A/N: Okay my apologies for this chapter being so short but it just felt right so I left it. Anyway this chapter was kind of hard to write because the previous chapter didn't exactly go the way I expected, so I had to completely re-order this one. I'm not quite sure if this chapter actually turned out well, it kind of feels like a filler since not that much important happens but please let me know what you think!


Chapter six- Good vs. Evil

Amelia POV

The friendly stranger Annette Bridges stopped in front of Merlotte's just as I had requested, and when I had managed to drag myself from her car to the staff entrance of the bar I wrenched open the door to find Sam standing in the hall with a look of concern on his face. I leapt into his arms relieved to have finally found someone familiar, someone that could help.

"God Amelia you look horrible" Sam gasped pulling me from him to get a good look at me. He shook his head and led me into his office, helping me down onto the soft leather swivel chair behind his desk before reaching into the bottom drawer and producing a small first aid kit. "You never know what will happen around here" He commented when I gave him a questioning look and I nodded understanding completely.

"Ah- Amelia?" came a voice from the door and I glanced up to see Annette standing nervously in the doorway. "Is there anything else that I can do for you before I go?" she asked giving me a small smile. How could this woman still be willing to help? She had already done too much and I couldn't take advantage of her good nature by asking any more of her.

"No thank-you, you have already done more than enough for me. Much more than anyone else would have and I'm really grateful, but I couldn't possibly ask for anything more." I assured her unable to truly explain how much I really did appreciate her stopping for me, any longer and I wasn't sure what might have happened.

"Oh I'm happy to help, but if you're sure..."

"Oh yes and thank-you again"

"Of course" She smiled, reaching into her bag and shuffling around in it for a while before presenting me with a small rectangle of paper. I took it and stared down at it curiously. "That's my number, just in-case you find yourself stumbling down an empty road again and need a lift. I live in Shreveport so I'm not all that far away." Annette told me before giving me a reassuring smile and beginning to retreat towards the door.

"Thanks" I repeated, wincing as Sam began to tend to my ankle

"I hope you find your friend." Annette said before disappearing into the hallway.

"She seemed nice" Sam commented, trying to keep my mind off of the pain while he attempted to arrange my ankle into a better position and bandage it up. "I think that maybe you should go to the hospital, this is pretty bad." He continued still working on my ankle.

"No, it'll be fine. We have to find Sookie." I answered him urgently "Did you find out anything?"

"No I tried calling her but she's not answering her phone and I was about to go and see if I could find out any information at the house when you arrived. Though it was strange, I received a call from Pam earlier tonight telling me that Sookie wouldn't be at work starting tomorrow night and that she wouldn't be back until next week. But...you don't think Eric had anything to do with this do you?"

"No, there's no way that he would hurt her" I replied certain that I was right, I wasn't sure what had happened between them last night when Sookie left me at the restaurant, but I knew that even if he hadn't had the guts to admit anything, he would never do anything to physically harm her. "Come on Sam, even you had to have noticed how acts around her. She doesn't even have to be there, you just mention her and his whole demeanour changes. You have to know that he would do pretty much anything to keep her safe, I'm sure you've heard the rumours."

"Yeah I've heard the rumours and I've seen the way they are about each other but Sookie doesn't want to be with him and I think that Eric would whisk her away just to get what he wants" Sam replied still wary of Eric. Sometimes I wondered about the observational skills of jealous men, I mean it was totally obvious that Eric was crazy about Sookie but he wouldn't do that, it would never win Sookie's heart to just take her that way. Sam could deny it all he wanted but the way I saw it Eric's infatuation with Sookie was here to stay.

"Sam, trust me he wouldn't do that. Even if he did why would he bother hurting me and then throwing me out of a car? If he had wanted to whisk her away he would have just waltzed on in and convinced her to go away with him." I wasn't sure if it would have worked but it sounded to me like something that he would do, Eric was always very...hands on when it came to his bonded. "Besides I suspect that Eric already had his chance." I added, instantly wishing that I could take it back. I really shouldn't have said that to Sam, it was Sookie's business.

"What? What do you mean 'Eric already had his chance'?" Sam questioned, his intense blue eyes snapping up to bore into mine as if he could lift the answer straight from my mind and sounding almost like he was interrogating me.

"Nothing, it's not our business. It's between Sookie and Eric. Why are we even discussing this? We should be trying to find Sookie!" I demanded quickly changing the topic and getting my most important issues in order.

"You're right" He sighed carefully pulling me to my feet and reaching for and umbrella resting beside his messy desk (it was strewn with piles of paper work, a calculator and a few pencils) and handed it to me to use as a makeshift crutch before running a hand through his strawberry blonde hair. "Are you okay to walk to the car by yourself or do you need help?" Sam queried already offering me his arm for support.

"No I'm okay" I replied leaning heavily on the umbrella and shuffling forward out of the office and towards the back door of the bar with Sam following along behind me. When I walked outside I barley registered the quickly brightening sky at dawn and as I climbed into his car I fervently hoped that Sookie wasn't in pain right now.

***

SPOV

'Stay strong'

The thought pushed its way to the front of my mind and I failed to find it's source while Zachary pushed a cling-wrapped sandwich and a banana through the bars of my cell. I crawled towards the window to collect the food and attempted to take the advice of whatever sound part of my brain had conjured up that inspiring thought.

"Zachary, when?" I asked wearily recalling the last time he had visited with that strange man, whose name I had failed to learn in the time that he had spent toying with me. The unknown man's parting words to me had been, 'Don't worry, it won't be long until we send you to the depths of hell where you belong.' And the whole time that I had been left lying here on the floor of my dank cell I had been stewing on it, waiting for him to return and make good on his threat.

"Soon" He replied shoving another small bottle of water through to me and turning away, leaving me to eat what was most likely last meal in peace. As I chewed on the sandwich made of stale bread, butter and two slimy slices of ham I wondered if anyone had noticed that I was gone yet and how long it would actually take them to notice. I didn't know how long I had been there but I felt disgusting, I was still wearing the light grey sweatpants and too short white (now totally discoloured) T-shirt that showed part of my belly. I had thrown them on when I had gotten out of bed in a hurry to defend myself from kidnappers. Trust me if I had, had any forewarning that morning that I was about to be kidnapped then I would have definitely dressed more appropriately. Right now I was cold, dirty, uncomfortable, still had that headache and was living on a time limit. But on the upside at least they were feeding me, even if it was horrible, possibly off food.

I wondered how Jason would react when they told him that I was gone, or dead, either one. Would he be shocked? Would he lash out in anger? Would he bother to shed tears for me? Would he even care or would he just be completely indifferent? I couldn't even imagine what would be worse, for him to cry for the sister that he had used and ignored for too long, or for him to just move on like nothing in his life had changed, as if he wasn't the last Stackhouse. Maybe the whole world would move on like nothing had ever happened. Jason would continue his womanizing ways, Sam would hire a new waitress, Bill would keep travelling, Octavia would continue to live in my house, Pam would act as if she had never had a human friend and Eric... Well Eric would go back to fucking all the fangbangers he wanted. Not that he didn't do that now.

Amelia. I still didn't know what had happened to her; the disgusting man that had visited me ignored all of my questions. The ones about Amelia's whereabouts included. The one thing that I had learnt during that unknown mans appearance was who it was that had taken me from my home and imprisoned me in this cell, with nothing but an endless cycle of sleep and torturing thoughts to accompany me whilst I awaited the moment when someone would come, to end me. The Fellowship of the Sun. I never really understood how they could call themselves a church of God, not when they treated people like they were treating me. They had judged vampires the second that they made their presence known in the world, the Fellowship had even blown up a hotel full of vampires and their human counterparts, well that was what they new about. They were completely oblivious to the Weres and demons in that building though I doubt that would have stopped them. Most of the aforementioned Weres and demons were in the employ of some very important vampires. The so called 'church' had condemned these creatures because they were seen as different and frightening and because of these views the entire species was, in their eyes, evil. My experiences had shown me that though most vampires were at times devious double-crossers, some of them could actually have the capacity to care for something other than themselves. I had been saved by vampires many times (one in particular) and it just goes to show that perhaps the old saying is true, that you 'can't judge a book by its cover'.

When I had first seen Eric he had intrigued and scared me at the same time, if I had gone on my first impression I would have run and never associated with him again. In fact I probably never even would have asked him for his help in finding Dawn and Maudette's murderer, but I hadn't run and I had continued to associate with him, even if it was involuntary in the beginning. But after all I was the one who had asked him to accompany me to that terrible orgy, I had even asked him instead of Bill, who I had been dating at the time. I had trusted Eric with my life even then and he had continued to help me out even when he didn't need to, or it could put him in danger. He had staked Longshadow at one of our first meetings. He had followed me to Dallas and taken a bullet in my defence, then he had gone with me to Jackson, to Club Dead when Bill had left me and run off with his maker ho Lorena. Eric didn't have to help me save Bill, in fact I think that he wouldn't have even bat an eyelid if Bill had finally died. He had even given me his blood (though that was certainly no hardship for him). He had helped me rescue Tara from Mickey before she ended up dead, which was once again not Eric's problem but he assisted me anyway and even showed (some) kindness to Tara. The royal wedding between Sophie-Anne and the king of Arkansas was next, that massacre had been horrific and yet Eric had to be the hero there and protect me from harm.

The Blood-bond. That was the next time he had saved me from death or a life of living hell, he had offered himself as a substitute, as the lesser of two evils, even though he knew what would happen when he did. Then the bombing happened, we went through that together. I had risked everything to save him and he had defied his instincts to rescue us all. And most recently he had introduced me to my great-grandfather, I had found out that myself and my brother weren't the only ones left in our family.

All those things that Eric had done for me had led me to believe that maybe some vampires were capable of good things, even if they weren't capable of emotions such as love. Which he had so aptly demonstrated when I practically threw myself at him the other night. What was I thinking? I had humiliated myself by doing that, I should have known better. I could never be any more than a damsel that seemed to be in distress way too often, that just happened to be a great asset to his area and another woman to bed. He may have showed me kindness and helped me when I was in an awkward situation, but no matter what I did I didn't think that I could ever be truly important to Eric (in a non-political way).

'I'm fighting a losing battle.' I thought as I curled up on the cold concrete to try to gain at least one more hour of sleep before I had to face the inevitable...


PLEASE R&R!!!