Bars weren't really my scene, which was ironic considering I spent 30 hours a week working in one. Looking around at the dimly lit Shreveport club, I couldn't help but feel out of place. The darkness, the pounding music, the yelling and then the cacophony of thoughts had been gradually building over the last half on hour. It was giving starting to give me a headache. Maybe this hadn't been such a good idea after all.

God, she's such an airhead.

My head whipped up at the words, "Pardon me?" I asked Dawn, realising too late that she hadn't said the words aloud.

"Delayed reaction much?" Dawn laughed, "I've only been saying your name for the last two minutes." She drawled, rolling her eyes at Lafayette who was perched on a barstool between us, his elbows on the high table.

"Sorry, just lost in my thoughts I guess", I mumbled.

"Hookah, we all tryna tune you out. Sook's just succeedin'." Lafayette came to my aid, leaning over the table to sass Dawn. God bless that man.

"Would y'all excuse me for a moment?" I smiled gratefully at Lafayette as he started calling out for another round of drinks. Picking up my purse I wove my way through the crowded dance floor towards the ladies. The door swung closed behind my and muffled the music—heavy bass turned to a quiet thumping in the walls.

Leaning on the sink I breathed in deeply, taking solace in the comparative silence. I pressed my eyes shut and took some deep breaths. Ever since I was young I could read minds. When I was real young, maybe three or four, I didn't even realise it wasn't normal. I'd just say the first thing that popped into my head, whether that was asking Mama about sex or asking Daddy why he was worried about the mortgage. By the time I was six or so I'd learned to keep my mouth shut, for the most part anyway, but I still slipped up sometimes. Like just now with Dawn.

I sighed and concentrated on erecting my shields, it was like blowing a bubble up around myself, that's how I liked to think of it. Gradually making it bigger and bigger, taking care not to let it burst. It took a few moments, but then…there. I felt my shield click into place like a bolt sliding home into a lock. I mentally prodded it to make sure it would hold. It felt firm. It normally did at first.

I opened my eyes and stared at my reflection. I was wearing one of my old sundresses, the red dress scattered with tiny white flowers and capped sleeves––it wasn't really nightclub material but it was the best I could do on short notice. My blonde hair was pulled back from my face with a thin, white headband, the lengths falling in loose waves over my shoulders. I tested out my smile. It looked a little strange, not quite 'Crazy Sookie' territory but still a tad too intense to qualify as friendly. I steeled myself. I could do this. I wasn't going to give up just because I slipped up. I couldn't let my disability get in the way of having a normal life.

The whole reason I was out tonight was because of Dawn Green. Dawn had started at Merlotte's a few months back. I knew Dawn a little bit, in a small town like Bon Temps it was hard not to know people. She was a few years behind me in school and well liked. Dawn had long brown hair, curves in all the right places and a smile that would leave men stuttering. She could charm the skin off a snake if she wanted to, and she used those skills to get pretty decent tips from the regulars.

A few weeks after starting at Merlotte's, Dawn suggested we all go out in Shreveport. And after a few more weeks of suggesting and persuading by Dawn and Lala, I'd relented. After all I was 22 years old and had barely been out. Heck, I hadn't even been to Shreveport since I could legally drink. It's not like I didn't want to go out. But it was difficult. I didn't get so many invites these days, since half the town thought I was a freak and the other half thought I was plain crazy. And to be honest, even when I did go out it could be kind of tough keeping people's thoughts out. Exhausting, even. But now I'd been working at Merlotte's awhile, I felt like I was starting to get better at it. And Dawn was nice, and normal. And it got a little lonely sometimes being the town outcast. So I decided to pull myself up by my bootstraps and go.

And so here I was. And damn it, I was going to make the best of it. Not only had I gotten gussied up and come all the way out to Shreveport, but Gran had been so excited. Not that she'd shown it, or wanted me to know. She'd just given me a small smile and told me not to be out too late. But—and I swear I try not to listen it, but lord help me it's tough sometimes—I had heard her true thoughts. She was excited I was making some more friends and going out like other girls my age. Gran had been worried about me. And the last thing I wanted to do was make Gran worry about me. She'd done enough for me, it was time for me to take care of her now and let her enjoy her retirement.

So I steeled herself in the mirror, reapplied some lipgloss and gave my shields another prod before heading back out into the thick of it.

As I emerged from the ladies' room, I saw a few more bodies had joined our table. Dawn was talking animatedly to a pale, dark haired man and Lafayette was making eyes at a tall, gorgeous black woman standing next to him. Huh? If I didn't know Laf was gayer than a twirler in the pride parade I would've thought he was hitting on her. Strange. I paused before turning and heading to the bar. I could do this: meet some new people and have a nice normal night. But a bit of liquid courage wouldn't hurt. A fresh gin and tonic in hand, I made my way to the table.

"Sookie!" Dawn shouted. "You have to meet our friends. This is Malcolm and Diane." She leaned in and added conspiratorially, "They're real interestin'."

The pale, dark haired man was Malcolm. He had a mop of dark hair pushed to the back of his head paired with a goatee and moustache. His skin was ghostly pale, it was almost glowing in the dark club. He wasn't unattractive exactly. He had a certain confidence to him. His friend was Diane. She had gorgeous curls and was wearing a large pair of hoop earrings. They both seemed in high spirits at least.

"I'm pleased to make your acquaintance", I smiled.

"Good your friend is here. Let's get out of here." Malcolm leered at me.

Everyone rose at once. I scrambled up out of my seat and leaned towards Dawn. "Uhh, where are we off to? " Dawn was giggling and whispering to Malcolm. "Dawn?"

"Malcolm invited us back to his place." She purred, glancing at me from her new position tucked under Malcolm's arm.

"Uhh, I thought we were gonna stay around here for a spell?" Lafayette and Diane had were leading the way and were almost at the door already. I was kind of trailing next to Dawn and Malcolm as they sauntered along behind. "Remember we were gonna meet up with Tara later." Dawn barely acknowledged me. I reached out and touched her arm, willing her to listen. "Dawn?" And her thoughts sliced through my shield like a knife in soft butter. I only had a moment to kick myself before I registered her thoughts. They felt different. Off. She wanted to go to Malcolm's. That was certain. But it felt more like a mantra, or a fixation than it did like a normal thought. And her thoughts were almost echoing, or ringing. For a second my mind took me back to the schoolyard when I was young, hearing the church bells ring out in the distance. I pulled back without thinking. My mind was running a million miles an hour and at the same time my body had stilled completely. Touching Dawn had shredded my shields and I stood for a second as I was hit with a barrage of thoughts from the half-filled bar.

I can't believe he's makin' eyes at Samantha….just one more drink then I'll call the wife….that black lady sure was fine, way out of my league….Isaac is so fucking hot…

And then they were out the door. I shook myself out of it—literally shook my head like I was some kind of cartoon character—and ran out after them. And then I was out in the quiet and the thoughts hushed. "Hey, where do you two think you're going?" I yelled after my no good friends and their new dates. I couldn't help myself damn it, I'd inherited Gran's temper. And I'd be damned if I was going to be ditched in the middle of Shreveport by the two people who had dragged me out.

"Looks like they've got a deal on, by two get a third free." Diane called out into the night.

Malcolm laughed loudly. "Well Liam likes blondes. And she smells nice to me, I wouldn't mind a taste."

"Uhh, excuse me?" I glanced at Dawn, but she didn't seem concerned by what he said. The parking lot was dark and empty around us. I heard a car horn go off a few streets away.

Malcolm turned to me, capturing my gaze. "You want to come back to ours, we're going to have some fun." I felt a slight prickling sensation behind my eyes.

"Yeah, that sounds real nice and all, but we were gonna meet up with our friend Tara. And besides, I drove here so I really shouldn't leave my car."

He stopped and turned to me. Ahead of us, I could see Diane had stopped too. She spun on her heel and looked back at me. Her skin also had a faint luminescence in the moonlight. I shivered.

I shifted on my feet. "Uhh, Lafayette isn't that right? Tara'll be wondering where we are?" Lafayette barely seemed to register. Without thinking about it I reached out to touch his mind, I noticed the same faint ringing I had with Dawn. "In fact, we're already late, maybe we should get going now." That was a balls out lie, it was barely 9.30 pm and we weren't meeting Tara for another hour at least. She would've only just finished work. I just knew we needed to leave. I didn't know whether Laf and Dawn were drugged or what. But some feeling of dread had grabbed my by my guts and was telling me to get us out of there. I dug around in my purse and found my car keys, gripping them tightly between my fingers, the way I'd been shown by Gran.

Diane's eyes darted towards Malcolm, who was staring daggers at me. Suddenly Malcolm was before me, "You are not going home. Be still, be quiet." The prickling sensation I felt before was back, but sharper, feeling almost painful. He was gripping my arm. His hand was cold. And then I noticed it, or rather, noticed what wasn't. My shields had fallen since I'd touched Dawn, but ever since I'd come outside the thoughts had quieted. And now, here outside they were completely dropped. But all I could hear was Dawn and Lafayette, and their eerie, ringing thoughts. And Malcolm, whose arm was now gripping me, skin on skin, wasn't making a peep. In fact, he almost felt like a blind spot. A hole. A void.

I'd never felt anything like it. Before I could react the bar door swung open and a handful of people waltzed out into the night, singing and laughing.

Malcolm and I were staring at one another, and before he could say anything I opened my mouth and yelled at the top of my lungs. "Get your hands off of me! I don't know who you are or what you've done to my friends but we are not going with you!" I felt more then saw some of the passerbys take notice. "What did you do to them? Did you drug them?" I threw in for good measure. I didn't really know what was happening or why I couldn't read their minds. But I figured I did not want to go with them, and if they were going to try and make us then the more witnesses the better.

Now my shields were shot it combined with my panic and the confusion of the people around us. I felt like my mind was fractured like a kaleidoscope. I was seeing myself from other angles as I was living it. Part of my mind followed two women who had run inside to get help.

Malcolm snarled. Literally snarled at me. "Where is your car?" He hissed.

I pressed my lips together, but my traitorous eyes darted towards my car for a fraction of a second. And suddenly I was tightly within Malcolm's grip, then I was there, at my car. And Malcolm was moving impossibly fast. And so was Diane. I was pressed against my car. I swung my fist out blindly behind me, my keys sticking out the way Gran showed me. I heard a hiss as my fist made contact, then my fingers were pried open and the keys were wrenched from my hand. I gasped, my arm held at a painful, awkward angle behind me. I heard car doors opening. I took in a big lungful of air, planning to scream my lungs out (the next piece of advice Gran had given me) and before I had the chance to let it out I was in a car. My car. In my very own backseat. The passenger doors slammed behind Dawn, who tumbled in behind me.

And then we were all in the car and it was squealing out of the parking lot. Although we were easily going 60 miles an hour it almost felt like slow-motion after how quickly we were moved to the car. I slammed into the window as they turned a corner. They hadn't bothered to do up our seatbelts. Figures.

Dawn started giggling off to my side. "Sorry about Sookie, she's a bit of a drag." Us three were sort of piled in on top of each other in the back seat.

I wriggled myself out from under Lafayette.

"Let us go, just please let us go. I don't know why you're doing this but let's just go back to the bar and have another drink." I was babbling. I barely knew what I was saying, just desperately grasping at straws. Malcolm was in the front passenger seat and he didn't even turn to look at me.

We were weaving through the back streets of Shreveport. I knew, I just knew that I couldn't let them take us to wherever they wanted to take us. Second locations are just not a good thing. And they were crazy fast. And they had drugged my friends. So if anyone was going to get us out of this, well, it had to be me. The car barely slowed down as we turned onto a main road. But there were other cars now. Well at least one other car that we were fast approaching. I scrambled up the window and I started screaming and banging on the windows like a crazed animal. Hoping someone in the passing vehicle would see. It can't have been more than a minute or two since we'd been in the parking lot. Already the streets were unfamiliar.

The car slowed infinitesmally and before I could think it through I grabbed the door handle. Maybe I could jump? Maybe the open door would get someone's attention? And then, from the corner of my eye I saw Malcolm reach back towards me. I felt him grab my hair and my forehead slammed into the glass. My grip released the door handle before I'd even had a chance to tug it open. And then sharp pain, then swirling darkness, then nothing.