Wow! You guys are soo great! We love you all to pieces! We hope you'll keep reading after this one too! Please don't forget to review and make your thoughts known to us! We really appreciate it! Anywho, enjoy chapter four of The Darkness Of An Eclipse!
This chapter was courtesy of Haydon Darescog
Edward was confused. Deeply so. It had seemed strange at first, when he, Emmett and Carlisle had burst into the house to find 6 wet teenagers lounging in different places about the room, drying themselves with Bella's towels. He knew at once that they were no threat. Humans. But it was bizarre. Even though he could see they were different people, their thoughts seemed to blend together, making it impossible for Edward to distinguish the separate "voices" he was used to. The voices he heard normally had a distinct tone; some were bright, colourful, optimistic, while others were dark, brooding, black-and-white. These...he couldn't quite pinpoint what each person was thinking, just a collective jumble of all the thoughts and emotions the group was experiencing. It was like they were a colour-wheel, spinning and settling on one emotion, and then twisting to something completely different the next second.
It was dizzying. Trying to decipher the mass of hues was like trying to hold smoke in his bare hands. He could hold it for a moment, but then it would find its way through the cracks and breaks and disappear. In his mind, these cracks were distractions. Things that were constantly floating in the background, occasionally surfacing and breaking his concentration. Things like Bella. And Victoria. And the bloodthirsty newborn horde that they would inevitably have to deal with. Edward did his best to push all the thoughts (except for Bella) out of his head, and tried to find something that would explain this phenomena, but to no avail.
After Charlie arrived from finishing his shift, he explained the situation fully and he and Carlisle talked for a few minutes before he headed back to the house to get Bella and the rest.
Edward had to admit, Bella's reaction verged on hilarious. She just stared at the ragtag bunch of kids who had taken control of her living room, and only managed a weak handshake when the redhead of the group, Kaitlyn, tried to introduce them.
After the awkward start, Bella came and sat by Edward's side, leaning her head against his shoulder. She was silent for several minutes and then whispered quietly into his ear.
"Who are these freaks?" He looked down at her, a surprised little laugh escaping his lips.
"Oh come on, you were thinking it too," she said, mock-scornfully.
"I was wondering who they were but not so much about the freak part," he chuckled.
"Sorry. I'm just really tired and I was hoping for a quiet night. Damn Charlie for being so charitable." Edward smiled, placing a quick kiss on the top of her head.
"They seem nice. Albeit a bit strange. Give them a chance, love." No need to worry her about the thoughts issue. Not yet, he thought.
He realized a second later that Emmett was in the middle of telling his bear attack story, and he was so into it for a moment Edward worried that he might end it with, "and that, children, is how I became a vampire." He grinned at Emmett, who had just had the same idea, and was currently snickering internally while imagining the reactions of each of the newcomers. Edward narrowed his eyes, and his brother thought loudly Don't worry, Ed. I'm not that stupid.
And then suddenly, he could hear another voice amongst the ruckus in his head. There's a part to this story that we're not getting. Edward turned his head slightly, trying to hold onto the thought long enough to track down who it was from. It was a dark, heavy voice, coloured slightly reddish with suspicion. After a second, he pin-pointed the sender as the dark haired boy sitting on the couch with Kaitlyn on his lap. Gabriel, she had called him.
I think Gabe's right. Think there are a lot of things being kept from us. There it was again! But this time it was a different person, he could tell. Brighter, but equally sceptical. Kaitlyn. Then he realized what it was she had thought. People don't usually think sarcastically, he had learned, but this was definitely directed at him. She knew he was listening. Clever girl, picking up on that, he thought. He would keep an eye on her.
He didn't hear anything else from them until after they started to head upstairs. There was a small burst of thought as Kaitlyn ascended the stairs with Gabriel, but it was gone before he could catch it.
He sat comfortably with Bella for several more minutes, listening to the others talking quietly amongst themselves. She was nodding off on his shoulder, and he was about to take her up to her room when they heard a scream from above. Bella's head shot up from his shoulder, and the other were all already on their feet. Several shouts followed the scream, and Charlie began to mount the stairs, before Edward stopped him.
"I'll go look," he said. Emmett got up too, moving past a startled Charlie to follow his brother. The sounds were coming from the spare room next to Bella's, and when they entered they found Kaitlyn sitting on the bed with her hands over her mouth. Gabriel was next to her, and the southern boy, Rob, was standing near the corner holding a piece of paper.
"What is going on in here?" Edward asked looking from one teenager to another.
"We're all fine," Gabriel began, then continued darkly, "but you have a lot of explaining to do."
"Excuse me?" Edward asked. The unfocused pool of thoughts from before was now sharpening, making it slightly easier for him to decipher the group's thoughts. One emotion was coursing through the web of consciousnesses: Fear. They were all afraid on some level. Those in the room because of whatever was on the piece of paper, and the other three because of the screams. Carlisle was keeping them all downstairs, telling them we could handle it. Edward was drawn away from his thoughts by one word: Vampires. Gabriel had said the word that none of them ever wanted to hear from a human.
"So you guys are vampires." He sure got to the point. Edward though ruefully.
"Umm...No, we're not. Vampires don't exist kid. Where the hell did you get that idea?" Emmett laughed, trying to ignore the near-tears girl on the bed who was looking at them as if they had just grown extra arms. Rob held up the paper, which Edward could now see was a drawing.
"Kait drew this. She's never wrong." The picture was a pastel sketch, with quick lines and shocking colours. It was Jasper, bent over the body of a large mountain lion, with blood spewing from the incision at the animal's neck. All around them was green-a forest. The look in Jasper's eyes in the picture was one of bloodlust, and the rage that came with being interrupted mid-meal. He knew that look had been smeared on all of his family's faces—his own included—at least once.
"What do you mean 'never wrong'?" Emmett continued questioning. The three looked at each other briefly and then Edward heard Rob's thoughts (even they had an accent) clearly through his mental haze: Should we tell them? The others downstairs had apparently been listening, even though they were on the floor below, and they began to respond. If you think it's necessary, the native girl—Anna—thought. Ditto, Lewis—the Asian—agreed. Gabriel and Kaitlyn nodded, so Rob continued.
"...We're all psychic."
There was a pause, and then Emmett said "Seriously? That's the best you could co—" but Edward interrupted him.
"They're not lying." It was true. Even though he couldn't concentrate on one person, they were all thinking along the same lines. They were remembering experiments, fear, and pain. Mostly pain. Both physical and emotional. Edward had found throughout his vampire life that, while it was difficult to lie with thoughts, it was basically impossible to lie with memories. They were permanent. Even people suffering from amnesia still had their original memories, it was just hard to access them.
He realized at that moment why Kaitlyn had been so terrified of her drawing. It was going to come true. The haze was getting thicker again, but he was still getting small pieces of memories from her. A strange goat with red eyes. A little girl behind a spider web, and then the crushing understanding that it wasn't a spider web, it was a broken car windshield. A strange drawing of her own face with a third eye drawn directly in the center of her forehead.
"Maybe we should come downstairs and talk."