AUTHOR'S NOTE: So, here we are. Just you and me. Hangin out, having a rockin good time (at least I am). SO I feel like I can be honest with you. I'm writing this chapter on the same day I posted chapter 1. This one (when it's finished) and the others have just been hanging out in my document manager. I'm scared to post them. Things are dark here in Morganville. Scary, even. And I mean, I know how it's all gonna play out, but the characters don't, and I'm so, so sorry for them. See, I have this nasty habit of treating fictional characters like they're real people. And I just feel bad that I'm doing what I'm doing to them. I'll try to make it up to them in the end. Maybe I will. Also, before you start messaging me after this chapter going, "Seriously? What the...?" Just trust me. I'm the Doctor. I'm quite clever. (And if you PM me to tell me you get this reference, I will seriously give you mad props, a shout-out, and a one shot of your choosing between a number of books/tv shows - I will list them if you ask). Anyway, as I said before, I don't own this, and I hope you read, enjoy, and review. Maybe even fav/follow me. Thanks to NarutoRox and Reddit511 for coming along with me to the second part of my trilogy. Thanks to everyone else who is reading this as well. I hope you'll stay with me for the long haul. Much love to you and yours. ~ Billie

CLAIRE

She was petrified. Sure, she'd known things were bad. Dangerously so. But she hadn't realized they were this bad. She was trapped in a hole with one of the seriously monstrous residents of Morganville. It was like Myrnin back when he was really, truly sick, but without the restraint. She shivered and carefully got to her feet.

"You're awake," Jason said, sounding incredibly cocky. "Good."

"Jason," Claire whispered. "Where am I?"

Jason chuckled as he sauntered closer to her. "You're in my guest room. What, you don't like what I've done to the place?" He spread his arms and gestured at the empty room.

Claire fought back the urge to throw up. Jason was sick. Twisted. But she'd seen him show kindness before. At least, when he thought he was going to get something out of the deal. She needed to play this through. And it was distinctly possible that she was going to have to do some awful things in order to get out of here alive.

She forced herself to smile at the young vampire in front of her. "No, I love it. Very... minimalistic."

Jason paused. He hadn't expected her to respond in any way other than fear. Maybe she had a shot.

"I'm kidding," Claire said, keeping the smile on her face. "I mean, it's got a lot of potential, but you know - it could really use some of the creature comforts of the living. Like a toilet."

Jason smirked in the dim light. "Yeah. Forgot about that."

"I um... I really need to go, by the way."

"Maybe later," he said, dismissing her pleas.

Claire couldn't stand up any more. Her head hurt, her heart hurt. Her knees were weak from fear. She sat back down, wincing when the movement made her stomach roll. "How did I get here?"

Jason came closer before sitting across from her. "You were given to me. All wrapped up like a pretty little present left on my doorstep by the mailman. Way I see it is you pissed someone off. Bad. And, for the first time in my life, fate thought it'd be nice to bring me a little bit of charity. In the form of you."

Claire swallowed hard. "Oh." She shivered again and felt the color drain from her face.

"Don't worry. I'm not gonna hurt you." The 'yet' at at the end of that sentence hung unspoken, but was clearly there. "It's nice to have some company, ya know? I mean, don't get me wrong, now that I'm a total badass vampire, I have all kinds of luck with the ladies - you know, I do love it when they scream. But still. It's nice to have someone around that I don't have to pretend in front of."

Claire sat on her hands to hide their shaking. "I can see how that would be difficult for you."

"Yeah, well. You know. Morganville. God's little shithouse."

Claire nodded. "You've got that right."

Jason sat in silence for a while, every so often moving just a little bit closer to Claire. Every time he moved, Claire jumped, cursing herself for her fear. Every time Claire jumped, Jason smirked. But there was a sadness in that smirk, a self-loathing. He hates himself, Claire realized. He really, truly thought he'd be happier as a vampire, and now that he got his wish, he still hates himself. What must that feel like?

After enduring what felt like an eternity of silence, Claire cleared her throat. "You know, I'm enjoying this whole, 'sit here in companionable silence' thing we've got going on, but I really, really have to go to the bathroom."

He shook his head as if he was jerked out of a reverie. "Oh yeah. Sure. Hold on." Jason walked over to the hole and just jumped up through it. Claire heard him rooting around upstairs and cautiously went to the center. Was he really going to let her out? Or was he going to just bring her down a bucket?

She got her answer a few seconds later when he hopped back into the hole with her. "Hold out your hands."

Claire did so. It wasn't like she had much of a choice. She was a prisoner, and as Jason slapped a pair of handcuffs around her wrists, she knew that he knew it, too. After pressing the cuffs tight - too tight, to be honest - Jason picked her up and jumped up to the first floor. Claire let out a yelp of fear, but if she was being entirely truthful, he was actually very careful with her as he gently put her feet back on the ground.

Claire took a few glances around at the place - it was, unsurprisingly, pretty disgusting. Claire imagined that if he ate food, it would be infested with cockroaches. However, since he didn't, there were just empty bags of blood discarded just about everywhere. It was still disgusting, but he seemed to at least be a neat eater - not a drop was wasted.

His mattress was gross and obviously previously used, but that wasn't much of a concern to her. She wasn't the one sleeping there, after all. All she hoped was that the bathroom was at least kind of clean, and based on her experiences with Jason's personal grooming habits from when he was alive, there was at least an off chance that it had never even been used. Sure enough, as Jason opened a door and roughly lead her in, the bathroom looked pristine - at least as pristine as a low-income apartment bathroom could look.

She noticed there was no window - so no escape option in here. She lifted her eyes to meet Jason's. He didn't seem to be leaving.

"Thank you," she said quietly, "I think I can take it from here."

He smirked. "Yeah. I guess so."

He left and shut the door behind him, but not all the way. He left it open just a crack. Not, Claire thought, so he could watch her, but so he would know if she was doing something other than using the restroom. Claire fumbled with the catch on her dress pants, but she couldn't quite get her hands to line up properly to release the catch. She cursed herself for not having just worn jeans to the funeral - handcuffed hands could take care of buttons with no problem.

Biting her bottom lip, Claire tried to just wiggle out of the pants, sucking her stomach in as tightly as she could. But there was no luck there, either. Oh God... she was going to have to ask Jason for help. Jason Rosser. To help her take her pants off. Claire closed her eyes and gulped. "Um, Jason," she said in a thready voice, "I um, I need a little help."

She felt her cheeks flush bright red as Jason pushed the door back open, a wolfish grin on his face. "Do you, now?"

Claire dropped her eyes. "Please," she begged, "I really have to go to the bathroom."

"I'll do it for a kiss," he said with a leer.

Claire felt tears begin to well up in her eyes. "Please."

She thought he wasn't going to back down. She thought that by refusing to kiss him, maybe she'd pushed him to demand more. But instead, something inside him - some darkness - seemed to give way, and he smiled that self-deprecating smile she had seen him give down in the basement every time she jumped. "I was just kidding," he said, although the tone in his voice told her he was only saying that because she'd rejected him. He slowly and gently lifted her shirt just enough to see the catch, and, with surprisingly little unnecessary skin-on-skin contact, undid the latch. "There," he said, his jaw set and clenching. "Now hurry up."

Claire gave him a look of pure relief as she turned to use the restroom. When she finished, Jason opened the door and helped her re-latch her pants without her asking. When she was settled back into the basement - her new semi-permanent residence, she supposed, and he had taken off her handcuffs, Jason made a quick trip up and then down to bring her a peanut butter sandwich and a lukewarm Coke. She took it gratefully and scarfed it down, despite her stomach's attempts to toss it back up.

Jason crouched, hands on the ground, watching her every move. It was pretty creepy, all things considered. As if he were watching for signs of weakness. But that was stupid, she thought to herself, after all - he'd had her in a much more compromising situation upstairs earlier. But it was something about being down here, with no way out even if she could get past him, that made her heart pound. Jason was still watching her, expectantly.

When she finished, he took her can and napkin and turned to leave. "Hey, Jason?"

Jason turned back around. "What?"

"Thank you," she said softly. "For the food. And the Coke. And... for helping me when we were upstairs."

Something changed in his face - Claire wasn't sure if it was a good thing or a bad thing, but he didn't sound quite as defeated when he replied, "You're welcome."

Then, he was gone, the trap door to the basement was closed, and Claire was left alone in the darkness. She lay down, resting her head on her folded arm, and thought about what had just happened. Jason had been... almost human. Actually, he had behaved entirely human. And that wasn't what she expected of him. He was a sadist - there was plenty of proof of that. And yet, he had her here, alone, completely vulnerable, and he had been almost kind to her. I was too much for her to think on right now.

With a yawn and a sigh, Claire drifted back to sleep, wondering if the Jason she had met today would be the Jason she would see tomorrow.