Disclaimer: I own nothing
AN: I have spent so much time (so much) scouring for OC/Godric stories I am so addicted. I have had this idea for a while so I thought I would write it out for my own enjoyment.
This is the first thing I have written in a very long time. I really enjoyed getting these thoughts down on paper (or not paper really) and I do have a pretty solid plan for the next couple of chapters. Any comments are much appreciated.
Godric had been locked in the basement of the Fellowship of the Sun for about a week and a half, one long and very boring week and three days. Not that he had come here for the entertainment. Steve Newlin, his warden, had come down once since the time he was first brought into the room with the fenced-in corner that served as his prison. There was nothing much to say about the encounter. Steve Newlin was as stupid in person as he appeared to be on TV.
Godric was not having second feelings about his plans, but he knew that Steve Newlin's opinion of vampires would not be changed by his sacrifice. That was fine, it was the followers that Godric truly wanted to convince.
Aside from Newlin the only other person to interact with him was Newlin's second Gabe. He was a rather unpleasant man who communicated more through grunting than actual words. Four days into Godric's captivity, his captors seemed to realize the simple truth that Godric was not going anywhere and he was rather boring to watch all day and night.
It was for that reason that her appearance took him somewhat by surprise. The vampire in the cage had of course heard her come down the stairs and make her way to the back room. But many times he had heard someone come down the stairs and come steps away from the door to the room that held him. They had never opened the door and come in though. The door that led to his cell was locked, so even if they had tried the effort would not bear fruit.
Unless like this girl, they managed to pick the lock with what appeared to be a hairpin and a bent paperclip. It appeared as if she was an industrious little thing.
Godric breathed in deeply and quickly regretted the decision to do so. Against his will his mouth filled with saliva. It had been a while since he had fed. His brilliant captors felt that believed that it was intelligent to hold a vampire in a cage for weeks on end without so much as a bottle of True Blood. A younger vampire would have been driven temporarily mad from the hunger, and no silver wire would hold them back from feeding on the nearest thing with a heartbeat.
Godric however was not a young vampire, far from it. At his age he had complete control over his hunger and his lust, or so he liked to think. The girl's scent however was definitely testing his limits. She smelled much better than Newlin and a million times better than Gabe.
The ancient vampire tilted his head taking in her rather shocked face. The girl now standing across the room from him was small. There was no better word to describe her. Godric didn't like to admit it, but he had been turned before he had reached his full height potential and stood only slightly over 5'7''. This girl would stand at least four inches under that, quite the underachievement considering the vast improvements in nutrition in this day and age. She also looked to be around the age that his physical appearance portrayed, an infant in vampire standards and a child in the eyes of humans of this century.
"Hello," he greeted, his soft voice interrupting the silence that had settled on them. She didn't answer. She just stared at him, pale lips unattractively agape. He supposed she was dumbfounded over the fact of finding a boy, appearing her own age locked in a cage in the basement of a church.
After a few more moments of her continuing to stare at him the vampire in the cage began to wonder if she was of simple mind. Then the child moved. Her feet shuffled, simple black flats scuffing on the floor as she came further into the room. Her pale mouth fluttered as if to speak, but no sound came out.
He raised an eyebrow, listening to the fluttering of her heartbeat. "Why are you here?" he questioned. Eyelids and dark lashes fluttered over steel blue eyes, taking in his query. Godric wondered if being locked in the basement had had some effect on his appearance to the point it made others speechless. His progeny would have laughed at the thought.
Something in his question must have snapped her out of whatever daze she had been in, because her posture shifted. Arms moved to cross over chest and previously flopping mouth now pursed in a frown.
"Why the hell are you asking me that. I am not the vampire locked in the basement of a vampire hating church." Godric blinked at the hostile reply. Her eyebrows raised in expectancy of a retort. None came. "So do you want to explain Mr. Vampire why you are currently sitting here when we both know you could easily free yourself?" Godric didn't exactly know what to say. The girl did not observe any of the human social niceties that he had come to understand. She was downright rude. He had done absolutely nothing to warrant such attitude.
He was forming a reply when her erratic behavior took another turn as she moved forward and kneeled to be at his level in front of the cage, her light blue eyes searching his darker ones. Her lips parted again and this time her voice was softer, almost cracking with emotion. "Why? Why do you want to end your life?"
Ava tossed her unnecessary dark green comforter off of her body. God she hated summer. Ava didn't mind heat, she was used to always being warm, but she couldn't stand the sticky humidity that often accompanied her least favorite season of the year. The dark bedroom was silent except for Ava's movement and the light breaths of the three other sleeping girls.
Trying very hard not to wake one of the other girls Ava made her way to the door. Luckily she managed not to trip over the numerous articles of clothing on the floor. Once she had made it to the hallway she exhaled a sigh of relief. With no windows to light her path Ava made her way down the hallway, and to the stairs completely by memory, gracefully missing any squeaky floorboards. Her journey to freedom was now halfway complete. The stairs posed little challenge.
Her greatest obstacle lay just before the door that led to paradise. Boomer, the dog who was most aptly named lay between her and the door to the outside world. She stared down at his snoring figure. She approached with caution, looking for any hints of wakefulness in his massive form. The hound was so large that when he lay lengthwise he proved to be an admirable roadblock in the not so narrow hallway. Thankfully Ava had the moonlight spilling from a nearby window onto the sleeping beast. With carefully placed steps she overcame the second to last hurdle.
The screen door was only a few feet away, and though the outside air would not prove to be much of a relief Ava craved it with every fiber of her being. Grasping the tarnished handle Ava pulled it open just until the point where she knew it would begin to squeak. She slipped through the small opening, and gently guided the door back into the closed position. Success was sweet. Ava breathed in a victorious breath of night air.
The back porch light of the old farmhouse had burnt out long ago and Gigi nor anyone else had ever thought of replacing it. It didn't matter though. The moon hung low and heavy in the sky, providing more than enough light for Ava to see another figure sitting on the porch steps.
"Can't sleep again Avs?" Justin's voice was low and thick with a southern twang. The moon's light caused his near black hair to shine.
"You know me Jay, a good night's sleep is never high on the priority list," she answered, the sarcastic smirk she wore clearly communicated in her voice. She sat down next to him bumping shoulders on the way down. Ava knew he would be out here.
The pair sat in silence for a spell, or as silent as any humid night could be. The crickets, cicadas and peepers made their own music as the two humans listened to the free concert.
"You dreamin' of him again?" Justin asked.
"Every time I close my eyes," she sighed.
Justin's head bobbed back and forth at her answer. "You know it must mean something. I don't know much about anything, but it can't be nothin'." His head turned to catch her blue eyes with his brown. Justin always spoke slow and calm, it was just his way. People who didn't know him always thought it meant he was stupid, but Ava knew he was far from it.
She scoffed softly, "Whaddya mean? You think I am supposed to go do something about it? Find this Godric in Dallas and stop him from throwing himself into the daylight?" She let out a huff, not wanting to admit the truth of her words to even herself. "I got enough problems without trying to stop a vampire hell bent on killing himself." Problems that should stay buried and not rear their ugly head just when she was beginning to find peace.
Justin's smile grew as he shook his head. "The fact that you think you should go and do something, that you know not only his name, but where he is, tells me yeah…you should."
She started at his words, "I never said I thought…" Her words died at the easy smile still apparent on his face in the moonlight. "Ok so I have thought about it." She knocked her arm against his, "You know me to well."
Justin laughed softly, "No I don't, none of us do. I might be the closest, but you never let anyone know what is going on up in that big old head of yours." He teasingly knocked his fist against her temple.
She frowned at this. "I don't mean to be distant…"
He cut her off, "You know that isn't what I meant. We're all damaged goods Ava. I don't know what happened to you at your last home, but I know it wasn't good. Hell, we've all been there, but we make the most of what we got." He paused looking up at the moon. "When you started having these dreams, I thought I had never seen you so scared. You were as jumpy as that pup of Ricky's for the longest time. You were scared of your own shadow it seemed like." He looked at her again. "I'm just glad that you came and talked to me about it, before I called the looney bin." His crooked smile was full force now.
She narrowed her eyes at him and snorted. "Not very ladylike that." She promptly punched him in the arm. "Or that."
She shook her head, a smile of her own making its way across her lips. "You know you're the one who should be thrown into the looney bin. You seem to have more faith in these dreams than I do. Encouraging me to go traipsing across the country to rescue a suicidal vampire."
"Yeah, well, it's a crazy old world we live in, I reckon vampires could use a bit of savin." He winked and took off his hat placing it roughly on her head. "I seen crazy things Ava." Justin looked off towards the mountains. "There was this kid once. He was in that rancher's home, the other side of Blanche. I was maybe fourteen at the time." Justin paused then, collecting his thoughts. "The kid could read minds Avs. Not like you're thinkin' of the color blue and the number ten neither. He just fuckin' knew things he should never should've." Justin shook his head. "Poor shit didn't know when to keep his mouth shut about it either." Justin's brown eyes caught her gaze. "Now with vampers comin' out of the coffin and all, you seeing the future, or whatever it is, don't seem so crazy."
Justin leaned back resting his elbows against the porch. "Now I know you are dying to go but I want you to be smart about this." Ava opened her mouth to interrupt, but Justin spoke again, "Vampers are fuckin' scary and I know you don't wanna become anyone's chew toy, but I also know I won't be able to talk you out of it. You can't help yourself from helpin others, it just ain't in you." The crooked smile was back on his face. "You can take the Pickle mobile. Johnny fixed it up, runs nice now. Cass will let you outta work for sure, but if you ain't back in a week, I'm comin' down there to get ya myself."
"The kids…" she started, trying desperately not to let the growing excitement in her show. Ava couldn't believe Justin was condoning this. He was overprotective of all of them, but she supposed he was right about not being able to talk her out of it. She was as stubborn as a mule at the best of times.
"We were survivin' before you got here and we will survive for a week while you're gone. Don't count me an Gigi out so quick." He put an arm around her shoulder. "Stop making excuses that you don't really mean. I can practically feel your excitement. You want to see so badly if these dreams are true. I can tell."
She snorted again, leaning her head on his shoulder, a true smile stretching her mouth wide. "Thanks Jay." There was no denying the truth to his words.
Godric stared into those silvery blue eyes, trying to contain the shock he was currently feeling. How did she know? Why was she here? Who was she? Allowing a frown to cross his face he began, "I don't know why Mr. Newlin sent you or what he told you about me-"
He was quickly cut off. "I have never met, nor do I ever wish to meet the honorable reverend Steve Newlin. If I had his blessing to be down here do you think I would have come at the dead of night or picked the door." There was no attempt to cover the sarcasm in her voice and her eye roll was more than apparent.
Godric came forward from his position leaning against the back wall. He no longer felt the need to deal with this child with kid gloves on. "Why are you here? How did you know I was here?" He hoped his slight irritation at her attitude could not be read in his voice.
Despite his hopes the girl was not an idiot and quite adapt at listening to people. She wanted to give into the overpowering urge she was feeling to smirk. Irritation was better than apathy. She took a breath to steady her excitement.
Godric heard and even saw her intake of breath through the threadbare tank top she wore. Her heartbeat had increased as well and its continuous pulse was beginning to distract him and cause his hunger to rise. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you," was the only answer she gave him. Her teeth snagged on her bottom lip as she debated what exactly to tell him. A loud thud from above changed her mind for her. "I have to go." She stood and quickly strode to the door. Her dark brown ponytail whipped around at her sudden movement.
"Wait!" He called. Godric stood to ensure eye contact. "How did you know?" This time he put a bit of force behind his question. It had been a long time since he had to glamour someone.
She paused at the door for only a moment, teeth scoring her bottom lip once again before she was gone, leaving only the smell of juniper and smoke in her wake.
Godric blinked. The girl either was resistant to glamour or it hadn't taken, possibly due to lack of total eye contact, or rustiness on his part. The vampire shifted in his cage. Irritating and uninformative though she was, he hadn't had contact with another person in nearly three days and he wished to speak longer with her. Rather pathetic considering he spent nearly a thousand years alone. He could go after her. Easily. But Godric knew she would return. There was something that she wanted from him. He would just have to wait to see what it was. Funny how spending nearly two weeks doing absolutely nothing gave him so little patience.
Ava easily slipped past security as she made her way out of the church and into the woods that surrounded the church grounds.
If there was one thing Ava was truly good at it was sneaking around. The ability came from constantly living in homes with too many people and more often than not sleeping in rooms with more than two other people. Waking others or getting caught had always led to unpleasant experiences so Ava made sure she wasn't.
Being caught by one of the fanatically religious sentries would most definitely lead to an unpleasant experience, so the young girl planned carefully. She spent a day and a night scouting the church and the surrounding area to make sure she knew how to get in and out. The best way to ensure you never got caught was to have more than one exit strategy.
Within five minutes of getting out of the church Ava had already made it to the road. She had left her car on the road, knowing she couldn't exactly park in the visitor section of the church parking lot. The Pickle, as everyone at Gigi's lovingly called it, was an old Mercedes. If it had been in decent condition it probably would have been worth a lot of money to a car collector. But it was terribly rusted in spots and no longer had any original anything. But it had gotten Ava to Dallas and that was all she could ask for.
As soon as she shut the door the small brunette let out a breath she didn't know she was holding.
It was real. The dreams were real. Godric was real. Shit.
Part of her was hoping, madly hoping that she would come all this way to find nothing. Her dreams were just that, dreams. The fire that had killed her abusive foster parents was really just caused by an electrical short just like the fire department had said in their report. And the weird man that had visited her in the hospital and told her all those things was just some psycho who got off on frightening teenage girls.
Tears burned her eyes and she gripped the steering wheel hard and sucked in her next breath in attempt to not let them fall. All excitement she had previously experienced was long gone. All that was left was a scared eighteen year-old who now faced an impossible task.
"Fuck."