Hey! I got some more Q&A requests, so ta-da!
Q: When are the Cullens coming already? By Twilight-Addict 1918
A: IN THIS CHAPTER! WOO! The newcomers in the last chapter were actually the Cullens, in case you didn't realise.
Q: Out of the Twilight Saga, which one is your fave? Ooh, and who is your fave character out of the Twilight Saga? By Sanciaaa
A: Well, I like Eclipse the best… You know, with the whole who-gets-Bella-War between Edward and Jake - I found that hilarious. And my fave character is… Aro. I like his dark sense of humour and his childish ways. But I also like Jane, even though she's portrayed as an evil little child. Liked her power. *Sigh* What I would do with that power… I'd probably kill Kieran (LOL, we all hate him don't we Jazz?) And I'd kill Megan too! (What. A. Slut. Seriously. I'm gonna totally add her to this story and plan a gruesome death for her.) But yeah, that's gotta be my fave power too. But I'd have Jane's and Bella's powers combined, because I feel nervous at the thought of someone reading my mind and penetrating my bubble of personal space. (LOL, gotta love my personal space bubble!)
Q: Who is Grace based off of? By I'm Your Jazz (LOL Jazz, I told you this at school but I feel the need to tell everyone else too!)
A: Grace is based off one of my long lost cousins. She's a right little bitch. Only eleven but she swears like a sailor! My cousin is actually called Grace, and the description of Grace I gave you is indeed what my little Gracey does look like!
Argh! My fucking ICT teacher! The little bastard! I'm gonna kill him off in this story too! Ugh! Anyway… Sorry but I can't do a funny disclaimer because of my rather long Q&A, but: DISCLAIMER: I don't own Twilight, sadly enough.
This chapter is dedicated to Jazz again because she did the longest and best review. Come on people! Where's all the funny and informative reviews? All I get is: "Loved it." Doesn't really help me now, does it? Not complaining, I love any and all review that I get, but if you want a chapter dedicated to you, do the best review!
"Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes." - Mahatma Gandhi
Edward
March 27th 2001
USA
Unknown location
9:00
Running.
That's what we're doing. Running. It's exhilarating, feeling the crisp air blow into your face, trying to deter you of your journey. The gales were strong, but we were stronger. We ran faster than weak human eyes could comprehend, running in a full out sprint so that we blurred even for fellow vampires. The wind ruffled my naturally dishevelled hair, making it look even more messy. My feet pounded silently on the green of the forest floor, alerting none of the residing animals.
Alice was in front, leading us to the adoption centre. Only she and I knew the way. I could have ran ahead of her, but I let her have her moment at being the fastest. Emmett took up the rear of the group, in case someone attacked from behind. The rest of us were somewhere in the middle, all thoughts on the innocent child we were about to adopt. We were about a mile away from Pittsburgh and the adoption centre was at the fringes of the place, at the other side of the city.
We soon past the Welcome to Pittsburgh sign and we all smiled, having made it quicker than expected. Not even Alice had known what time we were to get here, because all her visions turned blank since our decision was made. We were still several miles away from our target when we heard a snobby voice of a young girl.
"Stop being such a bitch, you're just jealous of me."
We all raised our eyebrows at the raised voice that had been carried to us by the wind, but quickened our pace. It sounded like the voice came from our destination.
"Me jealous of you? Oh my God, I knew you were stupid but seriously? How self centred can you get? Grow up, Grace! Nobody likes you, they just pretend because they're frightened of you! And , for one, have no idea why." Another voice piped up, her voice sounding slightly disbelieving at the other one.
We could see Gladney Centre of Adoption in the distance, so our pace quickened further, my feet barely touching the ground. We were right at the front door when we heard the high nasally voice of the other child.
"Oh, I see. You say that nobody likes me. But people avoid you like the plague, and I don't blame them. Nobody wants you… Not even your mom wanted you!"
"That's a pretty low blow." Emmett muttered. The others murmured in agreement, but I focused on the girl's thoughts.
Yeah, look at that freak! Score one for Grace!
The rest of her thoughts were all about herself, but from her mind I gathered that she was Grace, and the other child was called Isabella. We exchanged glances at each other and Carlisle nodded, so opened the door and we all stole inside silently. The Grace child looked up at us but the one with her back to us didn't even notice.
Woah… They are so beautiful! Look at the one up front!
Oh my God! She was eleven and she was already thinking about sex! What the hell? I shook it off and dived back into the Grace's thoughts, ignoring the sex innuendos and seeing what she saw. And what I saw made me gasp.
There was the girl, Bella, with a blazing look in her eyes. But what got me most was that she looked like… One of us. Like a vampire. Her face was perfectly symmetrical, a perfectly shaped nose and long black eyelashes that the girls back at our school would kill for. But her strange purple eyes had a tint of hunger to them, and they were dull, too dull. She had purple bruises under her eyes, like we did when we needed to hunt.
She had her fist clenched tightly, her knuckles bone white as she shook with anger. Her face was stony, her jaw locked and her eyes burning angrily. "Say. That. Again." She choked out, her voice strangled and laced with venom.
Grace was doing a happy dance inside her head, loving the torment she was putting Bella through. "You're a freak! Nobody wants you! Your mom abandoned you and nobody's even heard about your dad, I wouldn't be surprised if he killed himself when he found out you were born!"
Jasper looked at me with wide eyes. I can't calm her! Her anger is so intense that I can barely control it!
Bella's eyes flickered to Grace's stomach, and then slowly slid back to look her in the face. Her eyes were a deep black, a surprise seems as though they were purple less than a second ago. Bella's skinny frame shook uncontrollably and her breathing was tense and strangled. Animalistic growls rumbled in her chest, bursting out of her mouth, mixing in with her deep snarls. Jasper was frantically sending calming waves, but it didn't work; her anger was too intense. Her anger was like nothing he had ever felt, and it made him feel like destroying everything in sight.
"What's the matter? Cat got your tongue?" Grace sneered, flipping her blonde hair. "It's because you know that I'm right don't you?"
Wrong thing to say. Bella's concentrated expression vanished, replaced with an animalistic hunger. Her eyes darkened, even the whites of her eyes turned a shadowy black. Her face paled, her chocolate her darkening to raven black. All the family looked worriedly at one another, but made no move towards the girl. Bella looked like a monster, even more nightmarish than we did when we were enraged.
"What's the matter? Cat got your tongue?" Bella echoed Grace's earlier words, and smirked darkly.
Grace looked horrified. She looked up at us and begged with her eyes to save her, to do anything. I looked into her mind and what was revealed both horrified and fascinated me.
(This is in third person, because it's from Grace's mind.)
They were both in the vast back yard of The Centre. Bella stood, her raven hair whipping around her white face in the wind as she stared down her opponents. Opposite her stood Grace, and behind Grace stood thirteen more girls, all of them older and taller than Bella. A little behind Bella slumped Harriet. She had a small cut above her eyebrow, and blood seeped out of it, dribbling agonisingly slowly down her face and trickling down her cheek. Her once perfect plaits were disgruntled, one of them nearly falling out if it's elastic. Harriet's face was dirty, as was her clothes. She was covered in mud, from the mud puddle she had been kicked into before her saviour, Bella, arrived.
Bella suddenly lunged forward, and the girls scattered. Terrified squeals filled the air as Bella grabbed the first one by the hair, making her screech and halt from her frantic run. Her terrified brown eyes fixed themselves on Bella as she leaned down and whispered in her ear.
"Having fun yet?"
Bella pulled away from the whimpering girl's ear and stared her deep in the eye before pulling her fist back and punching her straight in the face. A very audible crack was heard and blood gushed from under her fist. The girl was scratching at Bella, screaming at the top of her voice as Bella's eyes filled with what only could be described as bloodlust.
Bella ignored the pull of her nature and smirked, feeling the warm blood stain her knuckles. The eleven year old who's nose was broken beyond repair was a deathly ashen grey, her lids drooping from all the blood loss. Bella pushed the girl's half conscious body away from her and advanced towards the rest, who were frozen n place. Each one of them were white and trembling with fear, even the high and mighty Grace. With knocking knees, the girls eyes fixated themselves onto Bella's clenched fists which were dangling at her sides. Her left one was pure white, but the other was a startling red, their friend's blood dripping off it.
Bella's eyes held no emotion at all as she totally disappeared from sight (Remember, this is Grace's memory, she's human. So when Bella "disappeared" it's just her moving too fast for human eyes to see 'k?) and reappeared again seconds later right in front of Emily. Emily's foot swung out in a roundhouse kick, hitting Bella in the head. But the monstrous girl didn't even flinch. She grabbed the offending foot before it's owner could return it to the ground and twisted it, sending Emily sprawling as she screamed fitfully. Her ankle had snapped.
Bella attacked the rest with the same feral look in her eyes, her face a mask of bloodthirsty glee. After only minutes, Grace was the last one standing. She was shaking from head to toe, her face a sickly green as she looked around, seeing the red stained grass and hearing the resounding screams that still rang in her ears. Bella smiled sweetly and disappeared again. She didn't show for quite awhile, so Grace thought she was gone. With a sigh of relief, Grace dropped her guard and just stood, staring into nothingness. But then something caught her off guard.
Bella appeared, just as lethal as before as she delivered a kick straight to her stomach. Grace flew across the large yard until she eventually crashed into a tree, making it groan with the force. Salty tears leaked out of her eyes as she whimpered out her pleas; She wont hurt Harriet again, she swore.
But nothing could stop the monster, as Bella reminded herself day after day in disgust. Bella's full black eyes appraised Grace, who was a crumpled heap on the floor. Harriet was now begging for Bella to stop, to just come inside… Everything's OK now, they've learnt their lesson.
Not all of them.
Bella just shook her head and as gently as she could in her angered state pushed Harriet out the way, making her fall to the floor on her butt. Bella forcefully kicked Grace's stomach, making her scream louder than any of her friends. And this alerted the carers. They all ran outside, looking horrified at the amount of destruction that Bella had caused. But Bella ignored them. Just like the last time.
She kicked and punched at Grace like a punching bag until Grace had multiple injuries and Bella was completely out of energy, her adrenaline rush gone. Bella, her eyes turning back to their original purple, sank to her knees as she stared on at the destroyed yard. She looked disbelieving at it all and after several moments of silence let out a shrill cry. It echoed around, but the scream continued to increase in volume and pitch. She didn't stop until the windows had shattered and her voice had grown hoarse. And only then she fell silent because she had no voice left.
Bella listened to the screams and moans of the injured, turning confused as the noise subsided. Everything was loosing colour until all she could see was black and white, her hearing all but gone. She watched dully as Harriet rand up to her hunched form, wrapping her quaking arms around the half conscious brunette.
Seconds later Bella's body went limp in Harriet's arms as Grace laughed, a croaky but still evil laugh.
That memory was just a week old.
That happened just a week ago. And now it was going to happen again.
Please don't… Not again!
Grace's mind pleaded and cried, but no sound came out of her mouth. I silently urged the girl to move, but she didn't. Her muscles had stiffened, immobilising her because of the intense shock and fear in her system.
Come on… run! RUN!
Her mind screamed at her, but she was simply stuck to the ground. Alice gasped, as did the rest of us when we realised what Bella was going to do, because her muscles had tensed, getting ready to spring. Bella's black eyes narrowed on her target, and she sent one last smirk her opponent's way before she leapt, as graceful as a cat, right at Grace.
Grace made a move to cover her face with her hands, but it was too late. Grace's pained screams filled the room as she was knocked to the floor, clutching at her cheek which was dripping sweet blood. Jasper growled softly and Alice held him to her tightly, forbidding him to follow his instincts and drink. All of our eyes had darkened, but Jasper's were a pure black - but still not as frightening as Bella's.
Rose took a step forward to break up the fight, but Emmett pulled her back, shaking his head. Bella pinned Grace down, straddling her so she couldn't escape. Her white hands balled into fists and forceful punches rained down on the girl beneath her, mostly on her stomach and face. Grace's screams continued until there was a thump from one of the upper levels of the building.
Oh, no! Not again!
The "voice" was husky, deep. There was hurried footsteps coming down the many stairs and eventually the door burst open, revealing a very out of breath woman. She had raven coloured dreadlocks and deep chocolate skin. She was thickset but most of her thoughts were kind, full of humour. She reminded me of Emmett - looking intimidating on the inside but as harmless as a fly on the inside.
"Bella, no!" She yelled, rushing forward to pull her away. She took a few steps, then thought better of it, remembering the last time she tried to break up one of their fights. She ended up with a broken arm.
There was the sound of tires squealing, and then the front door opened, showing the girl I knew was called Harriet from Grace's memory. She gasped when she saw the two girls, her hand flying to her mouth - but her eyes didn't hold any surprise. Neither did her thoughts. Nevertheless she ran forward, straight at Bella.
"Harriet, stop!" The dark skinned woman, Yolanda, shrieked.
Harriet paid no heed. Once she was just a metre away from Bella, who was still beating the living daylights out of Grace, she reached out and gently touched her shoulder. And what happened amazed everyone in the room.
Bella immediately froze, her fists freezing in midair. She turned her head slowly to look at Harriet, and when she saw her the whites of Bella's eyes slowly reappeared, her onyx eyes dissolving into the same dull purple it was before. The bruises under her eyes were more prominent now, making her have an exhausted look about her. She took in her surroundings before fixing her eyes back on her friend, letting out a choked sob.
Harriet pulled her off of the barely conscious Grace, and kneeled down in front of her. She then pulled her into a hug as sobs racked her body. Pearly tears slipped out Bella's eyes as she returned the gesture, her skinny but surprisingly strong arms clutching at Harriet tightly while the rest of us looked on incredulously.
Somehow, Harriet was able to calm down Bella with a single touch, and this confounded us all. We all stared at the embraced pair, amazed at how deep their friendship was - the loyalty Bella felt for Harriet was the strongest Jasper had ever felt.
I should never have gone, this could have been avoided if I stayed here with her… She just needs help holding her temper. And Grace only makes it worse; making jibes about her lack of family at every opportunity. At least Grace didn't have to go to hospital like last time…
Harriet's thoughts shocked me - they were so mature for her age. Yolanda carried Grace out the room and came back a few minutes later with a sheepish smile on her face.
"Now, what can I do for you?"
So… Now we have all seen the deep friendship between Harriet and Bella, I even surprised myself! Anywhos, get your beautiful hands on your mouses and review!
