Another Bloody Twilight

Chapter 2

I woke up early the next day, feeling incredibly ill. I gasped, thinking of the night before, and coughed, tasting the bitter taste of crimson blood in my mouth. My body ached as I slowly stood, swaying slightly.

Perhaps right now I should tell you about my illness.

It is a rare blood disease that effects very few people. It is on a recessive gene which means that very few people get it because both the mother and father have to carry the gene. Every blood cell in my body was like a small, fragile sphere and my blood could not sustain me. My organs had all begun to shut down when I was only a child and even with the medication that I took several times a day there was no hope for me.

The doctors said just before my parents died that I would only live until I was seventeen, if that. I had hoped once that maybe there was some way that I could be saved but my ever weakening body told me otherwise.

Uncle Charlie knew this as well, but I had asked him not to tell Bella as this would only serve to make her uncomfortable. I waited until my cousin was finished in the bathroom, digging for my medicines in my bag. I swallowed them one by one then got up and got ready.

I pulled on a vintage blouse that was trimmed in lace, and a pair of black jeans and ballerina flats. Then I bound up my long tendrils of curly red hair into a ponytail and pulled on a black sweater since it was cold outside.

Uncle Charlie hugged and kissed me when I went downstairs and wished me luck on my first day at my new school.

I had also not asked him to tell my teachers about my medical condition, since I did not want them to give me any special treatment. Bella did not seem happy to have to drive me to school and she didn't seem like she was going to be any nicer to me, but I didn't mind. I was already such a burden on her and I knew that knowing about my condition or becoming close to me was only going to lead to heartache.

What I did not expect was the fact that the moment I got to school everybody would gather around me, chattering noisily in excitement at the new girl.

I made my way through my first few classes, conscious of their stares. I had always been the popular girl at my old school, before my parents died and I went into foster care. Then I went to lunch. I sat down next to Bella and she introduced me to all of her friends. I felt so strange because I knew that they too would only be heartbroken if they got to know me.

"Your hair is so pretty!" exclaimed a blonde girl.

"Thanks," I mumbled.

"And I love your sweater!" she reached out to touch it, and accidentally her fingers brushed against my skin. I gasped when I started to feel her past come to me.

I could not control my special powers, not at all, and I saw everything in a flash. Because I could not control my powers I knew there was no way to prevent seeing horrible things, things about the girls life that I would not want to see. I cried out and got up, making an excuse about needing to get my homework, and left.

They all started laughing including Bella and I knew they were laughing at me. I felt so awful. I was searching for a place to hide when I heard beautiful music coming from the school's music room. I stopped at the door and pushed it open.

The boy from Bella's memory was there, at the piano. His long graceful fingers flew like magic over the keys and I stared in awe at his effervescent beauty. His hair glistened like the sparkling of the sun, his pale skin even more beautiful in my own sight than it had been in her memory. I could not see his eyes but imagined that they would be the most glorious shade of burning gold just like the bright shimmering orb of light in the summer sky.

I gasped and he turned. He started to say something, and then his face contorted. "Bella?" he whispered. Then he saw that it wasn't Bella, it was me, and he froze. "NO!" he shouted, sounding incredibly enraged, and his hand smashed through the keyboard.

I felt strange, so frightened was I. My eyes fluttered closed and I began to fall. Somehow his hands clasped around my waist and when I opened my eyes again he was holding me. I had fainted. But he was touching me, and I suddenly knew. I knew it without debt and questions.

"Vampire!" I gasped.

His eyes widened. Then I felt his arms tighten. "You can't know!" he muttered bitterly and darkly, then with my head still spinning we began to fly. I thought perhaps I had died and was now in the arms of a marvelous angel, as we flew closer and closer to heaven, but no, he was real, I was still alive, and we were moving at an agonizingly quick speed.

"Please, no," I whispered.

He stopped and we were in the middle of a clearing in the forest.

"How do you know what I am?" he said.

"I…I have a special power. I can see your past."

His eyes widened and he seemed like the world was coming crashing down on him. "It is impossible," he said.

"I am sorry," I said. I hated myself suddenly, knowing that he must be in pain because of my horrible gift.

That is what had happened with my mother and father. I saw my father kill a man in the distant past and because I could not continue to keep his secret I told my mother. He was so utterly horrified that he killed her, and then himself. He knew that I would not tell and only let me live because he knew that I was dying anyway.

And there was another secret too.

"I know what you are," I said, "because I am different too. My powers are not like others of my kind which is why I was never allowed to attend school with them. But I am a witch, Edward…"

He didn't even ask to know my name, and he embraced me. I thought of my father in the dark cloak, and I thought of the scar upon his arm, but nothing seemed to matter anymore as I wilted in the firm grasp of Edward's arms.