It’s a test, Buffy. It’s given to the Slayer once she… uh, well, if she reaches her eighteenth birthday. The Slayer is disabled and then entrapped with a vampire foe whom she must defeat in order to pass the test. The vampire you were to face… has escaped. His name is Zackary Kralik. As a mortal, he murdered and tortured more than a dozen women before he was committed to an asylum for the criminally insane. When a vamp… You bastard. All this time, you saw what it was doing to me. All this time, and you didn’t say a word! I wanted to. Liar. In matters of tradition and protocol, I must answer to the Council. My role in this… was very specific. I was to administer the injections and to direct you to the old boarding house on Prescott Lane. I can’t… I can’t hear this. Buffy, please. Who are you? How could you do this to me? I am deeply sorry, Buffy, and you have to understand… If you touch me, I’ll kill you. You have to listen to me. Because I’ve told you this, the test is invalidated. You will be safe now, I promise you. Now, whatever I have to do to deal with Kralik… and to win back your trust… You stuck a needle in me. You poisoned me!
Buffy the Vampire Slayer | (6.09) “Smashed”
NELLIE CRAIN
— Open Casket, 2018
Victoria Pedretti photographed by William Lords for Flaunt Magazine (2019)
