Act1

Tara remained still sitting on the bed for minutes, seemingly thinking about her previous conversation with Faith, and she looked utterly defeated at the thought. They used to quarrel a lot but as they had grown more comfortable with each other as time had passed, Tara had though that time was behind them. A tiny grain of sand had just stalled the fragile relationship they had built over the months together.

Tara considered her bag of doughnuts, the most recent proof of that observation and sighed deeply. Never before, she had needed to tame the Slayer. Mostly, Faith had even been the one trying to tame her when she felt so lost and stranger to herself at the beginning. The thought depressed her even more and she decided she needed to do something to change her mind, instead of just waiting for Faith to return as grumpy as she was when she left.

She stood up, put her coat on, grabbed the bag of doughnuts and headed for the door. She left the hostel quickly and walked at a quick pace toward Mrs Applefresh’s bookshop. If Faith did not want her doughnuts, maybe the bookshop owner would be pleased to share them with her.

 

When Tara pushed the bookshop’s door open, the woman was in the storeroom. She emerged from behind the counter as Tara reached it.

 

“Good morning my dear,” Mrs Applefresh greeted the blonde witch with a smile. “Beautiful day isn’t it?”

 

Tara nodded and smiled back.

 

“Good morning,” she answered. “How are you?”

 

“I’m fine thank you,” the woman replied. “How’s your friend?”

 

“A little grumpy I’m afraid” Tara responded honestly.

 

Mrs Applefresh gave her a sympathetic nod.

 

“It happens sometimes with that kind of spell.”

 

“Oh with her it’s more often than sometimes and she doesn’t need a spell” said Tara, rolling her eyes slightly.

 

“Grumpy people,” chuckled Mrs Applefresh. “They make us crazy”

 

Tara nodded thoughtfully and remained silent. The bookshop owner waited for her to say something, but seeing the younger woman lost in thoughts, she resumed:

 

“Do you need something my dear?” she asked gently.

 

“Oh, not really,” answered Tara, coming back to reality.

 

She waved the bag of doughnuts under the woman’s nose.

 

“I just came to share those with you” she explained, and felt herself lame. “Well, to tell the whole truth, Faith didn’t want them, so I suppose it could be a good idea to have them with you.”

 

The woman smiled warmly to ease Tara’s awkwardness.

 

“That’s really sweet of you,” she said. “Just come with me in the storeroom, I was unpacking a delivery that’s arrived this morning.”

 

“Certainly,” Tara answered, following the woman as she did what she said. “I can help you with this if you wish me to.”

 

“It’s a lot of work,” Mrs Applefresh replied. “I don’t want to waste your time, you probably have better things to do.”

 

“Absolutely not,” contradicted Tara. “And work will be good. I need to work.”

 

“Then your help will be greatly appreciated.”

 

They entered the storeroom and Tara understood that the bookshop owner was not lying: the two of them would probably need all the morning to overcome the task to sort all the books and items the woman had received. As far as Tara was concerned, that was a good thing: at least, she would not spend her morning thinking about what to do to get Faith to talk to her again.

 

“So, the spell worked as expected?” Mrs Applefresh asked some time later as each woman was unpacking her own cardboard box.

 

“It worked like a charm,” answered Tara sarcastically. “Woke Faith from her catatonic state and she’s very much back to her own self.”

 

Mrs Applefresh noticed the irony in Tara’s reply and smiled reassuringly.

 

“It’s a very invasive spell as you must know. Some people need some time to adjust. She’ll come around. She just needs some space right now.”

 

“I guess,” Tara replied, stopping her work as she did. “She doesn’t know anything about magic. Must be hard for her to understand what really happened. Well, I hardly figure it myself!”

 

“How did this happen by the way?” the bookshop owner asked. “I realize I’ve not even thought to ask you this before.”

 

“Another witch put a spell on her,” Tara answered after a short time of hesitation. “She was out looking for a fight and Faith was there.”

 

The woman looked horrified for a second and a bit surprised.

 

“This kind of witch usually stays in big cities. It’s a shame how some witches abuse their powers so badly. Your friend‘s lucky not to be more seriously injured.”

 

“She’s strong” acknowledged Tara.

 

“A girl of action your friend,” commented the woman. “That’s how I felt her aura when you came in here the first time.”

 

“She really is,” Tara confirmed. “But that witch was pretty powerful and I don’t do that much magic these days. Took me too much time to try to stop her. And wouldn’t have been able to anyway.”

 

“Does this witch have curly brown hair by any chance? Is she around twenty, twenty-five?” asked Mrs Applefresh, suddenly thoughtful, as if trying to remember something.

 

“Yeah, that’s it.” Tara approved. “High cheeks, full lips. Brown eyes. Around this tall.”

 

She gestured vaguely to show how Kira was a little shorter than herself.

 

“Do you know her?” asked Tara curiously.

 

“She came at the shop a few days ago,” the woman said. “The same day you came the first time if I remember correctly. She even bought a few items here. I can’t tell her aura felt aggressive.”

 

“She prided herself on being very good at hiding herself. I didn’t even notice she was a witch at first.”

 

“Some witches can do that very well indeed,” nodded the bookshop owner. “I think I may have something with her name somewhere in my notes.” She thoughtfully added. “I guess you don’t know her name if she randomly attacked you?”

 

“It wasn’t exactly random.” Tara answered. “She said her name was Kira. Don’t know more than that.”

 

“I’ll take a look,” Mrs Applefresh replied, heading to the shop’s counter.

 

She rummaged for minutes in some drawers, then finally waved a piece of paper victoriously.

 

“Here it is,” she announced, coming back toward Tara. “Kira Braghan.” she read. “I chitchatted with her a few minutes, she was quite nice. I remember she said she was from Portland.”

 

“She mentioned that to Faith too I believe” Tara confirmed. “With her name, maybe we’ll be able to get our hands on her.”

 

“Revenge is not something you should seek,” advised the woman wisely. “Especially if she’s powerful and dangerous. But you could try to contact the coven in Portland and see if they have knowledge of her.”

 

“There’s a coven in Portland?” Tara asked.

 

“There is,” confirmed Mrs Applefresh. “I was part of it myself until a few years ago. I’ll write you the name and number of someone you can contact there.”

 

Tara nodded and remained still behind the woman while she wrote something on a blank sheet. When she was done, she turned round to the blonde and handed her the piece of paper.

 

“Here it is.” She said. “I hope they know her and will be able to do something about her.”

 

Tara nodded again and folded the paper before putting it away in one pocket of her coat.

 

“Thank you very much.”

 

“It really is nothing,” Mrs Applefresh waved it off.

 

They came back to the storeroom where they shared some of the doughnuts Tara had brought while unpacking again the bookshop delivery. It was already 1pm when they finally neared completing the task.

 

“Goddess!” Tara exclaimed when she saw the wall-clock. “I’m sorry but I’m running late. Faith must be waiting for me. I should go.”

 

“It’s not a problem my dear, “ the woman kindly answered. “I was about to tell you it was late.”

 

Tara hurriedly slipped her coat back on and took her leave, but not before Mrs Applefresh insisted on paying her for her work of the morning. Despite Tara’s growing protests, the woman complied to let her leave only when she managed to put a few bills into the blonde’s hand. The door of the bookshop closed on her and Tara found herself alone in the street. She sighed deeply, buried the bills in her jeans pocket and hurried along the road toward the hostel.

 

 

***

 

 

Opening the door of her room, Tara prepared herself to be welcomed by a very icy and upset Faith, and was surprised to find the room deserted. She went down the stairs again and headed to the common room where she thought she would find the brunette at lunch, but the Slayer was nowhere to be seen. She made up her mind to ask the hostel employees if they had seen Faith this morning, and one of them informed her that the brunette had left the hostel about two hours before and had not been seen since then.

 

“Two hours…” muttered the blonde. “Where the hell has she been?”

 

Tara thanked the young man for the piece of information and looked at the wall-clock again. It was now around 1pm30 and Tara’s heart squeezed at the thought that the Slayer should be hungry and should already have returned from wherever she had gone. It was not in Faith’s habit of skipping a meal. For a second, Tara imagined that Kira had returned and met Faith again.

 

“I would have noticed if she was back,” she scolded herself. “She wasn’t so much in the hiding in the end.”

 

She nevertheless decided to go looking for her friend. Maybe the Slayer had decided to let off steam by visiting some graveyard.

 

“Okay, in broad daylight,” Tara whispered for herself. “She wouldn’t find much.”

 

But even if it was very unlikely that Faith had gone there, Tara headed toward the edge of the forest where the village’s small cemetery was located. It was empty, as expected.

Without really thinking about what she was doing or where she was going, the blonde went into the forest, following the path leading to the lake. Her intuition was proven right as Tara found Faith by the lake. The Slayer sat cross-legged at the very end of the pontoon and looked deeply lost in thoughts. Tara approached carefully but not too silently to make sure Faith would hear her coming and would not be surprised. She stopped two feet behind the brunette and waited for a minute or so before addressing her:

 

“I thought you were coming back,” she said gently, trying to suppress any hint of reproach in her voice.

 

“I’ve been needing to be alone,” replied Faith blankly. “That place was kind of good for that”

 

“You know…” Tara hesitantly began. “About Kira, and what happened with her…”

 

“Don’t,” Faith interrupted harshly. “I really don’t want to hear the ‘I told you so’ speech”

 

“That’s not what I’ve meant to tell you,” Tara said. “I mean… I told you she was weird and all but really, she wasn’t that much”

 

“That’s not my opinion” Faith scoffed.

 

“Well, when I told you, I haven’t that many reasons to think she was. You were right, she was pretty cool.”

 

“Don’t try to cheer me up Blondie,” Faith snapped. “It’s boring and I don’t need that.”

 

“What I mean,” Tara resumed, biting her lip. “The weirdness I felt, it was about her magic. I felt something, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on what it was. I should have known straight on what she was.”

 

“Yeah,” confirmed Faith without turning to her. “Would have saved us a lot of trouble.”

 

“And I shouldn’t have hesitated that much when she hurt you. I should have magically reacted a lot quicker.”

 

“Yeah” Faith hissed between her clenched teeth. “You really should have.”

 

Tara bit her lip again and kept silent, unable to find something else to say confronted to such coldness from Faith.

 

“I’m sorry,” she finally said after a rather long silence. “I promise I’ll be better next time.”

 

“Next time?” Faith exclaimed sarcastically. “You really think there’ll be a next time?”

 

“Well, you never know…” Tara wavered.

 

“Believe me, if I see that bitch again, witch or not, I’ll beat the crap out of her before she has time to open her mouth.”

 

She stood suddenly and turned round to face Tara.

 

“But if it ever comes to such a crap again, doing your thing without your playing all shy and stuff would be great” Faith finished.

 

She walked over Tara to leave the pontoon and shoved her off her way, as Tara didn’t move fast enough to make her room to pass. The blonde was so surprised that her right foot slipped on the icy wood and she almost fell of the pontoon. Luckily enough for her, Faith reacted quickly to catch her before she fell onto the frozen surface of the lake. As soon as Tara had recovered her balance, she let go off her. Then she took two or tree more steps to get away but suddenly froze and stumbled, holding her head in her hands, suffering of a terrible headache.

 

“Faith, are you okay?” the Slayer heard.

 

She frowned, the voice appearing to be a little girl’s voice and not Tara’s.

 

She turned carefully her head and saw that a blonde little girl wearing a worn flowery dress was standing on the spot where Tara was the second before. She frowned even more and stood back up a little to face the new comer.

 

“Tara, where are you?” she asked.

 

But her headache intensified and Faith bent with the pain again.

 

“God!” she muttered, closing her eyes.

 

“Faith, what’s going on?”

 

She opened her eyes again and saw Tara beside her, looking at her worriedly.

 

She turned back where the little girl had been standing the second before, but she was gone. The headache faded and Faith stood back up before looking all around them. They were alone.

 

“It’s nothing,” she said to answer Tara’s question. “I’m fine.”

 

“You sure?”

 

“Yeah,” Faith shrugged, still looking around. “Let’s get back”

 

 

***

 

Once back at the hostel after a short, absolutely silent walk, Tara dragged Faith to the restaurant for them to have lunch. The brunette reluctantly followed the blonde, however Tara knew she was hungry at the noisy sound of her growling stomach.

 

“It’s time for lunch,” Tara ordered as they both sat at a table near the window.

 

As Faith started to give a look at the menu, the blonde witch buried her hand in her pocket, retrieved the bills given by Mrs Applefresh and put them down on the table. Faith looked up from the menu and stared at the money, bewildered.

 

“What’s this?” she grimaced. “You’ve held up an old lady or what?”

 

Tara chuckled at this but her smile did not ease Faith’s mood as she had expected and she returned to serious mode to answer:

 

“Not exactly. Mrs Applefresh paid me for helping her to unpack her delivery this morning.”

 

“Oh” just said Faith. “Very well.”

 

“So, let’s have a good lunch.”

 

“Why not.” Approved Faith, her tone still cold but somewhat a little friendlier than previously.

 

Saying this, she returned at the menu and only looked up next when a waitress came to take their orders.

 

The lunch was mostly silent. Tara quickly overcame her omelette and her salad while Faith swallowed her steak. Then the blonde stared bewildered at Faith eagerly eating her gigantic portion of french fries and couldn’t help a fond smile at the brunette’s appetite. When the Slayer was done, not a crumb was left in her plate. When the waitress came to take their plates back to the kitchen, her eyes opened wide in surprise at the emptiness of Faith’s plate.

 

“Woo!” she commented with a smile. “You must have been starving!”

 

Faith did not answer and Tara just smiled politely at her. She came back a few minutes later with a coffee cup she put in front of Faith and a tea one for Tara. Faith lit a cigarette and leaned back in her chair while Tara sipped carefully small mouthfuls of her tea. The Slayer did not appear to notice when Tara frowned at her cigarette. As they were now alone in the restaurant room and nobody came to protest about the smoke, Tara decided to drop the matter.

 

“When I was at Mrs Applefresh’s,” Tara carefully began. “She told me Kira came at her bookshop before we met her.”

 

Faith jerked her head round at Tara and her curious brown eyes met Tara’s blue ones. The blonde had certainly roused the Slayer’s curiosity.

 

“Really?” Faith questioned. “Something interesting?”

 

“She bought a few items at the shop. Mrs Applefresh talked a little with her and she has a bill with her name.”

 

Faith’s expression hardened when she simply asked:

 

“So?”

 

“Her name is Kira Braghan. She told Mrs Applefresh too that she is from Portland. Mrs Applefresh’s given me the phone number of someone from the Portland’s coven to warn them that girl’s dangerous.”

 

Saying this, Tara got the phone number out of her pocket to show it to Faith.

 

“I’d rather take care of her myself.” Faith spoke up. “I owe her some ass-kicking.”

 

Tara grimaced slightly but she had expected the way the Slayer would react to that piece of news. She nevertheless tried to reason with her.

 

“Faith, I’m not sure it’s a good idea…” she said in a halting tone. “She’s proven she’s powerful and willing to use her power to hurt people. We didn’t…”

 

“I’m not fool enough to rush into her blindly and to give her the opportunity to play her game a second time.” Faith interrupted coldly. “I’m going to call that guy to have a hint about where I can find her. And when we do find her, we’ll be ready for payback.”

 

Tara shivered at the Slayer’s dark tone and she could not help but ask:

 

“We?”

 

“Of course we,” Faith answered without blinking. “You said earlier you’d be better next time.”

 

“And you said there wouldn’t be a next time.” Tara remarked.

 

“Well, consider I was wrong then,” The brunette retorted, seizing the piece of paper on the table and starting to stand up. “I’m…”

 

She suddenly interrupted herself and sat back, her face wincing in pain.

 

“Faith?” Tara said with concern. “Is something wrong?”

 

“Jesus, my head!” the brunette replied, taking said-head between both hands.

 

“You’re having a headache?” Tara asked.

 

Faith did not answer. She bent forward a little more and covered her ears with her hands, as if to shut every sound around away from her. She closed her eyes but it did not make the pain fade away neither stopped the muffled buzzing in her ears.

 

“Faith?” she heard Tara asking worriedly. “What’s happening?”

 

The Slayer blinked and just as before when both girls were by the lake, she caught a glimpse of a little girl wearing a flowery dress where Tara had been sitting. This time, the figure vanished as quickly as it had appeared to be replaced by Tara’s worried one standing above her.

 

“What’s happening?” repeated the blonde, her voice full of concern.

 

“Dunno,” whispered Faith, trying to fight the pain as best as she could. “My head’s gonna explode…”

 

“We should get you upstairs. You should lay for a bit,” suggested Tara, extending her hand toward Faith and putting it reassuringly on the Slayer’s shoulder.

 

“Tara!” Suddenly shouted a male voice angrily.

 

Both girls jumped in surprise and jerked their heads round together. They browsed the restaurant, looking for who had just loudly called Tara’s name. The only other persons there were the waitress and the cook and they were chatting quietly at the end of the room, not paying any attention to both friends. Finally, their eyes met again.

 

“Did-did you hear that?” breathed Tara, her voice shaking slightly.

 

“Someone calling your name?” asked Faith, as if unsure of what she had heard.

 

“Yes, someone shouting my name…” murmured the blonde, still looking around. “It doesn’t appear to be them” she added, gesturing to the waitress and the cook.

 

“And if it’s not them, they don’t seem to have heard anything…” commented the Slayer. “It’s like we’re the only ones to have heard that.”

 

“It’s kind of scary.” murmured Tara.

 

Faith did not answer and grimaced again.

 

“Your head’s still hurting?” asked the witch.

 

“A lil’bit,” whispered Faith, wincing in pain as she answered.

 

“A little bit,” commented Tara, slightly shaking her head. “Let’s get you upstairs. You should rest. You might have caught a cold”

 

“I’m a Slayer. Slayers don’t catch colds,” protested Faith.

 

But as her headache intensified, she let Tara drag her upstairs and indeed found the bed very welcoming. She flopped onto the mattress with delight, lay between the sheets and closed her eyes. Tara drew the curtains closed to darken the room and sat on the chair with a book near the window to get some light to read. As a nearly perfect silence enveloped the room and eased her suffering head, Faith soon fell asleep.

 

***

 

She awoke in a very different place and apparently in a very different time. She lay in the grass under a large willow tree whose leaves softly rustled with a light breeze above her head. The sun shone in a lightly clouded sky and the weather was definitely better than the one they had been experiencing these days. In the distance, she could hear the muffled sound of children playing somewhere. Around her were only grass fields dotted with group of trees as far as the eye could see. The place looked somewhat unreal.

She should have felt surprised or disoriented, but there was something peaceful about this place, and Faith would probably have fallen asleep again if it was not for the shouting that suddenly rang out, breaking the silence.

 

“She did it Dad!” screamed a little boy in a high-pitched, appalled voice. “I swear she did!”

 

Faith jerked her head around and rose on her elbows when she saw a family walking toward her. They were four members: the little boy who was probably less than ten years old, was brown-haired like his father whom he was talking to, while gesturing to his sister. It was hard to tell if the blonde little girl was older or younger than him, but right now, she was probably at fault, seeing the way she did not dare to look at her father. Standing slightly behind her husband, the mother was as blonde as her daughter, with soft and kind features, and looked alternately between her children and their father, probably trying to guess who was telling the truth.

 

“Looks like the perfect family…” scoffed Faith at the sight.

 

They were now just a few feet from her and none of them seemed to pay any attention to the brunette. She might as well not have been there. Faith curiously observed the scene playing under her eyes, and every protagonist. A strange sense of familiarity oozed from the woman, from her soft features, her thin eyelashes, her long blonde hair, her creamy skin, her high cheekbones.

 

“She did it Dad!” repeated the boy, now fuming impatiently.

 

The father pondered her son’s attitude for a moment before asking in a severe tone:

 

“Did she?”

 

The boy frantically nodded and the man turned to his daughter:

 

“Did you Tara?”

 

Faith did not jump at the name. She had kind of expected it to come. She nevertheless sat up to have a better view of the family and especially of the little girl. But she had no luck: the kid bent her head down and her long hair fell in front of her face, forming a protecting veil from unwelcome looks. She did not answer at first, only staring at her feet.

 

“I am asking you a question, young girl,” said the father harshly, arching a severe eyebrow at her daughter. “And I do not wish to wait for my answer for too long”

 

Faith straightened up at the tone and she suddenly felt a little cold. She looked up and noticed that the sky had turned cloudy and grey. Tiny raindrops began to fall. The whole family but Tara looked oblivious to the change. The little girl looked up as discreetly as possible while her parents and her brother stared at her expectantly.

 

“Do I have to repeat myself Tara?” asked her father threateningly now.

 

Looking at her feet again, the girl shook her head slightly and stammered something that did not quite satisfy her father, as he finally repeated, in an even harsher tone than previously:

 

“I can’t hear you girl, did you perform magic?”

 

Tara slowly nodded her head and the expression on the father’s face hardened again. The mother stepped then closer and spoke up for the first time.

 

“She probably did not in purpose…” she tried weakly.

 

Her husband cast her a reproachful glance before turning to the kid again, and the woman stepped back to her original place.

 

“You know the rules Tara, don’t you?”

 

Again, the little girl slowly nodded without looking up at her father who piercingly stared at her. He appeared to wait for her to say something for her defence, and so was the mother, gazing hesitantly between the two of them and fidgeting in her place as if wishing to intervene but not daring to. But the girl remained stubbornly unmoving and silent. Her father eventually tore her gaze off her, turned his back on his family and started to walk, saying:

 

“Then, we shall see what it is advisable to do when we get home.”

 

Every other member of the family instantly followed him and Faith just stared at all of them going away under the sweet rain and breeze.