Spoilers: NW/VD/DV/FG (All LJS books)
Disclaimers: All NW/VD/DV/FG plots and characters belong to LJS. The characters of Susan Black Lightning, Crystal Harman and Aurelia Wolf belong to me. NOT to be used without my express permission.
Summary: Silly fic about a girl going to college and meeting all her favourite LJS characters, even bringing back everyone's favourite Shadow Man.
Part 1
Crystal left her house without looking back. She'd been waiting for this for so long, and it was finally here. She could leave. Start a new life in a new place. What was in store for her there, she had no idea.
Crystal had never been very lucky in her life, she had never been very popular, the other kids thought she was weird. She loved to write, and had a strange fascination with the supernatural and horror movies. She spent half the time in her own little word, wishing she were someone else, not who she was. She would create personalities in her head, people who were everything she wasn't.
One of her favourite things was writing fan fiction for the internet, where you make up the stories for you favourite TV shows or book series. She loved fan fiction for a series called Night World, by LJ Smith. A series about vampires and witches and werewolves, and ordinary people mixed up within it. How she wanted to be a part of that world!
She would love to be Mary-Lynette Carter, who found herself thrown into a mystery when three mysterious girls moved next door. Or Maggie Neely, an ordinary girl sold into slavery and adventure, and falling in love with a prince. Or Rashel Jordan, fearless vampire hunter, a little Buffy, but with brains and a sensible name. But to be honest, she would rather be the vampire than the hunter.
Or her own Night World creation, Susan Black-Lightning, the bad Wild Power she had created. Everyone she talked to on mailing lists on her internet was waiting for the final Night World book, Strange Fate, but she'd gotten so sick of waiting she'd written her own. Her character had been beautiful and deadly, dangerous and respected. And powerful. Half vamp, half witch...and with blue fire to destroy the world.
She smiled dryly and shook her head. As if someone like that could really exist. She knew she'd be like that.
She hoped the life she'd be starting at college would be better, that something interesting would happen to her.
Strange, she thought, people who said that in books and movies were always proved horribly right.
* * *
Crystal pushed her way through the crowded hallways of students unpacking, greeting their roommates, checking each other out. She frowned up at the closed door of her own room. She pulled out her keys and unlocked the door. Half of the room was clearly occupied, there were some personal items on the desk, some photos taped around the frame of the mirror, a high school pennant taped above the back of the bed saying the roommate had attended Dewitt High School.
Crystal's eyebrows raised. Wasn't that the name of the school in Daughters of Darkness, the second book in the Night World series. It was one of her personal favourites, Ash had sounded so yummy.
"You must by Crystal," a voice behind her said. Crystal turned to see an ordinary girl with shiny dark hair and bright blue eyes. She was dressed in jeans and a top decorated with moons and stars. "I'm Mary-Lynette."
Crystal nodded, feeling her eyebrows raise, trying to think of something constructive to say. She couldn't believe it. Was she dreaming, or was she actually shaking the hand of Mary-Lynnette Carter, the soulmate of one yummy Ash Redfern?
Mary-Lynnette was giving her a very strange look. "Are you okay? You look like you've just seen a ghost."
Crystal flushed, a heated embarrassment flushing up her cheeks. "I'm fine," she said quickly. "Just nervous." She managed a weak smile, and turned to start unpacking her things.
"I'm already done with mine, want some help?" Mary-Lynette offered.
"That'd be great, thanks," Crystal said, sticking her collection of Night World books on her shelf. She had them all but the last one, which she'd been waiting for over a year to come out. With Mary-Lynnette helping, she'd unpacked most of her stuff in about half an hour. She was finishing setting up her computer when there was a knock on the door.
"It's open," Mary-Lynnette said. She smiled. "Hey, Poppy."
The girl who came in then, was short, with a mop of copper coloured hair, and green eyes like jewels. She was dressed in brightly coloured clothing, and smiled at Crystal. "Hi, I'm Poppy North," she said.
"Crystal Harman," said Crystal.
"You're a Harman?" Poppy asked.
Crystal didn't know what to say. From what she knew the Harmans were the witches of the Night World. She had just thought it was a really weird coincidence that she looked like one, she had the same pale gold hair that the Harmans in the books seemed to have, and the same violet eyes. She had one or two beginner's spell books, but had never tried anything out, because she had never believed magic was real. "Uh, yeah," she said finally.
"Wow," Poppy said. "Thea's going to be pleased. I thought there were almost no Harman females left." She glanced out the door then, and made beckoning motions. "Come on, don't be shy."
The girl who came in the room was tall, dressed in dark, swirling clothing, with a mane of raven hair, that reflected the lights like a crow's wing. Her skin was like marble. Her eyes were the colour of the sky at twilight with flecks of silver, like starlight. Her features were exquisite, model perfect. Her expression was somewhat blank. She managed a weak smile.
"This is my roommate, Susan," Poppy said cheerfully. "We used to go to middle school together."
"Where abouts are you from?" Mary-Lynette asked Susan.
"L.A.," Susan answered. "You?"
"Briar Creek, small town in Oregon," Mary-Lynnette answered. "What about you Crystal?"
Crystal blinked, coming back to reality. "Uh, small town in Washington State, Black Brook valley."
What was happening here? It was weird enough seeing Poppy and Mary-Lynnette, exactly the same as they were in the books, but adding Susan to the mix...that was just insane. Susan wasn't even a real person. She was a character Crystal had created for one of her fan fics.
Bored of waiting for the final Night World book about the last Wild Power to come out, she had created her own - Susan. The girl had been everything Crystal wasn't. Powerful, smart, popular, beautiful, brave, strong...and bad.
And now...she was here? Did this mean what she thought it did? Poppy had been a vampire in the story, made by her boyfriend James to save her life. So...was Night World...no. No. It couldn't be. It was just a very bizarre coincidence.
Coincidences happened, right?
There was another knock at the door, and as if on cue, both Ash and James walked in. This was getting ridiculous.
"So, who are the hot girls?" Ash asked, smiling at Crystal and Susan. Susan rolled her eyes in disgust.
"Get a life, Ash," she muttered.
"I have one, thanks," Ash said. He reached out to take Crystal's hand, bringing it to his lips and kissing it gently. "Hi there, I'm Ash."
"Crystal Harman." She didn't like him being so flirty right of, particularly in front of his soulmate. An idea crossed her mind, and she smiled wickedly, and kicked him in the shins.
Ash yelped, and stepped back, rubbing his sore shin. "Why is it that every girl I've met recently seems to love kicking me?" he complained.
Mary-Lynnette laughed. "I think we're going to be good friends," she said to Crystal.
Even James was smiling. "Maybe they're trying to tell you, something, Ash," he suggested.
Ash gave him a look. "Ha, ha," he said moodily.
Mary-Lynnette gave him a comforting hug. "Poor Ash," she said sympathetically.
"Sickening, isn't it?" Susan muttered.
Crystal was confused. In the end of Susan's fic, she'd given Susan a soulmate, and a complete character change as well. Where had that all gone? This was getting very confusing.
"We just came to mention there's a party tonight for freshmen," James said. "You guys up for it?"
"Sounds fun," Poppy said cheerfully. "Mare?"
Mary-Lynnette nodded, "I'm up for it. Crystal?"
Crystal nodded. "Sure."
"Should we warn every guy on campus to wear shin guards?" Ash said dryly.
Crystal smiled. "If they're as annoying as you, yeah," she answered sweetly. Ash muttered something she didn't catch.
The others left then, to go see who else they could find, Crystal told them, she'd catch up. This was a little too weird for her, okay, it was a *lot* weird. She didn't understand it. Had she wandered into some sort of parallel universe where characters from books and fan fictions were real?
She had been worried about whether or not her roommate would like her. It seemed that they got on okay, so that was a relief. But it was still very, very weird. She wasn't much of a party person, and actually found herself looking forward to the party, wondering just who else she would meet.
* * *
The rest of the day went by quickly. Crystal was still baffled by the possibility that Night World was real. All these people seemed to be popping up all over the place. She went to the freshman party that night with Mary-Lynnette, Ash, James and Poppy. Poppy's cheerfulness was starting to get annoying. She talked all the time. She liked Poppy, but wondered vaguely how James put up with her.
James glanced over at her with a dry smile. As if reading her thoughts, he said, "You get used to her." Crystal opened her mouth to ask how he had known what she was thinking...but of course, he was a vampire. Vampires could read minds.
But that was what really got her. Vampires? *Real* vampires? Was she actually standing with three people who drank *blood* for a living?
"Oh, Crystal, come over here." Poppy bounded over, grabbing Crystal's arm pulling her to a table where four people were sitting, two boys and two girls. One girl had yellow hair spilling to her shoulders, and wise brown eyes. One of the boys had sandy hair and a nice smile, and bright hazel coloured eyes. "This is Thea and Eric," Poppy said. She nodded at Crystal. "This is Crystal. She's a Harman too."
They moved closer making room for Crystal. She eyed the other couple. He was tall, dark haired dark eyes, with a sort of "nice boy" look to him. She looked kind of similar to Thea, shoulder length blonde hair, eyes like emeralds. They couldn't be who she thought they were...
"This is Jenny and Tom, our roommates," Thea said brightly.
Everyone seemed to be in such a good mood, it was starting to get a little sickly. Crystal managed a weak smile. It was taking all her self control not to scream at Jenny that she was insane. What had Jenny been thinking? She could have had Julian and instead she'd wound up with loser Tom? She was going to have to work really hard at not insulting him.
"Oh, there's Dee," Jenny said, waving.
"Hey, what's up?" The girl who joined them could have been an African princess. She was, of course, Dee Eliade. Dee had been one of the characters - people - that Crystal had admired most. The introductions were made all over again. And Dee introduced her own roommate.
The girl with Dee looked similar to Poppy, short with a mane of curly red hair. "I'm Bonnie."
Of course. Crystal had to bite her lip on asking her where Damon was. Bonnie disappeared for a minute or two and came back with more people. The rest of the Vampire Dairies gang. Crystal tried to keep a straight face as she was introduced to Meredith and Elena, it took all her self control not to melt at Stefan's feet.
She had liked Stefan, but in her opinion Damon had sounded so much more fun. She had to hide her disappointment that Damon had shown up. Couldn't have everything. She wasn't much on conversation as the others talked. She was really too overwhelmed, and kept silent to keep herself from saying something stupid. She hadn't liked the idea of Jenny picking Tom over Julian. She hadn't liked Tom, period. She hadn't liked the idea of Elena suddenly coming back to life at the end of the VD series, either. As she watched Elena and Stefan., she admitted, if only to herself, that maybe they did belong together, but still...the last VD book had really spoiled the series.
Before long, she came back to reality finding herself alone at a table with Tom. Oh no, she thought.
"Where'd everyone else go?" she asked.
"I think they're still around somewhere," Tom said. "So where are you from?"
Crystal found herself wishing if vampires really did exist, one would come and take care of Tom for her. Maybe it's all one huge dream, Crystal thought. I'll wake up in a minute and laugh at myself for having such dumb fantasies.
And yet, somehow deep inside, she knew that despite how stupid this all seemed, there was no dream. She wouldn't wake up in a minute. And to tell the truth, she didn't really want to. She was fascinated despite herself.
They were all real, and they were all being really nice. Even Meredith wasn't holding to the sarcastic observer's impression she'd been given in the book. Meredith had been one of her favourite characters.
"Small town in Washington. Real dull and boring. Nothing ever happens." Suddenly, her lip curved. She couldn't help herself. "So, has anything interesting happened to you lately? Played any good games or anything? Nothing ever happens at my home, so a new game is actually interesting to us."
Tom was looking at her in a very strange way. She looked back innocently. "How did - " he began. "No," he said finally. "Nah. We haven't really done anything interesting lately."
Come on Tom, you're such a lousy liar, Crystal thought.
The he looked at her suspiciously. "Why did you ask that?"
Crystal opened her mouth to tell him a lie, then shrugged. Why not? Tell him the truth. "Because you were in a book I read. You all played this game where you had face your worst nightmares."
Tom stared. "What book is this?"
"It's called the Forbidden Game series, I have it, you can borrow it sometime," she said vaguely.
"Huh?" said Tom. He looked completely bewildered. Crystal really couldn't blame him. It had been a very strange day.
It was about to get a whole lot stranger.
* * *
Disclaimers: All NW/VD/DV/FG plots and characters belong to LJS. The characters of Susan Black Lightning, Crystal Harman and Aurelia Wolf belong to me. NOT to be used without my express permission.
Summary: Silly fic about a girl going to college and meeting all her favourite LJS characters, even bringing back everyone's favourite Shadow Man.
Part 1
Crystal left her house without looking back. She'd been waiting for this for so long, and it was finally here. She could leave. Start a new life in a new place. What was in store for her there, she had no idea.
Crystal had never been very lucky in her life, she had never been very popular, the other kids thought she was weird. She loved to write, and had a strange fascination with the supernatural and horror movies. She spent half the time in her own little word, wishing she were someone else, not who she was. She would create personalities in her head, people who were everything she wasn't.
One of her favourite things was writing fan fiction for the internet, where you make up the stories for you favourite TV shows or book series. She loved fan fiction for a series called Night World, by LJ Smith. A series about vampires and witches and werewolves, and ordinary people mixed up within it. How she wanted to be a part of that world!
She would love to be Mary-Lynette Carter, who found herself thrown into a mystery when three mysterious girls moved next door. Or Maggie Neely, an ordinary girl sold into slavery and adventure, and falling in love with a prince. Or Rashel Jordan, fearless vampire hunter, a little Buffy, but with brains and a sensible name. But to be honest, she would rather be the vampire than the hunter.
Or her own Night World creation, Susan Black-Lightning, the bad Wild Power she had created. Everyone she talked to on mailing lists on her internet was waiting for the final Night World book, Strange Fate, but she'd gotten so sick of waiting she'd written her own. Her character had been beautiful and deadly, dangerous and respected. And powerful. Half vamp, half witch...and with blue fire to destroy the world.
She smiled dryly and shook her head. As if someone like that could really exist. She knew she'd be like that.
She hoped the life she'd be starting at college would be better, that something interesting would happen to her.
Strange, she thought, people who said that in books and movies were always proved horribly right.
* * *
Crystal pushed her way through the crowded hallways of students unpacking, greeting their roommates, checking each other out. She frowned up at the closed door of her own room. She pulled out her keys and unlocked the door. Half of the room was clearly occupied, there were some personal items on the desk, some photos taped around the frame of the mirror, a high school pennant taped above the back of the bed saying the roommate had attended Dewitt High School.
Crystal's eyebrows raised. Wasn't that the name of the school in Daughters of Darkness, the second book in the Night World series. It was one of her personal favourites, Ash had sounded so yummy.
"You must by Crystal," a voice behind her said. Crystal turned to see an ordinary girl with shiny dark hair and bright blue eyes. She was dressed in jeans and a top decorated with moons and stars. "I'm Mary-Lynette."
Crystal nodded, feeling her eyebrows raise, trying to think of something constructive to say. She couldn't believe it. Was she dreaming, or was she actually shaking the hand of Mary-Lynnette Carter, the soulmate of one yummy Ash Redfern?
Mary-Lynnette was giving her a very strange look. "Are you okay? You look like you've just seen a ghost."
Crystal flushed, a heated embarrassment flushing up her cheeks. "I'm fine," she said quickly. "Just nervous." She managed a weak smile, and turned to start unpacking her things.
"I'm already done with mine, want some help?" Mary-Lynette offered.
"That'd be great, thanks," Crystal said, sticking her collection of Night World books on her shelf. She had them all but the last one, which she'd been waiting for over a year to come out. With Mary-Lynnette helping, she'd unpacked most of her stuff in about half an hour. She was finishing setting up her computer when there was a knock on the door.
"It's open," Mary-Lynnette said. She smiled. "Hey, Poppy."
The girl who came in then, was short, with a mop of copper coloured hair, and green eyes like jewels. She was dressed in brightly coloured clothing, and smiled at Crystal. "Hi, I'm Poppy North," she said.
"Crystal Harman," said Crystal.
"You're a Harman?" Poppy asked.
Crystal didn't know what to say. From what she knew the Harmans were the witches of the Night World. She had just thought it was a really weird coincidence that she looked like one, she had the same pale gold hair that the Harmans in the books seemed to have, and the same violet eyes. She had one or two beginner's spell books, but had never tried anything out, because she had never believed magic was real. "Uh, yeah," she said finally.
"Wow," Poppy said. "Thea's going to be pleased. I thought there were almost no Harman females left." She glanced out the door then, and made beckoning motions. "Come on, don't be shy."
The girl who came in the room was tall, dressed in dark, swirling clothing, with a mane of raven hair, that reflected the lights like a crow's wing. Her skin was like marble. Her eyes were the colour of the sky at twilight with flecks of silver, like starlight. Her features were exquisite, model perfect. Her expression was somewhat blank. She managed a weak smile.
"This is my roommate, Susan," Poppy said cheerfully. "We used to go to middle school together."
"Where abouts are you from?" Mary-Lynette asked Susan.
"L.A.," Susan answered. "You?"
"Briar Creek, small town in Oregon," Mary-Lynnette answered. "What about you Crystal?"
Crystal blinked, coming back to reality. "Uh, small town in Washington State, Black Brook valley."
What was happening here? It was weird enough seeing Poppy and Mary-Lynnette, exactly the same as they were in the books, but adding Susan to the mix...that was just insane. Susan wasn't even a real person. She was a character Crystal had created for one of her fan fics.
Bored of waiting for the final Night World book about the last Wild Power to come out, she had created her own - Susan. The girl had been everything Crystal wasn't. Powerful, smart, popular, beautiful, brave, strong...and bad.
And now...she was here? Did this mean what she thought it did? Poppy had been a vampire in the story, made by her boyfriend James to save her life. So...was Night World...no. No. It couldn't be. It was just a very bizarre coincidence.
Coincidences happened, right?
There was another knock at the door, and as if on cue, both Ash and James walked in. This was getting ridiculous.
"So, who are the hot girls?" Ash asked, smiling at Crystal and Susan. Susan rolled her eyes in disgust.
"Get a life, Ash," she muttered.
"I have one, thanks," Ash said. He reached out to take Crystal's hand, bringing it to his lips and kissing it gently. "Hi there, I'm Ash."
"Crystal Harman." She didn't like him being so flirty right of, particularly in front of his soulmate. An idea crossed her mind, and she smiled wickedly, and kicked him in the shins.
Ash yelped, and stepped back, rubbing his sore shin. "Why is it that every girl I've met recently seems to love kicking me?" he complained.
Mary-Lynnette laughed. "I think we're going to be good friends," she said to Crystal.
Even James was smiling. "Maybe they're trying to tell you, something, Ash," he suggested.
Ash gave him a look. "Ha, ha," he said moodily.
Mary-Lynnette gave him a comforting hug. "Poor Ash," she said sympathetically.
"Sickening, isn't it?" Susan muttered.
Crystal was confused. In the end of Susan's fic, she'd given Susan a soulmate, and a complete character change as well. Where had that all gone? This was getting very confusing.
"We just came to mention there's a party tonight for freshmen," James said. "You guys up for it?"
"Sounds fun," Poppy said cheerfully. "Mare?"
Mary-Lynnette nodded, "I'm up for it. Crystal?"
Crystal nodded. "Sure."
"Should we warn every guy on campus to wear shin guards?" Ash said dryly.
Crystal smiled. "If they're as annoying as you, yeah," she answered sweetly. Ash muttered something she didn't catch.
The others left then, to go see who else they could find, Crystal told them, she'd catch up. This was a little too weird for her, okay, it was a *lot* weird. She didn't understand it. Had she wandered into some sort of parallel universe where characters from books and fan fictions were real?
She had been worried about whether or not her roommate would like her. It seemed that they got on okay, so that was a relief. But it was still very, very weird. She wasn't much of a party person, and actually found herself looking forward to the party, wondering just who else she would meet.
* * *
The rest of the day went by quickly. Crystal was still baffled by the possibility that Night World was real. All these people seemed to be popping up all over the place. She went to the freshman party that night with Mary-Lynnette, Ash, James and Poppy. Poppy's cheerfulness was starting to get annoying. She talked all the time. She liked Poppy, but wondered vaguely how James put up with her.
James glanced over at her with a dry smile. As if reading her thoughts, he said, "You get used to her." Crystal opened her mouth to ask how he had known what she was thinking...but of course, he was a vampire. Vampires could read minds.
But that was what really got her. Vampires? *Real* vampires? Was she actually standing with three people who drank *blood* for a living?
"Oh, Crystal, come over here." Poppy bounded over, grabbing Crystal's arm pulling her to a table where four people were sitting, two boys and two girls. One girl had yellow hair spilling to her shoulders, and wise brown eyes. One of the boys had sandy hair and a nice smile, and bright hazel coloured eyes. "This is Thea and Eric," Poppy said. She nodded at Crystal. "This is Crystal. She's a Harman too."
They moved closer making room for Crystal. She eyed the other couple. He was tall, dark haired dark eyes, with a sort of "nice boy" look to him. She looked kind of similar to Thea, shoulder length blonde hair, eyes like emeralds. They couldn't be who she thought they were...
"This is Jenny and Tom, our roommates," Thea said brightly.
Everyone seemed to be in such a good mood, it was starting to get a little sickly. Crystal managed a weak smile. It was taking all her self control not to scream at Jenny that she was insane. What had Jenny been thinking? She could have had Julian and instead she'd wound up with loser Tom? She was going to have to work really hard at not insulting him.
"Oh, there's Dee," Jenny said, waving.
"Hey, what's up?" The girl who joined them could have been an African princess. She was, of course, Dee Eliade. Dee had been one of the characters - people - that Crystal had admired most. The introductions were made all over again. And Dee introduced her own roommate.
The girl with Dee looked similar to Poppy, short with a mane of curly red hair. "I'm Bonnie."
Of course. Crystal had to bite her lip on asking her where Damon was. Bonnie disappeared for a minute or two and came back with more people. The rest of the Vampire Dairies gang. Crystal tried to keep a straight face as she was introduced to Meredith and Elena, it took all her self control not to melt at Stefan's feet.
She had liked Stefan, but in her opinion Damon had sounded so much more fun. She had to hide her disappointment that Damon had shown up. Couldn't have everything. She wasn't much on conversation as the others talked. She was really too overwhelmed, and kept silent to keep herself from saying something stupid. She hadn't liked the idea of Jenny picking Tom over Julian. She hadn't liked Tom, period. She hadn't liked the idea of Elena suddenly coming back to life at the end of the VD series, either. As she watched Elena and Stefan., she admitted, if only to herself, that maybe they did belong together, but still...the last VD book had really spoiled the series.
Before long, she came back to reality finding herself alone at a table with Tom. Oh no, she thought.
"Where'd everyone else go?" she asked.
"I think they're still around somewhere," Tom said. "So where are you from?"
Crystal found herself wishing if vampires really did exist, one would come and take care of Tom for her. Maybe it's all one huge dream, Crystal thought. I'll wake up in a minute and laugh at myself for having such dumb fantasies.
And yet, somehow deep inside, she knew that despite how stupid this all seemed, there was no dream. She wouldn't wake up in a minute. And to tell the truth, she didn't really want to. She was fascinated despite herself.
They were all real, and they were all being really nice. Even Meredith wasn't holding to the sarcastic observer's impression she'd been given in the book. Meredith had been one of her favourite characters.
"Small town in Washington. Real dull and boring. Nothing ever happens." Suddenly, her lip curved. She couldn't help herself. "So, has anything interesting happened to you lately? Played any good games or anything? Nothing ever happens at my home, so a new game is actually interesting to us."
Tom was looking at her in a very strange way. She looked back innocently. "How did - " he began. "No," he said finally. "Nah. We haven't really done anything interesting lately."
Come on Tom, you're such a lousy liar, Crystal thought.
The he looked at her suspiciously. "Why did you ask that?"
Crystal opened her mouth to tell him a lie, then shrugged. Why not? Tell him the truth. "Because you were in a book I read. You all played this game where you had face your worst nightmares."
Tom stared. "What book is this?"
"It's called the Forbidden Game series, I have it, you can borrow it sometime," she said vaguely.
"Huh?" said Tom. He looked completely bewildered. Crystal really couldn't blame him. It had been a very strange day.
It was about to get a whole lot stranger.
* * *