For What You Are

Kara stared at a single mark on the wall with an intense concentration. Closing her eyes, she rolled her head from side to side and focused on her hearing. She extended it outwards, across the road, four streets away until it began to fade.

Opening her eyes, Kara stood up and breathed deep before turning to the door and running out of the room and arriving at the backyard fence in less than a second.

With ever widening eyes, she looked around the garden for something to break. What brought on this sudden urge? Well, nothing other than a surge of strength she suddenly felt. So she punched a rock…and the sixty centimetre immovable boulder snapped cleanly in two.

And it didn’t even hurt.

Staring at her hand vaguely, she walked back inside slowly just as the front door opened and closed.

“Kara?” Ally’s voice called as Kara heard her put her bag on the bench. “Are you here?”

“Yeah,” Kara replied, walking to Ally purposely slower than she now knew she could. If she herself was being freaked out, how was Ally going to feel?

“Are you busy tonight?” she asked, “I was thinking of attempting to cook.”

“Sounds cool,” Kara responded. “But I might turn in early.”

“Well, it’ll be ready at about seven, assuming nothing goes wrong.”

“Here’s hoping,” she said with a smile as she walked down the corridor into her room.

Mainly because she’d heard her phone vibrating on her bedside table. This time, rather than getting a strange phone call from a private number, she had a text message.

“‘Powers awoken then?’” she read at a whisper. “‘Meet me out by the hiking track near Fell’s Church. Two minutes.’”

Glancing out her window towards the forest, she covered her ears as she heard the sound of Ally pulling pots and pans out of the cupboards in the kitchen.

“Control it,” Kara muttered to herself, breathing in and out deeply, feeling the strength of her hearing dissipating. “Ally! I’m going out. I’ll be back in about ten minutes.” She hoped.

“All right,” Ally responded. “Can you close the front door, it’s a bit cold.”

“Sure,” Kara replied, walking outside. Looking up and down the deserted street she looked towards the forest and began walking. And walking faster. Jogging, sprinting and then running quicker than if she was flying.

Looking around, she searched with high definition vision for the hiking track by Fell’s Church. After a minute she caught sight of it and within five seconds she was there.

So was someone else.

“Elena?” Kara asked. “You’re the one who gave me the bracelet.”

“So not completely awoken then,” she replied, completely ignoring what Kara had said. “I gave you the bracelet; that should have helped. I didn’t expect Damon’s compulsion to be that strong. Oh well, mine’s stronger.”

In the blink of an eye, she was in front of Kara and she was shocked. “What are you,” Kara started but was cut off as she spoke.

“Kara James,” she said. “Forget everything that has been said to you and taken from you by Jayne Perrin or any vampire that has come your way. Kara James – You are a slayer.”

It was like a wave receding in her head as everything that compressed her memories was finally washed away. And rather than feeling like all of her real memories were flooding her head and making her sick, when she finally blinked, it seemed like she was seeing the world with new eyes.

Kara realised that what she’d thought was her remembering a few days ago, was nothing in comparison to this. 1102 years. And about 500 years ago she’d met a certain vampire. A certain bitchy vampire who – through circumstances that she refused to let be known – she owed. Big time.

“Are we back?”

“Unfortunately,” Kara replied. “What is it this time Katherine?”