Chapter 9: Unadulterated Rage

And there had to be a way to get away from him.

I planned for months before ever actually testing an escape on Vivien. I possessed intelligence far beyond my years, but he was still a great deal smarter and stronger than I was. It unnerved me a bit to think that in all his days of keeping me close to his side he had probably accounted for me to try and escape some day. My method would have to be unexpected, and it would have to be quick…exceedingly quick. Eventually I found my loophole. Through Vivien's love for me he had made the biggest mistake of all- he had revealed the vampire's many weaknesses for fear that I would somehow fall victim to them. I wanted to laugh at how poetic it was that he would be the one to fall victim to them.

After procuring a pair of finely tailored leather gloves from a store (I was an expert shoplifter) I returned to an activity that I had not done since I was human. I glided gently through crowds of unsuspecting French aristocrats; to them there was nothing suspicious about a small pale girl with red hair roaming the streets at night, and pick-pocketed. It took a while until finally I found the item I was looking for: an expensive pocket watch on a very long, silver chain. It was the first time I had ever held silver; it was beautiful, but I did well to remind myself that it was also incredibly lethal when handled with bare skin.

Later that night I returned to our loft (the upstairs was merely a show for our quarters in the basement) and saw Vivien pacing around through the window, undoubtedly anxious for my return.

"Mon dieu", he exclaimed when I opened the door, "and where have you been, Chérie?"

In an instant he was holding my face in his hands, his eyes practically burning a hole into my forehead.

"I've begun to worry so much about you. You seem distant… more withdrawn. Are you bored with Paris? We could leave if you wish it so" he whispered in lavish French. Vivien's sharp blue eyes dissipated my thoughts for a moment; it was another one his unfortunate powers over me.

But then, I smiled sweetly. It was the one thing Vivien could not resist: my smile.

"Please, mon amour, sit down before you crush my face. I have something I want to show you" I crooned back in my sweetest French.

I grasped both of his hands in mine, making sure it was more of a loving squeeze than an anticipatory crush, and led him over to his favorite chair. Vivien collapsed into it, and I wrapped my arms around his neck lovingly, letting my lips graze the nape of his neck. I wanted oh-so-very-much to spit down the back of his shirt. But I waited patiently for a few minutes while he patted my hands over his chest.

"Just sit for a moment, I'll go and get it", I murmured in his ear. Gently, I unwrapped my arms from his shoulders and padded over to the black sack I had left lying by the door. Vivien paid almost no attention to me digging through the sack, as he was very much occupied with rubbing his temples in thought- an action that seemed unnecessarily human. I knew that my next act would have to be quick- before he decided it would be a good idea to lock me in the cellar for the night. Softly, I pulled the black leather gloves back on and snatched the silver chain out of the sack, it glinted for a second in the light of a nearby candle, and I half expected Vivien to notice it in the corner of his eye. When he did nothing, I padded back over to his chair, the chain clutched in my fist.

"What is it you wanted to show me, Chérie?" he questioned as I took my place at the back of his chair. He removed his hands from his temples, and turned his head to look at me.

I made sure that the next thing I said was in English, a language that had not been taught to me by the man I hated most. "I want to show you, Vivien, something that I think, perhaps, will change your outlook on our relationship."

Vivien was granted no time to give me a confused look, to question why I was wearing gloves, or to even act on an impulse of an instinct…there was only a quick snapping sound as I wrapped the silver chain around his neck and pushed him to the floor. His flesh seared as I pulled his head back, and he cried out to me, mostly in a jabber of "stop" or "please stop". He scraped his nails across the floor boards, trying with pathetic desperation to get away. He wouldn't hurt me. The fucking coward wouldn't even reach back and rip my arms from right out of their sockets.

"You monster", I snarled as I held him down, "I will be locked in this hell no longer! Your love for me is only a falsehood of your vile lust for my youth!"

In my animalistic rage, I flung my foot into the wood floorboards, splintering a section almost perfectly. With one hand still gripping the chain, I drove a splintered wood piece through an upper portion of his spine. Vivien didn't explode in one piece, no- the lower part of his body went first, bursting open with whatever organs or bones it is that vampires still possess. I screamed and backed up against the opposite wall from him, letting the silver chain still hang around his neck. He looked at me, his eyes bleeding, his fangs driven through his lower lip, and said absolutely nothing. The man who I had been absolutely sure would fight against his ultimate demise, let the rest of his body melt into the floor-nothing more than a bloody soup.

His eyes went last. I believe, Leo, with every fiber of my ostentatious existence that he was trying to look at me until he could no longer. Vivien hungered for me even in terrible destruction.

I left that house in Paris, and waited for the feelings of humanity to return to my body. It never came. But America still awaited me, and it was time to continue living- or rather, continue being. How exactly I came to be in Shreveport, Louisiana of all places is not important. What is important is that you know things never got better for me, and neither will they getter any better for you from this moment forward.

Wake up, Leo.

Are you depressed yet? But seriously though- next chapter we'll get back to more Leo.

P.S: If you live in the U.S True Blood season 3 starts tomorrow night. I'm not even gonna try to express how excited I am. I'll leave it to your imagination.