Four
It was Thursday, and she knew today she would be leaving classes early to go with Emmett on a hunting trip this weekend. An entire weekend... just the two of them. The whole week after the Victoria scenario things had gone back to Iceland between Emmett and Sophia. She just wished that maybe things would've warmed up just a bit, but it seemed as though parkas were needed to just handle being in the same room together. Neither would hold the other's gaze for more than a split second, if that. Not one word had been exchanged between them, and not for lack of trying on Sophia's side. With encouragement from Edward, Alice, and Jasper she would attempt to say something to him, and he would continue acting as if he never heard her.
At that time she was sitting at a table with Edward, Alice, Bella, and some of Bella's human friends Angela, Ben, and Mike. The others at the table were clearly ignoring any of the Cullens and Bella as well. They had no intentions of forgiving Bella for her lapse in personality earlier in the year when Edward had left. Sophia jumped a bit when she felt something hit her shin, and didn't need to look up to hear the voice in her mind.
What's wrong? Edward asked, his voice sounding genuinely concerned.
Sophia sighed, her face must have given something away while she was in thought. She looked up at Edward. This was one moment where she wished that he could read her thoughts, but it seemed that neither Alice, nor Edward needed that ability to know what was going on.
I'm sorry that Jasper can't go with you. Alice's face looked apologetic before she turned to acknowledge a question that Angela had just asked.
Emmett really isn't that bad, Soph. Don't worry, the two of you will be just fine after this trip, you just wait and see. Edward said, and then turned to Bella with a smile, he hadn't missed the questioning look that covered his girlfriend's face. She was curious to know what was going on at the moment, Sophia knew that look on Bella's face well because she had confided in how she sometimes felt so out of the loop.
She wasn't going to hold her breath though for the fact that she and Emmett might reconcile after all of this time. In her opinion sending her off with a hungry vampire that sadly enough loathed her for the events that led to his wife leaving was not typically her standard thought of a great idea. This idea was actually screaming BAD at her with every fiber of her being and about as loudly as it could that it was one step short of having a bright neon sign with a siren attached.
Sure enough once the first bell rang Sophia's phone began vibrating in her pocket. She pulled it out to see Emmett was calling. She opened it, and before she could even get a word out of her mouth Emmett's voice rushed out, "I'm here in the parking lot in my car."
Sophia had driven Emmett's Jeep to school because she knew that he would want to drive to the place where they would end up hunting grizzlies... his favorite. She rolled her eyes at the thought and then hung up the phone without a word. It hadn't been easy to convince him that her taking his Jeep would be the most logical idea, but in the end the rest of the family persuaded him to do so. She looked up to see Alice, Edward, and Bella looking back at her.
"Be a good girl, and I promise things will go well." Edward reminded her.
"He won't be so happy if you keep treating him with that sort of treatment that you just showed with the phone thing..." Alice added.
"I have to go. I'll see you guys later." Sophia said, cutting Alice off before she could finish her lecture and rising from the table silently carrying her tray of untouched food away.
She was in no rush to leave the school, taking her time gathering her school things she was sure she would need for the homework that she would have to turn in when she came back to school. Sophia walked toward the parking lot slowly trying to mentally prepare herself for the silent treatment she was sure to receive the moment she climbed in the car with Emmett. When she did reach come into view of the Jeep she stopped for a moment contemplating just running off on her own, but decided against that, and to just suck it up and get this over with.
"Took you long enough." Emmett commented, throwing the car into reverse the moment her door closed.
And so it begins... She thought to herself. She thought she saw him smirk for a moment, but she focused her eyes on the road ahead as they sped out of town. At least it wasn't completely the silent treatment, he had said at least one phrase, but she knew it was the first and last.
As she had expected neither of them said a word the whole trip up to where they would be hunting. Once they got there Emmett and Sophia left their phones in the car and the moment they stepped out Emmett ran off without a care as to where Sophia went. At this point she didn't dare to follow him in case he blamed her for interfering with his hunting techniques. She turned around in hopes to find something that she could take herself.
The woods around them were alive with the wind rustling through the branches, and she could hear the sound of the birds chirping happily. She let herself relax into her heightened senses, and listened for something sounding larger. She could feel the thirst burning inside of her. The last time she had looked in the mirror her eyes were the ominous dark color that she hated. It was the sign that always reminded her of what she was. Giving herself into her instincts she waited for one of the many signs.
She caught the smell of a bear and went for it without a thought. She didn't need the assistance of Emmett to catch one of these animals. The bear caught sight of her and growled raising itself to it's full height. She could imagine someone seeing her next to this bear being scared for her, it was almost twice her height when on it's hind legs, but that wouldn't matter. In only a matter of seconds the large grizzly was down and she couldn't help drinking quickly trying to cure the thirst eating away at her. Sophia could slowly feel her thirst fading as it curbed a bit. She turned and walked back to the car, and sat on the hood waiting patiently for Emmett's return.
Hours passed where she sat in silence, only listening to the sounds around her, and then she decided that maybe he wasn't going to come back and join her. She hopped down from the car, and stopped when she saw Emmett walking toward her, his shirt torn. It looked like the bear got a swipe at him, and he looked far from amused.
"Did you even leave to hunt?" Emmett asked.
Sophia rolled her eyes. "Of course."
He paused to look at her, and after only a moments notice he turned and walked away again, leaving her standing alone. "Where are you going?" She asked walking after him.
Emmett ignored her question and ran off, and Sophia stopped mid-step. He didn't want her to follow him, and she wasn't going to. She couldn't keep fighting to create a friendship, or a family bond somewhere that it was clearly not open as an option.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Sophia walked into the familiar house, it was nighttime and Edward was off at Bella's house for the night. Alice and Jasper were nowhere to be seen at that moment they were probably just spending some alone time together away from everyone else. Esme and Carlisle were sitting on the smaller sofa in the open room once they entered it, each reading something. Carlisle seemed to be reading something that happened to be in French, and Esme was looking at pictures in a book on architecture, furniture, and interior decor in the early 1900s in Europe.
Emmett said a quick hello, and quickly left to his room. Carlisle and Esme looked at Sophia as if waiting for her to explain what had happened on their hunting trip, and why everything seemed to still be just as it was when they had left.
Did something happen? Carlisle asked the concern in his voice was being mirrored in his eyes as he held her gaze.
Sophia shook her head. "We didn't speak at all except for that he said it took me long enough to get to the car before we left the school, and then to ask if I had actually hunted, and then finally to tell me to get in the car because we were leaving to go back home after days being alone."
The two looked confused at each other. "I don't understand why Emmett is being like this with you. You've done nothing wrong, dear." Esme commented. She rose from her seat next to Carlisle and slipped an arm around Sophia's shoulders trying to console her.
"It's nothing, really, it's okay. I don't mind. I'm just going to go up into my room for now. I want to spend a little time alone."
"From the sounds of it you already spent an entire weekend alone." Carlisle commented as he rose to stand in front of her, taking her hands into his. "Don't let him push you away from this family. You belong here just as much as anyone else, I know it. Nobody is going to change how I feel about you, I love you like my daughter, and so does Esme. We want you here..."
Sophia nodded silently, looking down at the floor in between herself and Carlisle who remained in front of her. She felt a gentle hand turn her face, and she found herself looking back at Esme. "Why don't you play the piano for me? I would love to hear a song that you've written. Could you? I love it when you or Edward plays..." Esme asked.
For Esme, Sophia would practically do anything. It wasn't hard to feel a rush of affection towards her new motherly figure. She was gentle, loving, and kind in a way her mother had not been and Carlisle more fatherly than any man she had ever seen before. These were her parents. She would gladly die protecting them, and would do everything in her power to make them happy. If Esme said she had wanted the actual moon to be a necklace she could wear, Sophia would find a way to make it happen, or die trying.
She walked over to the grand piano that was Edward's as her small piano remained in the small house she no longer lived in full time, but kept as a sort of getaway if ever she needed space and time alone, which happened often when Emmett was concerned. She set her fingers down gently on the familiar feeling keys, and sighed. This was the one way she could guarantee to take her mind off of anything that was going on and let herself drift off into some place imaginary. This was always her way of relaxing and refocusing on things that remained important in her life.
She began playing a song bittersweet and fairly simple at first, and then began to get complicated, slowly she eased into the main simple melody. If her life could be a song, this would be it. This was a song compromised of notes and music she played on the spot and had never thought of before. When the song ended she thought to herself for a moment, she would need to play that again and see if she couldn't write it into a better and perfect song. Sophia looked up to see Esme looking at her with a smile, and yet she appeared moved by the music she had played. She then moved into Esme's favorite song, happy of the fact she learned it from Edward. She had altered parts to make it more into her style of piano playing. The two of them were different, and although she loved listening to Edward play, his music was different from hers. Esme would constantly mention how she wanted Edward and Sophia to combine their styles, saying how it would be a beautiful thing.
Sophia kept her mind occupied for hours playing music for Esme when Alice and Jasper walked in the door and smiled at her. She brought the song that she was playing at that moment to an end and followed Alice and Jasper back out into the unusually dark night.
Jasper sighed, and blurted out, "It didn't go well... I can feel it."
She shook her head, "It went about as well as I could have expected, I suppose."
Alice let out a "hmph" and crossed her arms at that statement. "That's ridiculous. I know for a fact that it could have g-"
"Alice..." Jasper said in a warning tone.
She looked at her two friends exchanging a knowing glance between each other. "I'm missing something, what am I missing? Did Alice see something that pertained to me?"
Jasper rolled his eyes. "No... it was nothing."
Sophia could see that neither was going to say what was going on. "You know I could just as easily go into your mind when you're not expecting it and find out for myself."
Alice glared at her best friend. "No, you will not, and don't worry whatever it is that's in my mind isn't all that important so you can try and look if you want to, but you'll see nothing that would shock you."
She sighed in defeat. "I'm getting tired of fighting a losing battle with him. I'll get farther banging my head against a steel pole."
"Just hang in there, Soph, he'll come around." Alice put her arm around her friend's shoulders and pulled her into a hug.
"It's been months, and months of the same thing everyday. The same anger, the same bitter comments, the same wordless and cold atmosphere..."
"He'll come around, don't worry."
"I'm not worried anymore. I am now to the point that if he does come around then I might be worried about his motives and intentions."
Alice giggled a little and they all went back into the house. Esme was looking up at them concerned. "What's going on?" She asked.
"Nothing, just having a little bit of a pep talk. I think that things are going a little differently than anyone hoped they would." Alice answered, giving Sophia a supportive look.
She stood there for a moment spacing out while Jasper, Alice, and Esme exchanged some more conversation before she decided what she was going to do. "I'll be back later, I'm just going to go and clear my head."
Sophia ran upstairs, stuffed her keys in her pocket, and ran back downstairs and out the door before anyone could ask her what was going on. She hopped into her car, and looked up to see Emmett staring back at her from the garage. He looked slightly confused, and almost as if he wanted to stop her to talk to her, but she slammed the car into reverse and sped down the long winding driveway leaving Emmett standing there looking after her, with disappointment on his face. She could care less at this point if something she did disappointed him, he didn't care, and that was just a realization she would have to live with for the rest of her existence.
She pulled into the driveway of her small getaway and ran into the house sighing at the comfort, silence, and familiarity. Her piano sat exactly where she had left it, and she sat on her bench, touching the keys and playing a little Chopin. She rose not even halfway through the song to grab a book from her wide library of books, and sprawled on the floor on her stomach so that she could read. The silence was something she enjoyed very much, and the fact that there were no other people there to wonder what was wrong anymore. She missed this house, and it made her think of moving back where trouble wouldn't follow her anymore. Throwing the thoughts out of her mind she focused on the book, and forgot everything that was happening around her.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
The next day Sophia drove herself to school, as she had managed to stay in her small cottage alone the whole night, and when she stepped out of her car she found Edward, Alice, and Bella standing there behind her car staring back at her.
"Where did you go last night? We waited for you to come back. We called, and you never answered..." Alice stated, concern on her face. She had noticed Sophia was in new clothes and looked curiously over her friend.
"Oh, I just needed some time away from all the drama. My phone..." She thought for a moment. Her phone was still in Emmett's Jeep. She would definitely need to get that, of course that would require actually speaking words to someone who didn't want to exchange even the slightest 'hello' with her. "My phone's in the Jeep still. I must have forgotten it."
Alice nodded, and Edward sighed. "So, I take it that nothing has changed. I thought that this trip would do them some good, but I guess I was wrong."
"It's not my fault. He just disappeared without a word, or anything, he came back once to ask me if I had even hunted and I had... but I was waiting for him to see if maybe he wanted to find more with me, but he didn't. He just left again, too fast for me to follow him."
"You could have caught him." Alice commented.
"Maybe, but something told me that he didn't exactly want me to follow him."
Edward groaned. "You should have just followed him and made him speak to you. You two need to talk about this... it's not good for anyone, not even the family."
"Don't worry, I know the family would side with Emmett before me if anything happened, and I would step away if the need be."
"No!" Bella cried. "That's not fair, you're alone! You can't leave her alone for who knows what to come after her!"
"Words coming from the girl who is being hunted by a rabid female vampire on the revenge warpath, and a group of royal vampires wanting to make sure that she is now one of us or else we will all end up dead." Edward stated, with a smirk on her face.
"You're not going anywhere, don't worry. It'll get resolved before any of that happens."
The day went by like any other school day would for her, and lunch came quickly. As usual the group was separated into those who got along with the Cullen family, and those who did not get along with them, or didn't care to. She sat silently listening to Angela and Ben talk to Alice happily, like they normally did these days. Bella and Edward were talking about something together, while Sophia sat alone, listening to everyone.
"You okay, Sophia?" Someone asked. She looked up to see it was Angela, who was looking concerned at that moment.
She forced a smile and said. "Oh, yeah, I'm just spacing out thinking about something we did in class today."
"Yeah, I understand that feeling." She replied.
The day ended a lot faster than Sophia had really been hoping. Alice had decided she would ride home with her and so she drove immediately to the Cullen's house before she got herself into trouble. Some part of her thought that Alice was trying to avoid letting her disappear to her secret hiding place, and she was coming with her to intentionally keep her from doing another disappearing act. She had the clothes she had been wearing the previous day in the backseat, wondering what Alice thought of that as she pulled up into the driveway in front of the large, and beautiful house. Once she was parked she looked up to see that Emmett was in the garage again. He appeared to be working on his Jeep, and he was watching her carefully while holding tools in his hand as he stood over the open hood of his car.
Sophia grabbed the clothes from her backseat hastily and rushed to the house before he could say anything insulting. Esme was walking towards the stairs holding blue prints and she paused to smile one of her winning motherly smiles of affection.
"Oh, Sophia, I'm so glad you're back. Are you all right?" She asked, turning herself to give Sophia her full and undivided attention.
"Yes, I'm fine. Working on a new project?" Sophia asked.
Esme looked down to the blueprints rolled up in her hands and smiled. "Oh, yes, this is a project that I want to make sure is completely perfect before we start work on it. It's a surprise that I know will come in handy later."
"That sounds nice."
At that moment the door opened behind Sophia, and she didn't need to look to know that it had been Emmett. Jasper came down the stairs to find that Alice wasn't with them. "Hey Soph! How was school today?" He asked happily, pulling her into a quick hug and flashing a handsome smile across his face.
"Oh, you know, same thing it always it." She couldn't help smiling back at him as he was obviously controlling her emotions at that moment.
He threw his head back in laughter. "Well, good, at least it wasn't a bad day. Where is my darling, Alice?" He asked politely, looking around the room again as if he would find her there. She knew he could sense if she was there without looking, they had a special connection that nobody else would ever fully understand.
"She's still outside, although I'm not quite sure why." Emmett answered from behind her.
Sophia had not been prepared to hear the sound of his voice and could feel her body flinch at the sound, and yet immediately relax. She shook her head and walked toward Esme. "I'm going to go and find her then." Jasper commented, running out of the door.
A phone rang out, and Sophia reached for her pockets, then realized when they were all empty she still needed to get her phone from Emmett's car. As it turned out the phone call had been to Emmett, and he was on the phone talking quickly. Alice and Jasper were already rushing in the house, and Sophia knew that she had seen what was happening without being in the room at that moment, by the look that was on her face.
"Jasper and I will be on our way then, we'll take a look around... be careful, Edward." He said, and then hung up the phone.
"What's wrong?" Esme asked.
Emmett took a deep breath. "Edward said that when he and Bella got back to her house there was this scent..."
"Werewolf?" Jasper asked.
He shook his head at his brother. "Vampire..."
"Let me call Carlisle. He needs to be here in case something is happening." Esme interjected, rushing up the stairs and disappearing into one of the rooms.
"It's nobody's scent that he knows?" Alice asked.
"No, he said he doesn't know it." Emmett replied. "We need to be really careful."
His eyes landed on Sophia for a moment, as if he was telling her that she needed to be careful, or... maybe he wanted her to be careful. She pushed away the urge to see what was going on in his mind so that she could find out. Maybe she was expecting too much out of that look and really he had been warning her because he thought she was trouble, but the look in his eyes that had shone through for that split second had been almost vulnerable and soft.
She shook the thought out of her mind. "So, you and Jasper are going to see if you can trace the scent, and maybe catch up to it?" Sophia blurted the question out to Emmett before she realized where the words were directed. I'm worried about Jasper... that's why I asked. I'm not worried about Emmett, I couldn't be worried about someone who doesn't worry about me either, it was because of Jasper, for Alice's sake.
Everyone had seemed to freeze at the sound of her words to him. They were awaiting Emmett's response to see if he would continue his cold streak. To their surprise his eyes went back to her face, holding no hostility. "Yes, he wants to see if someone can track whoever it is down, and he's bringing Bella over here, so he can't do it. Jasper we need to get going before it's too late." He finished, turning his attention back to his brother.
Jasper nodded, his hand touched Alice's shoulder softly, but he wouldn't look into her eyes. He followed Emmett out of the house quickly leaving the two girls standing in the open room staring after them. Alice's eyes seemed to go distant almost as soon as they went out of the door. She knew that Alice had purposely tried to focus on anything that had to do with Jasper's future. It was natural for her to be worried about the one person who was meant for her.
Esme came rushing down the stairs, the blue prints no longer in her hands. "He is on his way... where are Emmett and Jasper?"
"They left to go and see if they could find a trail leading them to the scent that they found in Bella's house." Sophia answered.
"Alice?" Esme asked.
Sophia looked quickly to see that Alice was now walking over to the sofa and sat down. "I don't know how I missed it. Edward is going to be so mad at me."
"No, he wouldn't be. It isn't your fault that this happened."
"He told me to watch over Bella, and make sure nothing like this happened... I didn't see the Volturi sending anyone, and now there's some strange vampire that has gone through Bella's house... they could have hurt Charlie... oh no, what if they hurt Charlie. I didn't even see anything about Charlie..."
Sophia and Esme sat on either side of Alice, comforting her. "Calm down, it wasn't your fault. I'm sure that if anything happened to Charlie, then Edward would have told us." Sophia replied.
The first one to walk into the house was Carlisle. He was still dressed nicely from working at the hospital, and he looked at the three that were sitting on the sofa. "I'm lucky that I had already put in some extra time already, I said I needed to head out because it was an emergency and they let me go ahead, almost pushed me out of the door. Okay, someone tell me what is going on."
Sophia ended up telling him what was happening, explaining even Alice's complete miss of this surprise visit. As soon as she finished telling Carlisle everything Bella and Edward were rushing through the door. There was a look of terror on Bella's face, and Edward just looked completely furious.
"We had to stop by the police station to make sure Charlie was there, and safe. He is." Edward stated before anyone asked why it took them so long. Then his attention turned on Alice. "How could you let this happen! You were supposed to be watching them!"
"Edward..." Carlisle's calm voice sounded through he room with a sound of warning.
"I was! I don't know what happened. I completely missed it. The Volturi didn't send anyone, I would've seen it."
"You're waiting for them to command someone to come? Are you insane? You should be watching for someone to just go missing from them... I doubt they'll send direct orders..." Edward was starting to get even worse.
"Edward..." Bella called this time.
"No! She is supposed to be watching to make sure that this doesn't happen, and here we are. There is some strange scent in Bella's entire house."
"Some of my stuff is missing." Bella added.
Everyone turned to look at her. "What did you say?" Edward asked.
"Some of my stuff is missing, I noticed it after you said it was okay in the house and you went to search around outside. I went to my room, just in case I was going to need to pack up my things, and I was missing a pillow and some clothes."
"Great, so, some strange vampire came into your house... stole things, and yet Alice still didn't see it." Edward commented angrily.
"First off, I think that you need to calm down Edward. It is nobody's fault that this happened. Please do not go pointing fingers at Alice. You have her watching a lot of things, something is bound to slip."
"This is the most important thing!"
"I know it is Edward! I've been watching so carefully. This had to have been spur of the moment, and someone that none of us knows..."
The door flew open and both Emmett and Jasper walked in. Emmett held a branch out to Carlisle. "This has it's scent. We chased it down, but it appears that whoever it was got in a car and headed out of here. We were too late. Do you know that scent?" Emmett asked hopefully.
Carlisle shook his head, holding it out for Esme to smell. She shook her head. Everyone took a turn and nobody could recognize the scent. "Okay, so we're in mutual agreement that it is nobody that we have come across before. Which would make it possible for Alice to miss because how can she watch for something that she doesn't know is coming, when... ah, Edward, let me finish. How can she know it's coming when it didn't come in contact with Bella, or Charlie. There's no way she would have known a strange vampire was coming unless it would have come in contact with either of them." He explained.
"I'm sorry, Alice. I'm just worried about Bella."
"We all are." Alice said quietly. Jasper was at her side, an arm around her, the two whispering to each other quietly enough that nobody else could overhear.
"We're going to need help." Sophia commented.
"Why do you say that?" Edward asked.
"I think she is right. We're going to have to start keeping watch of watch over Bella's house because... I think that this is tying in to the murders that have been happening in the area." Carlisle commented.
Alice looked at Jasper. "Why didn't you tell me?"
"I told Carlisle that I think someone is trying to start a vampire army. It's the only logical explanation, and whoever it is had not learned to control the newborns. They are going to be difficult to control, no matter what, but... this is something that could potentially be dangerous. I'm surprised the Volturi hasn't stepped in yet to stop this from happening."
"Vampire army?" Bella asked.
Jasper launched into a story about his history, one of which Sophia was able to see in his mind as if she were there... and it was a sad story. She felt bad for Jasper having gone through everything that he did. There was no way he could have controlled that situation, his manners are what got him in the end he was trying to help these girls, and they ended up turning him into what he was now standing there looking at all of them.
"At least it's a happy story in the end." Bella commented.
Edward's head turned to her fast. "How can you say that was a happy story? Did you hear any of it at all?"
"No, that part wasn't happy, but he got to meet Alice... if he hadn't been turned into this then they never would have met." Bella explained.
Alice and Jasper smiled at each other. "It just would have been nicer had this not been the reason they met." Emmett said.
"Well, we will have to keep a watch over Bella's house. Constant rotations of two."
"I don't want you guys to do this..." Bella protested.
"It's not up to you now is it?" Edward asked.
"I still think that we're going to need help with this. We're not enough if it's a vampire army that is just attacking random people throughout the city." Sophia said.
"What about Jacob?" Bella asked.