For more information on the site, please visit http://members.fortunecity.com/jawanza (home of Doomed Productions) for the latest DSV news.

• "Isis McCafery."

(Jasmine) Previously on Doomed – Story of a Vampire…

• Isis was a metamorphic demon. She had the ability to transform into different demons after draining the blood out of the creature, and absorbing its DNA to transform into the creature. Isis’s smirk and revealed a couple of sharp teeth. Isis gripped the vampire and squeezed her tight and suddenly opened up her mouth to reveal five large rows of sharp, long teeth. Isis snarled and sunk her teeth into the vampire’s neck.
• …It was then that Jerrold noticed Sabrina and her mirror. Her mirror was a little off and the reflection caught the glimpse of Sabrina’s face. She released a blood-chilling scream, as Jerrold gave a confused look and realized that he had vamped out in the middle of the class.
• "…Dominique Washington…" Jerrold and Dominique had a somewhat romantic relationship that previous school year, but due to some "problems" Jerrold was having, he decided it was best if they took somewhat of a break for a while, though but both deadly liked each other.
• "And I know you’ve had problems with that whole breakup with Dominique and all," explained Sabrina, "and then there’s was that whole April thing you had to deal with last year-" "Hey!" protested Jerrold. "I never dated April!" "Yeah, I was gonna say that April went all stalker-like last year."
• Angelique Lawrence was quite a powerful witch and he would often seek help from her when performing spells like this. Though he had to be extremely discreet because Jasmine, Angelique’s younger sister who was in his class, from time to time saw him passing by and she’d quickly get suspicious—especially since her best friend was Dominique.
• Dominique wanted Jasmine (who had been her best friend for many years) to get along with Isis, since they were both moving to San Francisco, and going to school at Hawthorne High School. Though shopping was somewhat of a lame "bonding activity" for Isis and Jasmine.
• Angelique’s cool smile covered her beautiful face. It was possibly the magicks taking affect, but it wasn’t sure. Sadly, that feeling didn’t stay with him within the next few seconds. He could see something twinkling in Angelique’s eyes as it did. Slowly, her features hardened, as Angelique’s forehead seemed to thicken, becoming more animalistic. Her beautiful, light brown eyes turned to bright, piercing, yellowing eyes. Her teeth lengthened and sharpened, as the full-vampire slowly walked towards the half-vampire. "They killed you." Jay could feel something surge through Angelique. Angelique cried out in pain, her face changing back to her almost innocent human face, as she began to shake and in a split second she began to disintegrate and exploded into a cloud of dust.
• Jasmine knew that something was different about her… the civatateo had unlocked some untold power she never knew she had Staring down at Angelique’s journals (filled with incantations, spells, diary entries, maybe a secret or two about a boy), Jasmine knew she’d find the answers.

It was just another humid summer night in Sunnydale, California. No cover over at the Bronze, kids heading home after a strenuous day of sitting around and doing nothing or dealing with the torment of summer school, and of course the usual rounds of nightly slayage.

That last bit mainly applied to a select few, mainly the Vampire Slayer and her Slayerettes, but also Jerrold Irvine Smith, for he was the Doomed Vampire. Buffy Summers, the current Slayer, was off patrolling elsewhere in the city, most likely with her beau, Riley Finn, while Jerrold decided to stake out a few of the cemeteries to see if there was any unusual activity.

Jerrold usually had nightly patrolling when he lived in his flat, with his temporary guardians living in the flat beneath him. But after a recent vampire attack—which resulted in the deaths of his guardians, as well as the destruction of his home—Jerrold was now staying with his friend Jasmine, who had recently become a part of the world of slayage and magicks and vampires. So, it was beginning to become more difficult to slip out to patrol at night, and he couldn’t stay out as late as he had hoped too.

Basically, Jerrold just had to hope that the Slayer was doing her job tonight.

In one of Sunnydale’s twelve cemeteries, Jerrold quickly and quietly patrolled, keeping an eye out for any vampires or any possible wandering victims—because even though he considered it slightly immoral, the wanderers were often times good bait. But tonight for some reason, the cemeteries of Sunnydale were silent.

He didn’t know what was happening elsewhere, like all the way down at the Fish Tank or maybe even up by Main Street, but the cemetery closest to Jasmine’s home was safe. That at least meant something.

Until he stepped out of the silent cemetery and sensed a strange presence quickly flushed over him. Jerrold hesitated for a moment, beginning to turn back towards the cemetery when he noticed a small gathering of people approaching—about five kids around his age, nothing threatening. In fact, Jerrold was more than certain that the big football-like guy that was leading the little pack was Joshua Jones, who sat in front of him in his history class, which Jerrold was currently making up for with summer classes.

But that wasn’t what was bothering him. He knew there was something out there, but he couldn’t figure out where.

Well, I could always just walk up to them and ask what was wrong, Jerrold thought pensively, you know, just the basic, ‘So, any of them demons been following you guys lately around lately?’ But of course, too easy. He just watched the five quickly approach him, likely to be heading back home after a good night of Bronzing.

Although the Hellmouth wasn’t the best place to wander, at least the five had sense enough to travel in a pack, which was harder to pick on. It was pretty residual, but most citizens of Sunnydale were aware that something was wrong there, and even if they don’t know exactly what, they learn over time.

And as the pack of five passed by Jerrold, the young, dark-skinned boy closed his eyes and allowed his darker self to surface—his demonic side, Jay. The half-vampire released his demonic features in order to heighten his senses in order to confirm his speculation about one of the kids in the group: he was undead. Not necessarily a vampire, but the kid was excessively pale, an odor radiated from him, and various other things hinted at what the boy had now become.

Zombie. Any demon or vampire could easily detect the creature’s presence. But apparently Joshua lacked that instinct.

At first, as Jay reverted back to Jerrold, his human side, the Doomed Vampire was hesitant on saying anything. He himself was part demon, and wasn’t all for killing demons, and actually knew several zombies who had made it in today’s world. But as he watched them pass by, the dark feeling started to return to him and that’s when he realized that they weren’t alone anymore.

From down the street came horrendous hollering and hooting of a trio of guys—college-looking guys, that resembled the older version of the jocks that stood before Jerrold—with their yellow eyes locked on Joshua and his friends.

"Damn," cursed Jerrold, as he watched the gang of vampires quickly approached Joshua and his friends. Jerrold would have intervened if Joshua hadn’t started shouting at the vampires, attempting to signal them over. Trying not to draw attention toward himself, Jerrold remained still and watched from a distance. He leaned against a building and strained to hear, but he was out of his regular hearing range, so he vamped out and allowed Jay settled in.

"Jones!" shouted the leader of the vampires, making their way towards Joshua’s group. "What brings you around these parts, Josh? Wasn’t our last warning good enough for you, or do we haveta spell it out for you?" The vampire gaze turned to the other people in Joshua’s group, who seemed less aware as to what was happening. Unlike Joshua, they all seemed frightened and scared, unsure of what stood before them.

All except the zombie.

"Not one for warnings," replied Joshua sternly. "I’d get out of town if I were you, Rick. There’re a lot of things in this town that would happily kill you."

Why aren’t you running? thought an aggravated Jay. You’re putting your friends’ lives in danger just to bicker?

"Lemme guess, you’re one of them?" Rick looked Joshua up and down before breaking down with laughter. The leading vampire slowly pulled himself together, looking back at Joshua, just as Joshua’s resurrected friend stepped from behind the large football player. The vampire’s instantly stopped when his yellow eyes fell upon the zombie. "Nathan… you-you’re…alive?"

"More or less," murmured the boy, once known as Nathan.

It took the half-vampire a moment to recognize him, but that was Nathan Baxter. He wasn’t in summer school with Nathan, but Jay remembered him from graduation at Sunnydale Junior High School. He hadn’t known Nathan all that well, but he did recall that Nathan hung around with Daniel Jenkins and several other kids that guys like Joshua called "The Outcasts"—which wasn’t all that original. So why on earth was Nathan with Joshua now?

Rick growled viciously, glancing back at the two lackeys that stood behind him, then glancing back at Nathan. "If you ‘survived’ then why are you with him!" roared Rick.

Okay, so I’m not the only one in the dark here, thought Jay, starting to reach for his dagger-stake. But I have a feeling this isn’t going to end well…

"Okay Rick," said Nathan confidently—a big change from the Nathan that Jerrold once knew, "how about you and your lackeys back off."

Rick gave another growl, stepping in towards Nathan now—completely forgetting about Joshua—standing face to face with the other undead creature. "Now why do that, with all your little friends huddled right over there? Besides, if I could get you once before…" Rick slowly glanced to his left and then to his right, and then looked back at Nathan and Joshua. From the angle Jay was at, it was impossible to tell what Rick had been looking at, but it was a good chance that it was probably more lackeys set up for an ambush of some sort.

"Fine." At this point, Joshua had decided to back up, and was cowering next to his other three friends, while he waited for Nathan to join him. But Nathan had taken things into his own hands, as he released a powerful punch that threw Rick back into the two vampires.

Shouting with rage swelling over him, Rick gave a loud, demonic, roar that echoed throughout the bare streets of Sunnydale. That’s when two vampires dropped from the roof of the building Jay was hiding behind, down onto the street and started at Joshua and his friends.

Cue. With his red eyes flaring, the half-vampire rushed into view as two of Rick’s lackeys approached Joshua and his crew. Moving swiftly and silently with his stake in his hand, the Doomed Vampire rushed the two vampires. Jay tackled one, shoving the vamp to the ground, and quickly staked the other before it could attack. Jay turned towards Joshua, Nathan, and the other three guys, quickly shouting, "Run! Now!"

Joshua and Nathan both stood their ground, but their friends all screamed in horror—if not from the vampire that had just exploded into dust, then most likely from Jay’s demonic face. Their friends ran in the opposite direction from where Jay was standing, while Nathan waited for Rick to rise back up to the ground.

Jay watched as Joshua tried to grab Nathan’s arm and pull him away from Rick and the other two vampires, but he just wouldn’t back down. Nathan gave a low grunt he pushed Joshua off of him and rushed towards Rick and the other two lackeys, except that this time, Rick was ready for him. The vampire hit the zombie with a deadly kick, nailing Nathan in the stomach and causing him to fall back onto Joshua.

"Go," ordered Rick, glancing back at his two remaining lackeys. "Now!"

The two vampires complied and quickly started to chase after Joshua’s other three friends that were attempting to escape. Nathan was already up again and kicked Rick in the stomach, slamming the vamp to the ground. The zombie was about to attack Rick, when Joshua grabbed its shoulder again.

Jay wanted to help, but the Doomed Vampire couldn’t do a single thing, as the second vampire that he had stopped arose from the ground, and grabbed Jay by the shoulder. His attention moved away from Rick, Nathan, and the rest of the vampires, toward his own problem. The half-vampire spun around and nailed his elbow into the vampire’s face. He readied his stake and quickly jabbed at the vampire, but the demon saw what was coming and grabbed Jay’s dagger-stake and with the butt of the jump hit the half-vamp in the stomach.

Jay moaned, dropping his stake to the ground and grabbing his stomach in pain. The wind was completely knocked out of him, and the young half-vampire grabbed his head as his vision started to blur. It wasn’t just the vampire’s attack that was doing this, something else was happening to him.

His vision started to refocus, but the Doomed Vampire wasn’t even in Sunnydale anymore. Jay was standing outside of an ever so familiar house, completely dark and unlit—except in the room of the girl…the girl Jay had known all too well—back in 1914. It was the night he had first met her…

Then the vampire’s fist connected with Jay’s face, bringing him out of the brief vision. The sneering vampire threw another punch at the half-vampire, before he could pull himself back together. The demon growled and threw another series of punches, before the demon just kind of chuckled and snapped a kick that brought Jay to the ground.

The Doomed Vampire slowly started to lift his head up, concentrating to push away the vision of his past that seemed to be resurfacing. And as he did, he saw the two vampires gaining on Joshua’s friends that had come out with him that night. Still trying to get up, Jay watched as one of the vampires grabbed on of the fleeing guys and he started screaming in terror.

But Jay’s focused returned to the vampire attacking him, as the creature kicked him in his side, pain searing through his body. The half-vampire roared, completely forgetting about the fleeing kids, allowing his demonic instincts take over. He turned on his side and snapped a kick, hitting the vamp in the back of the knee and driving the demon to the ground. Jay quickly pulled himself back up, just as the screaming ceased.

Fighting off the two vampires was the familiar figure of Riley Finn, the boyfriend of the Slayer. Although he was handling himself pretty well, Riley was just buying Joshua’s friends time to escape by holding them off, but it didn’t seem like he would be able to slay them. Plus, Joshua and Nathan had both seemed to disappear, while Jay saw Rick staggering away from the fight.

Still buzzing with anger and rage, Jay lunged at the vamp that had attacked him and pinned the demon to the ground. Viciously, Jay repeatedly punched the vampire, but it didn’t hold the demon off as it countered with another punch that sent the half-vampire stumbling back to the ground, landing next to his dagger-stake. The vampire—not aware of the stake—revealed a pleasant grin and rushed towards the Doomed Vampire. In a swift motion, Jay grabbed the stake and stuck it out towards the vampire and it simply rushed into the dagger-stake. Before the vampire could fully comprehend what had happened, the demon had exploded into dust.

Jay sighed and headed towards Riley and the other two vampires. Both Rick and Nathan had escaped, but at least these three would be safe. As for if Joshua would survive Nathan, that the Doomed Vampire didn’t know.

* * * *

Rick had dwelled in Sunnydale for about two years, ever since the demon kind had caught wind of the Mayor’s plans to "ascend" into a demon, although he was forced to lay low because of the government activity that had sprawled through the Hellmouth the following year. And now, after managing to not get caught by the blasted soldiers, the Doomed Vampire—a legendary half-vampire—recently reappeared, allying the Slayer from time to time.

As soon as Rick saw the beady red eyes of the demon, Rick knew that he wasn’t dealing with any regular vampire, and quickly split the scene. Rick wanted to deal with Joshua, but he would deal with him later—first he would have to get back to his gang and find some sort of way to deal with Nathan, who seemed to be protecting Joshua. Then he would take out the—

Rick collided into a tall, stern figure as he turned a corner. The collision forced Rick to the ground, and as he scurried up he almost attacked the man standing before him. The dark figure reminded Rick of the Doomed Vampire, but that sensation simmered away as he examined the man further. He was older, his skin was darker, and Rick seemed to get a different feeling from this vampire.

"Rick, right?" The dark vampire held out his hand towards the demon.

"What’d ya want?" growled Rick, beginning to back away from the vampire.

Dropping his hand back to his side, the vampire side and shook his head. "Man, all you vampires in this town are so crude around here…" The man gave a low snarl as the monster revealed his darker demonic features. His yellow eyes locked onto Rick, and held out his hand again. "Let me put it this way: You have some problems, I have a solution. You’re friendly neighborhood half-vampire that’s giving you trouble, I can help."

"Not exactly giving me trouble," replied Rick, almost sheepishly.

"But he’s a nuisance, right?" The vampire chuckled with amusement and replied, "Don’t lie. I saw him take down your men, allowing those two you were after to get away." Taking another step closer, the vampire murmured, "Now, wouldn’t you like to take them out without the Doomed Vampire interfering."

"What are you getting at?" asked Rick, still refusing to take the demon’s hand.

"Listen, you want Jay out of the way to kill whoever you want," said the vamp, "well I have plan. And it’ll require you, along with several others, to make a brief cameo appearance tomorrow afternoon."

"Afternoon?" murmured Rick skeptically. "With the sun still out?"

The demon smirked. "The name’s Damien Hunt. Follow me tonight and I’ll inform you of my plan—" And that’s when Damien revealed the stake from behind his back "—or you can piece together what else’ll happen."

Rick was hesitant, watching Damien for a moment until he finally grasped the dark vampire’s hand. "What do I have to do?"

"So these are the Doomed Vampire’s nightly activities?" joked Riley, as he and Jerrold walked down the silent streets of Sunnydale. "Would’ve figured it was something more—maybe a girl here and there." The ex-commando patted the younger soldier on his back, as they continued to patrol.

"Oh, well that’s just because I left the girls at home tonight," mocked Jerrold, walking beside Riley "And of course there’s the fact that most of the girls I know are trapped in summer school with me and we have a big ass exam tomorrow morning. Most weren’t lookin’ to party tonight…okay, some wouldn’t mind, but most are asleep."

Riley nodded knowingly, giving a little chuckle. "Ah, exam day. Always painful."

"Ain’t it the truth," muttered Jerrold.

The two turned the corner and started up the street that Jasmine Lawrence lived on. It was going to be a little difficult slipping in and not getting caught—not impossible, just a little hard. And, hopefully, if he did get caught, Jasmine’s parents wouldn’t be too hard on him.

"Yeah, and things aren’t exactly getting better," said Jerrold, "with the whole house collapsing and all." Jasmine’s house was fast approaching, so Jerrold slowed down to finish his conversation with Riley. The Slayer’s beau was somewhat stiff and still very soldier-like, but he was a good guy and he was trying to readjust in the small town of Sunnydale as just an average guy. "But I’ll be off in L.A. soon, so that’ll be a good change. Not that I hate Sunnydale or anything, it’s just…well, not a lot of good happens here. Plus, with my history with the whole Initiative thing, that kinda screwed things over during my stay at the Hellmouth."

Riley instantly became shifty, as the word "Initiative" escaped from Jerrold’s lips. "You mean with Adam and all the demons?"

"No, they were the ones that brought me back as a half-vampire," said Jerrold slowly, suddenly realizing Riley didn’t know all the information yet. "Part of my whole mystical curse thing is that my spirit is eternal and can be reborn into any body—from demon to human. If I became a human, and then that human became a vampire, the powers of the Doomed Vampire would reactivate. So, some Initiative scientists—well, actually pre-Initiative, but they were still in Sunnydale—revived me in the body of a vampire as a pet project. But their operations failed, they shut down, and closed up shop in Sunnydale, up until you all flooded in."

Jerrold cleared his throat, taking a little step back from Riley, asking, "You knew of this, right?"

"I was aware there was some activity before the Initiative was established, but I wasn’t aware of all that," explained Riley, "especially the fact that you were once a project of theirs."

There was a moment of silence between them, before they start walking again. They were quickly approaching Jasmine’s house, so Jerrold figured that he should probably break the silence.

"So how are things with you and Buffy?" questioned Jerrold. "I mean, post-Initiative and all that."

Riley just slowly nodded, and then just slowly shook his head. He hesitated for a moment, and then concluded with a sight and a shrug. "Not really sure. I mean, I know she cares for me, and she knows I for her, but there’s just something that…I just don’t know."

"Tough," noted Jerrold. "Females…what a mystery, huh?"

Riley nodded acknowledgeably. "That they are." He turned to the house that Jerrold momentarily stole a glance at. "That your house?"

"For a couple more days," said Jerrold, with a little smile. "Tell Buffy I said hey. I’ll call her or Giles to check in to see what’s up." Jerrold checked his watch and gave a little shrug. It wasn’t even midnight yet. It was only around eleven o’clock, it wouldn’t look to bad if slipped into the house. Riley departed off towards Main Street, while Jerrold reverted to his vampiric self in order to stealthily scale Jasmine’s house to reach the window to their guest room.

He wasn’t sure how long he had remained awake, but the half-vampire fell into a deep slumber. Not only was he exhausted from his encounter with the vampires and of course the cramming he had done earlier that night, but the visions of his past still seemed to be flooding his mind.

And as he dreamt, the Doomed Vampire’s past began to return to him…

* * * *

The alarm clock started blaring throughout the tiny house, and the agitated demon groaned as she remembered that it was Wednesday—the last day of classes. Even though she had specifically told her mother not to change the alarm, she had set it back a half-hour early, just in case she had to study or eat or something. Of course, this wasn’t the tsudious demon’s actual mother, but she wanted to remain hidden amongst the humans.

Isis McCafery was having some trouble adjusting to her life as a human—or at least posing as one long-term. The metamorphic demon had stolen the life of the girl once known as Isis McCafery while ago and she hadn’t had many problems. But now, recently, she had been experiencing some strange effects from staying in the form of a human for so long, and she was not enjoying them. Plus, she was under a serious amount of stress with the classes she was making up over summer, as well as grief the Slayer and the Doomed Vampire were giving her lately.

And if it wasn’t hard enough to deal with school, the Slayer, and Jerrold, there was still the issue of her mother, who was seriously driving her overboard. Isis didn’t know if she could handle it all.

But everything’s gonna change, thought Isis confidently, just as soon as my ass gets out of Sunnydale and to San Francisco. She sighed, rolling out of bed, and turning off her alarm clock. She wandered through her little room, searching for some clothes to change into, when Isis heard a small rattle on her closed door. She groaned and before Isis could say a word her mothered entered her room, peering around nosily, until her eyes landed on the demon that wore her daughter’s face.

"Oh hey honey, I was just double-checking to see if you were up," her mother said, trying to be helpful.

"Yes, because I just turned off my alarm, got out of bed, and started to get all dressed in my sleep," muttered Isis bitterly, annoyed that she was forced to wake up earlier than usual. She continued to search through her drawer and turned to around to still see her mom observing her. "What?"

"If you need any help studying this morning…"

"Go away!" shouted Isis. She nearly lost control and reverted back to natural demonic state, nearly giving in to her darker urges and would have tried to attack her. Instead, she swiveled around, eyes glaring at her parental figure, and she quickly grabbed the door. She pointed into the hallway and growled, "Please go away so I can change."

Her mother gave a little sigh and started to say something quietly, but she stopped. She simply stepped out of Isis’s room, and the tsudious demon quickly slammed the door on her.

"If things aren’t bad enough with Jay and Buffy on my back," murmured Isis under hear breath, with her voice quickly escalating, "then it’s dealing with you!"

* * * *

Jerrold Irvine Smith lived many lives with the curse of the Doomed Vampire. He had lived as humans and as demons, as creatures large and small, and he had caused chaos and trouble in every live he had lived. But, when he was first created—when that curse was first placed on his mother—he had stirred up the most trouble.

But, with every life he lost, his memories faded until he started to come of age and mature. Then, slowly, the Doomed Vampire’s memory would start to be restored. Jerrold knew the gist of what had happened in his first life. First, his mother was killed and Jay grew up in the protection of someone else, who later died. Jay roamed the streets until he was attacked by a psychotic psychic vampire and he was forced to go into hiding, during which the Doomed Vampire began to reconsider right from wrong—which was when he first met the demon Kaldea. Jay and Kaldea’s relationship blossomed until her people pulled her away from the Doomed Vampire. This left Jay to roam with Spike and Drusilla for some time, until he finally realized things weren’t right.

And then there was Desiree. After the darkness that had clouded him finally lifted, Jay had met that young woman. But many things happened that year that the Doomed Vampire still couldn’t recall…until last night, when old memories started flooded back to him. Things he thought to be lost. But what was causing the sudden flashback—

It didn’t matter, when the sound of Jerrold’s alarm clock surged through the Lawrences’ guest room. The deep slumber that had enchanted Jerrold wasn’t strong enough to stand against the blaring noises of an early morning clock. Especially this Wednesday, which would finally be the last day of classes at Sunnydale Junior High School, bringing Jerrold closer to getting out of Sunnydale and down to Los Angeles.

Jerrold wandered out of his room, peering up and down the nearly endless hallway. Although he did reminisce about his old flat, Jerrold did enjoy the fact that Jasmine’s house was so large. More than one bathroom, two floors, a kitchen and dinner room that were separate—okay, it wasn’t anything fancy, but in comparison to Jerrold’s old home, it was quite elegant. Plus, no noisy neighbors blaring their music too loud.

Jerrold slowly crept down the hallway, attempting not the making any noise since he wasn’t sure if Mr. Lawrence or Mrs. Lawrence had awakened yet. He wasn’t entirely sure which door lead to which room—and he definitely didn’t want to wander into Angelique’s room, feeling it would be too disrespectful—but he vaguely remembered where Jasmine’s was.

While going door to door, Jerrold’s mind scrolled back to last night’s zombie encounter. Jerrold knew that pretty much anybody could have resurrected Nathan as a zombie, but Joshua most likely knew what was going on. It was doubtful that Joshua actually brought him back, but it would make sense that the witch or warlock who brought him back may know someone from his school.

Or, maybe even be someone from school.

Slowly, opening another door, Jerrold cringed as he realized that the room he had opened had once been Angelique’s. He began to close it, when hesitated and opened the door again. He gazed into the room and realized it wasn’t Angelique’s—it was Jasmine, except that many of the magick items that had once decorated her sister’s floors and walls now cluttered Jasmine’s.

Several of Angelique’s spell books were sprawled across Jasmine’s floor—charms and trinkets covering them—and incense and candles burned throughout the tiny dwelling. She was dabbling with her sister’s old magick spells. And Jerrold didn’t know if that was a good thing, especially since it was the work of a witch-vampire that had unleashed Jasmine’s dormant powers. If Angelique was still around, Jasmine would be fine and the older sister would guide the younger. But with her gone…

"What’cha doin’?"

Jerrold swiveled around, and there was a dripping, steaming Jasmine, wrapped up in a towel with her arms on her hips. She gave a small grin on her face, slightly raising her eyebrow. "You always slip into a girl’s room when she’s taking a shower."

"I uh, j-just got up, I didn’t even know you were in the shower," insisted Jerrold. "Honest."

Jasmine smiled and chuckled. "I’m just messin’ with ya." She walked passed him, stepping into her room and closing up Angelique’s old magick books. "Although, it would be nice if you weren’t standing outside my door while I was changing."

"Oh! Right, sorry." Jerrold stepped back and started to close the door. "I was just wondering where the bathroom was."

"Downstairs by the kitchen," said Jasmine from the other side of the door.

"Thanks." Jerrold moved away from the young witch’s door, and he progressed down the hallway. Worry and anxiety pulsed through the half-vampire as he wondered what Jasmine could possibly be conjuring up with her sister’s magicks. He couldn’t put his finger on it—but the only thing that came across Jerrold’s mind was Nathan.

* * * *

Dominique Washington watched and waited outside of Sunnydale Junior High. A lot had happened in the last few days with her friends, and she had not even been around for any of it. Jerrold’s house had apparently burned down, and with the small void developing between the two, she felt uncomfortable asking him about it. Jasmine’s sister had disappeared elsewhere. Sabrina was among the people who had been at the Sunnydale Mall when the skylight had shattered—though she didn’t really consider Sabrina her close personal friend, if a friend at all.

She waited as Mr. Lawrence’s car pulled up to the entrance of the school with Jerrold and Jasmine in his car. The car passed by two suited men, who she had seen patrolling the school grounds, probably an inspection or something. The car parked near dark limo that was easily detectable as Sabrina’s ride—but something seemed off about it. Whatever that sensation was passed by the girl, as her focus returned to the car and the passengers.

Dominique felt a twinge of pain seeing that Jerrold was spending more and more time with Dominique’s friends, while in contrast her old beau just seemed to talk to her less and less. She figured if she were to stop by Jasmine’s house now and then and just happened to bump into him, they might be able to talk out a few things that have been pushed away ever since Jerrold broke things off.

Or, at least try to have some sort of closure before he ran off to L.A., leaving Dominique in Sunnydale, while her best friend abandoned her for San Francisco, with Sabrina and Isis at some newly opened high school. Dominique walked up to the car as the doors opened to reveal Jasmine stepping out of the car followed by Jerrold.

"Hey!" greeted Dominique cheerfully, glancing at both Jasmine and Jerrold, as they came out of the car. But it was only Jasmine who greeted her back, while Jerrold simply breezed passed her.

"Hey," replied Jasmine, who looked a little tired and drained. She waved farewell to her dad, and the two began to walk down the path. The two swiftly headed down to their classroom. "How are ya, D? We haven’t chatted in a bit."

"How am I?" Dominique revealed a little smirk. "Nothing interesting here, I’m Sunnydale girl remember. You, on the other hand, will be off to SF soon and with everything that’s been…you know, happening to you recently, I kinda figured—"

"I’d be the one with tales?" replied Jasmine skeptically. "Not really. I mean, it’s tough without Angelique around, but my parents let me keep her journals so it’s almost like she’s still with me in a way." She hesitated before she softly whispered, "But my parents are hiding something."

"What?" Dominique and Jasmine walked into the building, and headed down towards their lockers. Dominique wasn’t sure if she wanted to pry too deep into what Jasmine was discovering after her sister’s death, but a lot of this seemed intriguing. "If, uh, I can ask."

"Dunno," answered Jasmine simply. She grabs some of her class textbooks—even though she wouldn’t need them all, the teachers were just trying to be punctual—and briefly examined the mirror as Dominique did the same. "All her writings are pretty vague, so I’m not sure. But there’s something wrong there…" She shrugged as she closed the locker, and the two headed towards the classroom.

There was a small void developing between the bestfriends, with the silence almost becoming too unbearable. So Dominique said the only thing that really dawned to her—that didn’t include Jerrold anyways.

"That’s a nice necklace."

"Oh, thanks D." Jasmine flashed a smile, as she held up the small, golden symbol right above her chest. "It’s the symbol of the Idol of Granath—an ancient god of the underworld from way back. Angelique wore it from time to time, so it just felt kinda right."

* * * *

"Isis! Wait up." The metamorphic demon walked down the hallways of Sunnydale Junior High, walking as fast as her human legs could possibly take her, in attempts to flee from the Doomed Vampire. But before she could evade him, Jerrold popped up in front of her and the two collided. "Hey. Don’t you pay attention when someone calls."

"Not really," muttered Isis. She took a step to her right, and Jerrold instantly mirrored her. She tried to move passed him, but he wouldn’t get out of her way. "What? I don’t care about your demon dilemmas! Shove off." The tsudious demon hissed at Jerrold, before she finally pushed the half-human out of the way and started towards class.

"Hey!" Jerrold grabbed Isis’s shoulder and pulled her back. "All I’m wondering is if you’ve seen Nathan Baxter around?"

"Nathan?! Nathan the über-Nerd?" asked Isis abruptly. "Is he even in the summer school with us?"

"Well, no," said Jerrold.

"Then why would you even bother to ask about him?" Crap. Isis had fallen right into Jerrold’s trap, and she could see a hint of a smile form across the half-human’s face, as he rambled on about his encounter with Rick, Joshua Jones, and Nathan Baxter on patrol the previous night.

"So yeah, have you seen Joshua around?" inquired Jerrold, as his short tale.

Before the demon could figure out some way to elude the question, the angry calls of Mr. Wilson echoed throughout the hallways of the tiny middle school, ushering the remaining students to class. He was just like their very own human school bell—which wasn’t any less annoying than an actual bell.

"Nah, though you’ll see in a minute." Isis brushed off the Doomed Vampire and continued to walk towards class. "But, to be truthful, don’t really care. Just another nerd down the drain that came back up again." As she walked into the classroom, she shoved passed Daniel Jenkins—the white Steve Eurkle, who ranked pretty close to Nathan on Isis’s nerd scale—who seemed to have heard the remainder of their conversation, and she simply said, "Hey." Cold and emotionless.

"Mr. Irvine Smith," growled Mr. Wilson darkly. "Get into class right now so we may start our exams. It would be especially wise for you to get to class on time."

Jerrold glared at his not-too-beloved history teacher, not even caring enough to question the "authority" figure. The Doomed Vampire slowly walked into the classroom and Mr. Wilson closed the door behind the half-vamp, just as one of the darkly suited men momentarily observed the class and passed on.

* * * *

"Okay, you all have a thirty minute break—no off-campus activity," instructed the Junior High teacher, as the class of failed students all eagerly put down their pens and test papers. Whatever thoughts were coursing through Mr. Wilson’s mind and the faculty that had established this rule, it didn’t dawn to any of them that the students could easily cheat on the exam by discussing it during break. But that wasn’t the main focus for the students. Most just wanted to sleep, or eat, or shoot some hops in the gym at the back of the school.

Jerrold, Isis, Jasmine, Dominique, Joshua, and the rest of their classmates all shifted in their seats, quickly rushing out of the room. Jerrold’s main focus was not losing sight of Joshua, who he desperately needed to talk to. Joshua might not even know anything was wrong with Nathan, but talking about what was going on with Rick would be quite helpful.

The Sunnydale 8^th graders all piled out of the small, cluttered room, and down into the hallway. Jerrold waited for Joshua to come out of the room—forcing himself to cease eye contact with Dominique as she passed by—but there was a chance Joshua knew something was wrong, or maybe that Jerrold was looking for him. Whatever it was, Joshua had managed to evade Joshua’s line of sight. That or he slipped by before she appeared…

"Oh my gawd, Jay!" Stepping out of the room was the first girl Jerrold Irvine Smith had met when he first moved to Sunnydale: April Miller. The very same girl who had, more or less, stalked and obsessed over Jerrold for several months last year when he was still dating Dominique. The short, multi-colored hair, urbanized girl revealed her shining teeth, as she quickly approached Jerrold. She happily wrapped her arms around the tall, dark skinned teen, shoving him against a locker opposite the door. The loud noise produced from the locker echoed throughout the hall, and caused all the other students around to slowly turn around and stare at the two. Dominique was among them, with a smug look on her face.

April released herself from Jerrold, and grabbed him by the arm, tugging him down the hallway. "We like need to talk."

The girl forced the poor Jerrold passed the crowd of classmates that filled the hall, who all had either a little chuckle or some sort of witty comment to say. She even dragged Jerrold passed Dominique, Jasmine, and several of their friends, who all seemed very amused by April’s displays of affection.

"Help," mouthed Jerrold towards Jasmine and Dominique, passing by the two. But Jerrold’s recent treatment towards Dominique, just produced a pleased smile from his ex, allowing April to simply drag him away.

The humiliation never actually left Jerrold as April pulled him further and further away from his friends and classmates—cringing as he saw a glimpse of Joshua leaving the classroom—and eventually April stopped, and shoved Jerrold down onto a bench. "You do know you’ve been avoiding me all summer long."

Yeah, now why would I possibly do that? Jerrold muttered to himself. But really, all he said was, "Sorry. I’ve been busy with, uh…stuff."

The once-blonde nodded with agreement. "Stuff with Isis maybe? Dominique may just think you two are just close friends, but I know what’s going on." She put her hands on her hips, and shook her head. Jerrold was about to explain exactly that things weren’t like that between him and Isis, but she interrupted. "No need to wig, I just need to make sure the two of us will continue to keep in contact when you move off to L.A.—leaving me all by my lonesome in Sunnydale."

Like I could forget a high-pitched voice like that? Jerrold grumbled. "Sure thing. I’ll leaving my number with everyone who’s staying here or leaving elsewhere, like in San Francisco, San Diego, or wherever else people are escaping to." Jerrold started to rise up again, when April shoved him back down.

"You’re not escaping me that easily, Mr. Irvine Smith." April flashed a smile and held up two brown paper bags.

Oh God. "What’s in the bags?"

"Uh, like lunch!" The brilliant smile that radiated from the young girl’s mouth was almost too piercing for Jerrold’s human eyes. A little groan escaped Jerrold’s mouth, which was quickly covered up by a cough. "See, so we can talk and catch up with things—like maybe what things you and Isis have been doing."

Fighting, slayage, a little near-death experiences—y’know, Hellmouthie sorta things. "You know, I was actually looking for Joshua. I needed to ask him about—"

"Oh Josh?" April shook her head, and then grabbed Jerrold’s arm, lifting him up from the bench. "Yeah, he’s like totally having lunch with that Nathan Baxter loser—who’s not even in summer school, but just dropped by to hang. Weird, huh?" She shoved the lunch bag at Jerrold’s chest, forcing him to grab it. "If you really need to talk to him, you can chat after you’re done with the test."

"More like failing the test." Jerrold turned around, and there was Sabrina Alexis—considered the most popular, beautiful, and stuck-up girl in the class—followed by several of her rich, popular, super-model like lackeys, including Dona and Valerie. "I’m surprised you’re even passing at all, I mean, you must be borderlining on your tardy days, meaning you missed nearly all the material. Unless Isis or Dominique have been making stops at your house, bringing you notes and stuff…or whatever else they’re giving ya."

"Funny," muttered Jerrold. "Course, my house’s in ashes right now, so it’s doubtful they’re stopping there."

"Oh yeah," said April, nodding along. "You’re house burnt down didn’t it? What’s that all about?"

"Bloody hell," cursed Jerrold under his breath. Great, and now I just channeled Spike. What else could possibly go—

And that’s when the screaming started.

Jerrold, Sabrina, and April and turned their head down the hall, towards the back of the building. Dropping April’s homemade lunch, Jerrold moved passed Sabrina and her lackeys, heading out of the building to where the lunch tables were. Peering out into the nearly empty outside cafeteria, Jerrold’s sight went straight towards the building opposite of the school: the gym.

Forcing himself to decline the urge to vamp out, Jerrold pushed himself to rush through the lawn cluttered with benches—zigzagging between worn down, fallen apart, clunky seats. Jerrold emerged from the sunbathed entrance of the gym, and his eyes widened in horror as his two lives started to collide.

On the basketball court, moving towards three failing basketball players, was the tall, lanky, sickle-armed asanbosam vampires. One of Lohesh’s asanbosam vampires, trapped in the school, waiting to arise…

…and attack the Doomed Vampire.

For the latest information on DSV (Doomed - Story of a Vampire), check out the official site here at Doomed Productions (http://members.fortunecity.com/jawanza/). Enjoy.