AU: Another goddamn vampire AU

[Karalie Heise]

The sight of Marnie crying only added to her sadness.  Grieving the loss of her best friend while she was still physically there with her was one of the hardest things she'd ever had to deal with.  How could she have been prepared for this? It wasn't fair.  It simply wasn't fair.

It pained her to listen as she began her vague, yet tragic story.  She barely got into it when her apology filled Karalie's ears, crushing her further.  How many times would she apologize? It hurt more every time.  She wanted to chastise her, go on about all the ways she could have protected herself.  She'd known exactly how to do it, Marnie been to every training Karalie had, they were both familiar in the ways to avoid contact with a vampire and what to do if you were unfortunate enough to encounter one.  Reiterating it all now was both stupid and pointless.  It wouldn't make any difference, what was done was done.

"I have to kill you." She started slowly, pain in her voice at the realization that was sinking in.  Her eyes lowered and she shook her head, unable to keep eye contact.  "But I can't."  Her parents would be furious if they knew she intended to let Marnie walk free.  "H-how can I? But you.." Her moist tongue slipped over her lips as she reached the palm of her empty hand up over her eyes, wiping away the tears that blurred her vision.  How could she let Marnie walk free?  "You can't kill anyone! You can't turn into one of them.. not.. I know you are but.." She was pleading now, looking back at the other, hoping she understood.  Marnie could never change someone, never kill them.  It was the only way to remain decent!

[Marnie Sullivan]

"I don't want to kill anyone!" Marnie insisted, but even as she said it she knew it was a lie. She wanted to - Karralie, standing right there, someone, anyone, anybody would do, she was starving, too much to be picky. "I don't want to hurt anybody, I don't want to be one of them!"

But she didn't have a choice, did she? Not about turning; that was irreversible. There would be no fixing her. Which meant that sooner or later, she would have to hurt somebody, if she wanted to survive.

"I don't want to die, Karalie," Marnie told her. Her voice was smaller now, pitched with fear. She didn't. She wanted to live, she wanted to be normal again, to go back to how it was, but she couldn't be normal, so did that absolutely mean she had to die? "What do I do? Please, there has to be a way!"

[Karalie Heise]

She could tell how genuine the words were as they left the girls mouth, but there were parts of her training that stuck with her.  They would all say that if their lives were at stake.  Then again, this hit a lot closer to home.  She knew Marnie and she knew she was still her under all of that monstrous death. At least for now, but for how long would she mean those words? How long until she had completely submerged herself within that lifestyle? How long until every scrap of the girl she'd grown up with was gone, replaced with something dark and horrible?

She bit her tongue. Marnie was already dead. There was no way around it; the fact remained that she was still physically here but she really shouldn't be.  Shoving the stake through her heart would only be doing what nature intended for Marnie, but she didn't have the strength to do that.  Not to Marnie.

"I don't know!" She snapped, sinking to the floor, her back dragging down the wall as she went.  Her head fell backwards, clunking against the drywall as she watched the tethered girl on the bed.  "Yah know as well as I do there ain't no other way, Marn.." She sighed and looked down at her knees, still folded up towards her chest.  "There.. there has tuh be some sorta like.. a place for you tuh go, right? Like.. iono, someplace yah can't hurt nobody.." Did that exist? Her parents might know if such a palce did..

[Marnie Sullivan]

Marnie's heart sank. If Karalie didn't know where she could go, who would? Where could she go where she couldn't hurt anybody? Where the hunters wouldn't find her? She'd have to leave Myrtle Beach, at least for a while; she couldn't isolate herself here. Sitting tied up in an empty apartment wouldn't work for long, not when there were people, warm living people on the other side of those walls.

Where do you hide a vampire in a city?

"We don't have much time," Marnie said, as much to herself as to Karalie. If she was going to leave, if K was going to smuggle her out of Myrtle Beach, it would have to be while she was still weak. She was dangerous enough already.

And Karalie had come to her anyway, knowing the risks....

"Can you get some chains from your parents? Without them knowing?" Marnie asked. The scraps of a plan that she had were a long shot, but it was all she had. The next part was the hardest; she wince and swallowed, trying to force her reluctance out of her throught. "Sumter... But not a main area. Maybe it would be safe there."

[Karalie Heise]

They didn't have much time until what?  Until she was a full fledged vampire?  they both knew she was plenty dangerous even now.  She could kill Karalie in a moment if she wanted, and the thirst Marnie was experiencing was like nothing she'd ever experienced.  Karalie knew how dangerous new vamps were; just being in the same room with her, the same apartment even, was risking her very existence.

Her parents might not ask questions if she took some chains.  If they did she could lie, though she wondered how convincing she would be under these circumstances.  "I think so." She offered shakily, running both her hands up over her face and through her hair.  "Why Sumter?" She asked, shaking her head.  "Even in th'less populated areas yer gonna be uh danger."  She shook her head.  No, there had to be a better place! 

"How 'bout out by the Li'l Pee Dee River?" She asked, shaking her head.  "Ain't nothin' up that way.. at least in certain spots of it."  Even as she said it she hated the idea of Marnie going off and her never being able to see her again, not unless she turned herself, which wouldn't happen.  She wouldn't give up her entire life for her best friend.  That was absurd.  "But then what?"

[Marnie Sullivan]

"I don't know!" She didn't want to think about it, about sitting and starving in isolation, but what other option was there? If she turned herself in, the Heises would kill her. If she tried to make it on her own, the Heises would kill her anyway, but not before she managed to hurt someone else first. She didn't know who'd turned her, or how to find him. There was nothing else.

"I don't know," she repeated, more quietly. She shouldn't be yelling, not when Karalie was just as confused as she was. "Just... okay. Little Pee Dee. Okay." Marnie closed her eyes, and another tear rolled down her cheek. How long would she have to stay there? "How soon can we leave?"

[Karalie Heise]

Neither of them really seemed to know what to do next. It was a situation neither had really planned for. She never thought she might become a vampire sympathizer. No, that wasn't what she was. She still believed they should all be exterminated, but this was a different situation all together, one she couldn't have possibly prepared for. What do you do when your best friend changes?

"We?" She repeated, her eyes widening.  She was expected to escort her friend there? To a river? With those fangs and her insatiable blood lust? Her stomach sank, but she knew it was the only way to get the girl there without harming someone.  She needed an escort.  A human escort.  One who might not try to kill her.

Then it hit her.  "What about those crazy people who are all like, yah know, obsessed with th'vampires?" She'd heard of those weirdos, the sympathizers, the ones who allowed the freaks to feed off of them.  The people who would go straight to hell with the vampires for being unnatural freaks and sinners.  "Maybe we could find one've 'em tuh show ya'll around.  Then if yah bite'm..."  It made her sick to think of Marnie biting anyone.  "Well, they'd like it.."

[Marnie Sullivan]

If Marnie's face could fall any more, it would have. Karalie wasn't coming with her? She needed her friend now more than ever, and instead she would have to make the trip with a stranger? Not even a stranger, one of the freaky vamp wannabes?

No, of course she wasn't coming. It was too dangerous, Karalie was too smart for that. Marnie knew it, even as it broke her heart.

"...Yeah." She spoke to her lap, head hanging dejectedly. "I guess they would."

She didn't want to bite anyone, not even someone who wanted to be bitten, but between them or Karalie...

"Just... whoever you can find, okay?" Marnie said, forcing her gaze back up to meet Karalie's. "If I leave I might... I don't know what I'll do."

[Karalie Heise]

She could see Marnie wasn't entirely on board with this new idea, but what choice did Karalie have in the matter? If she took Marnie herself she risked death, or the change, neither of which were anything she was interested in. How would she even go with her? Sit next to her in a car? Unless they took a car with one of those fences in the middle. Like a cop car.. where the hell would she get a cop car, though? She'd be facing a world of trouble, then. It wasn't like they were babies anymore; she could seriously do some jail time. Not much, but any was more than she was willing to do. Especially for a-

Her cheeks flushed and she sighed, running her hands through her hair. This was a nightmare! A true, bonafide nightmare. The girl on the bed wasn't just a vampire. To Karalie she was so much more.

"I need tuh figure this all out." How much time did she have? How long until Marnie lost all her humanity? Would she? "I'll see if I can maybe get somethin' for yah. Some.. yah know.. food." Saying blood sounded dreadful on her tongue, but she was sure she could get some to Marnie somehow. Maybe her parents knew how she could get some as bait or something. "Don't run off, I'll call yah in uh bit, alright?" She insisted, getting to her feet and wiping at her face again, brushing away all evidence of having been crying before heading nack out into the world.