An Empty Spot Fulfilled
[10 days passed]
Bella's POV
It had been ten days ever since the 'war' came to an abrupt stop. It wasn't exactly a war, not in my eyes anyway. Sure, it had bloodshed and people were being burnt from left to right but it wasn't a war. A war would be two nations or teams or whatever opposing each other, not a one person war where everyone feared that said person. It stopped though, at least, even though the Cullens lost one of their most beloved son and brother; Jasper Cullen. They were still mourning over his death and even though they were such good actors and actresses, they couldn't hide it from me. The cause of his death was from Valencia, and yet Esme had accepted her to come into the family. Apparently, the only person that Valencia was open up to was Esme. As for everyone else? She did not care about.
Rosalie did try to get an apology from Valencia for what she had done. In the end it only backfired on her, and her red convertible BMW was nearly set aflame. Ever since that she tried her best not to piss the Phoenix off, but every once in a while she slipped and lucky for her, Valencia didn't seem to even care. The girl was broken from the inside, and I wished that I wasn't in that pool of broken mirrors inside of her. I hoped that one day she'd come to forgive me.
"I can't believe that she is here!" Alice pouted as she placed her head against my shoulder. "She's a psycho! A pyro-psycho!"
I chuckled at the small outburst as I patted her head gently, only for her to pout more. "She's not a psycho. She's just…broken." I sighed.
"Are you sure she's broken? Because ten days ago she was a complete psycho!"
"Have you actually observed her like I did?" I asked, turning to raise an eyebrow at her.
"You mean…" Alice paused as she lifted her head off of my shoulder and glanced over to where Valencia was seated, perched up on the windowsill. "How broken and fragile she looks? How lost and confused she looks?"
I gave her a small smile. "Yes, exactly. If we put ourselves in her shoes, we'd understand her more. Right now I doubt that she would want either of us to do that."
"You got that right." Came Estrella's annoyed tone.
Estrella didn't want to stay with us. She wasn't all comfortable with us, especially with Esme when she figured out that only Esme could approach Valencia with a warm greeting from the Phoenix girl. The sadistic vampire wanted to get out of here but she had nowhere else to go. The only person that she could trust with all her life was Valencia, and since the said girl agreed on staying with us she had no choice but to follow.
Alice immediately turned and shot the other vampire an annoyed look. "Shouldn't you be over there with her then?"
Estrella frowned. "I should but she doesn't want me to. As soon as I'm about to touch her I'd feel like my whole body is on fire."
"Wow…tough love." Alice said sarcastically and I sighed. Everyone was on edge with these two here, and Alice just hated the fact that Valencia had to be here with all of us instead of being with Aro when he had offered them his place for shelter.
"Watch it, shortie, I'm not one to tolerate sarcasm…Or well, you of all people in general." Estrella paused, seeming to think over something before shrugging. "Actually, I don't tolerate anyone but Valencia, so watch it."
"Enough!" Valencia sighed as she turned to face us. She gave the three of us a blank look before hopping off the edge and walked over to us. She came to a brief stop next to me, glancing over at me with those painful eyes that I had to look away from her, before she took another couple of steps to stand next to Estrella. "If you don't want to be here, you shouldn't be here for my own sake. I can take care of myself, Estrella."
"Can you?" Estrella challenged before she nodded at both me and Alice. "Do you know that these two have been talking about you?"
Valencia sighed and nodded. "Yes, and quite frankly I do not care. If you have a problem with that, you can go."
Estrella frowned before she turned. As she was about to leave, she turned her head so she could look at Valencia, ignoring our presence. "You know, I care about you, a lot. If you want me at all, you know where to find me. If you don't then I'll understand. And please, for once, stop treating me like a pet." With that said she left.
I watched as Valencia looked on before turning. Her eyes came straight back to me. She looked at me with no emotions this time. Five seconds later she let out a sigh and walked passed us, heading towards the garden where Esme would likely be at this time of day. If there was a way to at least bring some life back into her, I wouldn't mind trying to help her out with it.
"How long do you think she's going to be like this?" Alice asked out of curiosity as we both watched the Phoenix slowly disappearing from our sights.
"I'm not too sure. Hopefully it doesn't last forever."
[x]
It had been three months now that Valencia had stayed with us. Estrella decided to join after two months of wandering about. I could tell that Valencia was very happy to see the sadistic vampire returned to her, but she was so good at hiding her emotions that none of us could notice them except for Estrella and me. I suppose being that close to her before got me to read her more easily than the others that hadn't been around her for long. Aurora and Heloise came to visit every now and then, though they mostly traveled from places just to be with each other more. Silvester decided to tag along even though Aurora had been bossing him around like a little pet, no matter what Heloise did to try to stop her from doing so. I felt sorry for the poor guy, especially the oblivious one. Heloise told me that she had tried to tell Silvester the truth, but Aurora was so proud of having a 'slave' that she always ruined the moment when Silvester and Heloise were together. God, I've never met anyone that was as spoiled as Aurora.
As for Valencia, she didn't get better as we would hope. She spent less time with the rest of the family but more time with Esme. It was as if she viewed Esme as her Godmother, descended to save her from her loneliness. We all tried to help her, even Rosalie even though the blonde hated her guts still, but it was futile. She shut us out and only let Esme in. Emmett was lucky enough to even get out a few laughs and giggles from her. Well, who wouldn't? Emmett was just a big, funny and goofy teddy bear after all.
"Maybe you should talk to her."
I quickly turned to the voice behind me, surprised to see Estrella standing there. I raised an eyebrow at her, even though I knew she had her head turned away from me.
"Are you asking me for help?" I asked, smirking.
Immediately, she whipped her head back so fast and in a second, she was grabbing at my shirt and pulling me up so that she was glaring straight into my eyes. "I never ask for help. So don't even feel a bit special when I said that you should talk to her."
I frowned and slapped her hands away from my shirt. I straightened the wrinkles that she done before returning the glare. "Then why don't you talk to her?"
"I'm not the one that left and shattered her heart." She hardened her glare. "You did!"
Well that was a slap in the face. I never meant to hurt anybody but there was a choice that I had to take, even if it meant hurting somebody. What other choice did I have back then?
I sighed and ran a hand through my head before nodding. "Fine, I'll go talk to her one more time."
When I made to leave, Estrella halted me by grabbing my shoulder abruptly. "No, you will talk to her until she gets better. You owe her that much."
This favor or debt would last a lifetime. I wondered if I could just run away…but then that would mean cruel. Why couldn't this be any easy?
I shrugged her hand off of my shoulder and nodded. "Fine, whatever, we want her to be happy after all."
I made my way towards Valencia's room where she imprisoned herself in it. A room was only for her to sleep in, not to be trapped inside it. Esme tried as best as she could to involve the girl in all of her activities, but there were times that she needed to have her privacy as well. So on a scale of 1 to 10, how much time did Valencia spend out of her room? 4. Thanks to me for still being able to eat human food, I could join her for dinner and breakfast. We didn't even talk during those times except for exchanging greetings. Even though she wasn't born into a high class family, she was taught to be respectful even if she didn't want to socialize. Even so she didn't even know her real parents, all she knew that she was raised by two humans that never told her about her being adopted. Plus she had been living on her own ever since they died, and she was actually a lot older than Carlisle. Thinking about people and their ages made me feel like they were cougars….
Freaking cougars luring innocent girls like me into their dent…
"I actually practically smell you from outside that door, you know."
I jumped at Valencia's voice before calming myself down. I didn't realize that I was standing outside her room for this long. Guess I had been caught.
"I'm sorry. I didn't want to appear like a stalker or anything."
"At this moment you are a stalker, standing there for a good five minutes without even speaking." She replied and I could hear the slightest of humor in her tone. "You can come in if you want, not like I forbid anyone to come in whether they ask for my consent or not."
I could hear her sigh as I turned the doorknob and slowly pushed the door open. She was seated on her bed, perched up against the headboard with a book laid on her lap. I closed the door after letting myself in and tried to think of a way to at least get her to open up to us, even if it was just a little. The rest of us didn't mind even if she was taking baby steps before fully letting us in her heart.
I sighed quietly to myself, not knowing how to proceed with this. So instead of walking over to her bed and sit on the edge of it, I chose to walk over to her window and look out into the forest instead.
"I will just go straight to the point instead of circling around the question." Here we go… "Why won't you enjoy your time with us?"
She sighed. "I'm already intruding into your home, your lives, and taken up too much of Esme's time with you all. I do not think that it would be appropriate to impose into your family when I've already taken one member away."
I looked away from the forest and down toward the ground. Even though the rooms were soundproof, I knew that the vampires that were still in the house would be able to hear our conversation. I could already see Emmett stopping his game of arm wrestling with Edward just to listen. Yeah, the Cullens cared a great deal about the Phoenix and they had already moved pass the grief and had already forgiven her, except Rosalie but at least the blonde even tried to be her friend.
"If you feel that way then why are you even here?" I asked before turning my whole body so that I could face her fully. "I know that Estrella misses the girl that you used to be, and perhaps I miss the girl that you used to be minus the evil part, but you're not making anyone happy when you continue to lock yourself in your self-pity and shame. We are all worried about you; don't tell me you don't know that?"
She sighed before flinging the bed cover to the side and climbed out of the bed. "Then I suppose I should leave. You all won't have to worry about me."
That brought a frown upon my face. "You can't just run away from your past or what you have done, Valencia. You have to learn to live with it and move pass it, just as I have learned and moved past my betrayal to you." Just as I have learned and moved past my lies to my own father that I have died when clearly, I'm standing right here.
She paused for a moment; her posture seemed to falter a bit before she straightened herself up. She turned to look at me, offering me a smile that I just wanted to run up and pull her in my arms and try to comfort her in any way that I'd know how. "I am passed that point, Bella. Right now I can't just seem to find myself. I'm lost and I know that you all can see that."
Her voice cracked for a moment, and before I could even see a tear that had betrayed her and escaped her eyes, she quickly turned and let her hair cover her face. "I don't even know where I belong. I don't even know who to trust. I don't even trust myself! Esme is so kind to me even though I've killed her son. No one has ever been that kind to me, genuinely kind, without asking something in return. The more I observe your family and the way you all act around each other, the more I become envious of all of you. I may have viewed Anthony as my Father, but we never had that kind of relationship. It was always a 'I have done something for you now you must do something for me' relationship.
Remember the story I told you about my human parents? Yes, even I couldn't compare that family relationship with yours. I know for vampires the word 'family' doesn't exist, only 'coven'. However, in this household, everyone is being treated as a family not a coven member. You all love and respect one another that you don't expect anything to be given back in return. And when you did receive it, it is as a gift and you'd treasure it for all eternity.
You have no idea how I wish for that to happen to me one day. I know that I can't bring up a family of my own, because that would mean opening myself up to a man that I do not even love just because I want a child. I do not want to adopt because that baby won't live forever by my side, and I do not want to change him or her. So having the thought of losing a family member is all too much to bear, and I know that now so I am terribly sorry for the loss of Jasper. I regret my action, but I do not regret killing Anthony. The only person that I regret killing was Jasper, he was brave and would put himself before anyone else. I wonder if there was anyone out there would do the same to me."
She presumed on what she was doing before I interrupted her; packing her valuable items and accessories. She was really keen on leaving since she thought she was intruding. We didn't want her to leave, well, I didn't want her to leave. In these past three months I've grown used of having her around even if it was just for a short amount of time. So with her leaving would just leave an empty void behind. For Esme, she would lose a daughter. I couldn't let Valencia go. Not only would that Valencia be hurt, but Esme as well, more so than the rest of us.
"Do you really have to leave?" I asked. I wondered if she could hear the desperate hint in my tone.
"I'm intruding, so yes." She replied without much of any emotion put behind those words.
I sighed. "How many people would you hurt by your actions, Valencia?"
She stopped in mid- action of folding up one of her many favorite shirts. She looked down at her luggage and sighed. "I don't know, how many will I hurt?"
"Everyone in this house." I quickly answered.
She was still for a moment before she fell on her knees, tears streaming down her face. "Then tell me what to do. I don't know what to do anymore. Like I've said, I'm lost. Everything I do seem to hurt everyone around me and I have no intention of doing so."
"Then why are you afraid of opening yourself up to us?" I asked. I should have been over there, scooping her up in my arms and comfort her but, even though my mind was telling me to do so, my body refused. I was glued to the spot that I was standing when I so much wanted to go over there and comfort her in a warm, comforting embrace.
"Because…I'm afraid of getting hurt again…One time was enough as it is."
At that moment the door to her room burst opened, and in came the rest of the Cullens in the house. It was almost comical the way the siblings pushed one another to get into the room. I guess Esme and Carlisle had been back just in time to listen to at least half of our conversation.
"I can guarantee you that you will not get hurt in the future." Carlisle was the first to speak after they all lined up neatly in front of Valencia.
"Wha – ."
Emmett immediately cut Valencia off with a "I want a Phoenix as a sister!" Valencia actually giggled at that and in return Emmett gave her a big goofy smile.
"Even though I don't really like you," Alice began and I saw Rosalie quickly nodded at what she had said. "But since you've already taken Jasper away, it would only be fair if you could replace the empty spot in the family."
"Plus you have to act like him too." Edward added with a smirk. It was refreshing to witness Rosalie slapped him upside the head, especially since that was the first time she done it.
"You don't have to act like him," Rosalie stated as she turned to face the broken girl. "All you need to do is be yourself. As much as it kills me to say this but we would very much like to have you in our family."
Esme walked over to her before kneeling down as she took Valencia's hands in her own. "I've already viewed you as my daughter, Valencia. I know it is too much to ask of you, but it would make all of us happy if you agree to stay with us and be a part of our family."
I could smell the fresh tears that Valencia was fighting back, but some did escape from her eyes. I wondered if they were happy tears or sad tears. Possibly a mixture of both. Either way, she seemed to cry a lot today. Hopefully it wasn't because of this whole conversation from the beginning.
"Are you sure that you want me to stay here?" Valencia asked, sounding a bit shock but all the while happy.
"Positive." The Cullens answered in unison. I had to bite down onto my bottom lip to stop myself from giggling.
Valencia smiled, for the first time that she had been staying here, an actual smile adorned her face. "Okay, I'll stay, and thank you so much for giving me the support that I seemingly do not deserve."
"Nonsense," Esme spoke as she gently wiped the tears away from Valencia's face. "This is what we do in our family, supporting each other without a second thought or questioning about it."
"Except when you are in trouble and you want someone to support you so you wouldn't get a big punishment." Emmett quickly added in with a kind of proud smile on his face.
I couldn't contain the laughter any longer, so I burst out laughing at his comment. They all turned to look at me, but I only shrugged their confused looks off with more laughter. Soon enough they all joined, and I admitted that I missed hearing Valencia's giggle. Now that Valencia had chosen to stay here, I wondered if Estrella would do the same without much trouble. The girl still had to warm up to all of us. Family story time would be nice to get to know one another. A little push was all that she needed after all.
A/N
Not a last chapter. The next would be. So in advance I thank you all of you guys that have taken the time to read and review and comment on my characters (Not Stephenie's) and of course the story as well. I really appreciate it. :) I think I have a couple more stories to finish before I start a new one...Haha. -Creative Cap On-
