******THIS IS A FANFICTION. I OWN NOTHING BUT THE PLOT TO THIS PARTICULAR STORY, NOT THE ORIGINAL, NON-FANFICTIONED STORY********
Chapter One: Memories and Photographs
I breathed a sigh of relief. I loved being able to take night classes instead of waking up at un-godly hours just to get an education, but I hated the feeling of being cooped up in a windowless room while the moon was rising and the sky was fading to black, turning everything magical and unreal. So Friday night classes were always something I hated, because there were so many other things I could do that would be much more productive than listening to a professor drone on about the minute differences between plants. I'd read this section ages ago; I saw no point in relearning it. "Mary!" I turned at the sound of my name, finding a huge guy at least head and shoulders taller than me yelling my name. "Charlie, couldn't you have waited until you were a bit closer to try to scare me?" I asked my best friend laughingly. "Awww, but where's the fun in that? Then you'd know for sure it was me." Charlie had been my best (and only) friend since....... Forever. I couldn't remember a time without him, but I was good at repressing bad memories. Charlie had always been the one to stick up for me when kids teased me for being smart, or liking to read, or being small. Come to think of it, they'd teased me for everything, or pretty close to it. There were very few things they hadn't been able to fault me with, such as being the only kid in class who had an I.Q. above 100, or being able to sing; so Charlie had been forced to protect me from their vitriolic attitudes often. "Hey, Mary, did you get what Bartley was talking about? I swear the old man's going senile as well as being crazy. I'm pretty sure he taught half the lesson in Russian or something. Think you can help me with that paper? I still have no idea what the difference is between poison ivy and poison sumac, apart from how they look. Maybe -" "Charlie, shut up. You're starting to babble again. One, yes I'll help you with the paper, but you're going to write it yourself. Two, he wasn't speaking Russian, it was Latin and he was telling us the scientific names so we would have a hint at what's different. You know they classify things according to properties and stuff. So, now will you stop talking a mile a minute?" He grinned sheepishly, knowing I couldn't get mad at him but sorry that he'd annoyed me. I laughed at his expression. "So, let's go to that As I Lay Dying concert. I hear they're letting the first 50 groups in for free!" I started to drag him towards the parking lot, but he suddenly stopped dead in his tracks. I looked back to see him glare menacingly to his left at a guy that had started walking toward us. "Hey Mary, do you know that dude or something? He seems like he wants to talk to you." I studied the man, noting that he was also wearing an Avenged Sevenfold T-shirt, and shook my head. "Nope, never seen him before." There was something familiar about his long blonde hair and brilliant blue eyes, but I couldn't remember where I had seen him. He stopped about five feet away from us, probably in response to Charlie stepping in front of me, tensed as if he were about the start a fight. "Can I help you?" Charlie growled menacingly. "No, you can't, but I think your friend can." The stranger replied smoothly. "I think she knew a friend of mine, Louis, a long time ago. I'm Lestat." Suddenly, I knew exactly who he was. "Lestat de Lioncourt? I know you, and Louis, and Armand, and Claudia. But I thought you weren't real, you were just a character in a book." He grinned wolfishly at me. "My dear, nothing is ever just a book."
Chapter Two:
"What!? So does that mean that all of R.L. Stine's books are real? Or that Edgar Allan Poe's books are? What about -" Lestat put a hand over my mouth, effectively silencing me. "No, not all books, just a dramatic way of saying that you should be more open to different ideas." He rolled his eyes, and then turned to Charlie. "Relax, I'm not going to hurt her and I'm definitely not planning that." Charlie looked amazed that Lestat knew what he was thinking; I guess he had never read my favorite books. "So I'm not going crazy am I? Is there any way that you can prove you're real without drinking anyone's blood?" I had always wished that I could somehow bring vampires to life, and a part of me had always believed that they really did exist. It was nice to see that not all of my daydreams had made me crazy, despite the general opinion of most people in town. I had moved halfway across the state, and within a week, I already had a notorious reputation as a weird doll or something that had come to life. I'd always looked like I was a glass doll; it's something that can't be helped when you barely make five foot. My pale skin and long dark hair didn't seem to help me gain a positive reputation either so I was very thankful that Charlie was the lead tackle on the football team. And now, after living my entire life as the weird kid, here stands one of my supposedly fictional idols in front of me, in the flesh telling me he knew who I was. Talk about a dream come true. "So, Lestat, you said that you thought I could help you. How so?" I was dying to know (no pun intended) how I could help a vampire, but I tried to act non-chalant about it. "Well, this may seem strange for me to ask, but what do you know of vampires?" He asked, staring at my face intently, as if he would be able to read the answer off my face. Knowing him, he probably could. "You can't be up while the sun is, you have to sleep in an enclosed space, not just a coffin but something that could be considered one, that's hopefully six feet or deeper in the ground, but windowless rooms work too. You have super hearing, super strength, you can read mortals' minds, and you need to drink blood, any type. Need I keep going or is that enough?" I asked, arching an eyebrow. "Please continue; this is honestly what I need your help with." He sounded genuine in his request, but I could tell he knew the entire list himself. Shrugging to myself, I continued for several more minutes. When I was done, he nodded his head approvingly, as if I'd just passed some sort of test or initiation. "Now, would you please explain how that helped you?" I wanted to blush after I had blurted out my question, but I didn't exactly want to take it back either. Charlie was looking at Lestat and me like we had both lost our minds, but he hadn't left yet so I didn't really care. Charlie knew I was oddly obsessive about vampires, I think he was questioning the sanity of the man claiming to be one. My obsession didn't extend to drinking people's blood, I made sure it stopped there; I think that people shouldn't pretend to vampires or dress up as them. If you're one of the undead, it's a great privilege and you deserved some respect. But somehow, I just knew this was the Lestat, not just another pretender. He answered then, interrupting my train of thought. "I've been hearing a very loud voice calling for me, and I followed it back to here. You seem to have been the source of all the ruckus, so I wanted to know how much you knew." I looked at him suspiciously for a moment; he obviously wasn't telling the whole truth. Regardless, I changed the subject and respected his lack of a response. "So, do you still wear the dark purple velvet frock coats you used to? I remember they used to be your favorite. And Louis so loved his black overcoat. I saw one the other day that looked just like it! I would've sworn that it was his, except for the tag on it." I laughed at the memory of that particular shopping trip while Lestat looked at me, nearly in shock. "How did you know I wore dark purple frock coats? And no where in either Louis or my books does it say that he wore a black overcoat. Tell me, what was Claudia's favorite thing to wear?" I replied immediately, "The red silk gown Louis got her two weeks before they left for Europe. She loved how the color looked, especially since it looked like blood against her skin. She'd wear it with a virgin-white ribbon in her hair, and another for a sash." Lestat looked at me in amazement. I blushed immediately under his gaze. "Was I wrong?" He seemed to be entirely lost in thought and stayed so still I wondered if perhaps he were going to try to fly away like he usually did for a dramatic exit. I looked over at Charlie and told him, "Perhaps you'd better go to the concert ahead of me. This might take a while." He looked like he might object for a moment, but I promised to call him when I was leaving if he'd save me a seat. He left pretty quickly after that, and I settled in to wait for Lestat to snap out of his semi-conscious state and tell me exactly what was going on.
