She awoke, eyes sore and chest heaving. Confusion swept over Sookie as she felt the cold, damp pressure of the earth against her skin. She couldn't remember getting ready for bed, or even going to sleep for that matter. She couldn't remember anything after the party.
Bill had taken her to many of these parties in New York. They had travelled from the deep south to California, to Chicago, and then finally they had ended up in New York. Bill had promised her that it was a road trip, and that they would return after their two weeks in New York, but after the paperwork that she had found scattered by his crawl space, talking about dealings and local properties, she had the awful feeling that she would be returning to Bon Temp alone.
The strangeness of the moment didn't hit until she realised that Bill was tucked in behind her. It was only then when she fully realised that they were buried, buried together.
Sookie knew enough about vampires to know that being buried with another vampire was never good. It took two long moments before she felt it, the thirst.
"You motherfucker!" She cried out, realising what had happened. She didn't know the specifics of how it had happened, but she knew that she had spent her final day in the sun.
Before Bill could awake, Sookie began to claw her way out, finding it less of a struggle than she expected. She sighed, thinking how cool her increased strength would have felt, if her mortality had not been snatched away from her in exchange.
When Sookie finally reached the surface, she winced at the sight of the mid afternoon sun.
"Oh shit." She cursed, realising she was about to turn into a vampire fritter. But, as she felt the sun on her face, she didn't begin to sizzle or smell like she had been laid on the barbeque. She felt refreshed, vitalised.
They had been buried in the park by their hotel. Sookie smiled ever so slightly, glad that she had a very short way to walk, covered in mud and dirt.
As she walked along the grass, she looked down at her hands. She had definitely changed. She was not little old Sookie from Bon Temp anymore - not that she had been for a very long time. But, if she was now vampire, how in the hell was she out, basking in the sun?
She stood in the shower and thanked her lucky stars that the hotel was vampire friendly and had seen many a young woman, covered in dirt, walk through the lobby. As if she had been existing in suspended reality, she finally fell and realised that she would never eat chicken fritters again, would never taste the sweetness of a cold beer on a hot day. What life did she have now?
She found herself weeping in the shower, and if there was any doubt of her being undead before, the rivers of bloody tears was about enough to confirm it.
"What in good God's name?" She held up her hands, covered in blood.
"Sookie, it is time to pick your little vampire booty up and get on with your life." She told herself, looking in the mirror. She had lived around vampires so long that she felt she knew the lifestyle well enough. She was strangely calm as she dialed the number for room service.
"I would like a bottle of O, please." She stated calmly. Her thirst was niggling, but nothing like Jessica had described. She had passed full blooded humans on the way to her room, and although they all smelt lovely, she hadn't wanted to rip any of their heads off.
When the lady came with the bottle of O, Sookie quickly opened the door, snatched the bottle and closed it again. She couldn't stand to look at the woman, all warm, with blood pumping through her veins.
She ripped off the top and began glugging. It was warm and thick. She almost gagged at first. But carried on, as her hunger began to subside. She sighed as she looked down at the bottle.
"I guess it is me and you from now on." She felt strange that she was so calm. But, until Bill turned up, there was nothing she could do.
Bill awoke to the warm, comforting sensation of sleeping underground. There was nothing he preferred than the feeling of regeneration he got when sleeping in the ground. However, this moment of pure calm was interrupted by the immediate dread that came with the realisation that Sookie was not laying beside him.
He ran into the hotel and barged into the room. He could feel the blood pumping around his body, wondering what carnage Sookie could have caused in her newborn state.
He was stopped in his tracks when he found Sookie, wrapped up in a white robe, eating a bucket of chicken.
"Sookie?" He asked, too many questions to pin one down.
"You know more than me." She told him, shrugging her shoulders. She had never craved chicken like it before. She couldn't care about her thighs or her hips in that moment. She just had to shove as much chicken in her mouth as she could physically fit.
She didn't immediately pounce on Bill. She could have cussed him out, screamed at him. But all of that could wait. She had her chicken and he needed to wash.
Bill stood in the shower and wondered what on earth was happening. He could tell that Sookie had been turned, a mistake he wished he could undo. But he had seen her, with his own eyes, chowing down on a bucket of chicken. It made no sense. She should have been out for blood, not out for KFC.
He sighed, standing in the shower. He knew that he was going to be walking into a world of pain. He deserved it, he had gone too far. He always found it hard to control himself when they were at nest parties, they always brought out the animalistic side of him. But he had been influenced, sucked too hard, and he had felt Sookie slip away.
He rested his head against the cold marble as he thought back to the night before.
"Sookie! Sookie!" He had called out to her, shaking her lifeless body. They had gotten almost to this point before, many times before. But this time she was truly gone, her soul slowly leaving her body.
He had to think fast, she had always said that she never wanted to be a vampire, but he had no choice, she was dying, and she was slipping away quickly. He knew that she would hate him for it, but at least she would be alive.
He entered the living room, to see Sookie packing her bags.
"Sookie-" He began.
"I don't wanna hear it." She sighed, feeling her lower lip begin to quiver.
"It was the one thing I still had, my humanity, and you took it away!" She threw her sweatpants down into the case and tried to concentrate on keeping her blood tears in, not wanting to ruin her fresh white robe.
Bill sat and sighed, placing a hand over his face.
"I don't know what to say." He shook his head.
"There is nothing to say. This is done now." She shrugged her shoulders and sighed. Bill furrowed his brows, confused. How could she be so calm? Her life had completely changed.
"I don't ever want to see you again. You did this to me, and I see no use in screaming and shouting. I am going back to Bon Temp and I am going to go back to my normal life." She zipped up the case.
"Sookie, you cannot go back to your normal life." He told her calmly.
"And that is your fault!" She turned and screamed at him. Bill sighed, glad that she was finally showing some emotion.
"I am going back, and you can't stop me." She told him and he shook his head.
"You can't drive back tonight, you won't get there before dawn." He told her and she laughed.
"When do you think I woke up?! I think I'll be fine." She told him and watched his eyes widen, before she stormed out of the room, and down to her little car, ready for the day long drive back to Bon Temp.