Meanwhile

Chapter 25

Acquisition

**

When I died, I braced myself.

Adele’s theory about the mood I went to rest in… Part of me was worried that I’d wake to find myself in the worst of possible scenarios. Part of me was hoping for it so that I’d learn something to be watchful for.

Pam and I laid to rest feeling as though we were sitting on a razor’s edge in spite of Sookie’s short lived comic relief, and Sookie fell to sleep worried for her brother. His sudden exit the night before was fueled by guilt… Guilt for how he regarded Sookie’s ability when they were children. Guilt for having such an impressive batting average… when she went to him, he told her that it didn’t matter if he ‘hit .999’ because Rene was the ball he missed.

The siblings had finally found something they had in common, even if it was regretting that a psychopathic serial killer had slipped under their respective radar at the most inopportune time imaginable.

With all of that in mind, the first thing I did as I woke was lift Sookie’s hand from where it rested on my chest and smile…

Papillion bleu… as soon as I confirmed that I had My Sookie, I let myself enjoy the scent she’d brought to bed with her…

She couldn’t have been with me long, a few minutes at best… the sheets hadn’t warmed with her yet.

She hummed as she twisted her fingers into mine. “Paranoid?”

“Skipping wasn’t far from my mind. I wasn’t sure if I wanted some insight… until I saw your ring…”

She kissed my chest and tightened her leg around mine. “I’m relieved too.”

“I might not care which Sookie I was with though… not when you smell like this.”

“Then it’s a good thing I had Quinn watch over me while I laid out on the roof… I might have fallen asleep listening to Alcide calculate threats instead of Quinn being a pervert.”

I rolled over to put myself on top of her, pushing my face into the side of her neck and filling my senses. “You’re going to have to tell me what you did do today… get it out of the way.”

She chuckled against my ear, “I visited my dad in jail.”

I groaned as I pulled myself away enough to look at her ring again, “I thought that he’s dead.”

“My actual dad is dead, yes.”

“Then explain.” I started drifting, rubbing my way down her body… enjoying what I could before it was gone, knowing that we wouldn’t be spending the first part of our night with Vampires… I could get away with not showering.

Her fingers ran through my hair, making the encounter that much more divine. “When Alcide woke up, there was a message waiting for him. Someone left an envelope at the desk… it had a news clipping about a guy who robbed banks by saying that the teller wanted to fill an envelope for him. He’d stand in line and wait and once he was gone, the teller would report the missing money. She didn’t know why her drawer was out of twenties when she’d wait on the next customer in line.”

I pulled the straps of her bathing suit from her shoulders as I inched down. I couldn’t pry myself away from her to pull it down her legs and ripped it instead… “Why is that relevant to Alcide?”

“Brian hit 27 banks in as many weeks so it was on the news. The banks in the area were alerted to his MO. It finally didn’t work. The teller’s name was in the article. Alcide called the local Packmaster, said a friend of his Mom used to live here and gave her name… and she just so happens to have been in the pack.”

“So… Brian?”

She nodded. “Brian Webster.”

“Brian is a pusher?”

“Yes he is.”

“You visited him?”

“He doesn’t know how he got it. He has a big family and he used to entertain himself at family functions by making them do silly stuff to each other for a laugh. He seems like an alright guy, other than the fact that he told me that I wanted to take my top off for him.” Vulgar, but… I couldn’t blame him for trying.

“How long has he been in jail?”

She giggled, “Long enough to be thinking on the depraved side.”

“He’s the only one in his family with the ability? Any ability?”

“Yeah… As far as he knows. I feel bad for him. They told him that ‘his daughter’ was there to see him and he was really excited until he saw me. He hasn’t seen her in a few months because she lives in Vicksburg with her family.”

“So his ability doesn’t work on Supernaturals?” I stopped between her legs, all too tempted to play, but forced myself to keep going so that Sookie could finish her story.

“No. Just humans, buuuuuuutt no one knew he was there. He can make people not notice him.”

“I could do the same with glamour…”

“Not during the day…” she sang the rest, “and not over the phone.” That made the man’s ability all the more valuable.

“Over the phone?”

“Yes sir. That’s how he found out he could do it. His older brother called home to check in when they were teenagers and instead of asking, he jokingly told his brother that he wanted to bring him a Whopper because he’d seen some cartoon with a hypnotism scene.” With the right phone number, Webster could push one of Threadgill’s own pets to stake him while he was dead for the day.

“And how can he help from jail?”

She sighed as she rolled over, giving me the fresh expanse of her back. “He just so happens to be meeting with the parole board next month. He’s been locked up for 15 years. They couldn’t put him away for the whole thing because of how he did it.”

“Did you hire him?”

“Not without talking to you. I just told him I was a headhunter for a Vampire out of Louisiana. He just seemed happy that I believed him, maybe even met someone as weird as he is.”

“And what do you propose we do with Mr. Brian Webster?”

“Get him laid so he’ll stop thinking about my rack.” That was a given.

I couldn’t help but laugh, causing chills to spread over Sookie’s back, making her arch enough that I couldn’t resist the urge to nip. “After that?”

“He said if there was a straight job waiting for him when he got out he could take care of being allowed to move wherever. I think keeping him on retainer is smart. He could come in handy with all the shit going on and…”

“And what?”

She sighed, “Eric, if Hadley keeps it up… Brian could push a servant to take care of her when the Queen can’t feel it.”

I whispered against her shoulder, “Can you read his mind?”

“He’s more sketchy than most human’s, but readable.”

I had to lift away from her, unable to think about business and what I wanted anymore… “Then we’ll have Pam draw up his contract tonight and you can take it to him tomorrow. We’ll hire him under the pretext of security until he’s released and can sign a more detailed contract. Find out what he wants as a deposit.”

“Meaning?”

“Cigarettes, snack food, conjugal visits… whatever it is that inmates covet… ask him if he has a preference on quarters and vehicle so that when he’s released, we don’t have to wait for him… Are we almost done?”

She snickered as she lifted her ass to rub against my cock. “They’re allowed to make phone calls, but the hours are short and only during the day.”

I growled, “Give him Alcide’s number. He can take care of that end. Are we done?”

She rolled to her side and hooked her hand around my neck to pull me back to her. “Not only are we done… we’re alone.”

That was what I’d been waiting to hear…

“Promise me something.”

She ran her tongue along the front of my neck, turning the ‘anything’ I meant to say into a growl.

“When we get home…” Nibbling my chin. “I want to spend all day in the sun…” Nuzzling her nose along the rim of my ear. “And the first thing we do when you rise…” Tugging my hair. “Is press the record button.”

As though I needed more stimuli…

I bit into my lip, wanting at least a preview of what being home had to offer and she reached up, pricking her finger on my fang and spread her blood to mix with mine…

By the time she lifted to kiss me, my lips throbbed and I felt like I was sweating.

**

I was still trying to stop gasping for air I didn’t need when there was a knock on the door…

Sookie was slumped over my chest, her heart was pounding hard enough to beat for the both of us and she was getting the reins on her breathing faster than I was. She giggled, “I’m not getting up. I don’t have my legs back yet.”

“I’m still heaving… I’m not answering it.”

She growled and dragged her teeth over my chest as she pushed off of me and staggered across the floor. “Why do you always win?”

“Because I’m a God.”

She blew a raspberry as she closed the door behind her…

Only a moment later, I heard Pam bitching, “New rule. When Jason is babysitting, you ARE NOT allowed to wake Eric up like that. I have blue balls.”

Sookie giggled, “You’ll forgive me.”

“Why would I do that?”

“Because I have a present for you.”

There was a brief silence before I felt Pam’s curiosity. “I love the color, but why is it in a ziplock… you didn’t.”

“I hope you think it’s suitable for Ferrell’s party.”

“What are you wearing?”

“The same thing in blue.”

“Did you ignore Eric’s wardrobe?”

“Not at all… I had a lot to do today so I swapped between that and two shirts for him while I sunned on the roof. Quinn made fun of me… but you should see the top of baldy’s dome… he’s got such a sunburn his head could glow in the dark.” All I could think was that I didn’t deserve her.

“I’d hug you but your smell would make my blue balls worse… Jason says that we’re taking Hunter out while you and Eric dragnet the Big D for supes stuck in asylums.”

“We found out that there’s a museum here with a huge dino exhibit. I figured you’d have more fun with that than sitting here with movies.”

“Are we taking guards?”

“Hunter wants to take the Uncles… Alcide wants to go with us. Paulette has other plans tonight. She has friends in Fort Worth.”

“Do they have evening hours?”

“They have Vampire night guards. I called and made an appointment for you guys. There’s usually a wait, but for the entourage of a visiting Lieutenant, they made an exception.”

“My, my, my. Aren’t we resourceful? What will poor Quinn do?”

Sookie snorted out an evil little giggle. “Aloe his melon and sleep sitting up?”

Pam actually snickered… like a school girl. “And then we meet at Stan’s nest… Sounds like we have a plan. Go shower. Your stench is distracting.”

Sookie sang, “Eric didn’t complain.” No, I didn’t. Not at all.

Pam crooned back, “Because he already got his.”

Sookie closed the door behind Pam and got in ‘the last word’, “Damn right he did.”

**

After the longest debate I’d ever participated in about my hygiene… and winning it because I’d already put on the Sookie-scented T-shirt option before she came back to our room…

And the shortest ‘briefing’ I could imagine where Cataliades took his leave, our group split to tend to our individual tasks, loading our ‘party clothes’ into the trunks of our respective limos so that we wouldn’t have to return to the hotel…

On our way to the first of five hospitals… since I was thinking more clearly, more like thinking at all, Sookie, Alcide and I made a list of questions for Brian Webster so that she could clarify a few things when she returned with his contract.

Researching said hospitals was what Sookie had been doing to fill her time while Quinn was sunburned enough to already have ‘water blisters’ on his scalp by the briefing…

The first of the hospitals was a short visit. The three of us were greeted by a receptionist of the two-natured variety and assured Sookie that there wasn’t a single person there that wasn’t ‘nuts in one way or another’. We only spent a few minutes pacing the sidewalk along the outside of the Mental Health wing before Sookie confirmed that there wasn’t anything but Humans inside.

The second hospital’s receptionist wasn’t as helpful. One might call her belligerent since we interrupted her Facebook game… And again we paced the sidewalk for a few minutes while Sookie tried to detect anyone out of the ordinary other than a Human mind that made her dizzy.

By the time she’d searched the third hospital, even Alcide should’ve been able to feel how discouraged Sookie was. There was more nothing, making her sure that she was just naïve… That Michelle and Barry’s discoveries had been a fluke.

En route to the fourth facility, she poured a gin and tonic for herself from the limited bar and sipped slowly before whining, “We should just go to Stan’s, throw in the towel…”

“Which hospital would your mother have put you in?”

“What?”

“From the top of my head, there are 3 large mental health facilities in Shreveport, an in-patient facility in Ruston, one in Clarice, no less than 2 in Minden…”

Alcide added, “And the only thing in McCloud is that high security joint. God only knows about Monroe… 3 more maybe?”

I nodded. “So, in which one of those 11 places would your lovely mother have put you?”

“I don’t know.”

“And how many of you are there?”

“In Area 5? Just me that we know of…”

“How long would you have been there?”

“I don’t know…”

“I like your theory. We’ll keep looking.”

“We already…”

“Sookie… think of poor Michelle… if her mother hadn’t thought she was crazy…”

“Oh. My. God.”

I laughed, “What?”

“You know what! That was… you sounded like a Baptist on Sunday!”

Alcide started laughing. “Yeah, he did! And it’s working. Shut up. We’re halfway done already.”

As she finished her drink, she growled that Pam would’ve been on her side.

**

Since Sookie was being ‘forced’ to continue the search ‘under duress’, we had the limo wait for us near the back… our reasoning was that Sookie could scan the wing as we walked by it to prevent the guessing game we’d been playing with the other receptionists.

We’d walked slowly since there were four floors to that particular facility for Sookie to scan and we’d gotten close to turning the corner when Sookie stopped in her tracks.

Alcide started chuckling, “Score one for the Baptist?”

Since she was concentrating, her reply was ‘scratching’ the side of her nose with her middle finger. She left us waiting for a few moments. “Alcide, when’s the next full moon?”

“Five days. Why?”

“What would happen if you got locked up?”

“A Were?”

She nodded.

“What are you getting from him?”

“Not much… he’s watching Naked Gun…”

“If he’s still in there during the moon, then there’s going to be a problem.”

She shrugged. “Well… it’s not exactly what we were looking for… C’mon.”

**

We didn’t bother with questioning the woman behind the info desk. She didn’t seem to know her head from the hole in her ass before I glamoured her to slide her pass card through the scanner to let us in.

Another glamour had an orderly walk right by us without notice…

Sookie sucked her teeth and whispered her disappointment that there wasn’t a chart on the door to give us any clues before she knocked on it.

The Were who opened the door didn’t look old enough to change… awkward, wearing scrubs, no taller than Sookie… mouth hung open, brown eyes as big as dinner plates that took a while to realize that anything other than Sookie’s breasts were in the hallway. He was enjoying her snug tank top as much as I was and it didn’t help that the air conditioning had done marvelous things to her nipples.

If nothing else, she was flattered rather than offended.

“Mind if we come in? It’s past visiting hours and we need to talk.”

He raised his eyebrow. “How about you come in and they stay outside.”

Even though Alcide and I growled, Sookie giggled. “Slow your roll, stud. You gonna stop imagining a blow job long enough to let us in?”

“What?”

“The virginity gods haven’t sent you an angel, Kiddo, but I am here to help…” The boy blushed as she put her hand against his chest and slowly advanced, leading us in. “Now, how did you end up in here?”

He was still staring at her as she rested against the window ledge. “I don’t know…”

“Knock that off… Where’s your family?”

“I don’t know.”

She rolled her eyes and grabbed the pillow from his bed, hugging it to cover herself. If it had been Quinn, she’d have hit him by then, but the boy’s thoughts were amusing her. “Let’s start with something easy. How about your name.”

“Adam Edwards…”

“Nice to meet you, Jeff Perry. Now, how long have you been here?”

“I… how did you…?”

“I’m a mind reader… Your turn. How long?”

“Three weeks… I blacked out and the cops found me in the park naked.”

“Where’s your family?”

“I don’t have one. I ran away from a group home…”

“No you didn’t.”

“Yes, I…”

“Why did you run away?”

“I… I started blacking out… I… I killed my mom’s cat.”

She stared at him for a long moment before her eyes started to well up. She shook her head. “You’ve been on your own for a year?”

“Yeah… I… Have a little brother. I was afraid…”

He stopped talking when Alcide growled, that time it was less human. “You’re the oldest. You’ve been ‘blacking out’. You dream that you’re some kind of animal and you wake up naked in weird places and can’t really piece together how you got there. All you want is a toothbrush and a bath and all you do is veg for a day or two afterwards.”

“Yeah… are you a ‘mind reader’ too?”

“No. I’m like you.”

“Nuts? Awesome. The bipolar next door just went home. We can share DVDs from the media cart.”

Alcide managed to chuckle at the sarcastic little shit. “Were you adopted? Living in foster care?”

“No… I look just like my Mom. Why? What’s this all about?”

“You beat your parents to the punch kid… You ran off before they could have the talk with you.”

“I had sex ed…”

He snorted, “Not that talk.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone…

The boy started panicking when Sookie gave Alcide a phone number that he dialed right away. “No! You can’t call them! I could…”

Alcide smirked and pressed the speaker button, completely ignoring the boy.

“Hello?” Jeff’s mouth closed as soon as he heard the woman’s voice.

Alcide answered, “Mrs. Perry?”

“Yes. Who’s this?”

“My name is Alcide Herveaux. I’m security for a Vampire from Shreveport. We were looking for someone else, but…”

“Ohmygod! JEFF!”

“Yes ma’am.”

“Is he ok? Where is he? He’s been gone… Where is he?”

“He seems fit as a fiddle other than being confused about why he’s been blacking out. He let himself get checked into Dondalson in Irving.”

She sobbed, “That’s what we were afraid of… We were hoping he’d find a pack at least…”

“He’s been staying away because he thinks he’s a danger to his little brother.”

“I can be there in 10 minutes… Oh my god… I’m going to… oh my god… we’ll be right there.”

“He’ll be in the limo waiting around back.”

Alcide barely had his phone back in his pocket before the boy charged him. “Why did you do that!? I’m just going to have to run away again!”

Alcide caught the boy’s wrists and held them out to the sides and towered over him. Sookie giggled that they looked like they were dancing. “Kid, you need to settle down. If you don’t, you’re going to black out.”

“How do you know?”

“I told you. I’m like you. You’re not ‘blacking out’. When you wake up, you aren’t remembering ‘dreams’… You aren’t trying to figure out why you’re dreaming about being an animal. You. Are. An. Animal…”

“You’re crazier than I am!”

“Shhhhhh. I told you to calm down. Wolf?”

“How did you…?”

“I’m a wolf too.”

The boy looked like he was going to cry. “That’s not funny! Is this what you do for kicks? Mess with crazy people?”

Alcide shook his head slowly and released a low, guttural growl that made the boy break a sweat. “Now you try.”

It was weak, but Jeff’s attempt to mimic Alcide surprised him. “What the hell was that?”

“You’re a Werewolf, kid. An early bloomer too, unfortunately. I was 13 when I first started getting antsy during full moons…”

“I was 12. Full moons?”

Alcide nodded and released Jeff’s wrists. “So my old man sat me down and told me what’s what. I changed for the first time a couple months later. Were you hiding it?”

Jeff winced and whatever he thought, made Sookie giggle. “Oh. My. God. Are you really a mind reader?”

She nodded slowly and the boy’s face turned nearly as red as Quinn’s scorched head. “Don’t worry. Now that we’ve got you figured out, I’ll mind my own business and stay out of your head.”

Jeff hid his face in his hands. “Too damn late!”

She tossed his pillow back to the bed and walked over to the door. “I’m a telepath. It’s not the worst I’ve ever seen. C’mon. You’ve kept your mom waiting for a year.”

**

Sookie wept through the reunion. Not only did Jeff’s mother come to get him, but she brought her husband and the little brother Jeff had been afraid to hurt…

The father apologized to the boy repeatedly for not realizing he was ‘ripe’ yet while the mother clung to her sons like she was afraid he’d run away again.

As soon as Sookie settled next to me, Alcide tossed a box of tissues at her. She laughed as she blew her nose and told us to ‘go ahead and make fun’.

Alcide shook his head. “Naw. I get it… I’m not a big enough asshole…”

“That’s sweet. Thanks.”

“I’ll tell Pam. She’ll take care of it for me.”

She snickered and threw the box of tissues at him. “Alright. I guess I learned my lesson. We’ll start going through mental wards everywhere we go. I hate that for him.”

**

She didn’t lose hope when the next hospital had nothing to offer… In fact, she suggested that we start making a list of institutions in our Area as well as Baton Rouge, New Orleans and Jackson since we knew we’d be visiting those areas soon enough.

As the limo pulled around to the back of the Corson Center, something made Sookie stare at the side of the building and blindly shove her pen and notepad back into her purse.

“Another runaway Shifter?”

She seemed hypnotized as she shook her head slightly and yelled to the driver to stop… when the car lurched, she all but ran from the car…

Her hand was waiting for mine, determined and still staring at the same area that caught her attention. “What is it?”

She shook her head again and whispered, “I don’t know… but I can tell you what it isn’t.” That by itself was interesting, if not alarming. She’d met Vampires, Shifters, Weres, Daemons…

I followed Sookie’s line of sight. Most of the windows were dark with the curtains closed… the one that wasn’t seemed to be what had Sookie’s attention. While Sookie closed her eyes to concentrate on the dimly lit room on the third floor, I focused on what could be seen beyond the glass… The walls were covered with drawings. Some of them more detailed than others, but wall to wall nonetheless.

Sookie breathed, “Bigger than you.”

“How so?”

“You… your mind fills a room… that one… Eric, that one is spilling out.”

“But not Vampire?”

Her head tilted. “No… Not Vampire… it’s like… like a cluster of… bubbles? Maybe crystals… I don’t…”

She stopped herself when a figure came to the window. The girl seemed to notice us right away and offered a pleasant smile and wave. “Sookie, are there any other minds around?”

“No. Not outside. Why?”

I let go of her hand, flying towards the window slowly. She continued smiling as though flying was the most normal thing she’d ever seen. Short, plump, porcelain pale skin and hair dyed an unnatural blue-black. Her fingertips and the heel of her right hand were stained… Once I was eye to eye with her, she used a grease pencil to scrawl backwards, “Ema Oswald, nice to meet you.”

I reached for my phone, not sure of any other way to give her my name but to type it out. She tapped the glass to stop me and once she had my attention, she held up a sketch… She giggled as I was riveted and then motioned to wave us in.

When I landed next to Sookie again, she grabbed my hand. “Your. Mouth. Is. Open. What the hell was that?”

It was my turn to be awestruck. “I don’t know, but she just… that drawing she just held up, was of me… hovering outside of her window.”

**

I glamoured our way through the hospital and onto the third floor…

And without having to knock, the door swung open. The girl was chipper if nothing else. “Hey guys!” Since Sookie hadn’t ever met another Faerie that she knew of, it took the door opening and the completely human scent to hit me before I stopped worrying that Ema could be Fae… more Fae, more tempting than Sookie. Relieved yes, but no less confused.

“Ema…”

“Eeeee-muh. I know it’s weird but… hey, there’s a Sookie and an Alcide in the room, so I’m not alone in that.”

Sookie was practically frozen and the fact that she knew who we were had made Alcide retarded… leaving only me, as though I was doing much better. “How do you know who we are?”

She shrugged. “Dunno. I just got it.”

“Got what exactly?”

“Dunno. I just start drawing or writing. Don’t even realize I’m doing it.” Amazing.

I couldn’t help myself… I let my attention drift over the walls of her room to look over her artwork. “How did you end up here?”

“I don’t exactly fit into my family… the goth look doesn’t help me blend at Fellowship services so I’m kind of a black-sheep. My family is about as uptight as uptight gets. Anything that isn’t white and Christian and Human is evil… they used to humor me and ask about what I’d drawn, but I got tossed in here a couple weeks ago when I drew a picture of someone they knew torturing a Vampire.”

Sookie gasped, “Gabe?”

“Yeah. We know him from church. Of course they thought I need to be ‘fixed’… Anyway, usually I might get something a couple times a week, but the past couple of days, I’ve been getting A LOT… Eric, what you’re looking at is BS. While I’ve been in here, I’ve been drawing on my own so they think I’m just artistic.”

“Which are which then?”

“None of those… Here, I keep the ones I don’t draw on purpose apart from the rest. That’s why those suck… My handwriting is even different.” She held out a portfolio, wiggling it while she waited for me to take it. “What am I?”

I waited to answer her, still unwilling to label her yet…

Sookie and Alcide might as well have been attached to me while I unzipped the binder. Sookie gasped as soon as the cover was pealed back…

Alcide grumbled, “That’s not good.” as he looked at the sketch of Sookie in a hospital bed.

Sookie reached behind me and patted his shoulder. “I think that already happened… that looks like when Rene got me. ”

No less than 40 sketches… some of them were detailed drawings of people with their names… including two almost identical drawings of the Berts.

Most of them were of the past that she couldn’t possibly know anything about…

All of them were more skilled than the ones hanging on the wall with poster tack. Some were obvious…

Two Sookies, two mes, together in an office that didn’t exist any longer…

Hunter lining his dinosaur figures up from largest to smallest along the side of my pool while he cooled his bare feet in the water…

Sookie and me playing poker…

Some more abstract…

Two cell phones sitting atop a toilet next to a towel…

A garbage can full of Red Bull cans…

A door that had been pushed off its hinges, resting on a tile floor…

All of them dated before we experienced them, anywhere from a day to a week early…

Cold reading might’ve been on my list of possibilities until I was about half way through the stack of pages…

A primitive road… a moonlit sky… a horse without a rider and an ‘injured’ man lying on the ground…

I stared at the sketch for too long. Long enough for Sookie to ask, “I don’t recognize that. Does it ring any bells for you?”

“That would be the night I met my maker… Ema, if I’m right, you don’t know anything about what you draw.”

“Right. I almost never get any kind of story to go with it… I… some of those pictures don’t make any damn sense unless you know what’s happened. I mean cell phones on a toilet? Why’d I draw two pictures of the same guy? Bizarr-oh.”

“You’ve been drawing ‘us’ for more than a month?”

“Yeah, I guess… Y’all are doing ok with the drawings though? I mean… So far? You know what they mean?”

We all nodded and I finally turned over the page from where I was stuck staring at my last night alive…

The next few pages was a list… just a word or two at a time… As I scanned it, she explained that she ‘pitched’ the originals because they’d been written on anything from tissues to toast…

The names of every member of our entourage and what we were, but not together… some that made Sookie giggle like ‘Snowsuit’ and ‘McNugget’… but there were a few that left Sookie and me with less than happy feelings… ‘Hyprocrite,’ ‘pearls’ and ‘freedom’.

The last few pages were drawings of things that we couldn’t identify with any certainty, but had an idea about…

A room that none of us recognized engulfed in flames… given the political nonsense surrounding us, it didn’t take much to assume that an enemy might be eliminated…

Sookie snuggled with Hunter… that would be a given…

Another drawing of what seemed to be a skip, the four of us congregated on the porch of Sookie’s house…

The sight of two Jasons made Sookie giggle and claim that if Pam bonded with her brother, they’d only skip once because Jasons’ heads would explode…

And a drawing of my closet bursting with not only my clothing, but Sookie’s as well. That was a more than welcome sight…

The last of the sketches took us all by surprise… as much as the first one had when I was outside her window…

It was of the three of us hovering over her portfolio…

When we all turned to look at her, she began cackling. “See… that one makes sense now, but if I mailed it to you last week when I drew it you woulda been all, ‘WTF?’. Ya know?”

“Automatic writing.”

“Huh?”

“Automatic writing. It’s a kind of clairvoyance.”

“Have you met anyone else like me?”

“No. I’ve only ever read about it… in fiction. Does it make you feel better to know that I’d never met a telepath? In the last month, I’ve met four.”

Sookie shook her head. “You said you’d known a psychic though.” Oops.

“Reading tea leaves isn’t quite on the same level as this.”

Ema chirped, “So what are y’all? I mean… I’m Ema the automatic writer…”

Sookie laughed, “Sorry. All this and you don’t know… Um. Eric is a Vampire… Alcide is a Werewolf… I’m a telepath.”

“A telepath?” It was ‘bizarr-oh’ to me that she wasn’t more preoccupied with the news that there was a Vampire in her room or that Werewolves were real.

Sookie nodded, “I read minds.”

Ema bounced and clapped her hands. “Can you… maybe you can read my mind the next time I start drawing… and see what’s going through my head?”

“I can try… but… your mind is nothing like anything I’ve ever come across. I don’t get anything from you.”

She shrugged. “Worth a try, I guess… I’m all packed. Ready to get out of here?”

Sookie snorted. “That’s called kidnapping.”

“Um… Technically, it’s called signing out against medical advice. I’m 18.”

“Really?”

“Yeah… I would’ve signed out and taken off already if I wasn’t… well, I kind of felt like I needed to be here. Like I was waiting.”