(Untitled)

[ghostinthecity]

It was a nice day.

For the most part it was always a nice day here. Of course, it still rained but unlike the rain back home that seemed to drag its feet both coming and going this rain fell quick and warm. That was nice too. It reminded Annie just enough of home to keep her from being too homesick, but was different enough to still be exciting

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[justsookie]

It was a nice day.

At least, in theory. Sookie was supposed to be the type of girl who rose and fell with the sun, soaking up its rays like liquid energy seeping into her skin; however, with the sun being practically relentless since she'd arrived, Sookie had found herself inevitably crashing at times and retreating to the dusty corners of her mind, despite the water which sparkled a clear aqua as far as she could see. Today was one of those days, as the blonde slowly made her way across the beach, a pair of flip-flops hanging from her finger as her toes sifted through fine white sand. Her mind was in the middle of a not so unpleasant buzz when she spotted a woman nearby, Sookie's neck craning out of curiosity to see what the brunette was up to.

The sight of what looked like a wedding or engagement ring quieted Sookie down even further, tugging at heartstrings which hadn't worked in some time. Marriage was something that always seemed like such an impossibility for her, with the ability she'd sported back home, but that didn't mean that she couldn't dream with the best of them. On the island, she didn't have those same hurdles, but Sookie was also a little hesitant to let herself go on an isle where strange, inexplicable things happened.

Still, when she watched the woman hurl out the shiny ring into the distance, Sookie's lips quirked upward and she felt compelled to offer a small round of applause from a few feet away.

She knew a fair few women back home who could have benefited from similar decisions.

[ghostinthecity]

Standing there for a moment Annie felt as if a literal weight had been lifted from her shoulders. The ring hadn't really weighed much to be a bother so that wasn't it. It was some sort of big emotional thing, both good and bad and a lot of other little things.

One thing was certain: all of those self-help authors would very proud of her right then. Very 'you go girl' and all of that.

Turning to head back in for a moment, she saw a blonde girl on the beach. Not one to be rude and feeling the need to be especially friendly to make friends, she lifted her hand and gave a little wave.

"Hello there!"

[justsookie]

"Hey yourself," Sookie grinned, taking the wave as an invitation to approach the other woman, although her shoulders were still slightly hunched with embarrassment over having watched the whole process. It was private, that much seemed obvious from the fact that a ring was involved at all, but Sookie's curiosity got the better of her on the best of days, and the island hadn't changed that in the slightest.

But at least she could own up to it.

"Sorry, I just couldn't help but notice what you were doin'-- I've got this tendency to zone and my eyes just fly to the first thing that catches my eye. But whatever decision you came to, I'm glad that you were able to make it. Not... that it's really any of my business, but." Sookie laughed, a slight quaver passing through her voice. "Maybe I should start with 'hi, it's nice to meet you, I'm Sookie Stackhouse.'"

[ghostinthecity]

Any sign that this blonde woman might be trying to cover up some sort of unpleasant feeling was lost on Annie. A large part of that was due to her own decision to only see the bright, happy things at least for the moment. If there was something bad that might be related to her then she was going to wait at least a quarter of an hour before recognising it.

"Oh no, it's alright. I tend to just sort of fix things without meaning to all the time. But hi, hello, I'm Annie Sawyer and it's lovely to meet you," she said with a laugh, turning slightly to gesture at the water behind her. "I was chucking my engagement right."

[justsookie]

The radiance Annie gave off was of a quality that Sookie could practically soak up, feeling her chest almost widen at the feel of it. There were a lot of fairly happy people on the island, but it was so rare for someone to be as positively beaming as Annie was in that moment that it still shocked the blonde, the sudden familiarity that she hadn't felt since arriving. She ducked her head, though, wishing that she could erase all last traces of the sadness which tinged her skin.

This moment wasn't about her, though, which kept her smiling.

"Your engagement ring. Nasty a-hole of a fiancé, I'm guessin'?" Her lips quirked with amusement. "I'm glad that you're free of him now."

[ghostinthecity]

"I suppose so. I didn't think so when I said that I'd marry him, but then he killed me so I guess he wasn't half as nice as I thought he was in the end."

Not even a quarter as nice. In the end she had gotten her just desserts. Owen would be mad and terrified for a good long time. He'd wait for the men with the sticks and ropes, always regretting the place he had tried to send her.

Splashing back onto the sand, she waved her hands before letting them fall back to her side. "Thank you. I was rid of him before, but now I've got nothing left."

[justsookie]

"He-- he killed you?"

On some level, Sookie knew that it would probably make all of them happier to move onto a happier topic, but curiosity ruled out, as it often did, mixed this time with an anger that left her wanting to punch the man's face. Or perhaps knee some place a little more vulnerable. Her brows furrowed, lips curling in disgust at the very thought of it, fully willing to give the woman in front of her the full benefit of the doubt in believing that she couldn't have deserved such a grisly fate.

"I'm... so sorry, and if his face ever shows up on the island, I will make sure that it is continuously contorted in a grimace of pain," Sookie assured the other woman, gaze darting out to the ocean, almost as though expecting someone to rise from the spot where the ring had dropped.

[ghostinthecity]

Sookie's outraged touched her, and her smile softened slightly. Without meaning to she placed her hand over heart, which was a bit of unnecessary melodrama but those things had a way of just happening.

"Thank you. I think there might be a bit of list that goes after him, which makes sense I suppose. He is a mad as a sack of kittens now, I saw to that. But yes, he sort of pushed me down the stairs." And that had been that. Years of being alone, worrying if he missed her and not able to tell anyone had ended abruptly when she remembered that.

Sometimes she wished she could forget again, to have those rosy memories back. That wasn't often. "But death isn't ever the end, is it?" she added with a laugh. Hardly ever it seemed.

[justsookie]

The thought of being violently thrown down a flight of stairs made Sookie nervous, hairs standing on the back of her neck as she remembered the flashes of memories that had passed through her mind when peeking into Rene's. Strangulation, stabbing-- killing was such a messy matter and the pain always seemed to splatter and smear just as much, something Sookie hoped she'd never have to grow fully accustomed to. Even if she already knew that she was growing desensitized to it all.

A small breath caught in Sookie's throat at the thought of her grandmother, nonetheless.

"No, I guess death really isn't," she agreed with a slight quirk of the lips. "I mean, of course I don't personally know what comes after, except for vampires and the undead. But even if it's just memories that are left behind, death never ends things. Not completely."

[ghostinthecity]

"That's true. I do know, sort of, but I picked being a ghost over actually," she moved her fingers to mime walking off into the distance. "You know, crossing over. Which is a rubbish term but actually a fitting description. How terrible is that?"

Not as terrible as what actually lay on the other side. Annie didn't talk about that. Telling people who were so vividly alive about the men with the sticks and ropes, the feelings of sadness and fear that had rolled through her had not been her intention. It still wasn't.

[justsookie]

Sookie blinked, perplexed and eyes simply following Annie's gestures before even trying to form her own thoughts. A hand rose to Sookie's chest, mirroring Annie's earlier action, one which she had taken into her subconscious without even realizing-- but it was not aimed at any sort of melodrama, instead just motions which made her interest clear and open.

"Wait, you're tellin' me that you can pick... turnin' into a ghost?" she asked, tone incredulous. "I mean, I always kind of believed the ghost stories people sometimes told at campfires and all that, but I didn't know that people passin' over could choose to be a ghost, rather than a vampire. That's... amazin'. I think."

[ghostinthecity]

"Well I don't know if you can pick but you can sort of refuse to go because of unfinished business and the like. Met a bloke named Gilbert who couldn't cross over until he loved someone. Imagine that, perpetually stuck in the eighties and a bit of damp blanket because of it." Pulling a face of disgust, she shrugged.

Gilbert had been lovely and she'd enjoyed the time she had gotten to spend with him. The fact that he could smiled at what was on the otherside meant that it wasn't all bad. That there was some good there and she had helped him to get it.

"Actually, I don't know if you can pick if you're about to be a vampire. I never thought to ask Mitchell, but I suppose I should. That'd be something wouldn't it?"

[justsookie]

Unfinished business. Sookie's mind immediately hurtled back to Casper, the friendly ghost, whose film she had watched repeatedly on television as a child, especially after the passing of her parents. She'd wondered if they had lingered, wanting a proper good-bye with their children, but years had passed and nothing seemed to indicate that they were around at all, and so she had given up on the idea. Mostly. But the longing for things greater than life had her breath catching in her throat again in that instant, wondering about her grandmother. A flash flood was one thing.

Murder was another.

There was also a difference in the fact that Sookie was older now, would never wish for anyone to be forced to linger past their willingness. Her eyes glazed over slightly, before a familiar name snapped her out of her reverie.

"Wait, did you say Mitchell? You're friends with Mitchell?" she exclaimed, perking up immediately. "I met him some time ago on the island; he's so sweet. Did you meet him while you were... a ghost?"

[ghostinthecity]

Immediately Annie's mind took off running. Sookie was a lovely girl and didn't seem at all put off by some of the strange things she'd mentioned. Most people sort of balked at the whole horror film aspect of her life, so meeting someone who treated it like it was hardly anything was quite nice.

Smiling a bit brighter, she nodded her expression immediately getting a bit wide eyed as she took a step out of the water and closer to the other woman. "Oh yeah. He and George moved into my house, or well what used to be my house. You've met him, then? And you like him, right?"

[justsookie]

Despite the fact that Sookie would probably never have a fairy tale ending of any sort-- although really, she hated that they were called endings, when most fairy tales seemed to depict only the start of a beautiful life together-- the romanticism she still clung to immediately started putting some things together. Annie throwing her engagement ring away, being corporeal for once. Mitchell being so sweet and believing so heavily in love. Maybe the two of them were involved? Maybe they wanted to be?

Sookie's smile crept onto her face at the thought.

"Yes, I've met him," she nodded eagerly, hands already clasping in hopes that it was all true, the little tale she'd concocted in a matter of seconds. "And of course I like him-- he's so sweet and real nice to talk to. He's one of the nicest vampires I've ever met, and I'm just so glad for... for both of you that you get a chance at bein' human again. Not that it's really my place." Her shoulders shrugged up in slight embarrassment.

[ghostinthecity]

"Why wouldn't it be your place? I'm glad to be human, I've missed it so much you wouldn't believe and Mitchell is more than happy. I keep thinking I might catch him dancing about in the living room at all odd hours." Laughing, she placed her hand on her chest without thinking about the gesture. There was a free-spiritedness about this place, silly arguments about furniture aside. She wanted everyone to feel the strange sort of lightness she was feeling at that moment.

"We needed this. I don't know if we realised it before. Have you ever felt like that? That there was just so much brooding and terribleness in your life that you might melt and never come back? But it's gone. I try to worry about what I missed, what I have to make up for, but I can't. We can just live here. A little happily ever after for everyone, just like in the stories."

She let her arm fall back down to her side, still smiling and thinking about how this was maybe what she had been waiting for. What Owen had promised but failed to deliver. "That would be nice, wouldn't it? Maybe our Prince Charmings are about to come storming down the beach on stallions or something."