Disclaimer: I don't own Lost Souls or any copyrighted thing mentioned, but I do own my original characters (you'll know them when you see them) so please don't use them without my permission
Authors Note: some of this follows the way the book was written fairly closely so don't get pissed at me if your opposed to the actions the characters take, if you don't like it don't read it
I've also changed the time frame a bit, its 2002 but the events of the book only happened 10 years ago in the story (thusly making Steve and Ghost about 30ish)
This is my first time writing a Lost Souls fic. so forgive some mistakes (but kindly let me know about them)
Nothing sat in the back of the van; he was waiting for Molochai and Twig to get back from the store with wine and whiskey. He thought of Zillah with his perfect green eyes and his arrogant, self-indulgent love. He missed his father, but didn't want to go back to being a whipped dog, loving but fearful of what his lover would do next.
He thought too of the night he had helped to kill Laine, it was getting fuzzy now but he still remembered the green fire in Zillah's eyes, those eyes still haunted his dreams all these years later. He reached under the mattress and pulled out the ebony rose pipe, the same pipe Zillah had given him on his first night of his new life. There were still a few hits of opium left from the night before, he lit it up and sucked in the sticky sweet smoke. By the time Molochai and Twig got back all the opium was gone and Nothing had a good buzz. Twig threw the side door open and clambered into the van, dropping the wine and whiskey bottles he had been carrying onto the mattress next to Nothing.
" Hey kiddo, you still wanna go to that hookah-fest in Ohio?" Molochai said through a mouthful of Twinkie
" Yeah sure… whatever" Nothing said not really interested.
A girl sat in her room, sucking at a fresh cut on her wrist; she reached under her bed and pulled out a bottle of Jack Daniels. She walked over to her desk and logged onto her computer, and began to type a new poem:
My green-eyed angel,
You haunt me so.
Your perfect lips,
forming words unheard
Your lime green eyes
Are burning holes in my soul.
Green fire never ending.
She read it over and over, remembering the dream that had inspired it.
A green-eyed man sat in a van, in front of a wall covered entirely in stickers, marker graffiti and dried blood. Four other people were there, two were hugging in front of him and two were lurking in the front of the van. The man was talking to the two boys hugging; his eyes were like pools of green fire. Suddenly he grabbed one of the boys, the one with blonde hair. The others that had been in the front lunged, knocking the blonde onto the mattress on the floor, the rest was blurry now, but she remembered a lot of blood and pain. But the clearest things in all of the end of the dream were those bright green eyes.
She shuddered and took a swig of the whiskey, smiling at the burning in her throat, she loved the way it felt. She reached for her Dracula book, pulling a razor blade from in-between the blood lined pages, she re-cut a old line on her forearm and poured a few drops of whiskey into the blood running down her arm. She quickly licked it up, savoring the almost bitter flavor. She smiled at the poem, and printed a copy to add to her poetry book, signing it in blood and taping it to the inside of the cover. Satisfied she pushed the book back under the papers on the desk and switched the computer back to standby mode.
She continued to drink until she heard her parents come home. "Janet, are you home?" her mother came into the room, "oh you are home, did you get your dinner?"
"Janet, I'm worried about you, and you father is too, your going to kill yourself if you don't start to eat more."
She looked at her body under the blanket, she could see the hollow of her stomach and the slight rise of her hipbones, she smiled to herself. " I know mom, I ate dinner," she said lying
"Oh that's good." her mother said and turned to leave " Good night dear."
"Yeah, night." she said rolling over to look at her wall, she loved her parents, but this life was so boring, 'I need to get out of here, this is killing me' she thought taking another swig of the Jack Daniels as soon as her mother was out of the room. This was becoming too serious, her life was spiraling out of control, she was drinking nearly a whole bottle of whiskey a day, she couldn't go a day without doing some sort of drug, it didn't help that she worked at a bar either, she thought of running away, that would be the easiest way 'I can gather up some money and go to New Orleans, that's far enough away that no one will know me, no one will ask why I'm there.'
She smiled at her plan, her part time job at Crows Haven would pay for a bus ticket, or gas money if she had to hitch-hike, and she could get a job somewhere when she got there, plus she had a little money in the bank, enough for a couple bags of pot and some whiskey if she got desperate.
'This just might work.' she thought as she put the bottle away and went to bed.
Nothing rolled over in the tangle of limbs that were Molochai and Twig, they had stopped late in the afternoon to sleep off their drunkenness so they could hunt in the evening. Now they were in an old cornfield in Ohio. The clock in the dash read 6:00. Nothing started the van and pulled out of the cornfield waking Molochai and Twig in the process. "Hey kiddo where are we headed?" Twig said groggily
"To a club I saw last night on the way here, Crows Haven or something like that."
Crows was less crowded than usual, there were no bands playing tonight so Janet had time to sit and take a drink every now and then. She wasn't legal to be working there, but no one cared. She went up to the bar and ordered a Screwdriver, sipping at it as she went back to the waitress' table to get a smoke, as she sat down and lit up, a trio of people came in and sat down at one of her tables. Sighing she put down her drink and headed over to serve them, her cigarette burning in the ashtray.
"Hey boys, what can I do for ya?" she said as she reached their table, she smiled sweetly at them realizing that they weren't from around here and might be her way out.
" I'll have a Screwdriver, they'll have Suffering Bastards." said the youngest looking one, who was clearly the leader of the group.
"Alright." Janet said going to the bar to order the drinks.
"Hey kiddo, what do you say we take her for dinner?" Twig said pointing to the waitress that had just left.
"Yeah I like her, she's pretty," Molochai said leaning over onto Twigs shoulder
"Alright, but first lets drink a little." Nothing said as the girl came back from the bar
"Okay, here you go just let me know if you need anything or the bars right over there." Janet said putting down the drinks and heading off to the waitress' table.
"Hey Janet!" the voice of Fang came drifting from the next table over. "Hey how's work going?"
"Oh its alright… what you doin' here?"
"Nothing much, checking you out." he said playfully grabbing her butt
Janet smirked, she liked how Fang was always checking her out even when he when he had a girlfriend, he was going to get himself into trouble one of these days.
"You shouldn't do that, your going to get us in a shit load of trouble, you know I'm jailbait."
"Oh but you like it." he ran his hands over the insides of her thighs teasing her
"You know I do." she kissed him hard and went back to serving her customers
Later that night Janet was closing up the club, shooing the few lingering customers out to wherever they may go, she smiled at the sight of Fang sleepily stumbling to the cab she had called for him.
Then it was just her and the trio that had come in earlier, they were still goofing around on the dance floor, the youngest dancing to Mustard Plug, Skank By Numbers, she stood watching him, quietly singing along with the lyrics:
One,
get off your seat,
Two,
stomp your boots to the beat!
Three,
throw your knees in the air!
Four,
Like you don't care!
She laughed as his friend fell drunkenly trying to copy his moves.
The next song came on and they all stopped dancing and watched her approach, she started singing this song too about half way through, she always had liked the lyrics:
When they come for me I'll be sitting at my desk
With a gun in my hand wearing a bullet proof vest
My, my, my, how the time does fly
when you know your gonna die by the end of the night
it wasn't usual for the night DJ to play ska but it was always awesome when he did.
"Hey guys I know your not from around here but, I've got to close this place up." then on a second thought of running away she added " if you guys are just passing through, can you take me with you, I can give you some money." She looked hopefully at them, praying to anything that they would say yes.
"That depends on where you want to go." it was the young one speaking again, she couldn't help but think she had seen that face before.
" Anywhere but here, I already have my stuff ready," she looked over to where she had hidden her backpack, filled with everything she couldn't bear to loose, her poetry books, a cigar box full of black rose petals, a few hits of acid and crow feathers, two packs of Luckys, her walkman, CD player, a bag of pot, her pipe and half her collection of tapes and CDs, she wished she could of brought it all but she had to travel light. All her money was tucked into an envelope taped into a poetry book; she had emptied her whole bank account this morning, a meager $375.
Nothing realized that this girl was running away like he had so many years ago, but decided to see if she was worthy of being their companion or just a snack.
"We were going to go to the Hookah Fest at some park in Cleveland, have you heard of it?"
"Yeah, I've been there a few times, its okay I guess, but this is Ohio."
"Well I guess we could take you with us," Nothing decided she wouldn't be food, he would send Molochai and Twig out to hunt somewhere down the road. "I was hoping you would join us for the evening anyway." he quirked an eyebrow at her, and at the same time mentally told the others she was off limits, until she proved herself.
"Oh cool, well anytime you wanna go, just let me get this place closed."
Early the next morning Janet awoke to unfamiliar sounds around her, she looked at the strange walls around her and wondered where she was. Suddenly she recognized the walls as those from her dream, these same walls had seen that boys death and many others judging from the blood stains overlaying the patchwork of stickers. She rolled over and nearly jumped at the closeness of Molochai's face, some of the night before came flooding back, she had dropped two hits of acid and spent the night trying to keep a hold of a little of her sanity. The young one, Nothing, was awake too, he sat up and looked over to her, " Did you have a good time last night?"
" Yeah, you were awesome, but those two were a little wild, where did they go this morning?"
"Out, for food, they get really hungry." Nothing realized he was hungry too, he had not fed last night. "Do you mind if I drink a little?" he pulled out the last wine bottle of blood, which was only a third full but it would have to do
"Its cool." she said not recognizing the substance in the bottle right away
"Do you want some?" Nothing said after he had taken several deep swigs, Molochai and Twig had woken up at the smell of the blood.
"Yeah, sure," she took the bottle and drank deeply, recognizing the flavor of slightly rotten blood running down her throat, she finished her swig with a small smile, " that's better than what I can usually get my hands on, I usually have to settle for donations from my friends at parties." she swore that she saw something in Molochai's eyes die at her statement.
"You are the perfect woman." Twig said with a sleepy laugh, "tasty, fun and a drinker, we could have some fun with you."
"How would you like to travel with us?" Nothing said finishing off the bottle.
" I'd love to, I have been trying to leave this shit-hole for years."
Molochai got into the drivers seat and pulled out of wherever they had been stopped for the night,
"Hey Nothing, where are we headed?"
"Well since hookah fest doesn't sound so fun anymore lets go back to Missing Mile."
"Missing Mile?"
"North Carolina, We have some friends there that we haven't see in a while then we might go to New Orleans for Mardi-Gras."
" Oh, coolness." Janet smiled at the thought of just wandering around from town to town.
Ghost rolled over in his bed, mumbling softly as the dream he had been having continued to play behind his eyelids, he and Steve had done a late concert at a club in Raleigh and didn't get to get home until a few hours ago. Normally this wouldn't of bothered Ghost but he had gotten a feeling that there was something coming to Missing Mile. A feeling like the one he had when they first met Nothing, but this time there wasn't the sickening feeling of bad times as much as a feeling of a change. He sighed, pulled his pillow up over his eyes and rolled back over to try to get some sleep.
The black van arrived in Missing Mile late in the evening, just as the sky started to change colors. Molochai and Twig were curled up on the mattress on the back, while Janet and Nothing navigated the dusty streets of the small town. Nothing sighed as they passed Christian's old trailer on Violin road, remembering the nights he had spent curled in Zillah's arms, he pulled up and stalled the van. "Nothing?" Janet called as he got out of the van and went up to the dingy trailer that looked like no one had lived in it for years, she watched him try the door then fish a key out of his pocket. She rushed after him as he disappeared into the depths of the trailer, she found him in a bedroom in the back, stretched on the large bed. "Nothing." she tried again but paused when he held up a hand to silence her. "Go back out to the van and tell Molochai and Twig to unload the stuff, this is where we're staying."
End chapter 1