Chapter 14- Hello Dolly

David, Dwayne, Paul, and Marko woke up late the next night. As usual, David woke up first. He could hear the buzz of her brain, Isabel's brain. 'I don't know where he is David where are you I can't find you David what are you doing?' It came all in one quick and blurry succession of words. In his mind he thought he could hear the lilt of her English and French accent. He saw her standing against the blurry backdrop of the Santa Carla boardwalk. She looked so lost. It was only in his head, from what he had caught from her brain, Isabel was strong and tough as nails. She would never look so afraid. She probably only felt afraid, maybe. Then he opened his eyes and it all went away.

That night Paul finished first. The other boys were still hunting. 'They probably got some,' thought Paul, 'except David. I swear he's crazy keeping that girl 'round as a pet. But whateva."

Then he felt something strange. He could tell there was something wrong with one of the girls who had just passed by. Not wrong as in upset but wrong as in inhuman. Then he saw her hanging by the alleyway. 'Hot' was his first thought and 'Shit!' was his second. Shit as in 'Shit! Another vampire!' He pulled her into the back of the alley in the shadows and bared his fangs at her. What were those words that David had told him to say if he ever ran into another coven? It was like 'how do you plead' except it was about being peaceful or not. "How do you plead?" he said, growling at the beautiful and deadly vampire.

She laughed. "You mean how do I come, stupid? You say 'How do you come?' and I either say 'In peace,' or I just attack you or whatever. 'Cause that's what you're supposed to say when another vampire is on your turf."

Paul just growled and gripped her neck harder.

"Hey, chill out. You're gonna bruise somethin'," said Dolly.

Paul growled again, his eyes glowing fully red and orange.

"Hey, listen, baby. I'm lookin' for David. That's it." Paul loosened his grip and looked at her, his grimace lessening. "David. Vampire leader guy? He around here anywhere? I need to see him. You know him?" asked Dolly.

Paul dropped her and she was standing up before she even hit the ground. "Yeah, I know him."

Dolly put her hands into her pockets and said "Cool. Take me to your leader," she added in an alien voice. Paul looked at her like she was an alien. He wanted to laugh, but this could be the verge of an inter-coven war so he just pulled her over to his bike.

"Hey, no thanks," said Dolly, stepping back.

"You don't like bikes?" asked Paul.

"No. I just like to bring my own," she said going down the rack and unlocking her motorcycle.

"You ride with me or we don't go anywhere," said Paul. He didn't trust this girl.

She gave him a Death Stare. "No, I ride on my bike or I rip open your stomach and you don't go anywhere and I leave, get it?"

Paul grunted. "Stay close," he said.

They took the fast way, on the roads. He mentally messaged David and the gang that there was an invading vampire who he was bringing back to the cave. When they got to the Bluff, David had mentally drugged Evelyn to sleep and stashed her in her bed. Max was right. If he kept fiddling around with her mind she was going to go crazy. There's only so much mind-play a mortal psyche can take.

Paul yanked Dolly off her bike and they flew down the stairs at a dangerously impossible pace, for mortals, that is. David was standing on the edge of the fountain, his hands folded behind his back. Paul threw Dolly down before him and she looked at him with hatred. No one pushed her around. She felt like he was making her bow down. She stood up quickly, brushing off the dust easily.

She raised her chin and looked at David. "Someone's looking for you," she said smoothly.

"How do you come?" asked David, using the traditional phrase.

Dolly rolled her eyes. "In peace."

"Alright," David said, taking a step around the fountain's edge easily, stepping over a candle. "Who sent you?"

"Isabel Laroux," said Dolly, butchering the French pronunciation. David looked up sharply, taken aback. He looked to the rest of the Lost Boys, telling them to leave, and they did. You knew her as Isabel Sutherland, your wife, mother of your dead baby."

A fire lit in David's eyes as he came towards her, grabbing her round the head and neck. "Don't you dare," he said. "Don't you dare speak of them!" There was suddenly a glint of protecting father in his eyes, which were turning orange.

"Will you speak to me, David?" asked Isabel, who was suddenly standing directly behind him. David stared at her. "Don't you recognize me, David? I think you should… you've been thinking about me lately." David didn't move. "Do you like what I've done with my hair? I know it's different," she said, mocking the tones of a modern-day husband and wife. "Dolly told me where you were." She threw a nod at Dolly and when David looked around at Dolly, she was gone, hovering with the rest of the girls in the trees near the Bluff, masking their presence from the boys.

"Isabel…" said David, unbelieving.

Isabel smiled a smile that was kind underneath the malicious overtures of her mannerisms. She clucked her tongue and said "David." Isabel stepped forward and put her hands on either side of his face. "David. Look at you! I like your hair," she whispered into his ear.

David couldn't believe it. Her hair was gone, but Isabel looked the same as she had when she had left all those years ago. "Isabel," he repeated, "but you left!"

"That was a hundred and fifty three years ago. I wanted to—" but then he pushed her away.

"What are you doing here?" he demanded.

"I wanted to talk to you," she said. She was choking up. He could hear the tears in her voice.

"Talk," said David gruffly. How dare she torment him like this! She was breaking his heart all over again. But no matter, it was Evelyn's now, as much as he hated to admit it.

"I don't know," said Isabel quietly.

"Why did you go? I did everything you ever asked of me! Why wouldn't you—" David yelled at her.

"I don't know." Isabel had never felt so tiny. "I was afraid! I was hurt! After Henry died I hated you! I thought that…" Isabel was yelling now, but she couldn't finish her sentences.

"You left me alone with a dead baby to mourn and a new life to deal with!" yelled David.

"You should have gotten her to teach you," said Isabel softly.

"You're still upset about that?"

"No, I wasn't but now I'm saying that at the time you weren't exactly alone!" But just as Isabel was in the heat of the argument they both heard the tiniest sound by the bed. Isabel hadn't seen it before, but now that Evelyn was holding the curtain back she could see into the makeshift bedroom.

"David? David, what's going on?" asked Evelyn. 'Who was this?' she thought, 'and how are they yelling so loud?'

Through all Isabel's toughness and anger she broke. She knew exactly who this was. This was David's new girlfriend and David didn't have any place for Isabel. "No one," whispered Isabel. "I'm nobody," she said louder, and she meant it in a way no one listening understood.

Isabel turned to go but David caught her arm. "You didn't speak to me for over a hundred years, not since the night you left."

"Just because I don't say anything doesn't mean I don't like you," said Isabel with the tone of a kindergarten school-girl. "I don't know what you want," and with that she left, running up the stairs into the woods.

She wouldn't cry. Not until they couldn't see her or hear her anymore. She picked up pace and ran right passed Dolly's bike straight into the woods. She ran and ran at vampire speed and collapsed over a big tree root. She cried there. She felt ridiculous for crying, but she was anyway.

In that moment when she saw Evelyn she understood everything. She had left. She saw the wholeness of David and how there was no place for her. She felt like nobody. She was nobody to David. She felt angry with herself. She was angry that she had left in the first place, and even angrier that she had come back.

The girls came and tried to comfort her. "He ha-ha-hates m-me," she sobbed. It didn't matter how old it was, a broken heart was a broken heart.

Dolly and Inky were a bit befuddled. They had never seen Iz, their leader, like this. They had never seen her so broken and they had no idea that David had meant so much to her. Val, who had known her longest, understood. This was more how they had been when they had first meant. Broken, but immortal, she had been trying to pick up the pieces and glue them back together any way she could. She had been mad at herself that she was the one who had broken them in the first place. "It never sto-sto-sto-sto-o-ops," she wailed. "It doesn't matter h-how long it's b-b-been, it ne-never s-s-stops. Not ever." Isabel rolled over and wiped her eyes. "It's just like the old days, remember, Val?" she asked. Inky and Dolly looked away. This was before their time. "Crying all the time…" Isabel muttered.

"It's good, don't worry. It's like they say, better out than in. Only when something has truly been broken, can it truly be mended," said Val. Isabel looked up at Val, no sure if she believed what her friend was saying. "C'mon. Let's get this one home," said Val to the others.

"I don't have home," said Isabel, in her depressed state.

That night Isabel got very drunk and killed three people, sloppily.