Chapter 1 – Extra Ordinary Thing

Fallen fragile,
Broken busted,
All for nothing.
Sing my heart out
For a stranger -
Extra Ordinary thing.
Sing my heart out
For a stranger -
Extraordinary thing.
[Aqualung – Extra Ordinary Thing]

„You're sittin' here for hours now, young Lady – are you waitin' for somethin'?"

The stranger's sudden attention to her person, ripped Laura abruptly out of her daydreams. She was surprised by his regard, as she'd only been silently listening to him and blinked owlishly at the elderly man sitting on a card box on the corner of the street.

The lamp there, shone on him like a spotlight and gave him an even shabbier appearance than he already had, making the grime and wrinkles on his face and clothes even more prominent. With a fisher-hat that obviously was past its prime on his head and fingerless gloves, which were already falling apart as well, he sat there cross-legged and played on his instrument.

But in contrast to him and his whole figure, his accordion looked extremely well-kept. In fact, Laura even suspected he had taken the time to polish it before he stopped to play here.

He had ceased his performance and started to put his precious instrument in its case, while his eyes darted into her direction every once in a while. Lent to a tree trunk right on the sidewalk, she had listened to the incredibly melancholy sounds he conjured from his accordion – and obviously she had lost track of time.

The sun had already set and she was not an inch closer to her goal, than the time she had left her apartment in the afternoon.

Initially, she had planned to get her butt out and on the streets to sing. Not on this street in particular, but it had always been a dream of her, to sing in front of other people – and where would it have been easier to find listeners, than in the streets of a city as big as Dallas?

But as making music is a way to express feelings and passions in a tangible, perceptible form, her chicken-hearted side had so far clearly maintained the upper hand and she had passed all the potential places, she would have had an audience – just for the simple reason BECAUSE she would've had audience.

As Laura was actually quite a loner, she was neither used to, nor overly keen on showing her feelings to strangers.

Turned out to be quite a problem in this case...

She had ended up listening to various other musicians instead of playing music herself and spent all her money in them, because she would have felt bad if she had simply passed them by. By the time she had accepted, that she wouldn't be able to sing a single tone at this time of the day (because there were definitely too many people on the streets), she went back to the musician she liked most, sat down under a nearby tree and ate a few slices of rusk in the late afternoon sun.

And here she was – apparently hours later – inspected the quite skilled, potentially homeless old man.

When she had left her apartment in the early afternoon – well, her grandma's to be precise – her honey-colored hair had been tied up in a neat bun. Now a few wisps fell into her face and the bun itself hung a few inches lower than intended and made her look more easy going than she really was.

Laura was in fact quite a control freak. She'd created her first timetable when she was four, so she'd never forget to feed her rat Steward (she had always hoped he would start to talk to her like Steward Little – certainly this childish dream never came true...) – though she made an effort not to be overly organized for a couple of months now.

With an absentminded sigh she brushed a few crumbs of her afternoon-snack off her skirt and arranged it neatly over her petticoat. It was black and had ribbons in different colors and shapes appliquéd.

Since she had been a bit chubby in high school, she had fallen in love with the 50s style and how it simultaneously emphasized female curves and concealed other, not so convenient ones. That also was about the time she became interested in fashion and began to sew a little. By now, most of the clothes in her wardrobe were self-made – as the ones she wore this particular night.

"Well … not exactly", she finally answered the man's question and bit on her lip in embarrassment, "Just killing time". To cover up her own horror about her daydreaming (where the heck had the time just gone?) she shrugged her shoulders and examined the musician.

Though she admired his skill, she could have done well without this pitying look he had for her...

"No offense Miss, but you shouldn't be 'round here at night – at least not alone. I'm goin' back to my shack now – you'll get along?", he asked and sounded genuinely concerned. Well, now she at least knew he had a roof over his head...

A bit taken aback by his unexpected kindness she muttered a "I'm a big girl – I'll manage..." and watched as he just nodded and gathered his few belongings.

With her now rather delicate appearance, he probably didn't think she'd be nineteen already - her almost fragile figure often caused people to deem her younger than she really was. An adult in the eye of the law, but still not allowed to drink alcohol.

Still it stood on her list…

Sometimes she longed for this feeling that special liquid supposedly procured, described as numbing, but simultaneously mood improving. She would definitely find a way to try it out soon – maybe in combination with visiting a country where it was allowed to be consumed at her age...

When the accordion player had left, she looked around and scanned the area for any possible company. It was already quite dark and the street lights had been activated some time ago. The tree she sat under and her own silhouette cast long shadows on the sidewalk, as well as the other trees along the alley.

Only a few people were still on the go and those who had passed her by, were all in a hurry and not the least interested in her or her intentions.

And this was perfect – it was her moment!

She carefully unzipped the envelope of her ukulele, pulled her instrument out and laid the cover on the ground in front of her. Just because she couldn't stand performing in front of an audience, didn't mean she wouldn't at least pretend to earn a little money by singing for others!

She lightly brushed over the surface of her ukulele in a tender movement, caressing the grooves and scratches it had obtained over time. They were still tangible, but a few years ago she had covered them with convoluted, geometric ornaments in a sudden fit of inspiration.

She was still quite content with her work – the black varnish on the reddish wood did look rather nice - but with time she had started to regret her actions. Life had taught her to appreciate the simple things more and more and she had learned to accept things as they were – the purer and more natural, the better. At the very least scratches and scars told stories of an eventful life.

Mostly, that is.

Fortunately the sound of her instrument was not affected by her creative excess on its exterior. She played a few beats of an Irish lullaby to get a feeling for the strings and proceeded to the first song a few minutes later. Hesitantly she started to sing the first few lines of 'Clocks', while still scanning the area around her.

She liked to hear tunes about life and death lately, therefore it was just plausible she also sang the songs she enjoyed the most.

The more time passed and the longer she stayed alone, the more confident she grew. Totally dedicated to the music, she started swaying to the beat at some point, with her eyes closed and still sitting on the roots of her tree.

By the time she opened her eyes again, she was just singing 'Far from any road', but immediately fell silent at the sight in front of her. She even had trouble keeping her ukulele from kissing the ground because of it.

Was it really necessary to scare the living daylights out of her?!

Just a few feet away, a boy was leaning totally relaxed against the wall in front of her. Well – she assumed it was a boy, she couldn't see much of him. He wore a dark sweater with the hood pulled over his head and half into his face, while his hands were buried in his pockets. Both – his trousers and his hoodie – were very loose and let plenty of room for imagination.

"Pardon me, Miss, I did not intend to scare you. Your voice allured me... If I have frightened you, I am truly sorry!"

His voice was deep and smooth and she caught herself wishing, he would continue talking to her. He had a sort of accent she couldn't quite put her finger on, it sounded lovely all the same. But while she enjoyed the sonority of his voice, the content put her a little off her stride.

She had never sung in front of another person – not even in front of her parents (at least not intentionally) – so the statement that he felt her voice 'alluring', was something new to her. It caused a telltale heat to rise to her cheeks, but because of the sparse lighting, she hoped it would remain unnoticed by her opposite.

"Would asking you to continue singing be too much?", he inquired and she could vaguely see him tilting his head to the side. Unfortunately, his movement didn't allow her any further aspect of his face, so she curiously leaned a little closer and tried her luck from a lower angle. Now she would have had a quite good peek at his face, if it weren't for the shadow of his hood, which made it impossible for her to make anything out. Slightly disappointed she strengthened the grip on her instrument and sat back against the tree trunk again, straightening her position once again.

"If it isn't too much to ask you, to take your hood off – I might think about it..." she tried to persuade him with a faint grin on her face, but continued in a slightly harsher tone, "I don't like speaking – let alone singing – to someone who hasn't at least the courtesy to show me his face!"

It was not her intention to be rude, but not being able to look into his eyes made her feel uneasy. He could be a serial killer for all she knew! Not that looking somebody into the eyes would change such a fact - but still!

While shifting his weight from one foot to the other, he seemed a bit irritated and hesitated for a moment, before he replied, "I am afraid I would frighten you …"

She couldn't stop a dry lough from escaping her mouth. So he thought his mummed appearance would – in all seriousness – let her feel more at ease, than if he just showed his face? What a weird guy...

"Do you have a scar on your face?", she blurted out with a raised eyebrow, as she had collected her thoughts.

"No."

"Do you miss an eye?"

"... No."

"Your nose?"

"No. I am absolutely positive that all parts of my body are in place.", he replied dryly. Laura could almost feel his displeasure about her little mockery, but she didn't really care. She was just glad she'd been able to lure him out of his shell a little. There wasn't much to see be seen of him, but it was obvious how rigid his posture had been - now it seemed almost relaxed!

"Good. Then I don't understand why I should be scared of your face!", she simply stated and crossed her arms in front of her chest, with her Ukulele somewhere in between. It must have looked awkward, but she tried to look as self-confident as possible and expectantly stared at him.

He glanced at her for a brief moment, before he reluctantly raised his hands to the hood and brushed it back. And to say that she was positively surprised by the sight he'd revealed, would be the understatement of the century.

Laura had already been set for a monumental honker or at least a face covered with pimples, but in fact she just got the permission to lay her eyes on one of the most beautiful faces she'd ever seen. One of the variety, which you would want to take a picture of, or inspire paintings …

He had a prominent jawline with a slightly pointed chin. The shadows that cast over his subtly bowed head, accented his characteristics even more. His lightly curved lips were pressed together in a tight line and gave him a strained look.

Because of the lack of light she couldn't quite tell his eye color, but she expected it would fit just as perfectly to his appearance, as his other features did.

But aside from his delicate facial attributes and captivating eyes, she noticed that his skin was so pale, that it almost reflected the dim light of the street lamp. Was that the reason why he had covered his face?

"You are a vampire."

Her statement caused him to sigh and he closed his eyes, nodding. His relaxed posture vanished, but he tried to remain calm and put his hands back into his pockets.

"I would not be surprised if you wanted me to leave..."

Now that truly baffled her. He thought she wanted him to leave? What a misinterpretation! She was delighted to finally meet a vampire – it was even on her list: 'meet a vampire and talk to them (if they are kind enough not to kill you before you have the chance to)'.

She ran her gaze over his torso and watched as his appearance turned from tense to slumped. His shoulders were hunched forward and his head was also bowed. In addition, a small fold had formed between his eyebrows, which gave him a downright pained expression. He looked defeated.

"No, I don't want you to... Normally I can't stand people listening to me, that's why I'm here at this time of day – well night. I'm too much of a chicken to sing in front of an audience – even if I'd love to. But hey – at some point I have to start and pull myself together, why not start now?"

Laura tried to give him the most honest and reassuring smile she could muster and took a calming breath. She had no idea what kind of thoughts tormented him, and she doubted that he would want to confide in a 19 year old girl – whatever it was. So her only opportunity was to cheer him up with a little bit of human kindness – and music of course.

While she had spoken, he had opened his eyes and lifted his head. His look changed to an expressionless one, but when she smiled at him the corner of his mouth twitched ever so slightly upwards as well.

They looked at each other for a while, until she finally realized that he probably wanted her to begin singing. Embarrassed, she cleared her throat and tugged away at the strings of her ukulele.

"I should probably start... I think I already know which song I'd like to sing for you."

She broke eye contact and tried as best she could to focus on her instrument. Some beats playing ahead with the ukulele, she began to sing with an initially quite shaky voice.

After the first two stanzas, she felt comfortable enough to look up at the vampire-boy in front of her and as she did so, she encountered his very attentive expression when their eyes met.

"And I came upon a doctor
Who appeared in quite poor health.
I said, "There's nothing I can do for you
You can't do for yourself"
He said, "Oh, yes you can, just hold my hand
I think that that would help"
So I sat with him a while
And I asked him how he felt .
He said, "I think I'm cured
No, in fact I'm sure of it
Thank you stranger
For your therapeutic smile."

So that's how I learned the lesson
That everyone's alone
And your eyes must do some raining
If you're ever gonna grow .
When crying won't help - you can't compose yourself,
It's best to compose a poem .
An honest verse of longing
Or a simple song of hope.
We'll keep working on the problem
We know we'll never solve ,
Of love's uneven remainders .
Our lives are fractions of a whole ,

But if the world could remain within a frame
Like a painting on a wall
Then I think we'd see the beauty then
And stand staring in awe
At our still lives posed
Like a bowl of oranges .
Like a story told
By the fault lines and the soil"

The closer the song came to its end, the more his gaze won on intensity and even if she had avoided it at first, she couldn't avert her glance as soon as they had eye contact.

It was almost as if he would enchant her in some kind of way. Of course vampires in fact had these special skills, but she doubted that he actively contributed something to this fascination she felt at the sight of him. Rather, she had the feeling that her subconscious forced her to savor the moment as best she could. Who knew if she'd ever come so close to a vampire again – and such a handsome one at that...

When the last tone of her ukulele died away, she could just smile at him – albeit a little embarrassed. This particular song had the ability to cheer her up every time she listened to it, and whereas she had skipped a phrase, it might as well have helped a little, to let him see a few things from a slightly different perspective.

Because most problems were just a matter of perspective anyway...

She cleared her throat self-consciously, when he hadn't been moving even the tiniest bit after a few minutes and was afraid her song selection had upset him. But then he suddenly closed his eyes, exhaled slowly and... unexpectedly smiled at her.

Another score on her list she could check off now: 'make a stranger smile'.

"This was a remarkably lovely choice you made … Thank you", he whispered, still smiling slightly. She couldn't prevent her cheeks from blushing again and with the knowledge, that he was a vampire and certainly able to see it, she turned even redder. A bit angry about her body's reaction, she attempted to cover her face in a humorous way and simply held the body of her ukulele in front of it.

When she felt that her cheeks had calmed down again, she let her instrument sink into her lap, quickly glanced at his face and was met by an amused grin. She just shrugged her shoulders to play her previous performance down and began to ship her ukulele in its case again. With practiced hands it was quickly stowed and placed in her backpack.

"Well … I'm heading home now – it's quite late already..." she began softly and sat up against the tree trunk.

She often felt dizzy when she stood up too quickly, so she leaned against the trunk to keep her balance when the world started to spin around her.

The stranger pushed himself off the wall and was in front of her within a second. He bestowed an almost worried look on her and she had to smile about that thought. A vampire was worried about a human girl with equilibrium problems – and this Newlin guy claimed, vampires would be 'creatures of Satan' and had 'no compassion'.

"I would like to escort you home. It is not wise to wander the streets alone at night. You would represent a tempting prey for my kind...", he explained with a smooth voice.

Laura turned and looked at him, just before she nodded gently. What was the worst that could happen? If he had wanted to hurt her, he would have done it half an hour ago!

After the first few steps, she realized that she was probably not in the best shape, but before she could fall back to the tree trunk to grab a hold, an arm was already wrapped around her shoulders and steadied her.

"I am afraid you are not in the constitution to walk home at this moment. Let me carry you to your residence – it would take only a fraction of the time we would need to walk. I just need you to direct the way..."

"You can't carry me all the way home – that's way too far," she stammered and looked at him in horror. Only now she became aware how close he was and as if he had guessed her thoughts, she felt his grip around her shoulder loosen a little.

As she could see now, his eyes had the color of fern leaves – something in between green and grey. They gave him a thoroughgoing enigmatic appearance – she had never seen anybody with such an eye-color, but as she had assumed it fit marvelously to the rest of him...

He only smiled at her in a mild way and before she knew it, he had caught the back of her knees with his other arm and lifted her up. She hardly managed to suppress a scream – that wouldn't have been particularly pleasant for his over-sensitive ears...

"Believe me: carrying your petite body will not demand the slightest effort from me", he laughed while he examined her, "Now … the directions please?!"

He stood still, with Laura in his arms and expectantly gazed down at her. Did she even want him to bring her home yet? She could just as well sit a little longer under the tree with him. But it was probably already too late to backtrack...

She murmured a short description of the directions into his shoulder and then leant her head against it. Only subconsciously she recognized that his body felt much more muscular than she had suspected.

The cold night air quickly passed her by. He had to be traveling at an insane speed, but she didn't dare to open her eyes to check her assumptions. She couldn't take the risk of getting sick and fast movements tended to make her uncomfortable.

The thought that their paths would separate soon, pricked worse at her than she had thought possible. She had just become acquainted with this vampire, my god – she didn't even know his name!

Since she came to Dallas she had obviously been more lonesome than she had realized before. Probably this was the reason why she felt so attached to this stranger...

"We have arrived," he breathed into her ear, when he suddenly came to a halt and she lifted her head a little to take a look around.

They really were in her neighborhood – in fact they even stood in front of the main entrance of her residential building. Barely a minute ago, he had lifted her up into his arms and now they were already at their destination?!

The handsome stranger carefully put her to the ground and continued to support her, as she parted from him, still a little shakily.

"Thank you. That was very kind of you," she managed to rasp and walked as confident as possible to the main door. She had the feeling there wasn't anything left for her to say and although she desperately wanted to extend the time in his company, she couldn't for the life of her find a plausible reason for them to keep talking – even less a reason for them to stay in touch.

He watched from a few feet's distance, as she dug her key out and unlocked the door. She opened it just a few inches but paused for a moment, while neither of them said a word. With a sigh she opened the door fully, as he hadn't reacted in any way and wanted to close it behind her. But when a thought suddenly crossed her mind, she immediately stopped in her movement.

"I don't even know your name," she whispered through the half closed door, knowing he would catch her every word. At least she didn't want to be forced to think of him as 'handsome stranger' or something...

"Godric," he replied immediately and within the blink of an eye he stood only a few steps away from her.

"Pardon?", she blurted out in confusion and opened the door a little more to eye him questioningly. She had been a bit taken aback by his speed and wasn't really able to comprehend what he'd said at that moment.

"My name is Godric", he told her patiently and closed the gap between them with three graceful steps, "Should you ever be threatened by vampires of this area, tell them you are under my protection and no harm will come upon you."

She looked at him with wide eyes and gulped, secretly hoping that she would never be in such a situation. Her first collision with a vampire had probably been a lucky strike – according to his assumptions. She definitely had more luck than judgement.

"Thank you Godric. I don't know how to thank you sufficiently..."

He only smiled gently and slowly put a finger under her chin. She would have had enough time to avert her head, but instead she pointedly stood his gaze.

"There is no need to thank me" he whispered, rubbing his thumb gently over her chin as he lifted it softly. Even though he was not particularly tall for a man, he was still two or three inches taller than herself and she had to look up to meet his eyes.

"But I would really like to know your name as well..." he finally broke the silence after some hesitation. A smile began to spread across her face.

This meant he had some sort of interest in her, right? Perhaps she would see him again after all...

"Laura Freeman", she whispered and instinctively leaned into his touch, as his hand grazed up to her cheek. Their eyes were still locked on each other and she had the feeling, he'd be able to see right into her core.

"Laura Freeman", he echoed with his velvety voice and a chill ran down her spine at the sound of her name. She absentmindedly bit on her lower lip and took a deep breath.

With a little bit more practice dealing with men, she wouldn't feel as uneasy and self-conscious now. She should have given in to some of the attempts of her friends, to hook her up with somebody. Damn her solitary manner …

He slowly ran his index finger from her temple over her cheek and down to her chin again. With every passing second, the feeling that he deliberately turned her head, grew stronger and apparently her gaze let him guess her thoughts, because a cunning grin formed around his lips.

"Maybe we will meet again, Laura Freeman. Have a good night", he said softly and leaned forward to place a chaste kiss on her forehead. He let go of her chin, turned around and took a few steps into the darkness of the night before he glanced at her over his shoulder.

"And thank you for your therapeutic smile", his low voice reached her ears for a last time..

And with that, he was gone.

AN: As you may have noticed, English is not my native tongue – so please have mercy with me... But don't get me wrong: I would really appreciate it, if you'd point any mistakes I probably made out to me! I could correct them – and everybody would benefit ;) Thanks for reading and every review is immensely appreciated ;)

last update: 05/2021