Break
Chapter Two
"How long have I been here?" Mike asked, his voice quiet and shaking. After several minutes of arguing, the Cullens had convinced him to sit and calm down for a while, and they were grouped on the various pieces of furniture around the living room, awkwardly silent.
"Four days," said the woman who he'd learned was Dr. Cullen's wife, Esme.
"I need to go home."
"Michael, you can't go home."
"You're new at this, Mike," Bella cut in from where she sat on the floor by Edward's feet, leaning against the hutch. "Do you have any idea how hard it will be for you to be out there?"
Mike pinched the bridge of his nose, feeling the air around him compress. "I-I, uh," he stammered. "I don't know what you're talking about, but I just… I need to go."
"It's a bad idea," she pressed. "You could hurt somebody."
"I need to go home," he repeated, not wanting to know what she meant.
"Michael, this is your home now," Dr. Cullen insisted.
Mike shook his head. "No, that's— I don't even know you people. I-I can't stay here."
The doctor looked pointedly at Jasper, and again, a strange wave of calm settled over Mike. He leaned back in the chair, his ice-cold hand lightly covering his mouth as he began to truly feel the gravity of the situation pull on him. "Is anybody looking for me?" he asked.
The doctor nodded. "The whole town."
"My dad's been working day and night," Bella said.
There was another long silence until Mike asked, "So…what happened, exactly?"
"Emmett and Bella were out hunting," Dr. Cullen began. "And they heard what was happening, so they went to help you. But by the time they were able to get rid of Sasha and Thomas, you'd already been bitten in several places."
Mike remembered screaming as their teeth dug into his shoulder, his neck, his leg… the flames rapidly spreading through his body…
"The venom had already spread too much for us to be able to reverse the changes, so we helped you as much as we could through your transformation."
He flinched at the doctor's casual use of the words venom and transformation. This had become far too elaborate – too real – to be any sort of twisted practical joke. His skin was ice-cold, his eyes were blood red… there was no doubt left in his mind. There was plenty of panic, but not one shred of doubt. This made absolutely no sense.
Reality doesn't always make sense, Mike, his father's voice echoed in the back of his mind.
"Michael?" Esme ventured, drawing him back to the present. "Would you like to live here? With us?"
His jaw clenched – he knew that accepting her request would mean that he was also accepting what he'd become.
"Michael, we'd like you to stay."
He cast a furtive glance at Bella, who nodded sadly but assuredly. Taking a deep breath, his hands curling into fists, he gave his answer.
Later that evening, Mike stood alone in the library where he'd awoken, watching the woods outside grow steadily dark. He was careful to avert his eyes away from his transparent reflection on the glass. Dr. Cullen had told him that they would convert the library into his own private room, and Mike hadn't known where else to go to get a quiet moment to himself. He had to sort out his thoughts as best he could.
In his frenzied confusion earlier, the Cullens hadn't told him much about his new…lifestyle (he had no idea what else to call it), and he was left to speculate. He had no idea how this worked, whatever it was. He was besieged by the memories of movies, books, myths, and even the occasional joke about vampires, never once thinking that they could hold one iota of truth, and the common theme between it all leaped out at him: vampires drank human blood.
Was he condemned to this?
"Hey," a voice from the doorway made him jump.
"Bella, hi."
She drew up beside him and watched the mist curl between the trees outside. "You all right?"
"You want the full answer?" he said, his voice laced with sarcasm.
"I know this is hard for you, Mike," she placed a gentle hand on his shoulder. "Is there anything you need?"
Yes. "No," he said quietly. "No, thanks."
"You want to talk?"
He sighed, looking down at his bare feet.
"Mike…I wanted to apologize. For everything." He frowned, turning to meet her gaze. "It's my fault that you're like this now, and I'm sorry."
"What – what do you mean?"
"It was either this or die, Mike," she said, wringing her hands. "I couldn't do it. I couldn't let them kill you."
Mike clamped his lips together, lacing his fingers behind his neck and closing his eyes in frustration. "I, uh… I'd like you to leave now."
Refusing to look at her, he didn't see the hurt spread across her marble face before she turned away, slipping away without a sound. Mike sat down on the edge of the divan, leaning his elbows on his knees and clamping his hands over his ears, his eyes squeezed shut. He didn't move for several minutes, relieved of having to see with perfectly unclouded sight and having to listen to the hushed conversations downstairs that all revolved around him and hearing sounds that were too far off to be heard. He listened to the sound of his steady unneeded breathing, and slowly calmed himself.
Eventually, the cushion next to him moved slightly, and he opened his eyes to see Dr. Cullen sitting next to him.
"Bella didn't deserve that," he said quietly, his face etched with sympathy.
Mike sighed heavily, thinking the opposite. "Was it her choice to make?"
"Yes, it was." The answer surprised him, and he frowned at the doctor in confusion. "Michael, you have to understand why Bella saved you. She would never have forgiven herself had she simply stood by and done nothing. She had a decision to make: to let you die a very painful death, or to save you, with the possibility that you would be able to go back to your normal life. She thought that the damage was reversible, but it had progressed too far by the time she could get to you. It is not her fault."
Mike closed his eyes again. This was far too much to handle. "So, it was either die right then, or never die at all." It was more a statement than a question.
"Yes, Michael, it was."
"Stop calling me that," he growled under his breath. "Only my grandmother calls me Michael." A wave of nostalgia hit him with the thought.
The doctor smiled consolingly, squeezing his shoulder. "Mike, as far as we are concerned, you are part of this family. You can live with us for as long as you wish, and you can also leave whenever you want. As I said, we won't hold you prisoner, but I want you to know that if you leave here without any of us, and you go to a place where you are near any people, you will end up killing somebody. But if you stay here, we can teach you self-control. We can help. You don't have to be a monster."
A/N: So, this was kind short, sorry. Chapter Three is already written, I'm working on Chapter Four. Leave a review if you want me to update :) Again, thanks to my wonderful Beta, It'sTimeToDance. Check her out if you want to read stories better than mine!
