Amethyst Skies
Part 2
By Dog-Demon-Emiko
Chapter 35: Denial
This morning when I 'woke up' I knew something wasn't right. First off, in a house containing three vampires (since Edward has unofficially moved in) and a werewolf, the house is generally silent. Even for Keith's large size he was as quiet as the rest of us. The only thing that gave him away was his thumping heartbeat, which, like any werewolf, was loud. I think even if I was human I would have been able to hear it. So every morning when I 'wake up', aka stop daydreaming and thinking with my eyes closed, the first thing I do is listen for that thudding heartbeat. This morning, there was none.
The first thing I did was take a shower. Even though my body held no odor, my hair did. And having as much hair as I did really sucked in a city where it rained a lot. The air pollution from the major cities surrounding us fell with the rain, into my hair, and into my nose. It really sucked.
When my shower was done I ran a wide comb through my hair and pulled it into a tight braid. I put on black cargos that I found quite comfortable and a gray tank top that showed about an inch of my midriff.
I went down stairs and into the living room. The couch-bed had been folded, the pillows replaced in the couch, and the coffee table back in its original place. If it wasn't for his lingering scent I wouldn't have known he had even been here. I followed his scent up the stairs to the bathroom, to my bedroom door, and then back down the stairs and out the front door. Maybe I was pretend sleeping better then I thought, because I don't remember hearing anyone coming up the stairs or using the bathroom last night. I would have to talk to Carlisle about that, or better yet, Rosalie. I got the idea to do it from her. She does it all the time.
I peaked out the window. It was overcast, as usual, but it didn't look as though it would rain too heavily today. Maybe Keith would want to go on a run? Or maybe that's what he was doing now? Apart of me found it annoying that he stopped by my bedroom door without saying anything to me about leaving. Not that he had to, but it would have been nice. I wasn't really sure on how things would go between he and his pack now. Not only did he trespass on their territory, but he brought me, again, and killed a vampire too. That's almost a smack in the face to the pack.
The high pitched hum of a sleek engine broke me from my thoughts. I didn't think anything of it until out of the corner of my eye I saw a silver thing pull into the driveway behind my car.
Keith, on a silver motorcycle, taking off his helmet, in my driveway. Did I inhale some fumes or something?
He walked up to the house and opened the front door quietly. I was still in my spot by the window, waiting for him to say something. I wasn't sure if I was surprised by how sexy he looked or that he had just went out and hopped onto a motorcycle and came back here with it. It was rather random.
When he spotted me he came over and laid a kiss on my cheek. "Thought we could go out for a bit," he smiled. I returned it.
"You don't like my car anymore?" I teased. He chuckled.
"Thought you would like a bit more of an adventure." My smile turned to a smirk.
"Of course." I went over to the note drawer and scribbled down that I was out with Keith and would be back soon. I wasn't sure where my parents were...scratch that, both their cars were in the driveway. Let me rephrase that, I wasn't sure what my parents were doing, and I really didn't want to disturb them. I left the note in the middle of the kitchen table and followed my sexy man-beast out the front door.
His bike was a Yamaha. I didn't know much about motors but I knew the model was a sport bike, the same kinds they use to race. That meant it was fast, right?
"When did you get this?" I asked. He handed me a silver helmet and climbed on.
"When I turned eighteen. I went back this morning and-" I grabbed his shoulder, turning him to face me.
"You went back? For a bike? Keith that was a really stupid risk! What if you were discovered? They would have killed you!"
"Rose, calm down. No one saw me."
"But they'll know you've been there-"
"Rose," his voice caught my attention, snapping me out of my rampage. He looked me fully in the eye. "It's alright, trust me." The tone of his voice told me that the conversation was over. I wasn't even a wolf and he could silence me with a look or just by the way he says things. How the hell does he do that?
I pulled the helmet on with some difficultly. As much as I wanted to be one of those hot chicks with the long lucious hair that I shook out when I took my helmet off, I wasn't going to be able to. My hair had dried a bit and now the thick braid made it impossible that I could put the helmet on comfortably.
"You know, even if we do crash I can just walk away now. I don't really need this." He gave me a look.
"I don't care. Come here." I went to him and he turned me so I was facing away from him. It took me a second too long to realize that he had undone my braid.
"Hey-!"
"Hush." How does he do that? After a moment he handed me the helmet back. Rolling my eyes I put it on again to find that it slipped right on. I reached behind me and felt the braid. It was still there, but looser.
"Since when do you know how to braid?" I asked. He put his own helmet on.
"I used to braid my mother's hair a long time ago." He put in the key and reeved the engine. I climbed on behind him and used that as an excuse to hug him. I didn't want to baby Keith, and he wasn't the one for sympathy. But the subject of his mother was touchy with him.
He lifted the kickstand with his foot and walked us backwards, then put his feet up and pulled off down the street. This was definetely a new experience of being free. As the trees flashed by I guessed we were going about seventy-five to eighty miles per hour. This was almost as good as running.
I hadn't been paying attention to where we were going, but I knew where we were a moment too late. Dam was I off today. I ripped off my helmet as soon as we stopped.
"Keith," I started. He silenced me by putting a finger to my lips.
"It's okay." He said. Something wasn't right, I knew it. Not to long ago Keith's pack tried to kill the both of us. Now he was free to walk on their territory again? What was going on? I listened carefully for other voices. I couldn't hear any over the sounds of the waves crashing against the cliffs.
There was a rustling next to me. I looked to see Keith stripping out of his jacket and shirt and taking off his footwear. "What are you doing?" I asked.
"Well I don't know about you but I hate wet socks." He threw me a smirk before taking off and sailing over the edge of the cliff. My first instinct was to look over the cliff to see if he was okay. After all, he is more fragile then me now. But that didn't mean much.
I crossed my arms and waited as he came back up, soaking wet and beaming. "Rose come on, don't be like that" he said as he neared. "I want you to have a good time out here; doing simple stuff without complications. You've been under way to much stress lately and its taking a toll on you."
"Your right," I said sarcastically. "It's keeping me up at night."
"Rose," he sighed.
Why can't you just be normal?
"Because I'm not normal Keith!"
"Yes, I know." he growled "Two weeks ago you were Rose Cullen. You were who you are and wouldn't let anyone tell you different. Now your Rose the vampire acting like the depressed and goth version of Dracula! Your not you, and I miss that. Is that so bad?"
It was starting to rain, a drop landed on the top of my head. I could see the frustration playing in his eyes. I'll admit, I have been a bit different. But only because I missed the little things in life. Like sleeping, eating, even sweating and feeling that wonderful fufilling feeling after running miles and tiring out your body. But now I felt as if I had to carry out a more difficult role in life. Keith was more fragile then me, and he was in more danger then I was. It was my job to protect him. And if I had to be a stick in the mud to do so then so be it.
"Fine," he said after a moment "if you think it's such a bad idea then let's go back to the house. We'll order a movie or something." I didn't want it to end this way, with him angry with me. But I didn't know what to say.
My ears tensed; I grabbed his arm for a reason that had nothing to so with the fight. My eyes unfocused as I concentrated all my will power into my ears.
"Someone is coming." I said. I looked around. They were coming from the direction that we had parked in. Shit, they must have found the bike.
"Hide," he ushered me towards the woods. I peaked through a gap in the thicket to see Keith retrieving his clothes and tugging them back on. Before he managed to put his jacket on, a dark haired man no older then us came into view. I tensed, figuring he was getting ready to attack him or something. But he didn't. After a moment of staring they smiled at each other and grasped each others forearms in greeting.
"Jacob has been looking for you Keith, where have you been?" The man asked.
"My father knows where I am, he simply refuses to go there."
"You ran out so quickly this morning. The poor girl thinks you hate her now."
"I don't hate her, I just have no intrest in her. Mary is wonderful, she'll make a lovely mate-" The waves chose that moment to hit the cliffs washing away Keith's last sentence.
"Your taking it to far with her. You need to end it you know it'll never work. The both of you are two completely different people."
"I will. I just wanted to see her one last time, is all. We were friends before all of this you know." The older man put a hand on Keith's shoulder. Something inside of me crumbled. What was he saying? Maybe I was hearing it wrong. Was that why he didn't want me here for this conversation? Was that why he was allowed back on pack lands? Because he was mated to Mary? Who was Mary?
"Your mother would be proud."
"Let's hope." The older man looked around, listening or sniffing I wasn't sure, but I kept my sobs quiet.
"What are you doing out here?" Keith smiled sadly and looked around.
"Saying goodbye." Even though I knew my heart wasn't beating, I felt it stop all over again. For a split second, I almost felt tears build in my eyes.
"How do you think she'll take it?" the man asked. Keith shrugged, almost uncaring.
"She's different now, she'll be fine." My breath hitched in my throat, making a chocking noise. This time the older man looked in my direction, Keith following his gaze. I stood from my hiding spot, ignoring the older man and looking straight into Keith's shocked eyes.
She heard me...
Yea, I did. Before he could think anything else I charged. The older man stepped into my way. His arm went to wrap around my tourso but I grabbed it with both hands. He let out a scream that was half a yelp as burning welts raised on his arm. I stopped inches from Keith. I wanted to hit him, to strike him, to make him feel some of the pain that was going through myself at the moment. The second he started to open his mouth, I slapped him. Four red hot gashes were on his cheek as blood splattered the ground. I took off west, away from La Push, away from the bike, and away from sneaky, cheating wolves.
Some small part of me said that I should have waited, heard him out, and saw reason. But the bigger part of me, the part that was fueling my legs to carry me at speeds Edward could only try to match, said that the good life had lasted far to long, and it was about time it turned to shit and in a very big way.
The rain came down harder, pushing me back as the wind picked up as well. Even nature was telling me to stop and slow down to think before I drowned myself in my dark thoughts. But I was a fucking vampire for crying out loud, nature didn't apply to me.
It wasn't until I jumped from the shore of the Calawah River and onto the bridge until I realized where I was running. I pushed myself even harder to get there. It was the only safe place I could think of at the moment.
I ran down the drive and up the steps. I started to pound at the door.
It opened on the third bang, and a very upset Rosalie was staring at me. I pushed by her to go up the stairs, squeaking, dripping, and all. Suddenly I heard more hurried wet footsteps and whipped around. I knew the pattern of that aggressive run anywhere.
"Don't let him in!" I snarled. "Shut the door!" Rosalie did just that, gawking at my forwardness. There was more pounding at the door.
"Rose?" I turned. Emmett was at the top f the stairs coming towards me. "What's going on?"
"Make sure that wolf doesn't get in." I growled. I hurried past him and up the second flight of stairs straight into my fathers room.
Edward didn't have a scent that was very different from any other vampire. After all, you had to have bodily functions in order to have one. But the smell of leather always reminded me of him. He wore a leather jacket, had a leather couch, and his seats in his car were made of leather. So when the smell enveloped me when I first walked into the room, I felt comfortable enough to simply collapse on his couch and retreat into my mind.
I would have loved to do the latter if there wasn't an annoying knock on the door. As cute as it was for everyone in this house to be so close to one another, I found it annoying that there were no locks on any of the doors. The door popped open and two heads popped in. They came into the room slowly, closing the door behind him.
Leave me alone, I want to wallow, I don't need help, I can do this on my own!
As soon as Alice's hand touched my shoulder I fell into her, dry sobbing. When I knew that I wouldn't be able to cry anymore I was rather happy. I didn't want such a weak thing anymore. But now I missed it. Atleast when I cried I knew I was loosing some of my sorrow, unleashing it someway. But now I couldn't and it made me angry a bit.
"Rose, tell us what happened, please. Emmett is at the door keeping Keith out and he doesn't even know why. I need to know how serious this is." As much of a bitch Rosalie can be, I found that she's always come through when needed.
"Keith has a mate, aparently, and was going to dump me tonight." I could feel both of them tensing. "Don't do anything, don't say anything. I don't want to let him know he's gotten to me."
Well after charging in here and not letting him in I don't think he's thinks your alright.
I shot a look at Rosalie. She mumbled an apology. Did she mean it? I really didn't care. But she did have a point.
"Do you want to talk to him?" Alice asked. I shook my head. I couldn't see him at the moment, I had to find my walls and put them back up and fast. But they were right, Emmett didn't know what he was doing. But from the sound of it, Keith wasn't arguing with him anymore.
I sighed as I realized that there was a puddle beneath my butt, I was still soaking wet and was getting mud in Edward's carpet.
"Don't worry about it, we'll get it cleaned later." I nodded.
"Do you have any clothes I can borrow? I don't feel like going home tonight really." Rosalie nodded and took my hand, leading me down the stairs and into her room. Alice would have happily complied, but her clothes were a bit small for me.
I took a shower so hot that if I needed to breath I would have suffocated from the steam. My skin became delicously warm. But it only lasted a few moments before the water started to go cold. Rosalie had let me pick from her closet what I wanted to wear. I grabbed light gray sweats that I would have never figured she had, and a white cotton shirt-snug, as usual. I declined the shoes she offered and settled in walking around barefoot. I didn't argue as she tempered with my hair, putting some mouse or something in it. What did I care? My hair was hardy and healthy before I died, and it'll stay that way forever. Nothing she could put in it would change it.
After that Rosalie went to talk to Emmett and Alice was...where ever she went. Esme and Jasper had gone to look at property that was said to be a haunted old Victorian building. I could never understand Esme's will to restore such old things. It was like she spent her life trying to make things beautiful and right. I couldn't understand exactly what she would get out of it besides something pretty to look at every now and then.
What caught my attention, as always, was the grand piano by the door. I had always loved it but never got a chance to check it out. It was a lot prettier then mine, and a lot bigger. But the sound that a piano this size made were absolutely beautiful. I only heard Edward play it once. It was the soft melody that my mother always used to hum. The sound would be enough to break winter into spring.
I sat on the smooth black bench. The white keys were polished to a shine like the rest of the piano. The bench was at perfect height and at a perfect position in the room to have an audience. But like usual, my audience was only me, myself, and I.
As I slid my fingers over the keys, I began to loose focus. I'd been doing that a lot lately. I wonder where my attention had been going. My fingers pressed down on the keys, taking me out of my thoughts. The note sounded almost the same as the one from Evanescence. I hit it again. Hell, no one's here, why not?
Don't cry to me.
If you loved me,
You would be here with me.
You want me?
Come find me.
Make up your mind.
I didn't need to think about the notes as I played. But now I guess I knew what made Amy Lee's performance catch my eye so much at her last concert. She used true emotion, true anger, to take the notes to a different level.
Should've let you fall,
Lose it all.
So maybe you can remember yourself.
Can't keep believing-
We're only deceiving-
Ourselves and I'm sick of the lies.
And your too late.
How long? How long had been with this...Mary? How long had he been plotting to dump me for another wolf? Any why didn't he have the guts to tell me?
Don't cry to me.
If you loved me,
You would be here with me.
You want me?
Come find me.
Make up your mind.
Couldn't take the blame,
Sick with shame.
Must be exhausting to lose your own game.
Selfishly hated-
No wonder your jaded-
You can't play the victim this time.
And your too late.
So don't cry to me,
If you loved me,
You would be here with me.
You want me?
Come find me
Make up your mind.
You never call me when your sober,
You only want it 'cuz it's over.
It's over...
How could I...
Have burned paradise?
How could I?
You were NEVER mine.
My voice cracked on "never mine". I couldn't quite say it, it hurt to much. Was he truly never mine? Could he have been at some time or was I just fooling myself?
So don't cry to me,If you loved me,
You would be here with me.
Don't lie to me,
Just get your things.
I've made up your mind.
Maybe I was fooling myself. Like the older wolf said, we were just two different people...two different species. Who was I kidding? I would live forever, he would age to about whatever the lifespan on a human Quileute multiplied times two or three. What was that, late two hundreds? Early three-hundreds? It wasn't forever. By the time I blinked he would be graying. And I would have to say stupid things like 'He's like my grandfather', or 'He's a friend of the family, helped raise me!'. Keith was a family guy and I was infertile...actually, more then infertile. I was dead. Keith protected humans, I would probably kill one one day. Did I blame myself for what I was? No, how could I? Sometimes I didn't like what I was but I would just have to deal with it. I guess I would be dealing with it on my own for now.
I heard a car coming down the road. I sighed and headed back to Edward's room. Maybe if I pretended to be asleep they would just whisper about me and then leave me be. I just hope Mom wouldn't try and baby me. It was the last thing I needed at the moment.
I know it's short and not very...me, but I can't find the notebook that has my entire story plans and this is the best I could do by memory. It may be a bit sudden and random but it does have a point, promise.