Arianna Gilbert - the unloved older sister

Chapter 10 - The Birthday Part 1

Tennessee
Arianna's POV:
"Rudy." A woman called out for her dog and whistled to try and get it to come back. "Rudy! Come on. It's too hot to make me come looking for you." She bent down to pick something up and when she stood back up, Klaus and I were stood in front of her.

She gasped in fright so Nik tried to calm her down, "I didn't mean to scare you." He said in a horrible American accent that nearly made me burst into laughter.

"Can I help you?" She asked.

"Our car ran out of gas a couple miles back. We've been walking forever." Nik carried on in his horrible American accent, making it harder to keep myself from laughing. "Yours is the first house we've come to. We were hoping we could use your phone."

"Don't you have a cell phone?" She asked.

"Heh. Yeah. Battery died." He pulled the 'dead' phone out of his back pocket.

"Doesn't she have one?" She nodded at me.

"Well, my husband here, forgot to charge both of our phones. He's not the brightest if you ask me." I smiled at her.

"Look, I promise we're not serial killers." Wow. Great move Nik. She probably wasn't even thinking that. "I just wanna use your phone."

She sighed, "Sure."

"So... Can we come in?" Nik started to move closer to her.

"No." Smart move. "I'll get the phone and bring it out to you." Man, I've gotta give it to her. She's smart. It wasn't the best thing to say though because now she's made Nik mad.

"I thought you country folk were supposed to be more trusting." Nik said in his normal voice. Oh thank the lord. I burst out laughing. I probably looked crazy but Nik knew exactly why I was laughing. He smiled at me but returned to his evil look.

"I'm from Florida." She ignored me.

"Well, that explains it." He vamp sped the rest of the way to her and grabbed her by her throat. "Now, show me and my wife some Southern hospitality. Sweet Pea." He compelled her. I glared at him for the name but he was doing it because I laughed at his accent, so, fair enough.

"I bet you $100 that dog ran off to a house with air-conditioning." The woman in the house said when she heard the door open. She turned to the door and saw her friend crying and Nik and I stood there. She immediately got suspicious. "What's going on?"

"Please don't be alarmed. We were told Ray Sutton lives here." Nik stated.

"He's almost never here. He's on the road mostly." The dark haired woman told us.

"But we expect he makes it home once a month." I hinted at something. She knew exactly what I was on about because she didn't say anything.

"That's what we thought. Where is he now?" Nik asked. "If I have to make you tell me... it's going to be infinitely more painful for you. Heh." She ran to the front door. I mean, she didn't get past the front door but, she tried. Stefan was on the other side, blocking her escape. She screamed. "I love it when they run." Nik stated.

"He's in Tulley." She gave up when she realised we wouldn't let this go. "It's near the border. A bar called Southern Comfort, it's off Highway 41."

"Thank you, love. Now... may my friend come in and play?" Nik asked this blonde in his arms.

"Yes." She got out through all the crying she was doing. It's driving me up the wall. As soon as she said yes, Stefan came into the house.

"Kill this one quickly." Nik pushed the blonde over to Stefan. "Make that one suffer. We'll be in the car." He grabbed my hand and we walked to the car, listening to the screams. We were just about to get in the car when I heard the dog from earlier barking near us. I went into the bushes near us and found 'Rudy'.