#my oc marshall being one and their oc jason being another. i usually need a ref

[cherub014]

update i went back to the blick and drew a really scuffed smug version of desmond in 10 seconds while my friend watched. who knows maybe ill go back next week

i left him in a blick. if you see him kill him

[alonely-dreamer]

The Valuable Sun | Chapter 4

Summary: Brooklynne Stackhouse is Sookie and Jason Stackhouse’s little sister. Like her older sibling, she is a telepath, but her powers are far more stronger and far more uncontrollable than her sister’s. After a series of murders in Bon Temps, Sookie takes it upon herself to investigate, taking her younger sister with her in a club called Fangtasia, where they meet vampire and sheriff Eric Northman.

Pairing: Eric x OC

Warnings: 18+ (language, violence, blood)

A/N: Please, note that I am French so there might be some mistakes here and there.

Words: 5064

Schedule: A new chapter will be posted every Monday. Chapter 5 to 9 are available on my Patreon for early and instant access.

Masterlist

Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3

Sookie didn’t have to tell Brooke that Jason was in jail. She had heard it as soon as Sookie had. Jason had called from the police station to let her know. It put her in a rage. Jason had confessed to crimes he hadn’t committed because of guilt and grief. Because his girlfriend who was a V addict had died and he had no better explanation for it. “What an idiot,” Sookie had said, right before she left the house. She drove to the police station where René, Arlene’s future husband, was already visiting Jason. She told her brother not to worry, that she was really close to finding out who the real killer was, but he didn’t want to believe it. In his mind, it was set, he was the killer. He had killed them all, somehow, even if he didn’t remember it. All but Adele. He knew he hadn’t done it, he knew he couldn’t have.

Brooklynne didn’t want to stay inside, she wanted to be out there, looking for Drew Marshall with Sookie. But even Sookie couldn’t do that. She had to work. She’d go out there on her own but the last time she did that, she had needed Eric to bring her back home.

Being alone in the house made her feel uneasy. That unfamiliar feeling helped her focus. It was like she was in someone else’s house, a house she didn’t know, and the unknown made her feel anxious. Her routine had crumbled when Adele died. No more exercises, no more games to help her control her abilities. But she had no one to talk to now. Or someone to talk to her. She felt lonely, and somehow that helped her focus. Because, for the first time in a really long time, she was bored.

Maybe it was because there was no one around, no one to listen to, no one to hear, but she felt different from her usual self. She could hear herself think, and maybe that was why it was easier to focus. She thought about Adele, she thought about Jason, she thought about Eric. But the one thing she wished she would stop thinking about, dreaming about, was blood. She saw blood every time she closed her eyes. Her grandmother’s blood all over the kitchen floor. Longshadow’s blood all over Sookie. How the vampire had exploded into a disgusting pool of red liquid. It made her sick.

She decided to keep herself busy. To try and see how long she could stay focus and do normal things without accidentally mentally slipping into another world. She remembered Sookie saying they’d have to wrap up their grandmother’s things at some point, and Brooklynne thought she’d make herself useful by starting to clean Adele’s bedroom. The boxes were already there and marked ‘to keep�� and ‘goodwill’. She started going through her grandmother’s jewelry, giving a look at the old wooden clock on the wall wondering how long it’ll take her to get distracted. But she never did. She worked for two hours in silence and was only interrupted by the ringtone of her phone. She saw a text message from Sookie, letting her know that her car broke down and that René was driving her home.

Brooklynne had never met René, but she had heard of him. He was a colleague but also a good friend of Jason’s. He had probably been at Adele’s funeral, but she had left too early to get the chance to meet him.

She was happy to have some company. She wanted to try and see if she could stay out of their heads. Or, at least, if she could stop their thoughts from invading hers.

She had just finished sorting out her grandmother’s clothes, when she heard a car stop in the driveway. She heard Sookie and René enter the house as she started walking down the stairs.

“It’s hotter in here than hell on a Sunday,” she heard René say.

“Yeah, Gran used to leave the windows open all day but… I haven’t felt safe doing that in a while… Especially with Brooke staying here alone. Have a seat, I’ll fix us some iced teas.”

“Sounds good.”

Brooklynne watched from the bottom of the stairs as he turned on the ceiling fan, before he stepped inside the living room. She didn’t even get the chance to try and block his thoughts as she saw him look around and the first thing he noticed was the shotgun leaning against the fireplace. Brooklynne heard him plan to remove the bullets from it. She heard him plan to take Sookie by surprise and strangle her with his belt like he had Maudette, Dawn and Amy, the girl from Fangtasia, the girl Jason had loved, the girl he had confessed crimes he hadn’t committed for. She took a deep breath. She should be afraid. The thought crossed her mind. Why wasn’t she afraid? But it seemed like she was on autopilot at the moment as she calmly walked down the rest of the stairs, knowing she was going to face him, her grandmother’s killer, the man who had been terrorizing the town and her sister for weeks. She took him by surprise, appearing in the doorway as he was placing the shotgun back where he had found it.

“Got ya,” Brooke said with no special emotion in her voice or on her face.

“Oh,” he chuckled after he turned around and saw her standing there. “I was just looking at it.”

She tilted her head, wondering if no one had told him about her, about how she knew everything. She knew he must have. It was probably the reason why he had avoided her. But there was something he didn’t know about her, something he wasn’t ready for.

“You killed my grandmother,” she told him, calm and composed.

The look on his face didn’t change. He was still wearing that stupid smirk even though he knew he was made. Even as he made the decision to kill her too.

“Don’t,” she said as he tried to take a step forward. Of course, he obeyed, he didn’t really have a choice.

“Brooke?” Sookie asked as she appeared from behind her with a jug of iced tea in her hands. “What’s going on?”

She didn’t get the time to reply as René launched himself at them. Brooke’s command had been for him not to step forward, so he had to find another way to move.

“It’s him! He’s Drew Marshall!”

Sookie would have guessed and she would have given a sassy reply to her sister if it hadn’t been for René jumping on her, making her fall hard on her back. He moved his hands to her throat and started strangling her.

“Stop!” Brooke ordered him.

“You stop,” he growled, tired of being manipulated. He got up and slapped Brooke so hard she fell over.

“Don’t touch her!” Sookie snarled as she jumped on his back and started punching his shoulders and his chest.

He shook her off and she fell on her ass. He then proceeded to kick her once, then twice, giving Brooke enough time to recollect herself. She knew she had to choose her words carefully to stop him.

“Stop it! Don’t do anything! Don’t move!”

He stopped. Sookie took a deep breath, bringing a hand to her stomach and another to her bruised face, before she pushed herself away from him.

“You’re never going to kill anyone again,” Brooklynne said. “You’re going to surrender to the police and confess everything.”

“Fuck you!”

“You killed Gran!” Sookie yelled at him. “Fuck you! She didn’t do anything to you!”

“I came for you, you stupid cunt!”

“Shut up,” Brooke ordered him. “Don’t say another word until the police arrives. Don’t do anything until the police gets here, don’t move.”

“How do you do that?” he asked silently but she didn’t reply.

“Are you okay?” Sookie asked her sister as she brought a hand to her sore face.

“I’m fine,” she nodded.

Catching him might not bring her grandmother back, but at least it would bring justice to his victims, and it would clear Jason’s name.

“Poor Arlene,” Sookie shook her head. “She’ll be heartbroken.”

“Sookie!” someone called from outside. Sam appeared in the doorway. He was out of breath, as if he had run all the way here. “It’s him,” he said as soon as he saw René standing in the living room. “It’s him, he’s the killer,” he made his way towards who he had thought was his friend and seized him by the shirt.

“We know,” Sookie told him.

“He’s stopped. He won’t move or say a word until the police gets here.”

“You bastard,” Sam growled before he punched him in the face so hard he knocked him out.

“Well,” Sookie sighed. “At least that would be easier to explain to the police.”

***

A coward. Of course, he was. Changing his name, killing women… only a coward could do such things. Just like only a coward would use his belt to hang himself in his cell. Brooke couldn’t say she was sad to see him go, in fact, she’d be lying if she did. Sookie wasn’t particularly hurt by the news either and life started to feel normal again as the days went by. It was as if his death had made Adele’s more real somehow. More definite. As if she hadn’t really been gone until her murderer had been caught. Or maybe, her granddaughters just weren’t good at letting go. And who would be? Especially Brooklynne, as she now spent her days alone, reading her grandmother’s books, playing cards by herself… She had no one to talk to, not even Jason who had disappeared as fast as he had come back.

After they arrested René, they had released Jason, who had been over the moon to hear that he wasn’t a bloodthirsty murderer. Neither Sookie nor Brooklynne knew where he had run to, or where and how he spent his free time. But at least he showed up on time to work, and he was clean, according to Hoyt Fortenberry.

Bill had showed up to the house as soon as the sun had set on the night when they caught Drew Marshall/René. He had felt her fear and had tried to intervene, but the sun had stopped him from going far. Sookie forgave him, of course she did, she could barely remember why she was mad at him in the first place. Brooklynne remembered, but she wasn’t about to remind her sister. Not when she was literally glowing with happiness.

The glow of happiness didn’t last long, however, as Sookie came back home one night, after finding a dead body in Andy Bellefleur’s car. It looked like Bon Temps had gotten itself another murdered. And another vampire.

It turned out, as punishment for killing a vampire, Bill had had to create a new one, and her name was Jessica, and Bill had kept her a secret for two weeks, which Sookie didn’t appreciate. She didn’t appreciate it at all.

One afternoon, a few days after René’s arrest and death, Sookie and Brooke were finishing up on cleaning Adele’s bedroom, when a notary came knocking on their door. Having company was a good exercise for Brooke, especially when it was only one person. She could try and focus on staying out of their mind and staying inside of hers.

“Is there a problem with my grandmother’s papers, Mr. Lancaster?” Sookie asked as they settled in the living room. “I know you asked for a copy of the deed to the house.”

“Oh, no, no, that’s all okay,” he said, then paused, then sighed, “I have some terrible news, I’m afraid. Your great-uncle Bartlett has passed on.”

A chuckled escaped Brooke’s lips. The notary gave her a weird look, which she ignored.

“Excuse her, she has ADD,” Sookie explained.

“Ah,” he nodded, he obviously didn’t know what it meant. “I know it’s so soon after your grandmother. This must be quite a shock.”

Brooklynne laughed again. Of course, she wouldn’t be sad about it, but her reaction was the exact opposite of Sookie’s who was stunned by the ‘tragic’ news.

“Tell me what happened,” she asked, ignoring her sister who was trying to stop smiling.

The notary stared at the youngest Stackhouse for a moment before he returned his attention to Sookie. “Well… the Lincoln Parish Fire Department found him a few miles south of Simsboro. He’d washed up on the shore.”

“How’d he get all the way down there?”

“The Walnut Creek runs behind his house. Sheriff’s guessing he got too close and fell in.”

Brooklynne burst out in laughter. She first thought she’d thank karma for it but then heard from her sister that Bill was potentially responsible, which instantly made her like him more.

“Brooklynne!” Sookie reprimanded.

Knowing she wouldn’t stop laughing, she left the room and walked back up to her bedroom. She wasn’t happy by the news, though she wasn’t unhappy either. It was a mix of surprise, exhaustion and nervousness that had set off this reaction from her. She knew her grandmother would be deeply ashamed of her, but she’d be really proud to hear that she had managed to keep away from Mr. Lancaster’s mind.

***

$12,000. Maybe that’s how much Sookie and Brooklynne’s innocence and dignity was worth to their great-uncle Bartlett, or maybe that was really all he had left, but either way, the sisters didn’t want it. They didn’t want anything from him. Sookie had given it all to Jason, and Brooklynne hoped he’d be smart with it.

A week passed, during which Sookie and Bill kissed and makeup. Sookie was motivated to get to know Jessica better as she was Bill’s progeny, and therefore, they were a package deal. It was both of them or none of them. So, she had taken the night off and asked Bill to leave them both alone so they could have some alone time together, something the vampire had reluctantly agreed to.

Brooklynne wished her sister would spend some alone time with her, but she was getting used to being alone. She had begged Sookie a few times to take her with her to work so that she could try and control her powers, but her sister always refused. And she wasn’t about to say yes now that she had found a dead body in the parking lot of the restaurant.

Resigned to spend the rest of her life alone and doing nothing, Brooklynne had collapsed on the couch with a sigh. Bored out of her mind, she started to wish something, anything, would distract her. At some point in the evening, her wish had come true as she ended up walking around barefoot on the wet cold grass.

The pond was surprisingly bright considering it was nighttime. As usual, nobody could see her, but she could see them all. They were all very happy, almost glowing, as they drank and laughed and danced. She started dancing with them, enjoying the music, enjoying the silence inside her head. Maybe it was because she wasn’t physically there, but she couldn’t hear any of their thoughts. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath as she enjoyed the fresh air on her skin, and the happiness around her. But suddenly, the laughed were replaced by cries and gasps and the dancers quickly scattered away in fear as the lights faded away and darkness took over the pond. Brooklynne looked around, confused, trying to find what they were running away from. But she only met silence, and darkness.

A knock on the door brought her back to her living room. She stood up slowly, as if she had just woken up, wondering if she had imagined it. But she heard it again. She knew it was a vampire, because she couldn’t hear their thoughts. She stood up and walked barefoot to the front door. She immediately recognized the tall figure standing behind it. She opened the door and saw Eric standing on her porch. He was wearing blue joggers and a matching jacket, and his hair was shorter than the last time she saw him.

“Brooklynne,” he smirked, as if he thought she’d be happy to see him.

“Eric.”

“Did I wake you?” he asked as he saw her rub her eyes, though he didn’t sound particularly concerned.

“No. What do you want?”

“Well, I want a lot of things, you’re going to have to be more precise.”

“You cut your hair,” she said, and he wondered if she were already distracted.

He didn’t bother to answer. “Have you thought about my proposition?”

“Your what?” she frowned.

“Don’t tell me your forgot,” he said as he took a small step towards her. “You said you’d think about it. I gave you plenty of time to do so.”

“Oh, that.”

“Yes, ‘that’,” he repeated as he placed a hand on the wall, above his head, and leaned forward. “Let’s talk about it inside.”

She tilted her head and stared at him. She had thought about it, like she said she would, but she didn’t have an answer for him, or at least, not one he’d like.

“I’m not supposed to invite people in,” she said in a whisper as she looked down at her bare feet.

“Now, now. I won’t bite. I promise.”

She looked up at him and hesitated. Inviting a vampire in her home was a stupid idea. Though, Sookie did mention it was possible to revoke the invitation, so, maybe it wasn’t such a big deal.

“Come in,” she said as she stepped aside.

A victorious grin appeared on Eric’s face before he stepped inside the house, his eyes never leaving hers.

“You have a lovely home,” he said, and she didn’t miss the mockery in his tone. “You must be bored stuck here alone.”

She shrugged as she closed the door.

“If you were mine,” he said as he trapped her between the door and his body, “you’d never be bored a day in your life.”

Her eyes grew big and a gasp escaped her lips as his body approached hers. He was so tall it was hard to meet his eyes, but she could see the smirk on his face.

She swallowed. “Sookie says I should stay away from you.”

He chuckled, as if it amused him. “Well, aren’t you a disobedient little human.”

“Why do you even want me anyway? I’m not… like other humans.”

“But that’s exactly what makes you so… interesting,” he said as he ran a finger down her neck and onto her shoulder, brushing her hair aside. His gentle touch sent shivers down her spine, though she had no doubt he had his eyes on her vein.

“If I had been yours the other night, and Longshadow had attacked me, would you have killed him like Bill did?”

“No. I’d have been smarter. I’d have stopped him, and then I’d have taken him away.”

“Away where?”

“Where no one would have seen me.”

“So… you would have killed him?”

“Probably. Vampires should know better than to attack other vampires’ humans.”

“Bill got into a lot of trouble for what he did.”

“It could have been worse. Trust me.”

“You wanna know what I think?” she asked, and he raised an eyebrow. “I think you only want me because you can’t have Sookie. I think if Sookie were available you’d want her instead.”

“Now, why would you think that?” he said as he stepped away from her.

“Because… Sookie’s better. She’s not…” she paused, looking for the word. “She doesn’t glitch.”

He laughed. “And you do?”

“All the time.”

“You think you’re broken? You think you’re… malfunctioning?”

“Sookie can control her ability. I can’t even leave my house.”

“I think it’s all a matter of self-control. What you need is practice, not self-pity.”

“I tried to practice. But Sookie won’t take me anywhere.”

“I’ll take you wherever you want to go.”

She frowned and tilted her head. She knew he would. But did she want to go with him?

“Why did you come here tonight?”

He sighed. He obviously had more troubling things to talk about. “The sheriff of Area 9 in Texas has gone missing. His name is Godric. He’s… a friend of mine. I want to take you with me to Dallas, so you can help me find him.”

She opened her mouth, but then closed it. “I… I want to help you but… what can I do? My powers are useless against vampires.”

“There are always humans around to interrogate,” he said. “Besides, I have a theory on who’s behind it.”

“Then why don’t you just go yourself?”

“I can’t. I have no jurisdiction there. And no proof. The humans who may have taken him are idiots but they’re idiots prepared. We’ll know more once we’re in Dallas. One of Godric’s trusted friend is waiting for me. But…” he paused, as if what he wanted to say was hard for him to admit, “I could use your help.”

“I’d like to help you but…”

“Let me guess,” he sighed, “Sookie.”

“She’ll never let me go.”

“If you were mine, your sister wouldn’t be able to tell you what to do anymore.”

“If I were yours, my sister would kick your ass.”

Eric laughed. “She’s welcome to try.”

“I’ll help you,” she said. “Or at least I’ll try.”

“That’s all I ask,” he nodded before he stepped towards her once again. “Now. Let’s get out of here before your sister comes home.”

“Sookie’s with Jessica tonight.”

“Bill has her babysitting?”

“No. She wanted to.”

Eric raised an eyebrow. “Why didn’t she take you with her?”

“I… I don’t know,” she shrugged. It hadn’t even crossed her mind. She hadn’t even met Jessica.

“I wouldn’t complain about it, if I were you. Jessica’s unbearably annoying,” he said as he put his hand on the handle of the front door. “You might want to put some shoes on.”

She looked down and remembered she had left her shoes in the living room.

“Where are we going?”

“Fangtasia. We’re going to put that little head of yours to the test.”

***

Fangtasia, as always, was loud. The music was insufferably bad and so were all the thoughts of its human costumers. Sitting on Eric’s lap, Brooklynne had a good view of the club, and the club had a good view of her. She was trying to do as Eric told her, to focus on a man’s thoughts, and his only. He was a short man, though he was probably taller than her, a little heavy, wearing a red shirt and khaki shorts, seemingly out of place among the leather-wearing vampires dancing around him. It took her minutes to slid inside his head. She had had to go through all of the other thoughts that were invading her mind. Pushing them away, and keeping them away, was like building a wall inside her head and it was harder than anything else she had ever tried to do. Every time she put a brick, another one disappeared, taken down by someone else’s thoughts. She wished she could just let Eric’s silence replace the deafening noise inside her head, but he insisted on making her practice, and if she were honest, she needed it.

“No one’s ever going to make me a vampire. Nobody’s even looking at me. I just want to find a nice vampire lady, maybe I came to the wrong place. I’ll take anyone. I’ll fuck anyone, just make me a vampire!”

“He wants to become a vampire,” she told Eric. “That’s all he can think about.”

“What else?”

She sighed. “I don’t know. I’m tired.”

“Just focus. How does your sister do it?”

“I don’t know. She says she just stays out of their head. But I’m not even in their head, they’re in mine.”

“Then push them out.”

“I don’t know how.”

“Just do it.”

She sighed again. She closed her eyes as she shook her head. She had a headache. And a big one. Focusing on Eric would be cheating.

“Focus on your own voice,” he told her.

Well, that wasn’t a bad idea, actually. Brooklynne had never tried that. What was she even thinking right now? She didn’t know. She wandered among the loud voices, trying to ignore them, trying to focus on something else. How many people were here? Too many.

Her body relaxed suddenly, and he thought she had managed to cast the voices out of her mind, but as her head fell lazily on his chest, he knew she hadn’t. Her eyes were open, but they weren’t focused on anything. She had gone somewhere else.

“Brooklynne,” he called, snapping his fingers.

She blinked once, then twice, then straightened up.

“Stay with me.”

“Sorry,” she said as she ran a hand through her hair. “I’ll try again.”

She tried to do as he had said, focus on her own voice. She had to find it first. She tried to cast aside the disgusted images and thoughts, wondering how Sookie did it, how she managed to keep them away so well. She eventually found her own voice, and it was like a snake biting its own tail. “Focus, focus, focus, focus, focus.” After a while, all she could hear was this one word. And as all she could hear was her own voice, she took the opportunity to build a wall inside her mind. She wanted it strong, unbreakable, and with a door, a door only she could open.

“Focus.” Brick. “Focus.” Brick. “Focus.” Brick. “Focus.” Brick. “Focus.” Brick.

She didn’t stop until the wall surrounded that trail of thoughts, her trail of thoughts. She imprisoned the snake and it released its tail.

Silence.

“I did it.” She heard, and it took her a few seconds to realize, it was her own voice.

“Welcome back,” Eric said, and it made her jump. “You’ve been gone for two hours.”

“What?” she breathed out. She looked around and saw there were still a few people around, but most of the crowd was gone. She laughed. A wholehearted laugh she didn’t recognize, but that was coming from her. “You know what she’s thinking?” she asked as she pointed at the girl who was flirting with a vampire near the bar.

“No,” he shrugged with a raised eyebrow, wondering what was so funny.

“Me neither,” she smiled, clapping her hands in victory.

“Well, what a productive night,” Eric smiled back, though with a little mockery. “Can you try and read her mind?”

She stopped laughing. She didn’t want to. What if she opened the door and the wall crumbled?

“I don’t know,” she mumbled.

“Now, in the span of two hours you went from hearing everything to not hearing anything. How about we find a middle ground?”

She sighed. He was right. That’s why she had built that door. She focused. She locked her eyes on the girl and slowly unlocked that door. She held it tightly, firmly. She didn’t want it to open fully because she was afraid she’d never close it again. She had spent her entire life stuck in that house, not being able to go to school, not being able to go play with the other kids. She had grown up thinking her ability was uncontrollable. It turned out she just hadn’t tried hard enough. She closed the door shut, however, when a thought crossed her mind. Sookie didn’t let the voices inside her mind, it’s her mind that found the voices. She shouldn’t open the door to let anything in, she should open it to let something out. She focused again and tried to slip inside the girl’s head.

“How much is he gonna pay me if I let him bite me? I won’t do it for less than a thousand bucks. I know girls who do it for more than that. And if I fuck him, he’ll give me more.���

“She’s more interested in his money than anything else,” she told Eric who chuckled, like he already knew that.

“See what happens when you’re with me? You control yourself. Imagine what else you could do if you were mine?”

“Are you ever going to stop asking me that?”

“Once you’re mine, I won’t have to ask you ever again,” he smirked, and she rolled her eyes.

She brought a hand to her forehead, trying to massage her headache away. All this wall building had exhausted her. She rested her head against his chest and felt herself falling asleep. To her surprise, he didn’t stop her.

She didn’t know how long it had been but when she woke up, the club was empty. She was sitting alone on Eric’s chair, and Bill had just burst through the front door with Sookie unconscious in his arms. Brooklynne practically jumped off the chair.

“Eric!” he called, panic and desperation in his voice.

The blond vampire appeared instantly and asked calmly: “What happened?”

“I don’t know. She was attacked by a creature.”

“Sookie, oh my God,” Brooke breathed out as she ran towards them.

“My blood won’t heal her!”

“Pam,” Eric called, still calm, but alerted.

“What?” his progeny asked with her usual annoyed tone as she appeared behind them.

“Go fetch Doctor Ludwig. Now.”

Pam’s eyes fell on Sookie. She saw the blood on Bill’s shirt and the scratches on Sookie’s back that were dripping blood all over the floor. She grimaced then disappeared as fast as she had appeared.

“Did you see the creature?” Eric asked.

“No. She said it was half bull half human,” he said, like he didn’t believe it.

“What?” Brooke breathed out. “Does that… Is that possible?”

“I don’t know,” the sheriff replied. “I’ve never heard of such creature. Which is odd.”

“This… Doctor Ludwig,” Brooklynne asked, “how do you know he’ll be able to help her?”

“She,” Eric corrected her, “specializes in supernatural diseases. She’s our best shot at saving your sister. If she doesn’t know how to heal her, no one does.”

Brooklynne’s heart tightened as a gasp escaped her mouth. A serial killer, a woman found with a hole in her chest, and now this? A Minotaur like creature? What the hell was happening in this town?

**********

Tags: @thepoet1975 @nerdysandwichqueen @catchmeupimgettingoutofhere @raegan-hale @colie87