The Police Station

Carrying her mother over her shoulder, Caroline stopped in an alleyway behind the police station.

"Drink" said Caroline, biting into her own wrist.

Sheriff Forbes made a face of disgust, but with her throat bleeding badly she knew better than to argue. She drank her daughter's blood. As she did the bleeding of her throat slowed and then stopped.

"Maybe we should bottle that stuff and sell it, "said Sherriff Forbes with a smirk, "it's a miracle-medicine. We could get rich."

"I'd be great...right up until we got sued for creating a plague of vampires as soon as people got the bright idea to drink it and then kill themselves." replied Caroline, also with a smirk.

The two of them were sharing a laugh when they heard the sound of shattering glass and stone. Caroline rushed out of the alleyway and suddenly stopped frozen in astonishment, her jaw dropping and her eyes wide with shock. Attacking the police station was...a dragon! A frikking DRAGON!!

Caroline started to say something, started to say something else, but couldn't get more than one syllable of either attempt out. Finally she got out a "buh...buh....wuuuuuhh??"

The police started shooting at it, but their bullets only seemed to enrage it. The dragon took in a deep breath and let out a blast of flame, turning one of the cops into a screaming fireball. The sight of it shook Caroline out of her dumbfounded paralyses.

The dragon aimed its head at another cop and started taking in a deep breath. In a burst of superspeed Caroline ripped the hood off a cop-car and leapt in between the dragon and the cop, holding the hood in front of her like a shield. The blast couldn't have lasted more than five seconds, but for Caroline it felt like an eternity of being surrounded by flame. Finally it stopped.

For a moment Caroline thought the hood had completely protected her from the flame, but then she realized that her shirt was on fire. She ripped it off, revealing the chainmail vest she had started wearing to protect her from stakes.

The dragon unleashed another burst of flame at her. She blocked this one as well. As soon as it was over, she grabbed the policeman she'd been shielding and tossed him through the door to deeper within the police station.

Caroline glanced at the newcomer. She vaguely recognized her from school. Lexer? Lancer? Something like that. "Lexia get down!" she yelled.

The dragon used the moment of her distraction as an opportunity to charge forward, headbutting Caroline so hard she flew into the police station tumbling head over heels.

Caroline saw her chance as the dragon looked away towards the short girl. Caroline charged in and grabbed one of the dragon's huge fangs from the side. The dragon immediately reared up and shook its head furiously, trying to shake Caroline loose. Though shaken like a ragdoll, Caroline held on, twisting the tooth back and forth. Finally the tooth ripped loose, and at that moment so did Caroline, sent flying through the air by the dragon's frantic flailing. She hit the side of a mac-truck hard, breaking her spine. She flopped to the ground, the huge fang still clutched in her hand.

The dragon moved in for the kill.

The dragon reared back, roaring so loud you didn't just hear it, you felt it vibrating your bones.

The precious few seconds this bought Caroline were enough for her healing to kick in. Her spine healed with audible crackling and crunching sounds. The spine healing was even more painful than when it had broken, and she barely resisted the urge to scream, but at least she could stand again.

The dragon shook the liquid out of its eyes. It bared its fangs at Alexa, and reared back to pounce on the tiny girl.

Caroline grabbed the car-hood in one hand, holding the huge fang in the other. Her chainmail vest gleamed where it wasn't covered in blood or ash.

"HEY ASSHOLE!!" roared Caroline, "You like hitting girls smaller than you?? WELL I'M SMALLER THAN YOU, COME ON, HIT ME!!

The dragon roared flame at Caroline. Caroline charged forward holding the car-hood in front of her. The car-hood became red-hot, charing Caroline's hands to the bone, but she still held on. At last she reached the dragon and leapt into its mouth, plunging its own fang up through the roof of its mouth into its brain.

The dragon collapsed. As it died it began to disintegrate, first falling into foul-smelling chunks, then rotting into mush. In less than 30 seconds there was nothing left of it at all.

Caroline let the car-hood and the giant fang fall to the ground. As soon as it hit the ground, the fang also began to disintegrate. She sat down on the ground wearily. Her shirt was burned off completely, the badly damaged chain-mail vest was the only thing between her and being topless. Her hair stank of smoke. Her blue-jeans were charred black and missing chunks. She crossed her arms protectively over her chest.

"Can I borrow your jacket?" asked Caroline in a small embarrassed voice, looking up at Alexa.

I could see a whole lot better than before, unfortunately. "Can I borrow your jacket?" Caroline asked, sort of quietly. "Oh, sure." I responded, taking of my nice pink, now covered in ash, jacket. "The fire'll help keep me warm." I joked, putting it over her. I stood back up and turned to the police officers that were standing, "Can you guys like try and track down the car?" I asked, "There was no car." He clarified. "But the drive b---" I begun, "There was a terrorist attack. The first one ever in My---" Ms. Forbes interrupted, "No, I clearly saw a tornado." "What the?" I asked the universe. "Caroline, what did you see?" I asked looking back down at her.

Caroline accepted the jacket gratefully, buttoning it up to cover her partial nakedness.

"I guess I should start saving up another 300 dollars for a new chainmail vest" she mumbled.

"What the?" "Caroline, what did you see?"

Caroline blinked, "a dragon. You and me kicked it's ass. Don't you remember, Lexus?"

"Woah." I said, "Are you like kidding?" I asked, the dragon story sounded crazy. And there was a drive-by. So ehh. "But the cars, the guns, the fire!" I continued. "And for the second time tonight it's Alexa." I corrected her. I mean I know she's been a little into herself lately but I was on the cheerleading squad with her and I'm her VP to her P on Student Council, whatever.

Caroline watched Alexa's antics. At 5-foot-10, Caroline was much bigger than the 5-foot-4 Alexa, which made watching her feel a lot like being barked at by a tiny bouncing dog.

Caroline took a deep breath, "I guess I must have hit my head." she lied.

"Yeah," I agreed, "Or maybe too much of the smoke got to your head." "It was a tornado!" Ms. Forbes told Caroline, correcting me. "No, there was a terrorist attack." The police officer corrected her, though none of them were correct. "No. I saw E.T.!" Another bi-stander said. The crowd irrupted in different crazy illusions of what they 'thought' happened. "What kind of a dragon?" I asked, sarcastically. "Because your story is starting to sound a whole lot more realistic now."

"Well...I dunno...a dragon. Black, like three times the size of an elephant, with fangs the size of swords. Mind if we continue this conversation at my house? I need to shower and put on some clothes."

"Yeah, let's get going" said Caroline as she stepped into the back of her mom's cop-car.

______________________________________________________________________________________

Caroline was stinking up the back of her mom's cop-car with the smell of smoke and whatever vile slime had been in the dragon's mouth.

"Sorry about the smell," she said to Alexa and her mom.

"They can opened, but only from up here," said Sheriff Forbes, pressing a button that opened the rear window.