Love That I Found

CHAPTER 1: Birthday Surprise

I was 17 when it happened. It was my 17th birthday to be exact. I had a party at my house and we were all headed to a theme park. I didn't know which one it was because of course my mom and Phil wouldn't tell me. Phil was my step dad. My mom, Renee, and my dad, Charlie, divorced just after I was born. I sometimes got really sick of my mom's surprises, not because they were unpleasant in any way, but because most things we did in our 'Family Time' was a surprise to me.

I was always happy with what we did, but now I found out that after my 17th birthday I would go to forks to live with my dad I didn't know what to think. It didn't bother me much anymore because I've had a lot of time to think about it, but I think this was mostly because it was my birthday and this was my special day and nothing was going to upset me. We got there faster than I thought. Then I realised

"You will not believe how hard it was for us to keep this from you!" my friend Grace said bouncing up and down. She was the one always exited and cheery. There was an agreeing echo from my friends: Jemima, Phoebe, Jade, Kayla and Marta.

"You knew?!" I said with fake surprise in my voice, knowing they must have. My mom needed other parents' permission to take their children to a...terrifying theme park? Yes, I guess you can call it that. Although you can't really call us children.

"Of course we knew! And we were asked to keep this from you! It was awful." Kayla moaned. "You have no idea how hard it is keeping something as big as this away from you when we could barely stop talking about it between ourselves!" she added.

"I'll have to talk to my parents about that, I can imagine now the pain you must have gone through," I said sarcastically.

"Yeah, but they can be a real pain you know," my older brother popped out of nowhere.

"Emmett! Your back! I missed you so much!" I said and hugged him, he was unusually cold.

"I wouldn't miss my little sister's birthday for anything,"

"Do mom and Phil know?"

"Yeah, I told them... I'm staying for a week then going back to my fiancé," he said.

"You're engaged?! To Rosalie? This is so awesome!"

"She likes you too," he chuckled.

"Girls, boy, me and Phil will be back to pick you up in a few hours. Here's some money if you get hungry," my mom said and gave me the money. "Don't get you into any trouble okay?" she said and smiled.

"Thanks mom, and when do we ever get into trouble with Emmett around?"

"You know what I mean, right, bye girls have a nice time," she said and kissed my head and dragged Phil away before he was able to say anything. I was sometimes annoyed when she acted all motherly all the time.

"Are you guys ready?" the woman in charge of the ride said. We just nodded and she lead us into a slightly darker room where there were about three boats lined up one behind the other. Then she simply pointed at the boats and let us decides who was in which. It was my birthday so I got to chose first. Maybe it didn't seem like a big thing to do but I thought it was. I thought carefully through my options, if I sat in the first boat then I would be the first one to experience the fear. I didn't want that. Never. The second boat looked like it was going to break apart any minute, so that was definitely a no-no. The last boat looked safe enough, and I would be the last to experience everything, I would probably see what happens so I would be able to prepare.

"I'll take the last one," I said and hopped to the last boat. The boat was tiny, there were only four seats so I couldn't sit with everyone I wanted but I guess that's life. After about two minutes everyone was seated and the boats moved forward. I didn't see how, but then guessed it was remote controlled. It seemed funny to me, because I couldn't help imagining a simple TV remote being in charge of a boat.

It got darker and darker until I couldn't see anything, I could only hear the heavy breathing of my friends and I could feel a warm hand holding mine. I was sure this was my friend so it didn't scare me, but the darkness did. Suddenly there was a single light somewhere far in the tunnel, I heard a laugh which sounded like the laugh of the Joker from Batman but we saw nothing else.

I heard footsteps and turned around but there was no other boats following and even if there was I doubted I would be able to see. It was still strange even if there was a boat following because there was no space to move around in it. I decided that it was my brain playing tricks on me because of the darkness.

We got close to the only light and I heard the first boat scream somewhere far away. Then it was quiet, but only for a moment because a few seconds later the second boat screamed. I knew it was our turn now, and I hated it. I kept looking forward and the next thing I knew there was three giant spiders in front of us hanging down from the ceiling somewhere. I didn't think that was scary, they would go back up any second now.

I counted to five and they were only about a meter away from the boat, and the spiders weren't going back up. Now we got closer I could see they were moving their legs and their eyes were red and following the boats movement. They were horrible! Finally they rose back up.

None of us screamed though. So why did the others scream? Maybe me and my three friends weren't easily scared? We were moving forward a bit faster now and I could see that there were coffins on both sides of the tunnel, I wondered where the light was coming from but then a figure jumped out. I could tell by its fangs and the blood dripping from them that it was a vampire.

I knew it wasn't real but it was very life like. At that we all screamed, one, because of how quick it jumped out, and two, because it was a vampire and the blood was dripping onto the tip of the boat now. In a flash the figure was gone. And it went on this way for the rest of the ride, all that time I was sure some-one was watching us, but when I looked around there was no-one there.

At the end of the ride we were in darkness again but this time I could see path or lights on the floor which we were obviously meant to follow to get out. And so we did, we got out of the boat I was the last one and I was afraid the boat might move with me in it so I jumped out. I heard footsteps again, but when I turned around there was no-one there. Again. So I turned back and realised that all my friends had already gone.

As I took my first step something hard and ice cold grabbed my hand and put something cold on my mouth so I couldn't scream. Was this part of the ride? I hoped so but I knew it couldn't be true. I was thrown back into the boat and I felt the boat move forward. Where were they taking me? What did they want? My eyes were watering, I wanted to scream but the hand over my mouth was too hard and strong to be moved by me. Suddenly I was thrown out of the boat and onto the ground. It was still dark so I had no idea what was happening, then I heard voices.

"We can't do it here! She won't know what to do!" the first voice said.

"Well where do you think we should take her? Somewhere closer to humans?" the second voice replied sarcastically.

"No, I was just thinking the forest might be safer. So she won't kill everyone here!"

"Fine!" I felt the ground disappear from beneath me and I could tell I was being carried somewhere. I was moving fast, or at least the person carrying me was. I could see now that we were outside that the two men that were with me had red eyes, the man carrying me had his gingery hair that was tied back. He put me down on the grass, his had was cold hand was still covering my mouth.

"I hope you will like your new life," he said and there was a sudden pain in my neck. I wanted to scream but the hand over my mouth didn't let me. I felt like I was burning, could feel fire spreading up and down my body. There was another source of pain in my neck but this time in a different place. I felt like I was being stabbed and my skin was being ripped apart. I wanted to die. I couldn't even tell those people to kill me, the hand was no longer over my mouth but I couldn't scream or say anything. The pain was too strong. Why don't they just kill me quickly?! I thought. And I meant it. I felt something cold on my hand and I could feel a cool breath on my cheek.

"My name is James. I am your creator," he chuckled. "When you wake up you will be in a forest, you will be thirsty for blood, because of that you might feel your throat hurting. Try not to kill too many people at once because the Volturi won't like it. Maybe I'll see you one day once you're a vampire, but for now good-bye," someone whispered in my ear.

What was he talking about? Thirsty for blood? Was he crazy? And what is the Volturi? I wanted to ask so many questions! I could feel my heart beating faster and faster, like it was going to jump out of me any second. Another source of pain on yet another place on my neck, this time it wasn't as painful since I was already starting to feel completely numb. I couldn't move my arms or legs; my heart was still beating faster, until suddenly it stopped.

My heart had stopped beating, and yet I was still alive.

And just like that everything went blank.