Disclaimer: don't own these characters.
Author's note: Happy Christmas. Imagine this is wrapped in a bow. I made this for you!
Thank you for reading! Thank you for reviewing.
xoxo
- Rosalie
Dark Matter
Chapter 2
Alice closed her eyes. When she returned to the real world and reached out to catch Edward before he left, she was too late. She spent too much time in the future, and paid for it in the present.
"Edward?" She voiced. His scent like a ghost, a trail of where he had been. A trail following after her. Had he seen what she had?
Then familiar comforting hands rubbed circle between her shoulder blades. He always knew. Jasper was always there when she felt lost, discombobulated by the ever changing future playing out in her mind. Something was changing, it ebbed and flowed, the future looking more like an ink blot test.
"I'm so sorry." Alice mumbled. "I didn't see her. I should have seen this. It's what I'm supposed to do."
"It's not often someone surprises you." Jasper continued to rub her back. "It's okay. Right? It's not your fault."
"I shouldn't have been so focused. We could have been better prepared." Alice shook her head, upset with herself. Jasper reached out and turned the dial on her emotions, loosening her from her own self doubt.
"Please, Alice." Carlisle turned from the open door towards her. "She surprised all of us. I don't think anyone could have seen that coming, not even you."
Nullified, Alice took in a deep sigh, and finally allowed Jasper to help regulate her emotions, but she continued to sulk in the corner regardless.
Emmett too, turned from the front of the house, still staring off at where Bella had been. "That is one brave human." He muttered. "She just. . . walked in here. Knowing we were thinking about killing her."
"That was never a true option." Carlisle interrupted. Jasper looked at the ground in shame.
"Knowing that we were all vampires. I mean, shit, folks here don't even want to come over and they just think we're snooty well to do folks."
"Language." Esme sighed. She liked having company over, vampire or otherwise, but a humans natural response to shy away from them left her feeling most isolated in social spaces. "But, yes. She is very brave."
"Or she has nothing left to lose." Rosalie shrugged, unimpressed with Bella's presence. If anything, she just complicated their lives. Anyone that jeopardized their ability to live naturally within human society was a marked enemy. From day one, Bella had been on that list. She was still there. This changed nothing in her outlook.
"What do you mean?" Esme asked her.
"I don't know. It kind of sounded like she was expecting us to kill her and then almost disappointed when we didn't. I mean, if she really is with the Volturi, then why the hell is she here? Alone."
"Language." Esme breathed. Rosalie rolled her eyes.
"Do you think she's on the run?" Emmett flexed his arms across his chest. "Like, she escaped or something?"
Carlisle raised his eyebrow. "A human escaping the Volturi? There's not even a vampire that could do such a thing against the will of the Volturi."
"So what does this mean?" Emmett asked.
Carlisle closed his eyes deep in the thought. Remembering all his time with the night patrons of the art. All their talks on philosophy on life, on imortality, on humans, on gifts, on leadership. Everything. All of it. Aro's enthusiasm. Marcus's quiet but meaningful comments. Caius's devil's advocate on either side of the argument at hand. Their wives playful banter. Sulpicia always taking Aro's side. Athenendora rolling her eyes at her husband's arguments and recusing herself from conversation. Their time in extravagance, luxury in the highest. Friends, he considered them. But he realized now that they considered themselves as more, as royalty. Carlisle was always just a foreigner in their presence. An exotic scholar to engage with to pass the time. Another luxury. Carlisle came to them after the dust had settled, before the southern wars had started, and centuries after their last battle against the Romanian coven. A time of peace and prosperity. He didn't know them in either reign of terror, but he knew them to be shrewd protector's of the life style. Where he, Carlisle, saw faults in their vampirism, the Volturi found gifts to celebrate and protect. And they claimed the title as best fit to protect it.
Jasper knew the other side of them. The hand of the Volturi was quick and judgement final. He never saw the three pillars personally. But he knew their guard well enough. Felix was their strongman. Though all were highly skilled in combat, Felix was your man in a fight. Jasper caught his name when Bella answered the phone. He thought there was no equal to his strength until he met Emmett. Demitri was the skilled tracker. With him, no one was out of their reach or beyond finding. And of course-the twins. He'd only ever seen one of them at a distance. Short. Child like. But the most terrible of them all. There were more, but these names were permanent fixtures in the guard. An honor to serve, but a privilege to be kept and favored. As a soldier, Volturi meant death. The guard meant death. There was no greater power. The guard wasn't called unless it was necessary. Sometimes remaining dormant for decades on decades, but when called upon, they were trained in terror with virtually no weaknesses.
Neither Jasper or Carlisle could explain why Bella wore their insignia.
xoxoxo
Bella turned the headlights off when she neared the house and crept into the driveway, turning the engine off as soon as possible. She squeezed out of the door between the red truck next to where she parked and as quietly as possible, closed the car door. The flood lights turned on when she walked up to the porch and she froze, thinking she had been caught out, before remembering they were on a sensor. Before she got to the door, her phone rang. "Unknown" flashed up in the dark of the night. She checked the time, nearly 2am, but her nerves rattling. She sighed and answered dully. "Ciao." She hopped up on the tire of the red truck and awkwardly pushed herself over the lip of the truck bed. She sat, knees up, with her back against the cab's windows.
"Bella Bella." Felix greeted on the other line, reserved undertones slipping between his teeth. "How is the wildlife?" He asked in Italian.
"I wouldn't know." Bella answered the key phrase. "I see none."
"And how much have you had to drink?" Felix asked the second secret question.
"I'm too young to drink." Bella laughed at her own joke. She could almost hear Felix roll his eyes.
"And how much have you had to drink?" He asked again more forcefully.
"Zero wine." She answered dutifully.
There was a sigh of relief on the other end. "You worried me."
"I know." Bella raised a hand to her forehead. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have called. It was a false alarm."
"You know that if it were up to me-" Felix started.
"I know, I know." Bella nodded. "If it were up to you, I would have been changed four years ago." She rolled her eyes but ended up staring up at the night sky. There was a clear patch through the dark clouds, and she could just make out a smattering of stars. Of all the places and depths in the universe, she lived in this world and looked up at these stars, alone with everything pressed against her. "I hear that a lot."
"I'm sorry." Felix admitted.
"No one's more sorry than Alec." Bella sighed and lowed down further in the truck.
"No." He agreed. "Why did you call me?"
"What do you mean?" Bella found the patch of sky again and tried to see the whole map of stars behind the clouds. She wondered what the night sky looked like back home, on the other hemisphere.
"Why didn't you just call-"
"Because." Bella blurted out, racking her brain for an excuse. "Because I trust you and Demi." She shrugged, close enough. "And don't lie. I know you told him."
There was a pause. "You didn't want to go directly to Aro or Marcus." Felix disregarded her comment. "Bella, you called me for a kill trigger. You can't just say nothing happened, or 'I'm fine.' This isn't a game. I was ready to initiate the full guard."
"I know it's not a game." Bella hissed. "The trigger call was a mistake. I shouldn't have- I just, I just got scared for a second, but everything is fine."
"Bella." He said incredulously. "You said you were in the midst of seven vampires."
"Calm. Collected ones. I also told you, there wasn't any danger."
He took a long deep breath. "Marcus isn't going to like this."
"Marcus doesn't like anything." Bella replied.
There was a long pause. For a moment, Bella thought their phone disconnected. Then his voice spoke again. "So how are they?"
"The nightmares?" She rubbed her head. "Okay, I suppose."
"Bella Bella, tell me, are you okay?"
"Yes." Bella huffed, hating being treated like a child, as less than. "I can take care of myself."
"I don't doubt that."
"Sure you do." Bella countered. "You all do."
"Bella Bella." Felix sighed. "Humans are so fascinating."
"I'm tired." Bella grumbled, her mood nose dived into sourness. "It's very late. I promise, I'm fine but I gotta go."
"They're going to be mad at me." He said quickly.
"You can take care of yourself." Bella rolled her eyes and then hung up. Quickly she removed the SIM card from the phone and snapped it in-between her thumb and forefinger. She scooted down further into the truck bed till she was horizontal, looking up at the night sky. She yawned again and reached her hand behind her head. After a moment of star gazing her eyelids pulled close. It wasn't raining, but there was a soft mist that felt good on Bella's face. The odd croaks and shuffling in the forest out back were more like a lullaby to her than anything to raise alarm. She didn't scare easy.
"Bella?" The screen door swung open and so too did Bella's eyelids. Forgetting momentarily where she was, she bolted up right. She stared at the grooves of the truck bed underneath her fist for a long movement before she was able to answer.
"Yes. Charlie, I'm here." Her voice was groggy, a film coated her throat from sleeping outside. "I couldn't sleep, so I just came out here." The fog finally cleared and she was surprised that she had actually fallen asleep.
"You okay? I heard a noise and came to check on you but you weren't in your room." Charlie asked, his burly form stepping closer, his shadowy figure outlines by the golden light from the flood lights. He wasn't sure what was normal for teenage girls. He and Renee snuck out as teenagers, but Bella didn't go very far and she at least seemed to be a lone. He peered across the truck bed, out of habit, expecting someone else to be with her. "It's pretty cold out." He commented eventually. "Don't want you to get sick."
"Oh?" Bella reached out her hand, as if to sample the temperature. "I guess I just got used to it." She said while climbing back over the lip of the truck. "You know, I'm not feeling very well. My head." She touched it gingerly.
xoxoxo
Edward was late to his first period. He waited under the awning of building 2 until the last second, hoping that she decided to come today. Alice wasn't very helpful, she kept saying that she wouldn't come, but she also had visions that she would. Still, he wanted her to. He wanted to see her, as if to make sure she wasn't just a figment of his imagination as it felt whenever she wasn't there. He followed her last night back to her house. The SIM card she threw out was in his coat pocket. A keepsake more than something he would use. He watched her drift off to sleep. Worried, he woke Charlie up by throwing things at the wall outside his bedroom so that he could get Bella back inside.
Carlisle told him to stay away from her, and truly he should, he knew that, but he just couldn't help it. She was not what he expected. She was special, but he didn't know how and the mystery of it didn't sit well with him. All day he kept hoping that she would show up. Even just to make sure she was okay. She did say to her father last night that her head was hurting. Maybe she really was ill. Maybe he should check on her again.
Alice grabbed his arm. "Don't." She hissed under her breath as they walked into third period together.
"What? Aren't you curious?" Edward shrugged, not seeing what the big deal was.
"Curiosity killed the cat." Alice replied. And then he saw it. A vision swimming around in her head that kept coming back the more Edward wanted to figure Bella out. Black robes on the horizon, a metallic shriek of burning vampire, then darkness.
"Oh." Edward breathed.
"It's not certain. It's not even really plausible. Just one of the many things." Alice rubbed her temples. "Someone is still deciding something." She said during the middle of class. "Or several different people are deciding things, each one changing the outcome slightly. I've never been exhausted. I don't know if I would recognize the feeling, but I'd say this is pretty close."
Then he saw another vision Alice had tried to keep from him. He just saw a sliver as class ended. Bella, terrifyingly beautiful. Her hair twisted up into a tight bun, her skin glimmering. Her sharpened teeth glowering. But this wasn't what Alice was trying to hide. He'd seen that vision of Bella rummaging around in Alice's head all morning, amongst many other visions of her, sometimes dead, sometimes not, sometimes vampire, dead, dead, dead, alive, dead, vampire, dead, etc etc, but at lunch, Alice accidentally broadened this one. Snow was on the ground, in the back there was the familiar mount Rainier. Edward stood close behind this painfully beautiful Bella, wearing Volturi robes, and his eyes red as blood.
xoxoxo
The next day Bella hopped out of her truck and swung her book bag over her shoulder. Mike and Jessica crowded around her as she made her way up to school on the side walk. They both bombarded her with questions. She suppressed the urge to groan and roll her eyes. But then she saw Edward standing next to his car looking at her. So she turned to Mike and grinned broadly.
"Oh, thank you. No I'm fine. I just wanted to get an extra day away from school yesterday." She laughed heartily. Too heartily. And grabbed onto Mike's arm. The sound false, but it irked Edward and that's the response she wanted.
All throughout lunch, Bella was throwing herself as much as possible into the lives of her fellow classmates, talking more and asking more questions about them that she had ever done before. The hair on the back of her neck prickled every now and then. And she knew he was watching her. Jessica nudged her elbow and then her mouth was near her ear, "Edward's staring at you. Again. He's been looking at you this entire time."
Bella sighed. "Don't stare back." She pulled on Jessica's sleeves.
"But. . . it's Edward." Jessica oozed. "I have never seen him, or anyone actually notice someone before. Is it true then?"
"Is what true?" Bella wiped her mouth with a napkin, not even daring to glance where Jessica's eyes kept going.
"That you two were talking when the van slid on ice?" Her eyes were bright and hopeful.
"Well, we have biology together." Bella shrugged and tried to roll it under a rug.
"So what were you talking about? I've never seen any of them talk to people outside of class." She asked truly fascinated. A few other kids at the table turned to listen in.
"Well." Bella took a swig of water from the bottle in her hand and squeezed the plastic in. "It can be hard, I suppose." She shrugged. "They're sort of outsiders, right? I mean, they've been here, what, two years, but, look at the progress they've made here. You're all still gawking at them and spreading rumors about them still." She said, indignation in her tone. "It's hard to have an in. I guess, he saw me as a new outsider kid too. I'm very glad he did too, otherwise I would be pancake to scrape off the black top."
"Oh." Jessica nodded. "So are you friends?"
"No. I don't think so." Bella shook her head. Despite Jessica and a few others trying to get more information out of her, she changed the subject at every turn. When the bell finally rung for forth period, Bella jumped to her feet, exhausted from the maneuvering at the table. Hopefully, they would all drop it by the end of the week. She hesitated before entering class, then drew in a deep breath. Edward was waiting, his face was. . . kind, but she darted her eyes to the ground. If she could stop her heart from beating so fast, it would be nice to have that ability now.
"Hello." Edward greeted warmly.
Bella looked him briefly in the eyes, and the both felt something break. Not like glass or something physical. But a shift, like a foundation cracking. She nodded in his direction before turning away again. She faced the front as she sat down. Edward, rebuffed, turned too, feeling rejected. She didn't talk to him for the rest of class, didn't look at him.
Edward was suffering in more ways than one sitting next to her, but he was surprised at how much her silence infuriated and stung him. If she knew about vampires, then he didn't have to hide from her. He thought selfishly, he could figure out why her thoughts evaded him. Perhaps, they could just talk. Back at lunch, she had been almost kind to him and his family. Defending them. Had he misinterpreted it? He thought again of how she pulled up in their driveway. When Carlisle couldn't stop her from coming in, he panicked, fearing for her life from him, he wasn't prepared to be close to her in that moment. He ran up to his room and surveyed the whole encounter through the minds of his family. She had thanked him at the end. She had spoken to him, knowing he was listening. Why was she now, in his presence, so silent?
Did she know how much he wanted to kill her that first day. Did she know perhaps how much that desire burned in his throat? He decided not, or else she wouldn't be sitting here. Edward decided, that perhaps this was enough. He wasn't sure what was wrong or right anymore, but he knew that he needed her to be safe. He eventually talked himself into believing that he could perhaps be her protector. From errant cars or . . . whatever else. Yes, that was the excuse he told himself to not feel guilty for wanting to be near her. She was after all, important to the Volturi. This was not about her at all, he lied to himself.
Bella closed her eyes and rubbed her forehead often.
"Is your head okay?" He would ask. Silence.
The bell rang again. Bella shuffled up to her feet and started to pack her books into her backpack. Edward slowly rose to do the same, being carefully not to get too close. He had fully expected and realized now that this was how things were going to be, when Bella zipped her backpack up and stared at him for another lingering moment.
"You have to stay away from me." She whispered so quietly, the sound of a heart break, so intimately, he almost thought he was reading her mind. She pulled the hoodie up over her head, whipped around and walked to gym. It was the last thing she said to him, for what felt like a miserable forever.
