The Beginning
Side note: Yes, this story is two hundred years in the future, and yet the wondrous Tim Burton is mentioned in it. HOWEVER, in my world Tim Burton will live for as long as he can make awesome movies. Also, some of the background stories for Carlisle and Esme have been altered, so yeah…let us begin…NOW!
"I do like you, Reneesme. Why else would I be here with you?" He smiled, and my body relaxed. I wanted this, I wanted to be here with him, with his hand on my hand and his face only inches away from mine. I didn't even tense when he began to lean forward and-
It was amazing, yet extremely dangerous. His lips were just like I had imagined that they would be, pumping with blood. His skin was warm, and very soft. He was perfect, and the kiss was perfect, though I was surprised by the amount of electricity I felt jumping between the two of us. I was so aware of him, of his breathing, of where his hand was. I wanted to twine my fingers into his hair, I wanted more than what he was giving me, but he pulled back and placed a hand back on mine. I then realized that the kiss had only lasted for less than a second, yet for me, it had felt like so much longer.
"I'm sorry." He sat back in his seat. "That was wrong of me, I should never have pushed you like that, I'm sorry."
"No, it's alright, I guess." I was confused. Was he sorry that he had kissed me? "So what time does the movie start?"
"It starts at eight. We can chill here for a bit before we go, unless you really want to get away from your family." He looked at me, and I saw him give me a small, alluring, smile. "You could just show me around the house; maybe I could meet your family and become better acquainted with them?"
I wanted to say no, that there was absolutely no way that I was going to put him in danger, like a house full of vampires for a long amount of time. Yet, looking into his eyes I couldn't find the words to say no. "Of course; if that's what you really want to do." I got out of the car and made sure to keep at least two feet away from him. I didn't want to admit it, but my throat was burning.
We walked back into the house and I began to lead him up the stairs. I walked him down the hallway to where my bedroom was. I let him walk into the room first and wasn't surprised when I heard him give a slight gasp. I did have a nice room, but I didn't think that he would like it very much.
"Wow! You must have, like, a million CDs in here, Reneesme!"
"Yeah, my parents gave me a lot of the ones that they collected throughout their lives."
"Some of this looks really old, though, like early 1900's."
"Oh, well my dad has a keen ear for music. He likes music from everywhere."
"Huh." He plopped down on the long leather couch. "So, do you want to watch T.V. or something, I mean until the movie starts?"
"You know, we could just watch a movie here. My family and I collect movies; we have a lot to choose from if you want to try that instead?"
"Oh, sure!" He smiled at me. "That's a great idea. I'm sure that we can still have a great time here." He stood up from the couch and stood next to me. I felt my knees go weak at the very thought of him kissing me again. "Be sure to get a good movie that we can watch in the dark." He whispered in my ear, and I felt my spine shiver. His lips began to kiss along my neck, to my jaw, and then finally back to my mouth.
We stood there for at least five seconds. His hands snaked to my waist and pulled me closer. I knew that I had to refrain myself. There was no possible way that I could do anything with him without breaking all the bones in his body.
"Reneesme!" I turned and found my father standing in the doorway, holding a bowl of popcorn. His eyes were wide, and his mouth was in a tight line. "What do you think you're doing?" He threw the bowl and it hit the wall near my bed, and made a huge dent.
"Edward!" I turned, and in the process put James behind me, maybe with a little more force than I should have, because he looked so taken aback by how I had moved him. I crouched in front of him, as if I was going to attack my own father.
"Don't you dare talk to me like that! I am your father!"
"SHUT UP!"
"Father?" We both turned around, and I noticed that James had picked up the bowl that my father had recklessly thrown. He turned and looked at the indent it had made in the wall, and then looked back at me. "Oh, my God. It's true, all of those legends that my Great-great grandma Leah told me were true. I know what you are."
My father straightened up, and I turned to face James completely. He had put all of his trust in me, and I had let him down horribly. I had no idea what to say, I had no idea what to do. In my mind only one thing truly mattered, and that was James.
"James." I reached out for his hand, and he gave it to me, and I heard my father hiss at the sight of my doing it. "I'm sorry. I know that you trusted me, you expected me to tell you the truth, but I just wanted to get to know you. I just wanted to get to know you."
"Reneesme-" My father pulled me back from James. "You have to remember that he is a human Reneesme. He's not like Jacob, with Jacob you could play. With humans you have to be extremely gentle. Do you think that you can dandle that?"
"Please, sir." James looked at my father. "I won't tell anyone about your secret. I want to know more, if you don't mind."
"Absolutely not." My father shook his head. "It is for your safety, young man, that you leave this house immediately."
"He stays." I could feel my father tensing next to me. "He will be my responsibility, and I will make sure that he doesn't get hurt." I stepped closer to my father, and spoke so that only he could hear me. "I want to get to know him, and that takes him getting to know me. Besides it's your fault that he knows what we are. If you hadn't of thrown the stupid bowl and gotten all upset at me calling you your name, none of this would have happened."
"You act like you love him or something."
I shrugged my shoulders. "I'm not sure, but I'm not going to pass up the opportunity to love if I can." I turned back to James, and I was surprised to see that he was smiling at me. "Come with me, James. Dad, please let the others know that I would like to meet them in the dining room in a few minutes?"
James took my hand again, and this time he held it a little harder. When he took his first step, it almost looked like he was going to fall, but I steadied him with my hand, and he looked, again, confused about my strength.
My father had already left the room, and was running around the house gathering up the members of my family to meet in the dining room. I took my time getting Clay there. He seemed like he was going to faint, but he never let go of my hand.
When we entered the room, I found that my whole family was waiting for me. Alice and Jasper were looking at me, from a corner of the room, and they were beaming with happiness. Rose and Emmitt, however, were not looking pleased at all. In fact, they both looked completely unhappy about the situation. Esme and Carlisle were sitting at the table, conversing in rapid Hebrew, and Clay and my mother were standing in a corner, both looking curious. My father was with them, glowering at me as I helped James sit down in a sit, and then sit next to him.
"Can I get you anything, dear?" Esme smiled at James and I felt him relax.
"If I could possibly get a glass of water, it would be most appreciated, ma'am." James said quietly. Esme rose and ran, at her inhuman speed, to get water for James. I guessed there was no more need to hide from him anymore.
"Here you go, dear." Esme said as she slipped the glass in front of him.
"Well, James," said Carlisle, "You must have a lot of questions for us. Please, feel free to ask away." My whole family looked at James, and I could tell that they were all thinking the same thing: What does he want to know?
James surprised me by turning to face me. "Who are you?"
"You know who I am. Reneesme Cullen."
"That's not what I mean!" He slammed his fist down on the table, causing some water to jump out of the glass. "Who are you, where did you come from?"
"I was born in this house, and I lived here for a long time afterwards."
"No. That's impossible! I would have known you, I would have seen you somewhere, in town or in the woods."
"Only if you were born about two hundred and nineteen years ago."
"No! This can't be real. Those legends aren't real."
"James?" Carlisle spoke calmly. "I think I may be able to help explain things a little bit better than she can, I have been around longer." He let out a slight chuckle.
"How much longer have you been around?"
"A few centuries longer than Nessie have been around." James' jaw almost dropped and Carlisle let out another chuckle. "I guess the best place to start a story, is at the beginning." He turned and looked at the family. "Feel free to help out guys."
He turned back to James. "Centuries ago, my father led rampages against vampires. You see, my father was an extremely holy man, and detested anything that might not have been pure. He used to lead me out on many of his battles against "the unholy ones" as he called them. He wanted me to get a firsthand look at how is business was to be run after he passed this world.
"One night, however, I was bitten by one of these vampires. I felt a burning sensation throughout my entire body. I didn't know where to go, or what I was supposed to do. I tried to kill myself, but nothing worked. Finally after hiding for three days, the burning stopped, and I opened my eyes to a brand new world.
"The world had become so very vibrant. Everything was so significant. My sight, hearing, and sense of smell had quadrupled. I was bigger, faster, and stronger, that in had been before. Yet, I was also extremely thirsty, and I knew that I would have to feed, sooner or later.
"I killed a few people. I couldn't help myself."
"Your, thirst?" James said, in a squeaky voice, I could hear his heart race speed up.
"I drove myself crazy trying to control it. I went out into the world and tried to kill myself on numerous occasions. I spent days wondering, trying to stay as far away from humans as I possibly could. I couldn't stand the monster that I had become.
"However, one say, as I was passing through a heavily wooded area, I came across a group of bears. I heard their blood pump, so loudly in my ears, and I couldn't control myself. While I bit down on a bear, I found that there was a substitute for human blood. I could lead a vegetarian-Esq. style of life.
"After that fateful day I found that I did not need to be a monster for the whole of my existence on earth. I began to travel the world, feeding on animal blood. One of my favourite places was Germany, where I met Esme."
Esme smiled wide. "I remember it like it was just yesterday. I had just lost my family, my husband, my child. I felt quite alone. I had not been able to see my sisters or brothers in days, and we were all extremely close.
"I was Jewish born and bred; and my family and I had the luxury of living in an upper-class neighborhood. I had been walking through our town when I met the first love of my life, while he was walking towards his house.
"His name was John, and he was well liked in our community. Yet, I was so positive that he did not notice me that I didn't even bother trying to talk to him on the street. So it shocked me when he came calling at my house later on that evening, intent on getting my father's permission to marry me.
Emse placed a hand on Carlisle's hand. "You see, James, John was truly the catch of the town. He was a rich Jewish boy, and any girl would have given their right hand at a chance with him, and yet he had chosen me. He had dark curly brown hair, and deep brown eyes that I could have stared into all day. His smile was beautiful and, at the time, I would have given anything to kiss him.
"The night that my father said yes to John was, indeed, the happiest night of my natural life. I had waited so long for a chance to be alone with John; for you see in my day, if the couple was not engaged than they always had an attendant with them. Yet that night John took me into his arms and gave me my first kiss." I knew that if Esme could blush than she would be scarlet.
"I was married at the town temple a month later. I remember it so well. It was like I was floating up to the altar in my white gown, and he waited for me in his handsome suite. There was much singing, dancing, and merriness all around us. I even remember giggling like a little girl when I realized that I would have to go home with John, instead of going home with my own family.
"Three months later, and we told my family that I was pregnant, and of course they told the entire town. My husband and brothers began building a crib, rocking chairs, and my sisters began to make tubs. I knitted blankets, scarves, swaddling, and sewed her gown for her first day at temple."
"Wait," James held up a hand. "How did you know that it was going to be a girl? Are you like clairvoyant or something?"
"No, James. A woman just knows these things. I was growing rather large, and after a while I could no longer leave the house, because I was so amazingly tired. Then in my seventh month my family put me inside of the birthing chamber. It was rather horrid, really. All the windows had been boarded up, thick tapestry all around the room. The fire had to constantly be on, and there was rush thrown all over the carpet, even herbs placed around the top frame of my bed. I must admit, this was rather scary, all of that superstition, but my mother, grandmother, and sisters all knew better than me.
"I had to lie in that bed for two month, and just wait. I was not allowed to get up, and John had to visit me from the doorway, for men cannot come fully into the birthing chamber until the baby has been born. Being in that room alone, I heard so many things. I knew that John had his eye on another man's wife in town. I heard the maids whisper that he had been sending her little gifts, something that he had never done with me, and that he was meeting her in the dead of night and not coming home 'till the morning. This news scared me, but I knew that when we had a sweet girl in the crib, then all his attention would be on us.
"I woke one morning to a strange pain in my stomach. I called for my mother, and my sisters, afraid of what was happening to me. When I realized that my water had broken, I sent my eldest sister to get a mid-wife. I believe giving birth was the hardest thing that I have ever done in my natural life. Twenty hours of excruciating pain, and that was before I even went into labor. Once I reached labor, the mid-wife told me to push, and I pushed over and over again, but then I got to tired. I didn't want to keep going, but I found that my body would do the work for me.
"It took hours and hours of hard labor, but the baby finally came. With one final push I had given birth to my baby girl. He was beautiful. Pale skin, and already had a crop of deep brown hair, just like his father's."
"Hold on. So this is Alice?" James said and looked at my father and my uncle.
I shook my head, and then noticed that Carlisle had put his hand on Esme's back, and she smiled at him, and then at James. "I was the very last to notice. The mid-wife handed me the baby, and I was so happy. I remember telling everyone "Look how content she is already. She will be my sweet little Evelyn!" I looked around the room at everyone and I saw no smiles from my sisters, my mother, or from the mid-wife. I held my baby closer to me, "Fine" I told them "I know that John will be happy at least.
"I ran into the living room, holding the baby out so that he could see her, and possibly even hold her. But John did not want to hold the baby. Nobody wanted to be next to me. I thought that perhaps they were upset that the baby was not a boy. "Look, John, I know its not a son. But see! Look how quiet she is already!" I noticed it then. My baby had not gurgled, or cried. I looked closely at her, and I noticed that she did not breathe. That was why the mid-wife and my family had not smiled or congratulated me. I had given birth to a still born.
"They all sent be back up into my room, only now the windows were open, the fire gone, and I had new sheets on the bed. They wanted to take my baby, but I insisted that she lay in her crib next to my bed, and that I would be with my husband when he buried her. It took me only a few days to recover from the birth. John and I went out into the woods with our family and our Rabbi. We were told how this was only the first born child, and how more would come and that we needed to trust in the Lord.
"When everybody left John turned to me. I thought that maybe he would have some kind words to tell me, but instead he yelled at me. He told me that I had made a fool of him in front of the entire town, and that a wife that could not bear children was a useless wife indeed. Then, for the first time, John hit me. His hand came down on my over and over again, until I fell to the ground. He kicked at me stomach, my back, he sent my ribs into my lungs and one even pierced my heart. He left me in the woods to die, and he never looked back."
"I found her." Said Carlisle. "I was passing by her town in Germany and I found her. This poor woman, who looked like she could have been an angel that fell from the sky."
"I begged Carlisle to help me live. I would do anything, I knew that I wasn't ready to die."
"I bit her. To this day I have never met her equal. I just wish I hadn't had to pay that price to find you." Carlisle smiled at Esme in a way that I had never seen before, it was tender, as if they had their own secret world that none of us knew of.
James looked at me again, then back to Carlisle and Esme. "So neither of you chose to become vampires? It was either become a vampire or death?"
"Yes." Said Esme simply, as she shrugged her shoulders.
"Did you ever see him again?" Esme smiled at James question, and I had to admit that I was a little taken aback. James was actually into Esme's story.
"Why, yes. I did return to the town. Carlisle and I went back thirty years later, I had intended on seeing my family again sometime in my life. When I saw him, he was sitting in one of the rocking chairs that he had made me outside of our house. He didn't have a wedding band on, and he was balding, fat, and extremely ugly. He took one look at me and burst into tears. "You look so much like her! My wife, Esme, have you seen her?" I told him that I was her daughter, Evelyn, and I told him that I was married to Carlisle. I kept walking down the street to my old home, and I never looked back."
"Wow." James looked at me. "This is so different than the legends that they say on the reservation. "So if your, like, dead how do you guys have so many children. Can vampires even have babies?"
Alice gave her light laugh. "No, not that we know of anyway. We are all together because we found one another. Carlisle and Esme found Edward. Carlisle found Rose, and Rose found Emmitt. When I found Jasper he was already changed. Do you understand? None of us chose to be like this."
"What about you, Reneesme?" James looked at me, and his eyes changed from deep green to bright green. "How did they find you?"
"They didn't. Edward and Isabella are my biological parents. My mother was still a human when she gave birth to me. She was changed afterwards."
"So can you have children?"
"Yes."
"How do you know?"
"Because I am half human. Why should I not be able to have children?" I didn't want to tell him that I knew because I was already married. I didn't want to go into the story of Jacob, how he was killed, and how I lost my only connection to him a month after his death. James wasn't ready for that part of me yet.
"Wow." James sat at our kitchen table for a little while, and I could hear his heart beat in normal time. His eyes constantly shifted from bright green to dark green to hazel, but I wasn't sure if the rest of my family had noticed this or not.
I glanced at Carlisle, and then to the rest of my family, and then remembered about Jeff. "Carlisle, there is more that I have to tell you." He glanced up at me. "There is another of the vampire kind in our town, only I believe that he is only a quarter vampire."
My family tensed at the thought that there was another one of our kind near. Our clan was extremely large, to be in such a small town. Yet, to have another of our kind around was potentially dangerous, just in case they squealed on us."
"Don't go bringing that thing into this house, Reneesme." This was the first time that Clay had spoken all night. "He doesn't belong here, he's not natural."
"Yeah but neither are we, Clay."
Clay ran to me, and I smelled his familiar scent, and then I realized. The scent. "Reneesme," I knew that the whole family could hear him, "I don't want him around."
"Clay." Jasper spoke up for the first time, "If there is another of our kind then we must seem welcoming to him, and let him know that we are here in peace."
"No."
"Clay." Carlisle stood up, and I reflexively put a hand in front of James. "We need to welcome this man, whatever his heritage."
"James, get behind me." I stood and turned my back to the wall, and James stood behind me. "Clay, I know what's going on here."
"Reneesme, don't."
"You have to tell them, Clay, or I will." Clay looked at me and then he turned to Carlisle, letting out a great sigh.
"The reason, Carlisle, that I don't want that guy here, is because-"
"What, Clay?"
"He's my son."
