TODAY'S QUOTE:
Dear Friday, I'm glad we're back together. I'm sorry you had to see me with Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, but I was thinking of you the whole time.
Warning, not at all edited.
Chapter Thirteen:
I could feel it was too early again when I woke, and I knew I was getting the schedule of my days and nights slowly reversed. I lay in my bed and listened to the quiet voices of Alice and Bella in the other room.
"Morning," Carlisle said.
"I thought I told you to stop stalking me," I said, pushing my covers off and stepping out of bed.
"I don't remember that," he said, the corners of his mouth turning up.
"I'm sure you don't."
I rolled my eyes, ignoring his soft laugh, and threw my hair up into a bun before walking out of the room.
"You look like a mess," Bella said to me the second I was in her sight.
"Thanks, Isabella. I love you tips."
She frowned at me, holding her hair out and feeling the ends of her hair that were still obviously burnt.
"What did you see?" I asked Alice, who were lazily sketching a copy of a picture. Multiple other drawings were in little scrunched up balls littered around the room. I picked one up and threw it at Carlisle, who caught it deftly in his hands and crushed it to dust. "Dramatic, much?"
"Something's brought him back to the room with the VCR, but it's light now," Alice said.
Alice drew a square room with dark beams across its low ceiling. The walls were paneled in wood, a little too dark, out of date. The floor had a dark carpet with a pattern in it. There was a large window against the south wall, and an opening through the west wall led to the living room.
One side of that entrance was stone — a large tan stone fireplace that was open to both rooms. The focus of the room from this perspective, the TV and VCR, balanced on a too small wooden stand, were in the southwest corner of the room. An aged sectional sofa curved around in front of the TV, a round coffee table in front of it.
"The phone goes there," Bella whispered, pointing. "That's my mother's house."
I looked closer at the picture. Outside the window Alice had drawn the little garden Bella had once played in, and I could see a few photos of her on the top of the fireplace. None of me, though I already knew that.
Alice was already off the couch, phone in hand, dialing. I stared at the precise rendering of my mother's family room.
Carlisle drifted towards me, lightly touching his hand to my shoulder, and the physical contact seemed to make his calming influence stronger. The panic stayed dull, unfocused.
Alice's lips were trembling with the speed of her words, the low buzzing impossible to decipher. I couldn't concentrate.
"Bella," Alice said. "Bella, Edward is coming to get you. He and Emmett are going to take you somewhere, to hide you for a while."
"Edward is coming?" Her tone was even, but I could hear the underlying excitement.
"Yes, he's catching the first flight out of Seattle. We'll meet him at the airport, and you'll leave with him."
"But, my mother… he came here for my mother, Alice!"
"Jasper and I will stay till she's safe."
"You do realise she is not the greatest mother on Earth, right Isabella?"
"She's scatterbrained, sure, but she's a good mum," Bella defended.
"So not what I meant," I muttered. Carlisle wrapped his arms around my waist, pulling me into his hold.
"I can't win, Alice," Bella rambled. "You can't guard everyone I know forever. Don't you see what he's doing? He's not tracking me at all. He'll find someone, he'll hurt someone I love… Alice, I can't —"
"We'll catch him, Bella," she assured her.
"And what if you get hurt, Alice? Do you think that's okay with me? Do you think it's only my human family he can hurt me with?"
She had a point. If one of the Cullens got hurt...
Bella stood up and half-stormed out of the room, banging the door behind her.
"What am I doing?" I asked. Alice looked at me, confused.
"Staying with Bella, of course."
"Yeah, no. If she's going into hiding, then there's no way I'm going with her."
Alice pursed her lips. "It'll be safer for you."
"Which is kinda my problem. You can't lock me up with Bella and tell me to pretend I'm guarding her."
"Please, Sweetheart," Carlisle asked in a soft voice.
"No, Carlisle."
"It's for your own safety."
"He can't touch me without getting burned to a crisp."
"She got a point," Alice said, her eyes closed. "He can't hurt her."
Carlisle glared at me. "I can't lose you," he said gruffly.
"I'll be fine."
He took a deep breath, although I know he didn't need to. "If you promise to stay safe, I will allow you to go with Esme and Rosalie."
I raised an eyebrow. "Reword that, will you?"
"If you promise to be safe, I won't argue with you further on the matter."
"Better."
Alice coughed lightly. "They're just boarding their plane," Alice told us, holding her phone in her hand. "They'll land at nine-fortyfive."
We nodded stoically. The phone rang in her hand again, and she looked surprised.
"Hello?" Alice asked. "No, but Morgana is." Your mother, she mouthed. She held the phone out to me. I didn't take it.
She waved it in front of my face, making puppy dog eyes, and I held it gingerly in my hands.
"Hello?" I asked, my voice clipped.
"Bella? Bella?"
"Yeah, no. It's me," I said, standing up.
"Oh Morgana," she sighed. "Where's Bella?"
It was a phrase I had heard once or twice in the few times I spoke to her, her finding me alone and asking me where my big sister had run off to.
I walked over to Bella's room, opening it without care of her privacy. "Mother's on the phone," I said to Bella. She took the phone happily from me, and I leant against the doorway.
"Calm down, Mom," Bella said in a soothing voice. "Everything is fine, okay? Just give me a minute and I'll explain everything, I promise. Mum?"
Her face went pale, and she gripped my shirt, pulling me over.
"I don't want to speak to-"
"Hello, Morgana darling," a voice that most definitely not my mother's interrupted. "Be very careful not to say anything until I tell you to."
I shared a panicked look with Bella.
"Now, I don't need to hurt your mother, so Please say, 'No, Mom, stay where you are.'"
"No, Mom, stay where you are," Bella whispered.
"Say, 'Mom, please listen to me.' Say it now."
"Mom, please listen to me."
"There now, are you alone? Just answer yes or no."
"Yes," Bella said, her voice shaking.
"But they can still hear you, I'm sure."
"Yes."
"All right, then," the agreeable voice of who I assumed was James continued, "say, 'Mom, trust me.'"
"Mom, trust me." "
This worked out rather better than I expected. I was prepared to wait, but your mother arrived ahead of schedule. It's easier this way, isn't it? Less suspense, less anxiety for you. Now I want you to listen very carefully. I'm going to need you to get away from your friends; do you think you can do that? Answer yes or no."
"No."
"I'm sorry to hear that. I was hoping you would be a little more creative than that. Do you think you could get away from them if your mother's life depended on it? Answer yes or no."
I glared at Bella. "No," I said forcefully into the phone.
"Ah, is that Morgana again? Not even on your mother's life?"
"No."
If we didn't go, then James couldn't hurt Mum, because then he'd have no hostage or bait.
"Yes," Bella corrected. I stomped on her foot, making her yelp.
"Bella?" Alice called through the door. "Are you alright?"
"Yeah," she said nervously, her voice rising in pitch. "Just tripped."
I rolled my eyes. The words were believable, but she was a terrible liar.
"Good girl. I'm glad you're so much smarter than your sister. I'm sure it won't be easy, but if I get the slightest hint that you have any company, well, that would be very bad for your mother," James promised. "You must know enough about us by now to realize how quickly I would know if you tried to bring anyone along with you. And how little time I would need to deal with your mother if that was the case. Do you understand? Answer yes or no."
"Yes," Bella said quietly.
"Very good, Bella. Now this is what you have to do. I want you to go to your mother's house. Next to the phone there will be a number. Call it, and I'll tell you where to go from there. Can you do that? Answer yes or no."
"Yes."
"Before noon, please, Bella. I haven't got all day," he said politely.
"Where's Phil?" she asked tersely.
"Ah, be careful now, Bella. Wait until I ask you to speak, please. It's important, now, that you don't make your friends suspicious when you go back to them. Tell them that your mother called, and that you talked her out of coming home for the time being. Now repeat after me, 'Thank you, Mom.' Say it now."
"Thank you, Mom."
"Fuck you," I snapped.
"Now now, Morgana, no need to get testy. Is that how you would talk to your mother?"
"A hundred percent."
"Morgana, no," Bella whispered.
"Good Bella. Listen to your sister, darling, she's a lot smarter than you are. Say, 'I love you, Mom, I'll see you soon.' Say it now."
"I love you, Mom. I'll see you soon," she promised.
"Goodbye, ladies. I look forward to seeing you again."
"Bella, no," I said.
"That's our mother," she typed into her phone. I pulled it out of her hands and typed "She's not very good at it anyway". Bella glared at me.
"I'm going and you can't stop me."
"I'll call Edward."
"Then the Cullens will get hurt if I didn't," she reasoned.
"I'm going with you then." As much as she annoyed me, I wasn't about to let her run off on her own. At least I could handle myself, she, on the other hand, was a walking magnet for danger.
"Good."
My decision was made. I had to think clearly, because Alice and Carlisle were waiting for me, and evading them was absolutely essential, and absolutely impossible.
"I have an idea," Bella texted me. Thank god, because I sure as hell didn't have one. I didn't ask her for the plan, because I knew if I did then Alice would see, and it was going to be difficult enough with only one of us knowing it.
Hey! I'm back, maybe. We'll see how it goes. Thank you for all your support - when I checked back on my account, and saw all the positive reviews, I instantly had to keep writing! That said, it could be a while before my next chapters, so...