Yayyy, so guess who has finally cranked out another chapter! Yup, that would be me xD I'm sorry it took so long. This has been my first free weekend since the summer. Goodness, senior year is crazy! Anyway, this chapter is kind of sort of long (or long compared to my other chapters, lol), so hopefully that will start making up for my absence. I'll also continue writing tonight, and depending on how far I get, I may have another chapter up for you relatively soon. So enjoy!
"Excuse me?" Kayla asked, clearly confused. Standing at the door was a rather petite girl with choppy brown hair and large golden eyes.
"Oh my God, Edward is going to be so excited to see you! Come on!" The girl grabbed Kayla's arm and dragged her out of the house. She was surprisingly strong for her size, and Kayla was still too shocked to object so she just simply followed behind. Another much larger house came into view through the trees, and the girl kicked open the door and pulled Kayla inside.
"You guys! Look who's here!" she called excitedly, jumping up and down with unnatural grace. One by one, other people began to emerge from the kitchen and various rooms on the second floor, stopping and gasping as they saw Kayla. The house was suddenly overwhelmed with chatter as people she didn't recognize eagerly hugged her and asked her questions, all of which Kayla was too stunned to answer. But all of a sudden, the room fell silent and everyone turned toward the staircase. She followed their anxious gazes to a boy who had appeared on the very top step. He stared blankly back.
"Bella," he said quietly. Suddenly, his mask cracked and a mix of relief, shame and joy all flooded onto his face as he rushed down the stairs toward her. He took her into his arms gently as he asked, "What are you doing here?"
For some reason Kayla couldn't quite explain, the boy's embrace felt familiar and comforting to her. She began to bring her hands up to hold him, but noticed the stares of everyone around her and pushed him away, remembering where she was.
"I-I'm sorry…Do I know you?" she said offhandedly, not knowing what else she could possibly say in a situation like this.
"Bella…Don't be mad. We were only trying to do what was best," the petite girl said, an apologetic look on her face.
"But you've got it all wrong. I-I'm not Bella. My name is Kayla," she insisted, looking around the room at the inhumanly gorgeous faces. One woman in particular stood out. She had golden eyes, just like the rest of them, and long blonde curls flowed down her back. However, she was now looking at Kayla with a beautifully cruel stare, her lips pursed angrily.
"Do you have to be so melodramatic all the time? So Edward left you for a few months. Big deal! It's because he loves you, so stop acting like an idiot and take him back! I can't stand to hear him whine about you for one more day!" she spat, stomping her heel in a huff.
"Rosalie," a tall man said sternly. He gave her a warning look and Rosalie backed down hesitantly. He turned his gaze back to Kayla, and began speaking to her calmly. "Bella-"
"My name is not Bella!" Kayla cried, her bottom lip trembling. Her face flushed in frustration. Who were these people? And where was Cole?
There was a long pause, during which Kayla shuffled her feet and fixated on the ground nervously to avoid the boy's broken expression in front of her, as well as the rest of the residents' confused stares.
"Oh crap."
Everyone snapped their heads over to a very muscular man sitting on the back of the couch. "What is it, Emmett?"
"Alice, take Bella outside for a moment, won't you?" he asked. The petite girl didn't say a word as she dragged Kayla up the stairs to her room, staying close enough to listen but far enough so that human ears could not pick up on the conversation.
Back in the living room, Emmett had stood up in front of the rest of his family.
"I may know what's wrong with her…"
"There's nothing wrong with her. She's just upset…And rightfully so…" Edward trailed off guiltily.
"Maybe…Or maybe she's been reprogrammed."
"What do you mean?" Esme asked, speaking for the first time as she put a comforting hand on her son's shoulder.
Emmett sighed before he continued. He was going to get so busted for this…"Well…I think it might have to do with the Dollhouse."
He launched into the explanation that Cole had given him a few years back, trying to leave out the part where he had ordered one himself for Edward to use. When he had finished, Rosalie was staring hard at him, her foot tapping against the hardwood floor and her arms crossed.
"Should I even ask how or why you know about this place?" she said icily, venom dripping from every word. Her fist twitched ever so slightly, reminding him to choose his words carefully.
"Well, I may have ordered one or two of them a few years ago…"
"What?" came Rosalie's screech, forcing Kayla to cover her ears from all the way upstairs.
"Oh crap, he's going to get it now," Alice muttered to herself, shaking her head in disapproval.
"What? No! No! Not for me!" Emmett quickly amended, backing away from Rosalie slowly as he eyed the heel on her shoes. "I promise you, Rose. I would never even think about-"
"Then who. Was it. For." Rosalie had brought her volume back down to barely above a whisper, but it only made the fuming beauty even more threatening.
"Well, I can't say…"
"Emmett!"
"Okay, okay! It was for…Edward."
Everyone's eyebrows shot up in surprise, all except for Edward's who looked less than pleased.
"Hey now, it wasn't my idea! But look, why don't we discuss this later? I feel like we have something a bit more important to figure out right now."
"Well?" Edward asked coldly.
"Well…the point of that whole….revelation was that I think…Bella might be a doll."
"What?"
"Why would she do that?"
"No way!"
"Everyone, calm down!" Carlisle cut in, silencing the room's outbursts. When he had everyone's full attention, he continued calmly. "Now Emmett, before anyone discredits your theory, can you explain to us why?"
"You mean besides the fact that she thinks her name is Kayla and doesn't seem to recognize a single one of us?"
"That would be nice, yes."
"Well, for one, she hasn't tripped a single time today."
"It's true," Rosalie smirked, warranting a glare from Edward.
"That's enough," Carlisle said. "If Bella is a doll as you say, why is she here? Who is the client?"
Everyone turned back around to stare at Emmett. He shrugged his shoulders and opened his mouth to speak, when suddenly the door banged open, revealing a dripping wet Cole clad in nothing but a towel wrapped loosely around his waist.
"Hey! Oh…Am I interrupting anything?" Cole said, noticing that every single Cullen was now staring at him suspiciously. "Well, I'll get out of your way. I was just wondering if any of you had seen a girl about 'ye' high?"
He made a gesture with his hand and looked around expectantly, but the room remained deathly still so he continued his description obliviously. "Cute little brunette? Brown eyes? Tight ass?"
A moment later, Cole found himself pinned to the wall by his throat. Edward had thrown himself at the unsuspecting vampire, and was now inflicting harm upon every part of Cole he could reach.
"What the-" Cole gasped out, unable to speak without a breath of air. He struggled under the blows for a moment, but soon regained his awareness of what was going on. He tried to catch Edward's fists, but the infuriated vampire was too quick for him. Finally, being older and much stronger, Cole flung Edward off of him, sending him across the room and into a large glass cabinet, knocking countless assortments of china down to the ground.
Edward was up again in an instant, but Emmett and Carlisle appeared by his side, holding him back while Jasper attempted to diffuse the situation with his powers. Cole just remained standing where he was, readjusting his towel awkwardly as he tried to lighten the mood with a faint, crooked smile.
"Heh, sorry about that Eddie...I forget my own strength sometimes."
"What the hell did you do to her?" Edward said, trying his best to overpower Jasper's tampering of his emotions and snarl at Cole. Needless to say, it ended up looking more like a psychotic grin.
"Woah, what are you talking about Ed? I haven't done anything."
Edward struggled against his family's hold again, but to no avail.
"Look, Edward. Fighting isn't going to help you. Why don't we just sit down and talk this through. That way we can find out how to reverse whatever has been done to Bella, alright?" Carlisle reasoned. After a moment, Edward slumped down in their grasp, signaling defeat. They sat him down on the couch, motioning for Cole to do the same in the opposite armchair. Emmett remained hovering by Edward's side, just in case he chose to attack again.
"Cole, can you please explain where you met Bella…I mean, Kayla?"
Cole looked sheepish, but nodded. "I sort of…requested her."
"From the Dollhouse?"
His head shot up in surprise. "Yeah! You know about it?"
"Emmett just explained it to us a few minutes before you walked in."
"How kind of him." Cole shot him a glare before turning his attention back toward Carlisle. "So…what? You want to order a doll or something?"
"How dare you-" Edward began, but Carlisle held up a hand and he quieted down again grudgingly.
"Actually, Cole, as it turns out, the doll you've ordered just so happens to be Bella Swan. She used to be a close family friend of ours."
"Wait…You mean Eddy's Bella Swan? As in the girl he's been all wrecked over these past couple of months!"
"That very same one," Carlisle nodded.
"Shit! I'm so sorry, man! I swear I didn't know. I have no say in who they send me. Well, I mean, I do…But not like in who they really are, you know? And it's not like I knew who this Bella chick was I've only heard about her but I mean I was up here this entire time I've never even been to Forks! Well, except for that one time back in the 60s but I don't really like to talk about that and well, she wasn't even alive then anyway-"
"Can you shut up?" Rosalie spat, cutting off his hurried apology.
"Oh…right. Sorry about that…" Cole murmured, shrugging. "You know how it gets, with a thousand thoughts all yelling at me at once and all…"
"We understand perfectly." Carlisle interjected smoothly. "And hopefully you also understand why we'll need you to put Bella back to the way she was."
Cole looked as if he had been punched in the gut. His eyes widened and he was only able to stammer out, "W-what?"
"You need to fix her!" Edward growled before Carlisle could speak.
"Oh…" Cole said, looking for the right words that would keep them from touching his Kayla. "Well, look…I'm sorry, Edward, but there's just nothing I can do. She's Kayla now."
"No!" he yelled, poising himself to attack again. Emmett grabbed Edward's shoulder, but he shrugged him off and stood up, towering over the armchair Cole was sat in. "I think you better find out a way."
"I'm sorry, but-"
"What if we just sent her back to the Dollhouse?" Emmett began, shoving his way between Cole and Edward. "She can get back her memories, and then everything will be fine."
"Send her back to the people who did this to her? Emmett, I'm not so sure that's a good idea…" Esme said worriedly. "What if they don't release her?"
"Then we fight them!" Edward said harshly.
"No," Carlisle said. "We do not know who we will be up against. It could be the Dollhouse's own security, or it could be dolls programmed to protect the building. Either way, we would be putting many innocent lives in danger."
"Then what do you expect us to do? We aren't just going to leave her like this, with someone else's mind. It would be the same as killing her!"
"Wait a minute!" Emmett exclaimed suddenly. "Edward, remember Olivia?"
"What about her?" he spat, not very keen on hearing about his past when he had his own problems to deal with in the present.
"She was the doll! I heard about what you said was going on in her mind. That you only saw small snippets of memories and thoughts. What if those aren't the implanted memories, but the real ones?"
"That would mean that Bella is still in there," Esme said, catching on.
"So what? Apparently there's a Kayla in there too. But she seems to only think that she's Kayla. Not Bella."
"So maybe we just need to remind her," Jasper jumped in, speaking up for the first time. "Maybe if we surround her by her past, it will jog her memory."
"Which means…" Edward began.
"Which means we're going back to Forks."