The young brunette sat, as she often did, in the solitude of her bedroom, and observed her blurred reflection in the small mirror laid in front of her. Her view was obstructed by three thin lines of white powder that she had spread across the reflective surface. Angel Dust was her favorite. She loved the way it tickled the inside of her nose as it entered, the way it moved across the inside of her forehead, warming her fingertips, dancing inside her teeth, flooding all of her senses. She smiled contentedly as she began to consume her second line of the evening, but was interrupted by a roar that shook the walls of the apartment as well as her good mood. "FAAAIIIITH!!!"

The fourteen year-old girl rolled her eyes as she put the mirror and its contents aside. Her mother's piercing shriek had a way of echoing through a person's skull for a shocking length of time. Faith peeled herself from her bed and stepped into the living room to answer the summons.

"What the hell do you want, you crusty bitch?" the young girl griped, wiping excess powder from her nose. The woman's hand shot through he air, landing across her daughter's face with a loud "crack". Her mom may have been old, but she hit like a freight train.

"Don't give me any lip, Faith," her mother countered. "I've got an appointment soon, so you need to get lost for a few hours. Don't come back too early, either." No punch that her mother could muster ever stung as much as the thought of what went on when Faith wasn't home. She could visualize the dirty men coming into the apartment and buying a quick fuck for a cheap price. Her mother sold small portions of her soul to those men, and Faith often felt the results of this in a slap across the face or a biting insult. She knew that her mother would have a much easier life if she didn't have to take care of a kid; this was the only way her mother knew how to provide. Faith looked away as the middle-aged woman began to dig in her purse. Her demeanor had softened by the time she handed the child a ten dollar bill. "You can...go... see a movie...or something."

Faith felt responsible for the whole situation. It was like her mommy was doing this awful thing just to feed her baby girl. This was entirely false, of course: her mother bought just as much Jack Daniels as she did food. Still, he couldn't bear to look at her mother or her money. The only thing she could do was walk away, out the door and into the streets.

She wandered those streets for hours, aimlessly strolling about the city. Usually, she would pay a visit to one of the guys from school for a quick screw, but that particular night found her uninterested. She felt the need to escape from all of the crap that was going on around her, and she could think of only one way to do so: the arcade. She could always lose herself in the flashy lights and colors of the arcade. In a video game, the rules of reality don't apply. She could take on a new identity in every new game she played, be anyone or anything other than what she was. A small crowd of people usually gathered around her when she played to watch in awe at whatever new high score she was setting and cheer her on. There, she was accepted. There, she belonged.

She stepped inside the arcade and swiftly picked out a game to play. Super Street Fighter II was always one of her favorites. She put a pair of quarters in and began to plow through a series of digital opponents. That is, until she fought Cammy. Faith was shocked as she was brutalized by the petite, golden-haired character again and again. "You little blonde bitch," Faith muttered under her breath, as if she could threaten the machine to give herself a psychological edge. She could feel her frustration rising. "You think you're better than me, don't you?" Cammy delivered a stunning combination of moves, thoroughly defeating Faith. She was better, and she knew it. "You...little...BITCH!!!" the raven-haired combatant screamed as she slammed her fists onto the controls, effectively crushing half of the machine. She turned ghostly pale when she realized what she had done. Every eye in the building was fixed on her. All she could do was stammer a quick apology and run, as fast as her legs could carry her.

She staggered back to the apartment, assuming that by now that her mom's "customer" was gone. As she carelessly tossed open the door, she was struck by the feeling that something was very wrong. She scanned the apartment, but saw no sign of her mother. There was only a tall, well dressed man sitting on the couch with a wide smirk adorning his face. His eyebrows seemed to close in on each other, warping his forehead unnaturally over his beady, yellow eyes. His grinning mouth was splattered with blood.

"Your mom was pretty good at her job, Faith..." the creature laughed "...but I'm better at mine." As he stood, he casually threw an object to her. It was her mother's head. The skin of it was cold and clammy, caked in a mixture of runny mascara and dried blood. The eyes were still open, as though they were held by a pure fear that failed to subside when life had expired. Faith could not help but drop the object - her arms had lost all feeling. She tried to scream, but found that her throat had failed her. He began to walk slowly towards her, taunting her as he came nearer. "The slut wasn't my type. I really don't care for redheads. I prefer brunettes." He stopped in his approach suddenly, as if some prescience had halted him. Someone else was in the room.

"I hope a blonde will do," retorted a answered a voice from the shadows ,"because there is no way in Hell that I'm going to let you touch her." The young woman was smirking confidently, holding a large crossbow with the business end pointed directly at the monster's heart. Her golden hair was draped around her face stopping at her chin, adding a slight shadow around her green eyes that made her seem all the more menacing. The creature lunged at her in a fit of fury, and was quickly obliterated. The young woman grinned with satisfaction and addressed Faith.

"That, my dear, was a vampire. You are a slayer: a fighter with superhuman abilities granted to you in order to kill them. My name is Grace. I'm responsible for keeping you alive and training you." She turned to look at Faith, expecting to have to console her over her mother's death or some such crap. Faith was simply sitting there, without so much as a single tear in her eyes, holding her mother's head in her hands. Grace was definitely not expecting this. The young girl was trembling violently, trying to speak. Grace started to try and calm her. "Look, I..."

Faith finally looked up, breaking Grace's train of thought. Her brown eyes were icy, sending an immediate shiver down the watcher's spine. "Don't. Just shut up." The words shot from Faith's mouth like bullets, striking Grace in the chest. The young slayer was choking on her own rage. "You were here the whole time. You could have saved her. You let her die." Fury brimmed in her eyes as she spoke. "You...let...her...DIE!"

Faith assaulted the watcher with the speed of a demon, hailing her with a barrage of punches and kicks. Grace was grinning from ear to ear as she blocked every attack. "Good! Very impressive, my little rookie!" she yelled with a laugh as she sent her knee sailing into Faith's stomach, followed by a backhand punch to the face that sent the young one plummeting to the floor.

"Not good enough, though. Now, let's get this much straight: I was following YOU all night. I got here when you did, so your mom was already dead when I showed up. I am NOT at fault. Now, onto more important..."

"So if I would have stayed home tonight, she would be alive right now," Faith interrupted. Grace grimaced to herself. This was going to be difficult. This wasn't how she wanted things to begin for the two of them.

"None of this is your fault, either. You have a unique opportunity now. I'm offering you a chance to avenge your mother's death, as well as make sure that nothing like this ever happens again. Understand?"

Grace offered her hand to Faith, hoping that she had struck something in the slayer to make her come to her senses. Faith took her watcher's hand and pulled herself up, looking as if she had discovered a new determination. "I want to kill them," she snarled. "Teach me how to make them pay."

*********

Faith sat, as she often did, in the solitude of her room. She furiously pounded the controls of her Sega Genisis and and spat curses at the screen. "Ha! Die, dickweed!" she yelped victoriously. She had just decimated the final boss of Streets of Rage for the hundreth time. If only she had a Playstation, then she would some 32-bit action. For the moment, unfortunately, she was confined to 16-bit.

"Shouldn't you be in school?" Grace asked dryly as she strode into the slayer's room. When she came into Faith's life all those months ago, she had been the slayer's salvation; she gave Faith a place to stay and a purpose. In many ways, they were the best of friends: they went out together, watched TV together, and even slayed together if Grace was feeling frisky. However, she was also the quentessential watcher. The petite blonde was always trying to convince her young companion to go to school, do research on different kinds of demons, play by the rules of the Watcher's Council, blah blah blah.

Of course, Grace loathed all of that "responsibility" crap just as much as Faith did. She was a former slayer who fought tooth and nail for the respect of the Council by being the most successful vampire slayer they had ever encountered. She knew everything about every type of demon imaginable, as well as the best way to kill all of them. Her knowlege was so extensive, the Council thought she would more useful as a watcher.

What the Council didn't know is that Grace had also become modestly wealthy by lending her fighting skills to the rich and famous as a bodyguard . By the time she was chosen to be a watcher, she had accumulated enough money to convert a large colonial house in the subberbs of Boston into "Slayer-Central", complete with library, gym, state-of-the-art computer, and killer stereo systyem. In a nutshell, Grace was everything Faith wished she was: intelligent, skilled, and absolutely beautiful.

"Hey, F! Are you listening? Snap out of it," Grace quipped. Faith realized that she had been staring at her mentor, lost in thought.

"Huh?" was Faith's best reply.

"Why aren't you at school, smartass?" Grae asked again. She was trying her best to play the role of the angry parent, but having a hard time hiding her amusement at her favorite slayer's openly defient attitude.

"Yeah. Maybe I should get a good education so I can open up all of those career optiopportunities for myself. It's not like a job is just going to fall into my lap, right?" she retorted with an excess of sarcasm.

"Look, Faith," Grace said plainly. "You need to get out of this house and interact with the rest of the human race. Don't you have some friends from school to hang out with?"

Faith's playfully defiant mood plummeted. She turned her eyes slowly toward the floor. "I hate them all," she muttered without a hint of conviction in her voice.

Grace rolled her eyes and folded her arms, looking genetally disgusted. "No, you think they all hate YOU, so you use that as an excuse to ditch school, play video games, and feel sorry for yourself."

Grace was no longer looking at Faith . She was pacing in front of the door angrily, throwing her arms up in disdain. "You lock yourself in this damn room because you're afraid to go out and live your life, and the only thing you have to cover your insecurity is an unimpressive arsenal of smart remarks."

Gace was becoming more flustered as her tirade continued. "I'll bet when you do make it to school, you just sit in your little desk and piss as many people off as possible. No wonder you don't have any goddamn friends! I swear to God, you can be so SPINELESS! I..."

The blonde watcher was interrupted by her slayer's disturbing composure. During the entire tirade, Faith sat in uncharacteristic silence. Her knees were drawn to her chest, and her arms wrapped themselves around the sides of her legs where her hands clasped her ankles. Her head lay slightly to the side, her horrified eyes gazing into nothingness. They both stood in silence as they were for what seemed like an eternity, until Faith was able to escape her own thoughts long enough to realize that Grace was no longer yelling at her.

"I...I'm sorry...I'll try harder..." Faith began to whisper without looking up.

"No, Faith, I..." Grace started to try and comfort her friend, but came to the realization that she was no good at all that touchy- feely crap. "Let's go get something to eat," she said while forcing an awkward smile. "I'm starving. Then, we can go kill stuff." Faith didn't laugh at the joke.

As duo strolled the alleys of Boston, patrolling for the usual demonic types, it occurred to Grace that there was never a vampire around when she needed one. Faith was at her watcher's side the entire night, but had not spoken a single word. She was analyzing the conversation that had taken place earlier, picking apart everything Grace had said and examining the truth in it. Grace longed to take back those harsh words.

"Faith... I didn't mean all of those things I said," she said apologetically.

"You meant every word," Faith answered without looking up. "Everything you said was absolutely true. You don't have to sugarcoat for me." Grace squirmed uncomfortably at the response.

"Why don't we go catch a movie?" the blonde offered weakly. "I'm sure Dracula is playing across town at the..."

"I don't want to catch a fucking movie!" Faith yelled painfully, showing the first sign of emotion since they began the patrol. Suddenly, the young slayer tensed, looking frantically in all directions. "They're all around us. A dozen, maybe more. We're surrounded."

Graced felt their presence now, too. Vampires began creeping out of the shadows in pairs, their beady little eyes fixed on the pair of humans in their midst. Grace and Faith didn't wait for them to make the first move. In a flurry of movement, the slayer and the watcher began to dispatch the fiends, staking them almost as soon as they emerged. The vampires began to slowly creep backwards, hissing as they retreated. Grace was able to see a large figure emerge from among them. His very presence emanated power: his eyes glowed with fiery intensity from under his warped brow; his steps echoed menacingly through the alleys as his cloven feet rammed themselves to the ground; his evil grin revealed incisors that gleamed in the moonlight as if they were eagerly awaiting the next kill.

"Kakistos!" Grace gasped under her breath.

*********

Faith shivered in the cold, dark chamber that she had resided in for recent hours. She had regained consciousness in that chamber, awakened by the soul-wrenching scream of a woman who could only be Grace. Faith was unable to save her, just as she failed so save her poor mother. It had been silent for a long time; Faith assumed that Grace had finally died.

The trembling slayer scrambled into the far corner of the room as the door to her cell opened. Grace stumbled into the room, clutching the wall for support. Faith gasped as she laid her disbelieving eyes on her friend. The skin of the right side of her face had been scraped away, leaving the scabby, twitching muscle tissue underneath exposed. A large, rusty screw had been driven into her eyeball, replacing the sparkling green that Faith was used to with a sickening mixture of rust and crimson. Her torn shirt revealed an assortment of burns, bruises, and lacerations that had been spread over the length of her torso, cumulating with a fist-sized pentagram burned into her stomach.

"Faith," she strained, "it's time for your lessons."

The wide-eyed young woman saw for the first time a small chair and thick rope that Grace was holding. The watcher's forehead morphed, revealing her new supernatural power. The bitter sneer that spread across her face like a pestilence also revealed something: two gruesomely enhanced canine teeth.

Grace shot onto Faith, grabbing her, tossing her effortlessly into the awaiting chair and tying her up as though she was nothing. "Now, on to your first lesson of the night. There are five basic torture groups, my dear: blunt, sharp, hot, cold, and loud. Which would you like us to start with?"

"Grace...what has he done to you?" Faith pleaded, unable to believe her own eyes.

"Grace, what has he done to you?" Grace mocked laughingly. "You are so PATHETIC! I shouldn't have even bothered with you, you little worm." The vampire struck Faith across the face, forcing blood from her mouth. Clasping the slayer's hair, she delivered two crushing headbutts to Faith's forehead. Seeing blood running freely over the brunette's face, Grace grinned devilishly. "Now that you've tasted 'blunt', we'll move on to 'sharp'," she giggled, opening her mouth wide to reveal her new fangs. "I'm thirsty."

As Grace lunged at her captive's neck, Faith delivered a headbutt of her own that sent the soulless watcher flying across the room. She pulled her entrapped hands forward, shattering the back of the chair that they were bound to. In one smooth motion, Faith tore the rope that confined her feet, broke of one of the chair's legs, and launched herself at her former best friend. She felt the breastbone give as she tore into it with the makeshift stake. The soft flesh of Grace's heart tensed as she wooden shard pierced it. Instantly, the woman who had been both a friend and mother to Faith was reduced to a pile of steaming dust.

*********

Kakistos stood, smiling in disbelief. He observed the cell, piecing together the incident that had taken place only moments ago. "Obviously, the young one made a stake from that broken chair and dispatched her watcher," he thought to himself. "Most impressive. She will be an amusing prey."

At that moment, one of his minions slithered into the room. "Shall we go after her, master?" it inquired, fearful that the ancient vampire would be enraged that she was allowed to escape at all.

"Of course not, you imbecile!" the elder answered. "We will wait. We will follow her until she thinks we can no longer find her, and kill her just as she finds a place to call her own and people to share her burden." The creature began to laugh a sinister laugh that echoed throughout the lair, frightening even the most seasoned of his minions.

*********

Faith sat in a corner booth of a small, seedy diner, shifting restlessly in her seat as she waited. She had called the Council over an hour ago, using a phone number Grace had once given her in case of just such an emergency, and agreed to meet with a watcher at this spot. She laid her beaten face in her hands as thoughts of Grace passed through her mind. She had failed her best friend, just as she had failed her mother. The Chosen One was defeated and demoralized. She had nothing.

A well-groomed, stuffy old man in a suit strode over to her booth and presented himself. "My name is Charles. I'm here to discuss your future." The British watcher took a seat across from the slayer.

"You're a watcher? Geez, I must have lucked out when I got Grace. You look like you spend just as much time packing fudge as you do hunting demons." The site of this man made Faith sick.

"Making candy has nothing to do with our current situation, young lady," retorted the confused watcher. "As for Grace, she should never have become a watcher, but there is nothing we can do about that now. You must come with me at once to the Sunnydale: it appears that the slayer stationed there has met an untimely demise and needs a replacement. I will drop you off and supply lodgings for you, where you will stay until a watcher can be assigned to you. Now, you and I must board the plane..."

"If it's okay with you, Chuck, I think I'll make my own way to Sunnydale. It'll give me some time to brush up on my slaying skills. Besides..." Faith was trying to think of legitimate reasons to stay on her own.

"Kakistos will not be able to..." the watcher started, seeing through Faith's excuse and trying to put her fears at rest. Faith, who had gone from being uncomfortable to furious, grabbed the timid watcher by his coat.

"You listen to me, you little bitch. I am NOT scared of that piece of shit. I just don't want your snooty British ass following me everywhere I go!" Her anger subsided as quickly as it came, but she was still determined to make the trip in solitude. As she stood, she removed a small object from her pocket. In her hand lay a bloodied piece of cloth, tied at the top to serve as a pouch. Solemnly, Faith put the pouch and it's contents into the watcher's hands. "She didn't deserve this. Give her a proper burial." The broken slayer said a silent farewell to her friend, and departed without further discussion.

The watcher sneered at the little pouch. "You thought you were so damn smart, didn't you, Grace. Little Miss Slayer thought she could be a watcher. You don't seem so smart now, do you?" He dumped the ashes unceremoniously into a trash can, and left with a grin on his face.