Amelie's Daughter

The Return Is Not Always A Pleasant One

Chapter 11 (Amelie)

Everything is back to normal now...as normal as normal can be in this town. All of the vampires, including myself, were healed by Alayna's blood and now its back to usual business. I've now got Claire under my protection which is a good thing because she has been working with Myrnin for quite a long time now and I can't guarantee her safety when she is with him, however she sees it very differently... Claire bothers me a lot for little things, for example just last week she phoned to tell me she had an intruder in her house, it's pathetic really.

Later that week...

Something is wrong, I can sense it. It has never rained so much here before, its beginning to worry me. Could it be the Draug? After all they prefer wet weather and they need water to survive...no it can't be the Draug, we're miles away from the ocean. I chose this place for that exact reason, so that the Draug could not reach us.

16:00 that afternoon...

I saw something... It was brief but however brief it was I defiantly saw it; a pale figure standing in the rain, its face unclear and blurry looking, dressed in black, disappearing quickly after I saw a glimpse...its true... They are here...

Claire

Its raining, raining, outside. It never rains here, its Texas since when does it rain? Its normally so hot that even the humans fear to venture outside. What is going on? Never mind, I have to go shopping. I grab Eve's car keys and run out into the rain, I'm drenched by the time I'm sat behind the wheel. Pale shapes flit across the streets, vampires of course, who else could it be?

I get to the store within minutes, the roads were very quiet for this time of day. I run to get inside and find myself within the warm confines of the store. I'm here for one thing, female products which is how I persuaded Michael not to accompany me. The old man who stands behind the pharmacy counter is very grumpy and miserable.
"What do you want?" He spits out at me.
"Pills. You know what kind."
"Aren't you a bit young to be-"
"I don't think that is any of your business."
"Fine then. That's $15." I hand it over and turn to walk out, a man dressed in black is stood by the door. His face is unclear, I can't make it out; it wavers in and out of focus. He has grey skin and it is dripping. Stop it I tell myself its raining, he's just came in from the rain and your eyes are playing tricks on you. He is an ordinary person, as ordinary as the get (if only I knew how wrong I was).

My senses kick in and I get the impulse to run. I dart to the back of the store where the old man is.
"Call the Police!" He picks up the phone and tells the Police to come to his store. They are here within minutes and they ask what the problem is, the old man shrugs and points at me.
"There's a man, over there." I look over to him but there's a problem; he's not there. "I mean there was a man-"
"She stole from me." The old man says.
"Wh-what? No I didn't! I just paid!" I exclaim.
"May I see your receipt please miss?" The police officer asks.
"Um yes," I look in the bag and realise I hadn't been given one, "I don't have one."
"Well then, you are stealing. I'm afraid you'll either have to pay up or I take you to the station."
"But I did pay!" I look at the man, he's laughing. "He's lying! I did pay, I only just bought it."
"Well there's no CTV cameras in here so do you want to do this the hard or the easy way?"
"Fine!" I snap. I take my money out of my purse and pay the $15 again. Great so I've now wasted $30 on a weeks worth of Birth Control Pills that I could have got cheaper elsewhere.

Its still raining when I finally get out of the store. The man is stood there underneath the shelter. People walk past not giving him so much as a second glance, is this guy invisible or something? "Who are you?" I scream into the wind. No answer. The police walk out and insist they walk me to my car. "What? You think I've taken something? I haven't! There's a man stood over there, he's stalking me!"
"Right miss, your coming with us." Wonderful, I think sarcastically.

Michael comes to collect me. "You know next time you decide to get yourseelf stuck in a cell, make sure you give me warning first ok? What happened anyway?"
"That's the first thing you say? Not 'hello Claire, I'm sorry I didn't get the message 3 hours ago that you were being detained in a cell?'" Michael just looks at me. "Fine. I went to the pharmacy as you know but the old guy caused some trouble and I had to pay twice the original amount."
"Why did you buy those, just out of curiosity? Shane isn't here and I doubt he'll be coming back, look I'm sorry but he's probably not going to come back. His father has him out of town, the town has wiped their memories for sure this time."
"I just- just in case he comes back. I love him Michael."
"I know, I'm sorry I didn't mean it. Come here." He pulls me into a hug.

Its empty at home. Eve is still at work and Shane isn't here, its just me and Michael (who has gone upstairs to meet Amelie). So basically its just me. There's a damp smell in the air. A dark figure is suddenly stood in front of me, his face blurring in and out of focus.
"You know." It says, its teeth are spiky and its face is still dripping with moisture. It takes my head between its hands and quickly snaps my neck, everything goes dark.

Oliver

Amelie was bitten a little more than a week ago by the Master Draug named Magnus. She is a sickly grey colour and gives off a horrendous fragrance of rotting flesh. I've brought her to the Glass House in the secret room, a very fitting place for her to return or die.

A few hours later...

Amelie has risen as a Draug. Not fully though, her escence is still within her. It would take weeks for it to disperse from her body. Magnus is standing in the doorway and the silver knife lying useless behind Amelie. I see the real Amelie emerge from within and she takes the silver knife in her hands, plunging in into Magnus rendering him dead. She then in turn turns the knife on herself and rips the Draug from within her, her shell collapses and I pick her up depositing her on the setee. I give her blood and I can see her recovering from her ordeal.

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A/N: There is another part to come. Btw I searched for a very long time in the Black Dawn novel to find how to cure Amelie of her Draug bite. Feedback is always useful if you'd like to comment on here or vote etc.