After a little over an hour of sitting with Alice and a few phone calls, Sherriff Dearborn arrived in the clearing with a couple of men holding what she guessed was equipment to cut Alice free. Sookie stood from where she was kneeling next to the girl and walked over to him.

"Her name is Alice. She's only eighteen, Sherriff." Sookie looked back at the girl, her expression stricken. While they'd been waiting, Alice had told her everything about her abduction that she could remember, and why she'd been abducted in the first place. It wasn't a pretty story.

Alice was working for her 'Uncle' Jonathan, a vampire who dated back to the Civil War, turned right around the same time as Bill. Apparently, after being turned, he'd kept tabs on his human family, protecting and providing for them. When the vampires had come out of the coffin, he had revealed himself to Alice, her mother Pamela, and younger brother Daniel. Alice's mother and father were getting divorced, and they'd needed financial support. So, Pamela had come to work for Jonathan as his day helper. When she'd died a little over a year ago, Alice had taken the position to help support her brother.

One day, while she was in the office of Jonathan's home, a couple of men came in. They asked a few simple, normal questions. Then, everything went dark. When Alice awoke, she found herself bound and locked in what looked like a prison cell. Not long after that, a youngish man came downstairs, and informed her that they knew all about her and Jonathan, and their sordid relationship, that their love was an abomination against God. She'd tried to tell them that he was her uncle, and that they were wrong, but he didn't believe her. She was dragged out of the cell and upstairs into a church, where she was chained to the wall as the man, the preacher, had begun a sermon about the evils of fornicating with the undead, and how God would punish those who chose to allow themselves to be defiled by them. Alice had to listen as he told his followers that at dawn, they would take her to their 'special place' and leave her to be cleansed by God's light.

When they arrived in the clearing, they forced her to kneel over the slab, and tried to make her confess to sleeping with Jonathan, so that she could repent. She refused, trying again and again to tell them that he was her uncle, not her lover, but they wouldn't listen. For hours, they stayed there, telling her that if she didn't confess, she would rot in hell alongside her dead lover, but she refused, saying it was a sin to lie. They wanted her to confess, and to join them, and tell her where her uncle spent the day so that they could destroy him and the hold he had over her. When she refused, they chained her to the slab and left her. According to her, that had been at least three days ago.

The Sherriff sighed, removing his hat to rub his head. "Sookie, how are you planning on explaining that you found her? Because without an explanation, it looks an awful lot like you're involved." He believed in her 'gift' now, and trusted it enough not to question her on it, but he knew that if he put that she was telepathic in the report, all hell would break loose, and he did not need to deal with that mess.

Sookie bit her lip. She hadn't really thought about it, she'd been too concerned for the girl. Seeing her expression, he sighed again. "Let's see about getting her out of here, and to a hospital. You 'n me'll discuss it after that." Sookie nodded.

The two men got to work, cutting the chains binding Alice to the slab. It took less than ten minutes, but they couldn't get the shackles off her wrists with the equipment they'd brought, not without hurting her. "We'll have to get 'em off at the hospital," Dearborn said. "Ambulance is on its way." He walked over to the slab where Alice was still laying, watching them all. "Can you talk, young lady?" he asked. When she shook her head, he sighed. "Alright, then. We'll talk after we get you fixed up, alright? You're going to be fine." She nodded slightly, and Sookie winced. The amount of pain it had taken just to do that was proof of how bad off the poor girl was.

A flutter of air made Sookie turn her head. Unsurprisingly, Eric had found his way to her. He walked over and took her hand.

"I contacted her uncle," he told her softly. "He is on his way here. It will take him a couple of hours." While they'd waited, Sookie had called Eric to let him know why she was late, and discovered that he knew about Alice's disappearance. Apparently, Jonathan was also in the vampire nightclub business, and had been in town, meeting with Eric when Alice had gone missing. The two and her brother had just moved to the next town over, and Jonathan was checking in with his Sherriff, according to protocol.

"Have you met her before?" Sookie asked. When Eric shook his head, she sighed. "She's in bad shape."

He nodded, and placed his hands on her shoulders, rubbing them. "Jonathan will be very grateful that you found her. He has been very worried. They were smart when they took her, covered up after themselves."

Sookie gestured to the slab, and the bloodstains. "I guess they've gotten pretty good at it. None of that blood is hers; they have to have done this to others." She shuddered, wondering how many people had died on that slab before Alice had been taken. Eric squeezed her shoulders a little before continuing to rub them.

"It will all be alright, Sookie. You found Alice, and now the Sherriff knows about this place. They will not be able to bring more people here. If they do, they will be caught." He met Bud's eyes as the Sherriff's gaze moved to them. He started over, a scowl on his face, and Sookie sighed.

"This is a crime scene. You have no right to be here. It's none of your business," Bud told him.

"I only came to reassure Sookie that Alice's next of kin has been notified of her finding. She has an uncle, a vampire I have been doing business with for a month. He was quite distraught over her disappearance. And a younger brother who was equally upset."

"So you know the girl?" Bud asked suspiciously.

Eric shook his head. "No, I did not get a chance to meet her before she was taken. I have only since met Daniel, the brother."

He didn't get to say anything else, as the paramedics had arrived to take Alice to the hospital. They lifted her onto a stretcher carefully, and again, Sookie winced as Alice's thoughts let her know just how much it hurt. The group headed back to the road, slowly and carefully, and she loaded into the back of the ambulance.

Sookie went to get in the back. "I'm riding with her," she told Eric, knowing that Bud wouldn't let him do so.

He nodded. "I will meet you there, and call Jonathan to let him know when she arrives," he said.

The paramedics closed the door, and Sookie took Alice's hand gently. She'd passed out on the way back to the road, and was now hooked up on an IV, which Sookie was sure was feeding her some kind of painkillers. "It'll be alright now, Alice," she told her gently. "We're going to take care of you."