Chapter Two

The phone rang again, I impatiently tapped my foot on the ground softly, finally Alice answered the phone and groaned,"I knew it, I just bloody well knew it."

I giggled slightly, she knew me so well,"Come over, we're going to be some breaking and entering ninjas." Over the phone, I heard Alice sit up and slide her legs to be hung over the bed. She stretched and made odd cat noises before replying,"Yeah, I figured as much. Your curiosity is like a nuclear bomb, just waiting to explode. I went to sleep in black clothes, stylish of course but black, be over in a few minutes."

I looked down at my outfit and visualized Alice's disgusted expression when she laid her eyes on them. Throwing together an all black outfit was difficult considering Alice raided my room and basically burned clothes that didn't 'suit' me. Fifteen minutes passed and I spent the time staring at the house, only wondering, what could be in there? I imagined ancient, beautiful art that hung strategically on the walls, statues that collected dust in the corners. Chandeliers hanging from the mural ceiling, books in antique scripts.

Alice jumped in the middle of the street, mouthing my name; once again my imagination ran away to Never Land. The most we would find in the house would be moldy couches and rats, I climbed out my window slowly, carefully, but the last two steps on the ladder connected to the paneling; hated me. The ground collided to my bum, and knocked the breath right out of me,"Damn."

Alice slapped her hand to her mouth and laughed, her whole body shook and soon she fell to her knees, laughing even harder.

"That had to be the funniest thing I've ever seen. But then again, you do fall a lot."

"Shut up midget." Her laughter stopped abruptly and she muttered something under her breath; the one thing that bothered her the most was that people made fun of her height. They didn't know Alice's dad made her take Bujinkan Taijutsu since she was able to walk, in his eyes; nobody would arm his little angel, but in Alice's eyes; she could take on half the football team and leave them all seriously injured. I always thought that maybe, there was another reason for her father put her through such intense training but I never questioned it.

I only questioned more when Alice pulled out a lock picking set, when she saw my expression, she shrugged,"Daddy had them, I figured I would borrow them for tonight's adventure." My heart beat was erratic in my ribcage, Alice was very obvious with her knowledge on how to work the picking set. Finally I would see what was in the house I've dreamed about, I've stared at for hours, imagining. The locks clicked on the other side of the thick black cherry door, the smiles that bloomed on both of our faces were uncontrollable. Alice shared some of my curiosity for the house, but not nearly as much, I wasn't even sure she knew how far the extent went.

The door swung open with a tap of my finger and I stepped in, the air smelled of dust and something rotting; the image of a dead body didn't leave my mind until I took another step. It was dark in here, so dark someone could be standing an inch from my face and I wouldn't see it just feel the presence, and boy did I feel it. But the light that turned on above me, showed me nothing was there. I turned and saw Alice smiling,"Electricity works, who would have thought?"

There used to be art on the wall, the lighter shade of tan in the shapes of squares and rectangular on the wall told me there was. Stairs twirled up to the second floor and I didn't notice I was walking on them until Alice spoke,"What's up there that has got your interest."

"I don't know yet."

She followed behind me, the stairs creaked and the shadows retreated from the light, but the top of the stairs were unseen. After a minute of walking up the stairs in complete darkness, I wondered if they ever stopped. I took the next step and fell forward, there's my answer.

"Did it end?"

"Yeah."

Once again the darkness surrounds and entices me, the presence feeling increasing at sickening amounts. Alice must have felt it too, because her breathing hitched,"I don't think this is such a good idea any more Bells."

"I have to see what's up here."

My hands found the wall and violated it looking for the light switch, I touched something sticky and wet, but I flicked the light switch; Alice screamed. Following her terror stricken eyes, I backed up quickly, a male laid there. His skin not visible with the amount of blood on him, it looked like his throat was torn out but he still breathed heavily while his eyes scanned over us.

"Oh God." I dropped to my knees, Alice following, the man's eyes were simply shocking, black, coal black. I continued observing him, there was blood everywhere, blocking my view of any other injuries.

"What's your name?"

"Bella we should call the cops." And then the man moved, he shook his head vigorously begging with his eyes, yet he did not speak. "Alice go to my house and get the first aid kit with a bowl of water and a washcloth." She hurried out of the room and down the stairs, my eyes found his again and it was breathtaking. There was no end to his iris or his pupil, it was just black, like a dark night when the stars are hiding behind the opaque clouds. But the biggest red flag in that moment, was the predatory glint and the way his eyes hasn't left me since I entered. With a mind of it's own my hand stroked his bloody cheek,"You poor thing, who did this?"

He flinched at my touch, but did not respond, Alice came crashing up the stairs, splattering warm water on the floor. I grabbed the warm, wet washcloth and began slowly washing the blood off the man's face, slowly he closed his eyes and I looked towards Alice.

Her eyes flew around the room, searching the shadows for threats,"Bella I don't like this house anymore, can we go?"

"And leave him here?"

She sighed and sat on the other side of the bloody man,"Who did this?"

"I asked, he didn't talk."

"Well, he's going to have to talk sometime for us to know what the Hello Kitty to do." Even though we were possibly in a dire situation I couldn't help the grin that came to my lips, I loved when she said 'what the Hello Kitty?' It was just so damn cute and she always said it with a straight face; which made it even better.

"He probably just needs to be cleaned up and given food."

Alice grunted unhappily,"He's not a puppy Bella."

I glared at her,"I know this."

Most of the blood had came off his face and it uncovered pearly white, marble hard skin. There was no sign of wounds or sources for so much blood, I continued rubbing his neck after dipping the washcloth in the already scarlet water. Carefully I inspected the injury on his throat, it seemed old, but then again I don't know how long he's been lying here. It couldn't have been that long since the blood on him hadn't dried.

"What do you plan on doing after your done cleaning him up Bella? Have you thought about that? We should just call the cops now."

"Alice, stop freaking out, I'll finish here and go get food from the house. Then we can go home, I promise." His skin was so soft, his hair bloodied but I could see the multiple shades of bronze, strong jaw structure, perfect pink lips. Snap out of it Bella! His eyes didn't leave my face and I ignored connecting my eyes with is again, I might get lost once again.

"Can I just go get the food and we can go? Please?"

"Sure." She rushed down the stairs, most likely dreading being in this blood splattered room, and as the thought passed, I realized once my eyes landed on him; they didn't move much. Blood covered the walls in certain spots, some in the shape of a body, it almost looked like someone had pushed his body against the wall. Drops of the crimson liquid randomized on the ceiling, whoever hurt this man, they planned on killing him. His clothes were a darker shade then they were supposed to be and soaking wet, but I could tell they were expensive; shopping with Alice did have it's side effects, unfortunately.

"Will you at least tell me your name, please?"

An emotion sprinted across his face, but I couldn't name it, his throat vibrated under my hand, the lips I watched opened slowly and he croaked. I tried not to smile, but a giggle escaped,"Sorry, I didn't mean to, it was just you sounded like a frog and..."

"Edward Cullen."

He had a slight English accent and mystified me with his voice for a moment, the sound danced in my mind and all I could see were colorful, silky ribbons intertwining, wiggling.

I looked back down at him from my rambling and smiled, Edward Cullen. Guess what Edward Cullen? Your my new mystery to solve.

*

It been three hours since I left the Mystery House and I couldn't shake the feeling of being watched, monitored in my every mundane task. Even though I was just laying there, on my bed, thinking. Who did that to him and left him to die? Why would they? What kind of mess was he in? Did I bring myself into it by helping him? I didn't do much, especially since he turned his nose up to the food I offered. I just cleaned the blood off him, would somebody consider that helping? Here I was asking myself questions, when I didn't even really know what was going on. I just helped him, I'm sure it was just a thug trying to get money from him, he did have expensive clothes on. But the real question was who is Edward Cullen? And how could he possibly survive his throat being ripped out?

That's exactly what it looked like, the wound was healing but...but, there was just no fucking way. There is main artery's near where he got injured, no one survives that. I sighed and turned towards the window, once again turning to my Mystery House and there he was.

His hair now clean and his...torso uncovered, I sucked in air quickly and our eyes connected, the curtains moved behind him and he turned around, disappearing from my sight. This will be interesting, there was three things I was absolutely positive about; First, Edward Cullen, was a beautiful, rich man. Second, there was that predatory, dangerous glint in his eyes that could possibly be dangerous to me. Third, I was unconditionally and irrevocably curious of everything about him: Edward Cullen.

Author's Note: I was going to wait longer to bring Edward into the story, but the chapter came to mind.

Enjoy and review loves.