Since Esme is Bella's aunt, Alice would actually be her cousin. I made sure to correct my mistake, sorry for the confusion!
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"Is he still watching?" My aunt questions me. I peel the curtains back and my heart leaps into my throat when I spy Edward across the road, looking up at the house.
"Yes." I murmur. My aunt sighs lightly, barely loud enough to catch, and goes back to chopping vegetables. Alice is tense in her chair at the table, not daring to take her eyes off of her mother, while I try to relax my position against the counter, crossing my ankles in front of me as I watch her work around the kitchen.
Aunt Esme is cooking dinner like everything is normal, like the old days. She moves around with practiced ease, like she's falling back into an old routine. I don't know what Edward said to her out on the porch, but she hasn't even made an attempt to hole herself back up since coming inside.
She mutters to herself while sliding her chopped vegetables into the pot of boiling water on the stove. Her hands move with purpose as she works, but her thoughts still seem to be drifting somewhere else.
It's odd to see her in the daylight, her skin looks different, flushed and pink, like she is a corpse come back to life.
"What did Edward want with you?" I know it's pointless to ask, but I do it anyway. Like I suspected she would, Aunt Esme ignores my question.
"I'm going out tonight, girls, I suspect I won't be back until tomorrow morning. Do you think you can manage yourselves until then?" She pauses, waiting for an answer from us. It was posed as an honest question, but I find it ridiculous, since we've been taking care of ourselves successfully for a while now.
"I'm sure we can manage…" I say.
"We always do." Alice bites out and my head whips towards her. I hadn't thought her to be angry, but now that I reassess her tense posture, I can see that she is vibrating with unbridled fury.
There is a pause in my aunt's stirring and she looks back cautiously over her shoulder, something like guilt in her eyes when she looks at Alice, glances down at the locket around her neck, and then hurriedly looks away. "Good, then you should have no problem without me." I can almost hear her swallow around the lump in her throat, and I suspect she is blinking back tears.
Once dinner is over, Esme gets up and announces she is going to take a shower.
"That was…" I trail off, not knowing what to say after she is gone, and then look to Alice. Her head is down and her small shoulders are wracked with tremors. She is sobbing into her hands. I stand from my chair at the table and go to her quickly.
"Oh, Alice," I whisper delicately as I attempt to comfort her. I wrap my arms around her and lift her off of her chair and into my arms, holding her in my lap on the floor as she cries. I try whispering sweet reassurances to her, I run my hand through her hair, but it does nothing to keep her grief at bay. She pushes away from me, running up the stairs towards her room, and I Iet her go, feeling frustration well up inside me.
I intend to clean up the kitchen, but for some reason my feet take me unbidden to the entrance of my aunt's room. Her door is cracked in a tempting invitation and my hand comes up to push the door back the rest of the way.
I can hear the shower still going down the hall and I enter with a low curse, unable to quell my curiosity. What could she be doing in here all day, every day?
The room is dark and musty; thick, black curtains adorn the windows, and small streams of daylight push through, like grass growing on a paved road. The bed is messy and covers are thrown everywhere, open books strewn across its length. They are not novels, but a confusing assortment of phonebooks, planners, and maps. I feel the urge to look at what she has written in them, but restrain myself.
Upon the wall farthest from me is stretched a large map of the United States. There are push pins of all different colors and sizes stuck in different states and cities, notes and dates written in red, photos scattered around. I start to move toward the wall, but halt when I hear the shower shut off.
Just as I'm shutting the door, I hear Esme's soft footfalls coming down the hall. I spin around to look at her and as soon as she catches my gaze I know she knows, but she doesn't say anything. I can still see the guilt lurking in her eyes, and her nose is red like she's been crying.
"How is Alice?" She asks me. I feel pity well up within me but then also anger, anger that Esme is too weak to comfort her own daughter, and that she has left me ill-equipped to do the task myself.
"She's upset; what else could she be?" There is fire in my words and I see her flinch at this, but she does not retort.
I stand in her way, my back to her door. I do not make to move. She starts to speak, eyes flashing in annoyance, but I beat her to it.
"Where are you going tonight?" I ask cautiously, expecting her to ignore my question like she always does. But she surprises me with an answer.
"You already know."
I nod slowly, thinking. "Why, then?"
"I have no other choice but to go, Bella."
She is being cryptic on purpose and I frown, but move out of her way, knowing there is no use in questioning her any further.
While Esme is getting ready I clean up the kitchen until I hear the rumble of an approaching vehicle outside. I peek through the curtains and see a black car idling in the driveway below. The windows are tinted, but I spy tendrils of smoke floating through a crack in the driver's window. Edward must've gone back for a car.
"They must think I can't drive myself." Esme mutters and tuts behind me. I startle, not knowing she was there. She brushes past me but pauses with her hand on the doorknob. "Be safe tonight." And then she is gone.
I watch her from the window as she gets into the back seat of the black car. The window rolls up and the smoke disappears as they back out of the driveway.
Something isn't right.
My gut twists in unease as I watch them leave, but I try to ignore it and keep scrubbing. My hands drop the dishes with a splash into the sink as I growl with frustration and I make my decision. I grab my aunt's keys to her blue van, the only car we have, and decide to follow them to Aro's. Wet gravel crunches underneath my sneakers as I walk toward the van, keys jingling in my hands, and I pull my hood up as it starts to rain.
Starting the car, I go to check my rearview mirror and scream in fright. Alice's little face is smiling mischievously at me from the back seat. She laughs and it sounds like the tinkling of bells. Her eyes are still red-rimmed from earlier, but she looks like she has forgotten about it for now.
"This is a bad idea, Bella," she says, but I can see that she is dressed all in black, her long ebony hair tucked into the hood of her sweatshirt, so I gather she expects to go on this mission with me.
"I have to know what's going on."
"You're not leaving me here."
"Alice, it's going to be dangerous. I can't take you with me."
Her eyes flash. "I'm going."
I know it is pointless to argue. I groan in exasperation. "Buckle your seatbelt, then."
I'm trying to remember how we got here. My ears are ringing and my vision is fuzzy; my head pounds with pain and something warm is dripping onto the side of my cheek. All I know is I can hear someone screaming and it sounds like Alice.
"Bella! Bella!"
Just my name, over and over, in a panicked screech. I'm being moved by some unseen force, I can see my feet dragging across the floor underneath me, and something locks my arms behind me. I try to reassure Alice, but my tongue feels thick and the words won't come out.
My arms are released and I'm suddenly falling to the floor, luckily it's cushioned by some sort of rug. I feel Alice's hands on my face and she's crying, and I know now that this was a stupid idea. I hush her cries and look up at the monster of a man looming above that must've been carrying me.
"Found these two lurking around in a van outside, Master." His voice is a deep, low rumble.
An odd way to address somebody, I think. I hush Alice again, trying to hear the conversation. We are in a low-lit room, massive and richly decorated from what I can see. As my vision steadies and the world stops somersaulting, I follow the rug underneath us with my eyes all the way up to where it ends at a dark-wooded desk. A figure is perched on a chair behind it, and two others stand beside him, but I can't quite make out their faces from my angle.
I hear leather creak as the man behind the desk stands up to look at us. He wears a crisp black suit, fit very well, and probably very expensive. He is not a large man, but tall and skinny and he has long black hair that is tied up in something like a bun behind his head. I recognize him at once from the few times he has visited our house: Aro.
"Ah, I believe these are Esme's daughters."
"Are you quite sure, Aro?" The figure to his left hisses.
Alice stills suddenly beside me, her small body going stiff as a board and I look over at her. I see her fingers touch the locket around her neck and she quiets down, but her grey eyes darken and never leave Aro's face.
Aro's face is very controlled, but I see a brief flash of annoyance before it's gone. "I recognize the little one from years ago, but I don't know the other girl, I'll admit. She does seem familiar, though."
"Go get Esme, Felix. She will be able to identify them." This comes from Aro's right, a raspy, brittle voice that's barely audible, but it carries such a weight behind it that the man that carried me, Felix, obeys immediately.
He reappears with Esme and, I notice with a start, Edward. My eyes are trained on him as Alice's are still on Aro. He hasn't looked up at me yet, but I can tell he knows I'm here by the way his body moves unconsciously towards me. I wonder why he ignores me, but then his eyes connect with mine and I see the absolute fury swimming in brilliant dark emerald. It takes my breath away.
Our eyes have a silent conversation and as he takes inventory of every part of me, paying special attention to the side of my head. I touch my fingers to where his eyes are trained and pull back quickly, hissing as I look at the sticky, red blood that now coats them. His eyes are black now and at first I think he's angry at me for being such a careless idiot, but then his eyes shoot to Aro, and I know that's not the case.
"What is the meaning of this, Aro?" He barks. "You told me you only wanted Esme."
Absolute silence. And then.
"I did indeed, but it is apparent that we had two tag-a-longs to this party. I was going to question Esme as to who this one is," he pointed to me, "but it appears you already know, Edward. So why don't you share with us?"
More silence. This time I break it.
"I can speak for myself, you bastard." I can tell everyone is shocked at my words and I feel the tension in the room grow ever tighter. Edward starts to speak but Aro holds up a hand.
"Very well, then. Tell us who you are, my dear."
"No one, Aro. She is no one of importance," Edward interjects and I feel a stab of rejection eat at my heart.
"Give us your name, girl!" This comes from the left of Aro again and I flinch.
"Bella."
"Bella what?" The voice asks in a scathing tone.
"Swan. Bella Swan."
Aro's mouth drops open, just for a moment, and then he breaks out into a sly grin that is very unsettling. Edward drops his head and his hand comes to the bridge of his nose. I don't break eye contact to look at him though.
"Is that so?" He laughs, high-pitched and sinister. It sends shivers up my spine. "Well, it looks like the solution to my problem has just been dropped into my lap. If I had known Charlie and Renee's daughter has been hiding under my nose this entire time…"
"Your dealings are with me, Aro. Leave the girl out of it." Esme's voice sounds shaky and unsure to my ears. Aro pauses to look at her, and his eyes narrow.
I feel confused and the mention of my parents' names shocks me into silence. What did they have to do with any of this?
"My parents? What about my parents?"
Aro laughs again. I'm starting to really despise the sound.
"She doesn't know? Oh, my dear girl."
"Stop, Aro! You have no right to tell her!" Esme shouts in panic.
"Tell me."
