Diary of a Slayer

Ciaran is mumbling across the room and dismantling the machine.  Then something falls off.  I wonder if that was supposed to happen?  Something shiny falls out and rolls across the floor.  Its coming towards me.  I watch it rolling.  Its not touching the ground.  Not really.  Thats odd.  Then it touches the circle that Jeremy and i are standing in.

Theres a huge flash.  Everything goes dark and then light.  And the floor drops away.

And we’re falling...

Falling...

Falling...

I feel Jeremy holding onto my arm.  And now i can see below me.  Theres a city down there.  A city square.  That we’re about to land on.

Fuck.

I start wriggling around and Jeremys grip on my arm tightens.  Im reaching with my other arm, trying to get my sword back into its sheath on my back.  I get it mostly in but not fully.  Oh well, at least i wont stab myself when i land.  Im sure that will make the broken legs feel much better.

I can see some bushes down there and a big archway but the ground is coming up pretty fast.  I try to get Jeremy to try and aim for the bushes.  I guess i figure theyll be more forgiving than the hard ground.  And there it is, the ground.  I brace myself...

And we crash into a clump of bushes.  There are stick and branches shoving into me all over.  I lie there for a minute, checking through my whole body.  But i seem to be intact.  Nothing broken.  Wow.  I didn’t think that was possible.

Jeremy is lying next to me.  He doesn’t look broken either.  So we get up and look around.  We wonder where freya is.  Jeremy says she let go of his hand halfway down.  So we look up.  And theres freya, floating in mid-air.  That is so...cool!  i had no idea she could do that!

Now wheres ciaran?  So we look around.  And hes hanging from that big archway over there.  I call out to freya to see if she can somehow move herself over to where ciaran is and Jeremy and i run up to see if we can help him.  As we’re heading over there, i look over to the side and theres a glass doorway.  Looks like some kind of big hotel.  I can see right inside.

There are vampires staring at us.

I grab Jeremy and say, have a look over there.  He looks.  And he says, oh shit.

There are heaps of them.  Like maybe 15 or 20?  But theyre not coming out.  I look up.  Its overcast but definitely daytime.

Freya has managed to move herself over to where ciaran is hanging by doing something that looks like swimming mid-air.  I would laugh if this whole situation didn’t feel so surreal already.  Shes managed to pull him up so theyre both standing on the archway.  I call up to ciaran to see if he can figure out what time of day it is.  He looks around a bit and eventually its around 10am.

While freya is helping ciaran to get down from the arch, i go out into the street to see where the hell we landed.

theres no-one around but the street sign says cohen place.  i keep walking and find another sign at the next street that says little bourke.  oooookay.  wtf?  when i go back, ciaran and freya are down from the arch and ciaran says the number plate of the car crashed into that building over there is a victoria plate.  hmmm.  this is just getting weirder and weirder.

so i say we should get away from here.  only reason those vamps havent used us as brunch is because theres too much sun but that isnt going to last long.  jeremy says we should get rid of the vamps before we go.  im sorry, what?  did he not see how many of them were in there?  about 5 to 1.  not my favourite odds.  but he reckons if freya throws a fireball in there, we might take out a bunch of them at least.  hmmm.  ok.  if you insist.

freya says she cant cast through the glass so we'll need to break it.  fine.  so while jeremy goes over to that smashed up car, im going scouting around to see if theres anything else i can find out about where the hell we are.  the cross street at the end of this one says exhibition street.  huh.  that puts us right in the middle of the city.  i look around but everything seems deserted.  this is starting to get creepy.

so i go back and jeremy has checked out the car.  turns out it still works but probably isnt drivable.  jeremy and i pick up rocks to try and smash the glass doors where the vamps are.  mine falls short but jeremy manages to hit the bottom of the door.  the second rocks are a little more successful and the glass shatters.  but it doesnt break.  bugger.  so jeremy finds a toolbox in the smashed car and launches a spanner through the shattered glass, finally causing it to break apart.  good.  now freya can toast the vamps.

which she does.  and we move on.  we head out onto russell street.  there are cars piled up all over the road.  abandoned and some of them have bodies inside.  vampires.  jeremy checks their pockets for info and they still have cash in their wallets.  creepy.  we find a whole restaurant full of dead people, all just sitting in their seats.  finally, we find a 7-11.  its pretty trashed but we go inside and basically just take anything that might be useful.  we find some newspapers.  the most recent one is dated july 2010.

ah fuck.

we headed back out onto Russell street.  We made our way around the cars and the bodies and were trying to figure out which direction to take when Jeremy heard something.  Something big.  It was coming down the street behind us and it was coming pretty fast.

So we found a spot where we could see what it was.  Big.  Thats the word that sprang to mind.  And hairy.  With tentacles.

*sigh*  where are the good looking demons?  Why are there always tentacles?

So it takes us a minute to figure out what to do.  And that thing is gaining on us.  We cut down a side street but its pretty obvious we’re not getting away.  So i yell at ciaran and freya to run!  Jeremy climbs up a tree so he can surprise it and i go out and stand right in the middle of the road.

This thing is ugly.  And i mean ugly.  And its moving fast, right at me.  Im standing with my sword ready when it gets close enough to swipe at me.  Its big but its movements are a little slow, so i manage to dodge out of the way of one of its tentacles.  Course the other one hits me just as i escape the first.  Ow.  Right.  My katana comes up and i slice right through the tentacle that just whacked me. 

The demon screams.

A crossbow bolt whizzes past my ear and lodges somewhere in the demons chest.  It grunts.  It slashes at me with its claws and digs into my ribs.  Shit.  And then it catapults backwards and smashes into a car across the road.  It hits so hard that the car crumples around it.

I head towards it and hack into it with my katana.  It howls with pain again and then its slashing at me with its other hand.  Jesus.  I really hate claws, have i mentioned that?  Its about then that Jeremy jumps down and launches himself right at the demons head and skewers it right through the eyes.  Gross.  But effective.  I raise my sword and slice into its neck, trying to sever the head.  The neck is so thick that i only get my blade about half way through.  Now its flailing around with both tentacles and its clawed hands.  It catches me on my left side and i wince.  Then it sticks its claws right into Jeremy.  Ah crap.  He crumples at my side.  Ok.  We gotta take this thing out.  So i pull the blade of my sword out and swing down again, right through the slice i made before.  Only this time, i get all the way through.

Thank god.  i stand there panting and looking at this ugly lump of a demon.  Then i look down at Jeremy at my feet.  Why is this happening again?

Ciaran comes over and does some doctoring on Jeremy with the supplies we took from the 7-11.  They weren’t great.  Hes going to need something more fairly soon.  I manage to pick him up and sling him across my back.  We need to move.

So we head up Russell street away from the dead demon and we’re not talking much.  I think we’re at the stage where we’ve stopped really taking in the utter freakishness of where we are and we’re just trying to survive.  Freya says theres a magic shop on bourke street somewhere, so we try to head in that direction.

Im looking up the street where we’re walking when i see a figure up ahead.  Its wearing armour and has a big gun slung across one shoulder.  Its coming towards us.

I look closer.  This figure looks familiar.

Tasha?

shes looking at us.  and i say her name as she gets close enough to hear.  she says, is it really you?  shes looking at us really intently, like she cant believe its actually us.  shes carrying way more weapons than i remember.  she has a kickass gun, a bunch of stakes and what looks like a belt with tiny bottles of holy water all across it.  we all start to bombard her with questions and she looks kind of awkward and says she cant tell us much.  she says its december 2010.  shit.  well, we kinda thought it was gonna be something like that.  then she asks us something really odd.  she says, do you have the orb?

say what now?  we all look at each other.  and i go, um, no.  i look over at ciaran and say, we dont have the orb do we?  and he says no.  so i tell tasha that it was there, back where we came from and it fell and it hit the magic circle we were using and then bam!  we were falling here.

she doesnt look really happy about that.  i ask her if we can get somewhere where jeremy can get medical help and she says her team can take us somewhere safer.  its not safe here.  well duh, like we hadnt noticed.  she also says we need the orb to get home.  great.  of course we do.

so we're following her up the street, trying not to ask questions about things we shouldnt know about and all of a sudden, ciaran starts running up the street full pelt.  wtf?  where is he going?  tasha has signalled to someone further up the street that she says is on her team and ciaran seems to be running towards them.  freya says that its stacy.  what?  and how did freya know that?  is it just me or are things getting weirder?  is that even possible when we're stuck in a future where vampires have taken over the city?

ciaran has run over to hug stacy by the time we get there.  she doesnt seem to be hugging him back.  hmmm.  shes dressed kinda like tasha but with less weapons.  she says hi to the rest of us.  she looks...different.  like...i dunno, just different.  like shes got older really fast or something.  but shes still stacy.  tasha says we need to get to their transport so we can get to safety, so we keep heading up the street.  when we get towards the end, stacy tells us not to look at parliament.  huh?  why not?  she just looks at us and says, its not pretty.  so i look down and try hard not to look at whatevers at the end of the street.  its about then that jeremy starts wriggling around on my shoulder and making noises.  so i stop and put him down on the street.  he looks really groggy and kind of unfocused.  he looks around and says hi to tasha and stacy.  i ask if he can walk and he says yeah.  hmmm.  ok.

so we walk.  not fast obviously cos now we have jeremy to think about.  we walk for ages.  going past some gardens, i notice some figures running around from bush to bush.  so i ask tasha who they are.  she says theres some sort of counter-offensive going on that theyve heard about.  so i say, which side are they on?  good or bad?  she says, nothing here is good.

great.

Its not too long after that when tam shows up at the shop.  Shes freaked about something.  And she tells us this whole story about how she was a prisoner in her own country and some weird thing happened with another prisoner and its like she turned into something and killed a bunch of people.

 

Whoa.

 

Then she says it happened again just recently.  She says she gets upset and then the next thing she knows, she wakes up somewhere with no clothes and sometimes, there are dead people around.  She says that the last time it happened, she woke up in a strange house, in what looked like some sort of laboratory.

 

Holy cow.

 

So we research.  We find the footage from the parking lot where she says she was attacked and we find footage of a demon, not tam.  Ooooookay.  So either shes turning into that thing and killing everybody or...well, i don’t know what else, but something.  Ciaran goes into research mode.  He takes a sample of her blood and does stuff to it.  And we decide to take a trip to this house where she ended up.

 

Turns out its near the hellmouth.  Oh joy.  Its abandoned and we can see big scratch marks on one of the window sills.  Bigger than jeremys claws.  Ouch.  So we go inside and she shows us the basement where she woke up.  It does look like a laboratory.  Its full of beakers and test tubes and bunches of equipment that remind me of science class.

 

Ciaran looks at everything and makes mumbling noises like he does.  Then we find a secret room.  It has cages in it and in one of the cages, theres a skeleton.  Not human.  Looks like some kind of demon.  Weird.  We also find a big vat with some gunk at the bottom and a beaker full of green liquidy stuff that ciaran thinks might be demon blood.

 

Tam says that it looks a bit like what was thrown at her by the other prisoner in her own country.  Shes getting pretty freaked out.  Last of all, we find a big machine looking structure.  We open part of it up and inside, we find a floating, glowy sphere thingy.  Its very pretty.  Freya says it has big time magic.

 

Ciaran is looking at the machine and he says he thinks it looks like a transporter.  Theres a place that looks big enough for someone to stand and theres a whole bunch of stuff that goes around it, that looks like its supposed to make whatever is standing in that place, do something or go somewhere or something like that.

 

Tam is seriously freaking out now, especially about the room with the cages, so we head back to the shop.  Ciaran takes a bunch of stuff but we cant figure out how to take the glowy sphere out of its machine, so we leave it behind.

 

Research time.  We look up the house and find out that the owner was a scientist who was interested in teleportation.  Cool!  Just like lily!  Except with demon blood and cages.  So, not like lily at all really.  We discover that this scientist disappeared in 1969 and was never heard from again.  Thats weird.

 

We also discover what that sphere is.  Its a magical whosit thats supposed to help do stuff.  I don’t know, i wasn’t really paying attention.  :-P  sue me.

After a lot of talking, we decide to go back to the house the next day and try and take the sphere with us so ciaran can study it properly.  He says we have to have a lead box to carry it in.

 

So back we go and tam stays in the van with Jeremy and freya nearby, just in case she decides to turn into a demon or something.

 

Ciaran and i go into the house and down to the lab.  We have special gloves and ciaran holds the lead box.  I reach into the machine and basically nudge the sphere out of its casing.  I cant touch it.  Its kind of like magnets when you put the wrong ends together, so i just kinda poke at it with my gloves until we can get it into the box.

 

Then we carefully carry it up and out of the house to the van.  Then something weird happens.

 

There a shimmering and tam starts shaking and the air around her is moving and then...

 

Shes gone.  Ok.  That was really odd.  But wait.  Something else isn’t right.  The vans gone.  And so has that lead box.  And hang on, the house looks brand new, not old and neglected like it was a second ago.

 

...

 

So we all look at each other and we look at the house and we decide to go ring the doorbell and see what happens.  What have we got to lose, right?

 

Some guy answers the door and looks really surprised to see us.  Ciaran calls him by name and asks if we can come in.  Aha.  Hes that scientist guy.

 

Hang on, didn’t that guy disappear in 1969?

 

...

 

Ah fuck in a bucket.

 

*sigh*  why does this always happen to us?  1969?  God, my parents weren’t even born then.  My grandad was at war with Vietnam!  Shit.  I don’t wanna be here.  I wanna go home!

 

So we ask the scientist what year it is.  He thinks we’re crazy but says its 1969.  No duh Sherlock.  His clothes alone give that away.  Question is, how the frig did we get here and how do we get back?  So ciaran has this whole convo with this guy about his lab and the machine and demon blood and blah blah blah, it goes on forever.  He manages to convince him that we’re from the future and that somehow, its his fault we ended up here.

 

Long story short is that this guy is building a machine that can teleport people from one place to another.  He has the sphere already.  Oh goody.  He just needs a portal demon to make it all work.  Ahhh, that must be the skeleton we found in that cage downstairs.  He also says that these demons are really rare and hes found out theyre keeping one in a military barracks in the city.

 

Of course he has no idea how to get at it.  Typical.

 

*sigh*  so we’re stuck in 1969 and the dude whos magical thingy brought us here has no frigging idea how to get us home?  Can i hit him already?

 

Apparently not.  Mr science brings out this ancient looking machine and twiddles nobs and stuff and it makes a noise every time he points it at one of us.  He says we have lots of tachyons.  Right back at ya buddy!  I’ll give you tachyons.

 

Ciaran explains that theyre like energy particles that cling to us because we’ve travelled through time.  Or something kinda like that.  He says theyre strong now but theyre fading.  He reckons we have about a day to get back before they disappear and we’re stuck here.

 

Im sorry?  Stuck in 1969?  Fuck that.  Point me in the direction of how to get home the fastest.

 

Mr science says he can finish the machine in time to get us home but it wont work without the portal demon.  Which means somehow we have to smuggle a demon out of a military barracks.

 

Piece of cake.

 

Ciaran is also worried about us affecting the future if we do too much or stay here too long.  Thats ok, faster is better i say.  Home!  So we decide to head out and take a look at this military barracks and try to find a way in.

 

But first we need money and clothes.  Ciaran and Jeremy borrow suits from mr sciences wardrobe, which is just funny.  Especially cos theyre a bit too short in the pants.  And they still have their own shoes.  But freya and i are going to have to buy something.  Great.  Just what i want, a 1960s outfit.  Blech.  So mr science gives us $20 to buy clothes and food and get into the city.

 

Is he kidding?  $20 for all four of us?  That will barely buy lunch.

 

But no, hes not kidding and he seems shocked that we actually think it will cost that much to buy stuff.

 

1969 is just weird.

 

So we go out to wait for the bus.  Freya does the talking and we get tickets for 5c each.  5c!  Wow.  So we get to a place that has some shops and we go into a shoe shop.  Some guy comes over and starts talking to us.  He keeps looking over at me and at jeremys hair.  He says he can fit the guys for shoes but all he has for us are heels and he thinks we should probably buy outfits before he can find some to match for us.

 

Jesus.  So ciaran and Jeremy sit down to get shoes and ciaran gives me the $20 to go buy clothes.  Freya and i find a womens clothes shop a few doors up and when we go inside, some woman wearing a twinset comes over to greet us.  I turn around and head right back out the door again.  Well, thats what i try to do but freya catches me and makes me go back in the shop.  We have to buy clothes, she says.

 

*sigh*  fine.  But if anyone laughs at me im gonna punch them.

 

The woman gives us the once over and starts with freya.  Big shock.  I must look like a complete freak to her.  She finds her this green outfit that actually looks kinda pretty on.  Then she starts on me.  She goes searching and finds me a twinset in pale red.  Oh god, do i have to?  Freya shoves me in the changeroom.  So we buy twinsets.  I cant believe this is happening to me.

 

We head back to the shoe shop and the boys have bought black shoes.  Their eyes widen when they see us but before they say a damn thing, i threaten to deck the first person who mentions what im wearing.  They shut their mouths fast.

 

The shoe shop guy looks much happier now that we’re dressed like retro losers but he does find me a pair of red heels that are kind of funky looking.

 

Ok.  Now we need to get into the city.  So we go to a train station and take the first one heading in the right direction.  It takes way longer to get to the city than we’re used to.  Finally we pull into flinders st station.  Strangely, it doesn’t look that different.

 

We find a locker to put all our stuff in and then we find some food and walk down to where this military barracks is supposed to be.

 

When we find it, we kinda park ourselves in a place where we can watch without looking too obvious.  We need to find some way into this place that isn’t going to cause too much chaos.  Ciaran is really worried about us changing anything in the future by doing stuff while we’re here.

 

So we watch all these people leaving the barracks.  Turns out its not just military types who work here.  Its a scientific research base so they have a whole bunch of ordinary people working inside.  Which is great for us.

 

Freya and i notice that the women walk differently to how we’re used to.  They kind of wiggle, like with a sway to their hips.  Interesting.  So we decide since we’re waiting, we might as well practise looking like we belong in this time.  We wander up and down for a while until we think we have it nailed and we make the boys tell us if we look right.  They say we do.  Good.

 

We wander around to find a back entrance and there are two guards on the door.  Well, thats no shock, this is a military base.  Freya also says she can feel something magical underneath us and off to one side.  Hmmm.  That might just be our portal demon.

 

We decide to wait until its a bit later to try and get in cos right now, there are heaps of people going in and out and it would be too hard to go unnoticed.  Ciaran and Jeremy go to buy macadamia nuts cos mr science told us portal demons just love them.  Demons are weird.

 

Don’t tell Jeremy i said that.

 

Freya and i practise our walking and our gestures some more.  The boys come back and we wait some more.  Freya tells us she knows a spell that will make those guards think everything is fine, even if we walk in with a giant pink budgie.  Awesome.  This might actually work!

 

We just have one more thing to do before we try to go into the building.  We need new faces.  Well, not really new faces, just ones that look a bit older than we are.  And Jeremy and ciaran need new hair.  So freya casts a glamour on each of us and then we basically just sit around and wait.

 

Finally things quiet down enough for us to think its safe to try going in.  So we walk over and freya does her spell.  The guards smile nicely at us and wave us in happily.  Lol.  I love it.  So we’re in.  And we find a corridor and a bunch of offices.  Ok.  Now we start searching.  Somewhere in this building theyre holding a demon.

 

We find some guys office that has some secret files talking about research and a whole bunch of stuff that sounds suspiciously like it might have to do with demons.  Aha.  And freya says she can still feel that magical signature underneath us.

 

Ok.  We need to find a way down.

 

Theres a lift at the end of the corridor so we have a look inside.  Theres no button that says down, only up.  Well, i suppose that would be too easy.  So while ciarans fiddling with the emergency phone, Jeremy wanders off down the other end of the corridor and after a few minutes we hear him yell for us to come take a look.

 

Hes found a cleaners cupboard but inside, there seems to be some kind of fake wall.  So i give it a shove.  It gives and the whole thing slides to one side.  There a staircase leading down.

 

Bingo.

 

Its pretty dark down there but Jeremy has found a torch in the cupboard.  We head down to take a look.  Theres a door at the bottom and we listen to see if theres anyone on the other side.  Nothing.  Jeremy says he can hear a faint hum, like an air conditioner or something.  Long as its not people.  I try the doorhandle.  Its not even locked!  Sweet.

 

So very quietly, we open the door.  Theres another corridor on the other side.  A few rooms lead off it and we can hear voices behind one of them.  We go over to listen.  There are two guys  subjects and blah blah science talk.

 

We have a hurried meeting and ask if freya can do the same spell she did upstairs to make these guys think we’re on the level.  She says sure.  J

 

So we open the door.  Bam!  Freya hits them with her spell and then ciaran picks up a clipboard and looks all official.  Jeremy tells them we’re here to review their project and discuss further funding and we’d like to look around.

 

They start falling over themselves to show us everything.  Oh boy, i really like this spell.  So we see a whole bunch of stuff that screams ‘we’re doing illegal experiments’ but no demons.  Then Jeremy asks them about the test subjects.  They look a bit confused and say, you want to see them?  Jeremy says yes.  So they take us over to a door with menagerie written on it.

 

Inside, there are a bunch of cubicles made of glass. And here are the demons.  But not just one, there are quite a few in here.  They take us along and talk to us about some of them.  Right at the end, theres a boy in one of the cubicles.  He looks human.  So we ask what hes doing here.  They say he was a foundling who started having fits and doing very strange things so they brought him here.  They haven’t been able to find out what he is.

 

Jesus.

 

So ciaran and Jeremy ask to see a test subject up close.  Which means they will need to be restrained.  One of the guys goes to flip a switch and speaks to the demons.  He says they need to step into their restraints.  A group of them get up and go over to the wall of their cell and put themselves in these kind of handcuffs.  Then the guy flips another switch and some sort of gas clouds up the rest of the cells.  He explains that those are the dangerous ones, so its easier to restrain them this way, rather than with the cuffs.  There are four demons in the cuffs and once the gas clears, the others are all unconscious.  The boy is one of them.

 

The portal demon is one of the ones in cuffs.  Jeremy asks me to take the guys into a cell and he will turn on the gas.  So we go into a cell and i shove them in with the demon while Jeremy turns on the gas.  They slide to the floor.  Good.

 

So we go to talk to the portal demon, who is very happy to see us.  We bribe him with macadamia nuts to make some portals to send all the nasty demons through.  We decide to take two demons out with us as well as the portal demon.  But first, ciaran takes a bunch of his blood.  We decided earlier that we would take his blood to get back home but we didn’t want to hand him over to mr science so he could end up a skeleton in a cage someday.

 

After some discussion, we decide to wake up the boy and take him with us.  We cant leave him here.  When he wakes up, he freaks out and starts shaking like hes having some sort of a fit.  He almost disappears and then it stops.  Thats just odd.  We tell him we’ve come to set him free if he wants to go with us.  He tells us his name is Jeremy.  Lol.  Apparently his middle name is Bradley so we call him brad.

 

So we leave the cubicles.  On the way up to the lab we hear someone coming.  Sounds like guards.  So we all wait quietly for them to come in.

 

They start to pull their weapons up on us as soon as they see us.  So i grab the nozzle of one of their guns and smack it up into his face.  He falls to the floor.  Jeremy is dealing with the other one but hes still in his human form, so i lend a hand.  We only knock them out.  Theyre just ordinary guys afterall, not demons or anything.

 

They both have radios strapped to their belts, so ciaran takes one off and says something into it about everything being clear down here.  They seem to buy it.  So we head out, back up that staircase and right out the front door.  With three demons.  The guards wave us goodbye.  Lol.

 

Now we have a problem.  We need a car cos we can hardly take these demons on the train with us.  Ciaran finds a station wagon kinda car and hotwires it.  Hehe, cool.  So we all pile in and ciaran starts driving.

 

This is so bizarre.  Here we are, in 1969, wearing different faces and driving in a car with some random kid and three demons.

 

Someone should make a movie of my life.

 

We ask the demons what they want to do.  One of them comes from Tasmania.  Well thats a bit far to travel.  We eventually agree to let them out once we get far enough away from the city.  The big one, the one called Harold, says he owes us a debt and pulls off one of his scales and gives it to Jeremy.  He says if ever we need him, just call and he will come.

 

So we let the demons out, including the portal demon.  But we make him promise not to come back here, he’ll be in too much danger.

 

And theyre gone.

 

But we still have brad.

 

So we drive.  And brad wants to know who we are and what we’re doing and why we rescued them and pretty much everything.  Ciaran pulls over and we talk to brad.  We ask him what he wants to do.  He says he wants to come with us.  Ciaran says he noticed something when brad was still unconscious.  Theres a small lump at the back of his neck with a scar over it.  Cairan thinks theres something in there.  Maybe something that means that brad can be tracked.  We hafta take it out.

 

He doesn’t like it but he finally agrees to let ciaran try.  But he needs some equipment thats back at mr sciences lab.  That   means someone has to go back for it.

 

Guess that means me.

 

I point out that if im going back to the lab, it might be a good idea if i had my real face back.  So we prepare brad that we’re going to look a little different and freya takes the spell off me.  He looks at me in surprise and then grins and says hello!  Lol.  Doofus.  So i say im going to take off my heels and stockings and head over to the lab.

 

And i run.

 

I run all the way back to mr sciences house and i make him give me the list of stuff that ciaran asked for.  And when i get back with it, everybody is wearing their own faces.  Brad looks a little weirded out but he lets ciaran take out whatevers in his neck.  Turns out its some kind of tiny chip.  Ive never seen anything like it.

 

Brads lying on the back seat of the car and he starts to shake, just like he did back at the barracks.  But this time, instead of just stopping, he disappears right through the seat of the car.  And turns up underneath it.

 

Yknow, i just have nothing left to say.

 

Right.  So brad can phase through things.  And for some reason, that chip he had in his neck was stopping that from happening.  Of course, why didn’t we think of that.

 

So brad had already guessed that we might be from the future and we just fill in the blanks for him.  When we get back to the lab, mr science is still trying to finish his machine.  Ciaran says he has to dump the stolen car and he also has to go pick up all the stuff we left in the lockers at the station.  Jeremy goes to make something to eat and i get bored and do some training out the back.

 

Thats pretty much how i spend my night.  I come in to eat and watch brad walking through the walls but its basically boring waiting as usual.  I have too much energy to sleep.  Ciaran comes back eventually and goes down to help mr science build his machine and make sure he does everything right.

 

God knows what the hell time of the morning it is when they finally finish but its way longer than i should ever have to wait again.

 

Brad wants to come with us back home.  And mr science has decided hes going to write childrens songs.

 

Right.

 

Can we go home now?

 

So ciaran helps set up the machine with the demon blood and all that stuff and we stand where we’re supposed to stand and then...

We’re in a dingy basement lab that smells musty and looks like crap.  And is quite familiar.  We’re all there, including brad.  And then we remember.

 

Tam.

 

Oh shit.

 

So we run upstairs and as we head out the door, we see the demon.  Shit, its huge.  Jeremy runs towards it and skewers it right through the gut.  I run right at them and take them both down to the ground.  Then we feel the demon freeze.  He stops moving and Jeremy calls ciaran over to come and sedate him.  So he does.  Then we wait.  And eventually, the fight goes out of the demon and then, it disappears and tam is lying in its place.  Naked.

 

Freya and i take her to the van to get her dressed.  We leave the boys outside to deal with brad.

 

Then its time to head home.  Except ciaran and i want to check something first.  We go back down to the lab.  Theres no skeleton in the cage anymore and theres no gunk in the vat.  Hmmm.  Ciaran wants a newspaper, so we head down to some local shops and he buys one.  The date is one day after we were last here.  So far, so good.  Then ciaran finds something in the politics section, about the minister for the environment.  Its not peter garrett.

 

Um.  Ok.  Well.  We all knew he was evil, right?

 

So theres a different minister.  Thats not so bad.  Ciaran looks concerned.  And now we just wanna get back to the shop to make sure everythings allright.

 

The whole way back brad keeps shouting out about how different things are.  How much bigger and brighter and everythinger.  It gets a bit annoying after a while.  Eventually we get back to the shop.  Daves there.  And everything seems...normal.  huh.  The first thing i wanna do is call grandad.

 

When he answers, im really glad to hear his voice.  But he wants to know where ive been all night.  Its so weird but just hearing him makes me wanna laugh.  So i pull something out of my ass and tell him i was at jeremys.  Its a lame excuse but i cant think of anything else right now.  So i apologise and tell him i’ll be home soon.

 

Thats when i realise its the middle of the morning on a school day.

 

Ah crap.

 

Freya calls saffron who rips shreds off her for missing school and not coming home all night.  Freya heads to school on her bike.  I don’t wanna go, not after that.  So i stick around at the shop.  I show brad my ipod and how to use a computer.  It keeps him busy for a while.  Then ciaran introduces him to dvds and we basically lose him for hours.  Lol.

 

Freya comes back to the shop that night and we discuss what to do about brad.  We all agree that he cant stay here at the shop.  He should be at school and he needs to have someone to look after him.  Hes 40 years out of date for gods sake.  He has no idea how to live in this world, this year, this time.  He needs help.  But when we talk about it more, theres only one person we can think of who could look after him.  Tam.  And right now, every time she gets upset, she switches places with a killer demon.  So, priority one, fix tam and get rid of that demon.