"What have you done?!" I struggle in the chair that still binds me, hoping to free myself and run back to him. One chance. That is all I got and I blew it. I should have spoken, should have told him everything. Even if I wasn't suppose to, I know I would have, because I love him. It has been a thousand years since I have seen his face and all of my feelings are still there. He has to have them as well, he has to be feeling them. He just doesn't know why. And I know that is all my fault.
"What... What do... what the hell do you mean?! I fucking saved your sorry ass." Abby's face fills with anger. I know I should feel bad but I don't. She removed me from Eric. Though she didn't mean to, I know that if she knew he was there, alive, she still would have proceeded. She never did like him.
I struggle in my chair, I need to get free and then it hits me. I look into Abby's eyes, pleading to her anger.
"Put me back. Reverse your spell and send me back." I smile as I realize I'll be able to see him. I'll look into his beautiful eyes, stare at his gorgeous body, feel an ache between my legs that I haven't felt in over a hundred years. I no longer struggle but instead I wait for the spell to empower me again, to overtake my senses.
"No." That small simple word not only destroys my hopes but it crushes my soul. I feel my heart splinter at that two letter word, feel as all of my blood turns to mud in my veins and slowly pushes through my body, splitting each vein that flows throughout me. I feel my lungs lose all the oxygen held within, as my chest convulses in on itself and tries to squeeze me dry, to get the oxygen it so desperately needs.
"No? What the fuck do you mean no?" She crosses her arms and stands her ground. She's about to enter a battle she will inevitably loose.
"I don't know what the fuck is going through your head but I'm not sending you back. You may be a fucking God but you will never get me to send you back." I can feel my anger building, growing to dangerous levels. "If you wanna go back and get your ass kicked, do it yourself." She goes to turn but I stop her. I freeze her muscles, placing her body into a paralyzed state. Though she screams, not a muscle moves. With her mouth constricted to the straight line she has set it in, her scream is nothing but a moan.
I with but a snap of my fingers, I begin freeing my self from Eric's binds. The flames begins at my finger tips, traveling up my arms. The pain does not reach me, just a soft, soothing feeling. It climbs up my arms and the moment it reaches my shoulder, it spreads itself out, stretching its flames to the rest of my body. My head becomes alight, but I still see perfectly clear. I feel my hair become waves of flame, but my strands remain connected to my head, the flames becoming apart of me. My chest becomes covered, my shirt burning away as if it were nothing. I feel the ropes burn away. It's always been an indescribable feeling, having the trap that was wrapped tightly around your torso suddenly becoming nothing but dust, feel the breathe truly enter your body for the first time. The flames moves down to my legs, burning away my jeans slowly. They take the longest to burn away and, lucky for me, when I am freed by my flames, I still have some pant left.
"Do you really fucking think that I couldn't have gotten out of there if I wanted to?" She screams again, but her moans do not penetrate my anger as she had hoped. I stand slowly, wiping off the dust that covered my lap. And that had been my favorite shirt. "Do you think I would have turned to you for your magic if I really needed your help? You can barely control your own abilities, let alone mine." I walk around her, the smoke still lifting off me from my earlier burning. I look into her eyes and see the pleading look I had given her not moments before.
"No." And with that I turn and walk off, leaving Abby alone and paralyzed in her chamber.
Though I am beyond angry, it still hurts me we don't talk like we use to. She was always my best friend, my confidant. But she turned on me just as my daughter had, seeing my love as nothing more than a prison.
"ABBY!" I hear giggles from around the corner and speed up to meet her. My newest ability sends me flying faster then ever before and I go too far past her on my first shot. I can hear her giggle as I re-appear on the other side of her.
"I have to say, your new ability is my favorite by far." Her smile lights up her face, her happiness spilling over to me. "I mean how cool is that?! You have super speed!" I laugh at her joy for my ability. It had always been an amazing feeling, coming to life with her sitting beside me, trying to guess what I'll get this time. She always helped me control them, as all my new abilities came. She has always been my trainer and I can only hope she always will be. I pray for the ability to save her from a death that will come too soon. As much as I love super speed, it does not protect my Abby from death.
"It is pretty cool." She giggles again and runs off, down the hall, hurtling herself as fast as possible. She has always been a child at heart, my favorite quality of hers. She brings out the child in me, brings me back to my roots. Her giggle fills the entire hall, bouncing off the walls. "ABIGAIL!" She turns at my voice and I run to meet her. I reach her before her head is turned halfway to me, and she was more then 100 meters away. She jumps when she turns and sees me but the moment her eyes look into my face, she smiles.
"Too cool." She looks me up and down, still laughing her head off. I look at her, admiring her youth. Today, I am filling the role of mother for her. Her face lightens up as an idea fills her head. Though I can easily read her mind, and the hundreds of mortals that walk around us and above us, I stay out and give her privacy. She is my other half, and sometimes it's good not to have a clue what your thinking.
"You know what we should do?!" I smile at her tone of not only happiness but excitement. I laugh as I take a quick glimpse into her brain. Sometimes it's good to cheat.
"No. We can't! Abigail!" She smiles and her eyes become big and watery. I know she is pleading with me and I know my answer will inevitably be yes. She knows how to pull on my heart strings.
I stop as I storm down the corridor. I stand for a few moments, regretting the path our relationship has taken. I have always loved Abby, and I always will, but I cannot keep her here. I may not have seen my daughter in half a millennium, but it pleases me to know she is happier. How could I not do the same for Abby? She is my second daughter, I need to give her the same chances. I release her paralyzing state, swinging open the door with a small wind gust I send flying down the hall. I know she will know. She has always known my hidden meanings. I stop for a moment more and say goodbye to my Abigail. And then I continue on.
I run up the fifty seven flights of stairs in less then fifteen seconds, making it to ground level. The "ground" level I come to looks like any ol' companies entrance. The marble floors and deep mahogany desk feel nothing but cold to me, a perfect resemblance to the true heart of this company; me. I stop for a second and look at the clock. It had been three in the morning when I looked into Eric's eyes and now it sits at four thirty. The darkness outside eases my mind only slightly. I've always loved the night, but knowing that Eric must sleep in just two hours makes me not only nervous but, for some unknown reason, scared. I shake my head and continue on to the corporate elevators.
The gold in the elevator makes me scoff. It's nothing but a cover-up yet they use all of my money to make it look official. I press the fortieth button on the elevator and wait as I slowly rise up the elevators. I may be the strongest being on this planet, but even I follow the rules, such as no running past the ground floor. I may hate the rules, but I still follow them.
The doors open to another deep mahogany desk, but this one has flowers and pictures of little kids on it. I stop by the desk and can hear the receptionist getting coffee in the kitchen down the hall. I look at the desk and notice a picture of a little girl of nothing more than three. I pick up the macaroni-covered frame slowly and look into the little girl's green eyes. She smiles at the camera and has cake covering her face, the frosting covering everything from her clothes to her hair. I can't help but smile at the joy on this small girls face, forever captured in this photo. I have always wished I had photos of Belle when she was younger. I may have an amazing memory, but, as Eric proved, I do not give loved ones justice. A tear falls as I realize Eric will never get to see pictures of his little girl when she was indeed little. Abby always drew her, at least she tried to get a good drawing at every age, but it was always difficult. Definitely not as easy as the humans have it today. One click and forever you receive a moment.
The clearing of a throat sends my body to into a frenzy. All the hairs on my body stand in an instant, becoming hard steel rods that can rip through skin like butter. My adrenaline flows through my body, making my muscles grow in seconds, building my body up for heavy battle. My eyes clear up in moments, sucking the tears back into their ducts and begin searching around for danger. I see a young women with bags below her eyes holding a coffee mug that shakes as if she were in a current earthquake. With a deep breathe, my defenses revert back inside of me and my head clears up. I place the broken frame back on the desk and use my speed to place all the glass back together, making a broken, but held together, picture frame.
"I'm so sorry...about...the, um...photo." she nods and places the mug down, her hands still shaking severely. She clutches the desk for support but the moment by hands reach out to help she shakes her head. Slowly but surely she makes it to her desk and sits, her eyes refusing to look at the frame.
"You-u-u-u c-c-c-an g-g-go in-n-n." I nod and walk past the desk, giving just one look back to see the poor women pick up her picture frame. She flips the frame over a garbage can and places the glass-less frame back on her desk, hidden away behind her computer. I turn ahead, not wanting to watch the poor women a moment longer. My anger returns just as easily as it had gone and I feel the air around me becoming volatile.
As I approach the double glass doors, I see a meeting is going on inside. The office is full of old men in suits sitting around drinking scotch. My so called boss sits behind his new marble desk, drinking away all of his problems, or so he thinks. My anger grows even more as I stare at these smug bastards enjoying my money. I force open the glass doors with a gust of wind and every single man jumps at the sound. The scotch flows all over the leather couches the men had been sitting on and I flow into the room, my anger lifting me off the ground. Most of the men run to the windows, to stay as far from me as possible, even
though distance doesn't matter. The one man, my "boss", Michael, remains, pretending to be strong but his thoughts revolve around to not peeing.
"Did you know?" I stop a few feet from him. I know I need to give him at least one chance to explain himself.
"Did I know what?" he speaks with pure confusion. Please don't tell me he was there. And he just lost his chance. I run up to him and grab him by the throat, lifting him into the air. His hands grab at my hand, trying to peel back my fingers but I just squeeze tighter.
"You and your mother-fucking council better start explaining." I squeeze his neck until his face turns another color and then I drop him to the floor, his legs buckling below him and dropping him to his knees before me. He falls to his palms and rubs his neck with one hand. His head slowly tilts up and the moment his eyes look into my face he shoots back onto his butt and scoots back to the windows where the other men stand.
"I said EXPLAIN!" I pick up the glass coffee table and throw it against the marble fountain that stands to my right. It shatters into hundreds of pieces, a few hitting the men nearest the fountain who tried to find safety behind it. One man tries to go to the ones hurt but I throw my hand up, my finger pointing at him while I stare forward at my first victim. "I wouldn't if I were you." The man backs up to the wall and closes his eyes, starting to pray to his god. "Then again, I'm not you." I flick my hand and the man drops to his knees, his blood no longer flowing through his body. He has about thirty seconds of life left and
I look at his "friends" that only stare in horror. "Funny. You were willing to risk your life to save your friend but no one is willing to risk theirs to save you." He begins to convulse on the floor and I can see his color going. I flick my hand again and his blood flow starts up from where it left off.
"Now, I want answers or I'm going to kill one of you mother fuckers for every piece of bullshit that falls from your mouths. Do you understand me?" A few nod but a majority of the group stare in horror. You'd think the council of a Demi-God would be more prepared. I look into each of their eyes, terror becoming their dominant feature. "I also kill for every minute no one says anything thing. You have fifty seconds." The men begin looking at each other, trying to bully with their eyes alone to get someone to sacrifice themselves.
The youngest of the group, a man of about forty, steps forward, the sweat pouring off of him. His hair is beginning to gray but has a layer of brown beneath the shell of gray beginning to cover his head. He has some wrinkles but he's tried to take care of himself, to get the ladies. One look through his mind tells me that no matter what he tells me, this man is going to die.
"Vittoria. We...were aware of...sir Eric's...existence in this world but...we felt it did not...serve the world if you knew. We couldn't have our...beautiful God...worried over some...teenage love..." His voice trails off as he looks to the men behind him. When he faces forward again, his face is full of worry. I shoot forward, stopping inches from him.
"Teenage love?" He gulps as my voice takes on a demonic quality. I feel his thoughts revolving around that phrase and an image of the receptionist comes into his mind. He loves her, so much so he tried to rape her. I don't see the full memory before his heart is in my hand and his body slumps to the floor. The other men reel back as they realize half-truths wont save them either. They all begin to rethink what they will say, but I know none of them hold valuable information for me. I place my hands above the dead body of the disgusting human that lays at my feet. I feel the heat radiating off of my hand, see it as the air begins to wave. And within moments, that grotesque man is nothing but ashes. The nearest window is locked so I slowly lift the latch with my mind and force it open with another gust of wind. The ashes fly out of the room, forever roaming this world.
I look into the eyes of these men, staring down each one. But no matter how long I stare, or how many of them I kill, they will never understand what they did wrong. I point to the convulsing man on the floor whose blood flow has continued. He does not see me, he does not see anything at this moment, the pain shooting throughout is body being so incomprehensible. I slowly lift my finger and the man involuntarily stands. And still, his "friends" do nothing. I walk out of the room, the only decent man following me. And the moment we are past the doors, I slam them shut and lock it, all the while walking towards the receptionist. Those men will all die, but first they must suffer. With one blast of my hand, I knock out the telephone lines on this floor.
I walk up to the desk and look the young women in the face. Though she resists at first, I eventually get her under my spell.
"You are going to take a few days off. Your going to take your children and go to Disney World, all expenses paid by me. In a couple of days, you will return and find that your boss and all of his friends died in his office while you were gone. The door locked and they couldn't get out. You never saw me, you have never seen me. Do you understand?" her head nods, but her face remains blank. I turn towards the elevator and hear as the women grabs her stuff from her desk and rushes past me, excited to go on vacation. The man remains by the desk, still under my spell. I look at him, judging how to handle the situation. I lean
towards his ear, not wanting this naive mother to hear.
"You will remain here for a few days. You will eat what you need from the kitchen. You will make no contact with the outside world. Every time someone comes to see the boss, you tell them he is out of town and send them away. Do you understand?" He, just like the women, nods with no expression and I turn away, joining the receptionist by the elevator.
She presses the button at least ten times before the elevator finally meets us. As we walk inside, she quickly presses the ground level button twelve times, and the doors haven't even closed.
"I'm guessing your excited?" she looks behind her and sees me, not even realizing I had been standing behind her the whole time.
"Oh! I am so sorry! I'm taking my kids on a surprised vacation to Disney World and I just can not wait to see their faces! I have a little girl who absolutely loves Ariel. She is going to be so happy!" The mother turns back to the buttons and presses the ground level a few more times before stepping back and waiting like a normal person. I laugh silently to myself, happy my powers are doing good, something they rarely do.
"Well I hope you and your family have fun." She smiles at me and her mind begins playing with visions of her daughter's face when seeing Ariel, and all the rides her son can go on, now that he is big enough. I get off around the twentieth floor, her happiness being just a little too much for me to handle. I look outside to see the sun is starting to rise. A tear falls as I realize I have to wait at least twelve hours to see my beautiful Eric again.
"Louisiana? Your sending me to fucking Louisiana? To the middle of nowhere?" I look at my "boss", though he's no more boss to me then he is to this company, the complete fake that it is.
"It's not the middle of nowhere... To some people it's not." he grabs the expensive pen set that sits on his desk and begins taking notes. It's times like these I wish I didn't have to hide beneath this façade of a company.
"Why? There hasn't been a vampire problem there. And even if there was, I don't have to deal with every problem. There are bigger issues out in the world Michael." He continues writing, not paying an ounce of attention to me. My hands come flying down on the desk, sending pieces of it flying all around the room.
"Did you just break my desk?" He doesn't look up, but instead begins to inspect his shattered desk. "It was a fucking antique." He slams his fist against the wood and stands up in frustration.
"You fucking listen to me and listen good. I'm not yours, you do not boss me around. Your lucky I even gave you this power." My voice deepens as I yell at this asshole. He slowly sits back down and puts his fancy pens back in their place.
"I'm sorry. I need you to go to Louisiana to sort out a little business deal. There is a little problem with the vampire government down there and I need you to...sort of scare the king back into place." He smiles, trying to be nice, but he's lost his chance. I turn around and head to the double doors that lead back to the receptionist area.
"Fucking royalty." Though I whisper it, Michael still laughs. I stop when I hear his hidden laugh and he immediately stops, his emotions going to dread. "Fine, I'll do it. But I do it my way." He remains silent as he thinks how bad this could go if I do it my way.
"Fine. Your way." Though he is not happy by this, I know he's pleased I'm sorting out his fucking issue. I look toward the receptionist. I am doing Michael a favor.
"I want a new receptionist. The one we have now is a bitch." He grumbles underneath his voice, he's always liked looking at this women, but I hear him make a note and I can tell he'll get someone new. I walk out the door and to the receptionist.
"Leaving so soon?" Though she smiles, her thoughts speak differently. This fucking bitch only appears to screw up Michael's mood. I wonder if he likes my dress today? Maybe I should walk in and lean over in front¾I tune out. I've always hated women like that and of course, as time goes on, the number of these women roaming the earth has increased, which just pisses me off even more. I head to the elevator and, with amazing luck, the doors open the moment I reach them. I step in and press the ground floor button, praying I don't make too many stops on the forty floor descend.
When I finally make it to the ground floor, I get out as quickly as possible, not wanting to look all the poor suckers in lobby in the eye. I make it to the security staircase and, after putting in my code, step into the darkness that brings me piece. I get about three seconds of complete darkness until the lights realize a presence is in the room and slowly come to life, their light illuminating the sixty floor descent many dread walking. I jump down the center and make it to the bottom floor in a matter of seconds, slowing down just before impact. A long hallway to my left leads me to my training rooms and weapon rooms and map room, but my true destination is the room to my right; sleeping quarters.
I walk up to my door, leaning my head against the soft wood I have grown to love. This door is my peaceful image when in a stressful situation. The memories this door holds begin coming back to me. I close my eyes and watch as my perfect memory plays back the thoughts of my daughter bursting through this door to show me her first tooth. And my best friend running through when I asked her to be Belle's godmother. This door has been broken thousands of times but nothing can ever keep it from returning to me. This door is the perfect metaphor for me; always killed but never dead.
I push down on the handle and the door swings open for me. I look into my beautiful escape that has always comforted me when my friends have come and gone. I step through the door and relish in my few hours left in my suite, before I have to go on my next mission.
I walk into the bathroom and drop my clothes during my walk. My marble bathroom is the perfect escape. Though it's surface is hard and solid, the hundreds of candles scattered all around lighten the mood. I go to the shower and turn it on, but my purpose is not to clean myself. I look into my bedroom quickly and grab the robe that hangs next to the glass door of the shower, wrapping it around myself. I head to the linen shelves that sit next to my double sink, across from my glass shower. Pulling on a small perfume bottle, the paneling next to the shelves slides open, revealing a hidden room.
After a quick look into the mirror, with minor fixes of my hair, I walk through the slot. The room is completely dark, with no light source but the candles that do not burn. With one snap, my hand becomes covered in flame and I throw out just enough fire to light all the candles, giving light to my hidden room. It's small, with just one glass bookcase, but it's all I need. I never come in here, only on horrible days and even though today isn't horrible, I need to feel again. I walk up to the glass and put my hand to it. Behind the glass sits my only true antiques I carried into this millennium.
The cloth looks just as it did the first time I laid eyes on it but I dare not touch it for the years have not been kind. The blood still lays on it, another layer to the cloth that has just as much sentimental value. I look at the shirt and allow the memories to flow back to me, just as pungent as the door but even more sentimental. Laying below the hanging shirt, propped up on a glass shelf, sits a note in Swedish, a note written by a Viking giving me his address. I sit in front of the book case and press a small black button that sits on the floor, allowing the bookcase to fill with light, illuminating the shirt perfectly.
I miss him so much. I haven't been in this room in so long that dust now covers everything. I curl my legs up to my chest and rock back and forth slightly to help comfort me. I wish I could tell him I love him, that I always have just one more time. If I could look into those beautiful eyes one more time, I would feel so much relief, so much calm. These thousand years have been so stressful. I need my safe haven again.
"I love you. I know I never got to tell you that but I do." I place my forehead on my knees and let my tears fall. He won't mind seeing me cry. "Isabelle's good. She looks like you. Well her eyes at least. I still haven't told her the truth about you and I don't know if I ever will." I can't help but feel like a coward. A coward for lying to my daughter. A coward for pushing away Abby. I haven't been the same person I once was and I know I can't remain the person I am. "I'm so sorry Eric. I should have saved you. It's all my fault your dead. I'm so sorry." I stand slowly as I finish my prayer to Eric and give the glass one kiss before walking out of the room. Before I close the doorway I wave my hand and blow out the candles, the light that illuminates the cloth dying with the flames. As the door closes I realize this has to be my final visit to this room. I can't come back here. Not again.
I don't know how long I stood on that floor staring out the window at the rising sun. It had to of been at least an hour. I didn't even realize where I was until I heard the elevator ring and saw some men step off the elevator, heading into work. I gave a weak smile and ran to the staircase, not giving a fucking damn for the rules. I jumped the hallway and ran so fast at the door that I not only took the door off it's hinges but took the frame out of the wall. But I didn't stop. I ran across the giant, stone-cold lobby and headed for the employee staircase, not even waiting for my few seconds of darkness before jumping down that staircase as well. No matter how fast I was going, nor how fast I could have been going, I still would have noticed Abby's open, empty room.
The moment my feet touched the stone floor, I knew I had to go back. Using the force from the landing, I propelled myself back up to her floor. I walked towards her empty room and, though the door was open, though the room was clearly empty, I knocked. How could I not?
"Knock knock." Abby's smiling face turns around as she sits cross-legged on the floor, pictures surrounding her. I haven't seen her smile like this in ages. And then I notice the drawings of Isabelle as a baby and I know why. Abby's reverse back in time. She's done this a few times where she becomes a younger version of herself, but I've never seen her become Isabelle-Abby. "Whatchya doing?" she smiles again and looks back at the drawings.
"She was the cutest baby. Wasn't she?" I walk into her room and sit down next to her, putting my arm around her shoulders.
"Yea. She was." she looks to me again smiles, tears in her eyes. "I've missed you. You weren't the same when she came. You never looked her in the face. You weren't the mother you should have been." A tear falls down my cheek as I stare at the drawings of my baby girl.
"I know." I can hear the hysteria in my voice and stand quickly. I don't want this Abby to see me cry. No. I don't want present Abby to see me cry. "Um sweetie? I'm leaving for a few days. Michael will fill you in. Can you leave a note for...present day Abby?" She looks up into my face and nods, another smile and another tear filling her face. I nod and run from the room. Maybe one more visit couldn't hurt.
The room looks...soulless. I stare at the walls, looking at the hundreds of holes that represent each of Abby's phases, all the posters she put up and took down as the times changed. A tear falls and I look down to the floor, not wanting to look at the emptiness of the room.
At first I don't see them, too concerned with not crying. But when a bit of wind flies past me and I hear the paper move, my eyes find the source. I bend down and pick up the remnants of Abby's room. The tears fall with no control and I clutch the papers to my chest, running from the room and back down to my floor, to my suite, to my bathroom, to my hidden time capsule. The doors open too slow for me and I bump into the shelving unit, smashing it to pieces. I run to the glass bookcase and pull open the doors I haven't opened in over a hundred years. Placing the papers carefully but quickly, I seal the door shut again and sit on the floor, staring at my relics.
I spend hours there, sitting on that floor, looking upon the objects I hold dear. I can feel my emotions getting out of control and my powers going with them. Every second a new ability comes to show, sending my body into overdrive of adrenaline. After an hour or so, I finally pass out of exhaustion, my mind nothing but a blank state as I sleep.
When I do finally wake, my muscles feel tight and my eyes feel heavy, as if I had a night of drinking and am now hung-over. I stand slowly, not wanting to throw up in my time capsule and head for the doorway. Before I close the partially broken door, I look back one more time and the last thing I see within my beautiful glass bookcase are Eric's eyes. Nay, Isabelle's eyes.
"So you want me to scare him? That's all?" The phone in my hand is not only of crappy materials but has the worst earpiece in the world. I have tried this conversation eight times with Michael and every time I get cut off.
"Yes and no." I pull the phone away, my anger beginning to grow again. The bar I stand in is the epitome of small town bars.
"What else is there?" The anger is clear in my voice and, even with this horrible phone, I still hear Michael's gulp. When he doesn't answer for a few moments, I worry I have lost him again but then I hear his sigh.
"Well, as it turns out, we need this king to help us with a little matter so before you scare him you need him to sign a deal. We have already sent you the contracts. Just get him to sign and then give him a good scare." I roll my eyes and look up to the ceiling fan, thinking of all the creative ways I could kill Michael using just that.
"Isn't that what lawyers are for?" He gives a quick chuckle but then pretends to be coughing before he answers.
"Vampires don't like lawyers. Just get the job done, okay?" Before I can give my creative answer, he hangs up the phone and I sigh in frustration. Pinching the bridge of my nose, I maneuver back to my booth, hoping this job is quick and easy.
I look down at my horrible outfit and relish in the fact that I don't have to wear this stupid get-up for more then a couple days. My waitress comes over, fumbling with her pen, clicking it ten times a second, trying to get it to work.
"I am just not having a good night!" With a quick sigh, she shoves the pen back into her apron pocket and holds up her pointer finger to me. Spinning around, she spots a fellow waitress a few tables down and whispers in her ear. Though I can hear it perfectly, I tune out. A silent argument occurs between them and eventually the fellow waitress walks over to my table, placing the fakest smile I have ever witnessed in my life on her face.
"Howdy!" Her cheery voice just angers me even more. It's as if she thinks I'm idiotic enough to believe she's happy to be serving me so I'll tip her good. I look up into her face and place my fakest smile on as well. "My names Sookie. I'll be your waitress tonight."
Sookie? They have names like that down here? Immediately I know, I'm going to hate Louisiana.