Angel in the Dark

Chapter 1 :: Welcome Back

                             [ ᴛʜᴇsᴇ ᴠɪᴏʟᴇɴᴛ ᴅᴇʟɪɢʜᴛs, ʜᴀᴠᴇ ᴠɪᴏʟᴇɴᴛ ᴇɴᴅs ]

I took a deep as I entered the town limits which were announced by the the weathered down, 'Welcome to Bon Temps' sign. A sign that I had seldom passed before. As a child, this town was my world everything i knew up to my sixteen years came from this little town. There are a few who argue that one cannot learn too much in these towns, they think towns like these are inhibited by ignorant rednecks who mate with their cousins. Little do they know they are the ignorant ones themselves, for in these small towns you find a diversity of people who have a tight bond with their neighbors, in a small town you find a sense of community and people are generally always friendly. People seemed to genuinely care about each other. And then there are your regular assholes but unfortunately the world's filled with them so you can't avoid them. 

There were a few curious eyes who looked at my unfamiliar car, it was nothing flashy since i was and still am a broke college student but I managed to buy myself a nice 2006 Honda Civic with the money i earned from selling my old car and some money i earned through working. But my silver-blue car attracted attention since everyone knew everyone at least by sight and an outsider's car would not go unnoticed. I hadn't told anyone about my return so there would be no one expecting me.

Now that i think about it, it was a terrible idea to not tell anyone about my return. Way to go Aurelia, you sure know how to screw up. Now i have no where to stay and no one who was counting on my visit (so much for the Southern small town hospitality i was thinking about a minute ago), maybe if i can swallow my pride I can go back to my Uncle Jesse. But that's not going to happen, I left that house tall and proud and I will not give him the satisfaction of kicking me out again. Besides I'm a grown twenty-one year old women who has taken care of herself since the tender age of eight when her mother went berserk. I'll be fine, it's a line I've recited to myself countless times i don't know if it helps anyone else but it provides an odd sense of comfort to me. If anything I'll just have to rent a room at the local motel which i did the previous two nights. I sighed wondering why I always stress myself more than I should, I must have anxiety problems. 

The dashboard informed me of my lack of gas, i had only stopped for gas when it was really necessary because i didn't want to stop driving. Driving soothed me, it kept my mind off of New Orleans and the events which had occurred there, the event which I was running from. If I'd just stayed in California - i shook my head this was not the time to think about what could've happened because what was done was done and there was no point in regretting anything. I exhaled sharply imagining all my thoughts and all my feelings dissolving into the air and away from me. After a few more seconds of wandering i found myself pulling into a gas station, i parked next to the gas pump and hopped out of my car heading towards the little store in order to pay for the gas. The cashier was half asleep, "What can I help you with?" she said in a civil tone and I recognized who she was. Maudette Pickens, who I had always despised, just to sum her in one word she was a, bitch. I entered high school at the early age of twelve and that alone complicates the whole friend making business not to mention the fact that I am very shy when I meet someone for the first time. Well luckily Maudette came in and complicated the whole process by spreading rumors among my peers, I'm lucky a few of my peers disliked her enough to bond with me over that. I always found that peculiar, the way you can bond with someone over the hatred you have towards someone else. She was never liked in school by the majority of our classmates, i wonder if that's why she picked on me maybe she believed that by making someone else the outcast she'd finally be accepted.

"Thirty-five dollars on four." i replied in a bored tone as i reached for my credit card. I paid and walked out wondering why she didn't recognize me, I mean she hated (and feared) me enough to. Had I really changed that much? Oh I hope that puberty did that thing which made scrawny kids insanely hot and my low self-esteem hadn't allow me to see it. A light chuckle escaped my lips as i realized how insane i am, she didn't even pay attention to me despite the fact that I nearly killed her, it was an accident I didn't even know what I was back then. I scared myself more than I scared her when I realized what I could do, what I was capable of when I was angry.    

And then another realization hit me right then and there when my stomach grumbled, I'm hungry I hadn't eaten since breakfast, it was dark now and I knew just the place. I hopped into my car and drove to Merlottes a place where i worked shortly before i left Bon Temps, it was a few months old back then and my first job. I remembered the way there as if it had only been a few days since i left instead of five years, a smile crept onto my lips as i reminisced  about my time working there. By the time I was done going down memory lane I found myself in front of Merlottes Sam Merlotte, the owner, had fixed the place up. The restaurant had always reminded me of a cabin because of it's structure, the wooden panels were painted a dark forest green like the forest surrounding it, Merlottes seemed to camouflage into the forest expect for the neon beer brand sign which decorated the windows and the giant neon sign on the roof which declared the bar's name to be Merlotte's. I tied a red flannel shirt around my hips to cover my bum from showing Daisy Dukes aren't the best in covering up your behind, my excuse for wearing them: summer was just starting in Louisiana and it was hotter than a firecracker on the forth of July. I looked around the bar and the dining room seeing many familiar faces, all matured but still recognizable. I got myself comfortable on one of the booths near the windows which faced the parking lot. "Hi! Welcome to Merlotte's I'm Dawn I'll be your waitress today. Would you like anything to drink?" she asked in that sweet southern drawl that I had dropped years ago.

I looked up at the friendly face and smiled, I remembered Dawn she was the closest thing to a best friend that I had in this town and the existence of my limited high school social life had been thanks to her. "Yeah I'll just have an iced tea." I replied looking up at her as she set the menu in front of me. 

Dawn nodded and maintained that smile, but it seemed forced now, "I'll be right back with that." she replied as she ran off, she looks like she'd seen a ghost. I looked at my reflection in the window, my face was nothing out of the ordinary, my curls were tamed something miraculous for a person with naturally curly hair. So why the hell did she react like that? I tried to think of anything that happened between us that would make her act like this but nothing came up.      

"Aurelia Compton? Is it you?" a new voice said, startling me. I looked at the pretty blonde waitress who had spoken, she looked at me with guarded eyes but her expression was clean of any emotion. I remembered her, Sookie Stackhouse, she had been sweet to me when I lived here we were both the odd ones so we had managed to become friends. I nodded once and kept a tight smile on my lips.

"The one and only." i answered in the brightest tone i could muster up. She looked surprised and I rose an eyebrow questioningly. Sookie took a seat in front of me, not meeting my eyes.  

"Sorry it's just that no one ever expected to see you again."

"Well I didn't expect to come back, but she looks like she saw a ghost. Hell, you look like you just saw a ghost." I countered. She looked at me uneasily and bit her lip nervously almost like she didn't know what to tell me.

"That's just the thing, she thinks she saw a ghost. I think I'm seeing a ghost." 

"Sookie, what the hell?!"

"It's just that we - you're -," she bit her lip. "we were told you were dead."              

Author's Note ::

First actual story here on Wattpad so I'm sorry if it's slow I promise it will get better. Constructive criticism would be greatly appreciated.