Dead Ever After Re-write (Sookie Stackhouse and Eric Northman)

Chapter 25

Disclaimer: I am not the owner of these characters. The original story and the characters belong to Charlaine Harris. I am only borrowing them for a little while.

Before I start, I hope everybody is being careful with COVID. Stay healthy!

Chapter 25

I woke up and stayed in bed for who knows how long. My schedule was empty. At this time, on a normal day, I would be working at Merlotte's. Instead, I had nothing to do and it bothered me. The sunlight brightened my room, and with it, came the undesired heat. I knew it would be impossible to go back to sleep. Although my blanket was soft and warm, the bright sun was warming up my room too fast, and with it, my blanket. I tried to remember the last time I washed it, and I couldn't recall. Well, time to wash it again. This blanket was my favorite because it had been a gift from my grandmother several years ago. Its flower pattern was fading away, but there was no way I was going to replace it.

I went over yesterday's events multiple times and it slowly dawned on me that Sam was dead and I didn't have a job anymore. I was part owner of Merlotte's, but how could I continue running it without Sam's input?

Now that Sam wasn't here, what was going to happen to his half of the business? Without Sam, his family would be the new owners, and they didn't even know what happened to him.

I made a mental list of the things I needed to do today and that gave me a purpose to get out of bed. My kitchen was as bright as it could be with sunlight and somehow it energized me. I fixed a hearty breakfast with a large cup of coffee to give me the courage to face the first item on my to-do list; to call Sam's family. Since I didn't have their contact information, I had to go to Merlotte's and look for it in his office.

I cleaned up the dishes as fast as I could and went on to take a quick shower. I was tempted to just stay home and clean my house. It was getting really dusty and my grandmother would have scolded me for allowing the house to get this dirty. I really debated about calling Sam's family later, but it was something that needed to be done as soon as possible. Maybe I could clean up the house afterward.

A knock on my front door spooked me, but since it was daytime, my chances of being in danger were lower.

At least I wanted to believe that.

My visitor's brain told me it was human, and listening to her thoughts made me dread this conversation. Yet, I went ahead and opened the door with a fake half-smile.

"Good morning, Miss Stackhouse. Is this a good time? I have a few follow-up questions to ask you," the FBI agent said with a big fake smile. Yesterday she was dressed up with a black office suit, maybe representing death. Today, she wore a navy blue one. Her hair was up on a ponytail and even though she wore full makeup, I could still see dark spots under her eyes due to lack of sleep. It had been a long night for her.

"I'm on my way out, but I can answer a couple of questions," I put my best effort to not show her how much I was dreading it.

"Excellent! I would like to revisit the moment when you found Sam shot. Jannalynn's mom and the two new employees were part of the crime scene, who left the crime scene first, and exactly in which direction did they go?"

"Like I said yesterday, Jannalynn's mom left first. The two new employees, Tina and Sandra, took off running for their lives."

"When they crossed Merlotte's door to leave, did they turn right? Left? Straight? Did they run towards a car?"

"As far as I know, neither one had a car. And I didn't see when they left because I was too busy staring at Sam as he took his last breath. The next thing I knew, everything was silent and I was by myself."