Edwards P.O.V
I walked into the office after hearing Mira talking to someone; a new guy, first day of school, so I guess that makes sense; there are a lot of new people here this year. I walked into the office as the new guy walked out, 'Aaron' the receptionist thought, but I heard nothing from him, as if he wasn't there at all.
That's only happened once before, I thought to myself sadly, as I remembered my angel. I met Aaron's eyes, and felt my heart crack inside me, if it still could, the were a nostalgic dark brown, exactly like the one's I fantasise about, the only eye's that can get me through each day of my meaningless existence.
As I passed him, I caught his scent; it took all my energy to keep moving forward. I caught the lightest aroma of Freesia, not enough to call me though, as if something was smothering the smell, trying to block it from me, probably because I was near Mira, but still enough to taunt me, reminding me of her. My angel….my singer… my everything.
Who is this demon, come to torture me with my memories? Dangling what's left of my heart in front of me, just like she did when I first saw her, smelt her.
I caught Mira's eyes, and she brought me back, I was so lucky to have her; we were so lucky to have her.
Flash back
After a decade of mourning, my siblings were able to convince me to return home to them, to go back to school with them. They had moved to Middle-ham Yorkshire, England, almost as wet as Forks, but a bit more interesting, just a bit, for my family anyway, not for me, nothing in my life would ever be even remotely interesting again.
Mira was assigned to give us a tour of the school, she was in my year; confident and accommodating, she didn't fear us, or look at us differently, dote upon our looks or gossip about our family; she was to busy being kind and caring, she had no time to be a arrogant, narcissistic teenage girl, she was just herself. She would come and talk to us at lunch, and to me during classes we shared, or when we passed in the hall, or even outside school too; but this is what she always did, to everyone, and she included us. Talking to her would make me feel normal, not the selfish, dangerous monster I was, and she had that effect on all of us. She would go shopping with Alice and Rosalie, and started a war with Jasper and Emmet on our X-Box 360, she won the first time she raced them, cause they were too busy fighting with each other to realise she was winning, and even more remarkably she help Jasper with his control, without even realising, Jasper never wanted to attack her, or anyone else when he was around her, she won over Carlisle and Esme's heart when she complimented that "she knew every family that has lives and has lived in this town during her time, and ours was, by far, the closest, and she has never felt more welcomed by anyone, than she did by our family." Mira astounded EVERYONE, even the humans.
I was talking to her about Bella one day, when she asked me why I was so unhappy all the time; apparently Alice expressed some concern for me on their last shopping trip. I don't now why, but I told her everything about her, not even attempting to hide my extreme, unconditional love and admiration for her, and how I had suffered everyday since I left. I told her we moved here and I didn't know if I would ever return so I ended it so Bella could move on and be happy, but I still longed fro her, my Bella.
"Then why don't you just return to her, and have a long distance relationship?" She asked me, "Maybe she had a hard time moving on like you."
I told her I did return, a year after I left, and she had moved on, I didn't meet with her, in case it made it harder for me and her, but I saw Bella had moved on and she was happy, like I wanted her to be. What is it about this girl that makes me open up? I asked myself.
I learnt about Mira too. She'd had a hard life, her father died just before she was born, her mother fell ill during the pregnancy and refused treatment till after she was born, by then it was too late, when her mum took a turn for the worst, the gave her a caesarean on Mira's due date, but the treatment they gave her was long overdue, she died exactly 2 hours after Mira was born, Mira fell asleep in her mother's arms, her mother fell asleep due to the aesthetic, only one of them woke up the next day. She was adopted out, and then one day in kindergarten, she was picked up from school early, and told that her adopted parents had died in a car accident, she was then put into foster care. Mira had suffered extreme abuse as a kid, and travelled to many different homes, during the few times she had experience love and care, she had learnt to embrace people, ALL people, and that is why she is the way she is, and why she acts the way she acts.
She told us this story one Saturday night, she had been out shopping with the girls all day, then came home to be made over by Alice and Rosalie, before striping Emmet of his masculinity by destroying him in 'Guitar Hero III', we had settled down for a quiet evening, she was drinking tea and reminiscing. She told us stories of some of the things she'd faced in her life, there were many bad things, awful things.
"I used to think that no matter where I went my life would always be miserable, like I just couldn't escape the bad things that happened to me." She said to us once, I had to admit, listening to what people had done to her made us all feel a little more human, and not the monsters we thought we were. "Don't worry; I won't tell you the worst stories, I can barely handle them." She reassured us, after she finished her story of the last time she moved foster homes, after being beaten and raped by her foster father, if we could cry, we would have all been in tears. "But you wanted to know about me, so…I'm sorry, I didn't want to upset you." She finished, with a worried expression on her face, Esme walked over and embraced her, like she did me, when I first came home after my change of lifestyle, I could hear Esme thinking about adopting her right there and then, and I couldn't help but smile to myself.
"You won't have to worry about that anymore." Esme told her, "We'll be her to keep you safe."
Then we all heard a soft, whispered "Thank you"
At Christmas time that year, Alice invited Mira to stay with us for the entire Christmas break. One night, we all went shopping, well technically, Mira, Alice and Rosalie went shopping, and they dragged Jasper and Emmet along, so, naturally, Jasper and Emmet dragged me along too.
As Alice and Rosalie were taking us into the 57th store, I was bored enough to keep count, Mira said she need to go to the ATM, and she'll meet us back here in a minute, a few minutes later, I saw Alice's vision of Mira at the ATM, discovering it was broken and going to find another. After another 10 minutes, Mira still hadn't returned, and Alice had a vision of Mira standing on the street, at the ATM just outside the shopping centre, as she took her money out, someone grabbed her from behind and pulled her into a car.
After seeing this, we all raced to our own car, faster than a human pace, too slow for me, and pursued the car that had swallowed Mira into the darkness of the unknown; I waited for Alice to have a vision of where they were going. All she saw was a dark room, with mossy walls, covered with chains, whips and rusted blades, on the floor was an old mattress, covered in dirt, and spatted with blood and semen. Then, finally, Alice saw an old, dilapidated building we had passed on the way to the shopping centre, at least 30 minutes away at our driving speed. Alice called Carlisle, told him what was happening and where to meet us, because his assistance may be needed.
The sight that I met when I arrived will torment me as much as the memory of my Bella lying on the floor of the ballet studio. Mira was alive, just, tied nude to the mattress, a gag in her mouth, a large cut to her forehead, and tiny slices all over her face and body, scars and cuts from the chains, and bruises all over her. The only signs of life were her shallow breathing, faint heart beat, and her fading thought of 'please God, just let this end' repeating over and over in her mind.
There were 3 men in the room, one raping Mira, one filming the scene and another watching it all with humour and desire.
Working so fast, none of them realised, I grabbed each man, throwing them into a corner of the room and tying them with their own chains, and gagging them, I would have killed them quickly, but that would have been too humane for them, they had done this many times before, this was just another victim, here to suffer for their own pleasures, only this would be the last time they would hurt anyone ever again.
After untying Mira, and moving her to the safety of the car, I burnt the building down; I could hear the coughs and muffled screams of the gagged men still inside the building, a few seconds later, the building collapsed. Alice, Jasper, Emmet and Rosalie waited anxiously for Carlisle, listening as each of Mira's heartbeats grew fainter and fainter, by the time Carlisle arrived, it was too late, we could either change her, or she would die. We drove home as Mira went through her transformation. Surprisingly, she did not scream, she only cried, I explained everything to her, who we were, what was happening to her, how we lived, everything, and she listened to every word, taking it all in, as if it was the only thing she had left to live on. When she awoke, after 3 days, everyone was surprised.
Mira was born to be human, born to make everyone and everything fit in properly, life, for her, was a giant puzzle, and she got every piece, even the supernatural, to fit together. She accepted our lifestyle so easily, and her talent was so unique. She never sparkled in the sun, and around her, neither did we. She didn't feel as cold as us, and around her, neither did us. She didn't crave human blood, she could barely smell it; and around her, neither did we. Humans could still smell our scent, but other vampires couldn't. Mira was like our shield, our protector, the longer we spent around her, the further away we could be from her, and still have all her qualities. Now you know why I believe we are so lucky.
"What was that about?" I asked her, as I moved to her side.
"Oh, nothing" She smiled "I wasn't paying attention, and accidentally walked into Aaron."
"Who's Aaron?"
"That guy who just left; I dropped my books, he picked them up," she sighed "he is so sweet."
"You can be a real teenage girl sometimes"
Her smile grew "Do you expect anything different?"
"What are you here for anyway?"
"Like you don't already know," she said quietly and laughed, "They gave me the wrong timetable this morning in role call."
I waited for her to get her timetable; they are so different from the American ones. They are organised into 10 day cycles, each day a different lesson, so basically, different lessons, everyday for 2 weeks. Australia is a very interesting place.
"Come on, let's go." I said, wrapping my arm around her waist and pulling her closer to me, as we walked out of the office.
I couldn't get that guy out of my head, his eyes, his smell, I wonder if…
No, there is no way Bella could be here, How? Why? And who is this kid then?
NO WAY! I guess I'm not really one to talk but, NO WAY.
When we got back to the group, Aaron was walking away from the table the rest of my family were at.
"Look, there he is." Mira whispered to me. I snorted and looked away. She giggled and turned around to be greeted by many questions from the family.
"Who's that?" asked a very curious Alice, bouncing up and down on her seat.
"He's the new guy, in our year, I think. His name's Aaron." Mira's smooth, silky voice replied.
I looked at Alice as she tried to signal for me to sit down next to her, 'I need to tell you something' she thought. I moved at human's pace while Mira was describing Aaron to the others, who seemed intrigued by her story.
I sat next to Alice and no sooner did she start talking.
"Edward; I can't see us" she said in a low whisper
"What do you mean you can't see us?" I asked, having difficulty understanding what she was talking about.
"I can't see us in my visions, we've disappeared." She said, looking straight into my eyes. 'It's like with the wolves in La Push' she thought.
I looked up at Mira, who was up to the point of explaining how Aaron picked up her books. She wasn't going to like me very much this year, and especially if she kept talking about this guy like that all year, I'll have to keep a close eye on him. Something didn't feel right to me, and my intuition tells me this Aaron guy has something to do with it.