"He did not just do that."
I stood there, stunned, in front of the closed door. Wearing nothing but a bathrobe. I had no money, no ID, and, judging by my current state, not even a shred of dignity. I let my head fall against the wall repeatedly, each impact producing a satisfying thud and a distracting pounding in my already swimming head.
Stupid Ash.
Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.
A woman with brown hair and kind, albeit sorrowful, brown eyes interrupted my little moment of self-inflicted punishment. I cleared my throat.
"You're Ashley, right?"
Startled, I turned to her and nodded. She looked familiar...
"Isabel." She extended her hand, and I noticed how cold it was when our hands touched. A vampire. Isabel, sensing my sudden alertness, took a respectful step back.
"We met at Godric's..." She hesitated, her voice breaking as she mentioned him, then continued in a hushed tone, "party last night."
That was just yesterday? I rubbed my forehead.
"Yes, that's right... Isabel," I repeated, now a bit more warmly, embarrassed by both my appearance and behavior. I raised my hand. "Hi.", flustered, I tugged on my bathrobe, the only garment I had to allow for some modesty. "I'm sorry for not recognizing you, to be honest, I'm a bit..." I sighed, laughing awkwardly. Yeah, I didn't really knew how to end that sentence. "A bit out of it, I suppose."
She gave me a gentle smile. "You look like you could use some help," she observed, stating the obvious. I sighed again. As much as I hated to admit it, accepting help from strangers had never been my strong suit. Then again, as I'd just realized, there weren't many options for self-rescue when you were dressed only in a bathrobe, underwear and a sheen layer of sweet still covering your body from where it had betrayed one self because of some heated kisses and well placed hands.
"It's that obvious, huh?" I replied, causing Isabel to chuckle.
"Only to a trained eye!" She winked at me, and I eyed her skeptically.
I liked her. First Godric, now Isabel... Maybe I needed to rethink my stance on vampires. She tilted her head. "But now I'm curious," she began, gesturing at me, "What happened?"
"Eric," I said, shrugging. Was there really more of an explanation needed?
"¡Ay, Dios mÃo," Isabel muttered in Spanish. "Culo grosero."
My Spanish was barely passable, so I wasn't entirely sure if I understood her correctly, but if I wasn't mistaken, she had just called Eric a rude ass. I grinned. Yep, I definitely liked her.
"First, he drags a half-dead body into the house and refuses to let anyone else take care of you, and then he throws you out in a bathrobe a few hours later, when you've barely gained conciseness." She studied me before gently taking my elbow and trying to lead me down the hallway, muttering in Spanish and rolling her eyes. Unfortunately, she grabbed the wrong arm, and I inhaled sharply as my shoulder protested against the movement.
Isabel stopped in her tracks. "He didn't even heal your shoulder?"
Her voice jumped an octave in disbelief. She looked like she was ready to fix the problem herself, biting into her wrist, but I stopped her.
"He actually did something right for once. I didn't want that."
"Stubborn, huh?" Isabel grinned. "He always goes for the stubborn ones."
Before I could respond or ask what she meant, she was already on the phone, giving orders. I hadn't even noticed her pulling out a phone.
"Anubis Airline, medical transport to Louisiana, please," she said, wedging the phone between her shoulder and ear while opening a hotel door. Before I could decide whether to enter or stay outside, she waved me in. Hesitantly, I followedâthere wasn't really any other option. As she continued her call, Isabel zipped around the room at vampire speed, gathering things without missing a beat or even sounding out of breath. I stayed put in the small hallway.
"Yes... pickup at the Carmilla Hotel... as usual... Texas sheriff..." Isabel glanced at me. "Thanks."
She handed me a small packed bag. Her nose was bleeding. When she noticed me starring, she vanished for a second, reappearing with a tissue pressed to her nose and gesturing for me to head into the bathroom. After closing the door behind me, I could still hear her talking. "I hope you can find something useful in there. I'd suppose you feel more comfortable with actual garments covering you for your ride home." I peeked inside the bag she'd left me withâfresh clothes, money, and toiletries tumbled out.
"Oh."
Quickly, I changed: black pants, a red shirt, and a black leather jacket instead of the bathrobe and lace underwear. Very considerate of her. Plus, I liked the style. I'd forgotten how much I missed my own thingsâAshley Johnson, the foster kid from New York, not Ashley Simmons, the waitress from Merlotte's in Bon Temps. But when I looked in the mirror, I didn't recognize myself. The clothes were nearly identical to what I used to wear in New York, but they didn't fitânot because they were the wrong size (they fit surprisingly well, considering Isabel had probably given me her clothes), but because I no longer fit the image of Ashley Johnson.
Sure, thanks to some mystical change, I looked better than ever, but that wasn't it. It was the little things that had changed. My skin was slightly tanned, my hair a bit lighter, and the expression on my face was... both more mature, sadder, and yet... oddly more at peace. I stared at my reflection in the mirror until a loud knock on the door startled me.
"Everything okay in there?"
I opened the door and forced a smile. "I'm afraid that's all I can do for you at the moment," Isabel said, pointing to the bag before pulling me into a brief hug. Surprised by such warmth from a stranger, and a vampire at that, I impulsively hugged her back. She sighed deeply, and I realized she had needed the hug as much as I did. How unexpected.
She let me go. "An Anubis Airline driver will pick you up in five minutes in the hotel lobby," she explained. Then she gestured to the bag. "In the bag should still be some money, and toiletries for you." She frowned. "At least, what I thought were toiletries. Some of those items, I haven't seen since my human days..."
Exhausted, she sat down at the edge of the bed.
And me? I was still trying to wrap my head around the fact that she was helping me so selflessly, and that she was a vampire. And kind. In short, I stood there awkwardly, tongue-tied. I cleared my throat. "Thank you. I'll send everything back once I... have something again."
She waved it off. "It's nothing. After a night like tonight, it's nice to help someone."
Her expression turned sad again, and suddenly, I could see just how many years she must have lived. Her outward appearance suggested she was in her mid-thirties, but her eyes held the wisdom of centuries... maybe 500 years? Her gaze drifted into the distance, only to refocus when my discomfort made me shift. She cleared her throat and wiped her eyes. Her cheeks had a reddish tint. Had she been... crying?
"Uh... is everything... okay?" I asked tentatively, feeling instantly foolish. It was obviously not okay. What was going on today? Some vampire mourning day? She straightened up and walked me to the door.
"Yes, everything's fine. I just need to lie down," she said with a tired smile. "I'm still a few years short of being able to stay awake all day."
As I stepped into the hallway, she stopped me once more."Ashley, do me two favors, please."
Oh no. And there were the invisible attached strings. My mood soured. For a second I had really believed, that she'd helped me out of the kindness of her heart. Foolish Ashley. Foolish, naive Ashley...
"Go see a doctor about your shoulder."
I nodded carefully. That was something I should and could do. She smiled gently. "Thank you."
"No problem."
We stood there in silence for a moment.
"And the second favor?" I asked carefully, still not trusting her kindness. The silence grew uncomfortable. Isabel studied me and sighed deeply. "Take care of Eric, will you?"
If I'd been holding a glass and drinking, I would have choked. Apparently, my own spit was enough. I coughed. "Excuse me?"
Isabel smiled wearily. "I know he has his rough edgesâ" I snorted in agreement. "âbut who among us doesn't? Just do what Godric would have done. Forgive him."
Something in the way she made her request touched me deeply, and guilt welled up inside me. On the one hand, I was a master of lying and deceit, but when someone looked at me with such open honesty and seriously asked for something, I found it nearly impossible to hide my true feelings. I struggled internally before giving her a tight-lipped nod. Isabel looked into my eyes one last time, and, satisfied with what she seemed to see, she squeezed my hand.
"You'll see, everything will fall into place. It always does."
Then she closed the door, leaving me alone in the hallway.
The return trip to Bon Temps was far more pleasant than the journey to Dallas.
After being driven to a private jet (which had left me utterly speechless), everything else had been taken care of. My car would be shipped back home, a doctor's appointment had been scheduled for me upon arrival in Louisiana, and during the flight, I was able to lay back and watched my favorite shows, only being woken up for ready-made meals. I must have fallen asleep again, maybe due to the painkillers they had administered during the flight, but when I came two, I was, yet again, in a new place.
"Where the hell am I now?" I mumbled sleepily as the light shone into an unfamiliar room at a strange angle. Blinking, I tried to adjust to the bright daylight. The room was bare, the window large and covered with blinds, and to my surprise, I was hooked up to several wires. "What the..."
The last nap must have reordered my memories because with the returning consciousness, everything came flooding back, including the memory of yesterday's events, the party, James, the terror-attack and awakening in Erics bed.
"What. The actual. Fuck?"
I looked around, finding a paper and pen lying on a table beside my bed, the Shreveport Hospital emblem written across the hard plastic of the pen. Right. I was in Shreveport, at the local hospital, getting a once-over after the last few days of rough treatment.
Sighing, I relaxed again and stared up at the ceiling. Some might find the sterile white of the room calming or comforting, but I hated it. I needed chaos. Chaos made me feel alive. This place made me nervous, on edge, like my every move was being watched. Not that it was the doctors fault; the doctor had been very nice, and no one had bothered me or asked intrusive questions. But I was just uneasy, longing for my comfort zone.
Just as I started to drift off again, a hand gently shook my shoulder. Opening one eye, I found a male nurse beside me. "Miss Simmons, you're free to go," he announced, smiling at me. "All your results are fine. The doctor wants you to take it easy for the next few days but the swelling of your brain is going back nicely and your other wound have healed up...", he coughed. "Well, to be honest miss...", he lowered his voice "The vampire blood you must have injected seemed to have done its part well. You are almost completely healed."
I wanted to object but really, what was the point?
I muttered a quick "thank you" as he handed me my discharge papers, which included some pain medication. Grateful that my stay was covered by vampire insurance, I got dressed quickly and left the room without looking back.
At home, the house was empty. Not just of people, but also of noise, tension, and most importantly, bad memories. Sure, I had only been gone a few days, but to me, it felt like I was walking into a place I had left a century ago. Everything seemed so surreal, so distant. As if it had all happened to someone else. I stood in the doorway and tried to process what had happened, why I had returned, and where I would go from here.
A car drove by outside, and I instinctively looked out the window. A man was parking his car. I quickly closed the door and locked it. The world outside had suddenly become too much to handle. I needed time. Time to think, time to reflect. And most of all, time to move on.Everything will fall into place, Isabel had said. I walked into the living room, collapsed onto the couch, and closed my eyes.
"Alright then universe, do your thing!" I murmured, already passing out again. I truly had no energy left to deal with my problems right now, so either things would take care of themselves or I would end up dead.
For the time being, I was fine with both as long as that meant I could stay on this comfortable couch and finally do some much needed thinking.