Disclaimer: It's all Stephenie's.
Chapter 9:Hunt
The next couple of days passed by slowly. Everything between Edward and I had been a bit awkward since the baseball game. It was funny, I thought, how those few seconds had changed so much. If it had been Emmett that had landed on top of me, nothing would be different.
But it wasn't Emmett. It was Edward. And Edward and me just couldn't get over the awkwardness of it all. Alice, I discovered was certainly the person to vent to.
"I don't know what to do," I confided one day after she had given me the tour of her room. Of her closet, rather. "We just… can't…I think I like him."
"I think we all do," Alice giggled, though I was sure she knew exactly what I was talking about.
"You know what I mean," I accused. We sat in a thoughtful silence for a moment before I remembered one important fact, one that could ruin everything. "Alice!" I screeched, leaping off her bed in a panic.
"Bella!" she returned, calm.
"He can read your thoughts! What if he can hear you right now? I can't talk to anyone! He'll find out!" I rambled, my eyes wide.
"Bella, forget it. Lots and lots of years with Edward have taught me that sometimes, you just have to think about something else. I wouldn't trust Emmett, though. He's not exactly in control of his thoughts. He's really quite underdeveloped for one of us, actually," Alice warned me casually.
"So he won't find out, then?" I asked, seeking confirmation.
"No, not unless you tell him," Alice hinted deliberately. "Which you really should, eventually."
"Eventually," I repeated, reluctant. I hoped beyond hope that my infatuation with him would just go away, so that I could be his friend again and nothing would be awkward.
"Okay, great. You've only known him a few weeks, though," she reminded me as she glided to her door. "Maybe it will pass," she said sarcastically, and with a doubtful roll of her eyes, she was gone. I sighed, not failing to notice the growing feeling of the fire in the back of my throat.
It would come and go, so I figured I didn't have to worry too much about it. I was incredibly nervous about my first time hunting. Although I was perfectly aware that it was a whole lot better than murdering humans, I was reluctant to kill any animal with my bare hands. But, deep down, I felt that the time for me to get out there and hunt was approaching, and fast.
I was stalling, and I knew it. Over the course of a couple of days, every member of the Cullen family had asked me if I was thirsty at least three times. And each time I would tell them that I was fine, that I would just wait a bit longer. My room was becoming familiar to me, as well as Alice's. Rosalie didn't seem to have any problem with me, nor any desire to associate with me for the time being. Esme frequently asked me how I was doing, if there was anything she could do for me to make me more comfortable.
But I was comfortable. For the most part. Days seemed so much longer as they blended into nights and I never felt drowsy. This new way of life was difficult to get used to, but I was sure the Cullens were making it as easy as possible for me.
Finally I couldn't hold it off any longer. The burning in my throat had become unbearable after three weeks, and so had Edward's silence. I vowed to straighten things out with him after I got home from the hunt.
I wandered into Carlisle's office and down the stairs, but he wasn't anywhere in sight. "Carlisle?" I called softly, knowing he would be able to hear me if he was in the house.
"Bella?" The voice behind me wasn't Carlisle's, but Edward's. I spun to face him, already feeling my cheeks getting hot.
"Oh, I was just looking for Carlisle," I told him awkwardly.
"He's at work," Edward informed me apologetically.
"Oh. Okay, then I guess I'll just go find someone else," I muttered, turning back to the stairs.
I heard Edward sigh loudly behind me, and I hesitated before mounting the first stair. "Wait!" he protested quickly. I turned back to him hopefully. "What do you need? No one else is home."
"I just wanted…I need to hunt," I told him hesitantly.
"You haven't hunted yet?" he asked dubiously. I shook my head. "At all?"
"No. It sounds sort of…complicated," I confessed.
"No, you'll get used to it. The longer you wait, the harder it is. You need your strength," he said, staring at me, his eyes full of concern.
"All right," I agreed. "Let's go, then."
"Okay. Let's go," he repeated, turning to the door. I followed him out into the yard, where we both burst into a full-out run. A vampire run, at that. Edward hadn't told me where we were going, so I simply ran in a straight line for a while, always keeping Edward in sight. Five minutes into the run, just as I was beginning to relax and enjoy the run, I felt a strong tug on my wrist. I glanced back to see Edward taking a sharp right, staring back at me expectantly. I followed him, his hand always pulling lightly on my own.
Edward came to a halt in no particular area of the dense forest. "Why-" I started, curious as to why he chose this spot to stop in.
"Shh!" Edward cut me off hastily, the pointer finger of his free hand flying to my lips. "Look," he mouthed, pointing to a space just a few feet in front of us. There stood an entire herd of deer, one male and at least ten females. "Don't kill the buck," he whispered, bending close to my ear. "If the buck dies, the herd has to find a new one or they can't reproduce." I nodded my response, extraordinarily nervous. No supernatural instinct was rushing to me all of a sudden-I could barely even smell the blood of the mammals before me.
Just then, a strong gust of wind carried from the deer to my nose. And I couldn't contain myself. I crept into the herd and drained two larger females, being sure to kill them fast to spare them the pain.
"Good!" Edward complimented, impressed. "That was great! Clean and everything! Are you sure you got enough?"
"Yea, I'm fine," I responded shakily, forcing my eyes away from the bodies of the deer.
"They didn't feel a thing, thanks to you. That was the least painful way for them to go. You'd be surprised at some of the ways these animals die, honestly, you were perfectly considerate," he complimented, taking away the initial guilt that I had felt.
After thinking about it for a moment, I realized that this wasn't much different from the way most humans lived. I had always loved meat, which meant an animal was dying for me to eat. This way was just cheaper. I grinned at the last thought, and Edward stared at me curiously. "What?" he asked.
"Nothing," I dismissed swiftly, walking back the way we came. A cool breeze floated our way, but there was something on it. The light wind carried an amazing, delicious scent, similar to the deer's but more tempting, irresistible. I took off like a shot, not even realizing what I was doing.
"Bella!" I heard Edward call frantically from behind me.
But I was already running.
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