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Not my characters. They belong to HBO or Charlaine Harris.

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It was a crisp, clear, sunny fall morning and we arrived at church, early, as usual. Gran always sat in the third pew from the back with me right beside her.. There was always an empty seat beside me, as no one ever asked to sit there, which was fine with me, I was very shy. The only time I talked to people was when I was waitressing at work, and even then the conversation was very minimal.

Glancing around, I noticed that the groups and families were all filing into the church, trying to find a seat in the quickly filling room.

My mother used to drag me and my older brother, Jason, along with her to find a seat. Even though Gran always saved us seats, my mom would always worry about finding one. My father would usually stroll in, ten minutes later after talking with his friends outside. My Aunt Linda, and my cousin Hadley, who was a year older than me, would come in right before church would start. After church we would all head over to Gran's for a late lunch.

I missed that.

My parents and brother died in a car accident when I was seven years old. I had been dropped off at my Gran's to spend the night while they took Jason to go see a movie. It was raining that night, and the car went off the road and into the river. They all drowned.

I don't really remember much about what happened. I remember my Gran dressing me in a black dress and holding my hand during the service. It did not really register that they were gone until I woke up screaming for my 'Mama' but my Gran came running in, instead. That's when I finally got it. My parents and older brother were dead.

All I had left were my Gran and my cousin Hadley. Hadley's mother had died the year before from breast cancer and her father had abandoned her when she was a baby. Hadley lived with Gran too. At school, Hadley was in a grade higher than me but people used to think we were twins because we looked so much alike.

Hadley and I were best friends until she was in 8th grade. I had no other friends than Hadley. Kids at my school thought I was a freak. A loser. Ugly. Fat. You name it, I got called it. Hadley would stick up for me but when she started getting noticed by guys and made friends with the popular crowd, I was left standing in the dust.

I remember her telling me that it was nothing personal and that she still loved me, but whenever someone at school started going off on me she would just stand there looking at the ground, not doing anything. After high school, Hadley left and she didn't tell us where she was going. Sometimes I miss her, but after everything, I'm sort of glad to not have someone like that in my life.

So here we were, the last remaining of the Stackhouse family, sitting in our favorite pew at church. Everyone was settling in for the start, as usual, when I noticed someone new come in. He was tall. Like, well over six-foot-giant-type, tall. He had short blonde hair and it was parted at the side and brushed back. He was wearing a dark sweater, black, or maybe navy blue, and gray pants. He had on a heavy winter coat, which I didn't understand. Sure it was November, but it doesn't get that cold in Louisiana.

He was alone, from what I could gather, and he was gorgeous. He sat down about two pews in front of me and was quickly asked to move. The people behind him would not be able to see. He stood up, looking nervous, and his eyes met mine. He motioned to the seat next to me, silently asking if it was taken. I shook my head no, and he made his way over.

He sat down, very close to me, and muttered a quick thank you. I didn't say anything.

The pastor made his presence known, but I was too distracted by the feeling of the man's leg touching my bare thigh. I was wearing a knee length dress, but it rode up slightly when I was sitting. All of the sudden I felt coldness where his leg had been touching mine and I looked up. Church was over. While I gathered our things, I knew I would be waiting at least a half hour before she was done talking with her friends.

The man next to me leaned over and said "Hello."

I mumbled, "Hello," back to him, my cheeks reddening. He was standing in the way of the aisle. I was curious as to why he would be talking to me, but the thing that came out of his mouth surprised me greatly.

"I'm new in town, would you like to show me around sometime?" said the tall stranger.

No one had ever wanted to hang out with me. And what was with this guy? He looked to be much older than I was, so I was confused as to why he would want to go out with me.

"Oh, I don't know. I might be a little too young for you," I said, silently cursing myself for saying such an awkward and embarrassing reply.

"I would very much like for you to show me around," he said, looking very deeply into my eyes. While he said it, I felt a strange tingling somewhere between my eyes and forehead. It felt like something was tickling my brow bone.

"No, I don't think so," I responded quickly, wanting to remove myself from this embarrassing situation. I moved to get up but his hand shot out and grabbed my arm, preventing me from moving. I glanced down at his hand and then glared up at him. "Let go of me."

He snatched his hand away like I had burned him. "Sorry, I just didn't catch your name."

"It's Sookie. Would you mind moving? I need to be going." I said, getting annoyed now. He moved aside, and I started walking towards the exit.

"Hey, wait!" he yelled, but I had already made my way out of the side door of the chapel.

Geez, what the hell? That man was so weird. I mean, who tries to pick up a girl at Church?

I met up with Gran and we walked to the car. She chatted about the sermon and asked me if I had talked to the man sitting next to me. I said yes, but quickly steered her away from that conversation. We made my way home I got changed for work.

'No more sunday dinners,' I thought. I sighed as I pulled out my hair brush and ran it through my long blonde hair before securing it in a high ponytail. Gran understood that it was necessary for me to work, but I knew it made her sad still. I was still saving up for college and paying for what Gran's social security check didn't cover.

I didn't really want to go to school, but how was I supposed to tell Gran that the reason was because I could hear the thoughts of everyone around me? So I lied and saved money for "school". I never could understand how my Gran never figured out about my little disability. There were times I swore she knew, but at the same time, she never said anything.

I headed downstairs, and yelled goodbye to my Gran who was sitting in the living room knitting while a soap opera played. I jumped in my car and headed to work. I was not looking forward to an evening at Merlotte's.

Having the ability to read minds was such a burden and I had no one who I could talk to about it. People would think I was crazy. I tried my best to never read someone unless I thought it was necessary. People's thoughts could be so filthy, but why shouldn't they be? Their thoughts were private. They had no idea that I was able to hear or see the disgusting things they fantasized about. The worst ones where when their thoughts revolved around me.

I walked into the already crowded restaurant and was bombarded with everyone's thoughts. Why couldn't everyone be quieter like that man I had met at church that morning? At least I didn't hear anything from him, and I was even touching him…..wait a second….why didn't I hear anything from him? Usually touching amplified thoughts.

I pushed those thoughts aside and headed back to my bosses office to put my stuff away. He had cubbies in his office. It was more like an unofficial break room as Sam was always behind the bar or in the kitchen. I grabbed an apron and notepad and started my shift.

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"Goodnight, Sam!" I called out behind me, while I opened the door to leave the building. I shivered slightly after feeling the cold wind and headed toward my car. I was halfway there when I felt as if someone was watching me. I looked around but didn't see anything. I even pushed my mind out to see if someone really was there but I didn't hear a thing.

"Weird," I mumbled. The whole day had been weird. I was ready to head home to a nice warm bath.

On my way home, I still couldn't shake the feeling of someone watching me. When I reached our old farmhouse, I quickly got out and headed inside, feeling very grateful that Gran had left the back door unlocked, even though I was always begging her not too. I hated when she did that, especially when she was home alone. But since we lived in the middle of the woods next to a cemetery, she thought she was safe from any harm. Though if I learned anything from reading all those mystery novels that I secretly loved, it was that Gran was setting the stage to be a perfect victim.

When I finally made my way inside and had closed the door behind me, I took a deep breath. I was so focused on slowing down my racing heart that I wasn't aware that someone had approached me.

"Sookie-"

"AWW! Geez, Gran! You scared me," I yelled, jumping and turning around to see my Gran standing there, and thankfully not someone else.

"Sookie, dear! What has you so frazzled? You look like you've seen a ghost! Come on honey, I made some cookies." Gran took my arm and led me to the kitchen, where she had left a plate of cookies and a pitcher of milk on the table.

On the nights that I worked late, I was almost always starving when I came home and Gran had soon learned that. She usually made me a snack and would have it waiting for me when I got home. I hated that she stayed up late doing that, but she wasn't that old. She was only 62 years old, even though she acted much younger and was in perfect health.

"Come on, sweetheart, tell Gran what has you so jumpy," She said, pouring me a glass of milk. I took it and took a long swallow of it, letting it calm my nerves. I was not sure if it was the coldness or the protein, but whenever I was upset I almost always drank milk and it calmed me down.

"Nothing, really Gran. I just thought...oh nevermind, it seems so silly now," I said, taking a cookie off the plate.

"Sookie, something must have happened. Did someone say something to you? I haven't seen you like that since you were in high school," she said, taking a cookie of her own.

"Oh, no Gran, it was nothing like that. When I was leaving Merlotte's, I just felt like someone was watching me, you know? I just couldn't get that feeling to go away," I replied, taking a bite of my cookie.

"Do you still feel like someone is watching you now?" she asked, looking very serious.

"Oh, Gran, it was just my mind playing tricks on me. I don't think it's anything to worry about."

"I don't know Sookie. You've always had intuition about these sort of things. But if you say it's nothing, I'll leave it alone." She yawned. "Do you still have the pepper spray I gave you?"

"Gran! It was just a feeling, I swear it. Nothing else happened."

"Ok, ok! Well, I'm going to head to bed. I'm beat." She stood up and gave my kiss on the top of my head. "See you in the morning, sweetheart."

"I'm going to bed too. Goodnight, Gran."

After calming down and talking to Gran, I was sure that it was just a feeling. I stood up and took the milk glasses over to the sink to rinse out. When I glanced out the kitchen window, I could have sworn I saw someone looking in at me from out by the treeline, but when I looked again, no one was there.

"Fucking weird." And with that, I went to bed.