Disclaimer: Same as always, I do not own the characters.
A/N: Please read and continue to give reviews! I love them. You guys are the best!
Chapter 13
After school was done The Cullen’s and I met outside in the parking lot. We had the same driving arraignments as this morning. I was nervous to see what Carlisle was going to be saying to all of us on this new threat. Would he want me to leave? I wouldn’t blame him for wanting that. All I knew was that I would do whatever it took for me to not harm my new family.
When we got back to the house, Carlisle was waiting for us in the open doorway of their house. Everyone glided in while I stumbled up the steps and into the house. One couldn’t help but feel like a klutz when they were around. I walked staying close to Alice and Edward as much as possible and went to sit on the couch with them, while Jasper hung close to Alice’s side standing behind her. Emmett and Rosalie sat in one chair; Rosalie perched on Emmett’s lap.
“Edward,” Carlisle started, “will you please tell us what you know about this vampire? The one that is coming here?”
“I can tell you what I know about her, but why she would start any problems I don’t know,” he looked around at everyone briefly before continuing. “Holly is her name. I met her about 40 years ago; she was human at the time. And just like Bella, she fell in love with me but I didn’t have the same feelings toward her. I felt bad for hurting her since I could hear her thoughts and I knew that she was really hoping that we would be together. She didn’t know until later on that I was a vampire. I told her hoping that it would scare her off, but it did the opposite. It made her really excited because she thought that I would change her and that we would be together forever,” Edward said looking up at me. “I didn’t want that but no matter what I told Holly she kept at it and wouldn’t let it go. Finally I told her that I was going to be leaving and that she wouldn’t be seeing me again.”
“That is sad,” I said.
Edward looked over to me and said, “You feel compassion for her, don’t you?”
Everyone’s eyes swung to me and I felt my cheeks flush with heat. “I do. I know what it would be like if I were in her situation. The only difference is that you do have feelings for me or our stories would be the same.”
Edward looked to Carlisle. “It seems that now we have to figure out what we are going to do. Any ideas?”
“Maybe a few of us could go and meet her before she gets too close and then talk to her before she does anything stupid,” Rosalie stated.
“That isn’t too bad of an idea. But who?” Esme asked.
Edward spoke up first. “I feel like I have to go. She is my problem more than anyone else’s.”
“Edward, you are part of a family so we, as a family, take on everything together. You do not have to do this all on your own. But I agree, you should be there,” Carlisle said.
“I’ll go,” Emmett said.
“Me too,” Jasper said. “I can try and keep things calm so that nothing gets too out of control.”
“Good idea.” It looked like it was the boys going out to face the danger while the rest of us just sat here on our hands doing nothing. Carlisle wrapped up the little meeting asking Alice how much time they had left.
“She will be here tomorrow afternoon,” she said after a moment of concentration.
“She won’t go to the school looking for us will she? We will be in school when she comes,” I said getting nervous again.
“Bella, honey, tomorrow you are going to stay home. We have worked that out with the school,” Esme said softly.
“Oh, okay. So I am staying here with all of you then? Is she going to be coming back here to the house? What will happen then?”
“Bella, I think it would be best if you go back to your parent’s house just in case she does come back here. Alice can go with you and she will be able to see anything coming and will be able to keep you safe is you need that,” Esme said.
“Oh I see. I guess… that would work,” I said disappointed. I didn’t want to be out of the loop with everything. I didn’t want to have to worry about everyone while I was so far away. “Speaking of my house, what is going to happen with that? I don’t know what needs to be done with the house.”
“Carlisle is finishing up on that too. It was very nearly paid off so he paid the rest off and is making sure that all of the arraignments are made so that you can keep it if you would like or sell it if you would like. That will be up to you and you do not have to think about it now.” Right then, my heart felt so big that I thought it would explode. I ran over to Esme and locked my arms around her in a hug and tears came to my eyes very suddenly.
“Thank you so much. You have no idea how much this all means to me. You have been so great,” I said sobbing.
“Bella, you are part of this family now so we take care of those in our family. You have nothing to thank us for. Now how about I bring you in the kitchen for a bite to eat. The boys will want to go hunting since they are going to need it while facing Holly.” Esme guided me towards the kitchen while I looked over my shoulder to Edward. He just gave me a small smile and nodded. Alice looked like she was trying to get more information about what they would soon be facing.
I followed Esme into the kitchen and she had me sit down while she made me a sandwich and a salad. “You know, I can do this for myself. You don’t have to make food for me all of the time.”
“Actually, I rather enjoy it. We don’t use the kitchen much around her so it is kind of nice to have a use for this room now that you are here,” she said with an easy smile. I smiled back at her and shook my head.
“I don’t know if I can ever thank you all enough for what you have done for me and my parents. They would have been grateful too and would have thanked you too if they could.” I felt the tears welled up again but I pushed them deep down inside me and just sniffed.
“I know sweetie. It’s all right to cry though. You don’t have to hide that here. This is the only place where we can be ourselves, which is fantastic, so please don’t hide your tears,” Esme said, trying to soothe me. I couldn’t talk after she said that, so I just shook my head and took the plate that she offered me.
I took a bite into it and said, “This is good. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. I will let you eat in peace. And if you need anything just ask okay?”
“Okay. Thank you.”
I sat there finishing my sandwich and then started on the salad. It was really good too. A little sandwich and a salad shouldn’t taste that good, but it did. When I finished I put the plate in the sink and rinsed it off and did the same with the bowl. I walked out of the kitchen shutting the light off behind me. I hadn’t noticed that it was almost dusk.
I walked to the living room to find that only Rosalie remained, she was playing the piano softly. I didn’t know she played. It was a soft, slow melody that she was playing, one that I did not recognize. I walked a little bit closer to hear better, but I hoped that I wouldn’t interrupt her.
“It’s one that I wrote, in case you are wondering,” she said without looking at me. “I wrote it a long time ago, a few years after I was changed. I went through a period that was very dark for me. I didn’t want this life you see. I didn’t like feeling rejected like I had been, so I shut myself off to everyone. Even my family, who did nothing but care for me and show me every love they could.” Now she looked up at me and her face, though stunning, showed intense pain. I wonder what had happened to her. Then she started again, “Do you want to know what happened to me Bella?”
I didn’t know what she was talking about but I knew she was going to tell me and I felt like she needed to tell someone, so I shook my head. “Come on over here then and sit by me,” she said patting the piano bench next to her. She didn’t miss a beat in her piece.
“This is my story written in words. How would you describe it Bella?” She asked me.
Thinking for a minute, I closed my eyes, and then said, “It is sad yet moving. Soft but I feel a point is being made. And I feel there is an undertone of hope.”
“Good, you got it. You are good with music. I wrote this like I said a few years after I was changed. I was having a hard time being a vampire. You see? I was very beautiful when I was human. I had many suitors who came to call on me but I was very picky, I wasn’t going to just accept the first one that came to call on me. My mother and father doted on me and made sure that I would get the best man out there. And so he came to the door and he was a gorgeous man. His name was Royce King. He was in the banking industry, just like my father. Of course they knew each other and my father was done. That was who I was to marry. I accepted the offer of marriage like every other girl who was proposed to. We saw each other often, however never alone; we always had our families around. In that time, that is how it went. About three weeks before the wedding I ran into Royce as he was coming out of a brothel. He was drunk and the smell of alcohol was just rolling off of him. I was disgusted that he would frequent that place, and as I was thinking that, I remember hearing a girl call out of an upstairs window, “See you later Royce! I hope your new wife can do everything that I can!” And she laughed as he waved her goodbye.
“I couldn’t believe that. I couldn’t believe that my soon-to-be husband would go and see a whore and that they know about me. What would the rest of the town be thinking about me? I was due to marry this man in a few weeks time and he was going into these types of places. He came towards me stumbling around like he was drinking the whole afternoon. He sees me watching him and he straightens up a bit and swaggers over to me.
“Hey baby doll,” he said to me. And I looked at him with utter disgust on my face.
“Don’t even talk to me Royce,” I replied back to him. “You disgust me and we are not going to be married. This engagement is over. Take your ring back.” I threw it at him and walked away. But he had other ideas. He grabbed me by my hair and whipped me to the ground. I remember screaming at him and him saying how I was never going to leave him and that we were going to be married. If he wasn’t going to marry me then no one was ever going to marry me. I thought for sure that I was going to die. I thought for sure he was going to kill me. He started hitting me and he didn’t stop. I was begging and pleasing for him to stop and soon, my body just gave in and I lay there limp. I couldn’t move even if I wanted to. He left me there, laying just a few feet from the brothel that he just came from, bloodied and presumed dead.”
“I don’t know how long I lay there in the road, but I was praying for death. But it was not death that found me. I thought at the time that what came for me was worse than death, but I would have been wrong. All I remember was that I was picked up and carried away from that horrible spot. I didn’t know where I was being taken to, but I didn’t care. Soon I was in a dark room and I had let the darkness swallow me whole.”
“The next thing I knew my body was on fire and it stayed that way for what I was told three days. When I woke up I was as you see me now, Bella. And I could never go back. I didn’t know if I wanted to go back after all of that terror I went through. I didn’t know if my family knew if where I was or not. But before I could think of anymore, I heard a voice say from somewhere to my right, “Rosalie? I am Dr. Carlisle Cullen. I brought you here and you were in very bad shape. I could not heal your injuries and the only way that I could save you was to turn you. You are a vampire, but you do not have to be a monster. You have another choice and I can teach you that.”
“I was shocked. How could I be a vampire? But I knew that what he was saying was true since my throat felt very dry and it was burning. He explained that we would go hunting, but we would hunt animals. I hunted for the first time and the blood was delicious. I never tasted anything so wonderful in my life. But that was my first experience as a vampire.”
“What happened to Royce,” I asked. What happened to the man that beat his fiancée until the point of death?
“Royce found his end very soon after I did. I never did find out what happened to him exactly but I saw a paper that announced his death or murder. The paper said that his death was brutal and the worst that the police force has ever seen. They did not know who did it but they were continuing the investigation. I was sure that I was going to be a suspect since there was nothing in the paper about being missing. So Carlisle, Esme, Edward and I left and found a new home.”
“I am so sorry Rosalie, I had no idea that this happened to you. No wonder you song was so sad.”
“I was okay with what happened at that point, but I didn’t stay that way. Once I found out that I would be like this forever, I started getting down about it. I never thought I wanted children but after seeing Esme take care of Edward and I, I realized that it was something that I would going to miss out on. Esme treated us just like her own children. She’s told you about her loss, right?”
“Yes, she did.” I shook my head solemnly.
“Ah, the hunting party has returned,” Rosalie, said smiling a little. “It is us girls turn to go. Have Edward bring you to your house tonight and when Alice is done hunting, she will come over as well. Have a good night Bella,” she said, reaching to give me a hug. I hugged her back and felt a lot closer to her now knowing her horrible past.
Edward, Jasper, Emmett, and Carlisle came into the house and their eyes had turned from black to a brilliant topaz. All but Edward looked at me, smiled, and went their own ways. Edward just stared at me. When Rosalie touched my arm, Edward stepped forward, and Rosalie left.
“Alice and Esme are going to be meeting her at the edge of the woods to go hunting. I am supposed to take you to your house. Are you ready now or do you need to get some things together?” he asked.
“No. I still have things there. I am ready whenever you are.” I said and got my jacket. The nights here were pretty chilly and very damp.
“You may want to have a heavier jacket. It is going to be pretty cold outside with you on my back and running.”
“Why don’t we take a car then?”
“We don’t want Holly to know that there is anyone at your house. If she only glances at it she will be thinking that you are still at our place. So no car,” he said calmly. He had a point. So I went up to grab a sweater and a heavier jacket. When I got down stairs he was waiting at the door, which stood open. We walked out and he threw me over his back and took off running. We reached my house in a matter of minutes and I was very happy to get off his back, I was freezing.
Once we got into my parents house, Edward went to turn on the heat and get me some blankets so that I would be warm. I heard that answering machine beeping but I didn’t want to worry about that now. It was going to have to wait. When Edward came back to me with blankets I took them and said, “How about we go up to my room? It’s a little too hard for me to be down here.”
“Okay. Lead the way,” Edward said holding out his arm.
With the little bit of grace I had, I walked up the steps holding the blankets high so that I wouldn’t trip on them if one happened to slip down a little. We got to my room and I opened my door to see my old room. This used to be my place to get away from my parents, as much as I loved them, I needed this get away.
“Um… want to sit down?” I sat on the bed and covered with the blankets thankful that I had them. I had started to shiver and the blankets I’ve seen for years were comforting in many different levels. I brought the top one to my face and inhaled deeply. I could still smell the fabric softener that my mom had used when she washed these last. Edward sat on the bed with me. He didn’t say anything, he just watched me. “Why do you watch me so intently?” I asked.
“I am trying to figure you out. Since I can’t read your thoughts I am trying to find another way to figure out what is going on in your head. It is frustrating to not see what I can see with everyone else,” he said.
“Sorry about that. But you can always ask me you know.”
He ducked his head for a brief moment, then back up just as quick. “I don’t understand how you can be so comfortable with everything that is happening around you. Not only with my family, which is a lot to take in, but then with your friend Jake. How can you be taking this so well?”
“I don’t know really. I just don’t see you as a vampire or Jake as a werewolf. I see you as Edward and Jake,” I said with a shrug.
He just shook his head. “I will never understand that Bella.” But we just sat there and talked like I wanted to do for a long time. We sat there and talked like this until I heard Alice coming up the steps, making sure to make the stairs creak. I knew that she would have been able to come up silently but she wanted us to know she was there, I’m sure.
“Hey Alice,” I said.
“Hey! Are you ready for a girls night?” Alice said looking all chipper as if something bad wasn’t going to happen tomorrow.
I looked at her and shook my head, “You are one of a kind Alice. And what is Edward going to do?”
“Oh Edward is going back to plan the afternoon tomorrow,” she said as if I knew that already.
I looked over at him and he looked sorry that he didn’t tell me about it himself. “It’s okay, I didn’t really give you a chance to tell me,” I said to him. I leaned to him and gave him a soft kiss on the cheek and he got up. He looked back at me once and left. He left me to deal with Alice by myself.
“Okay, what have you got in mind for me tonight? I hope it isn’t much because I am tired already,” I said with a yawn.
“Well since you are too tired, I guess I can just stand guard. But tomorrow morning you had better be prepared for my distraction. You are not going to get out of it, you know.”
“Yeah, I know,” I said to her before I grabbed my pajamas, went to the bathroom to change and brush my teeth. When I came back Alice had the little TV on in my room, but it was too quite for me to hear.
“Good night Alice.”
“Good night, Sleeping Beauty, don’t let the bed bugs bite.”
A few minutes later, I was fast asleep and welcomed the quiet. I just hoped that my mind would stay as quiet as the night outside my window.
A/N: Please read and continue to give reviews! I love them. You guys are the best!
Chapter 13
After school was done The Cullen’s and I met outside in the parking lot. We had the same driving arraignments as this morning. I was nervous to see what Carlisle was going to be saying to all of us on this new threat. Would he want me to leave? I wouldn’t blame him for wanting that. All I knew was that I would do whatever it took for me to not harm my new family.
When we got back to the house, Carlisle was waiting for us in the open doorway of their house. Everyone glided in while I stumbled up the steps and into the house. One couldn’t help but feel like a klutz when they were around. I walked staying close to Alice and Edward as much as possible and went to sit on the couch with them, while Jasper hung close to Alice’s side standing behind her. Emmett and Rosalie sat in one chair; Rosalie perched on Emmett’s lap.
“Edward,” Carlisle started, “will you please tell us what you know about this vampire? The one that is coming here?”
“I can tell you what I know about her, but why she would start any problems I don’t know,” he looked around at everyone briefly before continuing. “Holly is her name. I met her about 40 years ago; she was human at the time. And just like Bella, she fell in love with me but I didn’t have the same feelings toward her. I felt bad for hurting her since I could hear her thoughts and I knew that she was really hoping that we would be together. She didn’t know until later on that I was a vampire. I told her hoping that it would scare her off, but it did the opposite. It made her really excited because she thought that I would change her and that we would be together forever,” Edward said looking up at me. “I didn’t want that but no matter what I told Holly she kept at it and wouldn’t let it go. Finally I told her that I was going to be leaving and that she wouldn’t be seeing me again.”
“That is sad,” I said.
Edward looked over to me and said, “You feel compassion for her, don’t you?”
Everyone’s eyes swung to me and I felt my cheeks flush with heat. “I do. I know what it would be like if I were in her situation. The only difference is that you do have feelings for me or our stories would be the same.”
Edward looked to Carlisle. “It seems that now we have to figure out what we are going to do. Any ideas?”
“Maybe a few of us could go and meet her before she gets too close and then talk to her before she does anything stupid,” Rosalie stated.
“That isn’t too bad of an idea. But who?” Esme asked.
Edward spoke up first. “I feel like I have to go. She is my problem more than anyone else’s.”
“Edward, you are part of a family so we, as a family, take on everything together. You do not have to do this all on your own. But I agree, you should be there,” Carlisle said.
“I’ll go,” Emmett said.
“Me too,” Jasper said. “I can try and keep things calm so that nothing gets too out of control.”
“Good idea.” It looked like it was the boys going out to face the danger while the rest of us just sat here on our hands doing nothing. Carlisle wrapped up the little meeting asking Alice how much time they had left.
“She will be here tomorrow afternoon,” she said after a moment of concentration.
“She won’t go to the school looking for us will she? We will be in school when she comes,” I said getting nervous again.
“Bella, honey, tomorrow you are going to stay home. We have worked that out with the school,” Esme said softly.
“Oh, okay. So I am staying here with all of you then? Is she going to be coming back here to the house? What will happen then?”
“Bella, I think it would be best if you go back to your parent’s house just in case she does come back here. Alice can go with you and she will be able to see anything coming and will be able to keep you safe is you need that,” Esme said.
“Oh I see. I guess… that would work,” I said disappointed. I didn’t want to be out of the loop with everything. I didn’t want to have to worry about everyone while I was so far away. “Speaking of my house, what is going to happen with that? I don’t know what needs to be done with the house.”
“Carlisle is finishing up on that too. It was very nearly paid off so he paid the rest off and is making sure that all of the arraignments are made so that you can keep it if you would like or sell it if you would like. That will be up to you and you do not have to think about it now.” Right then, my heart felt so big that I thought it would explode. I ran over to Esme and locked my arms around her in a hug and tears came to my eyes very suddenly.
“Thank you so much. You have no idea how much this all means to me. You have been so great,” I said sobbing.
“Bella, you are part of this family now so we take care of those in our family. You have nothing to thank us for. Now how about I bring you in the kitchen for a bite to eat. The boys will want to go hunting since they are going to need it while facing Holly.” Esme guided me towards the kitchen while I looked over my shoulder to Edward. He just gave me a small smile and nodded. Alice looked like she was trying to get more information about what they would soon be facing.
I followed Esme into the kitchen and she had me sit down while she made me a sandwich and a salad. “You know, I can do this for myself. You don’t have to make food for me all of the time.”
“Actually, I rather enjoy it. We don’t use the kitchen much around her so it is kind of nice to have a use for this room now that you are here,” she said with an easy smile. I smiled back at her and shook my head.
“I don’t know if I can ever thank you all enough for what you have done for me and my parents. They would have been grateful too and would have thanked you too if they could.” I felt the tears welled up again but I pushed them deep down inside me and just sniffed.
“I know sweetie. It’s all right to cry though. You don’t have to hide that here. This is the only place where we can be ourselves, which is fantastic, so please don’t hide your tears,” Esme said, trying to soothe me. I couldn’t talk after she said that, so I just shook my head and took the plate that she offered me.
I took a bite into it and said, “This is good. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. I will let you eat in peace. And if you need anything just ask okay?”
“Okay. Thank you.”
I sat there finishing my sandwich and then started on the salad. It was really good too. A little sandwich and a salad shouldn’t taste that good, but it did. When I finished I put the plate in the sink and rinsed it off and did the same with the bowl. I walked out of the kitchen shutting the light off behind me. I hadn’t noticed that it was almost dusk.
I walked to the living room to find that only Rosalie remained, she was playing the piano softly. I didn’t know she played. It was a soft, slow melody that she was playing, one that I did not recognize. I walked a little bit closer to hear better, but I hoped that I wouldn’t interrupt her.
“It’s one that I wrote, in case you are wondering,” she said without looking at me. “I wrote it a long time ago, a few years after I was changed. I went through a period that was very dark for me. I didn’t want this life you see. I didn’t like feeling rejected like I had been, so I shut myself off to everyone. Even my family, who did nothing but care for me and show me every love they could.” Now she looked up at me and her face, though stunning, showed intense pain. I wonder what had happened to her. Then she started again, “Do you want to know what happened to me Bella?”
I didn’t know what she was talking about but I knew she was going to tell me and I felt like she needed to tell someone, so I shook my head. “Come on over here then and sit by me,” she said patting the piano bench next to her. She didn’t miss a beat in her piece.
“This is my story written in words. How would you describe it Bella?” She asked me.
Thinking for a minute, I closed my eyes, and then said, “It is sad yet moving. Soft but I feel a point is being made. And I feel there is an undertone of hope.”
“Good, you got it. You are good with music. I wrote this like I said a few years after I was changed. I was having a hard time being a vampire. You see? I was very beautiful when I was human. I had many suitors who came to call on me but I was very picky, I wasn’t going to just accept the first one that came to call on me. My mother and father doted on me and made sure that I would get the best man out there. And so he came to the door and he was a gorgeous man. His name was Royce King. He was in the banking industry, just like my father. Of course they knew each other and my father was done. That was who I was to marry. I accepted the offer of marriage like every other girl who was proposed to. We saw each other often, however never alone; we always had our families around. In that time, that is how it went. About three weeks before the wedding I ran into Royce as he was coming out of a brothel. He was drunk and the smell of alcohol was just rolling off of him. I was disgusted that he would frequent that place, and as I was thinking that, I remember hearing a girl call out of an upstairs window, “See you later Royce! I hope your new wife can do everything that I can!” And she laughed as he waved her goodbye.
“I couldn’t believe that. I couldn’t believe that my soon-to-be husband would go and see a whore and that they know about me. What would the rest of the town be thinking about me? I was due to marry this man in a few weeks time and he was going into these types of places. He came towards me stumbling around like he was drinking the whole afternoon. He sees me watching him and he straightens up a bit and swaggers over to me.
“Hey baby doll,” he said to me. And I looked at him with utter disgust on my face.
“Don’t even talk to me Royce,” I replied back to him. “You disgust me and we are not going to be married. This engagement is over. Take your ring back.” I threw it at him and walked away. But he had other ideas. He grabbed me by my hair and whipped me to the ground. I remember screaming at him and him saying how I was never going to leave him and that we were going to be married. If he wasn’t going to marry me then no one was ever going to marry me. I thought for sure that I was going to die. I thought for sure he was going to kill me. He started hitting me and he didn’t stop. I was begging and pleasing for him to stop and soon, my body just gave in and I lay there limp. I couldn’t move even if I wanted to. He left me there, laying just a few feet from the brothel that he just came from, bloodied and presumed dead.”
“I don’t know how long I lay there in the road, but I was praying for death. But it was not death that found me. I thought at the time that what came for me was worse than death, but I would have been wrong. All I remember was that I was picked up and carried away from that horrible spot. I didn’t know where I was being taken to, but I didn’t care. Soon I was in a dark room and I had let the darkness swallow me whole.”
“The next thing I knew my body was on fire and it stayed that way for what I was told three days. When I woke up I was as you see me now, Bella. And I could never go back. I didn’t know if I wanted to go back after all of that terror I went through. I didn’t know if my family knew if where I was or not. But before I could think of anymore, I heard a voice say from somewhere to my right, “Rosalie? I am Dr. Carlisle Cullen. I brought you here and you were in very bad shape. I could not heal your injuries and the only way that I could save you was to turn you. You are a vampire, but you do not have to be a monster. You have another choice and I can teach you that.”
“I was shocked. How could I be a vampire? But I knew that what he was saying was true since my throat felt very dry and it was burning. He explained that we would go hunting, but we would hunt animals. I hunted for the first time and the blood was delicious. I never tasted anything so wonderful in my life. But that was my first experience as a vampire.”
“What happened to Royce,” I asked. What happened to the man that beat his fiancée until the point of death?
“Royce found his end very soon after I did. I never did find out what happened to him exactly but I saw a paper that announced his death or murder. The paper said that his death was brutal and the worst that the police force has ever seen. They did not know who did it but they were continuing the investigation. I was sure that I was going to be a suspect since there was nothing in the paper about being missing. So Carlisle, Esme, Edward and I left and found a new home.”
“I am so sorry Rosalie, I had no idea that this happened to you. No wonder you song was so sad.”
“I was okay with what happened at that point, but I didn’t stay that way. Once I found out that I would be like this forever, I started getting down about it. I never thought I wanted children but after seeing Esme take care of Edward and I, I realized that it was something that I would going to miss out on. Esme treated us just like her own children. She’s told you about her loss, right?”
“Yes, she did.” I shook my head solemnly.
“Ah, the hunting party has returned,” Rosalie, said smiling a little. “It is us girls turn to go. Have Edward bring you to your house tonight and when Alice is done hunting, she will come over as well. Have a good night Bella,” she said, reaching to give me a hug. I hugged her back and felt a lot closer to her now knowing her horrible past.
Edward, Jasper, Emmett, and Carlisle came into the house and their eyes had turned from black to a brilliant topaz. All but Edward looked at me, smiled, and went their own ways. Edward just stared at me. When Rosalie touched my arm, Edward stepped forward, and Rosalie left.
“Alice and Esme are going to be meeting her at the edge of the woods to go hunting. I am supposed to take you to your house. Are you ready now or do you need to get some things together?” he asked.
“No. I still have things there. I am ready whenever you are.” I said and got my jacket. The nights here were pretty chilly and very damp.
“You may want to have a heavier jacket. It is going to be pretty cold outside with you on my back and running.”
“Why don’t we take a car then?”
“We don’t want Holly to know that there is anyone at your house. If she only glances at it she will be thinking that you are still at our place. So no car,” he said calmly. He had a point. So I went up to grab a sweater and a heavier jacket. When I got down stairs he was waiting at the door, which stood open. We walked out and he threw me over his back and took off running. We reached my house in a matter of minutes and I was very happy to get off his back, I was freezing.
Once we got into my parents house, Edward went to turn on the heat and get me some blankets so that I would be warm. I heard that answering machine beeping but I didn’t want to worry about that now. It was going to have to wait. When Edward came back to me with blankets I took them and said, “How about we go up to my room? It’s a little too hard for me to be down here.”
“Okay. Lead the way,” Edward said holding out his arm.
With the little bit of grace I had, I walked up the steps holding the blankets high so that I wouldn’t trip on them if one happened to slip down a little. We got to my room and I opened my door to see my old room. This used to be my place to get away from my parents, as much as I loved them, I needed this get away.
“Um… want to sit down?” I sat on the bed and covered with the blankets thankful that I had them. I had started to shiver and the blankets I’ve seen for years were comforting in many different levels. I brought the top one to my face and inhaled deeply. I could still smell the fabric softener that my mom had used when she washed these last. Edward sat on the bed with me. He didn’t say anything, he just watched me. “Why do you watch me so intently?” I asked.
“I am trying to figure you out. Since I can’t read your thoughts I am trying to find another way to figure out what is going on in your head. It is frustrating to not see what I can see with everyone else,” he said.
“Sorry about that. But you can always ask me you know.”
He ducked his head for a brief moment, then back up just as quick. “I don’t understand how you can be so comfortable with everything that is happening around you. Not only with my family, which is a lot to take in, but then with your friend Jake. How can you be taking this so well?”
“I don’t know really. I just don’t see you as a vampire or Jake as a werewolf. I see you as Edward and Jake,” I said with a shrug.
He just shook his head. “I will never understand that Bella.” But we just sat there and talked like I wanted to do for a long time. We sat there and talked like this until I heard Alice coming up the steps, making sure to make the stairs creak. I knew that she would have been able to come up silently but she wanted us to know she was there, I’m sure.
“Hey Alice,” I said.
“Hey! Are you ready for a girls night?” Alice said looking all chipper as if something bad wasn’t going to happen tomorrow.
I looked at her and shook my head, “You are one of a kind Alice. And what is Edward going to do?”
“Oh Edward is going back to plan the afternoon tomorrow,” she said as if I knew that already.
I looked over at him and he looked sorry that he didn’t tell me about it himself. “It’s okay, I didn’t really give you a chance to tell me,” I said to him. I leaned to him and gave him a soft kiss on the cheek and he got up. He looked back at me once and left. He left me to deal with Alice by myself.
“Okay, what have you got in mind for me tonight? I hope it isn’t much because I am tired already,” I said with a yawn.
“Well since you are too tired, I guess I can just stand guard. But tomorrow morning you had better be prepared for my distraction. You are not going to get out of it, you know.”
“Yeah, I know,” I said to her before I grabbed my pajamas, went to the bathroom to change and brush my teeth. When I came back Alice had the little TV on in my room, but it was too quite for me to hear.
“Good night Alice.”
“Good night, Sleeping Beauty, don’t let the bed bugs bite.”
A few minutes later, I was fast asleep and welcomed the quiet. I just hoped that my mind would stay as quiet as the night outside my window.