A/N: Okay, you're all gonna hate me after you read this chapter. I just know it. But it fit the storyline logically enough! So, please don't be sad or anything. And I've decided to write the story in small installments for now, so I can get out more chapters in a shorter amount of time. And yes, I know I've just finished posting chapter 18 before this. - MissMei92
THE TALE OF ELIZABETH CULLEN
The first thing I thought when my eyes opened was: Chlorine. I smelled chlorine...or rather something which smelled a lot like it. It got stronger as my senses returned slowly to their vampire sharpness. Wait, something was different. Sure, I smelled everything but I couldn't hear everything. I couldn't hear any low voices whispering or the vague sounds of movement two miles away, which normally I could. I tried and tried but it was no use! I couldn't hear anything beyond sounds within a few feet's radius of me. What was wrong with me? Why couldn't I hear the way I normally could?
My thoughts were far too jumbled and I didn't remember why I had been asleep. My eyes finally dispensed with their foggy, hazy view and became clear once again. I was in a room. A room filled with white and hospital green. A nurse was standing nearby the bed, hastily filling in a clipboard, not noticing I'd regained consciousness. Nearby I could see a wide, clear window. It displayed the image of New York in the evening sunset. My eyes grew wide. That was New York being bathed in the evening sunset. I was home. But how?
My mind was assaulted with a massive brain freeze. Too many questions, no answers. "Mom," was all I could say before I collapsed back into the bed, a faint sound of a monitor blasting loudly next to my bed annoyed me momentarily before I slipped back into unconsciousness once again.
"Elle, oh my gosh. Elle, please wake up. Your parents..." A sad, sweet voice whispered in a despairing tone. My eye popped open slightly. I could just barely make out the figure of a familiar ex-weather forecaster, who was never wrong, sitting beside me.
"Susan?" My voice cracked from dehydration.
"Oh, thank God. Elle, you're alive." Susan's honey-golden eyes filled with intense relief and at the same time, sorrow. I didn't know why.
"Susan...what's wrong?" I asked her tiredly. I felt like I had a million heavy weights pulling me back down into the flattened bed.
"Oh, Elle. It's...it's...so...so...I can't bear to say it!" She would have burst straight into tears had she not been a vampire. She gripped the sleeves of my hospital gown and bent her head downwards, shoulders slumping defeatedly.
"Auntie Susan. Please, tell me." I begged her silently. What had made her so distraught with anguish?
"Elle, your parents...they're...dead." That was all I heard. Because her voice was instantly drowned out in my screams.