A Chapter Ends
Two bags: a carry-on and a suitcase
Are packed and waiting by the door.
Destination?
New York, New York. One first class ticket out of Vegas.

I've found new employment.

No selling books in a sand-trap town.
No slinging drinks behind a greasy bar.
No chasing demon piss out of a urinal with a bucket of bleach.
No carrying a badge that weighs 50 goddamn pounds
(karmic included).

I've got an advance in my hip pocket.
All I've got to do is show up, exercise my god-given ability to
Vanquish the monsters,
Keep the peace,
Be the right kind of Slayer.

God knows it seems like there's fewer of Us
Despite there being more.

I want to tell them
'Wake up, girls. The choice is gone.'
This is necessary.
We are the Trailblazers, the ones who'll show the world
That they don't have to live in fear.
We'll protect them, like we've always protected them.
We'll show them the faces of their saviors as well as the damned.

Hey, Whistler,
How am I supposed to get weapons on a plane?

Just a few days, here and there,
That I'll be gone.
I've made the decision to stay in Las Vegas,
At least for now.
I can't desert this city,
My city,
Our city,
Right as things get so dark.

I watch the taillights, a long chain of
Red. I see them go their separate ways.
I'd be lying if I said
It didn't hurt me. Not from some twisted sense of their
Obligation, but because I've come to love them.

But I don't need them.

That's not an insult. It's the biggest compliment I've ever given myself.
I'm standing on my own.
I am capable of turning my back to
Anything, even
Her,
My foolish way of being a dependent girl inside an independent woman
Is beginning to disappear.

But I'm not alone.
Whistler, my sense of home,
Connor, my friend, not just a
Fighter by my side.
Joseph, my great love, is staying here with me.

I'm so much more than I was when I arrived.
I've got so much more left to go.

-R