Chapter 3:
So Claire was now the Founder.
Not that she wanted to be, or anything, not at all. When Amelie had had the job, she had never envied her – true, Claire had thought the job would be easy, only having to sign papers and such, but she had never wanted to have to be in charge of the vampires. Why would she want to be the controller of the bloodsuckers that caused the majority of the problems in town? Barring three vampires now, since Myrnin had recovered from the disease, she didn't like any of the others and she knew that the feeling was mutual…probably. They probably respected her more now, since she had saved them from the disease, but she was still a human and how would vampires react to having a human controlling them?
"Please tell me that you're all kidding me and you're about to say jokes!" Claire begged the four people in the room, clasping her hands together. She felt the coolness of the bracelet she continued to wear upon her skin connecting with the other arm but still felt no desire to remove it: as soon as Amelie died, there was a catch that suddenly appeared in the bracelet. But to remain closer to Amelie, someone who technically died for her, she left it on. She couldn't take the job of the person who used to own her! It wouldn't be right.
Sam was the first one to shake his head. For the first time in that meeting, he stood up and moved slowly towards Claire. In those slow movements, you could see just how torn up he was: he was lethargic and honestly appeared as if he didn't give a damn about the world or anyone in it.
The only person he loved was Amelie and she had died.
He pulled Claire in for a hug, which shocked her most of all, but definitely the others. He, for all his vampire strength, felt so frail to her, as if he was going to collapse. She realised then that he needed her to take on the role, almost to be a replacement so that he would sort of stop hurting. It was a coping mechanism she had seen before: you replace something to try and make the original disappear. Unfortunately, it usually didn't work and she doubted it would this time, either. It was a plug for a situation, something that could make things seem as if they were ok, but underneath the surface, everything was in turmoil.
"Out of this entire town, Claire, you are the only one who can run it, human or vampire," he whispered into her ear, so quietly that Hannah and Richard couldn't hear. "Like it or not, you are the only one who can take on the challenges – look how you've survived so far! If you don't even want to do it for the town or Amelie, do it for me. Please, Claire, I can't loose this town…it's all I have left of her," his voice had cracked by the end, and she knew he could barely hold back the tears. Myrnin was very deliberately looking in another direction and was humming, whilst Hannah and Richard waited for a decision from Claire.
She pulled back from the hug and hesitated, Sam's words running through her mind. What should she do? After all, she thought she would fail at it so why bother, but what Sam said would make her feel guilty if she gave up without trying. It would be an insult to Amelie's memory to do so.
She turned hesitantly to look at Myrnin, who stopped humming instantly to look at her. "If, and I mean if, I did this, would you help me? I mean, would you tell me what to do and what different things mean?" she asked him, making him break out into a huge grin – slightly premature a response, she thought.
"Of course I would, Claire," he responded instantly, almost without thinking about the answer he was giving. "Only if you accept the responsibility now," he tacked on the end lamely, evidently wanting an answer.
Sam turned to look at Claire again, his eyes lacking slightly in their sorrow and actually having a little intrigue in the situation. Hannah and Richard observed, waiting to see what Claire would say, and she hesitated again, trying to think everything through.
Finally, however, it was the eyes that made the decision for her. "Fine, I will take on the job, ok?" she made it seem almost a question, as if she really was waiting for them to tell her that it was all a joke and that Amelie was actually alive… well, the last part was a little too far as Sam would never have been able to pull off the dead man walking look he currently had going.
Myrnin grinned wildly, zooming across the small space between them to hug her tightly. "Careful, Myrnin, human girl here," she choked out as he began to choke her from lack of air. Instantly, he let go of her and apologised before nodding formally, recognising her position.
This sucks, she thought to herself as the room seemed to turn sombre and respectful… and it was all towards her.
"Gérard," Myrnin called upon the dead Founder's old bodyguard and the man suddenly popped up in the doorway. The grief he had for the death of his boss was evident in his face but nowhere near as much as Sam – if Claire ever lived to see someone else looking like him, she would be surprised.
"Yes, Myrnin?" Gérard questioned the reason for his presence until Myrnin inclined his head towards Claire.
"This is the new Founder," her ex-boss commented with a touch of pride in his voice. "And it is your job to protect her," he continued, to Claire's alarm. The vampire summoned looked shocked but accepted this, evidently having expected there be a strong chance that Claire would become the new Founder, and moved closer towards her with a new level of respect in his stance.
"No, no, No!" she exclaimed loudly, walking away from Myrnin and Gérard in utter defiance, unable to accept that she needed protecting by a vampire. "I do not need protecting. I am not Amelie, who thought she needed it even though she was the strongest vampire in town!" she continued, wincing as she mentioned Amelie for the expression that came upon Sam's face when she did.
Sam grabbed her arm and pulled her around to face him, his face angry at the way that she utterly disregarded the protection. "You will take this," he hissed at her, utterly different to how he was before. "Or did you miss something? Even with this, Amelie died. So unless you want to follow her down that path but just being killed by one of your own kind, I would take it."
"Why would a human kill me?" she questioned, confused as to the context of this. "I mean, it's vampires who hate me, not humans. Most of them don't care about me."
"And this shows how naïve you are," Sam retorted sharply, his grip on her arm tightening to the point of pain. "No vampire hates you, and they wouldn't dare to if you are their ruler. But you evidently missed how many assassination attempts there were on A-Amelie, because if you had have seen them, you would be demanding more protection!" he continued, stumbling on Amelie's name which was the only thing that showed him not being as he was normally.
Claire, on the other hand, had never felt so weak and defenceless. After all, had she really just taken on a job which had a high probability of death? But she couldn't rescind it now without at least attempting to do it…so she had to carry on.
"Fine, Gérard but nobody else," she argued back, exerting her power as Founder for the first time. There wasn't a change in temperature, like there was when Amelie or Oliver exerted their power, but who knew what to expect in the future? The power was new to her and she was unwilling to harness it. There was no knowing how she could turn out.
Perhaps she could even be better than Amelie…no…that would be impossible, right?
Gérard stepped closer to his new charge and bowed to her, making her blush deeply. She couldn't cope with having people acting like this to her!
"We're going now, if that's ok?" Richard said and, with a jolt, she realised that she was above him. She had gone from pawn in the town to the overall ruler of everything in Morganville in the space of a few seconds, and the power scared her already.
"Bye," she called, shaking slightly with the fear of what was going to happen. Who knew?
With that, Richard and Hannah almost ran out of the room; evidently, there was something going on that the three vampires and Claire couldn't feel – but what? She decided, however, that she didn't care: she had more important things to do… and she guessed that that included telling the world (well, Morganville) that she was their new leader.
"I'm going home," she announced, having realised with a gut wrenching pang that she hadn't even discussed this with Shane or her friends.
"Claire, we need to work, to arrange everything – as Richard said, the town is in chaos," Myrnin contradicted her, but with a level of respect she recognised from when he had spoken to Amelie in the past.
"I am now in charge and my friends don't even know – I'm going home, Myrnin, and you can't stop me… unless you'd rather be Founder?" she questioned, suddenly hopeful that he would change his mind and take over.
After a long pause, he shook his head mutely and stepped away. As soon as he had done, Claire realised that Sam still had a hold on her arm and she pulled it out as easily as possible. It was almost too easy; before, she would have had to get the vampire to release her but now… she did it without Sam even realising.
"I'll see you tomorrow, Myrnin," Claire said in a subdued voice and headed towards the portal, her new best buddy following in her tracks…
~x~
Eve dropped the spoon she was holding with a clatter as she noticed Claire returning home through the portal with a vampire. More than that, it was a vampire that used to guard the Founder.
"Claire, what the hell?" she exclaimed, moving away from the table where she was preparing the food for dinner to observe the new Founder (though she didn't know that then) with her escort. "Why do you have a vampire tailing you?" she questioned, making Claire sigh. How could she explain this without making it seem as if she was forced or that it was a crummy idea?
"Where are Shane and Michael?" she asked, ignoring Eve's question.
"Shane is upstairs and Michael is in the living room – didn't you see him as you walked in?" she answered shortly, annoyed that Claire wouldn't tell her why the hell there was a stalker vamp in the house. "Yo, dude, can I help you?" Eve snapped at the vampire, deciding that she could take him on in her own home without a doubt. Which was a bad idea…if it wasn't for the fact that Claire controlled him, the Founder had a definite belief that Gérard would have attacked her.
"Eve, don't be rude!" Claire chastised her sharply, shaking her head at both Eve and the way that she reacted. Surely she shouldn't be changing? Unless it was just the anger and the resentment at being thrust into this new role that made her react that way… yes, that would be it. "Look, can you come into the living room with me and Gérard? I need to talk to you all and it is really important," she sighed and something about her tone made Eve relax and drop the angered stance.
"Come on, CB," she pulled Claire through to the living room, which resulted in Claire having to make frantic motions to Gérard that this was normal and she wasn't being attacked. Now he was no longer Amelie's guard, she would really have to teach him how a human behaved in the new world – the entirely no touching policy was Amelie's, not hers.
Within three minutes, the boys had assembled – it turned out Michael had gone upstairs to get his guitar – and Claire was ready to begin her story. Shane looked suspiciously at Gérard but didn't say anything, simply sat opposite Claire, with Michael and Eve, and waited to be told the story.
"I don't know how to say this, so I'll just come out with it," she said slowly, shutting her eyes and pressing her hands together. "Richard resigned as overall ruler dude thing and… I'm the new Founder," she burst out with it, leaving the room silent as she did so.
Finally, after a long pause, Shane laughed. It was as if he didn't believe her, but she had to admit, it was pretty ludicrous. She was a human: why would she be in charge of every vampire in the world? "Claire, that was a good one: I suppose Myrnin loaned you that one to help make it more plausible?" he laughed at her, inclining his head towards Gérard, making her cheeks turn bright red – did he not believe she could be powerful enough to have control of the town?
Before she could react, Gérard did. He growled deeply at the three of them sitting on the sofa, so feral that even Michael flinched backwards. "I am not Myrnin's pet, you little idiot," he snarled at them, his fangs sliding down as he stepped in front of Claire to 'protect' her. Seriously, she thought, he really needs to come into the 21st century version of bodyguarding! "I am the bodyguard of the Founder and you should show respect."
This last sentence got the attention of all three of them again, as they realised that she was telling the truth and that it wasn't a joke.
"Y-you… you're the new Amelie?" Eve confirmed, stuttering as she showed her disbelief. Claire moved around Gérard and nodded slowly, her head bowed as she faced her friend. "Jeez, Claire, you're not going to be able to cope," she continued, disgusted.
"I didn't have a choice – it was that or… or Morganville would be disbanded," Claire cried out, and this alone made Shane and Eve give her a dirty look.
"And that would be a bad thing?" Shane rhetorically asked her, shocked that she took the path she did. "What has happened to you, Claire? I know you like the bloodsuckers but this is taking it too far, for you to be our jailor here?" he snapped at her, startling her more than she thought would be possible. She had never considered that he would be this angry.
Tears began to roll down her cheeks as she processed what was going on: her friends, her boyfriend, hated her for giving up being one of them and taking the most important job in the town. "I couldn't say no, Shane! If Morganville fell apart, then Amelie would have died for nothing! I couldn't let Sam know that she died for him, for all of us whether you accept that or not, and then everyone left. That wouldn't be right," she explained her reasoning for taking the job which made her millions of times more important than all of them put together.
Shane shook his head and stood up, his expression still utter disgust for her. "I don't know why you did it but you did it anyway, without even speaking to us. Face it, Claire, you prefer the vamps to the humans." and with that, he walked away and ignored her calls after him.
She turned back to Eve, who ignored her as she walked out of the living room and back to the kitchen, where the sounds of food being thrown in the bin clanged in Claire's ears. This left Michael, the one who was yet to even speak. "Do you hate me, too?" she whispered to him as she stood there, alone. Gérard melted into the background, as he was supposed to, now that the possible danger was over, as Michael stood up, a shocked expression on his face.
"I couldn't hate you, Claire; not only did you save us all, but you saved Sam," he said, smiling slightly. "They don't hate you either, they just can't see why you did it…but I can. Honestly, Claire, everything will be fine," he pressed and moved closer to her to give her a hug.
She relaxed slightly but the tears began to spill down her cheeks. After a few minutes, she pulled away and gave him a half smile before heading up the stairs to her room. Shane's room, as she expected, was firmly shut with a 'Do not disturb' sign hanging on the doorknob – childish, but it did the job. So she walked past this with a heavy heart and opened the door to her room, expecting some massive change to have happened since she turned into the Founder. In fact, it was just the exact same as it was before – the one constant thing in her life…her room. That was the sad thing, she reflected, as she curled up on her bed and began to sob her heart out.
She was the Founder now; she had the control of the town. She could do anything she wanted to… but what did she want to do?
And did she really want it?
