A collection of original short stories based on the hit TV series created by Joss Whedon "I can't be...just a person, I can't be helpless like that...." —Buffy, "Helpless" At eighteen, each Slayer must face a terrifying trial: the Tento di Cruciamentum. This time-honored, albeit cruel, rite of passage forces each Watcher to drain the Slayer of all her physical powers and then send her to vanquish a powerful vampire using only her wits. When Buffy Summers underwent her Cruciamentum, she managed to defeat Kralik, a vampire who had been committed to a sanitarium as a human for torturing and murdering more than a dozen young women before he was turned. However, not all Slayers have been so cunning. Tales of the Slayer, Vol. 4 chronicles the Cruciamentum of eight earlier Slayers. From Prohibition Chicago to beatnik New York City, from the sideshows of a traveling carnival to a small Irish farm, from the fifteenth century to the twentieth, the Cruciamentum has tested the prowess of Slayers throughout history. Each of them has had to fight: for her job, for the lives of those she loved, and for her own existence.... Contents: It's All About the Mission, Harlem, New York, 1973 / Nancy Holder Undeadsville, New York, 1952 / Michael Reaves Alone, 1876, Ireland / Scott Allie Sideshow Slayer, Duluth, Minnesota, 1911 / Greg Cox Survivors, Chicago, 1919 / Kristine Kathryn Rusch Back to the Garden, 1969 / Robert Joseph Levy The Rule of Silence, Seville, Spain, 1481 / Kara Dalkey Two Teenage Girls at the Mall, Keller, Nebraska, 1981 / Jane Espenson