Sorry it took me so effing long to update. (Well, I used to think any updates under three weeks were fast, but that's just for the HP fandom. Not Twilight.) Writers' block sucks like fuck. (And dude, I already have the ending all written out. It's just these next few chapters that'll be hard. Ish.) And my dad didn't kill me about the bad exam grades. He said I should just do better next time, and confide in him immediately or something. Yupyupyup. You'd be shocked about that if you knew him. I know I am. Shocked, that is.
By the way, I'm trying out for this orchestra school thing. If I make it, I probably won't ever be allowed on the computer again. (Exaggeration, but not by much.) So… expect really slow updates if that happens. Yeah.
Anonymous review replies, yo~
Winter: Thanks for reviewing. And thanks. :D Glad you think so!?
sense & sensibility: Well, I /do/ have a warning about that at the top of the first chapter, at the beginning of the author's note there. If you choose to ignore it, that's not my problem.
hasa: Er, glad you like it? xD Aw, thanks. And thanks for reviewing!
Leah found that running helped her think.
Normally, when she ran, she couldn't think—there was usually someone else in her head, preventing any train of thought from leaving its station… not that she'd want to think of anything remotely relating to her own personal problems when she wasn't alone in her mind. (Of course, she did use to do that, to torture the other members of the pack she'd previously been in, but that was an entirely different story.) However, she was running alone now, and her thoughts ran free in synchronization with her paws.
They (her thoughts) were rather disjointed, but the basic gist of them had something to do with the fact that she'd just found out BEFL was a mass murderer (she'd always had some inkling of his violent past, but still… a few thousand people?!), and yet she'd still somehow found herself spilling her guts to him.
Leah Clearwater was not supposed to Spill Her Guts to anybody (and yes, she felt that deserved capital letters), let alone a leech. And not even a nice leech, like the mother one (Esmee or something?—one half of the Spawn's horrible name), but a mass murderer.
Leah was all the more furious with herself about that because of BEFMML's (Blonde Emotion-Fucking Mass Murderer Leech… it was starting to become quite a mouthful) ability. For all she knew, he was manipulating her emotions to make her want to Spill Her Guts to him. Leah didn't know the specifics of his power, but it was quite possible that it worked subtly, and she wouldn't even notice it when it happened… when it had its effects on her.
Or maybe, Leah thought, she actually did want to Spill Her Guts to him. Maybe she was aching for somebody to confide in, and since BEFL (she decided the "MM" part was a bit too much) seemed to be the only person around who really cared right now…
But maybe, she argued with herself, that's just his power working, and his power's making me defend it!
But would it work even when he was out of proximity?
Ugh. It was all so confusing; there were too many variables to factor in. Leah found herself sympathizing—just a little bit—with the psychic leech; surely her ability would be even more confusing. Then Leah wondered why she was making so many connections with the leeches lately.
It's that stupid BEFL's fault, she grumbled to herself. He and his damn—
Hey, sis! Lots on your mind?
Leah yelped, startled, and nearly rammed into a tree. At the last minute, she swerved to avoid it, and sincerely hoped that nobody else would pop up in her mind; Seth was going to be bad enough. Seth! What the hell are you doing?
Uh, talking to you? He sounded confused.
Leah growled.
Oh! Oh, right. Um, I'm chasing Emmett around the woods. I think… hold on a sec—
She was confused for a moment, before she caught the flurry of thoughts from her little brother's mind, detailing what had just happened. You wrote in the diary you got, and then Emmett stole it? What? she cackled.
Oh, shut up—ha! Seth's mind displayed him tackling Emmett, claws tearing at the back of his shirt. Give that back, sucker! he crowed.
Leah watched the show with no small amount of amusement. Emmett had dropped the diary and was poking at the ruined fabric of his shirt now. "Aw, man!" he complained. "Rose is going to kill me; she gave me this for—"
"You should have thought of that before stealing Seth's diary," MRL spoke up, popping up in Seth's vision. He reached down and picked up the small black book and held it out to Seth, who nipped at his fingers before taking the book in his mouth.
It is not a diary! It's a journal, he protested.
You sure about that? Leah asked him.
Shut up, Leah, he grumbled.
I guess that's how Alice knew he'd write in it, Leah thought, and then refused to say more when Seth demanded to know what that meant.
"You may want to leave Seth alone now, Emmett," MRL said. "He's talking to Leah."
"Oh, the girlie-wolf?" the big, bulky vampire asked, and even though Leah had always hated the nickname, she knew he didn't mean it offensively. Strange. "Isn't she hanging out with Jasper?"
"He left hours ago; I'm sure they're done by now," MRL said.
That sounds really wrong, Leah thought.
She saw, through Seth's vision, how the MRL's lips quirked up at that comment. Just like Jasper, she realized, and then she would've hit herself over the head for making yet another connection with the aforementioned leech, but her paws were too preoccupied with running. And she was still in her wolf form.
"He's meeting Alice, isn't he?" Emmett asked. "For shopping or something? They go shopping practically every—"
"Emmett Cullen! What did you do to that shirt?!"
Emmett's voice went up a few octaves or so. "Oh, hey, Rose, I—" The vampires all faded from Seth's vision then, and their voices grew into dull murmurs in the background.
Running away, Seth? Leah mocked. Best idea you've had all day.
I don't know why you have to insult the Cullens all the time, Seth said, sounding injured. They're actually really nice.
Are they, Leah deadpanned.
Yeah!
The Barbie didn't sound too happy.
That's 'cause she bought Emmett that shirt, and it cost a lot or something, Seth explained.
Yeah, well, the leeches are just rolling in money. Which was distinctly unfair; Leah wouldn't have been able to afford college without a scholarship (and she never ended up going to college, anyway, due to the whole werewolf thing), but the bloodsuckers had so much money it wasn't even funny. And they'd probably all gone to school dozens of times already.
Her name's Rosalie, by the way, Seth informed her. Not Barbie.
Do I look like I care?
Well, I wouldn't know; I can't see you right now, he pointed out. And you can't really see yourself.
You're hopeless, bro. Completely hopeless.
Gee, thanks.
No problem.
Relative silence, punctured by the muted sound of traffic in the background. Leah was running in the forest next to the highway.
So, what did you and Jasper do? Seth asked.
She swerved around another tree in her way. Ew, Seth—
Not like that! he corrected, sounding horrified. You have a really bad mind, sis.
I've noticed. I am the one who possesses said bad mind, you know.
Yeah. I mean… oh, you just talked, and—mass murderer?
Leah winced. She still didn't want to be reminded of that. She honestly hadn't meant to let her thoughts slip; she would never be as good at hiding her thoughts as Jacob was. It was probably his stupid alpha genes.
Oh, Seth finally said, having taken in most of what had happened with Leah and Jasper. Well… that was his past, Leah. He's not like that anymore. You can be friends with him.
But… mass murderer, Seth! He killed thousands of people! He's exactly the type of leech we're supposed to kill!
Seth winced a little at this, but determinedly plowed on. That was before, not now. Edward ate humans too, y'know.
This information stopped Leah short. What? He did? Mr. Self Control? The mind-rapist leech? The—
Yeah, yeah, Edward, Seth grumbled. That's him. Yeah… after Carlisle changed him, he didn't want to eat animals 'cause they tasted really bad, and he ran off and ate humans instead.
There were so many questions Leah found herself wanting to ask, despite herself, but the one that came out was, Did his wife know when she dated him?
Yeah, said Seth. Bella knew. He used his mind-reading power to find bad guys and just eat them, not the good guys, but after a while, he decided it was still bad and ran back to find Carlisle.
See? Leah pointed out, deciding not to point out anything else she was thinking (though her brother could probably still tell). It was just the bad guys he ate, and not the good ones. Jasper ate a bunch of random innocent people!
Yeah, but he didn't know any better, Seth said. It was what he was taught or whatever when he got changed, so he thought it was normal.
Leah was silent.
Leah, are you still there?
Yeah.
So, y'know, you should give him a chance—
Why does he even want to be friends with me? And why do you even care? Can't you just mind your own freaking business?
I don't know, said Seth, and she could tell he was answering all her question with that one phrase, but you and Jasper would be really good friends. And Rosalie, too.
The Barbie?!
Yeah.
Why?!
Seth seemed startled at her outburst. Um, because… you're really alike?
Jasper's words from the café the other day came back to her then: Rosalie understands better than you think. Could that possibly be true?
The bloodsuckers have invaded my head, Leah groaned to herself, and even as she thought that, she had to wonder just what had happened to Rosalie Hale to make them "alike," apparently.
If Seth had made some comment about that, Leah would have immediately reverted back to her Bloodsuckers-Are-Evil attitude, but he didn't, and she found herself tentatively venturing, Seth?
Yeah?
How did you… become, er, friends with the MRL?
Huh?
She rolled her eyes, or did the wolf equivalent of the action. Like, after the fight with the redheaded leech and her newborn army or whatever it was called, you and the stalker—
Stalker?
MRL!
Who's MRL?
The mind-rapist leech, damn it! You know what I'm talking about, Leah accused.
Oh. Edward. Seth sounded surprised. Why don't you just say so, then? He has a name, y'know.
Because he's a freaking bloodsucker, Leah spat. He doesn't deserve a name.
He used to be human, Seth reminded her. He was born in 1901. He wanted to go to war.
Leah bit her tongue so hard, it hurt. She said nothing.
They all used to be human. Did you know Alice doesn't remember her past at all?
This surprised Leah so much, she had to say something to it, no matter how much she didn't want to. Really?
Yeah. She had visions even when she was a human, and they put her in an insane asylum. People were really close-minded back then.
Uh-huh…
Anyway, I think you said something else… oh right, I became friends with Edward because I was patrolling and I saw him past the border and he thanked me for helping him save Bella or something and he was really nice and so we started talking and he told me about his past eventually and I gave him my phone number or something—
And that's when you started crushing on him, instead of Jake?
What? Ew! No! Seth's mind radiated disgust. That's gross!
From the way he was whining and shaking his head and pawing at the ground suddenly, Leah decided to believe him. For the most part, anyway. So that's when you found out about his past and stuff?
Yeah, sometimes we met at the border.
And you didn't run away screaming when you found out he'd killed people before?
Why does it even matter? He's different now.
Right. Says the president of the Cullen Fan Club.
I'm not a president of any fan club!
Sounds like you are.
Oh, shut up. Anyway, you should totally become friends with Jasper, 'cause that would be really cool. Now we just have to get Quil and Embry to like them, and then maybe Sam's pack…
Leah tuned her brother out as he started scheming, but she'd made up her mind already.
Later that week, she accosted Jacob just before he left for the Cullens to see Nessie, and shoved a piece of paper in his face. "It's a note," she snapped. "When you get there, give it to the blonde. The guy. Read it and I'll snap your neck." She stomped away, before Jacob could even have time to be stunned.
Half an hour later, Jasper unfolded the crumpled piece of paper. It had one word scrawled on it.
Fine.
This chapter was kind of short and really sucky, but oh well. That was a better place to end it than any other possible places to end this chapter, if I'd continued. The next chapter will surely be longer. Two chapters left after this! I'll try my best not to take so long to update again (sorry about that, again), and… yeah. Was anyone OOC? Any typos? Should there be a line break between "stunned" and "half" near the end?
Review, please! Even though I probably don't deserve it.
