Twilight is property of Stephenie Meyer. This chapter was written for a Round Robin collaboration by IvyandLime. If you would like to join this story please PM us for more details.
Chapter 7
Private Peep Show
JasperPOV
As Bella and Edward retreated to Edward's room, I turned to Emmett.
"What the fuck?"
He shook his head in response, a disgusted expression on his face.
"I know. To think that crazy bitch has come near my Xbox ..."
I snorted. "Somehow I don't think that's what she'd be interested in. Remember our game nights she'd invite herself to? She'd spend the whole night glaring so hard at the Xbox that I'm surprised she didn't suffer a brain aneurysm. It's like the thing had wronged her because Edward was paying more attention to it than he was to her."
"Why does he always attract the crazies? We really need to start screening his dates a bit better. If Bella turns out to be a nutjob, I'm going to punch Eddo so hard in the face it'll fuck up his good looks. No more crazy bitches will want to fuck him then."
"Bit extreme, don't you think?" I asked with raised eyebrows. "Just think about the effect that'll have on your sex life."
Emmett looked at me blankly for a moment while he processed my words. His fist connected firmly with my forearm when my meaning sank in.
"Hey! I don't need Edward to find me tail."
"How many girls have you found by yourself in the last six months?" I questioned.
"Shut the fuck up. I would have landed those even if Edward hadn't been chatting up their friends."
I rolled my eyes. "Sure."
Emmett huffed and leaned back into the couch, a serious look on his face.
"This is some fucked up shit, man. How the fuck did Tanya get in here? We've got the place locked up tight whenever we're not home."
"I don't know," I replied, more than a little worried about the security of our home. I didn't care so much if anything happened to the Xbox (though Emmett would probably mourn the thing for months), but if anything happened to my custom-made guitar or my Civil War memorabilia, I'd be more than pissed.
"So she's just been in Eddo's room, right?" Emmett asked.
I shrugged. "That's what it seems like. I haven't noticed anything different or missing in my room or out here."
"Me either."
"So she's just gone super crazy obsessive stalker on Edward and somehow got in to roll around in his sheets," I said.
"That's fucked up," Emmett stated. "That's really fucked up."
"How'd she get in though?"
Shrugging, Emmett said, "Maybe through a window?"
"We're up too high and the ledges outside are only suitable for suicidal rodents."
"She picked the lock?"
"The lock and key system is too complicated for that. Especially for her level of intelligence."
"She secretly went to Hogwarts and can Alohamora the shit out of things?"
I raised my eyebrows at him with a "you're fucking with me, right?" look.
"Hey, it could happen," he defended.
"Can you at least try and be serious?"
"I am! Hogwarts is real."
"So where was your acceptance letter?" I queried.
"Duh, I'm a squib..."
I stared at Emmett in disbelief, wondering if I was hearing him correctly. "Since when are you such a big Harry Potter fan?"
"Since forever. JK Rowling is a MILF."
"And I suppose Harry's your secret best friend and you, like, totes ship Ron/Hermione because Harry/Hermione's just wrong and anyone who says otherwise is, like, totes stupid and Neville's, like, such a BAMF and you totes want to do him..."
"Fuck you." Emmett glared at me.
"We're getting off topic," I said, rolling my eyes. "We need to work out how Tanya's getting in here. It creeps me out to think she could come in while we're sleeping and just hover over Edward. What if she tried to do something to him while he's defenceless? Suffocate him with a pillow or something in a "if I can't have him, no one can" psychotic act while he's fast asleep? I wouldn't put it past her to do something like that," I shuddered at the thought, chills racing up and down my spine.
Emmett paled and a deathly silence fell over us. I knew Emmett was having the same thoughts as me. If Tanya broke in to do something harmful – or fatal – to Edward, she wouldn't just stop with him. She'd get all three of us. She knew we would suspect her of any foul play, so we'd have to go too.
That bitch needed to be locked up.
My gaze fell onto the swords that hung on the wall above the television. As I racked my brain for possible ways Tanya could be getting in, my eyes wandered over the intricate Celtic designs carved into the wooden handles. Emmett had bought them off ebay in our second year of university when he, Edward and I had first decided to move in together. He said we couldn't have a bachelor pad without swords, so they ended up being the first thing unpacked when we moved into our first apartment together. And every other apartment since.
My eyes were tracing the hilt of the bottom sword when my brain registered a tiny abnormality in what I was seeing. There was something extra sticking out between the metal of the blade and the wooden handle.
I stood up from the couch and walked over to the television, leaning over it to get a closer look at the sword. A small, round, black object rested on the metal of the sword, glinting slightly in the light of the living room. I reached out to the object with my right thumb and forefinger and was surprised when it came away easily. Twisting the object around in my pincer grip, I felt my jaw drop when I realized what it was.
It was a fucking camera.
"That bitch has been filming us," I seethed, turning around to face Emmett, the minuscule camera held up in front of me.
Emmett looked up at my words, slightly confused at being roused from his thoughts.
"Huh?"
"Tanya. She's bugged our apartment. She's been filming us." I held the camera out to him. He extended his arm toward me and I dropped the camera into his open palm. He brought his hand up near his face and closely examined it.
"That bitch."
A loud thump suddenly reverberated through the walls from the apartment next door, and I heard a scurrying of feet before the sound of a door slamming met my ears. I raced to our apartment door and opened it to look out at what was going on, only to catch a glimpse of a female rushing down the hall and disappearing down the stairs. A waft of a strong familiar scent swept over me and had me gagging as I realized that I recognized the back of the woman.
Tanya.
That fucking bitch had been hiding out next door.
"I'm gonna call the cops," Emmett growled beside me. I hadn't realized that he had joined me at the door. He had obviously seen what I had seen and come to the same conclusion.
"No, wait!" I cried, as Emmett made to grab the phone. "We don't have any proof it was her. Let's see if we can get into the apartment. There might be something in there."
"You mean we're going to break into her apartment to see if we can find proof that she's been breaking into ours?" Emmett asked.
"Well...yeah," I replied.
"Won't that put us in just as much shit as Tanya with the cops?"
"First you come out of the Harry Potter closet, then you question me about doing something stupid and illegal...what next? You confess to taking regular ballet lessons? Jesus, Emmett. Do you want to see what Tanya has been up to or not?"
"You're really getting on my fucking nerves, Whitlock," Emmett muttered as he pushed past me out into the hall. He walked up to Tanya's door and tried turning the knob. It opened with a quiet 'click.' In her haste to vacate the apartment, Tanya must have forgotten to lock the door behind her. How convenient for us.
"It's not breaking in if it's unlocked, right?" he asked.
I shrugged. "Guess not. And besides, we can use the excuse that we heard something unusual going on and came over to check it out. So we're safe with the cops, if that's what you're worried about," I explained.
Emmett looked like he wanted to punch me.
I motioned for him to open the door fully, which he did, and we both entered. What we found inside made me want to hurl.
There were no lights on in the apartment, and yet the whole place was ablaze with blue light from the large number of computer monitors that filled the living room. The entire room was just full of screens that showed various images of our apartment, some still streaming live from inside, and others paused on different moments in time. I walked further into the room, surrounding myself with the footage of my own house. I could see Bella and Edward moving around Edward's room - Bella talking on the phone and Edward pacing back and forth – displayed on various screens from various angles. I could see flickering paused images of Edward's naked ass in the bathroom, Edward sleeping, Edward cooking pancakes in the kitchen, Edward in his tighty-whities singing into his hairbrush, Edward, Edward, Edward.
Fuck. She had placed cameras everywhere.
"Ugh. Who fucking wants to see someone take a dump?" Emmett asked as he pointed towards a screen that showed the empty toilet in our apartment. "That is seriously fucked up. I mean … ugh. This chick needs some serious mental help."
"I'll say," I agreed. "Hey Em, you got that camera still?"
Emmett handed me the tiny camera from our living room and I held it up in front of me. I suddenly saw my face reflected on five different screens.
"This is really creeping me out, man," Emmett said in a subdued voice. "This is beyond stalking – this is an extreme invasion of privacy. I really think we need to call the cops."
I nodded, unable to voice the multitude of thoughts running through my mind.
Emmett walked out to grab his cell phone, leaving me alone in the apartment. Looking around a bit more, I discovered a huge collection of spy equipment and stacks of journals that, upon flicking through, I found contained Tanya's handwritten, Edward-obsessive ramblings.
If only Edward could remember just how perfect we are together, he would see that skank is just using him and doesn't deserve him. No one deserves him like I do. I'm the only one who can make him happy.
I can't believe he took her to OUR ice-cream place...I'll bet she knew it was OUR place and she blackmailed him into taking her there. That's it. I know he wouldn't have taken her otherwise. It would hurt him too much, all the memories...
He'll see just how much I love him and he'll realize that he can't live without me. He'll take me to Italy where he'll propose on a Gondola in Venice, we'll get married in Paris, we'll have two beautiful children and we'll spend every night for the rest of our lives making sweet, beautiful love before falling asleep wrapped up in each other's arms...
That bitch thinks she can just waltz into his life like that? I don't think so. I'm going to get rid of her if it's the last thing I do...
Leaving the journals where they were (scanning the first page of one was more than enough for me), I decided to venture further into the apartment. The further I went, the more disturbed I became. Image upon image of Edward lined every wall in the place. Images printed from the video footage in our apartment made up the majority of it, but others from the supermarket, the bar, Edward's parents' place, almost EVERY single place Edward had been over the past few weeks covered the walls.
I walked into the bathroom and felt my stomach plummet. It was filled with similar images of Bella, every single one of them sporting a huge black cross over her face.
Emmett was right – this was way beyond stalking. Tanya needed to be committed. The images of Edward were bad enough; obsessing over removing Bella from Edward's life was just sickening. This whole situation had taken on a new level; it wasn't just Edward who was in danger from Tanya now. Bella could be in serious trouble.
The only other item that I could see in the apartment was an inflatable mattress that lay on the floor in the middle of the living room, covered with and surrounded by mountains of crumpled candy wrappers and empty Red Bull cans. Every other room in the place was empty, save for the Edward wallpaper. There weren't even any clothes in the place. No wonder her perfume was so strong – she must have just been spraying herself with it instead of showering. I guess taking a shower would cut into her Edward-viewing time. The thought made me gag. Thinking of Tanya in general made me gag. What Edward ever saw in her I will never know.
Finding myself back in the living room, I couldn't help but look at all the images flickering on the screens before me. Edward had stopped pacing and was now talking on Bella's phone. Emmett was standing in our living room on his own phone, presumably talking to the police. There must have been another camera hidden somewhere in the living room.
I heard a door open and close from out in the hall, and watched as Alice and Rose walked into our living room and over to Emmett. I heard mumbling from the other side of the wall, but their voices were clear as day through a speaker somewhere to my right. Tanya must have heard everything Emmett and I were saying earlier; that must be why she bolted.
The voices that filtered through the speaker were soft – the volume must have been turned down so we couldn't hear from our place.
"Emmett, why's your door open? Is Jasper home?" I heard Alice ask.
I watched as Emmett shushed her with his hand, still talking on the phone.
"Yeah, we found all this surveillance equipment and stuff in the apartment next door. She's been filming us twenty-four/seven," I heard Emmett explain. He fell silent, listening for a moment. "She's been stalking him! He broke it off weeks ago, but she doesn't think he's serious. She's delusional … yeah … no … no … we won't ... yeah ... okay, Officer. Thank you."
Emmett hung up the phone and pocketed it before turning his attention to Alice and Rose.
"Officer? What's going on? Who's filming you?" Alice asked.
"Tanya," Emmett replied.
"Edward's psycho ex?" asked Rose.
Emmett nodded. "You should see what Jazz and I just found in the apartment next door. She's been hiding out there. Jazz is over there at the moment. Come on." He indicated that the girls follow him out the door.
Emmett, Alice and Rose all left the screen and appeared in person at the door near me a few seconds later.
"Holy shit ..." Rose gasped, pausing just inside the door.
Alice followed Emmett over to where I was standing, taking in the full impact of the situation.
"She's seriously been watching you all day every day?" Alice whispered.
I nodded. "Yup. Recording, not just watching," I clarified.
Rose took a few steps further into the room, her gaze focused intently on the multitude of screens before us.
"Is that … Edward's junk? Ugh … I could have done without seeing that. I'm going to have nightmares for years!" she cried.
"Edward's junk is up there? Where? I'm going to print that shit in multiple ..." Emmett cried with excitement. "That has just given me the best idea for a payback prank for the next time he dates a psycho." He started scanning each screen closely to find the one Rose had been talking about.
Ignoring Emmett's "junk hunt," Alice and Rose turned to face me, identical looks of horror on their faces.
"I can't believe she's taken it this far!" Alice cried. "I could tell she was a psychotic bitch that night in the hall, but I never thought she'd be quite so … unbalanced. Bugging your apartment? That's just … ugh." Alice shuddered with disgust.
"That's not all ..." I started, unsure if I should tell them about the pictures of Bella. "She kind of ... well … she has a vendetta against Bella. She wants her out of the picture and doesn't care how."
Rose looked like she was going to vomit.
"That bitch is going down," she growled, kicking at a few Red Bull cans near her feet. "No one fucks with my friends and gets away with it. I'll hunt her skanky ass down and-"
"OHMYGOD!" Alice suddenly shrieked, cutting Rose off mid-sentence. "IT'S A FUCKING VIBRATOR!"
She was jumping around and squealing as though trying to get away from a mouse, pointing at the pile of cans on the floor that Rose had just disturbed. Sure enough, half-buried under the debris was a bright pink, sparkly vibrator.
"EW EW EW EW EW EWWWWW!" Alice continued. "That's so gross! I think I'm going to vomit …" she broke off and ran towards the bathroom.
Rose looked down at the offending object in front of us and scowled deeply.
"She's been getting herself off to images of you guys showering? That's just disgusting."
"She's been WHAT?" Emmett boomed, abandoning his search. I pointed to the vibrator on the floor. Emmett gagged.
"It's hard enough to think that Edward actually went there … Knowing that she's using live images of us to get her rocks off makes my balls want to retreat inside my body and never come back out. That's fucking sick."
Seconds later, a loud scream echoed from the bathroom.
Alice had discovered the pictures.
She came bolting back out to the living room and ran straight into my arms, sobbing. I wrapped my arms tight around her and felt her chest heave with the strength of her despair. Stroking her hair softly, I placed a gentle kiss on the top of her head and held her even tighter.
I looked over the top of her head to lock eyes with Emmett, who had stepped up beside a very pale Rose to wrap an arm around her shoulder. I let my eyes flick between Alice, Rose, and the door before settling back on Emmett, trying to communicate with him without the girls knowing. He seemed to catch my drift and nodded.
"Alice, Rose – why don't you head back to your place and make yourselves some hot chocolate or fruity tea or some girly shit like that, and we'll come fill you in once the cops have gone," he suggested. I rolled my eyes at his sensitivity in such a serious situation and placed another light kiss on Alice's head before she extricated herself from my arms.
Alice and Rose, both too shocked and disgusted to speak, gripped each other's hands tight and made for the door, Emmett and I following close behind. They were about to open their apartment door when they were stopped in their tracks by Bella and Edward, who came bursting out into the hall.
"You will not believe what Bella's dad just told us about Tanya!" Edward cried. "She's …"
Dun dun dunnn ... *evil cackle*
I know many of you probably wanted to read about Tanya's big secret in this chapter, but honestly, I didn't think I could do that plot twist justice. So I've left that up to someone else to go crazy with. =) I felt like there was a huge lack of Jazz and Em screen-time, so I hope this has remedied that somewhat. After reading the last chapter, this little plot bunny started racing, so I thought I'd set him free rather than try and force something else out.
And for my fellow Harry Potter fans - I was not taking a dig at the awesomeness of HP! I seriously love the Potter series more than life itself, so I thought I'd let Emmett geek out like I love to... *supercheesygrin* For the record, I will be camped out in Trafalgar Square in London from July 5th for the final ever premiere, so if any of you care to join me for some Potter finalé hijinks, look me up. =) There will be costumes, debates, awesome magical snacks and more!
HUGE thanks to the lovely MandyLeigh87 and ImHereToReview for organising this little project. I'm so excited to be part of this awesome fanfic experience! *hugs*