AUTHOR'S NOTE: This story features characters from a great show that it seemed not many people watched called 'Banshee'. And of course, the movie, 'Candyman'.
BACKSTORY:
This story begins after Pam has returned with Eric to Fangtasia. Tara did not die but instead, kept the establishment running in their absence, along with Willa and Ginger's help. Tara also made changes, meaning she got rid of the pole dancing and had Alcide Herveaux sitting on the throne, naked while changing occasionally into beast form, which was a thrill for many of their patrons.
Eric did not like the changes. He also did not care about how much more money Tara brought in and upon returning, squashed everything. Pam could see what Tara had tried to do for them and attempted to keep the peace, but Tara was offended as hell! She left their little family group that wasn't much of a family anyway, for Banshee, Pennsylvania, to stay with her grandfather on her father's side, a man named Sugar Bates who owned a local bar in the town.
Meanwhile, Willa stays in Louisiana and begins attending night school at Bon Temps College. She is in an 'Urban Legends' class with Sookie, who is now engaged to Alcide. One night, while Tara is visiting from out of town and Alcide is working late, the legend of 'Candyman' is discussed at Sookie's home.
And Tara summons him for fun.
What ensues is not fun…
Sheriff's Deputy, Jason Stackhouse, couldn't follow a damned thing Sookie was saying! Just that someone named 'Candyman' had killed Willa and that Tara had brought him here but Tara was nowhere around! Jason grabbed a near hysterical Sookie by the shoulders and shook her!
"Sookie, honey, you have to start talking sense! Now I have to call this in! Eric is Willa's maker, right? He's going to be here any minute when he feels…"
Eric suddenly appeared outside, wearing a grim expression. Sookie slowly pulled out of Jason's hold and walked over to the door, opening it and inviting Eric in, reluctantly. Alcide would not like that Eric could come in here now.
Eric closed the door after him and surveyed the carnage. Willa, his progeny, had been ripped apart. Ripped apart and yet…not left in a heap of ashes or goo. He had felt her distress too late, and he swallowed the knawing guilt he bore from not looking after her properly. But he did not regret being firm with her and Tara. What they had turned HIS business into in his absence was unacceptable. At least it was to him.
"What happened?" he asked coolly, looking from Jason over at Sookie. Sookie took a deep breath before speaking.
"Willa and I are in a class about Urban Legends. We've been studying Candyman. Tara called him and…"
"Okay!" Jason snapped. "Sook, this is where you lose me everytime! What in the holy fuck are you talking about? Who is Candyman and how does Tara know him?"
"Tara is in town?" Eric asked in a tight sounding voice. Pam should have been able to feel Tara's distress and yet she said nothing to him about it. Maybe Pam was with Tara now?
"Yes." was all Sookie said about that. She hadn't liked how Eric and Pam had treated Tara and Willa. They had worked their asses off to keep Fangtasia afloat with very little business know how. Willa had actually been going to night school to take business classes but was short a credit this semester. That was the only reason she was even taking the Urban Legends class.
Sookie was taking psychology classes and it took an enormous amount of effort to block out the thoughts of the other students. Many of them did not have their mind on the class itself. Or they didn't think much of the professor, the school or other people in the room, though she had not heard anything about herself as of yet.
"Sookie?" Jason asked, as he was still waiting for an answer to his question.
"Tara didn't know him." Sookie replied.
"You mean she didn't call him to come over here on the phone?" Jason asked. Eric struggled not to grit his teeth at how dimwitted Sookie's brother appeared to be with regards to trying to solve this crime! He himself could not give away how much he knew about this topic…
"No! You don't call Candyman on the phone! You summon him by saying his name five times in front of a mirror! Tara went over to that mirror in the hallway that Grandma always loved, and said his name five times! Before we knew it he was just HERE! Out of thin air and he killed Willa! Tara ran off and he looked at me and and…"
"And what?" Eric interrupted. Jason eyed Eric. There was something off about the way the vampire was taking this news, but he could not quite figure out what it was. Then again, Eric Northman had never struck him as overly emotional in the first place.
"He said I should 'be his' if I wanted to save Tara." Sookie said quietly.
"Be his? So do you know him from the college?" Jason asked. Eric cleared his throat loudly!
"Deputy Stackhouse, a progeny of mine has been killed by an assailant that your sister is claiming is some sort of spirit. Summoned by another member of my family. I cannot let Willa's death go unanswered for. Our vampire king will not stand for it." Eric said and Sookie tore her eyes from his.
Yes. King Bill Compton.
Jason clenched his jaw before responding.
"I'm going to look for Tara. Did you all come here in your car, Sook?" Jason asked.
"No. Tara has a new Honda Civic. She was staying with Willa at her place." Sookie said.
"Where is that? Maybe Tara went back there?" Jason questioned.
"It's an apartment near campus. On Hickory Road. I don't know the exact address." Sookie said. Jason shook his head.
"I'll find out through the DMV. I'm going to call Alcide and get him back here to stay with you." Jason told her.
"I will make arrangements to remove Willa from your home." Eric said and began to turn away. But Sookie reached for his arm.
"You blame me, don't you?" she asked in a broken voice. Willa's murder had to be the most horrible thing she had seen in her young life, thus far.
"No." Eric said, removing her hand off of his arm. He turned to leave and Jason followed him out.
"Hold up, Northman!" Jason called out and Eric stopped walking and turned to face him.
"Yes?" Eric asked.
"You know something about all of this! I can smell it! And yet your willing to let my sister go down for this? Out with it!" Jason snapped.
"Sheriff Stackhouse, Sookie is in a lot of trouble. I would suggest that you go and see Bill. Maybe he can do something for her. But Sookie's story sounds ridiculous. And if she can't produce this 'spirit', the vampire community is going to demand justice for Willa's slaughter."
Jason said nothing more and watched Eric get into his sports car and speed off. He then walked over to Tara's car, found it locked and pulled out his nightstick! He smashed the driver's side window and found that her alarm had not been set. Jason figured a vampire didn't have much use for alarms anyway, with the way they could hear things. If someone was in Tara's car, she'd know it in a hot minute!
He cleared the glass that had fallen into the driver's seat and got in, looking through her glove compartment for clues. Not so much to find out where Tara was right now, but to learn what she had been doing with herself, ever since she left Eric and Pam.
Eric returned to Fangtasia and was pleased to see an almost full house. He nodded to Pam, who gave him a curious look, before excusing herself from some ladies that Eric could feel his progeny's interest in. She joined him in his office and closed the door.
"Well? What the hell was wrong with Willa?"
Eric sat down, leaned back in his chair and massaged his temples.
"I was too late."
Pam's annoyed smirk disappeared!
"What do you mean you were 'too late'?"
"Just as I said. Willa is dead. And for some reason, she did not disintegrate or melt like we all do when our time has come. There are body parts."
"Body parts? What the hell happened?" Pam asked. Eric leaned forward in his chair.
"Did you not feel Tara's distress? I was surprised to see you here when I returned."
"Tara? What the hell has she got to do with any of this?" Pam asked in annoyed tone.
Eric stood up.
"Tara, Willa and Sookie had a 'girl's night get together' or whatever you call such things. Willa and Sookie are in some class about Urban Legends…"
"Class?" Pam interrupted rudely. "Like in school?"
"Yes. They are attending a local college."
"Why?!"
"Pam, I have no idea nor is it the point."
"Is Tara there too?" Pam asked.
"No. Tara, apparently, left town."
Pam cut her eyes away from Eric's briefly. She had not realized Tara was no longer in the state, anymore that Eric had realized Willa was in school someplace.
Eric continued.
"Tara summoned Daniel Robitaille's spirit. The chaos that one would expect to ensue after something like that, did." Eric said in a knowing tone. Pam began to back away!
"Fucking hell! Are you kidding me?!" Pam snapped.
"No. I am not kidding. And to be blunt Pam, this particular incident hits a little too close to home." Eric told her. Pam clenched her jaw and struggled to close the memories out of her mind. But she could not.
Daniel Robitaille had been the son of a slave and lover to a woman that Pam had been in love with named Caroline Sullivan. Caroline couldn't see anything but Daniel and it had pissed Pam off so much…that…well…she told Caroline's father, Heyward Sullivan about Daniel and Caroline's affair! Heyward ordered the townspeople to hunt Daniel down. They cut off his right hand and covered his body in honey from local bee hives. The murderous mob fled when the bees came to attack.
Pam had known what was about to happen and at the last minute told Eric. They tried to stop his murder but in the end, had to protect their vampire secret. The story goes that Heyward Sullivan produced a mirror, hours later and had dying Daniel take a look at himself in it. He uttered the name, 'Candyman' and died.
But there was more to the story. Eric and Pam had been amongst the crowd goers that watched what happened. And at one point, Daniel's eyes locked onto Pam's and she knew he knew. He knew Pam had been the one that had betrayed Caroline. Pam had pretended to her friend. Hers and Daniel's friend, while swearing to keep their secret. But she had just been so goddamned jealous! And then when Caroline told her she was pregnant…Pam couldn't stand it! She just lost it!
"He killed Willa but not Sookie or Tara?" Pam asked.
"No. But what I am concerned about is your lack of connection with Tara. You didn't feel her distress at all?" Eric asked. Pam blinked, then shook her head.
"Apparently Tara ran off and left Sookie to deal with whatever." Eric told her.
"Oh come on, Eric! Tara loves Sookie to death! She wouldn't just leave her!"
"And she loved Willa too." Eric said grimly. "We need to find her before this gets out of hand. Daniel, apparently, has his sights set on Sookie."
"Of course he does. Who doesn't?" Pam asked sarcastically, giving Eric a look.
Eric ignored it and went on.
"I don't want this falling on us. I don't want Mr. Daniel 'Candyman' Robitaille paying the two of us a visit. Or Tara."
"Do you think he could figure out her connection to us?" Pam asked.
"My fear," Eric told her, "is that Willa was killed for that very reason."
"But he's angry with me!" Pam said.
"Yes, but we both knew him and Caroline, and we both knew their secret." Eric reminded her.
"Can we point him another direction?" Pam suggested. "Like at some of his descendants?"
Eric folded his arms.
"I have been keeping up with the 'Candyman Sitings' for ages. He has already terrorized at least two relatives of his. Maybe we can find another and keep him at bay." Eric said. "But in the meantime, we find Tara."
No one would be finding Tara in Bon Temps or in Shreveport.
Tara had hauled ass, using vampire speed, back to Banshee, Pennsylvania! That is how goddamned awful that whole Candyman experience had been for her!
She lived in an apartment building in an area called 'The Original Village'. The name indicated that that part of Banshee was the only area that had stayed true to it's roots. Before commerce and other housing had been put up around it. There was a French Bistro, two sandwich shops, a car garage and some other small shops in the area. But things like McDonalds or Walmart, were outside of it.
Tara got back to her apartment, which was known as a two bedroom studio. Meaning someone could sleep on the lower floor and the upper floor landing. There were two bathrooms(one upstairs and downstairs) and a kitchen, along with a living room area.
Tara, being by herself, moved a bed on the upper floor landing and and a dresser. The bathrooms had dressing table mirrors next to the bathroom itself. All in all, Tara liked her apartment. She liked the grandfather that she saw twice a week at the bar he owned that was called 'The Forge'. They both wisely did not discuss her father, since neither had seen him in forever. Nor did they discuss her turn to vampirism.
But what Tara liked most of all was her job. She was the Desk Clerk at the Banshee Police Staton! Grandpa Sugar had gotten her that position through the most handsome man she had met since Sam Merlotte.
And his name was Lucas Hood. Sheriff Lucas Hood.
He barely looked at her, though Tara knew that was because he was hooked up with another deputy sheriff. A woman named Siobhan Kelly. But that didn't stop her from gazing at Sheriff Hood, whenever he was unaware. That and…well…Tara had secretly glamoured him! So she knew he was not really Lucas Hood, that the real Lucas Hood had died the first day he had come into town and that this man, whoever he was, had just gotten out of prison himself, and assumed the dead sheriff's identity with Grandpa Sugar's help.
Neither Grandpa Sugar, nor Lucas, were aware that she knew any of this. She had been about to learn more about her crush, when someone had interrupted them. Someone that had come into the empty bar that night and got on her last nerve, but was kind of good looking in his own way too.
And that would be a proud, Native American named Chayton Littlestone. He was the leader of a local, Indian Reservation gang called 'The Redbones'. He had walked in with some of his people and Tara had bared her fangs! Everyone but Chayton had turned to leave and oddly, he had smiled at her, before turning to take his business elsewhere. He had glared at the still glamoured Hood, but said nothing about it.
Now, Tara peered out from behind a curtain and looked down onto the street. She saw no one and let the curtain fall. Willa being split in two was all she could see in her head. How she felt though, was strange. Her body felt strange. And yet the feeling was oddly familiar.
What she felt was fear.
She had been scared. Scared the moment Candyman appeared and too scared to use her vampire strength to help Willa or Sookie! Oh God, Sookie! She had to be dead! Why would she have left both of them like that?
Tara rubbed the back of her neck and realized she was tired. Why was she tired? It was night. And that was when it hit her that she had felt humanly scared. But she wasn't human, so why was she so scared and tired?
Tara walked up the stairs and collapsed onto her bed. She would figure everything out tomorrow night. She was tired from the stress over what had happened. She reluctantly closed her eyes and prayed that Candyman would not kill her in her sleep!
Tara awoke the next morning! She sat up when the sun streamed in through a small opening in her upper window, that the curtains did not cover. She thought she was about to be burned to death! But as she felt the rays hit her body, Tara realized nothing was happening to her at all.
Nothing. She was feeling the sun on her body for the first time in a long while.
Tara got up and reached for some True Blood. She sniffed the bottle and then sipped it. Yes, she still craved blood.
And she could still produce fangs when needed. What the hell was going on?
She began to head downstairs when she saw she had several messages on her answering machine. Tara sighed, picked up her phone and began to listen…
The first one that she had received came in at 9:54 PM last night…
Tara, it is Eric. Call me.
Tara ignored that one and listened to the next one.
Tara, it's Pam. Call me! I don't want to have to force you by command so get your ass here!
Tara rolled her eyes and listened to the next one…
Tara, it's Alcide! Your damned car is still here so I know you went home using your vamp speed! You get back here and help clear Sookie! Or else!
Tara didn't like Alcide's goddamned tone! The fucking nerve of him to call her sounding like that! And why did Sookie need 'clearing'? Hell, all she had to do is tell everyone about Candyman! She listened to another message…
Tara, it's Grandpa. Some man called here saying he was your 'Vampire Grandfather'! Who the fuck is that? Call me tomorrow night when you're up!
Tara had one more message to listen to. She figured it was either one of the other previous callers, calling back again to cuss her out. But when she listened to it, it didn't sound like anyone she had ever heard before…
Good evening, Tara Thornton. You look like the wife that betrayed me. We will meet again very soon.
Tara's mouth dropped open and her fangs came out, out of fright! Who in the living FUCK was that? Tara reached down and erased all of the messages! She needed to see Grandpa Sugar like right now!
