Summary: Alex and Marissa are together and happy – until Alex has an accident. Marissa thinks she is dead, but is she really? Will Alex and Marissa find a way to save their relationship even though fate seems to be against them?
I guess you could see this fic as a kind of sequel to 'Is this our farewell', my other fanfic, although you don't really have to read it for this one to make sense… You just need to know that Alex and Marissa got back together after the whole bonfire thing.
Genres: fantasy/ romance/ angst/ friendship/ general
Warnings: mild violence/ self-harm (possibly later on)/ femslash
Your Shadow in the Moonlight
1
It was a rather chilly summer night in Orange County and Alex Kelly wrapped her thin jacket tighter around herself as a little breeze made her shudder. She was on her way home from work. There had been a concert that evening and it was well after half past one. After cleaning up and doing some minor paper work she had hurried to her jeep, eager to get home, but had found someone had slashed her tires. Sighing, she had started her way home on foot, sending out a silent thank-you that her apartment was only about a twenty-five minute foot marsh away. There was no one who could give her a lift, as all her colleagues were already gone and Marissa was likely to be asleep. It was the last week of school before the summer break and though there was nothing important going on in school anymore, Marissa had promised not to ditch.
As Alex was now walking down the dark road in silence –only interrupted by a car passing her from time to time –, she couldn't help but smile at the thought of her girlfriend. They had been together for almost four months now. Their relationship had grown strong and they hadn't had a really serious row since the bonfire incident.
Alex had always thought herself to be incapable of committing into a real relationship. The one or two times she had tried had never lasted all too long and had always ended in a fiasco – although this had not always necessarily been her fault.
But with Marissa it was different. Alex was willing to invest everything she had into their relationship and to work as hard as she could to solve any problems they might stumble across – an attitude that had not been present in her previous 'real' relations.
Alex wondered whether her girlfriend would be asleep when she'd arrive home. She imagined the brunette beauty laying in their bed with her incredible deep blue eyes closed, dreaming hopefully of a certain blonde. Alex smiled to herself, happy at the thought of being able to lay down next to Marissa in less than half an hour and to gently caress her face…
Alex was so deep in thought she hadn't notice a dark figure following her soundlessly. As the figure slowly approached her from behind, Alex felt chills running down her spine and spun around. She squinted into the darkness but there was no one in sight.
"Pull yourself together, Kelly," she murmured, continuing down her way.
She felt a cold breeze against her neck and then something cold and sharp pierced her soft flesh exposed beneath her pigtail. The pain went by as fast as it came, and she felt her neck become numb instead. But before she could even turn around to see what was happening, the numbness had spread throughout most of her body.
Alex felt herself beginning to panic and desperately tried to turn around, to at least turn her head, but her body had become completely paralyzed. She tried to kick with legs and arms, but only managed to quiver slightly. She tried to scream, but was unable to move her mouth.
What was happening? She heard a breathing sound from directly next to her ear and realized that someone was doing this to her – whatever this was. Alex felt herself beginning to lose consciousness and realized she could do nothing about it. The last thing she saw was a pair of headlights in the distance– then the world dissolved in front of her eyes and everything turned black.
Marissa glanced down at her wristwatch, again. 01:27 a.m. Where was she?
Marissa was lying on their bed, reading a novel – or at least staring down at the words. She was unable to concentrate as she started to worry about her girlfriend. She was never out this long – at least not without Marissa. And if work occasionally required her to stay longer than till one o'clock, Alex always knew beforehand and told Marissa.
She knew Alex would be expecting her to be asleep, but she had planned on surprising her girlfriend with some wine and a few sweet kisses… But Marissa couldn't stand it any longer. She took out her cell and dialled Alex' number. A unfamiliar, yet familiar, voice told her this number was currently unavailable.
"What the…" Marissa murmured and jumped up. Now she was seriously worried. Alex never shut off her mobile, and even if it was off there should be her voicemail.
Marissa quickly grabbed a jacket and pulled it over her thin shirt. Once outside, she shivered with cold and damned the skirt she had put on to show off her long legs to Alex.
She got into her car and started driving in direction of the Bait Shop. She tried calling Alex again, but again only heard the same female voice.
Marissa was now sure something had happened. Ice-cold sweat ran down her back as she hoped, prayed that Alex was alright. Halfway to the Bait Shop she saw the site of an accident ahead. Marissa hit the brakes and jumped out of her car. She ignored the policemen trying to hold her back and ran to a lifeless figure lying on the ground.
Marissa stood there, panting, and looked down at the lifeless young woman directly in front of her. No, this was not her. She is not dead, her blonde hair is not soaked with blood.
Then it hit her like a blow against her chest. It was Alex. Marissa felt as if the world stood still for a moment. She heard no other sound but her own breathing and the hammering of her heart against her chest. She slowly went down to her knees. She took one of Alex' hands in hers – it was stone cold.
Marissa felt dazed.
"Everything will be alright, baby. I'm here, Alex, come on, we have to go home…"
Marissa felt a hand on her shoulder and tried to shrug it off like an annoying fly. Realising that he would not get her attention this way, the policeman knelt down next to Marissa.
"Miss… I'm sorry… You knew this woman?"
Marissa noticed the man using the past tense and felt slightly annoyed. Can't anyone get their grammar right these days?
"Yes, I know Alex Kelly. She's my girlfriend and we live together."
Marissa felt her head begin to throb madly, but still she didn't allow those thoughts to form in her head.
"What happened?" she whispered suddenly.
"It seems she was murdered, miss. I'm sorry. She was most likely already dead when she hit the floor with her head."
Slowly the truth began to sink in and Marissa sank down over Alex in a dead faint as she began to understand what her subconsciousness had known all along: Alex was dead.
Marissa felt a pair of arms trying to lift her and she instinctively held on tighter to Alex' lifeless body.
"No… have to stay… Can't leave her…" Marissa mumbled. One policeman cautiously but firmly loosened Marissa's grip on Alex and another one gently pulled her back. The man slowly guided her to a police car. On the way they passed some more local police as well as some officers apparently from some criminal investigation service.
"…The FBI just called. They'll be taking over the investigations completely. Seems to be a serial murder case…"
"...Poor girl…"
"…Cases like this are awful. She was still so young…"
"…Let's get her off the road…"
Marissa heard all the voices around her but was incapable of really taking in any of their words. They reached the car and Marissa got into the back. She considered telling the officer that she had her own car, but then decided it would be too much of an effort. She chuckled. Since when am I this lazy?
"Hey, kid. Where can we take you? Home, to family?… Friends?"
Marissa nodded slowly. She mumbled the Cohen's address and suddenly her whole body began to shake as the fact began to sink in that Alex was gone for good… Not being able to stand the pain connected to that realization, Marissa passed out, again, on the backseat of the police car. A female police officer got in next to Marissa and buckled her seatbelt. She looked at the unconscious girl sympathetically; she knew what it was like to lose a beloved one.
They drove off to the Cohen's residence, while the rest of the police cleared the accident site. Some while later, all the police had gone and no one noticed a pair of red eyes gleam viciously, as a dark shadow hushed away into the darkness.
The following days passed in an unbearable slowness. Alex' parents came to the O.C. and the funeral was prepared. The police needed to keep Alex' body for some days for their investigations, so the funeral was scheduled for one week after that fateful Tuesday.
Marc Jackson, leader of a special FBI unit, had taken over the case. He was quite young for such a position, only in his early thirties, and sometimes he wished for a calmer life.
It was Thursday night, two days after the incident. He was alone in the dimly-light autopsy room and stared down at Alex' corpse lying on the table in front of him. This was one of the moments he longed to have chosen a different career. Teacher, maybe. He sighed and brushed a strand of his short black hair out of his face.
Though he heard no sound, he suddenly felt the presence of another person.
"Victoria?" he asked into the silence without turning around.
"I am here," came a soft whisper from behind him.
He shivered and finally turned to look at the woman who had spoken.
"Let's get this over with," he said, locking eyes with the young woman. "I really hope you know what you're doing."
The woman smiled gently. "I know what you're putting at stake. But I promise, no one will notice."
Together, they put Alex' body on a stretcher. Then they lifted a body bag onto the table and opened it to expose another young woman's body. Marc inhaled loudly.
"Impressed?" the woman asked, smirking.
Marc nodded silently. The dead girl on the table looked just like Alex Kelly.
The woman covered the stretcher holding the real Alex with a piece of cloth. Together they carried it to the woman's rental car parked in front of the building. They removed Alex from the stretcher and the woman placed her in the co-drivers seat and buckled her seat belt.
"God knows I have seen a lot, but this is just creepy," Marc muttered to himself.
The woman turned towards him.
"Thank you for your help. I swear no one saw us, I made sure of that. Don't worry about all this."
"That's easier said than done," Marc said dryly.
The young woman smiled and placed a quick kiss on his cheek before she got into her car and drove off.
Twenty minutes later she had parked the car somewhere off the road. She preferred to stay unnoticed.
She picked up the dead body from the co-driver's seat and carried it out and away into the darkness, soundlessly.
Another twenty minutes later, the woman arrived at a small motel. She opened the door to her room, at the same time still holding Alex against her body with her other hand. She laid the corpse back-down onto the bed and locked the door behind her. She turned on the lights and took off her black jacket. Then she pulled up a chair next to the bed and stared at the lifeless figure.
She sighed and softly brushed away Alex' hair to expose the icy skin of her neck. She bent forward and sank her pointed canine teeth into the soft flesh. Once the first drops of blood touched her lips, she had to will herself not to simply suck Alex empty.
A few moments later she drew back and walked over to the bathroom. After she had showered she went outside and sat down in front of her motel room door. She stared up at the almost full moon and sighed again. She still had quite a few long hours kill.
It was around five o'clock in the morning when it finally began.
The woman sat up straight in the chair, haven taken up that position again hours ago, and her eyes flashed with excitement.
She watched closely as little shudders ran through Alex' body. Yes, it was time.
The shudders became stronger and Alex' eyelids began to flatter uncontrolled. She took one of the girl's hands in her own, wishing someone had been there to do the same for her, long ago.
Suddenly, Alex' body stopped moving again and she lay there, again completely still.
Then she opened her eyes.
Alex felt strange. Where was she? She tried to remember… The Bait Shop. Slashed tires… A piercing pain in her neck. Numbness. Darkness…
She opened her eyes. For a few seconds she was too blinded to see anything, then she was able to make out a figure beside her.
"Marissa?" she croaked. How strange. Her voice felt as if she hadn't used it for weeks.
"No, but it's alright. Don't worry, you'll understand soon."
The voice was female… and completely unfamiliar. Hospital? shot through Alex' mind but she quickly excluded that possibility again. She was not in a hospital room… This looked more like a bedroom furnished by someone with a pretty bad taste. Was she in a hotel?
Oh, God, where am I? she thought desperately, not sure if she really wanted an answer to that question.
"Yes, you are in a motel room. But don't worry, I do not want to harm you. I will explain everything."
Alex sat up and moved backwards until she was leaning against the wall behind the bed. She didn't know how to place this situation and fear ran through her body – fear of the unknown. Alex felt terribly cold and although she was scared, she suddenly realised that her heart was not hammering wildly like expected in such situations. Alex put her hand to her chest. As a matter of fact, she was feeling no heart beat at all. I'm just too nervous to feel my pulse, that's all.
"What happened to me?" she whispered, her voice still not fully functioning. Memory flashes of pain and darkness hit her. Darkness.
"Am I dead?"
"What do you think?" the woman asked, sounding truly interested.
"No… I don't think I would be in an ugly motel room if I was dead," Alex said slowly, "I'm not sure if there is a life after death, but I'm quite sure this is not it."
"And you're quite right. You are not dead."
Alex rubbed her cold arms. "Yeah, well, I don't feel all too alive at the moment, though", she mumbled, rather to herself.
"Ah, well, I never said you were alive. I merely said you weren't dead." The woman sighed deeply. "You'll soon learn to appreciate that little difference."
Alex' head began to spin and she felt sick. What was going on here? She had been scared, at first, that this woman could harm her. Now she was afraid of something entirely different, although she couldn't even quite pinpoint what it was. 'I never said you were alive…'
"Don't be afraid, kid. You'll be okay."
"Who are you?" Alex demanded, suddenly angry. Who did this woman think she was, constantly telling her everything would be okay, when all just seemed wrong.
The woman smiled and reached out her right hand. "I am Victoria."
"Alex," the blonde said, slightly irritated by the gesture, but taking the offered hand to shake it anyway. Victoria's hand was just as cold as her own.
Alex looked down at the palm of her hand, the place her skin had just touched Victoria's. Maybe she had asked to wrong question.
"What are you?" she whispered. She was not sure what had made her ask exactly those words, but she somehow knew that not the woman's name, but the answer to this question, was what mattered.
Victoria smiled again, though her eyes were full of sadness. "I… am a vampire."
A/N: The first few chapters will be rather Alex-centered… There probably won't be too much of Marissa there. But she'll be back, of course.
Hope you liked it… let me know what you think! : )