Authors Note: This is an AU/OOC fic. There is no real timeline for where it can be based according to the SVM series, however it will most likely fit in somewhere the more I go along. Rate and review if you like, but I'm not all that fussed if you don't. Constructive criticism is welcomed. Thanks
I do not own the Southern Vampire Mysteries series, all right belong to the wonderful Ms Charlene Harris.
I once was what you are; you will be what I am. Once I was alive like you are, a sentient being made of flesh and bone. Now I am not, and you will be as dead as I am now.
She was a sophisticated, poised and cultured woman. In hindsight that should have made the locals suspicious. Someone like her should be presiding in a place like London or New York, not living, and seeking a position at the local library in the small backwards town of Bon Temps in Louisiana. But at the time, they were all so curious and excited to see someone new in their quiet, quaint little town. No one could have known.
"It will be good for my Lisa and Coby to learn some culture. You know an education, and a bit of help to read and write. God know my little darlings aren't the sharpest pitchforks in the shed," Arlene , one of the waitresses at Merlottes told Sookie.
"Arlene! Your children are very well educated. There a damn sight smarter than me anyhow, considering my little quirk" she said muttering to herself. However she covered up her slip quickly by responding with a tight smile.
The children from the pre-school in Bon Temps gathered every Sunday to go to the reading shortly after 'She' arrived. Shortly after all the children were coming to tell their 'mamas and papas' about 'The Lady'. Nobody knew her name. It was never given, so they never asked. All the towns' children loved her. 'She' taught the children manners, as well as learning and helping them with how to read and write. 'She' was a God-send.
The parents of the quaint little town were delighted at the progress the children were making, and by how enjoyable it seemed to be for them.
However one girl in the town was not so satisfied. Sookie had a more sinister story to tell. Sookie new all about the Supernatural, the world hidden within her own; she knew about the laws that governed them, the different types you could come across, how their world is steeped in lies and treachery and greed. One species pitted against another, glorying and revelling in the hunt, and eventually the kill. Bathing in the blood of their enemies. Yes, she knew all about the supernatural. Why was 'She' so different?
"That woman, something ain't right about her, she's not natural," Sookie told Sam, owner of Merlottes, waving a ketchup bottle for emphasis. "I've seen her out in the woods, when it's dark out, dancing round a fire and chanting in some unknown language. It's beautiful, hauntingly so. She almost caught me once when I followed her out into the woods, round the back of the plantation. I could've sworn she'd seen me, it felt like she was staring right at me" Sookies tone softening, her speech quitter with every word that passed her lips.
"Nonsense, you're losing it Cher. Maybe you should get your little quirk looked at" Sam retorted, polishing a glass behind the bar.
"I've heard that she's got an alter in her room, and it ain't even an altar to the Almighty, they say that she's a devil worshiper" Sookie insisted, leaning forwards, speaking in hushed tones to Sam.
"I'd like to believe ya Cher, really I would, but you're starting to sound like you're not right in the head," moving round the counter in order to stop Sookie from coming any closer.
"I am not crazy Sam Merlotte!" Sookie huffed, insensed by his words.
"Now Cher stop twisting my words, you know I didn't say that. Why don't you head on home, get some rest."
Sookie left Merlottes, internally seething, her rage at Sam's words bubbling towards the surface. She continued to tale wild about 'The Lady,' making outlandish accusations in the weeks that followed. No one would listen. During those following weeks, the towns people gradually saw the changes coming over the children. The typical high-jinks, pranks, and good natured jibes that all children played lessened, eventually halting to a stop. Their laughter died away, ebbing and fading into darkness. When the children did misbehave it was on a more outlandish scale. Items began to disappear from homes of long known neighbours and friends. Expensive items such as jewellery and money were stolen. When the children talked back to their parent, there was a hard edge to their voices, comparable to that of steel, and they did not apologise for their rudeness and distressing behaviour, even when punished.
"And my little Lisa lied to me the other day," Arlene said to Sookie in distress. "I saw her punch Coby and steal is juice box from him, and she had the audacity to deny it to my face. She practically called me a liar!"
"The games the children play in the woods frighten me," Sookie confessed. "They chant in a language unknown to me, and the way they move. It's not natural. Almost ritualistic in a sense."
"Could it be something they might be reading or learning that 'the lady' in the library is teaching them? Sookie queried.
"Absolutely not! 'She' is such a sweet, sophisticated lady," said Arlene.
However they exchanged uneasy glances.
No. Sookie thought, chastising herself for second guessing herself into believing for even a moment that that woman had nothing to do with this. "That woman is up to something , she is turning the children against, turning them to the Devil, that's what she's doing," she proclaimed to anyone that would listen.
No one did.
"Don't be ridiculous now cher," Sam told her whilst passing a bottle of whisky to a customer.
"I ain't the one being ridiculous here, you are. You all are! You are blind." That woman ought to be burned at the stake, like they burned the witches at the trials."
Sam was pale, pale with wrath, ordering Sookie to get out of his sight. But her words rang clear in his mind, and would not be pushed away. And the children continued to behave oddly. Almost as if they were possessed. Sam decided reluctantly, that he would have to look into it sometime soon.
That day came sooner than he thought. The very next Sunday, Arlenes Lisa came down with a cold, and her mother kept her home from the library. When he returned from his duties at the bar, Arlene came running up to him as soon as he exited through the door. She was pale with fright.
"I heard her. I heard her chanting something over and over again in her room," she gasped. "So I crept towards the door to listen. He was saying the Lord's Prayer backwards!"
Sam gasped, clutching at his chest, as goose bumps erupted over his body. This was positively satanic. There was nowhere the girl could have learned at such a thing in this town, unless she learned it…at the library.
At that moment, Tara came bursting out through the door behind him.
"Quick Sam, quick," she cried. "Sookie is running through town with a torch, talking and threatening to burn down the library. The children are all still inside!"
Sam raced towards the library with the two women at his heels. They and the other townsfolk who had followed them were met by a huge plume of smoke coming from the direction of the library. The building was already ablaze as frantic parents beat at the flames with wet sacks, or throwing buckets of water from the pump into the inferno. Sookie could be heard cackling unrepentantly from the far side of the building, which was full of the screams of the trapped children and 'the woman.'
The fire blazed with a supernatural kind of force, and Sam thought he heard the sound of the Woman laughing from within the building when it became apparent that no one could be saved.
Stone Haven burnt for several hours, and when the fire extinguished, there was nothing left. Mourning parents tried to find something of their children to bury; Sookie disappeared back to the solitude of her home on Hummingbird Road.
The Woman's body was buried deep beneath the earth in a tomb of stone. The children's smaller bodies were interred beneath wooden crosses. Of all the children in the library that fall, only the waitresses' daughter survived.
To this day, voices can be in the graveyard at Stone Haven of Bon Temps, chanting unintelligible words, as the children and The Woman chanted in the woods on the outskirts of town. Sometimes apparitions are seen, those who roam the graveyard at night.
There is a town in Louisiana called Bon Temps. It was a quaint, quiet little town. One day a woman came to stay. The Woman came and the quiet little town of Bon Temps was never the same again.
A tragedy struck and the children and The Woman burned.
There is a town in Louisiana called Bon Temps. It was a quaint, quiet little town. There was a girl, a sweet girl. An innocent girl, known by the name of Sookie Stackhouse; she lived a simple life, an ordinary life, until She came, The Woman came. On dark, fall nights, whispers can be heard, a rhyme whispered to the girl of Humming Bird road.
Little girl, little girl all alone. Should have learned to stay at home.
Little girl, little girl, all afraid. In the dark her bones are laid.
I died that night, a debt was owed the price must be paid. If I cannot move heaven, then I will raise hell. Now my darling, dear. My sweet innocent girl, it is time to say goodbye. You do not know it yet but your time is coming. If you die before you wake, do not cry and do not ache. Nothing is ever yours to keep. So close your eyes and go to sleep.
Authors Note: That is the end of the first chapter. I will try to update as frequently as I can, but it will probably only be every couple of days. Rest assured it will be updated and I will complete this fanfic. I will also be going back to my other fanfic, after I took an extended break. It's called Broken and is also based on the SVM series, so feel free to check it out. That's all for now