::CHAPTER TWO::
Eric Northman, former vampire boyfriend, came over not that much longer after Amelia made the phone call. He didn't come fast, and I didn't blame him. Surely, he is going to want to mend things between us, I would love to do that, but now is not the time, nor place to do so. And I wouldn't put it past him if he felt awkward around me, because I'll admit, I felt awkward the minute he arrived, knowing that the big elephant in the room wasn't going to be acknowledged at the moment. No, that will just have to wait till a different time.
"Come on in, Eric," I heard Amelia say as I descended the steps to the lower level of the house, my two suite cases in hand.
I figured that Amelia would let me borrow some of her stuff, clothes-wise, if I ran out, but just incase, I packed one suitcase full of T-shirts, pants, shorts, underwear and bras, along with my cell phone charger and my laptop. I'm glad the zipper zipped up because it kind of bulged around the sides a bit, but luckily, I got it to zip up. The other suite case was full of my make-up, a few books to read on the plane and incase we found her dad faster than we think and I had time to spare, my night gown and some travelling shampoo, conditioner, hairspray, and soap, along with two towels and two rags, that way I had one drying and one available to use.
"Thank you," Eric grumbled to Amelia and his eyes flicked up to me once he realized another being was in the house besides Amelia. "Sookie," He said flatly, nodding his head as if we were best buds.
"Hello, Eric," I said with as much courtesy and gratitude that I could muster. "It's nice to see you."
"Like wise." He replied and turned his attention to Amelia after she closed the door behind Eric. "So your father, Copeland, is missing?"
"Yeah, he was kidnapped two days ago. At first we didn't think anything of it, until we got the ransom note," Amelia said and this struck me shock. Amelia hadn't mentioned a ransom note before, other than the threats she had received in the form of magazine-letter-cut-out ones.
"Do you have an idea on where he might be?" Eric asked, trying to keep this reunion strictly businesslike.
"No, which is why I thought that with the help of a strong vampire, and a smart witted telepathic barmaid, that we could all use our strength to find him," She said and I set my things by the front door, keeping them out of the way but close enough so we could wake up, grab our things and leave.
"Where would we start?" I asked and Eric looked at me, a remorseful look in his eyes, almost as if he had something to say.
"Well," Amelia said. "Since I'm a witch, and since Octavia is a more powerful one, I thought maybe we could do an ectoplasmic reconstruction scene like we did a few years ago with your Cousin Hadley's murder? This way we can see if he went somewhere specific that day, and if so, if anyone saw him there."
"Alright," I said and Eric looked away from me, knowing that I was ignoring our little feud till we had time to actually work things out. "Sounds like a plan. Eric, is Pam coming along?"
"No," Eric said flatly. "She is still depressed about the Miriam incident."
My stomach did a flip-flop. Even though Pam was a vampire, and Miriam was a human, I still felt bad for her and what she was going through. Victor Madden had played a little game, toying with Eric's position as Sheriff of Area Five, and told Pam that she could not turn Miriam into a vampire. Miriam was diagnosed with leukemia, and Pam every so desperately wanted to keep Miriam as her own, change her to a vampire just so she could stay with Miriam and keep her in this world. But Victor wouldn't see to it. I discovered that, after the attack on Merlotte's Bar & Grill a few weeks ago, Pam was seeing Miriam, and only because the fire that happened at Merlotte's had singed my hair and Miriam's brother, Immanuel.
"How's she holding up?" I asked and Eric gave me a look, as if to say that one needn't telepathy to figure that out. "Never mind," I said and Eric's face contorted back into the remorseful one a few seconds earlier.
"She's still pissed at Victor, wishing that things didn't play out the way that they had, but she's slowly letting go." Eric answered and my stomach felt somewhat better once I knew that Pam was slowly getting better, even though it seems like she had been teased with love and was given depression as a winning prize.
"Okay," Amelia said, snapping us out of our fatigue. "Me and Sookie were going to leave in the morning. I'm guessing you'll meet us there in the afternoon?"
Eric nodded. "Just have Sookie call me and I'll be there."
"Thank you so much," Amelia said. "This means a lot to me."
"Just keep Sookie safe, alright?" Eric said and Amelia eyed me, then Eric, then she nodded.
"Promise," She said and Eric nodded his thanks, and I knew he was going to hold Amelia to her word.
Eric looked at me and winked, a half grin separated his lips. I knew that, not only did he want to mend things, but he still carried a big one for me. I gave a little wave, somewhat glad I saw him tonight, even under the circumstances.
Amelia shut the door behind Eric and turned around. "Awwwwkarrrrrrd." She sang and I sighed.
"Tell me about it."
"I don't think I need to," She said and locked the door.
"Is there anything else you need? Or, anyone else you need?" I asked and she thought.
"Not that I can think of," She said and started to say something but shook her head no, as if what she said was probably stupid to say aloud.
I didn't ask her to tell me, because I respected her privacy, but I hoped it had nothing to do with her asking why Bill wasn't here listening in to understand why I was leaving town for a few days. Not that I would've minded it, but seeing how I dated Bill for a while and got married to Eric by accident and started being with him, it would be awkward to have them realize that things ended badly for both of us. I didn't need two vampires to be arguing, or worse, fighting, in my house. I had enough of that happen to shake a stick at, and I hoped to not ever have those encounters again, but knowing me, trouble was my middle name.
"You going to bed?" I asked and Amelia followed me into the kitchen.
"Yeah, I might grab a shower if that's okay?" She said and I scoffed.
"You have lived under this roof for a while. You know where things are and what to do, you don't need to ask. Just make yourself at home." I answered and she nodded, turning around to head upstairs.
I grabbed a quick cup of water, drained the glass dry, and filled it again, this time to the brim, and gulped it down easily. I checked the clock over the stove: 2:22 a.m. We'd be leaving later this morning, around ten probably, so I better get to sleep.
I placed the glass in the sink and headed up the stairs to head off to bed. Hopefully I'd be able to sleep tonight, after everything that's going on. Finding Amelia's father was our first priority, and mending everything with Eric and working all of our problems out would come after. I just wish that we'd mend them soon, because this was starting to tire me to the core.
I sighed, knowing that life is life and I'll have to roll with the punches, no matter how many came my way, and I climbed into bed. Sleep was calling at me from the land of unconsciousness and I was glad it beckoned me, because I sure as hell was tired enough to sleep for an entire decade.
I laid my head on the pillow and fell fast asleep, shutting my world into complete darkness.
The next morning, I woke up to the smell of coffee. I got out of bed, glad I smelled fresh coffee brewing. I slunk down the stairs, waking up more and more with every step I took, until I reached the kitchen, a cup of coffee already waiting for me.
"I heard you coming down the stairs," Amelia said and handed me a plate with eggs and bacon and sausage on it.
"Thanks," I said, the food's smell entering my nose. "But you didn't have to do this."
"Oh, no, it's fine." Amelia intervened, sitting down with her plate of food. "I figured we better start the day off with a good meal, and since I was hungry, I just made some for you, too."
"Well, thank you," I said and she nodded her 'You're Welcome' as she bit into her first piece of sausage on her plate.
After we ate, we put the dishes in the sink and I quickly washed them while I waited for Amelia to finish putting on her make-up and fixing her hair. She then skipped down the stairs, as if her dad was never kidnapped. I finished drying the dishes and put them away, went over a mental list of Don't Forget, a ritual I started doing lately since I've been called out of Louisiana a lot lately due to vampire business, and grabbed my house keys, my sunglasses, and my cell phone and picked up my suitcases, ready to leave.
I met Amelia out by her car and it wasn't until we passed the airport that I realized we were driving all the way there and not flying.
"It's not that bad of a drive," She told me and I hoped she was right. "I drove it to see you last night, so we'll get to my house by six or so. I left later in the day to your house though, so we'll be earlier actually."
I told her okay and grabbed the first book out of my bag in the backseat, thankful I brought more than one to keep me occupied. I opened it to where I had previously left off, which was about halfway through the 500+ pages, and began reading on Chapter Twenty-Seven.
I opened my eyes as the car pulled to a stop. I hadn't realized I'd fallen asleep, I just remember reading and then bam! we were already at our destination. The car had pulled up to an apartment building that was as tall as two Merlotte's' stacked on top of each other. She opened the door once the ignition died and I jolted awake, grabbed my things and followed her to the apartment's main door. She pulled out a wad of keys on a small key-chain, a different key-chain rather than her car keys, and pushed the door open with her shoulder. She stumbled inside and led me up to the first floor, the last floor, at the top of the building and brought me to the last apartment room on the right of the hallway. I realized that there were only eight rooms in this big apartment, which really made it a small apartment, and she was right across the hall from 1B, making her 1A.
Judging by the way the first floor was I reckoned that the rooms went 1A, 1B, 2A, 2B, and so on till you got the fourth floor? The building's office was branching off of this building, a door only connecting the two. As we passed it, I noticed that MAINTENANCE OFFICE was printed onto it with black, glossy stickers. Judging by that, I'd also reckon that that office was for applying for an apartment and for any other things you needed done in your house, such as plumbing and heating and cooling.
"Welcome to my humble abode," Amelia said as she pushed open the door, letting it swing all the way open till it stopped abruptly to a wall with a small thud.
"It's cute," I said and she laughed.
I walked inside, noticing it was a two bedroom apartment with a half-sized kitchen that adjoined the half-sized living room. It wasn't big, nor was it small, but it seemed exactly like what Amelia would buy, it matched her style perfectly.
"My bedroom is down the hall to the left, yours is to the right," Amelia said, pointing to a hallway that I hadn't seen when I first entered.
The hallway was behind me. I had entered the apartment and turned straight to the left, admiring its small cute size, I hadn't turned around to see that a hallway led past a bathroom and split off like a T into two bedrooms.
"Alright," I said and she grabbed my bags from me.
"I'll take those for you," She said and I stopped her.
"Amelia, I'm fine with carrying my own bags. Thank you though," I took my bag back and she nodded, closed the door and let me head off to my room.
I set the bag down by the door, grabbed the brass knob and turned it to the left, hearing the door give way, and I watched it creak open till the shadows had engulfed the door. I groped the wall, found the switch, turned it on and stared into my small little room. The bed was tucked into the far left corner of the room and stopped right where the window sill began. The window was closed, as were the blinds and curtains, but then there was a desk that had a few office things on it to the right of the window. Then the closet came between me and the desk, also standing between the door and the desk, and it, too, had brass knobs.
I walked in, feeling the new place I'd be calling home for the next few weeks. I set my bags down on the bed and saw the little dresser I would unpack my things into. I grabbed my clothes, ready to get that done and out of the way so I could start helping Amelia find her dad, and opened the first drawer.
Once all my things were packed into drawers I had organized myself, and once certain things were hung into the closet, I had placed my suitcases in the closet and placed my paperback books, some old, beat up novels Gran had before she past that I had just discovered by a woman named Janet Evanovich, on the desk that was just in my reach when I laid in the bed. I turned off the light and headed out to the kitchen, thinking that would be where I would find Amelia, but instead, she was in the living room watching TV.
"Hey," I said and Amelia quickly muted the TV.
"Hey," She answered. "Find everything okay?"
I nodded. "Yes, I'm all moved in."
"So should we talk about what's going to go down?" Amelia asked and I sat next to her on the couch, glad she was ready to get this out into the open.
"Well," I said, hoping that I would be able to make it sound like I had some idea on what was going to happen. "When Eric gets here," I said. "He will probably ask for the basic information, where did your father hang out at, where's your dad's bank, where's your dad's house, and so on. Then from there, me and Eric will try to, along with you, find some kind of lead that will get us to your dad. Hopefully he's just in some motel a few miles away," I said and stopped myself short, hoping Amelia didn't hear what I was about to accidentally say. Hopefully he's just in some motel a few miles away shacking it up with some girl.
"I hope he's not hurt," She said and I nodded.
"I bet you he's fine," I said and kicked myself on the inside for almost slipping up on my first statement. How rude of me to say something like that? "Now," I said, turning my attention away from the worst of the possibilities. "Is there anything we can do in the meantime before dusk comes?"
"Well," Amelia said. "We could try snooping around his work office."
"Alright," I said. "Then let's start there."
"Do you want to drive?" She asked and I shook my head no, telling her that it'd be best if she drove, and we got everything together.
I grabbed my cell phone from my room, checking to see if anyone had texted and/or call me, luckily, no one had. I was surprised to see that Sam hadn't texted and called, or just called, to see what exactly called me away from Bon Temps, but I would have to worry about that later. I sent a quick text to Eric, realizing the clock had said it was three in the afternoon, and I told him that, incase we weren't back by dusk, that he should call me so we'd know that he's here in New Orleans.
I sent the text and followed Amelia out to her car, ready to start the hunt for Copeland. No matter how much I despised the man, I still devoted myself to helping out a friend in need.
[TUNE IN NEXT MONDAY FOR AN ALL NEW INSTALLMENT OF "once, twice, three times deadly" AN ORIGINAL SOOKIE STACKHOUSE FANFICTION NOVEL BY PeytonAnneEllie]
