It was three fifteen in the afternoon and Theo was sitting on the bed cross-legged as she read through her notes, crossing out some parts and adding bits and pieces that she remembered to others. She'd decided, after a good day's worth of sleeping, that she was scrap her previous work of the article (that she had started before even arriving in Shreveport) and to begin a new one that put vampires in good light.
Tonight was her last night, tomorrow, at two fifteen in the afternoon; she was to leave for home via port key that had (supposedly) been sent to Eric.
She would have to go to Fangtasia and ask for it tonight, after, of course, allowing Eric (and Pam if she wished) to read through the article she'd written. In her opinion, it was the most detailed, explicit thing that she'd ever written – and this was with her head clouded with last night's attempted murder on her, seeing an actual murder, and revelation via Pam – so this had potential to not only knock her bosses socks off, but also get her a career boost.
She was damn excited.
A few hours, three teas and some rice crackers later, she had her final polished work. Theo glanced at the clock and then looked out the window, the sun was close to setting completely, which meant that Pam would be rising soon. This fact brought quivers to run through her body as well.
She lay back down on the bed, paper crinkled under her body and a pen rolled off the covers onto the floor and under the bed as she did so. When she got home tomorrow, she was going to write to Marcus, call him over, and melt into his arms. She needed his musk surrounding her, reminding her of who she was. Being here, with the vampires, cut away from her people, was making her forget who she is, whom she was.
She sat up briefly and cleaned the bed so all the papers were neatly by the side of her onto the bedside table before she relaxed back upon the bed with her hands behind her head.
Home… she thought with soft sadness, I miss my home, the way my house smells and the near uncomfortable stiffness of my bed, my lame shower pressure, Millie – I miss her a lot – and I miss Marcus. She rolled over to her side, looking out at the dark sky; I wonder what he'd say to all of this.
She sat up again, no longer comfortable on the soft bed. She grabbed the mug she'd been drinking from and the plate she'd used, and took them to the kitchen where she rinsed and cleaned them in the sink before drying and placing them back where they had been before.
Then she looked at the clock on the wall, it was full darkness now and the entire vampire population in Shreveport would be up by now.
Sure enough she heard the bathroom shower running. Some small part of her wanted to creep into the shower just to see what Pam would say, while the rest of her wondered what was going to happen tonight.
Her article was done, finished completely, though she had only written the entire thing today majority of that was just piecing notes together and changing a word here or there to bring a complete paragraph together. It wasn't a big article; she'd only taken the good bits leaving out a lot of the negative parts.
Not to mention she edited, and edited, and edited until she was sure there were no typos – though the Daily Prophet had a charm to do that anyway.
Theodora moved from the kitchen, to into the lounge room where she sat gently down onto the large couch and flickered through the television stations. She watched the news until they brought up the Bon Temps murders, before she started to watch some children's program.
As the show went into an ad break, the back of her neck prickled and a shudder went down her spine. She turned around and nearly fell off the couch as she saw Pam behind her with her arms folded as though she'd been there for ages. Which she probably had been.
"How long were you there?" The red headed witch asked as she tried to smooth the creases in her pants, not because there actually was, but because it was something to do.
"Since you changed the channel from the Bon Temps murder on the news to the that children's program," she gave her a look, "I read your newspaper article- it was interesting. I believe that Eric will allow it to be shown by the wizarding public." Visibly Theo relaxed, now realising how tense she had been about that article.
"Good, because it's due tomorrow," she smiled, "tonight's my last night here, I'll be leaving via port key tomorrow afternoon when Eric gives me the key that had been sent to him." Pam gave an interesting look that did not look positive to the statement that came from Theo's mouth. "What?" She asked nervously, her hands clinging tightly to her pants.
"You may not be able to stay home for long," she answered, "but you should talk to Eric about that." Theo had a bad feeling that this had to do with the murder she witnessed.
Crap.
She stood in Fangtasia, standing out like a sore thumb with her gunmetal grey slacks and green turtle neck shirt with her brown leather jacket thrown over the top for warmth. She looked around the fang-bangers and tourists to where Eric should have been on the throne before she decided to check out his office.
He was sitting behind his desk working on something that had a lot of numbers (Taxes maybe?) as she entered. "Ah, my little journalist, Pam tells me you have the newspaper article?" She nodded and reached into her grey bag, pulling out the article and handing it to him to read before she stepped back and sat down.
He read through it before handing it back to her with a slight nod of his head. It was accepted. "Now onto another matter, you wish to go home tomorrow?" She nodded, "Yes well, due to some unfortunate events you will be unable to stay home long, but because of a contract we signed with your people we have to allow you to return home for around a week if things go to plan." She repressed the urge to frown and break into tears.
"So I can go home for a few days before I am obliged to return?" He nodded, "Is this by any chance to do with what I witnessed a few nights about…" She didn't dare finish her sentence, just waited for his confirmation.
"Quite, now here is the port key," he handed her a broken umbrella, "I'll see you in a weeks time." She nodded and turned away from him before leaving. She went out the front of Fangtasia and stood in front of Pam as she allowed a couple to walk through before stopping anyone else from entering.
"Are you getting off before closing or should I catch a cab back?" A large sized man, definitely human though, came up and took her spot. "Well that answers that question," Theo joked badly only to receive a look in return.
They climbed into her car, "Do you really want to go home?" Pam asked, "You've got the whole night a head of you to accomplish anything left undone." Theo looked at Pam under her eyelashes.
"I have a boyfriend who loves me back in England, I met him overseas and he followed me back home, we have fights all the time but we still love each other," Pam raised an eyebrow as Theodora spoke, "I miss him more then I realised that I would in these last days, but less in the first days – the strange thing is that I don't miss him so much as the fact that I miss companionship."
Pam didn't speak, only listened as she spoke.
"I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'm scared that if I stay too close to you, I might find myself doing something regretful, I came to Shreveport in the hopes of destroying vampires – not physically but metaphorically – and instead I come out of it thinking that the vamps that I've met, for the most, are so different to what I expected."
"Do you want to sleep with me?" A question, not asking her if she would like to right now, but asking if that she what she was trying to dodge around. Theo blushed crimson and twisted her hands in her lap.
"I don't know who I am anymore." Pam let out a sarcastic laugh.
"Do me a favour witch, when you go home to your boyfriend tomorrow, fuck him, and when you're done, look into yourself and look back at the history of people you admired greatly in your life, look at the qualities of men you liked and look at your past and see if you only like men because your supposed to."
"W-what?" Pam gave her a look.
"It doesn't matter who you sleep with, what sex you like, or even if you're a virgin or not, your still you regardless of all those things, stop trying to be someone else and just do what you want."
Silence followed before Pam pulled up at the hotel, "What are we here for?" Theo asked, avoiding eyecontact.
"To get your things before tomorrow."