Chapter Text
Ben
A few days have passed and Ben still hasn’t been able to contact Juliette. He goes to the Fairmont’s house a couple times to check on her, but no one answered the door, and dead silence rung out from the estate. The only option he has left is to text Calliope, he figures.
“hey calliope i know u and juliette broke up or whatever but something is wrong. She hasn't been answering anyone and I use the find my phone app. It says she was going down highway 17 out of state last. I'm really worried and freaking out. It’s been a few days now and her phone is turned off. Did she say anything to u?”
Calliope
“No, I haven’t heard anything since that night. I'll Look for her and let you know.”
Calliope barely hesitates before she asks Apollo to help her track down Juliette. He looks vaguely hesitant for a minute, but then just sighs and helps Calliope hack into her bank account. Her latest transaction with her credit card turns out to be from a motel in North Carolina, and every day for the past few nights it’s been used in the same few bars. Just weeks ago Calliope would have assumed Juliette’s card was stolen, there’s no way it could be her—but she has to follow the dark feeling in her gut. She borrows Apollo’s car leaves toward North Carolina immediately.
Calliope drives around the motel but doesn’t see Juliette’s car. She decides to try her luck at the few bars around the motel. After searching four bars, Calliope finally feels Juliette somewhere nearby, then she sees Juliette’s car at a bar called The Happy Hour.
Juliette
Today, Juliette goes to another bar. She finished the last blood bags she brought with her yesterday, and at her dismay she finds she's uncomfortably hungry. She takes her time with what little makeup she has in her handbag, and puts on the Valentino dress that she wore at her consecration ceremony. In truth she took it by accident when she shoved the pile of her clothes from her desk chair into her bag.
When Juliette enters the bar the bell over the door rings and everyone in the establishment turns tolook at her. She looks confident, charming, and sexy. She sits at the bar and asks the barman for a Long Island iced tea.
Juliette doesn’t make eye contact with anyone; she’s thinking about how to choose who to feed on. She knows if she doesn’t choose someone soon, her bloodlust will force her to take someone, and messily. Juliette used to have her blood mixed subtly in her coffee mug every morning, but since her parents are not around, the daunting task of finding a regular food source rests on her own shoulders. She never found the courage to ask how and where they got the blood from; she didn't want to know.
Juliette chugs her first drink and hastily calls for another one. At the same moment, the young man sitting beside her turns around on the barstool to ask if he can buy her a drink. She looks at him. He’s probably 5′ 6″ and his t-shirt has got to be at least two sizes too small; his firm muscles bulge obscenely through the fabric. Juliette can hear the heavy pulse of blood through his shallow veins. They talk for a bit about dumb stuff like the weather and his car, and as she finishes her third Long Island iced tea, she starts to feel feel the bloodlust return aggressively. She steels herself, and a few minutes later pretends to fall on his shoulder.
Calliope
Staring toward the bar, Calliope can’t believe her eyes. Juliette is right there, alive and in the flesh, sitting at the counter sipping drinks. Calliope doesn’t know how they justify serving Juliette; she is obviously underage, out of place and awkwardly attempting to be seductive in her dress. Calliope sits at the furthest table.
Her eyes narrow dangerously as she watches a man in at least his twenties sitting beside her converse with her, putting his hands on her back, and stroking slowly like he's comforting her. His hand slides to her waist then, and Juliette doesn’t push him away, her head falling to his shoulder.
Calliope’s heart is burning and her eyes become darker than usual, stinging with despair and rage. She balls her fingers into a tight fist and hits the table as hard as she dares without attracting unwanted attention.
Her gaze snaps the man sitting with Juliette stands up grabbing the girl by her shoulder and steering her from the bar through the back door. Calliope feels her gut sink and her rage boil over. Something terrible is about to happen and she'll be damned if she's about to sit around and watch, their falling-out aside. She rushes to follow them out the back.
They walk in the narrow dark alleyway, with a dim street light illuminating it. The man suddenly pushes Juliette against the wall of the building. He starts kissing her neck, but before Calliope can shout or even react, Juliette is sinking her teeth quickly into his neck. The thirst she has for blood is so intense that she drains every single drop of blood in his body in minutes, dropping his dead corpse at her feet in the filthy cement.
Calliope watches the scene in shock. Juliette just intentionally lured a human out to feed from them. The sweet little Jules she'd only begun to know just violently killed someone in cold blood, and Calliope saw it with her own eyes.
“Juliette!” Calliope shouts, stepping out of the darkness.
Juliette:
Juliette eyes widen as she recognizes the familiar heartbeat and the voice that shouts her name.
The sound snaps her out of her bloodlust and she blinks, registering the scene. A horror seeps like ice water in her veins as she takes in what she has done. The small vampire uses her vampire speed to get to her car and get back to the hotel.
Once Juliette enters her room she runs to the bathroom and looks at herself in the mirror, pale and harrowed. She can’t believe that the bloodlust took over and she just killed an innocent person, lured them to their death , just to feed. She breaks down in miserable tears when she remembers how easily she took the life of that man, how she stared down at his once-bright eyes, now lifeless and empty, his blood all over her mouth and his tight, white t-shirt.
In her stomach.
Juliette barely leaves the hotel room for the next couple days as she starts slip into a depression.
Unable to forgive herself for what she has done, she spends the days mostly staring at the popcorn textured ceiling listlessly, ignoring the ache in her stomach.When the gnawing in her gut and the turmoil in her mind become too much, she makes up her mind.
Deep down she had almost begun to accept that her sister would always be a soulless murderer, delighting in the emotional manipulation of her family and friends. But she’s still the sister Juliette grew up with and shared every secret with since before she can remember.
She’s going to go visit Elinor in prison.