Paradise Within…Happier Far

Chapter 5

So cold is the night
It's silent without light
Since days they promised us
to be home again.

The Death comes closer
He fear's coming nearer to us
There will be no tomorrow,
Do we go insane?

I have a picture of you with me.

Will there ever be an end?
Will there ever be a last goodbye?
Please tell me there is hope
in silence till we die.

There must be something to believe in.

Waiting it's lately
and there will be a fight
Escape to a new world
What will be behind these lies?

Will there ever be an end?
Will there ever be a last goodbye?
Please tell me there is hope
in silence till we die.

Silence, Primal Fear

While Eric went to find some cloth to wrap the body of Tina in, Sookie brushed her fingers along the top of her precious cat's head. There was little blood there or on the tips of her ears where her fur was downy soft. Tina had been a part of her life at least ten years, and she certainly didn't deserve to die like this. She heard Eric making a quick phone call as he searched for something appropriate and then felt him when he returned to the kitchen doorway while she still stroked her cat's head, her white Keds standing in the pooling blood.

"Sookie?" Eric asked quietly.

Sookie didn't turn around but answered the unspoken question, deep sadness in her voice, but not a single tear on her face. "Please bury her deeply Eric. I don't want scavengers to take what is left of her. Mark her grave so I can get a stone later. Thank you." She turned away from the table and went to get the cleaning supplies, intended to begin cleaning up the mess.

"Sookie. You don't have to clean this up. I'll take care of it."

"No, Eric. I'll do it. You please take care of Tina. Are you sure he is gone? Not hiding in the house anywhere?"

"He is gone. I'll bury her right up by the woods under the willow tree, ok?"

"That would be nice, Eric." Sookie said as he gently gathered the body and as he left the kitchen she turned to filling the bucket with hot water. Again. How many times would she have to clean up blood on her kitchen floor before this was all done? If she was next, who would clean up her blood? She felt a rage begin to build within her at the thought. Whoever this person was, he had ripped her entire family away from her, ripped the safe little town she lived in apart, ripped the very fabric of her life away. The more she thought about it, watching the hot water overflow the bucket in the sink, the more her rage flamed through her brain and her body.

Blindly, she found herself standing at the 50's white kitchen table seeing the chipped formica top soaked in blood, the 50 year old white and steel chairs she had sat at for almost every day for her entire life, coated in congealed blood. NO MORE her brain screamed! She slowly picked up one chair and threw it through the screen door that led from the side yard to the kitchen. Unsatisfied with how far she had thrown that chair, she picked up the next chair, planning to throw it even further into the yard. Soon her rage was breathing hard, but still not released even after having thrown all the chairs into the yard. She looked at the table, knowing the table wouldn't fit through the doorway so she found a Philip's head screwdriver and quicker than she thought possible she had all four legs off the table. She quickly upended the round table on its side and rolled it forcibly through the torn screen door, off the couple of steps, and watched the white table top roll down the hill almost hitting Sam's truck coming up the drive. She didn't bother to care. Sookie just went back inside and gathered the four legs from the table and walked onto the porch steps and threw them one after the other into the darkness.

Eric had watched most of this from where he buried Tina, but as Sam arrived he sped to him and held him in place until Sookie was done. After the table legs, there was nothing left to throw out the broken screen door, now hanging off its hinges like the dilapidated ancient door it was. Eric and Sam cautiously walked up the two steps to the kitchen and looked inside. Sookie sat on the floor in her jeans, blood smeared white tank top, and blood covered Keds cleaning the floor. They could hear a slight humming and singing coming from her. "Amazing Grace, how sweet Thou art…" Sookie's sweet voice sang softly. Her rage and fury spent and her kitchen empty of all furniture, she carefully and respectfully cleaned up the blood from her beloved cat just as she had cleaned up the blood from her Gran a few weeks before.

Like an automaton, she cleaned, rinsed, emptied buckets, refilled, cleaned, rinsed, etc. without ever looking at anything else around her. Eric pulled Sam away from the scene and took him a few steps from the door. They had some things to discuss.

"What the hell happened, Eric?" Sam asked urgently but had enough sense to stay quiet. He could smell the blood of death just as Eric could.

"We went on a walk and when we came back the killer had been here and killed her cat. I don't have a lot of time Sam, sunrise will be here in just a few hours. I am going to arrange to have her house turned into a fortress starting today. I'd like you to meet the contractors here with Sookie and go through the plans. Cost is not an issue. I will be placing trusted guards to watch over her both during the day and the night, but I wanted you to stay with her as much possible when I cannot be."

"And you trust me with this because?" Sam asked skeptically.

"Because she trusts you. And I do too. And I know how you feel about her. You would die before you let anyone near her. It will be easy for you to be around her and protect her in one of your shifter shapes. I think she likes your collie the best." Eric said with a slight smile in his voice. There was of course nothing funny in this situation, but Sookie would need someone or something comforting with her all the time.

A small voice came to them from the kitchen steps, "Eric? I'm finished in here and want to take a shower but I'm scared. Can you come wait with me in the bedroom while I clean myself up? Hi Sam. Are you going to be around when Eric can't be?"

"Yeah, Sookie. You won't be left alone. One of us will be here ok?" Sam said quietly, approaching her carefully as he might a wounded animal.

"Sorry my table top almost hit your truck." As she hugged him tightly, taking in his woodsy smell.

Eric and Sam both laughed slightly. Sam answered her, "Well, I gotta say Sook, I wasn't expecting a big round table top to come flying onto the driveway at my truck. Not something you see every day."

"Eric?" Sookie asked quietly ready to go wash the blood off of her.

"You two go on, I'll get this door rehung and able to be secured somehow while Sookie gets cleaned up." Eric looked at Sam gratefully and led Sookie quietly away whispering in her ear as his arms encircled her. Sam could see her physically relax in Eric's presence.

Sookie closed herself off in her bathroom and scrubbed her body, throwing her clothes in the trash. It had really been a lovely night before they came home and found Tina. She started to cry in the shower when she thought of her cat, of Eric having to leave her soon, of someone trying to kill her. Gone were the simple days of sunbathing, mowing grass, having breakfast with Gran, and waitressing in between. Now it was all killers, vampires, shifters, and the dead surrounding her.

Sookie finally walked out of the bathroom, glad that Eric had left her in the shower alone, knowing how hard that must have been for him listening to her cry and not able to approach her. She had on one of her old worn flannel sleeveless nightgowns, her hair brushed back, and her face bare of makeup. He could tell how much and how hard she had cried, and she could see the pain on his face at having to leave her on her own. He went to hold her and she led him to a large chair in the corner of the room where she sat in his lap, still silently weeping into his shoulder.

"I wish you didn't have to leave."

"I wish I didn't either baby. I could bury myself in the dirt and stay close by if you wanted. Or do you have a storm shelter or something?"

"There is an old storm shelter at the edge of the woods. I imagine it is pretty buried by now. It is all cement and dirt, and there are big beams of wood to keep it closed from the inside."

"Where is it exactly?"

"It's behind the willow tree where you buried Tina. The door is flush with the ground, although you should be able to see the cement top through the leaves. See if that would work. You can drive away in your corvette and park it in the woods, circle back and see if it would work. That way, no one, not even Sam, would know you were here." Sookie's head was tucked into Eric's shirt, her hands fisting his shirt to her.

"That is pretty clear-headed thinking baby. I'll leave you a note if I'm still here. Otherwise, I will be back as soon as it is dark. The alarm people will be coming today. Sam will help you with all of that. Do not leave Sam for any reason, do you understand? Not until I return."

"Got it. I'm scared enough not to fight you on this Eric. I promise." She had curled herself into a tiny ball in his lap, almost falling asleep. He stroked her hair, knowing his presence and silence soothed her. For now, she was exhausted enough to have placed herself into the care of himself and Sam. He heard her whisper singing another song he wasn't familiar with, but the sentiments broke his heart into a million pieces. She fell asleep in his lap with her last words to him that night, "…please tell me there is hope in the silence until we die."

TBC

A/N: Don't forget to review!