Subject: Out From The Shadows---Part 1/1
Date: Sat, 27 Jan 2001 14:54:41 EST
From: SFryar@aol.com
To: stephke@iglou.com

As I was re-editing "Shadows From The Past" in order to submit it to
Writer's
Cube, this idea for a follow-up story showed up. It takes place a couple of
nights after the events in "Shadows", but long before "Quiet Night, Quiet
Storm". The FK characters don't belong to me (they belong to Sony, gosh darn
it!), but Sara Louise and her ghostly alter-ego, Sarah-Ellen, do. Positive
feedback and constructive criticism are always welcome!

Permission is granted to Mel to post this at the FKFanfic website and to
Stephanie K. to post this at the FTP site. All others, please ask me.

This story is for Rhonda R., who encouraged me to get back in the writing
saddle again. Many thanks!

Out From The Shadows by Stephanie Fryar---Part 1/1
-----

Nick Knight and Sara Louise McClendon were spending a bit of badly-needed
quiet time together at the loft after a long evening of questioning from the
Crown Prosecutor and the FBI about their encounter with Marcus DeLorenzo a
couple of nights earlier.

"Oh, boy..." Sara said as she and Nick sat in front of the fireplace,
watching the flames dance across the logs. "I thought that we'd never get
out
of there. It seemed like everyone was asking me the same questions over and
over again. I was starting to get dizzy after answering all of those
questions and I thought that it would never end."

"They just wanted to be sure that you were telling the same story that I was
telling them." Nick replied, giving her shoulder a gentle squeeze. "If your
story had changed in any way, they would have known about it, and called you
back to question you. They wanted to make sure that they had enough evidence
to shut down DeLorenzo's operations for good. Looks like they've got it."

"Well, I'm just glad that it's over. No more nosy reporters hanging around,
and no more cameras being shoved into my face." Sara leaned back against his
shoulder and snuggled next to him. "Now, I can get back to leading a normal
life, whatever that is."

"I've forgotten what a 'normal life' is, Sara." Nick chuckled quietly. "It's
been over seven hundred years since I've led a 'normal' life."

"You know something... I'm glad that we met, even though we didn't get off
to
a good start, at first."

"I'm glad that we met, too." he replied, putting his arm around her
shoulder.
"It's amazing, but I feel so comfortable around you. It's like I've met you
before somewhere."

"I feel the same way about you." she giggled. "Isn't life weird?"

"Yes, it certainly is..." he said as they watched the flames sparkle and
dance. Nick suddenly felt tired and sleepy, which was odd, since it was
still
rather early in the evening. He closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep.
----

Nick suddenly awoke with a start, aware that something seemed to be amiss.
As
he looked around to see what was going on, he noticed that Sara Louise was
no
longer beside him. He got up from the floor and called out, "Sara Louise?
Sara Louise? Where are you?"  He went upstairs, checked every room, and she
wasn't to be found in any of them.

"SARA? SARA? WHERE ARE YOU?" Nick called out, hoping to find her somewhere
in
the loft.

A soft, sweet, feminine laugh filled his ears as he got ready to go toward
the elevator and go outside to look for her. He stopped and looked around,
wondering where the laughter had come from.

"Sara? Are you here?" Nick asked, as he felt a sense of fear for the first
time in too many years. "Where are you?"

"Yes, Nicholas, I'm right here..." the woman's voice replied. As Nick
entered
the living room, a brilliant pillar of white light appeared in the middle of
the room, temporarily blinding him. He stepped back a bit from the pillar of
light, shading his eyes with his hand in order to get a better look at what
was appearing before him.

The light faded away, and a beautiful, dark-skinned woman stood before him.
She was dressed in a lovely sapphire-blue velvet gown, her dark hair
cascading around her shoulders, and a delicate pair of silver earrings
twinkled in the soft light in the room. He knew immediately who she was, and
she looked the same way she did when he had met her on that fateful night in
New Orleans one hundred years ago.

"Sarah-Ellen?" Nick gasped in amazement as he looked upon her. "How did
you...?"

"How did I find you, Nicholas?" she replied, her sweet voice filling his
ears
with its graceful delicacy. "I searched until I could find you again, and
believe me, it wasn't easy to find you. I told you that I had dreamed about
someone like you for a long time, and now was as good a time as any for me
to
come back to you. I'm so glad that you're still here. I thought that I had
missed my chance to be with you."

"Why did you come back to me?" Nick asked, as he approached her carefully,
his mind awash in confusing thoughts. "You belonged to Marcus, yet you
willingly gave yourself to me. Why?"

Sarah-Ellen looked at Nick and touched his cheek. Her hand caressed him as
lightly as a feather as she spoke to him.

"Marcus was a good man, Nicholas, but his ambitions were consuming him." she
said, a touch of sadness in her voice. "All he could see was what he wanted
to take for himself. He was a crusader, just like you, but unlike you, he
forgot what he was crusading for. At first, I was important to him, but
after
a while, he stopped seeing me as a person... as a woman. I became an
ornament
to be draped on his arm to be shown off and admired, but nothing more."

Nick listened carefully to what Sarah-Ellen was saying and said, "Perhaps
that may have been true, but I still don't understand why you wanted me that
night."

"I could see something in you that Marcus no longer had." she replied,
gazing
into his eyes. "You still have humanity within you. Marcus's humanity was
slipping away from him, and he didn't seem to be interested in regaining it
again, in spite of my best efforts to help him regain it. His passion for
fulfilling his own desires were consuming him, and he gave himself over to
them completely. He shut me out of his life, and I felt lost and alone. You
were different, and I could feel it when you held me in your arms and when I
looked into your eyes. I wanted you, Nicholas, because you didn't have a
cold
heart."

"You could sense that in me?"

"Yes, I could. Does that surprise you?"

"It does." he said quietly. "I thought that I had lost my humanity a long
time ago. I believed that my heart was cold and that it could never be warm
again. Yet, you were able to see the humanity that I still had, in spite of
the vampire."

 "Yes, I did, and I still do." she said, giving him a sweet smile that
warmed
his heart.

"I don't understand why you let me feed on you." Nick's mind raced back to
the events of that fateful night. "You gave yourself to me totally, without
hesitation or fear. I thought that you'd be frightened of me and that you'd
push me away."

"I wanted you to feed on me, because I knew that you were hungry." she
replied, her dark eyes warm and bright as he looked at her. "I saw the
hunger
and passion in your eyes while we were at the Quadroon Ball that night, and
I
knew that my blood could satisfy you.  So, were you satisfied after you fed
on me?"

Nick was taken aback by her blunt question. "I was very satisfied,
Sarah-Ellen." he replied honestly. "Your blood soothed my hunger. After I
took what I wanted from you, I felt a sense of peace and calmness flowing
through me. It was something that I had never felt before."

"I became a part of you when you fed on me. That's what I wanted to be. When
Marcus fed on me, I felt cold and hollow inside. I didn't feel as though I
was a part of him anymore. But when you fed on me, I felt wanted and desired
again. I needed you that night, Nicholas, and please don't think that you
did
something wrong when you fed on me. I wanted you, and I accepted the risk of
wanting you."

"You're willing to forgive me after what I did to you that night?"

"Yes." She gave him a smile that was heartbreakingly lovely. "I forgive you,
and I wanted the opportunity to be with you again. I'm just so glad that you
didn't die before I found you. If you had died before I found you, I would
have been devastated."

"How are you going to be with me? How will that be possible?" Nick asked, as
the pieces of the puzzle were starting to fit together.

"Sara Louise." she replied, tenderly clasping his hands in hers. "I'm a part
of her spirit. She knows who and what you are, and she cares for you just as
much as I do. She possesses great courage, and I'm glad to be a part of her
soul. Love her with the same passion that you loved me, Nicholas, and she
will love you just as much as I do." The halo of light surrounding her
slowly
grew in intensity, and Nick had a feeling that she was about to leave him.

He smiled at Sarah-Ellen and said, "It was so good to see you again. I'm
sorry that you must leave."

"I'll always be with you, Nicholas. Just look beside you when you wake up."
Sarah-Ellen kissed his cheek and let go of his hands. "Goodbye, my love."

"Goodbye, Sarah-Ellen." Nick said as the pillar of light surrounded and
slowly engulfed her until she could no longer be seen. He watched as the
light faded away until it was gone, then he sat down on the sofa and closed
his eyes.
----

When Nick awoke again, he saw Sara Louise snuggled next to him, a sweet
smile
on her lips as she slept beside him.

''Thank you for your kindness, Sarah-Ellen... and for your love.'' he
whispered softly as he kissed Sara Louise's forehead and held her tenderly
in
his arms.

"You're welcome, dearest Nicholas...'' came the whispered reply.

----
End of "Out From The Shadows": Part 1/1
SFryar@aol.com
Copyright, May, 2000