Roller coaster -rides in the land of fluff, first meetings and romance (see summary)

Moving to LA, getting an audition for a role in a movie, instant stardom and successful career, meeting Mister Right and sharing a great life with him. That had been your plan from the beginning but as one can imagine, except you of course, your life had not really followed the plan and two years after the moving you had found yourself working in a coffee shop as a waitress and auditioning for commercials and small indie-films because opening the right doors was easier to say than done.

First year you had had a real manager, the cheapest and therefore the shadiest of them all but then, after he had managed to get you into a STD-medication commercial you had told him that you wouldn’t need his services anymore. You simply had not wanted to get known as the girl who has Chlamydia, on TV anyway. After that mess you had dumped the agent and started to knock on the doors by yourself but it was very rare that anyone had even answered your phone calls… but still you had tried… until one night, after two years of living in LA, when you had gotten home from the late shift… that night had really changed everything.

You had left the work like the usual, taken the subway like you always did but this time you had been followed by a group of three men who had looked very suspicious and they had started to act aggressively as soon as you had walked away from the neighborhood of the urban train’s station where there were plenty of people hanging around. You had taken a shortcut through a dark alley and that was where the guys had caught you. They had first called you honey and surrounded you to which you had first responded politely by asking them to leave you alone but ended up threatening them by saying that you would call the police if they did not go away.

The men had laughed, mocked you and then their faces had changed… into something that you couldn’t really describe with words… otherwise than… that they had… fangs. Yep, fangs. You had screamed but one of them had grabbed you by your throat and pushed you against the red brick wall after which he had sunk his teeth into your neck. You had felt yourself getting all dizzy and when the creep had let you go all of a sudden, you had actually slid down to sit on the ground to watch barely conscious as a tall man dressed in black, long coat had fought all those three creepy fang-equipped guys all by himself… and then turned them into dust one by one with a wooden… stick?

This is the part where you had managed to gather all the bits and pieces of your strength to get up and run home, which was only one block away. You had almost tripped over a couple of times when you had turned to look if anyone was following you but for your relief there had been nothing but an empty street behind you. You had stormed into your apartment building, struggled to get up the stairs because whatever strength you had had due to a survival instinct or an adrenaline rush it was now wearing thin and you had begun to feel the impact of the loss of blood. You had pulled yourself by the railing to the fourth floor and gotten home, locked the door behind you and rushed into the bathroom to clean those two small puncture wounds. After this you had sent your boss a message that you had been attacked on your way home and gotten injures and therefore you were going to take a couple of days off to rest. You had worked overtime anyway so he had had no reason to complain.

But… this was not the way your messed up evening had actually started. Nope, it had started earlier that fateful day when there had been a guy at your workplace, a handsome guy with brown hair and brown eyes. He was tall, had broad shoulders and clearly he was in great shape. He was dressed in dark gray shirt and black, a bit loose pants, nothing special but… normal clothes. He had been sitting alone for quite some time, drinking coffee and trying to start a conversation with you every time you had walked past him. Normally you would have had started to chat with the guy, since he was so eager to speak with you and looked very nice in your opinion, but you had been at work and there was a strict no-flirting-with-the-customers –policy so you had ignored the guy… until he had appeared into the kitchen before the closing time and stated that you were in a danger.

You had thanked him for his concern when he had offered to give you a ride home but then you had told him that you were going to be just fine and basically threatened to get him into serious trouble by causing a scene in case the man did not leave the staff-only –area and preferably the entire café. The guy had handed you a business card with a phone number and told you to call if you ever got into trouble. After this he had left and you had continued with the cleaning. There had been something about this guy… something very sincere when he had offered you his help but then again, surely all lunatics had charming personalities and their true nature got revealed when it was too late.

Anyway, this had happened approximately two years ago and after this event you had become obsessed with learning what had attacked you in the dark alley. Of course you had first tried to deny the entire thing and to act like nothing had ever happened but the small puncture wounds on your neck were real so there was no way that you had been just imagining it. You had visited the bookstores that were specialized in less common subjects such as supernatural phenomenon, old folklore and myths, magic and demonic rituals, read old books and Internet –forum conversations about the subject and eventually you had come to a conclusion that there were vampires and other monstrous creatures in the world but since they hid in the shadows, no one knew about them.

This had changed your life completely; you had disregarded your previous plan of movie-stardom and started to obsess about the creatures of the night that preyed on the weak and helpless. Luckily you had always been into martial arts and therefore you were in a great shape, or well, in a better shape than the average couch potato. You had started to do only late shifts and then patrolled the quiet streets in your neighborhood for a couple of hours before getting home. There was not that much happening, in the beginning at least, but during the past eighteen months of patrolling you had actually killed a couple of vampires with the wooden stake that you carried in your purse… although nowadays you were slaying away more vampires than before.

There had been many close calls, for example the first kill had been a struggle; you had had no idea how hard you should hit the vampire with the stake, so as a result you had not held onto the stake firmly enough and instead of shoving the stake into the vampires heart, it had slipped backwards in your hand and flown on the ground and that mistake had almost caused you your life. For your fortune the monster had then thrown you on the ground, where you had managed to grab the stake and when he vampire had stumbled and fallen on you, he had fallen on the stake and turned into ashes, which you had then inhaled… by an accident, not deliberately, oh gosh, no!

Now you had been focused on your so called vampire hunting for almost two years and next Saturday, a week from now, was your fourth anniversary of moving into LA. During the past year you had become increasingly active and more successful in the vampire-hunting-business and therefore nowadays you killed vampires every week, sometimes even twice a week which was a huge improvement compared to the first year of patrolling when you had been lucky to save someone even once a month.

However, your path had not crossed with the tall man in the long black coat since that one night… and you had not seen that handsome guy who had warned you about the danger either. You had been playing with the idea that maybe they had been one and the same person but then again, how would he have known that you were going to get attacked? Maybe he was behind the entire thing… a twisted hero-complex to charm the ladies… or something. Anyway, you had not bothered your mind too much about the enigma because you were more concerned about the fact that now that you were becoming better at the vampire-hunting-thing, it was attracting more attention… which then put you into danger and therefore you had become a bit paranoid about everyone whom you met during the night. You also always took a detour to get home just to make it impossible for the bad guys to follow you there… although, you knew that if they really wanted to find out where you lived, they most likely could have done that very easily. You just were not that big player that you should have been considered as a serious threat… yet.

You tied your hair on a tight ponytail and changed your working uniform into your normal clothes, which looked more like something that a normal person would have worn at the gym. You couldn’t use jeans anymore because even the stretchy ones were making it more challenging to kick, jump and run in them, and therefore you preferred yoga-pants with a long t-shirt that covered your ass because even though you knew that you were in great shape, you did not want to show your behind off when you were saving people… and you were so tired of being called “sexy” by the people you came across… and of course there were those guys who thought that since you were wearing pants like that, it was completely alright for them to pinch that ass. So, as a conclusion you had started to wear loose, long t-shirts that covered every curve and shape that you had in your body.

- Good night! you said to your co-worker when you left the café. It was Friday and you were going to have a weekend off and therefore you had planned to patrol the entire night, all the way into the sunrise because you had heard rumors that there was something big going on and based on your own notions of increasing vampire-activity in your neighborhood you had a strong feeling that the rumors were true.

You took the train to your neighborhood but this time decided to go a bit further into the abandoned industrial area where there were plenty of empty warehouses and other shady establishments. You took the wooden stake out from your bag and squeezed it tightly in your hand, so firmly actually that your hand started to shake a bit. You were nervous because you had never been in that district before and you had a bad feeling about it; normally you were quite energized and pumped when you started your self-proclaimed hunting duties but now you felt… tired and troubled, which was not the best mindset to have when one was going to kick some ass… some dangerous ass to be more specific.

You took a couple of caffeine-pills and washed them down with some water, ate a chocolate bar and continued walking further into the unfamiliar territory. It was silent, almost too silent… until you heard people talking about some ritual, just behind a tall fence. You walked quietly forward along the fence that had been made of old red bricks and sneaked into the yard when there was a hole between the fence and the next warehouse building. The two men were laughing and talking about how excited they were about tonight as they walked forward and entered the warehouse. You decided to follow them, quite unsure whether it was a good idea or not but the caffeine-pills were really kicking in, making you feel deceivingly hyped and energetic.

You walked along the walls, through the long corridors, across the industrial halls and stairways into the huge basement where you heard a crowd chanting in Latin… or you assumed that it was Latin because according to the books, ancient Latin was the language that was commonly used in spells and rituals. You did not enter the room but stayed at the corridor, right by the doorway that led into the large room where the ritual was happening. There were stairs leading down from the doorway into the room so you were a bit higher which gave you a quite nice view.

There were strange symbols on the walls and the place was lit with candles. The people who were standing in a circle, were hooded with dark cloaks and every once in a while they were drinking from a cup, a chalice of some sort. You were standing outside, behind a wall just by the doorway that led into the room, which was filled with so many chanters, or ritual performers… some kind of worshippers, that you knew for a fact that if they noticed you, you would be in a big trouble for sure. Therefore you decided to take pictures of the symbols so you could do some research before taking any further actions.

You put the wooden stake back into your bag, took your phone out, opened the camera app and took the pictures, hoping that there was enough light to be able to recognize the symbols afterwards. You were going to do some digging based on the shots that you were now taking with somewhat shaky hands, although you tried to support the phone by holding it against the doorframe, but there was a big chance that the pictures would be blurry anyway. You however hoped that the pictures were alright, yeah hoping had to do because there was no time to actually check them now.

When you were done, you were about to put the phone back into your bag when it suddenly started to ring. Your ringtone echoed in the basement-corridor and you noticed some of the hooded people turning around to see where the noise was coming from. You went behind the wall and almost dropped your phone as you tried to turn it off. When you had finally managed to turn off the phone, you realized that the chanting had stopped. “Oh, that cannot be good” you thought and held your breath so you wouldn’t make a sound. You knew that you probably should go now, but every corridor looked exactly the same in the darkness and the lack of having a clear picture of the location of the exit made you feel very disoriented and panicky even. Sure it was possible that you were witnessing just a bunch of people LARPing but it was more likely that it was not the case.

Just as you were about to take a look what was happening in the room, you felt someone grabbing you from behind, covering your mouth with a large hand and dragging you behind another corner. You tried to fight your attacker but you heard a silent whisper telling you to stop otherwise you would get into much worse danger than you were already. There was something very familiar about the voice, like you had heard it before. Especially the way he said “danger”, which was not a word that you would hear often in a conversation, had a very peculiar ring to it and therefore you had a feeling that you had met this person earlier, not today obviously but… there was something about the way he said that word that made you trust him, a little. Anyway, you decided not to fight… fighting would have caused too much noise anyway.

You reasoned that the person who was holding a hand on your mouth and guiding you in the darkness was a man. He was strong and tall, his hand was not exactly petite and his voice had been deep, although he had been just whispering. You heard people entering the corridor, talking to each other, asking “where did that come from?” and trying to search the source of the noise but soon gave up when the ritual-organizer said that the ritual had to be completed before midnight otherwise it would be too late.

The man led you into a tunnel that eventually led to ladders, which he told you to climb up and then wait for him nearby, somewhere safe. You objected, of course, but the man did not stay there to listen to your objections but left with his long, dramatically waving coat as he ran back to the corridor that led into the basement. You folded your arms and scoffed; it was just your luck… for the first time you had come across something interesting and this had happened! It was unfair that some tall dude just assumed that he could tell you what to do. What was he doing there anyway? Was he attending the ceremony? Surely not because if he had, most likely he would have ratted you in… So, was he doing the same thing as you? Fighting evil? If so, then why the hell had he then steered you away from the action?

It was fifteen past midnight and you decided to climb up since you had your photos and there wasn’t much else that you could have done in this situation. You climbed the ladder up, pushed the hatch open and got out from the tunnel. You filled your lungs with the chilly night air and took a look around; you were in the middle of a large, open yard and there were no people anywhere. After getting an idea about your location you decided to head back to the train station, on the contrary to the man’s instructions or orders... Who was he to give you orders anyway? After ten minutes of walking through the empty streets of the industrial district you felt someone pushing you behind a dumpster.

- What are you doing here? the man who had dragged you into the tunnel earlier asked with a disapproving tone as you both squatted in the dumpster’s shadow, right next to an old factory building.
- I told you to hide somewhere nearby, safe. he continued with silent voice but you could tell by his body language that he was very displeased.
- Excuse me? you scoffed and stood up. The man however grabbed your arm and pulled you back into the shadow. You sighed out of frustration and turned your phone to check out the pictures you had taken, to make sure that they were not out of focus or otherwise clouded. You reasoned that in case the pictures were blurry, you could still fix it by going back and taking new pictures. This however was a bad idea because when you turned on the phone, it started ringing almost immediately which then captured the attention of those two guys that you had followed earlier tonight. They had just left the building and were on their way to somewhere else. You cursed barely audibly and dropped your phone as you tried to put it on mute. The man who was squatting beside you sighed “really?” and rolled his eyes.

- Hey, there it is again! one of the guys said and ran into the alley where you and the mystery man were hiding. The man cursed, stood up and left the hiding place.
- Who are you? the same guy shouted when he saw the man in the long, black coat standing by the dumpster.
- I heard that there is supposed to be a warehouse rave… somewhere here. the man said as he walked closer to the guys.
- Well, you missed it, buddy. the other guy said and pulled a ritual knife that had been covered by an old, dirty denim biker-jacket that he was wearing. You were hiding behind the dumpster, in the shadow but you took peeks every once in a while just to keep on track of what was going on. You saw the big, mean-looking knife and stood up; surely two against two was better than two against one.
- Hey! Why don’t you put that knife away before you hurt yourself! you exclaimed and walked closer. The tall man turned around and sighed.
- What are you doing? he asked with a frustrated tone.
- I’m… helping you. you replied and added “what did you expect?” with a sarcastically amused tone.

- You’re trying to get yourself killed, pretty girl! one of the guys stated mockingly.
- No, I’m just joining the party. you replied and pursed your lips up as you gave the guy a mean look. You loved the witty one-liners that you sometimes managed to say before the actual fight. The man however changed his face into a vampire-face and grinned at you, which he assumed to scare you. “I knew it!” you exclaimed and grabbed your stake out from your bag, however by the time you were ready to attack, the tall man had already slain one of the two guys and was fighting the remaining one. It did not take long for him to kill that one as well.
- Hey! you exclaimed with a frustrated and somewhat disappointed tone when the tall man stabbed the other vampire with a wooden stake which seemed to just magically appear from the long sleeve of his coat. Once again the tall man had screwed up your plans, which you hated. The man wiped the vampire-ashes off his coat, turned to look at you and asked
- What were you thinking of do-

- My job. you stated and interrupted his question. You hated it when tall, strong men like him assumed that since you were a young woman with delicate face and deceivingly fragile-looking physique, it meant that you were not able to defend yourself or… or better yet, to fight evil.
- Your… job? he asked with a disapproving, yet slightly amused tone.
- Yes, this is what I do… you stated firmly and then continued “or would have done if you had not mistaken me as some damsel in distress” however your voice changed from firm to barely audible mumble the longer you kept talking. The man stayed silent for a moment and suddenly he recalled that he had heard rumors about a vigilante that was patrolling the streets of the LA suburbs.

- Ah, I’ve heard of you. the man said, "the self-taught slayer" he added with a tone that sounded a bit belittling in your ears. Just as you were about to say something witty as a comeback he gestured you to follow him. You rolled your eyes and followed the man to his car, a black convertible. He told you to hop in but you stated that you could easily take the train, however the man did not listen to your objections and you ended up getting into his car, mostly because the next train was leaving in an hour and you did not really like the idea of waiting alone in the industrial district after everything you had witnessed.

Neither of you spoke anything when he drove along the empty streets and for your surprise he was able to drive to your place without instructions. You actually tried to instruct him to drive you to a different address so he wouldn’t know where you lived but every time he took a turn that did not match your instructions, you said “hey, not that way” and then mumbled “okay… alright” silently as shook your head. The man parked his car right outside your apartment building and just as you were about to leave the car he said
- You’re going to get yourself killed like that.
- Like you would know. you mumbled, got out of the car and stormed into the apartment building. It had been a couple of hours since you had taken the caffeine-pills and you could feel the crash getting nearer, besides you were annoyed by the stranger who had ruined your evening by getting involved. It did not help that he was a very handsome man… tall, about thirty years old, maybe… so mysterious.

You told yourself not to think about him any further because the more you thought about him, the more familiar he seemed but at this point you were too tired to figure out where you would have met him again. You took a shower and washed the dust of the basement away from your hair, dried yourself in a large towel and got dressed in a pajama. You consciously steered yourself away from the thoughts that somehow involved the tall stranger and after eating a quick late-night-snack, you went to bed… however your thoughts seemed to be on an autopilot and therefore you found yourself constantly thinking about that man. About his brown eyes… his deep, yet soft voice that was assertive but… still friendly. You were attracted to the man and it irritated you because as far as you were concerned, the man had put his nose where it did not belong and ruined your chances to be the hero.

You rolled in your bed and even though you were dead-tired from the long week at work as well as your vampire-hunting duties, you were unable to fall asleep since your subconscious had teamed up with your conscious mind and they together were constantly trying to solve the puzzle why the man had sounded and looked so familiar. There was something about his voice and the more you thought about it, the clearer it became that you had heard him talking about danger before… as irrational and implausible it seemed.

Finally you fell asleep around four am. You had confusing and highly stressful dreams about the previous events but then there was something else as well; you had a dream about the evening when your life and life goals had changed for good. In your dream you saw the three vampires chasing you and then a tall man in a long, black coat jumped to save you. Then suddenly you were in the coffee shop talking with a man who was telling you that you were in a great danger and you answered him that he was in a greater danger if he did not leave the kitchen because you would cause a scene if he tried your patience any further.

You opened your eyes wide open. “The man in the alley is the same man who was in the café!” you exclaimed at the ceiling which you now stared with widened eyes without blinking. You got up from the bed, checked the time and ran to your drawer where you stored all forgotten things that you had not gotten rid of yet. You went through the papers, concert tickets, audition notes and finally you came across the business card that the man had once given to you.

- Angel Investigations. you said and sat down on the sofa to stare at the card. You had forgotten the card completely because there had been a tear in the lining of your purse and therefore the card had gotten between the two layers of fabric; the exterior and the lining where it had stayed hidden. Then you had decided to wash the bag and when you had searched it through for tissues that could ruin the fabric with lint, you had found the card and put it into the drawer of the things that you did not really need but did not want to throw away either.

- The Angel Investigations –dude is the tall man! Of course! you sighed and stood up to get your phone. You got your phone, unlocked it and dialed the number without pressing the call –icon. You figured out that the tall man had heard the same rumor and therefore he had been at the warehouse as well, basically his business had been the same as yours… so he was one of the good guys?
It meant that maybe your pictures, that you still had not checked out, would help their investigations and more importantly maybe they had sources that you did not, so their investigations actually benefited you… unless of course they knew nothing more than you did but even in that case… you could probably find out why the man had known where you lived. Besides, you had the pictures to use as a bargain.

- Does that mean that I have a reputation? you thought aloud and then realized that if the tall man had known where you lived, then some other people might know too… and those “other people” might not be that friendly, which was the worst case –scenario.
- It’s fine as long as I don’t invite them in. you mumbled as you stared at your phone screen, trying to decide whether you should or should not call. You sighed and thought about the reasons for and against it; for, well, help… obviously… It made sense that the good guys should stick together, but then again… against, the guy had treated you like you had been a damsel in distress and that really pissed you off.

Yes, you had done some digging about the vampires; they couldn’t enter a home of a living person if they were not invited. They needed blood to survive, so they killed humans for food… with their fangs. They were able to turn people in vampires if the victim drank their blood before dying and vampires were basically immortal. They however could not get exposed to the sunlight because sunlight did not turn them into shiny disco balls on legs like in Twilight –movies but made them burst into fire, which was more or less lethal.

You had also studied that a vampire could be killed by stabbing a wooden stake through one’s heart or decapitation… which you found a bit problematic because a huge sword was not exactly easy to carry around unnoticed. Yep, hacking someone’s head off with a small pocket knife was a no-no and that was the reason why a stake was your weapon of choice. You had also checked the Ebay for crossbows but then decided that just like a long katana-sword, a big-ass crossbow would also be somewhat difficult to carry around, a bit heavy too. It was not like you were Legolas and could carry the bow strapped on your back and expect to get away with it.

You had also read that one of the most dangerous vampires that had ever walked the earth was a man called Angelus, whose goal in life was to destroy the world and bring hell on earth. You surely hoped that you wouldn’t meet that guy any day soon because according to what you had read, he would probably eat your for breakfast… after torturing you… because he was one mean son of a bitch. What else… Oh yes, you had read that vampires had no souls, no conscience and they showed no mercy… but they could be deceivingly charming, appear as trustworthy and play with you until they basically… killed you.

- Yes, maybe I should call Angel Investigations. you stated after walking around your apartment for over forty minutes as you had pondered around these serious matters. During those forty minutes you had finally checked out the pictures you had taken and for your huge relief you had managed to take quite good pictures; they were not that blurry and the signs that had been painted on the walls were actually very in-focus, not perfect but taking into consideration that the light had been awful, you were very pleased!

- I hope this number still works. you mumbled as you opened the phone, took a deep breath and pressed the call-icon on the screen. You waited nervously as the call got connected to a landline, which was very old fashioned in your opinion and then listened to the alert –sound that meant that the phone was ringing. Soon someone picked up the phone and said with an overly cheerful voice
- Angel Investigations, we help the hopeless. This is Cordelia speaking!