The Journals
By: Everleigh Allen
Chapter 8
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Bella bathed quickly and made her way through the closet and back into the greenhouse to retrieve the journal, but as soon as she got to the spot where she sat, she noticed things had been moved.
The tray was gone as was the journal she was reading. She picked up the one left open on the table and sat down in the chair.
"You want me to read this, huh?" She asked with a huff of annoyance as she looked around the room but there was no answer. She picked it up and thumbed through it, noticing it was one she had been skimming through the night before when Rosalie was introduced.
After a few moments she found an entry she hadn't read yet. Bella was confident there must be more to the story she was supposed to learn and decided to read along.
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Gatlinburg, Tennessee
Smoky Mountains
1935
We pass by the three sisters working their cotton gin just behind the tree line of their cabin. Their thoughts are busy on the task at hand, though one sister is humming a tune that she's itching to put on paper. It's a simple melody, but they are simple people and I can relate to the sentiment when these thoughts fill up endless time.
I vaguely wonder what instrument she plays, but her thoughts give nothing away.
Their stone chimney looks self-constructed from the nearby river rock instead of brick and propped up against the house. The smoke rising from the bulbous stones fills the air with the aroma of roasted meat from whatever game they caught. It is sad to say, but these women who haven't bathed in well over a week have a more palatable aroma and are more appealing than whatever beast they are cooking.
As we move away from them, we see nothing but trees in all directions but off in the distance, we can hear the machinery paving the way of new roads.
"When the roads are done, we can bring in the Phaeton," Carlisle grins. He's referring to his Auburn 1931 Convertible Phaeton Sedan. It's his pride and joy, though I don't know why he'd choose a convertible. It's not like we could drive it in the daylight with the top down.
"I thought we were meant to be inconspicuous. You're Phaeton would be the talk of the town." Esme scoffs in amusement. She likes it because it doesn't rattle as much as other cars do.
It still rattles.
We continue to make our way through the forest with minimal small talk about his car. I know Rosalie is keen on finding the rattle and tearing the car apart so she can build it back up. It's a ridiculous idea. All we'd need to do it take apart the doors and find the culprit.
It's an ongoing debate.
Although I wasn't keen on moving into the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee, I can tell it's soon to be a favorite. I love the fact that we can blend in here within the flora and fauna without anyone ever seeing us so we don't have to make many acquaintances.
It is also ideal since most town folk won't venture too far in the forest with of the threat of bears.
Unbeknownst to them, there are worse things than bears.
I look at Rosalie and she sends a withering glare back at me as if to prove my point.
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Carlisle opens the door to a cabin twice the size of the three sisters. We take our turn walking in and the first thing I notice is the array of quilts lying over the back of the couch. I turn to look at Esme and she gives me a soft, motherly smile.
"I had them specially made for each of you," Esme's joy radiates and it's easy to return it with a smile of gratitude.
Rosalie misses the smiles and beelines to the quilts, inspecting them both and probably trying to decide which one is the better so she can claim it first.
I know Esme well enough to know that the one she chose for me will most likely not be the one Rosalie chooses, regardless.
I pick up the one that Rosalie left and thank Esme.
Like a twister through the house, Rosalie quickly claimed her quilt, her room, and her new favorite chair before she sits herself at the desk and studiously ignores the rest of us.
It's a blessing.
After the past two years being around Rosalie, I know well enough to give her a wide birth in confined spaces.
"Shall we hunt?" Carlisle asks as he wraps his arm around Esme's waist. He gives a cocky smirk and I know what they are thinking.
"You two go on without me. I'm going to scope the area and see if I can find a plot of land that we can start building on." Rosalie looks up from the papers in front of her and looks out the window. "How much land did we purchase?"
I know the answer and so does Rose, but I let Carlisle field her questions. Ever since Rosalie saw the architect books from the Rochester home, she has done little else than study them.
"So enough for at least three homes in a respectable distance," Rosalie hums and I can see the plans appear in her mind. She's thinking four small cabins that sit in a circle with the main cabin in the middle. I can't say I'm surprised. Rosalie had similar plans in New York until Carlisle thwarted those plans. He was thinking we would probably keep Rosalie's home once her family passes away and then we'd have also have the Cullen house. If there were other properties needed, we'd acquired them once we returned.
I was more interested in heading west.
Carlisle and Esme silently slipped out the door and Rosalie flipped through her plans for the cabin.
I had no doubt that in the incoming days we'd be out bringing down trees and clearing land anyway.
I actually look forward to having something to do to occupy the day while composing music at night.
-EAMC
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It's been five months since I last wrote.
Two of the four cabins are complete and the furnishings for them will come in later this month.
We had to stop the work on the other cabins since the weather is turning cold now and we don't want to be conspicuous.
Rosalie, in a huff of annoyance, left the house.
All is suddenly calm.
.
It could've been minutes or hours before I heard his voice.
It was more like a scream.
I heard a bear growl.
I looked up to see Carlisle and Esme's eye on me.
"You betting on the bear or the human?" I smirk.
"I didn't hear a gunshot," Carlisle muses as he contemplates his answer while Esme sighs and looks back down to the papers in front of her.
I know she's been looking into various matters with the land with the road coming in through the mountain and encroaching on the line of our property. But inwardly she's concerned about my 'happiness" and is thinking of writing the Irish clan to see if I'd be suited with Maggie, after all.
"Your gifts suit each other," Esme would argue most ardently. With Maggie's gift of lie detection and my mind reading, we'd be quite a curious pair.
I disagree.
Although she's voiced these thoughts aloud and I have refused such an idea, I ignore these musings out of respect, but I still hear them all the time.
She's worried about me and she needn't be.
It is inherently how she loves, I like to think, if concerns were tokens of affection.
"Bear," Carlisle finally decides.
"Perhaps a better bet would've been if Rosalie can control her bloodlust," I chuckle darkly.
Esme looks up with a gasp, cupping her mouth with her hand as if that would block the smell. "You think she'll be alright?"
Carlisle and I share a look of bemusement before he answers his mate. "Of course, love."
"I can smell the blood from here and I think it's getting closer." Esme said softly, looking around the room.
"The thoughts are getting louder so I'd say she's bringing the hunter here. There's screaming in my head from the man and the same shrillness of Rosalie's voice. She's trying to calm him."
"The bear got another one. How sad."
I agreed with Esme. "I'm pretty sure he'll be able to get the bear back someday."
"Why?"
I didn't even have to say anything more before Rosalie kicked open the door hard enough to break the door and bend the hinges. In her arms was a large bear of a man covered in his own blood.
"Carlisle!"
She looked at him pleadingly and then to me to silently beg to change the man but I gave her a shrug at looked back to Carlisle.
It was his call.
"You want me to change him." Carlisle surmised easily and Rosalie nodded adamantly.
"Please!"
"What if he doesn't have the same affection toward you that you may be feeling toward him?" I ask, but it came out more spiteful than I expected.
"I don't care." She lied. "Save him, please."
"So be it." Carlisle took the man from Rosalie and laid him on the wood planked floor and began to process of the man's change.
I watched in annoyance as he started screaming with each lacerating bite until he finally passed out from the pain.
Thanks to Rosalie his blood left a trail right to our house.
If I knew anything, I knew that when someone went missing we'd have to leave the area soon after. There was no way we wanted to be on the wrong part of the law when police came around questioning.
-EAMC
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Bella shut the book but left her finger into hold her place while she took several deep breaths in and out.
She could feel the morning sun peeking through the fluttering trees and casted rainbows throughout the greenhouse. Birds hopped easily inside and out through little cracks in the glass that seemed purposely made. They knew exactly where the feeders were and their birdhouses.
It was magical, hidden, and felt forbidden.
A little Garden of Eden and she could've been Eve.
But all the birds went quiet.
A flash caught Bella's eye and she quickly turned to see a stunning man standing before her within the shadows. His eyes, dark and mysterious, calculatedly studied her every move.
Her eyes moved from his face down to his hands.
A crisp, ruby red apple was cradled just under a beam of sunlight in his hands. But his hands were oddly different. They casted the same diamond- like rainbows that she saw moments before.
There was a noise just behind her and she turned out of instinct as her heart beat violently within her chest.
Perhaps it was one of the birds, she didn't know, but when she looked back into the shadows where the man stood, he was gone.
But the apple sat in her lap.
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A/N:
Sorry it's late and short but sweet. I'll do my best to have nine up by this Thursday since I have to work. (Which is why this is so late.)
I work in a haunted house.
It's fun.
Thank you for reading. I hope you're all doing well!