got nowhere to run
life goes on
Elliot clambered slowly to her feet, rubbing at her tender jaw and wincing as Sookie began yelling for Godric. Dark eyes cast about, roaming over the boxes and shelves stacked with general crap, the cage-like mesh that surrounded them – they were in some kind of supply area of the basement. It wasn't exactly Alcatraz but it also didn't look that easy to break out of.
"Well," she said once she'd looked at everything on offer. "This is cosy." Elliot's fingers wrapped into the mesh and she gave it a brief tug before asserting for herself that it was definitely too strong for them to be able to smash through; maybe if she'd had control of her power it would be have been work but the energy inside her had dwindled, dying back as a dull ache inside her bones – they were on their own now.
"GODRIC!" Sookie yelled again and Elliot swung around to stare at her.
"If he hasn't answered yet I don't think he's going to," she told the blonde, seating herself carefully on a box and massaging her temples. "Jesus Christ my head hurts. That fuckwit punched me." And then he'd locked them up in a room to await God knew what. For all Elliot knew they were going to be left to rot down here. She scowled at the stone floor. "This is why I never trust crazy, psychotic religious zealots who kidnap vampires."
"You remember how I said I was claustrophobic?" Hugo spoke up suddenly, pushing away from the mesh he'd been leaning on to pace the few strides it took to cross the room. He was pale, his skin shining with a sheen of sweat. "I wasn't making that part up – it's bad. I can't take elevators, walk-in closets, you know in hotels when they tuck the sheets in all tight? Just thinking about that makes me want to scream," he spoke, all in a rush as he yanked on his tie, already struggling to breathe as he panicked.
Elliot stared at him. "You need to calm down," she said lowly, before her attention was caught by Sookie. The waitress had found a stack of board games and was pulling them off a shelf, holding each one up for attention; they were all vampire-killing games and, frankly, creepy. The blonde looked disgusted.
"It's so sick teaching kids to hate like this," she muttered, scowling at the bright box of 'Send Them Back To Hell'.
"I bet sleepovers with the Newlins are a right blast though," Elliot said dryly, leaning back against the wall and closing her eyes in an attempt to stop the pounding at the back of her skull; it was beginning to get worse as the worry set in, despite her casual tone.
"I don't have time for games right now, I need to get out of here," Hugo snapped, his jaw clenched. Elliot opened her eyes to look at him, frowning slightly and shifting uncomfortably. She felt sorry for the guy, really she did, but he looked like he had only a slim grasp on control right now and Elliot really didn't like being near people who were out of control, including herself.
Sookie didn't seem to share this reluctance as she took a step closer, abandoning the games. "Take a deep breath," she coached, and Elliot found herself following the instructions though they weren't meant for her. She took a pause to suck in air and hold it, closing her eyes once again. "Look at me," Sookie continued in the same gentle but commanding tone. "It's gonna be okay; we're gonna figure this out, alright?"
Hugo began gulping air in and out and Elliot heard a muffled thump as he half-fell, half-sat on an upturned box. "Okay," he muttered to himself. "Okay, okay, I'm okay." It was a mantra Elliot had often chanted under her own breath and she opened her eyes once more to look at the poor guy. He needn't even have been here and now all three of them were trapped.
"So the Newlins knew who we were the minute we walked in," Sookie surmised, crossing her arms once she'd assured herself that Hugo was doing okay. "Same way they knew to come after us at the airport." There was a pause before the blonde voiced what they'd known since they arrived but seemed incredibly, painfully obvious right now. "Someone at that nest's a traitor."
"You think maybe a vampire's siding with the Fellowship?" Elliot asked, looking between the two. Hugo gave a slow, thoughtful nod, appearing to grasp at the deductions to distract himself from the closeness of the walls.
"You mean Stan?" Sookie questioned with a slight frown.
"Maybe, to get Godric out of the way," Hugo said.
"'Cause he wants to be Sheriff?" the blonde said, clearly not quite believing the theory. "I've heard of ambitious but that's just plain crazy."
"This is Stan we're talking about," Elliot pointed out.
Hugo nodded again. "You've met him – I mean, he would rip our throats out for looking at him sideways."
"If this is true Bill and Eric will do a lot worse to him when they find out," Sookie said, her tone underwritten by a quiet sort of rage as her eyes flashed towards Elliot. But then her expression grew more distant and she turned to look out of the cage, frowning slightly. "Bill had to have sensed my fear," she told them, voice wavering slightly. "He's gonna come storming through this church any second."
"And you don't seem happy about that because...?" Hugo asked, and Elliot had to agree with him there, even as his eyebrows descended and he began wringing his hands together. She clenched her fists; his nerves were making her more nervous than she already was and it was really not helping her headache in the slightest.
She and Bill had never had any real interaction so Elliot couldn't exactly count him as a friend but if he wanted to come storming in to rescue Sookie and them she was more than okay with that. Sookie wandered closer to the mesh, wringing her own fingers into her necklace. "These fanatics are about to barbeque a two thousand year old vampire in front of an entire congregation - who knows what else they're capable of?"
"Wait – what?" Elliot repeated, horror-struck as she leapt to her feet. "They're going to do what to him? Oh my – holy shit we have to get him the fuck out of here!"
Sookie was staring at her in some surprise but she didn't say anything, merely set her jaw in a grim line of determination. Elliot was still reeling; maybe she was thick for not realising but when Eric had said he thought they wanted to kill Godric she'd thought they were going to stake him or something – the idea of a public execution made her skin crawl. "There has to be something in here we can use," Elliot said, grabbing the nearest box and yanking it open to find rolls and rolls of toilet paper. She kicked it aside with a growl as Sookie turned to look inside another one and wrapped her fingers viciously into the mesh. Maybe if she could get angry enough and somehow channel her power, despite having no real idea how, they could break free?
She sucked in a breath, focusing hard enough to make her entire body hurt but nothing happened except the indentation of the metal into her skin. Elliot kicked against the mesh in furious frustration, running her fingers into her hair and pulling as she expelled her breath in another growl. "For fuck sake there has to be something. Why am I so fucking useless?" She scuffed Sookie's borrowed pump against the mesh again before sitting heavily on the box.
"You're not," Sookie said lowly, glaring at her with an unexpected anger on her face. Elliot merely shook her head.
"I am when it matters," she sighed, closing her eyes and burying her head in her hands. What the hell were they supposed to do now? "What good was throwing that jackass off when we're all in here anyway?" Elliot muttered, mostly to herself. She'd have been better off conserving her strength, but she hadn't exactly realised she'd need it. Nor was it the sort of thing she knew well enough to be able to figure out where her limits were – mostly it just happened, whether Elliot wanted it to or not. But even if she wasn't feeling drained and exhausted, she had no idea how to break through mesh with her incredibly patchy control over her curse anyway.
Sookie's expression was grim but sympathetic and she turned away to open another box. "Marker pens," she announced flatly. Fat lot of good they would do.
"Well," Elliot said, using what little she could scrape together of some sort of optimism. "I guess we could all sniff the things and get high – maybe then the end wouldn't be so bad."
The blonde's laugh was very light and horribly strained but it made Elliot feel the tiniest bit better regardless. She sank onto the hard floor and braced her back against the box she'd been sitting on, her gaze sweeping over Hugo. He was drifting off, it looked like. Elliot was quite relieved; at least if he was asleep he wouldn't be able to panic them into seven hells.
Head pounding, bones aching, Elliot allowed her own head to drop back onto the top of the box, her focus drifting in and out so the harsh artificial lighting above swam in hazes of white and yellow before her eyes slid shut and she was gone, trusting that sometime – soon – Eric and Bill and all the force they could muster would be banging down the doors to free them all.
Eric Northman was actually doing no such thing. He was stood on a hill, overlooking the Fellowship's church with an air of utter disdain, Isabel by his side. His lips had curled with savage mirth at seeing the idiots and what they apparently thought was a formidable force; he'd seen better organised men staggering drunkenly from Fangtasia.
"You have got to be joking me," he murmured as the two gazed at the buildings and the humans patrolling between them. "This is the Fellowship of the Sun? That's their...army? Scared little boys with Bibles and crossbows." His voice was laced with derision to cover his worry for Elliot, for Sookie. They had been in there longer than expected but with idiots like this guarding the place he was somewhat relieved; Elliot could take care of herself, and Sookie was no pushover. Hugo...he had no idea what Isabel's human was like, but he'd looked innocuous enough that he at least shouldn't have landed them in any trouble. That was, at least, what he was convincing himself.
"Don't underestimate them," Isabel told him, her eyes also fixed on the buildings, tracing the movements of the humans as they walked through the campus. Eric was only half-listening to her as he refocused his attention on the church; he wanted just to see Elliot or Sookie, to be sure that he could leave without taking action, but so far he'd not been able to catch any sight of either of them. "Their leadership camps are overflowing with self-righteous extremists, all willing and ready to die for their cause."
Eric's eyebrows knitted together for a second. If they'd hurt Godric or Elliot... "That can be arranged quite easily."
"Not until we know for sure the Fellowship has Godric," Isobel impressed upon him, not taking her eyes off the church.
Whether they had Godric or not, Elliot was in there with Sookie and Eric would much rather they weren't – enough so that, while he wasn't yet afraid for their safety, he'd have been more than willing to walk right in there and get them out himself. Surely by now they'd have found out something useful? None of them had called, however – there was absolutely nothing from them at all. Tempting as it was to storm in there with all the fury of the warrior he had once been, Eric instead practiced a thousand years worth of patience.
"What about your boy?" he asked Isobel. "Hugo." He neglected to mention the humans whose fates he was actually concerned about; Eric wasn't one to allow anyone to see any weakness to him, and they'd already seen quite enough after Elliot had followed him outside at Godric's nest. They'd seen enough to know that she mattered and that wasn't supposed to happen. "They've been in there too long."
Isabel was silent for a moment. "There's no sign of alarm," she said, sounding as though she was trying to convince herself that that actually meant something good. "And if Hugo were in serious danger I would know it. I felt something earlier but...it passed - he's okay now."
Eric froze at that; he hadn't been aware that Isabel had felt anything at all and he didn't give two shits about whether it had passed or not – if it was there once it could be there again. A thrill of anger rode swiftly through him because this wouldn't have been a problem if Elliot had had his blood but no. No he was utterly without any indication of what was going on and it infuriated him more than he cared to admit. Thoughts beginning to drift, Eric's lips moved without any real conscious thought other than the fact that he wanted Isabel to keep talking about herself and her human so his own thoughts could remain private and unnoticed.
"Tell me, what is it that you find so fulfilling about human companionship?" But he didn't need to ask because already he knew. There was just something – something unnameable that humans had and vampires did not, something that Eric could feel regardless. Something about the way her eyes lit up when she laughed, the way they narrowed when she was angry. The way her blood ran hot and her heart thumped when he smirked, the way she'd kissed him, the way her fingers felt wrapped in his.
He could never have explained it because Eric didn't know what it was – all he knew was that he wasn't ready to lose it.
For hours Elliot drifted in and out of sleep, the only sounds in the basement now Hugo and Sookie's soft, deep breathing in the air. They were both sleeping soundly, the blonde curled up next to a box and Hugo leant up against a wall, his head drooping onto his chest. When Elliot was able to sleep her head fell back onto the box behind her but she didn't sleep for long, gasping herself away every hour or so as more nightmares came for her.
Eventually she just paced silently, glancing at her watch every two minutes as the night slipped away. She was exhausted and aching but for the past few hours she'd not been able to force herself to sleep; the last thing she wanted was to scream herself and the other two awake and face their questions. Her mind felt like it was being wrung from behind, sending a deep throb through every bone in her body, and even as the time drew ever closer to dawn Elliot clung to her hope. Eric would come, he and Bill would come for them and for Godric and this could all be put behind them.
But they never did.
Elliot couldn't see the sun rise but there was no denying the relentless ticking of the clock as it passed the hours, marching them further and further into tomorrow and leaving their hope far behind. Eventually, the hope died and left in its place a hollowness that had Elliot simply sitting and staring at the mesh, understanding, finally, that this might actually be it. It. The End. She'd never thought it would be like this.
"Elliot?" Sookie murmured as she stirred herself back into reality, wincing as her muscles complained at the awful position she'd slept in, but Elliot's attention was on the stairs they'd all come down. There were voices above them, doors opening – someone was coming. Empty stomach clenching tight with feat, Elliot got to her feet and folded her arms; she may have felt like shit but there was no way she was letting these assholes know it.
"Morning!" Steve Newlin called out cheerfully as he practically skipped down the stairs and came to stand in front of the mesh that kept them all away from the world. Elliot glared at him and Hugo's head jerked upwards at the noise while Sookie's eyes narrowed, tired but aware. She was on her feet in a moment, brushing shoulders with Elliot as the two watched the Reverend with nothing but pure hatred across their faces. "Refreshments?"
He was holding up a bottle of water and a bag of something that he slipped under the mesh. "How did y'all sleep?" Elliot ignored him, her eyes on Gabe. He had a nasty smile across his lips and her jaw ached more fiercely just at the memory of his fist from last night. She closed her eyes at once, focusing herself before her thoughts could jump from Gabe to Michael, and she opened them to glare once again at Newlin.
Sookie was squaring up to him from behind the metal while Hugo scooped up the water and took a much needed swig. "They're coming for us, you know," Sookie announced certainly, ignoring the question.
Steve straightened. "Yeah, well, that's what I thought," he admitted, grinning in a way that made him look more smug than ever. His eyes flickered from Sookie to Elliot and back again. "Figured pretty girls like you'd have vamps running off to the rescue – actually we were kinda hoping for it, weren't we Gabe?"
"Yessir, bring it on," Gabe said in little more than a grunt, his nasty smile never wavering. Elliot's gut clenched again; for all she'd been wishing that Eric would come storming in with Bill and the others on his heels – what if the Fellowship was ready for them? What if they were all caught and burned as Godric was doomed to be? The thought made her feel sick, her empty stomach roiling inside her.
"We're waiting for them – we've been ready for a long time," Newlin continued, crossing his arms over his skinny chest and looking altogether too pleased with himself.
"You're gonna get yourself killed," Sookie snapped at him, which in Elliot's opinion was advice they needn't give. "That's not a threat it's a fact."
Steve's expression became one of almost twisted sympathy and Elliot turned away, swallowing hard as her stomach protested her thoughts and their situation all over again. Hugo wordlessly handed her the water bottle and Elliot accepted it with a nod of thanks, taking a long sip. It helped – a little. She turned as a chair moved behind her, watching as Newlin sat himself.
"Now," he began. "Things got a little out of hand last night." His eyes lingered on the bruising over Elliot's lower jaw, the fingerprints about Sookie's wrist where she'd been grabbed. "And I apologise for that. I'm not the monster that the vampire-loving media makes me out to be."
Elliot couldn't help the snort that escaped her. "Yeah fucking right," she snarled.
"All I want from you is a couple of answers and then I'll be happy to feed you a nice, hot breakfast and send you on your way," Steve said, ignoring Elliot's words as though she hadn't said a thing. Elliot was about to tell him to go fuck himself when Hugo spoke up.
"What do you wanna know?" he asked, resigned. Both Sookie and Elliot swung around to face him.
"Shut up," Elliot hissed, fists clenching, but Hugo was on his feet.
"We need to get out of here – just tell them what they want to know." He pulled in a breath and then everything came tumbling out. "That's Sookie Stackhouse and Elliot Sanderson, I'm Hugo Ayers-"
"Hugo, no!" Sookie gasped just as Elliot rounded on him and said, "Shut the fuck up." He heeded neither of them.
"-we were sent here by the vampires of Area Nine to find their Sheriff." As he finished Elliot lunged for him but Sookie, who had somehow anticipated the movement, grabbed the back of her shirt and stayed her until Steve spoke again and had both women whipping around at his sudden change in tone.
"From Bon Temps?" Newlin was frowning and Elliot was sufficiently distracted.
"How do you know where we're from?" Sookie demanded, looking worried now.
"You're Jason Stackhouse's...sister," Steve said, staring at Sookie and looking somehow pained. Elliot's stomach dropped out and Sookie stepped closer to the mesh. "Am I right?"
Sookie's eyes were wide. "You know Jason? He's got nothing to do with this." And just like that her composure was gone; even Elliot was a little shaken because Jason couldn't be dragged into this – not Jason, who laughed too loudly and slung his arm casually around Elliot's shoulders no matter how many times she glared at him. Jason, who was always willing to lend a hand, Jason who was Sookie's well-meaning brother and had probably never harmed a soul in his life.
Steve sucked in a breath, his expression the same carefully controlled nothing that Elliot herself employed whenever she was trying to hide something that made her want to snap. "C'mon Gabe," he said stiffly, getting to his feet. Sookie shrieked after them as they walked out but Elliot turned to Hugo with burning eyes, her fists aching they were clenched so hard but hitting him, hurting him – it would achieve nothing.
"Well fucking done you jackass!" she cried at him instead, pushing her fingers roughly into her hair and letting forth a string of curses that would have made a sailor proud.
"Hey, we sat down here all night waiting for your boyfriend to show up," Hugo retorted defensively. "You can go on playing damsel in distress all you want but, one way or another; I'm getting us out of here."
Elliot glared at him.
"Hugo, do me a favour, please - just shut the fuck up," Sookie sighed, sitting down and staring outside the mesh. Elliot was impressed; coming from Sookie, she couldn't really top that. Instead, she turned to Hugo.
"He's not my boyfriend." It sounded lame, petulant, but Elliot couldn't let it go unsaid. Besides which, his words had stung and she was sure they'd stung Sookie as well – whatever Eric was to her, she'd been depending on him to help her when she got in shit because of his damn excursion to Dallas but he hadn't. For all she knew he was back in Shreveport having given up on them, and she felt horribly, stupidly, hurt by the fact – she shouldn't have expected Eric to come for her; he was a thousand year old vampire, she didn't matter to him yet every time she convinced herself of that, she found herself wondering – hoping – that she did. And that should have been her cue to get the hell away from him but it was too late now; she couldn't get away from him because she no longer wanted to. Because even though he was a vampire and she was a mortal, even though he was aloof and she was broken, even though he smirked and she scowled – something about him made her think that maybe she shouldn't run anymore, something made her think maybe she didn't have to. Eric had held onto her while she slept and she'd not woken once from a nightmare; he'd known what she'd needed even when she hadn't.
But now she did need him and he'd not showed up and it hurt.
AN: So this chapter ended earlier in the sequence of events than I'd have liked but it was getting really long – more happened in this episode than I realised and I've cut quite a lot out but it was still too long to justify ploughing through to Godric, no matter how much I want to.
Title is from the song 'Untitled' by Simple Plan.
Thanks, as always, for reading – I love you guys, you're what keeps me posting this and I'm still having so much fun writing it so it's always such an amazing thing for me to see people reading and reviewing – I honestly can't thank you all enough.
