Disclaimer: Insight to a cracked mind
xoxoxo
Bella's POV
These people are like the witch from Hansel and Gretel, I think. Here they are, feeding me, probably trying to fatten me up before they kill me. I've heard that stress makes animal meat more tender; at this point all the meat on my body will probably just fall off the bone by the time they kill me.
I shrank back further into my chair at the dining room table, avoiding the two women vampire's eyes. The motherly one, I think she said her name was Esme, smiled encouragingly at me every time I looked up, prompting me to eat. The tiny one, the crazy one that shook me like a maraca, sat next to Esme, but she wasn't looking at me, or at Esme for that matter. She had her head on the table, her eyes closed. She was perfectly still, in a way that only corpses should be. It was freaky.
"Drink your shake, darling. I hear that they are quite tasty." Esme said, and I took a sip, wincing at the loud slurping. The food sat heavily in my stomach, still tender from throwing up after the crazy trip I had up the stairs. There was no way that anyone could simply move that fast. I was more than sure that Edward had slipped me something when he kissed me. Maybe I was just hallucinating, and I'd wake up in my own bed tomorrow, hung over and probably with an STD, but otherwise alive.
Sure, that's the only explanation, right? How else could any of this be happening? I'm just imagining things, definitely. Stress from midterms, and from a lack of sleep could do that to anyone. Yep, I'm just going to have to see if I can get into a doctor's office next time I'm in Forks, maybe get some Ambien.
Satisfied now that I had come up with a rational explanation, I turned back to my meal, picking up the last couple of fries and dropping them into my mouth, my appetite (dream appetite? Would I wake up and find out I had tried to eat my pillow in the middle of the night?) renewed. I made short work of the burger, stuffing the paper wrapper into the bag, dropping the paper bag the fries came into the bag as well. I chanced a glance at Esme, who immediately swept the bag up, smiling. She patted my shoulder gently, and I flinched away. God, the woman was colder than ice—literally. Her smile fell a bit, then strengthened as she walked away. Picking up the shake, I looked back across the table, to the little pixie. Her cheek was now pressed against the table, as she observed me, her crimson eyes glowing. I dropped my eyes back down to my cup as Esme reappeared, standing uncomfortably close to me.
"Do you need anything, Bella?" She asked, and I shook my head, shifting away from her in my seat. Still smiling, she nodded her head. "Ok, well just let me know if you need anything. Alice will stay with you." The pixie girl sat up at that, shooting a look at Esme, who stared back sternly, before disappearing toward the front of the house.
Alice, that was her name, regarded me silently, her gaze heavy on me. I ignored her, popping the lid on my cup and reaching for the plastic spoon on the table, scooping out a bit of the frozen concoction.
"Why can't I see you?" Alice mused out loud, startling me just as I put the spoon in my mouth. I inhaled sharply and the milkshake went down the wrong way, numbing my throat. Fuck that hurt. I coughed, rubbing my throat and wincing as my body attempted to force out the milkshake. I set the cup down carefully, trying to quell my coughing as I looked up to Alice, who was staring at me as if I was a fascinating bug.
"I think you can see me pretty well, with how you're staring at me." I snapped between coughs. "Are you just going to watch me choke?" Alice pushed back her chair, and I blinked. When my eyes snapped back open, an open bottle of water sat in front of me. I chugged it gratefully, looking at Alice, who looked as if she had never moved from her seat.
"Maybe I should have let you choke," She replied casually, and I arched an eyebrow as I set the bottle down. "It surely would have saved us all a lot of trouble." She said, tapping her nails against the table.
I shook my head, drawing my legs up to my chest and resting my forehead on my knees. Taking a deep breath, I began counting, working to calm my breathing. I could feel Alice's stare on me for a long time, still.
xoxoxo
I wish I had my phone, so I knew what time it was. But I was pretty sure my bag was still wherever Edward had left it. He had taken it from me, hadn't he? There weren't any clocks in this room, and Alice had returned to the creepy corpse-like state, ignoring me entirely. Time felt like it was dragging on, and I was tired, for the first time in a long time. Yawning, I stretched slightly, reaching for the cup and stirring the melted, lukewarm mess in the bottom with my straw.
"Don't drink that." Alice said, and I looked up at her sharply. Her head was still on the table, her eyes closed. "If you do, you'll get food poisoning and it won't be pretty. Oh, and it's 2:43," I set the cup down slowly, drawing my knees back up to my chest.
Esme stuck her head into the dining room, the smile gone from her face. "Bella?" she said quietly, and I looked up at her. "Carlisle would like to talk with you."
Standing, my legs wobbled underneath me, and I clutched the back of my chair, closing my eyes. God, here it was. The death sentence. I wonder how'd they do it? Walking on legs that I couldn't feel, I followed Esme through the living room, where the remnants of the TV were, down the hallway, and back into the study where I had first been brought. The faint scent of ammonia lingered in the air, a patch of the rug noticeably darker that the rest. Carlisle looked up from the drawer he was rummaging in, a gentle smile crossing his face briefly.
Have a seat, please." He said, nodding to the chairs in front of the desk, and I sensed it was not a request, but an order. I sat on the edge of the seat as Carlisle pulled out a small first-aid kit. Closing the drawer, he rounded the desk, taking the seat next to mine, turning it to face me. Still smiling, he slipped on a pair of gloves. "May I see your hand?"
I withdrew my hand from my sweater pocket, offering it to him cautiously. He unwound the bloodstained cloth carefully, taking in the gash. The edges were smooth, as if I had been cut with a scalpel. That's what Edward must have used to cut me, I supposed. I didn't even see the knife; the boy was quick on his feet. He glanced at Esme, who turned the desk lamp, focusing it more on my hand.
Carlisle turned my hand, first in one direction, than another. His skin, like Esme's, was icy, but the coolness helped with the stinging in my palm. He gently spread the edges of the cut, peering inside, before pulling off the gloves, nodding to himself.
"Well, the cut isn't that deep, and there looks to be no major damage. I think we can get by with some steri-strips and a band-aid over it." Carlisle informed me as he rooted through the kit on his desk, emerging with another pair of gloves, along with a bottle and a few other pieces of equipment. Esme spread a towel over his lap, coming seemingly out of nowhere. Did Carlisle have an entire emergency room stored in here? I looked around surreptitiously, wondering where he hid the body bags. Carlisle slid on the gloves, reaching for the bottle.
"I'm just going to clean this, now." He said, and did just that, squirting some of the liquid onto a gauze pad, before wiping it over the cut. It stung slightly, and I flinched. He stilled my hand, still cleaning.
"Bella, I'm sure you already have a pretty decent idea of what's happening," Carlisle began in a no-nonsense tone, not looking up at me. And here it was, the beginning of the end. The part of the dream that would get so crazy that I'd wake up.
"Sure I do. You guys are gonna eat me, right? You're cannibals or something. Or you're going to use me as some sort of human sacrifice." I said dully, and Carlisle's head snapped up at that, his golden eyes widening. He stared at me, as if I was joking, before shaking his head and releasing my hand.
"You don't have a clue, do you?" Carlisle asked, and before I could answer, he continued. "We don't eat humans, at least not in the sense you're thinking of. You see," He said, setting the gauze aside in a bowl, "My family and I are vampires."
I pulled back immediately, yanking my hand from his grasp. The cut on my palm stung, but I ignored it, jumping up from the chair, which fell to the floor. Jesus fuck, what did that boy give me? Carlisle stood as well, holding his hands out.
"Stay away from me! This is all some sort of fucking hallucination, and I'm gonna wake up in my bed! You can't hurt, me you're not fucking real!" I screamed, backing up toward the door. I ran into something cold, and solid. Wheeling around, I found myself face-to-face with Esme, whose face was sad. "You don't touch me either!"
She ignored me, taking me firmly by the shoulders and leading me back over to the chair, which Carlisle righted. She placed me firmly in the seat, still holding onto my shoulders. I fought to get away, but I couldn't even rise an inch. My breath caught in my throat, as panic set in.
"You need to calm down." Carlisle said sternly, grabbing my wrists and holding them. "Relax!" He commanded sharply, and I couldn't stop the small cry that escaped my throat. Carlisle sat down, releasing the wrist of my uninjured hand, turning the other palm over. The cut was bleeding again, just a tiny trickle. But that trickle would surely be my downfall. Smart job, Bella, bleeding in front of vampires. I didn't think it was possible to die in a dream, but I guess I was about to find otherwise.
Carlisle prepared another swab, cleaning my hand, while Esme continued to hold me in my seat. He continued on, as if I hadn't tried to run. "Myself and Esme don't eat humans, nor does Rosalie. The blonde one." He clarified, glancing up to see my confused expression. "The rest of them do, but for the most part, they don't prey on innocents." His lips set into a thin line at that.
"Then why am I here?" I asked, then clapped a hand over my mouth, horrified that I asked. He dropped the bloodied gauze into the bowl, before busying himself with cutting off small adhesive strips.
"Edward…well Edward is a bit eccentric in his feeding habits. He tends to like them young, and pretty. It satisfies his carnal needs very well." Carlisle said slowly, attaching the first strip to my skin. "You should know that if Alice and Jasper hadn't interfered, you would surely be dead by now."
Carlisle said it so casually, as if it was written fact. Maybe it was, who knew? Swallowing against the lump in my throat, I tried to stop my nervous shivers.
"But now this leaves us with a bit of a dilemma. Now that you know our secret, you only have two options." He placed the band-aid over the strips, smoothing it along my palm. Releasing my hand, he tugged off the gloves, dropping them into the bowl, before leaning forward, resting his forearms on his legs. Clasping his hands, he stared at me levelly, his golden eyes unreadable.
"What are those two options?" I squeaked out, and Esme squeezed my shoulder reassuringly. I ignored her, still staring at Carlisle.
"Well," He began slowly, rubbing his palms together as he regarded me. "You can either die, or you can become one of us."
My hand throbbed painfully as I curled it into a fist, closing my eyes. God, why hadn't I woken up yet?
xoxoxo
Aww, poor Bells. She's delusional. In Bella's mind, Edward slipped her some sort of drug, and he's probably taking advantage of her while she's having one hell of a lucid dream. Too bad it's all reality. My Bella is a little unstable, prone to attempting to rationalize every situation, under intense amounts of stress, and an insomniac. Expect more streams of consciousness in this thread.
As you can tell, this scene is extremely similar to the post b-day scene in New Moon, but a bit different. I didn't realize it until I was partway through that's where it was going, but here it is. Are you guys enjoying this so far? Leave me reviews with thoughts, criticisms, what you like, so on and so forth.
The Cullens aren't going to be as quite as enchanted with Bella as they are in Stephenie Meyer's series.