Chapter 2: My Extended Family

July 14, 1978

Oh my, I cannot believe I found this. I was and am a pitiful lost cause. We have moved several times since I last wrote down anything of consequence. So, many things have happened that I do not know where to start. We have just arrived back in Alaska knowing we would be safe from recognition after 58 years because either the people here were too young to remember us or they never met us. Living in secluded mountain valleys does limit your neighbors. But, I never expected to find this old friend. I have been reading through it for hours, disgusted at my weakness. Anyway I guess the best place to start (or maybe the worse in Rosalie's case) is the fact that my family has grown.

1st Addition: My sister Rosalie

Somewhere in-between now and then Carlisle thought that I needed a companion. So, he took it among himself to find one for me. Yeah, that didn't work out to well for him. One night many years ago Carlisle and I came across a young girl (most beautiful I had seen no doubt) whom someone had left for dead. She had been battered and abused in a way that no human or animal even should ever have been treated. Carlisle tried to save her but there was no way he could do this. So, looking at her beauty he and Esme took among themselves to have her join our family. I mean what were they thinking, what if she didn't want to be saved. She seemed so unwilling to fight for life; maybe death was what she wanted. Carlisle really needs to stop playing God. (I am ashamed of myself for thinking that way, but cannot help it.) Doesn't he think 3 souls with no hope of redemptions are enough for one home? Anyway, they figured that even with all my disagreement she might grow on me in time and maybe I could find a little of what they had themselves. Boy, they could not have been farther from the truth. Her name we found out after a week or two is Rosalie. She was a much conceded young vamp that was obvious considered the most beautiful girl in town. She had been engaged to a very wealthy man who was eventually the one to cause her torment. He and his friends had violated her in ways that they should have been punished for forever. If I had been close enough to hear their thoughts I would have taken care of that myself. But, she did that herself after she gained control of herself. But, as for Rosalie and I there is and never will be any love connection. Neither she nor I want it even though she hates me for not being as dumbfounded by her beauty as every other guy she had ever met. I find her vanity so distasteful and appalling. She finds my sarcasm just as annoying. So, we learned to agree to be family but sister and brother is all there will ever be.

2nd Addition: Emmett my brother-in-law

Next years later Rosalie was hunting in the forest near one of the mountains villages we have lived in when she found something to amuse her fancy. There in the woods was a man whom had taken among himself to pick a fight with a bear. She was caught off guard at first but then she was aroused. He was such a beautiful display of masculine expression. He had the face, the muscles, the voice, the ambition, and the nerve that she found so appealing. She instantly wanted him. Then, to her horror she found that the bear was more a match for him than he had thought. There he lay mangled and almost dead. She couldn't just let him die. So she took him. She carried far into the forest to a cave where she led him into his journey to the world of the undead. He unlike her loved the new found power he felt once he gained some control. He was a show off and a goof. He was a protector and a hunter; this new lifestyle fit him to a tee. AND as for Rosalie, he was a normal man and found her just as irresistible as every other man in the world, and she found him adorable. They of course have been inseparable ever since. Esme and Carlisle even built them a house because they could not control their lust and passion. Emmett was a very destructive power, and being in an uncontrollable moment of passion meant that he destroy things much by accident but destroyed just the same. They would surface from time to time, but they were gone more than here for about a decade. However, unlike Rosalie, I found Emmett a welcome addition to the family. He was funny, free and never judged. He was a big brother that anyone would love to have. We were close almost instantly. It was almost as if I got chances to revisit parts of my childhood that I had missed (the wrestling around, fighting, arm wrestling, etc.) He was a great distraction from my land of the empty emotion. Finally after a while I felt that I could come out of the shell and enjoy parts of my existence again.

Oh well, it is time for school. I will write more maybe later. It was cool to find this journal after so many years. But, I had forgotten how tormented I had been all those years ago; not that human thoughts have changed much. But, I have become an expert on almost everything in the time I have had to not sleep. So I keep myself busy.

Years later…..

October 18, 1995

We have moved several more times, but this time I kept the journal with me. I have kept several other than this one but for some reason I find that I am called to finish my logging of other family additions together. Since I do not but a few more pages in this journal, I better hope these last two additions are the last.

3rd & 4th Addition: Alice and Jasper (adopted into the family sister and brother-in-law)

A few weeks ago we had surprise at our home. A young lady and her other half knocked on the door. As we opened the door, the young lady comes in and starts bouncing around like she lived there. We were taken for a loop. We could obviously tell they were like us. I could hear them coming (their thoughts anyway) She was definitely special. I had heard her thoughts and she thought she was moving in to our home with her husband. She had a special gift that I found intriguing- she could see into the future. Not everything and not unchanging definite things, but things still the same. She had seen in one of her visions that she and Jasper would be finding us and becoming part of our family. She was so bubbly and happy. So content with herself and what she was; how could that be? But, that was explained as well. She couldn't remember any human thoughts. She could see the future, but the past was a blank. She could not remember anything; that is why she had no regrets. Of course, this vision, of us all being a family was correct and unchanging. Almost instantly we all felt calm and loved her. I am now closer to her than any of the rest. I do not know if it because we both have special gifts or because she is like the sister I never had but always wanted or because she was my polar opposite. But whatever it was I loved her, as did everyone else. Even Rosalie loved her, she was home.

As for Jasper, he was another story all together. He was an older vampire whom had followed the wrong road at first and helped to start an army of bloodsucking, human devouring brothers for his creator back during the Civil War. He also has a special gift, which may be one of the reasons that we all got along so greatly the first day we all met. He could control the emotions in the room. He was a calmer. But, this in itself was as much a curse to him as being a cursed creature was to me. He could feel other people's emotions as well: pain, torment, love, contentment, resentment, anger, horror- all of it. He was in so much pain, I hated that I couldn't help him. But, like Alice, Jasper was almost immediately accepted into the family. He fit in well. He and Emmett were so competitive and close. I didn't quite enjoy their romps as much, when you can see their next move every time it is quite a challenge. But, still Jasper's stories entertained me and he was very easy to talk to about things. But, he had another problem as well. He had tasted flesh many more times than the rest of us. He longed for it and could hardly control the desire to taste it again. But, he like me didn't want to stay "the monster"; he wanted to have some sense of peace and dignity left for him. He was miserable now with human flesh to ease his hunger, but he was more content than when he let the monster loose. But, he had Alice; she was his peace. I could see in his thoughts that he would have followed her anywhere, and he would do anything to stay with her. Because no matter how much he desired anything else; he desired her much more. She felt the same for him. They like Esme and Carlisle were perfectly matched. She with no past; and he with a past he could forget. They meshed as one unit that functioned together only and wouldn't survive apart.

Now my family is complete. I have so much to be thankful for in them. We have all become so close. When you cannot confide in outsiders, your family becomes your crutch, your leaning stone to hold you up in the storm. And, I could sense there were plenty more storms to come. But, for now we were one unit, one clan, A FAMILY.

November 1, 2002

My family grows closer every day. We go to school together. We live together. We hunt together. We are definitely now a united unit. We also love each other unconditionally. We do have differences don't get me wrong, but what family doesn't. However, in the end we know that no matter what, the family sticks together and we protect each other to whatever extremes we have to go. We all have so many things that are helpful to our unit. Carlisle has his unique ability to heal and consol. Esme is the motherly protectorate of the clan, making sure we all have what we need and usually want. Rosalie's beauty has gotten us out of many situations that could have ended badly if she hadn't made the questioners so intoxicated in her beauty. Emmett was the protector and charm that we all needed to keep us in good spirits always looking on the bright side. Not to mention, he usually could control Rosalie and her temper when she didn't get her way, but, never going against his love of course. Alice was the glue and rationale that held it all together. She had helped us out of many seriously bad situations with her foresight. She kept me here, also. I loved her; she made me feel needed and wanted and like my eternal life might have a purpose after all. However, her never ending cheer and foresight into the future was sometimes annoying. (Especially during a chess game) She found pleasure in the fact that she was the only one I could not always beat. It was so cute and sweet. Jasper was the brotherly figure that encompassed brotherly love. He had also helped us in many confrontation (as well as hunting trips) with his ability to calm and sedate our confronters or prey. Then, me of course, my ability to read minds had been helpful on occasion as well, but usually it was used as a way to communicate where no one else in the family would hear. (Alice asking if Jasper was okay)(Emmett asking if Jasper was going to jump him when he entered a room for a rematch in wrestling) (You know important stuff).

But, now we are moving again. I guess it for the best. This place grows boring more a more by the day. However, we are going back to a place Carlisle owns in the United States. He has lived there twice. Carlisle, Esme, and I also lived there for a short while many years ago, until the wolves became a problem (that's another story all together). But, enough time has passed and the treaty still stands so Carlisle thinks it would be safe to return. I am not so sure. I have an uneasy feeling about Forks. I do not know where this uneasiness is coming from and Alice only smiles when I ask her what she sees. She will only comment that this move will be beneficial to me, whatever that means. However, I feel as if some old torment is lying in the murky sea of my mind waiting to resurface. Anyway, we leave tomorrow and this is the last page of this journal, so I might as well end there. I will have to wait and see what surfaces in Forks.

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