Disturbances [Snow Brooks]

[Charlie]

Charlie pressed on the collar of her shirt to remind herself of its existence. The bruise blossoming above her collarbone was covered by the worn fabric, tender to the touch. The wound was unapparent to others with her strategic choice in clothing, but she would not allow herself to forget its presence. It seemed unfair that she should be marked by her assailant whilst he got to walk away unharmed. He was no doubt healed from the bite of her nails and the full force of her knuckles, likely by the grace of her very own blood.

******* vampires, she thought spitefully.

Reaching for a rag, the blonde wiped down the workbench with more force that was necessary. If the patrons glanced curiously in her direction, their gazes drawn to the overly wide arcs of her arm, they went unnoticed. Charlie channelled her anger into her actions, hoping to dispel enough of it to continue the rest of her shift in relative peace. Bartending was not a line of work for the snide and unsympathetic.

Straightening her posture, she scrunched the rag into a tight ball and tossed it across the back of the bar into the sink. It hadn’t been enough. No, she wanted to bang her fists against the workbench and throw glasses into the collection of liquor bottles behind her. Charlie had inherited her father’s temper, a genetic burden she’d spent years accommodating to avoid repeating his transgressions. The thought of her contemptible father smashing the empty whisky bottle over the kitchen counter was sobering. Hollowed by the memory, she resurfaced into her body. Everything felt disjointed. All she wanted to do was discard her body to escape its history, especially the parts of it she didn’t remember experiencing.

The next best thing was to throw herself mindlessly into work and hope for distraction.

[ Appearance ]

[Snow Brooks (DELETED 8588)]

Snow came into the bar with a mix of deja vu and apprehension.

She seemed to notice everything in a different light, like wearing glasses for the first time. The woman could see plainly that some of the patrons were vampires and wondered inwardly if they knew she was one of them too. It had been a rough two weeks for the fledgling.

Snow had gone back briefly to her old place, hoping to sift through the rubble and find anything not lost to the fire. Most of it was gone, great piles of cold ash and soot. It saddened her. The police had finished up their investigations before cordoning off the area. It was an old building. Condemned. Gas leak. It happens.


Finding no body and a few personal effects, they had assumed that a homeless person had been living there at the time of the accident. It was no crying shame really. Now,walking into Serpentine, she was reminded of how sad and absurd this was. Only a year before she had been obsessing over a vampire and now... She was one. The feeding part had been the hardest and Snow was still trying to adjust to the taste amd smell of blood.


She had grown increasingly paranoid about her appearance too. Her skin looked progressively paler and paler and there were dark circles under her eyes. The woman wondered if anyone else noticed the changes. The dead-ness in her eyes.

Snow spotted the bartender and sat for a few minutes. The woman was busy with wiping down the counter, a little more forcefully than might have been required.

"Um.. Hello," Snow said, talking to the woman. She wondered what they served here and if she could stomach it. "Can I get something to drink?"

Please don't notice anything,the woman prayed, hoping her gaunt features would go unnoticed. Questions were something she didn't think she could handle.

[Charlie]

The music was loud—as it always was on the weekend when a live band occupied the stage. Charlie did her best to tune it out, finding herself uncomfortably sensitive to the repetitive crash of cymbals. Irish punk was no quiet affair, and to hear nothing but it at work for hours on end was starting to have an adverse effect on her hearing. The large aspirin container she’d bought two months prior to avoid headaches was nearly empty. It was either that, or her distracted state that made her overlook the young woman.

Charlie offered her an apologetic smile as she approached.

“Aye, we serve all kinds. What do you want?”

[Snow Brooks (DELETED 8588)]

Now that she sat in front of the bartender, Snow wasn't sure what to say.

If the woman was human, it might be somewhat loony and slightly crude of her to ask for blood. What exactly was the accepted way to behave in public, she thought. It was one of the things she had not asked Jesse about. Then again, she had mostly just asked him about basics.

"Water," Snow blurted. "I'll have some water first." It sounded like the safest bet. At the least, the worst thing her body could do would be to reject it by way of vomiting it back up. Either way.

The vampire took a few minutes to observe the woman in front of her. She was pretty with blonde hair and a grace that she could only wish for. Something was wrong with her though. It was not really anything she said or did, in fact the information was gleaned from the things she didn't do. Now that all her senses seemed sharper, Snow took a special notice of the woman's clothing. Her shirt was worn, comfortable looking but it was hiding something.

The woman was hiding something.

What exactly, the vampire didn't know. What she did know was she had seen that look enough times to recognise it. It was the look on her mother's face when she was a child and the older woman would try to hide her drinking problem. She always managed to do it well but the whiff of cheap whiskey often gave her away.

I wonder what her whiskey is

[Charlie]

Charlie raised both eyebrows at the young woman. Internally, she scoffed. What a cheapskate, she thought, then immediately schooled her expression and silenced her thoughts. A person’s mood should never affect their manners, her mother used to say. To pass judgement was uncalled for, especially since she’d served water to plenty patrons on many different occasions without subjecting them to this level of scrutiny. It was a matter of self-control or time before Charlie slipped, her temper becoming her master. The time spent preparing the simple order was used to reconsider her attitude.

For all the bartender knew, this could be a recovering alcoholic on her first night out. The young woman sure looked anxious, perhaps even out of place. Peering at her as she went about filling a glass with ice, she noticed the paleness. The dark circles beneath equally dark—piercing—eyes was noticeable given the harsh lighting immediately above the bar’s countertop. The rest of the bar and restaurant were washed in a soft red light, easier on the eyes and far kinder to everyone’s appearance.

“Well, here’s a menu for you to consider in the meantime.”

Once she’d set the chilled water onto a napkin, Charlie plucked one of the new double-sided cocktail menus from behind her. Setting it down, she didn’t explain that the selections had been altered, the once obscure blood cocktails openly listed on the other side. Ever since the reveal of vampire kind, Serpentine’s had begun to openly sell blood. Were she completely blind to the obvious, the blonde might have thought Jesse to be making a smart business move, but her gut knew better. Blood had been served at Serpentine long before the masquerade—as some spoke of it online—had been broken.

[Snow Brooks (DELETED 8588)]

Snow studied the menu that had been placed in front of her.


The fledgling raised an eyebrow when she saw what was on the other side. Blood. Just the mere mention of the stuff gave her chills. She tried to control herself, she really did but it was impossible to not want it. Each time she fed, Snow felt as if she was losing the battle faster.


Abstinence wasn't an option. She had tried it for about two days, not mentioning it to Jesse of course and had nearly gone out of her mind. By the third day, she had rushed down into an alley and attacked the first stray cat she had seen. It made her guilty to know she was nothing but a slave to her need and that alone was a helpless feeling.


Of course there was food back at the lair but Snow hated having to feed from those...blood bags. Jesse had basically given her an ultimatum- feed from people and kill them or turn them. There was already the whole mess of her turning and she didn't feel the need to ruin anyone else's life.

The vampire looked up at the woman, sweeping a lock of hair back with a nervous and pale hand. " I think I'll have one blood cocktail. I'm new to all of this so... I'll trust your opinion. I'm Snow. Snow Brooks."

She had no idea why she was telling the woman her name. It didn't matter who she was, did it? Maybe it all stemmed from her ingrown need to say something... Anything to fill the silence with words.

Either that, or she had already began losing her inward battle.

[Charlie]

Charlie’s resolve to not contemplate on the woman’s mortality wavered.

There had been a time when Charlie could consider certain patrons with inconsequential curiosity. If someone ordered blood, then perhaps they were part of those infamous cults one heard about, or they harboured a particular set of fetishes that thrilled the twisted sexual being deep within. It was fascinating and disgusting and inconsequential in the grand scheme of her life. Outside work, she didn’t convene with any of them. If she did, their fetish remained their secret.

Vampires had never been an actual explanation. She’d toyed with the idea, amused herself to quote and consider pop culture, but she’d never believed it. Never. With the masquerade now unveiled however, there was no denying that vampires were present in her life. They were not distant and possibly imagined. No, they were real. They frequented Serpentine, and they also stepped into her life uninvited. The hidden mark on her skin was proof of that. They were a threat. It was unnerving to be incapable of giving anyone the benefit of the doubt.

When Charlie considered why patrons might order blood, she later realised that the countertop between them might be what guarded her life. There was no telling if under any other circumstance and in any other place, these same patrons wouldn’t target her. Then again, she tried to stave off the paranoia. If patrons were ordering blood, perhaps they were keeping off the streets. The blonde knew nothing of their way of life; she didn’t go out of her way to associate with them. Yet here she was, working at a bar that openly served blood. This was as good a place as any to learn.

“I don’t drink blood, Snow,” Charlie replied. I’m not a vampire, in other words. Never would she push a product that she knew nothing about, and this was no different. Leaning on the workbench, she tipped her head to glance at the menu. “Most people get the House Special Bloody Mary, but I guess that was for discretion’s sake. Things have changed now though,” she continued, shrugging. “What do you mean by new to all of this?”