Drabbles rock. They've become part of my writing exercise bag of tricks.

Aaaaand, last of three on the Autumn theme:

Old Blood

The pumpkin sits on a hideous diner-style table in a motel just outside Lincoln, Nebraska.

They'd had slipped away from the group long since dubbed "Rupert's Travelling Medicine Show", and gone to a local market. They chose the pumpkin; they even remembered a votive candle to light its snaggletoothed, empty-socketed head.

Now, staring at it, Buffy swears. "Damn," she says, "we forgot a carving tool."

"No prob, B." Faith rummages through her surviving wardrobe, and produces a knife; the blade is stained with old blood.

The two Slayers look at each other for a silent moment, each remembering too much.

Jeebus, Deb. You oughta be published.

Oh, yeah ... nifty how that works, eh?

Karl funneee.

I always wondered what ever happened to that knife - the one the Mayor gave Faith, that Buffy used on her and then used to lure the Mayor with it. I'd like to think it was found in the rubble of the school when Xander oversaw the rebuild, and that it found its way back to Faith.

Hey, cool. I'm glad you like it. I was afraid it was a little too morbid, maybe too dramatic? But I'm glad it worked.

Were the interludes too jarring? This was the kind of story that gets written in a mad fury at two am, and I don't really have enough perspective to see how it works.

But it's not too dark?

SA, how could it be too dark? This is the other side of the perspective: the girl with no warning, no Watcher to clue her in, nothing except a body she's spent years rigorously training and that now is completely betraying her.

Lyra, I meant to comment on your drabbles before I was sucker-punched by SA and lost my train of thought, entirely.

I liked them a great deal, most specifically, I think, because they were unique and individual to the subjects. I mean, for example, you could have made Wes's specific to him without bringing in his history, but you grounded it in who he is and where he's from.

Deb, those were very nice indeed. I like when you channel Drusilla especially.

Erika, very nice. I like your Kay. She's not a white bread kind of girl.

SA, I was startled, at first, by how deeply the crushing of the cell phone affected the new slayer, and by how long it took her to move. I don't know if you intended it, but my impression was that she was there an achingly long time (a good portion of a full day?), staring at the telephone. I got into it, though, after that and just let it carry me along. It was extremely effective, and very dark, but I don't know how it could be too dark. It's one of those stories that you might have been able to make lighter, but if you changed it now, it would feel as if you were pulling punches rather than improving the story. To me, that says it's where it ought to be.

She's not a white-bread kind of girl. No. But she's the one I'm proudest about being told I can write.Cause I don't wanna be a secretary with a gun. Or a hack with a word processor either. And the badfic is most cruel with her. We tough girls that don't wear much makeup have to look out for each other.

Babe, speaking as a tough girl who does occasionally - very occasionally - wear makeup? I have Kay Howard's back. I called NBC and screamed the place down when they wrote her off the show. Fucking morons.

Okay, cool. I'm glad it came off so well. I was pretty satisfied, really.