*Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight, duh :P
A good bit of this chapter are Fae's memories, so you'll learn more about her past, which plays an important part later...
Btw, sorry it took me so long; life happens :P
Any way; READ! REVIEW!!!
Chapter Eleven
So many questions, so few answers...
"So, what's next on tonights agenda?" Ken queries; we just finished the cake and ice-cream.
"Oh! I know!" I exclaim, "Let's play twenty questions; Keylock style."
"How do you play?"
"Well, we each take turns asking questions, going around the circle till everyone has asked twenty, or more, questions." I explain,
"So it's kinda like truth or dare, only there's no dares?"
"Well, kinda."
"Where's the fun in that?"
"If you have a big group of people who don't know each other very well, it's a blast."
* * *
"That was fun! Can we play again?!" Lilia exclaimed, bouncing up and down on the couch.
"Sure, but I'm thirsty: drinks anyone?" When I walked out the door they were still calling out their 'orders'. Once I reached the kitchen I located a tray, then opened the fridge to collect drinks, then rummaged through the cabinets for snacks. Carefully balancing my loaded platter, I headed back up the stairs; when I walked in the door, I noticed a subtle change in atmosphere. This could not be good.
As the drinks and snacks got passed around, things seemed normal; but there was an undercurrent of something... I couldn't place it, whatever it was.
"So, who wants to start?" Celeste queried, unscrewing the top of her soda,
"Oh! Me!" Rissa exclaimed; without waiting for an answer, she jumps right in. "If you could only have one wish, what would it be?" She directed her question to Kayleb; he'd shown an obvious interest since he first met her, I thought it was a little creepy, but she loves it. Go figure.
"Hmm..." Grinning, he stared off into space, thinking. "I think, that I would get rid of the.. family curse." When he paused, it seemed that he was searching for a word to describe what he was talking about; family curse? I noticed a few pointed looks directed toward him, seriously, what is this all about?
"If you could be anything, or anyone; what, or who, would you be?" It was Celeste's turn, and she was asking Ken.
"Well, I'm just fine being who I am, but if I had to be something, I would be an alligator snapper." Everyone looked surprised, so he explained; "First of all, most people leave them alone; they aren't called alligator snappers for nothing, plus, they're long lived, on the endangered species list, and pretty much all I'd do is eat and sun myself on a log." When he finished, he leaned back, clasped his hands behind his head, and put his feet up. Everyone laughed; it was all too easy to picture Ken doing nothing but eating and sunning himself all day.
Justin's next;
"Why is it that you don't swear?" Earlier he had asked why I whacked people when they cussed; I answered that since I didn't swear, it bugged me when others do; I also added, 'it's unnecessary and doesn't fix a situation, it can only make things worse.', he had then asked why I didn't swear. I, of course, told him that he's only allowed to ask one question at a time, but since that was the last round, he wasn't able to ask. Ha.
"Well-" I begin;
"-it goes like this: she used to cuss worse, and more often, than anyone else you have ever heard." There were quite a few disbelieving looks; why am I not surprised?
"Look, before we were finally adopted about four years ago, we were shuffled from family to family, and never stayed anywhere for very long-"
"-the longest amount of time we ever spent with one family was three months." Ken adds,
"And believe me, it was hard. Anyway; sometimes the people we were with cussed, sometimes they didn't, and I started picking up words at a young age. After a while, I had a very colorful assortment, and in more languages than one. I was frustrated and angry all the time; cussing was one way of venting, only it never helped, it just made me feel worse, and it drove people away. But no matter how hard I tried to cut back on those words, I could never get it to work; I always went back to doing it, and I hated myself for it. It went on like that for several years.
"One day, we were hanging out with our friends; one of them was very Christian, and he had asked us to avoid swearing when he was around. No one else had much of a problem with it, but I did. We had just raided the fridge and were headed outside. I tripped and landed on what I was carrying; most notably of which was grape juice."
"Ouch! You must have been covered with it." Celeste commented,
"Oh, I was more than just covered in it; I was soaked to the skin! What do you think happened next?"
"You started cussing?"
"Yup; long and loud. When she finally stopped, everyone was so shocked, you could have knocked us over just by looking at us." Ken answered; "I was used to hearing her, but I'd never heard her whole repertoire at once; it was quite... long." I got a lot of surprised looks; really, they don't know me as well as they think.
"Anyway; earlier in our conversation, before all this took place, we had somehow wound up on the subject of stunts we had done, and I had bragged that I never turned down a dare; which was, of course, somewhat stupid." I laugh ruefully, remembering how unstable my life had been.
"So, our friend, Abel, breaks the silence: 'You never turn down a dare, right?'-" Ken says, continuing the story,
"-'Yeah, that's right' I said, and I almost cussed him out again. I felt so awful."
"'Well then; I dare you to never say a single swear word for the rest of your life.' was his only reply." Ken finished; everyone in the room was silent for a few moments,
"And you've never said a swear word since?!" Justin looks quite incredulous.
"That's right; it was actually a relief."
* * *
Only a few more rounds left; we're on round/question eighteen.
"Jason, your turn." Looking at me, he talks slowly, as if he's not quite sure how to word it;
"What exactly... happened before you moved here?" Ohhhhh crap; I'm in for it now. I hadn't really noticed how serious this 'game' had gotten.
"What makes you think anything happened?" I ask, masking my emotions with a casual question. Wrong thing to do.
"On your first day here, right after you had gotten Justin, you snapped at Trey: 'yeah, so good that we moved' or something like that. And Rissa said something about an 'accident'." I look at Rissa, eyebrows raised,
"She did? How very interesting." I muse; everyone's looking at me now. But how can I tell them?
"You don't have to tell us if you don't want to." Koda adds softly. For a few minutes, everyone is quiet, waiting for my response. I don't want to relive it by talking about, but it's been weighing me down; it's just too painful...
"Well..." I say, stalling; before I know it, the whole story starts falling out of my mouth.
"Last summer..."
I walked through the doors of the hospital; yesterday, Jayme had had a bad fall off of one of the three year olds we had been starting. She'd been knocked unconscious, and her arm had fractured badly, but I don't think it will keep her from riding; nothing keeps her from riding.
"Are you visiting?" The nurse asked,
"Yes; I'm here to see Jayme Johnston, I called just before I got here." The nurse nods, then gives me directions to her room. As I walk down the hall, I'm reminded just how much I dislike hospitals: clean, smelling of rubbing alcohol, medicine, blood, sometimes even of death. Gives me the willies. Finally, I reach her room;
"Hey, Jaymes; you feeling alright?" Hearing her nickname, she looks up from the book she's reading.
"What's up, Faery? Come have a seat." After we'd been talking for a while, a doctor walked into the room; from his looks, he could've been a model.
"How are you feeling Jayme?" He asked, clipboard in hand. I hate clipboards; so organized, it makes people look more solemn than they really are. But they're handy if you want to smack someone without hurting them too bad.
"Much better, thanks. When will I get to go home?"
"As soon as we're sure you're over your concussion; you hit your head pretty hard."
"Good thing I'm hard headed." She joked; she doesn't realize how close she was to- I jerk back from the thought, it's just too awful. Looking from the clock, to me, Dr. Model calls my attention to the time;
"Visiting hours are just about over; Jayme needs her rest."
"How was Jayme?" Ken asks as I walk into the living room,
"Better." I reply shortly; I really don't feel like talking to anyone right now, not even to my twin.
"Probably won't be long before she's back up on a horse; nothing will ever keep her from horses, not even death." He commented; but to me, especially now, death is not something to joke about. Grabbing some crackers to munch on, I head for my room.
* * *
Jayme has been out of the hospital for a week, but she was forbidden to ride for a while; today's her first day back at the ranch and for and for now all she's allowed to do is groom horses and work with them from the ground.
"How are the threes coming along?" We've been working with the foals, or 'fuzzbuckets' as we call them, all morning; and though she can't ride, she's been interrogating me about the three year olds constantly.
"They're doing good; Shifter has been just as difficult as ever, though."
"No change there; I wish we could just get through to him, he's the best in the lot-"
"With the worst attitude and manners of any horse we've worked with so far. Oh, and Val says you're not to work with him at all for a few months, and that if he doesn't improve-"
"They can't sell him! They just can't!" Nervous from the anger in her voice, the foal she's working with, Kiss Me If You Can; Kiss for short, starts dancing around, head in the air. "Shh, sorry baby; easy now." Rubbing her gently, Jayme gets her to calm down easily.
Frustrated, annoyed, and every other synonym you can think of for those words, I steered Shifter back into the pattern. The horse was unpredictable, definitely a right brain extrovert if there ever was one, this was the fifth time in less than two minutes!
"You might as well star over." Jayme calls from the rail. Pulling him around abruptly, I head back to the middle of the arena. We've tried everything with him, but he won't concentrate, and he's constantly fighting for his head. Frustrating us seems to be the only thing he lives for! One pivot, the other, lope- no! Having broken the pattern once again, I spun his in circles, then started on something so simple, a week old foal could do it. If he messes up, it's intentional.
"There you go!" Jayme shouts encouragingly as Shifter completes the pattern flawlessly. When he quits fighting his rider, he's brilliant; easily worth several thousand as just a stud, even without any trophies. Perfect conformation, smooth way of going, bloodlines bluer than any royal in the world, and lots of color; but if he passes this sort of attitude onto his foals...
"Let's stop here for today; did you saddle Stardust?" Like most of the horses, Stardust is just her nickname: her registered name is Dusting the Stars, and Shifter's is Moonlight's Shifting Shadow.
"Yep." She replied, opening the gait for me. She walks beside Shifter, and together we walk back to the barn...
* * *
Flashes of light. Shadows. Panic. Fear. Running. Darkness...
The last thing I remembered was that I had been riding Shifter; where was he? Then I became conscious to the fact that I was lying down, and my head was throbbing awfully bad... okay, what on earth happened? Opening my eyes and looking around, I decided I was in the hospital... what?! Then images started coming back to me: the rabbit starting out from underneath Shifter, him spooking, rearing up, then running, Jayme shouting, a few sharp turns... then nothing. Groaning, I realized I must have come off him; quickly, I assessed my injuries. Aching head, probably a slight concussion, a little stiff and sore, of course, but nothing else. Sitting up, I realized that I must arrived not very long ago, because I was still in my grubby riding clothes, my boots were still on, and I was on top of the covers; all of which were good signs. If I were seriously injured, there'd be nurses and doctors bustling around, and my boots probably wouldn't still be on. As it was, I didn't see anyone, and as I looked around, I noticed that the 'room' I was in, was really just a curtained of square/rectangle. Now, to sign myself out; there wasn't anything wrong with me, so why am I even here? Swinging my feet around, I stood up; immediately sitting back down on the bed and the world swirled around me. Okay, maybe I'd hit my head a little harder than I thought. Gritting my teeth, I stood up again, slower this time.
"You should still be in bed." Hey, I knew that voice; Dr Model! Does he always treat the patients that fall off of horses?
"Yeah, right; tell you what, when I get home, I'll go right to bed with an ice pack, some Tylenol, a whole gallon of mint chocolate-chip ice-cream, and a spoon." Carefully, I take an experimental step towards the door.
"Sit down and-"
"NO, I will recover just fine at home, where I won't run up a big hospital bill; I'm not injured bad enough to be confined to a hospital bed." I take another step toward the door; he looks at me thoughtfully, then opens his mouth to answer. Not waiting to see what he has to say, I head out the door. And run smack into a tall, really cute guy, which slows me down enough for the doctor to grab my arm.
"You can't make me stay here!" I fume, pulling his hand off.
"Hey; what's all this?" Cute-Guy-That-Gets-In-The-Way asks,
"She wants to go home-"
"There is no point in my staying here, and there is no point in explaining." I retort sharply,
"I was going to tell you that you could go home if you had someone else to drive you." He finishes;
"Oh." I think through my options: Mom and Dad are at work, Rissa and Daxton are out, Ken is working, and Alec and Dustynn are too young to drive, "Curses!" I mutter, "There's no one to drive me home." Narrowing my eyes, I glare at Dr. Model; "I'll walk home." Turning on my heel, I head toward the exit; at least I start to, then I realize I don't know which direction it is.
"Um, doctor dude: could you direct me to the exit? Or will you not tell me because this is a maze designed to confuse unruly patients?" I ask, turning around, hands on my hips, to glare at him. Again.
"It's this way." Okay... creepy, that one guy has just been standing there, listening to our entire conversation. And really, he's creepy more than cute. I just look at him; weirdo.
"First of all, how far away from here do you live?" Dr. Model asks, "And I don't think we were ever introduced."
"About... ten miles from here, my name is Fae, and that's all I'm going to tell you."
"Ten miles is a long way to walk." Creepy/Cute dude comments,
"Wow, you're really good at stating the obvious; you must have had a really good teacher." I retort; enough is enough, I'm out of here. I turn back around and stalk off; I'll find the way out eventually. I here a shout behind me:
"Hey!" Too late mister! Once I'm around the corner, I take off, dodging down the next hall I find. Hey, I'm good; I found the way out. Casually, I walk by the nurse at the front desk. Good thing I'm not in a hospital thingy; she'd have never let me by so easy. Hahaha! Home free! Once through the doors, I take stock of my surroundings, get my bearings, and set of at an easy jog for home. If it weren't for the fact that I was wearing blue-jeans and boots with spurs, I'd look like I was out for a run... Ooo, I just gave myself an idea. I slow to a walk, and locate the nearest Good Will; I'm in luck, there's one just up ahead, across the street. Once I'm there, I find some gym shorts, tennis shoes, and a backpack. After making my purchases, I walk to the gas station next door; in the bathroom, I change. Using the hair tie that was on my wrist, I pull my hair up and back, twisting it into a loose knot. There: now I look like any other person out for a jog. Putting my jeans and boots into the backpack, I put it on, adjusting it so it fits right.
On the road again, I just can't wait to get on the road again, I don't know how this song goes, but I can't wait to get on the road again... Humming to myself, I check my watch: 3 o'clock.
"Hey!" What the- no way! Please do not tell me he followed me!!! No such luck; a dark blue convertible pulls up along side me,
"What are you?! Some sort of stalker?!!! Ugh!" Good thing there's people around.
"No! Ten miles is just a long walk, so I thought I'd offer to give you a ride."
"What; so you can kidnap me?" Frustrated, he runs one hand through his already tussled hair. Hahaha! People are so interesting to watch when they get annoyed
"Then could I walk with you?"
"Wow; you really are desperate." I muse, grinning slightly. He sighs in frustration,
"Look! A girl like you shouldn't be walking by herself; something could happen." Hmm, he really does look kinda worried...
"First of all, I'm not a girl: I'm all woman! Second of all, the last person who tried messing with me ended up in the emergency room, and I have my Buddy with me, so I don't think you need to be too worried." He looks at me curiously;
"What do you mean; you're by yourself? Aren't you?"
"Things aren't always what they seem." I reply vaguely;
"Look, even if you would normally be safe, there's been weird things happening lately; haven't you heard?" Oh yeah; there's been a series of murders these past few weeks... I stop in my tracks; that weirdo had been distracting me, so I had continued going straight, instead of turning right onto N. Nebraska St. Now I was almost to the not so good side of town. And extremely close to the abandoned church; the one where the bodies of all the murder victims had been found. I freeze involuntarily; someone's watching me... or something.
I feel numb, like my body has shut down, but my mind is still perfectly clear; I can almost feel it expanding, taking in my surroundings... is this what people mean when they've had an 'out of body' experience? There's something in the church, something evil... Then everything is back to normal; startled by the sudden change I gasp. It felt like I had just snapped back into my body; like I had just gotten free, only to be sucked back in. What is happening to me?
"Um, Fae. I have a bad feeling about this." He's behind me now, but I already knew that. "By the way, my name's Kyran." I hear what he's saying, but it sounds far away; I guess I'm too focused on- something moved, I know it did. Crap...
"Fae, I think we should leave. NOW." To add emphasis on his words, he rests a hand on my shoulder, and somehow, I can move again,
"Yeah, you're right." I took a step back, not taking my eyes off of the front door to the chapel. Now every cell in my body is telling me to run; far and fast. Run, run, run, run; don't stop, don't stop, don't stop- I shake my head to clear it; why run when there's a car right here? I take a step towards it, but then I freeze again. I can't get in the car, don't get in the car; run, run, run, run, run!!!
MWUAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Cliffy!
Hey! This is my longest chapter so far!... Anyway, these are the memories that are flashing through her mind as she tells her 'story'; I just thought it would be more interesting for you to have the whole story, unabridged, instead of the extremely shortened version she gives the La Pushians. This sort of thing (a story inside a story) is called a framed story.
Btw, this isn't the end of her memory, just the chapter. Note: pay attention to details, because, as I said earlier, this plays an important role later.
Now, you see that button? Yeah, the one that says: 'Review this Story/Chapter' in green letters. PUSH IT AND WRITE ME A REVIEW!!!!!!!
