out a sigh and said, “All right, let’s go.”
“Great!” Kelly enthusiastically replied.
The girls put their backpacks in Faith’s room, having no use for them at the park. Faith locked up the front door and stuck the key into her pocket, and they started to walk towards their destination.
A short while later, the friends reached the park after a rather uneventful walk. It had begun to snow a little, and the sky was gradually getting darker and darker, aided not only by the approaching storm, but also by the setting sun. Faith couldn’t get rid of a nagging feeling of guilt in the back of her mind, a feeling like she was doing something completely wrong by coming to the park alone. However, Kelly had already started to build snowballs, and unless Faith wanted to get absolutely annihilated in the fight, she had better get started on hers, too. As she settled down near the rusty, snow-covered jungle gym, the snowflakes falling from above began to come more frequently, coating the city in a new layer of powdery white. There were lots of positive things about the snow, but especially important from Faith’s perspective was the fact that heavy snowfall tended to keep the gangs off the streets, for which she was thankful. The last thing she needed right now was to be hassled by gang members when she was without Jesse’s protection.
As she continued to make her snowballs and think things over, Kelly finished with her pile, grabbed a large one, and threw it in Faith’s direction. Faith glanced up from her thoughts just as the snowball hit her square in the head, sending powdery snow flying in every direction.
“Woo!” Kelly called from her side of the park, over near the swing set. “Gotcha!”
“You are so dead!” Faith shouted back, brushing the snow from her beanie. Her hands were freezing again due to the lack of gloves, but now she only had one goal: revenge. She dodged another projectile from Kelly and picked up one of her own, hurling it across the park. Kelly tried to twist out of the way, but it collided squarely with her chest, exploding on impact. Faith laughed, grabbing another snowball. “Yeah, what now?” she teased.
The fights were always fairly well-balanced, with neither girl able to get a significant advantage over the other. Faith had a slightly stronger arm despite being a tad younger, but she tended to throw with reckless abandon, managing to hit Kelly only through the sheer number of snowballs she launched. On the opposite end of the spectrum, Kelly tried to use strategy and precise aiming to counter Faith’s massive attacks, often scoring the highly desirable head shot, which was always funny to watch. Faith would be so busy slinging her snowballs that she often wouldn’t see the one flying straight for her face until it was too late, and then she’d fall down amidst a cold white eruption. But it was hard to keep Faith down for long. Even a direct shot to the face only kept her out of the fight for a few seconds, long enough for Kelly to yell a playful insult before she had to go back on defense. Because they were so well matched, the fights never hurt the feelings of either girl, but throwing snowballs was just one of those rare occasions in south Boston where they could let go of all their worries and only concentrate on having fun.
“You suck!” Kelly yelled, ducking one of Faith’s snowballs. “I bet you—”
She got cut off when Faith’s backup projectile nailed her in the stomach.
“I’m Queen of the Park!” Faith retorted. “You can’t escape!” Her eyes widened as Kelly took careful aim and launched her return offensive in a perfect arc towards Faith’s jungle gym base. Unable to dodge in time, Faith twisted around and covered her head, allowing the snowball to impact on the back of her jacket. No head shot for Kelly that time! “Is that all you’ve got?” Faith began taunting, turning back around, but she was interrupted when a snowball sailed right into her face.
“Ha!” Kelly cried, smirking.
As the fight continued onward, a few dim lights flickered into existence around the park, providing some meager illumination for the battle. After a few more minutes, the participants eventually realized that it was almost completely dark outside, which was not a good thing. The fact that two fourth grade girls were alone in the park at night was bad enough, but they were both going to be in serious trouble if their parents found out.
“Um, I think we better leave,” Faith said, dropping her snowballs and calling truce. “We are going to get so busted for this.”
“Yeah, let’s get out of here,” Kelly agreed, coming over from the swing set. She momentarily took off her beanie to shake some snow out of her hair. “I guess we got a little carried away, huh?”
Faith only nodded, already starting off through the snow back towards the apartment. Kelly quickly followed along, not wanting to be left behind by Faith’s fast steps. The city had suddenly become a white nightmare, a macabre wonderland of deathly silent snow-covered alleyways and flickering streetlights. The girls stayed side by side, their heads turning back and forth constantly for the shadows that could easily turn to reality by stepping into the weak light on the sidewalk. They had made it perhaps half way back before Faith suddenly stopped, forcing Kelly to stop, too. For a moment, they just stood there together, breath coming in anxious gasps, two frightened girls alone on a snowy south Boston sidewalk at night. Snowflakes continued to drift down from above, driven by nothing but gravity in the utter absence of wind.
“What is it?” Kelly whispered, eyes probing the darkness on the other side of the street. She wasn’t aware that her voice had dropped down so low; silence was simply a natural response to fear. “What’s wrong?”
“I thought I saw something up there.” Faith pointed upward at the roof of a three-story apartment complex. Far off in the distance, she heard a siren blare to life and suddenly go dead. “Watch, maybe it’ll happen again.”
Nothing moved for a few seconds as the friends silently watched the rooftop. Just as Kelly was about to peel her eyes away from the building, however, she caught a tiny flash of movement, two yellow orbs inching nearer to the edge of the roof. Even more unnerving was that they did not disappear again, but rather stayed, seeming to stare right down into the street.
“D-do you see that?” Kelly asked, unconsciously stepping behind Faith for protection. The roof was so high up that no light from the street could possibly hope to reach it, but the small yellow circles were reflecting—or producing—some sort of unnatural light. “We need to leave, Faith. Now.”
“Okay, follow me,” Faith said, showing a surprising lack of outright terror. She began inching backward on the sidewalk, intending for her and Kelly to disappear into the dark alley behind them. From there, she could plot a new course home. Three blocks to the apartment; the longest three blocks in the entire world at this moment. “Just go slowly.”
Right before the darkness of the alley enveloped them, whatever was perched on the rooftop suddenly reared up to its full height, defying the sky with its glowing eyes. As the girls watched fearfully from the imaginary safety of the snow-lined alley, the figure leapt straight off the rooftop and fell three stories straight to the ground, where it landed in a crouch. Not a second later, it was on its feet, yellow eyes glaring angrily across the street. It was clad completely in black and did not produce clouds of breath in the chilly air. For an instant, the girls just stared in horror at the thing that had just jumped off a building and was now standing across the street, but then Faith made a decision.
“Run,” she said, grabbing Kelly’s hand and yanking her down the alley.
Unwavering yellow eyes tracked the girls, and the figure they belonged to began walking towards the alleyway without a sound. It trudged through the snow without a beanie and without gloves, completely unaware of the temperature, only intent on its new, tiny prey. The darkness was not a deterrent.
“Come on, Kelly, run!” Faith repeated, almost dragging Kelly along. She glanced back at her friend, who had a look of stricken fear on her face. Farther behind, now at the mouth of the alley, the fiery eyes continued their relentless pursuit.
“What is it?!” Kelly said, running as fast as her legs could carry her.
“I don’t know!” Faith responded, still clasping Kelly’s hand in her own. “We’re almost to the next street, hurry!”
Sensing that its quarry was about to escape into the open once more, the black shape began to pick up speed, leaping over garbage cans and propelling itself forward with inhuman speed. Its dark clothing masked it from sight as it traveled through the alley, but the yellow eyes continued to glow as fiercely as ever, giving away its location. Closer, closer it came, reaching out its arms towards the little girls who were running for their lives.
Barely ahead of the figure, Faith and Kelly came out the other side of the alley and onto another lonely street, and Faith immediately darted to the left, back towards home. Kelly almost slipped, but quickly recovered and followed closely behind, nearly out of energy. Skidding out of the alley mere feet away, the figure could almost taste the prize, and it leaped forward, coming within inches of grabbing Kelly.
“Faith!” Kelly screamed at the top of her lungs. She couldn’t run anymore, not in the snow. Her legs would barely move. “Help me!”
Turning around automatically, unwilling to leave her friend behind, Faith saw the figure with the yellow eyes tackle Kelly the ground. Kelly shouted for help again and again as loud as she possibly could, kicking, punching, biting, doing anything and everything in her power to escape. With all the energy she had left, Faith ran straight for the attacker and kicked him as hard as she possibly could right in the face, but he barely even moved. Before she knew what was happening, the figure had tossed Faith into the street like a rag doll, and she landed heavily on her back. The snow cushioned the fall somewhat, but the street was still icy hard. She could still hear Kelly’s screams, and somehow managed to get herself on her feet again, ready to attempt another rescue.
As the snow fell down around the dark scene, a gunshot rang out, spinning the yellow-eyed figure off of Kelly, who immediately crawled towards Faith’s position in the street. From her location, Faith could see everything happening in slow motion. Unbelievably, it looked like a gang member had come to rescue the girls. He was running down the sidewalk, gun held straight out in front of him, ready to fire again. The black-clad figure amazingly stood up despite having just been shot, and it snarled loudly. Faith couldn’t be sure, but it looked like its face was deformed somehow.
“You like beating on little kids, motherfucker?” the gang member shouted, firing another round into the attacker’s chest, causing the figure to stumble a few steps backward, hissing in pain. “Get out of here!” he told Faith and Kelly, motioning with his free hand.
Not waiting around for the outcome of the fight, the girls turned and fled. They heard more gunshots and shouting, but soon there was only silence. Both figured that the gang member had finally gotten the best of the yellow-eyed, inhuman figure and relaxed their guards, coming within site of Faith’s apartment structure.
Back in the street some blocks away, crimson blood was cooling on the snow. A smoking gun lay forgotten in the gutter. A dead body was crumpled on the sidewalk. A vampire turned its yellow eyes toward the starless sky and smiled.
“It wasn’t human.”
“I know.”
“Then what was it?” Kelly asked, her hands shaking from her close encounter with death. They’d made it safely to the apartment and were now slowly climbing the stairs, exhausted from running for blocks and blocks. Faith’s back ached, and Kelly had some scratches on her face. “It jumped off a three-story building and wasn’t even hurt. That’s impossible.”
“I know,” Faith said again, taking off her beanie and letting her brown hair fall around her face. “I saw, too. Did you see its face at all?”
Kelly shuddered. “Yeah, it was…all messed up. Scary.”
“What are you going to tell your parents?” Faith said, pointing at her friend’s scratched face.
“Oh, I don’t know, a cat got me or something.”
Reaching the third floor, the girls exited the stairway and went down the hall to room 314. Faith took the key out from her pocket and slowly turned the lock, hoping that her mother wasn’t inside. When she had turned the lock all the way and quietly began to peak her head into the living room, the door was suddenly pulled inward, startling both girls.
“Where have you been?” Jesse demanded, scornfully glaring at Faith.
Sure that honesty would be the best course, yet scared of the repercussions, Faith just looked up at her mother and blinked. She could smell alcohol coming in waves, and it made her want to be sick.
“We went—” Faith began, but Jesse cut her off.
“Get in here!”
With that Jesse literally pulled Faith through the doorway, almost sending her to the ground in the process. Kelly was still standing out in the hallway, unable to get involved, but still a part of the scene because Jesse neglected to shut the door. Kelly wanted to run away, run all the way back to her parents, but she couldn’t go outside by herself again. The thing might still be out there. So she was forced to stay and watch what was to become another horrible memory for her best friend.
Faith grabbed her little beanie in both hands, holding it close to her chest like a shield. “We went to the park, mom,” she tried again.
Jesse stood over her nine-year-old daughter, feeling herself grow furious.
“What have I told you about going to the park by yourself, Faith?” she said coldly.
“I’m not supposed to go there by myself because it’s dangerous,” Faith responded, evenly meeting her mother’s gaze without flinching.
“So you disobeyed me,” Jesse said, folding her arms over her chest. “You’re going to be punished for this.”
“But you weren’t here to take us, and you promis—”
Faith was silenced as Jesse cruelly slapped her across the face. In the hallway, Kelly flinched and turned away.
“Are you calling me a liar now, too?” Jesse nearly shouted, grabbing Faith tightly by the shoulders. She screamed into her daughter’s face, “You ungrateful little bitch! Who feeds you? Who clothes you? Who?!”
“Y-you do,” Faith quietly said, eyes filled with tears.
“Oh yeah, go ahead and cry,” Jesse sneered, alcohol coursing through her body. “Cry because you’re just a little fucking disappointment to me.”
Now Faith really did start crying, an uncontrollable sobbing that shook her body and made her want to die. How could her mother say these things? After all the good grades, and all the hard work?
“But I got good grades on my report c—”
This time Faith was slapped so hard that she fell to the ground, her face stinging, tears running down her pretty face.
“Don’t change the subject!” Jesse yelled, roughly pulling Faith’s hand. She literally dragged Faith across the carpet and into her room, where she left her daughter crying on the floor in pain and guilt. “You stay in your room and think about what you’ve done!” And with that, Jesse slammed Faith’s door loudly. Muffled sobs could be heard through the heavy wood.
Kelly didn’t dare ask to use the phone to call her parents. Jesse shut the front door as Faith’s only friend stood there motionless in shock.
The following morning, when Faith had enough courage to come out of her room, she found her mother passed out on the couch, an empty glass lying close by on the floor. Mixed feelings drifted through her mind, along with troubling images of violence and hurt. Last night was not the first time that Faith had been slapped, but never before had such a strong feeling of embarrassment accompanied the memory. Faith knew that Kelly had seen, and that hurt even more than the slaps from her own mother. Why did Jesse have to do it like that? Was she purposely trying to ruin Faith’s only friendship? Scared that Kelly might not ever want to come over again, and still frightened of her mother’s wrath, Faith crept silently into the bathroom and confronted her own reflection. The tangled brown hair framed a sad little face, a face that still had a nasty red mark from last night’s punishment.
Faith tried to smile at herself and failed miserably. She tried once more and succeeded, but then thought that maybe she looked better with the frown.
Three quarters of an hour later, after she’d washed up, Faith placed her good report card on the couch next to her mother and walked out the front door, needing to get away from the apartment for a while. It was Saturday, the first day of winter break, and even though she had no school, her mom probably wouldn’t remember that until hours later, at the earliest. Stepping down the stairs, she got to the first floor and exited the building, finding herself outside in an extremely gloomy day. Much of the snow from the storm had melted, and patches of dirty street were showing through the white cover. The gray sky was moving by quickly overhead, the clouds tumbling and wrestling with each other as they sailed away. Faith experimentally opened her mouth and exhaled, slightly pleased when it still produced a tiny cloud of its own.
With no motivation to come out of her room this morning, she had taken the liberty of sleeping in, and the result of that could be easily spotted in the increased numbers of people walking by, many more than when she usually walked to school. There seemed to be some kind of fierce urgency on most of the faces, as if they were all going somewhere important. Noticing that several people were clutching newspapers and reading them intently, and in a few instances, even pointing and conversing with one another about the front page, Faith took herself a short distance away from the apartment building so that she could see the front page of the newspaper for herself. Easily finding the bright green dispenser but unable to provide it with the required quarter, Faith peered through the wet glass at the display copy, searching the headlines for the thing that had everyone so excited.
The only thing she found interesting was a picture of a dead man face-down in the snow. A small line of blood could be spotted creeping from his body. Faith read the headline to herself: Man Murdered by Unknown Assailant. Slightly confused about why this particular murder was so special, considering that crime ran fairly rampant throughout south Boston, she used her fourth grade reading skills to scan the opening paragraphs of the article itself. It seemed like the man had been killed at about six in the evening; body left on the snow-covered sidewalk; a pistol and shell casings had been found near the scene. Nothing there particularly caught Faith’s attention, and she was about to give up and go back home when her eye caught the very last sentences of the article.
Victim apparently died from two unidentified neck wounds and severe blunt trauma to the torso. Police have no suspects at this time, but claim the internal injuries and broken ribs the victim sustained could not possibly have been inflicted by a normal person. The victim’s gun was fired several times moments before his death, but no stray bullets were found, leaving detectives baffled.
Faith’s mind flashed back to the previous night, to the thing that leapt off a three-story building, stood up, and chased her through the darkness. She remembered the gang member, remembered the shots that were fired. He had saved the girls’ lives…and now he was dead, killed by whatever it was that could somehow not be killed by gravity or by bullets. The gang member might not have been the noblest man in the city, but he had given his life to protect Faith and Kelly from those horrible glowing eyes.
Suddenly afraid, Faith stepped quickly away from the newspaper dispenser. Checking to make sure that the thing was nowhere to be found on any rooftops or sidewalks, she ran back home, dodging pedestrians as she went. Reaching her building less than a minute later, she took out her key and frantically went inside, closing the door behind her. The silence of the stairwell was equally as disturbing, however, and she wasted no time in running all the way up the stairs to the apartment, constantly checking over her shoulder. If that creature had killed the gang member, it might still be after her, too, and that thought scared her more than anything she had ever known. True, Chris was often an object of terror in her life, and Jesse was beginning to become the same way, but they were still people. Human. Faith was certain that Chris, for all his drunken posturing, could not get shot twice and simply walk away, and she was equally as certain that Jesse wouldn’t be able to jump from a rooftop without taking a trip to the hospital or morgue.
So what was it, then?
As she silently opened the door, being careful not to wake her mother, Faith’s mind worked furiously, trying to figure out a solution. She couldn’t tell Jesse; that was out of the question. Bad enough that Faith had been at the park with Kelly, but to have secret knowledge about a murder was infinitely worse. Who else could she go to for help? After some minutes thinking in her room with the door closed, Faith had come up with no names, but she knew that she needed help of some kind. Even if she did happen to find help, who would believe the fantastic tale of a nine-year-old girl, a story of an invincible monster with glowing yellow eyes? Maybe if she waited until she was ten? No, that wouldn’t be any more convincing.
What a way to start out my Christmas break.
Lying on her perfectly made bed, staring at the blank ceiling, Faith’s mind eventually started wandering away from her problem. And just when she had nearly forgotten about the creature altogether, her thoughts accidentally stumbled upon the one person who might be able to shed some insight into last night’s strange events. In fact, Faith was amazed she hadn’t thought of the idea earlier. Who was the smartest, nicest adult that she knew?
Getting up, Faith went over to her tattered backpack and started flipping through her notebook, searching for a particular phone number. She’d have to wait until Jesse went out, of course, but now she at least had a hope of fixing the problem. Locating the number, she ripped out the page it was written on and placed it in the top drawer of her dresser for later. Now eager to get her mother awake, Faith started to go into the living room, only to find that Jesse was already up, groggily rubbing her eyes with a yawn. Not wanting to appear overly excited, Faith stood in her doorway and waited for recognition.
Jesse, realizing that she had a bad hangover, finished yawning and reluctantly opened her eyes. She spotted Faith standing some feet away, a neutral expression on her young face. Taking a closer look, Jesse saw that the left side of her daughter’s face was slightly red.
“Hey Faith,” she said, squinting at the harsh light of reality. She yawned again and asked sleepily, “What happened to your face?”
“I rubbed too hard with the washcloth this morning,” Faith automatically replied, biting back an urge to accuse Jesse. Over time, she had discovered that trying to blame her mother only resulted in more punishment; Jesse apparently could never remember her own drunken domestic abuses once she drank a certain amount, and the only time that Faith had ever tried to tell the truth after being hit, she’d been grounded without TV for two weeks. So now she just made up little stories to avoid the violent truth. “My report card is right there,” she said, pointing.
Leaning over, Jesse scooped up the piece of paper and examined it. “These are great grades, Faith!” she told her daughter.
Faith even thought she detected a hint of actual enthusiasm buried somewhere in the effort, so she said, “Thanks, mom,” and went to give Jesse a hug. Mother and daughter embraced for a few seconds before Faith broke the contact, uncomfortable with being so close after last night. Besides, it was time to get Jesse out of the house for a while. “So, are you going out today?”
Still holding the report card, Jesse stood up and stretched. Still attractive despite the gradually worsening alcoholism, Jesse continued to favor form-fitting jeans, shorts, and t-shirts. With her birthday being on April 14th, she was now in her late twenties.
“Actually, yeah. I just kinda forgot where,” Jesse said, thinking hard. “Oh, I remember now. Yeah, I’ll be going out for a few hours once I get cleaned up.” She started to walk to her room, but stopped and turned around. “Wait, why are you even here? Shouldn’t you be at school?”
“It’s Saturday, mom. First day of winter break.”
“Oh. Okay. Well you’ll be all right here by yourself for a while, right?”
“Yeah.”
With that, Jesse went into her own room and closed the door, leaving her empty bottles in the living room. Gone was the mother that used to be so concerned about alcohol’s corrupting influence upon her daughter, and the empty bottles were something that Faith unfortunately saw every once in a while. One day, she had even dared to take a tiny sip from one of the bottles marked “Beer” when Jesse wasn’t around, but it had tasted awful and she’d immediately washed away the bitterness with some milk. She couldn’t understand what could compel anyone to drink something that tasted so horrible, and today she gave the bottles a wide berth, leaving them where they were. While her mother was occupied in her room, Faith went into the kitchen and made herself another bland breakfast of cereal, the only thing she’d eaten in the mornings for weeks now. But cereal was cheap, as Jesse said, so that’s what Faith received.
After breakfast, Faith went into her room, checked the time, and impatiently waited for Jesse to leave. It was only a bit past ten in the morning, but Faith had work to do, and it couldn’t begin until her mother went to do…whatever it was that she did during the daytime. Eventually, Jesse finished up in her room and said a quick goodbye to Faith before leaving for an undetermined amount of time. Faith, for her part, couldn’t be happier to see her mother leave. She was still understandably bitter about last night’s punishment, plus she had something she needed to do, and those were two reasons for Faith to wish for some time alone in the apartment. It wasn’t as if she was unable to use the phone at all when Jesse was present—she could talk to Kelly sometimes—but making this particular call required stealth, especially considering the somewhat abnormal subject matter. Going to the phone, she quickly punched in the numbers.
“Hello?” answered a female voice on the other end.
“Mrs. Matthews? It’s Faith.”
One day while still in second grade, Faith had come to class with a black eye. No amount of posturing could have fooled Mrs. Matthews into believing that the injury was due to an accident, and she had made the decision to give Faith her phone number just in case of emergency. For almost two years, Faith had not called; she generally preferred to work through her own problems without outside assistance, but this time was different.
“Hi, Faith,” the teacher said, sounding as if the call had disturbed her sleep. Her voice immediately became concerned once she actually began waking up, however. “Are you all right?”
“I’m fine,” Faith said into the receiver. “Sorry if I woke you.” The phone was located on a wall in the kitchen, and the cord was thankfully long enough so that she could sit at the table and talk. “I called because…because I need to ask you something.”
“I’m glad you finally called me,” came the warm-hearted reply. “Ask me anything you like.”
“It’s sort of a weird question, so don’t laugh, okay?”
The teacher gave a short laugh. “I promise, Faith.”
“All right.” Faith took a deep breath and began. “This morning, I saw the newspaper, and it said that a man was killed last night, and there was a picture, and I think I know who the guy was, and I think I know what killed him, and—”
“Take a breath, sweetheart,” Mrs. Matthews cut in, chuckling.
“Sorry,” Faith apologized, barely slowing down, “but I got scared because the article said that the guy was killed by something that had more strength than a normal person.”
Mrs. Matthews went suddenly silent on the other end, as if this news was especially disturbing. Faith didn’t even notice and kept talking right over the barely discernible silence.
“And also, last night, Kelly and I were chased by something that couldn’t have been human, Mrs. Matthews. It was scary. We saw its eyes—”
“Did the article say anything else about what could have killed the man, Faith? Besides the injuries you already told me about?” the teacher questioned, her voice utterly serious.
Faith thought for a few seconds, trying to remember what else she had read. “Um…it said something about two neck wounds, I think. Does that that help?”
Faith thought she heard a sigh on the other end, and the reply was unusually sullen.
“Yes. Yes, it does. But you said you had a question, right?”
“Oh yeah, I almost forgot.” Faith started relating a quick version of the previous night’s events. When she was done, she asked, “Mrs. Matthews, are there things that aren’t human? What kind of thing could jump from so high, or run so fast?”
“Faith, what I’m about to tell you is a secret, okay?” The teacher’s voice seemed almost sad. “The thing that chased you..it wasn’t human.”
Having suspected this, Faith wasn’t very surprised by the admission. “Okay. What was it?”
“I can’t explain further right now,” Mrs. Matthews calmly answered, a bit surprised that Faith could so easily accept the concept of inhuman creatures. But then again, the views and beliefs of a child could be easy to alter; once a person grew up and became set in his or her ways, those beliefs were nearly unchangeable. “But don’t be scared. It can only come out at night, and if you stay inside, it will never be able to hurt you. There’s something I have to do right now, but would it be possible for me to come over in a little while? We have things to discuss.”
“Sure,” Faith answered, figuring that her mom wouldn’t be home for hours still. “Do you have my address?”
“The school keeps everything on record. I’ll be able to find it.”
“Okay. Thanks, Mrs. Matthews.”
“You’re welcome, Faith. I’ll see you soon. Take care.”
As soon as she heard Faith hang up, Mrs. Matthews quickly pressed down her own receiver, then began dialing a long distance number. She waited while the call was transferred over, listening to the ring on the other end. Several seconds passed with no answer, but finally someone picked up.
“Hello?” said a female voice with an English accent.
“This is Lindsay Matthews.”
“Hold, please.”
Several more seconds passed as the call was rerouted to someone else. Mrs. Matthews twirled the phone cord around her hand absently while she waited. The answer was not long in coming.
“Hello, Lindsay,” said a deep, similarly-accented male voice. “What can I do for you?”
“Things have changed, Mr. Travers. We need to accelerate our plans for Faith.”
“And why is that?” came the skeptical reply. Quentin Travers did not like to have his plans altered unless it was absolutely necessary. “What exactly has changed?”
“She knows about vampires,” Mrs. Matthews said, troubled. “Last night she and one of her friends were chased by one, and she’s smart enough to realize that anything that can leap off rooftops isn’t exactly human. She asked me what it was, Mr. Travers, and I had no choice but to tell her to stay inside at night from now on.”
“This is…unfortunate.” Travers took a deep sigh. “The situation with Faith has always been delicate, and this is only going to make matters worse. She’s too young for the responsibilities of a Potential Slayer.”
“I’m sorry. There was nothing I could do.”
“It’s not your fault, Lindsay,” Travers said. Over in London, he opened one of the drawers of his large oak desk and pulled out several files. “I’ll see what I can do about sending a Watcher over by the end of the month. We need to handle this carefully; from everything you’ve told me, Faith is still too dependent on her mother, and we can’t risk altering that relationship much. Until the Watcher gets there and makes contact with you, Faith is your responsibility. You know what to do.”
“Yes, Mr. Travers.”
Mrs. Matthews listened as Travers hung up, then she put down her own phone and began gathering some things that she would need to take to Faith. The Watchers’ Council of Great Britain kept extensive records of any Potential Slayers, and a bit over two years ago, through the use of locator spells and seers, they discovered that a young girl in Boston had the characteristics of a Potential. Travers contacted Lindsay Matthews, an American agent of the Council, and had her placed as a second grade teacher at South Boston Elementary. They forged a teaching credential and created a false record of employment at certain elementary schools throughout the country. The staff at S.B.E. thought that she had been teaching for close to ten years, when in reality, it was now only her third year. Easily avoiding any complications that could have resulted from such a blatantly illegal action, the Council ensured that Faith would be placed in Mrs. Matthews’ class. Highly educated and amiable towards children, Mrs. Matthews easily adapted to her new job as a teacher while keeping a close eye on Faith. She made exhaustive notes about Faith’s physical and mental traits, her personality, and other such things, and it didn’t take long for Mrs. Matthews to realize that Faith’s situation was abnormal.
There had been debate in the Council over what should be done about the young brown-haired girl. Some argued to take Faith away from her mother and bring her to England to begin the training at an exceptionally early age, while others suggested that even though Jesse was not the best mother, Faith was still extremely attached to her, and to have that taken away would be detrimental to her mental health. And so the decision was made to continue surveillance without taking any further action. Mrs. Matthews had watched Faith move on to the third and fourth grades, always appearing as the smiling, friendly teacher that Faith could come to for help or simply to talk.
But that time was over.
This matter would have to be handled very carefully, especially in consideration of Faith’s often-violent home life. She had already started to exhibit early signs of fearlessness, probably stemming from her constant exposure to violence from her mother and Chris, both of whom the Council had files for. Faith had seemed to accept the fact that the vampire was not human without much surprise or fear, and that was good. It would make the rest of today easier for her young mind if she could already believe that the supernatural existed. Certain Potentials had had difficulty accepting the reality of demons and alternate dimensions, but Faith had seen the vampire’s abilities with her own eyes, and that left little room for doubt.
After taking a quick shower, Mrs. Matthews packed a little bag with items for Faith, and then she got into her car and began driving towards Faith’s apartment complex.
Faith passed the time watching some Saturday morning cartoons on TV. She especially loved the crazy antics of the Roadrunner and Wile E. Coyote, and luckily for her, she was able to see one of their adventures before she was interrupted by a knock on the door. Getting off the couch and flicking off the TV, she went to the door and listened for a moment before speaking.
“Who is it?” she asked politely, just as her mother had taught her.
“It’s Mrs. Matthews,” came the warm-hearted reply.
Smiling, Faith instantly unlocked the door and let her favorite teacher inside. Even if her mom did come home unexpectedly, surely she wouldn’t mind that Mrs. Matthews had come to visit. Jesse had met Mrs. Matthews only one time, at the second grade Back to School Night two years earlier, but she had been impressed with the teacher’s quick wit and kind manner. Naturally, she knew nothing of Mrs. Matthews’ true purpose. Faith made sure to lock the door and then led Mrs. Matthews to the kitchen table, where they sat down.
“Did you make it here okay, Mrs. Matthews?” Faith earnestly asked, folding her hands together in front of her. Luckily, the red mark on her face from last night had now faded to the point where it wasn’t even noticeable, so she wouldn’t have to answer embarrassing questions.
“You can call me Lindsay if you like, Faith,” the teacher replied, placing her little bag on the table with a dull thud. She started rooting through the contents, looking for something specific. “I have something here for you,” she said, removing her hand from the bag. “It’s an early birthday present. Here, take it.”
Lindsay Matthews extended her hand and dropped the present into Faith’s tiny hand. Bringing it in for a closer look, Faith saw that it was a tiny necklace, with a gold cross attached. She had never seen anything so shiny before; it was beautiful.
“Thanks, Mrs.—I mean, Lindsay!” Faith gave one of her biggest, brightest smiles, and for a few moments, she was the happy child from years past. “This is awesome!”
“I’m glad you like it. Keep it safe, though, because it’s real gold. Twenty four carat,” Lindsay said, winking. Rarely had she seen Faith so genuinely content; beneath the smiles and laughs had always lurked a hint of melancholy, the tiniest flicker of remorse. But now, when she looked at Faith, beaming with pride at her new present, Lindsay saw a regular child, undisturbed by her tragic home life and poor economic circumstances. Being an agent for the Watchers’ Council, Lindsay lived comfortably in a small suburb only a few minutes away from the main Boston area, and the fact that Faith’s apartment was awfully small was not lost on her. “Do you want some help putting it on?”
Faith nodded enthusiastically, and Lindsay got up from her seat and went over behind Faith, pushing her dark, pretty hair out of the way in order to secure the necklace. When the teacher sat back down, Faith was still smiling radiantly, probably because she’d never received such a precious gift. She kept grabbing the cross and bringing it up so she could stare at it, amazed at how it sparkled.
“What does it mean?” Faith asked, forcing herself to let the necklace drop back around her neck so she could make polite eye contact with Lindsay. She had seen crosses before, naturally, but religion was not something that Jesse believed in, so Faith had never been exposed to an actual explanation of what the cross meant.
“The cross?” Lindsay replied, pushing some hair away from her face. “It’s just a religious symbol, but I guess you could say it represents victory of life over death, of good over evil…something like that. For you, it’s going to serve a very important function, more important than whatever extraneous meaning is attached to it.”
Faith gave a confused face. “Extraneous?”
“Hmm…well, if something is extraneous, it isn’t an important part,” Lindsay calmly explained, wanting to take the conversation slowly. It wouldn’t be beneficial to rush Faith into too much knowledge too fast. “Your new cross is going to be very important in your life, Faith. Do you remember when I told you that inhuman creatures exist?”
Faith dutifully nodded, temporarily forgetting the shiny cross in an effort to learn more about the scary thing that had pursued her last night. Lindsay, making sure she had Faith’s absolute attention, continued:
“That cross is like poison to the creature, Faith. It doesn’t seem like anything special to you and me, but the creature will be frightened by it.”
“So…the cross is a weapon?” Faith asked, reexamining it with an intent stare.
“Not exactly,” Lindsay said, reaching around her own neck and taking out a silver cross necklace. She expertly unfastened the latch and held it out in front of her so Faith could see. “It’s more like a defensive object, something that can help you escape. Hopefully you’ll never have to use it, but I should show you, just in case. If you see the creature again, take the cross in your hand and hold it in front of you, like this.” She grasped the cross by its tiny base and held it straight out across the table. “That should keep the creature from coming any closer. If that doesn’t work, you can always press the cross against the creature’s skin, which will be extremely painful for it, so much so that it should leave you alone.”
“Okay, I can do that.” Faith struggled for a few seconds with her own necklace, but finally removed it from her neck and held it out, just as Lindsay had done. “Like this, right?”
“Perfect. Now—”
“Can I ask a question?” Faith interrupted, gently placing her necklace on the table instead of trying to put it back on.
“Sure. There’s more we need to talk about today, but I’m here to answer any questions you may have. Your safety is my first concern.”
“Does the creature have a name?” She paused for an instant before continuing with other questions. “Are there more than one? How come not everyone knows about it, or them?”
Lindsay gave a small laugh, always amazed at Faith’s fantastic propensity for getting right to the heart of any problem by blatantly speaking her mind. It was going to be difficult to keep information from her, that much was certain. The situation was still delicate with Faith, and burdening her with the full history of Slayer lore would probably be too much for her young mind to comprehend. Lindsay didn’t doubt Faith’s intelligence in the least, but there was only so far that a child’s mind could go, and besides, Lindsay was not about to completely steal what was left of Faith’s childhood by immediately putting her on the path to becoming a Potential Slayer. After taking a few moments to consider how best to answer Faith’s queries, Lindsay began her explanation.
“All right…the thing that chased you is known as a vampire, and—”
“Oh!” Faith exclaimed, her eyes lighting up with excitement. “I’ve seen those on TV! There was a movie on a while ago about vampires, I watched the whole thing. You have to, like, chop their heads off or hit them in the heart with a wooden weapon, right?”
“You’re really not shocked by the fact that vampires are real?” Surprised by Faith’s constant acceptance of the concept, Lindsay was quickly beginning to realize that her previous expectations about this conversation were unfounded. She had fully expected that Faith would be unable to deal with the fact that vampires were reality, not fantasy, but as it was, Faith appeared to be answering her own questions at a blistering pace.
“Should I be?” Faith innocently replied, grabbing her necklace from the table and putting it around her neck with some difficulty. “I think aliens are real, too, and maybe werewolves, but I’m not sure. Are they?”
“Um…” Lindsay was at a loss for words. A nine-year-old girl was asking questions that startled a woman three times her age. “I’m not sure about aliens, to be honest, but you’re right about werewolves. Those are real. How do you know so much about these things?”
“TV.”
“I see,” Lindsay returned, silently glad that the television had made her job a lot easier. If the shows on TV helped Faith become comfortable with supernatural concepts, then so be it. “But doesn’t your mom want you to watch cartoons instead of shows about vampires and werewolves?”
Faith turned her eyes down for an instant. “My mom isn’t home very often anymore,” she admitted, sounding sad. “Sometimes I come back from school and I don’t know where she is. She doesn’t tell me where she goes. So I’m home by myself a lot. I can watch whatever I want on TV when that happens.”
“Oh. Well maybe this will cheer you up.” Reaching forward into her bag once more, Lindsay removed a small vial of clear liquid. There was a sticker on the front, depicting a cross. “This is holy water. Do you know what that is?”
Taking a moment to formulate a hypothesis, Faith responded, “It’s…like the cross? Poison for the vampires?”
“Exactly.”
“So I can splash them with the holy water, and they’ll get hurt?”
“Right again.” Lindsay placed the tiny vial on the table directly in front of Faith, who immediately snatched it up and began examining it to see if it didn’t contain some sort of characteristic that would distinguish it from normal water. Not finding anything, she put the holy water back down on the table, and Lindsay continued with her explanation. “So you know that vampires can be hurt by your cross, and by your holy water, not to mention decapitation and—”
“What’s… decapitation?” Faith asked, pronouncing each syllable separately.
Lindsay smiled before saying, “I think you described it as, ‘chopping its head off.’”
“Oh, okay. Yeah, I know that one.” Faith was glad that she was learning so many new things today, especially if those things would keep her safe from the vampire-creature. “What else?”
“You already know that any wooden weapon to the heart will kill a vampire,” Lindsay answered, making sure she covered all the details, “and the only other things that can kill one are direct sunlight and fire. That’s why you’re safe during the daytime, because a vampire can’t go into the sunlight without being dusted.”
“The movie on TV told me that, too—wait, ‘dusted’? What’s that?” Faith scrunched up her face in a tiny mask of perplexity.
Thinking that perhaps she was advancing the conversation too far too fast, Lindsay guardedly replied, “Well, when you kill a vampire, it will turn to dust and disappear. You don’t have to kill any vampires, though, Faith.” In her heart, Lindsay realized that no matter how well-versed in the weaknesses of vampires, no human child would ever be able to match the superhuman strength and agility of the undead. All this information was only supposed to instill wariness in Faith, to keep her out of danger at night, but it seemed to be having the exact opposite effect. “In fact, killing a vampire is very difficult, and I don’t want you to try, all right?”
“But I want to,” Faith argued, leaning forward and actually making Lindsay sit back in surprise. Faith stared unflinchingly at her new mentor and gave three staccato sentences. “I’m not scared anymore. I can do it. And you’ve told me how.”
“Faith,” Lindsay began, feeling that she was quickly losing control of the situation to a fourth grader, “listen to me very carefully: stay away from vampires. If you see one, you run. Don’t even try to fight, because they are vicious, soulless creatures that would have no problem killing you before you could even blink. It would be wise to fear them, especially now, before you’ve had any training.”
Deconstructing the argument into its respective pieces, Faith’s young mind took a moment to focus on the one thing that seemed most interesting to her.
“Training?” she asked, her beautiful brown eyes showing an intense fascination with the concept.
Instantly knowing that too much had been given away, Lindsay decided that it was time to end the conversation. “That’s something we can talk about later, Faith, but I have some things I need to take care of right now. Keep your holy water in a safe place, and don’t tell your mom about this, okay?” It was absolutely essential that Jesse didn’t figure out that her daughter was being schooled in the ways of the supernatural; given her more recent inclinations to use violence against Faith, Jesse would probably react first by not believing any of the facts, and second by lashing out against her daughter for telling “lies”. So it was imperative that Faith keep her newly-attained knowledge to herself for quite some time. “Will you do that for me?”
Somewhat disappointed that there appeared to be no forthcoming explanation regarding whatever training was supposed to occur, Faith muttered, “All right.” Then she remembered the nice necklace and quickly reversed her mood, thanking Lindsay several times for her generosity.
For her part, as she stood up to leave, Lindsay was just a little scared that Faith seemed to have such a thirst for violence at such a young age, but then again, that was to be expected, considering her physically-and emotionally-scarred home life. Gazing at the tiny apartment, Lindsay found it hard to believe that so much abuse could occur in such a small space. It looked like a thousand other apartments, but this one was different, haunted by the unrelenting ghost of domestic violence and child abuse, a broken home in a broken city. How anyone could beat a child was beyond Lindsay’s comprehension, and thinking about it too hard made her physically sick, so she turned her head back towards Faith.
“One more thing before I go,” she said, crouching down and taking Faith’s small hands in her own. “Vampires can never harm you as long as you’re inside this apartment, so don’t worry. The only way they can enter private property like this is if they’re invited, so be very careful from now on of who you invite inside, okay?”
Faith nodded, wanting to please the woman who had done so many nice things for her today. The two exchanged goodbyes, and then Lindsay was gone, leaving Faith once more by herself. Collecting her holy water from the kitchen table, she took it into her room and began searching for a suitable place to hide it, a place where her mom would never accidentally find it. Not as if Jesse usually cared enough to even enter Faith’s room, but just in case, it was probably wise to hide it somewhere extra-safe. Having finally decided to stuff it into her pillowcase on the bottom side, so it would face the mattress and not the ceiling, Faith checked her clock, noting that it was almost noon.
Needing some time to mull over her new situation, she let herself fall down on her bed, closing her eyes as she landed softly. True, initially she had been terrified of the vampire; she had seen it do impossible things, and it had killed a man, not to mention almost killing Kelly, too. There was good reason to fear a creature that was nearly impervious to normal weapons. But now that she knew exactly what a vampire was, and how it could be hurt, she felt her fear dissipating, only to be replaced by a sort of slowly burning anger towards the thing that had nearly destroyed her last night. She had never been more frightened in her life than when she was running in those dark, nightmarish alleyways, and she resented the fact that the vampire had been able to make her feel that way. Chris and Jesse were mean sometimes, but they didn’t try to kill Faith or her friends, so they were infinitely better than the vampire.
As a result of her knowledge of the supernatural, Faith also realized that she now feared the wrath of Chris and Jesse much less than before. Whether they would admit it or not, they had helped make her into what she was: a little girl who was slowly learning to be fearless. Unnatural burdens had been placed on Faith from a very early age, from her near-poverty, to her mother’s often-unkind actions, to physical abuse, and now to the reality of the undead. Each one of those things had contributed to her personality and to the way she viewed the world. Her innocence, while not fully shattered, was in danger of becoming so. She had already experienced what she considered to be the lows of life, and that thought plagued her every single day.
But she was not immune to disappointment. She feared being let down again and again by Jesse, feared being forgotten and left all alone in the empty apartment for another day, feared that no matter how hard she worked, she would never be able to make her life work properly. Faith no longer feared anything physical; she only feared the emotional, the ethereal realm of feelings and love and heartache that she knew so well. Jesse could not offer the kind of comfort that Faith most desperately craved, that of an attentive, caring mother, and that continued to cut hard into Faith’s mind, reminding her constantly of the one thing that she wanted but could not receive.
At least the vampire was a true enemy, truly evil. Jesse walked in a grey area, an invisible line between right and wrong. Faith loved her mother, and could even forgive the brutal nights filled with verbal daggers and punishing abuse, but the cycle was beginning to wear dangerously thin. Was there a point to try so hard in school if Jesse didn’t care? Was there a point in trying to be the perfect daughter when the mother’s own imperfections clouded the relationship to the breaking point?
Faith had no answers to these questions. She could hate the vampire. She could love her mother. She could hate Chris. She could love Kelly. But her life still did not feel any more complete, any more organized. It was still a jumbled mess of emotions and fears…and there didn’t seem to be a solution.
The days plunged deeper into the heart of December, inching closer to Faith’s birthday, to the puppy that she so desperately hoped to receive. Things in the apartment remained in a perpetual state of motionlessness; life went on, but it never really moved. Jesse was gone more than ever before, sometimes leaving Faith by herself for entire days. The hollow feeling in Faith’s stomach continued to grow with every hour, minute, and second she was forced to spend by herself. The television occupied much of her time. She read and reread all her old books. She would stare out the window for hours at a time, wondering where her mother was, wondering if the vampire was out there watching, waiting. Sometimes she would talk to Kelly on the phone, but Kelly’s parents were keeping her busy, and she was rarely at home. Lindsay Matthews had not stopped by or called for nearly a week, and without some kind of contact or comfort from someone, anyone, Faith felt that she would surely go insane. There was only so much she could do inside the apartment, and her always-rambunctious energy level was finding no release. Sometimes she would wake up after an uneasy night’s sleep and find that Jesse had dropped off food, but most times, Faith would have traded the food in an instant just to spend a day with her mother. She set her heart on having a nice birthday, on being able to talk to Jesse for more than a few minutes.
Eventually, the days slowly found their way to December 13th, the day before Faith’s much-anticipated tenth birthday. Faith awoke relatively early, went to go take a shower, and was surprised to find her mother in the kitchen making breakfast. The sight was so unexpected, and so uncharacteristic for Jesse, that Faith stopped walking and couldn’t help her mouth from dropping just a little bit, awed by the implications of having a real breakfast instead of the dreary bowl of cereal that she was so accustomed to. She dropped her small pile of clothes on the carpet, forgetting the shower, and went instead into the kitchen to discover for herself why she was being treated to such a luxury.
“Good morning, mom,” she cheerfully said, announcing her presence with a hopeful face.
Jesse, apparently a bit startled by her daughter’s sudden appearance, almost dropped the plate she was holding, but recovered quickly and returned the greeting. “Hey, Firecracker. You’re up early.”
“Not tired,” Faith responded, pulling out a chair and seating herself at the kitchen table. She rubbed her eyes a bit, getting used to the light streaming through the kitchen window. It looked to be annoyingly sunny outside. “Making breakfast?”
“Thought I’d give you an early birthday surprise,” Jesse said, putting some kind of mix into a bowl and stirring it vigorously. While she stirred, she turned around so she could face her daughter. “Sorry I haven’t been home lately. I’ve been…busy.”
“It’s okay,” Faith answered, easily able to forgive the lonely days when confronted with a non-cereal breakfast. “I read and watched TV, mostly.”
“I thought today we might go to the park or something. Would you like that? You could even bring your little friend Kelly along.”
“Really?” Surprised by the offer, Faith was at a loss for words. “Uh…thanks!” she finally managed, sitting up a bit straighter in her chair.
“Sure.”
And so Faith and Jesse ate breakfast together for the first time in a long while. Faith, true to her word, did not tell her mother about Lindsay Matthews or the vampire, preferring to keep the secret until she could figure out what to do. It was hard for her to lie to Jesse, because she was used to being almost exclusively honest, but Faith was slowly learning that lying could be beneficial; it seemed to solve certain problems, making her life easier. But all of this wasn’t on her mind as she hungrily devoured her pancakes and held conversation with her mom. She was just happy that the day was going to be such a good one. After breakfast—for which Faith thanked Jesse at least twenty five times—the two cleaned the dishes together, and then Faith went to call Kelly to see if she could perhaps come along to the park. But when she dialed Kelly’s number, there was no answer, only a seemingly endless ringing followed by the dull recording on the answering machine.
Somewhat disheartened, Faith hung up the phone. She hadn’t seen Kelly since the night of the attack, and even though they had spoken on the phone a few times since, Faith had been anticipating seeing her best friend again. But she couldn’t let that thought get her down too much, because Jesse was still going to take her to the park, and tomorrow was her big tenth birthday. With renewed spirits, Faith took a quick shower, dressing in some light clothes for the trip to the park. The weather outside had become unusually temperate for a Massachusetts winter, with the snow now completely gone, replaced by a brisk, dry breeze. Wanting to make sure that she didn’t overdress, she chose a purple t-shirt and some raggedy blue jeans, perfect clothing for running around the park.
Jesse led Faith down the stairs and outside to the street, where things were continuing as they always did, a never-ending cycle of life that stopped for nothing. The sun, perhaps an hour away from its apex, was hurling its light downward, causing bright reflections to glint off passing cars and street lights. Faith squinted against the abnormal glare, almost wishing that the sky would cloud over and release some of the powdery snow that was typical of a December in Boston. But it didn’t really matter; whatever the weather, she was being taken to the park, and that was the important thing. Unlike times past, mother and daughter did not hold hands anymore. They walked side by side, with Faith always leading by just a small amount, her inexhaustible well of energy giving her the fuel to keep in front of Jesse’s longer strides. They exchanged comments as they walked, pointing to things or smiling when something was particularly pleasant or funny. Avoiding the alleys, Faith stuck to the main streets, forcing Jesse to follow suit.
Obviously, the vampire wouldn’t be able to come outside in this scorching light, but Faith preferred to stick to the sidewalks all the same. Her tiny gold necklace was tucked away safely under her shirt, and Jesse had not even noticed it, having ceased to closely scrutinize her daughter some months back. Eventually, they reached the park, and Faith immediately bolted straight for the playground, leaving Jesse to find a bench to sit on.
From there, the day uneventfully meandered onward, a peaceful afternoon in a city filled with unrest. The lazy breeze picked up some scraps of litter here and there, kicking them playfully around the park, an invisible essence that was everywhere and nowhere all at once. Up in the azure sky, the sun continued to glitter, unknowingly casting unwanted light on dying grass and rusted playground equipment. Jesse watched her daughter dart from place to place, from swing set to jungle gym, from monkey bars to the slide.
In her heart, Jesse could see her own life deteriorating, and she knew that one day it would come crashing down, leaving Faith to pick up the pieces on her own. Times were changing. Alcohol kept evolving into a larger and larger priority, and to pay for that, Faith, and the apartment, Jesse had begun making some questionable decisions in her personal life. Not yet thirty years old, but feeling at least twice that, Jesse found little pleasure in the park’s scenery, and even though she tried to keep up her enthusiasm for spending time with Faith, she was ultimately unable to do so.
After an hour and half, Jesse sighed to herself and stood up, calling to Faith that it was time to leave. A little tired after going around in circles for so long, Faith still managed to cull up enough energy to run back to her mother. Again, she thanked Jesse profusely for taking her to the park, content with how the day had progressed.
On the way home, Jesse stayed mostly silent, thinking over her monetary situation. Chris was unable to leave the base until around the very end of December, and until then, Jesse would have to find some other way to make money. She had never been able to hold a steady job, getting fired from one place after the other for stealing money or habitual absence. Looking down at Faith, the daughter she had never asked for, she wondered if her life would have turned out differently if she hadn’t gotten pregnant so long ago, but she concluded that it probably wouldn’t have changed much. As it was, Faith was the only thing keeping Jesse from completely destroying herself at this point. With some semblance of responsibility, Jesse occasionally reigned in her habits and for a few days or hours, sometimes becoming the parental role model that Faith needed.
But most times, the habits and the addictions overruled any sense of duty towards her daughter. And it was only getting worse.
Reaching the building, they climbed the stairs, went down the hallway to apartment 314, and opened the door. Faith literally threw herself on the couch, somewhat exhausted after her abnormally busy activities, while Jesse locked up and went into her room. Not content to stay on the couch for long, Faith got up and turned on the TV, flicking the dial over and over until she realized that nothing decent was on and decided to watch the rather uninteresting afternoon news instead. Without prompting, she left the tiny living room and went into the kitchen, making herself some macaroni and cheese for lunch. She half-listened to the newscasters, but they weren’t saying anything interesting: traffic jams downtown, a new storm heading in, the usual random assortment of murders and other such crimes.
After a quarter hour had passed, Jesse came out of her room as Faith was eating lunch at the kitchen table. She had a small black bag with her, filled with something that Faith couldn’t see. Figuring it was nothing important, she turned her attention back towards the meal and shoveled another spoonful into her mouth.
“I have to go out for a few hours, Faith,” Jesse said, trying to straighten her hair with her free hand and only partially succeeding. “You’ll be all right here?”
“Yeah, I’ll be fine,” Faith replied, chewing on some noodles as she spoke. She managed to tear her eyes away from the steaming plate of macaroni to look at her mother. “Where are you going?”
An uncomfortable look passed over Jesse’s features, and she turned her eyes away from her daughter’s piercing gaze. When she spoke a few seconds later, she seemed uncertain. “I’m going to…um…going out with some friends,” she said, hoping that Faith would believe the lie. Usually her daughter didn’t ask questions like that because Jesse was never around to be asked, but this time, Faith had her trapped. “We’re going to lunch.”
“Oh.” Faith didn’t look away immediately, but when she finally did, Jesse felt relief wash over her. “Have fun.”
“I will,” Jesse said, already on her way out the door. She gave a quick wave and then the door closed, leaving Faith by herself once again.
Faith wasn’t so easily fooled by her mother, and she was quite aware of the fact that Jesse was not going out to eat lunch, as she claimed. Naiveté was something that Faith had lost and could never recover. What most children saw as reality, Faith saw as a foggy dream, a dream that she very much desired to leave behind. But it didn’t matter. Her memories and her experiences were imprinted on her forever, and the only way to go now was forward. The past was dead. So she quietly finished up her lunch and cleaned up after herself, still unconsciously listening to the newscast on the TV. Afterward, she tried to find something more interesting to watch on TV, something that would perhaps hold her interest and get her mind away from the thoughts that were always seeking to creep around her mental defenses, but the television was as empty as the apartment, filled with nothing but fake personalities and abstract colors.
The minutes managed to slowly claw their way into hours. Day turned to dusk, and Faith watched the change from her bedroom window, seeing headlights in the streets and people on the sidewalks. In the brutal twilight that poured its way into her eyes, Faith stood and stared as the outside world left her behind. Just one little girl lost in a world that was too big. Unable to stand the silence any longer, she turned on her small stereo, not caring what station came through, only that some sort of sound would chase away the eerie absence of life in the apartment, and then she resumed her place at the window. She watched the people, and her eyes eventually focused on one man in particular, striding easily down the sidewalk at an unhurried pace. Nothing about him seemed out of the ordinary; to Faith, he was simply a way to pass the time, to make the minutes blur. She watched him run across the street to the opposite sidewalk, and then he stopped suddenly, cocking his head a little to the side as if something had caught his attention. Slowly, he turned his head around and regarded Faith’s building. His gaze climbed higher and higher, until he appeared to be staring directly into Faith’s window. And that was when she saw his eyes.
His yellow eyes.
Frozen in place, Faith had no choice but to stare back. And the two stood like that, a child leveling her gaze at a vampire’s inhuman face. Without warning, Faith saw the vampire’s face change into that of a normal man. The yellow eyes disappeared, along with the evil grin, and then he was gone, disappearing into an alley. With her breath clouding up the window, Faith stepped away shakily and went to sit on her bed, scared of the implications of what had just occurred. As if it wasn’t bad enough that the vampire now knew where she lived, he could also apparently disguise himself as a normal human in order to move freely through the city. She unconsciously grabbed the cross hanging from her neck, rubbing its smooth golden surface between her tiny fingers. The vampire couldn’t hurt her as long as she stayed inside, and that was exactly what she intended to do. It was still early in the evening, but she had lost all taste for staying awake and dealing with the shadows cast by her mind. Eager for the oblivion of sleep, she quickly washed up, turned off the lights in the apartment, wondered why her mother hadn’t come home yet, and tucked herself into bed. Lying in the darkness by herself, Faith conjured up horrible images of burning eyes and flickering demons before she was finally granted the release of falling asleep.
The next morning, Faith awoke with a start, snapping upright and sending her covers flying to the ground. She frantically looked all over her room to make sure that she was completely alone, and then she began taking deep breaths, trying to calm herself down. The vampire had shown up in a nightmare, once again chasing her through the dark alleyways of the city. She had been without her necklace and without her holy water, completely defenseless as the he shoved her to the ground and bared his fangs…
Shaking herself loose from the memory, she got off the bed and stood up, once more going to the window. It didn’t look to be as sunny as yesterday had been, but there was still enough direct light to force the vampire indoors. At least Faith hoped there was. Thankful that she wasn’t going to be left alone in the dark again, she gathered up the same outfit from the day before and opened her door, not quite ready for another day of absolute boredom. When she stepped into the living room, however, she noticed a box sitting in the middle of the floor, decorated with bright red wrapping paper.
Suddenly remembering that today was her birthday, Faith tossed her clothes aside and rushed to the box, which sat prominently on the floor. It was big, perhaps even big enough to contain the thing that Faith had specifically asked for. There was a tiny note on the top, and she went down to her knees, eagerly grabbing it and reading it as fast as she possibly could. In Jesse’s scribbled handwriting, it said:
Happy Birthday, Firecracker! Sorry I couldn’t be there as you’re reading this, but I had to go out and take care of some business. Maybe when I get back, we can even go out to lunch for your special day. I hope you like your present. Love, Mom.
Placing the note on the carpet, Faith set to ripping off the wrapping paper, anxious with the hope that her mother had fulfilled her birthday wish. As she tore away the last of it, she saw that the box was dented and a bit dirty, as if it had been picked up off the street. Not letting that fact bother her, Faith took off the lid and prepared for a furry surprise, but nothing jumped out. There was no barking. Looking down into the box, she saw some neatly folded clothes at the very bottom.
There was no puppy.
Disheartened, Faith reached into the box and slowly removed her tenth birthday present: a new outfit that consisted of black pants and a dark blue long-sleeved shirt. There was nothing else in the box. After a few minutes of sitting on the floor with her present in total silence, Faith left the box where it was and half-heartedly walked into the bathroom, dragging her new outfit forlornly behind her.
She slowly closed the door, turned on the shower, then sat down on the ground and cried.