Act4

 

The fire had eventually died out and the sun had risen. Faith was still leaning against the rock with Tara in her arms. The Slayer lay still, apart from the regular movement of her chest. But she wasn’t sleeping. Her wide-open eyes were scanning the area, her ears alert for any sound, her muscles tensed, ready to react at any sign of danger.

 

She could have gotten up several hours before, at daybreak, but Tara was sleeping so peacefully that Faith hadn’t felt like waking her. The blonde had completely relaxed and had sunk into a deep sleep with her head resting on Faith’s shoulder. Despite the hard conditions of the night in the mountain, Faith knew that she hadn’t seen the blonde sleeping so well in weeks.

 

So, despite the numbness in her muscles, Faith had let her sleep on well past sunrise.

 

She turned her head on hearing an almost negligible sound coming from the right. Leaves were quietly, but persistently, moving and Faith reached with one hand to the dagger beside her, trying not to wake Tara. A moment later, a wild cat appeared nearby, considering the girls curiously, then scampered off. Faith laid the dagger back down.

 

Despite her painstaking care to let Tara sleep, her eyelids fluttered open. She moved slightly, looked up and her eyes met Faith’s. Tara turned her head and considered her position: the brunette’s arm around her shoulder and her head resting on Faith’s shoulder. She abruptly shifted away, freeing herself from Faith’s embrace, as the Slayer moved away quickly as well.

 

An uneasy silence followed. Faith got to her feet and brushed the dust off her jeans without glancing at the blonde who was looking around trying to remember what she was doing here.

 

“Um…” Faith said after spending a moment to rearrange her weapons on her belt. “If you’re okay Blondie, I think we can go back”

 

Tara nodded.

 

“W-what t-time is it?” She timidly asked.

 

“Don’t know.” Faith answered, shrugging. “But the sun rose a few hours ago.”

 

“Oh!” Tara said with surprise. “Maybe you should have…”

 

But she didn’t finish her sentence and just nodded.

 

“I’m ready,” she said simply.

 

Faith nodded as well.

 

“Well, let’s go. Let’s see if we can find our way back or if we’re gonna starve out here!”

 

Tara looked uncertain, but Faith grinned.

 

“Don’t worry Blondie, I’m gonna find the way back.”

 

Faith checked the weapons at her belt one last time and then slung the backpack on her shoulder.

 

“Let’s go”

 

But just a few meters later, Faith abruptly stopped.

 

Tara recognized her stance. It told her the Slayer had heard something.

 

“What?”

 

Faith shushed her and listened carefully. She turned suddenly and dove onto Tara toppling them both over.

 

“Get down!”

 

Tara hit the ground, her fall slightly softened by Faith’s hand on her back. The witch then saw their flying demon swooping over their heads.

 

Faith immediately leaped up, drawing her crossbow. But the monster was faster than the previous evening and it was already too close for her to have the time to fire. She only had time to dodge out-of-the-way as a column of flames engulfed the spot she had been standing in.

 

Faith returned to Tara who was getting off the ground and helped her to her feet.

 

“Looks in pretty good shape today,” she said quickly as she watched the demon coming back toward them.

 

The monster snarled and expelled a spray of fire at them. Faith dragged Tara behind a rock for shelter.

 

“I’m gonna take care of it, Blondie. It won’t be able to attack both of us at the same time. I’ll try to get its attention. Take off in the opposite direction. Okay?”

 

“But…” Tara protested.

 

“No buts,” Faith ordered. “Anyway, I’m sure you don’t want to end as grilled toast for dragon. Do what I tell you.”

 

Without giving Tara time to argue, Faith stepped to the side of their protecting rock and loaded her crossbow. She fired but missed and she yelled in rage. She then took off to her left, casting a glance behind her to make sure the demon was following her and that Tara was doing as she had been told. She was satisfied to see everything was going as planned.

 

Faith avoided a new blast of flame, rolled on the ground, popped to her feet and fired again. The bolt missed its target again.

 

“Shit!”

 

She got to her feet, ran to shelter behind another rock to avoid yet another fiery salvo and fired once again. This time the bolt slammed into the demon’s hide and it snarled in rage before lunging back toward Faith.

 

“Shit!” Faith grumbled. “I won’t make it this way.”

 

She discreetly peeked over the rock and saw the demon’s lone remaining eye staring back at her just before it spat another jet of flame at her. Again, Faith dove behind the rock and felt the air above her getting toasty.

 

“I can’t attack it face on…” she whispered to herself. “The only way is to attack on its blindside…”

 

Flames clobbered the rock again and Faith suddenly saw the dragon’s shadow rising above her. The slayer stepped to the side avoiding a new torrent of flame the dragon poured onto the spot where she had been hiding the instant before.

Faith nimbly climbed on top of the rock and found herself at the dragon’s level, on its blindside. Without hesitation, she sprang forward onto the monster. She straddled its neck and squeezed with all her might.

 

The dragon immediately cried out and bucked. Faith had to hang on to the demon’s neck with all of her strength. The demon reared again and Faith let go of the crossbow she still had in her hand.

 

“Dammit!” She growled, looking down at her now out of reach weapon.

 

Faith’s focus returned quickly to the problem at hand when the dragon frantically shook its head. Faith bent forward and tightened her grip around the demon’s neck while feverishly searching for a weapon on her belt with her free hand. When she had her longest dagger in hand, Faith started to strike furiously at the demon’s neck. The demon’s kicks got frantic; it started to spit fire in every direction, bellowing such piercing cries that Faith winced in pain. Her grip loosened and the Slayer flew from the dragon’s back.

 

Surprised, Faith couldn’t catch hold of the demon’s neck and her body crash landed hard onto the ground several meters down.

 

The Slayer let a moan escape. She lay still for a moment and focused on the pain. Her left leg and her back were hurting and she could feel her shoulder bleeding again. Faith blinked. She suddenly felt weak and had to make an effort to remain conscious.

 

A loud snarl close by jerked her back to reality. Faith blinked again and pushed herself up to step aside. The dragon was just above her and the Slayer felt the heat on her calves as she got away. She found herself behind the demon and with her dagger still in hand. She wanted to hit the beast in the side again. As she raised her arm to strike, she didn’t react quickly enough to avoid the demon’s tail. Faith was hit full in the stomach and her breath caught in her throat as she was thrown several meters by the violent impact.

 

She immediately got to her knees and felt her ribs. They were hurting and she supposed that at least one of them was broken. She spat blood.

 

Faith looked for the dagger she had dropped during her fall. Not finding it, she feverishly looked for another one at her belt.

 

“Faith!”

 

Tara’s high-pitched shriek made her look up. The blonde was standing, staring at Faith, only a dozen feet away from where Faith had left her.

 

Faith’s eyes narrowed when she realized the demon had also heard Tara and was now looking in the blonde’s direction. Horrified, Faith then saw the demon was now flying towards Tara.

She got to her feet with some difficulty and looked for her crossbow or any way to attack the monster. Her eyes quickly returned to the blonde and Faith saw she wasn’t moving. Again she searched for a means to strike at the demon from where she was. She wouldn’t have time to reach Tara before it did.

 

A sudden burst of panic overtook Tara when she saw the demon coming toward her. She looked around frantically to find an escape route but her legs were shaking too violently for her to take a step. Once more, she looked around. Her eyes focused beyond the dragon and saw Faith without her crossbow, too far away from her.

 

“Tara! Move!” The Slayer shouted at the top of her lungs with a hint of panic in her voice.

 

Tara saw her looking around searching for something. She wanted to obey the Slayer’s command. She wanted to search for an escape, a spell but her brain refused to work. She looked at the demon swooping down on her.

 

“Tara! Move!” Faith yelled again.

 

Just as Faith thought the demon was about to reach the still motionless blonde, Tara finally moved. She leaped sideways to avoid the demon and started to run in the direction he had come from.

 

Huge flames engulfed two trees behind Tara. The dragon snarled with frustration and banked in a semicircle around the burning trees before coming back toward the girls.

Faith came to meet Tara, limping slightly.

 

“You okay Blondie?” She asked, watching out for the demon’s approach above Tara’s shoulder.

 

Tara nodded and tried to control her breathing before asking:

 

“W-what a-are- w-we doing?”

 

“Don’t know” Faith growled. “That thing’s tough and even with all my shots, it’s still in good shape. It’s really hard to get close with those damn flames”

 

Tara turned around to see the demon coming toward them.

 

“What are we doing?” She repeated, looking the Slayer in the eye.

 

“Well… right now…” Faith replied and started to move. “We’re running!”

 

The Slayer pulled on Tara’s wrist and both girls took off as quickly as possible.

 

“Let’s find a hiding place! Time for me to find a way to get rid of that thing!”

 

Both girls were running as fast as they could, weaving in and out of the trees trying to evade the demon and to get out of its line of sight. Tara was doing her best to keep up to the Slayer. But, she was already exhausted and fell behind with each step. She felt fatigue overtaking her, her legs weakening and despite her best effort she just couldn’t go any faster.

 

Jumping over a branch lying across her path, Tara landed badly and felt her ankle twist. She stumbled, fell over and felt tears of pain forming in the corners of her eyes.

 

“F-Faith…”

 

She tried to call the Slayer but her breath caught in her constricted throat.

She turned round and saw the demon approaching rapidly.

Faith stopped and turned, her instincts telling her that Tara wasn’t following her anymore. Faith saw her lying on the ground with a grimace of pain on her face. The demon was very close to her now.

 

“Oh my God” the Slayer whispered.

 

Tara looked at the demon getting closer and closer. Her breath quickened, she tried to get to her feet but her legs wouldn’t move. Again she desperately searched her memory for something useful. But the demon was here now.

 

As it opened its mouth to reduce her to ashes, the words were suddenly there. An incantation in Latin came back from the deep recesses of her mind and she reeled it off as quickly and as precisely as if she had never forgotten it.

 

Faith looked at the dragon closing with Tara, who was looking at the dragon with panic in her eyes, still frozen in place.

She saw Tara opening her mouth and pronouncing words she couldn’t make out despite her Slayer-hearing.

She saw the demon’s mouth opening and preparing to gush flames onto the blonde. But nothing happened. The dragon spat but spat nothing! Faith’s eyes opened wide in surprise.

 

She didn’t remain there a long wondering what happened but rather ran toward Tara as fast as she could. Faith seized two daggers in her hands and got ready to attack again.

 

“Get up Tara!”

 

Tara crawled backwards, moving away from the dragon, which was still trying unsuccessfully to spit fire. It snarled and stopped to stare at the retreating blonde. It tried again to reduce her to ashes but nothing happened. It fell on Tara with every claw out.

 

Just before the dragon could reach Tara, a worn out and out of breath Faith jumped on it with her daggers pointing forward. Faith furiously struck it on its side, where she had hit it before.

 

“Get up Blondie! Move it!”

 

Tara tried to get up, wincing at the pain in her ankle.

 

“Get going Blondie!” Faith yelled as the dragon tried to turn around.

 

But despite her wounds, the Slayer managed to stay out of its reach and went on stabbing furiously at the demon. Blood at last spurted out and the brunette’s face was covered with the demon’s blood.

Finally, it seemed to weaken a little. His wings flapped suddenly and he started to rise into the air.

 

Faith immediately jumped down, landing beside Tara.

 

“What’s wrong?“

 

“I t-twisted my ankle“

 

Faith rolled her eyes, thinking, “God, that girl can’t even run.”

 

She looked up and saw the dragon slowly dropping down toward them.

 

“We have to move Blondie”

 

Without giving her time to answer, Faith came closer and put an arm around Tara’s waist.

 

“Lean on me, let’s go”

 

“F-Faith, we won’t go f-far t-that w-way. You c-can’t c-carry me…”

 

“Shut up” Faith interrupted. “Let’s go”

 

They started to hobble forwards but they were moving far too slowly.

 

“Gotta move Blondie! Have to move!”

 

Faith dragged Tara along but the dragon was nearly on them. Faith was judging its progress and as the monster sprung on them, Faith pushed Tara aside and turned, weapons in hand.

 

“Behind that rock Blondie!” She yelled, gesturing to a nearby rock. “Hide!”

 

Tara turned in the direction Faith pointed. She glanced back at Faith fighting with the dragon. The Slayer was having some trouble handling the demon as she was also keep one eye on what the blonde was doing.

 

“Hide Blondie!” She yelled again.

 

Tara finally crawled behind the rock Faith had pointed out. The dragon’s tail came crashing down at the precise place the witch was an instant before as Tara pushed off with her arms in a desperate effort to gain shelter. Tara could feel the vibration of the blow behind her and let escape the breath she was holding.

 

There was, however, a slight slope behind the rock and the turf was damp. The witch was drawn

onwards by her momentum and slid headfirst down the embankment. She tried to catch hold of something, anything but found nothing to grab. She came to a stop a few meters lower down and was happy to realize she was unharmed. She sighed with relief.

 

Then she cried out in horror when she looked up.

 

Right before her eyes was a man’s corpse. Tara recoiled so abruptly from the sight that she sat up without realizing it.

 

Out of breath and wide-eyed, the witch looked at it without getting any closer. The man was probably in his mid-thirties. He was lying on his back with his eyes closed. One of his arms was lying alongside his body with the other on his chest, his hand firmly clutching something hanging from his neck. Tara craned her neck trying to see what it was then turned her head to her left. There was a white glimmer coming from beyond the corpse.

 

Tara carefully crept closer and her eyes opened wide in surprise and horror. The glimmer came from a gaping hole. It was narrow and around two meters in length. The light seemed to drift aboveground around the edge of the cleft whose bottom couldn’t be seen. Only utter darkness was visible below the edge of the hole. Tara immediately felt uneasy as evil vibes surrounded her.

 

She noted inscriptions on a rock near the hollow. She crept closer to read them. They were written in Latin and the blonde had to search deep into her memory to try to understand their meaning.

 

“F-Faith!” She called out.

 

Tara turned around in the direction she had come from. She could hear Faith fighting with the demon a few meters higher up.

 

“Faith!” She shouted louder. “Faith! Come down here!”

 

A few seconds later, Faith came sliding down the slope, covered in blood with her face and arms swollen and bruised.

 

“What?” Faith exclaimed as she alternated looks between the blonde and the top of the embankment.

 

“Look,” Tara said pointing first to the corpse, then to the cleft behind him.

 

“Oh God!” Faith said and stood up with her eyes glued to the white glow. “What’s that?”

 

“I think it’s where our dragon came from,” Tara said.

 

Faith frowned and looked at the blonde with a questioning look.

 

“It’s a hellmouth,” Tara added, pointing to the inscriptions in the rock. “Sort of”

 

 

***

 

 

 

“Hellmouth? “ Faith asked.

 

Tara nodded.

 

“It’s written here. Looks like a sp-spell opened it recently” the blonde explained. “Maybe it was him,” she added, pointing to the corpse beside them.

 

The dragon appeared at that precise moment high above their heads. Faith tightened her grip around her dagger.

 

“D’ya think you can do something about this?” Faith asked.

 

“Wh-what?” Tara asked, panic rising in her voice.

 

“A spell?” Faith specified. “Can you do a spell to close this?”

 

“A-a spell?”

 

“Yeah. A spell. You did a spell preventing that demon from roasting us, right?”

 

“But… I-I don’t know. I th-think it’s wri-written ho-how to…”

 

“Do it!”

 

With that, Faith turned to fight the demon once more. It bowled her over and Tara’s eyes widened in terror when she saw the Slayer driven against the ground, trying to defend herself. Seeing Faith was being overwhelmed, Tara rushed to the inscriptions beside the hellmouth.

 

The witch quickly read the inscriptions again then turned to the corpse. She crawled over to it and loosened the fingers’ grip from the locket. Tara recognized it. A wizard’s symbol. Tara tore it from the man’s neck and returned to the inscriptions.

 

She took a glance at the battle between Faith and the demon. The Slayer had managed to get free from the demon but was still in difficulty. Tara had to do something fast. And right now!

She slipped the backpack off her back and feverishly searched for her plastic bag. She shakily pulled out a phial and poured its content on the inscriptions. Then she read them out loud, stressing each syllable the way she had been taught such a long time ago. She read them once, twice, three times.

 

Suddenly, the glimmer above the cleft became brighter, more radiant. Tara blinked at the now dazzling light, plugging her ears, as a piercing whistling seemed to come out from the depths of the earth. She stumbled back and turned to Faith. The Slayer was just standing there and had dropped her weapons to cover her ears. The demon was motionless and bellowed as a powerful wind started blowing and propelling it toward the cleft. Tara flattened herself on the ground and closed her eyes.

 

The wind and noise ceased thirty seconds or so later. Tara opened her eyes. The glimmer had gone out. The cleft and the demon had disappeared.

A few feet from her, Faith stood up with some difficulty and came toward her, limping noticeably. Her clothes were torn, her wounded body was covered in blood and she obviously had difficulty just standing.

 

“Good job Blondie,” she stated matter-of-factly, pointing to where the cleft had been. “You sent that demon back where he came from and closed that hole. Well done!”

 

Tara nodded and looked again at the fissure’s site. There was no trace left of it.

 

“See? Looks like it’s coming back to you!” Faith said.

 

Tara nodded again.

 

“Are-are you o-okay?”

 

Faith sniggered and pointed to herself.

 

“Five by five Blondie. Can’t you see that?”

 

“Okay” Tara admitted. “That was a stupid question”

 

Faith then held out her hand to her.

 

“What do you think about going back? I think we can both use some rest”

 

Tara grabbed the hand and let Faith pull her to her feet.

 

“I’m drea-dreaming about a bed,” the blonde said.

 

“Well, for once, I think I agree with you.”

 

 

***

 

 

Faith opened the motel room door and dropped her bag onto the floor almost immediately. The room was plain, just like the ones they usually frequented, furnished with a dresser, a midsized bed, a washbasin and a chair.

 

The Slayer walked slowly into the room, almost staggered to the bed where she let herself fall with a relieved sigh.

Tara was following her closely and she looked as tired as her companion. She closed the door behind her, looked over the room and stood motionless by the door.

Faith got up again when she saw Tara standing unmoving and vaguely gestured behind her.

 

“You should go to sleep Blondie, day was pretty hard,” she said. “I have to visit the bathroom.”

 

She searched for something in her bag, taking out a pair of boxers and a tee shirt. Tara watched her as Faith exited the room, limping yet again.

 

When she came back a few minutes later, she found Tara in pajamas sitting cross-legged on the bed.

Faith grabbed her sleeping bag and threw it onto the floor near the bed. Then she sat on the floor by sliding slowly down, pressing against the wall.

 

“Still hurting?” Tara asked.

 

Faith vaguely nodded.

 

“Yeah. But it’s nothing to worry about. With my Slayer healing and stuff, I’ll be five by five again by tomorrow“

 

Silence fell over the room. Faith looked for something on her and rolled her eyes when she realized she had forgotten her cigarettes in her jeans on the chair. Tara noticed because she was following her gaze.

 

“Do y-you n-need so-something?”

 

“Yeah. Wanna smoke. I let my cigarettes in my pants“

 

She was about to lean on the wall behind to her to get up but was surprised to see Tara crawling to the foot of the bed. Tara stretched out her hand to Faith’s jeans and grabbed the cigarettes and the lighter.

She then came back to Faith and gave them to her.

 

“You don’t mind?” Faith asked.

 

“N-no” Tara answered, shaking her head.

 

Faith lit her cigarette and carefully leaned back against the wall glancing at Tara out of the corner of her eye. She puffed several times on her cigarette as the witch distractedly played with the blanket between her fingers.

 

“So?” Faith asked after a long silence. “How d’ya feel”?

 

Tara looked over at her and considered her question with surprise.

 

“Wh-what?”

 

“How do you feel?” Faith repeated. “Day was pretty hard. Last night too.”

 

She stared at Tara’s blue eyes and the witch looked down. Her fingers were nervously fidgeting with the blanket.

 

“It’s weird you know…” she said in a low voice. “Tal-talking about all this… Tal-talking this much…”

 

Faith grinned.

 

“I’m pretty sure you’ve talked more tonight than you have in weeks!” she said in a cheery tone.

 

Tara didn’t answer and both girls remained silent for several minutes before Faith resumed:

 

“It’s good you talked. Well, at least, I think it is.”

 

She thoughtfully nodded and looked at Tara who was still staring at the blanket between her fingers.

 

“How’s your ankle?” she added quickly.

 

Tara looked up this time then looked at her injured ankle.

 

“I’ll be fine,” she said. “In a few days, I think”

 

She was about to add something but kept quiet for several seconds. She remained thoughtful, as Faith was finishing off her cigarette.

 

“It’s weird you know…” she explained suddenly looking at her hands again. “I feel like… not long before yesterday, all I wanted was to be dead…”

 

She paused then looked up to face Faith.

 

“And today, I was fighting for my life like it was important. Like I wanted to live. Like I care if I live”

 

“Maybe…” Faith replied looking the blonde in the face. “Maybe it’s just because you do wanna live? Maybe your love for life is stronger than you thought. Stronger than you can believe right now”

 

Tara looked at Faith with some surprise. Faith smiled; pleased she could surprise the blonde in some way.

 

“You should sleep Blondie,” she said. “You look terrible.”

 

Tara nodded and slipped between the sheets. She lay there watching the Slayer for a long time. Faith was trying carefully to settle down in her sleeping bag so as to not aggravate her wounds. She winced when her shoulder hit the floor.

 

“’Night Blondie” she simply said before closing her eyes with a grimace of pain.

 

Tara didn’t answer at first and went on looking at the wincing Slayer as she was searching for a good position in which to sleep. Finally, after several minutes of internal debate, the witch reached a decision.

 

“Faith…” she said.

 

The Slayer opened her eyes again and looked up at her, annoyed.

 

“What?” she asked.

 

“May-maybe you cou-could co-come and sleep in the b-bed?” she suggested.

 

Faith looked at her for a second then shrugged.

 

“It’s okay Blondie,” she mumbled. “Rather me than you on this wonderful bed!” she added, pointing to the hard floor and her sleeping bag.

 

“No,” Tara interrupted. “I mean you c-could sleep in the bed wi-with m-me. It’s big enough f-for b-both of us.”

 

Faith stared at her in silence then looked over the bed as if to check whether Tara was correct in her assessment.

 

She shrugged and was about to refuse but changed her mind when she felt the hard floor under her hips as she was turning around to face the witch.

 

“Bed’s big enough, huh?” she asked.

 

Tara nodded and drew the blankets aside for the Slayer.

 

Faith carefully got up. This simple act seemed to take an eternity.

 

“I think I can use a good bed for once” she said as she settled down carefully in the bed.

 

The mattress creaked under her and Faith smiled as she felt the softness of the mattress and the warmth of the blankets. She pulled the blankets over her then lay on her back on the right edge of the bed.

 

“’Night Blondie” she repeated.

 

Tara nodded then banished herself to the other side of the bed.

 

“Good night Faith.”

 

The witch turned her back to the Slayer and closed her eyes. A few minutes later, they were both fast asleep.