Chapter 35 - Can We Keep Her?

Bella's POV

"Are you ready for this?" James asked me and I nodded.

James had been teaching me how to scare people and we were going to break into a house. James said that just finding a stranger in their locked house at night could scare most people so this one should be relatively easy.

Once we were inside he directed me to the living room. "Shouldn't we go upstairs?" I asked him quietly.

"No." My husband told me. "If you want to scare someone, make them come to you." And with that said he pushed a lamp of a table.

I could have caught it but I didn't think James wanted me too so instead I just stood there and watched it fall to the ground. There was a loud noise as it shattered and the people upstairs woke with a start.

There were some hushed words between the couple until they slowly approached the stairs. Once they were in sight James was behind them and he dragged them into the centre of the room.

"Let me go!" The man demanded.

"Please don't hurt me." His wife pleaded. "We wont call the police if you just leave now." She looked about to cry.

James grinned at me. "See, like I said, easy as pie." I couldn't help but smile at the sight of his terrifying smirk which had been etched into my memory since the earliest days I had known him.

The couple was still talking.

"Please, just take what you want and leave." The woman begged.

"You get out of my house this instant or I am calling the police." He ordered, seeming to think he was somehow in charge.

His wife however was just terrified. "Are you going to hurt me?" She asked, tears spilling down her face.

James turned his head to address the woman he held captive. "I am not going to hurt you." He promised, sounding almost compassionate. "I'm going to hurt him." And at his words, James dug his teeth into the angry man's jugular, silencing him forever.

The woman whimpers at the sight of her husbands demise and watches James fearfully. He simply pushes her in my direction and I catch her before she reaches the floor. It takes her a moment to realise I have caught her and stop screaming. James walks up to the woman who grows very quiet. He gets right up in her face and says very clearly. "I won't hurt you, my wife will." James turns his attention to me as her eyes grow very wide. "Bella." He says, commanding me to begin.

I clamp my hand over her mouth to muffle her screaming and I feel the whimper against my skin as I hold the knife in front of her face. I may not need a knife, but I prefer to use the knife to break their skin instead of my teeth, I just love they way they shiver in fright as it cuts them open instead of screaming at the burn my venom causes.

I quickly slid the sharp blade across her neck and sliced open her jugular before latching onto the wound and slowly sucking her dry.

As I dump her carcass to the floor at my feet, James and I both turned to face the young girl, who could not be older than 6 or 7, watching us intently from the staircase. She had platinum blonde hair and very wide green eyes as she peeked through the banisters.

"James." I said to draw his attention.

"I know." His response was instant. "She has been there since the screaming began." He informed me. "Listen." I did not hesitate a second before obeying his instruction. I could hear quite clearly the child's steady heartbeat. "She's not scared." James told me. "If she were scared," he began to explain, "her heart would be beating erratically."

"Is that bad?" I asked him, slightly unsure of my husbands ways. "Is it a problem that she is not afraid?" James had taught me to always scare people, but he did not seem put out by her lack of fear.

"She's not my victim." My lover explained. "I did not come here to kill her. If I'm not going to kill her whether she is or not afraid is irrelevant." I could understand his reasoning but it bothered me that she was not afraid.

I walked up the stairs and approached the young girl who had watched her parents murder so casually. I crouched down so my face was inches from hers. I could hear James standing behind me and yet she just watched me with wide-eyed curiosity. "Are you scared little one?" I asked, already knowing the answer.

The girl simply shook her head.

"Why aren't you scared?" I asked her curiously, narrowing my eyes in confusion. She had just watched us murder her parents while her mother begged us not to, why was she not afraid?

The girl looked to James. "He says he didn't want to kill me." Her voice was quiet and dreary as she spoke.

She didn't seem to care for her parents lives. "Do you know what we are." I asked her and she simply nodded. "What are we?" I was curious as to her theory.

"You're monsters." The little girl said calmly.

I heard my lover laugh and I smiled involuntarily. "But you aren't afraid?" I asked again, curious as to how this strange girl acted.

She shook her head. "I've met a monster before, monsters don't scare me no more." She explained simply.

"And what monster have you met?" I asked with an encouraging smile.

When the girl looked silently at her father's body I realised that it wasn't just her who was strange. This whole family was off. The house seemed for show, well decorated, but with no signs of someone actually living here. The place looked like it was taken from a magazine. And her parents were off too. Her father demanded we leave as though he had authority over us, and his mother just begged us not to hurt her. She never begged for her husband's life, and when James killed him she didn't seem upset to lose him, more, fearful of the realisation that she was less likely to survive this. And the girl wasn't upset by her parents deaths, or scared of their killers.

I looked at the little girl and noted the way she held her arms, as though she were trying to hide them.

I reached out and took hold of her left wrist, pulling her arm up so that it was straight between us. I met her eyes as I pulled up her sleeve. When I looked to her arm I knew I was right; there were small scars lining her arm. The scars were barely a centimetre long and there couldn't be more than 14. "Did you do this?" I asked her.

She nodded.

"How old are you?" I asked her curiously.

"I'm five." The little girl mumbled quietly.

I was shocked that a girl this young would do something like this to herself. "What's your name?"

"Harmony." She replied simply.

"Where did you learn to do this Harmony?" I asked her, she must have picked it up somewhere.

"Mum taught me." Harmony informed me quietly.

She hardly spoke and I had to force the answers out of her. "Why?"

"She says it helps." The young girl explained.

"Helps with what?" I continued questioning the strange girl, intrigued by her odd reactions.

Her eyes silently returned to the body of her father. She was not scared and seemed to hold no remorse for his death.

She didn't even grieve; and I think I know why. "Did that monster touch you Harmony."

She nodded and I let her arm drop to her side.

I was fascinated by this messed up child, her abuse had changed her, caused her to look upon the world in a different light; I understood that.

I turned to James and I did something I cannot remember ever doing before; I asked him for something. I gave my lover all he desired and accepted all he gave me, but as far as I can remember, I have never asked him for anything before. "Can we keep her?" I asked hopefully.

James considers my request carefully. He then bends down to address Harmony while I step back, allowing them room to speak. "Are you scared of monsters sweetie?" He asks her kindly and I am glad to see he is good with her.

Harmony shakes her head.

"So you know that we are monsters," he began and she simply nodded to say this was true. "And we do not scare you?" She shook her head. "Would you be against coming with us?" My mate asked her.

Harmony shook her head. "I lived with a monster before." She told him. "I would happy to be with you two, you are better monsters."

"Well then, Harmony Hunter," my lover began, causing a large grin to spread across my face. "Welcome to the family." He gestured to me. "This is my wife, she will be your mother, and I will be your father." Harmony looked at me and I was happy to see her return my smile.

We are a family.

Authors Note: And just when you thought this story couldn't get any more messed up.

~SophieAngel69