Nika stood on a street corner, the light of the street lamp lit up a small area where one of the many payphones was. Nika held the sleek black telephone to her ear.

"I definately think we should try the date thing again." Vick said on the other end of the phone.

"Yeah, it'd be fun I promise. No jumping out of windows this time too."

"Aww, but that was the best ice breaker I've ever seen."

Nika laughed and turned herself around. Creeping into the light was a vampire, a fresh vampire, he was still wearing his suit. It was matted with dirt.

"Hey Vick could you hold on a second." Nika asked

"Sure no problem."

Nika dropped the phone and prepared to fight the vampire who stood before her. The vampire charged at her. Nika kneed the vampire in the stomach, he fell to the ground.

Nika picked up the phone again "So tomorrow?"

"2 o'clock sound alright?"

Nika looked at the vampire who was now getting himself up.

"Hey Vick, we'll talk later, bye."

The world seemed to go in slow motion as the vampire punched past Nika's head and into the payphone which fell to pieces. Nika swung the phone and hit the vamp in the head, he rolled and snarled curling his nose.

Nika grabbed the stake from within her boot and staked the vampire in the chest. She smiled and wiped a strand of loose hair from her forehead. She turned to patrol the dark streets of Jolten once again.

Depression hung over Jolten like a thick fog that seeped into every house. Nobody really noticed how much the sun was taked for granted.

Paige walked alone on the docks. She sighed and breathed in the salty air which resignated in her nose for quite some time. As she walked around one column of towering freights she noticed two vampires ushering people from a looming monotonous ship. She fell back and peered from around the column.

'Well should I go for it?' She asked herself. After little thought Paige walked our carrying the long spear-like object she often brought on her patrols with her.

"Well, well... what's all this then?" Paige asked.

The two vampires looked at Paige.

"You think you can treat people like cattle?"

"What people?" One of the vampires asked.

It was like a wave of ugly spread across the crowd, one by one the "people" turned into vampires and stared at Paige as she stood alone infront of the vampire army.

"Bloody hell..." Paige muttered to herself.

The army began to charge at Paige. She stood her ground and let the spear slide down her arm. As the front line hit her she wung the spike stabbing a vampire in the chest and launching him over her head. Paige couldn't take it, there were too many of the vampires for her to handle alone. Pushing her way through the growing crowd, she broke into a run to escape.

Paige must've ran halfway to the warehouse before she realised the vampire mob was no longer chasing her. Why were there so many, she wondered and even more curious, why were they coming off a ship, the vampires could turn anybody in the town. Was it just for numbers? Paige continued to walk and ponder.

Below the city, in his not-so-secret lair The Horseman stared into a basin of black water-like substance.

"It's still cluded!" He yelled "Why is it still clouded? I've done everything right. If I want to raise hell and bring the earth to it's knees I'm going to need to find who the gatekeeper is so I can get them out of the way."

The horseman took a knife from his side and drew it across his hand. Blood began to ooze from the wound and dipped it into the basin. He grabbed a glass bottle from a nearby crevice and popped the top. He looked to his vampire companion.

"The last of the gatekeeper blood."

The horseman retracted his hand and emptied the bottle into the basin. Sparks and a loud "POP" followed. A small grey mushroom cloud floated above the basin.

The horseman coughed and swayed the smoke aside with his hand. The basin cleared and the black water faded and rippled. A face appeared in the water, the horseman smiled and looked at his vampire companion.

"We know now, gather them, find his name. We're going to find him and kill him."

"Yes master. I'll set out straight away." The companion looked at the image which hovered in the basin and swiftly walked away.

Another day, another dark, dreary, lightless day began in Jolten. Bianca sat on her bed awake, she stared down at a broken axe shaft she held in her hand. It had been her weapon of choice in Sunnydale. She wasn't quite sure why she had kept it, nostalgia she guessed. It was the first thing she had used as a slayer.

Bianca sighed and put the remnants of the axe back under her bed and walked from her room to the kitchen. She was shocked to see all the girls were already up, dressed and chatting. They even looked like they were about to go patrolling.

"Good morning"Bianca said.

"It's quarter after one Bianca." Mona said and rolled her eyes.

"In the afternoon." Nika added.

"Oh..." Bianca looked away "Kind of hard to tell I guess. So are you all going out?"

"Yeah, it's kind of fun to patrol whenever you want, the mortallity rate's a downer though." Mona replied

"So I suppose we'll see you later." Paige said and ushered the slayers out the door.

Nika walked to the cafem the window was boarded up and a closed sign decorated the door. Within minutes of her arrival Vick showed up.

"So looks like we're going somewhere else." Vick said as a greeting.

"Yeah, I suppose the whole, jumping through windows thing didn't fair well."

"So where are we gonna go?" Vick questioned.

The pair walked into the empty McDonalds. The fluorescent lights buzzed in the background. Nika and Vick sat in the the booth at the McDonalds.

"Not as romantic as I'd hoped." Vick piped.

"It's ok, not many places are open during perma-darkness."

"That's what I love about you."

Nika smiled coyly. "What?"

"You're so mysterious yet you make the best of everything."

Nika blushed and played with a greasy fry which had fallen from the red carton.

In the dark streets a crowd was forming. A group of vampires, about twenty of them began marching down the vacant streets of Jolten, they knew who they were going to get, they knew exactly where he was.

"So what's new since the last time I saw you?" Nika asked

"Not much, been writing lots lately."

"Ooh cool. Do you get inspiration from hell on earth?" Nika joked.

"I guess maybe. Nightmares mostly. I've been having these really vivid dreams. Like I'm somebody else. Then there's this guy, this massive guy, he's always chasing me."

Nika's smile faded."Vick, this guy, what does he look like?"

"He's really tall, big, he was wearing a hood. It was weird. I saw you in a dream, killing all these monsters, vampires I think, in some sort of nightclub." Vick laughed.

"Listen Vick, you need to come with me. You're in some major danger."

The doors burst open of the McDonalds. The lead vampire was the same from The Reaper,

"Let's Party." he said and smiled at Nika.

THE END