OOM - Fangtasia

[lazy_but_loyal]

Fangtasia is closed for the night.

Pam figured that Eric was going to come up with ways to recoup their financial losses thanks to-- well, everything that's been happening that forced them to keep their doors shut until everything was sorted. So now, she's just going to hold down the fort and do her nails while Ginger sweeps up the crusty flakes that Russell left behind.

"Hey, Pam-?" Ginger asks.

"Ah-ah!" Pam snaps. "What did I tell you?"

"Oh," says Ginger, cringing sheepishly. "Sorry. For a second there I forgot about the No Talking To Pam Tonight rule."

"You're still talking to me, Ginger."

"Sorry!"

Ginger resumes sweeping.

And for a moment, Pam pauses what she's doing, as she senses that something is wrong. That Eric might be in trouble. It's a disturbing feeling.

Suddenly the front door, which was supposed to have been locked, bursts open.

Pam whirls around.

Ginger screams and drops the broom.

It's Ruben, and he's got a length of silver chain in his gloved hands.

"Miss De Beaufort," he rumbles.

"Ruben, what the hell are you doing here with that?" Pam demands.

"Mr. Northman's orders," he says plainly, and with vampire speed, he rushes at her, fangs down.

Before Pam can think Oh, you have GOT to be kidding me, she counters the attack by flinging a table at him, sending him flying into, well, the counter.

Ginger is still screaming.

"For fuck's sake, Ginger, get out of here!" Pam yells at her. Tottering and teetering on her platform high heels, Ginger flees into the ladies' room.

Ruben picks himself up from amid the broken glasses and liquor bottles. Pam circles, giving him a wide berth.

"Are you out of your fucking mind?" she snaps at him, her own fangs having dropped out of fury. "Why would Eric order you to come after me?"

"He didn't say," Ruben grunts, picking up the chain.

Really. Really? It's one thing to have mindless minions, but for them to be so dull-witted and incompetent is another. Pam told Eric he should have killed this one when he fucked up trying to track down Bill Compton.

"Oh, you are gonna regret this so hard," she warns him.

He says nothing to that. He only starts swinging the chain, approaching her head-on. Lashing out with the chain like a whip, he aims for her face.

Which is dumb, because Pam will always protect her face in a fight. Touch the face, you die.

She blocks the chain with her arm and it wraps around her wrist (thank goodness she's wearing long sleeves). Giving it a hard pull, she yanks Ruben forward and smashes his nose with her elbow.

He yowls in shock and pain, but grabs her by the shoulders and hurls her to the floor. With the wind knocked out of her, he straddles her and wraps his hands around her throat.

As Pam struggles, her fingers curl around something thin and made of wood. The broom handle that Ginger had dropped. How convenient.

She whacks Ruben on the head with it, and it breaks in half. Dazed, his grip on her throat loosens just enough for her to flip him over onto his back. She pins him down.

"I said you were gonna regret this," she snarls.

And she plunges both halves of the broken broom handle into his chest. He screams.

She darts away at vampire speed, seconds before Ruben's body explodes into a huge mess of blood and goopy entrails. Because she is not getting any of that shit on her.

Some assassin.

She sheathes her fangs.

"Ginger!"

After a moment's silence, the door to the ladies' room creaks open. Ginger tiptoes out. And upon seeing the mess, she promptly starts screaming. Again.

With a frustrated sigh, Pam takes her aside and looks her straight in the eyes. Ginger eventually stops screaming.

"You're going to clean this up," Pam tells her, calmly, almost soothingly, without blinking.

"I am gonna clean this up, no problem," Ginger repeats in a slight monotone as she receives her billionth glamouring.

"And when you're done, you're going to go home."

"I'm'a go home for sure when I'm done."

"And you're not going to remember any of this."

"Nope, not at all."

"Good. Now get to it."

Ginger wafts away to go fetch the cleaning supplies.

Pam then finds a bit of bloody goo on her pant leg.

"Goddammit," she mutters, and she wrinkles her nose as she takes a napkin and tries to wipe the stain off.

Comments

[onceaviking]

It's heavy. The concrete.
Heavy and cool and enveloping him, pushing at him from all sides, making its way into his nostrils and his ears.

And he lets it.

you make me bleed, my child

Entering his mouth. Filling it. Grey and wet.

And he lets it.


And then he feels Pam.
Furious.
Murderous.

And that pull is enough to make him try to claw at the mass on top of him. Surrounding him.
Twisting his head from side to side.

Trapped.

[lazy_but_loyal]

Pam does her part in the cleanup by taking broken furniture outside to leave on the curb. She has nothing else to do, and besides, her mind is spinning.

Why? Why would Eric send Ruben to kill her? It doesn't make any sense!

Mostly because frankly, Eric ought to know that Ruben is a piss-poor choice in terms of someone who can kill Pam.

Something isn't right. She knew something was wrong when that strange sensation overwhelmed her earlier. And now that everything has died down, she feels it again.

Pam pauses at the open door, looking out into the night.

Where is he?

[onceaviking]

Flat on his back and held down by a massive amount of concrete there is little Eric can do.

Except for summoning his Progeny.


Pam

And claw at the weight holding him down.

[lazy_but_loyal]

Pam inhales sharply and shudders as Eric's voice echoes through her body.

After a glance over her shoulder at Ginger, who is happily mopping up, she takes off at vampire speed. She follows the pull of his voice, not knowing where it's leading her. The only thing she's certain of now is that he needs her.

Eventually Pam arrives at a construction site. Dark and deserted.

"Eric?" she calls out tentatively, before quickly making her way over to the concrete mixer, whose engine is still running. The concrete is still flowing out of the funnel into the pit. And the pit is almost full.

"Oh my god."

She grabs the controls and switches off the power, dragging the funnel aside.

Horrified, she looks down at the thick, wet concrete, bubbling and belching.

"Motherfucker," she cries through gritted teeth, as she goes to look for something to dig Eric out.

[onceaviking]

He can feel her.
And redoubles his efforts.

The concrete shifts a little in the middle of the pit with a deep, wet sound.

[lazy_but_loyal]

It's a construction site! There's got to be useful stuff around!

She notices a stack of plywood nearby. She grabs a plank and carries it over to the pit, and she slides its edge into the concrete where it dips and bubbles, hoping it's somewhere close to where Eric can feel it and grab onto it.

Then she picks up a shovel, and with vampire speed starts shoveling the concrete out before it settles and starts to harden. She can't make much of a dent in it all by herself, but maybe she can remove enough of it so that she won't have to dive in so deep...

Goddammit, she's not dressed for this!

[onceaviking]

He feels something move through the concrete to the left of him and he struggles to move his hand up, through the concrete.

It's like swimming. A nightmarish sort of swimming.

His fingers close around the edge of the plank.
It moves.

[lazy_but_loyal]

"Eric!"

She knows he can't hear her. But she keeps on digging. Cement splatters on her, all around her as she works, getting on her clothes and in her hair and on her face, but she just sets her jaw and keeps going.

Then, out of the corner of her eye, she sees a coil of rope next to some power tools. She stops digging and hauls the rope over, tying one end to the back of the cement mixer. Tossing the other end into the pit, and making sure it drapes over the plank -- she climbs in.

(But she takes off her shoes first.)

She has to get the rope to Eric. Holding onto the rope and bracing herself against the plank of wood, she slides into the wet concrete feet first, pushing the rope in through the muck.

[onceaviking]

He is snarling, his lips pulled back and pressed against the wet, cool concrete, his fingertips still curled around the very edge of the plank.

He tries to get his legs under him, just enough to be able to get purchase.
Fighting.

The strange calm is gone, burned by his rage.

He will fucking get Bill Compton. Right where it hurts the most.

He pushes with his strong legs.

[lazy_but_loyal]

The concrete is starting to really shift now, as if something below is stirring it.

Pam lets herself slide in a little lower, the rope twirled around one hand and wrist as she reaches into the sludge with other.

"Eric? Eric!"

She can feel that he's close, she just can't find him.

[onceaviking]

Nothing.

Then big, strong fingers close around her hand.
Tightly.

[lazy_but_loyal]

She gasps and falters, almost losing her grip on the rope.

"Jesus fucking Christ, Eric!"

And she pulls with all of her might. Eric is heavy, and the concrete is heavier, dragging him down with its sucking weight. But all he needs now is to just keep holding on and climbing up.

[onceaviking]

All he needed was someone to hold onto.

His other hand breaks free of the the concrete and gropes blindly for the plank.


Definitely rage-filled.

It fuels his muscles as he pulls himself up, up, up.

[lazy_but_loyal]

Pam grasps his wrist as firmly as she can, though the wet cement makes things slippery. She's not letting go, though. Not until she knows he can make it out on his own.

She kicks the rope toward him within reach of his groping hand.

[onceaviking]

His fingers close around the rope and with a mighty pull the cement lets go of him and he pulls himself halfway up before collapsing.

Bill Compton will pay for this.

[lazy_but_loyal]

Pam utters a cry of relief.

"Hang on, Eric, I'm gonna try to pull you up."

She lets go of him and turns to hoist herself up the side of the slippery plank, and finally over the lip of the pit.

Her clothes sag with the weight of the concrete, which is starting to dry. It's going to be hell trying to get it out of her hair.

Gripping the rope in both hands, and fueled by an intense irritation at this whole fucking situation, she heaves Eric up the plank. He doesn't move very much but at least it's farther out of the concrete than he was a moment ago.

[onceaviking]

He scrapes one hand across the plank, freeing it of cement. Then he runs it down his face.
Large clumps of cement dislodge and tumble down. He paws at his nose to clear his nostrils sufficiently to take a breath.
the cement lodged in his throat is fucking annoying and he needs to be able to cough to dislodge that .

[lazy_but_loyal]

Pam reaches over the edge of the plank to help Eric clear the cement off his face. She wipes gobs of it out of his eyes and ears with her fingers.

"Did Bill do this? Bill did this, didn't he? That fucking little shit."

[onceaviking]

He nods and then he starts coughing.
It sounds painful.

When half-set, bloody lumps of cement begins to come out his mouth, it looks even more painful.

When the cough subsides, he looks up at her, still braced on his hands.

"I'll fucking destroy him," he says. Calmly.

He's held back so far.
But he holds Bill Compton's joy in his hands and it is time to go crush it.

There'll be collateral. Things will likely forever move beyond his reach because of this. But he will see it through.

He pulls his legs and feet out of the cement.
Then he runs his fingers through his hair.

It's not really working.

"I have to go see Sookie," he says.
"We'll meet back at Fangtasia."

Everything that hurt is drowned out now by thoughts of exactly how crushed Bill Compton will be.

He doesn't even really see Pam.

[lazy_but_loyal]

Pam grimaces at the result of his coughing.

And then barely stops herself from rolling her eyes at the mention of Sookie.

She then grabs hold of him under his arm and encourages him to climb out all the way.

"You can't go anywhere covered in this shit. Let me get it off you."

[onceaviking]

He climbs out of the pit and gets to his feet. A little unsteadily.
The cement is dripping. The parts that haven't already set.

He looks like the world's dirtiest snowman. With hedgehog hair.

He starts brushing the worst off and then he stood.
He can feel her.
Sookie.

"I haven't got time," he tells Pam.

[lazy_but_loyal]

Pam huffs a short, irritated sigh as she insists on cleaning clumps of cement out of his hair and off his face before it dries. Well, it's already starting to dry, leaving a chalky residue on his skin. The rest of it caked on his clothes will have to be let alone.

"Fine, go," she says, and she steps back, shaking the goop from her hands. "I'm going to go take the longest, hottest shower ever taken."

And try to save her own hair.

[onceaviking]

He's gone before she has finished talking.

Moving at vampire speed to Sookie's house.

[lazy_but_loyal]

This time, Pam does roll her eyes.

And she takes off, too, in the opposite direction back toward Fangtasia.