It's a beautiful night in Baltimore. Warm and humid, with just a hint of honeysuckle in the air. A perfect night to hunt. There's a baseball game down in Camden Yards, crowding the city with people from the suburbs who had traveled to watch the game. Plenty of prey to satiate my hunger.

Spike thinks I'm still in Brazil, or I've gone off to England. Which was true, for a while anyway. I did stay in England for a while, I got smart after a few months. I left for Baltimore. The silly git would never think of looking for me here. Baltimore, for all of its outer charm, is, frankly, a hellhole. The Inner Harbor and Little Italy are beautiful, though. They speak to me. They speak of past times, times when things were much simpler, of times when Baltimore was new. But forget the rest of the city. The rest of the city is old, tired, dirty.

I walk down the street to catch my next meal. Someone young, but not too young, but not too old, either. I'm not forgetting that time I had an old man and he got stuck in my teeth. It was a rather unpleasant experience. We hadn't any dental floss in the house and it took me days to get rid of him. Nasty old man. I won't make that mistake again.

Without warning someone slams into me headfirst. My game face is instantly on, but I make sure it's off before the human sees it. I can tell by the blood that it's a girl, pure and young. The streetlamp illuminates us, and I can see that she's beautiful, with long blonde hair and bright blue-grey eyes. Just like Spike's...

No! I mustn't think about him. He hurt me so, collaborating with the Slayer. He told me, "I was thinking of you the whole time, Dru," but I didn't care. Nothing can regain the trust I once had for him. I've moved on.

"Oh, god, I'm so sorry!" the girl says. "Are you hurt?"
"No, I'm all right," I say, brushing off my long black dress. I can tell that the girl's much younger than she appears to be. She's only thirteen or fourteen, but she has on enough makeup on to make her look seventeen. Her clothes are less than modest. But I know that underneath it all, she's just a frightened little girl. They all are.

She's too young. Her blood hasn't ripened yet; it's still too thin and innocent to give me any pleasure. But it's pure, and pure blood is the best.
"I'm really sorry about that," says the girl. "Wow, that's a wicked cool dress you've got on!"
"Thank you." Somehow I can't bring myself to eat her. It's an odd feeling.
"My name's Kat. What's your name?"
"I'm Drusilla."
"Dru-sil-la," Kat says, sounding out my name in a wondrously delicious way, "That's such a pretty name. Old fashioned, but in a good way."
I can't help smiling at this child's naivete. I wish I could keep her with me, to be my daughter. I always wanted a daughter.

I lead her into an alley; where no one can see. I bend over and I can feel my face shift. I begin to penetrate Kat's neck, but then I stop. No. I can't do it. She's too dear, too precious to do to her what Angel did to me. It would be too cruel.

"Ow!" she cries. "What the hell was that?"
"Don't you remember?" I ask. "You banged yourself on the corner of the building over there."
"Oh, I guess I must have."
I hand Kat one of my lacy handkerchiefs I always have on hand. "Thanks," she says, looking a little dazed.
"I think you should go back and find your family now," I tell her gently.
"Yeah, I think so. It was really nice meeting you. Will I be seeing you again soon?"
"I don't know. I travel quite often."
"Well, it was nice to meet you. 'Bye."
And Kat runs off in search of her family. This is the first time I've ever let anyone get away willingly. And I feel good about it. For the first time I'm not ruled by anyone. Not Angel, not Spike, not even Miss Edith. I only listen to myself now.
It's the best thing in the world.

~The End~