✦ ・ closed starter for rue bennett @redemptioninterlude
Being dead for several years came with many ups and downs; it became hard for Camille to distinguish her old life from her current one. If you had told her that she'd been twenty-five forever after arriving in New Orleans, she would've laughed in your face, yet here she was, cursed to live in the darkness, never to finish her psychology degree. What a waste. All that studying and hard work ended the moment she became close to a powerful vampire who had even stronger enemies.
There were very few places that Cami felt safe, away from the prying eyes of hunters or whoever didn't consider her to be worth living anymore. Living, what an odd word to describe her. How could you be living when your heart didn't beat, and the only blood that flowed through your veins was someone else's?
Still, she couldn't deny the positives that came with being a vampire, like the ability to make people leave you alone by using a certain tone, or that she could walk through any dark alley and not worry about who might be following her back home after they drank too much. It happened from time to time, a man watching as she left a club, tracing every step she made before meeting their end. Cami would never get used to killing people, even if it was to survive. She had studied for years how to help people break away from their trauma, only for her to become some type of boogeyman herself.
The club in Los Angeles was dark, everyone bumping against each other, sharing sweat as they danced to the beat that played overhead. People-watching had become a new hobby; she'd watch couples as they danced together and then made their way home, wondering if that could possibly have been her in some other life. A life where she hadn't attempted to solve her twin's murder. A life where her whole family wasn't gone.
Lost in memories and what-ifs, she hadn't been paying attention when a curly-haired young woman spilled her drink all over Camille's shirt. The other looked at her with wide eyes, probably waiting for Cami to look irritated, but instead she leaned forward to ask a simple question. "Should we get you a new drink?"