Woo, I think this a new record for me! Haha This chapter was a blast to right, I think because I enjoy torturing my characters. Thank you to those that comment and welcome to the readers I keep receiving. You guys, as always, make it so worth while! :)
Scooterly
Nine
Intruder
Monday came to fast. To my great pleasure, Dante preformed another no show, so math was actually quite peaceful for once.
Tuesday, however, was different on a variety of levels.
"Have fun at the beach?"
"Gee, I'm glad to see you back. What did you do; play hooky yesterday?"
Dante was standing to the right of my locker as I dug out my books, looking as he always did. Pale, lacking sleep . . . I had begun to wonder if he did drugs. He didn't act like it, but he sure seemed like a good candidate. I slammed my locker shut, clearly irritated as I started down the hall. Dante matched my stride.
"I took my little brother hunting."
I raised an eyebrow at him. "I wasn't aware you had siblings."
"Twelve of them."
"So you're lucky number thirteen then?"
He grinned maliciously but didn't say anything to the statement. My baiting him wasn't going to work today.
"You never answered my question." He said smoothly. "How was your time at the beach?"
"Beautiful." I said simply. "I had a great time. Especially with Chase."
I don't know what made me say it, I really don't. But it seemed like a good add in.
"Boyfriend already?"
I proudly held my head. "No."
He smirked. "You missed me."
"Not in the slightest."
"You're not even curious why I didn't come?"
"No." I said, combing a stray hair behind my ear. "With a family that big, I suppose you have more important things to do."
I could hear a slight grumble in his voice as we passed the door way, out into the open air to pass to the other building and smiled to myself. One point for me. He lagged back a little before springing ahead to open the door to the trailer. I gave him a wary glance, as though expecting to him to shout "April Fools!" and slam the door in my face or something. Instead, he impatiently motioned for me to get inside.
"And . . . where exactly did you pick up manners from overnight?" I watched him closely as I walked past him and he closed the door, his face growing stern.
"I'm not allowed to be a gentleman?"
"Didn't you hear?" I said in a very serious voice. "They're all extinct! That species is gone forever . . ."
He glowered at me and I smiled.
In the next second some god-awful noise choked and sputtered through the hall and wandering students jumped, some dropped books – a warning bell. A Freshman started having a panic attack and lost her glasses and began crying until one of the teachers grabbed her and pulled her into her classroom. Students started stampeding into the first open classroom and before I could take off on my own, Dante grasped my wrist and hauled me with him.
"Hey!" I shouted.
"Just come on!" he commanded.
I really didn't have much of a choice. He hauled me down the hall and into a secluded room which I soon found out, much to my distaste, happened to be a broom closet. He threw me into a pile of buckets and slammed the door behind us, locking it.
"What the hell –?" I stammered, trying to push myself up.
"Shh!" he growled, crouching next me, placing a cool hand over my mouth. I felt tempted to bite him but thought better of it.
We both held our breaths as voice sounded over the intercom:
"Intruder alert; this is NOT a drill. Repeat; this is NOT a drill."
My skin shuddered, icy cold. Something was very . . . very wrong. It was then I realized where we were; a broom closet. And not just a broom closet – a very dark broom closet.
"Dante," I whispered. "Dante, we need to turn the light on."
"What? No way, August . . ."
"No! You don't understand . . ."
I saw something flicker to the side of me and tripped over a bucket into Dante. He caught me easily and I felt him flinch at the noise as the bucket sent others like itself crashing to the floor. Darkness seemed to cover them . . . coming towards me.
"I don't understand? Unless you forgot, the entire school is under lockdown!"
I simpered as I felt something soft and cold touch my ankle. The roots of my hair were starting to tingle and I knew I needed to stop my hair from turning. I looked up into the darkness, trying to determine if I could reach up and grab the light cord.
That's when we both heard the squeaking of the trailer door and tensed. The door slammed shut, as though whoever was coming was incredibly irate. The foot steps were loud and slammed down against the ground, making sure every student and teacher heard them. They didn't stop; they simply passed down the hall and then passed back. Whoever it was was preying on the fact that they were scaring a ton of students and teachers. I heard them rattle door knobs and bang on lockers. No one screamed, thankfully.
I suddenly winced and shut my eyes tightly, my ankle feeling as though it had burst into flame. I glanced off to my side, my eyes seeing dark shadows curve into fingers, as though they were trying to pull be back to them. I thought I saw the figure of a man standing next to me. He had no face, he was just a shade. A scream got lodged into my throat and I turned and did the one thing I could never imagine myself doing; I started to cling to Dante and wrapped my arms around his neck. He didn't say anything, but he placed an arm around my waist and pulled my closer. I kept my eyes closed and tried drawing my ankles up to me. I could feel them, they were there . . .
Coming to get you . . .
Little, pathetic, piece of humanity . . .
"Stop it . . ." I whispered out of reflex.
Dante's hand lightly fluttered over my mouth to stop me from speaking. The footsteps in the hall way stopped . . . right in front of our door. I felt tears starting to burn in my eyes and I hopelessly clung to Dante, my fingers grabbing his shirt. He lightly rubbed my back.
Both dead . . .
You're left alone in this world with dark things . . .
Fingers were running through my hair but they weren't Dante's.
An image flashed in my eyes of Keith and Maria's cold, dead faces, streaming with blood . . .
The intruder pounded on our door and my heart rate flew and I jumped, yet Dante held me tight and secure, his hand still clamped over my mouth.
He's just going to kill you, you know. . .
Same with your new . . . family . . .
They don't love you . . .
Just your blood . . .
The door knob rattled wildly and I heard a deep hiss in Dante's throat. I couldn't feel my fingers anymore, they were dug to deep into his skin. My lip was bleeding profusely where I had bitten it and I buried my head into the crook of his arm. I was shaking so hard I was surprised he didn't fall over. Something was crouching over me; cold, dark, clinging to my back, wrapping its fingers around my waist . . . and still Dante hadn't noticed. I whimpered . . . trying to pull away . . .
Come on Hope . . . Come out of the box . . .
Always so stubborn . . .
Another knock pounded against our door and I lurched, but again Dante held me in steel like grip, his fingers pressed tight over my mouth as I emitted another squeak of surprise. I could hate myself for this later; I was terrified right now. The door knob rattled again.
So close to death . . .
Even though my eyes weren't open I could feel how much darker it was becoming around us – Dante didn't even seem to notice. Another deep hiss came from deep down in his chest and I clung to his shirt as someone pounded the door again. For a moment there was silence; still and loud.
And then a chilling voice, that wasn't the darkness but came from right outside the door spoke, deep and raspy:
"The girl is mine, Dante."
I think my heart literally stopped and I opened my eyes, trying to see his face.
This person . . . knew him. And me. Or, at least, that was the way it sounded.
Opening my eyes had been a bad idea however. I only vaguely heard the sound of the intruders retreating footsteps through the wild pounding in my ears and though Dante slowly loosened his grip, I still clung tightly to him.
"Please tell me you didn't hear that." He whispered but I wasn't able to answer him.
A sob escaped my throat as I saw the crowding darkness behind me and I kicked out behind me. Of course, my foot only became more encased in shadow and I began hyperventilating.
"What the hell Brie? You're shaking like you've seen a ghost . . . I didn't realize how afraid of the dark you were." Dante grumbled, trying to pry my fingers away from him. When he succeeded, I curled up on the floor in a fetal position and he stood, clicking on the light. "Brie?"
Judging by the sound in his voice, I must have looked like a mess. I felt like one too. Curled up tightly on the floor, I realized I smelled like bleach; I had knocked one of bottles over and it had started to leak all over the floor. I was shaking so hard my teeth rattled together and I couldn't stop crying. My back and my ankles could still feel where the shadows had touched me; a burning coldness that seemed to spread up my body and along my scalp. My lip stung as bleach touched the open area and I closed my eyes, feeling absolutely and completely helpless.
Dante knelt down next to me, his fingers running down my cheek.
"Good lord, Brielle what's wrong?"
I couldn't speak, all I could do was lay there in a puddle of bleach and shake, my heart rate pounding in my ears like a wild drummer in a heavy metal band. I hated this. I hated him. I hated me. I curled up tighter.
"Your hair . . ." he stammered.
I could already feel it fading back to normal and I sniffed loudly, my body racking with sobs. He had made me go through this, he had made me feel this vulnerable and helpless and yet I still had no choice but to cling to him. I felt his arms come up beneath me and pull me up out of my bleach bath as he unlocked the door and we stepped out in the hallway. A blur of students and teachers faced us and something was said over the intercom but I didn't catch it. I saw Mariah and Jenn's face in the crowd, appalled at the site of me. My heart was beating so fast now that I was starting to lose my senses; people were talking but it all sounded the same to me. My body was tired from shaking that I felt myself drifting off into slumber, safe now, in the light . . .
"Look at her . . . she's so pale!"
"Look how hard she's shaking . . ."
"That can't be good."
I saw a squat teacher push through the crowd of students and heard the voice of Mr. Alsop, instructing Dante to take me immediately to the nurse. I blinked, my breathing coming in short, ragged gasps.
"Hang in there, August." I heard Dante growl as he carried me into the cold, November air. "Don't you pass out on me."
As usual, I didn't listen.
My last coherent thought was wondering when we stopped being on a first name basis.
* * *
I woke up to the feel of eyes on me, staring intently, and the feel of cool water running down the side of my cheek. I opened my eyes, feeling like someone had lugged a sledge hammer into my face. With a groan, I moved my hand to my face to try and remove the damp cloth that had been set there.
"How are you feeling, sweetie?"
"Esme?" I murmured.
Her cool hand felt good against my face and I looked up to see her smiling down at me, relief on her features. Carlisle was behind her, still worried. Emmett and Jasper were looking at me, arms crossed. One look at Jasper and my headache eased a little. Alice was at my side almost instantly.
"Boy your just loads of trouble, aren't ya?" Joked Emmett, his face creasing into a playful grin.
I stuck my tongue out at him and then turned to the three that were hovering over me.
"I'm fine." I said, feeling slightly light headed as I sat up. I winced as a leaned on my arm and was surprised to see how bruised I was on my wrist. "What happened?"
"There was an intruder at the school, you went into lockdown." Carlisle said seriously. "The nurse said that a boy brought you in, that you had been locked in a broom closet, trying to get out when the lockdown was happening. They found you in a puddle of bleach and you looked like you were having a fit, or at least those were their words. Do you have seizures?"
"No," I said looking down at my cloths. It was true; my brand new shirt and pants were totally ruined now, soaked and cracking, stained white. I sighed. "I just . . . I remember being so scared and Dante wouldn't let me go . . . He wouldn't turn on the light."
"Whose Dante?" Jasper asked suddenly.
"This kid at school. He annoys me for the most part but – "
"Did he give you those?" he pointed at my wrist.
I looked at the heavy bruising on my wrist and where it led up my arm where I must have smashed into the buckets and other cleaning supplies. My lack of response was enough of an answer for Jasper.
"So he did this to you?" a quiet anger was clear in his voice. Alice stood up quietly and walked to him, placing a hand on his chest.
"It's okay, Jasper . . . he didn't mean to hurt her." She said in a soft voice. The tension in the room seemed to quiet but he still seemed uneasy. "Did he Brie? He helped you, didn't he?"
"Uh, yeah." I offered.
I thought back to what happened, trying not to remember the shadows in the broom closet, but rather the "intruder" that had caused all the alarm in the first place. He had addressed Dante, he had known where we were. And by the sound of it, he knew who I was too and, well . . . it was all really unsettling.
Maybe I needed Carlisle's help after all. I didn't know what Dante had done, or who this person was.
"Do they know who the intruder was?" I asked hopefully.
Carlisle shook his head. "Police were too late; he had already cleared the premises."
I closed my eyes and cursed to myself.
Something told me to spill it all to Carlisle, my past, what had happened . . . he hadn't said anything about being anywhere close to helping me like he had planned. Maybe he was waiting for me to help him. Maybe he had planned for me to give in all along. Maybe he knew I would grow attached.
"I need to take a shower." I said softly. "Clean up."
"You're sure you're okay?" Esme said, already helping me up.
I smiled at her and gently pushed her hands away. "Yes. I'm fine. . . I just . . . I just need to change and clean up."
Grudgingly, she stepped aside. With one last look at Jasper and Alice, I quickly took myself up stairs, gathered some cloths and spent a long time under the hot water.
When I got out, I still felt the need to take some time for myself and snuck downstairs. No one was down to greet me, so I walked outside, for once, without a body guard. There was a trail of sorts, leading out into the woods, so I grabbed a jacket and headed out. My head still hurt some and my lips felt chapped and still hurt from where I had bitten myself. The cold air did little to ease my pain but I walked anyway. I needed to be alone.
I didn't wander far; the last thing I needed was to get lost in the woodland of Forks, Washington.
I found a rock that overlooked a broad expanse of forestland, looking over the tops of trees, lightly powdered with snow. I sighed and rested my head against my knees. I felt lost, alone, abandoned at the crossroads. I was starting to lose focus of everything that seemed real to me anymore. I thought I had known who to trust, and then they had been ripped away from my life.
What if that happened with the Cullen's?
And then there was the whole mystery surrounding them; there was something they were hiding from me and I knew it. But I couldn't help but like them – maybe it was because I could relate to their kids, all foster. All adopted. But they had a stable home now.
I could have one too.
"Brielle?"
I looked up, blinking hazily at Bella as she beamed at me. I smiled back and scooted over so she could sit next to me.
"Hey Bella."
"I heard what happened." She said, lightly settling down next to me. She took a dead, crinkled leaf in her fingers and fumbled around with it. "I came to check on you."
"Thanks."
She released the leaf and it tossed and turned with the wind, disappearing quickly. After a moment, she looked over at me, her silky, brown hair falling down over her shoulders.
"Is there a reason why you're sitting up here by yourself in the cold?"
I smirked at the tone in her voice. "Just trying to sort out the mess that is my life."
I heard her sigh and I pulled my knees to my chest, readying myself for the ever so popular "there are other people in the world worse off than you" lecture but instead, she touched my shoulder and I looked to see her frowning.
"When I first came to the Cullen's," she said. "I knew that this was one of the best things, and hardest things, that had happened to me. You don't know my whole story, and maybe you never will. But I can tell you one thing for sure; all of them are trustworthy. Esme will be a great mother for you, and Carlisle is an amazing dad. Everyone supports you."
I thought about Rosalie and Edward and rolled my eyes. "Not everyone. Rosalie looks like she wants to hang my head on a pike every time she sees me and, no offense, but I don't think Edward likes me very much either."
To my surprise, she laughed.
"Don't you worry about Edward; I'll straighten him out. Don't take it personally, Brie, its just that he nearly lost me and Nessie and, well, he doesn't know you. He just wants to be careful. As for Rosalie . . . I'll let you in on a little secret: She didn't like me at first either."
I raised my head at this.
"In fact, come to find out, she was just jealous."
"What?"
"I know, surprised me too."
"What was she jealous of?"
I looked at Bella – I suppose it could be her beauty; maybe Rosalie wanted to be a brunette. Or maybe Rosalie was jealous of the fact that Bella didn't come from a foster home. I knew I had had that feeling several times through my fostering experience, looking at the biological children of other families. They could never possibly understand. But Bella shrugged, as if it were a little thing that mattered nothing to her.
"Ask her. The best way to get to Rosalie is by talking to her. If you let her into your world, she'll give you a glimpse of hers. Maybe you'll fully understand her . . . Rosalie-ness one day . . ." Bella smiled. "But in the mean time, just ignore her and let Emmett take care of her. He's good at that."
"Or pissing her off."
"He's good at that too. See? You're already getting everyone's habits down!"
I laughed a little with her and sighed, looking around.
"I want to stay, Bella." I finally muttered. "I want to live here, and be happy, like the rest of you. But . . ."
"But . . .?" she prompted when I hesitated.
"But I don't think I can." My voice was so low I was surprised she heard it.
"Do you have family?" she tried guessing.
I shook my head. "I was found in a park, turned in. The note they found said that I wasn't allowed to stay with my mother and that my mother didn't want to raise me. Whatever that was supposed to mean. They never found my father either. I was born unwanted. Isn't that a great way to start life?"
"Sorry . . ." she said sheepishly.
I shrugged and then took a good look at her. "Carlisle didn't send you out here to get information, did he?"
She held up her hands in defense. "No! No . . . he doesn't work that way. You willingly gave me that information and if you don't want me to, I won't share it with anyone."
I took a deep breath. "That would be good; if you don't share it."
She smiled, if a little sadly. "No problem."
"Because," I added in as if I hadn't heard her. "I think it would be better if I did it myself."
"So . . . you're going give Carlisle a shot then?"
"Yeah, my life's all about "try this family" and "try that family" so why not try the Cullen's? He already made me a deal anyway . . ."
She was smiling at me a dazzling, sort of mischievous way that vaguely reminded me of Alice. I felt my body grow warm, even as the cold wind blew against me. There was something really special about Bella; even though she had married into the Cullen's, it was like she just blended in with them so well. Her and Alice, I figured, would be who I would get along with the best. I was starting to grow so attached to them. I already figured I wanted to spend more time with Bella and hopefully Edward would warm up to me. Rosalie . . . I would have to work on. I already enjoyed Emmett's rambunctious company and Jasper always made me feel better, no matter what.
Why did I want to want to leave all that?
Because it's failed before, I thought, clenching my fist.
I looked up to see Bella's hand covering mine, her skin icy cold. I shivered and she pulled away. I grinned, turning to look at her. Before I lost the courage, I leaned over and hugged her.
"Thanks, Bella." I whispered.
"Anytime you need me," she said. "You can give me a call. Middle of the night, middle of the day . . . trust me, I'm a night owl and an early bird."
I laughed. "Part vampire, huh?"
She shook her head with a crooked smirk. "Oh if only you knew . . ."
I stood up then, stretching.
"It is beautiful around here, I'll give it that. Very green."
"Yeah, I used to hate it here." Bella added. "And then I met Edward."
I laughed and she helped me off the boulder and onto the grass. Silently, we headed back to the house but before we reached the door, she paused and looked at me funny.
"So what exactly were you doing in a broom closet?"
I groaned, rolled my eyes and walked past her. "It's a long, complicated story. . ."
"Oh, I'm sure we can keep up."
"It might freak you out."
"I don't know, I've seen quite a few "weird" things my life."
I sighed. I bet she'd never been chased by the boogie-man.
"If you say so."
