The Franklin Files -- The Disappearance

"Hey, Sook, how's it shakin?" Lafayette asked as he walked through the backdoor into the kitchen of Sookie Stackhouse. "Lafayette, what are you doing all the way out here? If you're looking for Tara, she drove into town" "Well, can't I come visit you?" "Well, you can, but since it's never happened before, except when Tara was in serious trouble and I don't see her being in trouble in her life or in your mind...oh, you're here because of Jesús! Of course, you can hide his present here!" "Sook, I hate it when you do that. Can't you just pretend you don't know? Just play dumb and LET. ME. TELL. YOU. STUFF. OKAY?" "Okay, I'm sorry, Lafayette, Honestly. You know I try but I'm just so happy for you. The two of you are just so cute together." "Cute? We're cute? We may be gay, but don't be calling us 'cute'. Damn, girl, don't you know nothing?" Lafayette was really getting uptight. "A little touchy are we?" "YES! This is the first time I ever had to buy a Christmas present that I didn't just go and pick up from Wal-mart at the last minute." "I will really cherish the cardigan you gave me last year, Lafayette." Sookie said in mocked pain. "You remember, the one you told me you spent hours to find so that it would set off the highlights in my hair? Remember that one?" "C'mon Sook, you know what I mean. Buying a gift for someone you think you love, especially the first Christmas gift is a big deal." "I know," Sookie sighed and her eyes started to well up. "Now what?" "I really thought I'd be celebrating Christmas with Bill this year. I had found pictures of all his family members who'd been born since he'd died, or didn't die, you know what I mean, in the library and I was going to get them framed for his Christmas present. But now I can't." Sookie started crying harder. Lafayette went and put his arm around her. "Sookie, I'm sure he's probably seen all those people anyway." "I'm not crying because he won't see the pictures! I'm crying because I won't be spending Christmas with him!" She punched him in the arm. "Lafayette just go! Go hide your present in Tara's room!" "Sookie, I was JOKING! I knew what you meant. I'm just trying to get you to smile a little. But I'll head up to Tara's room with this. And to save you the trouble of reading my mind, I got him a bracelet with a little engraving on it, and I know that you know that I know that you know that I know that you know what it says, etc., etc., etc., etc, etc…" and he continued this all the way into Tara's room. "Okay, where am I going to put this, so my girl don't get all up in my business?" He opened up the closet and saw the clothes and shoes piled in the corner and thought that this has got to be the spot. Lafayette started to dig through the mound of stuff until he came to something hard and substantial. He pulled it out and was surprised to find a very large, very old leather briefcase. He opened it up to find a similar looking journal, with the name Franklin Mott on the cover. There was a red ribbon attached to it, to be used as a place keeper. "What is Tara doing with this? Why is she hiding it?" He opened it where the ribbon held the place and began to read:

Tuesday, 10 December, 1855 She is still missing. The men of the parish have set the hounds upon the woods and have been riding all day looking for her to no avail. It's been horrible. What is to be done? I don't know if I can go on like this much longer. I haven't slept now for what? Let's see, I discovered her disappearance after Sunday evening services. And I was up most of Saturday eve preparing my sermon so it's been three days now. I can't focus, I can't think. I keep going through the details in my head wondering if I may have seen a clue or overlooked a detail in my worry and haste when I discovered she was missing. Sunday afternoon, I reluctantly left her bedside for evening services, she had looked so wan and pale. In the last week, just like in the case of Mr. Meagles, she seemed to get no better and the bite marks would not heal. In the beginning, both Mother and Gwendolyn, suffered these strange symptoms but she only she continued to decline. I rushed back to her bedside from services, asked after her from the nurse who said she'd been sleeping peacefully and she'd heard nothing from her in the last hour since the nurse had gone in to wipe her brow and clean her up a little in my absence. I went up to the door and knocked and getting no response I went downstairs and waited half an hour, dozing off myself. I felt a shiver run through me when I swore I was awakened by the howl of a wolf. I bolted upstairs and opened the door. And nothing! She was gone! I called for the nurse and the maid and everyone in the house and no one had seen her. It was horrible. We ran outside but there were no signs of anyone, no sounds of wolves, nothing. The nurse and the maid swear that they never were out of listening range and would have heard her try to leave by the front door and the cook was in the kitchen preparing for tomorrow so the back door was also an impossibility. I must confess I don't understand it. How does one vanish into thin air? I saw no obvious signs of anything out of place except for her. Oh, how can my heart go on? What about the life of happiness I planned? If she's dead none of it will come to pass for it will mean nothing to me. Marital bliss, fatherhood, a lifetime of happiness will not be open to me if she does not live to see it. She has got to be found and found alive….

"Just what the hell do you think you're doing?" Tara stood in the doorway of her bedroom. "I think I should be asking you that question. Why are you reading this crazy ass vampire's journal?" Lafayette was trying to come up with something to take the sting out of being caught. "Kind of interesting, ain't it?" "Girl, yes. Who is she?" "She who?" "The 'She' that's missing. Aren't you reading this thing? Right here where the ribbon is." Tara took the journal, "Don't say another word. I always put the ribbon where I'm going to read next. It just happened to go on a new page, so I don't know what you're talking about. Don't wreck it for me." "Well, read it so you can tell me who it is." "Lafayette, I'm glad you found the journal, I've been dying to talk to someone about it. But I don't think we should tell anyone else about it. I don't know if word got out that I had this, let alone that I was reading it, that the vampires would be very happy about it." "Damn, girl, just what I needed. One more reason for vampires not to like me. I'm already their 'favorite' black, gay, short order cooking, drug dealing, fine-ass looking, now add vampire journal reading, man in Louisiana. Thanks a lot." "Are you finished?" Tara blew out an exasperated sigh. "Just keep it quiet. And keep your mind on something else when you're with Sookie so she doesn't know it's here." Tara started to put the book away. "And I do that how?" "Think good things about Jesús" "Oh, yeah. That'll work." The two of them started down the stairs when Tara asked, "Just what were you doing in my room?" "Doesn't' matter." When they got to the kitchen Sookie was still cleaning in the kitchen. Tara told her they both needed to get off to work. "Okay, my shift starts in two hours, so I'll see you there." Lafayette gave her a big hug and handed her the box for Jesús, "Sookie will you keep this for me until Christmas?" "What were you doing in Tara's room all this time?" "Oh, it doesn't matter. See you on the flip side." Lafayette practically ran out of the kitchen. Sookie thought to herself, "Normally, when people tell me it doesn't matter, it usually does…

Disclaimer: The Franklin Files are provided for entertainment purposes only and is a parody of the fantasy series, True Blood, and as such, is presented here for your amusement. "Franklin Files" and the various writers that contribute to it, have no relationship/affiliation to HBO, True Blood, or any of the cast or crew of said program nor any relation to Charlaine Harris, or the Sookie Stackhouse novels. Written By: Sarahfina Photo & Graphics By: Sarahfina

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