Chapter Two: The Cullens Go To Strangefellows

"GETTHEFUCKOUT!"

The music in the bar was incredibly loud smash metal, so I had some real respect for the skinny white guy who yelled so loud we heard him before even getting down the stairs and into the bar proper.

It was a rather dingy bar, dimly lit and clearly not often cleaned. I liked it, but I think I was the only one. Carlisle and Esme both had that disapproving parent look on their faces, Alice and Jasper both looked uncomfortable and out of place. Rosalie was scowling unhappily. Bella looked like she was only barely holding it together which in turn made Edward so protective he looked a little constipated. The bar's patrons didn't help either. If anyone had thought that this bar would hold people that were less strange than the ones we had seen on the street, they were wrong. The people crowding the bar and tables were as bizarre as the people outside. At one table, there were a few grunge rockers with horns protruding from their heads and long green tongues which they used to lick at their drinks. At another table there were some incredibly sensual woman with snakes where there hair should be. And these were some of the more normal creatures in the building.

So with this sudden onslaught of stress, it was almost understandable that the shout--which had clearly been meant for us--made Bella faint.

I rolled my eyes as she went down, Edward following after her, and Alice after him. Together, they managed to rouse her. As soon as her eyes fluttered open, Edward engulfed her in his arms, burying her face in his chest, whispering nauseatingly cute things in her ear.

Meanwhile, the seriously angry-looking man in the little black beret was coming over.

"I don't care what sort of stunts you pull," the man said upon reaching us, clearly talking about Bella's fainting spell, "but I want you out, you hear me? Gone! Vamoose!"

Edward stood and looked up at the man with a scowl on his face. "Why?" he snarled.

The man in the beret glared and took a step towards us.

Hastily I stepped forward. "I think Edward meant: 'why do you want us to leave because we've only just entered and haven't done anything to you yet'," I said quickly, attempting to defuse the tension.

I guess it worked because the man in the beret did not try to throttle any of us. "I won't have your kind in my bar, not after what happened last time."

We fell silent, exchanging glances. He could not possibly know what we were. We had only just arrived. How could he know?

Carlisle was the first to speak. "You know what we are?" Though, while everyone else looked horrified that we had been discovered, he looked more intrigued. "How can you tell?"

The man in the beret snorted. "Hilarious, really. I'm going to have to make you leave, aren't I?" He raised his voice. "Betty! Lucy!"

Though I was not sure where they had come from, I was pretty sure that they were there, and that we might not be able to take them in a fight. The two women were huge. Larger than me, which was saying something, and though they didn't look all that smart, they did look like would have no problems ripping us each new ones.

The man smirked. "Now, are we going to do this the easy way, or the hard way? I don't care which, so long as you get out."

"You can't threaten us!" Edward snarled, barring his teeth.

"Um, Ed," I glanced up at the two women who were happily cracking their knuckles, "I'm pretty sure he can."

The tension in the air was almost tangible. The two women were clearly aching for a fight and Edward was ready to give it to them. I was ready to run like hell and everyone else was pretty much confused, but clearly upset. Not to mention Bella was on the verge of sobbing. In a nutshell, it was bad, and I could just tell that things were about to get worse. In a way, I was right.

"What is going on here?"

As one, we all craned our heads to look behind us. Another man stood there. He was tall and dressed in a white trench coat that looked like it had been through hell.

"Alex," White Trench Coat continued, addressing the man in the beret, "what the hell is going on? I come in for a drink and find the door blocked? I'm not in the mood for this, Alex."

The man who was called Alex scowled and crossed his arms. "I'm sorry, Taylor, but in case you hadn't noticed, I'm a little busy, and I can't plan my entire day around you."

"Could you try?"

"Damn it, John!"

"Hey, sorry, could you just let me through."

Alex groaned. "Fine," he growled reluctantly. Then he looked back at us. "You lot move aside, you're keeping the business from coming through."

I moved a bit closer to the wall, but I think I was the only one who did. Carlisle moved closer to the guy in the white trench coat, who was either Taylor or John… oh.

"Excuse me," Carlisle said quickly, "but is your name John Taylor?"

The man, who I assumed was John Taylor, raised an eyebrow. "Maybe. Who's asking?"

"I'm Carlisle Cullen, and this is my family," Carlisle said, gesturing towards us. "And if you are John Taylor, I think we need your help."

"Don't listen to them, Taylor, they're just trying to keep me from evicting them," Alex snarled from the bottom of the stairway.

"Why do you want them evicted?" John asked. "It looks to me like they haven't even gotten down the stairs."

"That's what we said," I mumbled, quiet enough so no one else heard.

"Can't you see what they are?" Alex retorted. "C'mon, Taylor, even you're not that stupid."

John Taylor shrugged. "I really wouldn't care if they were over-grown banana slugs if they were paying customers."

"Pay?" Carlisle repeated, speaking before Alex had a chance to say anything. "I wasn't aware that we had to pay you."

That made John Taylor stop. He frowned and scowled at us. "Oh? And how did you come to that conclusion?"

"Well, the man we talked to didn't mention anything about paying, he just said you would help us," Carlisle answered, and though he looked like he was holding his own, I could tell he was wavering. The stress was starting to get to him, and he was not a young man anymore.

John Taylor sighed, and ran a hand through his hair. "Did this man approach you in the street, and was he creepy and smelly as hell?"

"That's kind of why he was creepy," I said with a smile.

Surprisingly, he smiled back. "Yeah, Eddie has that affect on people. Alex," he looked down at the man in the beret, "can you call your girls off and let us in for a drink?"

Alex shook his head. "No, Taylor, I won't have that sort of violence in my bar. I just had these floors cleaned?"

Rosalie snorted. "Really?" It was the first thing she had said since we had entered the bar.

Alex scowled at her. "Look, Missy, if you think you could do it better, you can get down on the floor and start scrubbing."

"Alright," John said quickly, taking a step down the stairs, effectively quelling the rising argument. "That's okay, Alex, I'll just take them back to my office. Could you call Cathy and tell her we're coming?"