A Creeping Distress

Sonny closed the door behind her and headed back upstairs where she took a shower. It didn’t take long for Sonny to fall asleep. Her dreams seemed to drift to one of herself standing on a rocky shore facing the sea. The water slammed against the rocks causing a cool mist to flush across her skin. She wore a white flowing dress with a long train that blew behind from the wind. It seemed like day time but the sun was replaced by a bright moon that shone just as brightly.

Eric approached her from behind and Sonny turned to give a surprised look at him. They were in his homeland, everything looked and felt so familiar. Somehow their dreams had crossed over with one another’s. There was a strange feeling that ran through their bodies and Eric went to embrace Sonny only to have her slip through his fingers, her image disappearing leaving him all alone on the rocky shore.

Sonny woke up with a start and she heard her phone ringing loudly next to the bed. Picking up the phone she saw that it was a number she didn’t quite recognize. Being that she was not fully awake she let it go to voicemail. For a while she lied in bed before getting up to get dressed. After she dressed in a comfortable pair of jeans and fitted black t-shirt she sat on the bed to listen to the voicemail that the person had left for her. It was Sam Merlotte and he was calling to see how she was. He ended the message quite abrupt and awkward leading her to decide to get some dinner at Merlotte’s. Slipping on her black leather boots she grabbed her purse and keys to drive to Bon Temps. She was grateful of her choice to use a taxi cab the night before as she drove to Merlotte’s.

Sam was cleaning the bar top when Sonny entered the restaurant. He smiled brightly at her upon seeing her. She walked towards the bar with a soft smile on her face. Sitting down on one of the barstools Sonny looked at Sam with an expectant gaze.

“You left an awfully awkward message on my phone, so I decided to let us talk face to face, that and I‘m hungry.” Sonny states.

“People are starting to talk, what with you coming into the bar all the time and making me cupcakes.”

“And what are these people talking about?”

“They think we‘re an item,” Sam says playfully.

“Well I never!” Sonny responds feigning offense and put her hand over heart. Sam chuckled lightly and handed Sonny a menu. Ordering her dinner, she passed the time by talking to Sam. She enjoyed her meal when it finally come and she paid her compliments to Lafayette who cooked it.

Ana arrived at Merlotte’s and saw Sonny sitting at the bar enjoying herself whilst she talked to the shape shifter. She made her way to the bar and kissed Sonny on the forehead. All eyes were on the beautiful blonde that sat down next to Sonny.

“Should I be worried about Eric‘s blood on my floors,” Ana inquires with a teasing smile.

“Nope the rest of him is long gone down the garbage disposal. I thought I cleaned everything up.”

“You missed a spot.”

“How was your trip?” Sonny replies with a smile.

“It was lovely,” she answers then took notice of something on Sonny‘s arm.

“Sam this is Ana, Ana this is Sam.”

“Nice to meet you,” Sam says.

“It is a pleasure to meet you Sam and your establishment is nothing short of charming but I need to know your intentions with my lovely Sonny,” Ana replies with a soft polite smile. Ana was using her vampire abilities to glamour Sam and with her age as well as skill she was successful.

“Well I-” he began to say but Sonny interrupted giving Ana an annoyed look.

“I don’t want to know Ana,” she states then turned her attention to the drink in front of her.

“You don‘t want to know or expect anything from anyone anymore it seems,” Ana comments.

“Empathetic.”

“Apathetic.”

“Whore.”

“Nun.”

“Vampire.”

“Human,” Ana counters causing both her and Sonny to burst into laughter.

“How long have yew two known each other?” Sam inquires looking at the two women.

“About four years.”

“She was sitting in the middle of the desert on a turned over boat singing along to what played on her radio. She knew instantly that she wasn‘t alone yet she didn‘t runaway screaming like most would when I appeared out of nowhere and I thought perhaps she was blind or stupid,” Ana muses.

“I resent that you old bitch, I just thought running and screaming wouldn‘t do any good if you had any intentions to hurt me. It was perfectly natural for me stay where I was.”

“I do not think your definition of natural is exactly normal,” she chuckles.

“Hey now, I think she is doin‘ just fine,” Sam defends while smiling at Sonny. Ana was slightly fond of Sam; she could tell he had a crush on Sonny who seemed oblivious to it all. It amused Ana seeing Sonny acting so oblivious.

“I think so too,” Sonny states with a cheeky smile. All the time they chatted Arlene and Terry’s baby boy was crying. Nothing would soothe the baby’s cries and the customers were starting to get irritated.

“Why don‘t you let Sonny give it a try, she‘s good at taming beasts,” Ana suggests. Arlene gave Ana a nervous and dubious look. Sonny got up from the stool and walked over to Terry who held the crying infant in his arms. She smiled reassuringly and took the baby from Terry’s arms.

“What‘s his name?”

“Mikey,” Terry answers as Sonny cradled the baby in her arms. She looked down at the baby who stopped crying almost immediately and stared right back up at her. Terry smiled widely at Sonny and even gave a chuckle of relief. Arlene was stunned at how the brunette could get Mikey quiet so quickly.

“I think little Mikey just needs a quiet place where he can sleep,” she states with a soft smile.

“I‘ll put the playpen in Sam‘s office.”

Sam led Sonny to his office with Arlene following closely behind. Sonny sat in the corner leather arm chair with little Mikey in her arms. Terry soon came in with the baby seat and play pen.

“Arlene, its alright, you don‘t need to worry I‘ll get him to sleep.”

“I don‘t know,” Arlene says hesitantly.

“I‘ll stay in here with Sonny if it makes yew more comfortable Arlene,” Sam suggests.

“Thanks Sam.”

Once Arlene and Terry went back to work, Sam shut the door to close out the sound of the restaurant. His eyes gazed at Sonny who sat in the corner letting the baby grasp her finger. She smiled down at the little baby shaking his plump little hand gently. Mikey smiled up at Sonny with a big toothless smile. Sam sat on the edge of his desk as Sonny rocked the child to sleep. When Mikey’s big eyes closed, Sonny got up from the chair and lied him down in the playpen. Placing the little blanket over the baby’s body, Sonny’s hand lightly grazed the soft skin of the baby in a tender manner.

“Yer real good at that, yew sure ya don‘t have any kids?” Sam comments as Sonny stood up straight again and moved away from the playpen.

“No kids but I used to watch my nephew all the time.”

“How old is he now?”

“He was five when he died so would have been eight,” she answers softly.

“I‘m sorry I didn‘t know.”

“Its alright, it wasn‘t your fault.”

It was incredibly quiet in the room and Sonny focused her eyes on the sleeping Mikey as she leaned against the wall. Her vision shook slightly and mind wandered to that terrible night, there was so much blood everywhere. Sam moved towards Sonny and brought his hand to her face. She looked up at Sam, their eyes meeting briefly before Sam lightly brushed his lips against hers. Accepting this, Sonny closed her eyes and pulled Sam closer as she kissed him back. Eventually they pulled away and Sam smiled at Sonny.

“I‘ve wanted to do that for a while,” Sam states with his hands resting on the small of her back. Sonny gave a small smile but her eyes drifted to the faded mark on her arm.

“I should go see what Ana is doing,” she says getting a bad feeling at the pit of her stomach.

“Hold on there.”

“Sam we can see each other another time but I am Ana‘s guest, its rude for me to just ditch her.”

Sonny walked out of the room with Sam following closely behind her. When they got back to the front Sonny saw that Ana was nowhere to be seen. Her eyes searched for Ana but the feeling of worry grew.

“Yo friend left, she said yew should stay here for a few hours,” Lafayette says waving his spatula at Sonny.

“I have to go,” Sonny states grabbing her purse and running out of the restaurant.

“Sonny where yew goin‘?” Sam demands as ran behind her. Sonny got into the car and started the engine.

“I‘m sorry Sam but I have to go.”

Sonny skidded out of the driveway and Sam didn’t know what to think of her behavior. She drove dangerously fast down the highway. What was usually a fifteen minute drive to Ana’s home was cut down to eight minutes. Throwing the car into park, Sonny hopped out of he car to stop the two vampires fighting on the lawn. Ana had Eric pinned to the ground ready to rip his throat out.

“Ana stop!”

“This mother fucker bit you,” Ana growls.

“Ana I let him!” Sonny exclaims. Ana let Eric go and stood up walking towards Sonny.

“Why would you do that?”

“He was injected with liquid silver, I wasn‘t going to let him die,” she responds then realized she said it with too much feeling so she opted to cover for herself, “That‘s one mess I don‘t want to clean up.”

“Why were you injected with the serum?” Ana orders looking at Eric impatiently.

“You ordered me to watch over her and I prevented her from running off with two strangers who in turn injected me.”

“Sonny you know better than that.”

“Apparently trying to have some anonymous sex is a crime now,” Sonny retorts heading into the house rather frustrated. The two vampires stood on the lawn watching Sonny enter the home and shut the door behind her. Ana caught Eric staring longer and it was starting to become clear that Eric had grown fond of Sonny.

“Couldn‘t stand the idea of her with anyone else,” Ana comments.

“We’re done here,” Eric retorts leaving the premises.

Sonny took a long hot shower and opted to read until she felt sleepy. It was an hour before sunrises when she fell asleep while attempting to read the Jane Austen novel her cousin bought her. She went into what she referred to as her Jane coma because Sonny was not a fan of Jane Austen and always fell asleep attempting to read the period novels. Sonny’s dream started with her facing the same sea as she had the previous night.

She felt tired even in her dreams, so she sat on the rock side and looked out to the sea. The isolation brought on a terrible sadness over her. Tears slipped down her cheeks and she brought knees up to her chin, wrapping her arms around her legs. All her life she had dreams where the sun was replaced with a moon and it was the only place she didn’t feel lost but she didn‘t feel necessarily good. She felt like she was in between worlds and the older she got the more faded she became.

Eric went to ground and when he went to his vampire slumber he found himself in the same place he was the previous night. He knew the place well in his human years, it was on the coast of the North Sea close to where he grew up. The only difference was the moon in the sky that gave off light. Walking along he saw a familiar brunette sitting on the rocks. When he reached her, she turned her head away as she wiped her tears from her eyes. Eric lowered himself and sat down next to Sonny.

“We‘re here because you want to be here,” Sonny states.

“It is my homeland.”

“It‘s nice,” she mutters.

“How is this possible?” Eric inquires.

“Just enjoy it while it lasts,” Sonny retorts getting up to walk away. Eric stood up and followed her promptly as she walked onto the grass. She grew angry that he was following her. He reached out and grabbed her by the hand. “I don‘t know what I am so please just leave it.”

“I won‘t ask anything I promise,” he found himself saying. Sonny let out a sigh and pulled her hand away from his grasp. She ran her hand through her hair as she looked at the ground then looked up at Eric with a tired smile.

“Consider this your very own Christmas in July. Look around, it should be as your memory serves.”

Eric’s eyes lit up momentarily and he began to walk around, taking in his surroundings. Sonny stayed behind not knowing how to feel about the invasion of her unconscious mind. Her eyes looked out to the vast sea then over to Eric who wandered further and further away from the shore going more inland towards what looked like a village. Words could not describe what Eric was feeling as he entered the place that was once his home. He stood there stunned that everything was so vivid that he hardly noticed Sonny leaning against the entrance door.

“Can I make them appear?” Eric inquires.

“This is all I can give, I‘m sorry,” Sonny answers. Eric turned to look at her but then she faded away like a mirage in the desert. Just like before when she disappeared so did the dream. Erik was dead to the world once more only to have darkness consume his sleep.