Beauty and the Beast

My dad immediately took me over to Sookie's house once the party was over. He was currently trying to call Tara while making sure the yard was clear. Sookie had let me borrow one of her nightgowns and she was grabbing blankets and pillows for my dad to sleep downstairs.

"I'll just be right back, okay?" Sookie said before going downstairs.

3RD POV:

Sam hung up his phone as Sookie came down the stairs.

"Hey." He said turning to her.

"I let her change clothes and I put those in the wash."

Sookie unfolded a blanket as Sam took the pillows off the couch.

"Did she say who it was, or who she thought it was?"

"She said Rene, but I couldn't get in her mind enough to tell. Everything was kind of jumbled."

"Rene? Why would she say him?"

"I don't know, but I did get something that looked familiar."

"Anyone you'd know? Anyone from the bar?"

"No one I could recognize for sure."

"Look, I think we should call the police."

"And what would she say?"

Sam sighed. "What did they look like?"

"Well, she was young, pretty, she was wearing an apron."

"Apron. You mean like a mom?"

"More like a waitress."

DAKOTA POV

I leaned up against the wall of Sookie's room. I could still feel Rene's hands on my neck, trying to squeeze the life out of me. I still couldn't shake the feeling that he was going to come through the wall and try and kill me again.

I stood up and made my way down the stairs.

"You hear from Tara?" I heard Sookie ask.

"No." My dad said.

I waited a couple seconds before entering the living room. Both of them looked up at me.

Sookie looked back at my dad. "Well, good night."

"Night."

Sookie got up and walked towards the stairs. I walked over to my dad and he pulled my down onto his knee. I wrapped my arms around his neck and buried my face in his shoulder.

"Hey, you know I love you right?" I nodded my head. "And I'm not going to let anything else happen to you."

I pulled away from him and looked into his eyes. "You promise?"

"I cross my heart." His hand came up and cupped my cheek. "I just got you and I'm not going to let you go that easily." He kissed my forehead. "Goodnight baby." He hugged me again.

"Night." I whispered.

I made my way up the stairs to Sookie's room. She was already lying in bed when I walked in. I climbed in next to her, my back to her.

"Sookie?" I whispered.

"Yeah?" She whispered back.

"Don't turn the light off." I curled up under the covers and shut my eyes, trying to ignore the throbbing along my neck.

3RD POV

Sam walked into the kitchen next morning to find Sookie sitting at the kitchen table looking at a book. "Good morning. I didn't know you were up."

"Eggs and sausage warm in the oven."

"Oh, thanks." He slipped his shirt over his head. "Dakota up yet?"

"No. She was sleeping so well I figured I'd just let her be, considering what she's been through the past couple days."

DAKOTA'S POV

I woke up with the warm sun shining on my face. I had slept better than I had in the past month last night. I rolled out of bed and found the bathroom. Sookie had set my now clean clothes from last night on the counter.

I did my business and changed before going downstairs.

"Well, I can't leave her here. She'll have a panic attack if we leave her alone and I'm not risking her getting almost killed again."

I entered the room and my dad turned to me. "Hey sweetheart." I walked over and hugged him. "How did you sleep?"

"Really good." I pulled away. "Mornin' Sookie."

"Mornin'. Are we going to go?"

"Yeah. Are you hungry?" My dad asked me.

"No."

"Alright. Let's go then."

"Where are we going?" I asked as we left Sookie's house.

"Big Pattie's Pie House. We're looking for information on someone."

The three of us got into my dad's car and drove for almost a half an hour before we turned into Big Pattie's Pie House parking lot.

We entered the restaurant and a young, bored looking blonde woman greeted us.

"Welcome to Big Pattie's Pie House. What can I get for you?"

"Um, we were wondering if you knew anyone by the name of Cindy? She used to work here before she was killed." Sookie said.

"No, ma'am, no, sir. I don't know any Cindy. But I can recommend the fried apple pie, the frozen Hawaiian pie, the chocolate pecan praline pie, the chess pie, the seven layer Jell-O pie." My dad looked at Sookie and raised his eyebrows.

"They'll have the peanut butter pie and the Spunky Hollow honey pineapple pie." An older black man who was sitting at the bar said. "Please, Harley."

"Gotcha, Buster."

"We, will?" My dad asked, walking over to the man.

"You won't get nothing from her. She only been here two weeks. Comes from three generations of dumb as rocks. Hell, they named her after a motorcycle."

"That's real interesting, but-" Sookie said.

"If you wanna know anything about Cindy Marshall, I'll talk to you. And I'll eat that pie too. Buster Boisseau."

"I'm Sookie Stackhouse, Sam Merlotte and Dakota Merlotte." We took a seat by him. I nervously looked around to make sure I was safe.

"Can you tell us-"

"First things first." Buster took a bite of one of the pies.

"You knew Cindy?" Sookie asked.

"A little bit. Let's see, I met her two years ago. She moved into town with her brother a couple of months before…" He paused and took another bite of pie.

"Before what?" My dad asked.

"Well, I hate to be the one to tell you, but somebody murdered that little gal. Just choked the life right out of her."

"Poor thing." Sookie sad. "Did they find out who did it?"

"Nope. It's a mystery."

"Where's her brother? Could we talk to him?"

"Don't know how. He was gone by the time they found her body. The police though maybe he's dead too or maybe he killed her. But there wasn't no evidence one way or the other."

"What was his name?" My dad asked.

"Let me think on that. Nobody hardly knew him. Let's see, D something. Dave, Drew. No, Drew. Drew Marshall."

"What was Cindy like?" Sookie asked.

"Oh, cute as a button, a little wild, fun-loving, always nice to me. But people talked, you know."

"Talked about what?"

"Vampires. They say she was carrying on with the vampires. I didn't believe her. I mean, what kind of woman would do such a thing?" My dad quickly put a hand on Sookie's shoulder to stop her from saying anything. "Harley, this is the Texas Special Sawdust pie. Nobody ordered that."

"Well, it's not much."

"We got a name."