Frozen in Time

FROZEN IN TIME

By: Astar

It was cold in the stone sarcophagus that she called her bed. It wasn’t always her bed; well it wasn’t always a bed either. It was a sarcophagus some ones coffin in someone’s tomb but it had been her bed for as long as she could remember. It was cold it and damp and it still smelled of death. She had cleaned it out herself taking the body out and washed it out. Her mother had gotten her pillows to put on the bottom so it was almost like a bed. She had taking old blankets from her aunt’s room there weren’t the best blankets for her, shower they had little harts on them but they served their purpose. Her pillow he dad had giving her it was a good pillow very soft and it was new, she could tell her stolid it.

So that was her bed for the first three years of life. Many times her parents would tell her she could go sleep on the bed they got for her but she liked the big stone sarcophagus or the casket as she liked to call it. It was almost like having here own room. She always wondered what it would be like to have her own room to have a door that locked and a carpet on her floor and a window she could look out and feel the sun on her face. Well she could live with out a door she had the front door it didn’t lock but it was a door and a carpet wasn’t needed she loved the feel of the cold stone on her bare feet but the window was what she wanted the most. She wanted to sit at a window her window and feel the sun on her face. She knew she couldn’t be in the sun to long or her skin would get all red and sore she hated that. So she could live without a window.

Since she couldn’t have a normal life like most 16-year-old girls. Well she wasn’t 16 either she was about 60. She wasn’t a normal girl she would never be. She was a Vage. A half bread a freak of nature. She wasn’t the only one there was another freak her cousin he wasn’t a half bread but still he wasn’t even support be alive either but he was and so was she. Lifeless to know the mean of what life is. She was lifeless but she was alive she had a heartbeat and she bereaved air but she didn’t die she was 60 but she looked 16 she aged once every fore years. She still acted like a 16-year-old girl; well that’s what everyone said but she didn’t think so. She was happy and funny bad ass when she was around them, her friends but when she was here in her room in the crypt she had come to call her home she was depressing and grave bad ass.

There was only one person who ever knew the gloomy side of her. Her father. He was always there for her. Even after her mother died he was there for you. He came and got her when Angel stolid her away. After her mother died Angel came and just took her, took 24 year old trapped in a 6 year old body to L.A. to that hotel of his and let her share a room with his son. He took her from her father stolid her right out of his arms didn’t even let her say good bye. He keep her from her father for 36 years keep her locked away at night and didn’t let her fight. Wouldn’t let her drink blood wouldn’t let her kill. She learned how to fight from his son, his son the miracle kid, the only one who took pity on her. He was her only friend he gave her blood and let her out at night to go slay the demons that walked the earth. He was her friend.

Then that day that day she had been waiting for the one she had been dreaming about. When he kicked the door down and came to save her to take her back to her home the crypt. It came she remembered it well. He drove right through the door on that motorcycle of his. He fought his way up stares to her room broke down the door and smiled at her but the smile was cut short by Angel. Angel the one she dreaded he stuck that sword right thought him. The look of pain on his face as he through him out the 4th story window; that look was only matched by the look on her mothers face when she gave her life for her. Her mother had the same look of pain and peace. The peace she must have felt because she gave her life for her daughter and for the world but the pain she must have gone thought all that fire burning her as dove into hell. She dove into hell to go to haven. Back to haven.

After that day she spent every waking moment trying to get back home. Every night she would sneak out she would go to the demon bars, vaults, graves, sepulchers and mausoleums all over the L.A. She cheated, coned, fiddle, double-crossed, defraud and rip off plenty of daemons from all over the west cost. Hell she did play a mean hand of Kitten Poker. She did this till she got what she wanted she got food and blood and weapons and a map to Sunnydail and the most important thing of all she got a beautiful black motorcycle. Then the day came she left Angel she was much stronger then him she had Slayer and Vampire strength and she know all his fighting moves thanks to his son. So it wasn’t hard to kick his ass. She left him hanging off a flagpole knowing it would take him a good day to get down that’s if he could swing himself out of the sun and under the trees tops but he was a resourceful little vamp she was shower he would find his way out if it. That what hero types like him do.

It took a good day of driving to make it to Sunnydail. She got there just as the sun was sating. She hadn’t seen the hell mouth for such a long time it was foreign to her. She found herself wording around aimlessly. She walked past the Magic Box owned by the Xender and Anya’s kids. She walked into the Bronze and sat at one of the tables for an hour or tow eating Buffalo wings and a Blooming Onion. She must have walked through all of Sunnydail 21 graveyards before she came across the mausoleum she had called home.

When she walked in, a flood memories came rushing back. She saw her mother and father sitting in front of the telly watching some show in black and white. She saw her father chasing her around the room when she would take his flask. She saw her mother taking weapons out of the weapon chest and telling her their names. She was home.

She looked around and saw that nothing had change he had carpeted it just as it was when she was taking. Then she saw it her casket she looked at it fore a long time before she lifted the lid. When she lifted the lid a huge cloud of dust came out of it. It hadn’t been open for a long time. Knowing her father it hadn’t been open since she left. When the dust cleared she saw that it was all the same. The same pillows the same blankets all the same. She jumped inside it was much smaller then she remembered. She laid in it fore a long time till she finely worked up the nerve to go she her. Her mother’s grave. Where he would sourly be.

It took her about an hour to get to the remote part of the woods where she was barred. She stood by the old willow tree about 10ft from the grave. Looking on she could see the four glowing stones that were placed at the fore corners of the grave. They glowed a bright yellow color. The fact that they were glowing told her that the tall man in the long black leather jacket was her father. She remembered when they had but the stone there. Willow had made them as a shelled, a shelled so no magic’s could be done on the grave or anything beneath it.

Her father had been coming there every night since she died. Every night he would go there at the same time and sit there for hours talking to her. He would tell here what had been going on with him and there daughter. He told her when Xender and Anya had their first kid. He told her when Giles died. He told her what happened to Willow and he told her how Dawn was. He did this every night excepted for one, the night she died. On that night he would go to her grave a sunset and sit there till sunrise. Some times he would take her and tell her all about the things her mother did. When he would do this she wouldn’t feel so bad about herself; about being The Vage, half vampire half slayer.

The Vage, that was the name she gave her self. The Vage, half Vampire half Vampire Slayer, only ageing one year every fore years, she had the strength and healing time of both races. She could go out in the sun for a short time. Holly Water burned her, Crosses made her skin red and itchy, Garlic made her sneeze and her eyes water, she had a reflection as long as she stayed in human form and a stake through the heart would put her in to a dormant sleep stage till it is removed. That what she was, a freak that wasn’t aloud to happen but it did and now she was here.

She walked over to her father and stood behind him for a long time. He didn’t even here her or he didn’t care. He just stared at the grave of his one true love. The women he was to kill. The Slayer that was to kill his kind. The woman he had falling in love with and gave him a daughter, a thing no vampire was aloud to have but he had her.

She stud beside him and still he did not move. She took his hand a wisped "Lonely vigil?" He looked over at her and his eyes were wide with pried in love. Love something he should never have had. "Astar." Were the first words that crackled out of his mouth. Astar her name, it had been so long since she had heard them. Astar was the name her mother had picked out for her because on the night she was born there were no stares out but the second took her first breath a single bright star peek out from behind the clouds. Astar that was her name the only thing that would never change about her. The only thing that was hers.

Now he looked at her and smiled. He hugged her for a few seconds then let her go. She never remembered him hugging her before, he was always too much a bad ass for that but now he hugged her like a father hugged a daughter. Like a normal family. Normal something they would never be but they didn’t need to be they were happy.

"Daddy." She said with a smile after the hug. He took her hands in his and fell to his knees looking up at her. "I’ve missed you." He said trying to hold the tears back. He would never cry in front of her. No, he would wait till he was all-alone then he would weep for hours but he would never cry in front of her.

They stayed at her gave till the sun started to come up talking. Telling each other about what had happened in the last past years; about all the hard time and all the easy times, all the good and all the evil. Then they went back the crypt. Once there she fell fast asleep in her coffin. Intel she here the stone lid more just enough so he could stick his hand inside and feel her hair. So he would know she was real and he was not dreaming. "Do you miss her?" She asked half asleep. "Every day." He answered then he closed the lid. Living her in the dark again.

She stood still for a long time staring into the darkness. If she stayed still enough she thought she could freeze this moment, thought she could be frozen in time.

It was cold in the stone sarcophagus that she called her bed. Where she lay now. It was cold but it was home.

The End

Form,

Astar Ruth Summers

Astar_Summers@Hotmail.com