Author's Note: Hello all! So here I am again, with a new story. I thought with 2012 I would get better about not starting stories when I all ready have so many unfinished ones, but this one. This one just wouldn't let me go. So explanation. This is a True Blood story. I started this story about two months ago or so. This was when I had only watched one full season, that being season four. Never read the books, and never watched any other season. As of now, I've watched all seasons, and am currently on the second book of the series. So if there are mistakes, or anything a little far fetched, this is why, and I truly hope you'll still give it a chance despite this is coming from someone who doesn't know much. A HUGE THANK YOU to my best friend for always supporting me, no matter what crazy adventure my stories take us on. ILY! Onto In The Shadow Of Memories. As always Read/Enjoy/Review!

Chapter One: So It Begins…Or Maybe Ends…

" The funny thing about things ending, there always seems to be a beginning to follow it…" -Anonymous.

Desperation.

Desperation is the only word I can use to describe why I'm doing what I'm doing. I mean, it would have to be nothing short of an act of desperation that has me packing my apartment up in the middle of the night.

That has me preparing to move under the cloak of night, from Los Angeles, the only city that I've called home my entire life, to of all places Shreveport, Louisiana.

It had to be fate. That's the only explanation that seemed to fit. On the day I get the divorce papers in the mail, that I would also find the deed to the house that my grandmother left to my parents, who in turn left it to me upon their deaths. Couldn't be just coincidence.

I stare around my apartment, and it hits me. How empty that it all seems in here now, and it isn't the lack of furniture that has the crushing blow of loneliness threatening to knock me onto my ass.

No.

It's the lack of Him.

Him who I gave my life too. Who from the time I was sixteen was all that seemingly mattered to me. Him, whose ring I've worn, and continue to wear on my finger, from my eighteenth birthday to now. For six years I've been anchored to him. Six years of my life thrown away.

For what?

For him to leave me for a vampire, that's what! What good is she to him anyways? She can't go out with him during the day? Hell, she sleeps underground, so unless he's planning on putting a king size bed down there with her, he wont even be able to lay next to her when she sleeps! He'll never feel her heart beat…

" Bet you think I'm just going to fall apart over you, don't you?" I murmur, staring down at one of few remaining pictures of Him, and riding the wave of grief and anger I throw the framed photograph across the room. Satisfied by the sound of the glass shattering.

" Well, shit, just another mess of pieces to pick up," Payton's voice comes from the door of my bedroom, and I turn to her, rolling my eyes.

At five seven and a hundred and thirty pounds my best friend doesn't sound intimidating, but add a mix of staggering beauty and a no-nonsense attitude and she's just that. Long, wavy black hair flows over her shoulders, and thickly lashed green eyes smile at me as she carries another box from the room, putting it on top of the growing stack by the front door.

" Madi, you really need to stop letting him get to you. If you don't then that means he's won."

" Your only saying that because you think just because I'm leaving L.A that I'm running away," I say, shoving my hands into the back pockets of my jeans.

" Well, yeah, I guess that is what I think. Why should you have to leave? So what if that no good cheating bastard of a husband left you for the first piece of vampire ass that didn't laugh in his face, or nearly kill him, that's no reason to leave the only place you've known as home," she says, scowling as she scribbles on an empty box.

" That's only part of the reason I'm going Payton, and you know that. I just, I can't stay here. I need a new start, a fresh start. With people who don't know me," I say, folding a sweater into the box, " I need a clean slate."

" You do understand that in Louisiana they have bugs, and I mean more than just lady bugs and June bugs right?" she says and laughing I nod my head. No use trying to stop her, she's on a roll, " And gators. They have alligators, and I don't mean shoes either. And I don't want to get woken up in the middle of the night because you decided to go for a late night swim and found yourself swimming side by side with one of those bastards."

" I get it Payton, but you aren't going to change my mind."

" Yeah, Payton, leave her be. I think its great that she's brave enough to go it alone," Jared suddenly speaks up, poking his head out of my bedroom, where he's been busily breaking down my bedroom furniture.

His stunning blue eyes shine under a cap of black hair, matted to his forehead thanks to the sweat that he's worked up.

" Thanks babe, really. You were supposed to be helping me talk her out of going, not lighting the fire under her ass."

" Sorry, love. Please, Madi, don't go, we will be oh so lost without you," Jared's sarcasm puts me at ease, with a roll of my eyes I toss a towel at him and turn back to finish my packing.

One thousand, six hundred and twenty five miles.

That is precisely how far I'm running to get away from the things that haunt me here. The memories of what was, and what will never be. I decided to stretch the trip into two days, since the movers wont even reach my new house for three days, I can take my time.

Who knows maybe along the way I'll get the answer as to why my life is seemingly falling apart around me. As if I'm that lucky.

A girl can dream though.

I close my eyes on that thought, and fall into the familiar dream.

Beautiful.

That's the only word to describe the blonde man staring at me from across the room. His eyes, carrying a hint of seriousness, and a lot of mystery, and I feel the hum starting in my blood. My pulse jumping erratically in the hollow of my throat.

Music blares around me, as I find my body hypnotized by the seductive beats, and I dance through the crowd, weaving and winding until I'm in the center of the crowd, arms raised above my head. Then I feel him, more than see him.

A change in the energy around me. Almost electric, even as his arm snakes around my waist, his lips a breath away from my ear.

" You shouldn't tease me."

I hear the danger in his voice. Warning ringing bells of alarm in the back of my mind, but I ignore them, because here, here is where I feel like I finally belong.

" Madilyn, I've been waiting for you."

A flash of blindingly white fangs pierces through my subconscious, and I scream myself awake.

Hot water flows, cascading over my skin as I brace my hands against the walls, head bowed. I stare as the water circles the drain, reassuring myself that there is no blood there.

No blood at all.

Just the sweat from the relentless nightmare washing away with my favorite honeysuckle and citrus peel shampoo.

" Losing my fucking mind," I mutter to myself, snapping the water off. With a towel wrapped snugly around my body, I wipe a shaking hand over the mirror and stare at myself.

I look the same. Blonde hair falling to my waist, as my eyes stare back at me.

' Unique eyes, like your mother's, and her mother's, and her mother's mother,' the voice of my father floods my mind, and I shake my head. Of course, those were the only words of comfort he could think to give me when I was just eight years old and came home crying after being called a freak.

Then again, it is an oddity for someone to have two completely different colored eyes. Even in L.A.

Of course, once I hit high school and took biology I knew that it wasn't uniqueness. It was complete heterochromia, often times a genetic trait handed down that makes people stare.

You'd think I sprouted a second head by the way some people look at me, but at twenty four I've gotten used to it. As well as I've gotten used to the people who assume and accuse me of wearing contacts.

Right, like I'd seek the attention my genetics has handed me.

Not on my life.

' Don't forget. Today's our last day together, no flaking.'

I stare at the text message from Payton and smile, shaking my head. As if I could flake. Even if I wanted to, which I don't, Payton would track my ass down and make sure I never heard the end of it. And that my friends, would be an endless hell in and of itself. Pulling a bottle of water from the fridge I text her back, reassuring her that flaking is not on my agenda.

' Better not be. I have a day full of fun planned for us. See you in fifteen.'

I jump, dropping my bottle of water onto the floor, and with a slight curse step over it towards the front door.

" Payton, I thought you said you were going to be here in fifteen minutes," I say pulling the door open, only it isn't Payton on the other side of the door. No, not Payton at all. Sea green eyes stare at me, seriously, and I block the opening of the door.

" Madilyn."

" What the hell are you doing here?" I demand, my hand tightening on the door and I fight the urge to just slam the door in his face, but I don't. Because that would be childish, and I refuse to let him make me act or feel any more childish than he all ready has.

" I just came to pick up a few things," he says trying side step me into the apartment but I block him.

" No."

" What do you mean no?"

" The agreement says you will not come into this apartment until after I leave. I don't leave until eleven tonight, so no. You cannot come and pick some things up."

" Don't be such a bitch, Madi, its just a few things." I quirk and eyebrow at him, a smile fluttering on my face.

" Do you really think calling me a bitch is going to make me want to let you in? You read the agreement, you signed the agreement, now just turn your cheating ass around and go on about your day, doing whatever it is that you do. Shouldn't you be sleeping? I mean don't you work off their hours nowadays?" I ask sarcastically, refusing to budge from my position.

" Yeah, well, I haven't slept in a few days. Madi, please, I just need…"

" I think Madilyn said no. Now if I were you, I'd leave like she asked you too, or I will be more than happy to rip your face off, your choice," Payton's voice floats from the hallway and I smile, tilting my head as I stare at him. His whole demeanor changes. Tension filling his shoulders as his body goes rigid, eyes filling with anger tainted fear. His forehead creasing with frustration under shaggy brown hair.

" Payton…"

" You do know I have Jared on speed dial, he'd be all too happy to come kick your ass for me, not that I need the help."

" That wont be necessary. I'll go. Madi, be safe okay? I mean, I know we didn't end on the best of terms, but I still worry…"

" Don't bother. You broke me, I can't get much worse from here," I watch, slightly amused by the way he walks around Payton, his back tight to the wall to avoid any sort of contact with her, truly terrified that she'll make good on her threats to cause bodily harm.

" So, you ready to go?" she asks, snapping back into the usual happy, upbeat Payton that I know and love, and with a laugh I nod my head and grabbing my purse happily link my arms with hers and off we go.

I knew she was stalling. Payton isn't very good at stalling subtly, and as we stand by my car, she shuffles her feet, kicking lightly at the pavement beneath her feet.

" I really have to go now," I say at last, my voice breaking the silence that had settled around us.

" No you don't," Payton says, and I smile pulling her in for a hug. Nobody warns you, growing up, just how hard saying good bye is. Payton and I have been attached to each other's hips from the first day of kindergarten, so the idea of not being with her nearly twenty four hours a day seven days a week, is breaking my heart.

" I do. I have to go. I wish I didn't…there…there just isn't anything left for me here anymore."

" I'm here…"

" You know what I mean. Besides, its not like we'll never see each other again. I told you, as soon as I get settled, you and Jared can take a couple weeks, come down, see me. Nothing's going to change."

" Everything's going to change." The gravity of her statement hits me, and I bury my face in her shoulder, barely holding onto my emotions.

" We've been through it all Payton, a little distance isn't going to change anything, I promise. We have email, cell phones, and Skype," I reassure her, even if the reassurance is more for myself.

" You better Skype me, every night, I'm not playing with you Madi, and the second you get into Louisiana you better call me."

" Yes Mom," I joke lightly, " Tell Jared I said bye okay? I promise I'll drive safely. You take care of yourself."

" Always."

" Forever."

I watch from the rearview mirror as Payton grows further and further away, and once I can't see her I let the tears come. I have two days of driving, and hopefully once I get where I'm going the tears will be done.

Hopefully.