Chapter 5: Getting away from Canada.
I sat at the kitchen table, eating breakfast. I had the day off today, and it was just before Pierre was to head out. Stormy stood behind him, messaging his shoulders, their perfect, loving couple façade in play, except for when he couldn't see her, she look at me in a seductive way and lick her lips. I looked away from her, my eyes wide. God I can't believe I had sex with her!
"So, you have day off?" He asked, looking at me with a smile. I nodded, swallowing the fork full of eggs in my mouth.
"yeah, I don't know what I'm going to do though." I replied. Stormy smiled at me and came around, sitting next to her husband.
"Oh! We can go shopping! Doesn't that sound like fun?" She giggled, clapping her hands together. Pierre smiled at her. I nodded. Translation: Once Pierre leaves we can have sex again and you can put my legs behind my head like you did yesterday. Suddenly my pocket vibrated. I reached down and pulled out the cell phone that Stormy had bought for me the third day of living here. I flipped it open and looked at the number.
"Hello?" I greeted, putting my fork on the plate. Pierre and Stormy just stared at me as I spoke.
"Hey Seth, I wanted to say sorry for the other day." Ellie replied, the sound of people hollering in the background.
"Don't worry bout it Ells, where are you?" I questioned, hearing the sound of an obnoxiously screaming kid. "And do me a favor and slap that kid in the face." I joked. She laughed.
"I'm in a subway." She replied. "I have a question, do you want to go on a vacation with me?" She sounded happy, which proved my paranoid assumption false. She wasn't dead. I stood up and put my plate in the sink.
"Yeah sure, where too?" I questioned, pacing back and forth between the sink and the table. Right now I'd do anything to get the hell out of this apartment. I didn't want to do anything with Stormy. It was bad enough I felt this guilty right now.
"I don't know somewhere nice. I haven't been hiking in a while so probably somewhere in the woods." She replied, the crowd of screams disappeared. The sound of subway doors shut, a little bell dinging, then the sound of the train running.
"The woods? There aren't a whole lot of hiking places here." I reminded her. She grunted.
"Yeah I know, which means we'll have to leave Canada. How about somewhere near Washington?" She opted. I didn't think it through before I said yes. I thought maybe she meant Washington D.C. or something like that. I'd never been there, I've never seen pictures of it, and therefore I didn't know anything about the place.
"Sure Washington it is." I smiled. She giggled.
"Thank you Seth, I'll be there at six?" She opted. I looked at the clock. 7:30 in the morning. I had plenty of time to pack. I smiled and nodded my head, an empty gesture I knew she wouldn't see.
"Ok." I replied, then hung up.
"So who was that?" Stormy asked, a slight possessive tone edging her voice. I turned around and smiled at her. This was it, this was how I could get Stormy to back off.
"My girlfriend." I replied simply and walking into my room to pack. This was going to be fun.
NFS
I waited in the living room, all of my stuff packed. Stormy was in the kitchen, sitting by herself. Pierre was at work. I wondered what she was thinking. Stormy. She had an unusual mind, Edward even said so. God why didn't I listen to him before. I leaned back and placed my hands over my face.
The couch shifted on either side of me. Looking up I saw Stormy straddling my lap. I gasped and pulled away from her, wanting to push her off of me, but afraid I might hurt her. Her lips crushed mine as she placed my hands on her chest. She started to grind her hips against mine. I yelped and bit her bottom lip.
"I'm the only one who understands you Seth." She whispered, kissing my neck, her hips still moving, the softness of the couch allowing her movements. I pushed her off of me and onto the cushions beside me. I stood up and walked towards the door. "Seth please!" She squealed, standing up, running at the door she blocked it with her body.
"Don't you dare say you understand me!" I growled menacingly. "No body understands me; you're like a child reading a Shakespeare book! You'll never understand me!"
"Please Seth, I love you." She whimpered. I glared at her, my fists clenched tight.
"Stormy, move."
"No! I won't let you leave me!" She squealed. "You'll have to force your way through me!"
"I won't have any trouble doing that Stormy." I sneered. She shook her head, slowly letting her arms drop down to her sides.
"No, I know you Seth, you wouldn't hurt me. You're not like the others." She looked up at me. Just those words made me want to prove her wrong. Grabbing my bags I snarled and grabbed her, shoving her out of the way. She hit the stand –something I wasn't aiming for- and broke through the coffee table. I winced and rushed to her side.
"Stormy I'm sorry!" I squealed, scooping her into my arms. "I just wanted to push you away that's all I wanted to do." I felt pity in my stomach as she coughed, shaking in my arms. She rolled around and looked at me, a smile on her face.
"I know you didn't mean anything by it Seth, I know you." She smiled and pushed away from me. I watched as she limped to the sink. Bending over she threw up. Grabbing the phone I dialed it.
"Bonjour, Pierre St. Lou please. Gracie." I looked at Stormy. She was curled up by the sink, holding her stomach. I looked at her nervous as Pierre answered.
"Bonjour secrétaire de rue Lou de Pierre ici de catalogue"
"Hey dude, you're going to hate me, but you might want to come here and help out your wife." I looked at the door.
"Seth? What happened?" He asked, sounding worried. I could feel the panic taking over. I started breathing quickly, nipping at my thumbnail.
"I…" What was I going to tell him? His wife was trying to have sex with me and I put her through a coffee table? No, not her trying to have sex with me, but putting her through the coffee table would be tough to lie about. I stared blankly at the door. I had to do it. I did, after all, not want to be here around Stormy. "I put her through the coffee table." I replied, sounding cold. He gasped.
"You did what!" He snarled. I closed my eyes.
"She was in my way, so I put her through a coffee table." He started screaming at me, calling me names, then he went into speaking French.
"Vous hybride! Vous enfant stupide, égoïste, idiot, fils - de - a - chienne" I just let him say what it was he wanted. Whatever he was saying was probably true.
"Enough, just…come take care of your wife." I muttered and pulled the phone away from my ear.
"He had no right calling you all of that." Stormy whispered, sitting next to the sink, looking pale. I shook my head and walked over to her.
"He had every right to call me all of it." I replied. Scooping her into my arms I carried her to the bedroom and laid her on her bed. "I had no right to do that to you." I whispered, moving her hair out of her face. "I just…I didn't want to hear the truth…that I'm not like the others." She looked at me sympathetically and grabbed my hand.
"Why do you say that's the truth?" I looked away from her, my jaw set tightly.
"Cause I'm not that perfect." I sat with her, staring into her eyes. She sighed and closed her eyes, her face pale. Had I really hurt her that bad? A couple beads of sweat trickled down her forehead, her head rolling from side to side in sleep. The front door opened a couple minutes later and Pierre came in, totally forgetting the rules that he bent over backwards to enforce, like taking his shoes off at the door.
"Stormy!" He hollered, running to her side, pushing me away. "Stormy, are you alright?" He whimpered, hugging her. He glared at me, his eyes dark with hate. "What is your problem? She did nothing to hurt you." He snarled. I stood up and shook my head. She didn't, that's why I have to leave." I muttered. His face softened up a bit.
"I didn't mean to be harsh." He replied. I shook my head.
"No, you have every right to be harsh." I glared at him, hating how everyone was trying to be kind to me even after all of that.
"It wasn't your fault." He looked at me. "You can't hold back your anger on account of what you are." He muttered, grabbing his wives hand. My heart pounded in my chest. On account of what I was? That bastard had a lot of nerve.
"Oh yeah! And what am I!" I snarled, my fists clenching. He looked up at me, his lips pressed into a hard line.
"A werewolf or rather a shape-shifter." He replied simply. I stopped, my muscles lagging. He knew. Had Stormy told him? He stood up and grabbed my arm, leading me out of bedroom, shutting the door behind him. "I know more about you than you know. Stormy told me that she used to live in Forks a good twenty years ago." He explained, walking into the living room to clean up the coffee table. "I never was such an angel." He looked back at me as he kneeled on the floor. "Although I was born here, I was engaged in illegal experiments," I stared at him, my brain trying to process all of it.
"What type of illegal experiments?" I questioned my voice a whisper. He grabbed the large pieces of glass and smiled at me.
"Oh all kinds, ranging anywhere from stem cell research to mind control on small children." My jaw dropped. "Oh yes, everything bad. Torture, was how mind control was working. I was working on cloning when I met him." He stood and walked to the kitchen, putting the larger pieces of glass into two bags. Grabbing the broom he came back in and started to sweep up the fine bead like glass.
"Met who?" I watched the bristles grab the little glass diamonds, depositing them into a pile.
"I am not sure if you know him, but he is currently in Forks and he is the one who told me of you." He looked back at me and held his hand out. I looked back and spotted the dust pan. Picking it up I handed it to him. "Xio?" He put the dust pan onto the floor. I nodded.
"I know him, he's the one who helped my…" I paused. "Would-have-been-wife when she was crippled." That sentence describing her made a sour taste in my mouth, like I wanted to wash my mouth out with dish soap and sulfur and use gasoline for water, then swallow a match.
"Ah, the…damphier? Yes he was most interested in her." He smiled back at me. "I heard about all of this, Stormy tells me much, especially about you. I know she knows your sister, which is why I didn't want her to think about your kind that much. If she got too close to you and your pack, I fear it would not turn out cherry as it should be." He paused, a shocked expression on his face as he looked at me. "She never told you? I know you won't believe me, but whatever I say is true." He walked by me and put the glass beads in a bowl. "Stormy was not born normally." He smiled at me.
"What do you mean?" The words were swimming around in my head. He sighed and grabbed a picture of her, then another one that was stashed in the pages of a locked book.
"Look at these." He handed me the pictures. I took them and looked at the picture with Stormy, then pulled it away and looked at the next one. It was Xio.
"So?" I asked, shrugging. He laughed and put the pictures next to each other. The long hair, the beautiful face…the blue eyes. "What is this?" I asked, noting how similar they looked. He snickered.
"The reason Xio wants to kill me, the reason I told to Stormy to forget about your kind. The reason I never told you I knew you." He took the pictures and put them away. "Xio never wanted me to do it, he never approved of me cloning." I gasped.
"Stormy is-"
"A clone of Xio and myself, with a few rearranged chromosomes of course." His eyes went dark.
"Then why didn't Xio know about it when she was around?" I questioned. He laughed.
"Because, she may smell similar to me, but she also has the blood of a young woman in her, so Xio couldn't smell her, and he's blind so he wouldn't be able to see her, save for his shadows." I tried to piece it together.
"But…she was like…18 twenty years ago." I replied. He smiled.
"She came out 18, her shell was 18, but her mind was of a child, which is why she acts so childish now." He explained.
"But I thought you didn't meet her until after the twenty years? Wait! Hold on," I buried my face in my hands. "Ok, so…you met Xio…twenty years ago." I repeated, trying to get this straight. He nodded. "You took some of his DNA or what ever." He nodded again. "Cloned him, Stormy came out in the shell of an 18 year old…how did she end up in Forks?" He smiled.
"She was living with a friend of mine, her name was Uma, but she was old. She died after a few years and Stormy was by herself. So she met Leah, then later on I went to go get her, and she fell in love with me, so we were married and here we are." He sat on the couch. I sat next to him, staring at him.
"So you don't love her?" I questioned. He looked at me.
"Seth, I love her more than the world, but the feelings are different. Reason why she doesn't have a job or a bank account is because she doesn't have a social security number, she has false memories." He laid his head on his hand. "She was supposed to be a mutant, but she came out like that, so beautiful. I was proud of her. So proud. I couldn't destroy her, and I can't bear to let her know, and I can't bear to let Xio know or else he'll destroy her and me." He whispered. I looked away.
"If I didn't destroy her first." I muttered. He sighed and looked at me.
"She will be fine. Her body isn't accustomed to such rough play, but she will be fine. But in the mean time, you must go for a little." I nodded. The phone rang. I grabbed it and answered.
"Hello?" I asked, my voice probably mirroring how I was feeling, confused, hurt…lost.
"Seth? You ok?" Ellie. I forced a smile.
"Oh hey Ells, yeah, I'm fine. Where are you?" I asked.
"In the lobby."
"Alright, I'll be down in a few moments." I smiled. She hung up. My smile disappeared as I pushed myself to my feet.
"Seth," Pierre whispered as I grabbed my luggage. I looked at him back over my shoulder. "Keep everything that I told you a secret from everyone, even if you have to forget it." He told me. I nodded.
"I might not be back, ever." I whispered. He nodded.
"Take care of yourself, and remember, even though Stormy wasn't born like you and I, she can still love like us, she can still hurt like us." I gasped slightly. Grabbing my bags I opened the door and left. I went straight to the elevator. Everything seemed so surreal, like a really bad drama. The crazy scientist against another, the clone, the victim, and the victim's friend. Reaching the lobby, I forced a smile and stepped out. Ellie was standing there with a smile on her face. She was wearing a pair of jean shorts a black tank-top on. She looked good. A lot better than I thought she would.
"Hey Sethy-poo." She giggled, lightly punching my arm. I laughed and messed her neatly brushed hair up.
"Hey Eleanor" I joked. She snorted.
"I hate my name." I laughed and followed her out to her car which was parked outside.
"Briand home?" I asked as she took my luggage and threw it into the back of the car. She nodded.
"Yep, the lump is home and I don't think he's going to move anytime soon." She laughed; shutting the back door she walked around to the front and climbed into the drivers side. I climbed into the passenger side and shut the door. Turning the car on she pulled out into traffic and headed down the road taking me away from the confessions inside the home I had felt so comfortable in before, away from Canada…away from Stormy.