saturday night and the moon is out

[feel_human]

Tucked away off the road in Bon Temps, there's a road house. Warm light spills from its windows, and the sound of a jukebox playing drifts out into the muggy Louisiana night. The regular assortment of trucks and Hail-Mary-please-keep-this-lemon-goin'-just-a-little-longer cars sit in the dirt parking lot; what amounts to about half the town's small population... or, at least, of those of the 'drinking age and above' persuasion.

Inside, it's a bar of the type scattered all across the American South: homey, no-nonsense. Booths and tables. A man in a plaid flannel shirt wiping the bar; a crossdresser in the kitchen singing Gospel hymns and rolling his hips in time with the words just to scandalize the prep cook. A handful of waitresses, bustling about.

Sookie makes her way briskly through it all, a tray balanced on her palm and her eyes kept stubbornly front, as voices swarm around her. Aloud, and... less so.

...I’m just going to have one beer tonight Jesus one beer that’s all...

...better not gripe about me eating fries not after what I did for him last night...

...I cannot wait to get the hell out of this podunk town...

 

 "Well, make sure you do, and before it’s too late," she responds, thoughtless, to the young man. "Because every year you wait? You just get more and more stuck here. Believe me, I know."

He stares at her. So do his parents.

So does the other table. And she realizes, too little too late, that he hadn't said that out loud, not at all. She laughs, uncomfortable. "I’ll get y'all some ketchup," she says, brightly, and flees, ponytail swinging against the nape of her neck as she goes.

Stupid, Sookie, she chides herself. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

 

Comments

[gavemea_45]

“I don’t know. That could be part of it, I guess.” Sam shrugs, a little. “But I know a lot about the kinds of things that are out there that most people don’t believe in. Maybe that makes me more likely to accept. Anyway, you already know my biggest secret.”

[feel_human]

"It's not people's biggest secrets that make them get so mad at me," she says, soft.

She doesn't know why it is she seems to be trying to get him to change his mind about her. Maybe it's just that even her nearest and dearest have a hell of a time with her disability, and mostly want to pretend it doesn't exist at all, and so she can't stop herself from pressing on his strange acceptance. "It's the little things. All the nasty little thoughts they can't stop themselves from havin'. The things that keep them up at night. Mistakes and hopes and dreams, things maybe they don't even yet recognize themselves."

Sookie shakes her head, though she doesn't let go of his hand. "Their most sacred and most awful thoughts, I hear them all. Or I could. Except I spend all day long workin' not to."

[gavemea_45]

Dreams. Sam pushes away the memory of his strange nightmare about a woman he doesn't know in flames on the ceiling above him and shakes his head.

"That's the thing, though," he says. "You're not trying to listen in. You're trying not to."

[feel_human]

For a second, flames erupt across her vision, and she blinks, her breath catching, before she focuses again and gives him a rueful half-smile.

"So you don't think I'm one of those monsters you hunt?"

[gavemea_45]

"You're definitely not one of the monsters," Sam says. Firmly.

[feel_human]

"No?"

She takes a step closer, her mouth tugging amused and a little teasing as she glances up at him from beneath dark lashes. Her eyes are bright with mischief. "I don't know, could be I'm tryin' to get you off your guard with all my feminine wiles, just waitin' for the right moment to strike."

[gavemea_45]

Sam grins back at her, answering laughter in his glance. "Is that so? What happens when you strike?"

[feel_human]

"Well, if I told you, it wouldn't be very effective, now would it?" she asks, prim.

[gavemea_45]

He laughs and swings their linked hands back and forth. "I'll take my chances."

[feel_human]

She grins at that, her teasing evaporating, and pulls him back into a slow stroll. "You have a real nice laugh, you know that?"

[gavemea_45]

"No, I didn't," Sam tells her, letting her lead him along. "Thanks?"

[feel_human]

"You're welcome," she says, amused all over again.

But it's probably the wrong time and place to flirt, even if he is holding her hand. She turns her attention back to the churchyard around them. "Anyhow, if history's somethin' you're interested in, there's plenty to be found here. This is where everyone in town gets buried. Been that way since the beginnin'."

[gavemea_45]

"Everybody, huh?" Sam looks around with more intent. "So the Comptons of the old Compton place would be here too?"

[feel_human]

"Uh-huh. But I'm not sure where."

Parts of the old place are overgrown, hard-to-read stones half-covered in moss and vines. She glances up at him. "You want to look around for them?"

[gavemea_45]

"Let's do that on the way back," he suggests. "I'd rather get a look inside the place first."

[feel_human]

"Okay, then."

It would be nice if this were just a stroll through Bon Temps's pretty graveyard, or anything at all like what she'd sort of started planning out in her head before everything went to hell in a handbasket last night, but there's no getting around the real reason they're out here.

At least she's not one to shy from unappealing tasks. "This way."

She leads him along a path that cuts off to the side, bringing them to a gate in the low iron fencing. Sookie lifts a hand to point along the cleared path ahead. "This leads right to it."

[gavemea_45]

"Let me lead the way," he says, and moves to go ahead of her. "Do you have that knife with you? Just in case?"

[feel_human]

Not only did she not bring it, she hadn't even thought about it until just now, and the look on her face makes that thought process crystal clear. "Sorry."

Maybe she wouldn't be able to use it, but he can, that's clear enough. "I could run back and get it?"

[gavemea_45]

She sounds worried. Sam stops and turns to her. "It's okay," he reassures her. "I have another one with me. I just thought you might feel better if you did. You shouldn't need it now, though."

Especially if the vampire truly means her no harm, although like hell is Sam going to trust to that.

[feel_human]

She shakes her head, looking up at him. "Feel better?" she asks, with a surprised little laugh in her voice.

"I feel just fine. I've got you here, don't I?"

[gavemea_45]

Sam looks surprised for a split second before a pleased look lights his eyes and a warm, fond smile curves his mouth.

"You sure do."

[feel_human]

She smiles back. "Okay, then." Lifting her chin, she indicates the path. "Just along that way."

The graveyard path leads them through another stand of trees, then around a wild explosion of shrubbery before they're greeted by a wide expanse of lawn, dotted here and there with tall trees. There's a walk that leads through the grass, up to the cement steps of a large, graceful old white plantation house, its two airy porches stacked one atop the other. Even from here, she can see the window drapes are pulled. "This is it."

[gavemea_45]

"Hm," he says, studying the windows with their light-blocking coverings. The front door has the same, he notices. "Was there supposed to be anyone living here before?"

[feel_human]

She shakes her head, studying the house. "Old Jesse Compton died last year. Far as I know, he didn't have any heirs."

[gavemea_45]

"Uh-huh." Sam scowls at the house. "Okay, let's go."

He leads the way across the yard to the front porch and ascends the steps as quietly as he can, then cat-foots it along the porch to look around the corner toward the back of the house.