#wayne obviously was her watcher and was devastated when she died

[trensu]

chrissy the vampire slayer

Chrissy screamed. She KNEW taking the shortcut was a bad idea. A cheerleader in the woods after dark by herself? That's the start of at least three different horror movies, she's pretty sure. But Jason had ditched her after winning the game for some victory party with the rest of his basketball buddies and he had been her ride home.

A hulking man pounded after her. Chrissy pushed her legs to run faster, faster. It was a miracle she hadn't tripped over a branch or gotten her foot caught in one of the many hidey-holes the cute little forest critters burrowed into ground. This was a stupid way to die, she berated herself. Jason hadn't even gotten the winning shot in, the dick. It was the upperclassman, Steve Harrington, who did that but Jason was such a suck up that of course he immediately followed Steve to the stupid party like the world's stupidest dog.

How had the man not caught up with her yet? He easily had a foot on her in height. She chanced a look over her shoulder and screamed again as she saw he was still determinedly chasing her.

She broke into a clearing. Except it wasn't a clearing, it was a graveyard because why not make it easier for the creep to hide her body after murdering her? A hysterical giggle got caught in her throat as she quickly came up to a gravestone. Her momentum was not going to allow her to swerve around it without toppling over and then it would be lights out for her forever.

She took a wild leap, closing her eyes in an effort to brace for the inevitable collision, but shockingly she bounded over it like a freaking star track runner. The man behind her crashed into it but before Chrissy could thank her lucky stars for the reprieve, the gravestone instead of tripping up her pursuer freaking broke in half under the force of his impact.

Chrissy sobbed and continued to run blindly through the empty cold graveyard. How was she still running? She was panting for breath but out of sheer fear rather than exhaustion. The man didn't sound out of breath at all as he came after her with the doggedness of an oncoming training. If she didn't know better, she'd say he wasn't breathing at all.

She hastily scrubbed her arm over her eyes to clear the tears away and in that moment of temporary blindness, crashed into the side of the mausoleum with a pained grunt. She scrabbled to stay on her feet. The man, seeing her cornered, slowed to a stop before her and she turned to see him clearly for the first time in the clear full moon light.

Chrissy shrieked when she saw his face. It was...wrong. His brow was deformed, making his sickly yellow eyes look sunken into his face. He grinned at her, revealing disturbingly pointed teeth. He chuckled.

"Poor little girl," he said. "All alone after dark."

He prowled closer and Chrissy felt panic overwhelm her. But then another voice broke the night.

"Hey, cheer queen, catch!"

Chrissy and the man with the deformed face both instinctively turned to look at whoever spoke. Something was thrown at her and Chrissy caught it right out of the air like some kind of major league baseball player. Her hand wrapped around the object and some part of her recognized the feel of it.

It triggered something in her mind and, with no input from any higher thought process, Chrissy twirled the thing in her hand and threw herself forward at the man that had terrorized her. The thing pierced right through the man's rib cage like a hot knife through butter. The man only had enough time to look at her with surprised, widened eyes before he burst into a cloud of dust.

She gasped, accidentally breathed in some of the dust, and devolved into a coughing fit. By the time she was able to catch her breath, the person who had thrown the thing at her, had reached her side.

"So, you're the new slayer."

Chrissy looked up to see Eddie the Freak Munson. Her grip on the thing in her hand tightened as her whole body tensed again. Eddie noticed and hopped back hurriedly with his hands raised up. He smiled benignly at her.

"What is this? What did you call me?" Chrissy asked, gesturing the thing in her hand.

"That," Eddie said in a tone far too chipper for the graveyard and pile of dust nearby, "is a stake, commonly used to fight vampires. And you, cheer queen, are now the slayer. Congrats! Now c'mon, you should talk to my uncle."

Eddie bent down to pick up a black tin lunchbox he must've dropped earlier and then started to saunter off.

"I'm not going anywhere with you," Chrissy squeaked. "Are you kidding me? I just got attacked and I stabbed someone and, and, and what the fuck is a slayer?"

Chrissy was not proud at how her words ended in a shriek, but the last hour had been very very stressful and she thought she was entitled to a little hysteria. Eddie halted and turned around. His face softened for a moment.

"I get it, it's been really scary so far," he said, more kindly than before. "Being a slayer is no joke, I know, but you'll feel better after talking to my uncle. Hopefully."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Chrissy hiccuped. She felt her eyes get teary again. Eddie huffed, his patience clearly wearing thin but trying to keep it under wraps.

"Look, do you want to stay here all alone? In a graveyard? At night?"

"N-no."

"Then let's go."

Eddie stalked off. Chrissy hurried after him, a deathgrip still on the stake he had thrown at her.

"What were you doing here anyway?" she asked. Eddie rattled the lunchbox he held.

"The ambience here is good for business. Jocks keep their transactions short, with minimal threats. Especially after a winning game. Your boytoy do you proud?" Eddie slanted his eyes at her and waggled his eyebrows. Chrissy grimaced at the phrasing but shook her head.

"No, Steve scored the winning shot. I think he's in your grade?"

"Steeeve Harrington," Eddie drawled with derision. "Of course he did. Douchebag's going to be insufferable."

"Hey," Chrissy protested. She liked Steve. He was funny and he treated all the cheerleaders respectfully, unlike some of the other jocks. "Steve's a nice guy. He's sweet."

"Ha! Hate to break it to you, cheer queen, but there's no way a guy that loaded and that pretty is anything but a douchebag," Eddie snorted.

"So you think he's pretty?" Chrissy snarked back, feeling oddly defensive of Steve. True, Steve could get...prickly...sometimes, but she'd also seen him stop to help a middle school kid find his missing lizard or whatever it was, so she knew he wasn't all that bad.

Eddie stumbled and his cheeks pinked.

"I never said that," he spluttered, eye darting at her and away very quickly. "It's, it's just what all the girls say about him. And he's always strutting around everywhere expecting everyone to fawn over him like he's some kind of Prince Charming. It's distracting. Uh, annoying, I mean."

Oh. Chrissy thought of the trumpet girl in the school band and how she always managed to catch Chrissy's attention no matter what she was doing. The way the girl smiled at her bandmates, the way her brow furrowed while playing...Chrissy felt herself flush, too. Well, that was something to tuck away in a mental box to think about later. Much later. Like, maybe in ten years later. She wondered if Eddie the Freak Munson had a mental box like hers too.

The silence stretched awkwardly between them as they exited the graveyard. Eddie opened the door to his van and bowed dramatically at her as she levered herself in. He made his way around the vehicle and clambered into the driver's seat. The old thing started up on the second try. As Eddie jolted them along the empty road and headed towards the trailer park, it occurred to Chrissy she should ask.

"Why would your uncle be able to help me?"

"You mean aside from being the best guy in all of Hawkins? He used to be a Watcher. He knows how all this goes."

That answered absolutely nothing. Chrissy frowned but kept quiet. She had a feeling Eddie wouldn't say any more about it until they'd met with Wayne Munson anyway.