To my loyal band of followers (don't take this personally, I have no idea who any of you are and I'm high and I'm tired [even though I don't sleep] and I haven't hunted in a few days...) this is not me. Well, it is, but I'm getting ahead of myself. I am not very into writing at this present time. Therefore, I have found the perfect solution! (actually, in honesty, I can't remember if it was me or not) Nicknoo, whom many of you would know simply as, well, Nickynoo, has written this chapter. In her friendly, kind and honest self, I would like to send her my deepest and sincerest thanks. (because I think this chapter is awesomeo.)
Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. On with the story!
Recap:
"Edward! Don't leave!" But it was in vain because when I craned my neck, he was no longer standing there.
And now the story:
"No...no." I mumbled. Somebody with cold hands shook me.
"Bella, Bella wake up!" I recognized Alice's voice. I opened my eyes and blinked a few times. We were inside the orange car still. Wait? What the heck? We got out of that car, I fell over, and Edward was here...he had walked away.
"Alice...what happened?" I asked groggily while trying to sit up. She bit her lip.
"Uhhh..." She started. The car suddenly slammed on its brakes. I was lunged forward. I looked at the driver, he was male and he had a beanie on his head. I couldn't see his face because the beanie covered it.
"Get out!" He hissed in a deep rumbling voice. Alice grabbed a bag by her feet and got out of the car quickly dragging me behind her. The orange car sped off. I was thoroughly confused now.
"Spill Alice!" I said. She hesitated and I gave up. I didn't even want to know. I was too much shocked and pissed off with what had happened in the past couple of days. I looked around me now. What I had seen before in my...dream I guess it was...was nothing like this.
This place looked...normal. Then I realised that the sun was out. Alice was sparkling. My mouth fell open. "Alice, where are we?" I asked. Just then a whole bunch of people walked out from all the different houses in the once empty street.
No, they weren't people, they were vampires too. They were all sparkling too. I had never seen so many vampires together at any one time. Okay, so maybe I had but this was different. Really different. It was such a beautiful sight.
All of them were staring at Alice and me. "Hello, I'm Alice and this is my friend Bella." She said carefully. One of them came up to us.
"You brought a human here. Why didn't you see this Rowan? How dare you! She must be so freaked out right now and she's going to start asking questions! What if the Volturi found out?" The main leader guy I thought accused. I voiced up then.
"I'm not freaked out about this. I've known about vampires for some time, I'll be a vampire soon, I hope. Oh and the Volturi already know. The only thing I'm wondering right now is where I am and how I got here, and when I'm going home." I said. Alice gave me a warning look. As if to say 'don't give away too much Bella!'
"You two, come with me! Rowan, you too!" the guy ordered. Alice dragged me behind her and we followed him. He took us into a house; well it was more of a hut. It looked like the one in my 'dream'. I was a little nervous, where was Jasper when you needed him?
"Sit!" He ordered again. He could stop ordering us around, weren't we guests in his house? Or were we intruders? "Now, I'm not going to tell you where you are. I don't ever know why you're here, but I want to know and I will find out. Another thing I want to know is why Rowan couldn't see you coming." He said.
"Can Rowan see the future or something?" I asked curiously.
"No. You see this is an all vampire town. You'd wonder how it could be when there is always the risk of humans. Rowan can sense when humans are coming, so that gives us the chance to prepare. When they arrive another one of our community members changes the weather to dreary, cloudy, rainy sort of weather. So we can go outside. We don't allow the humans to stay long, and they never do. After that we go back to the usual livings. And I wonder why he didn't see you a mere human coming this way." He pondered on his thoughts for a moment.
"Is his power physical or mental?" Alice asked. The man/vampire, vampire-man looked taken aback.
"Mental. Why?"
"Well you see Bella has some natural resistance to mental powers. My brother can't read her thoughts like he can read everybody else's, yet my husband can effect her emotions. Jane from the Volturi cannot effect her either because it is mental her power. Yet physical powers she can be affected by. It really is odd." She said speculating.
"Gee thanks Alice." I said sarcastically.
"Why are you here?" He asked.
"Yeah Alice, why are we here?" We both started at her. She took a deep, unneeded breath.
"Well you see, Edward my brother, who is a vampire sort of did a 'Freaky Friday' and switched bodies with Bella's best friend Jacob. Jacob is in on the supernatural stuff too, but in a different way. So Jacob is in Edward's body and Edward is in Jacob's body." Alice started.
"Go on." He urged her.
"Well, as I said Edward could never read Bella's thoughts. But in Jacob's body, he could. That was the only thing we really noticed. Oh and that while in Jacob's body, Edward could eat human food. I had heard from our father figure Carlisle about this all vampire town and I wondered if anybody here could help me with the situation. Bella was never meant to come, but I didn't want her to be home alone with Jacob running around with no control of his instincts."
We both nodded and urged her on. "So I arranged a ride to get here with a fellow vampire friend, who won't be named. That's how we got here." She finished. Okay, so it was less elaborate than the plan I had drawn up.
"How does Jacob know about the vampire thing and Bella as well?" He asked. I looked at Alice who looked back at me. 'It can't hurt to tell him...' I said with my face, she nodded.
"Well Jacob didn't believe it at first, all the old myths and legends. He had told Bella these when she was trying to figure out what was so different about our family. She found out we were vampires and told Edward, he couldn't deny her the truth. They've been in love ever since, strange I know." She smirked and I glared at her. She shook her head and continued.
"I mean its not like I don't love having Bella around, it was just strange that he would take that risk. Anyway, Jacob and his friends are...werewolves. But they are normal wolves..." Alice trailed off and then told him all she knew about them. Lucky she didn't tell him where we lived, otherwise all the wolves would be in a war with these vampires.
"Okay. I'm going to help you, but you only have 24 hours, then I'm sending you away and you are never, and I repeat, never allowed to come here again! Understood?" we both nodded. Frankly we wanted to get out of here as quickly as possible.
He wrote down an address and told us to go there; it would hold all the answers. Alice and I raced there thinking it would be better if we did it quickly. "You know Alice; we never got that guys name..." I said. She giggled and nodded her head agreeing with me.
I started to ponder on my dream. It had seemed so real, like I hadn't been dreaming at all, but that it had happened. And Edward, it was so strange; I remember I could feel the coolness of his skin. I shook it out of my head. I would deal with that later. We reached the address. It looked just like the hut in my dream. I stopped and just stared at it.
"Bella come on!" Alice hissed at me dragging me inside. What we saw was different from the inside of the hut in my dreams. Much, much different. A lot of things were different here. There was beads hanging over the entry way. It was dark and smelled of inscents.
A freaky looking man came out. He was wearing robes and smelled like pot. He was beautiful in a sense but had an animalistic look about him. I saw Alice's nose bunch up.
"How can I help you ladies?" He asked. His voice was rough and rugged.
"We were told to come here for your assistance." Alice told him the story while he fixed some tea. I was even more confused now. Why was he making tea? Alice didn't drink it, he didn't, did he?
"If you don't mind my asking...what are you?" I asked him. He chuckled for a minute and then poured two cups of tea. He handed one to me. I thanked him and smiled. It smelt good, and I hadn't realised how thirsty I was.
"I'm a witch doctor. I know how to fix your predicament. But I am also a vampire. Yet I seem to have the ability to change into an animal." He said. I felt my forehead crease.
"Ummm... I've never heard of that before. It's...interesting." I said. He laughed again.
"I never quite figured it out myself. Although I have come to understand and accept it. I live out here so far away from others because they can't stand the smell of me, like your friend here." He said gesturing towards Alice.
She smiled hesitantly. "Now, the only way I can help you is by giving you this. I have never needed it and never bothered to decode it. It is a riddle. You must figure it out to help your friends. As I have heard, you only have around 22 hours left. You better get to it. It was a pleasure meeting you both." He said and patted my shoulder. Then he walked to the back of the hut.
Alice and I both looked at each other and walked calmly to the door. She looked at the note he gave us. "Well, what does it say?" I asked.
"There's two." She handed me the note. The first one read:
Swings by his thigh, a thing most magical!
Below the belt, beneath the folds
Of his clothes it hangs, a hole in its front end,
Stiff-set and stout, it swivels about.
Levelling the head, of this hanging tool,
Its wielder hoists, his hem above his knee;
It is his will to fill, a well-known hole
That it fits fully, when at full length
He's oft filled it before. Now he fills it again.
"Don't you think it sounds a little...sexual?" Alice asked me. I shook my head. No, it wasn't that. Below the first riddle there was a note written in messy scrawl: Once you have discovered the first. You will understand the second. I took a deep breath.
"Okay, let's look at this logically. It is not what it portrays itself as. What do you hang off a belt, which is near your thighs?" I asked. Alice concentrated. "Haven't you had a vision of this?" I asked her.
"I can't have a vision of it until I know what it is!" She stated. "Okay, well you hang a water flask from belts. Lots of things." She said.
I nodded, "It hangs off clothes, and has a hole in the front end...hole in the front end, so you could put a piece of string through said hole, so it would stay on you belt!" I said Alice nodded. "It's stiff and set. So it has to be hard. It swivels about...so when you move it moves too." These were all obvious assumptions.
"The next two lines I can decipher. But I think it means that to be used it needs to go into a hole. One hole that only it can fit into..." Alice agreed. She was trying to see it. Which wasn't really helping me.
"It only works when it is in all the way. It has filled the hole before and when used fills the hole once again." Alice and I had sat on the gutter.
"It hangs off a belt, but not always. It has a hole in one end. It's hard. Wait! Swivels about, that means to use it you need to turn it! Alice it's a key!" She had a vision then I could tell.
"Oh my goodness Bella you are a genius! How did you figure that out?" She asked me.
"Well you hang keys from belts and they have a whole in one end they are also hard and when they fill the lock or hole you swivel them to open it! We need to find a key! Okay the second one says:
Inscribe an M above a line,
And then write an E below.
The flower you seek is hung so fine,
It sways when breezes blow."
"So what we need is a key to get us into a room, so we can get this...flower?" I thought for a moment.
"We do need a key...wait where do you usually find flowers?" I asked Alice already knowing the answer.
"Gardens and greenhouses!" I nodded.
"We need a key to a greenhouse or garden. Then we figure out which flower it is!" I said to her excitedly. We walked over to one of the local towns people.
"Hi, we were just wondering if there was a greenhouse or garden that everybody knows about? You know something that's locked..." Alice asked the man.
"Yes. There is a flower greenhouse over in that direction. Follow the nice smell. Although it is lock and nobody is allowed in there..." He trailed off. That was all Alice and I needed.
"Thank you so much!" I said while we raced in the other direction. We saw the greenhouse and even I could smell it. Alice walked over to the door.
"It's locked. Although I could break it, but there's an alarm. Maybe we should just ask for a key?" She suggested. We walked behind the green house until we found the lady who obviously owned it.
"How can I help you two young ladies?" She asked politely. How would she know if we were young? She could have been 50 and Alice could have been 80! Bella focus!
"Well..." I started, "We need to get into that greenhouse to find a certain flower. Although we don't know which one. We're trying to solve a riddle..." I trailed off. Her face fell.
"Oh I'm sorry. I can't let you in there. You need to go now." She said. She did look a little apologetic.
"Do you have a piece of paper?" I asked Alice. She shook her head. The lady said she did and handed it to us along with a pen.
"What are you doing Bella?" Alice asked me when we sat down on a bench. I started to jot down ideas.
"So it says to write an M on top of an E right?" Alice nodded.
On the paper I wrote the letter M. I put a dividing line underneath it and then drew the letter E. I frowned at it for a while. "An M on top of E. An M on E. An M on E." I kept saying it over and over, trying to get some meaning.
"Bella that's it! Anemone! An M on E it's a flower anemone!" She wrote down the word. "The wind flower! The white poppy! We have to get that flower!" She yelled!
"I know, but how?" I asked her.
"I know what it looks like. We'll break in and get it tonight, and then we'll run like hell!" She said quietly. I nodded. Alice and I headed back to the witch doctor person.
"Ahhh, couldn't figure it out?" He laughed.
"No, we did figure it out" I said with pride in my voice, "We know that we have to get a key to the greenhouse to get the anemone flower. All we need to know is how to administer it to our friends?" I asked him.
He laughed again. "When you get the flower make both of them eat it." He said and then walked off. Alice shook her head again and we walked out.
"What if we look for a key near the greenhouse?" I asked her. She nodded; Alice does a lot of nodding. I looked in the most appropriate places, under the mat, under the pot plant. That's where I found it, under the plant. I smirked at Alice.
We unlocked the gate and ducked inside. I closed the door behind me, not wanting to draw attention. We searched around until we found the flower. Alice took the whole pot. I giggled at her. Alice made me get on her back. It felt a little awkward.
She told me to cling for life as she held the pot. She locked the door and we sped out of town. "Alice do you even know where you're going?" I asked her.
"Nope!" She said popping the P. It was my turn to shake my head at her. We ended up in a little town which we didn't know the name of. Alice called a cab.
"Alice, if you were in the car while we were driving to that town...how come you didn't remember the way back?" I asked her.
"I was blindfolded and drugged. I know vampires can't get drugged, but believe you me, they have their ways!" She said. my eyes went wide.
"Ladies, where to?" The driver asked.
"First can you tell us what town this is?" I asked. The driver looked confused.
"We're in Auburn Miss. Where would you like to go?" He asked again.
"Forks please. Head to Olympia, then get on the 101. Then head in the direction of Hoquiam. From there follow the road, you'll find Forks soon enough." Alice said. He nodded and headed there.
I looked at the flower. I noticed a piece of white paper on the bottom of the pot. I pulled it off. It read:
Yellow like the sun.
White like the moon.
Pink like the sap
That created you.
Yellow like the sun
As it opens in the breeze.
White like the moon
That blows you away.
Pink like the sap
That was placed on the wound
As she carried him to the heavens above.
Her winsome beauty captured his eye
And brought forth his life to the world.
But in the end
Like the Anemone flower
That which brings forth its life,
Ends it.
"Wow. Do you realize how much this relates to us?" I said rhetorically. Truth be told it did. Jacob was the sun, Edward was the moon. Pink was, in a way, me. I was always told by both Edward and Jacob that I made it seem like heaven on earth. They told my I was beautiful and I was Edward's life now. The last part though...I didn't think was correct.
Alice agreed. "It does relate a lot to us, well you Jacob and Edward anyway. Except the last part." I nodded to agree with her. We told the driver to just stop at the driveway entry. I didn't look at the price it cost to get from Auburn to Forks.
I got on Alice's back again as she ran to the house. A chorus of "What happened to you" and "Where have you been" ran through the house as we entered. Jacob's body came up and hugged me.
"I missed you too." I laughed. "Okay, where's Jacob/Edward's body?" I asked.
"In La Push. He won't leave he thinks we're going to hurt him or something." I sighed.
"We found a way to get you back!" I said. I grabbed a phone and called Jacob, Edward. GAH this was so annoying!
"Hello?" I inwardly sighed as I heard his voice, it wasn't the same but it was close.
"Jacob, get your butt or Edward's butt over to the Cullen's place right now. We have an antidote!" I said.
"YES! I'll be right there!" He yelled into the phone and hung up.
"That was a lot easier than I thought it would be." They all nodded. I guessed Jacob didn't like being Edward. Jacob's body was wrapped around me. Alice and I smiled at one another.
As soon as Edward's body walked through the door Alice got the scissors. She cut off the actual flower. "Now, this is going to be gross, but you have to eat it. At the same time." She handed each one of them a flower top.
"On 3. 1...2...3!" Alice said. They both gulped down the flower. At the same time they shuddered and passed out. I was shocked, so was everybody else. Except Alice.
"They'll wake up in about three hours." She said. Everybody settled down to wait.
It didn't seem like three hours, luckily. Both of them stirred and sat up.
"I'M BACK!" They both yelled at the same time and stood up. Before either one could do anything I intervened.
"NOW! Both of you know what it's like in each others shoes. Even if it was a little different. You both better never get into a fight again because no way in hell am I going back to that freaky vampire, werewolf witch doctor! You will both behave and not get into a fight again! Understood?!" I said loudly for emphasis.
"Okay." They both said at the same time.
"Good!" I said. I ran over to Edward and embraced him tightly. "I really did miss you." I said.
"Me too. I love you, love." I smiled.
"Me too." I said. He chuckled.
"It is so not fair that now she's all lovey dovey with you! Come on Bells!" Jacob said. I turned to him and plastered a smile on my face.
"Jake you should know by now that I love Edward for all of him, not just his body!" I said. I walked over to the Cullen's hall closet and pulled out a baseball bat. I hid it behind my back and walked over to Jacob. Everybody else snickered. Edward seemed really smug about it.
"Oh and Jake," I said with fake happiness, I knew he was scared; "this is for throwing me out my window!" I said and smacked his head with the bat.
"OUCH BELLA!" He yelled. I kept on smacking every inch of his body.
"You told me once. And I quote, 'next time you want to hit me Bella, use a baseball bat or crowbar, okay' and that's what I'm doing!" I said. He ran out the door and I yelled after him. "YEAH YOU BETTER RUN!" Everybody started laughing and I blushed.
Edward embraced me and told me he'd drive me home. I gulped. "What Bella?" He asked.
I took a deep breath, "Now all I have to do is go home and try to convince Charlie to let you back in the house..." I trailed off.
"Why would he not let me in?" He asked.
"Do you not remember why I was just abusing Jacob?" I said.
"Oh...OH! That might be difficult..." He said. As we walked up the drive I was a nervous wreak. I walked in and there was Charlie, gun and all.
"YOU! Get out of my house!" This was going to be difficult...
