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In the sixty years since that night at the juke joint with Claudia, Louis has forgotten more memories than the average human likely possess.
But memories of that harrowing night in Mississippi come back to him in a rush when he watches Stack – the twin that had become a vampire that night at the juke joint – and his companion Mary walk into the bar Louis has made a habit of visiting when the apartment he shares with Armand gets too confining.
Even though they aren’t the same kind of vampire – the duo falls somewhere in between the slavering remnants inhabiting Europe and Louis himself – like still calls to like. And, as Louis watches the duo cross the cramped dance floor, making a beeline towards him, he doesn’t know how he’s ever managed to forget them.
“I can’t believe you two are still around,” Louis says, letting his gaze linger on the two vampires before him. They look the same as they did in the minutes after the sunset before they separated on their differing paths. The only real change is the clothing draping their forms. They look like they belong in the world, among humans, in a way that Louis has always struggled with from long before his dark rebirth. “How have you been?”
Stack lifts and drops his broad shoulders in a shrug before speaking for both of them.
“We been survivin’,” he murmurs, a familiar Southern twang in his voice. He glances around at the bar as if looking for someone else in their dimly lit surroundings. “What ‘bout you? Where’s the little menace what was travelin’ with you back then? I don’t think she’d be able to get into a joint like this.”
Louis feels the smile on his face slide right off.
“She’s gone,” Louis bites out, clenching his jaw hard enough that his fangs creak. “Gone with the sun.”
The other two vampires exchange an uneasy glance before Mary speaks.
“We’re sorry to hear that,” she says, voice hushed as she delivers her condolonces. “She did a good thing back then, protectin’ Sammy and the others as best as she could.”
Louis inclines his head in acknowledgement. If they’re asking uncomfortable questions, he supposes he should ask a few of his own.
“And your twin?” Louis asks Stack. “And your little cousin? They make it out alright?”
Stack winces before shaking his head.
“Lil Sammy’s fine,” he says. “Made it to his nineties. Got a fine career behind him.” But then Stack’s mouth twists with a bitter frown, one immediately mirrored by Mary at his side. “He won’t let us turn him.”
As for his twin, Louis knows the answer before Stack provides it. Because, just as Stack was looking around for Claudia, Louis was looking around for the other man’s twin.
“Smoke… we went back after the sun set,” he says, speaking slowly, voice almost dreamy as he relives the memory. “Found him dead of blood loss in the dust.”
“I’m sorry for your loss,” Louis says, voice hushed as if the loss was yesterday rather than decades ago. “Was it another vampire what did it?”
“The goddamn klan,” Mary spits out, mad enough to flash fang at first as her voice raises loud enough to make the humans around them glance around. But then she settles, a smirk twisting the corners of her full mouth despite the mixture of rage and sadness in her eyes. “But he took them out before he went.”