Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight or any of the characters.
Bloodlust
"Weber, I thought your crack ass boyfriend told you that salt would keep anything evil out," Rosalie growled, narrowing her eyes.
"He did," Angela nodded, staring out the dust covered window into the darkness.
Grabbing her shoulder, Rosalie spun her around, shining her flashlight directly into Angela's eyes. "Then why the fuck was McCarty able to cross it?"
Looking past Rose and her flashlight, she could make out the vague silhouette of Emmett as he lounged against the wall, just inside the doorway.
"Great, just what we need…" Angela muttered, pushing the flashlight away from her face. Rosalie, in turn, flipped it around to blind Emmett.
"What do you want, Emmett?" Angela groaned, pushing off the wall. She knew what was going to happen, and she didn't like it one bit. Every time Rosalie and Emmett were in the same room, an argument began, which most time led to fighting; and occasionally, even bloodshed. Well, that was just that one time when Rosalie went off and threw a punch hard enough to break McCarty's nose, but still.
"Nothing from you, Weber," Emmett intoned as he stalked forward. "What I want is an explanation from Hale over here. She owes me that much."
"I don't owe you anything, you bastard." Rosalie growled, advancing towards him as well.
"I'll say you do. I want to know how you pulled that fucking disappearing act in the corn maze about an hour ago."
"Ah, yes, the maze. Let's have a little chat about that, shall we?" Rosalie said, flailing her arms about wildly, causing their only source of light to zip about like a firefly. "One minute I'm there explaining the alien theory to Jasper and Bella, then the next I'm all alone with only the badly impersonated howl of a wolf to keep me company. Oh, and I know that was you by the way. No one else here would be juvenile enough to pull off such a cheap stunt for a thrill."
"It wasn't me, it was Eric. And for your information, pumpkin, there is no such thing as aliens, so whatever your retarded theory was, it was wrong."
"Forget the aliens! Now tell me what in hell's name you did with my friends!"
"I didn't do anything to them!" Emmett screamed, getting right up in her face, forcing her to back up into the wall. "On the flip side, I was stalking the three of you through the maze hoping I could possibly kidnap one or two of you and forcibly make you cross the property boundaries but-"
"So you admit it! I knew we weren't alone out there. I just knew-"
"Haven't you been listening to a thing I just said?" He growled, pinning her arms on either side of her head, causing the flashlight to crash to the ground, the batteries flying out of place into the now total darkness. "I didn't do anything to your prissy friends! Fuck!"
"You had to!" She protested, trying to free herself from his vice-like grip. "Jasper was in front of me, and Bella was behind me. I turned around to talk to Bella, and she as gone. Not a minute later, Jasper was gone too! There was only the three of us-"
"Five of us…"
"-you two don't count! The point is that they're gone, and since I know they didn't just vanish into thin air, it had to be your fault!"
"You vanished into thin air when I went to grab you!"
"That's because I cut through the stalks to get out!"
"Uh, guys?" Angela said timidly, watching the fight with fear. "I think I'll be going now."
"Did it ever cross your mind that they might have run off together for a little alone time?" Emmett simpered, ignoring Angela entirely. She took this chance to slip out unscathed.
"Nuh-uh. No way would Bella be lusting after someone other than Edward."
"Look Hale, I've had it with this asinine arguing. I don't give a damn about Whitlock or Swan; all I care about is you."
"Aww Emmett, I didn't know you cared." Rosalie deadpanned.
"Let me rephrase that: The only thing I care about is getting my biggest competition out of the game."
"Who?"
"You." Without warning, Emmett bent down and grabbed Rosalie by the legs, leaning her over his shoulder.
"What the fuck McCarty?" She shrieked, pounding her fists against his back. She attempted to kick him hard enough so he would lose his grip on her, but to no avail. He took her kicks like they were sweet caresses.
"I'm sorry Rose, but I'm not leaving anything to chance." Emmett cooed as he carried her out the door. "Nothing will come between us- not even you."
***
"So we meet again."
Bella's eyes shot up, following the jumpy glow of her flashlight.
"Hello? Who's there?" Her voice was shaky, the words getting caught in her throat.
"No need to be scared, Swan, it's just me." Edward said, walking into the beam of her torch.
Sighing with relief, Bella breathed out "So what? Now you lurk around in dark corners? Cullen, you're just too weird for me."
"I wasn't lurking, I was hiding."
"From what?"
"Yorkie."
"Why?"
"Because he asks far too many questions for his own good." Edward replied tersely as he crossed the room to take a seat on an old piano bench that was positioned in front of its matching baby grand.
Deciding not to question it further, Bella steeled herself against the wall and watched in silence as Edward began running his long, graceful fingers across the ivory keys.
"So where were you all this time? Everyone has been going in and out but you've been MIA. What's the deal?" Edward asked as he experimented with the keys.
"Oh you know, being clumsy, getting separated from my friends, stumbling around in a corn maze, making my way back to the house in nearly complete darkness… The usual." She snapped, replaying her escapades in her head one by one; not all of them good, but some very fulfilling.
"Sounds like you're the lurker, not me." He smirked.
She narrowed her eyes, but said nothing.
One set of scales after another poured out of the grime covered instrument; each set a couple of notes higher than the next. The music was bittersweet to her ears until… nothing.
Realizing the abrupt stop in sound, Edward backtracked and replayed the scale again; it stopped in the same place. An empty, hollow sound reverberating though the air instead of a perfect crescendo.
"That's odd…" He muttered, standing up and moving around to the open top.
"What's odd? What are you up to?" Bella asked, moving slightly closer as she watched Edward plunge his arm down into the dark crater.
"Just give me a minute. Something must be stopping the vibrations- sitting on the strings."
"Most likely a super huge dust bunny, considering where we are." Bella jibed, shining the flashlight inside the piano to help Edward.
"I don't know about any of the dust bunnies you've seen, but this sure doesn't look like one I've seen before," He said, retracting his hand from the instrument. Clutched tightly in his fingers was a shiny box, tiny green numbers flashing for the display.
"It's a cell phone…"
Edward shot her a glare that clearly said 'No shit Sherlock'. Flipping it open, his fingers began to rapidly tap the keys, lending sound to the otherwise silent parlor.
"What are you doing?" Bella asked, walking over to peek over his shoulder.
"Trying to find out who it belongs to. It has to be one of ours, since I'm pretty sure these things weren't invented back in the '40s."
"What're you going to do? Dial the first number in the phone book and say, 'Hi, I'm calling from an unknown cell phone I found in an old piano. Would you happen to recognize this number and tell me who owns it?' Oh yeah, that's going to get you brownie points with the call recipient."
"For your information Swan, I'm checking the picture log. Everyone who owns a cell phone takes at least one bad picture of themselves and leaves it in the album for laughs." He replied, making his way into the photo album. The first picture was of an overweight cocker spaniel, staring woefully ahead.
"Well that tells us nothing." She snorted, as he moved on to the next picture, which showed an elderly couple sitting on a battered old couch.
"Recognize them?"
"Nope."
The third picture yielded results. Ben and Angela grinned ridiculously at the camera, their faces tight together. It was apparent they took the picture themselves. The fourth was a picture of Ben behind the wheel of his Honda, staring through the windshield, most likely oblivious that he was photographed.
The pictures continued on this way, random shots of the happy couple in random activities, making funny faces. At least, until picture thirteen.
"Hey, you think this is some sort of kink?" Edward said, pointing at the phone screen. "I mean, dead-play, of course. Ben sure is good at playing possum."
"No matter how kinky it is, you couldn't fucking pay me to lay down in a pile of corn syrup. "I don't do anything that requires getting down and dirty on the floor".
Rolling his eyes, Edward shot "There goes your social life."
Click!
"Alice? What the hell is a picture of her doing on Ben's phone?" Bella chimed, staring at the screen.
"Technically, we don't know its Ben's phone." Edward corrected, "It could be Angela's. But I'd say the better question is why does she have corn syrup on her face? I can't wait to tell Whitlock that his sister was in a threesome."
"Shut up and keep going."
Click! Alice lying on the floor, something sticking out of her temple. Click! Alice lying beside Ben. Click! A close up on Alice's bright blue eyes- wide, bloodshot, cloudy. Click! A pair of some sort of goggles, covered in the corn-syrupy substance.
"Cullen?"
"Yes, Bella?"
"Please, for the love of god I'm begging you, just hold me and tell me that this is some sort of joke- that everything is going to be alright."
Snapping the phone shut, Edward set it on the piano keys, a solemn look eclipsing his face.
"Unfortunately I can't do that."
"Why not?"
"Because Bella," He said, running his hand through his already messy hair, "I'm not sure what the hell is going on. I just know it's bad."
"But-"
"No buts. Screw the bet; we need to get out. Now."
"But we need to find the others! Rosalie and Jasper and Emmett and Angela and-"
"Okay. We'll split up. You want the house or yard?"
"House."
"Fine. I'll take the yard."
Nodding her head, Bella turned to leave, but a hand on her shoulder caused her to freeze.
"And Bella?" His voice was soft, soothing.
Turning around, Bella sighed contently as he enveloped her in a tight embrace. Placing a soft, tender kiss on her forehead, he whispered "Be safe" before disappearing into the darkness.
***
Out of all the places in the house to stumble upon, Angela just had to find the basement.
The stairs creaked, the old light bulb hung shattered in its socket, pieces of broken glass clinging to the moss growing up out of the dirt floor. The stench of mold hung acrid in the air, giving the room a musty sort of feel, embellished by tiny water droplets trickling down the stone walls.
To Angela, the vibe was unwelcome; loathsome, threatening. Everything from the jars full of unidentifiable substances that were stacked up to the ceiling, to the rusted tools hanging from bent nails forced into the concrete seemed foreboding… how annoying. Why couldn't she end up somewhere that was all sunshine and rainbows?
Shining her flashlight around, she looked for any sign that her boyfriend could be, or had been there, aside from the obvious. The doorway did have a line of salt across it when she wandered down the stairs into the belly of the cellar, but it wasn't complete- a set of two lines passed through it; shoe prints. Ben's, hopefully.
However, aside from the salt, she couldn't see anything else that acted as a clue. No novel on how to fend off renegade zombies, no satellite phone beeping incessantly, no EMF machine lying around. If he had been here, it was apparent that he had moved on.
"Let the bodies hit the floor. Let the bodies hit the floor. Let the bodies hit the floor."
Odd chanting. Now that could be her boyfriend…
Turning around to head back over to the stairs where the voice was coming from, she shrieked as an arm caught her around the waist, pulling her into a solid chest. Another cold, heather covered hand came up to cover her mouth, causing her eyes to widen as she stared at the figure in front of her. As he stepped forward, Angela was forced to stumble back to avoid being trampled on. One step, two, then another… It took seven steps for her ankles to hit something hard- an up rise; a step.
Pushing on, the familiar face forced her to step up and back, before shoving her away from his body with great force. She crumpled to the floor of the cupboard, trapped by three solid wood walls and the human- if anyone this cruel could be called one- in front of her. She watched in horror as the knife was raised above her, the blade thrusting downward in slow motion. Angela barely had time to scream before it made contact with her breast, the shattering of bone exceedingly loud to her ears.
No more sternum for her.
"A brave one," The voice poured over her like honey, running thick and hot into her eyes, causing them to blur. "You didn't even scream."
With one hard tug, the knife was forced out of her cadaver, leaving a gaping hole in its wake.
"Too bad," Out came the cloth, already bloody from his previous kills, ready to purify his new toy. "I rather enjoy it when they scream."
Sheathing the knife down the neck of his shirt, the cloth already resting back in the depths of his pocket, he slammed the door of the rickety armoire shut, creating a closed casket for the deceased. Standing up, he turned on his heel, making his way back up the stairs. For victim number six, the hunt was on.
A/N: I know, long time no update. I've had ADD as of late, and can't concentrate on one single thing for a great amount of time without moving on to something else. This fic was one of the many things I couldn't concentrate one. At least I finially updated. I have realised that in the previous chapter, I didnt' state why Ben and Alice had to die. Heres why: Ben simply took too many stupid gadgets. Alice found the first body, and had the killer trapped at the scene. Angela died because the hunt is now on. Time is ticking and there are still too mant people snooping around the house. They need to be taken care of. Thanks for all of the reviews I've been getting, adn I can only hope that the next chapter will come sooner than this one did.
