Eric was growing concerned about his progeny. He knew she had a tendency to be a little (a lot) negative by nature, but she was getting a little extreme, even for her.
She barely said two words to him anymore. When they weren't in the store she spent all her time watching reruns of The X Files or Buffy the Vampire Slayer. She was also starting to look a little pale and he had a feeling she wasn't eating lately.
He eyed her from across the room. She was putting the returned DVDs back on the shelves and making sure that they had enough candy out. When satisfied she returned to her seat beside him and went back to her crossword puzzle.
"Are you okay?" he asked her.
"I'm glorious. How could you tell?" she asked sarcastically without bothering to look up from her paper.
"You're quiet," he observed.
"What's there to talk about?" she commented. She had a point there so he decided to quit bugging her. He wasn't getting anywhere with her and was probably annoying her more.
Sighing, he figured he would have to come up with a new strategy.
TRUE BLOOD
"Can I help you?" Pam asked, sounding as disinterested as she looked.
"I'm looking for the like scariest most awesome horror film you have," the stupid teenager said. "Got any suggestions?" The idiot glanced up at Pam who was taller than him in her ridiculous shoes.
"No," she said and turned to head back to the counter.
"Hey, lady," the kid continued. "You don't got to be rude."
"Actually, I do," Pam drawled and kept walking.
The kid tempted fate by reaching out to grab Pam's arm. He was either stupid or brave. Eric was going with stupid.
He knew this wasn't going to go well as soon as the kid moved to touch her. She was in too bad a mood and had no patience to start with.
Sure enough, Pam hissed and turned around, fangs bared. The kid screamed but Pam grabbed him by the throat before he could run away.
"Be careful who you bother, you inbred sack of shit," she spoke around her fangs. "Next time someone might rip your arms off."
The kid nodded frantically, absolutely terrified.
Eric finally interrupted and sped over to Pam. "Let him go," he ordered. She complied and retracted her fangs as she backed off. "Go wait in back," he told her.
The teen was crying by this point, not sure what he had just seen. "I'm sorry, man. Your girlfriend is nuts!"
Pam couldn't hear anymore as she went to the backroom to wait for Eric. He was going to be pissed. She sat on one of the tables and waited for the minute it took Eric to come in.
"That was incredibly stupid," Eric told her.
"Did you glamour him?" she asked.
"I had to," he said, arms folded in front of his chest as he regarded her. "What is going on with you?"
"He pissed me off," she explained.
"You know better than to reveal yourself like that."
"My fangs just popped out," she lied.
"Pam, you're 98 years old; that excuse doesn't work anymore."
"Fine. I got mad," she said. "I'm sorry, alright? I won't do it again."
"Good," he said. "Stay away from the customers for the rest of the night." With that he left the room to go back to the front of the store. She was just happy he wasn't angrier.
TRUE BLOOD
"I'm going to get something to eat," Eric said, standing just inside the doorway of Pam's bedroom. "Want to come?"
"No," she said, mindlessly glued to the television.
He followed her line of sight to see she was watching The X Files again.
"Don't you get sick of this show?" he asked.
"Yes. But there's nothing else on."
He didn't know what to say to that. "Are you sure you don't want to come?" he tried again.
"I'm not hungry," she said.
"When was the last time you ate?"
"I don't know. A couple days ago."
Well, that was a blatant lie. Eric couldn't take anymore and moved to turn the TV off.
"Hey! Scully was about to get abducted by aliens!"
"You've seen it a hundred times," he responded. "Why won't you eat?" He moved to sit beside her on the bed.
She crossed her arms in front of her chest defensively.
"I'm really not hungry," she said. "Can I watch my show now?" She reached for the remote on the bed. He snatched it up and tossed it out of the room and down the hallway.
"Not until you tell me what's up with you." She didn't say anything and his frustration grew. "Are you trying to make me worry? Fine, it's working. I'm worried that you haven't eaten in weeks and are attacking kids in the store."
"Oh, he was fine!" she protested.
"Pamela!" he snapped.
"I can't tell you what's wrong because I don't know!" she yelled. "I'm really not hungry!" she continued. "I know it's been weeks since I've fed but I just don't care. I don't even want any blood."
"Are you feeling alright?" he asked in concern. He'd assumed she was doing it on purpose to get his attention but perhaps not.
"I'm fine," she said.
"You're obviously not," he countered. "Talk to me."
She had in fact been avoiding talking to him. All of her problems seemed to center around that stupid store and she knew that if she voiced to Eric how she felt he would feel guilty. Plus he couldn't do anything about it anyway so there was no point in bothering him with her feelings.
She decided to tell him but hoped she could keep the emotion out of her voice. She tried for indignant.
"I'm just so sick of everything! We've been running the stupid store for seventeen years and nothing has changed, Eric! We're immortal; they could actually make us do this for eternity, you know."
"Well, I doubt that." He moved over to sit beside her where she reclined against the headboard.
"You don't know that," she retorted childishly.
"No," he admitted. "But few things last forever."
The idea of running the store for eternity really sank in then. She would be 100 soon. When she had asked Eric to turn her she thought life would be exciting and it had been, for a while. But she was so sick of dealing with idiotic humans and she just needed a break to get some perspective. Pam leaned forward and brought her knees to her chest and her hands to her face.
"Hey," he soothed, reaching out to put a hand on her back as her shoulders began to shake. "Don't cry."
"I don't know if I can do this any longer," Pam cried, her frustration boiling over at last. Eric put his arm around her and she sank down to rest her head in his lap. He combed his fingers through her wavy hair.
"Do what?"
"Everything! This is not what I pictured our life would be like."
"I'm sorry," he told her. "I know this is my fault for not listening in France." He still felt a good deal of guilt over that. He had allowed his arrogance to get in the way and it had cost him a good deal.
He gave Pam a few minutes to cry, figuring it couldn't hurt her to let some of her feelings out. If there was one thing he had learned about her, it was that she didn't talk about anything and that she let things fester until she lost it completely. He hadn't imagined when he became a maker that he would play the part of therapist so often, but in a way it was like raising a child. It didn't help that he had chosen a human who had had such a difficult life and needed more emotional support than he thought was average. Still, he didn't mind; her company had been nice and she had given him a purpose after so long on his own.
Finally Pam sat up, though she remained close enough to him that he could lay a hand on her bare leg.
"I'm sorry," she said, wiping her tears with a tissue he grabbed from the bedside table.
"You don't need to be," he dismissed. "This isn't your fault."
"It's not yours either." He snorted in response. "Okay, it is," she agreed. "But you shouldn't have to listen to my whining."
She never had been entirely comfortable with emotional displays. The first time she'd cried in front of her maker she had been mortified beyond belief. Her family had been very stoic and proper and emotion was simply not acceptable. She had adopted their attitude as she had gotten older. Eric had been very understanding, though, which had surprised her. He hadn't gotten angry at her tears as she had thought he might. Instead he'd talked her through her feelings and offered support, something which still meant a lot to her.
"Nonsense," Eric said. "I'd rather you cry on me than sulk in the corner by yourself." He wished she was more open with him, in fact, but felt that would probably come in time.
"You need to eat something," he told her. "It's making this depression worse."
"Vampires can be depressed?" she asked.
"They can be chronically unhappy," he clarified. "You're gonna eat something. Then we are going to go somewhere that's not the store."
"Why?" She threw the bloody tissue so that it landed somewhere on the floor.
"Because sitting around watching TV isn't helping. And we need to get you out of this rut." He got up so that she would follow. "Get dressed."
He waited for her to get ready and they soon left to enjoy the remainder of the night. She forced herself to eat and found she actually felt a little better to be out of the house. It didn't hurt that she'd found herself an attractive teen girl to snack on. She copped a feel while she had the chance before she glamoured the girl to forget and go home.
Afterwards they merely walked around downtown before heading home for dawn. They didn't really do anything of significance but it was nice to be somewhere that wasn't home or that horrid store. Pam enjoyed Eric's company, knowing he was doing this for her.
She was surprised that night when Eric slipped into her bed with her.
"I'm really not in the mood-," she began to protest.
"I'm not here for that," he shushed her. They hadn't had sex in almost twenty years; he wasn't going to try now when she was so clearly not herself. Really he just felt bad that she was suffering when it was his fault and wanted to see for himself that she was alright.
"Everything is going to be okay," he told her, head close to hers on the pillow.
"Promise?" she asked, sounding very much like a little girl.
"I promise," he said and kissed her forehead. "Go to sleep. You'll feel better after some rest."
She snuggled up to him while she had the chance. They hadn't slept beside one another in a very long time and she realized she had missed it.
Eric watched as she died for the day but stayed awake a little longer to watch her, not needing as much rest as she did.
He couldn't keep them from their punishment, but he could try to make it easier on her. He could see she was bored and she wasn't old enough to realize that this time in the store would be barely a blip on the radar in the grand scheme of their eternal lives.
He gathered her closer, her silky hair splayed across his chest. She was his only progeny and he would try to keep her a bit happier in the future. And they would get rid of the store the first chance they got.