Tales of the Potentials: Emily Perkins

The Dallas suicides went public when eight girls of various ages discovered the terrifying responsibility that was forced upon them. The impact overhwlemed their minds with images of the coming apocalypse, along with a red haired witch speaking through them saying what they'll become shall provide a rift between humanity and the things that will try to decimate it. Seven of the girls called their newfound power a curse, but for Texas born Emily Perkins, she thought the effects were inherited from her father. At the age of six, Emily woke up one morning to find the living room covered in black shades from the windows and their door. On the couch laid an old construction worker who at first looked like he drank with his buddies a little too much.

It turned out it wasn't the alcohol that knocked him out. He only drank on occasion; being an iced tea lover and all, and he never raised a hand to his family. However, he wasn't foreign to street brawls against some of the more knuckleheaded types. Five vampires jumped him after one of them got fresh with a female bartender, saying he imagined her blood tasting like strawberry shortcake. The father's interference led him to being thrown outside the bar, and just when he had enough sense to see which vampire tossed him, all five appeared before him. "Teenagers...? He said in his mind. "Y'all look like you got cockblocked recently. I've heard of threesomes, but fivesomes? I hope Cabana Richards here brought extra protection."

"Do all hardhatted pricks talk this much?" One vampire asked

Another vamp who seemed to be the varsity member of the group said, "Let him have his chuckles. The next five seconds will be extraordinary."

"That what your girlfriend said, boy?" The father asked standing up. "Maybe she need someone lil' more aive."

The following morning where Emily saw him resting on the couch, she noticed something bleeding through the quilt he was using. That was when both their fears came true. The business end of a shotgun blast to the chest echoed through the ages of young Emily's life. The suicides were rumored to have another six girls trembling from their responsibilities. By the time Buffy, Dawn, and other Potentials made it to Dallas, they overheard a young Slayer convincing the other girls not to off themselves. From Buffy's point of view, Emily was quite the public speaker in troubled times. In the end, seven girls joined Buffy's camp and responded to a disturbance up in Houston. The only trinkets Emily took with her was a portrait of her family, three warm Iced Tea cans, and the shotgun her dad used the day a hero fell to a pack of rag-tag vamps.