Untitled

Chicago,Illinois 1992

"Taxi! Taxi!" She hated morning rush hour in the city, it's so crowded, and almost impossible to get any transportation downtown. Again she waved her arm in the air and again no success. "Aw, screw it i'll just walk." Jena loved the hustle and bustle of city life, she'd just love being able to catch a taxi once in awhile, and also to quit inhaling smog everytime she stepped foot out the door. She would have considered taking the subway but too many guys down there who may try to have their way with her. No, she'd just walk even though it was early March and bitter cold outside. She stopped and bought a cup of coffee as she headed downtown to Phillip's place. Oh, he was going to kill her for being late for the second time in one week. She'd finally walked up to his house south of Madison Ave. overlooking Lake Michigan. She opened the door and let herself in.

"Hey, anyone home?" she yelled. Nobody answered so she walked to the kitchen.

"Ah, Jena your late again, what is that twice this week?" That was Phillip, her watcher, he was sitting at the kitchen table going through some papers.

" Not my fault, metropolitan rush hour." She'd rummaged through the cabinets and found a little bit of Raisin Bran left in the box. She grabbed herself a bowl at joined Phillip at the table

"So, how was hunting last night?" he asked while opening his journal, to keep records of Jena's nightly duties.

"A couple of vampires were loitering near the industrial museum, then one near Navy Pier, so, no biggy." she managed to get out between bites of cereal.

"Now, Jena i've told you you shouldn't get so-" But before he could complete his sentence, she cut him off.

"So cocky, yeah I know." she said between bites.

"Don't get smart, thats how the last slayer was killed, she was too cocky for her own good and walked into a nest full of vampires and didn't make it out alive." he said as he gave her a serious glare.

"I'm sorry,Check the obit's yet?" she asked him as she walked over to the kitchen sink.

"Yes, uh there was a man found near the north end of the city, police have no leads." he muttered while reading her the highlights of the article.

"Vampire?" she asked.

"Uh, it says here he was terribly mauled by what seems to be an animal," Phillip paused for a moment to have a spot of tea. "I'd say yes." With that said, Jena grabbed her bag then headed to the basement to get in a little training. Phillip just nodded at her while writing some notes down in his journal.

The hours passed as she trained. She had been the slaying for 2 years now without falling for the final time. She'd been living in an orphanage at the time of her activation. Living conditions in the orphanage had been intolerable so she ran away. She'd been on the streets for a few weeks eating from garbage cans and restaraunt throw aways when a young man entered her life, well time was, now her watcher had entered middle age and no longer accompanied her on patrols. She lived in a small apartment, with a friend who helped her find a job so she could have a decent income. To teach her the ways of the slayer, Phillip converted his basement into a training facility. She was a quick learner, and an excellent fighter. A watcher couldn't ask for a better slayer.

About 4 hours later, she changed back into her street clothes, took her black Nike duffel bag, took some weapons from the cedar chest in the rear of the room and went back upstairs.

The sun had set, and the streets of Chicago were colder than they were during the day. She was walking in the vicinity of Rosehill cemetery when she heard a young man scream in terror. Jena ran in the direction of the scream, stake drawn and ready to slay. Jena came upon a trampy looking female vampire feeding upon a college student.

"Hey, I think he's a little too rich for your taste. You need to go on one of those low blood diets. Come on, i'll make sure you don't fall off the wagon. Ever."

"SSSlayerrrrrr." the foul woman hissed. The vampire tossed the half-dead boy to the side and prepared to fight.

Jena struck the girl in the gut with her arm, causing her to fall to the ground. Jena waited for her to stand back up. The vampire blind-sided Jena with a fierce punch to the nose. Jena struck back with two hard kicks to the abdomen. As the creature writhed in pain, the slayer took the opportunity to kill her and plunged her stake square in the vampires chest, and watched as she turned to dust.

"Very impressive, girly." called a voice from within the shadows.

"Who are you?" Jena asked, looking for some sort of movement in the shadows.

"The vampire whose gonna kill you." he said

"Your trippin, i've killed vampires more cocky than you." she said with an overconfident tone in her voice, and a smile to match.

"And i've killed slayers with more spunk than you."

Pretty soon a fight ensued. Jena produced another stake from her coat pocket and attempted to stake her challenger. He grabbed her by the neck of shirt, then threw her sixteen year old body over the fence, and into the cemetery.

She regained her balance and scoped out her surroundings, nothing but lots of granite headstones shrouded in a mist; Her blonde hair was also a mess and blocked her vision. The vamp jumped her from the top of the fence, knocking her flat on her stomach. She knocked him off by punching him in the side of the head with her free elbow. They stood up and the vampire attempted to take her down again, but she quickly moved out of the way. She ran to a nearby bench where she stood and waited for the vampire to attack. She saw him charging at her feet, she then did an impressive double flip and landed on the cold ground beneath the bench, she grabbed his bright orange toned hair, then slammed his face into the cold rock bench; and managed to send him flying with a snap kick to his back.

"I'll kill you for that you foolish girl." he hissed out

Before he stood up, Jena pinned him to the ground, lifted her stake high above her head then thrusted downwards toward his undead chest. In an instant, the vampire grabbed her arm, and held it until it couldn't be freed from his grasp. He wrapped his one free hand around her neck and squeezed until he felt her neck bones crack. Jena fell over and unto the ground. Dead. He stood up, brushed himself off and walked off leaving her body to rot.

"Oh by the way, the name's Lothos."