Of Birds and Slayers

The animal I have become – 2nd Part

Six months later.

(Chester Bennington – Morning after)

The smoky air of the bar was burning her throat. It wasn’t in her habit to frequent this kind of place, but Katie had followed her friends despite her wish to stay home and work on her exam. The Reedy was not the most popular gay bar in Boston, but still, the music was quite good and there were a lot of nice chicks.

“Why don’t you go talk to her?” Lacey whispered into her ear. Katie shrugged and glanced over the bar. “Come on! You’ve been staring at this girl for an hour!”

“Looks like there’s already sharks around the fish” Annie laughed. The three friends were sitting at a table with their drinks and watched how a group of girls formed around the mysterious stranger. She was about eighteen, maybe twenty, but looked very young. Wearing a black baggy and a tank top of the same color, the brunette’s hair was shaved, there was only a few millimeters left. She reminded Katie of Nathalie Portman in the movie she had seen earlier ‘V for Vendetta’, though a reversed cap was hiding her head. Her body was very muscular as well. Katie sighed and stood up.

“Okay, I’m gonna talk to her, if those bitches let me!” she told her friends who put their thumbs up. The raven-haired girl walked towards the bar and sat on a high chair next to the group.

“Come on, you must have a name!”

“Yeah! Why don’t you want us to know?” Two fake blondes were saying. The stranger drank straight her shot of JD and glanced at the girl. Katie finally could see her face. Her eyes. They were amazing, the iris almost black.

‘Weirdly black...’ to Katie’s surprise. Suddenly, the stranger looked at Katie and locked gaze with her. The young girl smiled at her, and Katie was astonished to see a small smile form at the corner of the stranger’s lips. Then the two fake blondes mounted a fresh attack and kept on with their stupid questions.

“Where are you from, miss broody?”

“You’ve got nice tattoos!” And the stranger stood up. Before walking away, she turned to Katie.

“They call me Beast.” She smiled sadly before walking towards the stage and taking a guitar laying against an amp. Katie made her way through the crowd to her friends.

“How did it go?” Lacey asked inquisitively.

“Well, that-” she was interrupted by applauses as Beast appeared on the stage.

“Hi guys, girls, whatever you are... We’re Cyko Path.” Shannah said calmly in the microphone, strumming her guitar. There was a thunderous applause and the band began to play.

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This damn vampire was exhausting her, running like that! Kennedy had been purchasing him for ten minutes already. She finally managed to catch the back of his old-fashioned jacket and threw him on the ground. He was the fifteenth vampire she would slay this night. Her body was aching, and one of them had injured her arm earlier. And Mister Saturday Night Fever took the advantage of it, kicking her on the side. Kennedy heard her bone crack and screamed with pain.

“Fucking bastard!” she shouted to the vampire and pinned him against a tombstone. “ You’re gonna pay for that!” The Slayer stuck her stake in his throat and the vampire looked at her deeply. He was choking with his own...or rather his victim’s blood.

“See? It hurts uh? Too bad you can’t feel long enough what it feels to have your heart broken. On your case, I must say ‘staked’ I guess.” The Latino girl smirked before slaying the vampire who turned into dust. Kennedy took a deep breath and stared at the sky. The sun would rise in an hour or so. She decided it was time to go back at the Academy. Kennedy was exhausted, covered with blood and dust, and desperately lost. About 1800 kilometers away, her ex-lover was back in her creepy motel room. Shannah sat on the edge of her bed and took a little box on her bedside table. She observed the white powder inside it and chuckled bitterly before taking some of it on her finger and sniffing it. The Phoenix laid on her bed and stared blankly at the ceiling, putting away every thoughts she could have about Sunnydale, the Slayer Academy and Kennedy.

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“Hi baby!” Faith greeted from the doorframe. “Am I bothering?” Buffy shook her head, smiling brightly like she always did.

“So, anything new about TFO?” The Rogue Slayer asked, hopeful.

“Nothing much. Willow tried to find some information about him, but the First’s Offspring wasn’t supposed to exist you know...” Buffy shrugged. Faith sat in front of her lover’s desk, put her feet on it and quickly removed them because of Buffy’s disapproving look.

“I-um...wanted to talk to you about K-girl.” Faith looked down at her hands. Buffy nodded, a shade crossing her face. “She slayed until the morning once again. I saw her coming back all bleeding and... She’s destroying herself.”

“I know...since Sha-”

“Yeah” Faith cut her. Since her friend had left, the Slayer was quite bitter and rude each time Buffy was talking about her. She had a grudge about her for breaking down Kennedy, and leaving her alone. She was also mad at her because the Phoenix had refused her help, and somehow she reminded Faith of herself, in her dark days. “I don’t know what we could do to help her. Each time she goes on patrol, it’s like a suicide to her! She hopes there will be a vamp to kill her!”

“She’s in pain, there’s nothing we can do.”

“We must watch over her.” Faith stood up, resolute. The blonde girl observed her several seconds.

“Baby, I know it’s hard for you too. But you have to get used to the fact that Shannah is gone.” The brunette frowned, obviously angry. “One day, when she’d have found what she’s looking for, she’ll be back. And you know she will.” Faith kept her mouth shut for a while. Buffy stood up and took her lover in her arms.

“I miss her, you know? I hope she’s fine out there...”

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(Three days grace – Animal I have become)

Shannah was running as fast as she could. They were just behind her...well, several meters behind her, but still! In her hand, she was holding tightly the wallet she had just stolen from a rich little woman. Unfortunately, her screams had alerted a car full of cops, just passing by. And there Shannah was. She hated doing this.

‘I’m just a fucking ghost of myself! Come on look at you, needing to steal to survive!’ She thought as she turned at the corner of the main street. She needed thirty seconds, nothing else but fucking thirty seconds. The Phoenix spotted a dark alley where she could hide to change. The sirens were coming closer but she had to do it. The brunette rushed in the alley and climbed a ladder up to the roof of a building. She closed her eyes, draw out her claws and began to change. Since Zane’s death and her Sublimination, her change was quicker, but this time, it seemed like it was still very long. Shannah heard the cops’ voices coming from the alley, and metallic sounds told her that they were already on the ladder.

‘Twenty-eight, twenty-nine, thirty!’ She opened her eyes and flew off the roof in full speed, leaving behind her a bunch of dumbfounded guys who were too stunned to shoot her with their guns. Shannah didn’t like flying in daylight. So she flew as fast as she could to her motel.

“You must be insane to have three hundred bucks in cash on you!” she exclaimed as she opened the wallet. She heard something buzzing from somewhere. It was her cell phone.

‘Bart calling’ she read on the screen.

“Yeah?” she answered the phone.

“Yo, Beast! It’s Bart!” a male voice greeted from the other end of the line.

“Yeah, I know!” Shannah chuckled. She didn’t understand why people calling her always introduced themselves, though they knew there’s a caller ID on the cell phone. “What’s up?”

“I just wanted to tell you that we know where we’ll play our last show.”

“Man, it sucks that we have to split!”

“I know, but Kyle and Sita need to work on their studies. Maybe you and I could do a little something on our own?” The drummer asked.

“Yeah, why not! Anyway, what’s the place?” Shannah said while throwing the wallet on her bed.

“Cleveland, Ohio!” Shannah almost dropped her cell phone in shock.

“No way, man.” She frowned and replied in a cold tone.

“What? Come on! Last time in Pittsburgh it was awesome! I know you don’t like anything but your little creepy motel room, but it’s our last show! Without you we won’t make it!” Bart was pleading her. Shannah remained speechless.

‘Fuck, why Cleveland? Why there? Could it be anywhere else on the planet?’ she sighed.

“Where in Cleveland?” the young girl asked.

“Don’t really know the name, Jaunt to somewhere, something like that. It’s a bar near the lake. Kyle’s already there, sticking posters and handing out flyers with guys from CarnaJ. He told me there’s gonna be a lot of people, the room’s quite large.” Bart sounded very excited. Shannah nodded, unconsciously.

“Okay, when?”

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