Chapter 11: Ignorance

Sage

The melody of the Willapa River was a unique one; it did not have the cacophony of a babbling brook nor the discord of a raging rapid. It was a calm, subtle flow thats even stream of moving water had a light pitter-patter tune, and combined with the chirping grasshopper and hooting owl created a peaceful lilt to fall asleep to at night. The melody of the Willapa River was the sound of nature being at peace with itself.

My current mindset was not like the Willapa River.

There was a fog that rolled over the Willapa Bay and the river. The fog was anything but transparent and its eerie presence kept the people of South Bend near the edges of the town. If you were to sail a boat on the bay or river when the fog came then you would surely get lost. In the fog there was no south, north, east, or west, there was no left or right and maybe there was no definite up or down. The fog was a parallel world within our universe.

My current mindset was the fog.

My mind felt distant from anything else, a separate realm. My confusing and conflicting thoughts finally came together to form a bemusing and directionless haze that I could only stumble through and get lost in. However, in my mind, the sun's intense shine broke through the fog and its radiation gave me a will to try and escape from the foggy maze. The sun had a face; the face had glowing russet skin, short-cropped black hair, and sincere brown eyes.

"…What I've got's full stock

Of thoughts and dreams that scatter

You pull them all together

And how I can't explain

Well, well you

You make my dreams come true

Well, well, well you

You make my dreams come true…"

Irony must also be visible within the fog.

I was already sprawled over my queen-sized bed and turned my head a whole ninety degrees to glance over at my mahogany nightstand. On my nightstand, my phone was blasting You Make My Dreams Come True by Hall & Oates, the ringtone I had set up for when Ellie called me. Ellie had a liking to old & classic rock that most people didn't have and had an adoration for the dynamic duo that is Hall & Oates.

I didn't pick up the phone to know what Ellie wanted, I already knew. I unfolded myself from my evergreen bed sheets and red velvet quilt and lifted my head from the matching red velvet pillow with evergreen embroidery.

I stumbled out of my bed and out the doorway. I dragged my feet across the polished, wooden floorboards down the hallway until I came to a stop at the spiral staircase at the end of the hallway and proceeded to go down the stairs.

The manor that Ellie and I lived in belonged to Ellie's mother, Lucille LaBow and the rest of the LaBow family: Ellie's sister Tiffany, her two cousins, and the other witch Rita, all of which had moved to Versailles the supposed "witch capital" of the world. Versailles was where the witch queen or, more formally, Queen of the Sorcerers lives and any clan of witches or wizards that moves to Versailles try to gain the queen's friendship, and therefore political power.

So the LaBow family had left this grand mansion of three floors, seven bedrooms, a dozen bathrooms, a spotless kitchen, a couple of entertainment rooms such as a home movie theater and an extensive library, Lucille LaBow's old, cluttered home office, and a grand living room.

Through out the house, chandeliers hung in the living room and in the master bedrooms, you could find tapestries with designs of monarchs from different eras hanging in the hallways, and oil paintings of LaBow ancestors hung over the grand fireplace at the front of living room. Overall, it was an enlarged Victorian mansion that stood firm and proud next to the Willapa River and thats interior, however, resembled the classical look of the Renaissance era with its Greek columns that supported the house and its ornate, well-carved furniture.

As I stumbled to the front door, I thought even as grand of a house this was it didn't feel like home. Maybe because the LaBow family was constantly moving so there really was no permanent home. That was my previous assumption; now I began to realize that it was because my true home was far away from here, in the arms of the Quileute boy that I loved so much…

I reached the front door and twisted the knob of the deadbolt before jerking the wooden door open. Outside the door stood Ellie with her cellphone pressed firmly against her ear. When she saw me she pressed the end call button on her phone and immediately the home phone stopped ringing.

"Hey Sage," Ellie said nonchalantly, however her eyes scanned me over with worry. From my frizzy hair that was loosening out of its lengthy braid, to my long-sleeved, red shirt and purple, knee-length skirt that both had gained crumples and wrinkles from me laying and tossing around in bed, to my bloodshot eyes that also had dark bags, I wasn't exactly in my normal composure or attire.

"You're a bit late," I said, "What time is it?"

"Seven o' clock on the dot," Ellie said with an uneasy smile.

"What were you doing?" I asked hoarsely.

"Nothing much. Just hanging with some people I know."

"What people do you know?"

For this, Ellie had no reply and her mouth went into a thin, straight line. She stepped into the mansion and closed the door before any cool air could escape in. There was a pause before Ellie reached into one of the pockets of her magenta trench coat and pulled out a crumpled envelope.

"It's for you," She said and shoved the envelope in front of my face.

I took the envelope. "Who's it fro-"

"It's from Seth," Ellie interrupted.

I went to sit on the bottom step of the spiral staircase a couple feet away and tore the envelope open before I could think about what could be inside. I carefully read Seth's familiar, neat handwriting:

Dear Sage,

I'm sorry about what happened on the bus (really I am!) and I hope you can forgive me. I get it if you can't; no good man should ever have abused you like that, especially the woman he loves dearly. You don't need to call me anymore; if you want to yell at me I'd rather we'd arrange it so you can yell at me in person. Again I'm extremely sorry for three days ago and my one hope is that in the future we can be friends again.

With Love and Sincerity,

Seth Clearwater

"I bet it sounds pathetic," Ellie said a minute after I finished reading it.

"You don't need to pretend," I said, "I know you already read it."

Ellie snickered, "He's an idiot if he thinks your going to fall for his I'm-oh-so-innocent act."

"Maybe you're wrong," I mumbled.

"Sage," Ellie hissed, "Don't be thoughtless."

"What I mean is maybe it's not an act," I said firmly, "Maybe he's actually being sincere."

Ellie turned her back towards me and started walking down the hall. She stopped at a doorway at the left in the middle of the hallway; it was the door to the living room and she sauntered right in without looking at me. I got up from the staircase and followed after her.

The living room's dimensions were thirty feet in length, twenty feet in width, and fourteen feet in height, making it the largest room in the house. There were four couches, all hardwood with swirly and floral carvings engraved in them that were topped with fluff-stuffed silk cushions; two couches were parallel to the two other couches and they faced each other. Two mahogany coffee tabled were between the two parallel rows of couches and there was a large burgundy carpet under them.

The two width walls had three bookshelves on each, making the living room also a library. The floor was made from dark, cherry oak wood and the walls were plaster with dark scarlet colored wallpaper. A giant, golden chandelier with crystal beads hung from the center of the ceiling. At the front of the room, on a length wall, was a grand fireplace that covered one sixth of the wall and had a marble wall as a border around the black-caged fireplace.

Ellie sat on the first couch on the left; she was leaning back in the silk cushions with look of exhaustion on her face. I sauntered over and sat on the couch next to her.

There was a moment of silence between us. In the almost decade that I've known Ellie, very few silences ever occurred between us. Ellie was my first friend when I joined the LaBow family and the only one of the LaBows that I consider family to me. She was the only reason I wasn't wandering somewhere in the streets right now and I couldn't even say hello properly to her right now.

"When did you become so masochistic?" Ellie asked.

"I don't understand," I mumbled, "You want to elaborate?"

Ellie sighed and spoke, "You know I once heard that if you put a frog in a pot of boiling water that it can just jump right out. However, If you put a frog in a pot of cool water and slowly boil it, the frog won't be able to detect danger and it'll die being cooked alive."

"So…?"

"You're that little frog, Sage," Ellie said exasperated, "And Seth's been slowly boiling you alive and these past days are the part where you die."

"But-"

"But you're different Sage, always have been and you can still jump out of the pot and save yourself, save your heart."

"I don't need saving," I said sharply, "Especially from you."

"Me?" Ellie's face suddenly turned furious and her soft voice had a screech-like pitch. "What have I done? All I ever do is help you!"

"You have never been supportive of me and Seth, ever!"

"Why should have I? You'd still be stuck here, if not worse, and Seth would still be scum."

In a flash, I was standing up looking down menacingly at Ellie. "You better take that BACK!

"I can't take back the truth," Ellie hissed.

"How could you?" I screeched, "After all this time you hated him, and you never said a word about it to me. You've just been waiting for the right time to undermine our relationship, haven't you?"

"I'm just protecting you! I would never want see you hurt like this!"

"You're a fat liar Melrose Elliot LaBow."

Ellie's voice swiftly went back to calm, "Sage, you're my best friend. The only friend I love; we're like sisters. I don't want to see your heart break-"

"-And yet you're breaking it with every word you say," I interrupted, now bawling out tears with little control over my voice. "You're right, we are like sisters, but you're going to tear us apart like this."

"I'm not tearing us apart. Seth is; he's been undermining our relationship. Can't you see what he's done to us?! What he's doing to you?! Can't you see that he is a selfish, ungrateful, deceitful, corrupt…BEAST?!"

I was no longer in the living room; a split-second after Ellie finished her statement I ran away with my hands over my ears with a waterfall running down my blotchy cheeks. I tripped several times up the spiral staircase and down the hallway before cannonballing into my bed.

I wanted to shout into my pillow, but nothing but choked sobs came out. I felt like my heart had been thrown into a paper shredder and was slowly being grated into teeny-tiny pieces. I wanted to sew it back together but whenever I tried now the thread somehow fell apart. I needed someone to fix my heart, I needed Seth…

My phone started to ring and pang of sudden rage flooded through me. If Ellie thought calling me to go back down there was going to work she had another thing coming.

I let the phone ring for ten seconds before it stopped. I waited for a second call but, after a minute one did not come. I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion, I always thought of Ellie as persistent and stubborn despite what she thought of herself. I reached over to grab my cellphone and I nearly gasped as I read what the screen said:

One missed call from: Seth Clearwater.

Renesmee

"You'll be come back soon," I said, "Right?"

"Of course," Vincenzo said, "There's just a little emergency back home. It's usually a regular thing. I'll be back in two weeks, more or less."

"Bye Vincenzo," I said and I gave a soft squeeze as a hug to my new friend.

"Goodbye Renesmee," Vincenzo said and returned my hug. He then moved to Daphne with toothy smile.

"Goodbye Daphne," He said and gave her a pat on the shoulder.

"See yah Vinnie," She replied.

Daphne and I watched as Vincenzo and Marcello carried their luggage into the trunk of their yellow Fiat. They gave us one last wave before climbing into their minuscule car and driving away.

"Hey Daphne," I said-now sitting on the couch with Daphne, "What does Vincenzo mean by emergency?" I asked.

"Oh, well you see Vinnie lives by Mt. Edna in Sicily, which is one of the most active volcanos in the world. So a mate of Vinnie's calls him up when they think the volcano's goin' to blow up. It happens a lot when Vinnie visits me so he always has to leave early. I always tell the bloke he should move but he never listens. He wants to stay on his homeland or somethin' like that. I always get into a blue with him whenever he insists I visit him."

"He seriously won't leave?"

"Nope, and I've told him millions of times that it be safer to live fifty k's south of Woop Woop."

I gave Daphne a peculiar look and my brows furrowed in confusion at her Australian dialect.

"Sorry," she said, "What I mean is that it would be safer to live in the middle of nowhere."

"It's okay. I actually like that phrase: 'Fifty k's south of Woop Woop?'"

"You can really use any number for distance but yah that's how an Aussie would say it." Daphne said with shy grin, "Sorry I'm still workin' on the American accent."

"It's fine," I mumbled and turned my head as I heard Nahuel walk into the room.

"Hey Nahuel, are you staying for the night?" I asked.

"Yes," He replied, sitting on the couch with us, "Thanks for letting me stay by the way."

"No problem, what about you Daphne?"

"No, I'm staying at a hotel."

"Well you're welcome to stay here anytime you want."

"Actually," Daphne said, " This is going to seem random but I have a question, for Nahuel." Nahuel perked up at the sound of his own name.

"Nessie's told me you have sisters. 'Ow come they didn't come?"

"I don't live with them," Nahuel said, "They live with my father."

"I don't mean to be rude," Daphne mumbled, "I mean I've never met my ding bat of a father and I hope I never have to, but your siblings are like you, half-human half vamp. Don't you ever visit them?"

"Of course I do," Nahuel said, "But it really depends on the sibling though. My eldest sister, Serena, I don't like and therefore don't let her visit often-the girl is too much like my father-then there's my other older sister, Maysun, that I'm on good terms with and I accept her visits. At last there's Jennifer, my only little sister, that I visit frequently and is the only sister that my Aunt Huilen likes, or prefers me to my father."

"Ah, sorry I had to ask; it's just that my siblings aren't half-vamp like me so I was curious about what it would be like."

Both Nahuel and I stared at Daphne in surprise. "You have…siblings?" I asked.

"Well," Daphne frowned, "We're not full siblings; they're human and I'm not. It's sort of complicated."

"How many?" Nahuel asked.

"Two...well I used to have three siblings. My two little siblings are all grown up now so I only see them from time to time."

"I don't mean to be rude," Nahuel said, "But what happened to the other one?"

"She's…gone."

"She's dead?" I asked.

"No."

"She ran away?" Nahuel asked.

"I don't know," Daphne said, I thought I saw a tear in her eye, "I just know that one day, many years ago, she just…vanished."

Author's Note: Before anything, let me explain my way of writing for Daphne's Australian, or Aussie, accent. I'm not writing in an actual accent, because I can't confuse those of you who aren't Aussie (for instance, In Australia they might say, "How are you" as "Ow-yar-goin?"). So I'm going to use Australian phrases and words to show Daphne's dialect without being stereotypical (like putting "mate" at the end of every sentence). Here's some translations:

Aussie- Australian, an australian

Bloke – guy

Blue – fight

Ding bat – literally means fool but I think it's more offensive then that in Australia

(My favorite) Fifty k's south of Woop Woop – In the middle of nowhere (not quite sure if it's common or not)

And again, I'm sorry this update is coming a little bit late in the day but I have an explanation. Once upon on a time, there was a quite place that had little crime and had mild weather. But then one day…BAM! We've become the bull's-eye for a raging hurricane that cable news has been calling…Frakenstorm. So all day I've been preparing for Hurricane Apocalypse 2012. Oh, the best part is I might not have power for a week! Wish me luck and I hope I'll be able to update in time (and create better chapter titles)!

PLEASE REVIIIIIEEEEEEWWWWW (I'M NOT SURVIVE THE NEXT FEW DAYS)!

-J.J.