Greetings dear readers! Happy Valentine's Day, or as Owen and Abby take to calling it: Happy Card and Candy Day!
My regrets to my Owen/Abby readers that I haven't put up anything new in a while. I've been working on a major Kick-Ass fanfic, "The Case of the Santa Claus Strangler", and that's been quite a drain on my writing time and mental energy. (Please feel free to read and -please!- review it.)
I've noticed quite a few more downbeat stories up of late, and I thought it was time to put up a new, more optimistic chapter on Owen and Abby's ongoing saga. Here, they mark their first Valentine's Day with some fluff and romance. :-D
BTW, I do wonder if anyone can spot the Stephen King reference I have, yet again, placed in a fic. Props to anyone who can spot it and/or tell me which King work it comes from.
Now, as everyone knows I'm a total review addict. Please feed my addiction everyone by reviewing! :-D
Happy Card and Candy Day!
Cold Creek, Montana; February 14th, 1984
A full moon filled the sky and a cold wind blew dustings of snow over the Montana hills as midnight passed. Monday, February 13th passed into history and Tuesday, February 14th became a reality. Valentine's Day began and affected different people in different ways. Some were affected greatly. Some were not affected at all.
In Mexico, a man once known to his wealthy Virginia family as Jebediah continued his steady (and bloody) trek northwards. Soon, he would reach the border of the United States. He planned to cross back into Texas. He felt a strange kinship with that state. He could vaguely recall over one hundred and twenty years prior when Texas had allied itself with his beloved Virginia in their failed effort to secede from the United States and establish their own country. Alas, the cursed north had crushed that effort. No matter, he would soon enough be back in his homeland. From there, he would begin to search for his pretty little niece. He wondered if she had been enjoying the gift of their mutual condition that he'd wound up bestowing upon her in 1763. If she had, she might be of a mind to repay her Uncle Jebediah with the sort of favour he'd initially –and in truth of fact, still-wanted from her dating back to when he could still walk in the sunlight. The very thought of sampling her beautiful flesh caused a shiver to run through his pale body. He decided then and there, he had to feed that night. One insatiable urge would be sated with another equally insatiable want.
He seemed to recall that today was Valentine's Day. His thoughts went again to his pretty little niece Abigail. It was a shame he did not yet know her whereabouts. He would send her a small token of his undying desire for her. But no, perhaps it would be better to surprise her when he finally tracked her down –and he knew he would track her down, sooner or later. He wondered if she thought of him on this day. Of course, she would probably think of him every time she had to seek shelter when dawn approached or when the hunger –which he himself considered glorious for it meant it was time to hunt and feed- came upon her. He idly wondered if it was possible she'd found some sort of companion of her own. He dismissed that thought out of hand as being irrelevant. If she had found someone other than himself, he would surely make that boy wish he'd never been born. Perhaps, he would rip the boys beating heart from his chest and present it to Abigail as a belated Valentine's Day token. He almost hoped that would be the case. He shivered again. He definitely had to feed tonight. If he focused his imagination he could almost believe that the screams of his prey were that of his dear little Abigail. Patience dear niece, he thought. Your uncle is coming for you. Your uncle is coming for you.
In the small town of Tarker's Mills, Maine, a woman named Stella Randolph was having dreams of feverish lust on this Valentine's Day. She woke to see a man from town she saw almost every day at her window. Only, he wasn't a man now. He was a wolf. He was an immense wolf. It's a dream, she thought as she longingly rose from her narrow bed to let the man/wolf into her room. The cold air from outside and beast's hot breath told her, far too late, that it wasn't a dream. Stella Randolph didn't even scream as her fate matched that of Arnie Westrum who'd had a similar encounter a month earlier as Tarker's Mills' dark year continued.
These events, and others like them, generally passed without too much notice. In Mexico, the next morning found a car on the side of the road outside a small town. It was empty of occupants but blood was found on the seats. Tarker's Mills noted the events of the night, but true fear did not grip the town until the next full moon in March.
On a hillside ten miles outside of the town of Cold Creek, Montana, two figures were blissfully unaware of such events; although, one of those events would eventually change their life together forever. For right now, they were climbing up the side of a steep hill and having an animated conversation as they reached the top.
"Owen, what time is it now? Aren't you getting cold?" Abby asked as she looked at her lover, whose clothing was covered in snow. Owen smiled at her and removed the glove from his right hand. He pulled back the jacket sleeve from his left wrist and looked at his watch.
"It's just past midnight." Owen said as he looked over at Abby. She was covered in snow as well. Of course, she didn't feel the cold. If someone should happen upon them, he thought, it would be a chore to try and explain why Abby was dressed only in a thin sweatshirt, jeans and was in her bare feet.
"Do you want to go in now?" She asked as she casually ran a hand through her long, blonde hair and shook some snow out it.
"I think we could go down the hill one more time." Owen said with a smile. He pulled something from beneath his right arm. It was a rolled up, bright red, plastic sheet. He unrolled it and held the ends down and nodded for Abby to get on it.
Abby gingerly lay on top of the roll-up plastic toboggan and looked down the hill. It was steep. She thought that if she wasn't a vampire, she might actually be nervous about doing this. Owen, on the other hand, seemed to think this was utterly cool. The snow was packed down rather hard from countless other people using the hill for the same purpose during daylight hours in the afternoon and on the weekend just now passed. Abby thought the place must look beautiful on the sunlight of a winter's day. She'd seen pictures enough to know that the deep blue sky was a wonderful contrast to the stark white hills and dark green pine trees that lined the bottom of the hill. Part of her wished she could see that sight for herself in person, rather than just seeing pictures of it. But, that wasn't her fate. Instead, she and Owen came here late at night when there was nobody else around. She did enjoy the fact that the two of them had privacy though. And with Owen there, she really didn't need anybody else. Plus, if there were other people she'd have to wear shoes, and she simply hated wearing shoes.
As she lay on her stomach she looked back at Owen who was kneeling on the plastic toboggan, straddling her. Instead of lying down on top of her, he was pausing with a strange grin on his face. She gave him a puzzled look.
"What is it?"
"Oh, just the way you're lying there…on your stomach…with me like this. It makes me think of what we did the other night." He said with an arch to his eyebrow and a salacious grin on his face.
Abby rolled her eyes and pretended to be horrified and disgusted. "Owen, you and your hormones have a dirty mind!" She giggled. She reached out with her hand and grabbed a handful of loose snow and threw it up at his face. "Now lie down on top of me!" She commanded with a smile that turned into a giggle as she realized the entendre.
"Sure, but that's what I was thinking of and you're the one who said I have a dirty mind." Owen teased as he lay down on top of Abby, savouring the closeness to his lover.
"Oh hush! What am I going to do with you?" Abby said in feigned exasperation.
"I have some ideas for later on."
"Yeah, I'm sure you have." Abby said with a roll of her eyes again as Owen leaned down close to her.
"Do you have any ideas of your own?" Owen asked as he gave her a kiss on the lips.
"I just might." Abby said coolly.
"What are they?"
"You'll find out in due time, my love." Abby said as she caressed Owen's cheek with her bare hand.
"I can't wait."
"Well, you're going to have to; at least for a little while longer."
"Aw."
"Too bad, now come on. Let's go." Abby laughed at him.
"As you wish." Owen intoned in his best Darth Vader impersonation. He pushed off with his booted feet and launched them down the hill (Which, unbeknownst to Abby, generations of local children had nicknamed 'Death Drop Mountain'.).
The two lovers began to slide slowly down the hill on their plastic carpet sled but soon picked up speed. The wind whipped Abby's hair as she suppressed a gasp of exhilaration. The hit moguls on the way down that bounced them up in the air and down again. Behind her, Owen was yelling out in triumphant glee as they went faster and faster.
Finally, at the bottom of the hill they hit a rise that launched them into the air and flipped them over. Owen, Abby and the plastic toboggan went in three separate directions, tumbling into a deep snow bank. All in all, it was about the same thing that had happened on most of their previous trips down Death Drop Mountain.
Owen pulled himself out of the snow with joyous excitement. He hadn't been tobogganing in a long, long time. His father had taken him to some local hills in the Los Alamos area before his parent's marriage had begun to unravel. After his father had moved out, Owen really hadn't taken part in any activities like that. His mother thought it was dangerous and wouldn't let him go –especially alone. And, of course he had nobody else to go with. He'd missed it badly all the previous winter. Of course, the angst he'd experienced over his parents separation (which, he recalled somewhat bitterly, was now called off after he'd left with Abby) and his ongoing torment at school had preoccupied his mental energies as well. When he and Abby had arrived at his grandfather's home the previous March, the winter was coming to an end and there wasn't any chance to do this. This winter, however, he'd been raring to go as soon as the first real snow came around Thanksgiving. Abby had never done anything like that before, however. In her nomadic years she'd had no desire to do something fun like that. And, in her human life, winter sports were simply not done on the plantations of Colonial Virginia. (Not to mention the fact that winters there simply could not compare to what they were like in the Rocky Mountains.) She seemed to be enjoying it though…even if she was still getting used to the concept.
"Wow! That was the best one yet!" Owen called out to her cheerfully.
Abby stood up out of the snow bank she'd tumbled into and blinked the snow out of her eyes. "Owen, you should be in Sarajevo now on the luge course." She said in a joking reference to the currently ongoing Winter Olympic Games.
"You think so?"
"You definitely like winter sports." Abby said with a laugh. She pulled up at her jeans a little. "I think my pants are full of snow." She giggled.
"Yeah, that sucks." Owen snickered as he recalled what he felt was an underhanded way Abby tended to use to win snowball fights with him. "What are you going to do about it?" He smirked.
Abby matched her smirk exactly and arched her eyebrow. She calmly undid her jeans and pulled them off as Owen stared at her with wide eyes. And then, to up the ante, she calmly removed her underwear and proceeded to shake the snow out of those, as well as her jeans.
"So, do you want to go back to the house now?" Abby giggled as Owen looked at her with a salacious grin. "Aw, kind of a shame it's so cold out now, isn't it? You can't take any of your clothes off and still expect things to well…work." Abby said in a teasing voice.
Owen pretended to pout. "You have just HAVE to win at everything, don't you?" He said with a feigned voice of disgust.
"Yup, that's about the size of it." Abby grinned as Owen walked over to her, after picking up their plastic toboggan.
"I can still beat you at "Donkey Kong" and "Zaxxon". Owen said in reference to their ColecoVision gaming system. Abby stuck out his tongue at him as a response. "Aw, hate to admit I'm right?"
"Like I told you back in Los Alamos, I'm your girlfriend now so I'm always right." Abby giggled.
"Oh well, you're totally worth that." Owen said as he pulled her into an embrace and ran his hand along her bare thigh and behind.
"Am I really?"
"Definitely" Owen said as he leaned down –he'd grown quite a bit taller over the last year- and pulled her into a kiss.
As the kiss broke, Abby smiled sweetly at her lover. "Let's go back to the house, Owen. I want to get you someplace where it's warm and you can get undressed properly." Owen smiled back and took her hand in his. He tucked their plastic toboggan under his arm, while Abby draped her jeans and underwear over her own arm and they set off back through the forest path together. After ten minutes, they emerged from the trees on the family property, by the north paddock. A short trek over the fields brought them to the side door of the house. Owen kicked his boots against the stone wall of the house, to knock the snow off of them while Abby brushed off the soles of her bare feet and shook her shirt vigorously to get the snow off it before they both entered the house they'd called home for almost eleven months now.
Owen shed his jacket –an old one that had once belonged to his uncle. (The silver jacket he'd had in New Mexico didn't fit him any longer. Abby was rather sad about that. She liked it. She said it made Owen look like her 'knight in shining armour'.) He placed it on a hook over a mat where winter clothes were hung to dry and placed his boots onto of the map. He took Abby's hand and led her through the semi-darkened (there was one reading lamp left on to await their return) first floor. As they ascended the stairs to the second floor, Abby quietly asked him "I see that something's taping on the VCR. What do you think Grandpa is taping?"
"I wouldn't know." Owen said as he suppressed a smile. He was the one who'd set up the timer before they went out tobogganing, not his grandfather. He planned to reveal that to Abby the following night.
The two reached the second floor. They went to Owen's room and he stripped off his snow covered clothing. Abby placed her own jeans and underwear –which were now thoroughly damp, from the snow on them melting- in his hamper. She giggled to herself as she watched Owen pull his own briefs off and threw them in a dunk-shot into his laundry hamper. He saw her giggle.
"What is it?" He asked as he went to get his bathrobe.
"Oh, it's just the idea of a totally naked guy shooting basketball." She said approvingly as she looked him over. Owen looked far stronger than he had when she first met him. Almost a year of hard physical work around the ranch, almost daily, had built up his body quite nicely.
"And you said I have a dirty mind?" Owen smiled at her. He'd become much less inhibited and self-conscious in the time he'd known her.
"You do. It must be catching." Abby giggled.
"Does that mean you want to shower on your own?" Owen asked her as he pulled on his bathrobe and found a shirt for Abby to wear after showering.
"Are you serious?" Abby said with feigned shock as she pulled her damp shirt over her head and tossed it into the hamper. The two of them hadn't taken a shower alone since…Well, they couldn't really recall.
"I'm just saying." Owen joked as the two of them silently padded across the hallway –mindful of Oscar who was sleeping as soundly as he usually did, which was VERY soundly and deeply –to the bathroom.
Owen hung his robe and Abby's shirt on the door hooks while Abby turned on the water and let it run to an optimal temperature. She thought it seemed just how Owen liked it as he stepped up next to her. He reached down, as Abby was leaning over the tub, and gently tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear. She smiled at him lovingly as the two shared a warm look. Abby turned the knob and water was diverted to the shower head rather than the tub faucet. The two stepped into the tub together and pulled the curtain shut behind them.
Owen stood under the hot spray and savoured the warmth. Abby knew Owen enjoyed a hot shower, especially now, in the middle of winter. She herself was indifferent to the temperature of the water. It did feel nice, but a cold shower wouldn't bother her either. She wondered to herself if Owen would still want the water hot after he was turned.
She let her thoughts flit to that subject briefly. It was now February. She'd mentally decided that the summer, right around his 14th birthday, would be somehow fitting for a time to turn him. It would be the one year anniversary of them becoming official lovers, in the physical sense of the word. The thought of bringing Owen over and making him like her overwhelmed her emotions. It both overjoyed, yet horrified her. She desperately hoped Owen knew and understood the ramifications of what he wanted her to do. Owen would be the first –and, she was reasonably certain, only- person she would intentionally turn. She had turned others, of course. However they had all been unintentional. They had been people she'd fed on early in her vampire life, before she realized how easily the infection could spread. Or, they'd been unfortunate individuals like Virginia –the woman at the apartment complex in Los Alamos; where she'd been interrupted and unable to snap the neck before the changing process began. She was worried about changing Owen…But deep down she realized that it was the right thing to do and the only real way for the two of them.
Owen reached for the bottle of shampoo she'd gotten in her new Christmas stocking. He squeezed some into his hand and gently placed in on Abby's wet hair. As he began to lather her hair up, she noted that the bottle was almost empty. She'd have to go by a drug store to look for some the next time she went to Missoula (or Wolf Creek, or Butte, or any of the cities that had hospitals) to pay a visit to the local blood banks.
"Say Abby, it's the fourteenth of February now. It's Valentine's Day!" Owen said as he continued to lather her hair for her.
"Yeah, I know" Abby replied as she poured some Head & Shoulders shampoo into her own hand. She reached up and began to massage it into Owen's own hair.
"Have you ever done anything for it?"
"No. It's never been that big a deal for me. It's really just a fake holiday that the greeting card and candy companies make a huge thing about to make more money."
"I totally agree. It's just dumb."
"It is totally dumb." Abby said as she turned around to reach for the Zest soap. In doing so, Owen didn't see the playful grin on her face as she made her pronouncement. On the flip side, she didn't see Owen's similarly sly grin.
Eighteen hours later, the sun had set and the sky was fully dark. Owen sat in the living room, anxiously looking at his wristwatch. A glance out the window confirmed that Abby's arrival was imminent. As if on cue, he heard the side door open and close, followed by a cold blast of air that had come in with her.
"Owen?" He heard her call from the kitchen.
"I'm in the living room."
Abby came into the living room and took in the sight of Owen seated nervously on the sofa.
"What are you doing sitting there all alone? Where's Grandpa?"
"He's gone to Wolf Creek for the American Legion Valentine's Dinner. And, as for what I was doing…Well, I kind of wanted to surprise you."
"You wanted to surprise me?" Abby asked with an arch to her eyebrows.
"Yup"
"What did you want to surprise me with?" She asked with a smile.
"This" Owen said as he reached down beside the sofa and pulled out a small bouquet of flowers. Abby's blue eyes shot and open and her jaw dropped.
"Owen! Oh my god! You shouldn't have!" Abby stammered as she took the small bouquet. It wasn't a fancy, or costly, one, but it was definitely nice in its simplicity. It was three white and three red carnations surrounding a single pink carnation. For Abby, who had never received flowers from anyone ever before, it was simply perfect.
"Grandpa picked them up in town today. And, I also asked if he could get this from the drug store." Owen held out a small red paper bag. Abby looked inside of it and saw that it was a refill bottle of her favourite shampoo, conditioner and foot lotion. She smiled at Owen. It was perfect, as she'd been running low on all of those things she'd received in her Christmas stocking.
"You don't eat candy, and I thought a card would seem dumb and cliché." Owen said with a grin.
"You know me so well." Abby grinned. "Not to try and steal your thunder, but I dropped by a store when I was in Butte last week, on my way to the blood bank, and I kind of picked up these." She brought a red paper bag of her own out from behind her back and handed it to Owen. He looked inside of it. In there was a bag of Now & Later candies, along with three Batman comics.
"Oh wow!" Owen cried at seeing the comics and candy. "Thanks!"
"I'm afraid Jason Todd hasn't been killed off by the Joker yet. Sorry about that." She chuckled sarcastically
"Give it time. Give it time." Owen mumbled with a grin.
"It's never going to happen."
"We'll see…Oh, and I kind of thought we could have dinner together." Owen said as he stepped into the small dining room and flicked on the light. It revealed two places set close together at one corner of the table. A pair of soup bowls sat diagonal to each other. "I've got a bottle from the fridge downstairs in a pot of hot water in the kitchen. And, I've got a can of alphabet soup for me."
Abby looked at Owen intently. She was definitely impressed.
"Owen…When will dinner be ready, do you think?"
"I just have to heat up my soup and turn the heat up a bit on the hot water pan. Once I do that, it should be ready in about five minutes."
"Can you do that anytime?"
"Sure I can. Why?"
"I want to wait a little while before we eat."
"OK. But why do you want to wait before we have dinner?"
"Guess." Abby said, with a grin, as she pulled her shirt off in one swift and smooth motion while, at the same time, undid her jeans and let them fall to the floor. She sat down on the sofa as she pulled off her underwear and kicked it off her ankles. She looked over at Owen with an inviting smile on her face.
"Oh" Owen grinned as he stepped over to the sofa, beginning to unbutton his own shirt.
A while afterwards, Owen and Abby lay on the sofa, their limbs intertwined after their lovemaking. Abby giggled and gave Owen a kiss.
"I thought you said Valentine's Day was a dumb, fake holiday."
"It is. But I thought you'd enjoy doing something."
"Well, I have enjoyed it so far, and I'm still enjoying it. Even though, it's still a completely fake holiday. It's just Card and Candy Day."
"Well then, Happy Card and Candy Day!" Owen said as he gave her a kiss back.
"That's what we'll call if from now on, Card and Candy Day."
"That works for me." Owen said as he sat up and looked around on the floor for his clothing. "Oh, I have another surprise for you."
"Oh my god, Owen, you are definitely impressing me tonight."
"Good. You deserve to be impressed. I taped something for you last night. I thought tonight would be perfect to watch it. The A-Team isn't on this week...again" Owen said in reference to one of their favourite shows being pre-empted in favour of the Winter Olympic Games.
"You did?" Abby asked as Owen went over the television and turned it on. It warmed up to a Pepsi-Cola commercial featuring Michael Jackson with his trademark white glove and doing the moonwalk.
"I wonder how the guy is recovering." Owen mused as he saw the commercial.
"I don't know. He got his hair set on fire. That can't be good." Abby said, in reference to an incident they'd both seen on Entertainment Tonight, on January 27th when Michael Jackson had been in an accident while shooting a Pepsi commercial.
"No. But, I think there's something really weird about that guy to begin with." Owen said thoughtfully.
"Oh Owen, first it's Tom Cruise and now Michael Jackson who you think is strange. I'm sure he's a completely normal guy away from the cameras and everything, and he lives a normal lifestyle."
"I don't know…" Owen trailed off absentmindedly as he rewound the tape.
"So what did you tape anyways?"
"Well, you love Romeo and Juliet, don't you?"
"Of course! It's my favourite Shakespearean play. I can't believe you don't get it how beautiful a story it is. Why?" Abby asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Well, last year, in Los Alamos, when we were studying it in school the teacher said that it was adapted into a musical on Broadway, and then a film; West Side Story."
"Alright" Abby said as she tried to contain her excitement.
"It was on last night and I taped it." Owen said, as he hit play. Abby watched transfixed as the iconic opening theme music was heard as the opening aerial view of Manhattan was seen. He hit the pause button. "I figured we could watch it after dinner." He turned back towards Abby only to find her standing right there beside him.
"Owen, you are simply too great." She smiled and threw her arms around his neck and kissed him. She's heard of West Side Story, and its resetting of Shakespeare's work in the midst of a New York street gang conflict. To her regret, she'd never been able to see it on stage or been able to catch the film...until now.
"No I'm not."
"Don't make me prove I'm always right again. You're simply the best, and I love you."
"You bring the best out of me…and I love you too." Owen said as he pulled Abby into another kiss.