Disclaimer:I do not own any of the Southern Vampire Mysteries/True Blood characters,plots or anything. I only own my O/C characters,plots and extras...
Where to start, where to start?
I was born a poor black man…that's a line from one of my favorite movies (The jerk).
Ok enough with the jokes; maybe I'm the only one who thought it was funny. I was born though (weren't we all?) I was born at a bad time in my family, because of multiple deaths having occurred. The people that were considered the backbones of my family died either months after I was born or no more than a couple months before I was. My entire family was in turmoil so in a way my birth was overlooked. I was born a bastard (not having a father nor knowing where the person was that had a hand in creating me). From the minute I came into this world I was the "black sheep" at first merely because I didn't resemble anyone else. And later because of the choices I've made. I was born with pumpkin colored wavy hair, grass green eyes and a pale complexion. Which when compared to everyone else, is very rare. My appearance was such a shock to everyone because of our ancestry. I am descendant from Native Americans (my mother is about 1/3 so that would make me what?) and Acadian French. Naturally everyone else in my family is dark haired, have dark eyes and a bronze to tanned complexion.
I was the 50th female grandchild born to my mother's parents. I was the last child to be given "a gift" from my mother's grandmother. My great granny Bern was a well known "witch/faith healer". It's rumored that she was as powerful in "Hoodoo" as the infamous Marie Laveau was in Voodoo. Every female child born when Granny Bern was around was bestowed a "gift". Most of the females in my family are simply "sensitive". But me I found out at a young age I was even more different than my cousins, aunts, and siblings. At the age of five I realized I was telekinetic, by the age of eight I realized I could hear things people thought if they thought something strongly, by the age of eleven I had my first serious Déjà vu moment. Then at thirteen I found out that I could manipulate "the elements". Now that was a shocker!
But as teenagers do I made bad decisions. I found myself in dire situations. Drugs and corruption were a huge part of my daily existence. I'm not making excuses but I hadn't any "family" life though. My mother had gotten married to her husband and she pushed her (my) family out. She refused to let me or my sisters take part any longer in the traditions we had with our family members for so long. She became incensed if anyone even mentioned "our family's gifts". It was a vast and tricky change to make, more for me than anyone else.
Then tragedy stuck my family again and my mother's mother died suddenly. That was the proverbial straw that broke the camels back (camels back being my sense of self). My grandma (or as I always called her my Jovee) was my everything. She was the person who knew about all of "my gifts", she was the person who helped me control them; she was my light in the dark. Once she departed from me though I completely lost it. I felt alone amongst a sea of nothingness.
Weeks after laying Jovee to rest I found myself no longer in school(even though I had good grades)I found myself in lots of troublesome situations(troublesome as in literally illegal), and the drug usage was at max capacity(capacity to point I didn't know night from day, left from right).
Even though my world around me was falling apart I was in a sense happy. I was "in love". My being in love was of course in an extreme way, because of the condition my life was in. The love I felt for him was raw and new, I had had a few boyfriends before but nothing like what Adrian and I had. Everything with us was so hasty and severe. From the feelings I felt for him to the way we'd share our time together. The drug usage between us made everything so much more intense. First loves, they either stand the test of time and are blissful or they fail and are distressing. Ours regretfully ended disastrously for me that is. My mother was shipping me away to live with her distant cousin because of my bad behavior. I loathed having to leave my life and friends but seeing as I had just turned 15 I hadn't a say in the matter. Not meaning I didn't voice my aversion to being sent away, because oh I did (loudly and often).
I was rudely shipped to live in Palle Vilatte, La. This is out in the middle of nowheres in Renard parish. And when I say the middle of nowheres I mean it literally not figuratively. There wasn't even a high school in the "town", it was all woods and bayous, dirt roads and scarcely placed homes. I had to commute via a bus to Bon Temps daily just for school. Even before I'd get to the designated bus stop though I had to walk ½ mile down dirt roads. Then I'd have to take a nearly half hour bus ride to the school. Living with my mom's cousin Addie Mae was like living during the pioneer days. We lived in a rundown shack; it was built as a hunting camp about 60 years ago. The walls were paper thin, it had only one bedroom and one room that looked to had been built as a storage room. It had one very simple and outdated bathroom. A living room and a kitchen/dining room, all rooms were painted the same dull yellow and had the same nasty gray wood flooring. The furnishings of the entire house considered of; a threadbare brown 30 year old sofa, two wobbly uneven handmade end tables(that was the living room),a stained tiny kitchen table, four straight backed wooden chairs, a fridge that I still believe was one of the firsts ever, and a stove(kitchen)…Addie Mae's bedroom had a double bed, a tall wooden dresser, two night stands with lamps on them… my bedroom/the storage room had a fold up cot and a two drawer dresser nothing else…the bathroom consisted of the regular things bathtub(no shower), sink and counter, and a toilet. My bedroom had no windows, I recall asking Addie Mae one day why it didn't and her reply was" because they used to store the meets in that room and the less light the longer it stayed fresh." Yuck right?
Addie Mae was in my opinion a nutcase! She was a religious fanatic; she believed almost everything was "unholy". She was a firm believer in beatings and torture, she thought the simpler the way a person lived the better off they were. She hated people who were different; she detested people with their own opinions. My family's "gifts" somehow didn't get passed on through her grandparents (her grandmother and my great granny were sisters). It's rumored that when her grandmother got married to her grandfather he persuaded her to use her gifts for the darker side of living. They used her grandmother's gifts to accumulate riches that they squandered away, Addie Mae's grandmother and my granny Bern ended up having a huge altercation which ended with Granny Bern stripping her sister of her powers/gifts.
Life with Addie Mae was HELL.
Daily she would mock and or straight out insult me, merely because of my looks. By the time I went to live with her I was nearing 5'8 give or take, I was between 110-120lbs, my pumpkin colored hair was bleached blonde with flamingo pink and jet black streaks. My hair was mid back length and straight as a board (thanks to many hair treatments via my friends). I had very tiny hips and waist to match; my "bust" was in the small almost tiny range. I had a nose and belly button piercings and nine earring holes between both ears. Moving in with Addie Mae I bought my "city" wardrobe with me, which consisted of; many tank tops, halter styled shirts, above the knee length skirts, tight jeans, and a few pairs of shoes. My clothes weren't the most expensive designer brands but they weren't what I ended up having to go around in. The day before I was due for my first day of school at Bon Temps High, Addie Mae decided what I could and couldn't wear any longer. She threw away just about everything I had bought with me except a few pairs of jeans. And when I say threw away I mean she took them out to the bayou that was about a mile in the woods to the right of her house and tossed all of my clothes into it. She said only unholy, vile tramps wore clothing like that. And that everything about me was going to reflect on her, if I went around looking like a tramp then the community's opinion of her was going to be tarnished.
That day was the day of my first beating, Addie Mae style.
I had a fit about her throwing away my clothes and the fact that she believed she had a right to dictate every part of my life. As Addie Mae was tossing the remaining pieces of my clothes into the bayou I ran up next to her and grabbed onto a piece of clothing. I stared at her and said" what are you doing? You're a crazy person; I can't believe my mom would send me to live with such a malicious bitch!" Now don't get me wrong I was raised to respect my elders and especially people who were helping you but at the same time I was raised to stand up for myself. If I'd had known what was going to follow my outburst though I think I would've kept quiet. It was like as soon as the last word left my mouth I felt myself being smacked across the face. And I mean really slapped, like you'd slap someone who had spat in your face. Before it could fully register to me that Addie Mae had just slapped me she did it again, then again and again. She carried on slapping me across my face until I just crumbled to the ground, but that didn't phase her at all. I didn't even see the big problem; my mom would have just yelled at me then finished tossing my things away. I guess that wasn't Addie Mae's way though, because once I crumbled to the ground after being slapped across the face a good ten times, she continued to hit me. She reached down and grabbed me by my hair and literally drug me the distance back to the house. We reached her porch steps and she threw me down against them, walking up the stairs she stood over my slumped down form against the stairs. Slowly glancing up towards Addie Mae I noticed her glowering down at me, in a flash she had her hand wrapped into my hair pulling me up. Once I was pulled up onto the porch she started to slap me again. After a few slaps I slipped out of her grasp and moved away a foot or so. That action didn't please Addie Mae; she walked away and reached behind her wooden rocking chair. Turning back towards me I noticed her holding something in her hand. As she walked back near me I realized what she had in her hand, it was a leather strap that was about three inches wide in width. Before I could even raise my hands in a defensive stance she swung her hand out and the leather strap smacked against my upper arm. The sting from the smack was unbelievable, I've had my share of fights and injuries but nothing compared to the instant pain I felt. I screamed out and tried to recoil away from her but that only made her swing her hand holding the leather strap towards me faster. She repeatedly made contact with my arms, shoulders and even parts of my chest. I could barely stand from the pain but I refused to crumble onto the porch again, merely for fear that she'd beat me to an inch of my life if she were to be standing over me. After about fifteen minutes of her hard quick blows with the strap she stopped and told me" now are you ever going to speak to me like you have any say in the matter of your life here?" With tears running down my cheeks I shook my head no, I would've done or said anything just to keep her from beating me once again. After answering her she walked into the house and called to me, very slowly I walked into the house. That night was the worse (or the worse to that day) ever, I couldn't cope with the constant pain and stinging I felt. The facial pain was bad but it didn't compare to the mammoth pain I felt in my arms and shoulders. Even the smallest tasks brought me to the brink of screaming out in pain, I had to even sleep with my arms raised over my head. Not having a mirror anywhere's in the house, I had no idea how bad I looked. I could see the wallops and bruises on my arms and shoulders and they looked horrible. Years ago my Jovee had taught me how to heal injuries and wounds with simple household things, but as we sat down for supper that night Addie Mae refused to let me use or even try any of them. She made me suffer through it.
My first day of school at Bon Temps High was a long and awkward day. Because Addie Mae had destroyed all of my clothing I was forced to wear some of her clothing. And because of the beating I received the day before I had to wear long sleeved shirts. I went to school in a pair of my loosest jeans and one of her large cotton sweatshirts. I walked to the "bus stop" and quietly waited for the bus to arrive. I had thoughts that morning and the night before of running away and going back to New Orleans, but deep down I knew if I did then my mother would take extreme measures. I didn't have any doubt that my mother would ship me off to a juvenile delinquent center, and the beating from Addie Mae could be nothing compared to what I'd endure in such a place. So I sucked it up and just decided to stay with Addie Mae until my mother let me go home or I turned of legal age and left on my own. The bus ride to school was uneventful, as not many people were on the bus. I spoke to no one; I made eye contact with not a soul. I kept my eyes fixed on the passing by scenery, which was basically all the same; trees and bayous mostly. I couldn't even relax on the drive to school because leaning back into the seat irritated and hurt my shoulders. Once getting to the school I still stayed to myself, I didn't want to be bothered by people or their nice demeanors. I walked from class to class not looking at anyone; I sat in class after class just flipping through my textbooks. At lunch I didn't even bother with eating my lunch, it sat on its plate until I decided to dump it in the trash. I slightly glanced around at people in little groups, and I yearned so badly to be back with my friends. I found myself almost screaming out as a passing teacher patted me on the shoulder. The rest of the day slowly went by and I found myself on the bus once again heading towards my "bus stop". I lazily left the bus and started my walk back to Addie Mae's house, once I saw her road coming into view I felt myself filled with dread and fear. I made it home and went straight to Addie Mae to inquire what was I to do, she informed me of the chores I had to accomplish before I could start doing my given homework. I worked through the chores within two hours then I went to my room and spent the next three hours gradually doing my homework. I wanted to spend as much time as I could away from her, for fear that I'd somehow do or say something to anger her once again.
My life went on like that for about five months; I went to school and stayed to myself. I made no friends or even any acquaintances; I felt no need to speak with anyone. I'd do my daily chores without any sort of restraint. I had become so withdrawn that my life felt like it was all planned out for me, that Addie Mae controlled every second of my life. I continued to wear Addie Mae's large sweat shirts to school even after the bruises had healed and disappeared. My once nicely styled hair was now undyed and back to its original curly style. The pumpkin orange was showing more than I'd ever let it since I was about twelve years old. From my lack of proper hair products or having my hair flat ironed at least twice a week, it returned to the frizzy curly manner it had been for almost all of my life. Addie Mae despised the fact that I was a vegetarian, so because I refused to eat meats she'd make me consume plates full of lard filled vegetables. Vegetables that I had to check on daily and then pick from a garden. I mentioned one time about all the lard she cooked with, that resulted in her throwing a hot grease (melted lard) filled, cast iron skillet at me. Needless to say I ended up with burns on my hands and arms, which like the previous bruises, were left uncared for. Someone upstairs must've been watching over me though because the burns never became infected. Never again did I say anything when she'd prepare my meals. I'd eat as much as I could force myself to, but the foods she fed me weren't very nourishing and I found myself losing pound after pound. I never heard anything from my mother or other family members in New Orleans, I knew that my mother sent Addie Mae a monthly check for things I might need though. I yearned for my family and previous life.