Authors Note: This chapter is getting to you out of pure exhaustion. I'd written it earlier, but of course needed to edit it. I could only do that after the show that I've been in, so this is why it's late.
This chapter is from Renesmee's Point Of View; it's hard to find the balance between patronising language and 'young' language. I have to keep in mind that Renesmee is so... weird and unlike everyone else. Sometimes, I struggle to keep up with her mental age, because she's only three, technically. Of course, I tried my best and I hope you liked it.
When I woke up, my bronze hair was all flat against my face and my toes were bare as my socks must have come off while I was sleeping. It felt a bit strange when I got up because I wasn't in a bed upstairs like I have been before; I was on the couch in the living room of this small house that Mommy and Daddy brought me too.
Auntie Alice and Uncle Jasper were sitting next to me when I woke up, all spread out on the uncomfortable sofa with its creaky springs and slightly-ripped fabric.
"Hey, how's my beautiful niece?" Auntie Alice smiled, cupping my head in her hands and planting a big kiss on my forehead.
"Tired." I grinned as I sat up and rubbed my eyes with the back of my hand. "When are we going home?" I asked.
I couldn't wait to get home – I missed my Jakey and I was thirsty, and everyone argued here. Mommy tried to give me her cup of blood whenever she could, but I didn't like to take it; if I took it then that meant that Mommy and Daddy were hungry. Dad was the worst. His eyes were always black since we'd been here, and he and Mom were always arguing about his job. They thought I couldn't hear, and Dad didn't seem to notice me thinking about it either which meant something was definitely wrong…
"Baby girl, we're going home tomorrow," Alice said, and she tried to smile but it wasn't a very good one. The corners of her mouth were only half turned upwards and her dark eyes gave away whatever was left to give away.
"How come?" I asked. I tried not to act sad because we were spending another day here, and I don't know if Auntie Alice noticed, but I tried to smile, and try to keep my voice casual. I wondered whether it sounded false.
"Because…" Auntie Alice began but then she looked around a little like she was trying to find the answer in the back of her head.
"Because, Nessie," Uncle Jazz said when Alice glanced at him, "this is a little… game for Mom, Dad, me and Auntie Alice… you know?" He, too, smiled falsely and I saw the hunger that was waiting to rip out of his throat. I was conscious of my blood around them when they were hungry… It was as if I tried to make it stop pulsing, as if I wanted my veins to freeze. I knew they wouldn't hurt me, Mommy and Daddy would never let them, and they'd never want to either. But I struggled when I was around Grandpa Charlie sometimes when I was hungry, so it must be the same for them to be around me.
"Don't be silly, Renesmee," Daddy's voice said, and I looked around to see him coming down the stairs holding Mommy's hand. I felt my cheeks blush, and realised something must have made him better for him to notice my mind. "We love you." Daddy smiled, but for some reason, it was just like Alice's and Jazz's. Their lips were curved but their eyes were pained.
"I'm sorry, sweetheart," Daddy said bending down to pull me in for a hug… there was something there though. I could tell because of his rigid movements. Cautiousness? I quickly began to think about how good my night sleep had been, how I was excited because I would see Arthur today – I thought about everything good before Dad smiled at me, and walked back upstairs, focusing on someone or something else.
"Honey, we're going in about an hour," Mom said, looking at her watch. I must have woken earlier than normal, because the day before yesterday, I'd had to be woken. I'd been trying to sleep off this thirst that kept niggling in my throat. But I couldn't tell Mommy or Daddy… if I told them, they'd give me their drinks. If they didn't drink, they would argue more. I kept my mouth shut.
"Come on, baby girl, I'll get you dressed in something… wonderful." Alice smiled, seemingly genuinely happier now, as she pulled my hand and I followed her up the stairs into Mommy and Daddy's room. There were only three bedrooms in this house, so I didn't have my own. Auntie Rose and Uncle Emmett had one, Auntie Alice and Uncle Jazz another and I had to share with Mom and Dad. Course, they didn't sleep, only me, so there was no fight for a bed.
We walked in without knocking and found Daddy lying on the bed on his back, his hands behind his hand and his eyes glanced over to us as we walked in.
"Just getting changed, Daddy." I smiled to him, even though he'd probably already know. Nodding his head a little, he closed his eyes peacefully as if going to sleep.
"So, it's going to rain, so we want you to have something long for the sake of the humans." Auntie Alice rolled her eyes with a silly smile, pulling out some jeans and a light blue top with a little black jacket. "How about this?" She said, holding it up, and I nodded, not really caring. Daddy chuckled, which made Alice look at him strangely. Shrugging gently, Alice ignored him and I pulled off my pyjamas and changed my underwear, pulling on my jeans.
Alice helped me, because she still thought I was little. I was, technically, because I was three in human years. But I looked older than that. I looked like an eight or nine or ten year old. Sometimes I felt like one too, but sometimes I didn't. Like now, when I wanted to go home to where Grandpa Carlisle was and Nanny Esme, I felt little again. I felt like I was three. But when Auntie Alice was dressing me up, and I played with Jake, and when I could do things that only older children can do, I feel like I'm eight or nine or ten. It can be very confusing.
"Honey, are you ready to go soon?" Mommy said, poking her head round the door whilst I was pulling the t-shirt over my head.
"I thought you said an hour?" I asked, a little confused but then she noticed Daddy lying flat on the bed, eyes closed, and arms around his head. She nodded vaguely as if not hearing me, and I let Alice put some of her own bracelets on me.
"Go downstairs, honey. I'll be down in a minute." Glancing from Mommy to Daddy, I sighed heavily, and walked downstairs with Auntie Alice. I heard Mom and Dad start talking, their first words being "Are you all right?" but I shut off after that. I was so unhappy here, and I didn't want to think Mom and Dad were unhappy here too. It was silly, really, that Mom had asked Dad if he was alright. I was only half a vampire and even I could tell he wasn't.
"Baby girl, are you listening?" Alice asked me, waving her hand in front of my face and I nodded quickly. "I'm going to work now and I'll be back later, okay? Give me a hug," she said, pulling me in for a hug but she too was rigid and her body was restraint. Sighing, I smile as she walked out of the door with a little leopard print umbrella to shelter her nicely done hair from the rain.
I went to sit next to Uncle Jazz, who was reading yesterday's newspaper.
"Are you going to work today?" I asked and he laid the paper across his lap and turned to look at me with his black eyes. I think, out of everyone's, his were the darkest, the hungriest.
"Yes," he answered simply. "I need to finish planting the seeds so that Mrs. Longdon's hedge will grow." He smiled and lifted the paper up again, scanning the words with vampire speed.
I lifted my arm a little and stopped myself when I was inches away from his face, wondering whether he would mind. Hesitantly, I placed my palm on his face to show him my thoughts: Are you happy here, Uncle Jazz?
He thought about it for a moment, and I withdrew my hand whilst he thought.
"Yes, I am," he answered. "It's a very good thing your Mom is making us do. It's very good to see things from another perspective, and I never imagined doing this in all of my existence. Your mother brought a lot of insight to this family." He continued and I nodded, knowing a lot of stories about how my Mom met my Dad.
"Are you happy here?" he asked and I cringed a little, wondering if he'd notice if I life.
"I like it here, but I want to go home too," I said, thinking about each word carefully and saying them so it wasn't so much a lie as a twist in the truth.
"Honey, you ready?" Mom said, appearing downstairs, wrapping a scarf around her neck for appearances and grabbing an umbrella from the corner of the room. I hadn't realised we'd brought umbrella's with us…
"Yes, I'm coming," I said, jumping off the couch with a little thud as my feet hit the hard floor, and I slipped my feet in the sneakers waiting by the door. I was already wearing my jacket. Slipping my hand in Mom's, I called goodbye to whoever was in the house, only briefly thinking I hadn't seen either Uncle Em or Auntie Rose this morning, and walked out into the rain. Being a half vampire, every drop of rain sounded louder than it would, and was more distracting than it would be to a human.
"Sorry we're staying for another day, Nessie," Mom said but her voice was sad.
"Don't you want to?" I asked, curious as to why she was sad – or was it thirst that made her sound like that.
"Errrm…" Mom murmured, "Well, I'm just looking forward to going home, seeing Jake and Grandpa Charlie." I looked at her with my brown eyes. The wonderful thing about having brown eyes made it a lot easier to lie about being thirsty.
"Me too," I agreed, squeezing Mommy's hand to show I agreed and she smiled back. "Are you going to move the shelves around again?" I asked, looking up at her and her pale face nodded. Mommy was very beautiful and very pretty. When I get older, I wanted to be as pretty as my Mommy because then I get someone like Daddy to look after me and love me.
"So what books have you been reading with Arthur?" Mom asked, and I remembered through the ones I'd read.
"To Kill a Mockingbird," I said, counting one on my head. "And now Arthur is reading 'Moby Dick' to me. But I can read most of the words; there are just some hard ones in there too."
"That's okay. You'll learn them," Mommy said encouragingly as we walked past the tattoo shop that Daddy worked in before he left there. I saw a girl who wasn't wearing much clothing and had lots of tattoos over her body stare at us as we walked past. Maybe we could have worn less clothing, because she was definitely human. I could smell her.
"Hello!" I smiled as we walked into the book shop. It had an old smell, a bit musty and I could see the little dust particles floating around over the tops of the books. There was a small pile of books at the back where Mommy hadn't put them back properly yet, and there were a few shelves that were not in a proper order.
"Hello, Nessie! How are you feeling? Any better?" He smiled, and I stared at him confused for a second before I remembered that yesterday, Mom told him I was ill. It wasn't the reason she couldn't come to work, it was because of the sun.
"I'm feeling better," I lied, and Arthur didn't notice my hesitance. "Can we read now?" I asked him, and I walked over to the seat that had been mine since Tuesday, the one he'd cleared especially for me. Taking off my coat, I held it in my arms, walking over to him.
"Take a seat," Arthur said, patting the wooden stool with a few gentle pats. His hands were a little bent at the fingers; something that Mom had explained was arthritis, so I didn't stare. Apparently, it hurt. "Everything okay, Bella?" Arthur asked Mom who stood looking at the shelves with her hands on her hips.
"Oh yes, just thinking what I've got left to do on my last day." She smiled and Arthur nodded as Mommy lifted her sleeves up to her elbows, folding the cuffs a little, and pushed one of the shelves perpendicular to another, joining them at the corner and replacing some of the books.
"Last day, huh?" Arthur smiled sadly, and then ruffled my hair with his strangely angled fingers.
"Yeah." I smiled, reaching over for the large book that sat next to the silver coloured desk lamp on Arthur's table. "Can we start now?" I asked, and he turned to the page where the bookmark sat and he began to read, his voice changing from an old man's drone to an animated chatter as the characters came to life inside my head. He put on accents for different characters, changed the hoarseness of his voice depending on the situation the characters were in. I desperately wanted to put my hand against his cheek so I could show him how he had made this book come to life for me.
"Honey, do you want any dinner?" Mommy asked me like every day. I wanted dinner, sure, but I wanted my kind of dinner, not the human stuff that Mommy sometimes made me eat.
"Okay," I said, like I'd been told, so we could go to the store and make it look like we'd eaten instead of going all day without anything.
Next to me, Arthur shifted uncomfortably, before clearing his throat and speaking nervously. "Maybe we could go together. There's a pub around the corner that does a nice pie and chips," he offered and I saw Mommy look a little shocked before she nodded with a smile that, for once, touched her eyes.
"Of course," Mom agreed, pulling on her coat that she'd taken off, and helping me into mine. Switching off the lights, Arthur pulled out his wallet from the back pocket of his trousers and put on a small hat that was flat at the front and got bigger at the back.
"My treat," Arthur offered kindly, but Mommy opened her mouth to protest. "My treat," Arthur repeated, with more force this time, taking my hand and closing the door behind him. The key turned with a click and we walked for a couple of minutes at a very slow pace. We walked in silence, a part from Arthur's occasional cough and the continuous splutter of the rain as it fell, bouncing and rippling in the puddles that had formed from the rain that had already fallen.
Mommy took my hand as we crossed the road, even though I was a big girl and could cross by myself. Mommy was always very careful with me, always trying to look after me lots. Really, I didn't need much looking after at all because my skin didn't break and I could move really quickly. But Jake told me that's exactly why I need looking after more – because I'm different. People either love it or hate it, and they're scared someone will hate me so much they'll take me away. That's basically it, although Jake never said all those words. Daddy would never let him!
We walked into the pub which smelt strongly of smoke and beer, and Arthur started talking to one of the waitresses who was wearing a short black shirt and a white apron wrapped around her black top. Her legs were long, her shoes flat, and her hair was the colour of burning carrot.
Arthur took us to a seat that was near the window, and I sat next to Mommy, staring out watching as the water droplets made patterns in the small puddles.
"What do you want to eat?" Arthur asked, handing me a menu and I looked at the nasty pictures of cooked meat and potatoes.
"If you don't feel up to eating much, honey, it doesn't matter." Mommy said with a kind smile, and I was confused at first. But then I realised she was reminded me that I was supposed to be ill yesterday, and I could use that as an excuse for not eating.
I looked at the children's menu with smaller portions and eventually picked a bowl of chips, something ordinary for a small person like me. Daddy and Nanny Esme taught me all about how we had to pick things that normal people would eat because, really, if I had to chose, I'd pick a rare steak because it's bloody. But eight or nine or ten year olds don't eat things like that.
"Can I have chips, please?" I asked.
"Yes, of course, Bella?" He asked, folding his own paper menu down and began fiddling with the tomato sauce bottle that had looked like an actual tomato.
"Pie and chips please," Mommy requested politely with a smile. Arthur stood, scraping the wooden chair against the floor and hobbled to the bar to order the food.
"You don't have to eat it, Renesmee, if you don't want to. We can say your still not feeling good," Mommy said, rubbing my hand with her thumb as she wrapped her hand around mine.
"I don't mind, Mommy. If you have to, then I can too." I smiled and Mom bent down and kissed my forehead lightly, the action loudly saying 'I love you' before she sat up straight again. I wondered if I ate the chips then I might not be so thirsty. I could live off both human foods and blood, although I preferred blood.
"All sorted," Arthur mumbled, returning to the table and scraping the chair against the floor with a loud creak again. "So where are you going after this?" He said and I looked at Mommy with my big brown eyes. They used to be hers and I'm pleased that I got them. I think that's why lots of people love me, because I saved some of my Mommy's human-ness.
"We're going back home," Mommy said with a smile. It was true, I guess. "We just visited a relative here, and now its time for us to go back." I nodded slowly, biting my lip a little, trying to back up Mommy's lie.
"You visit this relative of yours often?" Arthur asked, roughly, a glint in his dark green eyes.
"Occasionally," Mommy lied, her eyebrows raised. I wondered why he asked that, but I didn't ask. If I didn't ask questions, then the people I'm talking to wouldn't either. It was a rule I had to stick to.
"If you ever do come here again, be sure to drop by," Arthur said, a little embarrassed as he shifted his weight from side to side. He looked at me, taking in my appearance and sniffling his nose.
"Of course we will." Mom smiled encouragingly, and I wondered whether she was lying. I couldn't really tell, especially with things like this. Would we come back and visit? I hoped so, because I liked Arthur. He was nice to me.
Arthur bent his head with a quick nod and then looked out the window. I followed his gaze and I watched as a car drove past quickly and splashed the puddles up against its windows.
"Chips," the waiter said his hair a fluffy blond and his black t-shirt tight. He placed the plate of cut potatoes in front of me and I smiled with thanks. Then he put mommy's pie and chips in front of her, before finally giving Arthur his pie and chips. Mommy and Arthur had the same.
"Thank you." Mommy smiled and picked up her knife and fork. Leaving my own knife and fork on the green paper napkin, I touched a steaming chip and placed it in my mouth, chewing hard to make me swallow it.
"Alright there, Nessie?" Arthur said, and I nodded, chewing another. We ate in silence, each chip very uncomfortable; before I finally claimed I was full and pushed my plate away with only half the chips eaten.
"Shouldn't we be getting back?" Mom said, after Arthur placed his knife and fork on the empty plate, looking at her watch that Daddy had bought her a year ago for her birthday. Mommy had moaned about it at the time, but she wore it proudly every day.
Arthur nodded, standing up with that awful creaking sound again and we walked back to the book store, all under the little umbrella as the rain came down harder. It sounded like ripping fabric as each drop fell onto the umbrella. I splashed in the puddles playfully, wetting the bottom of my jeans.
"I'll get back to work," Mommy said, and she walked back to the box of books that were still to be placed.
"Come on!" Arthur smiled, as he lowered himself onto his chair and I lifted myself up onto mine. He glanced at Mommy who was nibbling on her lip as she looked at a shelf in concentration before walking into the room at the back where there was a toilet and a box of stationery.
"Nessie," Arthur whispered, and I realised he was embarrassed to say this in front of Mommy. "You're a very pretty girl, do you know that?" I lifted my eyebrows a little before nodding nervously. "Well, you remind me of a little girl I used to know. I haven't seen her in a long time." He smiled sadly and I widened my eyes as he told me his story. "Her name was Erin and she had the same shape eyes as you, and her hair was the same but much much blonder." His eyes started to glisten and I wondered what was going to happen, if he was going to cry.
"Who was she?" I squeaked nervously, forgetting my own rule about asking questions. I was extremely curious as to who this girl was, the girl who would make Arthur cry.
"She was my daughter."
"What happened to her?"
"She died. The same time my wife did. She was only a little bit younger than you – she was six." I felt awkward and I realised this was exactly why I shouldn't ask questions. You might not want the answer. "All those years ago…" he muttered to himself.
"I've got something for you, Nessie," he said, his eyes dancing a little with excitement. He reached forward and lifted the book that we'd been reading.
"For you." He pressed it against my chest and I looked at him confused.
"But I don't have any money to pay for it." I admitted and he shook his head with a small, almost guilty looking, curve to his lips.
"As a gift." He smiled genuinely and I took it in my hands, holding it more carefully that I had before, not wanting to bend the spine with carelessness, or crease a page if I gripped it too hard. I pulled it into my chest.
"Why?" I asked, too far past the rule to care. His eyes flared up again with fresh tears and I worried if I'd asked too much.
The words he said were filled with sadness, and I wondered whether there was something in the air. Everyone seemed to be sad, recently. "Because you showed me what my daughter could have been like."
Just a little sadness there amongst the friendly chapter. Any pointers on how to improve this chapter would be great! I always find Renesmee's POV hard to write, like I said.
I wanted there to be... something there between Nessie and Arthur. Obviously, Nessie always seems to get people to fall in love with her (shield breaker or whatever she is) but I wanted there to be something more. At first, Arthur was a short character, quite sharp and to the point. Nessie, hopefully, softened him a little.
I hope you liked it. Please review with your thoughts and comments! I'd really appreciate them!
Thanks for reading xx
