I love everything about the Authority. Salome is flawless. All I need is Salome, Nora, Pam, and Steve and I'll be OK. If everyone else died in a train crash, I would be OK. I would be sad about Eric and Bill, though. I want those two little nuggets to be bros so badly. Seriously, someone needs to stake Tara. She was annoying as a human, but MY GOD as a vampire she is UGHH. I can't even find the words to describe how much I do not like her. Y'all's thoughts?
OH AND WHEN DID SOOKIE GET CONTROL OVER HER FAIRY HANDS?
The more Cameron thought about the odd situation, the more she realized how completely clueless she was. She could write down everything she knew about Eric, and it probably wouldn't even take up an entire page. She liked to think that she understood him to some degree.
She knew that even though they got off to a rocky start, that they eventually came together. If Cameron was being honest, she would call Eric a friend. Take away the sex and the blood, and she would still think that. Eric was a far cry from a boyfriend, even a bad one. And Cameron doubted that Eric had ever had a girlfriend, in the traditional sense of the word. There wasn't much about Eric that was traditional, or conformed to any sort of standard. Except maybe he knew how to be a damn good vampire. He had the intimidation down and could easily strike fear into any human, even a lot of vampires.
But Cameron also knew that that was kind of an act. He had a dry, almost dark sense of humor. He wasn't impossible to amuse, and when he smiled, it was the most charming thing Cameron could remember seeing.
Cameron also knew that the cold and uncaring vampire thing was an act. He obviously cared about Pam. She had the tendency to be obnoxious sometimes, but she always seemed to amuse Eric. Sometimes Cameron would see him look at Pam, and it would remind her of the way her father used to look at her and Melanie. She doubted she would ever understand the maker/progeny relationship, but she imagined that it was a lot like a father and child. Though, she was starting to get that it went way beyond that. Vampires weren't wholesome enough for that.
Eric was also a good business man. He sometimes used his power to intimidate different merchants, insuring that he always got the best quality, lowest prices, and on-time deliveries. He was a lot better at that than Pam. She always just outright threatened and swore. Eric was at least eloquent with his threats.
As she thought about this, Cameron realized how sick it was that she was OK with Eric threatening merchants, and that she somewhat admired him for it. She was at least comforted by the fact that he didn't do that to her anymore.
Time barely ticked forward, and Cameron was starting to get even more anxious. She felt like she needed to do something. She needed to keep her hands or mind busy, maybe even both. The anxiety over Eric was starting to make her crazy.
She either wanted something to do, or for a vision to come. But the long she sat on the couch, the more restless and anxious she got. She took a shower to help calm herself down, but it didn't work. When she got out, she put on comfortable nylon shorts and a t-shirt. Once she put it on, she realized that it was one of Melanie's old sorority shirts that had somehow gotten into her own laundry on accident. It was one of those shirts that gets passed out from cardboard boxes at the end of a party so that you could show people you had a social life without telling them about it. Cameron couldn't be bothered to change out of it, especially since she didn't have any more clean clothing.
Cameron briefly considered maybe painting her nails, but she knew that she would just get antsy and not give them enough time to dry, and then the whole process would be worthless. She tried playing with Bo but wanted nothing to do with her and hid behind the couch.
If she was really desperate, she could have gone to the main house to do something with Jackson or her sister, but she was in no mood to be around people.
It occurred to Cameron that she should probably eat something. She couldn't even remember the last time she ate. Looking through her kitchenette, nothing seemed remotely good. She didn't have an appetite at all, and with all of her nervous energy, Cameron had a feeling that she wouldn't be able to keep anything down anyway.
Standing in her kitchenette, looking through the cupboards for a second time, just in case she found crackers, or something that wouldn't bother her stomach very much, Cameron remembered standing in the kitchen of that old house. She remembered seeing the pool of blood on the floor.
Cameron closed the cupboard, and realized that it wasn't her own. It was white with glass panels, and the shelves were lined with white paper with a small floral print. The dishes were someone else's. Looking around, Cameron realized she was back in that kitchen, only it was daylight. It was spotless and empty.
She moved out of the kitchen and into a formal dining room. The last time Cameron had been in that room, everything was covered in tarps. Cameron then moved into the foyer, which was free of any sign of workmen. Beyond the front door, Cameron noticed that there were no work trucks or sawing stations.
Beyond the foyer was a sitting room, or parlor. Cameron wasn't really sure what the formal name of the room was. For such an old house, she felt like parlor fit.
Up against the furthest wall from Cameron was an old wooden armoire. The doors were wide open. Cameron would have expected shelves of old blankets or antique china to be inside. Instead, the inside of the armoire was lined with stainless steel. Moving closer, Cameron could see that here was a hole in the bottom, and a ladder. Before she could go down the ladder, Cameron was back in her own kitchenette.
Finally, Cameron had something to go on. She had a very strong feeling that she would find Eric, or at least answers in that house. The only problem was that she had no idea where that house was.
Cameron knew that Pam would know, but it was still daytime. Unable to wait, Cameron got into her car and drove over to Fangtasia. She used her key to get in, and snuck past Ginger into Eric's office. She didn't have the patience to deal with Ginger.
She didn't really know what she was looking for, but Cameron stared going through all of the papers on top of Eric's desk. They were all invoices, though.
The weird armoire held Cameron's interest. She bet that when it was closed, it was light tight and safe for a vampire during the day. And knowing that Eric was somehow involved with the house and the owner of the house, she would be willing to bet that he had something to do with the armoire. Things like that cost money, and Eric kept flawless records of everything.
There was nothing in or on the desk. The only place left to look were the filing cabinets. They were of course locked, and Cameron knew that she wasn't supposed to be in them. But desperate times call for desperate measures. Something told Cameron that Eric wouldn't care, anyway.
Cameron looked around the office for something she could use to break the lock. There was an old looking sword hanging on the wall, but it made Cameron nervous and she had a feeling that she would end up in the emergency room if she tried using it.
Sucking up her dislike for Ginger, Cameron left the office and asked her where a toolbox was kept. Ginger of course spent forever questioning her about why she was there and why she needed a toolbox. Cameron gave her some bullshit story and threatened to tell Pam that she was stealing drinks, which shut her right up.
Ginger gave her the toolbox under the bar, and Cameron told her not to be alarmed if she heard loud noises coming out of the office. Cameron locked the door behind her for good measure.
She tore open the tool box, grabbed a hammer, and started banging the hell out of the lock on the first filing cabinet. The lock finally snapped off and Cameron started tearing through all of the files. Nothing grabbed her interest, though, so she started trying to rip the lock off the second drawer.
The second drawer was filled with real estate files. It looked promising to Cameron and she felt like she was on the right track. She leafed through files about all of Eric's properties. He owned a lot of things, and they were all over the world. She noticed that he even had a large property in Sweden. Cameron was willing to bet that he owned that for nostalgic reasons. She knew he was from that part of the world.
Towards the back of the drawer was a file full of papers for Fangtasia. Tucked into that file were a few papers about different properties in the area. There was an apartment in town, a house just outside of town, and a property a few towns over. Cameron grabbed a sheet of paper from the printer and copied down the addresses to the house in town, and the house that was further away. She then did her best to put everything back the way it was, though nothing could be down about the locks. At least she didn't dent the filing cabinets.
Not wanting Pam to freak out and think that someone broke into Eric's office during the day, Cameron left a note for Pam. She could take the cost of new locks, or new filing cabinets, out of her paycheck.
Ginger must have been cleaning the bathroom or something, because she wasn't in the bar when Cameron tucked the toolbox back under the bar and left.
It was almost six when Cameron pulled up to the first house. She knew as soon as she turned onto the street that it was the wrong place. She drove right by it and moved on to the next house.
Cameron had never even heard of Bon Temps, and she had to put the address into her phone to get directions.
As she drove down the highway and out of Shreveport, Cameron fought back a few yawns. She realized that she hadn't slept in days, but she had bigger things to worry about. She didn't even want to think about how long it had been since she'd eaten anything.
A little light came on the dashboard of the car, catching Cameron's attention. Her gas tank was almost completely empty, and the little warning light had come on. She pulled off the highway at the next exit and pulled into the nearest gas station. Cameron stumbled a bit as she got out of the car, and had to hold onto the body of the car as she walked around it to get to the pump.
IT was hard to focus on the keypad as she tried to pay for her gas, but she eventually got it going. Even putting the nozzle into the gas tank was difficult. Cameron couldn't get it to stay in, and the little switch kept coming undone. After a bit of a fight with it, Cameron got it in and working. She decided that she better get something to eat and some caffeine.
She almost tripped over the step up into the gas station, and Cameron's head started to feel heavy. At the time, Cameron thought it was the smell of the place doing this to her, but her mouth and throat went dry. Every step she took was heavy, ands he felt like her head weighed a hundred pounds.
Everything went fuzzy, and then dark. Cameron felt the sensation of falling, but she didn't know if it was just a feeling or if it actually happened. Everything soon stopped, anyway.
Cameron woke up some time later. She was laying on something, and she was moving. She was rocking back and forth, and there was a loud noise. Some sort of wailing. And someone was touching her.
"Hey there, honey. You took quite the spill. Can you tell me who you are?" some kind voice asked. Cameron's head rolled to the side and she could see an older black woman, wearing some sort of blue uniform. She looked like an EMT.
"What?"
"Do you know what happened?" The women kept asking Cameron questions, but she had no idea what was going on. The EMT was trying to keep Cameron engaged, and she did her best to answer the questions. But she was so tired. Shortly after the woman explained that she was being taken to the hospital, Cameron fell asleep, despite the sound of the siren and the woman's questioning.
Cameron woke up some time later in a hospital bed, an IV sticking out of her arm. After a few minutes, she could hear Melanie talking outside, probably to a doctor or someone.
All she could think about was that she had to be somewhere, though she couldn't remember where. She had to do something. Looking towards the window, Cameron saw that it was dark outside. She felt a strange sense of urgency. She had to see someone, but before she could think about it anymore, Cameron fell asleep again.
The next afternoon, Cameron was released from the hospital and Melanie had to drive her home. She was glad to see that her Jeep was waiting in the driveway.
The doctor and nurses had explained that she passed out in the gas station, and that she had to stay in the hospital overnight to be treated for exhaustion. Cameron had to make up some lie about how she hadn't been able to eat or sleep because of anxiety. That part was at least true, but she couldn't give them the real reasons. She lied and said her job was stressing her out. She couldn't tell them that the safety of her vampire boss that she cared deeply for was worrying her senseless. Melanie didn't even know that she worked for vampires.
Melanie had set up the guest bedroom for Cameron, fully intending to mother her until she was better. Cameron already felt fine. She was still a bit tired, and she wanted to at least be in her own bed, but Melanie insisted on being close by.
Cameron ate whatever Melanie put in front of her, and amazingly kept it down. The hospital had given her some medication to take for the next few days, and they referred her to some kind of therapist for her anxiety. They suggested that she try anxiety medication, but they also didn't know the entire truth.
Of course the whole ordeal had Melanie all in a tizzy, but every time she came into the room, Cameron pretended to be asleep. Most of the time she actually was asleep, though.
When she first woke up that morning, Cameron remembered where she had been going and what her goal had been. She couldn't stop thinking about it for the entire day. She knew that Melanie would never let her leave the house, but she had to go find Eric. She had to get to that house on Hummingbird Road in Bon Temps.
Cameron did everything she was supposed to all day. She slept, ate, drank lots of water, and slept some more. Finally Melanie went to bed, and Cameron waited a few hours until he was absolutely sure that she was asleep. Around 1, Cameron got out of bed, went up to her apartment, and changed into a pair of jeans and a clean top. She was out of t-shirts, so she pulled on an old button-up that was soft from so much wear. She rolled up the sleeves as she walked out to her car. The gas tank was full, and her phone was sitting in the cup holder. It's batter was low, but it still held the directions to the house in Bon Temps. Cameron pulled out of the driveway, but didn't turn on her lights until she was at the end of the street. From there on, she sped out of town and down the highway. She had to go slower on the county roads.
She was a bit spooked by how much darker the small town was, and cursed their lack of adequate street lighting. The town of Bon Temps was typical Louisiana small town. The house she was looking for was outside of town, taking Cameron down an even spookier road.
IT was lined with large trees, their limbs covered in Spanish moss. Through the trees, Cameron could see a body of water that she assumed was filled with water moccasins and gators. Further down the road, Cameron passed an ancient looking cemetery. Beyond that was an old plantation-style house that had also been recently renovated on a large plot of land. It wasn't the house Cameron was looking for. It looked nothing like it.
She turned her attention from that house just in time to realize that she had driven by a gravel drive way. Cameron stomped on her brakes and looked in her rearview mirror to read the number off the side of the mailbox.
The numbers matched the address on the sheet of paper and her phone. Cameron threw her car into reverse to go back to the driveway. However, she stopped short of pulling into it.
What the hell was she going to say when she got there? What was she going to do? She couldn't just knock on the door and ask if they had seen Eric, could she? She didn't even know who would answer the door.
Cameron noticed that painted on the side of the mailbox, right above the numbers, someone had painted the name "Stackhouse". The paint was a bid faded and chipped, and the side of the mailbox was slightly dented. Cameron's gaze traveled from the mailbox, up the drive way, and to the house. It was up on a slight hill, at the end of a large lawn, surrounded by trees. The house was lit up. Someone was obviously home, and she hoped that the someone could help her.
"The Ghost Who Walks" by Karen Elson
"Wading Deep Waters" by Crooked Still
Check my profile page for links to mixes with all of the songs I post in my stories. I have Part I up and Part II will be up later tonight. Also, is anyone on tumblr? My url is there, too.