THE DAISY SAGA EPISODE 31

THE DAISY SAGA EPISODE 31

Daisy Raises the Stakes



Daisy had a bad feeling Friday night, when the TV station announced a weekend-long Buffy marathon. Quite honestly, she was tired of vampires. The few she had dealt with already irked her enough and that had been weeks ago. She changed the channel.

Interview With the Vampire was on. She liked Tom Cruise, but that wasn't enough this time.

Flip channels again.

Nosferatu.

Flip.

Dracula, starring Gary Oldman.

Flip.

Dracula, starring Christopher Lee.

Flip.

Dracula, starring Bela Lugosi.

Disgusted, Daisy turned off the TV... or tried to. Bela cheesily raised his cape, gleefully bearing his fangs, then said, "Daaaisy! I vaahnt to suuuck you blooood!"

"Really?" Daisy deadpanned. "Is fucking with my TV the best you can do?" Immediately, she regretted issuing that challenge.

The windows all exploded inward as a small platoon of smelly, dirty, fanged undead invaded. These were obviously low-level mook vampires, as they did not even exhibit the speed or strength of those Daisy had encountered at the goth club. Short on oak stakes, Daisy spent only a microsecond on lament, then smashed her grandmother's antique oak chair. Dodging and rolling out of the clumsy grasp of one vampire after another, she grabbed two legs from the broken chair and began staking bloodsuckers left and right.

There were probably a dozen vampires when she started, but in a few minutes they had all been reduced to dust. Of course, that dust was all over her floor. Also, the room was a wreck. It looked like someone had just fought twelve vampires in it. Planting her hands on her hips, Daisy sighed and said, "Guess I'll have to clean this up."

"I so love it when you talk to yourself," said a very cultured-sounding voice. "It is incredibly endearing." Daisy couldn't pinpoint its source until she realized it echoed from within her own head. She wondered briefly if she were going crazy.

"No," responded the deep, masculine voice. "You have your wits about you. Unless, of course, I decide to take them away."

For the first time in quite awhile, Daisy felt vulnerable. This voice, which she assumed belonged to a nearby vampire, represented someone's way directly into her mind. Either that or she had spontaneously gone crazy.

She wondered silently who this was.

"My name is Thomas. And to be honest, Daisy my dear, I am quite upset with you. You and your Oriental friend recently dispatched some of my best and brightest. You caught them unaware while they were enjoying what you call 'night life.'"

Daisy thought a snarky comment about how sorry things were for Thomas if those were his best and brightest. But out of fear, she said nothing.

"Oh, 'tis quite true, my dear. They did not possess a constitution such as yours. So fear not the effect your words may have upon me, for it is your actions that concern me most. And now, as a direct consequence of those actions, I shall give you a taste of insanity, as promised."

Immediately, the now smashed television lit up and a dark and evil presence began to seep through its screen. Daisy was paralyzed by fear. A terror unlike any she had ever known gripped her as pure malice and evil oozed its way from the broken TV.

She knew that thing contained violation, abandonment, overwhelming sadness, and every unpleasant thing she had ever experienced, magnified by orders of magnitude.

It contained loss: loss of hope, loss of identity, loss of life, loss of sanity, loss of innocence. She felt her mind begin to break just a little, when a high keening pierced the night. It was almost like a dog's whine. Then it stopped abruptly. Daisy's mind cleared for a second and she realized the television was not leaking evil. But then all the fear returned, and the dread that, once again, her father would-

And then a mighty wolf's howl exploded from Penny's room. Then, Penny herself came galloping into view in wolf form, howling at the top of her lungs. Like a thin sheet of ice, Daisy's funk shattered, the remains already melting away into righteous fury as Penny's howl subsided.

"Where is he?!" Daisy demanded.

Penny stood on her hind legs and sniffed the air furtively, then bolted out the nearest window. Daisy followed, only to come up short. Penny stood there growling angrily, staring at the cloudy night sky, her wolfish hand-paws clenched into shaky fists. A deplorably bad imitation of Vincent Price's laugh from Thriller echoed through the darkness as a black silhouette drifted away into the sky.

"Good thing it's night time," Penny remarked. "I just hope nobody's up... or has a camera."

Daisy was surprised at first, thinking Penny had learned to speak while in wolf form. A quick glance in her direction disabused her of that notion.

Once again, Penny stood stark naked in the great outdoors.

"Come on Penny. Let's get you inside. And I so hope you didn't shred those pajamas when you morphed."

"No," Penny giggled, covering herself as best as she could while she walked. "I sleep naked these days. Never know when I'll have a night like this."



THE END