Creature of a New Kind

Forces of Light and Dark

Sookie had been shocked when Eric had told her that Fangtasia was gone and he was devoting his life to their collective enjoyment. She could not remember living in such a way since she had been a child. Ever since she had heard thoughts and been constantly bothered by other's problems, she had never had a true day of peace.

She was determined to find her peace now. She would bake pies and read books and paint and do all of the things that she had wished she had time for before.

She was awoken by a sound outside of her window. Eric had not stayed the night before. Sookie had been glad for his discretion. She was not ready to have him back in her house, She knelt up on her bed and looked out the window and felt her eyes grow wide.

Eric was stood, in blue jeans and a white vest, shovel in his hand. He was digging up her garden, sweat dripping off of him in the morning sun. She shrugged on a dressing gown and slippers and went out to him.
"What on earth are you doing?" She called to him, shielding the sun with her hand.
"I thought you might want some vegetables." He nodded down to the bag of seeds that was slumped on the ground.

Sookie chuckled as he leant himself against the shovel.
"Why do I feel that you have never done this before?" She asked and he shrugged his shoulders.
"Planting vegetables? Yes. Digging big holes and sticking things in them? Not so much." He told her and she rolled her eyes, turning and letting him get back to his potatoes.

She called him in for lunch. Sookie and Jessica had taken to eating as they had when they were human: three square meals a day. But even when Eric had been human, he had never eaten three meals, there just wasn't enough food. But, when Sookie made pie, or fried chicken, he would indulge himself.

They sat around the table and ate pot pie until their bellies were full and they all wanted to take a nap.
"I'm going to a pottery class with my mother today." Jessica revealed and Sookie was delighted that she had made such progress with her parents.
"Who have we become, going to pottery classes in the middle of the day!" Sookie shook her head as she cleared away the dishes.
"What do you want to do?" Eric asked her and it felt as if it was the first time anyone had asked her that question.

She thought for a long while, wondering what she would like from her day.
"I would like to go to the bookstore and buy a new book, then spend the day reading on the couch." She mused and he nodded to her.
"Then we shall do it." He agreed and she wondered how it could be so simple, to do simply as one pleased.

The afternoon brought with it the late autumn chill. Winter was coming and Sookie was not best pleased about it. She pulled on her thick knit sweater and made her way to the car. She wanted to go alone, if she was honest. But Eric was not happy with her going anywhere alone recently, in fear that she might be attacked for whatever reason.

He was wearing a thick black turtleneck as he opened the door to his matte black Ferrari. Sookie took a moment to mourn her little old 'shitty' car as Eric would put it. They turned on the radio and heard Tara's familiar voice.
"If you ask me, we'll all be born again sooner or later. No one wants to live in the darkness forever."

Eric listened to her and grimaced. She was partially right, but also entirely wrong. He knew that many vampires, those who dwelled in nests and got off on scaring humans, would have no interest in walking in the daylight. He feared as more and more vamps walked in the sun, that a civil war of kinds might start between the vamps and the born again vamps. He had no idea why they couldn't exist in their own realms, untouched by one another. But he had a sneaking suspicion that there would be more trouble ahead.

Sookie perused the aisles at the local book store. It had been so long since she had bought a new book. Life had seemed too hectic for escapism and when your life was vampires and fae and other dimensions, not much could shock you in the way of fiction.

She picked up a trashy paperback, the kind with a shirtless man on the front. It was exactly the kind of book she would have read before she had met Bill, before she had been sucked down into this world. Back then, she would have read it until the spine snapped.

Eric took the book from her hands and let his eyebrows raise in a false shock.
"Oh... is this what your mind is on?" He asked her and she clawed to get the book back. He lifted it, out of her reach.
"If you want some romance Sookie, all you need do is ask." He told her in a suggestive kind of voice and she crossed her arms over her chest.
"I want the romance in the book. I'm pretty tired of the real deal for now." She huffed and he released the book back to her, leaning his head down to her level.
"Very well. Treat this as your research." He tapped his finger on her book and she shuddered, shaking her head.

He paid for the book before she could offer and she carried it in her arms, foregoing a bag.
"What will you do with your time now?" She asked and he sighed.
"I am still Sheriff of Area 5, whatever that means. I should call a meeting with the local Sheriffs, really. I want to see what the plan is." He thought aloud and Sookie looked over at him with confusion in her eyes.
"Plan? Plan for what?" She asked and he refused to tell her. But she saw it, in his mind, there was a band of rabid vampires, roaming at night, lashing out in response to their new daylight lives.
"Do you think there will be conflict?" She asked and his gaze turned steely.
"There is always conflict with our people." He told her and she sighed, so much for ladies at leisure.