1'it is more than a monster in nature that a woman shall reign and have empire above man.'
John Knox - 1558
You may wish to first read 'A delicate test' in which Zillah, and several other characters are introduced. Not having read this should not interfere with your enjoyment of the story however.
London: 1898
'Wah? Where? Do what?' Hugh Williams blinked awake as the thunderous footsteps reached his doorway. He swung himself, fully clothed, onto the edge of the bed in expectation and sighed.
'Hugh!' As expected, Zillah flung the door from it's hinges without knocking and stood, panting, her tiny frame outlined against the doorframe.
'BarmaidcaughtmedippingnowwegotafindanewkippingkenifIchuckyouthroughthewindowcanyouland?'
'Breathes, Lill, pauses, isn't it.' Williams bent to lace up his boots.
Zillah's eyes darted towards the sound of commotion approaching up the stairway. 'Bar-Maid-caught-me-'
'I got you, Zillah bach, I got you.' Hugh waved his charge into silence and paced over to the window. 'Only if it's going out the window, I'll be wanting carrying.' He peered giddily out over the thirty foot drop. 'Else I reckon I might splash, see?'
More than a monster
by clarrie
'Here, Taff, wire came for you.' Jim Tavert leaned on the doorframe of his friend's cabin, listless and sweaty in the damp heat of an Indian spring. He fanned himself with the envelope and grinned. 'Finally come into money have you?'
Hugh Williams leaned back on his chair, feet lying amongst the detritus of his desk, and pushed his heavy straw hat up from over his eyes. 'I have?'
'Don't know old man,' Tavert dropped the envelope on Williams' desk, noting with disappointment the alcohol on his breath, and the clear liquid, rapidly evaporating, in the teacup by his arm. 'Best open it and see.'
'Oh dear.' Hugh ran a hand across his stubble and squinted blearily at the telegram. 'Oh dear, oh dear.'
'Taff? You alright? Taffy?'
'What is it, right? What is the meaning of this?' Williams slammed the crumpled sheet of paper down in front of his superior. 'I'm not a Watcher, damn it!'
'I beg to differ, Mr Williams.'
'I-I'm not a Watcher, Watcher, see.' Hugh pushed his hand through his hair in frustration. 'I-You can't give me a Slayer is all, see, I've no - I have work, right, in Travancore. I had to beg and borrow just to come back to England for...'
'It has been dealt with Williams.'
'I, I can't, see.' Pleaded Hugh, staring down at his fingers, spread across the desk, 'I...'
'You will, Williams. You are a Watcher.'
'Watcha''
Hugh blinked at the child as she swung happily from the parallel bars in front of him. 'Um, yes, yes I am.'
'Yeah...' She stared at him, and spoke slowly, carefully as one might to a particularly dull-witted child.
'Good mornin' Mister. Oop, 'scuse'us.' She grinned sheepishly and pulled herself upright, 'um, so...' Her eyes travelled to the horizon as she searched amongst her diminutive store of polite conversation for something to say, 'this weather, eh? Cold enough to freeze the -'
'I'm Mr Williams,' interrupted Hugh, somewhat urgently. 'I-your new Watcher, isn't it.'
The little girl let herself fall to the ground and extended her hand to him. 'Zillah.'
'Zillah?' Williams held out for a surname.
'Yup.' Zillah yawned. 'What do I call you then?'
'I'm Hugh, Hugh Williams.' Williams scratched his head distractedly, 'I get called Taff sometimes, or Billy, I-I've been called Billy before now.' He decided to try again. 'So they call you Zillah, do they?'
'Yup,' Zillah wiped her nose on the back of her hand, 'or Lill - I get called Lill, used to be, any road.' Zillah watched him, her head tilted to the side like a blackbird. 'You ain't a proper Watcher.' Zillah frowned, 'I'm the Chosen one I am, one mot in all the world, I should get a proper Watcher.'
'I don't - ' Williams flushed at having his own feelings about the situation stated so bluntly. 'I bloody am a proper Watcher, see!' He raised his voice in indignation. 'I been doing a bit of hard work is all, been working a bollock off in Travancore whilst this lot- ' He trailed off as the Slayer's grubby brown face creased with laughter. 'Well, I bloody am.'
'You don't talk like a Watcher.' Dark eyes glinted up at him in amusement. 'Not enough for one thing.'
'You don't talk like a Slayer,' Williams let himself smile, 'Too much for one thing.'
The girl let out a rough cackle three times older than her frame and grinned up at him. 'So you're my crow?'
Williams stared down at the odd little creature. 'Am I?'
Zillah nodded firmly.
'Suppose I am then.'
'I require permission to take the Slayer travelling.' Williams stood straight backed before his superior. 'She has requested that we leave Bellum House and take a tour among the -'
'Will you be requiring an advance on your living expenses?'
'I-I- Oh.' Williams stammered, caught short by this ready agreement. 'I suppose so. I hadn't thought it through really. If I'm honest.' He relaxed his posture a little. 'Didn't think you'd let me, see.'
'You are The Watcher, Williams.' His superior eased his bulk slowly from his armchair. 'The Slayer is in your charge,' Williams felt a hand on his shoulder, steering him from the office, 'you have dominion over her, and she you.' The door began to close, 'It is entirely your responsibility.'
'What you been up to then?' Williams watched his young charge drop down to street level with a smile. 'Trouble no doubt.'
'Ain't done nothing.'
'Must have done something then, isn't it.' Hugh pulled his coat tighter against the cold night air. 'Going to have to make you empty your pockets am I?'
'I ain't been buzzing.'
Williams couldn't have guessed what buzzing was for all the tea in Travencore, but assumed a matter of course that this was therefore what Zillah had been doing. 'Glad to hear it.'
'Want a bit of cheese?' The Slayer withdrew a grubby lump of cheddar from her pockets. 'No? More for me then. I like a bit of cheese, ain't got no toke though, don't matter much I s'pose,' Zillah chattered idly as they wandered through the darkened streets. 'Can we get a bottle at the gattering? They wouldn't give me no mecks at all at Bellum, not even no gatter. I ain't half missed it. I reckon your blood gets all weak if-' Zillah ducked suddenly into an alleyway, pulling Hugh with her. She pressed her fingers to her lips and stood, listening. 'Hugh,' she hissed, 'pass me chiv.'
A stake found it's way between her fingers and within moments Williams felt the warm rush of air as the vampire, unseen around a corner, exploded into dust. 'Lill?' He waited silently in the darkness for an answer, 'Lill, you alright out there?'
'You're glocky as a dishcloth you are,' Zillah grinned as they continued on their way, pie grease smeared on her cheek. 'Can't even do me bleeding job without you causing a jolly.'
'I got a bit worried is all, eat your pie.' Williams ruffled his charge's hair, his hand shaking slightly, exposing the understatement in his claim, 'and watch that mouth. Talk to your last Watcher like this did you?'
'Would of if I'd had one.' She wrinkled her nose.
'So you never had a Watcher before, then?'
Zillah gave a world-weary sigh. 'Weren't fighting trassy's then was I?'
'Of course,' Williams suppressed a smile, 'silly of me.'
'Had a teacher,' Zillah chewed contemplatively, 'back at Bellum.'
'Oh?'
'Got knapped, sent away, reckon they sent her to queer ken or the spike, least that's where I was always told lakin that got knapped without being noozed got sent.' She paused thoughtfully, 'I reckon a mot with a bit of posh can pass as an ace of spades easy though, you just got to keep on the rub.'
Williams blinked glassily. 'Oh?' He was fairly sure that he'd understood the word 'reckon' which almost certainly meant that it was actually a slang word for fish.
'You tired?' Williams gazed down at Zillah as she tugged her coat further around her tiny body, shrinking into the worn folds of the garment like a shabby cockney mimosa.
'S'pose so.'
'There's a pub at the end of the road.' He drove his hands into his pockets, searching for the money he'd put aside for their night's rest. 'Shall we stop there?'
'S'pose so.'
'Oh, good.' Williams grinned in devilment at the Slayer as she plodded absently beside him. 'Because, I thought if I sold your hair and charged people to see the bald girl I could spend the money on gin, isn't it.'
'S'pose s- Eh!' Zillah, with surprising control, batted his arm lightly, 'that ain't funny!'
'Zillah?' Williams pushed through the crowd who were gathered, talking and laughing, in a corner of the public bar of 'The Hound and Hall' and tapped his charge on her shoulder. 'Lill, I'm going up to bed.'
'What?' The reinvigorated Zillah frowned up at him from her glass, eyes darting with interest around the bar, taking in the sights and sounds of nocturnal humanity at rest, appraising the value of the costume jewellery on the women at the bar, whose over pink cheeks and hennaed hair screamed their profession at those who cared to listen. She took in youths spending too much money too soon at the bar and wondered how long it would be before someone relieved them of it. 'We're doing what?'
'Zillah, listen to me,' He raised his voice against the noise of the throng, 'I'm off to bed, see, you going to be alright down here on your own?'
Zillah waved him dissmissively from her presence, and so Williams, ignoring the accusing looks of a brace of matronly women at the bar, took himself off to bed.
'Wah? Where? Do what?' Hugh Williams blinked awake as the thunderous footsteps reached his doorway...
