I updated with all haste just for you guys. Sorry if it's short, but I'm going as fast as I can. Unless you want me to drop out of school to appease your fanfiction needs?
Yeah. I didn't think so.
Oh, and the message some of you might have gotten for chapter eleven earlier was an author's note I put up and then deleted. It wasn't important, so don't worry about it.
Day 5, Monday
2:13am
They expect me to sleep.
There are a half dozen human-eating vampires downstairs in our living room, discussing how I'll die and THEY EXPECT ME TO SLEEP.
All of the Cullens are down there as well, trying to convince them not to kill me outright. Last time I checked, Ben and Kat were still down there too, though I don't know why. But did anyone ask if I wanted a say in my death?
No. They dragged me upstairs, tucked me into bed, LOCKED THE DOOR, and they expect me to sleep!
Vampires may be pretty, but I'm starting to doubt their intelligence.
2:15am
Edward hasn't even come up to check and see if I've had a panic attack and am lying on the floor in a coma.
This is crap.
2:16am
What do I do if they decide not to give me a second chance? I know I was too busy having an internal earthquake born of fear to listen as closely as I should have during our brief trip to Italy last year—when they were discussing this very thing—but I distinctly recall them saying, "We do not offer second chances."
So, is this the part where I start writing my will?
And why am I not more nervous?
I mean, I'm freaking out pretty badly, but I don't think the full weight of the idea that I could die tonight has set in. Maybe because I don't think the Cullens would allow it. They would fight for me. I know they would.
And now I'm worried. What if something happens to them?
Alright, definitely panicking now, can't breathe, can't breathe.
I'll have todfj getyjs—
2:29am
Sorry. It's really hard to type and hyperventilate at the same time. Alice is right, I'm going to give myself a heart attack some day.
The thought of any of them being hurt or—God forbid—dying because of me brought so many emotions rushing forward I got dizzy and had to curl up on the bed and concentrate on breathing to make them go away.
I'm having serious trouble figuring out where Kat and Ben fit in all this.
And Kat's Dad either forgot about her and Ben or is lying in a ditch somewhere bleeding from the head because he has yet to arrive. I think. I haven't been down there in a while, but something tells me they're not going anywhere anytime soon.
None of this makes any sense.
And I'm probably going to die.
Today is not my day.
2:46am
Edward finally decided to show up. He opened the door cautiously and poked his head around as if he expected me to explode and start throwing things.
I wasn't that far from it, actually.
I was sitting up in bed, back stiff, arms crossed, glaring at the door.
Edward crept in, a warily amused expression on his face, but worry and exhaustion in his eyes. I sat up straighter and planted my hands on the bed spread.
"So?" I asked, trying to sound unaffected. It didn't actually work very well. My voice came out as a croaky squeak that could only be described as frighteningly unattractive.
Edward ran a hand through his hair, pushed the door shut and came to sit with me on the bed. Then he started to explain what he knew from the beginning.
Neither Ben nor Kat had been surprised by the Volturi, because they knew the Volturi. Kat's eccentric, traveling-around-Europe mother had stumbled across them during her brief spell in Italy last month and had become one of their willing human pets. And since Kat and Ben had been under her care at the time, they'd become pets by association.
They'd known about the Cullens the entire time they'd been here, thought they hadn't ever planned on meeting us. Kat running Ben over with her bike while they'd been driving through Forks hadn't been deliberate and Kat warning me of the Volturi's visit had definitely not been preplanned. As far as Edward knew, the Volturi knew nothing about it and when they found out, Kat's life might be in jeopardy.
The story about her dad and the cotillion was random, in the scheme of things, but true.
"So, are they leaving now?" I asked, feeling a little shocked to have my view of the two of them flipped so dramatically.
Edward nodded. "I think that's best."
I didn't know how I felt about that, or if I felt anything at all, so I asked a different question. "How did Kat know it was me when she saw me in the forest? The Volturi haven't nicked one of my awful school photos, have they?"
Edward smiled, smoothing my hair. "No. She pieced things together. The Volturi have been discussing you constantly, so she knew what you looked like, your age, and…well, you were in a wedding dress. In the middle of the woods in Forks. I guess it was some kind of intuition. I don't know, I'm not a woman."
I wanted to hit him, but he still hadn't mentioned one important detail. The verdict. "And…?"
He looked away. "It took a while and a lot of convincing entreaties from Carlisle to come to a decision. Aro has decided to give us two days. Two days to take care of any remaining business you might have with your human family and friends. Two days to…" He looked absolutely horrified at the idea, but I didn't bother trying to convince him it was what I wanted. I was getting very tired of saying it. Edward buried his face in my neck. "It's a good thing he's so fascinated by you, or things might have turned out differently. You can imagine Jane's chagrin. Unfortunately, she's developed an interest in you too, though not a positive one."
I thought about that. Two days. Edward would have to change me in two days.
Call me masochistic, but I felt a little thrill of excitement run through me.
Finally.
3:26am
Edward just left. I had a lot more questions about what was going on (Why was Aro here? What business did he have to take care of in FORKS, of all places? Couldn't he have sent others to do his bidding? What was the point of having minions if they didn't do your bidding?!).
He'd answered what he could, but since he'd left in the middle of the "conference" to come make sure I hadn't pulled all my hair out or chewed off my leash and escaped, he didn't know all the details and wouldn't until I unclenched my fingers from his arm and let him up off the bed.
"Do you have to leave right now?" I asked sadly. "Are you really going to leave me all by myself up here to worry about you? Am I going to have to go another night without sleep?"
It was three-thirty in the morning, so I thought that might have been a given, but Edward still looked torn.
The fact that he was actually considering it made my heart warm over. He was such a sweet, sweet pushover.
"Oh, just go," I said, faking irritation.
He kissed my cheek and then slipped back out of the room.
Ten seconds later the door opened again, and Edward threw an angry, flapping Paddy into the room.
"Keep him in here before someone downstairs decides to eat him."
3:33am
I decided against putting Paddy in his cage just yet. I couldn't even if I wanted to, since his cage is downstairs and I'm sure Edward locked the door when he left.
Instead Paddy's plopped down on the bed beside me.
Oh my good God, he's rank!
3:37am
Alright, I'm dressed in one of my ugliest T-shirts and a pair of ratty blue jeans.
Time to give Paddy a little bath.
3:46am
I can't believe how fast that duck is! I can't catch him!
It's like he knows.
3:52am
Pinned Paddy down using one of the bed sheets. He's fighting like I'm dragging him to the guillotine.
It's just a bath!
Stupid pheasant.
On the bright side, this is doing a marvelous job of taking my mind off of what's going on downstairs.
3:59am
In the bathroom. I've locked the door so he can't escape. I figure just dumping him in a tub full of water would be cruel, so I'm going to scrub him with a washcloth.
4:07am
We will never be able to use this washcloth again. No amount of washing is going to get the filth out of it. This is disgusting! He's got dirt everywhere and I swear I just saw something crawling around under one of his feathers.
Ew. Maybe keeping a wild duck wasn't such a bright idea.
But he's just so darn cute.
4:11am
Did I say cute? I meant Satan in a duck's body.
I should have named him Diablo.
4:13am
Ow! He splashed soap in my eye!
4:14am
Crap, I let go of him and now he's flapping around the bathroom splashing water and suds everywhere. Plus, he's so slippery now that he's covered in soap, I can't get a grip on him.
Damned jumpy duck.
4:16am
Sprawled out on my back on the bathroom floor, staring at Paddy where he's prancing along the bathroom counter. I'm too exhausted to get up. He's taunting me, I just know it.
I think I know where we're getting our Thanksgiving dinner.
4:23am
Phew. I'm dirty, completely soaked, and exhausted.
But the duck is clean.
My work here is done.
4:28am
Climbed into bed with a squeaky clean Paddy. Apparently all the fight has gone out of him. He's settled right down to sleep in the bed next to me. Now that's he's not in any immediate danger of being attacked with another bucket of soapy water, I think he's enjoying his new cleanliness.
Now, I think it's time for some well-deserved sleep. I think I'm beat enough to sleep without Edward for once.
If I have to chase a duck around a bathroom every time I want to sleep when Edward's away, I'll have to chain Edward to the bed.
…Okay, that's not sounding like such an awful idea.
Mmm, happy, happy dreams.
11:23am
Crap! What time is it?
I can't believe Edward let me sleep this late. And I don't even know what's going on!
12:08pm
Charged downstairs and tripped over the coffee table. It's become part of my daily routine. I try to go around it every time, but I swear the damn thing is following me.
Anyway, Aro and his posse are gone. Thank goodness. I don't think I could stand the stress of trying to act normal with Jane breathing down my neck. The woman frightens me even more than Aro.
Well, almost more than Aro.
I didn't recognize any of the others with them, but I didn't exactly want to get to know them better.
The Cullen house is full of activity. It's the quiet kind, though, the kind that doesn't involve a lot of people moving, but leaves an undercurrent of anxious energy thrumming through the house.
Esme and Carlisle have locked themselves in the study to discuss the entire situation at length and find the best course of action. Jasper is sitting quietly in the living room, reading a book, and, if I'm not wrong, sending out minute waves of calm to keep the panic levels from reaching epidemic proportions.
I'm wondering if he's gotten to use his gift for anything else since I stumbled into Edward's life.
Alice wrote up a check list of things we'd need for my comfort during The Change (I think it deserves to be capitalized, don't you?) and has gone into town to get them.
Emmett isn't sure what to do with himself, so he's gone out to the garage to help Rosalie, who is examining my car for any deficiencies as a way to keep herself busy.
Edward and I are on the floor in the living room, hands clasped togther. He's run through the rest of the things discussed last night while I was locked up for my own safety. He won't talk about my change anymore. He flinches every time I mention it.
It makes me want to hurt him a little bit.
In any case, Edward explained that Aro does, in fact, have business in the area and that he's having a meeting to discuss some issues with a few "acquaintances".
You know that feeling you get when you know someone is trying to downplay a situation "for you own safety?"
No? Is it just me then?
Well. I was getting that feeling now, and I made sure Edward knew it. Unfortunately, subtlety is not one of my natural-born talents.
"What aren't you telling me? And don't give me any of that "you'll be better off not knowing" crap you keep feeding me. I want the truth." I crossed my arms and waited.
Edward looked unimpressed. "Bella, I don't want to upset you this close to such an...important...time." He gritted out the last few words like he had a mouth full of gravel.
"Edward, I don't care! I want to know what's going on, and I'm not going to sit here and try to pry it out of you with the Jaws of Life when I can just go ask someone else. I'm sure Emmett will be happy to tell me." I started to get up, but suddenly found myself in Edward's lap, locked in place by his arms.
"Fine," he growled in my ear. "But you have to promise not to panic. I know you still worry about Jacob and the rest of your La Push friends—"
"What?!" I nearly broke a few ribs trying to break Edward's hold so I could turn and look him in the eye. He released me instantly to prevent me hurting myself. "What do you mean? What's going to happen to Jacob? Do the Volturi know about the pack?" My voice was rising hysterically.
Edward grabbed my hands. "Bella, this does not prove to me that you can handle the news you want to hear so badly."
I closed my eyes and took some deep breaths. I was doing that a lot lately.
"Alright. Alright, I'm fine. Tell me. I can handle it." Edward looked skeptical, so I added, "Please?"
He crumpled like a house of cards in a tornado.
Who knew the magic word they talked about all the time in grade school would be so darn nifty?
He looked down at the carpet briefly, as if he was searching for the correct way to explain things to me without going into too much detail.
I raised his chin and shook my head. "No, Edward. The whole truth."
He took hold of my wrist and kissed my palm.
"No distractions either," I admonished, pulling my hand back to keep him from making me forget my question.
"Alright. Aro has called a meeting and invited a good hundred or so vampires, all strong enough and influential enough to get his message to the rest of the vampire community, or at least a good portion of it. This is how most of the Volturi's decrees are made. There are very few of them and most are simply guidelines to be followed as best as possible, but when a member of the Volturi finds something they wish to disallow, they find a meeting place and call a number of vampires to attend so that the word will be spread. We have been invited to attend the meeting. However, Aro has also chosen our town to host his gathering."
At first I didn't understand the significance. At first all I could think about was Charlie and the other people who lived in Forks who would all look mighty appetizing to a summit of vampires a hundred strong. Just the thought made me want to cry or scream or go find Aro and tell him to get his undead ass out of my town.
"Calm down, Bella," Edward's voice intruded on my foggy mind, and I realized that I'd stopped breathing. "Aro isn't stupid. He understands the risk of exposure with so many of our kind in one place. They'll only be here long enough to meet and discuss the new law and they won't be allowed to hunt while they are here. If a sudden rash of deaths occurs in one place, people will become suspicious. Your friends and family will be fine."
I felt so much relief, I slumped forward bonelessly and felt Edward pull me across his lap again.
If vampires massacring my town wasn't the problem, what was?
Then the reason for such apprehension hit me with the force of a speeding freight train.
They were holding the gathering in our town, and our town had something no other place in the world had:
An ever-growing group of werewolves just down the road, who would never tolerate such a high number of vampires coalescing so close to their territory.
They weren't going to like this at all.
12:16pm
I'm not sure what to do about this werewolf situation, but Edward insists there's nothing we can do about it now except inform them. We have too much to do. On today's checklist is:
1. Visit Charlie and say goodbye to him for the last time. We've made up some story about wanting to get settled in Alaska early so that I can start my first year of college without any distractions. With Edward around that's not going to happen, but I figure I'll skip over that part.
2. Call Renee. Indulge her in useless girl chatter for an hour or more, if necessary. Feed her the same line about school, but promise to e-mail her every day.
3. Cry a little bit, but when Edward asks, insist I've only got something in my eye. I don't want him to feel any more awful than he already does.
And for tomorrow:
1. Go down to La Push and inform the werewolves that there's going to be a big huge meeting of creatures they consider filthy parasites right next to their reservation. As the only one allowed to enter Quileute territory, I've been given the honors. Edward asked if I wanted him to go along, but that's just a big huge disaster waiting to happen, so I insisted on going alone.
And 2. Be changed and spend the rest of my eternal life wth Edward.
So...today's going to be interesting.