I wake up to the sound of muffled shouting and roll the sleep out of my eyes. My heart starts to pulse with agitation and it is not my own. I am unusually calm this morning I feel my head tilt in pondering at the curious stillness inside of me. In all honesty I fear it, it is too foreign to be normal. I am more on edge this morning then ever.
I feel my feet walk down the stairs and to the kitchen where the muffled shouting is now as clear as glass my heart shatters. There is my mother standing over a defiant Bella, who is curled up on the floor staring up at my mother's fury with bravery her brown eyes are shining with bravery like a freshly sharpened sword. I shake my head from the strange vision and walk to get some blood.
"It's all gone," my mother tells me in a heated whisper.
"What do you mean it's all gone?" I ask with transparent confusion.
"It's. All. Gone," my mother bites out through clenched teeth and my calm insides tremble.
I nod knowing any conversation is useless. "I'll go hunting then," I murmur.
"Don't Hazel don't go anywhere," Bella pleads from the pathetic stone floor or at least it looks more pathetic with her on it.
"I don't understand," I state with a confused stare and notice that there are suitcases packed in the living room and there is a blood storing container with a bright biohazard sticker on the side.
"Ummm, whose leaving?" I ask as my thumb points over my yellow robed shoulder to the pile of bags behind me.
"We are," my mother says with her hands on her hips as she turns around to look at me. I sense that her anger has dissipated like a west coast winter storm leaving silence in its wake.
"What? For where!?" I ask perturbed.
"For Italy," Bella says as she gets up and brushes invisible dust off her blue jeans. "Alice came early this morning. Edward needs my…our help."
"Right," I mutter as I walk up the stairs knowing that this is a dream because there is no way in this weirdly calm still universe I am getting on a plane; stuck in a bird inspired tin cylinder where I can feel other people's emotions for who knows how long.
"Your bags are already packed. Bella did them for you this morning," my mother says as her now burgundy eyes look down the floor in shame.
"This is a dream, a really weird dream," I tell her as I walk up the stairs one slow step at a time willing myself to wake up.
"It's not a dream Hazel. Our family is in danger!" my mother pleads.
"Since when did they become family, you left each other. Families don't leave each other!" I can hear the tone of my voice rise in volume as I talk down to my mother.
"Our story is complicated Hazel…yes, I left, and I…" my mother's hands tremble in her lap and her beautiful red lips tremble I almost want to stride down the stairs and give her a hug but I don't, not this time.
"We didn't talk about last night," I whisper in the chilled air knowing that my mother's ears will hear me.
"Last night doesn't matter…we need to go!" she states with rising agitation looking up at me and I can feel odd emotions from her pride and loyalty. She killed and she is happy, no proud about it.
"You killed someone last night You're a murderer!" I scream.
"Hazel stop it! He was a vampire who hurt Bella and was hurting other people. I scented him out and seduced him. It's not murder when their already dead sweetheart," my mother tells me pleading for me to understand.
"Right," I murmur too lost for words.
"You have a gift Hazel an inherited gift, I know you can feel it, the pull, like a leash. It's loyalty my love. We are loyal to those we love bonded to each other for eternity in a pact that is beyond time and space. A pact of death. We have to go and answer this call Hazel. Please my sapling. It will be more painful for either of us, if we don't listen," my mother shares with wise strength.
I succumb to her sweet words as if they are nectar and I am a bee. Her seducing skills are strong even me a mere sapling has no strength.
"Alice is here," Bella states in her dull voice as she looks behind the sheer curtain.
"I hate adventures," I mutter from behind my mother's back as I follow her out the door like a duckling.
"But you like Alice," my inner demon whispers in a sickly sweet voice and I know that I am not dreaming.