Disclaimer: I don't own anything from AL:VH and I certainly don't own Abraham Lincoln. I do however own Rececca.
Chapter 2
The forest around her is eerily quiet. Shafts of sunlight filter down through the thick cover of leaves. There is no wind. She walks along the narrow dirt path, her bare feet making no noise. Absently, she wonders where the trail leads when she rounds a turn and sees an open field ahead. Stopping at the tree line, she looks out over the meadow to the lone tree. The light in the clearing is bright and unfiltered and she as to squint her eyes against the harsh light.
Cautiously she leaves the safety of dense woods and ventures out. The moment the sun touches her skin however it feels as though someone as burned her and quickly she retreats to the darkness of the trees. Looking at the exposed skin she sees the area turning red. She doesn't have long to think on it as she hears the twig snap to her left. As she turns she has no time to react as an axe is swung at her, neatly chopping her head clean from her body.
Bolting upright with a barely muffled scream, Rebecca frantically looks around. The room is not her own and a quick glance out the window tells her that she is no where near home. It's dark, she can hear no traffic close by, but she can hear the overly loud sound of crickets and other night animals.
With the force of a freight train the memory of the attack in the alley comes back. Her hands fly to her neck where she feels nothing but very tender skin. What happened? Where was she?
Pushing the blankets back and rising from the bed, she sees a chair in the corner with her clothes stacked on it. She finds that the bedroom she is in has a bathroom and she turns on the light. Searing pain shoots through her eyes as the blinding light hits them.
"Sweet fuck!" She exclaims as she covers her eyes and ducks back into the bedroom.
She slowly brings her hands down. Squinting in the glow of light, she moved in front of the bathroom mirror. The reflection looking back at her was no the same face she was used to seeing in the mirror.
Her face was so pale she thought that she could almost see the veins beneath the skin. Dark circles made her light brown eyes stand out and her lips where almost the color of her skin.
"What the hell?!" Rebecca leaned closer to the mirror to get a better look. Examining her neck she noticed a pale patch of scar tissue. Looking more like an old scar rather than recent.
She dressed quickly. Her clothes smelled different and there was a slight stain on the collar of her shirt.
'Someone washed my clothes? And who the hell undressed me?' she thought 'what the hell is going on?'
Well she wasn't just going to stay in that bedroom and wait for someone to check on her. Besides she was feeling very, very hungry and there was a burning in her throat. The creak of the door when she opened it was impossibly loud.
'God ever heard of WD-40' she thinks irritatedly.
She moves quietly to the stairs and thankfully they make little noise as she descends them. Rebecca hears the sound of two men talking in a room off to her right as she reaches the bottom of the stairs.
"But the consequences of our actions cannot be ignored Henry! We have done a terrible thing. We have done worse than her original assailant!"
"I tried to caution you. You did not listen."
"I know! And at the time I wasn't thinking. But it was because of us she was attacked. If we had gotten there sooner…"
"And if we had done the job sooner how many more could have be saved? The only reason we got him when we did was because of her. He stalked her longer than the other victims on the count that she was never outside for long and he did have a chance to get her in the open. He was remarkably stupid in that aspect."
There was the sound of a chair being pushed back and a heavy weary sigh.
"We should have left that alley as soon as the deed was done"
"You haven't anything to feel guilty about my friend."
"Don't I?"
"Well there is nothing to do about it now that it's done. She hasn't harmed anyone yet and we should see to it that it stays that way."
'Um ok' Now she was super confused.
"I also imagine that she will be very hungry when she wakes. See if we have a decent supply to manage us for a day or so."
The sound of foot steps and a door swinging open and shut sounds so close that she has to remember that she is not in the same room as those men.
"Are you going to stand there all night or are you going to come have a seat so we can talk?"
Her eyes widen. How did he know she was there? She hadn't moved from the foot of the stairs where she had stopped to listen. Slowly she crosses what seems to be the living area to what turns out to be the dining area.
At the circular table sat a man with dark hair and chocolate colored eyes. He was dressed casually in a grey cotton t-shirt and comfortable dark blue jeans. The small he give her is inviting enough and she takes the seat farthest from him and where clearly he counterpart had sat.
"I'm quite sure you're wondering why you're here and to what purpose. And probably recent events are rather vague to you at the moment."
"Yeah you could say that" she said wryly.
"And no doubt many other questions but we'll get to that soon enough. But for now I believe you need to be fed."
And she could have swore that they had timed it because at that moment his companion comes through the kitchen door with three large black mugs.
"Ah yes I see that I was correct in that you were awake and Henry wasn't just talking to himself louder'n what he usually does."
Looking up at the tall man who just entered, Rebecca sucks in a breath. Though what ever she might have said or thought about saying vanishes as she gets a whiff of the most heavenly smell. She is already grabbing the mug before it is set down it front of her and her mind goes blank and she is being pulled in by some deep, dark force when the warm liquid touches her lips.
When she finally comes back to herself the three mugs are empty and the aching hunger she had been feeling before was lessened. She looks at the empty mugs with wide eyes.
"Um…yeah ok. I…umm... What the fuck is happening to me!" She asks harshly pushing from the table.
The one called Henry has the gall to look sheepish. "Yes well I was coming to that."
She rises from her seat and starts moving around the room anxiously.
"Well first start by telling me what the hell is going on with me, what the hell was in those mugs, oh and let's not forget this other completely new point of why the fuck he looks like Abraham fuckin Lincoln!" Her voice rising has she talks.
The men gaped at her. Henry, not surprisingly, was the first to recover.
"First, what is going on with you is simply said by you are now a vampire; second, would be blood; and third, well that would be on the count that he is Abraham Lincoln."
It was now Rebecca's turn to gape.
"Wait wait wait. You expect me to believe that I'm a vampire AND that he's Abraham Lincoln? Do you think I'm gullible?"
"I realise that it is very hard to believe but I wouldn't lie about something like this. I couldn't lie about something like this. More to the point, what reason would we have to even fabricate a story such as this" Henry pointed out, leaning forward in his chair. "Do you not realise that you haven't taken a breath save for the time that Abraham came in the room? Do you not feel that your heart is no longer beating?"
She stopped her nervous pacing and stood stock still. Seconds pass, then the men hear a high whimper of distress.
"No no no no" Rebecca is shaking now. She hardly even notices when someone guides her to sit in her chair. Then she is having a glass handed to her which she numbly takes and downs the contents. She is dimly aware of the smooth burn of good liquor as it goes down.
"Why? Why me? God I shouldn't have gone out." She mutters weakly, rubbing her face with her free hand, "Well grandma did say that smoking would kill me one day but some how I don't think this was what she meant."
"Had you not gone out we may not have caught the vampire who would have killed you. And then he would have moved on to other innocent victims." Henry tried to sound reassuring,
"who knows how long it would have been before we caught wind of him again?"
"Yeah great, thanks for that. That makes me feel loads better about being DEAD." She looks at the empty glass in her hand. "Anyway I could get a refill on this?"
Henry takes her glass and refills it with the amber liquid. She kicks back half if it. Rebecca then looks up at the tall man she had been refusing to acknowledge until now.
"So I suppose that you really are Lincoln then? Provided I'm not havin' the strangest dream ever."
He glances at Henry and chuckles, "Well I was the last time I looked in the mirror. Something that I try to do as infrequently as possible."
She snorts into her glass as she knocks back the last of her drink. A thoughtful look came upon her face then.
"So wait, then that book that one guy wrote was true? Like all of it? Confederate vampires and all?" She asked, looked at them expectantly.
"There were some literary embellishments but for the most part yes it's true" Henry answered, "Though not much was needed given as most humans think us fiction anyway."
"Wow. So what about the movie? Did you tell the author to write that too?"
"Yes well couldn't bring to much attention to ourselves now could we? People nowadays are more likely to go to the cinema then they are to pick up a book. Henry merely gave him the instruction to make it as ridiculous as possible." Lincoln said with a half smile and leans back in his chair, stretching his long legs out.
Rebecca laughs,"Well it worked. It was still good though. The axe fighting was pretty badass. I don't know about that horse throwin' bit but I guess that falls under pretty ridiculous."
"I have to say you are taking this remarkably well. Aside from the initial shock that is." Henry observes.
"Oh I'm sure it'll really hit me later. Hopefully when I'm alone so I can freak out in private. But for now I'm just marvelling at the fact that I really am sitting across the table from Abraham Lincoln. I mean this is all surreal."
Lincoln raised an eyebrow,"You aren't concerned about being a vampire? About what that means?"
"I am, but there really isn't much I can do about it now is there? I wasn't ready to die. And now it seems I never will. Well baring calamities. I already knew I was going to out live my grandparents and my parents are both dead already. And I have no siblings. So I guess it kinda works out."
Her eyes widen suddenly as she realised she didn't know where her purse or phone were and that her grandparents must be worrying about her.
"Shit! Where's my purse? I've got to call my grandparents."
Henry rises from his seat and goes into the living room. He comes back carrying her small purse.
"Your grandmother already called. I answered it, told her you were ill, and that I was a friend who was over taking care of you. I hope you don't mind." he said as he handed her the purse.
"Well I guess that works out. Wait how long was I out?" She looked down at the date on her phone. "I've been out for two days?!"
"I believe it was your work place that almost called. I answered that one. Told them the same story." Lincoln said, and at Henry's look he shrugged,"you had gone out, I didn't want to risk someone getting suspicious and come looking for her at her apartment."
Rebecca laughed nervously and covered her face with her hand.
"Ok cool. I guess I should probably call in the morning and tell them that I can't come in durning the day anymore." then she quickly changes the subject,"Anyway, so what are the chances that I'll be able to just um… kinda go back to a normal ish life? I mean I'm not going to go around killing innocent people."
"Well that's good to know, but I would recommend you stay with us for a time. Just until you learn more about what it means to be like us." Henry said gently, and with a quick glance toward his friend he quickly added," or you could stay longer and learn how to destroy those of us who seek to kill innocents."
AN: Well what did you think? I know it was much longer than the last chapter. It was just sort of a starter chapter to get things going. There will be more action in later chapters. For now just going through the motions that most OC stories do in the beginning. Anyway let me know if you like it or hate it. And definitely let me know where I could improve my writing. Thanks.
