A/N: I take no credit for the lyrics used in this chapter. It is a song called Only time by Enya...i had my ipod on shuffle when this came on an i knew it would be perfect for this last chapter.

Chapter 52 Only Time

Who can say when the roads meet,
That love might be,
In your heart.

And who can say when the day sleeps,
If the night keeps all your heart?
Night keeps all your heart...


One week later

"I really wish you would let me help you with this." Bill said gently to Sookie as she sat at the desk inside their bedroom a full 7 nights later, furiously scribbling on a notepad as a lone tear rolled off the side of her face that she was trying to hide from him. His hands landed on her shoulders lightly as they always did at this time in the night as he said. "You shouldn't be taking on the whole job of planning her funeral, you should let me..."

"I don't need your damn help Bill. She was my cousin, my family. It's my responsibility to make the funeral arrangements and I don't want anyone else to do it." Sookie found herself snapping at her husband, shrugging his hands away so he was no longer touching her. "So stop using that damn tone on me and stop trying to take away the one thing I have left of her. Just stop it."

"Ok. You're right. I'm sorry." Bill said, their eyes meeting briefly before he backed towards the other side of the room and left her alone to her thoughts. It took everything in her to not give into the tidal wave of sadness that had been present in every minute of every hour of every day and night since Allison's death. She wasn't mad at Bill, but there were some times in the course of this week where it was easier to be angry and take it out on her husband rather then to go in the other direction and feel the utter despair and pure agony of losing someone she loved more then herself at times.

It didn't seem real at first that Allie had died. In fact, it was so unreal, that Sookie was sure that one of the witches had used a spell to make it appear like they were witnessing Allie's death. But then Holly and the rest of the coven managed to break the more complex holding spell and freed them from that spot. And the moment they were all able to move, Sookie had fallen to the ground when the very real sight of Allie's lifeless body laid on the grass only a few feet away. The smell of blood was heavy in the air and it nearly made her sick. Those first few moments of looking at her cousin's dead and bloodied body were the most painful and heartbreaking few minutes of her entire life. It was different when her parents and aunt and uncle had died because it all happened when she was so young. And even when gran died, Sookie hadn't had to watch it unfold right before her eyes. But she had watched Allison be stabbed by that red headed witch. She had seen the brunette fall to the ground, blood pouring out of her midsection more rapidly then she could stop it. She had to watch the life disappear from Allison's eyes as the space around them was filled with the sound of their screams. She was dead within the span of 5 minutes, just like that she was gone and they all had a whole in their life in the aftermath of it. And now nothing would ever be the same.

Somehow, after those first few days, Sookie had dragged herself out of bed and started to spend time at the phone so she could make arrangements for the funeral. After they had left the graveyard with Allison's body, the official cause of death had been ruled a murder but with no name to go off of, the police couldn't go after the witches to press charges and in some ways that was a good thing. Sookie had been hit with a blinding rage to take revenge on those witches herself and that couldn't be done the way she wanted if they were in jail. So instead she focused on making funeral plans even though it wasn't easy at all to get through it. Every time she sat down to do something, she would burst into tears and break down entirely to the point where she couldn't even do what she set out to do. And then, despite the tears, she was able to make headway in the funeral arrangements. It wasn't going to be anything big, it was just going to be a small gathering of her closest loved ones including the Salvatore brothers and Elena Gilbert. Sam, although distraught upon hearing the news of Allie's passing was the only other person who wasn't in the battle who was coming. Sookie did not want the funeral open to the rest of Bon Temps who knew her because most of the residents had been gossiping about the suspicion surrounding her death and had no problem voicing their thoughts. And Sookie did not want to hear any of that shit. She was mourning the loss of someone who was very much a part of her, and there was no reason for anyone else to be there except for them. And that's how it was going to be.

"Damn it." Sookie cried out in frustration, throwing down the pen in her hands as her eyes clouded over in tears, spilling down her face to soak the notepad in front of her no matter how fast she tried to wipe those tears away. She felt Bill's hands on her again, but this time she allowed him to pull her out of the chair and into his arms where she started sobbing against his shoulder. "I can't take this pain. I just can't. It's too hard."

"I know, I know." Bill's arms were locked tightly around her, his hand on the back of her head as he attempted to comfort her like he had been doing all week. "The pain is intolerable right no because it is too fresh. But over time it will feel better. I promise you that."

"You can't promise me that, Bill because there is nothing that will ever make me feel better again." Sookie felt her lips quiver as she spoke, feeling sharp pricks of pain in her chest as she spoke to the pain she carried around with her in her every waking moment. Even with the passage of time, she was never going to ever truly feel ok. "I lost a piece of myself that night. And when Allie died, a piece of me died as well."

"Don't say that, please don't ever say that." Bill's voice was chocked as if he too was crying and he probably was. He had cried along side her every single time she cried and if his blood tears weren't falling, then they were close. "I know how painful it is because I'm living through it with you. But time and only time will begin to heal these wounds."

"I doubt that." She replied, her body feeling tired already even though she had spent the majority of the day in bed. She clutched tighter to her husband and whispered. "I don't think I will ever truly feel alive again."


In Shreveport

"Eric, you need to get out of this room. It's not healthy to be in here night after night."

"You have to do something other then just lay there and stare at the ceiling. Why don't you come into Fangtasia for at least an hour?"

"Don't do this to yourself. Allison wouldn't have wanted to see you like this. You know how much she hated to see you in pain. So don't do it."

"Come on, Eric...please just do something."

Eric didn't exactly ignore the pleas and begging of his maker and child, he just didn't offer up a response to anything they said. He just laid there on that bed, his hands tucked under his arms as he looked up at the ceiling with an unflinching glare. He had been this way for the past week and he didn't see it changing any time soon.

He had become a vampire he did not recognize anymore and not knowing who he was made it harder for him to find the will to drag himself back out into the world and to try and go on like nothing had happened. But everything had happened and in the worse possible way. He had lost the woman he loved so tragically and so quickly that he almost thought it had been a bad dream. Like any minute now he was going to see Allison come skipping through the door to tease him about his behavior. And that first night after her death, he had remained awake all day and all night, just staring at the doorway of the bedroom he had shared with her and waited for her to come back to him. But she didn't appear. He knew she was dead, he knew that night in the graveyard. He knew it when he saw the look in her eyes right before they closed. He saw it in her face as she struggled to fight through the pain. He saw it in every muscle of her delicate little body as she held on desperately to her life. But he had seen it slip away from her in just a matter of minutes. One second she was there and the next, she was gone forever. And he was never going to see her again. His mind just could not process that she really was gone and had instead went into a stupid hopeful mode, just looking around for her at every corner. But he never found her and when that first 24 hours went by, he knew it wasn't a bad dream, it had been real. And upon that realization that he had lost her forever, it was what drove him to take to the room they had shared and he hadn't really left it since.

Godric and Pam did not think it was healthy of him to do what he was doing and they continued to come by every single night to try and entice him to leave that bed, but he just couldn't. This was the strongest place where he felt her presence and he didn't want to abandon it for even just a few minutes let alone an hour. He felt like if he stayed here, still smelling her scent on the sheets and pillows, that he could pretend like she was still there with him. He was surrounded by everything that belonged to her. Everything in this room held some kind of memory for him and being here felt like she was here too even though he knew she wasn't. She was gone, but her presence was still so strong to him and he wanted to cling to it as long as he could. But Pam and Godric were trying their hardest to snap him out of it. But he just couldn't find the will to do it. He was stuck in this numb fog, tinged with misery and unimaginable pain that he knew would never go away.

"Eric, please don't torture yourself like this." Godric was at his side, standing on the floor next to the bed and looking down at him with the most concern he could ever possible have mustered up and yet Eric couldn't feel anything towards it. "Allison wouldn't have wanted you to be in pain."

"Well, thanks to those witches, I will never truly know what she wanted." He replied bitterly, momentarily feeling a flash of hatred towards that coven for taking the life of someone so innocent, so full of light and just killing her like it was nothing. It drove him wild to think about how easily that redhead had stabbed his beautiful little Faerie in the back, ending her life before it had even really begun and ruining any happiness they might have shared. That was the worse part of it all, knowing what could have been. "It wasn't suppose to be like this. She was suppose to live. We were suppose to have more years together. I was going to propose to her again once the war was over. I wanted her as my wife, she was the only woman that ever made me want that. And now I can't ever have it. So there's no point in trying to do anything but lay here and think about what I could have had."

"There's always a point Eric. You just have to look for it." Pam appeared at Godric's side and for once there was no hint of anything other then raw sympathy written in her face. It was a true departure from how she usually looked after something like this happened. But it had never affected so many people and so hard. "The point is that..."

"How many times do I have to tell you you're wrong?" Eric asked, never breaking his glare at the white ceiling as he addressed his progeny. "You both come here every night trying to get me to believe that there is some point to all this, that this will all make sense some day but I know it won't. Allison is dead, so there is no point in trying to get back to normal life. Because without her alive, nothing will ever be normal again."

"You don't really mean that." Godric interjected, his young face reflecting the sorrow he felt but once again, Eric did not have any reaction to it. He just laid there like he had been doing all week and just shook his head.

"You can try and convince me that one day this pain will be gone, but she was a part of me. And with her gone, a part of me is gone as well."


The next night

"This may sound like a stupid question so soon after her death, but how are you doing?" Godric asked Bill as the two vampires sat side by side on the front porch of the Compton house and stared up at the starry night sky that would normally have comforted them, but now it only further served to remind them of that horrible night when they lost someone so dear to them. "How have you been dealing with this?"

"To be honest, I'm just trying to go through the motions of every day like nothing has happened. Because if I stop and think about what happened, then I worry that I will become someone so broken down that I cannot be supportive of those who are hurting more then I am." Bill explained, tucking his hands under his arms while keeping his gaze straight ahead. "But that doesn't mean it doesn't still eat me up inside. Because Allison just became my family too and before Sookie and I married, I loved Allison like she was sister to me. And having to watch her die...it just kills me. And I would rather not try and dwell on my own grief."

"I completely understand." Godric simply nodded once before going silent. He knew exactly where Bill was coming from with this. Sometimes it was just easier to ignore your own grief and focus on the others around you. Godric himself had been having to do that with Eric. Eric had been the one to love her and spent the most time with her out of any of them in the last few months, so Eric's grief was unimaginable. Eric was at the very lowest her had ever been, there was no going lower. And seeing his child so distressed pained Godric more then anything else. And it added to the growing sadness he was already dealing with when it came to himself. But he was so afraid of accessing his own grief to it's deepest form, that he tried not to acknowledge it and just put his focus on Eric and the others. One day he would deal with his own pain, but right now, there were others who needed his stability more. So he knew what Bill was saying to a t. He looked at the younger vampire and asked. "How is Sookie doing?"

"The way I expected her to take it if she ever had to lose another family member which is a complete and utter break down at every turn. She's not coping well and I'm trying my hardest to be whatever it is that she needs me to be, but sometimes I just know there is nothing I can do to make her feel better. I know that the grief and pain will have to run its course." Bill stated, sending a glare up at the stars as if trying to send a message to God for how much pain had been brought down among them. It was most unfair of situations with the most horrible of outcomes. It just wasn't right and there was nothing that any of them could do about it. "She's not doing well, but she's trying to stay busy with the funeral arrangements."

"That can't be easy, having to plan any funeral let alone one for someone in your family who you were close to for so many years," Godric didn't know how Sookie was managing to push herself through that ordeal. No one would have blamed her for not wanting to take that on so soon after this tragedy. But he knew Sookie well enough to know that even in her darkest hour, she still felt a sense of duty to Allison to make this one last gesture and she should be commended for that. "She will get through this, we all will. At least I think we will."

"This is going to sound very weird of me, but with recent events, all past tendencies have gone out the window." Bill began to say, pressing his lips together while leaning his head back against the wall. "But how is Eric doing?"

"You say Sookie is not coping too well, but Eric is not coping at all. It's almost like he refuses to." Godric frowned, recalling the nights spent after Allison's death trying to coerce his child into leaving the house but Eric had stubbornly refused. "He just sits there in the bedroom and stares at the ceiling. I never thought he could be this affected and it worries me."

"I can see why. My first thought would have been that he would be in a rage and would be killing anything and anyone in sight." Bill spoke to the reaction they all thought Eric was going to have but didn't. "I mean, he always lashes out and to know that he's not doing that kind of turns everything upside down again. I never cared too much for Eric, but even I could see how much he loved Allison. And his reaction just shows how much he is destroyed by this."

"I just don't know what to do." Godric threw his hands up briefly in the air before letting them drop down into his lap. "I know it has only been a few days, but I feel so helpless. I don't care about dealing with this for myself, I only care about trying to help Eric. And I can't do that. I always know what to do and this baffles me. Where do we go from here?"

"Well, the funeral is tomorrow night so that seems like the next logical step." Bill's face clouded over in so much sadness that for the first time since Godric had known him, he appeared entirely human as they stared at each other. "Maybe it would be a good idea for Eric to go to the funeral, it might help if he got to say goodbye."

"I think he should go whether he says goodbye or not. It just feels like that is something we all need to do, especially him." Godric answered back with a somber as he stood up from the bench, preparing to leave the house to go back to Shreveport,but before he left he turned back to Bill and said. "I'm sorry this happened to us."

"Yea, I'm sorry too." Bill's face was so blank, like he did not even have the strength to look sad because it was too much effort. "I just...I don't know how we're suppose to go on without her."

"We'll figure it out someway...because we don't really have a choice in the matter."


The next night

"How are you doing?" Bill's voice called to her from across the bed room where he was getting dressed while she was sitting in front of the mirror with her brush in her hands. "You've been brushing the same section of hair for the past 20 minutes..."

Sookie looked down, still seeing the clump of hair in her hand she had separated from the rest when she sat down and realized he had been right. She immediately tossed it over her shoulder and set the brush down, her hair looked fine enough as it was. And even if it hadn't, it didn't really matter. Her hair was not going to be the thing she was thinking about tonight, not when Allie's funeral was happening. Oh god, the funeral. Sookie still couldn't believe that it was actually happening tonight. That they were really going to the Bon Temps cemetery and they were going to lay her to rest. Sookie knew she was dead, she felt in her chest every hour of the day so there was no escaping it. But a funeral was so final, so ending. Once that coffin was lowered to the ground, that was it. Allie was truly going to be gone. And Sookie didn't know how she was going to go on after this night.

"It's so surreal, you know." She said out loud, turning in her chair to find Bill dressed in all black and tying on his tie. She had a moment where she found the sight of her husband's good looks a welcomed distraction from the pain in her heart. But it didn't last long. "I never thought that this night would come. I mean, I knew it had too because she really is dead. But putting her in the ground is so …."

"Final." Bill finished for her, leaving his spot by the mirror and walking across the room at the same time she got up. They met in the middle of the floor by the foot of the bed and Bill brought his hands to her face. "It is final, but death is not something to be afraid of facing. Or seeing the aftermath of. She died fighting for her life. If there was anyway she wanted to go out, it would have been knowing she at least tried."

"I know...it's just weird. I always thought that we were all being stupid from worrying that any of us might die. I figured it was just a normal way of thinking when you go into a battle like this but nothing would really happen. But it did, Allie was the one to die. And not one of us thought that was possible." Sookie replied, her breath coming out slowly as she spoke. "Maybe if we had all just stuck together then this may never have happened."

"No, you can't think like that. You can't torture yourself with the what ifs." Bill shook his head at her, his face a mask of frozen sorrow. "Even if we had stuck together, the leader of the Dallas coven would have found someway to separate us. That red head was bound and determined to get what she wanted from Allison and if she didn't get it, she was going to kill her no matter what. There was nothing any of us could do."

"But she was my cousin, I was suppose to protect her." Sookie exclaimed, feeling tears start to rim her eyes. "I protected her on the playground when we were kids. I looked out for her when we were teenagers when there were people trying to take advantage of her. And even when we were adults, I somehow managed to keep her away from Eric Northman until it wasn't possible anymore, at least until he became a better man. And now...this I couldn't protect her from this"

"None of us could protect her. We were dealing with witches had powers that far exceeded our own. We all knew the risks of going into the battle, that there was a chance any of us could die. We tried to look out for each other and be there when needed. But this was not something we could control." Bill explained, dropping his hands from her face and instantly pulled her in to his arms, bringing her head to his chest just as the tears started falling. "It's terrible what happened and what we all had to witness, but if there had been something we could do, you know any of us would have done it."

"I just miss her so much." Sookie whispered against his shoulder, wrapping her arms around his waist. "I keep thinking she's going to walk in the door any minute now even though we all watched her die. It was just so quick that it didn't seem real after we left the graveyard. So I kept expecting to wake up thinking it was a nightmare and that she was all right..."

"We all have that reaction Sookie and its natural." Bill soothed her, his hands stroking her back. "But there comes a time when you have to stop believing the impossible and just allow yourself to feel whatever pain you're feeling."

"I don't want to feel that pain, its too harsh." Sookie sniffed, wiping her eyes with her fingertips. "I don't want to accept that pain because when I do, then she really is gone."

"She is gone...it pains me to say this but she is dead and she's not coming back."

Who can say where the road goes,
Where the day flows, only time
And who can say if your love grows,
As your hearth chose, only time


30 minutes later

"Eric, I have come here to attempt to get through to once and for all." Godric made his statement known the second he passed through the open doorway of the bedroom and stood at the foot of the bed, dressed in all black and signifying where he was trying to drag Eric off to without even saying a word. "Eric, you need..."

"Go away Godric, I don't want to deal with you tonight." Eric growled, his voice losing the cold edge that had been present since Allison's death and he sat up against the headboard to look at his maker defiantly. "I know you are going to tell me to leave this room and I know you know that I will tell you to just fuck off."

"I'm not just here to get you out of the house for some random reason or just because I think its healthy for you. It's for something more important." Godric replied, his face not showing any agitation as he stood there with his hands in his pockets. "Eric, tonight's the funeral and..."

"Ok, just stop right there." Eric suddenly lashed out, instantly seeing red at the mere mention of the word funeral. He shot out of the bed for the first time all day and glared at his maker, furious that the older vampire had said that word to him. "I know where this is leading and you can save your words."

"All I'm saying is that the service is in an hour and I think it would be helpful for you to go." Godric pushed on, never the one to be stopped from stating his point even when Eric had ordered him not to. And hearing his maker disregard his order so blatantly, he rushed over to the nearest wall and rammed his fist right through the plaster, not caring that it made a mess all over the carpet. Godric didn't say anything as he was use to this kind of display but once Eric had removed his arm from the wall and turned to sit down again, that's when his make spoke. "You need to say goodbye to her."

"I am not saying goodbye." Eric hissed, watching the blood drip down his hand before the wound on his knuckles began to heal. "There is no point in me going to that funeral."

"You have to go to the funeral." Godric explained, his face lighting up in surprise as if he couldn't believe Eric was considering the option of not going. But there was no consideration, he had already decided not to go and notching Godric said could change his mind. "You have to find some closure. You have to begin coping..."

"Damn you Godric! Don't you get it? I don't want to cope." He found himself jumping to his feet and shouting at his maker, his body filling up with the most cruel pain he had ever experienced. "I don't want to feel better because there is no way I can possibly feel better."

"Time will change all that, I promise you it will." Godric was desperate at this point. It showed in his face and in his voice. But his maker was wrong. Time was not going to heal this pain. This pain was going to be just as strong for the rest of his life. And nothing would ever ease it. "But you will regret not going..."

"I lost the love of my life Godric. Do you understand that?" He snapped, his fingers curling into themselves as he towered over his maker while that same strong agony made it's way through out his body. "Allison is dead. And I don't want to move on and forget about her."

"Eric, it's not about forgetting her. It's never been about that." Godric shook his head as if he were speaking to a stubborn child. He walked forward, reaching out with his hand to place it on Eric's shoulder. "It's about not clinging on so tightly that you torment yourself."

"Don't go sprouting off that shit to me because it won't work." He retorted, shaking of his maker's hand and went back across the room to the bed. "She was taken from me before we had a chance to really live our lives together. And I am not about to let go of anything else connecting me to her."

"Eric..."

"No Godric, don't even suggest it again. I am not going to the funeral." He shouted, glaring at his maker with so much hatred for suggesting this that Godric physically took a step back. "I will not watch her be put into the ground."

"You're going to regret it my child." Godric told him as he began moving backwards to the door. "Someday you will regret it."

"I regret a lot of things, but this isn't one of them."


1 hour later

"..We gather here to bid our last farewells to young Allison Stackhouse, an unflinchingly kind girl, whose life was brought to an end well before her time. We come to lay her at rest and pray that her spirit finds peace in the afterlife..."

Sookie barely heard a word the priest was saying as the small group gathered around the closed cherry wood coffin that now was going to be the final resting place of the girl they all had loved and lost. Se clutched tightly to Bill's arm as she lifted her eyes to look around the circle. Jason was to her immediate right, trying his absolute hardest not to fall apart into a flood of tears that he had been fighting back since he got to the graveyard. Sam was on Jason's right side, standing with his hands tucked deep into his pockets while his blue eyes showed the magnitude of his grief. Godric and Pam were standing on the opposite side of them, both wearing the same somber expression that looked so out of place on their usually expressive faces. Sookie had never seen Pam look at anyone without that trademark smirk of hers, but here she was with her hands clasped and her head bent slightly. It was a true departure from what she had come to expect but even Pam knew how to behave at a funeral. And with Godric standing there at her side, looking so devastated it lent a whole new meaning to the sadness they all felt. Godric and Allie had a special bond and seeing the 2000 year old vampire affected this badly was beyond agonizing.

She looked towards the end where Stefan and Damon Salvatore were standing with Allie's friend Elena, all three of them wearing different masks of sorrow. Although Sookie had never met Elena until an hour ago, she could tell from reading the young girl's mind that she and Allison had been close when her cousin had fled to Mystic Falls earlier this year. Elena had been openly crying and making no attempt to hide her tears from anyone. She was grieving just as they all were, and it comforted Sookie slightly to see that Allison had been loved by many. Stefan Salvatore had taken his grief in the silent manner that Godric had done, rarely speaking about it and instead put his focus on the others,making sure they were ok and not dealing with it for himself. Damon on the other hand, upon arriving at Bill's house had gone on a tirade, yelling about how Eric was suppose to have kept her alive like he promised and it was only when Godric yelled at him did he go silent and hadn't spoken a word since. But his face and eyes still reflected the fury within.

And speaking of Eric, he was the only who loved Allie who wasn't here at the funeral. Godric had shown up at the house with a somber expression, announcing that Eric had flat out at refused to come to the service, explaining that his child was too deep in his despair to realize how important it was to say goodbye. Sookie had been deeply offended by this, knowing that Allie would have wanted Eric there, but then she felt bad for being angry at the former viking. Eric wasn't use to dealing with any kind of emotions even before Allie's death. And now he was dealing with a sadness that he had never factored into encountering. So in a way she could understand why he wasn't here. They never thought she would die and now that she had, forcing yourself to go through the motions of seeing her being put into the ground was probably too much for Eric. So she didn't say anything more on the subject.

"Allison Stackhouse was a generous and youthful soul, always there with a smile and a kind word even to those who never had a kind thing to say about her...she never lost faith in the goodness of people and we can only hope that if she is looking down on us now, that she still feels the same way..."

Sookie just didn't understand how this could be happening. Why was God taking away everyone she loved? What was the point in all this? What had any in her family had done that was so horrible that it warranted their death sentence? It just wasn't fair. Her parents, her aunt and uncle, her grandmother and now Allison. Just one tragedy after another. It was never ending. And it didn't make sense. Allison had been so young, so full of life and enthusiasm about her future. And it was all cut down way before it was suppose to be. She hadn't even had a chance to live and now she was dead, gone out of their forever and nothing would ever be the same again.

"..May God take care of this fallen spirit and guide her to rest..." The priest said, closing the bible and tucked it under his arm before lifting his face to look at them all, his own eyes glisten with un-shed tears as he made the motion across the air. "Ashes to ashes...dust to dust."

"Good bye Allie." The all made the exact same statement at the same time and hearing all those voices chime in together was the very thing that started off the chain reaction of tears. They were all in the same pool of grief together and that should have made some kind of breakthrough in their pain but it didn't. All it did was remind them of how many people had lost this girl that was now being lowered into the ground below them. And the sight was going to haunt them all for the rest of their lives.


Later that night

"I miss you my beautiful little Faerie, I miss you so much that it numbs me at times." Eric whispered to the mound of dirt he had found himself kneeling at in that empty graveyard, not caring that the dirt was getting on his clothes. He only cared about having this moment alone to say goodbye to the woman he had loved.

He had lied to Godric when he said he wasn't going to come here tonight, he had known that since he had woken up this evening, he had every intention of coming to see her final resting area, but he did not want to do it around the others. He did not want to be there at the moment when she was lowered to the ground and her wooden home was now covered with 6 feet of dark dirt. He did not want to be around Sookie or Godric or Pam when he came to see his beloved. It was too much to be surrounded by others when he was trying to make his farewell to her. So he had waited until he was certain that the funeral had been over for a while, that they had all gone home and that the grave had been covered completely with dirt and the cemetery had been emptied. In fact, by the time he got there, the lights that lit the path through the graveyard had been turned off, but with him being a vampire he could see as clearly as if they had been still on. He followed Sookie's scent until it became overwhelming at this plot he was at now. This was were his Allison was buried, laying lifeless 6 feet below him. It brought him down to his knees and that's how he had been for the last hour.

"I'm sorry I didn't protect you." He said quietly, running his hand over the surface of the dirt as if he were somehow touching her and shook his head, feeling the agony starting to creep up his back. "I'm sorry I let them hurt you. It's my fault you died. I should have kept you away from the battle. Then you would still be here with me."

That was the worse part of it for him. Knowing that if he had just followed his original idea of keeping her away until it was all over then she would have lived. He could have locked her away, tied her up or had sent her somewhere where she wouldn't be anywhere near this fight. But he hadn't, he allowed her to make him think it was all going to turn out alright. He had even thought that he would be the one to die, that would have been better then this. She was strong, she would have gotten over him in time. But he wasn't that strong and he knew he wasn't going to move on ever. He couldn't possibly move on. She was in every part of him. His mind, his body, his house and even in the place where his stilled heart lay. She was everywhere and he would never escape her. He would forever reminded of the things he could have had with her and now would never get the chance to do.

He would never be given the chance to propose to her like he had planned to do right after they walked out of battle. He had promised himself that when they both made it out alive, the first second he had her alone he would have gotten down on one knee and asked her and she would have said yes just like she promised she would. They could have been engaged right now, laying together in bed and thinking about what their wedding would be like. He would have been telling her how she was the only woman he had ever been with in the past 1000 years that ever made him want to take a wife. She would have laughed and moved closer into his arms and told him how much she loved the man he had become. He would have teased her and then their lips would have met for the first of many of thousands of kisses they would share in their long lives together.

But that would never happen. She was gone forever, killed before her time in a senseless battle that never should have happened in the first place.

All because of that damn redheaded witch named Anna.

He saw red at the moment as the memory of seeing that witch leader materialize behind Allison before stabbing her in the back played before his eyes. It happened so quickly and not even that far away that it drove him wild over the fact that he couldn't rush over and tear that bitch apart for hurting someone so innocent and precious. Anna hadn't cared about who she would have to go through to get what she wanted. That whole coven had made it clear that they would push the limits with their attacks over the past few months in order to capture Allison. And just like the others, Eric had been unwilling to let them get anywhere near close to letting that happen. So they had gone into battle, determined to kill them all so they could never hurt anyone ever again. But the remaining witches had escaped thanks to Anna and now they were out there in the world, not being paid back for what they had done.

"Yea, well that will not stay that way for long." He growled, looking down at the burial plot as he remembered the promise he had made to Allison just days before her death. That not only would he continue to go on with his life, but that he would also go after any of the witches should they have any part in her death. And although it would take him a while to work up to the mission of hunting them down, he knew he would eventually do it. Because he had ever intention of keeping this last promise to her. He touched the dirt one more time before standing up and tucking his hands into his leather jacket pockets. "Do not worry my love, I will stick to the promise I made to you. I will avenge your death."

Who can say why your heart sighs
As your love flies, only time
And who can say why your heart cries
when your love lies, only time


The end of the night

"It wasn't suppose to be like this." The older witch named Molly said as she crossed the dark grass of the Bon Temps Cemetery and made her way towards the new grave she had been eying since the funeral began earlier that evening. She had been waiting in the shadows for it to be over and it was only after the tall, blonde vampire had left just moments ago that she had been able to finally make her way over to the grave site to have a few minutes alone. And every steps she took to that mound of dirt, the heavier her heart became as she thought of the circumstances that had led her here to this night. She paused at the edge of the plot and looked down at the spot where the remains of that poor girl lied and she shook her head. "She wasn't suppose to die."

And yet she had. Allison Stackhouse had lost her life so young and so before her time that the injustice of it was suffocating to anyone who knew her. Many would be surprised that Molly was feeling this way. Most people would say that was the risk of going into open war with witches, that there was a greater odd of dying rather then living. But Molly had been certain that Allison would have made it through and lived the rest of her very long life. She deserved to have that time, the time to really see the world for what it was worth and to be loved by a man who would never turn his back on her. She was suppose to laugh and smile for years longer then this, to have many more memories that would overshadow that heartbreak she had happened to her at such a young age. Allison was suppose to have all that life had to offer, to experience everything before it was time for her to pass on. But she hadn't had that chance.

That chance had been cut down in a single moment by that red headed bitch Anna. That woman had taken the life of a very special girl and ruined countless amounts of other lives in the process. Allison's life had been intertwined with so many others and her death was leaving a hole in the life of her loved ones. It was so incredibly sad to see that so many people could be broken by one girl's life. And that never would have happened if Anna hadn't been driven mad by her thirst for Allison's power. Molly herself had tried to do what she could to change things from the inside of the coven by playing along like she was one of them. She had tried planting seeds of doubt amongst the others, hoping that at least some of the other witches would turn against Anna but nothing had worked and it was too dangerous at the time to step out and be the lone witch to announce that she was not going with the coven's direction. Hence why she had not been part of the war. If Anna knew what was really going on, then she would have made things worse.

And the only thing worse then death was having your soul lost for all eternity. So even though death was horrible, it was not as horrible as having your soul wander alone through the world, being forced to watch all your loved ones go on and know you could not be with them. And that was exactly what Anna had intended to do when she asked Molly to curse the very dagger that had killed Allison. If Anna could not get what she wanted, then she wanted to make sure Allison suffered long after her death by not letting her soul be at rest. And Molly couldn't bear to let that happen. So while Anna thought Molly had performed the curse, in actuality she hadn't done that at all. She just made it seem like she had.

But what she really did was cast another spell on the dagger. A spell that would keep Allison's soul so intact that it would allow her to do what she came here to do tonight. Something that had to be done in the darkest part of the night where no one was around to witness it.

"I won't let Anna get away with this. I will not let her destroy people's lives like this." Molly said to herself, stepping to the side of the grave and knelt down by the mound of dirt while she reached into the pocket of her black hooded jacket and removed the vial of blood she had stored there. She held it in her hand, watching the dark red liquid swirl around inside.

This blood was going to be the very thing that changed the course of the future and more importantly, the fate of everyone's lives. And it wasn't just any blood, it was Molly's blood. Blood that was powerful enough to work its magic in the way it was intended to do. And although it may take a while, this vial of blood was going to save what could not be saved in the battle that night.

"Sometimes sacrifices have to be made to change the course of the future." Molly stated out loud, digging a small hole in the pile of dirt before she unscrewed the top of the vial and turned it upside down. The blood poured out instantly, landing in the hole she had dug and sank into the earth, being soaked up by the dirt and ground on it's descent down to the coffin. Once the glass was empty, she tucked it back in her pocket and covered the hole with more dirt, patting the flat area with her hand and got to her feet again. She looked down at the grave and as sad as the situation was, she found herself smiling as she backed away but not before sending one last statement at the burial lot.

"It's done...and now she will awaken soon and come back to the world she left behind."

The end...or is it?

A/N: Yea, i totally was mean with that ending. I knew you would all be pissed with me for killing her off in the last chapter. But what you didn't know was that this was all part of the plan. I knew all along how this fic was going to end and obviously it looks like she is going to be resurrected. And that comes with a whole new set of drama. As you know, Molly was the one working against the Dallas coven and now she is the one trying to bring Allison back to life. Oh man can you imagine what that reaction is going to be.

Thanks for sticking with me through this series so far. I hope you all have enjoyed reading it as much as i loved writting it. it was so much fun and I hope you stay around for the 4th installment that is titled "Second Chance" after the Shinedown song. It will be a great ride, i promise oyu that

Thanks again! And look out for the sequel coming soon