by wordpresswhisperer@gmail.com | Jan 3, 2015
Rated: T (for now) AU (time)
With her back to the ocean, on the beaches of La Push, Bella stood holding a lantern. Thanks to the witches of Mystic Falls she had been sent back in time. The goal was to intercept Damon, before he turned off his emotions and caused harm to himself and others.
She was told to be on this beach, on this night, in order to intercept him. The witches believed her blood would be enough to call him back from the edge. Bella was always willing to sacrifice herself for her friends.
Bella knew many people didn’t understand Damon, but having been hurt herself she knew sometimes, you had to lash out or use sarcasm just to keep from drowning. Her and Damon had clicked the first day they ran into each other. Just as Edward was unable to read her mind, Damon was unable to compel her.
“You smell delicious darling.” Bella turned, keeping the lantern lowered.
“You said the same thing the first time we met.”
Damon reared back, a confused scowl covering his face.
“I’m apologize, I don’t believe we’ve met.”
“Yes we have Damon Salvatore. In the future you meet me outside The Grill in Mystic Falls. You tell me I smell delicious and then try to compel me, which doesn’t work.”
She raises the lantern so they can see each other, although he had no trouble seeing her. He looks into her eyes and attempts to compel her. Saying, “you will tell me everything before I drain you dry.”
“You won’t drain me, but nice try.”
“Damn, you really can’t be compelled. How did you get here if you’re from the future? How did you know about compelling, and do you know what I am?”
“The witches, Bonnie and her mother, sent me back. I know about compelling because you told me, after searching me for Vervain. Which, I don’t have on me. And, you are a vampire. I know this because I use to be in love with a Cold-One. You and your brother Stefan told me about Originals and your type of vampire. Plus, I was friends with Shapeshifters here in La Push, before moving to Mystic Falls.”
“Shapeshifters, Vampires and Witchs, Oh my!”
Bella giggle, while nodding her head. “Yes, my life has been quite and adventure.”
“And here you are. Why are you here again?”
“I was sent to keep you from turning your emotions off. My time here is short before I must return to my timeline. There are two possible futures. One, you turn your emotions off. You kill more people than your brother, the reaper, and the future for everyone is dark and bleak.
“In the second future, you and I have met, you keep your emotions turned on, even after I leave. We have a bright, happy future for a long time.”
“Does a long time mean eternity?”
“A long time can be whatever we want it to be.”
His hand raises and caresses Bella’s face. “I think I like future two.”
“Me too,” she replies with a smile.
Standing on her tiptoes, having placed the lantern on the ground,her arms wrap around his neck and begins earnestly kissing him. He wraps his arms around her waist and lifts her to his level. Off in the distance wolves howl, announcing the coming of a bright future for many species.
[polldaddy poll=”8629378″]
by wordpresswhisperer@gmail.com | Jan 2, 2015
Warnings: Death (more mentioned than descriptive)
The previous Death was nothing but a great Bastard, with a capital B.
He had, after several millennia of watching over the Earth’s inhabitants and their souls, given three of his treasures to three brothers. The brothers Peverell had taken the Elder Wand, the Resurrection Stone and the Elder Wand, and brought them into the world.
Years would pass before any of the items would come close to each other again, and as the tale of the Three Brothers told the world, when united, one would become the Master of Death.
And here’s the kicker. Instead of being nothing more than a fancy title to throw around at parties, or becoming an immortal to wander around the Earth, Death had just a bit more fun with the one Wizard that ended up owning all three of his treasures. By accident at that.
For there was no such thing as becoming the Master of Death. Death, after all, was finite. Death came to everyone eventually, and Death’s only equal was life. Such an entity was not able to be Mastered, not by anyone. To gain the treasures of Death, to hold all three of them, even if you did not want them, meant to become Death.
After his many years of watching the souls of the people pass on, guiding the lost souls to the river of Styx, Death had become bored. However, Death could not simply pass on. The Earth would become overrun with both humans and lost souls, destroying the balance Death was tasked with to keep. If one were to destroy the balance, they would feel as if they were sat afire by the Eternal Flame. Death was no exception.
So it was with great reluctance that Death kept doing his job after millions of years of doing the same. Until his treasures were finally united. It did not, like the creation of this universe, come about with a great bang. One moment the treasures were apart, the other they were united. And Death could do nothing but smile when his body became human, and withered away in a mere second.
And so, the next Death as tasked with taking the mantle. For him, it was strange. Just moments ago, he had been a boy hero, heralded by his people for taking down one of the darkest Wizards of all time. Before suddenly he wasn’t. He became an entity, unseen by others, only in contact with his Reapers. Not that they were great company either.
They did not have a mouth, so the conversation in the In Between was not aplenty. The ghosts that dwell the Earth could see him and could hypothetically speak to him. If only they did not float away screaming as soon as they saw him. They were afraid of him. Ghosts were created because the soul was afraid to die. Lost souls, that’s what the previous Death had called them. The new one just kept calling them ghosts, before they were forced to pass on.
Whenever Death felt in a mood to catch them anyways. Sometimes, he just did not want to bother.
It took but a couple of hundred years for him to adapt to his role as Death, and soon his existence became as dull and stagnant as it did for the previous Death. Sure, in the first decades, Death watched the wars the ant-like humans participated in like one would an ant being burned by reflected sunlight. But even that became boring.
Sure, there was this one moment, in the beginning, where he interfered with the world and allowed the Americans to finally track down Osama bin Laden, however he couldn’t keep interfering in every little thing he did not agree with. If he did, the balance would disappear. For if there was good, there had to be bad.
But even the balance can be dangerous. It was now the year 6529, and Death had just watched the last animal die of dehydration. The humans had long since died out, their own pollution catching up with them in the worst ways possible. It was as if the old Egypt plagues had swept over the lands of the Earth and taken just the humans with them.
Death had watching with a morbid fascination as the humans screamed in their beds and floor as their bodies killed them from inside out. Their organs failing on them. The babies and elderly were first to go, their immune system the weakest. The poor followed, and slowly the middle-class were also succumbing. The last person alive had been Death’s experiment, infusing souls in the man’s body just to see how long the man would survive.
Ten days.
He survived ten days of continuous dying and being forcibly revived again, only to die of the same illness not minutes later. In the end, the madness that had taken over the man’s mind had made even Death unable to place a soul in the body, as rotten away as it was already.
The man had died, leaving behind a destroyed planet where the last animals that were alive were continuously fighting each other, fighting for a scrap of food, fighting to keep alive. But the plagues had gotten to them too. The rats, the bringers of the Black Death, had been the first to bring the plague to the animal kingdom.
And ironically enough, they were one of the last species to survive. Cockroaches held out a year longer than them, not that it surprised Death in any way, of course.
With a sigh, Death turned around in the In Between, and walked slowly towards his personal domain, the Underworld. It was a fancy name for a great empty place where the soul inhabited the walls. The religions used to brag about their specific versions of Hell, of the Underworld, of Purgatory. They talked about the great fires that were never-ending, they talked about the Demons that inhabited the place, they talked about the endless torture.
But it was just a mansion with no furniture. After all, Death did not eat, Death did not sleep, Death did nothing other than stare at the world with empty but all-knowing eyes. With just the Reapers and the Ferrylady for company.
Turning towards his mansion, Death walked towards the river that would carry him into the underworld when a drop of water fell on the back of his hand. Tilting his head upwards slightly, Death stared silently as cloudless skies started pouring water over his head. It seems that the time had come, finally.
Walking towards the silent figure standing besides the river, a slight smile twitched on Death’s face. There she stood, the one link to his once human life. The Moon that kept him a relatively sane being. The one person that had always stood with one foot in the real world, and one foot in the In Between.
“It seems the time has come, Mister Death.”
Her voice was still soft and dreamy, carried carefully by the winds. Her white dress dragged through the mud that was forming at her feet, the lantern that she used to guide souls in her hands, now being obsolete.
“Indeed it has, Lady Moon. This world has come to an end. The next world will have to start. Are you prepared to die, my lady?”
The young lady looked up, bright blue eyes staring at his still glowing green ones.
“I have been ready to die for centuries, Mister Death. But this is not the end for us yet.”
Death sighed, but placed his hand on top of the Ferrylady’s shoulder.
“It never is. Come along then, dear lady, our next adventure awaits.”
[polldaddy poll=”8629378″]
by wordpresswhisperer@gmail.com | Jan 1, 2015
Sookie stood on the shore of her brother Jason’s pond. The reflection of the moon on the water spilled in a rippled arrow toward the far shore. She found herself smiling. The pond was not large, but it had a dock and there were fish. From where she stood she could look up the hill and see the back of the house where she grew up.
Sookie didn’t live here anymore. She now lived across town in her Grandmother’s house on Hummingbird Lane. When her parents had died her Gran had taken in both Jason and herself. The good woman had raised them as her own. When Jason got older, he moved back to this house; their parents’ house and he’d been living here ever since. But in all these years, Sookie had never seen him throw a party like this. Jason had a new girlfriend. Michele, with a single ‘l’. He was thinking she might be the one, and Sookie thought he might be right. Michele was steady and she knew how to keep Jason in his place. Anyone could see that Jason Stackhouse was crazy about her.
It was April in Bon Temps. Not too hot, but not crazy cold either. Michele had mentioned that it would be fun to have a theme party. She’d asked Sookie and Sookie had said without even a thought, “Gone With the Wind.” It was Sookie’s favorite movie. There had been days recently, when the thought of Scarlett standing on the hill, shaking that turnip and promising herself that she’d never be hungry again had been all that stood between Sookie and a feeling of deep despair.
Sometimes Sookie reflected on the events in her life. She was still recovering from a terrible ordeal. She couldn’t believe that this had been part of her life. She had been captured and tortured by people who wanted to damage her great grandfather. The trauma lingered still. It had taken months for her to heal physically, but she had scars she would probably carry the rest of her life. Most days she wondered if she would ever truly heal mentally. But for every step she took forward; every time she slept through the night or found she didn’t shudder when someone approached her, she had one person to thank. Eric Northman.
Eric had held her. He had cried with her. He had refused to leave her alone, even when she begged. He had held her at night and made love to her, knowing that she wasn’t able to be open to him as she had in past. It was because of his patience and his pushing that she had slowly recovered herself.
Sookie found herself thinking about her life – the steps and experiences that had brought her to this moment. Sookie lived and worked in Bon Temps, Louisiana all her life. She hadn’t had an easy childhood. Sookie had been born a telepath. No one could explain why that was. What she did know was this: knowing what everyone was thinking all the time could sure put a look of crazy on your face. It had taken years to learn how not to let folks know that she could hear all their random thoughts – the good and the bad. ‘Crazy Sookie.’ That’s what they used to call her. There was a time when she had seen herself that way too. But it occurred to her, standing and looking out into the night, that something had changed.
That change had started the day she found out she wasn’t the only ‘different’ one in the world. She’d been curious when she had heard that vampires were real. Then meeting one and finding out that she couldn’t hear his thoughts had been a real eye opener. She realized there were people in the world that she could have friendships with and not worry about hearing hurtful things. Being around vampires was restful to her. As time passed, she learned there were other creatures who were restful too – two-natured who could shift into animal form. With each revelation, Sookie realized she felt less alone.
Sookie had become more comfortable with her own difference. She had learned how to control her telepathy. Then she had learned to use it to help others.
But she hadn’t really started to love herself until she saw things through the eyes of Eric Northman.
Eric.
There was something about him, like a low voltage electrical current. He could be calming, or he could irritate the hell out of her. She loved him. She was ready to admit that to herself. She might even be ready to tell him. What was not certain on any given day was whether that was good or bad.
She remembered Gran telling her once, “Sookie, there are two kinds of men in this world. There are boyfriends and husbands. Boyfriends are spark and light and romance and they make your heart beat fast. They are the highest highs. But then they are also the lowest lows. Husbands are less drama and more patience. They aren’t sprinters; they are the long distance. They are dependable and that may not always feel exciting, but you never have to worry about spending long nights all alone.”
Sookie used to think that she had a good idea what Gran would think of Eric. “Boyfriend,” she’d say. “Boyfriend all the way.”
But lately, Sookie wasn’t so sure.
On those days that things were good, he looked at her in a way that made her feel like a princess. When he talked with her, it was as an equal. He didn’t see anything strange about her. He always seemed to be proud of her – when he wasn’t mad at her about something. Sookie grimaced. The latest fighting thing had been the status of their relationship. Eric would tell people they were married. But Sookie didn’t feel married. And she didn’t like Eric telling people they were. The waving of a knife in some vampire mumbo jumbo moment just didn’t feel like a ring and to have and to hold.
The wind rippled the water. Sookie breathed in the spring air and allowed her thoughts to calm. Spring was her favorite time of year. There was something about the scent of the earth in spring – like growing, bountiful things full of promise. It made Sookie remember how different things were for her in Bon Temps now. She had friends. Some were human. Some were not so human. She had more family than she had known and they wanted to be around her. She was invited to things like christenings and weddings and baby showers. Most days now, she felt like she was normal; like she fit in.
Eric Northman might be high handed, but because Eric treated her like she was valued, she felt valuable. Because he treated her like she was worthy and interesting and sexy, she took that on herself. No one had so much faith in her.
Sookie looked down at herself. She wished she had been able to arrange a real hoop skirt, but the dress she did have was pretty and elegant and romantic with lace at the neck and a ruffle. She had her hair up in a chignon. Michele assured her she looked as pretty as any belle at Twelve Oaks or Tara.
When the party started, Sookie stood with Jason and Michele to welcome folks. Michele had hired a small band from town with an accordion and a fiddle to play dance music. Jason and his buddy Hoyt had put down a wood dance floor in the backyard.
Sookie turned from the water to look back at the white Christmas lights that twinkled around the back of the house. She could smell the barbecue. She had taken a lantern with her to light the path to the water’s edge. It was kind of romantic. And that was the problem. Sookie was all dressed up but no hope of seeing Eric Northman.
Eric had boss trouble. But that wasn’t really the half of it. Boss troubles in vampire speak usually meant people losing limbs or being killed. Sookie had started to appreciate just how close Eric was to one of those two options most days. The appointed regent of his territory, Victor, made no bones about hating Eric. Victor went out of his way to make trouble for Eric. Eric would tell Sookie little things about having to keep two sets of books or having to put in lots of extra hours to stay ahead. But Sookie could also feel the general undercurrent of unhappiness that was probably Eric through the bond they shared.
It seemed so unfair that they had come so far, only to be faced with trial after trial.
Of course she had asked him to come tonight. She reminded him how crazy she was about Scarlett and Rhett. She had heard the sorrow in his voice as he apologized. “I am so sorry dear heart. Victor has announced that he intends to visit me tonight. I will make it up to you. I wish it was otherwise.”
Even though she understood, there was some small part of Sookie that felt betrayed. She wondered, not for the first time, if all of this was worth it. But then she thought of his smile and his beauty when his eyes landed on her and his whole face would light up. And, in spite of herself she found herself smiling.
She turned back toward the water one more time and came face to face with Eric Northman. He was hovering over the water. Her smile turned into laughter. She set down the lantern and leaped into his arms. And he caught her, his arms coming around her waist and drawing her into him until she felt surrounded by his embrace. Her cheek lay next to his chest, and she breathed in his wonderful, dry scent.
He brought her firmly to shore and made sure she was on her feet. Then he stepped back and made a bow. For the first time she saw his outfit. He was wearing a black tuxedo with long tails. His shoes were black patent leather. His shirt was white with a ruffle and his bowtie was white too. And she realized he was wearing the same outfit that Rhett Butler had worn when he bid for Scarlett’s hand to lead the Virginia Reel.
“Eric? I didn’t think you could make it.” Sookie couldn’t take her eyes from him. He stared down at her with a quiet intensity. His blond hair was tied tightly back. It seemed almost silver in the moonlight.
He stepped forward and took her hand, first in one of his own hands, then in both. He studied her hand as if searching for something. And then he brought her hand to his lips. He kissed the back, and then turned it to kiss her palm. He laid her hand against his cheek. Sookie found herself melting into his touch. Then he raised his eyes to her own. “My lover, I could not go through this night without seeing you. I was able to distract Victor and get away.”
“Oh, I am so glad you did!” And Sookie found herself laughing. “Eric Northman! Where did you find that outfit?”
Eric stepped back and struck a pose. “You did say everyone was wearing costumes. Did you think I only know about lycra and spandex?” Sookie found herself blushing as she remembered the hot pink outfit and how she’d found herself lying on top of his car hood. When he leered down at her with a knowing eye, she pursed her mouth and pushed back from him.
“Oh, now you’re just fishing for compliments! If I tell you how good you look I’ll need a wheel barrow to get your ego up the hill!”
Eric threw his head back and laughed. Then he stepped forward and wrapped his arm around her waist. He pulled her to him and said,” You need kissing badly. That’s what’s wrong with you. You should be kissed and often, and by someone who knows how.” And then he showed her in no uncertain terms that he knew how all the kissing should be done. When she was breathless, he took her hand and led her up the hill. The band had started. Under the lights Sookie and Eric spun round and round to Amelia’s Waltz and Blind Mary. There were other dancers on the wood floor under the stars that night, but Sookie could never remember any other face but her Viking’s.
In the hard days that came with the arrival of Appius, Sookie found her thoughts returning to that night. They had stayed on the dance floor, twirling in each other’s arms until the band had quit. Sookie knew that for the rest of her life, she would always have that moment, in the arms of her lover; a perfect moment; a moment that would tide them through forever.
[polldaddy poll=”8629378″]
