Down Twisted
by drkdreamer
chapter 18
[reviews]
Alexandra Roberts awoke just as her wristwatch signaled it was 5:30 a.m. The dark woman was somberly grinning knowing that the time had finally come to prepare herself for the impending battle with Skyton. Those next minutes where spent slipping into her black jeans and shirt, making the bed and, then, double checking to make sure her weapon's where in working order. Alex simply couldn't resisting to gently caressing the grip of her Dad's gun before tucking it into the waistband of her jeans. The metal though, cool against her flesh, made the woman chuckle because it could not compare to the utter coldness that permeated inside her own heart. The Southerner was smiling as she made damn sure to check the sharpness of the blade before strapping the hunting knife to her belt. Her darkening gaze then fell upon the crossbow that Rupert Giles had so thoughtfully loaned to her. The older man had also gifted her with a small cache of wooden arrows after assuring her that this particular weapon had saved the Scooby Brigade on far too numerous occasions.
There was the faintest hint of a smirk crossing the Southerner's lips as she gave thought to Giles. She could sense a deep chasm of darkness hidden beneath his genial exterior add to that, she adored his dry, sardonic sense of humor. Alex wisely took a seat upon the cold, hard floor and tried to clear her mind of everything. She focused solely upon her baby's killer and successfully banished all thoughts concerning Buffy, Willow or the rest of the Scooby group, Cordilia and Angel included. Thinking about them would only hasten her own demise and Alex bloody well knew she couldn't afford herself the luxury of thinking along those thoughts. Her quarry, much like the other serial killers of his yoke, seemed to possess above average intelligence. He would zero in on any aberrations to her killing frame of mind and she damn well knew that would led to the end of her life. After about 10 minutes of centering herself, Alex took one last look at her comfortable surroundings then headed out to her car. The dark woman sucked in a deep breath of cool morning air, forever grateful that LA's smog was many miles away. She unlocked the door, slid into the driver's seat and popped in one of her many self made cassettes. Alex Robert's was fully aware of the darkly cynical grin that lit up her face as she started her car and said tape began to play.
It was a special tape, made of the eve of her 30th birthday. A few years prior, Alex had taken a good look at her mass amount of songs she'd collected thru the ages and made a short list of the very one's that totally rocked her world. It was this tape that was playing as she backed out the driveway and began driving towards her eventual destination. Par for the course, it was a radical mix, consisting of tunes from the late 70's to early 90's. A began with: "Breakaway" by Big Pig, "Come Again" from Damn Yankee's, "Slow An' Easy" from White Snake, "Like I Do", Melissa Etheridge, "Chains of Love", Erasure, "I Hate Myself For Loving You", Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, "It's Not Love" by Dokken, "People Are People" by Depeche Mode, "Anytime" by McAuley Schenker Group, "Jukebox Hero", by Foreigner and ended with "Life In The Fastlane" from the Eagles. B started with: "Ooh la lA" by David Hallyday, "Heartbreaker", Pat Benatar, "Renegade", Styx, "Clearnight, Moonlight", Golden Earring, "I Want It All", Queen, "The Stroke", Billy Squier, "Free Your Mind", En Vogue, "Rock of Ages", Def Leppard, "Yesterday's Heroes", Bay City Rollers, "Color Me Once", The Violent Femmes and came to a close with "Hair of the Dog" from Nazareth.
Alex gladly let the music invade every small space within herself, perversely Glad that there seemed to be some sort of emotion welling up within her. It took precisely 20 minutes for the woman to drive into the decaying part of Sunnydale's downtown district. The dark woman's car came to a stop, she got out and fixed her burning gaze upon the second story window that housed Scott's killer. Some infinitesimal thing in the morning air told Alex that Skyton wasn't, yet, home. It was with a bitterly hard cast to her lips that the seething woman made her way into the abandoned apartment building.
The musty smell of decay was rich in the stale air but the dark woman paid it no heed. She continued walking, with purposeful strides, to the door that hid the way to the second story hallway. The woman headed straight for Skyton's abode but then hesitated at the front door. Her first thought had been to simply ambush that bastard as soon as he opened said door, Alex panned that idea.
There where unsolved killings in places Skyton had frequented and she was burning to know if any of those happened to be his handiwork. The dark woman began to scout around and, as Fate would decree it, her gaze settled upon the apartment located directly across from Skyton's own. The front door was missing, offering her the fortuitous chance to size up her prey before launching herself into attack mode. Decision made, Alex walked into the quiet stillness of the apartment and settled herself back against the far wall. It happened to be just a shade lighter than pitch black inside the apartment and she could only hope that her baby's butcher wouldn't be able to detect her presence in the near gloom. Alexandra Katherine Roberts simply waited there, as still as the air itself, and she began to reassess the wide and varied ways to kill a man within the confines of her tightly focused brain. Nothing, not the gloomy darkness nor the mostly overpowering stench of the place could detract the dark woman from her grievous task.
I don't care how long it takes, was her only other thought, one way or another this all ends today!