Chapter #1: Fighting
It was a very sunny day, which means that obviously, I wasn't in Forks anymore. Instead I was on Jacksonville, Florida. You may be wondering what am I doing right here, standing in the sun. But my heart beat must have given me away.
It's weird to be telling the story that you are waiting to hear from someone else's lips. But still, this is my story, so it is more than proper that it is me who tells it.
I knew the day was going to turn rainy, soaking rainy. The humidity I felt on my sunburned skin, told me that it would be raining for a few long hours. So I enjoyed the sun as much as I could--afraid that the rain would flood my mind enough to make my decision change. I wanted to go for a walk on the beach, but I knew that I had to stay exactly where I was. It was my duty to protect the ones that thought did not need protection.
After a couple of hours, and when the rain already damped my hair, I went inside the house that had been mine and my family's for more than two decades. My mother was inside the kitchen, with her favorite floral apron on. Cooking the lunch that somehow she knew I wouldn't eat. She knew me too well.
My father was at the office--working in the latest case he'd been given. Surprise, surprise. He never left until every detail was covered, more like a detective than a lawyer.
"Are you crazy?! Go take a warm bath and dry your hair before you catch a cold."
"Mom, you know I've never even been sick."
"Well, then stop pushing your luck. Go! Go! You are dripping water all over my new carpet."
"Fine, I'll go."
After a while, when the hot vapor already clouded the bathroom mirrors, I got out of the shower and got dressed. My favorite faded jeans and my sky blue tank top.
I went downstairs and found my mom, eating the soup she had just cooked.
"Mom, I told you, I am not getting sick."
"I know, I just felt like eating soup-cold day and everything."
"Oh, well okay."
She sighed loudly like she was trying to make a point very clear. "And the day was so beautiful this morning."
"Well, yeah, but look at the bright side. Tomorrow the grass is going to be greener than ever."
But she was still staring blankly at her soup plate. For my mother the sun always meant hope; the rain sadness. So I wasn't surprised by her obnoxious mood.
"Okay...um--I'm gonna go bake some cookies. I heard Renee and Phil are going to have some friends over this afternoon and they'll be happy to have something to eat with Renee's tasteless tea." I said happily, trying to cheer her up with my enthusiasm.
"Aren't you going to eat?"
"Uh, no. Not hungry, thanks." I replied with my back to her, walking directly to the kitchen. I could hear her sigh even half way there. Once I got to the kitchen, I put on my pale pink apron, which was hanging next to my mother's, and started baking.
By the time I was putting the forth cookie batch in the cooling rack, my mother was sitting in one of the stools next to the kitchen counter.
"You know, it's really nice that you like helping out our neighbors. And it's great that you get along pretty well with Renee too. But I'm starting to get worried..." She was staring at her hands, and then at me, as she heard me drop the spatula I was holding.
"Mom, let's not go through this again."
"Sweetie, it's just that... look, maybe you haven't noticed the changes on yourself. But she travels a lot with her husband, and every time she's in town you worry yourself to death to make sure she's got everything she could ever need." Of course I had to take care of her. Who was going to do it if I didn't? Phil? I don't think so. She is like a little girl; she needed someone to help her. Why couldn't I be that person? After all, she was the only way I could... "Sometimes you just gotta let go. And apparently, you can't do that, honey." She said the words with patience and love. Like a teacher trying to explain the use of the vowels to a four-year-old kid.
"Mom, I understand that you are worried. I just don't think that there's anything to worry about." I said the words slowly, while I resumed baking.
After putting the last batch of cookies is the oven, I started eating a small piece of dough that was left in the mixing bowl.
"Alexandra! If you keep eating sweets on an empty stomach you are going to make yourself sick." Here we go with the whole sick thing again. I rolled my eyes at her reaction. Her hard tone was hilarious, taking in count the stupid little thing she was upset about.
"Mom, it's just a little piece of dough. It's not like I'm eating a whole bunch of cookies."
"Yeah, maybe you are right. What does a mother know? I'm only, I don't know? Two? Three times older than you are?" What was with the mood swings? PMS was definitely on its way, I could just know it.
"Fine" I replied with a sharp sigh. "I'm not eating the cookie dough, but just because I don't feel like arguing right not."
"Won't you eat your soup?" She asked with a weirdly curious voice.
"No!"
"Well then I guess that we're still arguing."
"Fine!" I said exasperated, maybe too loud to be speaking to my mother, respect had always been a strong point from both our sides, so I wasn't used to all the yelling that was going on. I blamed the nervousness. "I'll eat the soup, but don't push it for the vegetables, I'm not eating them."
"I won't" She said on her sing-like victory tone, with a huge smile stamped on her face; knowing that she had won this battle against me. I sat down near the kitchen counter and waited until the microwave started beeping that the soup was hot. Way, way too hot for someone to enjoy, but I pushed some of it down anyway. I must have spent more than an hour trying to eat the rest of my meal, but it was hopeless, I kept starring at it. Even if I'd liked my mom's cooking I wouldn't have ate it.
My nerves had my stomach turning and contracting. I might have even been excited deep inside, but the nervousness was so much that I could barely feel it. I could barely feel anything at all.
After almost two whole hours of staring at my plate, I went to the kitchen and started doing the dishes. After leaving the kitchen squeaky clean, I looked inside one of the many cabinets until I found a round sparkly tray, which had once belonged to my grandmother and filled it completely with all the different kinds of cookies: sugar cookies, almond cookies, macadamia cookies and chocolate chip cookies. Then, I covered the whole tray with transparent plastic wrapping paper, protecting the cookies from the rain. And after looking for an umbrella I took the tray in one hand, the umbrella in the other and technically ran from one house to the next.
The working-class house with rather tasty colors, but poor landscaping, reminded me not only of my past there, but of the future things that were waiting for me inside.
I found myself standing absolutely still in the front porch of the house, a couple of times I almost rang the bell, but then something kept holding me back. Was I in shock? Was it the sense of self-preservation? I didn't know, and I truly did not care.
I knew that if I thought too much about it I would never get in. So, as a reflect of my thoughts I automatically rang the bell. Seventeen and a half seconds passed before the door opened. After seeing the familiar face in front of me, I somehow felt secure. "Oh, sweetie, please come in, it's pouring out side."
"Thank you." I said in a low voice, trying to hide my fear. Fear of what? I knew I could control myself. But what if something went wrong, could I stay under control no matter the circumstances? I was in the middle of that analysis when Renee started basically dragging me from the entrance to the living room.
There, I felt my stomach fall to the floor. I swallowed loudly, trying to get some humidity down my dry throat so my voice wouldn't sound hoarse as I thought it would. I found eleven pairs of eyes staring at me, I was surprised that the tray was still in my hands and that I hadn't let it fall with my stomach.
Then the pairs of eyes moved to Renee as she said: "Finally, I was about to call you so you could meet the rest of my family." I knew that she was talking and looking at me, but I couldn't get my eyes out of the audience.
Then, realizing that I wasn't gonna say anything, she continued. "Well, anyway, you are here now and that's what matters. This is Alice and Jasper, and Rosalie and Emmett, and Carlisle and Esme. And this is my daughter Bella, and her husband Edward and both her friends Jacob and Renesmee, and of course you know Phil."
"It's very nice to meet you all." I said in a small voice, almost a whisper. But then again I was surprised that I could find my voice just in time to speak. After a couple of long uncomfortable seconds, I realized that everyone was standing from their sits, and that Renee had already taken the tray from my hands. And everyone was shaking hands with me and smiling. First it was Carlisle and Esme, I could barley feel the coldness of their hands, mine most have been freezing too, but for completely different reasons.
"It is so very nice to meet you too. We are all looking forward to know you better." The words came from the perfect lips of the leader and while I shook his hand along with everyone else's… well, I can only picture the grimace that must have been in my face –the face that I so hard tried to paint a smile on.
Until I shook Bella's hand, she kept my hand in hers as she said: "It's very nice to finally meet you, since we came we've only heard great things about you, is like we had already met. But you didn't make her justice mom. You said she was pretty, but she's truly a beautiful girl."
Wow, Bella had changed, since when she was so confident and sociable? I always remembered her so shy and quiet. Maybe it was the fact that she was home what made her personality so suddenly bubbly. Plus, the extra time with Alice and Esme must have changed her a little too, but I don't think she had really noticed it.
"Well in my defense" –Renee answered while placing the cookies in the coffee table in front of them and unwrapping the tray- "you didn't do too much justice to Renesmee either."
"Well, anyway, as Carlisle said, I do look forward to knowing you better Alexandra."
"What do we have here?" I heard say from a young but much deeper voice coming from the back of the living room. Of course, I could recognize it but I just did not wanted to think the name. Once again I didn't want to think at all.
"Cookies, Alex loves to bake. She'd told me she would bake something for you. I just didn't thought she would bring so much of them."
"They look very…appetizing." I heard Esme say, but my mind was distant, what happened around me was almost irrelevant.
"What are you waiting for? Eat one, if Alex baked them I can assure you that they are delicious, they're almost addictive." Renee's voice was persuasive, I knew that I she had the chance she would stick half a dozen of the cookies into Esme's mouth right away.
"Oh, no, it's okay if you can't eat them." I snapped my mouth shut as I saw all the eyes widening at the word can't.
"What do you mean can't?" Yup I had really messed up this one. It was time to get down from my cloud and react to reality. The curiosity in her tone was alarming; I had to come up with something fast and logical, not my strongest point.
"I just - - I— I - -just, um… it's just that they all look so healthy is like they've never tried a sweet in their lives." No, I wasn't normally such a bad liar, but normally my responses weren't studied by so many people either, I panicked.
"Well, I'll have one." The sun-washed giant said, taking one chocolate chip cookie and putting it in his mouth. Suddenly, I felt completely and eternally grateful to this statue-like man. The mood was lighter than before –thanks to him- but still very tense.
"Sit down, you're not gonna get any taller by just standing up." The only present female of my kind said. So I sat down in the left side of the love seat, Rosalie squeezed herself toward Emmett to create a small place for me to sit, thank God that's all I took, a little space.
Renee's living room was small, well, small to hold so much people. It was prepared to hold a very comfortable number of eight guests; a big sofa, a love seat, and a recliner in kaki leather. In the middle of the room a nice coffee wooden table with a glass surface and in the middle of the table a fresh floral arrangement that Renee must have bought that afternoon, because her garden flowers were far from being that pretty.
I could see that Phil and Renee had predicted that the space would be too small, because there were kitchen stools and dining room chairs cramped in between the rest of the furniture.
Carlisle, Esme, Alice and Jasper were sitting in the sofa. Edward, Bella and Jacob were sitting in the kitchen stools in a corner of the room, almost in the darkness. Renesmee was sitting in Bella's lap; the beautiful five-year-old-looking girl was looking at me with a huge grin on her face. Phil was sitting in his recliner (so typical of him) and I could see Renee's empty dining room chair waiting for her.
"Can you believe that they drove all the way here?"
"Oh, wow, must have been a very long trip." I answered just out of politeness. Silence, again, possessed the room.
"So, Alex, you go to school here on Jacksonville?"
"Yes, I attend to a small school located at a few minutes from here." Carlisle was the one that as before broke the deadly silence.
"And you are in High School, right?"
"Yes, tenth grade specifically."
"Good grades?" Esme asked, faked curiosity in her tone, as if she already knew the answer.
"You can say that."
"Ah, she's too modest." -Renee said with a proud chuckle- "Her mom showed me her report card; she has straight A's in every class. She's our little nerd; her teacher's were even trying to convince her to skip a grade or two."
"That's very impressive" Carlisle replied with a wide smile. "Do you have any carriers in mind? Renee told us your father is a lawyer. Are you interested in studying rights, too?"
"No, I'm actually thinking on skipping college, get to know myself better. Maybe even travel a little."
"Well, we're still talking about that aren't we?" Renee interrupted.
"Renee thinks it is a waste of time for me to skip college." I enlightened.
"What do your parents think about that idea?" Carlisle continued.
"I'll call you when I have the guts to tell them."
"Yeah, so you can give them CPR." Emmett chuckled.
"Emmett!" Esme chastised harshly.
"Its okay, Emmett will always, be Emmett." I whispered, so low that Renee and Phil's audio sensitivity couldn't have caught the words, but the coven had heard me clearly.
"Excuse me?" Bella asked, speaking as low as me. But not low enough for Renee to ignore her this time. She had caught it. She had caught the fact that I knew more than I should.
Again, I snapped my mouth shut and swallowed loudly, much more loudly than I wish I had. They caught that.
Everyone waited for me to answer; the silence was absolute for more than ten seconds. The longest ten seconds of my day. When she noticed I wasn't going to, she decided to set me free of my misery. "Well, I guess that's true." And now, the chuckles resounding in my ears were from the whole group. My relief was inexplicable.
"So Alex" –Carlisle continued- "Why do you believe college isn't completely necessary?" In both, his face and mind, I could read true curiosity. He was sincerely interested in my opinion.
"Actually, it might be hard for a well educated man like you to understand my point, but I don't think a high college degree can guarantee a successful future for anyone. I think it depends more on your goals, and how powerful your mind is. And I believe that my mind is powerful enough to accomplish my goals. But that's why I need the time, to get to know myself and especially get to understand my mind better."
"I hate to disagree with you, but on the contrary of what you think, I completely understand your point."
"Well, you sure look at things from very—interesting angles, but I'm glad that you are convinced of what you are going to do with your future. That is very admirable; there are little teenagers as mature as you." Esme spoke the words with such maternal warmth that it was just irresistible to smile.
In a few moments of silence, I got the chance to peek at the cookie tray; there were only about four cookies left. What truly surprised me –taking in count that there was not much that could take me by surprise- that same afternoon I had baked more than thirty-five cookies. Renee had one, half of it in her mouth, as well as Phil. Renesmee had a chocolate chip cookie in her hand, and Jacob had a handful of them and as he chewed another one.
"It seems that your cookies really are tasty." Alice commented as she noticed what I was contemplating.
"Yeah, these are pretty awesome. You have to give Esme your recipe." Jacob added between a mouthful.
"Well, there really isn't any special ingredient. I would tell you it's an old family recipe that my granny taught my mother and that my mother taught me; but the truth is that the last time my mother tried to bake, the fire department had to make a quick stop in our house."
"Oh, wow, so you learned all by yourself?"
"Well the bakery's owner didn't mind teaching me a couple of tricks." I laughed quietly at my own joke, knowing that they wouldn't understand it, even with my emphasis on the clue word.
The moment was relaxed; the dull gray light that entered through the windows was turning slightly brighter. What?! It wasn't possible, the rain was supposed to last much longer, but it had come to a complete sudden stop.
"Oh, at last. I can't believe it rained so much. Bella, you must bring the bad weather with you." Phil said laughing loudly. Everyone followed him half heartedly. The light was brighter by the second. But there was still a thick bed of clouds in the sky.
"I guess is time for us to go." Carlisle said standing up. Everyone around him did the same.
"What? With this weather? Why don't you stay the night? I'm sure we can all squeeze in here." Renee said worried. Desperate to have more time with her daughter.
"I'm afraid we have plenty of work to do when we get back home."
"Yes mom and the storm is already clearing up. I'm sure that it will be shining bright in less than an hour."
"With more reason. You all need a little tan."
"I'm sorry, but we really have to go." Esme said, trying to collect the fallen pieces of Renee's heart.
"Mom, it's okay. I'll call you when we get there. 'kay?"
Bella's hand was resting in her mother's shoulder; her voice was thick with sadness. Trying really hard to hide her feelings I supposed.
After a few goodbyes, the Cullens turned to the door. Bella kissed her mother on the cheek and her mother kissed her forehead.
I knew that Bella wanted to stay. But she had to go if she wanted to protect her secret and her family's. After the hugging and kissing was over, the Cullens stood in the sidewalk. I was in front of them, playing with Renesmee's hair, as she was playing with mine.
She was still in Bella's arms. At Bella's right side was standing Edward. At her left, Jacob. Behind them, Carlisle and Esme were holding hands. Emmett and Rosalie were four steps back at the left side of their parents. Jasper and Alice at their right.
Renee was standing in front of the house, her head resting in the door frame, holding back her tears. Phil was still sitting in his recliner; only now with a baseball game on the flat screen TV.
"Oh, let me wrap you the cookies that are left, so you can eat them on the way home."
And she was gone. I almost hadn't noticed when I ran to the house the line of cars parked in front of it. The silver Volvo, the black Mercedes and the Yellow Porsche. They must be going to different places. Or at least so it seemed. Coming in three cars, when they could fit well in two. But, of course, they would be a bit uncomfortable with huge Jacob sitting next to them. Or maybe he would be uncomfortable.
Anyway, when Renee left, Renesmee let go of my hair, and so did I. She looked at her mother or 'friend', so I took two steps back to give them some privacy, as she asked permission wordlessly to give me a goodbye hug.
"Why don't we ask her?" Bella whispered supposing that it would be too low for me to hear. To low for any normal human to hear.
"Alex, Renesmee was wondering if she could give you a hug before we go."
"Of course."
And so, the beautiful little girl extended her short pale arms toward me. And just when I was going to reach for her, a sun beam caressed her arms skin, making it glow with indescribable capacity. We all gasped at the same time. Bella was frozen into place, Edward and Jacob moved in front of the baby, creating a thick wall that covered her completely.
I instinctively raised my arms and with my palms toward the sky, created an air draft that moved a big, thick, gray cloud in front of the sun, blocking the light completely. All in a swift movement that could have taken twelve seconds as much. Leaving behind a blue-ish silvery trace of my power from where my hands were -up over my head- to my sides, where they were now. That was the only remanent left of my abrupt revelation. The only prove that they had, that assured them that what they had seen was real, and not an object of their imagination.
The Cullens stared at me with wide eyes and open mouths. About six seconds had passed since I had revealed my secret to them, when Edward caught my arm fiercely and with great anger. Dragging me with him. Alice followed.
"Alice, stay out of this!"
"Edward, what are you doing?!"
Every second he got angrier, and he kept squeezing my arm tighter. If my skin hadn't turned as hard as his, it would have been broken by now. He started running, trying to lose Alice, but then Carlisle started running along with us. We were passing the almost invisible houses and running directly to the beach.
"Edward, let the girl go." Carlisle said on a calm, but very firm voice.
"Carlisle, we don't know what she is, but she clearly knows what we are. She knows too much, we know too little."
I hadn't realized that I was running along with them, at their exact same speed. My heart was beating impossibly fast. But not because of the running. But of the fear that I had of hurting them. The idea of hurting someone was nauseating. The idea of hurting a Cullen was simply unconceivable.
When we got to the desolated part of the beach, he threw me toward a gigantic rock wall. Knocking the air out of me. Even with the hardness of my skin, it hurt as if I were human. You can only compare the feeling, to an egg that you crack to make an omelet.
I was laying in the wet sand, fighting unconsciousness, knowing that I had to be able to speak, if I wanted to explain the truth. I sat down, laying my aching back on the rock wall. Coughing, still breathless. I wrapped my arms around my legs and when I could find my eyes and raise them, I saw Carlisle's hand holding Edward's shoulder, so he couldn't move.
In less than a forth of a second, he was kneeled beside me. Checking that I was stable. Edward stood still, looking at him, like he was making the worst mistake ever done.
"What. Are. You." Edward asked furiously between locked teeth.
"Human" I said in a low but audible voice.
"What are you?!" Now he screamed with even more anger than before, even if I thought it was impossible.
"Son. Listen to her heart. She's human." Carlisle spoke with a warm voice. But had a very reprehensive undertone. Undertone that I wasn't supposed to hear, because it was directed entirely to him and not to me.
"Jacob's heart beats too, but that doesn't mean he's human." He said the words slowly, fiercely, and again, between locked teeth.
Carlisle didn't answer, he was looking at my arm, the arm that Edward had held for what seemed an eternity. He was tracing his cold fingers softly around the red marks that his son had left, that soon would become huge, dark bruises.
"Do you think a human arm could have resisted my grip? Do you think a human body could have survived that crash? She is not human."
After saying what he had said, Edward's analysis was complete. I couldn't possibly, by any circumstances be human. And so, my life wasn't worth as much anymore. So, he took me by my shoulders, lifted me up the floor and started shaking me impatiently while he repeated.
"What are you?! What is your kind?!"
"Please, don't make me hurt you." That was the only reply I could give, my answer was only a breath, but I knew he could hear me.
He looked deeply into my big blue eyes, but that was the wrong place to look for an answer. He wouldn't get a thing out of them. Then I realized what he was really doing, he was trying to get inside my head, to read my mind. Carlisle was trying to set me free of his grip, but his effort was helpless. I knew I could set myself free, but I couldn't find a way to do it without hurting him.
I thought about getting inside his head. But that might just get him angrier. So I just kept still and tried not to use my abilities. Nothing that would make him furious or frightened.
Then, I could hear another few pairs of steps. I knew whose steps they were, they had left they had left the cars about a mile of distance away. So now, I begged.
"Pleas, Renesmee's coming. Don't let her see you like this."
And with that, he smacked me to the floor, this time I wasn't prepared. My body wasn't as hard as his, but as breakable as any human body. I suppressed a scream, but the groans and whimpers were inevitable. As I 'fell', I broke four ribs, and part of the skin near my left eyebrow, making my face red with blood, flowing through the surface of it.
Carlisle said nothing; he just knelt to check on me again. Now, unconsciousness was winning the battle. And ironically, I wanted it to win. I wasn't even fighting back anymore. The steps were approaching, as they did, they became faster, until they were almost running. Then, I felt the rest of the Cullen family kneeling beside me. Jasper, Emmett, Rosalie, Bella and Renesmee, were standing beside Edward. He had kept her wife from coming near me. His hands were balled into fists by his sides.
But even with the incredible pain that kept running through my body, I couldn't find it in me to hate him. I couldn't hate any of them.
"Is she gonna be alright." A deep male, worried voice asked. Jacob.
"I'm not sure, she seems conscious, but has a lot of high risk concussions. She has to have a couple of broken ribs, she'll need a few stitches on her face, and that is without mentioning the black bruises that she is going to have all along her arm."
"God. What did you do?! Threw her in a blending machine?!" He glared at Edward with hard eyes.
"She's not human." Edward growled.
"Edward, smell her blood. It smells human to me!"Alice screamed at him. Furious at the condition that he had left me in. But angrier at herself for going back and leaving me with him and Carlisle only.
"Carlisle, we have to get her to a hospital." Bella's voice soothed me, I felt safe when she was close. I used to feel the same when Carlisle was around, but taking in count my position, the feeling of safeness that Carlisle provided was completely gone.
"No, I can't go to a hospital." My voice was, yet again, very low.
"Why not?" Esme asked almost automatically.
"They wouldn't know how to treat me. I'm a more... complicated kind of human."
"A more complicated kind of human? There is no gray area. You are human or you are not. Pick your side! Pick your kind!" Edward's voice was harder now than it had been two minutes ago, when he had spoken to his family.
"Pleas Edward, you have done more than enough!"
I patted Carlisle's hand, which was trying to clean the blood from my face with a handkerchief he had gotten out of his formal pant's right pocket. I knew from his tone that he was losing his patience. He was still in shock, incredulous that Edward would hurt someone like me that way.
"It's okay; he was just trying to protect his family." I tried to calm him, returning the favor he had done to me a few moments ago.
"You defend him?" Alice sighed; she couldn't believe that I would side with him, after everything that had happened. Mostly because she wouldn't.
"What can we do for you then, dear?" Esme said, her voice thick, filled with guilt, while she wiped the hair out of my face, almost caressing my skin as she did it. No one had dared to move me, not even Carlisle. But she sat in the sand and put my head on her lap.
"I can only cure myself." My voice was just a murmur. I tried to keep the air inside my body the longest time that I could. It was just too painful to breath.
"How do you do it?" Carlisle asked. Curiosity in his eyes.
"It is sort of like what I did with the cloud." I looked at Edward and hesitantly directed my eyes to Carlisle again. "It might be frightening and I'm not sure how you'll react. But it's the only way that I'll be able to answer your questions. Bella if... I don't plan on hurting you or your family, but if it makes you more comfortable you could always put a shield around them. Not that it would do much."
"Huh?" This time the doubt was coming from Jacob's lips.
"Stand back, pleas, the process couldn't hurt anyone, but just in case."
Jasper and Emmett held both Edward's arms, so they would be sure that he wouldn't attack me. In the condition I was in, with just a little blow from his lips I could perforate a lung.
I extended my arms in front of me. Shaking my head, as Jacob tried to help me up. And then, I could clearly hear the gasps from the audience as little electric bolts started forming out of thin air.
From the corner of my eye I could see little Renesmee, scared to death while she saw me laying on the floor. Every time she peeked from behind her mother, I could hear her delicate gasps. I gestured for them to take her away. I didn't want to frighten her, more than what she already was. Bella took her in her arms and went for a short walk on the beach.
I continued, the little bolts were forming a small sphere, at first, of the size of a grape. Then the sphere kept growing and growing until it was the size of a soft ball. The shimmering globe was the same color as the traces that were left in the air, in front of Renee's house.
I could see the blue-ish silver sphere, reflected in Carlisle's unbelievable eyes. And so, I proceeded to press the sphere into my chest, it disintegrated as it touched my skin. While the sphere entered my body, my heart beat sounded fifteen times louder than it should. If I had put a microphone inside my chest, it wouldn't sound as loud as it resounded on theirs and my ears. If a human would have been standing nearby, he would have caught the sound evenly. At first, it beated way too fast. Faster than any normal heart could get to beat before it stops. Then, as the pain canalized out of my body. The heart beat slowed down, little by little until it was at a normal speed.
After the globe was completely introduced inside me, I opened my eyes. Feeling the relief of my open sores becoming scars, in and outside my body. Now everyone was looking at me. Even Edward was standing close by. Bella was still walking by the ocean with Renesmee. I sat down as slowly and hesitant as I first opened my eyes. Exhaling and letting all the air inside my lungs out.
"What do you want to know?"
But everyone stayed still and quiet, analyzing the situation apparently. I let them think, giving them a few seconds for everything to sink in. Edward was the first to react, letting out a sharp desperate sigh and pinching the breach of his nose with two of his fingers.
"This is what we are gonna do, we are..."
"Whoa, hold your horses. I can't go with you back to Forks. I have a family; they would really worry if I don't come home tonight. Besides, do you want the police on your back?"
"What do the police have anything to do about this?"
"Alice told Renee that the two of you were walking me home. My parents would connect my disappearance with Renee and Renee with you."
"How do you..."
I shook my head toward Jasper's question. It was too much information, too much unbelievable facts for them to understand right away.
"How much do you know about us?" Edward's teeth were clenched again.
"I've know your kind for a long time. For more than ten years."
"Then she must be with the Volturi. Of course, they send a spy to watch over our every move."
I chuckled at the wrongness in Edward's words. "What wouldn't they give to put their hands on me." I whispered, almost to myself, but my voice was loud enough for them to hear.
The shield kept reducing its force, until it was completely disintegrated. Bella was close enough to appreciate that there was no danger present at all.
"The Volturi? I thought the Volturi only related well with vampires?"
Carlisle's question was doubtful; he knew that all the humans that entered the Volturi came in voluntarily.
The Volturi would never send trackers looking for a human. Unless it was an extreme situation. Why would they need to?
I answered Carlisle's question as if he had asked it out loud.
"Yes, they are never seeking for an exact specific human. But as I said before, I'm a little more...complicated, than a normal human girl."
"What do you mean...?"
Again, I shook my head. Too much to know, too little time to explain.
"Pleas, be patient, I'll find the right time to share the whole story with you. But now, I have to go home."
I started standing up, when Carlisle held my wrist. Keeping me kneeled, at the same height that they were.
"You should stabilize before you move."
"Trust me, I'll be fine."
"How many times have you done this before?"
"Enough times to know it's safe."
"How many times is enough?"
"Twice...including this one."
"What happened the first time?" This voice was as familiar as Carlisle's, only louder and harder.
"I got inside a mind that I shouldn't have and...Uh...fell. It would have killed my mother to see me like that, over her dreamed European vacations. So I gave it a shot and it worked."
"Who was it?"
"Jasper, I truly don't think that this is the right time to talk about that."
I stood up; this time there wasn't any resistance from them. Instead, they all stood up with me.
"This isn't gonna be easy for you to...appreciate, so I suggest that we discuss this another time." My voice was firm. Not one bit of hesitation in it.
I was grateful that my nerves were calmer when I didn't have the furious pain all over my body. I thought that even after the pain was gone, I would still have traces of fear left.
It most had been about five o'clock, but the sun was still covered by the huge cloud I had sat in front of it. So, it was only a fulfilling darkness what surrounded us.
"Another time?" Bella's voice was nervous. She knew the danger I was in, and she feared for my life.
That fact made my heart fill with joy. Knowing that she didn't thought of me as an enemy. Only one of them did. In his mind, there was no regret at all, for what he had done to me. Embarrassment there was, but no regret.
He felt weak, almost as weak as he felt when he met Bella the first time. The now fresh memory ached in his mind. Weak, because he couldn't read my mind. And weak, because he could not protect his family from me, before it became an irresistible idea, for them to get to know me better.
"We'll make an appointment, and we'll talk about...us, calmly."
"And we're just supposed to trust you?" His tone was heavy with sarcasm. And there was something underneath the words. Something that he tried to hide really badly, but somehow couldn't. Scoffing to make his point clearer, he continued. "For almost a century, we've been protecting our secret. And now we are just going to leave our fate in the hands of a fifteen year old?"
"Well, we certainly did it with a seventeen-year old. So what's the big deal?" Rosalie's words were condescendingly normal. Like we were discussing the weather, or talking about the menu of a restaurant.
Edward locked his already loosened jaw. Making a sound, even louder than before, as if I thought it was possible. "That was different, Bella had a reason why not to tell our secret, she cared about us. She would do nothing to hurt us." His voice was acidic, almost scary.
I was barley listening to the conversation. I was too occupied looking inside the family's heads. Searching for something that they were planning to say, that could upset Edward and make him angrier. I was trying to eliminate any possibility of an argument between the own coven.
But when I listened to his words it was as if something popped inside my head. I was now angrier than he must have been. I frowned, so that he could read my face as clearly as if he could read my mind. I walked a few steps so I could be facing him and then completely snapped.
"You think I don't care about you? About your family? Do you think I would tell your secret for simple pleasure? I must say, for being a mind reader you are a terrible judge of character. For almost a year I've done nothing but to watch over your back and you think I don't care about your family?"
He was staring at me wide eyed, surprised by both, my reaction and the words that came along with it.
I ignored his mind blankness and turned to look at Carlisle, getting inside his mind, knowing that he would be the only one that wouldn't be frightened when I did it. Using the same technique that Renesmee used, I 'told' him.
I'll be in your house at two in the morning, Wednesday of this week. That's of course, if you are up to it.
"We'll be waiting for you Alex."
I nodded twice accepting the message as well as he had accepted mine. And then turned my back to them, so I could leave.
"Alex? Will you have any problems getting to Forks? I'm sure that Alice could wait for you and drive you there."
Alice nodded as a confirmation that she had no trouble doing this task.
"I'll have no problem, thank you." I answer over my shoulder. I was going to apologize to Edward for my tone, but when I saw him, standing there, crossed armed, all I could do was frown. So I turned my half side position, to be facing the family completely. And then, taking the white gold medallion I was wearing, from around my neck, I said:
"And since my word isn't worth much around here, I'm gonna leave you this as a guarantee."
I proceeded to mention this, while putting the piece of jewelry in Esme's hand, and then closing it, with my necklace inside.
"Pleas, take good care of it. It may seem worthless to you. But it is very, very valuable to me."
She nodded, putting his free hand over mine, and hugging me apologetically. After Esme let go, I looked away and dried the tears that were flowing from my eyes, down my flushed cheeks.
Esme's thoughts, were so purely sorry for what had happened to me, that I knew that if she had been human, she would have cried an ocean of tears already. I turned away from them and started walking away into the darkness, to then stop and say over my shoulder.
"Oh, and Alice, don't try to see what will happen Wednesday morning. You won't be able to."
"Why won't I?"
"Because I'm not going to let you."
And with that I walked away. Smoothing me an entrance through the darkness, not only of the cloudy day, but of the sun, setting behind me, as well. I walked at first. Knowing that the darkness would create no barrier between them and I, and that I would make them doubt of my humanity if they could se me run at their own speed or faster. Even from the distance, I could see the picture of them, from inside their heads. As Carlisle stopped Jacob with a hand over his shoulder.
"I'm gonna walk her home. It will take her hours to get there on her own and it's getting late."
"She can run Jacob."
"What?!"
"She can run at our own speed."
Huh? I thought that between the pressure and the fastness, they hadn't quite noticed. I guess I was wrong. Very wrong.
"Faster than our own speed." Edward added. "When I brought her here, even running at my limit, so we could leave Carlisle behind, she ran beside me so I didn't have to push her. I've never met someone as fast as me, and yet she did it as if effortlessly."
Uh-oh, they really had noticed. I wanted to get my mind out of theirs. But it was just too tempting. I walked about two miles in my normal boring speed. Part of me wanted to run as fast as I could, to turn the stereo on as loud as it would go and burry myself under my sheets, and to try and block everyone out of my mind. So it would be only me inside of my head. I had some serious thinking to do.
Another part of me, wanted to keep walking at my normal speed and to listen more intently to the developing conversation. I looked for reasons to do each one of them. And then remembered that my power was so low, that I could barely walk at my human passé. I knew that healing myself, took a lot of my power away, but never this much. Then again, I don't think I have ever been this hurt before, either. I decided to run, even if it was more dangerous to me, and took a lot of my power away. I needed desperately to think. It would be only about twenty to twenty-five miles; I could easily run them in a few minutes, not so much effort to be done.
But the first five miles were agony. I hadn't realized how tired I really was. Everything I was passing was a blur. I could only see the silhouettes of the houses I was starting to pass. I ran too fast for any human eyes to see me, but still, I wanted to run faster. My feet ached, my legs were cramping, my hands were shaking and there were little beads of sweat running down my forehead.
I thought that only my eyes were a blur, but then my mind was a blur too. I couldn't concentrate on anything, the floor beneath my feet was still moving, but it was more of an automatic reaction for me to keep running. I didn't only not want to stop, I simply couldn't. If my mind didn't push me to keep moving, my body did.
I just couldn't stop, if I sat down, I wouldn't be able to get up. So I kept running, I must have been running only for a few seconds, but they felt like years of restless movement. After other terrible seconds, I couldn't feel my legs anymore. I could only feel my torso falling between a pair of palm trees near a sidewalk. This time I couldn't fight unconsciousness, I didn't have the strength to do it.
Sneak Peak to Chapter Two: Interrogation
I couldn't find my eyes, I kept trying to open them, but I couldn't. There were quiet murmurs around me, two very familiar voices that I couldn't exactly identify. I tried to concentrate under my closed eyes. I could definitely see a light that turned the inside of my eye lids red. It was too bright and disturbing to be natural. I must be on a well lighted room. Where exactly? I had no idea. The only thing I knew was that the bed was too comfortable to be a hospital's. Horror started running through my body, as I found myself defenseless on an unknown place.
NOTE FOR MY BETA (BETAS): I'm just puertorrican girl, freshmen in high school. So as you may know, English is not my mother tongue, so I beg you to please judge my work for what it is, and not for how it is redacted. I implore to you, to forgive the hundreds of typos and grammar mistakes. And please consider my story, I have a few other chapters written already, and I would like to be able to share them with the rest of the world.
PS: If you already read the note above, and are considering on publishing this chapter, please erase both of this messages, because they are meant for my beta's eyes only, and not to the open internet. Thank you.