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

[feel_human]

"I..."

Sookie folds her hands in her lap, tight, and looks down, not wanting to see the way his face will change when she tells him, not wanting to hear how his thoughts will change. "I have a... disability. It's why... why I get so distracted all the time. And why people here think I'm... why they call me crazy."

She wets her lips and forces herself to meet his eyes. To tear off the bandage. "I can hear people's thoughts," she says, low. "What I am... is a telepath."

[gavemea_45]

His mouth falls open slightly in shock, and for a few stunned seconds Sam can't think of anything but the white noise of static due to shock.

"Really?"

[feel_human]

She nods, slowly, wariness seeping into her eyes. It's an awful risk she's taking, spilling her most closely guarded secret like this, but... vampires. And if he grew up learning about worse, then... maybe he knows a little something about what's made her this way.

But she still holds herself stiff and wary, waiting to see which way the wind will blow.

[gavemea_45]

"Huh." He gathers himself, trying to think it through, trying to figure out what it could mean. "I've heard about psychics - ones who weren't faking it, I mean, but I don't know if any of them were telepaths."

John had always been willing to give credence to psychics, at least long enough to see if they were running a con, although Sam doesn't know why.

[feel_human]

"I'm not psychic," she snaps, more curtly than she means. It takes a second for her of breathing deep to push back all the old, sore memories. "It doesn't work that way. I can't read minds, I just... hear. And I try not to, honest to God, only..."

She reaches up to rub at her head, the ache worse than ever despite taking out her tight ponytail. "Only I can't always help it. And it's exhaustin', tryin' to keep it all out."

[gavemea_45]

"Hey," Sam says, a little surprised. "Hey. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to upset you."

Gently, he adds, "I guess it would be. And, uh, loud, I suppose?"

[feel_human]

"Like you wouldn't believe."

She breathes again, counts to five, and exhales before she meets his eyes. "I've never known why I'm like this. I just have been, ever since I was born. Everyone's thoughts, if I'm not careful. But then, tonight..."

Sookie shakes her head. "When Bill came in, it was like it all just shut up and went away. I couldn't hear him at all, not even a little. It was like there was nothin' there."

[gavemea_45]

"I wish I had an answer for you." Everyone's thoughts. And she's still talking to him. Sam takes a moment to be glad he hadn't been lying - well, too much - or otherwise a problem, given how pretty she is, and reminds himself to be on his best behavior in his mind, too.

It's weird to think about, and he decides not to. She's still a person, just special. (Like a psychic, even if she doesn't like that comparison.) She's not a monster. She's not trying to hurt anyone.

"You couldn't? Huh." Sam frowns over that. "I wonder if he could tell. I guess maybe he could, so maybe he got curious."

That could be a problem, or would if he weren't already planning to deal with him.

[feel_human]

"Maybe. Could be why he couldn't... what'd you call it? Glamour me. But, Sam..."

She leans forward, watching him closely. No doubt this'll come as a huge shock, but he deserves to know. "There's somethin' different about you, too. I can't hear you clear at all. Maybe if I were really tryin'... but it's weird. I've never come across anyone like you before."

[gavemea_45]

Sam stares blankly at her. "You can't? You haven't?"

That doesn't make any sense at all.

[feel_human]

"I mean... I can get a little," she admits. "But I haven't pushed or pried, I promise. It's nothin' like Bill, either, it's... it's kinda like hearin' through cotton balls."

Her mouth presses into a rueful line as she studies him. "I'm sorry. I know it's an awful thing to hear. And it might not mean anythin' at all. Like I said, I've never really been too far outside of Bon Temps. Could be there's lots of people out there I'd have a hard time hearin'."

[gavemea_45]

He's quick to reassure her. "Hey, it's okay. It's not your fault, whatever it is. It doesn't change anything."

Sam smiles. "Besides, if everything else is that loud, then at least I'm not yelling in your head, right?"

[feel_human]

For the first time since she'd stepped out the back door of Merlotte's, her shy smile flickers back over her lips.

"It's kinda relaxin'."

[gavemea_45]

Sam laughs a little. "So that's good, right?"

[feel_human]

Her smile grows, despite everything. "Uh-huh."

It is, and she'd thought so, herself, hadn't she? But she sobers up quickly enough. "But I just can't see how it wouldn't be related. My disability, I mean. With Bill showin' up, and all. It's the only thing that's different about me."

[gavemea_45]

"Why do you call it a disability?"

Sam frowns, thinking. She's probably right, and he doesn't like it. "He came right in," he says, slowly. "They don't usually do that, unless they're looking for trouble. Sat down at one of your tables. If he knew about you... it might be important to find out how."

He looks like he's bitten into a lemon at the very thought.

[feel_human]

"Why wouldn't I?"

It's sure as hell kept her from having a normal life. But she brushes past that, watching him with troubled eyes. "I guess that means talkin' to him again, huh?"

[gavemea_45]

"I have to say, it wasn't what I was planning," Sam says, a little grimly. "I don't like it. But I like the idea of another of his nest showing up and catching you unawares a hell of a lot less."

[feel_human]

"Nest?"

She certainly doesn't like the sound of that. "You think there might be more?"

[gavemea_45]

"Sometimes they hunt in groups," he admits, reluctantly. "Sometimes alone, but not always. Not that we've - that I've seen, anyway."

[feel_human]

She absorbs this, lifting her glass to finally take a sip of the sweet tea, letting its familiar taste soothe her.

"How would we be able to find that out?"

[gavemea_45]

Sam breathes in and out, and gives her a steady look. "Come daylight, I was figuring on checking out this Compton place to see if he really was there. And if he was... dealing with him."

[feel_human]

She has the sinking suspicion she knows what he's going to say, even without hearing his thoughts. "Dealin' with him how, exactly?"

[gavemea_45]

"Making sure he wasn't going to hurt anyone. Ever again," Sam says, steadily. "But now, it's more complicated."

[feel_human]

She blows a breath through her lips. "I can't say I feel all that great about murderin' my new neighbor," she says, wry, "even if he is a vampire. And I guess he's probably done a lot of bad things, but... he didn't hurt me tonight. He didn't even try. And..."

Sookie leans forward, studying him. "Not to put too fine a point on it, Sam, but with the way he moved, I think he probably could've, even with you there."