city_limits The End Of An Era
Anything past five in the morning usually found Victoria Foxworth in bed. Much like the inability to taste chocolate, the threat of getting caught by an errant shard of daylight was a real drawback to an up and coming creature of the night. Finding oneself incinerated by something as common as the sun would be a ridiculous end to her vampiric existence, but the brunette was willing to bet that more than a few would-be fanged legends had met an unexpected end that way.

Things had begun to look up for her. With Estella 'Star' Tomlin now sharing a residence with her sire, Vicky had settled back into creative positivity. Her favourite undead sorceress was making unlife both tantalisingly enjoyable and reigniting the vampiress' interest in the magical teachings her girl could provide. Victoria had always known there was little chance of them becoming a flowers-and-poetry item, but with Star's previous significant other now apparently well out of the picture, she was more than happy to fill that gap in the blonde's existence. Sharing a residence together, once more, had even given the brunette a little hope that maybe, just maybe, they could possibly grow more emotionally devoted to one another.

Unlife couldn't be filed only with new shoes, after all - even for Star!

With romantic flirtations being joined by Vicky's progress on her book and the signing of a contract, giving her a new and vocationally-satisfying job... All in all, things were definitely looking up.

From cinematic exploits, Victoria now had her own Internet radio show on WTF FM; a station catering to programming about the supernatural. Her safety might be an issue, but being able to broadcast from her own computer at home, made any considerations about vigilantes a non-issue. She had gone from nightclub owner to actress, director, writer and producer. Now she was capitalising on that fame for promotion's sake and continuing to tease her listeners with the possibility that she, herself, might or might not truly be one of the undead. Either way, she had the contacts to procure the types of interviews few others could.

Once her book was complete and, with luck, published, Victoria hoped to become a renowned expert on vampirism. After that, who knew? It was still a subject about which her passion seemed never to burn out on. Whatever would come, she had her undead 'family' around her, few obvious threats and nights now filled with a renewal of optimistic calm.

But this night carried with it something troubling. Her day's sleep was wracked with something horrid, frustratingly just out of reach and sickly in its presence. She tossed, she turned, she talked in her sleep... At one point, she could be seen and heard to give a sudden, writhing spasm, as if in cramp; her voice crying out an incoherent sound, only to be woken from her slumber with a start.

Eyes darted around the room, but there was nothing to see. Nothing out of place and yet... Yet there was. There was something terribly out of place. Something... Something, she did not know, but which brought a strange feeling of hollowness, like... It would have been difficult to describe the emotions now surging within her, but the closest Victoria might have been able to articulate it, would have been akin to finding a note informing oneself of black market organ removal during sleep.

She felt groggy. Felt dazed. A part of her even wondered, for a moment, about alien abduction, although, somewhat thankfully, nothing felt... Probed.

Without feeling able to fall back to sleep, a visit to the television was in order. A way to destress, watch a cartoon or check the news for-

Book signing. Violent outbreak. Destruction to property. Witness descriptions.

Vampire death.

Deanna...

Victoria felt herself lift one hand silently to mouth, but still it shook. Shook and refused to relax, no matter how many times its owner found herself telling it to. Eyes not able to look away. Words replaying themselves, over and over again, like a swarm of hungry mental hornets, inside her mind.

"D-don't go," she told the image of the redhead flashing up on screen. "Don't go. You're not... You're not meant to. It isn't time. It's not. You... We still had to..."

More followed. Experts sitting around a table, debating the woman's book and of whether this now gave the contents added credence.

Victoria... Victoria had no interest in that. Why weren't they talking about the time when she... Or how Deanna sometimes... Or why... Or...

Or that fucking stupid obsession she had about how supposedly lop-sided her backside was.

The unbidden thought, so comically out of place, was enough to bring a note of something situated between either a cry of sadness or nostalgic laugh. Even she would have been hard pressed to guess which, even as head turned, open palm slid against mouth and she looked away.

She had not even realised the welling up of tears, until Star came from behind to encircle a slide of hands around her. Victoria blinking in an effort to try and remain composed, only to feel the salty liquid streak down face. "Gosh, I... Look at that, I'm... Why am I crying? I shouldn't be crying, that's silly," she voiced in flustered politeness. A shaky attempt at laughter betraying her inner denial at what was so clearly being reported about on screen. "She'll be back. They always make this stuff up, right? It's just... It's publicity, that's what it is. It's... It's the kind of thing she does. And-and-and she wouldn't tell me about it, because it'd have to remain secret. 'Cause you don't tell people about stuff if it needs... Needs to be..."

A swallow. A shake. A crumbling of disbelief.

"To be not real..."

Eyes closed, freshly watered and Victoria pulled herself into Stars offered embrace with a final surrender of dignity. Perhaps, she would tell herself later, deciding to drink so deeply, to take in whatever she could of Deanna's essence before attaining her dream, in an effort to strengthen their resulting bond, had been a mistake.

No, the vampiress decided... It was anything but that.

And now, here, at the end of that era, what swam in Victoria's veins was as close as she could be to the woman who, through good times and bad, had given her that fanged dream of eternity.

How few could truly say that? That they literally lived in another's heart, until the end of time?

Now it was just the two of them, not three. No quests for vengeance. That had caused absence. Was causing sorrow. "I'm staying with you," she whispered, clutching to lover with a heavy, if unbeating, heart. "I'm staying with you and don't ever want to look back..."

There was nothing more for her to say. Not with words, only by actions. Family was what felt most important now. Showing her girl that even every moment of an eternal life could be cherished.

It was what Deanna would have wanted.