So, I've been working on this a while and decided it was appropriate now, one week before Halloween, to post it.
I don't own anything.
~set…well…it doesn't really have a place since the vampires are healed but Sam is still alive~
Musical inspiration: Mylo Xyloto helped me put the finishing touches to this. GO BUY IT NOW!
Sitting in her office, Amelie sighed. It wasn't a particularly loud sigh, nor even that expressive of her emotions to any other person, yet, for Amelie, it displayed everything she felt about the upcoming 'holiday'. Not that Halloween could be called a holiday – it was a vile day of the year where children tricked adults into giving them sweets by refusing to budge from their doorsteps.
That wasn't the reason why she hated Halloween with a passion, however. No, ever since the conception of Morganville, it had been the most…difficult holiday to face the vampires. Naturally, the main dress-up of children – and adults – in Morganville was to be vampire hunters, something which didn't go down well with the more egotistical of the vampires, yet Amelie saw no harm in it. It was their holiday in their town; they could do as they pleased so long as they didn't upset the balance of peace…
Unfortunately, that's what happened every year. There couldn't be a 31st October in any year where there weren't troubles sparked between the vampire and human populations, fighting which cumulated in the death of at least one vampire and thus at least one human. It was a dangerous time to be a human trick-or-treating in Morganville, since normally at least one innocent child was mixed into the mess and no matter how hard she tried to disentangle them, they couldn't be.
This year, however, she had hoped that it would be better, more peaceful for all involved, stabilising out the decrease in the vampire population and no humans dying. It was why she had set up a proper party planning committee – headed by Monica Morrell because, as much as Amelie hated to admit it, she did know how to plan a party – and ensured that, as much as possible, the most irritable vampires would be kept away from the children. After all, it only took one bite to cause carnage in the town, something she had had plenty of experience of.
"Planning this pointless event still, Amelie?" Oliver's head popped into her office and startled her slightly – she hadn't even heard him enter the building.
She scowled before wiping all emotions from her face, picking up a piece of paper and surveying it to appear busy. "You mean the party that shall ensure that we can start a reign of relative peace in Morganville, rather then the continual living on the knife edge as we do presently?" she confirmed, her free hand's fingers drumming lightly on the table. "If so, then yes – and if you care not to be involved, Oliver, then that can be arranged. I can have you on babysitting the university for the entire night – and no, there cannot be human killing," she smiled ever so sweetly, knowing she had gotten him where she wanted him – in a position of relative alliance.
He shuddered at the thought of having to spend the entire night at the university before narrowing his eyes as he surveyed her appearance. "And what makes you think that this year shall be anything but dangerous?" he asked her without malice in his tone, mere curiosity. "I mean not to destroy your plans, no matter how pitiful they are, yet what makes you feel that this year is the correct year for you to attempt to bring the two together for festive times?" he sounded honestly inquisitive, trying to understand her reasoning for doing this.
She squeezed her eyes shut for a moment before opening them once again and moving across to the window, looking out through the tinted glass at the rising sun. "There is no reason why this particular year, Oliver, besides for the fact that we may perhaps enjoy a few hours of peace. Surely it is obvious that we require at least a day of happiness in this town, especially amidst a year of such torment?"
He shrugged before sitting himself down in one of the chairs in her office without her saying a word, signalling that he wished to stay for a time without her forcing him to. "I am all for festivities, especially at the humorous All Hallow's Eve, yet perhaps this year is still too raw. We have had many riots this year, so if they have a chance to attack us, what makes you think that they shall not?"
"Are you attempting to hinder or help me, Oliver?" she shot back, turning to face him with an angry expression on her face. "We must trust them more than we have done prior to this year, otherwise what hope have we got that they could perhaps become more agreeable to our presence in the future? This is a bridging opportunity for the population and I must hope that the humans take all they can from it. If not, then I shall concede you are right. But, for now, I have faith in them and can but hope that we can get an end goal that I desire."
He didn't reply for a long while, the silence in the room stretching on and on as she moved to sit back down without sound. Finally, as he stood up to leave, he leaned over to her and said, "Good luck with this, Amelie. Just remember to have a back up plan, for these are humans we are talking about. And if we simply look at your residents of the Glass House, there are enough variations on normal that could happen."
And, with that, he walked swiftly out of the room.
…
Claire sat in the living room of the Glass House, typing furiously on a laptop that had seen better days. "Are you trying to break that, or is it just natural to hammer keys like that?" Shane asked her, a teasing tone to his voice that she managed to ignore – if she didn't get the essay done right then, she would fail the class.
Flipping him off, she proceeded to type harder and faster, having another three thousand words to type in half an hour to even have a chance of handing it in on time. "Later, Shane," she muttered as she turned pages in the textbook, looking for the confirmation of the formula she had in her head to make sure that it matched the modern version. There had been about fifteen variations on this particular equation alone in three hundred years, Myrnin having made her memorise them all, and she sometimes got them mixed up -it wouldn't be the easiest thing to explain to a modern day teacher that you had learned the other variations from a vampire more than a thousand years old who was more than slightly crazy. Either they'd laugh – as she was more than certain that this particular teacher had less knowledge about vampires than she did about English pounds to Euro conversion rates – or they'd arrange for her to be carted off to the mental house in Morganville, one which had more patients than beds.
"Oh, ok then," he replied, his tone carefully nonchalant. "I just thought you may be interested to know that you have a letter that looks like it's from Amelie," he slipped in, knowing that this would capture her attention.
For a good minute or so, the information didn't sink in and she continued to plough through the paragraph she was writing, writing the end of a sentence before she realised what he had said. "What could she want with me now?" she sighed, bashing her head against the keyboard more than slightly melodramatically. "She's probably writing to ask me to come and feed her fish, isn't she? And she couldn't text me that, or even ring me, because she's medieval – don't interrupt me, Shane! Oh no, she hasn't heard of texting! So she's writing to me to tell me to come feed the fish or-or to paint her toenails or something like that and by the time I've gotten it, the fish will be dead or her…her toenails will smell!" more than slightly over the top, Claire moaned, ignoring Shane's many attempts to cut in.
"We all have one," he lifted the other three letters, all the same style envelope, and laughed at her overreaction. "And unless it takes four people to feed fish I doubt she even owns, something tells me that it's something that is either extremely unpleasant or…well, Amelie never brings good news, so it has to be bad," the smile on his face faded as he said this, handing her the envelope with Claire Danvers written on it.
Her curiosity kindled to the point where her essay no longer matters, she set her laptop to the side and ripped open the envelope, the usual smell of roses issuing from the paper, the way you could make sure that you weren't being tricked by someone pretending to be Amelie. Not that it happened often, but it had happened to Claire and she didn't want that to happen again.
Dear Claire Danvers
You have been invited to the Morganville All Hallow's Eve festivities, to commence at 7pm prompt upon 31st October.
Attendance is compulsory for all residents, as is the traditional dressing up. Sweets shall not be handed out to children over the age of 8.
Location: Founder's Square, to be relocated if the weather does not permit.
Further details may follow, if appropriate.
Finally, all must attend with a date and any misbehaviour shall be dealt with in the harshest of manners.
Sincerely
Amelie
Signed off with her signature, it was most definitely from Amelie.
And it was a…party.
"Are you serious?" was all Claire could mutter, disgust in her tone. "She's holding a party?"
"There's no sweets?" evidently, Shane got caught up on the important point in the invitation, the fact that only under eight year olds would get any sweets, yet they still had to dress up. "Holy shit, there's no point in going!"
"Attendance is compulsory, Shane, I don't think you'd get away with not going," Claire reminded him, pointing to the appropriate place on his invite. "I'd have thought you would have been more bothered about having a party where we have to spend the entire time with vampires?"
This was the moment Eve came down the stairs, a most inappropriate time. "Whoa? Who is going to a party where they have to hang out with vamps?" she asked, confused even as Shane threw her a letter.
"All of us," was his grim response. "Ahh, well, I've figured one bonus. We can go as vampire hunters, armed with weapons incase the bloodsuckers try and do something. We're not going into this blind, Claire…it could be a blast."
She could only look at him in shock. Not only were they going to a mixed human and vampire party, but he wanted to kickstart a riot and murder spree of vampires. Oh no, this would not end well.
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I'll update soon, if I get 5 reviews.
Vicky xx
