I know, it's been a while, huh? Well, at least for this story. I published a one-shot yesterday that helped my writers' block. Granted, it wasn't my best work and I won't be getting any award for it any time soon, it really helped me get back into writing. Slowly.
This chapter is really short compared to my other chapters, but I'm taking it step by step (or, like what my Spanish book is titled, Paso a Paso) and I'm starting with baby steps for now. I'll get back to it later.
I might go back and rewrite this chapter later and add more to it, but I'ma keep it as it is for now.
ENJOY!
After throwing "John" in the nearby Dumpster and making sure there wasn't any sign of his blood, I went back to the hotel I stayed in when I had nothing better do to.
I lounged on the spring mattress bed that was crammed in the corner below a large water stain that covered the ceiling. The walls were yellowed, the mirror was split down the middle, and the window didn't shut all the way, so I could hear the angry couple in the apartment building on the other side of the alley yelling at each other in Spanish. I would've been able to hear it anyway, but the open window only made it worse.
In short, it wasn't the best hotel in New England, but, hey, I'm not sleeping here anyway.
This was always the most boring part of the game—the wait. I had to wait for Ashley to find me a victim, and now I have to wait for him to accept the victim I chose. I seem to be waiting on others for a majority of my life—or existence, or hellhole, or whatever you want to call it. Potato, potato, as I like to say.
Now I could hear a few bikers slamming on the elevator button that is usually stuck, stomping on the ground as they cursed each other and the crappy hotel. This is one of those recently frequent times that I wish I could sleep. For my improvised sleep, I closed my eyes and attempted to clear my mind of all thoughts that attuned to anything around me . . .
Knock, knock, knock.
"Um, Mr. Cooper?" a woman said from the other side of my door. By the way her voice sounded, she was small and skinny, probably with weak bones that would be easy to snap.
I opened the door.
"Yes?" I asked as politely as I could. I'll have to say, it was difficult. Can these humans not see that I am trying—trying—to sleep?
Her mass of frizzy black hair that puffed up from her head visibly shook with her body in fear at my appearance. Thanks for the flattery, sugar.
She hesitated a moment, trying to recover from my rugged looks, before saying, "You have a letter," in a quiet voice.
"Thanks," I said, taking the letter from her as gently as possible and shutting the door in her face before she had the chance to say "You're welcome" or walk away.
As I shut the door, I realized I had broken the doorknob. Beautiful. I didn't even notice I had done that. I need to watch what I do around humans more closely.
I opened the letter carefully as not to tear the paper in half before I even got to read it. It said:
You are formally invited to the marriage of
Isabella Marie Swan
and
Edward Anthony Masen-Cullen
On the date of August Thirteenth
At five o'clock pm
At the Cullen family house
Forks, Washington
August thirteenth? August thirteenth . . . August thirteenth . . .
What was the date today . . . ?
I looked over to the digital clock on the nightstand beside the bed. In the bottom right corner, it said today was the fourteenth. Either the clock was off by a day, or I had missed the wedding . . .
But who is this Edward Cullen? I thought Carlisle lived alone.
I kept the note in my hand and tossed the envelope on the bed, when I saw a white something flutter onto the floor by my feet.
It was another letter.
Garrett,
I know you are probably getting this wedding announcement too late—it was quite difficult to find your address—but I still
felt obligated to tell you of it. My son, Edward, is now married to Isabella (who we like to call Bella) and are now on their
way to their honeymoon on the island I bought as a wedding present for my wife seventy-three years ago—
Whoa, whoa, wait. Carlisle is married? As in, he has a mate? I'll
have to say, this is news to me.
It has been long since I last saw you, and I wish to see you again. Much has changed, Garrett, since I left you in Pennsylvania and moved west. I am married and have five (soon to be six) other vampires that live with me that I consider my children. Yes, I am still a doctor and I still take care of those—what did you call them?—bloodbags.
I wish I could have found your location sooner—it would have been great for us to see each other again; I miss my brother greatly.
Yours sincerely,
Carlisle
I stood there holding the note for God knows how long, just staring at it.
He still considered me his brother, even after I abandoned him in his quest for a "better existence". Carlisle was a strange creature.
But a strange creature who did manage to make a better life for himself and seven other immortals. I shouldn't have underestimated him those years ago. Why did I see a civilized life as so out of place for our kind when he mentioned it?
Oh yeah, I know why. Because our kind are animals. Vicious, barbaric savages, and I accepted this long ago. A dog might be able to be domesticated, but a wolf can't be.
And I will stay forevermore a lone wolf, as it should be.
As hard as I might try, I cannot by any means make that last line less corny. It took me a while, but this is all I got. I say it works for now.
I managed to write this chapter in a matter of a few hours--from the time I got home from school to now--and I'm actually kind of proud of it. I don't know if it's because it's the first chapter I've written in what seems like eons, or because I actually think it's good, but I don't actually want to think about why. I've learned that when you question great things, they come back and bite you in the butt. I don't want that.
I'm going to a basketball game tonight (senior night) and I won't be able to read any reviews or anything as such until late tonight or tomorrow morning, but I will reply however many of them that allow me to. You have my promise. And if you don't want to review for your own odd reason, at least drop in to say "hello". Tomorrow is Valentine's Day, for crying out loud! Show the love!
Happy Friday the Thirteenth! =]
