Winifred "Winny" Smith, a black slave from Barbados, is a popular visitor to the dreams of Slayers.  This tale perhaps explains why. 

The Gift

Virginia, 1715
 

She felt the weight of her body bear down upon her, the dark blood that dripped slowly from her lips gave her the strong taste of copper on her tongue. Death was coming. Of this much she was certain. Her opponent was strong, so much stronger than those that came before him. This creature was legendary, he was feared and worshipped by vampires throughout Europe and the Americas. Her watcher, called him Lothos. She would fight the fight, until her time as slayer would end; as soon as it may be.

Winny searched the dirt ground for her stake, which had fallen from her grasp when the beast knocked her to the ground. She found her weapon a few meters away, she somersaulted to it's location and picked it up from the dusty ground on which she crouched. She stood and faced Lothos, whose long red hair blew softly in the night breeze. The light of the full moon illuminated his figure, making it seem as if he was as dark as the night sky. She firmed her bearings, feeling the blunt pebbles under her feet, and tightened the grip on her stake.

"Courageous, I like that in my meals, makes the blood taste so much better." said Lothos.

"This," she began "Is one meal you won't enjoy." she warned.

He revealed his ivory white fangs with a smile of victory. She did a series of somersaults and flips until they were equal distance apart. She positioned the stake in her hand, so that she could feel the point in her palm. She lifted her arm and threw the stake square at the centre of his chest. He skilfully deflected the weapon by merely smacking it to the ground. Winny seemed worried, she searched the grounds of the plantation and found a wooden hoe and put it in her hands. She snapped the bottom of the hoe off, so now she had a long, roughly made spear. She bobbed around the towering vampire, searching for a spot to stab him enough so that she could dust him.

Seeing no opportune spot, she twirled and banged the stick into the back of his head, knocking him off balance.

"You little bitch." he hissed.

She tried to bear the stake down on him, but he grabbed her arms and pushed her back. She delivered a snap kick to his face but he grabbed her foot and twisted her ankle, she screamed in pain and twirled out of his grasp and landed crouching on the ground. Lothos came up behind her, her pants made the sound of blood pumping away throughout her body, made his mouth water. He grabbed her by the neck, and threw her into a nearby tree. She collapsed to the ground with brutal force, and fell unconscious.

 

***

She awoke a few minutes later, and the first thing she saw was the view of the entire plantation, she could see the slave quarters, where many of her friends and family danced and sang tribal songs around a bright fire. She saw the barns and then she look to her left and saw the great house where her master and his mistress lived. She looked down, and saw Lothos and another vampire, one she had never seen before, he had long hair as dark as the sky, and he was dressed in upper class cloth, perhaps that of a merchant. She could see that he was dancing around his master and mumbling gibberish.

"Well, take one last look, slayer, this will be the night you draw your final breath." said Lothos. This worried Winny, she didn't now how, but she knew she would soon die. All of a sudden, she saw two brightly lit torches beneath the stake upon which she was bound to. The unknown vampire, removed a dagger from his jacket, and took it to his arm. The deep cut caused his blood to spill all over. He put it to the wood beneath her feet and let it run, then proceeded to do the same to the ground.

"My thanks, dear Amilyn," Lothos said, and Amilyn bowed to his feet.

"You are most welcome, master," he responded.

"Now, my dear Winifred," Lothos said, waving his torch about "Where is that lovely old hag of a watcher of yours? Out trying to collect more chicken bones for her voodoo spells, perhaps?" Lothos laughed, and soon Amilyn joined. Winny closed her eyes at the memory of Jawanda, a slave from Barbados, and her watcher. She remembers the night, about two days previous, when she witnessed this vampire fight through the protection barrier of her home and rip her watcher to shreds.

Lothos and Amilyn, now over their fit of laughter, lit the stake at her feet. The fire took some time to start spreading upwards. As it did, she remembers the day she was stolen from her Barbados home and sold to a heartless southern banker. The day her parents were sent to the North, along with her two brothers. She recalls the day when her sister, Cynthia married a fellow slave named Tom, and the day her watcher began training her at the meagre age of eleven.

The inferno had intensified, the flames burned her dress and she could feel the flames on her skin and wished that she could die that instant. Her eyes teared from the agony, she looked up into the sky, and saw a bright light; and bathed in this light was a vast array of girls of all shapes and sizes, from all across the globe. She recognized them from her lifelong dreams as past slayers. Some were white as a cloud, and others were as dark as night.

"Thank you...." she said weakly, "thank you all for giving me this gift," she ended.

She closed her eyes and drew her final breath.

The End