Chapter 8- The New World, My Hell

After graduating high school for a second time I decided that I finally deserved to move on to college. I started working at a café to explain most of the things I was able to do considering most people thought I had been cut off after graduation. Why else would a girl not talk to anyone for a week? It's not like she had an argument with her forger over her trust issues and vampire disposal tactics. No, those were all impossible. I couldn't help but get annoyed at the way people in Garrow continued to live their lives. Despite the vampire outlaws and the shifting border, Canada remained untouched by Edward's lackeys and so life in the North remained simple.

James fit in perfectly and I could act well enough to keep people from noticing, at least during the day. I finished medical school and quit my job as a waitress looking to move up as a doctor, and I volunteered in the neighborhood, I was a model citizen, but by night I was the opposite. I hunted the hunters. Ever since the incident in the bar I had been looking to get the leader of that vampire gang. He kept rebuilding his gang even as I tore it down. What's more, he had seen my face, he knew Bella was near. It was a good thing I could become Jen easy enough for him not to recognize me and perfume could just as easily hold my scent at bay.

It was a brisk Saturday morning towards the end of June and I had been out late again. Thankfully I was off for the day, no school, no work, and my girlfriends from town were busy. My dear friend Sarah was with my former disaster date Dominick and was preparing to get married in the winter. Melody had gone to Quebec to college and was studying teaching but would be back in time for the wedding she hoped. To keep myself sane though I got up at my usual time and cleaned the vampire stench off of my skin before proceeding to go work out.

After my run I returned home to a police car waiting for me outside my house and two officers standing waiting on my front porch. "Morning officers, can I help you with anything?"

"Dr. Marrow, isn't it? We, ah, have some questions to ask you. Do you think we could step inside and handle this?" The older officer, the town sheriff asked.

"Sure, give me a second." Her hands fumbled getting the key from under the rug partially from exhaustion and partially out of nervousness. Once the door was open I motioned them inside. "Can I get you two officers anything to drink?"

"No, no that's alright," the sheriff said. I grabbed myself a sports drink and motioned for them to keep on with what they were doing. "Well then I'll get to the point. Where were you last night?"

My heart almost stopped but I managed to keep my cool. Thanks to a year of living with a cop I knew the generally wrong answer to that question. "At a bar in town, I had the night off so I decided to have some fun." Not a total lie, I had been there at the book ends of the night.

"Alone?"

"Generally, yes, I did talk to a few people, but I did go out alone. All of my friends were too busy." I took another swig of my drink.

"And you still got up this morning and went for run? How far might I ask?"

"Yeah, about 7.4 miles over all. You could say I'm a bit OCD about my work out, if I don't get it in I feel tense all day. I know, I know. You probably think I'm nuts. Young woman lives alone, runs alone, goes out alone, I must have a serious death wish but I can take care of myself. I've been taking classes for years." I shrugged it off playing it cool.

"Yes, we've looked at that. I have one last question for you, Dr. Marrow," He leveled his eyes on me. "Do you have any guns?" I swallowed.

"An old hunting rifle my dad got me. We used to go hunting together."

"Until you decided you couldn't stand the fact that he and your mother weren't running from the vampire crisis. That's why you came here, isn't it, to escape?"

I had just met the man but I already hated him, hated him to the very core of his existence. He didn't need to tell me what I'd done, I knew. I locked my jaw and stood taller. If he wanted I fight I'd give him one. Our eyes met and the silent battle began. He looked for any weakness and I gave him nothing. There was no way for him to gain any ground on me. I had stood up to vampires, this old man had nothing on the likes of them. Feeling the tension, the Deputy cleared his throat.

"You see, Miss, can I call you Jennifer? We've been having so problems with the local vampire population. They claim that some human assassin is out to get them, they want us to stop it but we don't want that. We started looking in to who our little vampire killer might be. Of course, you were on the top of the list considering, that your arrival came at the same time as the events in question began occurring. You're not in any trouble. We want your help."

Time stopped for a moment as my brain tried to process what he'd just said. "So you want me to what, kill for you? What's in it for me?"

"We can't officially add you to the force but we can treat you as a confidential informant. You'd get paid per vampire you take down or get in to us. All the while we'd ask that you lay evidence that leads to an escaped convict, evidence we'll provide. How you do so is up to you, of course. When we bring the guy in, you, as our informant will get a cut. What do you say?"

"What happens if I don't?"

"We blow a giant hole through your forged papers and send you across the border without even a sharpened stick to poke the vampires with." The sheriff said. "I don't know who you really are, Jennifer but I figure you don't want to be found."

"Fine, I'll do it but don't come here again or a least don't come in uniform. Low profile, got it?"

"Thank you, ma'am. We'll be in touch." The sheriff said tipping his hat as he left.

I slammed the door behind them and watched them pull away and punched the door. How had I been so sloppy? If the police, humans, could see me for what I was than Edward, a vampire could just as easily find me here. I grabbed my drink and went downstairs to my makeshift gym. Immediately I began taking my anger out on the battered red punching bag I'd found at a Goodwill shop. After a good deal of swinging at the swaying bag I felt my knuckles bust. I was tending to my hands when James showed up.

"What happened?" He asked grabbing my hands.

I pulled them back. "I'm pissed. The sheriff showed up today. Threatened to blow a hole in my forged papers if I didn't help him take down every vampire in the county." The look on his face was priceless but I had been expecting that.

"So?" He asked.

"I agreed, at least I'll get paid for it now. Taking the deal was the only option and, as far as I know, the sheriff and his deputy are the only two that know about me." I sat back. "I'm almost done with school and after Sarah's wedding there isn't much left for me here."

"What do you want to do?" James asked taking my hands again and finished bandaging them.

"I don't know, leave I guess. I'll finish this though, I owe it to these people." After all, I started all this, didn't I? "I'm going to shower now and then go into town to get some groceries. Can you pick up some things out of town?"

He nodded picking up a piece of paper with a small short list on it. "Why dehydrated food?"

"In case of an emergency escape or while on the run we can't hunt or fish. Trust me, you'll be thankful for it." I got up and dragged myself upstairs.

"Are we leaving or something?" He called up.

"Maybe."

By the time I was finished and dressed he was gone. For the first time in a while I caught my own reflection. At twenty-seven (twenty-six to my dear northern neighbors), dyed red hair and faux curls, pale skin, and ice blue contacts I was so different. In a way I was beautiful but I wasn't me. I realized that was the biggest problem, I wasn't me anymore. I jumped in to my Jeep and headed to the store. The guy who ran the grocery store was a year younger than me and had been one of the few juniors I'd ever hung out with in school, one of the few guys I could tell had a crush on me. Jim wasn't my best friend but I could handle seeing him once or twice a week.

"Hey Jen! In for the usual?" Jim called from behind the counter where he was helping an old lady.

"Yeah, don't worry I got it."

"Whatever you say doc!"

Laughing, I grabbed a small basket and grabbed the things I needed. Somehow I found myself in the hair dye isle looking at a box for a color close to what I used to have. Biting my cheek I picked up two boxes and headed to check out. I handed over my basket, letting Jim look over my purchases. He lingered on the hair dye, looking up at me in confusion. I shrugged. It wasn't really any of his business anyway. He offered to help me to my car but I declined noting he had someone waiting at the butcher's in the back.

Back in my house I got ready for work at the local hospital and dyed my hair. The perm gave my hair a wave but I looked so much like my old self, except for the blue eyes. I wondered if Charlie would be proud of me for completing medical school a year early. Carlisle would. He would have helped me along the way, even helped to get me a job, if I would have needed it. Redressed in for work I paused to think back on the man I considered to be more of a father than Charlie. The Cullens, for all the pain and trouble that we'd been through, they were the family I would have chosen. God, I missed them. Pulling myself I headed off to work.