Chapter 6 – Fangtasia Revealed

Packing up her home wasn’t nearly as hard as Sookie had thought it would be. She’d thought leaving her childhood home, so full of memories and years of warmth, would be harder than it was turning out to be. Everywhere she looked, memories of Gran and a childhood as full of laughter as it was full of pain jumped out at her, but she would always have those memories and would carry them with her for the rest of her life, she didn’t need the house to remind her of any of it.

Just as she was finishing up her room she heard a car pulling up outside. Not knowing who it could be she opened her mind and heard…Sam. He had better have a damn good reason for intruding on her personal time at her home without warning.

Knock, knock, “Sookie!”

The door was open to keep the heat from getting too oppressive while she was running around getting everything done for her to move tonight.

“Yeah Sam! Just a minute.” Running downstairs to meet him at the door she put on her best easy going smile, she had gotten better at making her smiles seem a bit more natural. He had better keep his peace in her home, not that he would be stepping one foot inside if she had anything to say about it.

“What can I do for you Sam?”

“I just wanted to drop by and apologize Cher, I was out of line yesterday and I hope you reconsider leaving us.” Apologize her foot, he wasn’t sorry at all and they both knew it. This was about her no longer being where he could get to her, he thought that if he just paid lip service to good manners her resolve would crumble and she would want to stay in the safety of the familiar.

“Thank you for the apology Sam. I’m sorry but my mind is made up, and I’m moving to Shreveport today for good so keeping my job here in Bon Temp just wouldn’t be practical.” She kept her smile in place and braced for the backlash of her statement. She didn’t have to wait very long, she never did when someone around here thought she was doing something they didn’t agree with.

“You what! Sookie how could you be so stupid? I don’t understand….” Oh no she would not have this today, today was a good day and it would not be ruined by a grown man having a hissy over something that had nothing to do with him.

“Now you hold it right there Sam Merlotte. You do not come into my home and call me stupid, which just proves to me that we can’t be friends any more. Now Sam I’m gonna ask you just this once to get off my property immediately, if you don’t I will treat you like the hostile intruder you are and get my shotgun, am I making myself clear?” She pushed as much menace into her stance as she could, he better not test her damn it.

The look of pure rage on his face made her take a step back and think that she just might have to go after her gun after all. Thankfully it was fully loaded and only a few steps away in the hall closet.  However; he just turned and stormed out as suddenly as he’d arrived. Though she knew she wouldn’t be seeing anymore of him today, she had the sinking feeling that she hadn’t truly seen the last of him.

Not two hours passed before she knew what Sam had done. Her brother Jason pulled up in his truck and gave her a disappointed look. She braced herself for his condemnation of her actions, but was surprised by the first words out of his mouth.

“You know Sook I always thought that if you ever decided to settle down with some man I would be the first to know, and from you no less. But, I guess I’ll take what I can get hearing the news second hand. I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt and just assume you was so overwhelmed with joy over the new happy turn of events that calling your only sibling just slipped your mind. You need any help moving this stuff or you got it handled?” In that moment she truly loved her brother more than anyone else in the world, save Eric of course.

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Bill could not believe it, Northman had given him not only Sookie’s home but his most lucrative business as well. The note attached to the deeds said something about realizing that his monarch truly deserved both. With the deed to the house on Hummingbird Lane in hand he raced over to sooth Sookie’s fears of having to leave her home. With this he would be a hero to Sookie once more and they would finally be able to move past this chapter in their lives, together.

Coming up to the house at last he found his darling love in form fitting jeans and a ribbed black t-shirt and sandals sweeping her porch as he’d seen her do time and time again. Clearing his throat to gain her attention his smile of greeting was met with a look of absolute boredom.

“Sookie my darling, I have wonderful news.” Once she knew what he had done for her she would be so filled with joy she would rush into his arms and press herself against him like she always used to do.

“Really? What might that be Bill?” Her voice was devoid of all emotion, given his past behavior he completely understood her actions towards him, but what he held in his hands would change all of that soon enough. Holding it up so that she could see the proof of his words he launched into the speech he had practiced for this very moment.

“I now have the deed to your home. I would like to give it to you so that no one will have any sway over you again. I know that you no longer hold any trust in me, but I hope this could be the first step in gaining back what I have lost.” He’d expected tears of joy, a hug, maybe even a kiss of thanks. What he got was… nothing. No reaction at all.

“Keep it.”

“I beg your pardon?” Keep it? Was she asking him to look after her again? Was she going to be his once more?

“You heard me Bill, keep the house. I no longer live here anyway.”

“You don’t live here anymore?” He felt as though someone had struck him over the head with a steel pipe. Sookie didn’t live across the cemetery from him anymore? Where else could she possibly live? She had lived here nearly her entire life and he knew how much this home meant to her.

“Are you gonna keep repeating what I say?” This open hostility was unexpected, things were not going as planned at all.

“Where do you live now, if you don’t mind me asking?” He hoped she had simply chosen to find shelter with her brother while her anger against him burned out, though he doubted he would be so lucky.

“No we don’t mind you asking at all your majesty. Sookie has agreed to come live with me at my home in Shreveport.” Eric had come out of Sookie’s home and now stood behind her with his arms around her waist. His ease with touching his love made his mind go blank with anger. 

This was not how this was supposed to go at all. Sookie was supposed to be his, not Eric’s. She was his soulmate. How could she allow them to be so pulled apart over nothing? Didn’t she understand they were meant to be, and her cavorting with the Viking was only hurting them both.

“Now your majesty if you will excuse us we just finished sending the last of her things ahead and now I must show my Sookie her new home.” With those parting words he watched the Sheriff of Area five take his love in his arms and fly across the skies away from him. 

This he would not allow he would find a way to get her back if it was the last thing he ever did. Now though he had a new business in Fangtasia to inspect.

Bill looked around him in complete shock. It was the most hideous thing he’d ever seen. Fangtasia looked as though it had been redecorated by a demented drag queen, with no taste. 

Gone were the dark seductive colors and beckoning glamour of the dance floor. Now everything was floral and very, very brightly colored. He could have worked with that simply turned it into something other than a nightclub, maybe a sewing shop for old women, with poor eyesight. However; the hanging cherubs that his men soon found out wouldn’t budge even with vampire strength, and the not one, not two, not even three, but four twirling disco balls caught every speck of light to be found and cast it back over the heinous landscape all over again highlighting how none of the colors went together at all.

It was as though someone had thought up every décor faux paux and thrown it all into one space, just to see what would happen. After his initial shock had worn off, he’d planned to just redecorate, turn it back to the way it was. That plan unfortunately was too cost prohibitive, especially since Northman would no longer be on display cutting the number of patrons and therefore revenue in half at least. His next thought was to sell, however, that too was proving impossible.

One look at the place and every potential buyer had quickly stammered their excuses and ran as far and fast as they could, fleeing like rodents from a sinking ship. Oh how he wished he had such an option. Now he was down to his last hail mary, giving it to one of his subjects to turn around for him. When Pam had overheard him mention this plan to one of his guards while emptying out the basement which had remained untouched through the makeover from hell, she’d laughed long and hard telling him that if he tried such a thing his subjects would likely flee the state even quicker than the human buyers had fled the building itself. That may be true but he had to try something. Running his hands through his hair for the hundredth time that night alone he once again cursed Northman and his vulgar sense of humor.

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