Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN Twilight.
BPOV
I took Roses' advice and waited a while before seeking Edward out. It was a good hour and a half before I closed the book I had been reading and turned off my ipod, ready to go look for him.
I had a good idea about where he was, he seemed to like hanging out in one of the bedrooms on the second floor, so I started there.
Knocking on the door, I called out his name. When I didn't get an answer, I frowned and opened the door.
No one was there.
So I decided to try another method.
"Edward?" I call out. Rose had told me to just call out her name when I wanted to see her, maybe it was the same with Edward.
"Edward? Are you there?" I try again.
"I'm here." His voice says softly.
I swivel around to see him standing a few feet away from me, clearly giving me space, which I was thankful for.
"Oh… hi." I don't know what to say to him now.
"Hello." Edward says curtly.
"Can we talk?" I ask.
"Of course. I also have some things to tell you." He says cryptically. "Where do you want to go to talk?"
My bedroom was off limits. It was still too early to go downstairs in the living room, Renee would probably still be down there wandering around.
"Ummm… I guess we can just stay here." I say, looking around the room.
"Are you sure?" He asks. I nod and move to sit down in an old chair.
"So…" I trail off awkwardly.
"Ladies first." Edward says, smiling a little as he takes a seat on the floor in front of me.
"Why did you go off earlier? I mean, I was just kidding about getting someone in here to check the place out. They probably wouldn't believe me in the first place." I shrug.
"I'm so sorry about that. It's just that, I don't want people coming here, finding out about us." He says softly, sadly.
"Why not?" I ask almost desperately.
"I'm going to tell you about the house… about me. Maybe then you'll understand things more." Edward says.
I nod, encouraging him to continue but not wanting to interrupt him by speaking.
"This house was built in 1895 by my parents; Carlisle and Esme Cullen." He starts. I have to hold in my gasp after realizing how far back Edward just dated himself. "My father was a well known doctor, the best in his field. So when they married, he could afford to get my mother her dream home. He had this house built from the ground up, just for her."
I saw him smile a little as he remembered his parents. It was obvious he had loved them, I wish I had that kind of love with my own parents.
"A few years later in 1898, my parents had their first child; my older brother Marcus." Edward continues. I raise an eyebrow, because Rose never mentioned Edward had a brother. "And then in 1901, I was born. We were happy for a very long time, my father worked at the local hospital and my mother stayed home with me and Marcus. My brother and I… we were very close when we were young, but as we got older, we grew apart. It wasn't until I was sixteen that things went bad."
Edward's tone suddenly turned dark and he wouldn't look at me anymore.
"My mother became severely ill and it took it's toll on my father. He left the hospital so he could stay home all day and take care of my mother in her sickness. He became obsessed with finding a cure, setting up some laboratory in the basement so he could attempt to make a cure himself. But everything he made never worked for her. When I was seventeen, I truly started noticing just how bad he was. Carlisle had gone practically insane, spending all his time in the basement. There were times when he didn't come out for days. Marcus had to take food down and force him to eat."
I was completely enraptured by the story, so when Edward paused, I was a little startled to see I was leaning forward so far that I was about to fall of the chair.
"Would you like me to go on?" Edward asks me. "The rest isn't pretty."
"Keep going, please." I pled.
"I was eighteen years old when I died…" He says sadly. "After nearly three years, Esme had finally succumbed to her sickness, dying in her sleep. Carlisle snapped, destroying the house in his rage. I killed him. I killed my own father. I tried to stop him without hurting him, but it just wasn't a possibility. When Marcus saw what I'd done, we fought horribly. It's ironic actually… He hated me for killing our father, yet in the end, he killed me." Edward laughed humorlessly.
"Your brother killed you?" I ask, appalled and yet totally fascinated by the Shakespearian feel of the whole thing.
"Yes." Edward confirmed. "He killed me then killed himself. He said he couldn't handle the grief of what he'd done, so he just decided to end it there."
"Wait… He said?" I ask, confused.
That's not possible. Unless…
"My brother is a ghost in this house as well." Edward says. "We talk from time to time, simply out of boredom or loneliness, but we tend to stay away from each other. It's difficult to become friends with the person who killed me, the man who locked me in this purgatory. And it's hard for him to get over me killing our father."
"He's in the house… right now?" I ask, glancing around, paranoid.
Edward chuckles a little at my expression, but I don't find it funny at all. I just found out that Edward's murdering brother is a ghost in my house, and possibly his insane father.
"Don't worry, Marcus won't hurt you. He rarely even appears to the people living in the house. And to answer your unasked question; yes, Carlisle is a ghost in the house as well." He says with a sigh.
"Exactly how many ghosts are there?" I question.
"Quite a few. I'm not going to tell you about everyone, though. The ghosts here will come to you if they want you to know about them." He says.
"Well I'd kind of like to know! I want to know which ones are safe to be around and which ones are going to murder me when I'm not looking!" I nearly yell, panicking.
Edward reaches over to lightly brush his fingers along my cheek. His touch his cool, but I find myself leaning into it.
"I won't let them hurt you, Bella." He whispers to me.
I blush and look away from him.
Remember… you do have a boyfriend. Yeah, but he's thousands of miles away…
"I won't tell anyone." I try to change the subject. "But I have a couple stipulations."
"What are they?" He asks, reluctantly pulling his hand away from my face.
"I want my privacy." I insist. "Which means that my room and my bathroom are off limits unless I say you can come in. That goes for everyone, so pass around the memo or whatever."
"Of course. I'll tell Rose and Emmett and they can tell the others." He agrees.
"Second, if one of you is around, please make yourself known. I don't want to be spied on while I'm doing something embarrassing. And third, I suggest that you leave my mom alone. I'm much more accepting of all this than she'll be." I say, imaging Emmett popping up in her bathroom while she's taking a bath or something.
God… she'd run out of the house in her towel and go straight to the police station.
"Is that all?" Edward asks, seeming amused.
"Yes." I say simply.
"Okay. I have a few stipulations of my own." He smiles. "I get to see you everyday."
I agree to this, because honestly, I don't mind the idea of seeing and talking to Edward on a daily basis.
"Second, I want you to stay out of the basement." Edward says seriously.
"The basement? Why?" I ask.
"Just… don't go down there. Trust me?" Edward pleads.
"Alright." I mumble. Now I'm intrigued as to why he wouldn't want me to go down there.
What's in the basement?
"Those are the only things I ask of you." He says.
"I'm sure I can live with those." I tease.
After that, we fall into a somewhat awkward silence. Just as I'm about to say something, there's a knock at the door. Which is odd, because it can't be Renee, she doesn't know I'm in here.
"Edward, can I come in and meet Bella, now?" I tinkling female voice calls through the door.
Another ghost… Oh lord.
Edward turns to look at me with a sorry expression.
"It's okay." I assure him.
"Come on in, Alice!" He calls toward the door.
It opens up to reveal a small girl in a frilly green dress, her hair cut short, falling just to her chin that sticks out in certain places.
"Hi, Bella. My name is Alice." She smiles brightly and practically skips over to me.
I'm a little taken aback by her. I didn't expect a ghost to be so… chipper.
"Hello…" I trail off awkwardly, because as soon as the word is out of my mouth, her arms are around me, hugging me tightly.
"Alice." Edward hisses at her.
"Oh what? I'm just hugging her." She complains, but pulls away from me anyway.
Alice, like the others, is paler than what's normal and cool to the touch. Her blue eyes are big for her face, making her look like a hyper puppy.
"It's so nice to finally meet you! Edward wanted me to wait a while because he thinks I'm too much, sometimes. I was starting to get upset that Rose and Emmett got to meet you first!" She babbles on at a hundred miles per second.
Can ghosts overload on caffeine?
"It's nice to meet you, too." Is all I can say.
Alice frowns and tilts her head to the side.
"I told you that you'd be too much." Edward mutters under his breath.
"No! It's not that!" I rush to explain, giving Edward a dirty look. "It's just, I'm not much of a… upbeat person, and I'm still not used to the whole ghost thing quite yet."
"Oh!" She exclaims. "Sorry, I forgot."
"It's okay." I say.
"Your mother is looking for you." Alice says suddenly.
"How can you tell?" I ask.
"We can feel who's in the house and where they are. That's why it's so easy to find you." She explains.
Great. It's easy for them to stalk me.
"Well then I better go see what she wants." I mumble, standing up.
Alice disappears suddenly, leaving me to say goodbye to Edward.
"Bella, can I come by later before you go to bed?" He asks gently.
"Sure." I whisper.
"I'll knock first." He smirks.
"You better. Wouldn't want you to walk in on me naked or anything." I say, winking at him.
Edward makes this choking sound and I snicker. Leaving on that note, I make my way down the stairs to see what Renee wants.
"You called, mother dearest?" I say as soon as I see her coming down the hallway.
"What was that down at dinner?" She demands, hands on her hips.
I shrug my shoulders as I try to come up with an excuse. "I didn't feel good. I thought I was about to throw up."
Renee makes a look of disgust and waves me off. "Fine. Just make sure to get to sleep at a decent hour. Remember that you start school tomorrow."
I have a ghost soap opera going on in this house and Renee wants me to get to sleep.
Not likely.
"Oh, your Aunt Charlotte called. She's coming by for dinner tomorrow night, so try to be over your… sickness… by then." She tells me then walks off without another word.
Dinner with Aunt Charlotte? Yes please.
I glanced at the grandfather clock in the entryway and saw it was only eight o'clock. I had at least two or three more hours before I should try to get some sleep.
What to do… what to do…?
You know, you do have a whole bunch of personal playmates upstairs.
I growled at myself.
They're not playmates. That's a mean thing to call them. Every single one of them are human beings. Maybe… sort of… They used to be humans.
I have no reason to stay downstairs with Renee, so I head back up to my room, debating if I should call out for Rose or Edward.
As I get to the hallway leading to my room, I suddenly feel a light tug on my hair and I twirl around, expecting to see maybe Alice or someone else.
No one was there.
My skin erupts in goose bumps and I walk a little faster to my room, knowing that it wasn't someone I'd already met.
Firmly shutting my door, I lean my forehead against it for a moment, taking deep breaths.
Calm down Bella… It's nothing that can hurt you…
"You can't run from me." I hear a chilling male voice say.
I freeze against the door, weighing his words in my mind. He's right, I can't run, not from ghosts. Though I'm not about to stay here and let this weirdo ghost kill me or something.
"Leave." I try to say strongly.
"That doesn't work with me." The voice says, closer this time.
Suddenly arms are shoot out on either side of me, caging me in against the door. I twirl around and come face to face with a pale man. Pitch black hair swirls around his face, but it's his eyes that draw me in. They're Edward's eyes. The bright green that had been so kind and sad, were now staring back at me angrily.
"I've heard that my brother has already introduced me. My name is Marcus." He says coolly… calmly.
"Well, it's not nice to meet you. Now leave." I say.
"You know, Edward's never been taken with any of the women that come into the house." Marcus completely ignores me, even leaning in closer. "But he can't seem to get enough of you."
I watch carefully as he looks me up and down with a somewhat longing expression on his face.
This is Edward's brother… but… he's so different. They have the same bright green eyes, but where Edward's have a lighter, gentler feel to them, Marcus's eyes are harsh and calculating. They share the same sharp jaw, but Marcus' is clenched tightly while he glares at me.
"Go away." I say more forcefully than I thought I was capable of.
Marcus seemed to flinch at my words and I thought that he'd finally leave, but then he becomes angry and I realize I said the wrong thing.
"You don't want my brother to go away. Or that pushy little blonde. What's wrong with me?" He asks scathingly.
"Maybe it's because they're nice." I hiss at him before I can stop myself.
Suddenly, his face falls at my words and for a moment I can see more of Edward in him.
"I tried being nice once." Marcus says softly. "You know where that got me? Dead. I'm stuck in this God forsaken house for the rest of eternity."
He leans forward, almost making our noses touch and he breathes over my face. I'm surprised that his breath is minty, the odd thought pops into my head that ghosts still use toothbrushes.
"Another thing, pretty little girl." He continues, his voice still satiny soft. "You're afraid of the wrong brother."
Yeah, I ended it there. Let the tomato throwing commence.
We learned a lot about Edward in this chapter, what do you think? Those of you who've seen American Horror Story might notice that I loosely based Carlisle and Esme off of Charles and Nora. Without the whole mutant baby thing. Yeah, that didn't fit in here. But who knows what the hell Carlisle was doing down in that basement...
And what do you think of Marcus? Yes? No? Love triangle? Maybe. Just for some visual aid, I have Ben Barnes as Marcus. *queue whore moan*
You can find me on Facebook under Malin Halibell. Links for everything are on my profile page.
I love reviews as much as being in the middle of a Robert Pattinson and Ben Barnes sandwich…
