Let Me In 2

[Lee Kyle]

Let Me In 2 http://let-the-right-one-in.com/fancont ... i-response now posted on We, The Infected. This sequel to Let Me In picks up immediately after the movie. 16 chapters, 95,000 words, a labor of love.

My guiding philosophy is to be as true to the movie as possible. For example:

1) Owen and Abby are twelve. Twelve-year-olds think and act in certain ways. I can't have them use advanced vocabulary, exercise adult mannerisms, or reach complex conclusions.

2) Killing four teenagers on school property will forever ruin Abby's ability to hide. She will now receive an incredible amount of attention from law enforcement. Life will never be the same.

3) Let Me In presents Abby as hesitant to talk about her condition. There are certain topics she will discuss only with difficulty, making serious conversations awkward and brief.

4) The movie's tone is so bleak that I think it forbids any sort of simplistic solution to Abby's dietary needs - animal blood, for example, or obtaining blood from blood banks.

5) The movie presents Abby as emotionally wrecked from her experiences as a vampire. She hates being a vampire, she hates what she does - "I'm nothing." If such psychological scarring is ever to be undone, it will certainly not happen quickly or easily. Any road to a happy ending will be long and torturous.

I'm not saying that all fan fiction has to "stay as true to the movie as possible." I'm simply saying that such a commitment guides my writing, determining what I can and cannot do with the characters. The worst criticism I could imagine is, "This action/event/thought is not faithful to the characters as they are presented in the original source material."

[Clubmeister]

...The worst criticism I could imagine is, "This action/event/thought is not faithful to the characters as they are presented in the original source material."

Relax. Here're very loyal audience. And as for me, much better an enthralling story with lack of credibility than plausible one, but boring.
LMI ff rather rare here, so I'll read it with interest.

[snaps]

Always good to see another take on the story. I like the dimensions being explored here.

[varamiglite]

I've read the first three chapters and so far you've got me hook, line, and sinker. I like where you're taking it and I look forward to reading the rest of it when I have some extra time. Don't fret and just keep doing your thing, I think we're all a pretty open-minded audience so you're probably safe... probably

[sauvin]

The LTROI forum has some of the best amateur fiction I've ever seen anywhere. I've read a fairish bit, being a recovered Star Trek addict, and can state with authority that fan fiction runs the gamut from simply unendurable to undeniably inspired, and the fiction in this forum tends very strongly to the latter.

Let Me In 2 is one of the strongest cases I could make for maintaining the "We, the Infected" site.

If you're looking for criticism, the only thing I can offer after a single read is that Abby often seems quite a bit older than her apparent twelve years. The years have taught her the necessity of searching a house for valuables and other aids to survival, but her manners of speech and the way she sets about planning sometimes seem to go beyond a preteen's natural reach.

What you seem to have captured so very well is how police would reconstruct the crime scene and how they'd go about chasing down false leads and ruling out errant hypotheses. You've also graphically raised the spectre of how tough life would get to be for the kids even if Owen hadn't been arrested; technological advances in virtually every aspect of modern life will continue (from the '80's onwards) to make it much easier for enforcement agencies to spot patterns of murder across the entire country, and Abby's needs, unfortunately, dictate she follow a particular kind of pattern.

What I find most credible, and most chilling, is vindication of Oskar's thinking when he'd considered his very recent discovery that his girlfriend is a vampire: "There is nobody he could tell." One of the rabbit trails the first investigating officer followed was cultism, and paradoxically enough, I could see him pursuing it more earnestly if he found that Abby had been biting her victims to death. What could possibly have a more twisted religious interpretation than some kind of Satanistic backing?

But would this cop have understood the truth once having uncovered it?

Alvirez seems to be getting closer to the truth:

Owen broke. But he won't speak? No, it's not that he won't speak. It's that he can't. Owen had seen something beyond speech, an event or fact or datum that could not be articulated. Language could not contain it. Language would not permit it to be.

The bulk of the fanfiction and the speculating we've done in the forum has concerned itself with the kids' POV; we've been hung on Eli's perfect "moral" impossibility and her nonexistent hope for a happier tomorrow. Here is the exact opposite side of that very same coin, the plight of a modern people shored up with amoxicillin and propelled by energy drinks who have long ago been inculcated to believe with absolute certainty what novel Oskar tried to believe: there are no vampires.

I'll be very interested to see how Alvirez discovers and struggles with what modern "science" stridently claims must be impossible.

[gkmoberg1]

Truly a stunning beginning for a LMI sequel. I've read this 1st chapter and find I want to go back and line all of this up against the movie! I'm really impressed by the logical approach. Well written!

Thoughts (please understand that I have read only this first chapter):
<> I wonder what Owen's father would say, when telephoned and asked for his input and statement. He may well make statements to the investigators that suggest Owen's mother and her religious fanaticism is part of whatever has happened to his son. I get this impression from how in the film he talks to Owen during their phone call.

<> Did Abby's nom her 'dad' at the hospital? (I forget.) If so, this would be part of the knowledge base , recorded by Detective O'Connor. Agent Alvirez would surely then find it peculiar that the John Doe had also been bitten on the neck. Abby was known to be present at the hospital at the time of the 'dad's death yet she was not seen up on the building's tenth floor.

<> If I were Agent Alvirez, my hunch would be that young master Owen is likely in the woods near the school, dead from a bite wound to his neck and similarly drained of blood. Even though it appears from the notes left behind that Abby and Owen are friends, if the above is true that the 'dad' was bitten, then likely too it is that Owen has met such a fate.

I hope you post more!

[gkmoberg1]

I've read this again and remain impressed and interested. You've well set the base for a story, one that builds solidly out of LMI. You protagonist is straight-forward, organized and believeable - with more motivation driving him that simply solving another case.

[Angelalex242]

I liked this fic right up until...

You had Abby killed. Not cool, bro. I was okay with having Owen become Van Helsing, but...eh. Happy ending, bro!

[Naitouk]

I've really enjoyed both chapters! Its great to see another Let Me In author post work here among the ranks of the infected.

Looking forward to reading more!

[gkmoberg1]

Chapter 2 kicks of the other strand of this story! I like how genuine Owen is in his thoughts and actions as an increasingly bewildered 12 yr old runaway, who has no prior experience of have done any of this before. Abby's focus is a stark contrast to Owen's state, which make sense. She's been through all this however many times. Well done addition! I'm very intrigued by how you are developing both characters.